I haven't listened to the episode yet, but I am really excited that you brought Hanania back on.
One thing I appreciate about Hanania is the frankness with which he speaks about class in America (a quality that he shares with his frequent collaborator Rob Henderson). On the one hand, he correctly identifies many of the worst pathologies of the upper middle class--feminization, credentialism--which is a source of a lot of his most insightful commentary. On the other hand, he avoids falling into the all-too-common trap that right-wing commentators can fall into where they valorize the lower classes. The reality is that lower class people are lower class for a reason: they are less smart and have worse impulse control than the upper classes.
Hanania always gets me thinking, so I'm looking forward to this one.
Outside of the envy/precariat frame, i think the analysis of "middle-upper classes trying to be in charge of social justice/everything" misses out on the Shelby Steele "white guilt" frame, which i suppose could certainly come back to bring an imposter, but i do think many feel genuinely guilty
Brian, have you written or talked about optimizing vs. social climbing vs. instinct anywhere else? From the podcast I have an idea about what you mean, but I'd like to hear/read more. Thanks.
Can you be an optimizer without being particularly good at it? What if you just admire optimizers more than social climbers?
Brian and Richard, 2 big picture comments if you care to read this:
1. Excellent and deep analysis. Lots of outside the box / independent thinking. You covered so many topics, and integrated them well. Loved it.
2. Perhaps a generational thing, but you both use LOTS of throw away words, such as: like, yeah, actually, ah, you know, etc. So many that it is distracting. Wouldn't say this if I didn't highly respect you
Dec 19, 2022·edited Dec 19, 2022Liked by Brian Chau
Since you deanonymized and use your real name, people can find you rather easily. And you talk about very controversial stuff like race differences. Are you not worried about that?
The kid is bright but way too young to have any nuanced views on American culture. He is completely ignorant of most things that happened the day before yesterday.
Jealousy makes a lot of sense within a status/competence hierarchy. But is jealousy the best description of cross hierarchy feelings? I don't think women are jealous of a lot of nerd and man stuff, but they do see it as threatening since it takes away status/attention from them.
You mention something close to my favorite right-left dichotomy: male-production-left vs. female-consumption-right. Men to produce cool stuff will create many different games and hierarchies. Women want to feel safe and valued and thus only care about a single status hierarchy of getting stuff.
The left (women) is not jealous of the right (men), they hate the right for being different than them.
Richard should make right wing rationalism happen. That’s very funny but a good description. He should make an article laying out the beliefs.
I haven't listened to the episode yet, but I am really excited that you brought Hanania back on.
One thing I appreciate about Hanania is the frankness with which he speaks about class in America (a quality that he shares with his frequent collaborator Rob Henderson). On the one hand, he correctly identifies many of the worst pathologies of the upper middle class--feminization, credentialism--which is a source of a lot of his most insightful commentary. On the other hand, he avoids falling into the all-too-common trap that right-wing commentators can fall into where they valorize the lower classes. The reality is that lower class people are lower class for a reason: they are less smart and have worse impulse control than the upper classes.
Hanania always gets me thinking, so I'm looking forward to this one.
Outside of the envy/precariat frame, i think the analysis of "middle-upper classes trying to be in charge of social justice/everything" misses out on the Shelby Steele "white guilt" frame, which i suppose could certainly come back to bring an imposter, but i do think many feel genuinely guilty
Brian, have you written or talked about optimizing vs. social climbing vs. instinct anywhere else? From the podcast I have an idea about what you mean, but I'd like to hear/read more. Thanks.
Can you be an optimizer without being particularly good at it? What if you just admire optimizers more than social climbers?
Brian and Richard, 2 big picture comments if you care to read this:
1. Excellent and deep analysis. Lots of outside the box / independent thinking. You covered so many topics, and integrated them well. Loved it.
2. Perhaps a generational thing, but you both use LOTS of throw away words, such as: like, yeah, actually, ah, you know, etc. So many that it is distracting. Wouldn't say this if I didn't highly respect you
The right object of envy you were striving to find, in my experience, is the highly paid college football coach. They really hate those guys.
Write that article about promsicuity, honestly. That's interesting.
Since you deanonymized and use your real name, people can find you rather easily. And you talk about very controversial stuff like race differences. Are you not worried about that?
The kid is bright but way too young to have any nuanced views on American culture. He is completely ignorant of most things that happened the day before yesterday.
Jealousy makes a lot of sense within a status/competence hierarchy. But is jealousy the best description of cross hierarchy feelings? I don't think women are jealous of a lot of nerd and man stuff, but they do see it as threatening since it takes away status/attention from them.
You mention something close to my favorite right-left dichotomy: male-production-left vs. female-consumption-right. Men to produce cool stuff will create many different games and hierarchies. Women want to feel safe and valued and thus only care about a single status hierarchy of getting stuff.
The left (women) is not jealous of the right (men), they hate the right for being different than them.