I read with interest the article in the New York Times on the Intellectual Dark Web (IDW), a cyber-salon of commentators and intellectuals who are described as fearless opponents of the politically correct thought police. Two of their number are ex-colleagues of mine at Evergreen, Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying; I even co-taught a course a number of years ago with Heather.
Let’s just say the article is a bit thin in the area of critical judgment and leave it at that. I did resonate, however, with the plight of Sam Harris, one of the luminaries it profiles. Harris apparently got into trouble for the unspeakable claim that some cultures are inferior to others, which of course violates relativist orthodoxy. But what if he’s right? For instance, imagine a culture that routinely sends its missiles and planes to bomb innocent people in other countries to impose its political order, sets up secret torture chambers around the world, and persists in sabotaging any attempt to respond to urgent, civilization-impairing environmental threats. Why not just say—oh wait, wrong culture.
Well, we are all supposed to oppose colonialism and imperialism, but I do think that when colonialists overthrew regimes that engaged in human sacrifice rituals, maybe that was a good thing in the longer run, even if their new regime may well have led to at least as much overall oppression and bloodletting as occurred under the overthrown regime.
ReplyDeleteI, for one, welcome our even more oppressive and bloodthirsty overlords. Those politically-correct thought police totally harshed my mellow.
ReplyDelete"Thoughts I am Not Allowed to Think in the Totalitarian World of PC"
ReplyDeleteRubbish, but I am distressed that you feel so beset. Poor, Dear.
Actually, Sam Harris is criticized because his arguments make little if any sense, he cherry picks like crazy, and his response to valid, detailed, critiques starts with ad hominem and doesn't go much further.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-I-Escaped-the/243399
ReplyDeleteMay 11, 2018
Why I Escaped the ‘Intellectual Dark Web’
Pissing off progressives isn’t intellectual progress
By Alice Dreger
"I did resonate, however, with the plight of Sam Harris, one of the luminaries it profiles. Harris apparently got into trouble for the unspeakable claim that some cultures are inferior to others, which of course violates relativist orthodoxy. But what if he’s right?"
ReplyDeleteI was upset by this passage and stopped reading, but now I find and understand the sarcasm that follows and relent. I have trouble recognizing sarcasm.