Politics
Politics
A cross-cutting theme in Kyle’s reading, recurring most strongly around the question of whether politics degrades or distributes truth. Romney — A Reckoning is the anchor: a “politics-of-character” reading in which “politics will always fetter language” (reduced to signal, not content — the Newt Gingrich pattern from The Death of Expertise), where the post-2016 GOP made beliefs a lagging indicator of group membership rather than a leading one, and where the alternative is “data over dogma” and an Educated Electorate that “can be trusted with hard truths.” It is notably the most approving read in the library relative to Kyle’s usual skepticism.
The two David Perell long-reads supply the media and economic angles. Do You #FeelTheBern- Behind Bernie Sanders’ Quest To Take Over The White House reads modern politics through Marshall McLuhan — “societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication” — arguing social platforms, not the debate stage, are now the arena, and that direct, unfiltered access (Snapchat, Reddit, YouTube) is what builds youth trust. Where Do We Go Next? reads Trump’s election as a symptom of rising global populism and inequality bred by class and racial segregation, invoking Naval Ravikant’s “history’s classic solution is either politics distributing prosperity or revolution distributing poverty,” and prescribing participation over nostalgia.
Where this appears
- Romney — A Reckoning — politics fettering language; beliefs as lagging vs. leading indicators of tribe; data over dogma and the educated electorate
- Do You #FeelTheBern- Behind Bernie Sanders’ Quest To Take Over The White House — politics through McLuhan’s “the medium is the message”; social platforms as the new arena
- Where Do We Go Next? — Trump’s election as a symptom of populism and inequality; politics vs. revolution
Quick Capture links — June 29th, 2021
Reading-list links from Kyle’s June 29th, 2021 Roam daily-note “Quick Capture” log.
Referenced in
- Black Lives Matter note
- Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling book
- Leviathan Wakes book
- Marshall McLuhan note
- No Sense of Place note
- Romney: A Reckoning book
- Where Do We Go Next? note