I suspect the reason for this is that conservatives are generally less ideological. A significant streak in conservatism runs thusly: "a good reason for holding power is to stop the other side from holding power because they have bonkers ideas about what they want to do with it".
Truss's elevation is also evidence of a wider problem: the modern tendency to believe that weirdos have something interesting to tell the rest of us. See also Richard Burgon, Greta Thunberg, and Lloyd Russell-Moyle.
Historically, people avoided weirdos, and for good reason -- they're unpleasant to be around and almost inevitably give off a distinct whiff of "homeless person mugging as Diogenes".
To be fair I don't really think heterodox substackers can go around lecturing others for being weirdos who believe they something interesting to tell the rest of us...
The hardening of attitudes and deepening of mutual resentment or contempt between broad political viewpoints just feels like an inevitable consequence of social and digital media. It was always discombobulating to see the other side several times a day, via newspapers or broadcast news schedules. But it took exposure during every waking hour of perusing a connected device to make it feel like a war. But it's multi-faceted. Desire for being seen as a 'leading light' leads to self-branding on social media which requires standing out. So rhetoric has to quickly push against customary boundaries.
Perhaps it's akin to the printing press encouraging non-elites to start publishing outrageous pamphlets. But scaled massively in terms of reach and tempo.
Good to know you're across the data. I'll look forward to more. Merry Christmas to one of my favourite stackers.
Just to let you know that the 'barristers' link takes one to a page with this message: this page is private. Try signing in with a different email, or letting the author know they've linked to a private page.
I suspect the reason for this is that conservatives are generally less ideological. A significant streak in conservatism runs thusly: "a good reason for holding power is to stop the other side from holding power because they have bonkers ideas about what they want to do with it".
Yes, definitely! And the older I get, the more this reasoning appeals!
I agree that this is a large part of small-c conservatism; it's exactly why the elevation of Liz Truss has been so terminally damning for the Tories.
There's a very strong conservative case against neoliberalism generally!
Truss's elevation is also evidence of a wider problem: the modern tendency to believe that weirdos have something interesting to tell the rest of us. See also Richard Burgon, Greta Thunberg, and Lloyd Russell-Moyle.
Historically, people avoided weirdos, and for good reason -- they're unpleasant to be around and almost inevitably give off a distinct whiff of "homeless person mugging as Diogenes".
To be fair I don't really think heterodox substackers can go around lecturing others for being weirdos who believe they something interesting to tell the rest of us...
I'm an exceptionally dull retired solicitor. I was, however, good at the job and it taught me a lot about people. The weirdo event horizon is real.
The hardening of attitudes and deepening of mutual resentment or contempt between broad political viewpoints just feels like an inevitable consequence of social and digital media. It was always discombobulating to see the other side several times a day, via newspapers or broadcast news schedules. But it took exposure during every waking hour of perusing a connected device to make it feel like a war. But it's multi-faceted. Desire for being seen as a 'leading light' leads to self-branding on social media which requires standing out. So rhetoric has to quickly push against customary boundaries.
Perhaps it's akin to the printing press encouraging non-elites to start publishing outrageous pamphlets. But scaled massively in terms of reach and tempo.
Good to know you're across the data. I'll look forward to more. Merry Christmas to one of my favourite stackers.
The printing press is a great comparison. It widened support for elite ideologies, like social media.
Had a great time over Christmas and hope you did too :-)
Just to let you know that the 'barristers' link takes one to a page with this message: this page is private. Try signing in with a different email, or letting the author know they've linked to a private page.
Thanks! Just changed that and the link should work now.