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There are a couple people here who reference Richard Hanania, both for and against. Recently, Colorado governor Jared Polis has also namedropped him in a tweet about 'real thinkers I sometimes disagree with'.
Looks like the press were very quick to trot out why Hanania is not a thinker worth agreeing with. It's not surprising to hear their disapproval of his race-based statements. It's surprising to hear he's also weighed in on ephebophilia.
I don't follow the man much beyond seeing how he's talked about here. My overall impression is that he's uncomfortable with more religious/militaristic conservatives but has no play with the news/media/entertainment memeplex. Slotting him into a LibRight stereotype is honestly a pretty easy move at this point.
There are some other social dynamics at play here. Governor Polis is currently serving his last term as governor. Despite the likelihood that he's independently wealthy, it's highly probable that many journalists and political junkies are aiming to corral his future roles. They're working to ensure that people like Hanania are squarely within the confines of 'infohazard' and beyond the pale. /r/Denver is all too happy to carry water to continue the mission, from the looks of things.
I don't have a lot to say on the matter. I'm just surprised that people I've read about here are actually being written about elsewhere. The heat is stronger than I expected.
Mostly this falls into the category of "You can't hate journalists enough."
Bruh.
There's plenty to disagree with with Hanania, but jumping straight to "literal [kid fucker] hitler!" isn't a bad faith argument, it's a ham fisted way to brute force The Narrative (TM).
Things like this blackpill me a little. I have a bunch of blogs and twitter feeds bookmarked of people and ideas I don't agree with at all, agree with somewhat but with hard barriers, or simply find the ideas wacky but interesting. This is the "drafts" section of some of my online information diet. I know some of it is Totally-Not-Ok. I also have enough confidence in my own epistemic health that I won't turn into "literally hitler" just by reading it. But can I even try to discuss and play with any of these ideas outside of a totally anonymous forum? The answer is probably no specifically because the actually intellectually bankrupt (the journalists above) would simply outright lie to cancel me -- if I was anyone of note. Which I, thankfully, am not.
It really is a new puritanism. It's the midwest mom finding a hidden KISS or Judas Priest vinyl in her son's bedroom and then calling the priest to perform an exorcism. And all it does is breed brittleness in thinking and truth seeking. They're optimizing for a system that will lead to their own demise, and taking a lot of bystanders down with them.
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