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Notes -
His favorite hit-piece on the talk that led to the book is surprisingly funny -- it reads like the Sokal hoax, but with less calm dignity. Perhaps this sort of thing works in his favor; I assume it's easier to weather a cancellation attempt when your foes sound like nutcases to a supermajority of the population. This suggests a strategy for kneecapping criticism of a book that you know will be controversial: send free review copies to the craziest, most frothing-at-the-mouth ideological opponents you can find, and let them inadvertently poison the well. (Bonus points if you can goad them into using the word "knowledges" in public.)
Making toxoplasma of rage work for you sounds reasonable in the hindsight. But he probably endured much more stress and pressure than he openly admits. I think that piece is actually quite accurate at conveying the author's sentiment and Johnson's attitude (even carefully containing "less democracy" within quotation marks).
I've listened to his conversation with Tyler (which I recommend) and although very interesting, I sometimes got the impression that his worldbuilding optimizes for the tacit values I don't share; or that the solution he proposes is too technical and assumes away "real" issue.
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