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PaperclipPerfector  8mo ago (text post)   26608 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 4, 2023

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because he’s smart

Or because it’s a competitive strategy.

Insisting that your enemies are idiots usually plays pretty well. Especially when you’re already preaching about sheeple normies bureaucrats. Moldbug isn’t writing to convince.

I think he is. One strategy that quite often works with people is to use a lot of big words and long sentences filled with stuff that’s interesting but largely irrelevant to the point at hand. It looks impressive to outsiders to write 3x more words than necessary especially if you can drop big words and jargon that most people have vaguely heard of. I don’t think he’s actually smarter than the average college graduate, but his game of using words words words to make prosaic ideas sound impressive does work on some people.

What is he writing for, then?

At his best? He’s writing to galvanize people who already agree with him. Putting words to that nebulous fear of the outsider which lives in all our hearts, while presenting it as a special insight. Providing a framework to justify what his audience would like to do anyway: complain about the government, pine for days gone, and above all, oppose woke politics.

Most of the time, at least since he started making money off it? Entertainment.

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