ArisKatsaris comments on Any existential risk angles to the US presidential election? - Less Wrong

-9 Post author: Stuart_Armstrong 20 September 2012 09:44AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (213)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: ArisKatsaris 24 September 2012 10:58:39AM 0 points [-]

Edit: Note this statement will depend on what one means by "left-wing". I interpret the statement to mean "the most natural cluster in thing-space that includes movements generally called 'left-wing' also includes fascism."

The thing is that AFAIK fascism never described itself as left-wing. It sometimes describes itself as a third position, a mixture/improvement of both left-wing and right-wing ideas, but whenever it actually chose between the two it preferred to describe itself as right-wing.

It tends to be treated as "left-wing" only by those people who define left/right only by the criterion of statism -- a treatment which really isn't the historical usage...

Comment author: TimS 24 September 2012 05:20:11PM 1 point [-]

It tends to be treated as "left-wing" only by those people who define left/right only by the criterion of statism -- a treatment which really isn't the historical usage

That part in bold should be nominated for understatement of the year.

Comment author: gwern 24 September 2012 04:06:26PM *  1 point [-]

I'm actually reading Sowell's Intellectuals and Society right now, playing the game 'record all instances where he criticizes conservatives or libertarians' - so far 0.

Last night, I thought I could at least chalk up his criticism of Naziism & Italian fascism as instances 1 & 2, except he immediately launched into the standard argument that 'no, actually those are socialisms don't you see'. Oy vey.

(It's really not a good book so far.)

Comment author: Vaniver 24 September 2012 04:53:13PM 0 points [-]

Sowell is one of the best intellectuals in American conservatism right now, but that's also clearly where he makes his home, which is disappointing from a LW perspective. The two books by him that I like best are Knowledge and Decisions and A Conflict of Visions. The first is, if I remember correctly, an updated explanation of Hayek's insights, although the second ~60% of the book is spent on 'historical trends' and is probably about as biased as you would expect. The second is explicitly about politics, but its first chapter is tremendously insightful. (The latter sections of that book are basically more detailed repetition, and again I would expect the examples to be solidly conservative-leaning.)

Comment author: gwern 29 September 2012 11:48:51PM 1 point [-]

I wrote a short review explaining what I disliked enough that I didn't bother finishing: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/417975794