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thomblake comments on Firewalling the Optimal from the Rational - Less Wrong
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Yeah, it seems like you're going a bit far to connect the dots. ESR is saying that the "destructive hatred" is produced by "patriotism by dissent" "at its extreme". He didn't actually say that Obama has this extreme sort.
It seemed to me that he was just using the flag pin case as an accessible example of this "patriotism by dissent". It didn't seem to me that he was even saying anything was wrong with "patriotism by dissent", other than noting that a lot of Americans seemed to disagree with it. Though he does suggest it's a "pathology", which would normally be a negative term.
In the comments, he even clarifies that he was not trying to call any particular person unpatriotic, and repeatedly says that he is trying to do an analysis of American patriotism. Given the sorts of stuff ESR has written on the philosophical side before, I'm inclined to believe him.
Whereas, given the sort of stuff ESR has written on philosophy and politics before, I'm not at all inclined to believe that he didn't (alongside the theoretical stuff, which I'm sure he means sincerely) intend to insinuate that Barack Obama doesn't love his country.
But I think taking this further would almost certainly get unproductively political, so I shall leave it here.