Thank you for pointing out the Soviet angle in this.
Others criticize this angle, saying either that the Soviet Union doesn't exist or that America has always been this way. The first point is not a good argument, because while the Soviet Union as a political entity does not exist, the ideas it created and the culture it spread still do. The second point is more difficult to refute because we can only rely on historical sources, which may sway one way or the other, depending on what's deemed "right" by the current culture in academia. So my refutation, even though weak, is this: short of the North vs the South, the US has not been divided into two clean camps the way it is now.
> The reason these people believe what they're doing is ok is because someone taught them that the ends justify the means.
This is an important point to keep in mind. Look, we don't even expect the media or politicians to say anything that has any attachment to reality. Because the ends justify the means, it's ok to warp reality just to score points for your team.
It clearly shows that the media was interested in the actual state of reality for maybe a few hours, then the issue got divided into camps, and then everything written about this issue was _complete fiction_ where the only goal was to show either CHINA BAD or RED TRIBE BAD.
For another take on this, I recommend reading Politics is for Power (2020) by Eitan Hersh. He doesn't point out the problem I'm talking about explicitly. Instead, he describes it as 2 groups so focused on gaming the system to get votes that they don't actually do anything else -- it's all canvassing, donating, calling, etc. but no actually talking with voters, making plans, figuring out compromises.
Thank you for pointing out the Soviet angle in this.
Others criticize this angle, saying either that the Soviet Union doesn't exist or that America has always been this way. The first point is not a good argument, because while the Soviet Union as a political entity does not exist, the ideas it created and the culture it spread still do. The second point is more difficult to refute because we can only rely on historical sources, which may sway one way or the other, depending on what's deemed "right" by the current culture in academia. So my refutation, even though weak, is this: short of the North vs the South, the US has not been divided into two clean camps the way it is now.
> The reason these people believe what they're doing is ok is because someone taught them that the ends justify the means.
This is an important point to keep in mind. Look, we don't even expect the media or politicians to say anything that has any attachment to reality. Because the ends justify the means, it's ok to warp reality just to score points for your team.
For example, check out this piece about the lab leak theory by Yglesias, formerly of Vox: https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-medias-lab-leak-fiasco
It clearly shows that the media was interested in the actual state of reality for maybe a few hours, then the issue got divided into camps, and then everything written about this issue was _complete fiction_ where the only goal was to show either CHINA BAD or RED TRIBE BAD.
For another take on this, I recommend reading Politics is for Power (2020) by Eitan Hersh. He doesn't point out the problem I'm talking about explicitly. Instead, he describes it as 2 groups so focused on gaming the system to get votes that they don't actually do anything else -- it's all canvassing, donating, calling, etc. but no actually talking with voters, making plans, figuring out compromises.