I have a new piece out for Isonomia on the role market incentives play in influencing the behavior of political professionals – people who make a living by political activity. There’s no paywall. You can read it here:
Tag: Internet
The Millennial Left as a Moment in Internet History
There have been many interesting books and articles recently about the demise of the millennial left. Here are just a few. I like this material–I think we could do with some more reflection about everything that’s gone wrong over the past ten years. I do, however, think there’s something that has been under-emphasized in these stories. This something is the internet. The millennial left existed at a distinctive moment in internet history. When that moment ended, the millennial left ended with it.
Continue reading “The Millennial Left as a Moment in Internet History”Liberalism’s War on the Internet
Over the past few weeks, the occupation of the capitol building by pro-Trump demonstrators has legitimated a raft of security measures. The War on Terror is now the War on the Internet. In the wake of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, liberalism has become aware of the danger posed to it by the internet. On the internet, discourse proliferates rapidly, in an uncontrolled and unmediated way. Many web users begin to develop positions which are incompatible with liberal pluralism, which paint their political opponents as enemies who must be comprehensively destroyed. During the 90s, 00s, and early 10s, the internet was not treated seriously by liberal theory. The triumph of the populists in the mid-10s forced liberalism to reckon with it. Now liberalism is trying to change the internet into something compatible with liberalism.
Continue reading “Liberalism’s War on the Internet”How Changing Understandings of Democracy Create New Possibilities for the Left
Yesterday, I gave a short talk for the Platypus Society at Goldsmiths‘ in London about interactions between democracy and leftism. The following post is a transcript of that talk.
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The Slow Corruption of Public Discourse Since Watergate
In the 44 years since Richard Nixon resigned the presidency of the United States, political discourse has deteriorated. There are many reasons for the decline in the discourse, but today I want to focus on two forces which have come together in America–one sociological, the other technological–to impose a spontaneous order which greatly reduces the scope for authentic expression, both in public and in private. This new social order is not planned by anyone–it has no author, it requires no institutionalised hard coercion. It arises spontaneously from the interaction of the two forces.
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Benjamin Studebaker 