Tyler Cowen seamlessly transitioning from faux-cosmopolitan libertarianism to "Congratulations to my white nationalist friends" is the least surprising thing ever if you're remotely familiar with libertarians.
As I like to say, scratch a libertarian, and, nine times out of ten, you'll find a fascist, or at least someone very receptive to fascism. It's been utterly unsurprising to me how many libertarians have followed this path during the last 9 years.
All of these guys have made a calculation that whatever flak they're taking is worth it to cozy up to billionaires who can help push their retrograde vision. The only reason to tip one's hat to them is if you agree with that vision.
I mean, they’re the intellectual heirs to Goldwater and the faction opposing the CRA based on freedom for business, so yeah, it’s nice of them to be honest about it now, not kowtowing around the goal
Hanania gets a lot of credit among centrists for also attacking Republicans, but his barely concealed point is just that they’re too crass and stupid to do white supremacy effectively
Growing up in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s…I NEVER imagined we would be talking about actual “biological racists” in 2025. I guess that’s another blind spot come to light for me.
Believing that Cowen was, generally, a good person with views worth engaging with, has been one of my greatest errors of judgement. I reflect on it regularly. I wish I had known 20 years ago who he was so that I would not waste years of time trying to see his words as something they were not.
Honestly, I think at one point he was. But he's as vulnerable to bias and negative polarization as anyone, and ultimately, this is where it's led. I say that because there's alternate universes where I followed him down that road. Universes where I'm cis, more neurotypical, more insulated.
Because as much as I may think I'm smart, objective, clear-headed, and better than that, not vulnerable to the forces that pulled him this direction, sensible enough to say "fuck off", I'm probably not at my core. My adult perspective is informed by being forced to confront things he's never had to.
Trump just thinks DEI is racism against Black folks. But white folks will realize they will be caught up too in his hate against us. Soon they will feel the pain too
He had - I started ignoring him a while back - that annoying tic of making shaky assertions as if they didn’t require an argument. “Everybody prefers the suburbs.” Always made his discourse hard to follow/bad and it was very confusing how so many people I liked engaged with him.
Lemme guess, would it be that Steve (Virginia Dare) Sailer is a regular on his site? Time flies like an arrow and fruit flies like a banana but Nazis gather around piles of feces.
I always felt like I must be missing something b/c so many good bloggers/intellectuals engaged with him but … that engagement was the only thing propping up that suspicion
i used to think there there were only four types of libertarians: gun guys, tax guys, drug guys, and sex guys. turns out there was a secret fifth kind.
it isn't even a change. he's part of the academic economist world that follows gary becker's "discrimination literally cannot exist in a free market" bullshit. anyone who has worked with this kind of economist knows that they've always been this way, all that has changed is affect
He's been pulling this shit for over a decade, with his "straussian" readings and esoteric posting. He just doesn't feel the need to hide behind esotericism anymore.
This must be a common feature of libertarianism. I have only known a few of them, but I’ve always chuckled at how ironic their own sense of intellectual superiority is. They put the ivory in the ivory tower!
And people said it was an exaggeration to call Tyler Cowen the most influential Trumpist intellectual! The exaggeration turned out to be “the most influential,” not the “Trumpist” part.
We need a better word to describe their thinking. They definitely envision a highly stratified society with themselves at the top and imagine biological reasons to justify it. But they’re not wholly excluding non-white people. It’s a kind of racially-flexible eugenics.
Noteworthy that Ezra Klein was hailing Cowen last week as the prophet of the great vibe shift. Perhaps Cowen deserves credit for coining the meme, but really this appeared to be more wishful thinking on his part than prescience
Where is the Democrat's (the Party, not individuals) ARTICULATED PLAN for "equal & opposite" when they inevitably are in position to repeal these orders/policies?
Discussing a PLAN *now* will help galvanize the millions who see them as effete and who otherwise fail to show up.
Congratulations on thinking that a stroke of a pen can erase an inconvenient reality won through the mass of public opinion and the blood, sweat, and tears of generations.
Used to read that blog for a diff economic take usually outside my own, but they posted journal articles that let me at least ponder an idea's merit. Economics felt like the last cons place with cons just all "free trade!" w/o weirdo shit.
Now dude just posts about BAP and these assholes, gross
There are so many well-meaning liberals that talk highly of Cowen, and every time I go to his blog it's some demon shit like this or spreadsheet brain economist nonsense.
Comments
I can't imagine being like "Yeah, half of us want to exterminate billions of Africans" and not reevaluating my support for a position.
... But do the gymnastics of the guy on the right remind you of someone?
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/4a/7a/d7/4a7ad7815758b8fd2c5db13ffcf94e7a--frances-oconnor.jpg
Discussing a PLAN *now* will help galvanize the millions who see them as effete and who otherwise fail to show up.
Democrats are #AWOL
We don't need anything new to undo a bad executive order lol
"Equal and opposite" is what I said.
Now dude just posts about BAP and these assholes, gross
https://bsky.app/profile/dreamweasel.bsky.social/post/3lgifg5dgit2q