Can’t wait for future deeply considered heterodox takes, such as “North Korea is bad” or “Vladimir Putin is not nice, actually”. Poor Jesse and Katie, bravely taking a stance that only most Western governments have also taken, must be lonely.
The whole “heterodox” thing just reminds me of how the leading lights of the “new atheist” movement used the cachet they got from that to paint supporting the invasion of Iraq as somehow bravely standing up against the establishment.
"Heterodox" has been memed so hard by that crowd that it's lost all coherent meaning beyond "unpopular with the loudest Twitter leftists." On the one hand, stances supported by a strong majority of Americans are (for whatever reason) described as heterodox: lab leak theory is heterodox; thinking riots are bad is heterodox; suggesting that trans women aren't literally and materially women is heterodox. On the other hand, broadly unpopular ideas are grouped under the same heterodox umbrella with no distinction: retvrners are heterodox; IQ obsessives are heterodox; taking Bret Weinstein seriously is heterodox. Heterodox heterodox heterodox. Don’t forget the garden variety neocons who identify as heterodox to fool themselves and others into seeing them as lone rangers of free thought.
It would be nice if they ditched heterodox for different words that more precisely, usefully describe the political orientations of the people/opinions at hand. But they won't because it's attractive branding that strokes the egos of those who claim it — oh, you're heterodox; you bend to no idols; your big brain rejects all cults.
I haven't listened yet, but the flood of "it's not cancel culture when *I* like it!" and "never forget the 40 gorillion decapitated babies!" comments has me worried, especially after the weepy bitch post Jesse wrote about people not condemning Hamas a few days ago.
The Substack commenters are mad that J&K didn't hit the cancel button hard enough, which speaks well to their handling of the subject, though I'm not interested in listening to their punditry on foreign affairs. It's a joke how fast that wing of anti wokes turned. Suddenly all the lines they hated — I don't feel safe, silence is violence, we need moral clarity, you're either with us or evil — are coming out of their mouths with such righteousness! This could have been a moment for self reflection, like
huh, it seems that everyone has a strong emotional reaction to Their People being attacked, and most people are pretty bad at limiting that reaction to a rational scale when the attack comes close enough, and tribalism overrides universalist principles in the vast majority of individuals, so maybe, for the sake of intellectual honesty, I should stop calling myself 100% anti cancel culture while bringing my pitchfork to a mob against hippy dippy "all civilian deaths are tragic" both-siders. But no. It's always
cancel culture = bad, my calls to fire the enemy = good, ∴ my calls to fire the enemy ≠ cancel culture. Have cake and eat it too.
It shouldn't be so hard to recognize that just about everyone has one tribal allegiance or another that will override even their strongest consciously held principles. That's human. That's fine. What's annoying is people pretending to be universally, tribelessly principled while fighting for their tribe in a way that clearly violates any principles they claim. I realize that this is a necessary hypocrisy for states, as ceding the moral high ground unforced only invites vultures. But individuals who claim to be thoughtful, who rag on others for
not being thoughtful, are yes, very annoying when they can't think through the gaps between their self image and actual behavior.
J&K are like that from time to time, but nowhere near as insufferable as their commenters on Substack and Reddit, whose opinions I can predict with tedious accuracy based on tribal vibes alone. Comment ranking by votes enforces community consensus and penalizes all deviation from popular mood, no matter how intelligent or subtle. I hate it. Long live the classic forum.
