2 - Nathan J. Robinson on Persuading People to Join the Left

Nathan J. Robinson is the founder and editor of Current Affairs, a left-wing print magazine based out of New Orleans. He is also the author of five books on politics. Nathan holds a law degree from Yale and is pursuing a PhD in sociology from Harvard. He also happens to be my favorite active political writer.

In today’s show we cover a lot, including:

Current Affairs, persuading people on politics, understanding the actual positions our political opponents take and engaging with their arguments, the rhetorical strategies employed by the intellectual dark web, the claim that the left is afraid to engage with the actual ideas of the right, giving a platform to odious people, purity policing on the left, 2016 and 2020, whether Bernie should give his millions away and whether anyone should choose to be wealthy, the surprising non overlap of effective altruism and the left, the risks of quantifying values, Bernie on immigration, nationalism, Steven Pinker and the decline of violence, and why we think joining the left is the best way to influence the future in a positive direction.

Show notes:

Nathan’s articles that we discuss:

Why Bernie should give his millions away

Nathan’s spot on prediction of the 2016 election

The immorality of wealth

New York Times propaganda about immigration

The Vietnam War

The media’s hierarchy of victims

Misleading inequality statistics

The real dangerous ideas

Nathan’s EPIC TAKEDOWNS:

Sam Harris

Jordan Peterson

Charles Murray

Steven Pinker

Pete Buttigieg

Ben Shapiro

Other links:

Dave Rubin

Jordan Peterson being interviewed by Cathy Newman

Book If You’re an Egalitarian, How Come You’re So Rich?

Twitter thread on Steven Pinker’s faulty sexual assault sources

My article in Current Affairs on psychedelics

ContraPoints on Ben Shapiro and gender pronouns

My review of The Better Angels of Our Nature

An Effective Altruism take on 2020 candidates

 

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