The Best Post-Election Piece So Far

From Joshua Mitchell.

“Globalization” and “identity politics” are a remarkable configuration of ideas, which have sustained America, and much of the rest of the world, since 1989. With a historical eye—dating back to the formal acceptance of the state-system with the treaty of Westphalia in 1648—we see what is so remarkable about this configuration: It presumes that sovereignty rests not with the state, but with supra-national organizations—NAFTA, WTO, the U.N., the EU, the IMF, etc.—and with subnational sovereign sites that we name with the term “identity.”

…When you start thinking in terms of management by global elites at the trans-state level and homeless selves at the substate level that seek, but never really find, comfort in their “identities,” the consequences are significant: Slow growth rates (propped up by debt-financing) and isolated citizens who lose interest in building a world together. Then of course, there’s the rampant crony-capitalism that arises when, in the name of eliminating “global risk” and providing various forms of “security,” the collusion between ever-growing state bureaucracies and behemoth global corporations creates a permanent class of winners and losers.

Pointer from Tyler Cowen.

Read Mitchell’s whole piece, as well as the earlier essay to which he links. I find his thoughts congenial, because I agree that the election pitted cosmopolitan vs. anti-cosmopolitan.

However, this is far from the last word. In fact, I would say that the longer you take to react to news, the better off you are. In general, I like to schedule my posts several days in advance. (This one is being drafted 3 days before it is scheduled to appear.) That gives me time to revise or delete a post before it appears. You may have noticed that when stock futures plummeted the night of the election, Paul Krugman predicted that the plunge would be permanent. I bet he wishes he had scheduled that post for a few days later, in which case he could have deleted it before it became public. In fact, I rarely have to revise or delete, because scheduling a post in advance forces me to be less reactive and to think ahead.

A lot of social media lacks the “schedule in advance” feature. I don’t think Twitter has it (I only use Twitter automatically, to announce blog posts, so I do not know how Twitter actually works.) Facebook does not have it. Software for posting comments does not have it. (If you like to comment on this blog, feel free to hold back for a few days. Old comments on old posts show up for me to read just as well as fresh comments on fresh posts.)

Thus, for the most part, social media leads people to be reactive and trigger-happy, as opposed to reflective and sober. It is something that one has to be aware of and push back against.

9 thoughts on “The Best Post-Election Piece So Far

  1. Isn’t it good that we can see Krugman’s reactions in real time. It reveals what an ignorant partisan hack he is.

    • I knew this since the beginning.

      Once he did that article about CATO, nobody had an excuse not to know it.

  2. Actually, you can schedule Facebook posts in advance if you have a separate account for an organization, or for a blog. Why they don’t have that feature on regular personal accounts is a mystery, though most hot-takers would ignore it. You can also schedule Tweets in advance, at least on Tweetdeck.

  3. Thus, for the most part, social media leads people to be reactive and trigger-happy.

    True, it is important to realize that we are the first generation to see everyday stupid things across globe and react to them. Also, it is a lot easier to only get ideological content today as well.

    • This is what is so funny about all this. First it is obvious and common sense.

      Nobody even cares anymore if the left calls you a racist or anti-science or whatever. In fact, you ain’t got no street cred until you have been called these things by the left.

      Second, I would be willing to bet that when Trump says “I lI’ve the Hispanics!” The real dog whistle is that he just trolled progressives until they are foaming at the mouth. But I would be willing to bet that what Hispanics hear is “an old white guy trying.”

  4. Actually I think Scott Alexandar’s piece ‘You’re still crying wolf’ is the best I’ve seen

  5. “cosmopolitan vs. anti-cosmopolitan”

    I think it was about the conflict between the mood affiliations of these two.

    You simply can’t tell people it is racist to want to have a border or anti-American to be suspicious of inviting “refugees” who WILL include a relatively high percentage of terrorists.

    You also can’t tell me I’m anti-science or a vaccine denier, etc. etc.

  6. I only got caught up with all the feeds (e.g. blogs, sites) I follow around election day. Generally I’m between a week and a month behind everything. It’s nice. By the time I want to talk about something it’s been pre-digested by almost anyone I’d talk to about it.

    I do sometimes miss the window in which comments can be made on a blog tho. I think your blog closes comments after a couple of weeks. If you don’t mind, why not change that setting for your site? I really like sites that accumulate (thoughtful) comments over long periods of time.

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