Negative Outlook?: 5/13/18

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Josh Denny who has a Food Network show "Ginormous Eats" has been tweeting some racist stuff.

Is it okay to tweet at Food Network and try to get him fired? What if it was sexist stuff? Homophobic stuff? Where do you draw the line?

I don't think it's a good idea to try to get people fired b/c if the world lives by eye-for-eye then everyone is blind. I don't think it's worthwhile to doxx pathetic, poor alt right Nazis from their job at the hot dog stand. Yes call them out and fight them.

But there are stories of ex-Nazis "deprogramming" other poor Nazis like from a cult or from a gang. I'm not talking about the suburban Nazis, but the more working class, poor ones. Give them something else to live for, don't just write them off.

But people higher up the scale like the racist lawyer in NYC and Denny? I'm starting to think it's okay. Trump has made it more permissible for these people to speak out and spread their hate. It's worthwhile to push back and don't let them build momentum especially via platforms. I'm very pro-Antifa.

But still I think the focus on getting people fired is overdone, like who cares if Joy Reid or Neera Tanden is fired? They'll just be replaced. It's funny to point out their faux pas and hypocrisies.

The focus should be on what sort of platform they have and how much power.

Better to try to convert people rather than shame them as Briahna Joy Gray and Steve Randy Waldman emphasize within the context of Trump voters and deplorables. Paul Krugman has finally admitted that the rise in populism in Europe can have something to do with economic anxiety rather than just being a matter of racist deplorables.

This means - as some European researchers sugget:

The policy implication and take-home message that stems from our results is clear: if one wants to defeat populism, one must defeat first economic insecurity.

Chris Dillow is also very good on this.

(not the clearest blog, maybe contradictory, but I'm working out my ideas on this. It's difficult to generalize. Better to punch up than punch down. Better to try to make allies than enemies. Cut people some slack and be generous even if they aren't with you.)

populism backlash in Europe

The populism backlash: An economically driven backlash

The cultural backlash against globalisation, traditional politics and institutions, immigration, and automation cannot be an exogenous occurrence, it is driven by economic woes. In fact, as we show, in regions where globalisation was present but have benefited economically there is no such cultural backlash at all and the populist message has retreated. The policy implication and take-home message that stems from our results is clear: if one wants to defeat populism, one must defeat first economic insecurity.

Can consensus towards populist forces persist even after economic insecurity has been reabsorbed? This is the key question today. While the documented culture backlash cannot be the root cause of populist success as it is itself borne out of economic insecurity, it may play a crucial role looking forward. If the new identity politics succeeds in reshaping peoples' beliefs and attitudes, sentiments can acquire an autonomous role and may continue to exert an effect even when their economic cause is gone.