‘It Wasn't A Hoax. It Was Media Overkill.’ | Andrew Sullivan

I’ll try not to take David Frum’s new piece on the Russia-Trump connection too personally, especially now that I’ve spent the week off-Twitter, chilling in the English countryside where I grew up, and generally unwinding with my family. And this isn’t a full-on Weekly Dish, because of Thanksgiving.

But a few thoughts. I agree with almost everything David writes — which he does with his usual concision and pellucidity. There is no question that Trump had countless conflicts of interest in Russia, with his Moscow hotel plans high among them, and had been money laundering for Russian oligarchs for years. No question that he was absolutely willing to accept Russia’s — or any country’s — illicit support, and no doubt he actually asked for it. I saw him do it, on national television, in the campaign. We all did. [More…]

This is Andrew Sullivan, who I’d describe as a radical centrist. Heterodox critic of both sides. (*)

People like Claire Lehman are asking if it’s the case that the Left went crazy after the 2016 election and the Right went crazy after election 2020. It sure seems some Republican pollies are going weird-crazy. It would help if more Democratic pollies would admit their own weird-crazy conspiracy theories. As someone said, more or less: the party in power is smug and arrogant; the party out of power is crazy.

[Claire on Quillette]

(*) Whoops! In the “Keep up, Boomer” category: I thought “Radical Centrist” was good. I only heard about it recently and it sounded like a good place/person to be. But maybe not. Maybe it’s a Bad Thing. Same with “heterodox” apparently. Something I’d thought good may be Bad. Sigh…

Vale Chrissi Sharpe

I knew Chrissi when we were both youngsters in Canberra. We dated for a while in the eighties. Super smart; super sharp.There are some lovely and caring memories at the limelight obituary.

Described by friends and colleagues as passionate, fiercely intelligent and formidable yet warm and caring, Sharp and her husband of more than three decades, leading arts manager Michael Lynch, were an internationally renowned arts power-couple.

Sharp was raised in Canberra. Early in her career she worked in broadcasting as a researcher on Chequerboard for ABC TV and later, in the 1990s, as Head of Policy at SBS. She also worked for a while as an agent. [Read on…]

Steven Pinker on rationality in our times

Click screenshot for the vid. (a bit over an hour)

Steven Pinker in a great talk with Andrew Sullivan, to discuss Pinker’s latest book “Rationality"  Both are heterodox thinkers, great minds at work.

Settle down to listen, all worth it. Some timestamps: 

33:00: On “My Side Bias”. The most common bias out there. Says Steven. We all have it

42:00: “Your mommy made you gay”.  Andrew Sullivan (gay himself and a major force in legalising same-sex marriage), discusses what you’re not supposed to discuss.

1:00:00: “Availability Bias”. Discusses its effect, eg on nuclear power debate. A kind of cognitive dissonance.

I'm a Mumfordian. The case for heterodoxy, aka anti identity politics

Link here

I heard James Mumford interviewed the other day, I think on Australia's ABC. His main point caught my attention: why do you have to be assumed to have all the beliefs of the Left (or the Right) just because you believe one of them. 

From Amazon: 

In this refreshing and eye-opening book, James Mumford, a public thinker and independent commentator, questions the basic assumptions of our political groups. His challenge is simple: 'Why should believing strongly about one topic mean the automatic adoption of so many others?'

One example he gave in the interview: those on the conservative side stress the importance of family. Those on the Left the importance of increasing real wages. But the family is helped by an increase in real wages (which, btw, in the west have been flat for decades). So, a person on the right ought support policies, including strengthening labour unions, which will increase the share of company income going to wages. And those on the Left ought to support policies to help the family because it will help reduce inequality gap.

I noted many years ago (11, actually) what I called "Swimming with right wing fishies". That was about what I felt at the time: that having some views about Islam, the ideology not the people, made one automatically right wing, even as I considered myself left of centre and had always, till then, voted Labor in Oz. 

So this is sounds like a welcome addition to the "heterodoxy is good"genre. I've ordered my copy. 

ADDED, other heterodox people and places:

The Heterodox Academy

Niall Ferguson

Triggernometry YouTube channel