Yascha, a very erudite and interesting theory, which you have explained well. However to the simplistic minded sceptic, this dinner partyism also takes place between like minded individuals who are thrust together, in this instance, on account of their shared love of and training as reporters and journalists. What is not even mentioned in this article is why there is an undeniable biased of the MSM reporters and journalists, to be left of centre in their politics. The question that needs addressing and explaining is "why?" All the examples you quote could be construed as those of the ruling classes, instructing their MSM editors to ensure a propaganda narrative was followed by all NEWS and Broadcasting outlets and succeeded because 80% of the editors, reporters and journalists were of the same political persuasion, which was the cause of there being an overwhelming consensus to change course in unison, and to not only condemn but to smear those who disagreed with their utterances, as conspiracy theorists, or to be the far right, or "deniers" (vax-deniers, climate change deniers) of the substance of their proclamations. One struggles with these contradictions to you theory of dinner partyism, solid as it might seem at first reading.
"Two days before her husband was deposed from the throne, and four days before her whole family was brutally murdered, Tsarina Alexandra of Russia dismissed the importance of the 'young people [who] run and shout that there is no bread, simply to create excitement… If the weather were very cold they would probably all stay home.'"
What a weird, unnecessary telescoping of history, for no reason that I can divine. Nicholas II was deposed on March 15 (N.S), 1917. I don't know what his wife was saying on March 13; it's not impossible that she commented to someone about disorder in the streets, I suppose. But she and her family were murdered in Yekaterinburg in the pre-dawn hours of July 17, 1918, sixteen months, not "four days" later.
One of the deepest wounds attacking the cohesion of our societies, yet to be fully acknowledged, let alone politically ameliorated, is the rising scourge of sexualised violence and the structural lifeline social stigma victims carry:
Femicide.
I attended a lecture by an Irish historian many years back who was analysing the papers reporting the build up to the 1641 Irish Rebellion. She had come to the conclusion that the Protestant colonialist policy of wide scale rape of the indigenous Irish Catholic population was the social injustice fuse that lit the resultant bloody rebellion. Puritan sexual shaming seems to be a superstitious legacy that colonial created democracies have yet to excise. The resultant lifelong scapegoating and social exclusion and negligence from a blind patriarchal justice system that many of us survivors suffer, affect not just us but our family and friends. This unjust social exile in plain sight acts to disintegrate the fragile bonds of trust which all societies need to function. Those who want to fit in turn their eyes away from it clothing this action in passing pity for the victims (who are, thankfully, not one of them). Those who try to go up against their attackers are duly crucified by both our out of date justice system and a blood thirsty media.
Our political Elect and winners take all capitalist societies will be destroyed from within by an unpredictable generational tsunami of inherited rage against the ongoing social injustices of rape victim blaming if this dirty open secret is not fully addressed and justice seen to be done.
What an odd piece of journalism by a brilliant writer at a time when so much is happening. The US elections have a new dynamic, the war in Ukraine is evolving, and the one in Gaza drags on in spite of every attempt to calm it — I’m not seeing the urgent need for this article. Was hoping Yascha might have some thoughts on actualities…
This is a really excellent article. It also reminds me of Scott Alexander's position on the inverse (self-censoring rather than speaking freely) formulation of this https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/give-up-seventy-percent-of-the-way?utm_source=publication-search
Yascha, a very erudite and interesting theory, which you have explained well. However to the simplistic minded sceptic, this dinner partyism also takes place between like minded individuals who are thrust together, in this instance, on account of their shared love of and training as reporters and journalists. What is not even mentioned in this article is why there is an undeniable biased of the MSM reporters and journalists, to be left of centre in their politics. The question that needs addressing and explaining is "why?" All the examples you quote could be construed as those of the ruling classes, instructing their MSM editors to ensure a propaganda narrative was followed by all NEWS and Broadcasting outlets and succeeded because 80% of the editors, reporters and journalists were of the same political persuasion, which was the cause of there being an overwhelming consensus to change course in unison, and to not only condemn but to smear those who disagreed with their utterances, as conspiracy theorists, or to be the far right, or "deniers" (vax-deniers, climate change deniers) of the substance of their proclamations. One struggles with these contradictions to you theory of dinner partyism, solid as it might seem at first reading.
"Two days before her husband was deposed from the throne, and four days before her whole family was brutally murdered, Tsarina Alexandra of Russia dismissed the importance of the 'young people [who] run and shout that there is no bread, simply to create excitement… If the weather were very cold they would probably all stay home.'"
What a weird, unnecessary telescoping of history, for no reason that I can divine. Nicholas II was deposed on March 15 (N.S), 1917. I don't know what his wife was saying on March 13; it's not impossible that she commented to someone about disorder in the streets, I suppose. But she and her family were murdered in Yekaterinburg in the pre-dawn hours of July 17, 1918, sixteen months, not "four days" later.
This is an important and prescient warning.
One of the deepest wounds attacking the cohesion of our societies, yet to be fully acknowledged, let alone politically ameliorated, is the rising scourge of sexualised violence and the structural lifeline social stigma victims carry:
Femicide.
I attended a lecture by an Irish historian many years back who was analysing the papers reporting the build up to the 1641 Irish Rebellion. She had come to the conclusion that the Protestant colonialist policy of wide scale rape of the indigenous Irish Catholic population was the social injustice fuse that lit the resultant bloody rebellion. Puritan sexual shaming seems to be a superstitious legacy that colonial created democracies have yet to excise. The resultant lifelong scapegoating and social exclusion and negligence from a blind patriarchal justice system that many of us survivors suffer, affect not just us but our family and friends. This unjust social exile in plain sight acts to disintegrate the fragile bonds of trust which all societies need to function. Those who want to fit in turn their eyes away from it clothing this action in passing pity for the victims (who are, thankfully, not one of them). Those who try to go up against their attackers are duly crucified by both our out of date justice system and a blood thirsty media.
Our political Elect and winners take all capitalist societies will be destroyed from within by an unpredictable generational tsunami of inherited rage against the ongoing social injustices of rape victim blaming if this dirty open secret is not fully addressed and justice seen to be done.
What an odd piece of journalism by a brilliant writer at a time when so much is happening. The US elections have a new dynamic, the war in Ukraine is evolving, and the one in Gaza drags on in spite of every attempt to calm it — I’m not seeing the urgent need for this article. Was hoping Yascha might have some thoughts on actualities…