17 Comments
founding
Sep 22, 2022Liked by Ed West

Love the Sideshow Bob reference (a great and misunderstood Conservative public servant).

Some suggested permission structures:

Education: Rowdy, disruptive boys display 'toxically masculine' traits, and are a threat to the education of girls (other boys be damned, of course).

Crime: Career criminals are almost invariably abusers of vulnerable women, thus a feminist spin could be put on punitive measures.

Immigration: Western societies are such hotbeds of racist white supremacy that immigrants must be saved from coming here and suffering discrimination and worse...

Of course it would be nicer if we didn't have to pander to the luxury beliefs and assumptions of the upper middle classes (whose revealed preferences, as you point out, show them to be revolting hypocrites). I'm quite open to the de Santis strategy of making these people suffer some of the negative externalities of their positions. A homeless encampment on Hampstead Heath would probably do the trick. (Removal of said installation would depend on submission of hostage-style videos of Guardian readers denouncing their beliefs).

Sorry, but I dislike these people profoundly and want them to suffer.

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Sep 22, 2022Liked by Ed West

"Pathological enpathy" is an excellent characterization. It explains why really smart and decent leftists get suckered by transgenderism or engage in extreme Covid theatre.

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Sep 22, 2022Liked by Ed West

Great article which adeptly explains much of the psyche of our left-lib-progressive metropolitans. I find the concept of ‘permission structure’ to be illuminating. I had often wondered why it was that certain things got their rag while other comparable or parallel manifestations would draw a shrug or even a complete blank. Now I have more of an inkling, so thank you for that, Ed.

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Bingo on status. Humans, particularly young men, seek status through boneheaded stupidity between the ages of 13 and 25, when testosterone kicks in and makesus hyper-aware of status, but before the prefrontal cortex has developed enough for us to manipulate our way to status through subtler means. Lots of young men seeking status leads to high crime. I was just reading about Sweden, where lots of young male immigrants have been turning the country to the political right with a crime wave -- because as immigrants, they lack status, and pursue it through boneheaded stupidity.

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It's actually kind of impressive how far liberals will go to avoid being seen to agree with someone like me.

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The ubiquitous "X is quite deranged and fascist-adjacent, but s/he is right about ..."-style tweets are permission structure manifestations.

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founding

Excellent. I always thought the foreign owned empty London properties stuff seemed a weird thing to focus on, and you might have given the reason.

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This is a superb article and so enlightening. Groupishness dictates a lot of outwardly expressed liberal opinion, while the private mind waits for permission to detract. This may be why quitting Twitter & living as an expat in relative solitude put this instinctive leftist in touch with his inner conservative, in the absence of permission structures in the original culture.

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Maybe I missed it, but why do you think this is happening now?

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