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Quote by Tim Kreider

“When somebody tells us something that would be disturbing or inconvenient for us to believe, we reflexively scrutinize that person for some excuse to discredit him. Their disdain for emotion and dogged, blindered focus on Evidence and the Facts makes it tempting to speculate that people like Ken, rather than simply being more objective than the rest of us - which might threaten to make us feel stupid - just have more deeply buried agendas and are driven by unconscious forces about which they're in even better-defended denial. It's unusually not hard to find such ulterior motives in anyone, especially not in the sorts of people who are most likely to bring us such news.”

Quote by Tim Kreider

Book:We Learn Nothing
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We Learn Nothing

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Tim Kreider

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Book:We Learn Nothing
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“You'd think that it would make them all the more credible to be free of any obvious agenda or emotional bias, motivated only by objective logic. But there's something off-putting about these hyperrational types; they're immune to any appeals to common sense or humor, the for fuck's sake defense. [...] As Kim Stanley Robinson writes, "An excess of reason is in itself a form of madness".”

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Book:We Learn Nothing
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“It is wrong to say that there was no antisemitism in the Labour Party. But it is also wrong to say that every allegation of antisemitism in the Labour Party was true. Questions about the prevalence of antisemitism in the party remain a dificult, but important and necessary, subject for rational debate. The charge of 'denialism' killed this nuance. It demanded that anyone exercising scepticism be ejected from the political and moral community as anti-Jewish bigots - even when the sceptics in question were themselves Jewish.”

JewishAntisemitismLabour Party UkRational DebateDenialism
Book:The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney, and the Crisis of British Democracy
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“It is customary to call the point of view of the advocates of the welfare state the “social” point of view as distinguished from the “individualistic” and “selfish” point of view of the champions of the rule of law. In fact, however, the supporters of the welfare state are utterly anti-social and intolerant zealots. For their ideology tacitly implies that the government will exactly execute what they themselves deem right and beneficial. They entirely disregard the possibility that there could arise disagreement with regard to the question of what is right and expedient and what is not. They advocate enlightened despotism, but they are convinced that the enlightened despot will in every detail comply with their own opinion concerning the measures to be adopted. They favour planning, but what they have in mind is exclusively their own plan, not those of other people.”

SocialPlanningIdeologyWelfareIndividualisticDespotEnlightened Despot
Book:Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis
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“The hard truth that no one ever thinks about is that understanding oneself is one of the hardest things to do in a world where normality is expected. Outside voices always find a way into our heads. Humans are the most malicious beings on this planet, solely on the words we use. It changes and shapes us into someone we don't recognize. Whether at work, at school, or even in our home lives. No matter where you are in this world, someone will always have an opinion on how we direct our lives. Which is why recognizing this as only an opinion is the most important lesson one can learn. Because there will be someone out there that will always try and control someone else's life even as their own is falling into shambles.”

InspirationalMotivationalSelf WorthIndividualistic
Author:Kalina Ward
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