I had not been over in months, maybe even a year. I used to get over there once a month, just to expose myself to radical, uncensored thinking. Most of it is merely fevered and irritating - they have a large number of writers who find the Jews behind every problem, and others who assure us that Russia is our friend - but they have had some good voices over the years that do not get much audience elsewhere, including Ron Unz himself. Ron is now psychotic, BTW.
I could find almost nothing worth reading. Steve Sailer I still like, and I usually like about half of John Derbyshire. I'm down to two-thirds of Sailer and one-third of Derb at this point. YMMV.
It is at least valuable to see what's out there.
A quick scan suggests that there's a consolidation of viewpoints there--it may not be so good for sampling "what's out there" any more.
ReplyDeleteSteve and Ron have lost their marbles over the virus. Steve believes the "curve has been flattened", but he's still hiding under his bed just to be safe.
ReplyDeleteRon is still convinced millions are going to die in the U.S. sometime next week. Just you wait and see!
I'm a long time reader of Steve, but this crisis has put a significant dent in his brand, so to speak.
He's a numbers driven guy, but he has developed such an emotional attachment to the early, worst case scenarios that he can't quite bring himself to admit the early models were way off and that we're not all going to die.
Not a good look.
Considering that the FBI is a criminal gang (They ran Whitey Bulger in Boston, and likely killed him in prison.), and that they and the CIA are openly engaged in a coup d'etat, and that the MSM is actively suppressing Tara Reade's charges against Biden (and the charges of seven other women), and that the Pentagon is actively fomenting war in the Persian Gulf, the Baltic, and the South China sea, I find it odd you choose to criticize the Unz Review just because it has some quacks. To be consistent, you should boycott all news media and refuse to vote in any election.
ReplyDeleteThe endless racist vilification of both Russia and China by both Democrats and Republicans is intended to deflect attention from their own very real crimes. Russia is closer to being a democracy than the US/EU, and China is closer to being a capitalist economy than the US/EU. Anatoly Karlin and The Saker, both carried by Unz, are Russian patriots and have all sorts of connections to Russia and contacts with Russian citizens. They both provide useful viewpoints on what is happening in Russia and what the Russian government is up to. Neither is an anti-Semite. Neither pretends Russia is our friend. Both note that Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Putin, and Medvedev all wanted Russia in both NATO and the EU: "a united Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok," as Putin himself put it. Russia became an adversary because the US refused to let Russia join Europe and conducts all sorts of mindless aggressions against Russia.
Sailer is not alone in freaking out about COVID-19. The MSM and the medical establishment, especially CDC/FDA, have instigated a massive panic based on a few fraudulent models. The lockdown is an unmitigated disaster, and if it is not stopped very soon, none of the closed businesses will recover, and Great Depression II will be with us for a decade. At present stock market prices, every pension fund in America, both public and private, is bankrupt. Current unemployment is at least 30% and might be 40%, both much higher than the worst of Great Depression I. If the banks start failing, the economy is over. People will be starving in the streets.
Since WW II, there have been at least a half dozen influenza and coronavirus pandemics with worse death rates than COVID-19. None of them caused the kind of unreasoning panic we are now reduced to. Something is very seriously broken in our society.
I am surprised you haven't featured what is happening over at Instapundit. That site, lead by Glenn Reynolds, Austin Bay, Steve Green, and Ed Driscoll, has degenerated into the worst kind of racist bigotry against China and the Chinese people. All four of those guys should be wearing swaztikas and Klan hoods.
Paragraph 1: Opinions I agree with in much milder forms
ReplyDeleteParagraph 2: I'm not sure how you think Americans can be racist against Russia, who are of the same race as the majority-Caucasians. As I have mentioned before, friends and acquaintances who have worked in Russian and China find your assertion about their comparative democracy and capitalism ridiculous. You are allowing your anger about American events to wildly exaggerate them - see my note under Paragraph 1. I have heard the theory that Russia really wanted to be part of NATO. Whatever they said, that is thought is ridiculous. NATO was formed to contain Russia. I'm sure Russia did want to be part of the EU - under impossible terms that were never going to happen.
Paragraph 3. Your economic predictions are not going to happen, nor anything close. This is not the Great Depression.
Paragraph 4: "Worse death rates" is a poorly defined term you could drive a truck through. We are also in a different state of medical knowledge since the 1940's. Night and day.
Paragraph 5. I see no evidence that race has anything to do with the Instapundit objections to China's actions, whatever else their faults may be at that site.
Your thinking is not rigorous, sykes. Impressions rule you.
Like you I hit Unz about once a month and like you, I'm done. My family know I like to write and from time to time, send me the crazy stuff. I still send it to my dad. The more real it sounded the more I enjoyed it. Now it mostly sounds over-the-top crazy. Listening to Babylon by David Gray. I don't think I'll let go.
ReplyDeleteBTW, the reference to Ron Unz being psychotic is as much personal behavior as politics. He has gone into a Howard Hughes sort of existence of no personal hygiene and bizarre real-life beliefs. I don't have a diagnosis, and while it ism likely a strong effect on his political approach, I am not making any direct connection.
ReplyDelete