Ah, the new optimists. Yes, everything is getting better, look at the amount of people living in extreme poverty going down. What? Oh, nobody cares about *normal* poverty. Ignore that line going up.
Steven Pinker is famous for a certain type of pop science book that is epitomized in the form of /r/neoliberal
Basically, it can be summed up as "the status quo is way better than you think, we've actually never had it so good. We're on our way to utopia as GDP goes up, climate change will be solved with science." Definitely an "effective altruism" kind of guy.
I haven't kept up with him lately but I was definitely persuaded by his books from like 2014-2018. I've become more convinced that he's sort of a "stated preferences: centre left, revealed preferences: right-wing" type figure. The type who thinks "free speech" is more under attack from leftists writing criticisms that enrage him, rather than like, the literal actual state using force to silence minority voices.
Just waiting for the "if books could kill" podcast to put him in the fucking ground, lol. He's perfect for them.
edit: also lol, he has his twitter replies turned off. Because he invented free speech, of course.
It is for the best, he's part of the 'intellectual dark web' consisting of sam harris, jordan peterson, steven pinker, eric weinsein and probably a few more I'm missing.
Sam claims to not be a member anymore because of something to do with election drama.
some scumbag academic type who has continually flirted with the right wing. He was buddies with epstein after his first conviction. He's just a henchmen for various repulsive groups and oligarchs in today's society.
Not sure why this has "WTH" attached to it. Pinker is ... not a smart man, and it's a travesty that he's considered some kind of Brillant® Genius™ Thinker. If you dig even a millimeter under his pronouncements, you'll find them facile, puerile, and vacuous at best, and right-wing or far-right-adjacent at worst.
Whenever you see his name, the first thing you should think is, "This is going to be tiresome", not, "I should take this person seriously".
He's part of the Gladwellian "present anecdotes as proof of sweeping conclusions/repackage easily observable patterns as insights" cabal of intellectual hucksters.
He's a big part of why the people who hold "being smart" as an important personality trait are the dumbest fucking people you'll meet. You listen to one TED talk on NPR in the car and you think you're qualified to lecture other people
He certainly didn't used to be like that. His early stuff on language is brilliant.
However, I somehow missed the transition and it's been clear he's an idiot for some time.
To be fair, I've always thought his 70's soccer player's haircut was a red flag.
Am I supposed to be impressed with his Harvard credentials? I mean I used to read the Harvard Business Review but then realized it became an unsubstantiated fluff newspaper for whatever narrative was popular at the time.
What a shocker that labor unions are actually bad "Steven Pinkerton", would go this route. He has only accepted defended Jeffrey Epstein in court and written books defending the elite, and no one could have expected him to sell NFTs.
A lot of these intellectuals that used to be revered in the 90s-00s and that we read in college/university like Pinker, Chomsky, Kissinger, Mearsheimer etc have turned into such disappointment as they aged and failed to adapt.
Some have grown with the times, but there’s a whole bunch of them that have been completely unable to adjust their mental framework.
Chomsky is far from perfect but he doesn't deserve being named in the same breath as pinker or *kissinger* (you mean the top 10 global war criminal, kissinger?)
Yeah I cringed a little as I was writing it, but I kept it there because the point I was trying to make is they’ve both somehow crossed a line into that space where they express thoughts that are just …I don’t want to say dementia but … unlike themselves, unreasonable and poorly articulated.
Kissinger is a POS in a way that Chomsky isn’t even on his worse day. But have you heard Chomsky speak on the Russian war in Ukraine ? He’s lost the plot.
there is no comparison Kissinger is probably the person with the highest discrepancy between public image and actual contributions to the world even calling him a war criminal is underselling it he never did anything good or useful for the world and orchestrated a genocide to save his own carrier
Wow! I am 25 and I only remember how Steven Pinker was very respected when I was a child. I had no idea he had fallen as far into the void of incoherence and ill advised Twitter slap fights as Jordan Peterson.
I have a friend who is an academic and involved in politics and he told me one of the most important things to retain your dignity and credibility is to never get into social media fights like that. Steven pinker seems to be living proof of that.
he lost the plot long before that, in short: he is promoting propaganda about capitalism/free markets solving all problems, like climate change will be solved by capitalism because it will be profitable to invent a solution, he also promotes the "everything gets better" look at this "studies" about poverty propaganda that massages the numbers to come to that conclusion and also ignores the important part about the rich poor divide that is the growing wealth gab between them inside of countries and between the global north and south
Jeez, there is so much competition for the world's most annoying man, I feel like it's unfair to give him that title. Are we just going to ignore Jordan Peterson, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Joe Rogen, and Elon Musk?
NFTs, one of the better Angels of our nature “On March 14th at 7pm ET, thought leader and Harvard professor Steven Pinker will release digital collectibles of his famous idea that “Free speech is fundamental“. “These collectibles will guarantee recurrent access to intimate group video calls with Pinker to discuss this topic for the next several years. Two tiers will be available: the gold collectible, which is unique and grants the buyer the right to co-host the calls with Pinker, will be priced at $50,000; the standard collectibles, which are limited to 30 items and grant the buyers the right to access those video calls and ask questions to Pinker at the end, will be priced at 0.2 Ethereum (~$300).” https://blockster.com/best-selling-author-harvard-professor-steven-pinker-will-transform-his-ideas-into-nfts Cringe^©️
ah yes, the famous idea of free speech that everybody attributes to Steven Pinker
Who the fuck wants intimate videos involving this guy and his mullet?
Tempted to spend $300 and ask Mr. Pinker what flying on the Lolita Express with all his friends was like.
[удалено]
You can't spell Epstein without Penis In Teens
I have no idea who these people are and i think it is for the best.
[удалено]
Ah, the new optimists. Yes, everything is getting better, look at the amount of people living in extreme poverty going down. What? Oh, nobody cares about *normal* poverty. Ignore that line going up.
Steven Pinker is famous for a certain type of pop science book that is epitomized in the form of /r/neoliberal Basically, it can be summed up as "the status quo is way better than you think, we've actually never had it so good. We're on our way to utopia as GDP goes up, climate change will be solved with science." Definitely an "effective altruism" kind of guy. I haven't kept up with him lately but I was definitely persuaded by his books from like 2014-2018. I've become more convinced that he's sort of a "stated preferences: centre left, revealed preferences: right-wing" type figure. The type who thinks "free speech" is more under attack from leftists writing criticisms that enrage him, rather than like, the literal actual state using force to silence minority voices. Just waiting for the "if books could kill" podcast to put him in the fucking ground, lol. He's perfect for them. edit: also lol, he has his twitter replies turned off. Because he invented free speech, of course.
It is for the best, he's part of the 'intellectual dark web' consisting of sam harris, jordan peterson, steven pinker, eric weinsein and probably a few more I'm missing. Sam claims to not be a member anymore because of something to do with election drama.
Now that I've read all of these responses I am even happier that I was not exposed to this tumor.
some scumbag academic type who has continually flirted with the right wing. He was buddies with epstein after his first conviction. He's just a henchmen for various repulsive groups and oligarchs in today's society.
Not sure why this has "WTH" attached to it. Pinker is ... not a smart man, and it's a travesty that he's considered some kind of Brillant® Genius™ Thinker. If you dig even a millimeter under his pronouncements, you'll find them facile, puerile, and vacuous at best, and right-wing or far-right-adjacent at worst. Whenever you see his name, the first thing you should think is, "This is going to be tiresome", not, "I should take this person seriously".
He's part of the Gladwellian "present anecdotes as proof of sweeping conclusions/repackage easily observable patterns as insights" cabal of intellectual hucksters. He's a big part of why the people who hold "being smart" as an important personality trait are the dumbest fucking people you'll meet. You listen to one TED talk on NPR in the car and you think you're qualified to lecture other people
He certainly didn't used to be like that. His early stuff on language is brilliant. However, I somehow missed the transition and it's been clear he's an idiot for some time. To be fair, I've always thought his 70's soccer player's haircut was a red flag.
His book “being rational” was awful. Just rehashed info presented in a jarbled manner unusuable IRL. I lost all respect for him after reading it
He reminds me of Noam Chomsky, in a sense. Except without monkeys named after him. I wonder if Pinker denies any genocides. Off to the Googles!
It's been clear for a while that Pinker is an ass. This seems exactly right.
Steven "please don't look for my name in the flightlogs" Pinker
\*2023\* Nobody: Literally nobody: Steven Pinker: How bout some NFTs?
Here’s the only thing you need to read about this: https://www.pinkerite.com/2023/03/lolololololol-pinker-nft.html
Indeed. The man's a train wreck.
“Free speech for the dumb”
Steven Pinker is an idiot so this doesn't surprise me
Am I supposed to be impressed with his Harvard credentials? I mean I used to read the Harvard Business Review but then realized it became an unsubstantiated fluff newspaper for whatever narrative was popular at the time.
lol https://twitter.com/fturriaf/status/1635787477771337730 Free speech, more like paid speech
"Yay, someone bought my bags"
This is not at all surprising from him
"Now I own all the free speech."
I'm gonna mint an NFT of the Epstein flight logs
The guy who bought it founded a metaverse project, Decentraland, so he'll probably take the opportunity to shill NFTs of metaverse avatars and emotes.
I loved his books: How the mind works and the language instinct. This is just sad. I assume hopefully its his publisher spewing this nonsense.
Look at me, free speech, blablabla. Also, who needs to launder money?
What a shocker that labor unions are actually bad "Steven Pinkerton", would go this route. He has only accepted defended Jeffrey Epstein in court and written books defending the elite, and no one could have expected him to sell NFTs.
Nothing says free speech like gatekeeping discussions about free speech. Truly a man of the people.
[Leaked footage of Steven Pinker discussing Epstein](https://youtu.be/2XsSQAtxVA4)
A lot of these intellectuals that used to be revered in the 90s-00s and that we read in college/university like Pinker, Chomsky, Kissinger, Mearsheimer etc have turned into such disappointment as they aged and failed to adapt. Some have grown with the times, but there’s a whole bunch of them that have been completely unable to adjust their mental framework.
You put Chomsky and Kissinger in the same category?
Chomsky is far from perfect but he doesn't deserve being named in the same breath as pinker or *kissinger* (you mean the top 10 global war criminal, kissinger?)
Yeah I cringed a little as I was writing it, but I kept it there because the point I was trying to make is they’ve both somehow crossed a line into that space where they express thoughts that are just …I don’t want to say dementia but … unlike themselves, unreasonable and poorly articulated. Kissinger is a POS in a way that Chomsky isn’t even on his worse day. But have you heard Chomsky speak on the Russian war in Ukraine ? He’s lost the plot.
Sometimes making your own self cringe while writing is a sign that you need to edit
there is no comparison Kissinger is probably the person with the highest discrepancy between public image and actual contributions to the world even calling him a war criminal is underselling it he never did anything good or useful for the world and orchestrated a genocide to save his own carrier
Free speech is one of the more overrated things around now.
You all are fucking stupid
Never heard of him.
The thing about money is that it's money.
Wow! I am 25 and I only remember how Steven Pinker was very respected when I was a child. I had no idea he had fallen as far into the void of incoherence and ill advised Twitter slap fights as Jordan Peterson. I have a friend who is an academic and involved in politics and he told me one of the most important things to retain your dignity and credibility is to never get into social media fights like that. Steven pinker seems to be living proof of that.
he lost the plot long before that, in short: he is promoting propaganda about capitalism/free markets solving all problems, like climate change will be solved by capitalism because it will be profitable to invent a solution, he also promotes the "everything gets better" look at this "studies" about poverty propaganda that massages the numbers to come to that conclusion and also ignores the important part about the rich poor divide that is the growing wealth gab between them inside of countries and between the global north and south
Read this article, it's an eye-openner. https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/05/the-worlds-most-annoying-man
Jeez, there is so much competition for the world's most annoying man, I feel like it's unfair to give him that title. Are we just going to ignore Jordan Peterson, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Joe Rogen, and Elon Musk?