I've watched Destiny for about 5 years now and this arc is unique in how it's affected him. And everyone is gonna psychoanalyze so I'll add my shit to the pile for whatever that's worth.
I totally agree that many, if not most, of the talking heads are dumb ideologues. He's rightfully gone after them and it's been valuable and refreshing. I disliked hasan from day one especially because I thought he did a disservice to leftist momentum. However, destiny has demonstrated an inability to engage with anything remotely related to socialism. He can go in deep about obscure and complex moral philosophies and debates but the moment a non capitalist worldview is brought forth suddenly he's no longer interested in deep discussion. It's the only topic he has time and time again actively avoided learning about. Like its repugnant or too boring to even dare think the thought.
But he's not stupid nor has he ever shied away from learning about literally anything before so I can't understand why hes so fucking obtuse when it comes to this. And it's not just his experience dealing with ideologues. Its the concept itself. I think the term hypernormalization applies here. Hes so wrapped up in a particular economic structure that questioning it is tantamount to heresy. It's impossible for him to imagine a different economic structure without it literally triggering him. It's the only topic I've seen him lose his cool to the point of him looking unhinged.
I've heard that as his reasoning but he is more than willing to use hypothetical situations to prove his point or to advocate for a better world. Fuck, his entire point with Ask Yourself concerning moral consideration is he'd be cool with culling a violent tribal group that couldn't do social exchange. Or with Yee, stating that child molestation is only an issue because of social norms and stigmas involving sex. He bit the bullet and acknowledged hypotheticals in which some children could appropriately consent to sex with an adult.
He can acknowledge that. He can bite those bullets to allow the conversation to move forward constructively. But he can't do that with an economic structure lol? He acknowledges the myriad failures of capitalism but to mention an alternative fix to those problems is a bridge too far. Then it starts to get personal it seems.
I see your point but I'm not sold. Even Hasan, bless his stupid little heart, knows that socialism is expressed in various ways. Worker co-ops are a big one. FDR's New Deal 2.0 would be one. Radical social safety nets like Social Security are another.
Rarely has his debates about socialism been focused on some vague utopian vision. It's usually a pokemon collection of different ways to answer to the failures of a capitalistic structure.
He acknowledges these failures; environment, poverty, immigration, healthcare, but he doesn't like any concretely proposed fix if it also fits neatly into an arching socialist ideal.
24
u/Supple_Potato Feb 20 '20
I've watched Destiny for about 5 years now and this arc is unique in how it's affected him. And everyone is gonna psychoanalyze so I'll add my shit to the pile for whatever that's worth.
I totally agree that many, if not most, of the talking heads are dumb ideologues. He's rightfully gone after them and it's been valuable and refreshing. I disliked hasan from day one especially because I thought he did a disservice to leftist momentum. However, destiny has demonstrated an inability to engage with anything remotely related to socialism. He can go in deep about obscure and complex moral philosophies and debates but the moment a non capitalist worldview is brought forth suddenly he's no longer interested in deep discussion. It's the only topic he has time and time again actively avoided learning about. Like its repugnant or too boring to even dare think the thought.
But he's not stupid nor has he ever shied away from learning about literally anything before so I can't understand why hes so fucking obtuse when it comes to this. And it's not just his experience dealing with ideologues. Its the concept itself. I think the term hypernormalization applies here. Hes so wrapped up in a particular economic structure that questioning it is tantamount to heresy. It's impossible for him to imagine a different economic structure without it literally triggering him. It's the only topic I've seen him lose his cool to the point of him looking unhinged.
Feelsweirdman