Tyler Cowen expresses a lot of ideas that sound outlandish. I think he hopes that some of them will turn out to be right, even though not all of them will. I often disagree with his ideas at first, but then sometimes I change my mind. Andrew Sullivan expresses himself fervently, and when I agree with him, I like that. But I do disagree with him on some things. He and Jonathan Rauch overstate the negatives about Donald Trump, in my view. Conversely, there are those who understate those negatives, but I don’t have any strong Trump supporters among my mental list of great minds. Rauch and Sullivan are on that list, and they both frustrate me at times, and I have written about that, particularly about Rauch.
It’s a wide-ranging interview, conducted over email, so I get to be more coherent than in a live interview. Wide-ranging, and I’ll bet you’ll find a new thing or two in it.
“It’s a wide-ranging interview, conducted over email, so I get to be more coherent than in a live interview.”
Please stop over critiquing your live interviews. You are able to downshift through the gears like a pro live (vs. email). Seriously, please go back through your Econ talk archives.
That said, this interview was really good. Written responses will always be better than live. But, I tend to like live better.
Excellent interview. One moment that gave me pause:
“Conversely, there are those who understate those negatives, but I don’t have any strong Trump supporters among my mental list of great minds.”
What about Peter Thiel?
I’m guessing it depends on your definition of a “strong Trump supporter”. There probably are people that strongly dislike Trump’s enemies, and strongly belief that reservations about Trump are trivial compared to the threat of his enemies, but that’s a bit different then being a strong supporter of Trump.
For instance, Michael Anton wrote Flight 93 election. I think he believes that, and I think he voted for Trump. He probably felt very strongly that Hillary shouldn’t be president, and probably felt very strongly that the GOPe was just as bad. But does he strongly support Trump? Like Trump the actual human being? Eh…
Anton wrote two books advocating for his re election.
To most Trump-haters (incl. Rauch & Sully?) that’s not at all different, than being a strong supporter of Trump.
To most Trump-haters, reservations about his enemies are tantamount to “being a strong supporter of Trump”.
The Wokesters are seeing to it, that nuanced thought is being purged from the US.
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My impression is that Peter Thiel has cooled on Trump.
Yes exactly