Comments on: Astrakhan Coats and Techno-Utopianism

By: Toddy Cat

Toddy Cat — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 17:26:32 +0000

I’ll take your word for it about Curtis. He seems like another snark-addled lefty to me, but if you find him valuable, I certainly wouldn’t argue with that. But as for ploughing through all his blame-(Red)America First guff looking for the occasional pearl of wisdom, better you than me. You must feel like the guy in Ronald Reagan’s joke, digging through a pile of horses**t, saying “there’s got to be a pony in here somewhere!” I’m willing to admit that there might be a pony somewhere in Curtis’s writings, but I’m not digging for it.

By: At Toddy Cat

At Toddy Cat — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 15:11:52 +0000

Toddy Cat:

I don’t think that A. Curtis is a left winger. He is probably best described as a contrarian, a political hipster.

I listen to Curtis even though I do not believe much of what he says. Frequently he misses the mark and connects dots where there is only a weak pattern. But every so often he digs up something deeply insightful that cause you to make connections you would not otherwise have made. That I find to be very ideologically productive and satisfying. It keeps your mind bendy and flexible.

By: Archy Hamilton

Archy Hamilton — Sun, 02 Feb 2014 18:03:20 +0000

I dispute some of the facts in the article. No state or area of any size has ever had an average wheat yield anywhere near 180 bu per acre. Also, Iowa grows very little wheat and would not be useful as a comparative benchmark.

Gel-Mann Amnesia maybe, but I agree with the overall points.

By: Toddy Cat

Toddy Cat — Sun, 02 Feb 2014 02:50:15 +0000

To Curtis, America is like God, not a sparrow falls, but that America is responsible for. And of course, a tidal wave of money pouring into Saudi Arabia due to OPEC, and the consequent strengthening of Islamism, the Soviet Invasion of 1979, thirty years of Communist subversion, and the pig-headedness of the Afghans themselves had nothing at all to do with what happened in Afghanistan, right?

What a nitwit. If this guy is the best that the Left can do, Lord help us all.

By: Marc Pisco

Marc Pisco — Sun, 02 Feb 2014 01:16:50 +0000

Carl, revisiting my remarks, it’s hard not to see them falling somewhere between intemperate and deranged. Funny thing is, it seemed lightheartedly witty when I wrote it…

By: Baduin

Baduin — Sun, 02 Feb 2014 00:15:30 +0000

Which nation has on its money: “Novus ordo seclorum”?

By: Carl

Carl — Sat, 01 Feb 2014 21:02:47 +0000

Well Adam Curtis certainly has his shtick. First, everything is just peachy. Then some Americans become “obsessed” with some idea. Then they screw over the entire world, especially the common man, when they try to impose this idea on the world.

When cast in such a general form, the Curtis shtick is practically Moldbuggian, but he always goes out of his way to pin the blame on “right-wing”, or at least capitalist, Americans.

By: Marc Pisco

Marc Pisco — Sat, 01 Feb 2014 19:11:01 +0000

Moldbug was right. America Is a Communist Country. Rostow was a psychopath. All of these planner-theorists were psychopaths.