I am still subscribed to slatestarcodex on reddit, and this piece of garbage popped up on my feed. I didn't actually read the whole thing, but basically the author correctly realizes Trump is ruining everything in the process of getting at "DEI" and "wokism", but instead of accepting the blame that rightfully falls on Scott Alexander and the author, deflects and blames the "left" elitists. (I put left in quote marks because the author apparently thinks establishment democrats are actually leftist, I fucking wish).
An illustrative quote (of Scott's that the author agrees with)
We wanted to be able to hold a job without reciting DEI shibboleths or filling in multiple-choice exams about how white people cause earthquakes. Instead we got a thousand scientific studies cancelled because they used the string “trans-” in a sentence on transmembrane proteins.
I don't really follow their subsequent points, they fail to clarify what they mean... In sofar as "left elites" actually refers to centrist democrats, I actually think the establishment Democrats do have a major piece of blame in that their status quo neoliberalism has been rejected by the public but the Democrat establishment refuse to consider genuinely leftist ideas, but that isn't the point this author is actually going for... the author is actually upset about Democrats "virtue signaling" and "canceling" and DEI, so they don't actually have a valid point, if anything the opposite of one.
In case my angry disjointed summary leaves you any doubt the author is a piece of shit:
it feels like Scott has been reading a lot of Richard Hanania, whom I agree with on a lot of points
For reference the ssc discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/1jyjc9z/the_edgelords_were_right_a_response_to_scott/
tldr; author trying to blameshift on Trump fucking everything up while keeping up the exact anti-progressive rhetoric that helped propel Trump to victory.
So I finally actually read the damn thing fully because you fine sneerers shouldn't suffer alone, and the thing that struck me was that for all their whinging about being blamed they're not actually owning the fact that on the relevant issue they were talking about ("wokeness" or "DEI" or whatever they're calling it this week) they were actually in perfect alignment with the right-wing argument. Like, regardless of what their opinions on trade policy or whatever, they were literally saying the same exact shit about how awful the "woke leftist academic Mafia cathedral" (or what they're calling it this week) is and how to oppose it. For Christ's sake the writer approvingly cites fucking Hanania, the guy who literally wrote the book (well, one of them) on "wokeness." When people blame the radical "centrists" (is there a way to make even more aggressive scare quotes?) it's not because they should have been more consistent in opposing Trump-style populism or caveated their arguments with "but also Trump wouldn't piss on America if it was on fire" it's because on the issue they spent all their time and energy writing about and advocating for they were actively promoting him. And I'm sorry but especially for someone with noted reach beyond whatever silicon valley cult bubble he lives in like Scooter I just can't believe that they're not aware of that fact.
At least the Russian trolls who side track any discussion of Ukraine by talking about Iraq and Nicaragua usually have a point about how fucked up the CIA is. These poor bastards just seem bitter that they're not getting the respect and accolades they feel they deserve for being special smart boys because they didn't go into real academia. And I mean let he who is without bitterness at academia cast the first stone, but scientific racism is still bullshit if it is a load-bearing part of your self-esteem.