Steven Pinker becomes NSA apologist

[Mudhammam]

Per Pinker's Twitter account:

Snowden, Greenwald, & Assange are self-serving, paranoid nihilists - Must-read article in The New Republic | http://bit.ly/1bazR4M

So very disappointing. I don't think I'll be paying much attention to Pinker's opinions in the future. Anyone with even half a brain can see the TNR article's breakdown in logic, not to mention the hit piece has already been so thoroughly discredited by far more rigorous journalists.

Subsequently, this is a total evisceration of Pinker's 2011 book, "The Better Angels of Our Nature." It makes sense of his logic in allying himself to the mass surveillance state: http://t.co/kFxFnOEI5n

[Autumnlicious]

Appears you're in good company.

From Wikipedia on Steven Pinker:

Edward S. Herman and David Peterson have criticized The Better Angels of Our Nature. In an extensive essay, they accuse Pinker of having ventured outside of his field of expertise, and of cherry-picking historical data to fit his thesis. The main themes are Pinker's apologetics for imperialist expansionism, geopolitics of capitalism and anti-communism, manufacturing his questionable sources to fit the conclusions.

[Mudhammam]

Appears you're in good company.

From Wikipedia on Steven Pinker:

Edward S. Herman and David Peterson have criticized The Better Angels of Our Nature. In an extensive essay, they accuse Pinker of having ventured outside of his field of expertise, and of cherry-picking historical data to fit his thesis. The main themes are Pinker's apologetics for imperialist expansionism, geopolitics of capitalism and anti-communism, manufacturing his questionable sources to fit the conclusions.

That would be the one!

[Mudhammam]

Sadly, it looks like Sam Harris and Michael Shermer approvingly re-tweeted the same piece. What to make of it? Does "New Atheism" + "a science of morality" = alliance to Western imperialism and the mass surveillance state? I can only hope that Dan Dennett, who once described himself as an "ACLU liberal," and other like-minded atheists, push back against this deplorable trend that apparently didn't die with Hitchens.

[là bạn điên]

And Pinker is right. Assange is a complete Asshole.Pinker is a genius.

if his writing offends some pathetic neomarxists then so much the better.

[Mudhammam]

And Pinker is right. Assange is a complete Asshole.Pinker is a genius.

if his writing offends some pathetic neomarxists then so much the better.

Cool. Next up: "What shoe brand does Assange wear?"

[Tiberius]

It's a typical character assassination. Spend enough time looking into someone's past, and you can drag up something that will make them appear like a horrible person. It's a completely irrelevant thing to bring up though, and its only purpose is to distract from talking about what we should be talking about.

Yes, Snowden, Greenwalk, and Assange may not be perfect, but they never claimed to be. What they did do, however, was release evidence that governments and other organisations were committing crimes. What is honestly more important to focus on? Three men that have controversial views, but ultimately have no real power, or governments which will exist long after they are dead, and which have the power to continue breaking laws and violating peoples' rights?

[Angrboda]

Focusing on people's foibles is more fun.