iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Replies

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

There are some people whom the media has decided are "leading intellectuals", regardless of the views of their academic colleagues. Invariably they are people who justify - or at the very least do not challenge - economic power. Steven Pinker is a stand-out example. www.monbiot.com/2018/03/09/c...

monbiot.com

Contrary to Reason

Steven Pinker claims to champion Enlightenment values. But his latest book is an affront to them

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one @que.one · 07/10/2025

Hi George, did Pinker ever respond to your environmental points in Enlightenment Now? I think the book’s main theme is the importance of consilience. Maybe it’s naive, but when partially like-minded thinkers disagree, shouldn’t we focus on refining knowledge rather than drifting further apart?

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Nigel @nigeldalek.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

The unenlightened enlightenment scholar. Steve not George.

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Un-American @bennevis.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Noam Chomsky's response to a question about Steven Pinker and Jordan Peterson was "We get the public intellectuals we deserve"

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Something Chronic @somethingchronic.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

So enlightened! bsky.app/profile/noel...

@noeldoyle.bsky.social@noeldoyle.bsky.social

Pinker and his mates bitching about how the left ruined everything for them.

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Ozma @rowyourbot.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Though he raises interesting ‘big questions‘ he approaches most answers to these as an ideologue for every possible hierarchical structure. He’s not very imaginative and thinks of human beings in a highly simplistic way. This distorts a lot of what he does and makes it dull as well.

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amontin.bsky.social @amontin.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

"Enlightenment Now" looks more like some kind of sick joke with every passing day. Even at the time, almost every aspect of it was been thoroughly critiqued. In addition to Monbiot's essay, see the following: newint.org/features/201...

newint.org

Progress and its discontents

The world has never been better. From global poverty to inequality between nations, all the indicators are showing progress. This is a comforting narrative – popularized by the likes of Bill Gates and...

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anlomedad @anlomedad.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Ha. A year later, that Pinker person's myths re inequality and poverty got sagely debunked by Jason Hickel. It's the only time I came across the name. And now your 2018 blog post on his –likely deliberately– distorted views on ecol. overshoot. Strawmen, cherries, and lies to justify BAU for the 1% 💩

jasonhickel.org

A letter to Steven Pinker (and Bill Gates, for that matter) about global poverty — Jason Hickel

*Note: the discussion of historical poverty trends here is updated and developed more fully in the recent article, “ Capitalism and extreme poverty ”, published in World Development . Dear Steven...

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Keira Havens @highcountryrose.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Here's his 30 history of mainstreaming race "science" Box of Rocks #3 — Never Change: medium.com/@Keira_Haven...

medium.com

Box of Rocks #3 — Never Change

One of the most exhausting things about biological essentialism is that it is profoundly boring — a core of true believers regurgitate…

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Lee Morgueing @leemorgan.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

its not technically censorship if the spotlight is only on a certain viewpoint cause free marketplace of ideas is definitely totally a thing

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Maryjka @maryjka.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Too often, intelligence is confused with intellect. Now CEOs, Bankers, Economists rule forgetting that Economy is not even stand alone Science! Not that there are no intellectual minds among them, like Krugman or Stiglitz, but most are just numbers crunchers focused on making money on anything!

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Overshot the Carrying Capacity @overshot.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

bsky.app/profile/over...

Overshot the Carrying Capacity@overshot.bsky.social

Things are better than you think !

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r @recombobulating.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

his attitude is a direct product of Enlightenment white men declaring themselves objectively neutral observers and ignoring anything that contradicts the bullshit they come out with I was taught that 'we' had moved on from that when I studied physics but it turns out a lot of people didn't

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Mathijs Romans @mathijsromans.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

I remember when I read The Better Angels Of Our Nature that it could have been a good book, if it wouldn't have hammered home the point so much.

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Iain @iainmac57.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Please read the article.

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Sameer Padania @sdp.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Have you seen this upcoming OECD series of talks on ‘public understanding of public finances’, in which he is the last speaker? www.oecd.org/en/about/pro...

oecd.org

Empowering Public Understanding of Public Finances

Good policies alone are not enough — governments also need public understanding to support and implement them effectively. To build support for budget reforms, this means helping people grasp the chal...

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Donut Economics Stan @anewgoal.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

thank you for re-upping mention of Doughnut Economics in that article

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azurevista.bsky.social @azurevista.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

They're courtiers of Empire. Grooms of the stool. I used to believe that these people were more intelligent or better educated until I noticed that they were incapable of predicting events that I did in some cases two decades in advance. I don't think I'm that intelligent. bsky.app/profile/azur...

@azurevista.bsky.social@azurevista.bsky.social

The role of an intellectual is to diagnose the symptoms & predict the consequences for their nation of its illness. I'm not an academic like these 'experts' from Harvard, Yale etc. So how the f*ck am I able to predict better than them?? What exactly is their role?! bsky.app/profile/azur...

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David Robson @davidotley.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

There is an increasingly common method of attack by those of the ‘intellectual’ right (Glasman, Syed, Goodwin, Peterson er al) - ie invent your opponent’s position and then attack said position. Men of straw gotta straw man.

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Tomato Harvest @cucumber1000.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Their most striking talent, I’ve found, often lies in the subtle art of making their readers (or more often viewers/listeners) feel important

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Minnesotan Kaiju @whisperingpines.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

I know the subject of animal behavior cuz I took that course in college. I saw Steven pinker's syllabus and it is a steaming pile of shit. Gone is any mention of foraging theory, migration, raising of young, no instead it's everything that can be used to justify sexism and inequality in humans

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Glenn Ashton 314ppm 🇿🇦☮️🍉 @ekogaia.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Dissemblers. Loved and embraced by MSM.

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donnasamoyloff.bsky.social @donnasamoyloff.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Pundits! Worse than talking heads.

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Geoff Hammond @geoffhammond.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Imposter syndrome gets the wrong people.

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Old man Griffin @oldhuman2.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Pinker has always been a eurocentric eugenics apologist for right wing views. I remember reading his stuff over a decade ago maybe more, and how he slid in such views cloaked in academic BS.

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richard baxter @synapse-fingers.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

If I was yoda on the council looking at the young Pinker, I'd be frowning and shaking my head, would I.

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Magic Money Tree @magicmoneytree.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

@pinkerite.com - in case you've not seen

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Alain @ajac73.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Life isn’t getting better. We’re getting more stuff but less friends. We’re getting on demand tv but less depth. We’re getting bigger cars but lose more public transport? We’re getting supermarkets filled to the brim but it’s more crap.

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𝗔𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘄 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀 @andrewstones.com · 07/10/2025

How many of the 1980/90s class of Clever White Guys had their profiles and sense of importance inflated via John Brockman’s Edge Foundation? (It now seems that "Edge" soirées and other manifestations were bankrolled by one J. Epstein and… no-one much else.)

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@raystonian @stonia2.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

There's a similar problem with "think tanks"

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Dr Alan Nixon @alangnixon.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

💯 He is certainly not the only one.

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