His book also proceeds from the unquestioned assumption that people working on things like high-speed rail and affordable housing want it to come to fruition, much as you suspect that his critics do not want them to come to fruition. The alternative possibility that maybe needs a glance is that the projects' strongest backers have no intention of bringing those projects to pass, but rather desire to funnel the funds needed for the bureaucratic steps to their cronies. This is sometimes cited in criticism of California's high-speed rail: people working on the studies and processes necessary for bureaucracy are being paid, although the actual train will not be built. Maybe the train (or the Seattle parking spaces) are not actually what some part of the powers behind the project want, because they want really their friends to get paid for the bureaucratic work on the project.
Not if your job is part of the bureaucracy, then you want to keep the bureaucracy running for as long as possible to keep your job for as long as possible.
It also gives you a sense of importance: nothing can get built without my full permission and approval and recognition.
Which leftist circles? The one US leftist circle I'm in (a random discord) was calling him "based" last week for writing an NYT article about the generational difference in attitudes towards Zionism within Jewish families, and seems to mostly hate NIMBYs and be bored by committees.
Examples might make this a lot less inflammatory by ensuring it's targeted at the people who deserve it.
The reality is that a LOT of people have been radicalized by political dogmas that preach purity and sainthood. Every political is either the epitome of perfection of a literal baby-eating satanist. Every policy is either so vital that judicial and political norms must be brushed aside to advance it, or so vile that judicial and political norms must be ignored in order to block it.
I don’t at all think it’s limited to “the left”. It’s the zeitgeist and it sucks.
Yep, in the states our politics and most of our churches have become become so dogmatic/confusing/schizophrenic (In the sense that they don't seem to know what truth means anymore.) and divisive, most don't know who to trust. That really sucks.
That is because you seem to have you view of reality be ultraprocessed for you. Stop letting (others misuse) a tiny minority represent a large proportion of the population.
I'm not acting as if every single conservative hates the federal government and would like to crucify gays either.
I feel that there's a strain of extreme neuroticism in certain leftist activist groups that would rather keep the problem in place (and themselves relevant in fretting about it) than take care of the problem and move on. The COVID emergency comes to mind: Biden kept the federal government in an emergency posture until mid-2023, which was a year after Democratic governors ended emergencies in their states, and two whole years after widespread availability of vaccines.
That's because many of these so-called 'leftists' have centred their entire identity around activism and agitation and as such realise that actually achieving their purported goals would rob them of their targets. You can compare them to the pharma industry which is far more interested in finding treatments for conditions than they are in finding cures for those conditions since the latter would cut off the market for the former.
Have you spoken to these people? My social circle has a number of pretty far left folks and while I don’t agree with many of their views, I have not once observed this desire to avoid their own goals that you propose.
His book also proceeds from the unquestioned assumption that people working on things like high-speed rail and affordable housing want it to come to fruition, much as you suspect that his critics do not want them to come to fruition. The alternative possibility that maybe needs a glance is that the projects' strongest backers have no intention of bringing those projects to pass, but rather desire to funnel the funds needed for the bureaucratic steps to their cronies. This is sometimes cited in criticism of California's high-speed rail: people working on the studies and processes necessary for bureaucracy are being paid, although the actual train will not be built. Maybe the train (or the Seattle parking spaces) are not actually what some part of the powers behind the project want, because they want really their friends to get paid for the bureaucratic work on the project.
I'm not following this take.
In either case, wouldn't everyone (except these corrupt powers) prefer for less bureaucracy hampering the project?
Unless I'm misunderstanding you, a breakdown of this "unquestioned assumption" makes Ezra's argument stronger, not weaker.
Not if your job is part of the bureaucracy, then you want to keep the bureaucracy running for as long as possible to keep your job for as long as possible.
It also gives you a sense of importance: nothing can get built without my full permission and approval and recognition.
Which leftist circles? The one US leftist circle I'm in (a random discord) was calling him "based" last week for writing an NYT article about the generational difference in attitudes towards Zionism within Jewish families, and seems to mostly hate NIMBYs and be bored by committees.
Examples might make this a lot less inflammatory by ensuring it's targeted at the people who deserve it.
Somewhat true, but needlessly partisan.
The reality is that a LOT of people have been radicalized by political dogmas that preach purity and sainthood. Every political is either the epitome of perfection of a literal baby-eating satanist. Every policy is either so vital that judicial and political norms must be brushed aside to advance it, or so vile that judicial and political norms must be ignored in order to block it.
I don’t at all think it’s limited to “the left”. It’s the zeitgeist and it sucks.
Yep, in the states our politics and most of our churches have become become so dogmatic/confusing/schizophrenic (In the sense that they don't seem to know what truth means anymore.) and divisive, most don't know who to trust. That really sucks.
“Many on the left would choose” <preposterous thing>.
This is Hacker News, not Fox News or a Bret Stephens column. Let’s keep the unquantifiable unsubstantiated outrage rhetoric off of here.
> I can't wrap my head around this.
That is because you seem to have you view of reality be ultraprocessed for you. Stop letting (others misuse) a tiny minority represent a large proportion of the population.
I'm not acting as if every single conservative hates the federal government and would like to crucify gays either.
I feel that there's a strain of extreme neuroticism in certain leftist activist groups that would rather keep the problem in place (and themselves relevant in fretting about it) than take care of the problem and move on. The COVID emergency comes to mind: Biden kept the federal government in an emergency posture until mid-2023, which was a year after Democratic governors ended emergencies in their states, and two whole years after widespread availability of vaccines.
That's because many of these so-called 'leftists' have centred their entire identity around activism and agitation and as such realise that actually achieving their purported goals would rob them of their targets. You can compare them to the pharma industry which is far more interested in finding treatments for conditions than they are in finding cures for those conditions since the latter would cut off the market for the former.
Have you spoken to these people? My social circle has a number of pretty far left folks and while I don’t agree with many of their views, I have not once observed this desire to avoid their own goals that you propose.
I don't think you know many leftists, to be frank.