To my surprise, based on a quick search, I have never discussed Gell-Mann amnesia on here. Years ago, Michael Crichton coined this term in relation to his friend, the physicist Murray Gell-Mann. I have found it an immensely useful construct. It is stated as follows:
Screenshot taken from https://www.epsilontheory.com/gell-mann-amnesia/
Where am I going with this?
Well, in the last few years I have found myself reading, listening and (largely) agreeing with a variety of folks who I would characterize as pro-freedom lefties. I am guessing there are many of my readers who find themselves in a similar situation. Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald, Bari Weiss, RFK Jr., and Joe Rogan were all prominent voices against COVID tyranny and fierce advocates of free speech. Unlike your libertarian author, all of these folks firmly consider themselves “of the left”.
These folks have witnessed and given their voices to call out the mendacious, incompetent, deceitful, and anti-freedom works of our government with regards to various COVID policies & censorship (among other topics). However, I can’t help but believe they suffer from a similar type of amnesia as Gell-Mann. In the case of these people, they see clearly all of these failings of government through incompetence, arrogance, and thirst for power but then seem to forget all of these things and would be willing to give the government more power in regards to the environment, the regulatory state, universal healthcare, etc., etc. I’m genuinely confused by this. Why exactly do they think our government will be better on these things than they were on COVID or censorship? To me, they are suffering a form of amnesia. Using the perhaps most well known of these folks and because it kinda rhymes with Gell-Mann, I am going to call this analogous condition Ro-gan Amnesia.
As someone who struggles when confronted with something that seems so contradictory, I’m genuinely interested in understanding or reconciling these beliefs. Happy to hear any readers thoughts.
Ooh, I like this! "Wet streets cause rain". Sums up quite a lot doesn't it?
Many many people think that the authorities are totally wrong on some things but totally right on other things and don't seem to notice it's the same authorities getting it right and wrong!
What is the solution? Personally, I would get rid of "the authorities" - generally it's The Circumlocation Office which slowly and inefficiently runs the world in a corrupt and lazy fashion. We don't need it. When has a modern govenment ever improved anything? The things that needed improving were done decades ago, the things that need an eye kept on them can be monitored lower down the pecking order (local inspectors checking there's no ground chalk in the flour sort of thing). Yes, some sort of police force is needed but for chasing crooks not hassling opinions. Who needs war-mongering corrupt politicians? Or the media outlets that support them.
(ooh - bit of a rant - sorry!)
Ok, I think this happened in many countries:
1. "Masks are not needed".
2. "Masks are needed but we told you they were not because we did not have enough"
Most people believed the 2nd sentence. But the 2nd sentence was coming from the same guy who said the first + in the 2nd sentence itself they are saying that they lied to you.