The Hanson-Moldbug Debate
23rd January 2010
Mencius Moldbug is at it again.
Professor Hanson is not, of course, a retard, and of course I never suggested that he was. Quite the contrary – he is an American social scientist of the 20th century. This phenomenon, in which non-retards express retarded ideas, is no novelty in that time and place.
The basic problem is that the robber-barons of Silicon Valley, unlike their Victorian forebears, do not realize that, if they want all this science, they will actually have to pay for it – themselves. Instead, they look at their tax forms and think: I gave at the office. But they didn’t. They gave to scientocracy. Now, they need to figure out how to patronize science – or there will be no science. Just scientific Bondo, sanded to perfection and painted with meticulous care.