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In reply to the discussion: Obama taps "cognitive infiltrator" Cass Sunstein for Committee to create "trust" in NSA [View all]DirkGently
(12,151 posts)He's a weird kind of "lefty." Prolific and all over the map in some ways. Animal rights good, government-sanctioned marriage bad. In favor of tweaking First Amendment law to eschew the "marketplace of ideas" to tailor it guide mostly just political speech.
There's an overall theme of a right of the (self-selected) intellectual elite to dictate, by whatever means necessary, to the "irrational" intellectual proles.
It's a mirror of the attitude of economic elites who believe that by dint of their wealth, they should be the decision makers for everyone. Sunstein appears convinced he and others like him have a similar entitlement to rule everyone, based presumed superior thinking. Presumed by them, of course.
For example, Sunstein is in favor of government "guiding" people's decision-making processes, to ensure the "right" results. For people's own good. He espouses something he calls "libertarian paternalism," wherein coercion is okay, provided it has an asymmetrical impact on "irrational" behavior. For example, people need "nudging" to invest more in their 401(k)s. (Gee, thanks -- those 401ks are working out so well for everyone, Cass).
He's going to help people learn to help themselves.
I see where he gets from there to secret infiltratration by government agents into public discussion to attempt to discredit "conspiracy theories." It's okay to lie, he suggests, if you're doing it to undermine other things you believe to be more destructive lies.
The immediate problem, of course, is that "conspiracy theory" is really a completely subjective perjorative term applicable to anything deemed destructively wrong-headed. By him, or by government, which he also incidentally thinks should be guided by the President's specific desires, and not particular bound by, say, the law or the federal courts.
The fact that such infiltration is dishonest and in bad faith in terms of people misrepresenting their actual motives is all okay, apparently for people smugly assured their view is the only correct one. A convenient conceit with something like, say, government intrusion into privacy. Why engage with the "little people" as to their objections, when you can simply manipulate the public discourse? After all, government KNOWS its policies are correct.
Again, a sort of leftward facing mirror of Bush / Cheney. Same elitist entitlement to power; slightly different justification. Of course, they all go to the same schools and play squash at the same clubs. Sunstein is an accomplished squash player.
Bottom line: He's a shitty intellectual with a God complex. F*ck this guy.