Yeah, Graham definitely makes the mistake of thinking it's happening more on the left than the right. That's probably because relative to where he sits, the left has changed, whereas the right has not. The truth is that they have become more similar. Over the course of my life, the US right has always been guilty of purity tests and the hypocrisy that comes with it. It's relatively new for the left. The left used to be a place where progressivism was understood the compass, but irreverence for cultural mores kept people honest and sufferable.
Both the left and the right have abandoned their economic and geopolitical underpinnings due to the expense of running for office. The end result is that the left is made up of rich people who represent wealthy young white people while the right is made up of rich people who represent wealthy old white people. The left must throw sops to poor non-white people in order to be elected while the right must throw sops to poor white people in order to be elected. The thing that turns my stomach is people like Paul Graham think they're suffering under a system created and perpetuated exclusively for his benefit.
I suspect that he's on the spectrum. He has a very consistent Data-like blindspot in his modeling of other people. It's like he sees everyone as Paul Graham.The thing that turns my stomach is people like Paul Graham think they're suffering under a system created and perpetuated exclusively for his benefit.
Or maybe he just lacks empathy. CEOs and entrepreneurs are four times as likely to be psychopaths as the general population. (n=203)