Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander
“Some recent political discussion has focused on ‘the institutions’ or ‘the priesthoods.’ I’m part of one of these (the medical establishment), so here’s an inside look on what these are and what they do. … The priesthoods don’t exactly hate the public. But they hate the idea of letting the public’s ideas mix with their own. It’s not just that they discount the public’s ideas insofar as the public is less sophisticated than themselves. Their whole identity comes from their separation from the public. Ideas that seem too similar to the public’s get actively penalized, the same way it would be hard to convince Democrats to accept a plan that Donald Trump proposed first, even if it otherwise fit with Democratic ideals.” (01/08/25)