Stumbled across this quote from Dr Sowell. Sadly it’s pretty relevant.
(media.kotakuinaction2.win)
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My big regret with Sowell is only finding out about him around 2018 or 2019. Guy was already in his 80s by that point and he's getting on up in years. Hardly any appearances on shows, and is he even writing anything right now?
Better to have learned about him than not. I just hate that he could go any second, I can't think of any contemporary still-living theorist that matches him. But that could just be the vestiges of the typical American non-leftist quasi-fetishization of any black person who happens to agree with them. Hard to shake off after decades in public education and the university system.
A great mind and a great person, but would he be so well known among the rightist (or, non-left at the least) circles online if he wasn't black? I hope so. I can't say I'm well-read enough on his work and works of other contemporary thinkers to comment on that.*
*Picked up a book of his for my Dad some time back but it's buried with a bunch of other books somewhere atm. I wanted to pick up Black Rednecks and White Liberals but that was out of print at the time. Quite surprising
Black Rednecks and White Liberals is a great book. Also includes a good summary on the global history of slavery. But you are right. Can’t just worship the dude because he is black. Hold him to the same standards as everyone else. I mean look at amazing Lucas. Seemed conservatives then he went full blm. Praised the riots and didn’t think David Dorn killing was a big deal.
Never heard of this guy but pretty wild if true. Just from his channel's front-page he seems like your typical conservative streamer. Would never guess just based on this that he was with BLM. (Like, come on just look at the org's own stated values and mission!)
Not a streamer, but seeing Daryl Davis (the musician who got hundreds of Klan members to leave the Klan) on his recent media circuit was wild. Seemed sensible several years back but then he's on Tim Pool's show a month or two ago and he's all on-board with "reparations", "systemic racism", the whole nine yards.
Yea. Made me sad. But then you have white guys who turn like Hunter Avellone. And there are those like Larry Elder who have been calling out race hustlers for years
He's still writing stuff. His most recent books are one on Discrimination and Disparities and another one on the bankruptcy of the public schooling system. However, these are a good deal shorter than his magna opera of the past.
I had the same sense about him that you did, and I (hope I) don't have this racial nonsense as a non-American.
I will say that there is possibly someone out there who is a greater thinker who is a specialist, for example on Byzantine history between 565 and 632, or the microeconomics of price rounding. But Sowell is without any doubt the greatest generalist out there. I know, I know, damning with faint praise, as generalists tend to be bunk.
On a lark I decided to see if my law school's library happened to have any of his work and to my surprise they did! Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study
Already about 1/4 through (it's only 198p not including the references) and it's pretty illuminating. Had no idea India had been engaging in affirmative action policies much longer than the US.
It'd be interesting seeing Sowell revisit the topic now that the text is 18 years old.