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Commonplace Book:

Ezra Klein

Brief Bio: American journalist, political analyst, columnist and podcaster

Lived: 1984-

For further info: en.wikipedia.org

Quotes:

“My brain felt hungry”

That’s how my brain felt to me, too. Hungry. Needy. Itchy. Once it wanted information. But then it was distraction. And then, with social media, validation. A drumbeat of: You exist. You are seen.

07 Aug 2022 from the essay “I Didn’t Want It to Be True, but the Medium Really Is the Message”

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“The post-materialist turn in global politics”

The cultural backlash theory comes from the political scientists Pippa Norris and Ron Inglehart. Inglehart, who died last year, is famous for tracking the post-materialist turn in global politics. Starting around the 1970s, generations raised in relative affluence began to care less about traditional economic issues and more about questions of personal autonomy and social values. The core fights of politics turned away from the distribution of money to the preservation of the environment and women’s bodily autonomy and marriage equality.

These changes were generational, and they’ve moved steadily from the margins of politics to the center. That’s led to a backlash among those opposed to, or simply disoriented by, the speed at which social mores are shifting, and the rise, in countries all over the world, of a post-materialist right. That’s led to a slew of right-wing parties that care more about culture and identity than tax cuts and deregulation.

12 Nov 2022 from the opinion “Three Theories That Explain This Strange Moment”

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