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<blockquote data-quote="Thebrownblob" data-source="post: 6055002" data-attributes="member: 60485">I didn’t write this, but this explains Chris Hedges very well. “The main thing to understand about someone like Hedges, a professional pessimist, is that there’s no change one could make to the world that would result in any altering of his point of view. That’s because what he’s selling is a perception of life as meaningless and negative, no matter what the era, culture, or locale, with himself firmly in place as the hero intellectual, keeper of the flame of truth.Like conspiracy theorists, there is a market for people who take comfort in the knowledge that others are just as unhappy and disgruntled as they are. And just like conspiracy theorists, the skill of the pessimist is to have enough ammunition at his disposal that the evidence seems overwhelming — so overwhelming it should be obvious even to the most simpleton of doubters, reluctant to board the train — yet never really pausing to examine anything with any depth or actual clarity. It’s as if you explain to the conspiracy theorist why a shadow on the moon looks a certain way and therefore is not fake but they have already moved on to some other perceived inconsistency. It is the sheer volume of the complaints which is meant to make everything an irrefutably closed case.At its roots this is a bit of a parlor trick. Distract with an effusion of details and you create the illusion of a coherent argument.”</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Thebrownblob, post: 6055002, member: 60485"] I didn’t write this, but this explains Chris Hedges very well. “The main thing to understand about someone like Hedges, a professional pessimist, is that there’s no change one could make to the world that would result in any altering of his point of view. That’s because what he’s selling is a perception of life as meaningless and negative, no matter what the era, culture, or locale, with himself firmly in place as the hero intellectual, keeper of the flame of truth. Like conspiracy theorists, there is a market for people who take comfort in the knowledge that others are just as unhappy and disgruntled as they are. And just like conspiracy theorists, the skill of the pessimist is to have enough ammunition at his disposal that the evidence seems overwhelming — so overwhelming it should be obvious even to the most simpleton of doubters, reluctant to board the train — yet never really pausing to examine anything with any depth or actual clarity. It’s as if you explain to the conspiracy theorist why a shadow on the moon looks a certain way and therefore is not fake but they have already moved on to some other perceived inconsistency. It is the sheer volume of the complaints which is meant to make everything an irrefutably closed case. At its roots this is a bit of a parlor trick. Distract with an effusion of details and you create the illusion of a coherent argument.” [/QUOTE]

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