Today’s links Incomplete vs. overshoot: The horseshoe theory is really, really wrong. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023 Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading Incomplete vs. overshoot (permalink) You know the “horseshoe theory,” right? “The far-left and the far-right, rather than being at opposite and opposing ends of a linear continuum of the political spectrum, closely resemble each other, analogous to the way that the opposite ends of a horseshoe are close together”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory It’s a theory that only makes sense if you don’t know much about the right and the left and what each side wants out of politics. Take women’s suffrage. The early suffragists (“suffragettes” in the UK) were mostly interested in votes for affluent, white women – not women as a body. Today’s left criticizes the suffrage movement on the basis that they didn’t go far enough: https://www.npr.org/2011/03/25/134849480/the-root-how-racism-tainted-womens-suffrage Contrast that with Christian Dominionists – the cranks who think that embryos are people (though presumably not for the purpose of calculating a state’s electoral college vote? Though it would be cool if presidential elections turned on which side of a state line a fertility clinic’s chest-freezer rested on): https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/how-alabama-ivf-ruling-was-influenced-christian-nationalism-on-the-media?tab=summary These people are part of a far-right coalition that wants to abolish votes for women. As billionaire far-right bagman Peter Thiel wrote that he thought it was a mistake to let women vote at all: https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian/ Superficially, there’s some horseshoe theory action going on here. The…Pluralistic: Incomplete vs. overshoot (26 Feb 2024)