I'm shocked that you consider Dominic Cummings - Dominic Cummings! - to be a "zealot" and "nuts". He is one of the smart person in the middle who understands economics and reads academic papers. In my view, he is the single most intelligent and well informed person actively involved in British politics (which is not to say I agree with him on everything). And I know there are many other people on the centre-right, and some on the centre-left, who respect him - which can't be said about Bannon or Farage. He's been fiercely critical of Liz Truss (who he predicted would be a worse PM than Boris), Boris Johnson (he's said that he was aware of Boris's faults when he agreed to work for him, but that the consequences of Jeremy Corbyn as PM would have been worse), Nigel Farage (who he refused to work with during the Brexit referendum) and Donald Trump (warning last year that moderate Republicans needed to get their act together and agree on a candidate for 2024, because of the danger that Trump might run again).
What is it about Dominic Cummings that makes you think he's nuts?
He sounds like a nutcase when you read his blog. And I disagree he has a deep understanding of anything much. He’s got no PhD. Anyone can stan economists. He DOES have some interesting ideas, and he might have been a good reformer. But now he just reads like a permanently angry man. He’s also vastly overconfident about his own judgments.
I read his blog, and I don't think he sounds like a nutcase. His judgements of the character flaws of Liz Truss and Boris Johnson turned out to be perfectly correct. I think a lot of the ideas he pushes are good ideas that I don't see many other people in the British political scene focusing on - for example, more investment in R&D, more investment in STEM education.
I don't respect people's opinions or judgement more if they have a PhD. Kwasi Kwarteng has a PhD in economic history but that didn't translate into knowing the difference between good and bad economic policies.
I agree that he comes across as being permanently angry and overconfident in his own judgements. However, regarding him being permanently angry - I would agree with him that there are a lot of things to be angry about in British (and American) political culture. And I personally find his Twitter and Substack are less angry and negative than those of most other political commentators - a lot of it is pointing to positive developments and other things he thinks people should be aware of. And regarding his arrogance I don't believe that Cummings is any more overconfident than the average MP/think-tanker/opinion columnist. My local MP is just as sure that she is Always Right as Cummings is.
When you say he "sounds like a nutcase when you read his blog", is that based on specific things that he's written, or on the general style/tone/vibe of his writing? Because I do see that his style of writing is a little odd.
I will also say that my respect for Cummings is less than it once was - after being sacked by Boris there was definitely an "angry ex-girlfriend" vibe going on there :-) And I think becoming active on Twitter reduced his IQ by 10-20 points, as it seems to do with everyone. But I still don't think it's fair to lump him in with Bannon and Farage.
I'm shocked that you consider Dominic Cummings - Dominic Cummings! - to be a "zealot" and "nuts". He is one of the smart person in the middle who understands economics and reads academic papers. In my view, he is the single most intelligent and well informed person actively involved in British politics (which is not to say I agree with him on everything). And I know there are many other people on the centre-right, and some on the centre-left, who respect him - which can't be said about Bannon or Farage. He's been fiercely critical of Liz Truss (who he predicted would be a worse PM than Boris), Boris Johnson (he's said that he was aware of Boris's faults when he agreed to work for him, but that the consequences of Jeremy Corbyn as PM would have been worse), Nigel Farage (who he refused to work with during the Brexit referendum) and Donald Trump (warning last year that moderate Republicans needed to get their act together and agree on a candidate for 2024, because of the danger that Trump might run again).
What is it about Dominic Cummings that makes you think he's nuts?
He sounds like a nutcase when you read his blog. And I disagree he has a deep understanding of anything much. He’s got no PhD. Anyone can stan economists. He DOES have some interesting ideas, and he might have been a good reformer. But now he just reads like a permanently angry man. He’s also vastly overconfident about his own judgments.
I read his blog, and I don't think he sounds like a nutcase. His judgements of the character flaws of Liz Truss and Boris Johnson turned out to be perfectly correct. I think a lot of the ideas he pushes are good ideas that I don't see many other people in the British political scene focusing on - for example, more investment in R&D, more investment in STEM education.
I don't respect people's opinions or judgement more if they have a PhD. Kwasi Kwarteng has a PhD in economic history but that didn't translate into knowing the difference between good and bad economic policies.
I agree that he comes across as being permanently angry and overconfident in his own judgements. However, regarding him being permanently angry - I would agree with him that there are a lot of things to be angry about in British (and American) political culture. And I personally find his Twitter and Substack are less angry and negative than those of most other political commentators - a lot of it is pointing to positive developments and other things he thinks people should be aware of. And regarding his arrogance I don't believe that Cummings is any more overconfident than the average MP/think-tanker/opinion columnist. My local MP is just as sure that she is Always Right as Cummings is.
When you say he "sounds like a nutcase when you read his blog", is that based on specific things that he's written, or on the general style/tone/vibe of his writing? Because I do see that his style of writing is a little odd.
I will also say that my respect for Cummings is less than it once was - after being sacked by Boris there was definitely an "angry ex-girlfriend" vibe going on there :-) And I think becoming active on Twitter reduced his IQ by 10-20 points, as it seems to do with everyone. But I still don't think it's fair to lump him in with Bannon and Farage.
Twitter: yup. Right, all those 3 are quite different - but all raised by the shenanigans of the last decade.