The title of this publish would possibly strike some readers as being odd, on condition that I maintain quite a lot of contrarian views—most notably the declare that the Fed brought on the 2008 recession with a decent cash coverage.
Once I say don’t be a contrarian, I imply don’t be somebody whose total id is contrarianism. Don’t be an individual who notices, “The elites say X, subsequently I want to go looking out proof that ‘not X’ is true.” Guess what, it’s nearly all the time attainable to search out at the least some proof that not X is true; that doesn’t make it smart to carry the view that not X is true.
As a substitute, I’d recommend that one of the best ways to answer the declare that X is true is to search for all kinds of proof about X, each supportive and opposed. Generally, you’ll uncover that the elites are right; X actually is true. The moon touchdown was not faked. Oswald did kill JFK.
So by all means you need to be keen to carry contrarian views. However don’t be a contrarian. Don’t undertake contrarianism as an id in the best way that an individual is likely to be a Cubs fan or a Yankee fan, rooting for his or her workforce.
This publish was motivated by an Axios article that contained this tweet:
Think about a pundit begins their profession by making a daring contrarian declare, and achieves a sure diploma of fame. Maybe their preliminary daring declare really seems to be true. Over time, the pundit could start to see him or herself as a contrarian, and really feel stress from their viewers to provide more and more contrarian takes. It’s at that time when the important thing mistake will get made, when an individual strikes from being somebody that holds a specific contrarian view to somebody whose inventory and commerce is contrarianism.
And this doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Different pundits could also be pursuing the identical common profession path. Within the competitors for readers, pundits are pressured to provide increasingly more edgy takes, to face out from the group. This competitors can solely finish in a single place, dipping one’s toes into essentially the most taboo political beliefs of all. Simply as all political debates finally make the Nazi comparability, descents into contrarianism finally gentle peddle Nazi crimes.
(Or, if the contrarian pundit is on the left, they find yourself excusing communist crimes.)
