ZoWie wrote: ↑Mon Aug 15, 2022 12:31 am
Yes, he was. He was from around here, went to a hoity-toidy prep school in Brentwood and like a lot of people started out as a newleftie before being seduced by the dark side. There's yet another argument for a four-quadrant model. Honestly, it's much better for explaining how seeming leftists can become fascists. Makes more sense when there's also a Y axis.
I find political transitions very interesting.
Breitbart was never much of a leftie, honestly, and it seems like he became a solid conservative during and after college. He had an epiphany, he says, during the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings in 1991. One of the things that I find fascinating is it's that same moment David Brock, who runs Media Matters, switched from conservative to liberal. Human beings: same inputs/events, different outputs/transitions. This is why they are so interesting to study.
As for Ariana Huffington, same deal, different transition: she was a notable Republican and of course her ex-husband ran for Congress as a staunch Republican. Ariana's first website, BTW, was Resignation.com, where she called for the resignation of Bill Clinton.
I'm not sure how much of a liberal/leftie she ever was; when she ran for governor of CA in 2003, it was as an independent. She certainly was a Republican up until 1998 or so.
I don't believe in essentialism. Not gender essentialism, nor political essentialism. By that I mean, there is a certain interesting claim these days that people are born conservative or liberal. It's somehow rooted in our genetics, or neurological wiring. I don't think so. There is so much contrary evidence. I again do find it fascinating that humans can react to the same events (like the Anita Hill/Thomas hearings) and react differently.
Looking over Breitbart's bio, I find he says he didn't really find anything in college interesting until he came across Camille Paglia's work. All I can say is I tried reading her. It is a lot of turgid crap. I too am very interesting in ancient art and iconography, even just on how it expresses gender & sexuality, but come on, Andrew, there are
so many better books on that topic.