The idiot can't imagine that neoliberals would lie, or try to hide their own corruption from themselves. Innocence must have a role to play.

The issue is that WTO accession itself weakened democratizing forces in China, such as labor movement. So it’s not just an unfortunate miscalculation, but a blinkered mistake - and a terrible thesis. https://t.co/ZCcM8m1RZW

— Anton Jäger (@AntonJaegermm) December 1, 2022

It begins here and here.

From https://t.co/y4XiILSOiW

— Anton Jäger (@AntonJaegermm) December 1, 2022

David Singh Grewal replying to my email defends Jesuitical mental reservation. That's my gloss of what he wrote, and I'd love to quote him, but safe to say it's never wise to believe everything you read.

Grewal cites Rodrik, on “Premature Deindustrialization”[pdf]

Rodrik will never come to terms with his own past as a neoliberal defender of "self-discovery" and "comparative advantage"

Rodrik on democracy in Turkey.

The military has long set the ground rules of Turkish politics. Its hard line defending secularism has resulted in frequent clashes with political movements it views as "soft" on Islam, such as the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has governed the country since November 2002. Periodically, the military has intervened, bringing down governments and, on occasion, establishing periods of military rule, most recently from 1980 to 1983. 

 Economist and philosophers: reflection, self-discovery, and self-awareness are for others.

"Have you changed your mind about anything fundamental..."

"For various reasons this is for me a difficult question. One is that I am not terribly interested in the question, and perhaps partly as a result, am often surprised when people point out, with actual quotations, what I wrote on some points in years past."

Rationalists rationalize. Power corrupts. Irony is the glory of slaves. 

Grewal, who told me he taught for Rodrik years ago, ends our exchange admitting I may be right that he's shallow, aestheticizing politics as ideas—see Marfrks quoted on the sidebar of the page, or use google—but telling me I waste my life being angry.

I waste my life in a lot of ways.