Mike Israetel isn't some crank - he generally provides good information on his main channel. But that PhD thesis is unquestionably awful, and his attempt to cover it up made me lose a lot of trust in him. If he had just admitted that it was bad, he would be a lot better off, I think.
Solomon Nelson made a second video, on Jeff Nippard, and I find that video to be a disdainful work of clout-chasing. I dislike people who can only tear things down and cannot build.
Not to straightforwardly defend Dr. Mike, but as someone who is into both fitness and science I think you would be pretty surprised at how many people would dispute his "findings".
That includes other fitness "experts" AND literal medical doctors I have personally be treated by.
This falls in the category "what he said in his thesis seems so obvious it's worthy of mocking...but apparently the obvious information has eluded some people who should absolutely know better."
On the other hand, the current state of knowledge, as I understand it, is that it's a bit more nuanced than "big muscle make strong" and "strong = jump good". Sure, not shocking things that blunt don't capture then entirety of truth on a subject. But the fact that there are degrees of how true those things are do kinda point toward viability as a focus of study.
To be clear, the nuance noted in the prior paragraph does not absolve the people mentioned in the first two; they are simply wrong.
Anyway, not disputing his PhD might be crap and have inexcusable levels of errors and nonsense. Just adding that your framing flattens some of the complexity and ignores that what seems like it would be obvious sadly isn't.
I really think a lot of people are missing the point of what Vance is doing, which is simply that the right does not need to abide by the rules of the left anymore, they don't have to cancel people because pearls are being clutched. The behavior being defended almost isn't relevant, he's trying to wrench the ability to control what is and isn't acceptable away from his political opposition.
I hate to sound like and IQ essentialist but one thing about Online Right is like… a clear evidence of some education polarization esp in terms of verbal capability…
Like what they say is like noe even at mechaHitler level vocabulary but pre LLM bot level one - like they literally just repeat templates like “I love hitler” or “send them to gas chambers” as opposed to galaxy brain takes from too online left - at least there’s some effort and capability of constructing some logic even if that is super absurd.
(And like “I love Hitler” is literally just repeating the phrase like a broken record - like “if they vote no, send them to gas chambers” is like really horrendous but at least kinda makes sense but “I love Hitler” is like really out of blue…)
An old hypothesis - it used to be euphemistically called the 'wonk gap', where Republicans would bemoan why they never seemed to have as many smart policy people as Democrats. That goes back to like, the 90s
It's gotten worse over time, with the GOP being labelled the 'party of stupid' under bush. And with MAGA, the remaining smart people have left and the dumbest people in the party have total control.
I thought this was post maga stuff but didn’t realize it started much earlier
And as a millennial Japanese who grew up with 2 chan, I feel really bad for exporting the tool of radicalization for those deranged ppl in 4 chan and anime board…
Mike Israetel isn't some crank - he generally provides good information on his main channel. But that PhD thesis is unquestionably awful, and his attempt to cover it up made me lose a lot of trust in him. If he had just admitted that it was bad, he would be a lot better off, I think.
Solomon Nelson made a second video, on Jeff Nippard, and I find that video to be a disdainful work of clout-chasing. I dislike people who can only tear things down and cannot build.
The Jay Jones texts aren’t so great either.
Not to straightforwardly defend Dr. Mike, but as someone who is into both fitness and science I think you would be pretty surprised at how many people would dispute his "findings".
That includes other fitness "experts" AND literal medical doctors I have personally be treated by.
This falls in the category "what he said in his thesis seems so obvious it's worthy of mocking...but apparently the obvious information has eluded some people who should absolutely know better."
On the other hand, the current state of knowledge, as I understand it, is that it's a bit more nuanced than "big muscle make strong" and "strong = jump good". Sure, not shocking things that blunt don't capture then entirety of truth on a subject. But the fact that there are degrees of how true those things are do kinda point toward viability as a focus of study.
To be clear, the nuance noted in the prior paragraph does not absolve the people mentioned in the first two; they are simply wrong.
Anyway, not disputing his PhD might be crap and have inexcusable levels of errors and nonsense. Just adding that your framing flattens some of the complexity and ignores that what seems like it would be obvious sadly isn't.
I really think a lot of people are missing the point of what Vance is doing, which is simply that the right does not need to abide by the rules of the left anymore, they don't have to cancel people because pearls are being clutched. The behavior being defended almost isn't relevant, he's trying to wrench the ability to control what is and isn't acceptable away from his political opposition.
It comes across as power for power's sake and a veneer of independence and thought, I get that it is targeted for feels though.
Not exactly, it's more "you no longer have this power over us" than an assertion of power over others.
It's very scoreboard considering the source.
I hate to sound like and IQ essentialist but one thing about Online Right is like… a clear evidence of some education polarization esp in terms of verbal capability…
Like what they say is like noe even at mechaHitler level vocabulary but pre LLM bot level one - like they literally just repeat templates like “I love hitler” or “send them to gas chambers” as opposed to galaxy brain takes from too online left - at least there’s some effort and capability of constructing some logic even if that is super absurd.
(And like “I love Hitler” is literally just repeating the phrase like a broken record - like “if they vote no, send them to gas chambers” is like really horrendous but at least kinda makes sense but “I love Hitler” is like really out of blue…)
An old hypothesis - it used to be euphemistically called the 'wonk gap', where Republicans would bemoan why they never seemed to have as many smart policy people as Democrats. That goes back to like, the 90s
It's gotten worse over time, with the GOP being labelled the 'party of stupid' under bush. And with MAGA, the remaining smart people have left and the dumbest people in the party have total control.
Yeah…
I thought this was post maga stuff but didn’t realize it started much earlier
And as a millennial Japanese who grew up with 2 chan, I feel really bad for exporting the tool of radicalization for those deranged ppl in 4 chan and anime board…