From the Tom Woods Letter:

Auron MacIntyre, who’s been a Tom Woods Show guest several times, makes an excellent point about making our intellectuals into “content creators”: Operation Field Guide:... Ross, Jason Best Price: $4.50 Buy New $6.95 (as of 12:06 UTC - Details)

The right is facing a serious problem about how to handle its intellectuals.

The left has the university, where it can assign smart people good-paying, high-status jobs where they can explore and cultivate ideas.

The right has no similar institutions, so right-wing intellectuals end up in think-tanks or content production.

This creates the “public intellectual” who comes onto the scene with a burst of insight.

Content production is a grind: even if you’re saying intelligent things eventually the need to say something about everything leaves you little time to think deeply about anything.

Academics are also not really equipped to be public figures; they are not built to do battle with a hostile public on a regular basis.

I think this is a lot of what has happened with guys like Jordan Peterson. He should be given the time to reflect on an issue and put out something every few months. Instead, the content churn and social medial battles make it difficult for him to say anything new or interesting.

With no time to reflect on and cultivate new ideas, the public intellectual has less and less to say and more and more demand for saying something.

Not trying to make Peterson a victim here, but the right needs a better plan to cultivate its serious thinkers. Throwing them into the content mill is not a sustainable plan.

This is obviously true. Whatever benefits we may derive from social media, it is deeply unnatural for genuine intellectuals — or any person, for that matter — to feel obligated to have a ready-made opinion on every matter of importance as it occurs.

I myself refuse to do it. There are plenty of issues you will search my social media or email newsletter in vain to find commentary about, simply because I either (1) have nothing particularly unique to say, or (2) I haven’t given the matter the kind of dedicated thought it deserves. Chair Yoga For Seniors... The Star Publications Check Amazon for Pricing.

I can’t imagine trying to make a living as an “influencer,” always trying to stay ahead of the news cycle, as well as other influencers. Sounds like a recipe for a nervous breakdown to me.

Instead of doing that, I get to be a podcaster who interviews interesting people and shares the odd provocative opinion when he feels like it. I’m not in a race with anyone, I don’t have to pretend to know everything about everything, and I can travel when and where I want, without worrying that I should be on Instagram or writing Facebook posts or in general “creating content.”

I’m able to do that because thank goodness I’m not trying to make a living as an influencer.

I watch these poor souls drive themselves mad trying to do it — and they don’t even know how to do it. They build up a huge following on some platform, they get kicked off that platform, and they have spent a total of zero minutes building up a Plan B.

Never pay for a book again: TomsFreeBooks.com

The Best of Tom Woods