Thursday, July 29, 2021

Examples of (mostly) objective thinkers

 If you read this blog regularly you know that I like to keep track of people who try to think objectively. Those who do are hard to pigeonhole into the usual categories such as liberal or conservative, global warmer or warming skeptic, true news or fake news, and so on. Some of the people on the list below, such as Tucker Carlson and Bill Maher, clearly fall into one category or another. Carlson is a conservative while Maher is liberal. However, both of them sometimes take unexpected positions on some subjects. Carlson has taken on the Republican establishment at times while Maher has strongly criticized Islam and the COVID shutdowns. Given my libertarian leanings I agree with Carlson more than I do with Maher. Nonetheless I follow Maher partly because he reveals the direction the left is taking but mostly because he occasionally breaks ranks with his colleagues (and takes heat for it).

In the climate change debate Judith Curry has expressed concerns over those who claim global warming is man-made. While she says we do have some affect Curry believes the true story is more complicated. Same with Bjorn Lomborg and Michael Shellenberger, both of whom believe we affect the climate but think the people who try to scare us into drastic action on global warming grossly simplify the true story.

Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi are on the left, yet Greenwald fears the push to control free speech by some on his side of the fence. Taibbi, who hated Trump, feels the objectivity of the news media vaporized in the heat of their hatred for Trump.


Below I’ve picked my favorites out of the 900+ people and organizations I follow on Twitter and put my absolute favorites in bold. If I ranked them in order of priority it would be Scott Adams, Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald, Jordan Peterson and Jonathan Turley. 


  

Category

Name

Twitter Handle

Climate Change

Bjorn Lomborg

@BjornLomborg

Climate Change

Judith Curry

@curryja

Climate Change

Michael Shellenberger

@ShellenbergerMD

COVID

Alex Berenson

@AlexBerenson

COVID

Ethical Skeptic

@EthicalSkeptic

COVID

Gummi Bear

@gummibear737

Critical Thinking

Peter Boghossian

@peterboghossian

Free speech

Glenn Greenwald

@ggreenwald

General

Andreas Backhaus

@AndreasShrugged

General

Critical Thinking 101

@critical18495985

General

Greg Lukianoff

@glukianoff

General

Hotep Jesus

@HotepJesus

General

Jonathan Haidt

@JonHaidt

General

Jonathan Turley

@JonathanTurley

General

Jordan Peterson

@jordanbpeterson

General

Megan McArdle

@asymmetricinfo

General

Mike Cernovich

@Cernovich

General

Scott Adams

@ScottAdamsSays

General

Steve Hilton

@SteveHiltonx

General

Steve Pinker

@sapinker

General

Bari Weiss

@bariweiss

News Bias

AllSides

@AllAidesNew

News Bias

Ground News

@Ground_app

News Bias

Just The News

@JustTheNews

News Bias

Left Right News

@leftrightnewsus

News Bias

Sharyl Attkisson

@SharylAttkisson

News/Politics

Martin Gurri

@mgurri

News/Politics

Matt Taibbi

@mtaibbi

Personal Development

Naval

@naval

Politics

Alan Dershowitz

@AlanDersh

Politics

Bill Maher

@billmaher

Politics

Dave Rubin

@RubinReport

Politics

Greg Gutfeld

@greggutfeld

Politics

Tucker Carlson

@TuckerCarlson

Race

John McWhorter

@JohnHMcWhorter

Reporting

Andy Ngo

@MrAndyNgo

Reporting

Jack Posobiec

@JackPosobiec

Reporting

Lara Logan

@laralogan

 


2 comments:

David M. Brown said...

I don't see how Bill Maher gets on the list. The fact that he periodically objects to the worst wackiness on the left is fine, but that still leaves all his own wackiness and dishonesty.

Henry Scuoteguazza said...

I disagree with most things Maher says. I agree with his criticisms of the woke left, pandemic panic, etc. He has moments of lucidity. After thinking about this a bit more I'd add him as a footnote to the list for someone to keep an eye on rather than as an example of an objective thinker.