Good piece here! I do find this discourse a little frustrating though as people often make it seem like a dichotomy. You don’t have to only do political entertainment or read theory, it could be possibly to do both.
Also while there are surely people who denounce infotainment for being useless compared to theory (wrong imo), there are also infotainers - streamers, youtubers - who are openly hostile to any theory whatsoever. Often in a joking way, but even reading one book a year might help one learn a lot and be able to do better infotainment. Just seems to me like an arbitrary divide.
I agree! I think the two are complementary -- most people have some desire for "serious" reading and a much larger desire for entertainment, and fulfilling the latter doesn't remove the former.
If anything, the latter can help encourage and direct the former. (If people were being entertained by conservative influencers, their "serious" reading would be conservative texts!)
Good piece here! I do find this discourse a little frustrating though as people often make it seem like a dichotomy. You don’t have to only do political entertainment or read theory, it could be possibly to do both.
Also while there are surely people who denounce infotainment for being useless compared to theory (wrong imo), there are also infotainers - streamers, youtubers - who are openly hostile to any theory whatsoever. Often in a joking way, but even reading one book a year might help one learn a lot and be able to do better infotainment. Just seems to me like an arbitrary divide.
I agree! I think the two are complementary -- most people have some desire for "serious" reading and a much larger desire for entertainment, and fulfilling the latter doesn't remove the former.
If anything, the latter can help encourage and direct the former. (If people were being entertained by conservative influencers, their "serious" reading would be conservative texts!)
Do you think that came across in the post? :)