Greatest Intellectual/Writer Alive Today?

[Elok]

I suppose it depends on how one defines "great" and "intellectual," but I'm going to go ahead and say Aung San Suu Kyii. Or Ai Weiwei, or Chen Guangcheng, or somebody else who's actually doing something meaningful. Because puck fundits.

[Aeson]

Me.

[regexcellent]

While much erroneously maligned, the Selfish Gene did much to popularize modern biology.



As for Clarence Thomas Sowell (yes, I'm giving them the Rand Paul Ryan treatment)... I get sick and tired every time a conservative trots one of them out. It has the opposite effect of what is intended; that is, it really illuminates the lack of Blacks on the conservative side. It's made worse when their Blackness, and the apparent impossibility of racism on the conservative side demonstrated by their existence, is mentioned.

Especially when it's presented like this:

Thomas Sowell's stuff is really interesting. Not because he's black, but because what he's written is interesting.

[DaShi]

I suppose it depends on how one defines "great" and "intellectual," but I'm going to go ahead and say Aung San Suu Kyii. Or Ai Weiwei, or Chen Guangcheng, or somebody else who's actually doing something meaningful. Because puck fundits.

Thein Sein.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Wiglaf

[Ben Kenobi]

I get sick and tired every time a conservative trots one of them out. It has the opposite effect of what is intended; that is, it really illuminates the lack of Blacks on the conservative side.

We've yet to see any nominated by the liberals, Albert.

I like Clarence Thomas. I have a copy of his memoirs and I found it interesting reading and useful to me. He's an excellent writer. I have a friend who's a lawyer and he had nothing but high praise for his decisions. We used to pore over them together - his decisions with Scalia's decisions, discussions about each of them, etc.

So that's how I first got to know Clarence Thomas and I believe we see the world much the same way.

[Hauldren Collider]

What do you know about anarcho-syndicalism?

Plenty, although let's pretend I know nothing. I'd love to hear your defense of it.

[SlowwHand]

jon miller!

You really need to learn how to post if you're going to post, especially with a moderator title. The first time, OK. The second, I begin to wonder. By the 3rd, I'm wondering if you're some kind of spastic with no control of your motor functions. Is Groundhog Day your favorite movie? That would explain a lot.
I gave up on reading the thread because of the repetitive redundant Deja Vu posts of yours. JEEZ!

[Dauphin]

Bill Nye would be an American thing, no? I'd never heard of him until I heard about him here a while back.

Bille Nye:

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

How wonderful and refreshing it is to see that nobody has nominated the master of stating the crashingly obvious, Alain de Botton.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

As de Botton himself would put it-

"Some people might nominate me as the greatest Intellectual alive today. Other people might not. Of the people who did nominate me, some would feel happy about doing so. Other people might feel unhappy. Still others might have different feelings about their nomination, or no feelings at all. All of these points are also true about the people who might not nominate me. The end."

[Jon Miller]

jon miller!

You really need to learn how to post if you're going to post, especially with a moderator title. The first time, OK. The second, I begin to wonder. By the 3rd, I'm wondering if you're some kind of spastic with no control of your motor functions. Is Groundhog Day your favorite movie? That would explain a lot.
I gave up on reading the thread because of the repetitive redundant Deja Vu posts of yours. JEEZ!

My internet was acting up, I thought it was funny, and I had already deleted more than my quota of posts for the week.

JM

[Jon Miller]

jon miller!

You really need to learn how to post if you're going to post, especially with a moderator title. The first time, OK. The second, I begin to wonder. By the 3rd, I'm wondering if you're some kind of spastic with no control of your motor functions. Is Groundhog Day your favorite movie? That would explain a lot.
I gave up on reading the thread because of the repetitive redundant Deja Vu posts of yours. JEEZ!

My internet was acting up, I thought it was funny, and I had already deleted more than my quota of posts for the week.

JM

[molly bloom]

What makes Richard Dawkins great? As far as I can tell the biggest thing he has on his resume is engaging in debates about religion, which is sort of like beating cripples at kickboxing.

Then that perfectly demonstrates your ignorance about Dawkins.

He's not only written books about science (from popular and non-popular viewpoints) but presented several series on scientific subjects too, including Charles Darwin.

As well as 'The God Delusion' he's written 'The Selfish Gene' and 'The Blind Watchmaker' and quite a few others. Perhaps you should google him.

I'm going with Amartya Sen for now.

[Dauphin]

There's something about Richard Dawkins I just don't like. I can't put my finger on it though.