Small_a

I'll respond to this apology but I have a lot to say, so here goes. I'm glad that you made this apology Devin but I have some issues that I want to raise. The first is that I don't think you have been honest about what in my book drove you to be cruel in the first place. Just recently, you lashed out at a friend of mine and told them to 'stay in their lane' when it comes to Nietzsche, implying that their education is not adequate to understand Nietzsche. In fact, you said it was ressentiment to deviate from your lane in matters of scholarship. This is the sort of inegalitarian spirit that I see in Nietzsche and that is just one reason why he is so problematic within the left. I think it's good you note that your approach was petty, but we should be clear about what that means. Instead of a critique that gets at the arguments of my book, your approach instead felt as a total attack on me as a scholar, similar to the above example. Why didn't I just stay in my lane? Like it or not, my book was reviewed prior to publication by two very senior Nietzsche scholars, and it received endorsements from very accomplished Marxist and Nietzschean scholars. One of them even said that the book charts a new way of writing about Nietzsche. I was very clear in the book about what my expertise on Nietzsche is, but you attempted to attack me at the level of legitimacy and in doing so you repeated a highly elitist method of attack. What gives you the right to assume this superiority? Have you ever even published anything on Nietzsche outside of your Substack? It seems that you are using your elite academic credentials to abuse people you see as inferior. That strikes me as an indictment not only on you but on the elite educational system in the United States and why it must be abolished. Your approach here has led to immense tension and animus with countless people. It also led you to partner with the podcast Acid Horizon who joined in your attack on me at this mostly ad hominem level. It should be acknowledged that you forged a relationship with AH beginning mostly with your attacks on my work. I'm pleased that you've acknowledged the flaws in that approach and hope others in your philosophical orbit will do likewise and offer an apology. My interpretation of that approach is pretty straight forward. I think that you and your allies started off with the promise of a fuller takedown of me and my influences (Losurdo and Lukács) but you and your team did not produce this fuller takedown and as a result I think you decided to just attack me personally. Not even Ross Wolfe was able to produce a take down of Losurdo. And the HM journal supports his Nietzsche book. There is nowhere else to go here for you all. I think that your entire approach is unacceptable at face value in any situation. But it is especially unacceptable in the climate of higher education that we face today which is so fundamentally unequal and where so many people are excluded from higher education due to their economic class. Your actions show a profound disregard for class realities and as I have argued that approach is very akin to Nietzsche's elitism. We should recognize that this sort of approach to philosophy sets a terrible example to others, especially junior scholars, in how to engage in polemics and debates. I continue to write and offer interviews and talks on Nietzsche, and you likely know that I do not advocate that he be canceled from the left entirely, only that he be read differently and that his politics be acknowledged and put to use in a parasitic way. I reject the left-liberal tendency to cancel culture and no platforming as I believe that the left needs to get out of its class comfort zone. So as such, I am not going to cancel you, I only ask that you recognize that my book got under your skin because on the whole I am right about Nietzsche's politics and you should be more honest about why that bothers you so much.

First, for a quick comparison, here is Wilson's translation next to others. Wilson's tends to be flat and banal - and intentionally so... What do you see? But let's look at some deeper critiques below⬇️