Eric Weinstein is an intriguing guy.

The Managing Director of Thiel Capital in San Francisco is an inarguably brilliant intellect whose writings range from philosophy, to finance, to a unified theory of physics. He counts himself a member of the intellectual dark web, and while that label became the target of online mockery, Weinstein is objectively a genius without any need for qualification.

He is also a liberal.

Weinstein tweeted in November something that I believe comes eerily close to perfectly defining our current moment: “The great idealism of every age is usually the cover story for its thefts.”

Idealism as a philosophical school traces its roots back to Plato. His work was aspirational in nature and, to generalize for the sake of brevity, focused on unlocking the full potential in every man. Idealism is distinct from utopias, which can never exist on earth, in that idealism can effectuate real, transformative change. We likely would not have ended slavery, passed the Civil Rights Act, landed on the moon or defeated fascism without aspiring to a higher ideal. Such grand movements in society don’t take place without some sort of vision for the way things ought to be.

But idealism, as Weinstein so aptly put it, can also blind us to deeper, more pragmatic truths if the packaging, PR and marketing plans are designed to lie to you.

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