Oct 15, 2026 · 20 min · 8 segments
The American spirit is real, and it achieves things. Pretending not to understand this doesn’t make it false. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get…
For example, and I'm going to butcher this name, but this is a post by Aaron Reichlin Melnick.
And he's responding to a Twitter user who's become quite popular on the right named Wanya.
And Wanya had this post a week or so ago that went viral and for kind of a bad reason.
So he said, you don't study for the spelling bee, in quotes, is a deep and important aspect of American culture.
I was at a baseball game discussing some young players with a buddy one time, and he said to me offhandedly, Americans have this sort of sense that there's something a little off about working really hard to get good at something that you're not naturally good at.
You're never really going to be on the same level as the guy who has a natural talent.
We have room in our hearts for scrappy little guys who work hard, but we are by default suspicious of grinders and strivers.
If you were really meant to do it, then you'd be naturally good at it.
You sign your kids up for Little League, but you don't take it too seriously unless they show remarkable early talent.
Yes, this sounds sort of ridiculous if you take it too literally.
No, nobody's saying that there's any kind of practical test for this or that anybody should be excluded because we found out they secretly studied too hard.
And if you can't understand it, then that just marks you out as foreign to that culture to an even greater degree.
What America did this guy grow up in? It sure wasn't the one I did.
And that was a common response for the pile-on that Wanya experienced.
Noah Smith said, if we find a group of brown people who meet our definition of merit, we will redefine merit, in scare quotes.
And a user called i slash o said, the amount of rightoid cope on Indian immigration is breathtaking.
The latest mantra, Americans appreciate genius, not hard work, is a whole new level of revisionist copium.
The success of Indian immigrants is breaking the brains of formerly pro-meritocracy right-wingers.
For example, and I'm going to butcher this name, but this is a post by Aaron Reichlin Melnick.
And he's responding to a Twitter user who's become quite popular on the right named Wanya.
And Wanya had this post a week or so ago that went viral and for kind of a bad reason.
So he said, you don't study for the spelling bee, in quotes, is a deep and important aspect of American culture.
I was at a baseball game discussing some young players with a buddy one time, and he said to me offhandedly, Americans have this sort of sense that there's something a little off about working really hard to get good at something that you're not naturally good at.
You're never really going to be on the same level as the guy who has a natural talent.
We have room in our hearts for scrappy little guys who work hard, but we are by default suspicious of grinders and strivers.
If you were really meant to do it, then you'd be naturally good at it.
You sign your kids up for Little League, but you don't take it too seriously unless they show remarkable early talent.
Yes, this sounds sort of ridiculous if you take it too literally.
No, nobody's saying that there's any kind of practical test for this or that anybody should be excluded because we found out they secretly studied too hard.
And if you can't understand it, then that just marks you out as foreign to that culture to an even greater degree.
What America did this guy grow up in? It sure wasn't the one I did.
And that was a common response for the pile-on that Wanya experienced.
Noah Smith said, if we find a group of brown people who meet our definition of merit, we will redefine merit, in scare quotes.
And a user called i slash o said, the amount of rightoid cope on Indian immigration is breathtaking.
The latest mantra, Americans appreciate genius, not hard work, is a whole new level of revisionist copium.
The success of Indian immigrants is breaking the brains of formerly pro-meritocracy right-wingers.
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