Mubarak Will Hold Onto Power By Megan McArdle
Or so he says. As my Egyptian correspondent initially predicted, he's telling his government to resign--as yasminhamidi tweeted, "Mubarak: To prove I am not a dictator, I will personally name a new government!"
Now we see if the population will tolerate it. I won't venture an opinion, as I simply don't know. But if I were an Egyptian, I certainly wouldn't stand for it.
Please tell us, Ms. McArdle, just what would you do if the leader of your government, elected through extremely questionable means, enacted policies that were killing people? Would you take to the streets with the protesters as you are implying here? Or would you tell your readers that it would be a giggle if the police/military picked up a 2x4 and start bashing them in the heads? Preemptively, that is.
No! McArdle says! She would give up her establishment job and paycheck that places her far, far above the desperate rabble and take to the streets in protest. She wouldn't tolerate such disrespect for a moment! She would risk life and limb to fight the power elite and bring them down!
The same woman who complained that there ought to be more police to protect her while she goes bar slumming expects us to believe that she would be brave enough and unselfish enough to join the powerless and fight for greater economic equality for the masses. The Right must constantly stroke their own egos to compensate for their selfishness, bloodlust and greed, must constantly praise and reward each other to reinforce their counter-factual, ahistorical view of the world, and must see themselves as action movie heroes while they are dodging our wars. It's repulsive and laughable, but it's the only way they can live with themselves. And it is why they want all liberals to shut up and go away; so nobody will break the protective Fox/MegaChurch/Suburban Hellhole Bubble of perfect mutual accord. Every single thing they see, hear, or read must reinforce that bubble or it will pop.
They will not give up until liberals are utterly marginalize, reviled, and discredited--and even then they will continue to fight them out of habit.
9 comments:
Megan McArdle was discussing yet another subject she knows nothing about
What, another day that ends with a y? Again?
She would give up her establishment job
Of course she wouldn't. If she were an Egyptian, she'd be simultaneously shitting her pants and working against any meaningful change.
The obvious parallel with 1989 has one problem to it: in 1989, everyone knew the regime couldn't last and the Soviet Union was too broke and weak to support the Communists by the usual means, not to mention the fact that Gorbachev wasn't willing to. In addition to that, the change the revolutionaries in Eastern Europe hoped to bring about could only be a possitive one, not only for the common people, but also for the global elites. In Egypt, however, there are too many unknowns. What if, God forbid, true democracy were to emerge in Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood would gain some power? The Likudniks and their conservative acolytes wouldn't stand for that.
Also, who is her Egyptian correspondent? Some actual Egyptian currently in Egypt? Or some some suit in a think tank office somewhere in DC?
Bubul - from what I'll guess, her "correspondent" is just someone she's following on Twitter. By that measure, I'm "corresponding" with a very impressive group of people, some of them dead.
This is hardly the first time we've seen Megan advocate for others to fight where she will bravely venture to...type. Sure, you'd stand up, Megs. You'd be outside the despot's gates making sure you and yours in the status quo weren't robbed of their comfort by the rabble making petty demands, like not being brutalized by the police. The truth is, Megan wouldn't stand up for shit that didn't threaten her material comfort. Even then, she'd probably flee before she risked a fight.
Every day the protests show people acting with courage, self-sacrifice, and kindness, and it's impossible not to admire them. Whatever gets unleashed against them, at the moment they are leading this change into unknown places, and that is a very powerful place to be. That's why they, and not the gathering of fine diners in Davos, are the story everyone is watching. The Egyptian people are the coolest kids on the planet. Even Megan gets this much, and we already know she would walk over corpses to get in amongst the right sort of people, wherever and whatever they are. Plus she has some experience of what it's like to be a refugee, and I'm sure she'll avail herself of other similar learning opportunities.
They will not give up until liberals are utterly marginalize, reviled, and discredited--and even then they will continue to fight them out of habit.
Not just out of habit. Out of political need. How else to scare the electorate into continually voting against their own interests, if not by threatening them with liberal/"socialist" boogey-men?
Kia's right about the Egyptians, but I don't think Our Megs would find it "necessary" to do her bit to bring down tyranny on the street. She'd Tweet about it to her fans and go to bed, "exhausted," at the end of an exciting revolutionary day.
Imagine Davos mattered right now?
I see her out on the streets protesting the coercive power of the state to regulate bank mergers EVERY DAY.
Megan:
"Boy, that eeevil dictator Mubarak is lucky all the international air carriers suspended flights into the country! I was just about to get on an EgyptAir flight and show those miscreants a thing or two about democracy. Power to the People!!! (Umm... the flights are still cancelled, right?)
Well, to be fair, Megan said she wouldn't stand for it, and she's sticking to that. She's sitting still and exercizing her social conscience by proclaiming with certainty what she would be sure to do under circumstances she's never faced, and more than likely never will. Think of her as the lazier, female variety of all the firearms fanboys who, after horrific mass shootings, confidently proclaim that if only THEY were there, they personally would have tackled the gunman after pulling their 78 trillion caliber handgun from their shoe and saving the day. Truth is, like Megan, it's far, far more likely they would have cowered in fear and caved to their instincts of self-preservation. True heroes are rare for a reason.
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