A Small Note Of Concern

Because any attention is better than no attention, Megan McArdle twitter-links to a Mark Ames article about the Koches and their, as Ames puts it, "whores."

@asymmetricinfo
Megan McArdle
What I like about Mark Ames is that every piee [sic] contains at least one completely new, easily checkable factual error http://bit.ly/gq93Pt
5 hours ago via TweetDeck Favorite Retweet Reply

Of course when one calls Koch employees who spread Koch propaganda to enrich their masters and themselves and families "whores" one is only speaking metaphorically, hence the quotation marks. We would never wish to malign real whores, who harm only themselves by taking money for sex. Koch "whores" take money to harm other people physically and emotionally, which is far, far worse.

Real whores dress up in revealing clothing, the better to advertise their wares. Koch "whores" dress up in vests and ties or Land's End dresses. Real whores tell their customers exactly what the customers are paying for. Koch "whores" hide what they are selling behind sweet words and veiled threats. Real whores deliver value for money to their customers. Koch "whores" have perfected the art of providing nothing in return for their customers' money.

Sadly, it is the Koch "whores" who are respected, not the real whores. Like the prostitutes in Firefly, this group of "whores" are educated, sophisticated and well protected by the elite. They come from well-to-do, politically connected families and were trained in rhetoric and philosophy, taught all the social graces, and groomed to be the most exclusive club of "whores" on this or any other world.

But no matter how elegantly they live, how much money they spend, how much influence they accrue, they are still just whores. They take money for services that others will not lower themselves to perform. They make a mockery of their religion, they betray their country, and they sit idly by while their work adds to the suffering of an already stressed people.

But there is one sad corner of this lucrative world. As the Koches become better known, the army of no-so-elite bloggers on the right are starting to realize that all that lovely wingnut welfare is not trickling down very far. Only the elite get the six figure salaries, the rest of your Toms, Dicks and Harriets have to raise money from their readers. Jonah Goldberg, thanks to his wealthy, well-connected parents, lives on the West Side and vacations in Europe. Megan McArdle, whose father grew wealthy while he trod the well-worn path between government and corporations, was able to throw a lavish wedding. Glenn Reynolds went to Yale. Even Ann Althouse, while not elite, is able to trade on her status as a law professor to make some extra cash. Most of the bloggers without family connections or wealth or Ivy League educations are left to scramble as best they can, unrewarded for their loyalty and unpaid for their labor. It's one thing to be a pampered courtesan; it's quite another to hang out on the street corner working for small change.

While they are warning us of socialism the lower class bloggers of the right might want to think for a moment about how much free labor they provide to people like the Koches, Roger Ailes, David G. Bradley, and other multi-millionaires and billionaires. The elite's friends and the children of their friends are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars every single year to blog while the elite make a fortune off the unpaid labor of the little people. The little bloggers work hard and spend a lot of time on their blogs. They promote Fox events and spread politicians' talking points and raise money for the elite. The lower classes sacrifice to travel to political rallies and tea party events and pour their energy and passion into electing politicians. And what do they get in return? E-mails telling them they haven't donated enough money, spent enough time, worked hard enough or campaigned smart enough. They just give and give and give and get nothing in return.

It doesn't seem fair, does it?