Atlas Shrugged: The Mocking

Thursday, September 20, 2012

The Naked Truth

Be still my heart!

Project S.H.A.M.E.: Megan McArdle, a Covert Republican Party Activist Trained by the Billionaire Koch Brothers

We are delighted to post the latest offering of Project S.H.A.M.E., a media transparency initiative led by Yasha Levine and Mark Ames.

Read more at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/09/project-s-h-a-m-e-on-megan-mcardle-portrait-of-a-taxpayer-subsidized-libertarian.html#RCLp1a516A77cXko.99
Go, read! Then read it again!

21 comments:

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Seems a few people there in the comments don't understand the Full McArdle.
~

Susan of Texas said...

Her flying monkeys are on the wing! Good luck to them; the milk-fed veal will find it harder to get away with their stupidity there.

atat said...

Yeah, every other comment is a concern troll of the "I admire the work this site does, but this post is terribly uncivil" variety. That and the "both sides lie, everyone is partisan" variety.

Both Sides Do It said...

To be fair, the post kind of invites that "this seems uncivil" reading

They don't make it clear that McArdle is in the position of "objective analyst" who is making "sound judgements" by using "math" and "knowledge" and is treated that way by other members of the media.

If you didn't know anything about McArdle before reading that piece, you'd probably think she was just another product of conservative think tanks that managed to jump ship and that everyone treats her as such, instead of someone who is expected to make sound, independent and reasoned judgments that contribute to the public discourse.

And if you think that, the multiple instances of "she was involved at some or another Koch function" start to seem redundant and obsessive, instead of the documentary record building a picture of a person who's systematically biased in ways she denies and which other media outlets don't disclose.

That's kind of my problem with the S.H.A.M.E. thing in general so far. They've done a good job highlighting the odiousness of the people they've presented, but I don't really think that does much.

People understand conflicts of interest, they understand bias. If you point out someone afflicted by those things they can say "yeah he shouldn't do that."

But the problem is I don't think people get that the system itself is predicated on those things. They don't get the function of McArdle is to launder bog-standard corporate propaganda into an "objective" seeming viewpoint. That NPR is just as biased and blind as the Weekly Standard and in the same ways. That reporters and news divisions do just as much editorializing as the guys on the opinion page. And that it's all slanted toward corporate and moneyed interests.

Just pointing out the most egregious sinners isn't to point out the ecosystem that thrives on their existence. In some ways doing that obscures it, because the more you focus on the bad apples the less attention is paid to the poisoned trees. (How's that for a stretched metaphor?)

Susan of Texas said...

It takes all kinds of push-back to fight the right; some are like Ames, some like Yves, some like me. We all have our strengths and weaknesses.

Susan of Texas said...

(I'm having internet problems and never know when it will work so sorry about the brevity!)

Anonymous said...

I had to come here as soon as I saw that piece. She really wrote an article called "The Virtue of Riches: How Wealth Makes Us More Moral“?

It reminds me of that line from THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD. "An intellectual carrot? The mind boggles."

-- Bettencourt

atat said...

In rereading the quotes, I was struck again by her Friedmanesque conversation with the fellow bus passenger. To restate the obvious, there is absolutely no way that conversation ever actually took place anywhere outside the confines of McArdle's thick skull.

It reads like an outtake from Driving Miss Daisy. The day Miss Daisy is forced to take the bus.

Dan Coyle said...

The naked capitalism link finds the oddest thing I've ever seen: a picture of McArdle where she actually looks cleaned up and somewhat attractive.

brad said...

Meh. Her appearance has nothing to do with anything, Dan.

And I agree with the general idea that as well intentioned as it may be, the SHAME project verges into Michael Moore playing to the choir type stuff. Which, as Susan says, isn't without value, it's just not going to, or meant to, convince so much as remind.

Anonymous said...

I don't know. I learned a lot about Malcolm Gladwell that I wasn't aware of.

Susan of Texas said...

I think all 7 billion of us (give or take a few libertarians) should spend a little time mocking the McArdles of the world. It's our duty because repetition is the key to persuasion.

Dan Coyle said...

I learned Macolm Gladwell actually existed, something I wish I could forget. What a tool.

brad said...

I'm proud to say I had found Gladwell to be full of shit long before it was cool.
I forget who it was, but early on in my education I was taught to never buy into "just so" stories, and Gladwell is a fucking champ at those. I'm embarrassed for the New Yorker that they publish him, but he's a "thing" atm.

Also, I can't even bring myself to link, but if anyone hasn't seen it yet, Paul Campos of LG&M was interviewed by McMegan on the law school scam.
Thankfully he's getting the shit he deserves for it in the comments.

Anonymous said...

What a coincidence, she interview Paul Campos for an obesity study too brad!

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/07/americas-moral-panic-over-obesity/22397/

Just like she turns to Derek Lowe any time she needs a pro-business line on Pharma!

Susan of Texas said...

it seems that people become a lawyer to "get a job" instead of practice law, solo practitioners are the same as ambulance chasers, and unless you can work for a Wall Street firm you are just wasting your time. Who knew?

Susan of Texas said...

McMegan is happiest when she is pulling up the ladder after herself, ensuring that nobody else ever has her advantages. Her degrees were her Golden Tickets and she never would have done squat without them.

Susan of Texas said...

Suspicios, bitchy person that I am, I find it strange that all of McMegan's suggestions help increase income inequality.

brad said...

Well, shit, how did i miss that back in the day, anon?
It was his obesity obsession that made me lose respect for Campos in the first place. Fat shaming is wrong, but he's utterly irrational about the subject.

Batocchio said...

It's a great piece. I'm a fan of this project, and Alex Pareene's hack project. (Saves us all some work, collects and collates good material, gets the word out.) But let's not forget the excellent efforts of TBogg, Edroso, Hilzoy, DougJ, Tom Levenson and certainly our hostess here...

McMegan is a classic case of unreflective class attitudes, with heavy doses of rationalization, bullshit, narcissism and spite.

Anonymous said...

We could do without the Malcolm Gladwells, Paul Campos's and Tyler Cowens of the world tbqh.

Sidenote, we could use without the technocratic neoliberal stances on education reform as well, especially when they have never taught. They just feed the McMegans of the world.