It's finally happened: We have reached peak Megan McArdle. Her posts are now so choc-a-block with inaccuracy, lies, misunderstandings, and ignorance that it takes far too long to find, research and correct them. McArdle wins.
Take her Greek posts. They are based on her misinterpretation of what others say, wingnut conventional wisdom, biased sources, and sometimes gross error. Not only do you have to correct McArdle, to do the job properly you also have to correct all her sources. Before you know it you have spent two hours reading source material (which is more than McArdle does) and still have more errors to correct. She has achieved the wingnut brass ring: she is so wrong so often in so much volume that she can get away with saying almost anything.
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14 comments:
Only a full Nelson Muntz can stop a Gish Gallop.
Or a Biden - http://www.nationalmemo.com/how-joe-biden-broke-the-gish-gallop/
The one on why US is not like greece is particularly illuminating:
Her argument goes something like this:
1. US is not like Greece
2. Because Greece has many problems
3. Greece has the following 5 problems
4. Greece's problem 6 is borrowing to solve 1-5 above
5. US only has Problem 4. (borrowing to solve 1-5, which it actually doesn't have)
6. Therefore, US is not like Greece.
I am McConfused. Hear me whimper.
You think you're safe because she posts so seldom but every time I try I have to give up after an hour or so and get back to work.
I left a comment; it's quicker. I don't like to play in snake dens but the heart wants what it wants.
That is, I left a comment in her latest post.
Susan: You left a comment on Megan's latest post! How is it that Megan has not dropped the ban hammer on you? I would have thought that she has blocked you in every venue .
She probably thinks there is no reason to do so; I am not a threat to her money and her followers don't listen to criticism.
I think it's odd that nobody responded to that comment. Usually the commenters rush to defend and attack.
On the other hand, her antics were embarrassing. Her misrepresentation of others' work undermines the commenters' image of themselves as part of an elite group. But McArdle would have to be able to put herself in someone else's place to realize that.
Susan--can you point us to your comment? I tried scrolling down through the comments, but it was too depressing.
Emily
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-07-07/helicopter-parents-and-the-kids-who-just-can-t#comment-2122266987
The comment:
susanoftexas • 19 hours ago
"The middle-class parents' desperate grasp for more or continued privilege is harmful to their kids and to all the other kids."
According to the census bureau, median household income for the middle class is $51, 017. How does this family crowd out the lower class?
Ms. McArdle is also misrepresenting the article by Hofschneider. She discusses corporations' embrace of closer relationships between young employees and their parents.
The Lythcott-Haims article discusses coddling but authoritarian parenting is the main focus; the high-achieving kids are pushed to achieve to satisfy the parents' ego.
"The mental health crisis is not a Yale (or Stanford or Harvard) problem; these poor mental health outcomes are occurring in kids everywhere. The increase in mental health problems among college students may reflect the lengths to which we push kids toward academic achievement, but since they are happening to kids who end up at hundreds of schools in every tier, they appear to stem not from what it takes to get into the most elite schools but from some facet of American childhood itself."
It's authoritarianism, not just protection. It is difficult to understand why Ms. McArdle ignored "kids everywhere" and "in every tier."
How to win at blogging by not really trying.
FTFY
Two things:
First, You're not the only one who fact checks McAardle. You're just the best at it.
Second, last year The Atlantic published a list of 2014's worst article's. I can't actually find it anymore on Google though!
Not surprisingly, McArdle's advice for little kids to run at a gunman instead of trying to hide made the list easily. However, The Atlantic neglected to mention that McAardle at previously been there Economics and Finance Editor.
I don't know under what circumstances she left The Atlantic, but they seem to be attempting to right a wrong, in their own way.
Heh, thanks. Yes, others do as well. It's difficult; you really have to follow her work closely for a long time to show how she pulls off her scam. It takes too much time and energy.
I don't know either; this is what I know: She wrote a post defending the Koch's Heartland Institute. At the end she put disclosure that was a lie. She changed it a couple of times after I went into her comments and pointed out that she was lying. Not long after Exile's SHAME article came out. It said that her ties to the Koches were even bigger than I had related. Shortly after that she went on book leave and never came back, saying that she had been hired by Newsweek/The Daily Beast.
I think that my posts had no effect on her firing, although I think the Exile read my work.
If she was indeed fired, that is.
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