Atlas Shrugged: The Mocking

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Megan speaks.

Given that I do have the luxury of finding delicious vegan food and
non-leather shoes, I believe I have an obligation to do so. If that should
change, I will go back to eating and wearing animal products without moral
regret--though with a fair amount of digestive distress.

Too bad nobody eats the poor. Then maybe she'd feel a moral obligation to care about them too.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

She feels obliged to not consume animal products but will not feel any moral regret if she changes her mind. WTF?

You know, beyond her stupid politics, shallow insights, 2nd-rate analysis, and psychotic need to come off like some sophisticated, high cultured journo-snob, when it comes down to it, what bugs me the most is that she just writes like crap.

Susan of Texas said...

I guess morality is a matter of convenience. If you get paid to cheer on war, it's a matter of necessity, not a moral choice.

Or something.

Anonymous said...

To be fair, when she was cheering on the war and urging people to attack war protesters with 2 x 4s, she wasn't getting paid for it. There's some solace in that.

I'm not even sure how sincere she is about the "I was wrong about Iraq" stuff, though. I think that weird compulsion she has to seek approval from absolutely everyone leads her to inconsistently flip-flop quite a bit. She wants kudos from the libruls for being vegan, adoration from the neocons for being anti-government, and congratulations from everyone else for being an oh-so-hip, cutting edge libertarian. It's practically mean, how much her meltdowns in reaction to criticism kind of amuse me. You can't tell me her insipid grad student post wasn't a swipe at Kathy G, no matter what she says.

Susan of Texas said...

Heh, there's that anger she says she doesn't have.

I agree with your assessment. I think it's okay to laugh in response to frustration and disgust, it's better than anger. Megan communicates with the public for a living. Her blog has comments, to the Atlantic's credit. If the public communicates back, it's more than fair and about time. The media has grown arrogant and insular and needs to be reminded of who really signs the paycheck, the consumer who buys the corporations' products.

Heh, an economics blog writer should understand that.

Anonymous said...

Now she's over there telling everyone that people who point out that maybe they're not interested in her mentioning her morally superior veganism multiple times a day are only doing so because of their insecurities about being inferior to her and other vegans. She is really full of it.

Susan of Texas said...

That the mere fact of mentioning that we do not eat animal products is seen as the equivalent of delivering a fist-pounding sermon is taken by vegans as a sign of the accuser's moral discomfort with their own choices, not an indictiment of our daring to speak the V-word.

That's hysterical.

Anonymous said...

Hey, come on now, she threw us a tantalizing idea there - she says:

a) She has the luxury of being vegan, and

b) If that should change - i.e., if she should get fired due to public demand and be forced to rummage through garbage cans looking for cans to lick - then she will have no further obligation to continue with it. And her tummy would hurt! I mean, jeez, what more do you want from her?!

I'm just glad she allowed for the possibility of her complete lack of talent landing her in such an unenviable position!

Anonymous said...

And the arrogance of purporting to speak for all vegans! Look at Nutella from FMM. He mentioned he was a vegan once, just to make the point that not all vegans need to make sure everyone in the room knows they don't eat animal products. Most do it for personal ethical and moral reasons, not to forge their public identity.

Susan of Texas said...

If Megan's planning ahead for her eventual firing, good for her. It doesn't do to wait until the last minute and have to compete with everyone else. I think she could take out Douthat will a quick head feint and tackle, but Yglesias is young and nimble and might be more difficult.

Maybe she can find a nice health food store to work at. Or write for a vegetarian magazine. They won't mind any lectures there.

Kathleen said...

Hey, Megan is just saying she only has an obligation to act morally as long as it doesn't inconvenience her.

That seems completely in tune with her world view.

Susan of Texas said...

I'm still trying to process her gun posts. Wait until she finds out businessess won't let customers pack heat, even if it does match one's accessorites.

Anonymous said...

Susan,
Was it just me, or was her "omg, like I totally want a gun that's cute and that I can match with my belt and purse" remark one of the dumbest things she's ever written? Since when are concealed weapons supposed to be a decoration?

Susan of Texas said...

I couldn't pass that up, and responded to her. It's not very nice of her to keep up this rate of posts. You barely have time to marvel at her immaturity about guns when she starts talking about the death penalty.

Megan has very little experience of the world, I think. She doesn't even think about most of the practical aspects of any issue, it's just libertarian theory and self-interest.

Anonymous said...

It looks like she's responed back in a full post about it - one of the most condescending I've ever read of hers. And that's saying a lot.

Susan of Texas said...

The money quote: "Think of it this way: most people who choose to wear high heels are women. That doesn't mean that if I threw out my Manolos, I would turn into a man."

Anonymous said...

Hilarious! That's the sentence that really stood out for me, too. How much do you want to bet that she patted herself on the back for how clever and smart that was? It's a stupidly shallow analogy and totally condescending, as if it were some sort of profound observation that she needed to point out for the sake of our inferior intellects. And it's got the added Meganity of the "I wear Manolos! I'm so upper class and sophisticated!" boast. The essence of McArdlism in two sentences.

zeppo said...

I'm amazed that you folks actually take the time to READ the crap the Megan writes. I mean, life is WAY too short and precious to waste on the inane, insane or profane.

Now, if you will excuse me, I really have to go, um... wax the oven. And then, I need to find a toothpick so I can pick out all the little rocks stuck in the soles of my sneakers.

zeppo said...

I'm amazed that you folks actually take the time to READ the crap the Megan writes. I mean, life is WAY too short and precious to waste on the inane, insane or profane.

Now, if you will excuse me, I really have to go, um... wax the oven. And then, I need to find a toothpick so I can pick out all the little rocks stuck in the soles of my sneakers.

Anonymous said...

zeppo,
To be honest, it's a bit like watching a train wreck in slow motion for me; a morbid fascination that a person who is that vapid, self-absorbed, shallow and talentless actually has a job at a once-great publication like The Atlantic. It's horrifying, especially when you put it in the context of the history that Susan's cited here.