Shorter Megan McArdle: People are risking my life by ignoring the traffic laws that I, a libertarian, don't believe in, except when they benefit me.
Shorter Commenters: We, as libertarians, are annoyed by Americans' "outsized sense of personal liberty."
One commenter is consistant--"Probably the best thing you can do is make yourself up in a fashion that nobody wants to hit you [with their car]."
And if you don't want factories to pump pollutants in the air, make yourself up so nobody wants to poison you.
As a mcardleologist, Susan, what's your take on her use of so many britishisms?
ReplyDelete(all the 'quites' and 'oh dears' and 'queueing ups' etc.)
rapido,
ReplyDeleteDid you ever read her blog back when she used to actually write in full Queen's English? I kid you not - "favour," "programme," "centre," etc. She claimed she had to write that way for the Economist, so when she did it on her own private blog, she couldn't help it. Apparently, it's too much for her to keep track of the different spellings of 20 or so words.
I think it's silly and pretentious to pretend to be British.
ReplyDeleteIt's also ignorant - operating on the assumption that all British people are like the ones you see on TV and Monty Python - smart and witty and intelligent. I've lived in the UK and they've got their share of dummies as well. But it is also incredibly pretentious, thinking it will make you come off as sophisticated rather than just an idiot.
ReplyDeleteAnd the fact that she doesn't realize that it makes her look so stupid, pretentious and transparently affected is just more evidence of her complete lack of self-awareness.
ReplyDelete