Atlas Shrugged: The Mocking

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Failing Upwards

Megan McArdle tweets:

I'll be on Kudlow around 7:10 defending letting the Bush tax cuts expire.
3 minutes ago via TweetDeck


Defending the expiration of Bush's tax cuts? But she famously defended keeping the tax cuts since they only amounted to $25/person (wrong), it wasn't legal anyway (wrong), and would force the wealthy to Go Galt (laughable).

It's nice to know, however, that if you are wildly and consistently wrong, you will be rewarded with career-boosting appearances on television.

7 comments:

Downpuppy said...

the extended flipout on the rorty guy was pretty funny.

On the old Evil or Stupid? question she seemed to recognize the difference between a factor & a sole cause, while ignoring that distinction is the key to about half her posts.

2 points on the Evil side.

Anonymous said...

I have a question about all these Galtian threats. Before Reagan slashed the tax rate on the rich and managed to balloon the deficit sky high, it was much higher than it is now, including in the 90-plus-percent range to pay for WWII (we paid for wars, back then). The masters of the universe didn't go Galt. I don't think they even threatened it, since taxes were (rightly) seen as their patriotic duty to a country in need. So -- what merit does the Galt threat have? "Sorry, we're the smartest of the smart & we're picking up our marbles & taking them with us because we're greedy & mean & hateful? So there! Sucks to be you!"

Anonymous said...

It's nice to know, however, that if you are wildly and consistently wrong, you will be rewarded with career-boosting appearances on television.

And that is the encapsulation of our age. I cannot recall a time--either in my lifetime or in history--when incompetence was so regularly and so richly rewarded, and being right about the most important issues tended to be a career-ending move.

Little Miss Markets is the poster child of the Age of Incompetence and Mendacity.

Batocchio said...

Maybe she's playing the role of Faux News Liberal or Straw Woman, there to lose the argument? There's even better money in that than what she's making now.

Also, you might like this one.

Susan of Texas said...

Ha! The dungbeetle thing was great. Although I do think it's important to fight back, whether or not you win. It's also about how you live your life.

It turns out that McArdle didn't want to extend the tax cuts because she wanted to cut SS etc instead. No doubt after the old and poor rotted in their graves for a while, she'd feel free to cut taxes for the rich.

Batocchio said...

I agree completely about fighting back, both as an ethical thing and because it helps us keep our sanity mocking these twits and scoundrels. I like Schwarz' key point, though, which he makes fairly often about "journalists" of this ilk - McArdle's job is to dissemble.

Susan of Texas said...

Yes, exactly. Otherwise her plug would have been pulled a long time ago.