Comments on: Criticizing Capitalism

By: ogmb

ogmb — Thu, 12 May 2005 19:47:43 +0000

You have to scroll all the way down on his page, so the crow-eating clearly doesn't come easy to him, but Brad updated his original post.

By: moni

moni — Thu, 12 May 2005 13:05:00 +0000

3rd par. should be amended to: “For the record, I don’t think anyone should lose their job based exclusively on even the ugliest rhetoric and misrepresentation of other people’s work.”

It’s up to his employers to take that decision, obviously. Maybe his work is so brilliant it makes up for this kind of crap, I don’t know. I’m talking of wider reactions, not direct impositions or decisions that no one else except his university can take.

By: moni

moni — Thu, 12 May 2005 13:00:54 +0000

And if you want to get professors thrown
out of academia just for being stubborn idiots,
then who would be left ?

No of course, freedom of speech uber alles, especially for those who defend the things that need defending, like, uhm, the poor venture capitalists who must have no doubt felt so humiliated by GG’s ‘totalitarian danger’.

If DeLong had slandered a business company, he’d be having his ass sued all the way to Berkeley. But a German writer is fair game.

For the record, I don’t think anyone should lose their job based on even the ugliest rhetoric and misrepresentation of other people’s work. However, my question, even if a naive one, was just about the disparity of reactions to this kind of rhetoric, depending on who makes use of it and whose side they’re on.

You know, I could have said, the sky is blue and the sea is green, it’s that obvious, no?

By: Richard Cownie

Richard Cownie — Thu, 12 May 2005 12:08:28 +0000

I disagree strongly with both the content and tone
of Brad’s posts. And I will strongly defend his
right to say it. If he wants to make an idiot of
himself in the blogosphere, that is his absolute
right. And if you want to get professors thrown
out of academia just for being stubborn idiots,
then who would be left ?

At this point, it’s just sad.

By: moni

moni — Thu, 12 May 2005 11:15:17 +0000

Right, my bad, I forgot about John Lott already… Nevermind my naive question then.

By: MFB

MFB — Thu, 12 May 2005 09:55:17 +0000

I don’t think he should be made to resign his position—after all, competence and human decency are hardly requirements for being an economics professor these days.

But I do think that liberal weblogs should update their list of links.

By: Keith M Ellis

Keith M Ellis — Thu, 12 May 2005 08:13:50 +0000

Oh, give me a freakin’ break.

By: moni

moni — Thu, 12 May 2005 08:06:28 +0000

I don’t know, nolo, but I have a feeling that if this had happened in Germany, rather than in America, it’d be on the news and politicians would condemn it and other professors would take distance and maybe the university would think about whether they want to keep employing a professor prone to juvenile outbursts and grossly dishonest and ignorant misreadings for the sake of polemics. I have a feeling German professors throw around the nazi epithet less lightly, for obvious reasons that they may know their history a bit better than Prof. De Long here. I may be wrong, but that’s my impression.

Maybe you’re right, and there’s a lot more out there among US academics that is exactly along these veins, and it always gets a free pass, but that’s not much of an excuse, is it?

I’m not saying he should be made to resign, you know, just wondering why the reaction is limited to a weblog discussion.

By: JR

JR — Thu, 12 May 2005 06:45:48 +0000

Brad’s 2nd post, which adopts a tone of sweet reason intended to disarm readers while resolutely ignoring all comments to his 1st post (and all comments here), is a masterpiece of bad faith.

By: Barry Freed

Barry Freed — Thu, 12 May 2005 04:32:38 +0000

Has Brad’s second and latest post on Grass been noted. Hey Brad, stop digging, you know. And apologize.

By: ogmb

ogmb — Thu, 12 May 2005 04:21:26 +0000

“stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in you goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered.”

I could see Grass respond like that to DeLong.

By: junius ponds

junius ponds — Thu, 12 May 2005 03:14:50 +0000

Come to think of it, the last time I heard “Crypto-Nazi” used was in the context of the Vidal/Buckley dust-up during the ‘68 Democratic convention:

http://www.pitt.edu/~kloman/debates.html

By: ogmb

ogmb — Thu, 12 May 2005 01:01:09 +0000

Bullshit.

By: nolo commentre

nolo commentre — Wed, 11 May 2005 23:46:34 +0000

“I’m still fighting with myself over this, whether to pass it on to the chancellor’s office or the Daily Cal.”

It’s not as if Delong’s post in this instance is atypical; it may be a little more hard core than usual, but Delong’s MO is the thoughtful observation married to the indignant, perhaps over-the-top outburst. The only thing different in this instance is the leftist politics and writerly attractiveness of his chosen target.

You could send the chancellor’s office or the Daily Cal hundreds of identically “offensive” posts.

By: ogmb

ogmb — Wed, 11 May 2005 19:07:35 +0000

So, where are the calls for Prof. DeLong to resign? Or does that happen only to those professors who use the nazi epithet for their own fellow Americans?

I’m still fighting with myself over this, whether to pass it on to the chancellor’s office or the Daily Cal. Given that most of the comments here and on his blog came from people who have/previously had a high opinion of Brad I would expect the campus community to be far less charitable in their reaction.