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E. Lewis's avatar

In Gladwell’s defense, Douglas Murray is extremely hate-able. (Why isn’t hateable a word? It should be. For another time…) I DARE you to disagree.

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Daniel Oppenheimer's avatar

Oh I totally agree. So smug.

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Daniel Oppenheimer's avatar

Off-brand Christopher Hitchens

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E. Lewis's avatar

Christopher Hitchens without the humor or the humanity.

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NY Expat's avatar

But his voice is on-brand classic Disney villain! Absurdly sublime.

And frankly, he was always about 3/4 heel turn from the jump, so while it was fun to watch him and Taibbi just dance around Gladwell’s absurd description of Walter Cronkite as an avatar of ‘50s journalism, I treat Murray as one step away from VDARE.

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Daniel Oppenheimer's avatar

That's totally true about his voice!

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NY Expat's avatar

“Are there [other “assholes”] out there working the scene right now?”

Who exactly does Jesse Singal have to bake misshapen pizzas for around here to get the recognition he deserves?

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Daniel Oppenheimer's avatar

Ha! Yeah I think he qualifies, though maybe is more tormented about playing that role than Taibbi or Greenwald?

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NY Expat's avatar

True. I guess what’s important in my interpretation of the role is that the speaker back up their assertions with facts, and “when the facts change [they] change their minds”

That’s Singal to a tee, more than anyone else I can think of.

If it’s just DGAF, you could lump in NHJ and Michael Hobbes (I think?) with Taibbi and Greenwald (potentially the Reality Show that melts the media’s brain)

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Trey Bengtson's avatar

Ok, that Revisionist History episode that was mentioned was kind of wild. It's been 4 months since then, and he clearly still feels some sort of way about it. It's like he never even considered that Murray/Taibbi might win going into it, and he's still shell shocked that they did.

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Daniel Oppenheimer's avatar

Yeah I was a bit confused by that too. But Gladwell’s psychology has always seemed a bit weird to me. Some real blind spots for such a smart, talented person.

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