EZRA KLEIN v MATT YGLESIAS

can Yglesias write an explainer about basketball

just join ILH

Me every time this thread is revived: "I hope this is about Yglesias and not Klein."

klein is ok imo, we could do worse

the boy who was impressed when he saw paul ryan with a pie chart

Policy is what serious people write about: Matthew Yglesias is a serious person; ergo, Yglesias writes about policy.

applies equally to klein, a very serious young man

think he technically qualifies as an invertebrate

Bill Gates saw the coronavirus coming. Here’s his plan to beat it. https://t.co/7qufRnD6xd

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) April 27, 2020

suit jacket and tie with jeans

https://i.imgur.com/NjbIHs6.png

lmao

If we were to have royals in this country, the Gates family would be my choice. They lead by example, not nouveau riche.

— Peter (@AtGreenScreen) April 27, 2020

tech bro

the boy who was impressed when he saw paul ryan with a pie chart

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 27, 2021 9:49 AM (sixteen minutes ago)

I'm not a klein stan or anything but his approach just seems completely apart from yglesias's, for example I can't fathom yglesias having the thought and sensitivity to write this essay on the dignity of work, or have the sort of discussion with chomsky klein just did -- I see a certain humility in him that matty lacks but maybe some of this has to do with klein's like, relative patrician erudition, but there's a difference there, and as I was saying for a NYT columnist we could do a lot worse

yeah i mean thats why hes gallant and works at the new york times and goofus has a newsletter that makes him 5x as much $$$ but ultimately its all schtick which gets exposed with his frequent pointed deference to power

yeah for sure and you can see his deference to corporate power all over that chomsky interview, just saying for the purposes of this thread question he's capable of a little better than matty

low bar lol

Define schtick.

(lol I guess I brought this on, didn't I?)

its thoughtful young man routine, entertainment, a lullaby for npr listeners, which is exposed as such when his first question to bill gates isnt "why is the microsoft word guy running global public health"

doesnt really appeal to me since i happen to despise nice young men, but to each their own

xp But why does it have to be a "routine"? I think Klein genuinely believes in what he does and finds it worthwhile. You may think it's bullshit, which is fine, but it seems strange to call it an act. By your definition, I'm a mark because I buy into it (I'm not an NPR listener, but I am a regular listener of EK's podcast). But I also work for a publication that has interviewed Bill Gates about such things, so maybe that's to be expected.

Never mind, I'm sorry I took the bait.

he might actually genuinely believe everything he does, more likely some consideration of career advancement is also in the mix there, and needless to say he is subject to multitude powerful institutions, but regardless the end product, the public ezra klein if you will, is no more than a consumable

i mean you can call it bait if you want but might be more interesting to try to justify his career long sycophancy

what kind of young men do you like lag∞n

I have work to do, and don't feel like getting riled up, so I'm going to pass. But thanks!

kinda points to the fact that if you want to have a career as an apologist for the awful things done in the name of power you have to be deeply stupid, some would argue that its all careerism and cynicism but i think the job really requires natural ability

― lag∞n, Monday, April 26, 2021 3:57 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

fwiw i do think these people, your david brookes and whatnot, tend to be true believers, but also thats convenient for their bank account and resume which makes it easier, and the result is generally an uncanny imitation of sincerity and insight, a schtick

what kind of young men do you like lag∞n

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, April 27, 2021 11:02 AM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

you know funny, creative, big hearted, the good stuff

creative not a creative, say

is there any more depressing term than "a creative" its so powerfully corporately bad it almost rises to the level of... creativity

i was at a wedding and a girl seated at my table was like wait is everyone at this table a creative, i have since become a purely technical worker

You excused yourself and had a drink at the table of influencers.

lol there was no such thing as influencers then!

i kind of like influencers tho you know for being so cyberpunk

the only influencers then were spirits and drugs nyuk nyuk

ayye

I'll be over at the disruptors tent. They've got vapeable stem cells.

Personally, I have found a lot of value in reading and listening to Ezra Klein. I find his views insightful and thought-provoking, from his analyses of U.S. politics to his journeys into psychological terrain on subjects like creativity, happiness, anxiety, etc. I'm sure he has made some mistakes in his career as a journalist, and I'm confident that I wouldn't agree with every word he has written. But at the same time, a few episodes of his podcast were especially helpful to me when I was suddenly laid off a couple of years ago and was searching for some meaning and direction. Maybe my admiration for him makes me a dupe of the establishment, a dumb member of the bourgeoisie. So be it. I'm happier this way.

Namaste. 🙏

ek is willing to explore a pretty wide range of ideas and does not exclude his own judgments from his own examinations. these are good things. my is like the king of smug conclusory argumentation for the most part. imo.

mistakes in his career as a journalist? idk his sycophancy seems more like a feature than a bug, i have not followed kleins recent career that closely but seems like hes branched out into more of the world of ideas where he used to be a pure wonk guy, i suspect i would not like his ideas about ideas but im not begrudging anyone who likes to listen to a podcast about interesting stuff, however i do think we should be critical listeners as far as whats being sold to us, and klein as a times columnist is certainly being sold as someone with serious political ideas, which i think is pretty clearly not true

i enjoyed how ek's obsession with the filibuster for the past like 5 years became the running joke of some of his dialogue commentary-- about him having a this nerdy, perseverative tick, but fuck. weren't wrong. and yeah, i know he was not unique on the warnings, but he was definitely most insistent upon mentioning it.

I don’t think Klein’s a bad guy and I think I’ve read worthwhile things from him recently but it’s a little hard to get over the fact that Joe Biden had a much clearer understanding of Paul Ryan than he did.

if I fucked up as bad as Klein did there I'd have run away in shame and changed careers tbh

not even saying this as a criticism really, I just don't understand pundit mindset.

yeah i mean credit where both of the guys itt tend to be right about procedural things like that, and tbh both of them have prob had a real effect towards normalizing killing the filibuster xp

if I fucked up as bad as Klein did there I'd have run away in shame and changed careers tbh

not even saying this as a criticism really, I just don't understand pundit mindset.

takes a certain type to be a pundit, and its not necessarily good lol

i have not followed kleins recent career that closely

To be fair, while I have been familiar with Klein for a long time, I have not actually followed him closely *until* the past 4-5 years (basically, when he started his podcast, though I also liked a lot of what he wrote for Vox). So I missed the whole Paul Ryan thing that people always bring up, as though whatever he said in 2012 or whenever renders him a pudding-brained sycophant who lacks the critical faculty possessed by the wisest ILXors. Based on reading his Vox/NYT articles, reading his book, and listening to his podcast, I do find him to be "someone with serious political ideas," so what does that say about me?

idk really know what are his serious political ideas you like

Probably that you don’t go on Twitter very much xp

I *wish* I didn't go on Twitter that much. I spent far too much time there. I follow a lot of other journalists who probably hold similar opinions to Ezra.

Most of the good political opinions I see are from 21 year old transgender Maoists