3 ms·

I don't understand; are you saying the author doesn't actually want this, but just wants to be a strawman?

• deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
• jessaustin 6y ago
  Yglesias is a divisive enough figure who has been around for a long enough time that he could pull a thesis out of a hat, noodle around for 100 pages without ever building a recognizable argument, hire a couple of interns to pad it out to 300 pages (when extensive back matter is included), arrange for a well-orchestrated pay-for-review campaign to get some small fraction of the public excited or perturbed, and then just about pay for the advance (after extensive publishing-company accounting shenanigans). So, that's what he does. He doesn't actually give a hoot whether there are more or fewer Americans.
  • damnyou 6y ago
    A simpler explanation: the guy sincerely believes there should be more Americans and is also decent at self-promotion (which is how he got where he is).
    • rmrfstar 6y ago
      Not so sure about that, given his claim that "it’s worth emphasizing that while 1 billion Americans may be impossible and absurd, there’s actually nothing hard about it."
      • damnyou 6y ago
        Impossible and absurd, politically perhaps? Everything I know about him leads me to believe he truly, sincerely believes in the thesis of the book.
        • jessaustin 6y ago
          The thesis is manifestly insane. Do you know him to be insane? This "explanation" is always "simple", but rarely accurate.