4 ms·
This article is a highbrow variety of the two minute hate, in which an ideological enemy is identified (in this case a newspaper), and 179 years of history are
by haberman 4y ago
This article is a highbrow variety of the two minute hate, in which an ideological enemy is identified (in this case a newspaper), and 179 years of history are cherry-picked in order to present a simple, satisfying narrative that this enemy has been wrong at every turn, and moreover that they are bad, privileged people.
The examples given are too brief and editorialized to actually learn anything from (according to this article the Irish Potato Famine was "largely caused by free trade") except that these white, entitled, racist Oxford snobs have been ruining the world for 179 years.
- fleetwoodsnack 4y agoSometimes it takes a spade to call a spade. For me, a “bright boy” raised in a household with a subscription, I was seduced by the seeming certainty of its language and the comprehensiveness of coverage. “The world’s news at my fingertips, and with a suave guide!” is probably what young me thought, grasping for intellectual superiority and moral certainty. I probably imported many of its attitudes uncritically. The survey of the magazine’s history and the insight into its editorial missteps and outright treachery was enlightening and probably necessary. I don’t mind admitting my own ignorance when it comes to this stuff, I needed this history to properly contextualize it. Also, the quip about being a “handbook for arrogant, dull, outdated men,” was genuinely hilarious. I wouldn’t take it too personally. For you and me, it’s really just a magazine and perhaps the point is that we ought to treat it as such.
- haberman 4y agoIntellectual superiority and moral certainty are precisely what this article is selling.
- fleetwoodsnack 4y agoLike I said in my very first sentence, sometimes it takes a spade to call a spade. I’m okay with arrogance punching itselves in the face.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- drooby 4y agoWell said.. I was excited to see HN link something that potentially checks a common bias here (TE), but this article was long and shallow.. not a good combo.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- yucky 4y ago>..these white, entitled, racist Oxford snobs have been ruining the world for 179 years. Can you expand on what you mean by this?
- haberman 4y agoThe Economist was founded in 1843, and the article goes to great lengths to paint the writers and editors of the magazine throughout its history as not merely wrong on matters of policy, but personally privileged and bigoted.
- yucky 4y agoIt doesn't seem odd to you to bring race into it? It reads like something from Stormfront, with races swapped.
- haberman 4y agoI didn't bring race into it, the article did: > The staff, predominantly white, is recruited overwhelmingly from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and a disproportionate number of the most important editors have come from just one Oxford college, Magdalen.
- yucky 4y agoYour quote: "except that these white, entitled, racist Oxford snobs have been ruining the world for 179 years." ...reads a bit different.