4 ms·
c.f. O'Reilly as "The Meme Hustler" (in the words of Evgeny Morozov): http://www.thebaffler.com/past/the_meme_hustler http://www.thebaffler.com/past/the_meme_hu
by drewda 13y ago
c.f. O'Reilly as "The Meme Hustler" (in the words of Evgeny Morozov): http://www.thebaffler.com/past/the_meme_hustler http://www.thebaffler.com/past/the_meme_hustler
- selimthegrim 13y agoJaron Lanier makes the case a bit better.
- aridiculous 13y agoI'm not sure Lanier goes after O'Reilly as strongly and directly. Morozov's article is a complete roast of O'Reilly. Though certainly entertaining in style, the real gem of the The Meme Hustler is Morozov's basic theory of PR: Those who control the "discourse" (the words and phrases used to describe and name new phenomena in books, magazines, blogs, newspapers) have incredible influence across industries — especially when there's little opposition. As a niche publisher in the esoteric (but simultaneously important) field of bits and bytes, O'Reilly has capitalized on this and has faced little criticism from other industries. Politicians and Fortune 500 CEO's face pushback to their BS all the time, sometimes initially led by Critical Studies departments. This Baffler article was one of the the few times I've seen a technologist explicitly called on his ideology (beyond the profit motive). I suspect Mr. O'Reilly wasn't too pleased about it.