The Atlantic Monthly talks the talk and shreds the cred

Posted on May 3, 2008 by Nicholas Gruen
Posted in Politics - international

Is this a joke?

11 Comments

  1. Niall
    May 3, 2008

    It's a gee-up Judging from the list of 'interests' I'd say the guy was just slightly wacko.

  2. skepticlawyer
    May 3, 2008

    Niall's right. He's taking the piss - but it's clearly suckered a few people in the comments.

  3. Maurie Joyce
    May 3, 2008

    Nicholas Stick to economic and social commentary. You're among the best at that. Rocca is a hopeless log.
    I still can't work out why someone as brilliant as you barracks for Collingwood.

    Regards
    Maurie Joyce

  4. Nicholas Gruen
    May 3, 2008

    Your comments on Rocca are cruel, but fair.

    But I think you might have made this comment on the wrong thread.

    Anyway I hope life is treating you well Maurie.

  5. JJ Jones
    May 4, 2008

    yes, he's serious - also apparently Obama's going to announce a re-issue of Swift's 'A Modest Proposal' as a foreign aid policy.

    Nick, this, together with your Maureen Dowd-deafness, establishes your credentials as a purveyor of the dismal science. So for future ref, if it looks like a joke, it most likely is.

  6. Nicholas Gruen
    May 4, 2008

    Can someone point me to clear evidence that it's a hoax? I don't want to spend lots of time researching this - but I've followed the first link and I can't see why it's clearly a hoax. Where's the punch line, the place where it becomes clear it's a hoax?

  7. Gummo Trotsky
    May 4, 2008

    Nick,

    I'd suggest that the co-author of a book on "how the Republicans can win the working class and save the American Dream" shouldn't be taken too seriously when he's suggesting interesting candidates for the Democrats to run. Regardless of whether he's writing in earnest.

  8. Patrick
    May 4, 2008

    I actually agree that it is not glaringly obviously a hoax. But this part seems to give the game away, especially the first phrase which is beyond hyperbole:

    Just as Abraham Lincoln[!!] condemned America for its grave sins while calling for the nation to live up to its highest ideals, Wright's willingness to forcefully attack American injustice doesn't mean he believes the country is beyond redemption. As a pastor with long experience in a distressed corner of the country, he would bring a unique perspective to Washington. In foreign policy, he would align America's interests with those of revolutionary states in the Third World [ie Venezuala and Burma], perhaps [code for certainly not] shaking up the geopolitical environment in constructive ways. Wright's trusted comrade Louis Farrakhan [damnation by association] might play a key role, perhaps as defense secretary [If the author is serious, by this point, he is somewhat madder than a march hare].
  9. Nicholas Gruen
    May 4, 2008

    Patrick,

    Yes, of course Louis Farrakhan as Defence Secretary is not serious serious, but it's the kind of thing that Phillip Adams might write to make a point, (perhaps a stupid one) rather than because he was sending himself up.

    I realise that on any reading the article is not serious in the sense that it is seriously proposing that Louis Farrakhan should seriously be considered as Defence Secretary. But the thing that bothers me is that the Atlantic Monthly is not a flip mag. It's the kind of mag that, one would expect would clearly telegraph any spoof that it ran.

  10. Niall
    May 4, 2008

    Bingo, GT

  11. Kris
    May 5, 2008

    Now I'm wondering if I haven't gone mad. It's pretty obvious that the author is trying to be funny, isn't it?