Here is an open challenge for anyone willing to undertake it: read this Michael C. Moynihan piece and attempt to break through the sneer and figure out just what exactly his point is.
A Challenge
by John Cole| 63 Comments
This post is in: Free Markets Solve Everything, Going Galt, Technically True but Collectively Nonsense
SGEW
You’re outsourcing your “shorter”?
Corner Stone
I, for one, refuse.
MikeJ
I was amused by the fact that he tried to read a Norwegian newspaper in English and was then horrified that at the lack of language skills of other people.
slippy
Shorter Moronihan:
And I assure you, Moronihan, you failed.
Hunter Gathers
Tea Baggers are peaceful. European Sociamalists are violent.
European Sociamalists = Obama. Therefore, Obama will kill us all.
I think.
This guys gets paid to do this, right?
Clambone
I think he’s calling Raymond Johansen, party secretary of the Norwegian Labour Party, a hypocrite. Johansen fears a Tea Party movement in Europe, but Europe already has violent protesters in Greece. So, he’s a hypocrite.
In other news, my father had a stroke a few years ago. I’m afraid that he might develop heart disease as well. What a hypocrite I am!
Zifnab
Shorter Moynihan: How dare those snobby Norwegians act concerned about American Faux Populism showing up in Europe! No populist has ever liked a European. All they’ve got are mobs of evil communists!
Bnut
Look how big my
brainpeepee is!dmsilev
European leftists: bad
American Tea Baggers: good
I think that’s really about it.
dms
General Egali Tarian Stuck
Was going to take the day off from blogging, but couldn’t resist such a challenge. Sounds to me like he is channeling W. and Tea Bag freedom is on the march, and that Euro trash commies, albeit unconsciously, are succumbing to it’s ultimate truth. Otherwise, the article reminds me of Bogo’s recent one of rambling brain farts on race and governance. Or, obtusely saying something taboo and offensive, without actually saying it. scratches head.
cleek
beats me.
based on the lack of coherent response in the comments, i don’t think anyone else knows either.
Linda Featheringill
I went to the article. This is a quote from one of commenters, discussing the idea of using inflation to help with debt.
Yes it was used for that very purpose in Weimer German and damned right had “outstanding results”! Is this guy nuts?
As to the article itself, I think the point is that the writer is trying to show us that he can make fun of people. Whoopee.
Mr. Wonderful
“Look! A Norwegian writing in English, making almost as many mistakes as a Tea Bagger writing in English! What an idiot!”
What do I win?
Poopyman
Well, I figured I’d be up to the challenge, and as it looked fairly short I took a crack at it.
Seems his point, poorly expressed as it is, is that Yerrpeans are rejecting teapartyism. But they’re all soshullists! Marx lovers! Mao lovers!
That’s about it. And that’s more coherent than the original piece too. Also.
Comrade Javamanphil
I think his point was that if you cannot figure out his point, you cannot be in his club. And so is your mother. Also.
The Moar You Know
He’s super-pissed that the Europeans see right through the teabagger litany of excuses, misdirection, denial of racism, and bullshit and have called him, and America, on it at every turn.
The money quote:
The guy’s English may not be his strong suit, but there’s nothing wrong with Johansen’s ability to discern what’s really going on.
Butch
Doesn’t it have something to do with pudding?
norbizness
And a shiny new dime to anybody who can tell me who this nobody is, with a bonus nickel behind if you satisfactorily tell me why I should care.
CynDee
Are you kidding? I’m going to go paint the bedroom.
DA
Norwegians do not speak very good English and should therefore be ridiculed?
Comrade Dread
I got:
“European liberals would suck even more that American liberals, if it were possible to suck worse than American liberals.”
The Moar You Know
@norbizness:
1. Some punk.
2. He has organs which are probably worth a lot on the black market somewhere.
DA
But really, his main point seems to be that European tea partiers would be able to save Greece, as they are saving America.
Art
Simple translation:
“Look at me! I’m in Oslo any ur not!”
Davy McBongo
Shrtr: Hippee, I do thou puncheth!
Miriam
Shorter:
I like pie.
Mumphrey
I kind of got the feeling that the sneer is the point. I guess, though, that the sneer stands for many things, among them that leftists are violent and teabaggers really aren’t, but are getting a raw deal from the press; that paying taxes is bad, and that anybody who willingly pays taxes without bitching and moaning about it is a chump; and that effete European losers are sooooo lame and we kick-ass, Americany, stand-up-kind-of-guy, American Americans are the badassiest badasses ever–well, conservative ones, anyway.
GregB
The most important question is did this rightwing nitwit get his baggage handler/travel assistant from Rentboy.com?
jibeaux
I don’t know what his point is, but I’m pretty sure it would make even less sense if he tried to write it in Norwegian. At least if he tried to write it in Norwegian, it might have a sort of melodic absurdity to it, an amusing Norwegian Chef feel to it that would be more amusing than his attempt at snark.
Omnes Omnibus
Dear Mr. Cole
I hereby demand that you compensate me for the time I lost and the brains cells that died during my reading of that dreck.
In order to resolve this matter without litigation, I demand photos of pets, an apology, and payment of attorney’s fees and costs.
I deserve to be made whole. If this situation cannot be resolved through negotiation, I will pursue other avenues, including litigation. If I have not received substantive contact from you by 11:00am today, I will have no choice but to conclude that you are not interested in settling this matter amicably, and I will take appropriate measures.
I look forward to the prompt and satisfactory resolution of this matter.
Sincerely,
Omnes Omnibus
Attorney at Law
Tattoosydney
Funny, I read the Johansen article, and didn’t find his writing to be “wonderfully incoherent”, “unreadable” or “Norwenglish”. In fact, I thought the prose was much more readable and elegantly composed than Moynihan’s own.
But then again, I’m not an arsehole.
Ella in NM
Shorter:
“The Tea Party will dominate the entire world, whether they’re invited or not. We’re in ur soshalizm, destroyin ur universal health care!!!!”
David
It’s not difficult to understand. If Europe had sensible people like our misunderstood and misunderestimated Tea Party Uberpatriots they wouldn’t be having any financial problems. Instead, they’d proudly be dropping 500 lb depleted uranium bombs on wedding parties in far away lands.
cmorenc
The point of the article is actually rather clear, even though it’s enveloped in a layer of sneer.
– American Tea Party/anti-tax activist Tim Phillips spoke to a meeting of a right-leaning Norwegian political party about grassroots organizing, to which Raymond Johansen, Secretary of the Norwegian Labor Party reacted by writing an article for Huffington Post warning of the sinister danger of the Tea Party movement being exported to Europe. MOYNIHAN recounts this sneeringly, and the rest of his piece amounts to: what the heck do Europeans have to fear from an angry taxpayers-would-be Euro-Tea-Party style movement, when the left populist movements in Greece are rioting and firebombing?
Now there’s vast grounds to criticize the simplistic incoherence of the Tea Party movement itself, and the likely extent to which it would prove even more dysfunctional a fit to European politics than to American politics, as well as whether the violent behavior of the Greek ultra-left proves anything about the value of importing yet another rudely incivil, arrogant movement like the Tea Party into European politics.
But the point of the piece itself was perfectly clear, even if the implications of importing the Tea Party to Europe are disasterously troublesome. What you’re really criticizing is the fundamental fact that the principles of the Tea Party movement are far more incoherent and inconsistent and destructive than they superficially appear, which amounts to a fundamental criticism of anyone purporting to be their defender and advocate.
TBogg
He is a libertarian, therefore: asshole.
Actually, you can apply that to anyone at Reason. Double for Gillespie.
scav
Norway and Greece — clearly identical and substitutable cultures and political cultures to his eyes. But I admit I’m not in the running for really understanding what he’s going on about. Probably doesn’t matter: the narrative is yupup bad, ‘merca good.
Tattoosydney
@Clambone:
Wait, you mean Norway isn’t next to Greece?
scarshapedstar
What I took from it was:
jibeaux
@Tattoosydney:
Well, clearly, neither Norway nor Greece speaks English well enough to avoid mockery.
Tattoosydney
@Linda Featheringill:
Germany got Hitler. Argentina got a military regime. In the commenter’s world, those ARE outstanding results.
Martian Buddy
What’s really hysterical about Moynihan sneering down the end of his nose at the malapropisms in the original article is the following:
(Italic emphasis added.)
“Except,” I think you mean? Glass houses, stones, etc.
Keef
I went all the way to Oslo and all you’re getting is this incoherent column – FU!
Tattoosydney
@jibeaux:
What, now you’re telling me that they speak some language other than English too? You’re living in a fantasy world.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tattoosydney: Just speak slowly and loudly enough. Everyone speaks English.
Tattoosydney
@Martian Buddy:
Bolded emphasis fail.
Ed Drone
@The Moar You Know:
Don’t count on it. Look where they’ve been!
Ed
Tattoosydney
@Omnes Omnibus:
In places like Portugal and Greece, it also helps if you speak English with a Mexican accent.
cmorenc
Far more Norwegians (or Swedes or Danes or Germans or Dutch etc) speak passable conversational English than English or especially Americans speak passable conversational Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, German, Dutch, etc. All one need do is take a ride on a longer-distance European train and have a dozen conversations with fellow-passengers, and savor the simultaneous blend of convenient comfort in being able to have a friendly, articulate conversation with nearly everyone aboard in English, and the disturbing experience of when they switch to their native tongue among each other, and you have absolutely no idea what the hell they’re talking about. Could be matters having nothing whatever to do with you, OTOH they could be saying scathing or rudely mocking things about you and you’d have no clue, so long as they don’t look right at you while laughing.
Martian Buddy
@Tattoosydney: I’m not smart enough to figure out the “turn bold off in blockquotes unless you actually want it there” trick, so I switched it to italics.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tattoosydney: I haven’t been to Greece for years (never been to Portugal), but I will keep that in mind the next time I go. Thanks.
I will note, however, that, in any places that there are tourists, people can and will speak English if it will help them separate the English speaker from his/her money. My guess is that they can and will speak Urdu/Romanian/Pashto/Mandarin/Martian/etc. also if it will separate people from their cash.
Tattoosydney
@Martian Buddy:
I have no idea how to do it either.
Sly
Shorter Michael C. Moynihan, Professional Libertarian:
I’m surprised he didn’t add a whole dissertation on the problems of the Value Added Tax for good measure. Dipshit.
bemused
Not gonna do it. My head hurts already. I’ve had my fill of reading incoherent rightwing speak for the day. I read the link at Rumproast to some uber projectionist, Robin of Berkeley, who wrote “Liberals are from Mars, Conservatives are from Earth” with these gems:
After Robin told a liberal friend that she thought Obama was a Marxist, her friend said to stop, she was scaring her, Robin deduced that liberals are suffering from the Fear Factor which “makes otherwise intelligent liberals stupiily fall in line”.
Liberals live in a stratosphere based on emotions & magical thinking.
If a conservative & a liberal were dropped on a desert island, the liberal could never survive. Liberals hire conservatives to rewire their houses or protect their families. Without conservatives, liberals would be absolutely helpless.
Oy vey.
Tattoosydney
@Omnes Omnibus:
I wish I was joking. The poor Portuguese get miffed (which is quite unusual for them) when people (usually, I am sad to add, reasonably well intentioned Americans) speak to them in heavily accented Spanish.
@cmorenc:
It’s particularly disconcerting, and highly amusing in a Swedish chef kind of way, when it’s a room full of gay Dutch men.
One of my more treasured moments of our last holiday is standing behind a rather large, leisure suited American woman while she spoke very loudly and very slowly in English to a Dutch shop assistant.
The assistant looked at her with an intensely puzzled expression and then responded in an even louder and slower voice, accompanied by quite eloquent hand gestures: “Can you speak English?”
scav
@Tattoosydney: OH, what I would give to have been in that room on your last holiday.
LGRooney
I think he is saying, “I have no clue about Greece’s recent history or the history of leftist protest there, but they are Europeans, just like the Norwegians, and I therefore have the right to paint with a very broad brush… even if I don’t know that Norway is not in the EU or that the EU has multiple languages, cultures, and ethnic groups.”
IOW, today it is cool, therefore global warming is false.
shecky
Moynihan is easily the biggest asshole associated with Reason. For years, his modus operandi has been to respond to American right wing ineptitude with articles pointing out how broken Europe is, Fidel Castro is a monster, and Hugo Chavez is gonna be even worse. It’s only on very rare occasions he seems to find fault with American conservatism, and only when it slaps the headlines so hard that it cannot absolutely be ignored. I’ve never bought his dedication to liberatianism, and think it’s about as deep as Matt Welch’s practical opposition to France’s socialized medicine.
Ken
Something about; a bank, a firebomb, and Athens. But I had to click through to cnn to get that much.
Anyway, it was a few minutes of my life that I’ll never get back. Thanks John.
ruemara
I believe the subtext was “ARGLGLALGLLLGRRARRGLGLAH!” Then, “BLLLARRRRGGGHHHH!” With a side of, they didn’t speak english very well and they already have violent protestors, so why don’t they want ignorant and violent protestors?
asiangrrlMN
@Omnes Omnibus: I will cosign this letter, even though I am not a lawyer (but I play one in my dreams, on the stage in a play, which counts, right?). You made me go to Reason which causes the magic unicorn to stop shitting rainbows. I cannot unread what has been read, damn it, and my beautiful mind is permanently sullied. Pass the goddamn mind bleach!
I actually got that he’s miffed because he thinks the Norwegians are hypocrites for putting down the Teabaggers when there is so much unrest in Europe itself (Greece, Norway, same muthafuckin’ thing, amirite?), but it’s hard to tell through the heavily-accented sneer.
eyelessgame
@Linda Featheringill: Anyone on Reason calling Reagan a “primitive reactionary” (or invoking him for any purpose less positive than “please dig up his corpse so I can fellate it some more”) is pretty clearly attempting sarcasm.
melmoth
There are already major faux populist movements in Europe. The Le Pen-istas were just that, and their targets of opp were the Algerians and Lebanese. The Germans and Swiss also went after the Turks.
A little inflation would not be a bad thing right now. The problem is it is impossible to control the wage-price spiral via the Fed. Oddly, Nixon was on the right track with temporary wage and price controls. It just can’t be legislated with a fine enough hand. This is one of those odd moments in history when an economic dictator would make sense. But you don’t get too many Alexanders, Octavians, Charlemagnes, Elizabeths and Hamiltons. Hence the circular global firing squad.
grumpy realist
Also the hissyfits over Greece and the Euro will probably die down over time. I expect a case of limp, limp, limp until the realism of the situation really smacks everyone between the eyes, then Greece == Argentina, oops, exit from Euro. Much kerfluffle for several years, then a new equilibrium is found.
I think the advantages of the Euro are high enough that they’re not going to go back to their original currencies. Several of the countries that have dud economies may get kicked out, however….
Looking at all of this with an investment outlook of 20 years gives one an interesting perspective…