The Guardian, wrong about everything, always. Doubly so on anything economic.
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Samizdata quote of the daySamizdata Illuminatus (Arkham, Massachusetts) · Economics, Business & Globalization · Media & Journalism · Slogans & Quotations March 5th, 2020 |
 8 comments to Samizdata quote of the day |
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Full disclosure – I have had personal differences with the Guardian newspaper (although they treated me with LESS extreme unfairness and injustice than a certain organisation of which I was a member for 40 years), but, trying to put aside personal differences as much as I can, I still think Tim Worstall is basically correct.
Of course he is exaggerating for rhetorical effect (the Guardian is not literally wrong about everything) – but, generally speaking, if there is policy dispute the Guardian will tend to be wrong. This is not an accident – but a result of its world view.
The problem is that the this mistaken (“liberal” left) world view is not confined to the Guardian – it is the view of all the television stations and so on (partly thanks to “Ofcom” and the bizarre legislation that created such organisations as “Ofcom”), and the education system itself.
The brutal fact is that most schools and universities are dominated by a certain, deeply mistaken, view of the world – and are extremely intolerant of dissent. And it is just not true that most people shrug off what they have been taught when they enter the “real world” – some parts of this deeply mistaken world view remain, to a greater or lesser extent, with them (and the intolerance for dissent often also remains with them).
The Guardian is, perhaps, an extreme example – but it only takes to the natural conclusions what the education system teaches. It would be a mistake to assume it is freakish – as it most certainly is not.
In defence of The Guardian they have enormously improved sub-editing. They are no longer the “Grauniad” of yore. They would appear to have handed that baton to the Daily Fail – headlines about the Quen of England…
The Guardian also has good football coverage.
Having said that… Dear Gods the opinion pieces are like the rantings of the deranged Trot in the 6th form.
Sadly the deranged Trot found enablers, infected other weak minds and took over institutions…..
Reality is just another bully hooking up with the girl the Trot fancied, to be ignored at all costs.
The original is available as a coffee mug from the Daily Mash “The Guardian, wrong about everything. Always.”
If I steal a line probably better that I give them a plug….
A question from a gentleman across the pond, far away in the dire State of California. Does 6th form Trot refer to some graduate student Trotskyite, or is it some other British-ism?
Matthew H Iskra – the British phrase ‘sixth form’ refers to the stage of education before going to university, i.e. of students broadly aged 16 to 18. This Wikipedia link will probably explain more than you want to know about the various stages of British education, but the phrase ‘6th form Trot(skyite)’ implies a callow teenager who espouses far-left views even before they arrive at university.
@Matthew H Iskra
The six form in English schools is the equivalent, I believe, of grades 11 and 12 (confusingly now referred to here as years 12 and 13); if there is anyone from the teaching profession reading (unlikely, I realise) please correct any errors.
You have correctly presumed the “Trot” part, there does seem to be, at that age, at least one in every class as NickM intimated. Unfortunately they almost invariably follow the left’s philosophy that the rest of us do not share their political beliefs because they have not explained them well enough.
And a negative complex number wrong on anything Libertarian. Their fantasies about libertarians are whatever point the truth is farthest from.
They’re so off-base they’re not even wrong.