Max Keiser Took the Bait.
Nov. 24, 2010
The following is neither here nor there in the grand scheme of things. The stakes today are higher than intramural squabbles.
One of my goals has been to promote a limited-government perspective to the newcomers in the Tea Party movement. They are highly vulnerable to wolves in sheep's clothing. I regarded Ellen Brown as such a wolf. Her defection to the pro-Bernanke camp 72 hours after I finished my final response to her has relieved me of any further responsibility in refuting her. She is just another fiat-money inflationist. I was trying to smoke her out. I succeeded. Now I can move on.
Then there was Max Keiser. He was merely a side show in the larger project. I ran my article on him for a reason: to smoke him out, too. But I never expected anything this revealing. He has set a record unmatched. Seeking fame on the Web as a leader in the conservative movement, he has soiled himself permanently.
I pointed out in my article that Ellen Brown had betrayed him by moving into Bernanke's camp. This left him high and dry. I suggested several ways for him to extricate himself from this undesirable condition. All of them were bad for him. But I had not thought of this approach:
A man with good judgment would not respond publicly this way. This man is not what anyone would call a class act.
He has misused Ellen Brown in such a way that she cannot respond effectively. To describe her as a fantasy sex object puts her in a very bad position. It implicitly makes light of her book and my criticisms of it. It relegates me to some sort of deviant, but what does this accusation say of her? It's an insult. It probably never occurred to him what he was implying about her. He was after me, and if she was treated with contempt, so what?
This is not the response of a man with a sense of ethics.
I have challenged her ability as an economist and a historian. I offered lots of reasons. She could respond or not, as she saw fit. She responded incompetently to 30 of my 52 criticisms. But her responses were to criticisms regarding her competence as an economist and historian. She entered the battlefield of ideas, calling on Americans to accept fiat money and also attacking the gold coin standard. She was fair game. She knew that when she started. She is a lawyer.
But how can she respond to Keiser? "I'm really not a sex object." That response would make her sound silly. But what other response does she have? "North rejects my ideas, that's all." Who would have thought otherwise?
She has been made the punch line in an off-color remark. What is the proper answer to that? The same as mine: "Max Keiser is a tasteless churl." But then she alienates a public disciple. She must then answer this: "How did I get involved with such a tasteless churl?"
Admittedly, I set him up. I framed the debate in such a way that he could not possibly win. Anything he did to respond would make him look foolish. But I did it fairly gently. I positioned myself as the man who had seen through Ellen Brown's economics. I positioned Keiser as a rube, which he clearly is. Then I sat back and waited. I did not have to wait long.
He has now revealed himself as fellow utterly devoid of sound judgment. Any follower of his with a sense of propriety will see that Keiser is a loose canon rattling around on the deck. Keiser also cannot argue his way out of a paper bag. He is a weak reed.
He has moved to silly, lewd rhetoric without a trace of logic. I set him up so that logic would undermine him. I offered him pain-filled ways out. He really was shot in the back by Brown.
He has now shot himself in the foot. Or worse.
He is also in Bernanke's camp by way of Brown's sell-out.
I thought Rockwell would run my piece on Brown's defection. He did yesterday. In that article, I included a link to my piece on Keiser. I updated it yesterday morning at 4:45 a.m. to include his lewd response. Anyone from Rockwell's site who clicked through found it.
Max Keiser is a troll beneath the Tea Party's bridge.
Inside the Tea Party there are moles and trolls. Brown is a mole. Keiser is a troll. The Tea party is vulnerable.
In every movement there are minor figures who desperately want to become major figures, but they do not have the required skills. Anyone can buy a $100 webcam, a $25 microphone, and a program that puts a digital image behind his onscreen image by using a $100 chroma-color green screen. The video looks and sounds professional. He can post the results of YouTube. But he can't buy either intellectual competence or good taste.
I have no further need to deal with him. Mission accomplished.