Dr. Helen Smith's new book, Men On Strike, took a beating in The Wall Street Journal today (Glenn Boy says "THE PERSPECTIVE IS KINDA SOCIAL-CONNISH") but what I find fun is why the WSJ dissed Dr. Helen - it's specifically for listening to NewAgers:
"Ms. Smith rightly protests the feminization of contemporary culture, and she rightly urges men—who, after all, built the civilization onto which feminism has latched itself—to start fighting back. But to win such battles she will need to construct arguments likely to persuade others besides the angry, alienated men who click onto her blog and mourn that their 'soul mate' turned out to be not much of a mate."
I tried to warn them - repeatedly - but it does no good. Since Glenn's still linking to articles on quackery, like bloodletting, I doubt a NewAge cult phrase like "soul mate" is going to meaningfully catch his eye, even though it's enough - almost exclusively - to make the WSJ perk up and suggest his wife can't be taken seriously. Great job as a husband, huh?
If he had listened to me, that wouldn't have happened - neither would this post.
Isn't it weird how TMR's NewAge memes are out there, and even acknowledged as correct, but no one else will take that up or plainly admit it? I mean, even though the WSJ will put "soul mate" in quotes, and diss Dr. Helen's book over the usage, why do you have to read this blog to understand what's wrong with it?
Answer:
Because Glenn Reynolds & Co. won't tell you.
Anyways, long story-short:
The Instapundit, and the Insta-wife, are rubes posing as "smart" people and - if you know what to look for - anybody can see it. Here's The Amazing Randi on the worth of their credentials:
And that's one theme this blog has stressed from the first day I met such "smart" folks online,...
LOL. In the academic circles which I used to travel in the common joke was that PhD really stood for "Pile it Higher and Deeper"!
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of truth to that (and what Randi says as well).
PW
Not that the acquisition of said piece of paper wasn't looked into by yours truly -- it would have certainly meant that my bank account would have been piled higher and deeper with 2 times as much cash for half the effort(and who doesn't like that idea?), but in all honesty, that's the only honest reason to try and get one. Certainly does not make one any the smarter, and can be hazardous to one's wisdom (for what Randi said)...but the extra cash would have been nice.