naked emperors

Watching the debate on whether we ought not to trust mainstream media between Matt Taibbi and Douglas Murray for the motion, and Michelle Goldberg and Malcolm Gladwell against, I was struck by the ineptitude of the arguments put forth by the team against, particularly by Gladwell.

On multiple occasions he insinuated that Taibbi is some kind of exclusionary racist, harkening back to the good ol' days when cishet white men told us like it is. It reminded me of the time Goldberg and Dyson went up against Peterson and Fry, making similar ad hominem attacks with the smug assuredness that they were on the right side of history.

I wonder if people like Gladwell are simply too blinded by their elite status to realize how deep the brain worms have managed to burrow? I mean, obviously he's not even listening to his opponents as Douglas pointed out, but does he even hear how foolish he sounds to anyone who might not agree with every regime orthodoxy?

Is it really a surprise that media trust is at a record low when these are the tactics used by those who are defending its legitimacy?

Throughout the entire debate I couldn't shake the impression that Gladwell is a perfect example of the sort of over-educated, midwit elite class that middle America has justifiably come to resent - not for their unearned success, but for their obvious ineptitude masquerading under a facade of smug moral superiority.