Resident Idiot
Published by Yazad Jal December 16th, 2003 in Web WorldAnkh has a piece on the Resident Idiot. Don’t know who he is? Well, we’ve fisked him here.
Ankh has a piece on the Resident Idiot. Don’t know who he is? Well, we’ve fisked him here.
Whether you agree with his views or not he is clearly no idiot. A quick look at his bio confirms that. Calling him an idiot only reveals the article/qualification envy of the bloggers. Can’t get your rants and raves (oops I meant serious academic articles) published in any of the papers (not even rediff) so you spend your time ‘fisking’ him on your private blogs and no doubt feel very good about yourselves. If you wanted to disagree with him why not try to get some of your articles published providing a contrary view. But I guess thats too much like hard work - much easier to just post stuff on your private blog.
I bet that if you put together the bios of every blogger that fisked him, you probably wouldn’t even be upto a 1/10th of his.
Its the Free Market of Ideas baby. And since you can’t compete you are forced to take chep shots from private blogs.
CK, go to the two pieces I’ve linked to. Place you comments on the Resident Idiot and his work there.
And why must I confirm to what method of disagreement you suggest? I can just as easily tell you to start your own blog — but I don’t.
And yes, this blog too is part of the marketplace of ideas. We may not be a big player (yet), but just because the medium may not be to your liking, it in no way means we can’t compete. I compete on my terms.
Ck, you should read my lament on JK’s blogs about PB having competition in the form of GWB on Google for the “Resident Idiot” title. Perhaps we should compare their bio-ds after all.
I don’t agree with all Praful Bidwai’s views but because he does not strike me as an Idiot because of that.
And then to cheer the idea of googlebombing the guy because he doesn’t agree with your views - childish at best.
Reasons Why Praful is smarter then Yazad and is winning the ‘competition’
1. Money: Praful gets paid for every word he writes. Yazad does not. Round 1 Praful
2. Readership: Praful should get about 100,000+ readers a day. On a good day Yazad can count on about 10. Round 2 Praful.
3. Legitamacy: Praful gets his articles published in some of the finest (open to interpretation of course) newspapers in India. Yazad writes, approves and publishes his own words - not exactly unbiased now is it. Round 3 Praful.
4. Qualifications: Praful has writen about 10 books. Yazad none to date. Praful has published about 50+ articles - Yazad - I don’t know but I bet I could count them on the fingers of 1 hand - sorry blog posts don’t count as publications in the real world. Round 4 Praful
5. Experience: Praful - journalist and regular columnist for several leading newspapers in India. He is an associate editor of Security Dialogue, published by PRIO, Oslo; a member of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists against Proliferation (INESAP) and co-founder of the Movement in India for Nuclear Disarmament (MIND). Yazad - CEO of Praja
Round 5 Praful.
6: Maturity: Praful continues to write articles on what he believes and takes crticism in his stride. Yazad calls him an Idiot and collaborates with other bloggers to Googlebomb him. Praful largely ignores Yazad’s childish tactics.
Round 6 Praful.
Ding - And the winner is the real world is Praful Bidwai. However in the rosy world of AnaCrapLib - Yazad is sure that he has dealt Praful the knockout blow. Bloggers from all around cheer in glee - a great victory ;)
All in jest Yazad but your personal vendetta is hilarious.
CK,
I presume you consider “I am the President of the most powerful country in the world. You are a nobody, so shut up” a valid answer to any criticism of George Bush?
I presume you consider “We’ve got more people’s votes. You won’t win a single election” a valid answer to any criticism of BJP’s policies?
If not, arguing over credentials rather than over logic is stupid even by your lunatic standards.
CK,
Ignore the previous comment. After typing it I realised that one needs the ability to follow reasoning by analogy to understand it.
Ck,
Your lack of logic does provide humour at the end of a hard day. Thanks!
BTW, “my personal vendetta”? Since when has linking to critiques of an article (and it’s author’s lack of logical reasoning) become personal vendetta? Of course the fact that you choose to comment only to my post, but not where the critiques are, may reflect something . . .
And I see you prefer quantity over quality.
The Author of an international best seller, could very well be an international criminal, who murders millions of people, like Hitler, but that does not make him anything more than a crazed fool.
Ck, keeps talking about the real world as against the internet, I think the distinction is rather blurred and blurring further, so it is difficult to say that something that is published on a blog is neccessarily of imaginery importance as against something that is printed in a magazine.
Saying that yazadjal.com has only 10 readers today is like assuming that ToI has always been the largest selling English newspaper in the world. He eliminates the concept of time. AnarCapLib could very well grow(it could bust too, god forbid ;-)
CK, here’s a long list of logical fallacies you should read before you start getting into debates. If you had, you’d have known that the only things that matter are the arguments themselves, not the people making them. Bidwai having written several articles doesn’t automatically make his arguments more valid than anyone else’s.
And I suppose you consider views expressed in Indian Express not valid because they sell fewer copies than the Trash of India?
Yes I’ve heard all the libertarian BS - everybody is illogical except them. I for one don’t believe that they are illogical per se just that it is illogical for them to beleive that anybody who doesn’t agree with them is illogical by default.
Here is an (admittedly) illogical statement. It is interesting to note that many of the people that the libertarians hate so much are also found on http://hinduunity.org/hitlist.html including our dear Mr. Bidwai. It is a logical axiom that “My enemy’s enemy is my friend” though I seriously doubt that any of you are supporters of a stupid site like hindunity.
So when CK cannot answer critiques, it becomes “libertarian BS.” Ad hominem zindabad!
Your doubt about us being supporters of hindunity.org is right. Most of us here are agnostics / atheists and principles on which hinduunity is based is abhorrent to us. One of those on the hitlist is Kanwal Rekhi, Chairman of the Centre for Civil Society, the foremost libertarian think tank in India. I am beginning to believe it’s an honour to be on that list and it in some way redeems even the Resident Idiot. Ck, if your arguments are beaten then all you can do is link us with a hate site? I’m sure you can do better!
“My enemy’s enemy is my friend” is logical only when there are two sides to an argument. As there are more than two sides here, I disagree. Both socialists and conservatives are the “enemies” of libertarians in some way or the other.
Arguments beaten??
My dear Yazad I hate to do this to you but you really should stop deluding yourself by thinking that what you do makes any difference in the world. You forget that I am on the Status Quo side of the arguemnt which means that the proof for my point of view already exists - you only have to take a look around you to see that. What you suggest on the other had is very interesting and revolutionary but it does NOT exist except in the realms of libertarian fantasy. I challenge you to get one of your articles published anywhere other than on your blog and no I don’t mean some Op-ed piece in the TOI.
And by the way my enemy’s enemy is my friend logically implies that there are 3 sides to an issue not two. I suggest a quick read of the Art of War. TheUS used the policy when it supported the Mujahadeen against the USSR. Do you mean to say that the US and the Mujahadeen were on the same side? Obviously not it is just that they both disliked the Russian’s (for different reasons) which made them freinds - quick count - USSR, USA and Mujahadeen - 3 sides or were you using libertarian math is which 1+1+1=2? ;)
Ck, You repeat yourself in the first paragraph. That’s been refuted by many on this thread so I won’t waste my time. I’ll just add that history might be the best judge of whether the staus quo you’re proud of stays or perhaps the “libertarian fantasy” becomes a reality.
Regarding my enemy’s enemy is my friend, your first example of hinduunity being an enemy of the Resident Idiot and ther efore our “friend” does not wash as hinudunity seems to be an enemy of libertarianism as well (Kanwal Rekhi of CCS is on their hitlist).
Regarding the mujahideen, US and USSR in Afghanistan, the muj. and US fought as one. So there were only two sides. USSR on one side and US+Mujahideen on the other. So logically, every time you gang up with your enemy’s enemy, you take the SAME side as him. The original three sides become two, and one of the two (e.g US+muj) becomes stronger than the other. That was the advantage Sun Tzu speaks of in the art of war.