I couldn’t be sadder. Paul Krugman is retiring from the New York Times. It is probably the worst day of my life. My career has lost all meaning. From now on, I am a widowed writer and an orphan. Who the hell am I going to laugh at in my articles now?
Normal people will think that Krugman is leaving the Times because of his failure to make an accurate economic, political, or social forecast since his debut in 2000, but he does not belong to the realm of normal people. In fact, he is threatening to keep writing elsewhere, so that he can continue to be wrong in public and so that a bunch of equally wrong readers can learn his unique way of erring. But if it’s not at the Times, it will never be the same.
In his farewell column, the Nobel laureate asserts that we are in an “era of resentment,” and that the optimism of 20 years ago has been replaced by anger. In short, he continues to be madder than a wet hen.
Most of his article is a mountain of disguised insults and undisguised hatred for Elon Musk, whom I imagine he blames for Trump’s victory, a triumph that to this day remains incomprehensible to him, as he demonstrates in his tedious and melancholy latest prose.
Krugman liked influential tech startup billionaires when they were disaffected progressives like Zuckerberg, Dorsey, and all those who wore sneakers and turtlenecks to any shareholder meeting in Silicon Valley — that place that aspired to be the Democratic Party’s eternal bank of credit and which now reeks of mothballs. However, now that there’s an influential billionaire who isn’t woke, Krugman believes the rich are “angry and resentful” because they are “billionaires who don’t feel they are admired enough.” There’s something Freudian about this guy’s whole rant, but it’s so obvious that it goes without saying.
At this point, one would think it’s about time for some self-criticism and to admit that wokeism and the entire postmodern Left are the garbage that has gotten the Democrats into this situation, but no: “[W]e shouldn’t try to say that this [Musk being rich and loathing Democrats] is somehow the fault of politically correct liberals.” Really? Boy, you are already crazier than celebrated Cuban singer Antonio Machin’s maracas.
Krugman insinuates that right now the battle is lost, and he says it in such a way that I am overcome with a feeling of clemency toward him, as I have never seen him so discouraged. To talk about the present, he refers again to his favorite word, “kakistocracy,” recalling that it alludes to “government by the worst”; well, you know, there is always a vain attempt to sound intellectual in every Krugman article. The bad thing is that most of the time it is the same attempt.
In the end, as the economic beacon of the Left, he has made a big mess in his article, perhaps written in too much haste. I will summarize it for you: Krugman leaves and abandons the game because his people have lost the elections, so he is thinking of more profitable ventures than pontificating nonsense in the Times. And, precisely because he is leaving, he is overcome by the arrogance of the intellectual: He refuses to recognize any mistake and ends up accusing people of voting wrongly.
He does leave open one door to hope: that people will eventually realize that they have voted wrongly. It is difficult to be so arrogant and ridiculous.
The article evidences precisely what we have been saying for a long time: That it is not that people have disconnected from the elites, but that elites like Krugman and the media provosts of the Left have completely abandoned the real problems of the people, and on the road to nowhere, many have also left behind any moral scruples they might once have had.
Anyway, my friend Paul, don’t go far, what will I do without you? I will confess something to you that is a goodbye rather than a farewell: With the most sincere admiration, as a conservative columnist, nothing inspires me more than reading you because it is my way of knowing exactly where I should position myself on whatever issue you are addressing: opposite.
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