Plutocracy, Kakistocracy, Dorkocracy

Krugman’s last NYT column points out that one reason why we’re in our current mess is that Elon Musk et al. remain, to use some technical jargon from the disciplines of sociology, economics, and political science, complete dorks despite all their billions, and they’re really really mad about that:

These days there has been a lot of discussion of the hard right turn of some tech billionaires, from Elon Musk on down. I’d argue that we shouldn’t overthink it, and we especially shouldn’t try to say that this is somehow the fault of politically correct liberals. Basically it comes down to the pettiness of plutocrats who used to bask in public approval and are now discovering that all the money in the world can’t buy you love.

So is there a way out of the grim place we’re in? What I believe is that while resentment can put bad people in power, in the long run it can’t keep them there. At some point the public will realize that most politicians railing against elites actually are elites in every sense that matters and start to hold them accountable for their failure to deliver on their promises. And at that point the public may be willing to listen to people who don’t try to argue from authority, don’t make false promises, but do try to tell the truth as best they can.

No matter how many nations he buys or rockets he launches or women he impregnates Elon Musk is a dork. And he’s extremely resentful about this truth we hold to be self-evident. And resentment is the emotional and political coin of the age.

Krugman also, rightfully, reminds everyone who lied to themselves about the Bush administration and Iraq, which of course was almost every Very Serious Person out there besides him, that they allowed themselves to get taken for a ride by some of the worst people in the world:

Back in 2002 and ’03, those of us who argued that the case for invading Iraq was fundamentally fraudulent received a lot of pushback from people refusing to believe that an American president would do such a thing. Who would say that now?

Well Donald Trump is president so . . . This does remind me of something struck me when I started doing the Law School Scam project 15 years ago, which is that particular little grift worked as well as it did for as long as it did because a lot of 22 year olds couldn’t really believe that a bunch of respected authority figures would just be lying to them straight up in order to steal their money. I suppose we do have less of that particular brand of naivete these days, for better and worse.

As for Krugman’s 25 years of fighting the good fight in an often horrible environment for the telling of self-evident truths: You’ve done a man’s job, sir.