In case the thought crossed your mind,
I didn't set out to be provocative for its own sake.
I simply can't think of any other cases of a steep decline in public health and public morale in a relatively advanced and powerful state.
There's the USSR then, and the USA now.
.jfif)
As soon as we read the first draft of Niall Ferguson’s debut Free Press column, we knew it would ruffle some feathers.
“We’re All Soviets Now” was vintage : a thorough, audacious provocation. And, unsurprisingly, it drove some people crazy.
Rebuttals poured in:
(1/9)
(1/9)
“Soviet Amerika? Nyet!” exclaimed professional optimist and fellow James Pethokoukis: “I understand the temptation to be shocking in an opinion-crowded media environment but...” (2/9) https://fasterplease.substack.com/p/soviet-amerika-nyet…
Another economist Substacker, , took issue too: “Ferguson throws in a number of talking points that don’t make sense.” (3/9)
One of the more interesting critiques came from president , for whom the biggest problem with Niall’s analysis is that—to extend the Cold War analogy—“China is hardly like the U.S. was in the 1980s.” (4/9)
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William Ruger 
@WillRuger
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Biggest problem with this analysis, which is admittedly interesting, is that China is hardly like the United States was in the 1980s. Xi is no Reagan. And China has a lot of problems today that will keep it from being as much of a challenge to us as we were to the Soviets. x.com/nfergus/status…
But the most thorough—or at least the longest—response came from , editor-in-chief of : (5/9)
Niall fought back on Twitter. Of ’s response he said: “This is so plodding and lame I think GPT-4 wrote it.” He accused of “cope.” (6/9)
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Niall Ferguson
@nfergus
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.@JonahDispatch's response to my "Late-Soviet America" piece acknowledges that most of my argument is true but then says: "We're a non-evil empire; people want to come here, not leave; and we could fix all our problems if we just applied our founding principles." It's pure cope. x.com/thedispatch/st…
Show more“If the point is to shock with hyperbole, okay,” replied . “But don’t get angry at me for pointing out it is in fact hyperbole.” (7/9)
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Jonah Goldberg
@JonahDispatch
·
I'll just add two points about this tweet because people keep asking about it. First, I think this confirms much of my objection. If the point is to shock with hyperbole, okay. But don't get angry at me for pointing out it is in fact hyperbole. Also defend the text or the x.com/nfergus/status…
Show moreWe suddenly had a real beef on our hands. Step aside, Kendrick + Drake. The showdown of the year is vs. . And we’re happy to report that they have agreed to settle it once and for all on the podcast field. So look out for that on soon. (8/9)
Catch up with the column that elicited all of this spirited debate in the first place: “We’re All Soviets Now” (9/9):
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