Bloomberg Businessweek (Accidentally?) Makes It Clear That Elizabeth Warren Critics Are Primarily Animated By Sexism

I'm going to generously assume that the weird, critical, slam-book-style bubbles that dot the cover of the July 11-17 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek, touting an Elizabeth Warren cover story, are simply an interpretaive way of sending up Warren's myopic critics, and not the magazine itself commenting on a woman whose most fervent desire is for ordinary Americans to have intelligible loan and credit-card agreements.

All the same, seeing Warren's picture dotted with epithets like "smug" and "entitled" and "know-it-all" causes a tiny secretion of bile to churn in my bowels. Ask a woman what the barb "know-it-all" means to her, and I'm guessing you'll hear back something like, "It means I kept using my brain even after no one wanted to fuck me anymore" -- to bastardize a line from Tina Fey.

Beyond that, the only thing I'd point out is that within that coterie of "acceptable Beltway economic opinion-havers," there is smugness and entitlement in abundance. If the raw power of the smugness contained in a single Robert Rubin smirk were unleashed, it would collapse our entire galaxy. In fact, many of the snipe-goops drizzled on Warren's cover would make a lot more sense on this one:

You know that the photographer didn't ask those three, "Give me your best smug poses." They just did what came naturally!

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Comments

[John Zorabedian]

04:04 PM on 07/22/2011

I disagree with the 'too old to f***' line. Is it sexist to say that Warren is pretty?

[oftenon]

11:55 PM on 07/18/2011

Those Time cover boys are the same ones from Frontline's "The Warning" who CRASHED the financial world by ignoring Brooksley Born's dead-on predictions about toxic derivatives. In the doc, Greenspan flatly repudiates his faith in market self-regulation, twice.
Liz Warren is Brooksley's sister-in-arms, getting the same dismissive boy's club treatment.

[SitandStay]

05:34 AM on 07/15/2011

When Elizabeth Warren speaks, Republicans and bankers tremble.

[SitandStay]

05:30 AM on 07/15/2011

If they can't David Vitter it or tap their shoe under the stall door for some action then ........

[JohnBryansFontaine]

07:17 AM on 07/14/2011

Back to the coffee house
The internet is taking the news industry back to the conversational culture of the era before mass media

http://www.economist.com/node/18928416

Bulletins from the future
The internet has turned the news industry upside down, making it more participatory, social, diverse and partisan—as it used to be before the arrival of the mass media, says Tom Standage

http://www.economist.com/node/18904136

[Jack Kalpakian]

06:37 AM on 07/12/2011

I would not include Summers in the same camp of smugness. Ms Warren is doing an excellent job also; the problem lies in the other two characters here -- their commitment to the banking industry and libertarian ideology nearly wrecked the country. At least Summers understands that there are limits to frameworks, Greenspan and Rubin don't.

[Miss Peaches]

04:32 PM on 07/11/2011

Love the Tina Fey quote! It sums it up best!

[Mr Forgettable]

03:52 PM on 07/11/2011

Why do they have the Three Stooges on the cover of Time?

[carhac66]

08:13 PM on 07/11/2011

good one F&F

[HarpoSnarx]

01:38 PM on 07/11/2011

Our saviors . . . bland, Rand and canned.

[libertyanne]

01:15 PM on 07/11/2011

Very simple. If Republicans don't like her we know she's just what we need. I'm just not sure if there will be an opportunity to get her through since congress is keeping the senate in pro-forma sessions. Both chambers have to approve recess in order for it to go through and the House is stopping everything, accept of course for the debt deal.

[garysgary]

11:56 AM on 07/11/2011

I love her.....great American

[robmclaughjr]

10:34 AM on 07/11/2011

"Banks don't trust her.." That's all I need to know. She must want to do the right thing. The banks are corrupt institutions badly in need of reform. Stealing people's homes and belongings without penalty is just the tip of the iceberg.

[GustavoRejivik]

01:16 PM on 07/14/2011

I agree the Banks are corrupt .. but the largest, most corrupt entity in America is our Federal Government.

[Father Tom]

10:22 AM on 07/11/2011

"a woman whose most fervent desire is for ordinary Americans to have intelligible loan and credit-card agreements."

I that is, indeed, her most "fervent desire", then perhaps the critics are justified.

[knerd]

09:59 AM on 07/11/2011

I find it beyond strange that many on the right immediately go into "hurt-feelings-low-self-esteem mode" whenever they are confronted by factual research and plain talk from anyone in science and/or academia.

[GustavoRejivik]

01:17 PM on 07/14/2011

Give us an example you knerd ..

[knerd]

03:34 PM on 07/14/2011

GustavoRejvik,

Even in online comment sections many conservatives often get extremely defensive and lash out with name-calling and invective. I believe people who are secure in their own skin don't stoop to such behavior.

And, of course, words like "elite" "academic" and "intellectual" crop up a lot in conservative discourse about liberals and progressives--as if the words are inherently awful. Scientists who are concerned about climate change evidence are denigrated--as are those who study evolution. It almost seems like most conservatives these days are intimidated by facts instead of dispassionately considering them on their own merits.

Sincerely,
One More "Limousine Latte Know-it-All Liberal"

[fresberg]

09:37 AM on 07/11/2011

Thank you, Jason Linkins, for another intelligent comment on some of the craziness that passes for knowledge and wisdom these days.