What's My Name, Fool?

For the record, my name is "Matthew Yglesias":

This will annoy what's his name who blogs a lot about me. Has he nothing better to blog about? Actually, that's how makes a living: by writing about people who are smarter than him and know more about the world than him. And since neither smarts not knowledge carry much cachet; with the left blogosphere (also not with the right blogosphere) its stars like what's his name ridicule the writers whose arguments he can't quite grasp.

In my next life, maybe I'll try to take a more respectable path to media prominence, something like using my wife's money to buy an established magazine.

Comments

Ouch!

Posted by Randy Paul | May 19, 2007 8:09 PM

oh shit. nice one.

also, what a ridiculous piece of writing. did he really just make the argument that he was too smart and that his arguments were too complex? i guess a person could feel that way, but how could your personal censor not snag that on the way out as absurdly arrogant?

Posted by b.schac | May 19, 2007 8:10 PM

Congratulations. You've finally arrived, what's his name.

Posted by Dan | May 19, 2007 8:11 PM

What a tool. What a twisted, malevolent, sophomoric, uxorious little suck of negative energy that guy is.

Whatever his name is. Meretz Party, I think.

Posted by Dave L | May 19, 2007 8:13 PM

the only evidence we have that marty peretz knows anything about the world is that he married up, generally a good way to increase your prominence.

Posted by howard | May 19, 2007 8:15 PM

His grasp of grammar is enough to convince me of who's his wife's intellectual superiority.

Burned.

Posted by Gregorio | May 19, 2007 8:16 PM

Yep, the proper Martin Peretz route to gaining media influence was first to pay his dues by spending years as a hard-working gigolo.

Now the Internet comes along and messes things up. The sheer nerve of young smartalecks these days...

Posted by RKU | May 19, 2007 8:16 PM

I love his two typos while saying how almighty intelligent he is.
(Actually, that's how HE makes a living) (And since neither smarts NOR knowledge carry much cachet; with the left blogosphere)

Posted by Grogor | May 19, 2007 8:20 PM

Ever since Peretz started his blog, I've had the increasing suspicion that he's finally become completely unglued. There's his strange fixation on George Soros -- including his extended attempt to cast Soros as some sort of Nazi collaborator. There are his odd and racist asides on the nature of the Arab mind. And now there's the strikingly juvenile paragraph quoted above -- juvenile not only in the name-calling (or name-not-calling) sense, but also in the nonexistent argumentation.

Peretz is the perfect example of someone who ought not to have a blog -- if you're a petty and self-important gasbag lucky enough to have smart people working for you, it's a shame to use a medium that prevents them from stepping in before you embarass yourself...

Posted by dc observer | May 19, 2007 8:21 PM

What a lowlife he is. Is that really supposed to hurt your feelings, that the old laughingstock pretends not to know your name? Anyway, keep it up, Matt; you're doing good work.

Posted by ogged | May 19, 2007 8:24 PM

Why did you stop at two? The gross misuse of the semicolon is egregious enough, but the complete lack of coherence of his payoff sentence sends this post into a Rosie's blog-level of incompetence.

its stars like what's his name ridicule the writers whose arguments he can't quite grasp.

Posted by Gregorio | May 19, 2007 8:24 PM

What's with the semicolon? You seem still to be enough of a Young Turk to tick of Martin Peretz!
Also, my own blog is back in business.

Posted by Trolly McTroll | May 19, 2007 8:30 PM

I would come up with a witty put-down of Peretz, but it's not necessary, as your final sentence is perfect. Perfect.

Posted by Freddie | May 19, 2007 8:31 PM

Jesus what a douchebag.

Oh and MY, you need to post the playlist for the Ultimate 90's Rock Party or whatever.

Posted by Random Dude | May 19, 2007 8:31 PM

Awwww snap.

It's beef!

Posted by lowellfield | May 19, 2007 8:33 PM

So awesome. Now, if only someone at TNR would leak pictures of an incontinent Peretz, things could really get rolling. Hell, just send a picture of Peretz; I'm sure the magician who crafted the unused caricature can handle "incontinent."

how could your personal censor not snag that on the way out as absurdly arrogant?

Or, given what Peretz has written or supported over the last several years, just absurd.

Posted by SomeCallMeTim | May 19, 2007 8:37 PM

You've got Mr. Singer Sewing Machine hopping. This is fun!

Posted by John Emerson | May 19, 2007 8:41 PM

Now, if you'd just get some advice about how to snag heiresses with your premium schlong.....

Posted by John Emerson | May 19, 2007 8:44 PM

was he drunk when he wrote that?

Posted by Ian D-B | May 19, 2007 8:45 PM

That's pretty awesome.

But I'm sure if you egg him on some more, things could get much more entertaining.

Posted by goosen | May 19, 2007 8:50 PM

mazel tov.

there's certain people I'd like to think of as my nemesis, but they have no idea I exist & probably never will...

Posted by Katherine | May 19, 2007 8:54 PM

Shouldn't the last sentence say

"like using my wife's money to buy an established magazine only to have it taken away from me by Canadians after circulation fell to an embarrassing low number."

PS Tactful of you to not mention a certain past embarrassment (*cough* Lee Siegal ). Or are you holding that particular arrow in reserve?? hee hee

Posted by Don Williams | May 19, 2007 8:59 PM

Don't listen to Katherine, MY. You haven't made it yet. There's more to achieve. There are dreams to be lived. Someday, if you work hard, he might say that you are (or at least something you write is) worse than the Protocols of Zion.

Only then will you have achieved The Glow.

Posted by SomeCallMeTim | May 19, 2007 8:59 PM

I wonder, since he seems to think it's common, which other lefty bloggers does he consider stupid and ignorant?

Posted by DJ | May 19, 2007 9:02 PM

The synonymous book by Zirin is excellent, by the way. Really it's only flaw is that it isn't, at heart, a book, but is instead approximately 4 introductions to 4 properly-so-called books.

Posted by sherifffruitfly | May 19, 2007 9:05 PM

which other lefty bloggers does he consider stupid and ignorant?

Probably all those Jewish anti-Semites we've got.

Posted by Quarterican | May 19, 2007 9:07 PM

PS Any truth to the rumor that Marty's wife only invested in TNR because of pleading from Marty's Mom?

Posted by Don Williams | May 19, 2007 9:08 PM

I for one is very grateful. What's his name's original name was very hard to spell.

Posted by gregor | May 19, 2007 9:08 PM

Doesn't his statement that the Jerusalem Post article "will annoy" you suggest that he's the one who "can't quite grasp" your arguments? That article just argues that the Fatah-Hamas "unity" government is not much of a unified government at all. But you never said it was, did you?

Wasn't your whole point that the Palestinian voters chose Hamas to govern (as it was obvious that they would do), and that it's silly for the U.S. to demand elections and then refuse to deal with the people who win? And that the U.S.'s refusal to deal with the elected government is the whole reason that the fake ("Mickey Mouse") "unity" government exists?

Posted by Christopher M | May 19, 2007 9:13 PM

And since neither smarts not knowledge carry much cachet; with the left blogosphere (also not with the right blogosphere) its stars like what's his name ridicule the writers whose arguments he can't quite grasp.

Peretz may not realize that it's an inability to grasp his grammar rather than his arguments that puts his detractors at a disadvantage. Too bad editors don't get edited.

Posted by RSA | May 19, 2007 9:14 PM

This is fantastic. This is gold what's your name, gold!

Posted by Nick Kaufman | May 19, 2007 9:17 PM

“You don’t punch down. If you’re in my position, you punch upwards.”
-Keith Olbermann about Bill O'Reilly

Indeed.

Posted by sangfroid826 | May 19, 2007 9:22 PM

Looks like thingy at TNR dropped a stitch.

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | May 19, 2007 9:29 PM

Matt, in twenty years, you'll be one of the most respected opinion journalists in the country, while Marty Peretz will be dead, forgotten, and (to the few who remember who he was) disgraced.

Does Marty have children? If so, hopefully his grandchildren will grow up to be ashamed of his memory.

Posted by JP | May 19, 2007 9:30 PM

My God, what a pathetic spectacle this Remar Pretzy has become! Difficult even to imagine what it's like over at TNR whenever he lays another one of these turds. Do people there just go around with paper bags of their heads? Maybe we should take up a collection to provide them each with an "I work for an illiterate" T-shirt.

Posted by SqueakyRat | May 19, 2007 9:30 PM

The ironic thing is that MY blogs about Peretz far less than he used to...I hope my complaints about Matt's Spine-rebutting mania back in those days didn't contribute to Peretz's line of attack...

Thing is, all the Spine posts that Matt rebutted were racist BS, and all the rebuttals were true.

Posted by Mr. Noah | May 19, 2007 9:33 PM

Would you two get a room already, or is this some sort of Atlantic, TNR subscription drive?

Posted by jerry | May 19, 2007 9:44 PM

Aw, sweetie, you're still single. There's still hope for your career, provided you date right.

Listen to Marty! He knows stuff!

Posted by anonymous | May 19, 2007 9:45 PM

Granted, it is not an entirely insignificant accomplishment for a heterosexual man to bag a rich girl (although I've never seen a picture of her so I'm not sure whether this compliment should be further qualified) but buying a magazine whose most distinguished writer was a fairly pretentious lower 2nd tier playwright (who himself is only remembered because one or two genuinely gifted screenwriters adapted one of his plays into a really good movie) and then spending your entire career passing off middlebrow Washington groupthink as something Bold and Historic numbs the noggin.

Posted by Mulligan | May 19, 2007 9:49 PM

Duel

Posted by Mansion | May 19, 2007 10:14 PM

Too f-ing funny. MY is a demigod.

Posted by Zagnut | May 19, 2007 10:15 PM

This may be the most perfect one-line retort I've ever seen.

Posted by AP | May 19, 2007 10:37 PM

I dislike you, think you are lazy on this blog, dislike the views of most of the other posters. But yes, your last sentence was one for the ages. Well done.

Sk.

Posted by Sk | May 19, 2007 10:53 PM

posterized!

that was the equivalent of baron's fantastic hilite-reel dunk on andrei kirilenko.

i'm making that face that adonal foyle makes at the end of the clip...

Posted by ethan | May 19, 2007 11:13 PM

Marty Peretz thinks you're a star! You've made it!

Posted by brian | May 19, 2007 11:16 PM

“think you are lazy on this blog”

I agree with this even though I read Matthew more than anyone else lately. He could be doing so much better, really. Maybe it's just that I'm getting old, but Matthew often seems extremely young to me. He makes a lot of young person's mistakes that a number of other young bloggers don't.

That said, my opinion of MY has gone up just because he could irritate Peretz so much. There was a time when I loved TNR and even though it was during Peretz's time, it's become obvious to me over the years that Marty really is the source of most that's wrong there. It's that he's gotten worse over the years. (Though for me Kelly was the breaking point.)

If Matthew can get his goat enough to cause him to go so completely nuts that he finally has to retire into silence and no influence at TNR, Matthew would be doing the world, and TNR, a big favor.

Peretz, I say this as a former subscriber: I despise you.

Posted by Keith M Ellis | May 19, 2007 11:21 PM

What's hard to spell about Labouisse Farnsworth? Come on.

Peretz could be around for 30 more years. Kerensky of the Russian Revolution lived until 1970. When he died everyone was amazed.

Posted by John Emerson | May 19, 2007 11:50 PM

Wow This is turning into a Hip-Hop feud. Will Matt do a Marty diss-track on a mixtape with Eric Altermen and Ezra Klein?

Posted by Eric864 | May 20, 2007 12:14 AM

"[What's his name makes a living] by writing about people who are smarter than him and know more about the world than him"

Is it supposed to be somehow more virtuous to blog about people who are dumber and know less?

Posted by "Q" the Enchanter | May 20, 2007 12:14 AM

I think you should just challenge him to a duel Matt.

Posted by Dan Kervick | May 20, 2007 12:14 AM

"I agree with this even though I read Matthew more than anyone else lately. He could be doing so much better, really."

I actually think Matthew's laziness is one of his charms.

If his posts were well thought out, there'd be less room for his commenters to correct him.

"There was a time when I loved TNR and even though it was during Peretz's time, it's become obvious to me over the years that Marty really is the source of most that's wrong there."

Meh. Peretz has been both very good and very bad as a publisher. He's built up a great magazine and simultaneously destroyed a great magazine.

Or put another way, for every abysmal thing he's done as a publisher, he's done something very good.

"Peretz, I say this as a former subscriber: I despise you."

To know Peretz is to loathe Peretz. Had he not stepped into the light with his blog, few would have realized just how repulsive many of his personal beliefs were. Too bad, as he's had some mixed successes shepherding the mag during his tenure.

Posted by Petey | May 20, 2007 12:23 AM

I also note that the affected condescension he uses to set up his empty ad hominem would be rather more convincing if he hadn't used your name in the title of a post within the previous 24 hours.

It would truly take the wisdom of Solomon to determine what's worse: his ideas or his prose.

Posted by Scott Lemieux | May 20, 2007 12:23 AM

I wanna see you two on bloggingheads! It's on!

Posted by chris | May 20, 2007 12:25 AM

"I also note that the affected condescension he uses to set up his empty ad hominem would be rather more convincing if he hadn't used your name in the title of a post within the previous 24 hours."

Yup. I also thought that was kinda funny.

Peretz has many of the classic symptoms of bullyism. He doesn't expect pushback, so he gets confused about how to deal with it when it comes.

Posted by Petey | May 20, 2007 12:34 AM

Matt, I've been searching for a way to punch up bloggerheads.tv. Let's face it, it's pretty dull.

BlogebrityDeathMatch.com is available.

This could be the break out that bloggerheads needs.

If you win against Peretz, I can guarantee you an option for six more.

Posted by Robert Wright | May 20, 2007 12:50 AM

I would pay at least 20 bucks on pay-per-view to see Yglesias vs. Peretz.

Congratulations, Matt, you chose your enemy wisely. I had my doubts about the constant baiting of Peretz, but it's paying off. Not only does he seem to collapsing into spittle-flecked raving, but the whole exchange has done much to reveal the raw anti-Arab racism so common among a certain segment of Washington opinion. Not to mention shining a light on the true nature of TNR as a propaganda arm of the Israeli right wing.

Posted by MQ | May 20, 2007 1:26 AM

PWN3D!!!!1

Posted by Matt Taylor | May 20, 2007 1:51 AM

I feel the entire readership of matthewyglesias.com would pony up some dough (maybe, like, a dollar or two) to see peretz vs yglesias on bloggingheads. I mean, it wouldn't be much of a fight, but if we could get a pre diavlog tour a la de la hoya - meriweather, that would be nice. Maybe yall could do movable snipe on jewcy to build up some hype, who knows. But it would the diavlog of a millenium

Posted by matt z | May 20, 2007 1:55 AM

Nice slam.

But you're nobody in this town til' Marty calls you an anti-semite by name.

I wonder how long it'll be before TNR figures out how to make the Spine appear only when Marty is looking at the site.

Posted by Jon H | May 20, 2007 2:44 AM

I predict Marty's response:

"I know you are, but what am I?"

Posted by Jon H | May 20, 2007 2:53 AM

SNAP. happy birthday, roomie.

Posted by catherine | May 20, 2007 3:05 AM

Or put another way, for every abysmal thing he's done as a publisher, he's done something very good.

Yes, without Peretz we wouldn't have had Kaus, or Krauthammer, or Sullivan, or Michael Kelly, or Kinsley, or Beinart..... um.....um.... lost my train of thought there, I'm sure it will come back to me.

Posted by John Emerson | May 20, 2007 5:46 AM

For the record, my name is "Matthew Yglesias"

"Miss Jackson", if you're nasty.

Posted by Thlayli | May 20, 2007 5:50 AM

Matt, at this point picking on Peretz any more would just be bullying, it's like mocking the slow kid in the class. Marty really doesn't get it and lacks the intellectual ability to ever understand just how stupid he actually is. You really need to keep going after Beinart and Chait - they provide Marty with intellectual cover for his putrid rants and should be made to feel all the shame they deserve.

Posted by vanya | May 20, 2007 6:51 AM

Why do you think that post was about you?

Posted by ~~~~ | May 20, 2007 6:51 AM

"You really need to keep going after Beinart and Chait"

Excepting, of course, that Beinart and Chait are smarter than Matthew, so going after them would have the same effect as when Peretz goes after Matthew...

Posted by Petey | May 20, 2007 7:36 AM

Now I'm even more keen to read Alan Dershowitz's review of Matt's book in TNR.

Posted by otto | May 20, 2007 8:56 AM

Matt, take it easy on the "wife's money" meme, at least until you've fully repaid the "parents' money" that got you started. I'm guessing it went (still goes?) far beyond a Harvard education without loans or jobs, but even if that's it, it's a lot.

Posted by old guy | May 20, 2007 9:37 AM

Are you sure, Petey? Even if we accept your argument straight up, you're claiming they're smarter, not just more knowledgeable or polished. It could be more veteran savvy than talent.

Surely you could allow that Matt is the rookie big man who has yet to develop his 17 foot jumper. And maybe playoff intensity as well, as MY has a few too many Lebronesque mail-it-games (yet this has to be set up against the sheer volume of what he produces). Blogging is mostly unsupervised, and thus encourages a street ball mentality over well coached fundamentals.

Posted by nolaboyd | May 20, 2007 9:44 AM

Matt, take it easy on the "wife's money" meme, at least until you've fully repaid the "parents' money" that got you started. I'm guessing it went (still goes?) far beyond a Harvard education without loans or jobs, but even if that's it, it's a lot.

Posted by old guy | May 20, 2007 9:48 AM

Excepting, of course, that Beinart and Chait are smarter than Matthew, so going after them would have the same effect as when Peretz goes after Matthew.

Sorry, what? Chait's smart all right (maybe not smarter than MY, but smart enough), but Beinart? What's a single original idea he's ever had? Come on.

If you think anything Matt is liable to say about Beinart or Chait would come close to Peretz's demented screeds... your head's not screwed on right, dude.

Posted by lemuel pitkin | May 20, 2007 10:33 AM

Happy Birthday, Matt.

Seems you enjoyed the present given to you by Peretz, at least!

Congrats on an impressive year. Keep up the good work.

Cheers.

Posted by SoCalJustice | May 20, 2007 10:41 AM

"If you think anything Matt is liable to say about Beinart or Chait would come close to Peretz's demented screeds... your head's not screwed on right, dude."

Well, I thought it would have been plainly apparent from what I wrote that I think Matthew's screeds are notably more intelligent than Peretz's screeds, but perhaps I should have spelled it all out in a bit more detail for the slow members of the audience.

Redundancy of rhetoric is the key to reach the cheap seats.

Posted by Petey | May 20, 2007 10:47 AM

Excepting, of course, that Beinart and Chait are smarter than Matthew, so going after them would have the same effect as when Peretz goes after Matthew...

That's so sad, Petey. Did one of them give you his letter jacket?

Anyway, this whole thing still makes me laugh. If Peretz doesn't respond in kind, though, it's time to move on. Onward and upward. Next up: that fatass Hitchens!

Posted by SomeCallMeTim | May 20, 2007 10:56 AM

"Blogging is mostly unsupervised, and thus encourages a street ball mentality over well coached fundamentals."

All too true.

-----

To your larger point, sure. For all I know, Matthew could devastate Chait and Beinart. Similarly, Cleveland could devastate Detroit in their upcoming series. Anything is possible.

But I'd bet against Cleveland and Matthew at even money odds.

Posted by Petey | May 20, 2007 10:59 AM

"That's so sad, Petey. Did one of them give you his letter jacket?"

But if I think that Matthew is eating Marty's lunch, does that mean Matthew is giving me his letter jacket. Is that so sad too?

Posted by Petey | May 20, 2007 11:03 AM

"I feel the entire readership of matthewyglesias.com would pony up some dough (maybe, like, a dollar or two) to see peretz vs yglesias on bloggingheads."

To hell with bloggingheads. Three words: DRUNKEN. KNIFE. FIGHTING.

Posted by LaFollette Progressive | May 20, 2007 11:27 AM

A well deserved smackdown for lord of the pies matt yglesias. Youre a snide little shit who wouldnt know the truth if it stole your sandwich.

Posted by pimp hand strikes! | May 20, 2007 11:28 AM

maybe he meant Voldemort.

(happy birthday, matt.)

(and what's with the 'lazy matt' theme? he's one of the few bloggers who actually writes posts instead of just mass cutting-and-pasting and linking...)

Posted by Adi Nadimpalli | May 20, 2007 11:53 AM

Beinart is a bit of a genius. A man who got the whole war in Iraq wrong, yet is connected enough to get elevated in the cronysphere to a pundit's perch at Time to write about foreign policy, has to be almost as smart as Robert Novak. Like a top ranking sports team, that Beinart - or at least a top ranking one in fantasy baseball. The man whose biggest idea is a return to Truman "strong on national security Democrats" in the year in which Democrats won on an anti-war platform; the man who choses to exemplify his stratospheric I.Q. by debating Jonah Goldberg (Petey must really be in awe of the Goldberg. What vast erudition!), is perhaps the Walter Lippmann of our times. That is, if Walter Lippmann had been the victim of some accidental lobotomy at the age of thirty.

Posted by roger | May 20, 2007 12:26 PM

"Petey must really be in awe of the Goldberg. What vast erudition!"

Goldberg is fun to read, but being a Republican means operating with a 40 IQ point handicap in any debate. So any median Democratic pundit can handle him easily.

Posted by Petey | May 20, 2007 12:33 PM

Alyglesias KOs Floyd Peretz but only after Peretz suffers a brutal beating in the ring. Great fighting, you're an up and coming boxer!

Posted by joejoejoe | May 20, 2007 1:13 PM

Happy B-Day Matt!

2"x 4", meet face.

SomeCallmeTim - you have that right. KO in the 3rd for Mr. Y, now on to bigger and better fish. Is Broder at the end of this chain? I know that over at Marginal Revolution, Tyler is just laughing and laughing at this entire situation.

Posted by mickslam | May 20, 2007 1:21 PM

Matt's quisling voodoo tango and wango dance will easily destroy Beinart. Chait might give a fair match.

Beinart and Chait are terribly compromised and degraded by years of catering to Peretz -- their reflexes are jammed so they've both lost a step or two.

Posted by John Emerson | May 20, 2007 1:32 PM

Granted, it is not an entirely insignificant accomplishment for a heterosexual man to bag a rich girl

wee bit of a problem with your statement. Not that there is anything wrong with being gay, but Marty's serial infidelities ain't with girls. Not a one.

Please please please, Matt, stop encouraging the stupidity at TNR. Enough with these noxious gasbags and their racist-in-chief. Let them die a slow and quite death.

Posted by gawker | May 20, 2007 1:47 PM

Marty Parrots is being one of these jerk types if you ask me.

Posted by Birdie | May 20, 2007 1:51 PM

"But if I think that Matthew is eating Marty's lunch, does that mean Matthew is giving me his letter jacket. Is that so sad too?"

Petey, everything you write has a certain tinge of melancholy.

Now go run your tongue over your Mac, you Blue State counterpart to a beer-swilling, deer-mangling trailer-park meathead.

Posted by Kyle | May 20, 2007 2:56 PM

Not that there is anything wrong with being gay, but Marty's serial infidelities ain't with girls. Not a one.

Oh. Oooooh.

Links and/or details, please?

Posted by lemuel pitkin | May 20, 2007 4:17 PM

You'd think this Peretz fellow would swoon over lib Hitler Hillary. Almost no one loves Israel as much as Mrs. Clinton ("my daughter Chelsea and I had a great time water skiing there; we loved the views of where God smote all those people from our hotel") and I think it can be said that few people love that Iraq War as much as this lady. But alas: she's a phoney and Marty is the real deal, a tolly serious Man of War.

Posted by Sandie | May 20, 2007 10:37 PM

Uh, that should be "like using my wife's money to buy an established magazine and preside over its lingering death from pernicious anaemia."

Posted by sdougherty | May 21, 2007 7:43 AM