“As to the base people who conduct these newspapers, though they deserve to be knocked on the head and left on the highways or on commons for the carrion-crows to eat, they are not worthy of my vengeance; it is their infamous setters-on and backers-on that call for my vengeance; and on these I inflict it whenever I can, and rejoice when I see it inflicted by others…it is not the stick, but the hand that wields it, that the sensible dog always bites.” - William Cobbett, 18 December 18301
We live in a time of perpetual elite failure, particularly among those who are meant to be our thought leaders and who seem to maintain their positions despite being wrong just about all the time. Such “luminaries” as Matt Yglesias and Tyler Cowen notwithstanding, this class is still given far too much cred…
