Steve Keen asked me if I had come across someone called Tim Worstall yesterday. The context was a blog post he was writing on neoliberal trolls, which is out this morning.
Steve Keen has been attacking me – most vicious, really gummy – on Twitter. Thought there was a connection there.
I rather suspect he would like to meet me. It would seem that he has written well over 4,000 blog posts about me on his blog, all identified by the hashtag ‘Ragging Ritchie’.
I have no idea what can drive such an obsession. Is it admiration? Or a deep-seated fear that I might be right? Maybe it’s dread that I could win the argument. What I do know is that this exceptionally strange behaviour has beengoing on for years.
Amazingly, I am not the one who bans him from the comments section of my blog, not the one who threatened to flounce out of a conference if I were allowed to speak at it. But, you know….
And yes, it is an obsession. We all have our little quirks and one of mine is wondering how someone who knows so little economics manages to be an economics professor.
“all identified by the hashtag ‘Ragging Ritchie’.”
Christ, the mutton-head can’t even get that right.
Interestingly, Spud’s used the word troll here correctly. Because that’s what Tim does & he’s a past master at it. He highjacks Spuds dialogues on his ideas & what he wants to achieve by them & diverts the conversation to the underlying fallacies in Spud’s economics.
Which is why you’re banned from his blog & he won’t interact with you, Tim. With an open forum, it’d end up populated by real economists discussing real economics*, with Spud’s efforts just producing the topics.
*If there are such people & things. Sometimes I wonder. Certainly nothing related to government policy.
His idea of a troll is more akin to flaming. Although I’ve often suspected he hosts some real ones. That Pilgrim’s Whatever is just too good to be real. And there’s some of the other commentators appear on there just seem to be subtly winding him up. Encouraging him to further excesses.
“ Maybe it’s dread that I could win the argument”
LOL. He hasn’t got the intellectual chops or the actual balls to engage in an argument with you or any of his critics. Shouting from his blog shows the extent of his bravery.
To be fair, it will look like an obsession to anyone on the outside.
“how someone who knows so little economics manages to be an economics professor.”
Why did Paul Krugman come to mind? There used to be a fun activity – refuting Krugman’s articles by using his academic works – but that became tedious.
There is, unfortunately, a market for economic nonsense.
Does Spud know that Steve Keen supported Brexit and thinks the Euro will collapse?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Keen
PJF
I was going to say the same – if you came here with no context it would appear like an obsession. You have to have a certain degree of exposure to ‘funding the future’ to understand why he takes such an interest.
As for the Steve Keen piece – it’s erecting about two dozen straw men and basically implying climate change scientists are never wrong or motivated by anything other than altruism. Pretty poor stuff, if better than Murphy
Steve Keen is Australia’s own version of the Spud. He’s complete nutter who is often wrong about many things, principally economics.
The problem with Spud is that he’s been wailing on with the same nonsense for decades which was fine when the economy was doing OK. Now that some sh!t has hit the fan, there’s a danger that his delusions will actually be taken seriously, if not by anyone who matters then by the thickarazzi in the media who could conceivably influence public opinion. After all, Spud has managed to get ‘how I can solve everything’ articles in the Daily Mirror.
Snake oil salesmen flourish during times of plague. Spud is potentially dangerous. It’s important that he gets called out.
That he’s an odious hypocritical egotistical c*nt as well makes this more important.
Spud is potentially dangerous. It’s important that he gets called out.
If it’s important then it ought to be be done well – which isn’t multiple posts nearly every day on every little piece of stupid emanating from Ely; so many posts that the target can point back and say “crayzeeee”.
However, if it’s for entertainment then whatevs.
Unlike Murphy, Keen does have proper academic qualifications and has been a full professor.
Like Murphy, Keen is a grifter and is currently getting nearly £5k a month in donations! https://www.patreon.com/ProfSteveKeen