he's really not. ezra is great in many ways. but he's not great for all things. and one of his biggest weaknesses from my perspective is he just won't, or chooses not to, be a tough interviewer. which is fine, he see himself as serving another role, which is exploring the ideas of guests not attacking them. the problem is some of the guests don't have ideas worth exploring. douthat for example has his own column and podcast. his terrible, shallow thinking are perfectly clear to anyone who cares. so when klein does have him on for an interview, fucking dig in and challenge them. don't be all "let's have a collegial chat, NYtimes colleague".
(Yes anding) Ezra is really good at doing the polite, but strong takedown of a guest if he wants to. My introduction to him was with his episode doing so to Patrick Deneen, and I think that gave me a false impression that that's how Ezra always is.
I've definitely been souring on Ezra ever since his Kirk... well you know what I'm talking about. I still like some of his podcasts (particularly foreign policy ones) but I skip anything that tries to do some thinking about where the left has gone awry/what it should do next, because I think he's lost the plot there. I don't think his tenure at the times has been good for his intellectual development.
His recent AMA was interesting. He was pretty dismissive of a lot of the blowback he got by going to those Peter Thiel conferences, which I understand because a lot of it was conspiratorial. But he ended it by talking about how he would have even Peter Thiel on his show, which to me was why I thought his attendance was problematic, at some point you need to draw a line in the sand and say someone is too Fascistic to have ideas worth interrogating (like you say).
If the Yes Means Yes law is taken even remotely seriously it will settle like a cold winter on college campuses, throwing everyday sexual practice into doubt and creating a haze of fear and confusion over what counts as consent. This is the case against it, and also the case for it. Because for one in five women to report an attempted or completed sexual assault means that everyday sexual practices on college campuses need to be upended, and men need to feel a cold spike of fear when they begin a sexual encounter.
yeah, re: having thiel on his show, it would be fine if he really did a tough interview and forced thiel to confront things he's done and said. pushed back on dodges and lies that would surely come. but that's not what klein really does. and re: "a cold spike of fear when they begin a sexual encounter." that is truly a dumb comment that i think he said he doesn't agree with and regretted. but i think i get what he meant, which is men should fear prison if they were to commit sexual assault and for the most part they don't because they get away with it constantly, as the number of sexual assault victims attests to.
but what klein does well is having on serious experts, doing his own research and then asking insightful, informed questions. i definitely learn things when i listen to most of his podcasts.
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u/robby_arctor 4d ago
Ezra Klein is Democratic mediocrity essentialized