Thomas Friedman

Thomas "Moustache of Understanding"Moustache of Understanding Friedman is an author and journalist at the New York Times. He's won the Pulitzer Prize three times: In 1983 for his coverage of Lebanon, 1988 for his coverage of Israel, and 2002 for his commentary on the War on Terror and its effect on the global political climate. 
Friedman's columns are probably the definition of "your mileage may vary." On the plus side, he covers a lot of foreign and international affairs, something sorely lacking in much of the US media. He travels extensively and does a good amount of in-depth first-hand reporting. On the flip side, you'll also get a lot of limp, tepid, "Washington consensus"-type commentary (often bundled with anilingus toward the powerful) repackaged as something deep and insightful. That's exactly the type he is — Friedman is touted as "the guy all the politicians and Beltway insiders read." That in itself makes him worth reading, right or wrong, though, as a barometer on just what the "Washington consensus" is.
Friedman has a bachelor's degree in Mediterranean Studies and a master's degree in Middle Eastern Studies.Thomas L. Friedman Official Biography He's been falsely claimed by others including by Snopes to be an economist,Have Two McDonald’s-Containing Countries Ever Been at War with Each Other? by Alex Kasprak (6 December 2018) Snopes.Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention (23:45, 16 November 2010‎) Middlebury Mediawiki. perhaps because of his McDonald's Theory of Conflict Prevention (a.k.a., "Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention") or because he taught a single class in economics.
==Iraq==
Friedman is now infamous for his incessant cheerleading for the Iraq War and repeatedly failing to predict when the mission would actually be accomplished. This got to the point where the term "Friedman Unit" briefly entered the political lexicon as a tongue-in-cheek way of saying "six months" (the length of time that Friedman expected the war to take). Interestingly, he skipped right past the trumped-up WMD charges Dubya made up and supported the war for the purposes of regime change. Guess he was ahead of the curve on that one!
This is somewhat contradicted by an earlier column. During the Gulf War, Friedman keened that "the best of all worlds" would be "an iron-fisted Iraqi junta without Saddam Hussein" that would rule Iraq pretty much the same way he did, but with the approval of Turkey and their masters in Washington. But for the time being, the Ba'ath party were too entrenched, so the U.S. would have to settle for second-best—namely, leave Saddam in power, so he could continue to rule Iraq with "an iron fist".Friedman, "The World; A Rising Sense That Iraq's Hussein Must Go", New York Times. July 7, 1991. Retrieved on 2008-01-13. (He likes that phrase.The Lexus and the Olive Tree, (1999), pp. 443-444. Friedman: "The hidden market will never work without a hidden fist.")
===Suck on this!===
About a month after the 9/11 attacks, Friedman expressed his confidence in Donald Rumsfeld and what he perceived as a revival of Vietnam's "madman theory".Norman Soloman, "How the Media Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Donald Rumsfeld", Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting. ("He’s just a little bit crazy, and in this kind of war, they always count on being able to out-crazy us, and I’m glad we got some guy on our bench that our quarterback — who’s just a little bit crazy, not totally, but you never know what that guy’s going to do, and I say that’s my guy.") In an interview with Charlie Rose in 2003, Friedman was asked if it was worth it, considering how out of reach peace within Iraq seemed. Friedman responded with a lecture on US society and claimed that there was a "moral bubble" in the United States in the 1990's which involved Americans being "okay" with terrorism (because Al Qaeda was definitely in Iraq). His gibbering tirade ended with:
It is not clear to the collective brainpower of RationalWiki what average Iraqis had to do with the moral failings of Americans nor how bombing (or torturing) them is showing that we care, but, admittedly, we are simple creatures who cannot comprehend Friedman's wise but mysterious ways.
==Globalization==
Friedman has become the high priest of globalization apologetics over the past twenty years or so. He rarely seems to find any flaws with the free trade agreements he speaks in favor of. A salient quote on his stance on trade policy:
On his book The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization, Friedman argued that the post-Cold War World was struggling to find a balance between seeking prosperity and development, which he symbolized with the Japanese car Lexus, and the desire to retain some traditions, symbolized by the olive tree. In this book, Friedman developed the " theory", the idea that that both countries that have a McDonald's have ever fought a war against each other. A few days after the book was published, NATO bombed Yugoslav.
==Support For Authoritarians==
Going through Friendman's archives, one of the most startling things about him is how often he praises the authoritarians of the world. Among the highlights:
*Friedman wrote an article praising the one-party autocracy of China.https://www.businessinsider.com/why-thomas-friedman-wants-china-style-authoritarianism-in-the-us-2009-9
*He wrote a column praising Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Price of Saudi Arabia, which many compared to state media due to how propagandic it was.https://www.democracynow.org/2017/11/30/mehdi_hasan_rips_thomas_friedmans_nauseating
*He said Americans need to "keep rootin' for Putin."https://web.archive.org/web/20120203133309/https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/23/opinion/russia-s-last-line.html
==His books==
=== The World is Flat ===
Friedman should only be ingested in column-sized doses; levels of Friedman beyond that are potentially fatal. His books tend to be a melange of the latest buzzwords, orgasms over the newest office tech toys, and a whole bunch of metaphors and similes that pile up to incredibly asinine heights of literary incompetence. Should you somehow feel the need to read a Friedman book, make sure it comes with a translation device. A peek at a few of his "insights" from The World is Flat:
Later on:
George Carlin never knew it, but he actually composed a poem summarizing a Friedman book.
Matt Taibbi's review offers the definitive takedown of Friedman's longer-form writing:
=== The Lexus and the Olive Tree ===
While his 1999 book The Lexus and the Olive Tree popularized the concept, Friedman first proposed his Golden Arches theory of conflict in 1996, stating:
The claim was already false back then if one accepts the 1989 as a war. Besides that, it has also been, unsurprisingly, contradicted on:
* 1999: India and Pakistan
* 2006: Lebanon and Israel
* 2008: Russia and Georgia
* 2014: Russia and Ukrainehttp://www.slate.com/blogs/the_world_/2014/04/04/mcdonald_s_pulls_out_of_crimea_will_tom_friedman_be_retroactively_proven.html
* 2022: Russia and Ukraine, again...
However, the argument that the observation theory was pushing wasn't so crazy:
A year later, the book received a revised edition, with Friedman commenting on the criticism:
==Friedmanisms==
A Friedmanism is a specific variety of false equivalence, in which a pundit criticizes both sides of a conflict on an issue, while espousing the views of one side."Mike Bloomberg's Gun Control Friedmanism", Slate The phenomenon is so named because of Friedman's frequent urging of the creation of a new political party that would espouse a certain set of views...all of which are actually already held by Democrats. Friedman seems to blame Democrats for the obstructionism of Republicans.
==See also==
*Chinese Dream
==External links==
*Some hilarious imitations of Friedman's distinctive style of expression (he sounds much the same speaking as he does writing) can be found here and here.
*We have reached Peak Friedman.
==Notes==
==References==
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