Quite surprising.

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  • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
    ·
    1 year ago

    It's kind of amazing to me how bad Thomas Friedman's writing is. He must have written 5+ books and he's been churning out columns (etc?) for decades. And he's in his late 60s at least. He's written million upon million words. 10+m? Yet this is typical...

    Biden, I know, tried really hard to get Israeli leaders to pause in their rage and think three steps ahead — not only about how to get into Gaza to take down Hamas but also about how to get out — and how to do it with the fewest civilian casualties possible.

    This quickie edit I made improves it. He loves to make sentences confusing and too long as well.

    Biden tried his best to get Israeli leaders to pause in their rage and think three steps ahead. How to get into Gaza to take down Hamas. How to get out. How to do so with the fewest civilian casualties possible.

    He could hire an editor (me for example) to work hourly and do only basic grunt work: for example simply rephrase things. He could make them sign an NDA and his fanbase that reads his dreck would start complimenting him how he's gotten even better as a writer.

      • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Radical centrists and similar people are awful. They're a big part of the reason Vote(!) will never work. They block everything we want and are self-righteous about it too.

        Also - I'm wondering if I was (way) too hasty. If there were edits - maybe his fanbase would hate the improvements. They'd have an empty feeling because an ineffable special sauce is missing. I can't believe he used "Katie, bar the door" in what should be a serious and somber article. What a clown.

        Israel is not likely to let Iran use its proxies to hit Israel without eventually firing a missile directly at Tehran. Israel has missile-armed submarines that are probably in the Persian Gulf as we speak. If that gets going, it’s Katie, bar the door. [If war starts] the United States, Russia and China could all be drawn in directly or indirectly.