Friday 18 March 2011

Johann Hari – Reliably Wrong About Everything

Gosh, where to start?
The same predictions are made about every disaster – that once the lid of a tightly policed civilization is knocked off for a second, humans will become beasts. But the opposite is the case.
Really?
When the social scientist Enrico Quarantelli tried to write a thesis on how people descend into chaos and panic after disasters, he concluded: "My God! I can't find any instances of it." On the contrary, he wrote, in disasters "the social order does not break down... Co-operative rather than selfish behaviour predominates". The Blitz Spirit wasn't unique to London: it is universal.
It’s a myth that there was no looting in the Blitz. You do know that, don’t you, Hari?

You have done some research, haven’t you?
From this disaster, we can learn something fundamental about our species. It should guide how the Japanese authorities behave today – and kill off right-wing ideologies based on the belief that humans are inherently selfish tomorrow.
Right-wing ideologies?

I thought it was the left that believed in the need for a huge State apparatus to ensure that no sparrow fell without the benevolent hands of someone else’s money cushioning its fall?
Remember the gangs "marauding" through New Orleans, raping and even cannibalising people in the Super-Dome after Hurricane Katrina?
I remember the reports, yes.
It turns out they didn't exist. Years of journalistic investigations showed them to be racist rumours with no factual basis.
But not from right-wing journalists, eh, Hari? You do remember it was some left-wing race-hustling lunatic in the ‘Huffington Post’, don’t you?
Yes, there was some "looting" – which consisted of starving people breaking into closed and abandoned shops for food.
Oh, right. Like these guys. Maybe all the fishing rods were so they could catch their own food, eh Johann?

And obviously, these residential houses were cunningly disguised food warehouses, rather than places filled with electrical goods and personal belongings?

Still, you can always count on Hari to push his new-found ecolunacy whenever he gets the chance:
This is likely to be a century of ecological disasters, since each year we destabilize our climate more, in the face of plain scientific warnings.
So called ‘climate change’ isn’t causing tsunamis, you idiot.
Normally, in northern Japan, the night sky is blocked out by the yellow-orange haze of light pollution. Tonight, huddled together, the people there can see the stars.
Oh. Wow. Talk about a silver lining. There’s not really much one can add to that last, is there?

Wait. Yes there is. People have died in their thousands, and you’re happy that the survivors can see the stars without light pollution?

You, sir, are a fourteen-caret scumbag.

21 comments:

Uncle Badger said...

Well shredded, Jula. Hari is one of the most loathsome pieces of work in the business - and that's saying something!

Longrider said...

Make that 24 carat.

WitteringsfromWitney said...

Surprised you wasted your time fisking Johann Hari, Julia - he manages that himself everytime he opens his mouth!

Bill Quango MP said...

So called ‘climate change’ isn’t causing tsunamis, you idiot.

I'm sure they are working on finding evidence to prove they are.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Notwithstanding all the errors and contradictions in his article, what's his actual point? What is he trying to convince us of?

Dick Puddlecote said...

Sounds like he is making a perfect case for libertarianism and the trust of one's fellow man to make the correct choices when the state can't, or doesn't interfere.

I'm sure he'd disagree, of course.

Mjolinir said...

//Tonight, huddled together, the people there can see the stars.//

Reminds me of the 'wonderful clear skies' - over USA, post 9/11

They must rejoice in the fact - as they have no roofs - they get an even better view.

Mjolinir said...

Re- looting & the blitz.

I was born in W London Feb 1940, so too young to know about that directly, but remember aunts & uncles who lived in the East End talking about it later.

SadButMadLad said...

Like the way Richard Murphy continously gets his arguments corrected by Tim Wortsall, Hari needs his own personal blogger who can correct his mistakes. Unfortunately it's a full time unpaid job so they might not be many takers.

Ross said...

"Tonight, huddled together, the people there can see the stars"

Because their houses have fallen down.

blueknight said...

I believe the correct term is 'weapons grade twat'

It's all Maggie's fault said...

One day there will be a leftie who will talk about things as they are and discuss issues in the light of people as they actually are, rather than wearily pushing the same old tired agenda in the hope it somehow rolls through the treacle and up the hill.

But this is not the day. Until then, carry on.

Gibby Haynes said...

Oh goody, the stars. Kind of like how you lose weight by taking a shotgun blast to the stomach.

Is this guy suffering from some sort of psychological illness? I wonder if there's any correlation between 'journalism' like this and the fact that nobody reads the Independent.

Brian said...

"Some scientists" theorize that global warming causes earthquakes. We're doomed!

Mr Eugenides said...

Hari is certainly no expert on Japan.

A year ago he wrote a daft piece about robots and claimed that "former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was nearly killed a few years ago after a robot attacked him on a tour of a factory.".

You fucking what?, I thought.

So I googled it and found video of the incident.

Really.

JuliaM said...

" Hari is one of the most loathsome pieces of work in the business..."

It's the sheer callous coldness of that last para that gets me.

"I'm sure they are working on finding evidence to prove they are."

As Brian shows below, they're way ahead!

"I'm sure he'd disagree, of course."

:D

"Oh goody, the stars. Kind of like how you lose weight by taking a shotgun blast to the stomach."

*muses* Hari is kind of pudgy...

JuliaM said...

"Hari is certainly no expert on Japan. "

Oh yes! I remember that.

Now, if I employed journalists like Hari, Murphy, Toynbee, et all, I'd be monitoring blogs and Twitter to see if their columns were routinely ripped to shreds within seconds of posting.

And if they were, I might question the value of such columnists.

But no-one's going to make me editor of the 'Indy', are they?

*sigh*

Anonymous said...

@Mr Eugenides

Well, I watched the footage of the attack and it looks like James Cameron was right after all. All that was missing was the Austrain tones of "I'll be back"

Gibby Haynes said...

A year ago he wrote a daft piece about robots and claimed that "former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was nearly killed a few years ago after a robot attacked him on a tour of a factory.".

You fucking what?, I thought.

So I googled it and found video of the incident.

Really.


Man, I never realised how close to death I'd come at all those childhood discos.

Anon said...

Gibby Haynes

"Is this guy suffering from some sort of psychological illness?"

Yes

http://www.johannhari.com/2007/03/22/robbie-i-know-how-you-feel-i-ve-been-there

"I mean long, hard, daily sobbing. I mean the inability to take pleasure in anything for weeks on end. I mean a pining for death."

"I remember a long, blank summer inter-railing across Europe with my friends in almost ceaseless tears, weeping in Barcelona and Venice and Prague over nothing and everything, rousing myself only to read a few bleak pages of Albert Camus. (I was even less fun than I sound)."

He's also a drug addict, or was.

"Within a week I was sweating and shaking and crying all the time and pledging never to try it again."

SadButMadLad said...

@JuliaM - The editor of the Indy is actually doing a good job, in the twisted world of the MSM. Why? Because he is getting people to talk about him which means people are reading his stuff. It doesn't matter that what he writes is utter rubbish. So long as people read then people are also seeing adverts and that's how newspapers make most of their money.

That's why the Daily Mail's web operation, simplistic as it is, is such a success. It feeds the reader's salacious need for gossip, juciy stories, with a bit of schadenfreude thrown in.