My first real interaction with Noah Smith was him telling me - just after I’d finished writing a book on the Reformation - that rulers picking their religion only happened after 1648, which he “proved” by linking to the Wikipedia page of the Peace of Westphalia. It’s who he’d always been. - ThreadSky

patrickwyman.bsky.social • 14 hours ago

My first real interaction with Noah Smith was him telling me - just after I’d finished writing a book on the Reformation - that rulers picking their religion only happened after 1648, which he “proved” by linking to the Wikipedia page of the Peace of Westphalia. It’s who he’d always been.

Comments

raymondguiteras.bsky.social•13 hours ago

His professional economics takes are good.

roland00.bsky.social•14 hours ago

god you are triggering internet memories

about him having opinions about the Hapsburgs and how they can not have an empire … *then* … else they would be more famous and rich … now as in today

adistantdream.bsky.social•14 hours ago

All the very annoying centrist pundits have something at least to offer except Noah Smith, whose output consists entirely of reading Wikipedia articles and proclaiming himself an expert on it that week.

christosilvia.bsky.social•9 hours ago

He's the prototype of the overly confident economist

kenmegalopsuxos.bsky.social•14 hours ago

I was so vicious in a quote tweet of him once that he replied on the facts of my tweet and not the stinger and I felt kinda bad, despite everything about him.

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•14 hours ago

Yeah, that checks out. That he said that, I mean.

I had my Twitter beef with him in 2022.
https://acoup.blog/2022/08/29/new-acquisitions-on-the-wisdom-of-noah-smith/

ericbrown13.bsky.social•13 hours ago

Great piece!

samwilson.bsky.social•8 hours ago

Fascinating bit of writing.

maniagnosis.bsky.social•14 hours ago

*headdesk*

kierk.bsky.social•9 hours ago

not surprising. he blocked me after i asked him how he thought capitalism started. for him, not believing it’s always been there is as a blockable offense

highlightt.bsky.social•14 hours ago

Isn't there a whole ass Christian denomination that proves this wrong? Like with 20 million members?

mcirwin47.bsky.social•9 hours ago

There are like 1.3 billion Catholics and 250m Orthodox that proves this wrong lol

mjamurphy.bsky.social•10 hours ago

He once told me to "read one book on WW2" which is possibly the funniest accusation to level at a middle-aged British bloke.

patrickwyman.bsky.social•9 hours ago

I saw him arguing with Adam Tooze about WWII and it went exactly how you’d think it went.

siamesecats.bsky.social•14 hours ago

Just off the top of my head I could tell him that Constantine the Great, a Roman emperor, converted to Christianity. I did have to look up the date (312 CE). Henry VIII was famously excommunicated in 1538 for converting to Protestantism. https://bsky.app/profile/patrickwyman.bsky.social/post/3lne2d63ub22a

jdtechie.bsky.social•13 hours ago

It still astounds me that the NYT wanted him to replace Krugman and he turned them down not because he somehow had the self awareness to know he's a hack who couldn't come close to Krugman's insights, but because he thought an editor would stymie his writing style, which appears to be Wiki based.

paullu.bsky.social•13 hours ago

How do people like this get so popular? That whole class of pundits (you know who I'm referring to) are morons.

amazingprizzini.bsky.social•14 hours ago

Wait, what? Hasn’t pretty much everyone heard of Henry VIII?

mcirwin47.bsky.social•9 hours ago

I mean, the “Roman” part of the Roman Catholic Church is a big hint that this happened at least once before…

davidjorgonson.bsky.social•14 hours ago

The Peace of Westphalia *ended* cuius regio, for those who don't know (picking religion for their subjects)

faeelin.bsky.social•14 hours ago

Did it? How so?

davidjorgonson.bsky.social•14 hours ago

It required toleration of religious minorities (at least Catholic, Lutheran and Calvinist) by the princes within the HRE.
They could still decide which church was officially favored in their lands

sweatpants.bsky.social•13 hours ago

an absolutely bottomless well of shit-for-brains takes

missingjigsaw.bsky.social•11 hours ago

Around that time, @mikeduncan.bsky.social did an interview with him to promote Hero of Two Worlds which was mostly Smith trying to get Duncan to confirm that the people ripping him on Twitter were Jacobins and Bolsheviks and he was noble for fighting with them.

patrickwyman.bsky.social•9 hours ago

Lmao

davidlanteigne.bsky.social•14 hours ago

If Noah stuck to talking about pet Flemish rabbits he'd have a great feed.

seabaitshop.bsky.social•14 hours ago

My HS AP euro teacher would’ve happily marked that wrong on an exam

senorbush.bsky.social•14 hours ago

Dumbest man alive

soma2005.bsky.social•13 hours ago

Never heard of Noah Smith, but he's more than 3,000 years off. I guess he is unaware of the Pharoah Akhenaten in ancient Egypt, who around 1350 BC decided Egypt was going to abandon polytheism and instead was going to worship only the god Aten.

toner56.bsky.social•8 hours ago

Alexander the Great famously conquered Egypt and decided he was pharaoh (and therefore a god) now!

Also, Emperor Constantine has a super famous conversion story where he saw XP (Christ) in the sky, painted it on his shields, and won a battle???

lepcyrus.bsky.social•9 hours ago

he is just an insufferable ass. i remember shits like him in grade school - all they wanted to do was melt your gi joes and tell you their uncle worked at nintendo. it's a bad batch of humans that keep getting cranked out

stlcatfishmike.bsky.social•13 hours ago

So the whole Atun vs Amun controversy? Nefertiti? King tut? Monotheism vs priestly intrigue? Nothing huh. Damn.

electricland.bsky.social•9 hours ago

I feel like Roman emperors becoming gods fits in here somehow

pmcclellan.bsky.social•14 hours ago

Jesus Christ (no pun intended)

capitolhunters.bsky.social•9 hours ago

I am blessed by not knowing much about Noah Smith but today he earnestly, seriously posted that Elon Musk should be defense secretary - or maybe Palmer Luckey. Something is wrong with him.

sl128.bsky.social•14 hours ago

https://bsky.app/profile/sl128.bsky.social/post/3lbfa5rxnks2j my favorite pair of posts by him

bcwbcw.bsky.social•9 hours ago

Watt the hell was Noah talking about?Steam engines are a Stirling example…

eddasaurus.bsky.social•6 hours ago

scatteredwords.bsky.social•13 hours ago

Wait. What???
I... I think I just lost some braincells reading that pile of stupidity. I mean... what?

benzy.me•14 hours ago

I... what...? By what mechanism other than advancements in science could have led to the invention of the steam engine? You don't even have to be particularly bright to understand the link between science and development of new technologies.

rambleratx.bsky.social•13 hours ago

When you paid attention in thermodynamics

mezentine.bsky.social•14 hours ago

I hate these people so much.

electricland.bsky.social•9 hours ago

Wow. Just wow.

jonmarke.bsky.social•14 hours ago

SCIENCE?!

jonmarke.bsky.social•14 hours ago

The hell

toadescope.bsky.social•14 hours ago

What the fuck

pilgrimdear.bsky.social•14 hours ago

Oh my god

vonneudeck.com•14 hours ago

Yours maybe but what about the ruler’s god? Hmmm!

cocktailchem.bsky.social•14 hours ago

This feels like an appropriate place for an angry goose meme. "And how did the Thirty Years War start?!?"

motomatters.com•14 hours ago

Reminds me of what people say about Elon Musk. Seems very smart, until you see him talking about something you actually know about. Then you realise he is full of shit.

bakingui.bsky.social•10 hours ago

He has never seemed smart.

handlebeentaken.bsky.social•14 hours ago

good thing I have no fking clue who Noah smith is. I'm not expert on these things but I believe Henry VIII and the church of England was long before that

eulerspsuedonym.bsky.social•11 hours ago

One of my favorite things I’ve read him say is that he thinks he would be the guy building IEDs in a civil war. As a former EOD tech I’d like to see that once, from a safe distance.