Left behind: Intellectual dishonesty to the rescue

Poverty cannot be defeated using half-truths

This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.

It’s a common phenomenon; most familiar to readers of (‘centre-left’) publications like the Hindu and Frontline. In an excellent post, Ravikiran proves that at the core of the most insidious arguments against economic reforms lies intellectual dishonesty.

The author is invariably ambiguous about the claim he is making, whether he is saying that reforms have hurt the poor, that they have left the poor behind or that they have not reached the poor at the speed he would have liked. This might look like a small difference in wording, but the lessons to take away from them will be poles apart. The author may not know which inference to draw. But there is no excuse for failing to recognise that there is a difference. [The Examined Life]

Related posts: Praful Bidwai fisked in for DarkUnderBellyGazing and pooh-poohing the IT industry.

If you would like to share or comment on this, please discuss it on my GitHub Previous
Unmeritocratic India undermines democratic India Next
Left behind: It’s the CIA stupid!