The Difference Between Me and Major Freedom

     I see that my buddy and Diary of a Republican reader is back from the dead. Turns out he isn't boycotting me for my previous war of words with Mark Sadlowski (LOL) but just that he's trying to cut back. I should say Mark and I have come to something of a truce-he admits that my blog is good for something at least-some kind of economic gossip-and has christened my blog a 'trog'-presumably that's what a troll writes when he gets his own blog. 

     That I don't get-why would anyone want to do that?!! However, Tom does touch on an interesting point. He saw someone compare me to Major Freedom at Money Illusion-Geoff is Major, of course. 

      I see in Sumner's comments that someone compared you to Geoff. There's a WORLD of difference... Sumner has given up on Geoff long ago and no longer even acknowledges his existence... but you... he still talks to you Mike! He's still holding out hope that you can finally learn something. Ha! :D

Really though, there must be SOME reason he still converses w/ you, right?

     http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2014/01/sumners-trouble-is-he-doesnt-know-what.html?showComment=1389225926672#c6986612270406577360

     This is an interesting point I've thought of myself. I'd say there's a few things going on. One thing is that Major is often just so verbose that no actual human being has the time to sift through all of it and yet continue to lead a normal life. Even Major's idol, Bob Murphy said the same thing. 

     "MF, I’m just being honest with you here, I come to my blog when I’m taking a break from “real work.” Your posts are too long for me to even read, because I know it would take me longer than the 5 minutes I want to devote to the break. So that’s why I don’t grapple with you often (esp. on the Sunday posts). If you have 18 reasons that I’m wrong, just post the top 2."

     http://consultingbyrpm.com/blog/2011/07/is-keynes-from-heaven-or-hell.html

     On the other hand, maybe Sumner understands that no one really takes Internet Austrianism seriously anyway. I remember a commentator at Money Illusion-Daniel-complained that it was one thing for IA to criticize MM as no one takes them seriously anyway but I'm doing a real disservice-as presumably he believes there are people who actually read me and take me seriously. Maybe Sumner knows that at least some people will find my arguments compelling. 

      He should be concerned as there are more people that take me seriously I'm discovering than I would have ever guessed. I think he knows that simply ignoring me won't make me go away and that unlike MF there are people who might really find what I'm saying at least worth considering. 

      In other words, I'm no Major Freedom. I will say this on trolls. I've been called this any number of times. I find that it's almost always an ideological designation. When I wrote at Firedoglake they called me a troll-because I didn't share their Obama Derangement Syndrome. They call me a troll at the Money Illusion as I'm a skeptic. I think it's easy to say the guy's argument  you disagree is not valid and he's just a troll. I've yet to be convinced that the term is much more than name calling.