Reality Drives Reputation

I mentioned the other day that arguments that selfish multimillionaires acting like selfish multimillionaires isn't an example of "reputation" but rather of the reality that the very rich don't think like the rest of us. From Think  Progress comes evidence that a CNN poll indicates that 65% of Americans think that robotic sociopath Mitt Romney "favors the rich." This is another example of people knowing how the world works not that multimillionaire and robotic sociopath Mitt Romney has a "reputation" for "favoring the rich." It might even be, lord let's hope so, evidence that neoliberalism is losing its hold on the American political imagination.

Speaking of the latter point, over to Crooked Timber, there is post that offers a create your own adventure text on the Greek crisis. Here is it with hyperlinks.  The thing that struck me about the exercise is the inherent technocratisme  and the refusal to think about some non-neoliberal solution(s) to the problem  and the extent to which the whole discussion leaves the Greeks as citizens out of the discussion.  There are all manner of stories of riots, mayhem, theft, and exodus coming out of Greece. Here's a sort of sampler. Any solution to the problem that doesn't take seriously the plight of the average Greek isn't a solution; it's a means of punishing Greeks for neoliberalism's crimes.