The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

My Kind of People: Junior Johnson and the End of the American Way of Life

Posted on | January 31, 2019 | Comments Off on My Kind of People: Junior Johnson and the End of the American Way of Life

NASCAR legend Junior Johnson and his 1940 Ford.

My wife has recently re-arranged my office and, in the process, moved some books that I hadn’t read in a while, so the other day I picked up Tom Wolfe’s The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (1965) and began re-reading it. The best journalism — and Tom Wolfe, who died last year at age 88, was certainly the best — has an enduring value, and a lot of the stories collected in Streamline Baby were innovative works of cultural anthropology. The titular essay, first published by Esquire in 1963, examined the rise of hot-rod and custom-car culture in Southern California after World War II. Drag racing on L.A.’s Sepulveda Boulevard in the 1940s, a scene that centered around the Picadilly drive-in — that’s where the hot-rod culture originated, and Wolfe got the story directly from George Barris, king of the custom designs. It was this California trip that truly launched Wolfe’s career as an essayist. A writer for the old New York Herald-Tribune, Wolfe had gone out West to explore the custom-car craze, but couldn’t figure out how to write the story until finally, with deadline looming, his editor said, just send us your notes and we’ll have somebody else write it up. Wolfe sat down at his typewriter and cranked out a 49-page memo in about 10 hours and Esquire published the whole zany, wonderful mess.

Streamline Baby also includes brilliant little word-portraits of celebrities from early-1960s teen culture — “The Fifth Beatle” (DJ Murray “The K” Kaufman), “The Girl of the Year” (model Baby Jane Holzer), “The First Tycoon of Teen” (record producer Phil Spector) — but the real masterpiece is an article Wolfe wrote for the March 1965 issue of Esquire, “The Last American Hero,” about NASCAR legend Junior Johnson.

Robert Glenn Johnson Jr., a native of Wilkes County, N.C., got his start hauling moonshine through the hills of Appalachia, where his innovative methods of out-running federal revenue agents included a move that became known as “the bootleg turn,” a 180-degree reversal that set him running back through and past his hapless pursuers. Johnson’s father was a moonshiner who spent a total of 20 years in prison, and Junior was one of three sons who specialized in delivering the merchandise via souped-up cars. One day someone asked him to drive in a race at a local dirt track, where he was the first driver to develop the “power slide” technique in turns, and by 1955, he won five races on the NASCAR circuit. In 1960, he won the Daytona 500, where he invented the technique of “drafting” behind a faster car.

 

As should be obvious, Junior Johnson was highly intelligent, not in a bookish or abstract way, but in a hands-on practical way. He became a successful businessman, and as a NASCAR team owner helped develop such champions as Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip. Now 87, Johnson is a living legend, his life made famous in the 1973 film The Last American Hero starring Jeff Bridges, and in 1986, President Ronald Reagan gave him a pardon for his 1956 federal moonshining conviction.

Tom Wolfe’s 1965 article is a sort of sociology text, and includes such spendidly written and insightful passages as this:

To millions of good old boys, and girls, the automobile represented not only liberation from what was still pretty much a land-bound form of social organization but also a great leap forward into twentieth-century glamour, an idea that was being dinned in on the South like everywhere else. . . . It got so that on Sundays there wouldn’t be a safe straight stretch of road in the county, because so many wild country boys would be out racing or just raising hell on the roads. A lot of other kids, who weren’t basically wild, would be driving like hell every morning and every night, driving to jobs perhaps thirty or forty miles away, jobs that were available only because of automobiles. . . . After the war there was a great deal of stout-burgher talk about people who lived in hovels and bought big-yacht cars to park out front. This was one of the symbols of a new, spendthrift age. But there was a great deal of unconscious resentment buried in the talk. It was resentment against (a) the fact that the good old boy had his money at all and (b) the fact that the car symbolized freedom, a slightly wild, careening emancipation from the old social order. Stock-car racing got started about this time, right after the war, and it was immediately regarded as some kind of manifestation of the animal irresponsibility of the lower orders. It had a truly terrible reputation. It was — well, it looked rowdy or something.

Now, Tom Wolfe was a genuine intellectual — he had a Ph.D. from Princeton, for crying out loud — but he was also a Southerner, a native of Virginia, and unlike so many other journalists who have written about the South, he had sympathy for the people he wrote about. He wasn’t out to write an exposé or to do what is nowadays called “investigative journalism,” but sought to explain the folkways of small-town Appalachia to the urban sophisticates who read Esquire, to make the reader see how wholesome and quintessentially American these people really were.

If you want to know why nobody gives a damn about magazines like Esquire anymore, it’s because the progressive politics of the 21st century forbid any sympathy for the kind of people who like NASCAR. Everything in big-league journalism now is about left-wing politics, more or less, and because North Carolina rednecks probably aren’t too excited about the Left’s agenda of open borders and transgender rights and all that, there is zero possibility a latter-day Tom Wolfe could get any New York-based magazine to publish an article like “The Last American Hero.”

The whole thing is basically a celebration of toxic masculinity, as the Gender Studies majors would say. Junior Johnson was not one of these “sensitive” modern guys, but a big muscular fellow who thrived on ferocious competition in one of the most masculine of sports.

 

What struck Tom Wolfe as so heroic in Junior Johnson was the man’s reckless daredevil courage. Johnson set speed records in qualifying simply because he was willing to take curves at tire-smoking speeds that even his fellow NASCAR drivers considered insanely risky. Going all-out on a straightaway is one thing, but it was Johnson’s absolute fearlessness in those high-banked curves that made him legendary. Wolfe captures perfectly the milieu of Appalachia that bred such courage:

The people there were already isolated, geographically, by the mountains and had strong clan ties because they were all from the same stock, Scotch-Irish. Moonshining isolated them even more. They always had to be careful who came up there. There are plenty of hollows to this day where if you drive in and ask some good old boy where so-and-so is, he’ll tell you he never heard of the fellow. Then the next minute, if you identify yourself and give some idea of why you want to see him, and he believes you, he’ll suddenly say, “Aw, you’re talking about so-and-so. I thought you said—” With all this isolation, the mountain people began to take on certain characteristics normally associated, by the diffident civilizations of today, with tribes. There was a strong sense of family, clan and honor. People would cut and shoot each other up over honor. And physical courage! They were almost like Turks that way.
In the Korean War, not a very heroic performance by American soldiers generally, there were seventy-eight Medal of Honor winners. Thirty-nine of them were from the South, and practically all of the thirty-nine were from small towns in or near the Appalachians. The New York metropolitan area, which has more people than all these towns put together, had three Medal of Honor winners, and one of them had just moved to New York from the Appalachian region of West Virginia. Three of the Medal of Honor winners came from within fifty miles of Junior Johnson’s side porch.

What were the odds, eh? Wolfe’s point is that the same conditions that produced such an extraordinary concentration of military heroes in the small towns of Appalachia also explained the kind of daredevil courage required to run 140 mph neck-and-neck with a man who might give you a bump and send you spinning into a concrete retaining wall.

Naw, Esquire would never publish an article like “The Last American Hero” in the 21st century. It doesn’t fit their narrative, which is all about Diversity and Inclusion and Progress. Esquire editor Jay Fielden’s hand-wringing over the #MeToo revelations and his virtue-signalling over “gun culture” signify his contempt for the sort of manly men who admire Medal of Honor winners or NASCAR drivers. The suspicion that these men vote Republican — 68% of white males in North Carolina voted for Trump, who carried Wilkes County with 77% of the vote — is enough to render them “deplorables” in the eyes of Esquire editors, all of whom voted for Hillary and are probably lined up to back Kamala Harris in 2020. Everything in journalism is politics now, and it’s not the kind of politics that celebrates moonshine runners or dirt-track racers or any other kind of authentic all-American masculinity. Esquire used to be a men’s magazine, but what is it now? I don’t know, and I don’t reckon Jay Fielden could explain it, either. It’s a ghost of its former self, another once-great institution the liberals have ruined in their decades-long crusade to destroy the American Way of Life. Selah.



 

Category: Culture, History, Journalism, Media Bias

You Haters! Stop Questioning Gay Actor’s Claim of ‘MAGA’ Hate Crime in Chicago

Posted on | January 31, 2019 | 1 Comment

 

 

When it was reported Tuesday that a gay black actor had been the target of an alleged hate crime in Chicago (“‘Empire’ Star Jussie Smollett Tells Cops His Attackers Shouted ‘MAGA Country’,” TMZ, Jan. 29), there were obvious reasons for skepticism, as Michelle Malkin explained:

Question: How many racist, homophobic menaces wander around the upscale Streeterville neighborhood of liberal Chicago at 2 a.m. carrying rope and bleach, yelling about “MAGA country?”
Question: How many racist, homophobic menaces have ever heard of “Empire,” could recognize Jussie Smollett, or know or care anything about his sexuality?

This is not the same as calling Jussie Smollett a liar, but it is difficult to believe that MAGA-hat wearing rednecks were roaming the streets of Chicago to ambush an actor almost nobody had heard of. And so far, to almost no one’s surprise, Chicago cops have been unable to verify Smollett’s tale or apprehend his (perhaps imaginary) redneck attackers.

What? You’re claiming to be the victim of a hate crime that occurred while you were on the phone with your manager, but you refuse to let police examine your phone? Gosh, nothing suspicious about that. But if you’re skeptical, you must be a “far-right extremist.”

Far-right extremists are trying
to convince people that the brutal attack
on Jussie Smollett is a hoax
— Alex Henderson, AlterNet

Look, buddy, I can’t speak for any other “far-right extremists,” but as for me, I’m not “trying to convince” anyone of anything (except maybe that they should hit the tip jar because the electric company seems very serious about my $400 past-due power bill). All I’m saying — and what such of my fellow “far-right extremists” like Michelle Malkin and Steven Crowder are also saying — is that we’ve seen a few amateurish “hate” hoaxes over the years, and Jussie Smollett’s tale seems quite familiar.

 

Did I mention that my electric bill is past-due? As I said in an email to regular tip-jar hitters, it’s embarrassing to have to do these emergency tip-jar rattles, but thanks to a couple of sympathetic readers I was able to stave off disconnection this morning, and that’s all that matters. There is no obvious correlation between productivity and revenue in the blog racket. I was feeling pretty good about my output — more than 90 posts this month, compared to 70 in January 2018, thus a 28% increase — but then the power company guy showed up with the cut-off warning and I was like, “Well, that’s not so good.” It’s been a hard month. The temperature this morning was 3°F and thank God my wife ordered the heating oil last week, but that was another $400, and did I mention that BuzzFeed is laying off staff despite collecting nearly half a billion dollars in capital investment? Oh, that’s a “democratic emergency,” according to the New York Times. whereas a lone blogger’s problems? Nobody cares. Certainly nobody at the New York Times.

But if any of my fellow “far-right extremists” could make some small contribution — $5, $10, $20, whatever — I would be most grateful. The Five Most Important Words in the English Language are:

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!



 

Category: Uncategorized

A ‘Right’ to Laser Hair Removal?

Posted on | January 31, 2019 | 1 Comment

‘Jessica’ is demanding taxpayer-funded treatment.

If health care becomes a “human right,” guess what becomes health care?

A transgender woman [in England] said she is regularly reduced to tears because the NHS [Britain’s National Health Service] is keeping her waiting for laser hair removal surgery.
Jessica Samson, 39, has to shave twice a day while she continues her more than six month wait for the permanent procedure.
She was approved for the treatment in July as the final stage of her gender reassignment but progress is slow, she said.
The NHS needs to ‘realise they are mucking around with people’s lives’, according to the frustrated IT customer service worker.
After a complaint in December, Miss Sampson has now been offered a consultation appointment but worries her case is the ‘tip of the iceberg’.
The NHS has faced criticism in the past for the range of service it offers transgender people, and recent growth in demand has piled pressure on clinics.
Miss Sampson claims she has had to endure months of frustration as she has emailed various NHS departments to try and get the process moving.
‘As it stands, something that should’ve taken two months is currently taking six,’ she said. ‘And there is absolutely no sign of it making any further progress.
‘It is difficult to explain why this is a big issue to anyone who hasn’t had trans-thoughts, but I’ve been on hormones long enough for my body to start changing.
‘But I still grow a beard every day and I have to shave twice a day to maintain some sort of normal lifestyle.’

(What do you consider a “normal lifestyle”? Never mind . . .)

Formerly a man, Miss Sampson, from Salisbury, is trying to get the surgery in her home city through a commissioning team in Bristol.
She said her letters went unanswered for months and, after five months of waiting without an update, she filed a formal complaint against the health service.
‘I’ve had my head in my hands crying so many times about this,’ she said. . . .
In the NHS’s own guidance it says facial hair removal is an ‘essential part of gender reassignment’ and should be one of the first stages of the process. . . .
Dr James Palmer said the NHS may provide facial hair removal, breast reduction, and even reverse gender reassignment surgeries.
There has been an ‘explosion’ in the number of children seeking a sex swap, Dr Palmer said, which may accelerate if plans to expand publicly funded operations go ahead.
Dr Palmer told the Westminster Social Policy Forum that referrals for gender dysphoria have increased by around 240 per cent over the last five year period.

(Hat-tip: Kirby McCain on Twitter.) If health care is a “human right” — which is a central claim of Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign — and sex-change treatment is health care, how long before American taxpayers are required to foot the bill for laser hair removal?



 

Category: The Transgender Cult

BuzzFeed Is Democracy, or Something

Posted on | January 31, 2019 | Comments Off on BuzzFeed Is Democracy, or Something

 

It’s hard to take seriously Farhad Manjoo’s claim that layoffs at BuzzFeed represent “a story of impending slow-motion doom — and a democratic emergency in the making, with no end in sight.” (Hat-tip: Instapundit.)

As I explained Wednesday (“Who Keeps Paying BuzzFeed’s Bills?”), the company has devoured nearly $500 million in investment capital since its founding in 2006 and in recent years has been burning through cash to the tune of $75 million a year, with no prospect of profit.

What are investors getting for that money? Just days before BuzzFeed announced staff layoffs, the publication was embarrassed by a bungled “exclusive” about the Mueller investigation (“Haunted by Ghosts of ‘Fitzmas’ Past: Jason Leopold’s Trump/Cohen Debacle,” Jan. 20). Evidently, reporting “fake news” is so vital to democracy that if BuzzFeed can’t afford to keep doing it, that’s an “emergency.”

Liberal journalists do not want to admit that their political bias may be a major reason for their industry’s decline, but when the money crunch hits, they insist that their work is valuable to “democracy.” But what did BuzzFeed do to attract hundreds of millions of dollars of investment capital? Quite simply, they figured out how to game the Facebook algorithm for cheap hits with clickbait, which might have been good for BuzzFeed’s traffic numbers but didn’t do anything in terms of creating an informed citizenry. And here’s a Daily Caller headline from 2017:

BuzzFeed’s Infamous Trump Dossier Is Facebook’s Most Read News Story In Past Year

Oh, that’s right — BuzzFeed was the first to publish the phony Steele dossier, a pile of anti-Trump propaganda commissioned by Fusion GPS under contract to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Is it an “emergency” that BuzzFeed had to lay off some staffers? Or is it just liberals upset that liberals are losing their jobs? It never occurs to them to reconsider their biases (“‘Learn to Code’ and the Collapse of the Millennial SJW Clickbait Bubble,” Jan. 25), so we can expect further layoffs and further declarations that “democracy” is in peril.



 

Category: Journalism, Media Bias

Suspect Arrested in Atlanta Assault

Posted on | January 31, 2019 | Comments Off on Suspect Arrested in Atlanta Assault

 

Last week we reported (“Violence Against Women Update: Woman Raped on Video in Atlanta Nightclub,” Jan. 24) one of those cases that feminists always ignore, for some reason. Try to imagine the outcry if a “privileged” white male suspect had been accused of such a thing:

A man was arrested after a video appearing to show a sexual assault at Opera nightclub was streamed on Facebook Live earlier this month, authorities confirmed.
Atlanta police told Channel 2 Action News that Dominique Williams, 34, turned himself in Tuesday after Atlanta Police Special Victims Unit investigators secured an warrant against him for aggravated sodomy.
On Jan. 20, police said the department received calls from people who had seen the alleged assault on Facebook, AJC.com previously reported.
The next day, police announced they had identified and contacted the man seen in the video, but they didn’t release his name because the investigation was ongoing.
The video streamed on Facebook Live from inside the club on Crescent Avenue in Midtown, “appears to show a woman being sexually assaulted in a local nightclub,” police spokesman Jarius Daugherty said.
Police said the woman was no longer in Georgia but was cooperating with investigators. It is AJC.com’s policy to not name victims of sexual assault.
The woman was celebrating her birthday at the popular nightclub and was live streaming the celebration when she captured the attack as it happened, Channel 2 Action News previously reported. . . .
According to a police report obtained by AJC.com, a caller told police she saw a video of a woman being groped and possibly “being raped” as she screamed “No, stop!”
Video of the sexual assault has since been removed from Facebook. The woman later posted a video saying she was OK, Channel 2 reported.
In a statement on its Facebook page, management for Opera nightclub said they are cooperating with the investigation.
“At this time we have met with the Atlanta Police Department and have provided them with everything they have requested,” read the statement posted Jan. 20. “We will continue to aid and support their investigation in any way we can.”
As of Wednesday night, Williams remained in the Fulton County Jail without bond, according to jail records.

She was raped on video and where’s the outrage from feminists? Listen closely and you can hear the crickets chirping.

(Hat-tip: Kirby McCain on Twitter.)



 

Category: Violence Against Women

In The Mailbox: 01.30.19

Posted on | January 31, 2019 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

OVER THE TRANSOM
Ninety Miles From Tyranny:  The 90 Miles Mystery Box, Episode #516
EBL: Disney – The Dark Ages
Twitchy: Guess What VA Gov Ralph Northam Thinks Is “Shameful & Disgusting”?
Louder With Crowder: Father Shares Heartbreaking Story Of Son Who’s “Transitioning”

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Lifestyles Of The Radical Feminist Lesbians
American Power: Reading Totalitarian Philosophers, also, The Jussie Smallett #MAGA Attack Hoax
American Thinker: Frigid In Chicago? Must Mean Global Warming!
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News
BattleSwarm: Venezuela – It’s About Food
CDR Salamander: Dress For The Job That You Want
Da Tech Guy: Non-Tweets For January 30, also, Nobody Cares What You Know Until They Know That You Care
Don Surber: Religious Fanatics Protest Gay Teaching
Dustbury: Welcome To 1999
First Street Journal: The Rules Are For Thee, Not For Me
The Geller Report: Ilhan Omar Says Israel Shouldn’t Exist; Pelosi Puts Her On Foreign Affairs Committee Anyway, also, Outraged UK Muslims Call For Boycott Over Toilet Paper “With Allah Symbol”
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day, also, Politics Ain’t Beanbag
Hollywood In Toto: The Left Ruined The Oscars & The Super Bowl. What’s Next?
Joe For America: New Documents Detail “Air Pelosi”‘s Love Of Flying At Our Expense
JustOneMinute: Build The Compromise!
Legal Insurrection: 2010 Video Shows Kamala Harris Bragging About Jail Threats For Parents Of Truants, also, Trump Has Opportunity To Flip 9th Circuit, So Why Doesn’t He?
The PanAm Post: Mysterious Russian Plane Spirits Away 20 Tins Of Venezuelan Gold
Power Line: Clapper At Large, also, It Isn’t Only Omar
Shark Tank: Yoho’s “Zero For Zero” Plan To Curb Foreign Sugar Subsidies Returns
Shot In The Dark: I Need To Hit That Powerball, STAT!
STUMP: The Undeniable Corruption Of Chicago & Illinois, also, Dear Laid-Off Journalists – Learn Some Skills People Will Pay You For
The Political Hat: NY Posed To Deny Thought Criminals Their 2A Rights
This Ain’t Hell: Where Have All The Fiscal Conservatives Gone? also, Marine Falsely Accused Of War Crimes Recommended For Higher Retired Rank
Victory Girls: NY Passes Evil Abortion Law, VA Legislature Says “It’s Our Turn!”
Volokh Conspiracy: “Sharia Law Does Not Apply” – But American Law Does
Weasel Zippers: MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough Willing To Swear He Never Heard Trump Say Anything Racially Insensitive, also, Watch VA Gov Northam (D) Endorse Murder Of Born-Alive Infants
Megan McArdle: Harris & Progressives Pitching Medicare For All Could Give Us Four More Years
Mark Steyn: Kirby Enthusiasm


Amazon Warehouse Post=Holiday Event

Category: Linkagery

FMJRA 2.0: Abrasive Flow Machining

Posted on | January 30, 2019 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Abrasive Flow Machining

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Rule 5 Sunday: The Kessler Twins
Animal Magnetism
Ninety Miles From Tyranny
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive
EBL

Jonah Goldberg Only Steals From the Best
A View From The Beach
EBL

Haunted by Ghosts of ‘Fitzmas’ Past: Jason Leopold’s Trump/Cohen Debacle
First Street Journal
A View From The Beach
EBL

FMJRA 2.0: Isn’t It Time?
A View From The Beach
EBL

Lessons From an Online Lynching (Why #StandWithCovington Is Going Viral)
Catallaxy Files
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach
EBL

Advice to Criminals: Avoid Texas
EBL

Elizabeth Warren’s Billion-Dollar Indian Casino Plan Defeated by Democrats
EBL

In The Mailbox: 01.22.19
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive
EBL

‘Fyre Fraud’: A Millennial Woodstock
EBL

Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee Forced Out of Leadership Posts by Intern Sex Scandal
EBL

In The Mailbox: 01.23.19
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive
EBL

Fat Black Lesbian Sentenced to Federal Prison for $5.4 Million Swindle
EBL

Violence Against Women Update: Woman Raped on Video in Atlanta Nightclub
EBL

Violence Against Women Update: MS-13 Members Beat Teenage Prostitute
EBL

‘Their Precious Narrative’
A View From The Beach
EBL

Ace Just Nuked Ben Shapiro
EBL

UCLA and the ‘Diversity’ Cult
EBL

In The Mailbox: 01.24.19
Proof Positive
EBL

‘Get It First, Get It Right’
A View From The Beach
EBL

Roger Stone Indictment: Not ‘Collusion’
EBL

Married Gay Couple Lured Teen Boys in Florida ‘Sex Slave’ Ring, Police Say
Pushing Rubber Downhill
EBL

‘Learn to Code’ and the Collapse of the Millennial SJW Clickbait Bubble
Pushing Rubber Downhill
EBL

In The Mailbox: 01.25.19
Proof Positive
EBL

Top linkers for the week ending January 25:

  1.  EBL (22)
  2.  A View From The Beach (9)
  3.  Proof Positive (5)

Thanks to everyone for the linkagery!

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Category: FMJRA Award

Who Keeps Paying BuzzFeed’s Bills?

Posted on | January 30, 2019 | Comments Off on Who Keeps Paying BuzzFeed’s Bills?

 

Harrison Smith at InfoWars reminds us that BuzzFeed, which recently announced it would lay off “15 percent of its staff (with pink slips to go to up to 400 people, according to one insider),” has received nearly half a billion dollars of venture-capital investment since launching in 2006. In April 2013, it was reported that BuzzFeed’s investment was $46 million, which means they’ve attracted about $450 million in new capital over the past six years — despite having never shown a profit!

BuzzFeed has been burning through cash at a rate of $75 million a year and you might think that at some point their investors would become impatient waiting for this operation to show some prospect of making a return on their investment. But it’s the same kind of digital Ponzi scheme where Arianna Huffington spent years losing money with HuffPo before selling it to AOL, which sold out to Yahoo, that got bought up by Verizon. As long as there is a possibility that BuzzFeed could be sold to a giant conglomerate — Viacom or Disney or whatever — the company’s value is whatever it might fetch in such a sale, and if BuzzFeed could be sold for a price above the roughly $500 million in capital that’s been pumped into it over the years, then that investment would not be lost. However, “if” is the crucial word here, and “if” becomes a question: “When?”

Even after laying off 400 people, there seems to be little prospect that BuzzFeed can ever reach profitability as a stand-alone, and where are they going to find a sucker to buy such a money-dump? Recall that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer paid $1.1 billion for Tumblr in 2013, but within three years, was forced to admit Tumblr was worthless. Then Yahoo was sold to Verizon for $4.5 billion, with Mayer getting a $23 million “golden parachute” to resign. Suckers like Mayer are starting to become harder to find, however, as investors are less easily deceived by Internet boondoggles than they were just a few years ago. Sooner or later, the millennial clickbait bubble will collapse, and if BuzzFeed doesn’t sell out soon, they may have trouble finding a buyer.



 

Category: Economics, Journalism
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