It Ain’t Merit

A recent Intercept article about Mohamad Tawhidi, the so-called “imam of peace,” a rightwing, Zionist, Islamophobic Shia cleric (no, seriously), sheds light on his rapid emergence as a media darling:

Tawhidi’s public career began, as he recently told “intellectual dark web” star Dave Rubin, when he “was discovered” by a producer for a tabloid news show on Australia’s Channel 7. “I got a call from Channel 7,” Tawhidi told Rubin, “and apparently they Googled ‘imam,’ ‘Adelaide,’ ‘Muslim,’ just to get a comment.” 

He speaks with pride where shame is appropriate: 

“So they came in wanting a three-minute comment on a certain issue and I gave them a 30-minute talk about the Muslim community,” Tawhidi continued, “and the director gets in touch with me and [said], ‘We can do a lot with what you’re saying.’” 

By his own account, Tawhidi was a random Muslim guy, basically a nobody, who, after proffering an unsolicited (and presumably delirious) lecture to a tabloid news outlet, found himself in demand as a religious and political expert.  

The story makes sense.  Tawhidi was a godsend. He is dark and bearded.  He appears to be a bona fide native.  He wears an authentic uniform, funny headgear and everything.  Corporate media couldn’t have invented a better antihero. 

In reality, Tawhidi is very much their invention (and thus their responsibility).  They approached him for a specific purpose, to inflame the racial and religious animus necessary to an aggressive foreign policy and increased domestic surveillance.  Tawhidi zestfully performs the role.  While it’s satisfying (and appropriate) to deplore Tawhidi, we shouldn’t forget who offered him the assignment. 

It’s easy to wave away Tawhidi as a native informant—a parodically crude one, at that—but doing so emphasizes individual rather than industrial depravity.  Some people will always be willing to exploit simplistic politics for financial or egotistical benefit.  They can’t do it without platforms and audiences, however.  In seeking talent, corporate media have a nearly infinite number of ideological options.  They keep foisting hucksters onto the public. 

It’s not because of poor taste or low standards.  They’re performing a crucial job responsibility on behalf of their sponsors. They’re also looking after their own class interests.  

Take the phenomenon of ex-Muslims holding forth about the evils of their former religion.  They differ from Tawhidi, who still claims Islam, but the role is identical.  Dozens of disgruntled Muslims inhabit op-ed pages, social media feeds, and cable news desks.  Every single person of this category is a Zionist and/or a cheerleader for Western imperialism.  And every one goes beyond mere apostasy to propose that being Muslim on its own is reason for punishment. 

Would Tawhidi have received a callback from the tabloid producer by discussing Aboriginal land rights?  Or Israeli war crimes?  He didn’t become famous for his acumen, but for a pronounced lack of principle. 

It’s unfair to limit analysis to people associated (however tenuously) with Islam.  Highlighting this type makes sense because the grift is obvious.  But let’s not overlook market forces that create the demand.  Passing off banality as insight is the lifeblood of the pundit economy. 

Bari Weiss, for instance, leveraged Zionist thuggery into a prominent editorial position at the New York Times.  One would think she’s a protégé for having landed such an eminent gig at her young age.  In reality, it’s the result of a fanatical devotion to ethnonationalism shrewdly complemented by liberal pretenses. 

Jonathan Chait wields less ambitious pretensions.  He earned market share by indignantly defending a passel of public figures supposedly to his right.  In so doing, he taught a generation of readers that corporate media will offer lucrative opportunities to any reactionary nitwit claiming to be persecuted from the left. 

How about the transformation of Jordan Peterson from obscure academic to self-help celebrity?  Where did he come from?  He was always around, even before picking up his first pen, just as he’ll outlive his physical existence.  The ruling class recognized in his angst yet another opportunity to divert grievance from the managerial class to the dispossessed.  Social media, with their Nazi-friendly algorithms, were happy to help. 

We should have learned by this point to be deeply skeptical whenever a New Breed of Conservative Thinker becomes an overnight sensation.  Remember when David Brooks, now known as Earth’s Most Inane Moralist, was supposed to be the Reasonable Republican, followed by the refreshingly Precocious and Thoughtful Ben Shapiro, who turned out to be a prick in addition to a demagogue?  Now we’re blessed with Meghan McCain, heiress to the Maverick brand, but like most scions of wealth and prestige a bigger boob than the original. 

We, the consumers, bear some responsibility.  The Marketplace Of Ideas survives in part because of a naïve belief that institutions might be redeemable with better functionaries.  Forget branding.  Look at content. Interesting voices get a hearing only after they become boring and trite. 

The problem of media celebrity is clearest when Old Money publications make an effort to include “radical” perspectives.  They usually opt for social democrats (i.e., upmarket liberals) known to ratify electoral politics, the dividing line between madness and respectability.  Thus the New York Times provided British pundit Aaron Bastani column space to promote an insipid vision of “luxury communism.”  Times’ editors can claim to represent voices across the ideological spectrum, but it would be a delusion.  Bastani isn’t consequential.  He’s Thomas Friedman pretending to be a socialist. 

At least he’s better than the imam of peace, right?  Meh.  I’m weary of this endless habit in Western political discourses of measuring self-identified leftists against humanity’s worst specimens.  What does it accomplish besides improving the reputation of dullards and mediocrities? 

Tawhidi, in any case, offers the most useful lesson to anyone who dreams of public engagement:  if a media bigwig excitedly declares that he can do a lot with what you’re saying, the only ethical option is to immediately shut up.