educe me » 1960s http://www.educeme.com Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:30:41 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 William F. Buckley was a Schwag http://www.educeme.com/2009/04/05/william-f-buckley-was-a-schwag/ http://www.educeme.com/2009/04/05/william-f-buckley-was-a-schwag/#comments Sun, 05 Apr 2009 06:21:01 +0000 Anne http://www.educeme.com/?p=1520 I once called a classmate a ‘schwag’ in passing to another classmate, and it eventually found it’s way back to the main target. He didn’t quite get the meaning, but at least asked me to define it. ‘Schwag’ is often used to refer to (1) low-grade drugs or (2) free products you get from companies. I use the term to mean a person who is an idiot on a grand scale but gives the air of being better than that. C.f. William F. Buckley, below, trying to act all better than Noam Chomsky. Granted, this was back in the late 1960s and perhaps folks didn’t realize the genius of Chomsky at that point, but come on. Buckley gets owned by Chomsky in this debate.

The only other person I’ve seen go up against Chomsky with any sort of hope for at least a draw was Michel Foucault, in their debate over Justice and Power.

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