@passivelurker @TommSciortino @laraaaanguyen The remarkable thing about Graeber was that he could never be consistent about how that error made it into his book. He would say very different things, depending on who he was talking to at the time.
Sometimes he said that it came from U Mass. Amherst's Richard Wolff, but... 1/
Sometimes he said that it came from U Mass. Amherst's Richard Wolff, but... 1/
@passivelurker @TommSciortino @laraaaanguyen ...that Wolff had gotten it wrong, probably: "Oh ask Mr Wolff…. Richard Wolff the Marxist economist whose student did a study of the origins of Apple and never published it…. I think he led me astray…. yeah I know I think Wolff was just kind of wrong about a lot of... 2/
@passivelurker @TommSciortino @laraaaanguyen ...this; I tried to check with him but he didn’t answer the email… it’s upsetting; it’s also possible he was talking about a different early start-up; anyway won’t be in the 2nd edition!"
Sometimes he said that the only thing wrong with the passage was the word "Apple"... 3/
Sometimes he said that the only thing wrong with the passage was the word "Apple"... 3/
@passivelurker @TommSciortino @laraaaanguyen ..."[It's] about a whole of series of other tiny start-ups created by people who’d dropped out of IBM, Apple, and similar behemoths. (Of them it’s perfectly true.)" Note that Apple has gone from the example to the behemoth being revolted against here.
Sometimes he said... 4/
Sometimes he said... 4/
@passivelurker @TommSciortino @laraaaanguyen ...that it was all the copyeditor's fault: "The passage got horribly garbled at some point into something incoherent, I still can’t completely figure out how, was patched back together by the copyeditor into something that made logical sense but was obviously factually... 5/
@passivelurker @TommSciortino @laraaaanguyen ...wrong. I should have caught it at the proofreading stage but I didn’t. I did catch it when the book first came out, tried to get the publisher to take it out, and have been continually trying since July. All to no avail. I have absolutely no idea why a book can go... 6/
@passivelurker @TommSciortino @laraaaanguyen ...through eight editions and it’s impossible to pull out a couple lines of obviously incorrect text but they just keep telling me, no, I have to wait until July."
My view is that the most likely scenario is that Graeber was writing at 3 a.m., had a dim and foggy memory of... 1/
My view is that the most likely scenario is that Graeber was writing at 3 a.m., had a dim and foggy memory of... 1/
@passivelurker @TommSciortino @laraaaanguyen ...a bizarre (and false) talk by Richard Wolff <>, and never checked anything.
The problem is that Graeber cannot stick with that story—that it was Wolff he relied on, and that Wolff was wrong. When he is annoyed at his publisher, he blames them... 8/
The problem is that Graeber cannot stick with that story—that it was Wolff he relied on, and that Wolff was wrong. When he is annoyed at his publisher, he blames them... 8/
@passivelurker @TommSciortino @laraaaanguyen ...he wants to rock his interlocutor back with the claim that there is a large, vibrant community of anarchist coops in which all members are equal writing software in Silicon Valley today, he goes full-tilt with the (false) claim that the only thing wrong is the word... 9/
@passivelurker @TommSciortino @laraaaanguyen ..."Apple". TRUTH SIMPLY DOES NOT EXIST FOR GRAEBER. Or, rather, what really happened exercises no control over the words that come out of his mouth and keyboard at all.
This means that you should tread very warily wherever Graeber is writing about something—Madagascar... 10/
This means that you should tread very warily wherever Graeber is writing about something—Madagascar... 10/
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