Your Afternoon Friedman (Thomas) [bashing edition]

At least two of the Davids on this blog and I are big fans of Matt Taibbi’s legendary shellacking of Tom Friedman on the occasion of the publication of his flat earth book (though much less Taibbi’s follow-up effort).

In that vein, here are some of Tom Friedman’s worst predictions, courtesy of Vanity Fair. My personal favorite:

In 2001, Friedman advised the American citizenry to “keep rootin’ for Putin,” hailing the K.G.B. veteran as “Russia’s first Deng Xiaoping” and a strong force for reform. Three years later, Friedman announced in his most awkward prose that “I have a ‘Tilt Theory of History’,” and called Russia “a huge nation” (this part checks out) “that was tilted in the wrong direction and is now tilted in the right direction” with regards to free speech, the rule of law, and the like. In 2007, Friedman finally noticed that Russia cannot even properly be termed a democracy and promptly wrote a column to this effect.

It’s hard making six figures on prognostication.