closely roughly (dis)honest

I think it is roughly true that Matthew Yglesias is close to being dishonest and stupid, that is to say the facts are close to those which would imply that Matthew Yglesias is, roughly, stupid, that is, more or less, dishonest.

In other other words I think that Matthew Yglesias is a genius who is capapable of almost any intellectual feat other than dishonesty.

I mention this because his typically brilliant attack on Bush administration mendacity which is also a typically frank attack on Bush administration stupidity, he uses weasle words to say things which are technically true but misleading.

for example "conventional wisdom has had it that compensatory mechanisms and the effects of aggregation lead to roughly the same outcomes we would have if we had a better-informed electorate."

OK how conventional is this wisdom ? Is it the mean wisdom or the median wisdom or is it something Matthew Yglesias just made up ? More to the point, how roughly is roughly ?

Viewing the whole sorry spectacle of historical figures Bush and Gore have a lot more in common with each other than either has with Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, Mohandas Gandhi, Joseph Stalin, Jesus Christ or Socrates. Does this mean that the 2000 election was roughly irrelevant ?
(by the way if given the choice of any of the above I would still have voted for Gore).

here's another one "misinformation...evidence has been found showing that the Iraqi regime worked closely with al-Qaeda." How closely is closely ? I agree with Yglesias that Americans are fundamentally confused about the facts of the case.

The problem is that Yglesias, while making an honest, valid ,and patently true point, is forced to use exactly the same weasle words and verbal tricks that have been so useful to the Bush administration when propagating their deceptions.

Is there something wrong with the English language ? Hell no try Italian.

There is a deep problem with the world and it's complexity.

I think, to paraphrase Borges, the world is too complicated for the mind of a mere Matthew Yglesias. There is no hope for the rest of us.