In a much-talked-about recent article for The Atlantic, economics writer Annie Lowrey pillories an especially obnoxious type of social media participant she calls “Facts Man.” It is an unfortunate reality of online interaction that most of us have crossed paths with Facts Man at one time or another. But what is it that makes him so repellent to us? What makes him a bona fide discourse villain? Well, whatever it is, it has nothing to do with “facts.”
This is my central complaint with Lowrey’s piece. There’s nothing off about its style or its writing — in fact, on these fronts, the piece is cleverly done. And I’ll admit it’s kind of Facts Man-ish on my part to EVISCERATE a fundamentally insouciant and playful piece. But I will press on because there’s enough wrong with the piece’s substance to warrant a response. I think Lowrey’s conceptualization of this type of discourse participant is importantly off. She’s entirely right about Facts Man being terrible, but she doesn’t really get why — and framing him as “Facts Man” to begin with is the most telling sign.
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