I’d say 15-17 years is quite a difference. I realized the way I worded it makes it look like not much of a difference when you see the numbers on the page, but that’s a pretty decent gap. The better part of two decades.
Even after middle age people continue to mature, and generally tend to be more selective about their battles and what they get worked up about (largely because they just don’t have the energy). But I think it’s pretty obvious Paul refined his conduct more and more over time. I’m not denying that Friedman is a better communicator. Like I said, I’ve never seen anyone better. (Tom Woods might match him, albeit with a quite different style). But tell me when was the last time you saw Paul act anything like he did in his more outbursty moments on that Downey show.
Think of the amount of crap he’s had to put up with for three decades in the viper’s den…and you show me a clip of him ever even coming close to that Downey show.
First of all, there was only one “show”. The “young michael moore” clip was from a q&a session of a lecture Friedman gave at Cornell University (part of a series which you can view here, actually.) So the atmosphere and crowd was quite different.
Second, you make it sound like Paul’s conduct “lost” him the support of the crowd. They were never on his side. They were Downey fans who got tickets to go to a taping of the Downey Show. Paul was brought on the show (along with that “lifestyle libertarian” and the old white guy) as a piñata. It was obvious from the start Downey didn’t like him and wasn’t there to give him a fair shake. Hell I’d never even heard of the show before and could tell the whole premise is to basically have a Jerry Springer spectacle. The only difference is, on Downey’s show the audience gets involved, and it’s a verbal fight instead of a physical one.
Third, as I said, I’m not so sure Paul’s purpose on that show was to win any minds. And even if it was, can you really blame him for losing cool and focus? Again that’s the whole point of the show. That’s what it was formatted for.
You make it sound like the two situations are even comparable, and that the crowd on Downey’s show was ever respectible in the first place.
In Friedman’s case, he was a Nobel Laureate (pushing 70 years old) giving a lecture at an Ivy League university, and was the whole reason for the event. (As in, it was all about him.) The people came to see him, the event was organized for him, the cameras were there for his program…this was a Friedman event, and these were mostly university students.
In Paul’s case he was a spry statesman barely into his 50s (with the physicality of someone probably at least 10-15 years younger), one of three guests brought out as piñatas on a Jerry Springer-type show in which the audience filled with Joe Sixpack morons are allowed (and encouraged, with the facilitation of microphones) to stand up and verbally attack the guests, while the host of the show eggs the whole thing on and gets his own licks in whenvever he feels like it, up to and including literally getting inches from the guest’s face as he screams straw men at him.
And you’re using the behavior of the two men in these two completely different settings and different times of their life to compare their overall personal conduct.
I think “unfair comparison” is an understatement.