Ben Edelman, Jon Gruber, and the perils of arrogance

Minus the humor, crossing the line between confidence and arrogance is a dangerous place to be in the Internet age. When your contempt for others is so obvious, and it is captured in an email chain or YouTube video, there’s an opportunity for those on the other side of your disdain to strike back.

In Gruber’s case, he had to endure the likes of Republican Congressman Darrell Issa asking him, “Are you stupid?” In Edelman’s case, the media has had a field day circulating the embarrassing email. There was a special karma in Edelman’s discomfort since his research specialty is “fixing the Internet.”

Edelman’s Harvard affiliation added to the delight of bashers, but the Ivy League doesn’t have a lock on arrogance. In a recent interview, Texas Gov. Rick Perry blamed his infamous “oops” moment during the 2012 Republican primary on the arrogance that came with believing he could jump into a presidential campaign without proper preparation. Although in Perry’s case, that acknowledgement may add up to more of a humble brag.

Yet if there’s a line between confidence and arrogance, there’s also a line between chuckling over the squirming of a Gruber or Edelman and reveling in it just a little too much.