What Is Chris Beck Talking About?

Fellow Splice Today contributor Chris Beck accuses me of lying about him. The claim is false. The facts are as follows:

In a Twitter argument about tipping, on March 21, 2023, Noah Smith called Chris Beck a “commie weirdo.” Beck replied that “My argument isn’t even from the commie perspective, but you go with that one! Yours is, however.” (Emphasis added.) That last sentence is only intelligible as Beck saying that Noah Smith’s argument was from a commie perspective.

I had no knowledge of this exchange until January 20, 2025, when an article by Splice Today’s proprietor Russ Smith, “Living on the Dark End of the Street,” prompted me to make some reading recommendations in a comment. These included, among others, Noah Smith’s Substack, in addition to Jennifer Rubin’s The Contrarian.

Chris Beck replied in a comment, first dismissing The Contrarian, then saying: “As for Noahpinion, he bet me $100 that Trump would win the nomination, and I took DeSantis. And then for some reason—we’d had no disagreements—he blocked me well before the outcome was decided, thus relieving me of the obligation to pay up. I do appreciate that gift, but think I’ll pass on this recommendation as well.”

Curious about Beck’s interactions with Noah Smith, I looked them up. This required me to go on X/Twitter for the first time in months; since I’d permanently deactivated my main account, I used a dormant account I’d once used to promote my book, after finding its password. I found the March 21, 2023, exchange, which clearly contradicted Beck’s claim that he and Noah Smith “had no disagreements.” 

I noted that discrepancy in my next Splice Today comment, adding: “You were arguing with him about tipping and his supposed ‘commie perspective,’ and his last words to you were: ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about but I’ve had about enough of your antics, bubba.’” (That complaint about Beck’s “antics” is apparently when Noah Smith blocked him.)

Beck replied by calling my fact-checking effort “stalking,” without acknowledging that his claim about “no disagreements” was false (whether a lie or misremembered, I don’t know). I echoed Noah Smith’s opinion: “I too have had enough of your antics,” as I found Beck’s reply evasive and an attempt to continuing arguing without saying anything substantive.

Subsequently, Beck placed comments on several of my articles, some to the effect that I should write about my evolving views of Biden’s cognitive capacity. I’d already done so in my post-debate articles, but upon writing a broader retrospective, I revisited that topic. I was surprised when Beck then started a comment thread resurrected the “stalking” complaint and saying I’d falsely claimed Beck had called Noah Smith a commie.

Now, what I’d written was: “You were arguing with him about tipping and his supposed ‘commie perspective’”; this still strikes me as a correct reading of Beck’s, “My argument isn’t even from the commie perspective, but you go with that one! Yours is, however.” Beck now wrote, “Do you actually believe that I was referring to HIS ‘commie perspective’?” To which I say, that is the plain meaning of Beck’s words, specifically the word “Yours,” in the context of replying to Smith.

Trying to be charitable, I’ve contemplated what the disconnect here is. Perhaps, Beck, in 2023, was trying to suggest that Noah Smith’s argument (again, about tipping) reflected Communist values that perhaps Smith had included unknowingly. If so, that has never been made clear. Moreover, the term “perspective” by its nature suggests a person or other observer; saying an argument is from a perspective, but the person making the argument doesn’t have that perspective, makes little sense, or at least would need to be elucidated.

I’ve had many interactions with Beck, sometimes in agreement with him, sometimes not. I don’t feel hurt by any of those exchanges, but I do feel that engaging with his arguments is often unproductive. Years ago, science writer Martin Gardner wrote about the “Face on Mars” and closed by saying he’d wasted time writing such an article. I know how he felt.

—Kenneth Silber is author of In DeWitt’s Footsteps: Seeing History on the Erie Canal. Follow him on Bluesky