I think that the type of analysis displayed by Friedman and Gladwell can be useful as long as we are careful not to take it too far. We're used to math, where analysis is provably correct, but since the real world is so much more complicated their sort of argumentation can be useful.

"as long as we are careful not to take it too far"

Yeah, good luck selling that. In fact a lot of my thinking about this was spawned by a single sentence. The parenthetical comment in item 2 found here. (Points to Friedman for at least conceding that he was taking it too far to sell books and columns.

1) Would you throw Freakonomics in this same 'pseudo-intellectual' category? I know you're a fan.

2) I think there's a distinction here that's being missed. Some media are meant for an audience of experts. These are the articles that perhaps don't often make it to the internet, because the people who need to see them will know where to find them. These media are boring and dry, unless this is a subject that you know a lot about or are really interested in. The standards for this kind of publication are high and generally set by other experts in the field.

Then there are the popular-level media, those that are published in magazines rather than journals, and spread rapidly throughout the web. These books/articles/columns/blog posts have to pass a different sort of selection. The sheer amount of information we process in a given day drastically dilutes any messages that columnists and writers might try to portray for us. The only way we'll remember an idea, let alone accept it, is for it to be portrayed in a way that is as extreme as reason will allow, but no further because then we'll just ignore it as opinion. Moreover, short articles that don't delve into the complexity of an issue are sometimes favored over in-depth analyses that bore readers to death. One could even take the extreme stance that popular-level media deceives its audience into thinking they know what they're talking about so they actually go out and tell others what they've learned. The most extreme are bumper stickers.

I think you're looking for media of the first type and finding the second type. I've been similarly disappointed trying to research the evolution-creationism debate, and finding that both sides just try to come up with simple one-liners to knock down an entire theory (although creationists tend to do this more than evolutionists). But I have found, after searching hard enough, articles of the first type on both sides, even something that closely resembles science in creationism. I trust that philosophy is similar in this disconnect between the two types of media.

People aren't stupid. No one actually believes every word that their favorite columnist writes, because almost none of them are really experts in the subjects they address, not that experts are always right either. We all know that the world is more complicated than we could ever even imagine it to be, and all our collective efforts are only scratching the surface of reality. It's not that we refuse to believe in a complicated world, it's that without further background, we can only understand simple things, so we start there. If we really care about the subject, we delve deeper and go beyond the popular level. If the popular level frustrates you, as it did me, I'd suggest you try to find the technical journals and scholarly articles that don't pop up on the first page of a Google search. Of course, for some subjects, usually the most politicized, there isn't much there. But for many, including economics and philosophy, I'm sure, there is more than enough to satisfy your craving for complication.

I've been hit with this realization almost every day since I've gotten home from college.

You get used to the idea that knowing something involves grappling with examples, trying different arguments -- difficult thinking--and then these pop science/economics articles give one example and say "hey that's the truth!"

So frustrating...

(So I suppose, in line with SamE's post, I am also looking for good reading this summer.)