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Very Serious People or Very Serious Person (VSP) is a sarcastically derogatory phrase given to pundits and legislators who are generally viewed as having respectable, conventional opinions but are actually wrong and foolish. The term has particularly been used and popularized by Paul Krugman, who says he may have borrowed it from blogger Atrios. The term has been in use since at least 2006 and is generally used by liberal bloggers and opinion writers. Kevin Drum said in 2009 that "one of the current favorite pastimes in the liberal blogosphere is to mock the Very Serious People who currently make up our foreign policy establishment."

Origin and meaning
English literary critic G. K. Chesterton used the phrase sardonically (referring to playwright George Bernard Shaw) in his 1922 book The Well and the Shallows. The phrase was used in its current political context by Atrios as early as October 23, 2006. By 2007 it was in use by liberal bloggers Matt Stoller at MYDD, Digby at Hullabaloo and Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly. Atrios defined it as "The idiotic assholes who rule us," in response to a video in regard to the Bowles-Simpson Commission. Paul Krugman described an alleged origin of the phrase and his own usage of it to mean people that hold respected opinions but "keep demanding utterly foolish policies." Chris Hayes in his book Twilight of the Elites has said Krugman uses the phrase against elite opinion.

Steve Benen has summarized the phrase as follows:

"The VSP is one of those Washington insiders that the political establishment respects and listens to, despite the fact that the person is (a) nearly always wrong; (b) habitually dishonest; or (c) both."

Usage
It has been used by Paul Krugman to attack pundits that promote austerity. It has also been used to describe pundits who hold opinions on foreign policy, structural unemployment, Bond vigilantes, the proposed The Path to Prosperity budget and Occupy Wall Street.