86 Comments
Apr 22, 2022·edited Apr 22, 2022

Even in cases where there are specific charges, people always seem to face this bind where enough is never enough. You write one white-text-on-black-field Instagram apology, then another, then another. In Vogt’s reply I think he correctly identified the problem: “while I am sure that the experience has changed me, I think trying to prove that is just not going to be good for anybody.” What can you do when critics don’t actually specify what it is that they want? That’s part of what makes them seem so Maoist; they demand an endless series of apologies, an endless process of thought reform. You can let yourself be tormented, or you can say “I’m done. I’ve said my piece. I’m launching a podcast - if you don’t like me, then don’t listen.” We need more of that. Don’t feed the crybullies.

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'The Times piece notes that 24 of the company’s first 27 staffers were white, which — whatever you think about how big a role diversity should play in hiring — suggests a blind spot on the part of the founders'

Come on Jesse, this is nonsense and you know it.

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I'll also chime in and say that Reply All has gotten to be pretty good again, and is rediscovering what previously made the show so compelling.

But what's really funny is hearing just how fucking terrified Alex Goldman is of Emmanuel Dzotsi! You can almost hear the muffled crackling of eggshells in the background.

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I remember when the Test Kitchen episodes came out I stopped listening after part of the first one because I really didn't want to listen to yet another podcast that decided to start doing race/gender issues. And then the podcast itself fell apart. I haven't listened since. It was so disappointing because Reply-All was really good. (I really miss yes, yes, no). I never really understood why it fell apart other than progressives eat progressives when they haven't been properly pious.

Crypto Island has been pretty good so far. Not at the level of old Reply-All but not bad.

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“Black and brown people support this thing, so I better do so too.”

If you add [queer/trans/muslim/disabled/etc etc] before 'people' you have pretty much described all of modern online liberalism.

Being a liberal or Leftist in media or academia or culture in 2022 reminds me of that Twilight Zone episode about the creepy evil kid who can destroy anyone by zapping them with his telekinesis. You either obediently follow every aspect of dogma in all ways in all settings, and most especially never ever publicly disagree with anyone from a Protected Victim class (no matter how ridiculous or unfounded their claims)--or else...ZAPPED!

This sounds like a terrible way to live.

No wonder these people are so neurotic!

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I agree it is absurd, but he seems to have decided to live by the woke and was thus obliged to die by the woke. Hoisted by his own petard, if you will. Unless one in such a position is willing to challenge wokery tout court there is no way to defend oneself.

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It looks more and more likely that PJ only “crime” was that he was against the unionization, and maybe it was just against certain points. Kinda like some are accused of “murder” because they are against Medicare for All, even though they favor a more expansive role of government in healthcare.

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One important thing to point out, which I don't think you mentioned explicitly.

If you go back and listen to the original startup podcast about gimlet, it is mentioned that PJ and Alex own part of reply all. Inferring from that, PJ's concern about unionization hurting him financially wasn't some minor misunderstanding. Given the tentpole nature of the company, unionization was absolutely, 100% going to hurt him financially. He had ownership in the only successful show gimlet had, and everyone on every other show was already riding his coattails. Now they want a union on top of that?

So the charge boils down to vaguely being against something that would almost definitely cost you money for a small period of time before ultimately changing your mind. Pretty weird thing to cancel someone over.

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I follow some streamers on twitch, and I've seen a few instances of this. Its basically professional/personal disputes that get broadcast on social media. Things like business ventures that didn't quite pan out coupled with a couple of angry messages that get framed as 'abuse' (a long with weird personal disputes about love interests). No one outside of the actual involve parties has the context to actually evaluate what happens but everyone gets inflamed on twitter and it basically gets decided by who has the more aggressive followers. It's ultimately pretty stupid and meaningless except it can end careers. I don't know exactly how we can create norms of 'don't air your petty professional/romantic disputes in public' without discouraging publicizing actual abuse, but it sure would be nice if we could.

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Will the lack of indenting finally be what takes down Substack?

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"Hens at a pecking party," as Ken Kesey described it in "Cuckoo's Nest."

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Maybe this is playing out under Catholic/Canadian cultural rules where everyone is just supposed to feel vaguely sorry for everything all the time.

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Doesn't unionizing just put the existing employees in a union? it doesn't come with a diversity rainbow attached. Whatever percentage of the workforce is white pre union will remain unchanged post union.

And since only 11% of the workforce is unionized, we're going to have to boycott and cancel a whole lot of people if this is the new standard we're held to.

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"24 of the company’s first 27 staffers were white, which — whatever you think about how big a role diversity should play in hiring — suggests a blind spot on the part of the founders"

This suggests an endorsement of racial quotas on the part of Jesse.

I don't come here for woke dogma, and I'm disappointed when I get it.

EDIT: I see this was already brought up earlier.

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I have been desperate for someone to follow up on this. I was honestly shocked no one on Substack has written about this until now. At a personal level, this was a huge moment in my becoming very disenchanted.

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So similar to the taint of “pink” that attached to people blacklisted in the 1950s—once the taint is there, almost impossible to erase. Such people were advised to publicly denounce communism, or colleagues, or unions, or anti-blacklisters, or civil rights efforts in an effort to erase the taint. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.

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