This is why I have decided to tune out and just read articles on substack that occasionally peak my interest or my local news. The internet and social media is a cesspool and no one is happy. Log off and read a book everyone, you will find peace.
It's so much better and I love Substack notes. Though I'm seeing some twitter-type bullshit start to pop up too (lots of people really, really don't like Andew Sullivan lol)
Substack notes annoys me and I doubt I'll return to it because it regularly shows me when someone I subscribe to comments on another note. I like Freddie de Boer's article writing, but I don't want to see it in my Substack notes feed every time he pops up in someone's comments to argue with them. I think the nature of any place people go to post their takes on political or controversial topics is to become toxic.
I canceled my FdB sub after he went after someone in his own comments. I knew that he is a Twitter asshole but I never saw it because I'm not on Twitter. It seems like a shtick.
That might have been the time I unsubscribed! He quoted one comment on one side of a cultural dispute as beyond the pale and whined about how he didn’t have time to moderate.
I don't think he's on Twitter. Anyway, I didn't mean to single him out, it was just an example that leaps to mind. I wouldn't want to see Jesse or Matt Yglesias or Kat Rosenfield or anyone else's comments every single time they respond to anyone.
I was just thinking of that, is there a way to turn off notifications for Notes? I don't care what little quips people have to say, I just want full articles and that's all. I'm fine not being the first to know something.
A big part of this, imo, is the relentless “inflation of language” where everyone is a fascist or Nazi or literally genocidal. If you absorb this and begin to genuinely see others this way, then you feel justified in your totally unhinged behavior.
Absolutely. I don't think this is limited to these terms that are obviously bad but stretched to fit anyone we don't like. I also think it applies to a bunch of other terms - socialism, capitalism, neoliberalism, really almost any -ism - that are applied in ways that obliterate their meaning but send positive or negative vibes, depending on the speaker/audience. Harold James wrote a whole book on the inflation of these globalization-related terms: The War of Words: A Glossary of Globalization.
Alternatively "everyone" is just looking for the excuse they need to do what they want to do anyways. The religion (or whatever takes its place) is just the vessel that shapes the rage and cruelty.
"Goldman...[referred] to depression as “a razorclawed little goblin standing on my chest as [I] lay immobile underneath it. It glowers oppressively over me, and makes movement in any direction impossible.” It’s a horrible, memorable image. Any decent person would feel bad for Alex Goldman."
*Gets up on cross*
*Begins nailing my left palm to the cross with my free hand*
Look, guys...ow...I've ALSO fought a long battle with severe depression, and...ooh, splinter...I DON'T fucking feel bad for Alex Goldman. Depression is a motherfucker, but you can be depressed and not throw your whole ass back into making the world a worse fucking place so everyone else is as miserable as you. This fool gets zero sympathy from me.
*Finishes nailing left hand to cross, holds up hammer*
Honestly, I've had soul-crushing depression and never instigated being a jerk like Goldman. To be fair, when people are jerks to me online I've had moments I regret of not responding well. But to go out of my way to be this asshole-ish? No.
Typically depression is an internalizing behavior. Maybe he's being a jerk because he's _out_ of the depression?
Any decent person wouldn't go after Goldman the way he goes after others. Whether to feel bad for him or not seems to cache out as a personal moral inclination thing to me.
Well said about Twitter. I rarely look at it now, but your assessment that it has gotten worse because the sane people quit makes perfect sense.
Last month, I also cut several angry, strident Lefty people out of my social media diet, which is something I should've done years ago. Trump broke their brains, and the pre-2016 version of them just isn't coming back. Time to move on.
Yep, when I started on Substack Notes, as I came across them I blocked the bigots, ignoramuses, and trolls, as I'd always done on Twitter, but also the outraged.
I understand how that mode of discourse (often featuring the quote tweet) started and why it developed as it did. And when we first came across heinous opinions in the wild, it perhaps was justified (growing up, I frankly did not anticipate outright Nazis and views of bigots being so prevalent in the discourse; plus, it was somewhat useful and fun to express incredulity over arguments that had been trotted out in bad faith, unchallenged, for decades before).
I've realized since though the horror of this way of interacting with the world, and especially of those people who seek it out or do it as a matter of course...
The Russian invasion of Ukraine seems to have made it even worse. It really showed who was a progressive who had a kooky idea or two and who was a real nutjob.
One really annoying thing that has bubbled up the last few years is the tendancy to think that announcing that you have "depression" or "anxiety" (put in quotes because I feel that the vast majority of those are self-diagnosed) makes you interesting or quirky. I can't stand it.
And I also took a twitter leave about three weeks ago after being a heavy reader. It's amazing how much more serene it makes me ( I mean I missed the whole Bike Karen thing, wow) and when I have peeked back on it's like trying to take a sip from a fire hose and I can feel my blood pressure instantly spike.
To expand on that in a more serious way, though, think about people you've met in your life who you thought were "interesting." Sure, having accomplishments or unusual life experiences help, but typically the people I find "interesting" are those who are "interested." In the conversation you're having with them, other people, art, music, the world around them, etc. Depression robs you of that. It steals your interest in everything.
Also TBH a shitload of people on Twitter seem very uninterested in the world around them so maybe they are all depressed, who knows lol
I have no idea what Bike Karen is. Quoting Ben Dreyfuss, writing in late 2021 about the nascent "Let's go Brandon" meme,
> If you spend enough time online, there will come a point when one day you will have to explain some idiotic niche meme to someone who lives a healthier life than you and has no idea what you’re talking about. It is humiliating. Your cocoon is forced open just enough that the sun comes in and you realize if only for a moment how utterly poor your life choices have been. This experience is a first-order treatment for early-onset Internet Poisoning.
Yep. I killed my Twitter account in like 2018 or 19 when I referenced some major Twitter talking point in a real-life convo among friends and was met with confused, uncomprehending stares.
I live in New Orleans and thankfully the Saints are so ingrained in the culture here (as I imagine UGA would be if you lived in Athens) that even non-football fans will generally at least vaguely understand what I'm talking about if I say "I'm not saying Alvin Kamara is bad but he hasn't looked dominant since 2020."
Yeah but sometimes I catch myself getting deep in the weeds like talking about tight end recruiting and how it affects the 2024 depth chart and so on before I see the blank look on thier faces.
I just found out about the Bike Karen thing on the Fifth Column podcast. Maybe I'm a tradcon, but if a pregnant woman* gets off work at her hospital shift and there's some question about whether she or I reserved a particular bike or whatever, I'm going to give it to her.
Literally insane to me that the reaction to this is anything but "wow, that guy's a complete piece of shit who deserves to be catapulted into the sun." We are living in truly delusional times.
*Apologies for the bigoted phrase, see previous remark about being a tradcon
She could prove that she rented it. They tried to steal from her and then got her fired from her job. Her employer should hang his head in shame. It's not 2020 anymore. An accusation isn't enough. Time to bring back due process.
I thought she was just put on paid leave while the employer "investigated" the "incident?" Plenty of online commenters snarked that she was just getting a vacation.
It's bizarre to me that we live in a time where people all over the country including prominent lawyers and celebrities are weighing in on an altercation over a rental bike. The attention often devastates lives. Ugh!
I think the early lack of details made people jump to conclusions. There is a shit ton of that on Twitter it’s kinda built in. It’s a quick hit medium. Wait to get more info? Too late, the moment has scrolled by. Headlines are its native language and those are often misleading. But it’s mainly human nature to jump to conclusions. What’s interesting is which conclusions are reached most quickly. The mob ganged up on the white woman because they wanted her to be the villain.
Right, people generally used to be familiar with the political and religious opinions of only their close friends and family. Thanks to social media, we're exposed to the hot-take opinions of thousands of strangers and casual acquaintances. People would quickly leave a physical room where hundreds of people buffeted us with their political speeches but for some reason are addicted to online rooms of the same sort.
I'm not sure this is the story. I think it's about being able to lash out at the opinions of the people we know (who's got a MAGA uncle, raise your hand!) but to anonymous anybodies.
I agree, but I think this is what moderation and powerful blocking/muting/flagging tools are for. If we opt for a platform with opt-in moderation, at least make it work.
Alex Goldman is a trashy person and so are his like. They talk about compassion then kick people in the face. Of course Goldman isn't going to answer a good faith inquiry. People like him feel justified in what they do, motivated reasoning is powerful.
If ever a platform embodied a metaphorical version of Gresham's law, it is Twitter. Twitter is a race to the bottom. What happened to Matt Yglesias at Vox was barbaric and Ezra Klein enabled it. Hypocritical lefties like Goldman et al. are getting to me, I feel unsafe, and I want all of them cancelled.
The Twitter bio is telling: “direct action”. This is the fancy way of turning antisocial behavior, whether it is bullying on Twitter or hucking rocks at a federal building, into brave acts of La Resistance.
I think some of this is inherent to operating online, particularly on Twitter. It is literally dehumanizing, in the sense that it’s very easy to imagine that you are Tweeting at a character, a disembodied account, an unperson, rather than actually interacting with a fellow human.
On the flip side, everything coming at you feels deeply personal - mean things are being said about YOU. In PUBLIC. And everyone can see it (but you can’t see anyone who is seeing it). It’s like the dream of being naked in front of a school assembly, except you can’t even see the crowd, you just know they are there and you can hear them laughing.
So everything outgoing is impersonal, everything incoming is personal. You’re the only person in the room when you’re on Twitter.
I don’t feel that I know any people on Twitter. I don’t want to know them and I don’t want them to know me. It’s an opportunity to find out what’s going on, to express opinions and debate ideas. It don’t know why it has to be personal. I don’t doubt it is for some but c’mon. Some stranger on the internet is just some stranger on the internet.
Emily VanDerWerff is quite a piece of work, isn't she? She writes a letter of complaint to Yglesias' bosses, detailing how unsafe he makes her feel, and how much harder he makes her job, but of *course* she doesn't want him reprimanded or fired--perish the thought! She might just as well have asked, "Will no one rid me of this troublesome commentator?"
All this is happening against a background where people were encouraged to go to college (and go into massive debt) as it was surely a path to an upper-middle-class life. It’s not. This has led to great resentment that fuels an empowered hard left on Twitter, podcasts, Jacobin, ChapHouse, etc. (These colleges also are brazenly discriminating against Asians. Not that relevant to my greater point, but it should always be noted.)
The number of decent paying jobs in journalism and the arts has drastically declined with the advent of the internet. The left and center left institutions like the New York Times want the bulk of these remaining jobs to go to people of color and women. They also want as many jobs in academia to go to them as possible. They have been very successful in doing this in the humanities and social sciences.
Alas, the most qualified black and Latino candidates can get much better paying jobs outside of journalism, the arts and academia and often do. No matter. Diversity will be achieved.
Most of the women and people of color who do take these jobs graduated from colleges that filtered education through social justice rhetoric and narratives. It’s often all that they know. They enjoy great professional advantages and are rewarded (often literally, see Pulitzer awards) on the basis of their identities and claims of marginalization.
Okay, then -- very few jobs left in the arts and journalism. The nastiness that comes with people fighting over scraps. The animosity & ugliness then metastasizes on Twitter. And it is kept going by a hard left that has been invigorated by the disappointment of so many young college grads.
Much remains taboo. The level of incompetence and craziness that now appears in, say, NYT op-eds and arts coverage is startling. It’s so bad no one on the left will fully address it head-on as a phenomena. At best some will take on isolated incidents, as the B&R pod does so well.
All of this then puts talented, aging white men working in media who see themselves as being on the left like Goldman, Yglesias, Jesse, Jonathan Chait, etc. in a very awkward position.
Goldman embarrassed and arguably disgraced himself with the Reply All incident and all that followed. The racial dynamics he participated in at the end of the pod’s run were excruciating. Goldman can’t deal with it and has joined his bullies. His behavior is both pathological and pathetic.
Jesse does a service by highlighting Goldman’s appalling behavior towards Yglesias. It’s a sign of Jesse’s prudence, and also of his decency, that he’s not comfortable going big picture on what’s happening (in the arts, journalism & academia), despite the context it might provide for Goldman’s actions, inconsistencies and obvious turmoil.
Oh, it’s not about who told me. It’s about who told millions of kids.
You see, Andrew, there are these people called “Guidance Counselors.” It’s an actual profession. They’re in all the high schools. They (and, in fairness to them, our society as a whole) encouraged kids to go to college as a pathway to a much, much better life. This is pretty common knowledge.
Go back and read my comment slowly. More than once if necessary. If you still don’t see the relevance of diversity initiatives find someone who can read at the college level (preferably not on the autism spectrum) and have them explain it to you. Good luck.
The pathway to a much better life is not the upper middle class. Those are two different things.
Like other people who read and write at a college level and don't bathe in resentment, I don't bother interacting with trolls and bullies. I usually just mute them.
I did a restack note commenting on this, mainly to observe that, per Singal's speculation, Yglesias has suffered from depression, badly, at various times in his life.
"I think Twitter in particular has gotten worse because over time, the better-functioning, less sadistic and damaged people have left (I am not including myself — my departure is temporary)."
Genuine question for Jesse: Why make it temporary? Are you missing out on anything worth the true negative consequences that come with using Twitter? I ask this as someone who went cold turkey right around the same time as you and am so much happier.
This Substack would probably be fine, but “Online Drama” is more or less the core content of Blocked and Reported.
That said I think if Jesse does go back it should be in “read only” mode, or maybe “read and post links to stuff by me and people I want to promote only” rather than interacting with anybody.
While I think it's best to go cold turkey from Twitter, I would think potentially the safest way to engage would be read-only on a few writers you respect but AT ALL COSTS AVOID reading the comments.
The karmic justice, I guess, is that the harassers are ultimately engaging in self-harm. I wish they wouldn't, but if you want to corrode your psyche then I can't really stop you.
"Any decent person would feel bad for Alex Goldman." Haha, I don't. If that makes me not a decent person, then okay, whatevs. I'm tired of all this whining from these leftists who claim that their political opponents make them feel unsafe so they are justified in abusing them. Toughen up, buttercup. And also, fuck you.
This is why I have decided to tune out and just read articles on substack that occasionally peak my interest or my local news. The internet and social media is a cesspool and no one is happy. Log off and read a book everyone, you will find peace.
It's so much better and I love Substack notes. Though I'm seeing some twitter-type bullshit start to pop up too (lots of people really, really don't like Andew Sullivan lol)
Substack notes annoys me and I doubt I'll return to it because it regularly shows me when someone I subscribe to comments on another note. I like Freddie de Boer's article writing, but I don't want to see it in my Substack notes feed every time he pops up in someone's comments to argue with them. I think the nature of any place people go to post their takes on political or controversial topics is to become toxic.
I canceled my FdB sub after he went after someone in his own comments. I knew that he is a Twitter asshole but I never saw it because I'm not on Twitter. It seems like a shtick.
That might have been the time I unsubscribed! He quoted one comment on one side of a cultural dispute as beyond the pale and whined about how he didn’t have time to moderate.
I don't think he's on Twitter. Anyway, I didn't mean to single him out, it was just an example that leaps to mind. I wouldn't want to see Jesse or Matt Yglesias or Kat Rosenfield or anyone else's comments every single time they respond to anyone.
I was just thinking of that, is there a way to turn off notifications for Notes? I don't care what little quips people have to say, I just want full articles and that's all. I'm fine not being the first to know something.
It's under settings. You can flip off the one for Notes. It has worked for me.
Awesome, thank you!
When will the android app allow you to adjust the text size?
A big part of this, imo, is the relentless “inflation of language” where everyone is a fascist or Nazi or literally genocidal. If you absorb this and begin to genuinely see others this way, then you feel justified in your totally unhinged behavior.
It's the secular progressive variant of the old "we have God on our side" justification religious conservatives use to bully and torment others.
Sounds like exactly what a fascist would say.
Sounds exactly like what a fundamentalist of the one true religion of Marx would say.
Definitely going for sarcastic.
Absolutely. I don't think this is limited to these terms that are obviously bad but stretched to fit anyone we don't like. I also think it applies to a bunch of other terms - socialism, capitalism, neoliberalism, really almost any -ism - that are applied in ways that obliterate their meaning but send positive or negative vibes, depending on the speaker/audience. Harold James wrote a whole book on the inflation of these globalization-related terms: The War of Words: A Glossary of Globalization.
Alternatively "everyone" is just looking for the excuse they need to do what they want to do anyways. The religion (or whatever takes its place) is just the vessel that shapes the rage and cruelty.
"Goldman...[referred] to depression as “a razorclawed little goblin standing on my chest as [I] lay immobile underneath it. It glowers oppressively over me, and makes movement in any direction impossible.” It’s a horrible, memorable image. Any decent person would feel bad for Alex Goldman."
*Gets up on cross*
*Begins nailing my left palm to the cross with my free hand*
Look, guys...ow...I've ALSO fought a long battle with severe depression, and...ooh, splinter...I DON'T fucking feel bad for Alex Goldman. Depression is a motherfucker, but you can be depressed and not throw your whole ass back into making the world a worse fucking place so everyone else is as miserable as you. This fool gets zero sympathy from me.
*Finishes nailing left hand to cross, holds up hammer*
Now who wants to do my righty?
Honestly, I've had soul-crushing depression and never instigated being a jerk like Goldman. To be fair, when people are jerks to me online I've had moments I regret of not responding well. But to go out of my way to be this asshole-ish? No.
Typically depression is an internalizing behavior. Maybe he's being a jerk because he's _out_ of the depression?
Make Alex Goldman depressed again! JK
Any decent person wouldn't go after Goldman the way he goes after others. Whether to feel bad for him or not seems to cache out as a personal moral inclination thing to me.
for sure, just splitting a hair that seemed worth splitting
As a wise man once said:
“All your cryin’ don't do no good
. . .
Come down off the cross, we can use the wood”
Well said about Twitter. I rarely look at it now, but your assessment that it has gotten worse because the sane people quit makes perfect sense.
Last month, I also cut several angry, strident Lefty people out of my social media diet, which is something I should've done years ago. Trump broke their brains, and the pre-2016 version of them just isn't coming back. Time to move on.
Yep, when I started on Substack Notes, as I came across them I blocked the bigots, ignoramuses, and trolls, as I'd always done on Twitter, but also the outraged.
I understand how that mode of discourse (often featuring the quote tweet) started and why it developed as it did. And when we first came across heinous opinions in the wild, it perhaps was justified (growing up, I frankly did not anticipate outright Nazis and views of bigots being so prevalent in the discourse; plus, it was somewhat useful and fun to express incredulity over arguments that had been trotted out in bad faith, unchallenged, for decades before).
I've realized since though the horror of this way of interacting with the world, and especially of those people who seek it out or do it as a matter of course...
Congratulations for always knowing the one true way
The Russian invasion of Ukraine seems to have made it even worse. It really showed who was a progressive who had a kooky idea or two and who was a real nutjob.
One really annoying thing that has bubbled up the last few years is the tendancy to think that announcing that you have "depression" or "anxiety" (put in quotes because I feel that the vast majority of those are self-diagnosed) makes you interesting or quirky. I can't stand it.
And I also took a twitter leave about three weeks ago after being a heavy reader. It's amazing how much more serene it makes me ( I mean I missed the whole Bike Karen thing, wow) and when I have peeked back on it's like trying to take a sip from a fire hose and I can feel my blood pressure instantly spike.
As someone who's battled depression off and on for his entire life, I guarantee it does not make one more interesting haha
To expand on that in a more serious way, though, think about people you've met in your life who you thought were "interesting." Sure, having accomplishments or unusual life experiences help, but typically the people I find "interesting" are those who are "interested." In the conversation you're having with them, other people, art, music, the world around them, etc. Depression robs you of that. It steals your interest in everything.
Also TBH a shitload of people on Twitter seem very uninterested in the world around them so maybe they are all depressed, who knows lol
Ditto and ditto. If anything it makes me more difficult to be around and less interesting.
I missed the Bike Karen thing too! Only found out about it five days or so later. Not gonna lie, it's nice not knowing about every blow-up.
I have no idea what Bike Karen is. Quoting Ben Dreyfuss, writing in late 2021 about the nascent "Let's go Brandon" meme,
> If you spend enough time online, there will come a point when one day you will have to explain some idiotic niche meme to someone who lives a healthier life than you and has no idea what you’re talking about. It is humiliating. Your cocoon is forced open just enough that the sun comes in and you realize if only for a moment how utterly poor your life choices have been. This experience is a first-order treatment for early-onset Internet Poisoning.
Yep. I killed my Twitter account in like 2018 or 19 when I referenced some major Twitter talking point in a real-life convo among friends and was met with confused, uncomprehending stares.
It was Bean Dad, wasn't it.
Ha, no, it wasn't that. I actually mostly avoided that one (I've heard the term but have no idea what it is).
Wow am I never really engaged fully with twitter :) What annoying people.
That's damn hilarious.
I feel the same way when I have to explain something about UGA football to a normie in an otherwise regular conversation
I live in New Orleans and thankfully the Saints are so ingrained in the culture here (as I imagine UGA would be if you lived in Athens) that even non-football fans will generally at least vaguely understand what I'm talking about if I say "I'm not saying Alvin Kamara is bad but he hasn't looked dominant since 2020."
Yeah but sometimes I catch myself getting deep in the weeds like talking about tight end recruiting and how it affects the 2024 depth chart and so on before I see the blank look on thier faces.
(Oh, and FTS :) )
What is FTS? I'm 45 and bad at acronyms.
What's there to explain? It's very simple, Bobo just needs to run the dang bawwl.
It really is that simple
I just found out about the Bike Karen thing on the Fifth Column podcast. Maybe I'm a tradcon, but if a pregnant woman* gets off work at her hospital shift and there's some question about whether she or I reserved a particular bike or whatever, I'm going to give it to her.
Literally insane to me that the reaction to this is anything but "wow, that guy's a complete piece of shit who deserves to be catapulted into the sun." We are living in truly delusional times.
*Apologies for the bigoted phrase, see previous remark about being a tradcon
She could prove that she rented it. They tried to steal from her and then got her fired from her job. Her employer should hang his head in shame. It's not 2020 anymore. An accusation isn't enough. Time to bring back due process.
I thought she was just put on paid leave while the employer "investigated" the "incident?" Plenty of online commenters snarked that she was just getting a vacation.
Ah. You're right. So not as bad, then
Right? It's not even a debate, so dumb
It's bizarre to me that we live in a time where people all over the country including prominent lawyers and celebrities are weighing in on an altercation over a rental bike. The attention often devastates lives. Ugh!
I think the early lack of details made people jump to conclusions. There is a shit ton of that on Twitter it’s kinda built in. It’s a quick hit medium. Wait to get more info? Too late, the moment has scrolled by. Headlines are its native language and those are often misleading. But it’s mainly human nature to jump to conclusions. What’s interesting is which conclusions are reached most quickly. The mob ganged up on the white woman because they wanted her to be the villain.
If I understand correctly, citi bike will charge you $1200 if you don’t return the bike, so it was more than a single bike charge
It’s just too much aggregate interaction with too many people, and in a form least able to convey nuance or intent.
Humans did not evolve to care about the opinions of thousands of strangers we’ll never meet; we evolved in groups of 20-30 out on the savannah.
People say Twitter and its ilk “break our brains,” and I think that’s literally what’s happening.
Right, people generally used to be familiar with the political and religious opinions of only their close friends and family. Thanks to social media, we're exposed to the hot-take opinions of thousands of strangers and casual acquaintances. People would quickly leave a physical room where hundreds of people buffeted us with their political speeches but for some reason are addicted to online rooms of the same sort.
I sometimes reminds me of that episode of Buffy where she can hear everyone’s thoughts and is driven insane.
Seriously, it’s like that Buffy ep, or that X-Men when Dark Phoenix heard her own father’s creepy thoughts.
We just were not engineered to handle this many raw inputs.
I'm not sure this is the story. I think it's about being able to lash out at the opinions of the people we know (who's got a MAGA uncle, raise your hand!) but to anonymous anybodies.
I'm sure there's multiple aspects to it.
I agree, but I think this is what moderation and powerful blocking/muting/flagging tools are for. If we opt for a platform with opt-in moderation, at least make it work.
Alex Goldman is a trashy person and so are his like. They talk about compassion then kick people in the face. Of course Goldman isn't going to answer a good faith inquiry. People like him feel justified in what they do, motivated reasoning is powerful.
If ever a platform embodied a metaphorical version of Gresham's law, it is Twitter. Twitter is a race to the bottom. What happened to Matt Yglesias at Vox was barbaric and Ezra Klein enabled it. Hypocritical lefties like Goldman et al. are getting to me, I feel unsafe, and I want all of them cancelled.
Yeah he is depressed because he is a bad person, and is subconsciously aware of it.
The Twitter bio is telling: “direct action”. This is the fancy way of turning antisocial behavior, whether it is bullying on Twitter or hucking rocks at a federal building, into brave acts of La Resistance.
The government needs to take the phones away.
They can take our lives, our liberty, even our very children and we will hold fast to our couches.
But shut off the WiFi and shit would get real.
First they came for our children, and I said nothing as I didn't have children...
Or worse, because MacGyver was on and he was fighting Murdock.
"Worse?" Don't you mean "better?" MacGyver is what you wish the said donated child would have been.
Anything that starts with "the government needs to" and doesn't end with "get out of the way" or "leave people alone" is a big No from me.
I think some of this is inherent to operating online, particularly on Twitter. It is literally dehumanizing, in the sense that it’s very easy to imagine that you are Tweeting at a character, a disembodied account, an unperson, rather than actually interacting with a fellow human.
On the flip side, everything coming at you feels deeply personal - mean things are being said about YOU. In PUBLIC. And everyone can see it (but you can’t see anyone who is seeing it). It’s like the dream of being naked in front of a school assembly, except you can’t even see the crowd, you just know they are there and you can hear them laughing.
So everything outgoing is impersonal, everything incoming is personal. You’re the only person in the room when you’re on Twitter.
I don’t feel that I know any people on Twitter. I don’t want to know them and I don’t want them to know me. It’s an opportunity to find out what’s going on, to express opinions and debate ideas. It don’t know why it has to be personal. I don’t doubt it is for some but c’mon. Some stranger on the internet is just some stranger on the internet.
Emily VanDerWerff is quite a piece of work, isn't she? She writes a letter of complaint to Yglesias' bosses, detailing how unsafe he makes her feel, and how much harder he makes her job, but of *course* she doesn't want him reprimanded or fired--perish the thought! She might just as well have asked, "Will no one rid me of this troublesome commentator?"
All this is happening against a background where people were encouraged to go to college (and go into massive debt) as it was surely a path to an upper-middle-class life. It’s not. This has led to great resentment that fuels an empowered hard left on Twitter, podcasts, Jacobin, ChapHouse, etc. (These colleges also are brazenly discriminating against Asians. Not that relevant to my greater point, but it should always be noted.)
The number of decent paying jobs in journalism and the arts has drastically declined with the advent of the internet. The left and center left institutions like the New York Times want the bulk of these remaining jobs to go to people of color and women. They also want as many jobs in academia to go to them as possible. They have been very successful in doing this in the humanities and social sciences.
Alas, the most qualified black and Latino candidates can get much better paying jobs outside of journalism, the arts and academia and often do. No matter. Diversity will be achieved.
Most of the women and people of color who do take these jobs graduated from colleges that filtered education through social justice rhetoric and narratives. It’s often all that they know. They enjoy great professional advantages and are rewarded (often literally, see Pulitzer awards) on the basis of their identities and claims of marginalization.
Okay, then -- very few jobs left in the arts and journalism. The nastiness that comes with people fighting over scraps. The animosity & ugliness then metastasizes on Twitter. And it is kept going by a hard left that has been invigorated by the disappointment of so many young college grads.
Much remains taboo. The level of incompetence and craziness that now appears in, say, NYT op-eds and arts coverage is startling. It’s so bad no one on the left will fully address it head-on as a phenomena. At best some will take on isolated incidents, as the B&R pod does so well.
All of this then puts talented, aging white men working in media who see themselves as being on the left like Goldman, Yglesias, Jesse, Jonathan Chait, etc. in a very awkward position.
Goldman embarrassed and arguably disgraced himself with the Reply All incident and all that followed. The racial dynamics he participated in at the end of the pod’s run were excruciating. Goldman can’t deal with it and has joined his bullies. His behavior is both pathological and pathetic.
Jesse does a service by highlighting Goldman’s appalling behavior towards Yglesias. It’s a sign of Jesse’s prudence, and also of his decency, that he’s not comfortable going big picture on what’s happening (in the arts, journalism & academia), despite the context it might provide for Goldman’s actions, inconsistencies and obvious turmoil.
I remember my professors saying in candid moments about academia that the fighting was so intense because the stakes were so low.
I don't know who told you a college degree was a sure path to the upper middle class. It is a sure path to a 40% wage premium if you finish.
I also see zero relevance to diversity initiatives.
Oh, it’s not about who told me. It’s about who told millions of kids.
You see, Andrew, there are these people called “Guidance Counselors.” It’s an actual profession. They’re in all the high schools. They (and, in fairness to them, our society as a whole) encouraged kids to go to college as a pathway to a much, much better life. This is pretty common knowledge.
Go back and read my comment slowly. More than once if necessary. If you still don’t see the relevance of diversity initiatives find someone who can read at the college level (preferably not on the autism spectrum) and have them explain it to you. Good luck.
The pathway to a much better life is not the upper middle class. Those are two different things.
Like other people who read and write at a college level and don't bathe in resentment, I don't bother interacting with trolls and bullies. I usually just mute them.
Again: it’s what people are told and believe.
You’re seemingly unwilling to acknowledge what motivates people if you think that motivation is misguided.
I am neither troll, nor bully. You snidely responded to my original comment. Not the other way around.
I did a restack note commenting on this, mainly to observe that, per Singal's speculation, Yglesias has suffered from depression, badly, at various times in his life.
https://substack.com/profile/1079088-paul/note/c-16448408
Dang, that makes me sad. I've had bad depression (and was briefly helped by TMS as well). But it's a bummer to hear MattY has struggled as well.
"I think Twitter in particular has gotten worse because over time, the better-functioning, less sadistic and damaged people have left (I am not including myself — my departure is temporary)."
Genuine question for Jesse: Why make it temporary? Are you missing out on anything worth the true negative consequences that come with using Twitter? I ask this as someone who went cold turkey right around the same time as you and am so much happier.
This Substack would probably be fine, but “Online Drama” is more or less the core content of Blocked and Reported.
That said I think if Jesse does go back it should be in “read only” mode, or maybe “read and post links to stuff by me and people I want to promote only” rather than interacting with anybody.
While I think it's best to go cold turkey from Twitter, I would think potentially the safest way to engage would be read-only on a few writers you respect but AT ALL COSTS AVOID reading the comments.
The karmic justice, I guess, is that the harassers are ultimately engaging in self-harm. I wish they wouldn't, but if you want to corrode your psyche then I can't really stop you.
Take another hit, the drug feels so good.
"Any decent person would feel bad for Alex Goldman." Haha, I don't. If that makes me not a decent person, then okay, whatevs. I'm tired of all this whining from these leftists who claim that their political opponents make them feel unsafe so they are justified in abusing them. Toughen up, buttercup. And also, fuck you.