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.
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.
"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*
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
"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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
The government needs to take the phones away.
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.
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 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
"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.
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.