EZRA KLEIN v MATT YGLESIAS

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Poll Results

OptionVotes
EZRA KLIEN 9
MATT YGLESIAS 7


ice cr?m, Monday, 3 January 2011 17:41 (fourteen years ago)

feel like ezra is a more likable and otm but matt is a deeper thinker so i dunno

ice cr?m, Monday, 3 January 2011 17:43 (fourteen years ago)

yglesias has been annoying the fucc out of me

max, Monday, 3 January 2011 17:44 (fourteen years ago)

strikes me as the kind of guy who would have been a member of 'the best and brightest' or whatever

max, Monday, 3 January 2011 17:45 (fourteen years ago)

yeah thats his exact flaw, i mean he supported the iraq war via absurd over thinking, still i have to admit he has influenced my thinking on such topics as urban planning and destroying the senate

ice cr?m, Monday, 3 January 2011 17:48 (fourteen years ago)

i dumped yg from my read a while ago. i guess that's sort of 'mcnabb off my madden team' but there u go. mainstream dem-liberal technocrats aren't thin on the ground and he's a shitty writer imo. i still 'like' him i guess but i stopped enjoying his writing like at all.

however i do get into quasi-arguments about urban planning fairly frequently (and no not just on ilx) and i find myself mimicking yglesian points

goole, Monday, 3 January 2011 17:50 (fourteen years ago)

who has better trolls?

goole, Monday, 3 January 2011 17:51 (fourteen years ago)

i feel like yglesias is still sort of confused by irl

max, Monday, 3 January 2011 17:51 (fourteen years ago)

"from my reader" i mean

goole, Monday, 3 January 2011 17:51 (fourteen years ago)

i must admit the truly sad number of typos were a big part of me ignoring his blog.

plus i figure the shit he talks about is so everywhere that other ppl will link to him if it's really worth it (see also: andrew sullivan)

both of these guys are nearly worthless on culture

goole, Monday, 3 January 2011 17:53 (fourteen years ago)

they used to live in a house with dave weigel and spencer ackerman, bet it was a terrible place to hang out

max, Monday, 3 January 2011 17:55 (fourteen years ago)

haa i find the typos charming because a. its p 'internet' b. i am myself as you all know a masterful typo maker

ice cr?m, Monday, 3 January 2011 17:55 (fourteen years ago)

see i figured you as an accomplished and rigorous stylist whereas our think tank opinion leader is just fucking lazy and/or dyslexic

goole, Monday, 3 January 2011 17:58 (fourteen years ago)

shouldnt this be in ILM

Princess TamTam, Monday, 3 January 2011 17:59 (fourteen years ago)

they used to live in a house with dave weigel and spencer ackerman, bet it was a terrible place to hang out

― max, Monday, January 3, 2011 12:55 PM (28 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

that there is an offline culture of young dc bloggers and i know abt it is simultaneously fascinating and horrifying, although i was unaware of this particular amazing roommates based nugget, would love to run into these guys at a bbq and get into a drunken political argument

ice cr?m, Monday, 3 January 2011 17:59 (fourteen years ago)

see i figured you as an accomplished and rigorous stylist whereas our think tank opinion leader is just fucking lazy and/or dyslexic

― goole, Monday, January 3, 2011 12:58 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ty 4 yr support

ice cr?m, Monday, 3 January 2011 18:00 (fourteen years ago)

ackerman talks about that time the most; i did not know weigel was one of them. feel a little weird for knowing about this crap tbh.

goole, Monday, 3 January 2011 18:01 (fourteen years ago)

i dont really read attackerman, his shtick grates

ice cr?m, Monday, 3 January 2011 18:02 (fourteen years ago)

he's done with FDL if that helps

goole, Monday, 3 January 2011 18:03 (fourteen years ago)

i dunno if i've come clean about this but i have a war-nerd streak so

goole, Monday, 3 January 2011 18:03 (fourteen years ago)

ackerman talks about that time the most; i did not know weigel was one of them. feel a little weird for knowing about this crap tbh.

― goole, Monday, January 3, 2011 1:01 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

me too but on the other hand did u know that ezra klein became a health care reform expert to impress simon schamas daughter chloe

max, Monday, 3 January 2011 18:04 (fourteen years ago)

no i was unaware. she must be pretty fine.

goole, Monday, 3 January 2011 18:05 (fourteen years ago)

i think i find the stuff he covers interesting, but i guess i dont really, i read him occasionally at wired xp re ackerman

ice cr?m, Monday, 3 January 2011 18:06 (fourteen years ago)

lol max whatre u talkin abt

ice cr?m, Monday, 3 January 2011 18:06 (fourteen years ago)

haha i have been under the impression that i knew a lot of gossip abt these ppl but now that i am thinking about it the thing about chloe schama is the only gossip-y nugget i know, kind of disappointed in myself

max, Monday, 3 January 2011 18:07 (fourteen years ago)

http://grab.by/8b5N

ice cr?m, Monday, 3 January 2011 18:07 (fourteen years ago)

anyway when i saw ezra klein on tv i was surprised his persona seemed more journalistic glory days upstart young reporter than coddled nerdface technocratic blogger - i liked him

ice cr?m, Monday, 3 January 2011 18:15 (fourteen years ago)

he has an early 80s newspaper look and feel to him

ice cr?m, Monday, 3 January 2011 18:16 (fourteen years ago)

Yglesias has been wrong many times.

Gus Van Sotosyn (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 3 January 2011 18:34 (fourteen years ago)

Klein meanwhile is a duller writer but his steady crunching of numbers is ultimately educational.

Gus Van Sotosyn (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 3 January 2011 18:34 (fourteen years ago)

yglesiases willingness to be ambitious and wrong is imo what makes him compelling - like i understand theres danger in utopian thinking but still reimagining the world and its institutions is def one of my hobbies

ice cr?m, Monday, 3 January 2011 18:47 (fourteen years ago)

who has better trolls?

― goole, Monday, January 3, 2011 11:51 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

to answer my own q, i don't really know. klein's comments are pretty boring but i have noticed yglesias' "community" to be especially vicious and repetitive. neither of them seem to really care much but i think both have made gestures to get more involved. terrible drudgery, sounds like, to me.

goole, Monday, 3 January 2011 19:01 (fourteen years ago)

as far as blogger gossip goes, can anyone verify that there are, in fact, paid trolls out there? i'd hate to think it was mere dedication causing the same people to say the same things in the same place every day

goole, Monday, 3 January 2011 19:03 (fourteen years ago)

theres only one blog i can think of that has good comments, really feel like 'comments off' should be the default

ice cr?m, Monday, 3 January 2011 19:04 (fourteen years ago)

TNC i assume?

goole, Monday, 3 January 2011 19:05 (fourteen years ago)

your bløg has good comments joe

max, Monday, 3 January 2011 19:05 (fourteen years ago)

yah tnc and lol of course goes w/o saying my blog

ice cr?m, Monday, 3 January 2011 19:06 (fourteen years ago)

btw how much does this trolling gig pay, who do i contact

ice cr?m, Monday, 3 January 2011 19:06 (fourteen years ago)

i know, right

goole, Monday, 3 January 2011 19:06 (fourteen years ago)

i saw an interview w/yglesias where he was like all my readers really hate me i have no idea why they come to my blog

ice cr?m, Monday, 3 January 2011 19:09 (fourteen years ago)

he was k funny tbh

ice cr?m, Monday, 3 January 2011 19:09 (fourteen years ago)

eh i've watched a few of his bloggingheads's and he comes off like a jerk imo, interrupting, going on and on

goole, Monday, 3 January 2011 19:17 (fourteen years ago)

ha yeah ive never been able to bring myself to watch a blogginghead and in general id much rather read than watch any news type thing but for some reason i saw this it was a friendly interview at a like blogg convention where they we just joking around

ice cr?m, Monday, 3 January 2011 19:23 (fourteen years ago)

anyway my head says klein but my heart goes yglesias, not sure what to do, prob follow my heart

ice cr?m, Monday, 3 January 2011 19:25 (fourteen years ago)

yglesias is good on urban issues - not that he says anything new, but at least he's talking to relatively wide audience. but still...super annoying on a personal level. I like klein.

iatee, Monday, 3 January 2011 20:11 (fourteen years ago)

Yglesias is a philosophy major in every word he writes and this is awesome about him.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 3 January 2011 20:46 (fourteen years ago)

ugh this is gonna be like that week i read glenn greenwald isnt it

plax (ico), Monday, 3 January 2011 21:39 (fourteen years ago)

neither of these guys is much like glenn greenwald

fruit of the goon (k3vin k.), Monday, 3 January 2011 22:20 (fourteen years ago)

unless you have some sort of distaste for american journalists, then yes it'll be like that lol

fruit of the goon (k3vin k.), Monday, 3 January 2011 22:20 (fourteen years ago)

these guys are on the sensible/technocratic side of the great progressive blogger divide - greenwald exists on the polemic/activist shore - which is not to say hes any more or less otm, just that hes harder to take

ice cr?m, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 00:39 (fourteen years ago)

nah, that was what i liked abt greenwald its just that in the end i was like "wtf this is not my country i dont care"

plax (ico), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 00:40 (fourteen years ago)

haha

fruit of the goon (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 00:41 (fourteen years ago)

yeah but usa is in charge of the rest of the countries iirc

ice cr?m, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 00:42 (fourteen years ago)

when krugman is updating regularly i don't have much of a reason to follow klein too closely - i don't hate him or anything though

fruit of the goon (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 00:42 (fourteen years ago)

[Yglesias is] a shitty writer imo

Actually, typos aside, he's not. He's remarkably concise and clear even if he liberally sprinkles his posts with "negative externalities" this and "regulatory capture" that jargon.

nomar little (Leee), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 01:18 (fourteen years ago)

yglesias is embarrassed about having been a socialist and will occasionally mix in some right wing tinted bullshit to try and build a bit of center cred. i have grown to hate him. klein is kind of a young dinner party blogger but i keep the feed there to flick thru. i enjoy greenwald's secular fire and brimstone and i get angry about the same things as him. his biases are so transparent that is is v easy to think critically about what he writes.

Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 01:41 (fourteen years ago)

maybe ill face the winner of this one off w/greenwald

ice cr?m, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 01:44 (fourteen years ago)

can't wait

Mordy, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 01:44 (fourteen years ago)

feel like klein is getting sold short here - he was hands down the best all around guy on health care reform

ice cr?m, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 01:46 (fourteen years ago)

his coverage was comprehensive but his opinions were so milquetoast it was like reading a blog by that dude on gawker

Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 01:47 (fourteen years ago)

feel like his opinions were pretty otm especially compared w/almost everyone elses which basically added up to OMG PUBLIC OPTION

ice cr?m, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 01:49 (fourteen years ago)

they both kind of remind me of how a lot of people move to dc and get kind of absorbed into the weird political networky culture here at a pretty young age. dc is so conservative.

would love to run into these guys at a bbq and get into a drunken political argument

since the democratic primaries, even when drunk i try to sidestep political arguments. i ran into weigel at a bar one time but did not pick a fight. he is a good dude imo. that's actually one of the few blogs i regularly read - don't have time/energy to slog through a lot of content anymore.

daria-g, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:03 (fourteen years ago)

yeah ive had v little exposure to it but dc political culture seen close up seems v strange

ice cr?m, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:06 (fourteen years ago)

seems so unbearable. lotta people wearing new balances on the weekend and shit.

max, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:09 (fourteen years ago)

they r not sexy rip

ice cr?m, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:11 (fourteen years ago)

never trust a libertarian

or a journalist

daria-g, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:11 (fourteen years ago)

lol i own 2 pair of new balances

daria-g, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:11 (fourteen years ago)

just sayin if u cannot figure how to dress how are u gonna run the country

max, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:11 (fourteen years ago)

daria i seen the shoes youre buying, you know what youre doing

max, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:12 (fourteen years ago)

new balance are great sneakers, just dont wear them on the weekend or max will shun u

ice cr?m, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:12 (fourteen years ago)

you pride yourself on living in the mouth of the dragon but being fireproof, and then one day you realize it is saturday and you are in whole foods buying ingredients for a cool mac n cheese with a twist recipe you found online, wearing new balance sneakers

Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:14 (fourteen years ago)

^^ gets it

max, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:15 (fourteen years ago)

i mean tbh i would rather live in boston than dc, at least some people there have accents

max, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:15 (fourteen years ago)

where would ilx end up siding on a boston vs dc poll?

iatee, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:17 (fourteen years ago)

it would turn into an argument about pizza

max, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:17 (fourteen years ago)

harDCore

Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:17 (fourteen years ago)

whole foods, new balance sneakers, check. i don't really care about recipes

boston sucks, accents there are horrible. i hate boston

daria-g, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:17 (fourteen years ago)

in that case the poll would require a 'neither' option xp

iatee, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:18 (fourteen years ago)

i am in boston with an accent. thx daria.

Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:18 (fourteen years ago)

except <3 the patriots but the rest of new england can have them. the rest of new england hates boston more than anyone

daria-g, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:18 (fourteen years ago)

sorry roberto! team providence.

providence: boston
baltimore: dc

daria-g, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:19 (fourteen years ago)

daria u from pvd? i didnt know

max, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:19 (fourteen years ago)

nope not at all just spent some time there. i like it. it's like baltimore kinda. lots more weird than the other major city, more arts scene, better music, etc

daria-g, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:20 (fourteen years ago)

yeah i mean its obv the best place in new england

best pizza too, except new haven i guess

max, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:21 (fourteen years ago)

except <3 the patriots but the rest of new england can have them. the rest of new england hates boston more than anyone

― daria-g, Monday, January 3, 2011 8:18 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

so obviously the worst possible thing to love about boston outside of racism

ich bin ein ilxor (deej), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:24 (fourteen years ago)

um http://images.starpulse.com/AMGPhotos/pic200/drp000/p017/p01795e5ahc.jpg

balls, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:26 (fourteen years ago)

plus http://auntiefashion.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/the-afflecks.jpg

balls, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:27 (fourteen years ago)

part of the thing about the dc blogger culture is.. i wonder where they go from there, a couple years down the road? they've all been doing this for a while. doesn't the format become sort of limiting? there are a lot of progressive bloggers who i don't check in on too much b/c they don't say anything too surprising. rather spend time reading ta-nehisi coates which is one of my fave things on the internets

daria-g, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:27 (fourteen years ago)

how is the format more limiting than regular journalism? seems less

iatee, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:28 (fourteen years ago)

gotta constantly crank out posts, content content content all the time, on twitters all the time. i have never had a blog but just my experience of being really into blogworld as a reader for a couple years, it's like.. the relevance of things gets weirdly distorted so that you might think some trivial issue is a big f***ing deal just because everyone's talking about it & the politico thinks talking about it will help them Win The Day

daria-g, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:33 (fourteen years ago)

you pride yourself on living in the mouth of the dragon but being fireproof, and then one day you realize it is saturday and you are in whole foods buying ingredients for a cool mac n cheese with a twist recipe you found online, wearing new balance sneakers

― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, January 4, 2011 2:14 AM (10 minutes ago)

wow omg observational comedy

plax (ico), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:48 (fourteen years ago)

did i tell u abt the time i got pretzels instead of peanuts on a plane?

Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:53 (fourteen years ago)

what is the deal with that?

plax (ico), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 02:59 (fourteen years ago)

http://i51.tinypic.com/2uthppl.jpg

gr8080, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:07 (fourteen years ago)

the charming and delicious insularity of bloggers

Gus Van Sotosyn (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:12 (fourteen years ago)

I've actually always been curious how these dudes make money. Do they have day jobs?

Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:16 (fourteen years ago)

yes, blogging

max, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:17 (fourteen years ago)

And someone actually pays them a livable wage to do this?

Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:29 (fourteen years ago)

i dont

max, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:34 (fourteen years ago)

i mean

max, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:34 (fourteen years ago)

dogg one of these guys writes for the washington post

max, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:35 (fourteen years ago)

yglesias is embarrassed about having been a socialist and will occasionally mix in some right wing tinted bullshit to try and build a bit of center cred.
― Roberto Spiralli, Monday, January 3, 2011 7:41 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

other than ahem supporting the iraq invasion i really don't see this. he says 'markets' every now and again, is that it? i guess he's been pretty quiet about any doubts about the afghanistan strategy, a little suspect i guess.

(newly famous?) blogger 'ioz' absolutely loathes him, which is kinda entertaining, kinda o_O

goole, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:42 (fourteen years ago)

How does the Washington Post have money to pay anyone?

Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:43 (fourteen years ago)

theyre owned by massively successful test prep/'education' company

max, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:44 (fourteen years ago)

How does the Washington Post have money to pay anyone?

Kaplan University Online®
Try Our Classes for an Introductory Period w/ No Tuition Obligation
www.Kaplan.edu

daria-g, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:45 (fourteen years ago)

ioz way more annoying than ygl at this point

iatee, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:46 (fourteen years ago)

i understand he has some problems with 'the state'

goole, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:47 (fourteen years ago)

what's the next poll: digby vs Greenwald?

Gus Van Sotosyn (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:48 (fourteen years ago)

shd do a 'most annoying blogger' poll--i feel like there is some kind of bullshit wired article someone could write about 'blogger fatigue,' where when youre reading 10-12 things by these people a day they start to realllly annoy you cause its like youre hanging out with them all the time only youre not allowed to talk

max, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:48 (fourteen years ago)

what's the deal w/this ioz person?

Hypocrites Lecteurs, Semblables, et Frères

lol @ blogroll

daria-g, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:49 (fourteen years ago)

he's an anarchist, man

iatee, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:51 (fourteen years ago)

i feel like there is some kind of bullshit wired article someone could write about 'blogger fatigue,' where when youre reading 10-12 things by these people a day they start to realllly annoy you cause its like youre hanging out with them all the time only youre not allowed to talk

Definitely feel this nausea after reading digby and Greenwald back to back.

Gus Van Sotosyn (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:52 (fourteen years ago)

he is an entertaining libertarianish gay dude who hates everyone and everything, and writes well i think.

kind of from the "define all problems as being way more deep seated and hopeless than you imagine, so 'doing something' is always stupid" school.

xps

goole, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:55 (fourteen years ago)

wait is that "deep seeded"? i never know

goole, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 03:57 (fourteen years ago)

are we talking about morbs?

ich bin ein ilxor (deej), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:00 (fourteen years ago)

its a if morbs were glen greenwald sort of thing

ice cr?m, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:01 (fourteen years ago)

ioz - how do i not know this person. i'm sure i must..

daria-g, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:02 (fourteen years ago)

greenwald is gay too xp

fruit of the goon (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:04 (fourteen years ago)

ioz is a good counterweight to the "lets think this 1 thru" school of technocratic liberal market-based solutions yglesias stuff that dominates the blogosphere... and wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy more hilarious than glenn greenwald

max, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:04 (fourteen years ago)

ioz is v challopsy, no doubt about that.

recent controversies: racism didn't end after 1965 so rand paul talking shit about the CRA is nbd and if you complained about it you are probably a racist liberal anyway because obama presides over the drug war.

also, climate change? what, the climate changes all the time.

somehow he still entertains, i dunno

goole, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:07 (fourteen years ago)

i'm like for real how do i not know this person in dc who is dropping snooty french language references and then posting stuff like too many unsportsmanlike penalties are called on THIS GUY on the steelers. (not enough of those calls are on the steelers imo)

daria-g, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:10 (fourteen years ago)

its the ranting, the always on greenwaldian fire hose of anger, these guys are so proud of how mad they are

ice cr?m, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:10 (fourteen years ago)

i can't read greenwald any more. he writes too much. edit that stuff please. get a powerpoint, maybe

daria-g, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:10 (fourteen years ago)

Greenwald has other virtues but humor ain't one of them.

Gus Van Sotosyn (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:11 (fourteen years ago)

i think he is for real in pittsburgh!

goole, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:11 (fourteen years ago)

i am not impressed! but yes he is funnier than glen

ice cr?m, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:11 (fourteen years ago)

i also don't know how they manage to stay mad for so long! i got tired of that. and being angry on the internet looks pretty silly in retrospect, most of the time

daria-g, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:12 (fourteen years ago)

also the showy erudition, plz u know u just looked half that shit up on wikipedia

ice cr?m, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:13 (fourteen years ago)

digby is also exhaustingly mad @ world

ice cr?m, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:13 (fourteen years ago)

balloon juice is borderline too angry abt stuff

ice cr?m, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:14 (fourteen years ago)

never really liked digby.

you know who i miss? hilzoy.

goole, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:14 (fourteen years ago)

greenwald is gay too xp

― fruit of the goon (k3vin k.), Monday, January 3, 2011 11:04 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Perm

and he lives in brazil, we should kill him

ice cr?m, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:17 (fourteen years ago)

i like john cole on balloon juice but the rest of those guys are scrubs ime

max, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:18 (fourteen years ago)

speaking as a gay man, I can affirm that I'm not always angry, but I do get miffed when I'm out of rugelagh, as I am tonight.

Gus Van Sotosyn (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:21 (fourteen years ago)

man i had to google that

goole, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:23 (fourteen years ago)

u had to goole it

ice cr?m, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:28 (fourteen years ago)

gooler than me

goole, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:30 (fourteen years ago)

I do get miffed when I'm out of rugelagh

are those like Celtic rugelach?

Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 04:43 (fourteen years ago)

i heard goole offered to buy groupon

ich bin ein ilxor (deej), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 05:13 (fourteen years ago)

let me goole that for you

ich bin ein ilxor (deej), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 05:13 (fourteen years ago)

Greenwald has other virtues but humor ain't one of them.

― Gus Van Sotosyn (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, January 3, 2011 11:11 PM (Yesterday)

yeah my god he is completely humorless, def a flaw of his

fruit of the goon (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 05:27 (fourteen years ago)

Now suppose he sits down in a room with Rupert Murdoch, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Donohue, and David Koch and persuades all three of those people that this is the right way to proceed.

classic yglesias

ice cr?m, Thursday, 6 January 2011 16:46 (fourteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Friday, 7 January 2011 00:01 (fourteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Saturday, 8 January 2011 00:01 (fourteen years ago)

expected more votes and a klein landslide...tho I guess about 16 people post on the politics thread if you think about it

iatee, Saturday, 8 January 2011 02:43 (fourteen years ago)

i didn't vote! so it would have been one more, for one of them.

goole, Saturday, 8 January 2011 04:08 (fourteen years ago)

close call!

ice cr?m, Saturday, 8 January 2011 04:30 (fourteen years ago)

http://grab.by/8nYN

ice cr?m, Friday, 14 January 2011 23:37 (fourteen years ago)

jefferson airplane on krugman's blog. give my vote to him.

Roberto Spiralli, Sunday, 16 January 2011 21:59 (fourteen years ago)

i missed this thread, but i would've voted for Ezra Klein. mostly because he is more insightful on economics and health care (which are topics i care more about) than Yglesias, whose expertise seems to be foreign policy (which interests me, but not as much). he also doesn't have Yglesia's tendency to disappear up his ass wr2 philosophical musings and such.

Yutte Hermsgervørdenbrøtbørda (Eisbaer), Sunday, 16 January 2011 22:05 (fourteen years ago)

things i learned abt matty glesi today: he is a recovering rageoholic, he works standing up now

ice cr?m, Wednesday, 19 January 2011 17:39 (fourteen years ago)

other things i know: he has lost a lot of weight recently, he is tall

ice cr?m, Wednesday, 19 January 2011 17:40 (fourteen years ago)

what is rageaholism

goole, Wednesday, 19 January 2011 17:52 (fourteen years ago)

it is when u cant get enough of rage i think

ice cr?m, Wednesday, 19 January 2011 17:53 (fourteen years ago)

wow that would be terrible

working standing up is a donald rumsfeld thing, i wonder if the two are related? seems counterproductive if so

goole, Wednesday, 19 January 2011 17:55 (fourteen years ago)

i miss billmon

progressive cuts (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 19 January 2011 17:55 (fourteen years ago)

working standing up is a newly popular weight loss strategy

ice cr?m, Wednesday, 19 January 2011 17:57 (fourteen years ago)

its also supposed to be good for your heart

max, Wednesday, 19 January 2011 18:02 (fourteen years ago)

or not "good" just "not as bad as sitting all day"

max, Wednesday, 19 January 2011 18:02 (fourteen years ago)

i work standing up sometimes

max, Wednesday, 19 January 2011 18:02 (fourteen years ago)

i work standing on a pilates ball on top of an orphan

ice cr?m, Wednesday, 19 January 2011 18:04 (fourteen years ago)

one month passes...

lol ward 8

http://grab.by/9wSw

ice cr?m, Thursday, 17 March 2011 15:52 (fourteen years ago)

or ward B rather

ice cr?m, Thursday, 17 March 2011 15:53 (fourteen years ago)

ward deal with it

once gun-bitten, twice gun-shy (m bison), Thursday, 17 March 2011 16:01 (fourteen years ago)

he should just rename his blog 'I hate living in Washington DC'

iatee, Thursday, 17 March 2011 16:02 (fourteen years ago)

he should move to nyc poor thing

max, Thursday, 17 March 2011 16:06 (fourteen years ago)

I don't get why he couldn't, it seems like 90% of his job is online

iatee, Thursday, 17 March 2011 16:11 (fourteen years ago)

all his friends are in dc :-/

max, Thursday, 17 March 2011 16:12 (fourteen years ago)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/fashion/27YOUNGPUNDITS.html?hpw

klein, yglesias, & crew IN the ny times style section.

circles, Saturday, 26 March 2011 18:12 (fourteen years ago)

mostly innocuous, though i want to laugh at the editor that let "new thing called HTML" get through.

circles, Saturday, 26 March 2011 18:32 (fourteen years ago)

guyville!

the american ice company is a BRAND NEW bar that is always packed with young professionals

daria-g, Saturday, 26 March 2011 19:36 (fourteen years ago)

Juicebox Mafi
Facebook pundits
Brat Pack

ice cr?m, Sunday, 27 March 2011 13:44 (fourteen years ago)

Fuckin Nerds am i right haha guys *examines lifes accomplishments, sobs into keyboard*

ice cr?m, Sunday, 27 March 2011 13:45 (fourteen years ago)

so other than k and y who else can be considered a full-fledged member of this clique?

iatee, Sunday, 27 March 2011 16:11 (fourteen years ago)

they used to live in a house with dave weigel and spencer ackerman, bet it was a terrible place to hang out

― max, Monday, January 3, 2011 12:55 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

according to blog insider 'max' these two dudes were their roommates so theyre def in

ice cr?m, Sunday, 27 March 2011 17:00 (fourteen years ago)

two months pass...

the quotable yglesias:

"Off the top of my head, the fact that Korean workers are outliers in lack of leisure time as well as suffering from a skyrocketing suicide rate suggests that maybe they should relax."

goole, Monday, 6 June 2011 22:32 (fourteen years ago)

I only read via rss feed but sheesh new thinkprogress site is pretty horrific

iatee, Thursday, 9 June 2011 18:04 (fourteen years ago)

I mean, that image of him, gah

iatee, Thursday, 9 June 2011 18:04 (fourteen years ago)

http://isteve.blogspot.com/2011/05/was-mugging-of-matthew-yglesias-hate.html

curmudgeon, Thursday, 9 June 2011 20:06 (fourteen years ago)

um

goole, Thursday, 9 June 2011 20:46 (fourteen years ago)

I was gonna respond but that guy's just some rando conversative troll, has a section on 'Interracial Marriage' on his site

iatee, Thursday, 9 June 2011 20:48 (fourteen years ago)

steve sailer is a big mover and shaker in neo-scientific-racist circles

goole, Thursday, 9 June 2011 20:50 (fourteen years ago)

like, he's huge with the whole john derbyshire/taki mag crew. not a 'random troll' at all, sadly enough

goole, Thursday, 9 June 2011 20:51 (fourteen years ago)

weird, never heard of him

iatee, Thursday, 9 June 2011 20:52 (fourteen years ago)

http://vdare.com/

ought to go on the right wing thread but it's not that entertaining :/

goole, Thursday, 9 June 2011 20:52 (fourteen years ago)

never heard of him either.

curmudgeon, Thursday, 9 June 2011 21:12 (fourteen years ago)

Lots of weird and snarky blog posts and comments about this.

http://agonyin8fits.blogspot.com/2011/05/morgan-stanley-yglesias.html

curmudgeon, Thursday, 9 June 2011 21:19 (fourteen years ago)

yup, a lot of people hate the guy

goole, Thursday, 9 June 2011 21:22 (fourteen years ago)

yeah celebrating an actual act of violence on someone you disagree w/ is nagl / bad karma. random acts of violence happen just as often outside ygleseque gentrifying urban areas.

iatee, Thursday, 9 June 2011 21:53 (fourteen years ago)

yglsesque

iatee, Thursday, 9 June 2011 21:54 (fourteen years ago)

http://www.capitolromance.com/2011/06/21/real-capitol-romance-mandy-spencer/

lol/wtf/why/aww

goole, Wednesday, 22 June 2011 14:17 (thirteen years ago)

hehe

☂ (max), Wednesday, 22 June 2011 14:17 (thirteen years ago)

Today’s Real Capitol Romance engagement feature is the EXACT kind of alternative, individualisticness (yes I made that word up), that I search for everyday in this sometimes too up-tight and one-note city.

[of course u need the colors for the real effect]

☂ (max), Wednesday, 22 June 2011 14:18 (thirteen years ago)

Ackerman in a banana costume and he likes the Clash. awwww

curmudgeon, Wednesday, 22 June 2011 15:02 (thirteen years ago)

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/bachmans-right-about-obama-wanting-to.html

Digby vs. Klein

curmudgeon, Wednesday, 22 June 2011 15:09 (thirteen years ago)

two months pass...

Yglesias and his lol indie tastes.

But he's right about so-called guilty pleasures. The comments are almost as bad as anything posted on The Corner though.

a 'catch-all', almost humorous, 'Jeez' quality (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 31 August 2011 22:26 (thirteen years ago)

of interest to ppl who voted here

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/94773/leaving-tnr

goole, Friday, 9 September 2011 22:08 (thirteen years ago)

http://i.imgur.com/uRovZ.png

ice cr?m, Tuesday, 20 September 2011 15:39 (thirteen years ago)

https://twitter.com/#!/mattyglesias/status/116217219817545728

h/t Ned

banana mogul (goole), Tuesday, 20 September 2011 22:42 (thirteen years ago)

(that title is from some crit theory tome, right?)

banana mogul (goole), Tuesday, 20 September 2011 22:43 (thirteen years ago)

it's Alain Badiou, from "15 Theses on Contemporary Art", published in Lacanian Ink

the tune is space, Tuesday, 20 September 2011 22:49 (thirteen years ago)

sort of mao-ish, innit?

banana mogul (goole), Tuesday, 20 September 2011 22:50 (thirteen years ago)

that's Badiou for you- he draws heavily upon Maoist slogans and has written about the Cultural Revolution in many texts- see part of "The Idea of Communism" for an example

the tune is space, Tuesday, 20 September 2011 23:01 (thirteen years ago)

love erykah badiou

max, Tuesday, 20 September 2011 23:30 (thirteen years ago)

but i think were talking about john maus here

max, Tuesday, 20 September 2011 23:30 (thirteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

http://i.imgur.com/Ky6BN.png

ice cr?m, Tuesday, 11 October 2011 15:42 (thirteen years ago)

perfect

banana mogul (goole), Tuesday, 11 October 2011 15:43 (thirteen years ago)

haha aw

horseshoe, Tuesday, 11 October 2011 16:52 (thirteen years ago)

seriously thought there was a next-level pun going on with "German" for, like, five minutes

horseshoe, Tuesday, 11 October 2011 16:52 (thirteen years ago)

next level typo

ice cr?m, Tuesday, 11 October 2011 18:01 (thirteen years ago)

Christ, what an asshole.

Oh, we're not captioning it?

Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan M. (Phil D.), Tuesday, 11 October 2011 18:09 (thirteen years ago)

one month passes...

http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/11/10/366765/important-programming-announcement/

iatee, Friday, 11 November 2011 02:25 (thirteen years ago)

cool actually!

Mordy, Friday, 11 November 2011 02:40 (thirteen years ago)

when are they going to replace press box tho???

Mordy, Friday, 11 November 2011 02:40 (thirteen years ago)

I’ll be blogging and column-writing (columnizing?) about economics, business, and economic policy as the latest incarnation of Moneybox

Hmmm

ice cr?m, Friday, 11 November 2011 03:03 (thirteen years ago)

brad delong found something:

http://delong.typepad.com/.a/6a00e551f0800388340162fc4b5fc4970d-pi

goole, Friday, 11 November 2011 04:09 (thirteen years ago)

Lmao

ice cr?m, Friday, 11 November 2011 04:10 (thirteen years ago)

two months pass...

wonkbook's new 'we're not gonna let you read the whole post on your feed' thing is probably a good business decision but I am prob just gonna stop reading it for the most part

iatee, Friday, 13 January 2012 19:21 (thirteen years ago)

is there some haxor way to get around blogs that do that?

iatee, Friday, 13 January 2012 19:21 (thirteen years ago)

maybe page2rss?

goole, Friday, 13 January 2012 19:28 (thirteen years ago)

hmm I don't think that'll work w/ the current wonkbook setup

iatee, Friday, 13 January 2012 19:31 (thirteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

—A note to readers: Full-text RSS has returned to Wonkblog. Huzzah!

was debating between trying to find a way around this and just deleting ezra klein

iatee, Saturday, 4 February 2012 01:02 (thirteen years ago)

one month passes...

haha pwn http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/03/06/my_review_problem.html

lag∞n, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 01:31 (thirteen years ago)

lol

bron paul (k3vin k.), Wednesday, 7 March 2012 01:32 (thirteen years ago)

http://i.imgur.com/XI0bY.png

lag∞n, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 01:34 (thirteen years ago)

http://i.imgur.com/ZRJo8.png

lag∞n, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 01:38 (thirteen years ago)

lol how did i miss this raging controversy

lag∞n, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 01:38 (thirteen years ago)

1.0 out of 5 stars An Actual Review, March 6, 2012
By David Cole (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Rent Is Too Damn High (Kindle Edition)
A lot of people seem to be reviewing based on the author's recent tasteless, ghoulish tweet celebrating the death of Andrew Breitbart. My review is based solely on the book's merits. Of which there are none. This is simply a rehash of articles that are available for free online. I'd advise you to search for them instead of wasting your money, but the author's writing is bland and mindless. So don't bother. Instead pick up a copy of Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World An insightful and passionate book that succeeds in every way Yglesias's book is lacking. You'll be helping Breitbart's family.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you

lag∞n, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 01:43 (thirteen years ago)

Do conventions matter?, March 6, 2012
By ShieldWolf - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Rent Is Too Damn High (Kindle Edition)
Conventions around actually reading a book before reviewing it are ridiculous. The world outlook is slightly improved with giving this book 1 star.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?

lag∞n, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 01:45 (thirteen years ago)

The Book Is Too Damn Boring, March 6, 2012
By Ben - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Rent Is Too Damn High (Kindle Edition)
I'll be honest. I was completely blown away by all the male nudity in this book. I wasn't expecting 20 pages filled with naked pictures of the author in various poses. I found the photos that included animals to be in extremely poor taste.

lag∞n, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 01:48 (thirteen years ago)

ShieldWolf otm

buzza, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 01:49 (thirteen years ago)

haha we talked about this a lil in the suburbs thread, yglesias has always attracted high-quality trolls for whatever reason, I dunno if it even is bort related

iatee, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 01:50 (thirteen years ago)

it for sure is!

goole, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 02:05 (thirteen years ago)

reihan salam left a good review, lol

goole, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 02:05 (thirteen years ago)

Malcolm Harris ‏ @getsworse
For half the price of Matt Yglesias's ebook, get TNI's new issue "Youth" thenewinquiry.com/publications/m… Our is longer and contains no Matt Yglesias

lag∞n, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 19:34 (thirteen years ago)

those fucking TNI kids

max, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 19:35 (thirteen years ago)

they really want to be zingy and edgy and they are so bad at it

http://thenewinquiry.com/features/praise-for-tni-magazine-no-2-youth/10-praise-tni/

max, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 19:36 (thirteen years ago)

lol nerds, 'contains no matt yglesias' is quality tho

lag∞n, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 19:38 (thirteen years ago)

that guy mal harris is a tool

max, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 19:39 (thirteen years ago)

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/7/2012/02/1fa0f2d367bd695438b2da60efe49b17.jpg

max, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 19:39 (thirteen years ago)

http://gawker.com/5868073/im-the-jerk-who-pranked-occupy-wall-street

cool essay explaining your prank bro

max, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 19:40 (thirteen years ago)

he needs to get out of the way of that shot

goole, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 19:40 (thirteen years ago)

I really want tni to be good but...

iatee, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 19:46 (thirteen years ago)

five months pass...

starting to think ezra isnt v good at understanding elections

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 20:26 (twelve years ago)

he's also not very good on teevee

a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 17 August 2012 20:27 (twelve years ago)

like he spends months telling us that romney is a more formidable candidate than he seems which is just ridiculous and writes dumb shit like this all the time http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/17/the-white-houses-huge-gamble-on-paul-ryan

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 20:28 (twelve years ago)

the democrats literally maneuvered exactly the guy they wanted into the spotlight but watch out it might back fire!

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 20:29 (twelve years ago)

oh no!

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 20:29 (twelve years ago)

The Obama team never could have predicted that its efforts would help vault Ryan into the nomination for vice president. The difference between what they reasonably hoped a strategy like this could achieve and what it actually achieved is attributable to Ryan, who has proven a tremendously skilled politician — so skilled, in fact, that he’s convinced many Republicans that the fight Obama wants is the fight they should want, too. Many of them share House Whip Kevin McCarthy’s view. “It’s not so smart to raise [Ryan] up by picking him as an enemy,” he told Draper. “If he picks a budget fight with Paul, Paul will beat him.”

not understanding the difference between politician and political operative, get back to me when he convinces voters of something

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 20:32 (twelve years ago)

how has Ryan proved himself a tremendously skilled politician

a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 17 August 2012 20:34 (twelve years ago)

yes ezra you just mightve been wrong http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/13/why-is-obama-ahead

stick to explaining explaining legislation bro

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 20:35 (twelve years ago)

xp- seems to have convinced almost everyone in the world he has written a budget that will reduce the deficit?

reductio ad burzum (flopson), Friday, 17 August 2012 20:37 (twelve years ago)

how has Ryan proved himself a tremendously skilled politician

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, August 17, 2012 4:34 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

via rising in the house ranks, getting the gop caucus to go along w/his budget/vision - which is where i was making the distinction between politician and political operative - ryans job right now is to get votes from people who are not in the house of representatives, something i suspect he is not particularly special at - also just to state the obvious who cares abt the vp pick

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 20:38 (twelve years ago)

xp- seems to have convinced almost everyone in the world he has written a budget that will reduce the deficit?

― reductio ad burzum (flopson), Friday, August 17, 2012 4:37 PM (15 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i would like to see some polling on this

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 20:38 (twelve years ago)

to his credit he has worked the media p well but imho thats more due to the fact that they needed someone anyone to fill their wonky young smart republican w/srs ideas slot than his own strategic acumen

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 20:39 (twelve years ago)

i suspect he is going to be fired from that job v shortly

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 20:40 (twelve years ago)

think this is pretty skilled politics:

For a virtuoso display of this principle in action, return to another vintage Ryan moment: his Dave profile from last year, where he awed a swooning reporter by opening up the budget to a random page and fingered a boondoggle. The item Ryan pointed to was the Obama administration’s reform of the student-loan industry. “Direct loans—this is perfect,” Ryan said. “So direct loans, that’s new spending on autopilot, that had no congressional oversight, and it gave the illusion that they were cutting spending.”

The exchange is so perversely revealing that it rewards explanation. For decades, the government helped make college more affordable through “guaranteed loans”—it encouraged banks to lend money to students by promising to repay the banks if the students defaulted. Banks were making billions of dollars in profits at virtually no risk. The General Accounting Office, a kind of in-house fiscal watchdog for the federal government, issued sixteen reports over the years noting how the government could save money simply by issuing the loans itself and cutting out the middleman.

It was the simplest, no-brainer pot of savings you could find—ending pure corporate welfare, just like in the movie Dave. The cause attracted support from think tanks, as well as the moderate Wisconsin Republican Tom Petri, an eclectic reformer who is sort of the real-life version of the Paul Ryan character who appears on television. Two National Review editors endorsed eliminating guaranteed loans in an article advocating a new reform conservatism.

The banks lobbied fiercely to protect their gravy train. Among the staunchest advocates of those government-subsidized banks was … Paul Ryan, who fought to protect bank subsidies that many of his fellow Republicans deemed too outrageous to defend. In 2009, Obama finally eliminated the guaranteed-lending racket. It could save the government an estimated $62 billion, according to the CBO.

...

Ryan probably knew, even in that split second, that he stood little chance of exposure. (The overlap between television news reporters and people with a detailed understanding of the federal budget is quite small.) Yet a lesser politician might have panicked, or hesitated, or possibly tried to flip to a different page. In that moment, Ryan revealed the qualities that have propelled him to his current position. As cool as can be, and as winsome as ever, he said, “This is perfect.”

(http://nymag.com/news/features/paul-ryan-2012-5/index5.html)

guy just has convinced ppl by sheer force of nerdy swagger & a good rapport with media that he is a moderate think thank policy wonk making hard choices when his thinking is as shallow & ideological as like everybody else

reductio ad burzum (flopson), Friday, 17 August 2012 20:42 (twelve years ago)

i would like to see some polling on this

― lag∞n, Friday, August 17, 2012 4:38 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

me too actually i am concerned

reductio ad burzum (flopson), Friday, 17 August 2012 20:42 (twelve years ago)

guy just has convinced ppl by sheer force of nerdy swagger & a good rapport with media that he is a moderate think thank policy wonk making hard choices when his thinking is as shallow & ideological as like everybody else

― reductio ad burzum (flopson), Friday, August 17, 2012 4:42 PM (34 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

people =/ reporters - covered that upthread btw

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 20:44 (twelve years ago)

Don't know anything about Ryan's district, but he might just mean getting elected in a state that's voted Democrat (sometimes just barely) in every presidential election from '88 forward. If Ryan's in a notably conservative district, no big deal.

clemenza, Friday, 17 August 2012 20:44 (twelve years ago)

its a lean republican district

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 20:46 (twelve years ago)

and it doesn't matter how well or quickly Ryan has ascended GOP ranks. The guy sits in a safe district. He has never been tested except in front of Cokie Roberts types who want to be his Ayn Rand.

a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 17 August 2012 20:46 (twelve years ago)

1. ryan doesnt really matter because hes just the vp candidate
2, the democrats made him famous ON PURPOSE
3. just take a look at this dude he is so clearly not the political genius being sold by the credulous ezra klien et al

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 20:49 (twelve years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PXCxBDTMqQ

check out the charisma dripping off this guy, a v cool character

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 20:52 (twelve years ago)

I looked at his district:

--he's won lopsided elections every year since '98: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ryan
--the district was Republican but pretty much dead even in the two elections before he arrived: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Neumann
--a Democrat held office from 1971-95 (mostly Les Aspin, who I vaguely remember as being conservative?): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin%27s_1st_congressional_district

So: I think you've got to credit him for winning the district convincingly every time out--it's only been solidly Republican since he started running. I realize there are undoubtedly many other factors at play.

clemenza, Friday, 17 August 2012 20:59 (twelve years ago)

Les Aspin was Clinton's doomed first defense secretary and a classic but extinct subspecies called the Dem hawk.

a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 17 August 2012 21:01 (twelve years ago)

under no circumstances should anyone be given any credit as a bigtime politician for winning house races

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 21:01 (twelve years ago)

it is also generally rated as a lean repubican district

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 21:03 (twelve years ago)

Didn't Aspin have a heart attack while in Clinton's administration?

It's been leaning heavily Republican...exactly from the moment he started running.

clemenza, Friday, 17 August 2012 21:05 (twelve years ago)

u realize there are people who do things like rate congressional districts professionally right, apologies to your 30 seconds of googling

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 21:07 (twelve years ago)

And you carry this information around in your pocket? Anyway, I know you're pretty obstinate when you fixate on something, so this one's all yours--Paul Ryan is clearly a disaster for the first district of Wisconsin.

clemenza, Friday, 17 August 2012 21:09 (twelve years ago)

u can find the infos using yr google, so obstinate

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 21:11 (twelve years ago)

Paul Ryan is clearly a disaster for the first district of Wisconsin.

― clemenza, Friday, August 17, 2012 5:09 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol v poor paraphrasing of my argument

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 21:12 (twelve years ago)

guys

a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 17 August 2012 21:14 (twelve years ago)

guys yrself

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 21:15 (twelve years ago)

clearly a disaster for the only Klein-Iglesias thread

a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 17 August 2012 21:21 (twelve years ago)

So I looked at--I googled--Charlie Cook's ratings for various districts, and sure enough, he has Wisconsin's 1st at +2 Republican. The rating--I googled--is based on "averaging its results from the prior two presidential elections and comparing them to national results."

Simple question: if the district runs about +2 in favor of Republicans, and Ryan's winning each election by an average of +30 (I googled), and it was held by Democrats from 1971 until four years before he started running, might it not be reasonable to conclude that he's a pretty good politician at the district level?

clemenza, Friday, 17 August 2012 21:21 (twelve years ago)

a. who cares
b. no

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 21:23 (twelve years ago)

You see, that's what you did when we argued about the Sarah Palin film--you reverted to your schtick. Which I continue to find pretty funny in most contexts. It's just a little deficient in actually supporting your argument. And very difficult to counter.

clemenza, Friday, 17 August 2012 21:26 (twelve years ago)

sry thinking success in a house race translates over to a presidential race is a non starter for me

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 21:30 (twelve years ago)

as far as my 'shtick' this might shed some light for you on our interactions

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 21:32 (twelve years ago)

I think that's perfectly valid, and probably right--we'll find out over the next couple of months. But if Klein says that Ryan is a skilled politician, he can only base that on what's already happened, not on what might happen. And based on Ryan's performance in seven elections, and the fact that he's now one-half of the Republican ticket, I don't think it's that strange a conclusion to reach.

clemenza, Friday, 17 August 2012 21:35 (twelve years ago)

ya sure just like everyone said rick perry was a killer campaigner

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 21:36 (twelve years ago)

i mean its not strange conclusion to reach, theres a logic operating there, its just based on v poor assumptions thatre constantly being contradicted by reality

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 21:38 (twelve years ago)

Is there a reality yet, after six days? One poll I look at says Ryan has hurt Romney, the next one says he's helped, the next one says no difference. I don't think anything conclusive has emerged yet, other than the fact that Ryan is the main focus of the election right now.

clemenza, Friday, 17 August 2012 21:44 (twelve years ago)

The Obama team never could have predicted that its efforts would help vault Ryan into the nomination for vice president. The difference between what they reasonably hoped a strategy like this could achieve and what it actually achieved is attributable to Ryan, who has proven a tremendously skilled politician — so skilled, in fact, that he’s convinced many Republicans that the fight Obama wants is the fight they should want, too. Many of them share House Whip Kevin McCarthy’s view. “It’s not so smart to raise [Ryan] up by picking him as an enemy,” he told Draper. “If he picks a budget fight with Paul, Paul will beat him.”

not understanding the difference between politician and political operative, get back to me when he convinces voters of something

― lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 16:32 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i didn't read anything suggesting pr would get more voters in the blog post tho? it is confusing that he sees consolidating gop behind ryan's budget as both a successful dem strategy goal, and a flaw or too-risky gamble, but i thought the point was the risk is that forcing republicans to rally around the budget would mean they take passing parts of it much more seriously than they would have had he remained in obscurity, something reinforced by vp pick (also possible that they hoped it would be more divisive, but he doesn't make that point)

reductio ad burzum (flopson), Friday, 17 August 2012 21:46 (twelve years ago)

*take passing parts of it if they win

reductio ad burzum (flopson), Friday, 17 August 2012 21:46 (twelve years ago)

post is basically: everything is going just how the democrats planned, they should be more careful

lag∞n, Friday, 17 August 2012 21:48 (twelve years ago)

man he pointed at a computer and said "this is perfect." Dude has NO FEAR.

Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 18 August 2012 00:25 (twelve years ago)

Republicans are so good at getting a reputation for being smart by simply insisting that they are smart.

Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 18 August 2012 00:28 (twelve years ago)

btw clemenza ur generally a chill bro but it's nagl to be all "lago_On you're generally v. obstinate, now watch me strawman ur argument."

Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 18 August 2012 00:31 (twelve years ago)

http://yaledemocrats.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/IMG_3161_Feature.jpg

buzza, Saturday, 18 August 2012 02:58 (twelve years ago)

http://sophia.smith.edu/democrats/images/dems_obama2.jpg

buzza, Saturday, 18 August 2012 02:59 (twelve years ago)

I'm not sure what you mean, Matt, if you trace the argument. Lagoon ridiculed the idea that Klein called Ryan a good politician; I found, what seemed to me, some pretty good evidence that he was a good politician, at least based on past history (running almost 30 points ahead of his party for seven consecutive elections); rather than explain why that wasn't good evidence, the one-word response was "no."

clemenza, Saturday, 18 August 2012 03:18 (twelve years ago)

Anyway, I know you're pretty obstinate when you fixate on something, so this one's all yours--Paul Ryan is clearly a disaster for the first district of Wisconsin.

― clemenza, Friday, August 17, 2012 9:09 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 18 August 2012 03:39 (twelve years ago)

If your point is that I'm just as obstinate, guilty as charged--I am being hypocritical there.

clemenza, Saturday, 18 August 2012 03:43 (twelve years ago)

lag00n otm a) vp's don't matter and b) the little that they do ryan is a historically bad one. he is even half-assed at bringing the lulz

Mordy, Saturday, 18 August 2012 03:45 (twelve years ago)

Don't dispute the first point at all. The second one, I don't know yet--I still say it's early. But I wasn't arguing either--just the one very narrow point about whether Ryan was, in Klein's words, a skilled politician. Having said that, now that I go back and look at the actual column, I do see that Klein wasn't referring to Ryan's skill at winning elections, but rather his skill at working himself into the VP slot. So I can see lagoon's argument better--he's saying Ryan's only there because the Democrats wanted him there, not because of any special skill. Fair enough--not sure I agree with that, either, but at least it makes sense to me (whereas the Republican-lean stuff didn't).

clemenza, Saturday, 18 August 2012 03:59 (twelve years ago)

right, it's possible he's a great VP that doesn't matter

ticagrelor rotini (k3vin k.), Saturday, 18 August 2012 04:53 (twelve years ago)

woah hold up, Tippecanoe AND Tyler too??!??!?!

Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 18 August 2012 05:07 (twelve years ago)

haha

ticagrelor rotini (k3vin k.), Saturday, 18 August 2012 05:11 (twelve years ago)

right, it's possible he's a great VP that doesn't matter

― ticagrelor rotini (k3vin k.), Saturday, August 18, 2012 12:53 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its much more likely that hes a terrible vp that doesnt matter tho

lag∞n, Saturday, 18 August 2012 14:20 (twelve years ago)

I don't what a good veep is. Thomas Marshall?

a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 18 August 2012 14:28 (twelve years ago)

i just mean campaign wise

lag∞n, Saturday, 18 August 2012 14:29 (twelve years ago)

btw whats up w/all these prog rock pieces by dave weigel, what an utterly terrifying concept

lag∞n, Saturday, 18 August 2012 14:31 (twelve years ago)

idk if you could engineer a more perfect link i will never click

lag∞n, Saturday, 18 August 2012 14:31 (twelve years ago)

what constitutes a 'skilled politician' in the gop today?

iatee, Saturday, 18 August 2012 15:09 (twelve years ago)

Ezra Klein ‏@ezraklein
"Jethro Tull recorded not one but two albums that consisted of single, 40-minute songs. And they both went platinum." http://t.co/H6K1m5bW

oh god its spreading

lag∞n, Saturday, 18 August 2012 17:20 (twelve years ago)

Jethro Tull was a skilled progressive rock band; I have some numbers concerning their tricky 5/8 time signatures to back this up.

clemenza, Saturday, 18 August 2012 19:36 (twelve years ago)

two weeks pass...

http://www.cjr.org/feature/boy_in_bubble.php?page=all

iatee, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 02:47 (twelve years ago)

one month passes...

just read the matt yglesias reddit ama kill me

lag∞n, Friday, 5 October 2012 14:23 (twelve years ago)

i haven't enjoyed reading him in years. totally humorless + wonky.

Mordy, Friday, 5 October 2012 14:25 (twelve years ago)

http://wonkwank.tumblr.com/

goole, Friday, 5 October 2012 14:33 (twelve years ago)

tumblr is p dumb

iatee, Friday, 5 October 2012 14:55 (twelve years ago)

October 2, 2012

In general, I like the direction Romney is going in here. Capping deductions seems more achievable than picking through them one by one
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) October 2, 2012

oh man what a crazy right-wing argument ezra klein is making, somebody get out the tumblrs

iatee, Friday, 5 October 2012 14:56 (twelve years ago)

one month passes...

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/11/ezra-klein-in-line-to-replace-ed-schultz.html

this seems like...a bad idea...

iatee, Monday, 12 November 2012 14:41 (twelve years ago)

I like Klein a lot as a writer. I've only seen him on TV for about 5 minutes, filling in for Maddow and seemingly mimicking her cadence.

Sandy Denny Real Estate (jaymc), Monday, 12 November 2012 14:51 (twelve years ago)

I like Ezra on TV.

timellison, Monday, 12 November 2012 15:02 (twelve years ago)

he is really bad on tv, can barely talk, of course this could describe chris hayes too, wonder if matt is jealous

lag∞n, Monday, 12 November 2012 15:23 (twelve years ago)

matt is too ugly for tv and even he must realize this

iatee, Monday, 12 November 2012 15:28 (twelve years ago)

aw

lag∞n, Monday, 12 November 2012 15:28 (twelve years ago)

Klein needs TV lessons.

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 12 November 2012 15:30 (twelve years ago)

get w/an elocution coach

lag∞n, Monday, 12 November 2012 15:35 (twelve years ago)

i'd rather msnbc got rid of lawrence o'donnell than ed schultz

goole, Monday, 12 November 2012 15:36 (twelve years ago)

shultz brings a good old school vibe to the proceedings imho

lag∞n, Monday, 12 November 2012 15:37 (twelve years ago)

yglesias could do lockup raw

buzza, Monday, 12 November 2012 15:44 (twelve years ago)

http://www.vice.com/read/paul-ryan-what-stupid-people-think-a-smart-guy-sounds-like/

ostensibly about paul ryan but mostly about ezra klein & matt yglesias

flopson, Monday, 19 November 2012 23:46 (twelve years ago)

Yglesias is a total idiot when it comes to school "reform".

One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 00:10 (twelve years ago)

yglesias has probably made good points here and there but god he's insufferable in general.

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 00:11 (twelve years ago)

By comparison, the Republican impulse to close ranks and enforce ideological conformity around litmus tests and shore up their own social base seems awfully sophisticated. Big policy changes, after all, require mobilized and militant political actors.

the GOP hasn't achieved any big domestic policy changes in decades and its awfully sophisticated decision to close ranks has lost it countless elections, is responsible for the slow death of the party itself.

iatee, Tuesday, 20 November 2012 00:27 (twelve years ago)

Yglesias seems like he'll turn into David Brooks as he ages.

shaane, Tuesday, 20 November 2012 00:43 (twelve years ago)

surely Ezra Klein would

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 00:49 (twelve years ago)

article is pretty dumb

left-wing people who don't operate as total ideologues said something less than 100% uncritical about public sector unions, scandal

iatee, Tuesday, 20 November 2012 00:53 (twelve years ago)

xp Klein fights the liberal fight with some passion at least. Yglesias/Brooks are dry, remote, and see THE DATA only for the trends and not the underlying fomenting morass — pure, unadulterated technocrats. I haven't read much Klein in a long while though, only here and there.

shaane, Tuesday, 20 November 2012 01:06 (twelve years ago)

i'd rather msnbc got rid of lawrence o'donnell than ed schultz

― goole, Monday, November 12, 2012 10:36 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

shultz brings a good old school vibe to the proceedings imho

― lag∞n, Monday, November 12, 2012 10:37 AM (1 week ago)

ha really? i much preferred ratigan as the "angry guy who yells"

chief beef (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 01:17 (twelve years ago)

wtf comparing yglesias to brooks, gtfo

chief beef (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 01:18 (twelve years ago)

sorry, chief. i'll leave.

shaane, Tuesday, 20 November 2012 01:21 (twelve years ago)

left-wing people who don't operate as total ideologues said something less than 100% uncritical about public sector unions, scandal

― iatee, Monday, November 19, 2012 7:53 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

eh this is a p bad mischaracterization, they point wasn't that it was 100% uncritical but that it was misrepresented union's actual goals/popular support

flopson, Tuesday, 20 November 2012 21:36 (twelve years ago)

they didn't say anything about the overwhelming (47%?) popular support? and whether the union's goals are $ or fighting reforms that doesn't really contradict what yglesias said about them. this is a 'gotcha' w/ no 'gotcha'.

iatee, Tuesday, 20 November 2012 22:57 (twelve years ago)

lol @ the idea that brooks traffics in 'data', is a 'technocrat' - i see this and i think the person who thinks this never passed a science or math class after the third grade and/or is a gop congressman serving on the house science, space, & technology committee.

balls, Wednesday, 21 November 2012 01:00 (twelve years ago)

Brooks is Emperor Epistemic Closure.

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 21 November 2012 01:06 (twelve years ago)

i'd rather msnbc got rid of lawrence o'donnell than ed schultz

― goole, Monday, November 12, 2012 10:36 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

shultz brings a good old school vibe to the proceedings imho

― lag∞n, Monday, November 12, 2012 10:37 AM (1 week ago)

ha really? i much preferred ratigan as the "angry guy who yells"

yeah i kinda miss Ratigan. what's he doing now?

Still S.M.D.H. ft. (will), Wednesday, 21 November 2012 01:29 (twelve years ago)

i originally had moderate hopes for O'Donnel but really can't stand him now. i'd p much rather watch that cock Olbermann

Still S.M.D.H. ft. (will), Wednesday, 21 November 2012 01:32 (twelve years ago)

tbf i have watched all of these shows like two times

lag∞n, Wednesday, 21 November 2012 01:36 (twelve years ago)

I just got cable and already the only person I can stand is Chris Hayes.

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 21 November 2012 01:44 (twelve years ago)

hayes is p otm but he is sooo bad at talking on the tv

lag∞n, Wednesday, 21 November 2012 01:46 (twelve years ago)

like you listen to him and then realize you have absorbed absolutely nothing hes said, hes not connecting the words and meaning or something

lag∞n, Wednesday, 21 November 2012 01:47 (twelve years ago)

slightly suspicious of him as a guy i must admit, even tho i agree w/what hes saying, feel like he might just be jumping on the inequality bandwagon

lag∞n, Wednesday, 21 November 2012 01:50 (twelve years ago)

I disagree. Two weeks ago he gave a synopsis calling bullshit on the Fiscal Cliff that was concise and on-point. It's not baseball bats against Nazis, of course.

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 21 November 2012 01:50 (twelve years ago)

also he wears those light sensitive lenses ON TV

lag∞n, Wednesday, 21 November 2012 01:51 (twelve years ago)

worse: his teeth are capped and whitened.

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 21 November 2012 01:52 (twelve years ago)

i'm still pro-hayes but having his twitter go from links to stuff in the nation etc to promoting his show and the coinciding change in tone(?) is like a less horrifying version of when donald glover's twitter feed went from 'behind the scenes lols at community' to 'ATLANTA - CHILDISH GAMBINO TONIGHT twitpic'.

balls, Wednesday, 21 November 2012 01:59 (twelve years ago)

yeah hayes seems pretty earnest and otm

liljon /bia/ bia (k3vin k.), Wednesday, 21 November 2012 02:11 (twelve years ago)

Yeah Hayes' endless earnest excitable grad student who just loves to have the conversation thing is actually pretty adorable & heartening from my POV.

Clay, Wednesday, 21 November 2012 02:17 (twelve years ago)

His book, like I wrote elsewhere last week, is an excellent master's thesis.

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 21 November 2012 02:24 (twelve years ago)

slightly suspicious of him as a guy i must admit, even tho i agree w/what hes saying, feel like he might just be jumping on the inequality bandwagon

― lag∞n, Tuesday, November 20, 2012 7:50 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my sources tell me he started out as a labor beat reporter in chicago, so, i don't think so!

goole, Wednesday, 21 November 2012 15:31 (twelve years ago)

yeah its maybe not that he doesnt believe it but twilight of the elites has some aspirational meme creation vibes

lag∞n, Wednesday, 21 November 2012 15:35 (twelve years ago)

his book's thesis is v otm but I have no desire to actually read it

iatee, Wednesday, 21 November 2012 15:54 (twelve years ago)

what is the thesis

liljon /bia/ bia (k3vin k.), Wednesday, 21 November 2012 15:58 (twelve years ago)

“We overestimate the the advantage of meritocracy and under-appreciate the costs, because we don't think hard enough about the consequences of the inequality it produces.”

iatee, Wednesday, 21 November 2012 16:01 (twelve years ago)

four weeks pass...

read hayes' book, it's totally inessential

flopson, Wednesday, 19 December 2012 21:29 (twelve years ago)

i have to say that i was a lil hard on hayes upthread i v much appreciate that hes a dude on tv whos really hammering inequality issues, hes just sort of bad at tv, msnbc needs to provide some coaching or something

lag∞n, Wednesday, 19 December 2012 21:31 (twelve years ago)

Ezra Klein ‏@ezraklein
Pretty excited that the West Wing is streaming on Netflix now

lag∞n, Friday, 28 December 2012 04:24 (twelve years ago)

About 5 years ago Hayes wrote something for the Nation I disagreed with (in part) so I wrote him a brief & somewhat unfriendly email telling him as much. He replied with about a thousand words thoughtfully explaining himself to me when he had no obligation to do so, and he did as if he were having a conversation with one of his colleagues or someone he respected and not some random butthurt internet dude. Our politics are basically the same but I would be Team Hayes even if they weren't.

All kinds of heinous things, Friday, 28 December 2012 05:11 (twelve years ago)

three weeks pass...

http://i.imgur.com/o4bOC.png

lag∞n, Friday, 18 January 2013 21:28 (twelve years ago)

Awww.

Meanwhile neo-con Mickey Kaus is after Ezra for saying years ago that digitizing hospital records would cut healthcare expenses, while a new report now says that this has not been the case.

http://dailycaller.com/2013/01/18/the-mystery-of-ezra-klein/

curmudgeon, Friday, 18 January 2013 22:11 (twelve years ago)

one month passes...

sort of feel bad for ezra sometimes, hes kind of like an extremely precocious eleven year old and politics is like girls http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/today-in-well-duh

lag∞n, Monday, 4 March 2013 02:46 (twelve years ago)

lol krugs sonned him read that this morning

k3vin k., Monday, 4 March 2013 03:19 (twelve years ago)

mike murphy ‏@murphymike

Yes RT @mattyglesias @murphymike So yr view is that if Obama agreed to all-cuts deal today, he could build trust, get balanced deal later?

Matt Armstrong, Monday, 4 March 2013 03:19 (twelve years ago)

the recent profile of ezra in some publication i've since forgotten (TNR? i think it was TNR) wasn't very flattering

J0rdan S., Monday, 4 March 2013 03:21 (twelve years ago)

when i read that first article and was like wow he's being awful credulous about this. sort of nice to see he was quickly disabused of it.

circles, Monday, 4 March 2013 03:33 (twelve years ago)

whenever he appears in front of a camera he looks like Rick Moranis ogling Sigourney Weaver.

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 4 March 2013 03:35 (twelve years ago)

omg alfred

Matt Armstrong, Monday, 4 March 2013 03:35 (twelve years ago)

TNR? i think it was TNR

It was:
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112366/ezra-klein-profile-wonkblogs-wise-boy-cannot-be-stopped

jaymc, Monday, 4 March 2013 03:41 (twelve years ago)

lol all his old blogging pals launching subliminals

lag∞n, Monday, 4 March 2013 12:47 (twelve years ago)

lol at krugman saying "man up"

flopson, Monday, 4 March 2013 20:45 (twelve years ago)

one month passes...

@ezraklein
Is the NYT article that Don Draper picks up at the end of the Mad Men season premier online anywhere?

schlump, Tuesday, 9 April 2013 19:09 (twelve years ago)

I feel like both of these people get a pass on their inferior analysis due to being pretty-smart-for-one-of-those-nu-generation-hipster-blogger-types

--808 542137 (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 9 April 2013 19:12 (twelve years ago)

it's so sad, you can just feel Klein's publicist shoe-horning him into appearances on Maddow etc and Klein just looks so DESPERATE to be a media star--and he just reads so much more "Beltway" than Hayes or Kornacki that it's never gonna happen...I really revel in this, but I'm an awful person

Iago Galdston, Tuesday, 9 April 2013 19:29 (twelve years ago)

otm. He's Chuck Todd after yoga classes

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 9 April 2013 19:31 (twelve years ago)

its totally working tho klein is really popular

lag∞n, Tuesday, 9 April 2013 19:33 (twelve years ago)

klein's a media star in his own way, he has more pundit legitimacy than anyone on tv

iatee, Tuesday, 9 April 2013 19:33 (twelve years ago)

and he just reads so much more "Beltway" than Hayes or Kornacki that it's never gonna happen - this makes no sense to me

balls, Tuesday, 9 April 2013 19:39 (twelve years ago)

its totally working tho klein is really popular

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 9, 2013 3:33 PM (6 minutes ago)

brunch at Cokie's?

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 9 April 2013 19:40 (twelve years ago)

also "Moneybox" is a really, really dumb name, but that's probably not Yglesias's fault

--808 542137 (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 9 April 2013 19:43 (twelve years ago)

it precedes him

i still don't know what to think about yg turning himself into an economist. like, can you really do that

goole, Tuesday, 9 April 2013 19:45 (twelve years ago)

well, I grew a beard two years ago

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 9 April 2013 19:45 (twelve years ago)

'actual economists' link to him all the time, so I guess you can

iatee, Tuesday, 9 April 2013 19:45 (twelve years ago)

the world doesn't really need another general politics daily grind internet liberal, but otoh, exactly how am i to value matthew yglesias' snap judgment on jc penney or w/e

xp yeah i see dudes like tyler cowen and scott sumner taking him seriously so who knows

goole, Tuesday, 9 April 2013 19:47 (twelve years ago)

yglesias has the economists talent for being really shockingly stupid about obvious common sense stuff

max, Tuesday, 9 April 2013 19:52 (twelve years ago)

and the Beltway talent too.

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 9 April 2013 19:53 (twelve years ago)

and he just reads so much more "Beltway" than Hayes or Kornacki that it's never gonna happen - this makes no sense to me
― balls, Tuesday, April 9, 2013 3:39 PM (14 minutes ago)

Centrist/center-right like the political punditry he aspires to, as opposed to the "progressive" demo that Hayes-Kornacki cater to...

Iago Galdston, Tuesday, 9 April 2013 19:55 (twelve years ago)

its totally working tho klein is really popular
― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 9, 2013 3:33 PM (6 minutes ago)
brunch at Cokie's?
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

exactly

Iago Galdston, Tuesday, 9 April 2013 19:57 (twelve years ago)

yeah its always seemed like klein just ran to the borg going "assimilate me! assimilate ME! i'm making myself an "expert" on healthcare."

i have read yglesias like 4 times since he went to slate, so i don't know what he's doing anymore really.

life is good (Hunt3r), Tuesday, 9 April 2013 23:35 (twelve years ago)

having his mind blown by walgreens

balls, Tuesday, 9 April 2013 23:44 (twelve years ago)

isn't that David Brooks? No, wait, sorry -- David Brooks had his mind blown by Coldstone.

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 9 April 2013 23:48 (twelve years ago)

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/04/obama_s_2014_budget_obama_wants_to_soak_the_rich_to_help_the_poor_republicans.html

This is simplistic and not completely accurate if you ask me. He's got false equivalence issues and he doesn't mention that O's request for more tax revenue is less than O's earlier such requests; there's no mention of how the tax code has changed over the last 50 years and how taxes are lower now

curmudgeon, Thursday, 11 April 2013 19:46 (twelve years ago)

"Obama’s vision of America really is one in which many people will see their living standards rise thanks to better government benefits rather than higher market wages."

The Great Forgiver (dandydonweiner), Thursday, 11 April 2013 20:53 (twelve years ago)

I mean "Moneybox." It's like calling a dining column "Dinner Plate."

--808 542137 (Hurting 2), Thursday, 11 April 2013 20:56 (twelve years ago)

x-post-- who knew Yglesias was a Romney supporter? "better government benefits" --those luckie duckies.

curmudgeon, Thursday, 11 April 2013 21:38 (twelve years ago)

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/04/11/la_taqueria_vs_chipotle_buttito_summit_and_burrito_economics.html

i like how if you rarely read yglesias now columns like these can give the impression that his professional angle is basically to convince people about burrito insights he has a cassandra complex about

j., Friday, 12 April 2013 01:16 (twelve years ago)

The potential one-two punch of this package would be to create background checks and records for the gun show and internet sales and stiff penalties for the people who buy guns legally and then privately sell them to folks who commit crimes with them.

lol "folks". i think he obviously got this from obama but i don't think even barry would refer to gun criminals as "folks"

brony james (k3vin k.), Friday, 12 April 2013 13:56 (twelve years ago)

just folks

lag∞n, Friday, 12 April 2013 14:00 (twelve years ago)

crime folks

lag∞n, Friday, 12 April 2013 14:01 (twelve years ago)

is the name of my gang

lag∞n, Friday, 12 April 2013 14:01 (twelve years ago)

it's the fucking worst tbh. very condescending

brony james (k3vin k.), Friday, 12 April 2013 14:02 (twelve years ago)

i find it more folksy

lag∞n, Friday, 12 April 2013 14:03 (twelve years ago)

http://www.peterfrase.com/2013/04/the-perils-of-wonkery

lag∞n, Wednesday, 17 April 2013 00:00 (twelve years ago)

so many of his idle thoughts are so uniformed and stupid

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/04/16/mac_profits_are_high_too_high.html

The Great Forgiver (dandydonweiner), Thursday, 18 April 2013 04:32 (twelve years ago)

okay ths is gonna sound terrible but yglesiases ongoing economic ayalisis of game of thrones is p amazing

lag∞n, Friday, 19 April 2013 02:41 (twelve years ago)

ha i love it too

Mordy, Friday, 19 April 2013 02:43 (twelve years ago)

yeah best yglesias posts in a while

max, Friday, 19 April 2013 12:32 (twelve years ago)

proving that his best analysis requires a fantasy world

The Great Natterer (dandydonweiner), Friday, 19 April 2013 13:24 (twelve years ago)

wow a $1200 mac laptop has a larger profit margin in dollars than a $500 Dell laptop, you don't say.

charlie 4chan, internet detective (Hurting 2), Friday, 19 April 2013 14:28 (twelve years ago)

fuck this fuck
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/04/24/international_factory_safety.html

huun huurt 2 (Hurting 2), Thursday, 25 April 2013 15:23 (twelve years ago)

What a stupid and insensitive Yglesias post. There's no discussion there of this alleged choice poor Bangladeshi people can make, and of the history of wrokplace safety rules in the US, and its just cold and careless.

curmudgeon, Thursday, 25 April 2013 15:27 (twelve years ago)

Yglesias linked to this article and then just basically ignored it

http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2013/04/holding-corporations-responsible-for-workplace-deaths

curmudgeon, Thursday, 25 April 2013 15:30 (twelve years ago)

jfc, this guy

flopson, Thursday, 25 April 2013 16:40 (twelve years ago)

just going for the most basic tired econ challops, its evil but not even fresh evil

flopson, Thursday, 25 April 2013 16:44 (twelve years ago)

Great takedowns of that piece by Erik Loomis and David Atkins.

Huston we got chicken lol (Phil D.), Thursday, 25 April 2013 16:54 (twelve years ago)

Also this which begins

Matthew Yglesias—a Norelco marketing experiment to see if a hand-drawn Sharpie beard on a peeled potato could sell men's earrings—wrote a morally and intellectually odious article at his second job yesterday. His Slate column, "Different Places Have Different Safety Rules and That's OK," addressed the deaths of 161 workers in a factory collapse in Bangladesh with the tone they so richly deserved: bored.

and gets better from there.

Huston we got chicken lol (Phil D.), Thursday, 25 April 2013 16:56 (twelve years ago)

Atkins' response is terrific.

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 25 April 2013 17:00 (twelve years ago)

booming takedown

Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 25 April 2013 17:12 (twelve years ago)

better link for Atkins one

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/we-can-choose-that-workers-not-die-in.html

curmudgeon, Thursday, 25 April 2013 17:16 (twelve years ago)

It's such a tired, econ 101 argument he's making too. There's no reason you can't place some floor on what the free market allows. Yes, that means more expensive tee shirts. But maybe tee shirts are too cheap.

huun huurt 2 (Hurting 2), Thursday, 25 April 2013 17:23 (twelve years ago)

Aaron Bady ‏@zunguzungu 17h
Different Places Have a Different Likelihood of Being Murdered by Robot Airplanes and That's OK

lag∞n, Thursday, 25 April 2013 17:42 (twelve years ago)

I wonder what Yglesias is saying on twitter now about this. Is he doubling down?

From the mrdestructo link:

Pish-posh! He sets the fools straight: in America, dangerous jobs, like "fishing, logging, and trucking... pay a premium over other working-class occupations." That's why Americans commonly say phrases like, "I'm as rich as a fisherman!" or, when you see a man in a suit flash a wad of cash, say, "Hey, Mr. Rockefeller, what are you, some kinda long-haul trucker?"

Maybe Yglesias should becoma a non-union factory worker or a coal miner.

curmudgeon, Thursday, 25 April 2013 18:28 (twelve years ago)

if he weren't a non-union factory worker he wouldn't be producing things like this

iatee, Thursday, 25 April 2013 18:32 (twelve years ago)

a Norelco marketing experiment to see if a hand-drawn Sharpie beard on a peeled potato could sell men's earrings

I wish I could write things this funny and get away with it

The Great Natterer (dandydonweiner), Thursday, 25 April 2013 19:20 (twelve years ago)

great zings throughout history

Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 25 April 2013 19:45 (twelve years ago)

matt yglesias can go DIAFF

huun huurt 2 (Hurting 2), Thursday, 25 April 2013 19:49 (twelve years ago)

what does that mean?

The Great Natterer (dandydonweiner), Thursday, 25 April 2013 20:02 (twelve years ago)

he should look for new employment in bangladesh

Mordy, Thursday, 25 April 2013 20:02 (twelve years ago)

this comment on yglesias from the start of the thread just keeps getting more otm

strikes me as the kind of guy who would have been a member of 'the best and brightest' or whatever

― max, Monday, January 3, 2011 5:45 PM (2 years ago)

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 25 April 2013 20:04 (twelve years ago)

Die In A Factory Fire xp

huun huurt 2 (Hurting 2), Thursday, 25 April 2013 20:05 (twelve years ago)

can we change this to the matt yglesias thread because i come here for some good timey Klein bashing and there's nothin'

Iago Galdston, Thursday, 25 April 2013 20:08 (twelve years ago)

klein is horrible in his own way but soo boring

lag∞n, Thursday, 25 April 2013 23:37 (twelve years ago)

something's happened to this thinking since he changed haircuts.

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 25 April 2013 23:41 (twelve years ago)

Adam Johnson ‏@adamjohnsonNYC 3m
@ZaidJilani @Bro_Pair @Mobute But I do think dragging @mattyglesias name through the mud distracts from argument. But I'm sure he'll b ok

Zaid Jilani ‏@ZaidJilani 2m
@adamjohnsonNYC @Bro_Pair @Mobute actually it wont because thats what he intended, he just wants clicks. i worked w/him. he likes attention

agree w this guy that yglesias is trolling, like he couldve easily made the same point in a far less offensive manner, instead he takes this ho hum tone about ~160 recently dead people and then doesnt even bother to connect the dots on his argument, hes not new to the internet

lag∞n, Friday, 26 April 2013 02:11 (twelve years ago)

he works at slate

iatee, Friday, 26 April 2013 02:12 (twelve years ago)

he probably got a raise

iatee, Friday, 26 April 2013 02:12 (twelve years ago)

Another response

the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 26 April 2013 02:14 (twelve years ago)

Yglesias responds:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/04/26/some_further_thoughts_on_bangladesh.html

Of course he can't help but begin with telling everyone how "annoyed" he is at the response.

huun huurt 2 (Hurting 2), Friday, 26 April 2013 14:20 (twelve years ago)

Fuck that piece of shit and every other beltway parasite like him

mackleless (latebloomer), Friday, 26 April 2013 23:23 (twelve years ago)

iatee's right, slate thrives on this shit -- half their articles are some lame-ass trolling of 'conventional opinion.'

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 26 April 2013 23:24 (twelve years ago)

In summary, I'm not a Marxist. But I worry that political conservatives are going to turn me into one.

yglesias otm

lag∞n, Saturday, 4 May 2013 12:24 (twelve years ago)

in summary

A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 4 May 2013 12:37 (twelve years ago)

Oh you nerd Yglesias (yeah narcissism of small differences but JEEZ):

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_completist/2013/05/star_trek_movies_and_tv_series_which_are_the_best_why.single.html

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 17:38 (twelve years ago)

leave it to yglesias to think voyager is better than the original series

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 19:03 (twelve years ago)

Also in Slate, Matthew Yglesias ranks every Star Trek movie, television series, villain, and crew member.

lag∞n, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 20:26 (twelve years ago)

Every extra, every continuity problem, and every time he desperately dreamed of Orion slave women.

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 20:27 (twelve years ago)

Top Ten Tribbles

Roberto Spiralli, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 20:28 (twelve years ago)

two months pass...

Ezra Klein just read a XKCD comic on air

Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, 6 August 2013 03:26 (eleven years ago)

and you were watching

mookieproof, Tuesday, 6 August 2013 03:39 (eleven years ago)

hey man I lean forward

Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, 6 August 2013 03:48 (eleven years ago)

haha

R'LIAH (goole), Tuesday, 6 August 2013 13:35 (eleven years ago)

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/08/15/eating_lunch_outside_sucks_stay_inside.html

god how much does this twerp get paid

j., Thursday, 15 August 2013 23:00 (eleven years ago)

youve done it again mr yglesias

lag∞n, Thursday, 15 August 2013 23:55 (eleven years ago)

http://prospect.org/article/ezra-kleins-blind-spot

curmudgeon, Friday, 16 August 2013 14:21 (eleven years ago)

Klein's article also never really covered rich people tax deductions, effective corporate tax rates (after deductions), or the capital gains tax rate and who that benefits

curmudgeon, Friday, 16 August 2013 14:25 (eleven years ago)

http://i.imgur.com/OfZYOtA.png

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 August 2013 18:38 (eleven years ago)

http://i.imgur.com/4SZfh3F.png

Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 31 August 2013 22:49 (eleven years ago)

three weeks pass...

oh no who will save matt from weird twitter

http://i.imgur.com/ghw4mCj.png

lag∞n, Tuesday, 24 September 2013 18:21 (eleven years ago)

The best strategy for expressing displeasure is to do nothing.

polyphonic, Tuesday, 24 September 2013 18:26 (eleven years ago)

cause thats what he always does

lag∞n, Tuesday, 24 September 2013 18:30 (eleven years ago)

all your interactions w/ me should be pleasurable ones

j., Tuesday, 24 September 2013 19:04 (eleven years ago)

two weeks pass...

Matt Yglesias @mattyglesias
Finished the new @Gladwell on my flight. Don’t listen to the haters. His books keep getting better.

mookieproof, Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:08 (eleven years ago)

he's only read this one but already he feels comfortable making inferences based on limited data.

Roberto Spiralli, Wednesday, 9 October 2013 19:12 (eleven years ago)

two months pass...

Once again, Yglesias with the fresh, unconventional insights:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/12/27/red_lobster_s_bad_food_problem_it_s_egregious.html

signed, J.P. Morgan CEO (Hurting 2), Friday, 27 December 2013 18:35 (eleven years ago)

Matt Yglesias ‏@mattyglesias 44m
Everyone praising Red Lobster's cheesy biscuits should look up "exception that proves the rule."

damn, harsh

lag∞n, Friday, 27 December 2013 18:42 (eleven years ago)

Tomorrow: Big Box Retail's Internet Problem

signed, J.P. Morgan CEO (Hurting 2), Friday, 27 December 2013 18:43 (eleven years ago)

The Knicks' Problem: They're Not Good at Basketball

signed, J.P. Morgan CEO (Hurting 2), Friday, 27 December 2013 18:50 (eleven years ago)

A bumper crop is pushing lobster prices through the floor, so why aren't restaurants charging less?
By Matthew Yglesias

more urgent lobster analysis

you didnt say brian may i? (Hunt3r), Friday, 27 December 2013 19:37 (eleven years ago)

sticky lobster

signed, J.P. Morgan CEO (Hurting 2), Friday, 27 December 2013 19:40 (eleven years ago)

matt yglesias is a pretty good blogger like i understand why everyone hates him because he is disgusting but hes pretty good, also he writes a lot of posts which is good

lag∞n, Friday, 27 December 2013 19:46 (eleven years ago)

wait, why is yglesias "disgusting"?

Daniel, Esq 2, Friday, 27 December 2013 19:46 (eleven years ago)

just like a disgusting human

lag∞n, Friday, 27 December 2013 19:47 (eleven years ago)

the sad thing is he's actually probably one of the best things on slate, he's only really bad if you compare him to, yknow, good things

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 27 December 2013 19:48 (eleven years ago)

hes pretty good tho

lag∞n, Friday, 27 December 2013 19:50 (eleven years ago)

on the other hand ive decided ezra is not good and i unfollowed him and dont read him anymore

lag∞n, Friday, 27 December 2013 19:51 (eleven years ago)

ezra is just dumb srsly no clue get a clue ezra

lag∞n, Friday, 27 December 2013 19:51 (eleven years ago)

I agree with the above posts by lagoon

Clay, Friday, 27 December 2013 19:55 (eleven years ago)

ezra was fooled by paul ryans brainy young republican with charts routine never forget

lag∞n, Friday, 27 December 2013 19:58 (eleven years ago)

guess we now know how much Ezra Klein isn't worth to WaPo

Murgatroid, Friday, 3 January 2014 02:49 (eleven years ago)

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p>I look forward to investing in <a href="https://twitter.com/ezraklein";>@ezraklein</a>'s new startup.</p>— Eric Ries (@ericries) <a href="https://twitter.com/ericries/statuses/418938926477242368";>January 3, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Pale Smiley Face (dandydonweiner), Friday, 3 January 2014 02:58 (eleven years ago)

oops
that was a tweet showing that Eric Ries is excited to back Ezra's startup.

Un fucking believable.

Pale Smiley Face (dandydonweiner), Friday, 3 January 2014 03:00 (eleven years ago)

not pictured: ezra klein

balls, Friday, 3 January 2014 03:20 (eleven years ago)

they both look very focused

lag∞n, Friday, 3 January 2014 04:47 (eleven years ago)

After consultation with the newspaper’s editor, Marty Baron, according to one of the people, he put forward a proposal with detailed revenue projections to build a new website dedicated to explanatory journalism on a wide range of topics beyond political policy. It would have been affiliated with The Post, the person said, but would have been a separate enterprise. The investment he sought, the person said, was in eight figures.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/03/business/media/blogger-said-to-plan-to-leave-the-post.html

8 figures!

lag∞n, Friday, 3 January 2014 04:50 (eleven years ago)

some sort of gold website or something

lag∞n, Friday, 3 January 2014 04:50 (eleven years ago)

mansplanatory journalism

flopson, Friday, 3 January 2014 05:06 (eleven years ago)

Dude knows you can set up a wordpress blog for free, right?

Fiddler on a hot tin roof (ed.b), Friday, 3 January 2014 14:31 (eleven years ago)

yes but does the post

napgenius (goole), Friday, 3 January 2014 14:34 (eleven years ago)

the eight figures he was asking for sounds more like he wanted the post to just give him all the money and hed do it himself, where grantland and 538 prob have their own editorial budgets id imagine lots of their technical and promotional stuff is just handled by espn, like the site lives on their servers etc, the whole thing in some ways is just a branding exercise, sounds like klein wanted a more independent thing like what greenwald is doing cause if youre just gonna hire some reporters it not gonna cost $10m

lag∞n, Friday, 3 January 2014 14:39 (eleven years ago)

its interesting you see a lot of these sort of sub publications or sections or w/e like wonkblog or dealbook thatre kind of separate but still obvs under the banner of their parent publications, no one else seems to want to go as far as espn is going, they dont want to give up all their little links and logos all over the place

lag∞n, Friday, 3 January 2014 14:42 (eleven years ago)

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/01/07/extreme_cold_is_better_than_extreme_heat.html

feel like he's slowly turning into henry blodget

iatee, Tuesday, 7 January 2014 22:32 (eleven years ago)

Wonkblog ‏@Wonkblog
It's official: Ezra is leaving the Post. Hoping for the best for him.

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:15 (eleven years ago)

ezra taking dylan matthews with him is worse than ezra leaving the post

le goon (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:17 (eleven years ago)

Alexis C. Madrigal ‏@alexismadrigal 37m
The strangest thing here is that 4 million pageviews a month is ... downright modest. http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/ezra-klein-leaves-washington-post-102424.html

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:17 (eleven years ago)

i mean for a "blog" that's pretty good but it's certainly not sustaining a web site or anything

le goon (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:21 (eleven years ago)

yeah i wonder if hes as famous as he thinks he is

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:22 (eleven years ago)

if that's 4m uniques it would make a bit more sense

le goon (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:23 (eleven years ago)

its weird hes never written a book

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:23 (eleven years ago)

for comparison at the height of election season nate silver was getting more traffic than that a day

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:27 (eleven years ago)

well tbf ezra's web traffic is not 4 million random bozos in montana like one of the views is barack obama

iatee, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:31 (eleven years ago)

he is worth like 1.5 views really

iatee, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:31 (eleven years ago)

very not mysterious why an analytical business guy like bezos wouldnt want to write klein a big check for a site he wants to co own

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:32 (eleven years ago)

well tbf ezra's web traffic is not 4 million random bozos in montana like one of the views is barack obama

― iatee, Tuesday, January 21, 2014 11:31 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

does the president use ad block tho

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:33 (eleven years ago)

all the ads will be native duh

iatee, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:34 (eleven years ago)

Ezra hasn't yet found flattering TV glasses imo

Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:35 (eleven years ago)

in person he and Steve Kornacki blur into garrulous sincerity

Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:36 (eleven years ago)

hey michelle check out this list 10 things only 70s kids who are also the president will understand lol so true

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:36 (eleven years ago)

'I don't think that's funny'
'oh yeah I guess...you're not the president'

iatee, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:39 (eleven years ago)

Eric Fisher ‏@EricFisherSBJ 11m

Numbers are in - Richard Sherman piece on The http://MMQB.com drives 4.3M uniques yesterday - highest day in SI Digital history

le goon (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:51 (eleven years ago)

lol i dont think thats the url youre looking for

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:54 (eleven years ago)

http://mmqb.si.com

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:54 (eleven years ago)

think i mentioned this before but you see how si cant quite make mmqb its own site, its url is a sub domain and theres si navigation in header and footer, where grantland is all its own stuff, much clearer more confident branding imo

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:57 (eleven years ago)

politico's web traffic can't be that high either (relatively speaking) but I think they get by on the same idea, it's not how many it's who

iatee, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 16:59 (eleven years ago)

in person he and Steve Kornacki blur into garrulous sincerity

― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, January 21, 2014

may be, but in terms of their presentation and focus as cable-hosts, they're very different. kornacki might make a career out of investigating chris christie (it seems like the perfect story for kornacki), and maybe it will transform up into something of kornacki's own. but i always felt like hyper-wonky klein should have succeeded hayes on up, and kornacki should have been given another show. anyway, i hope that as part of his new entrepreneurial endeavors, klein gets more time on msnbc to be a policy wonk (i wish hayes got back to being a policy wonk, too, btw).

Daniel, Esq 2, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 17:00 (eleven years ago)

politico prob just has some evil billionaire investor set on the destruction of democracy funding it

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 17:00 (eleven years ago)

one good thing about this is that we'll have to see the word 'wonk' less frequently

iatee, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 17:03 (eleven years ago)

unless he calls it like webwonk or something horrible

iatee, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 17:03 (eleven years ago)

you know he will still ride for WONK

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 17:05 (eleven years ago)

thats him brand

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 17:05 (eleven years ago)

hes a drag queen whos persona is WONK

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 17:06 (eleven years ago)

new site new word

iatee, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 17:06 (eleven years ago)

ronk

iatee, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 17:06 (eleven years ago)

donk

iatee, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 17:06 (eleven years ago)

http://a1.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/123/8d0029025ed44be6b1a84df485ce834b/l.jpg

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 17:09 (eleven years ago)

wonkcoin

Clay, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 17:10 (eleven years ago)

otm

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 17:11 (eleven years ago)

I can't believe he already published the first issue dude is amazing

iatee, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 17:11 (eleven years ago)

very amazing work ethic truly a wunderkind

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 17:13 (eleven years ago)

with their powers combined ezra could write articles about things before they happened and amazon could send you the paper before you wanted it

iatee, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 17:16 (eleven years ago)

what a missed opportunity

iatee, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 17:16 (eleven years ago)

this one chart is coming from inside your house

goole, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 17:21 (eleven years ago)

wait so where do u read ezra klein now?

flopson, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 18:41 (eleven years ago)

look inside

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 18:45 (eleven years ago)

your own butt

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 18:45 (eleven years ago)

may be, but in terms of their presentation and focus as cable-hosts, they're very different. kornacki might make a career out of investigating chris christie (it seems like the perfect story for kornacki), and maybe it will transform up into something of kornacki's own.

No doubt. Kornacki's a good reporter, and Christie's giving him a chance to carve his own identity (before this he flaunted his amazing knowledge of the life of Jerry Brown)

Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 21 January 2014 18:49 (eleven years ago)

no ten million dollars inside of my butt last time i checked

flopson, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 18:50 (eleven years ago)

should I post a gif

Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 21 January 2014 19:06 (eleven years ago)

go for it

flopson, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 19:09 (eleven years ago)

no

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 19:14 (eleven years ago)

Ezra Klein ‏@ezraklein 11m
NYT has this wrong: There’s nothing more glamorous than a great CMS. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/business/media/ezra-klein-leaving-washington-post.html

sounds like hes going with vox and their world famous cms, iirc he was a frequent subtweeter at the posts cms

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 20:16 (eleven years ago)

vox are v smart people imo and he would be wise to jump on board, theyve built huge properties in the most crowded fields in the verge and sbnation and other stuff too, and everyone says their cms is tite if youre into hat sort of thing

lag∞n, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 20:18 (eleven years ago)

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/21/5307992/inside-the-mind-of-a-fanboy

markers, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 20:23 (eleven years ago)

that's actually not the best example

markers, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 20:24 (eleven years ago)

is there a good new nyt paywall workaround?

flopson, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 20:24 (eleven years ago)

"reset safari" if you use safari works

markers, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 20:26 (eleven years ago)

No doubt. Kornacki's a good reporter, and Christie's giving him a chance to carve his own identity (before this he flaunted his amazing knowledge of the life of Jerry Brown)

― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, January 21, 2014

exactly right. kornacki's a talent. it was kind of unfair to make him host of a show that has an audience expecting a hyper-wonky discussion.

Daniel, Esq 2, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 20:28 (eleven years ago)

I hate the word "wonky" tbh.

Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 21 January 2014 20:35 (eleven years ago)

not my favorite word, either, but i hate slang and most jargon. so how about "policy-focused."

Daniel, Esq 2, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 20:36 (eleven years ago)

"knowledge"

Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 21 January 2014 20:38 (eleven years ago)

wonkish is useful as a term, i think of it as an attempt to rinse out gross imf-era connotation of "technocrat" or "neoliberal" to more domestic focused policy nerds

used by bloggers i think wonky or wonkish is often used as a disclaimer signifying "will now operate under the assumption that the reader took a 100-level econ course in college"

flopson, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 20:54 (eleven years ago)

more details re Klein's leaving the W. Post

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/ezra-klein-leaves-washington-post-102424.html?hp=t1

But when Klein proposed the creation of an independent, explanatory journalism website — with more than three dozen staffers and a multiyear budget north of $10 million — the Post said enough is enough. Indeed, Jeff Bezos, the Post’s new owner, and Katharine Weymouth, its publisher, never even offered an alternative figure, sources familiar with the negotiations said.

curmudgeon, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 16:08 (eleven years ago)

it's funny that after bezos bought the post everyone was like "hundreds of million dollars is pocket change to the guy!!" and now ezra is like "throw me $10+ million over a few years" and they're like "...nah"

le goon (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 16:10 (eleven years ago)

he prob thought it was the perfect time to fleece this rube

lag∞n, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 16:11 (eleven years ago)

i think this is smart of the post

max, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 16:12 (eleven years ago)

well the idea of ezra having a "brand" is a pretty myopic DC thing imo and it probably didn't help that it took like 3 months for wonkblog's upworthy site to outpace the original

maybe the rich whiteness of his readership really is more important than the pageviews but like.... my parents know who nate silver is. ezra is no nate silver.

le goon (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 16:15 (eleven years ago)

seems like if they couldve kept him happy w a smaller operation it might not have been a bad idea to give him his own site, idk about his ownership demands and whatnot, but obvs his initial pitch was a lil extravagant

lag∞n, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 16:16 (eleven years ago)

leaked pic of the pitch meeting:

http://mystery756.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/rushmore-max-with-brian-cox-headmaster.jpg

goole, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 16:37 (eleven years ago)

waiting for The Corner to appropriate "rich whiteness"

Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 16:40 (eleven years ago)

is there a good new nyt paywall workaround?

― flopson, Tuesday, January 21, 2014 3:24 PM (Yesterday)

google the headline

k3vin k., Wednesday, 22 January 2014 16:57 (eleven years ago)

get yr dads login

lag∞n, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 16:58 (eleven years ago)

my dad's not a communist he doesn't read the fuckin nyt

j., Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:00 (eleven years ago)

the wifi is too slow in the gulag i guess (sick anti-communism zing)

lag∞n, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:01 (eleven years ago)

giving $10 mil to ezra k still seems like a better idea than spending $250 mil on the post

iatee, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:02 (eleven years ago)

no one reporter, even one w/ a brand, is worth it, basically ever

max, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:02 (eleven years ago)

cmon max don't be so down on yourself

j., Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:03 (eleven years ago)

hah

lag∞n, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:03 (eleven years ago)

it kinda depends on what you can build together no like grantland seems to be doing good

lag∞n, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:04 (eleven years ago)

is there a good new nyt paywall workaround?

― flopson, Tuesday, January 21, 2014 3:24 PM (Yesterday)

any browser with private browsing option (chrome, firefox) renders nyt paywall irrelevant

le goon (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:06 (eleven years ago)

somewhat-relatedly, it looks like foreign policy recently eased their reading policy. i haven't seen a paywall in a while.

Mordy , Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:08 (eleven years ago)

espn couldve let simmons go, wouldntve been a big deal for them in the end, and grantland would probably not exist, certainly not in its present form. but espn also has soooo much more money than the post or the times or wsj that i think their calculations are pretty different

max, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:09 (eleven years ago)

sure they couldve let him go but instead they kept him and it was a win win cause of synergies and shit

lag∞n, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:11 (eleven years ago)

lol i mean... was it tho?

max, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:14 (eleven years ago)

just from a bottom-line perspective i think its about even. maybe espn loves having the Cool Brand of grantland but they dont need bill simmons for that shit, they just need to hire better editors and writers for their website and magazine

max, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:14 (eleven years ago)

simmons is as important to ESPN as any 1 person could be but grantland definitely seems like something espn loses money on just to keep him around to do other stuff

good for us though

le goon (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:14 (eleven years ago)

lol i mean... was it tho?

― max, Wednesday, January 22, 2014 12:14 PM (8 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

obvs we have no way of knowing but they def seem interested in doing more of the same type things

lag∞n, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:15 (eleven years ago)

simmons is def a big thing for espn, their web traffic would take a huge hit if he dipped & '30 for 30' is a big thing

le goon (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:16 (eleven years ago)

simmons is huge max r u living under a rock bro

k3vin k., Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:16 (eleven years ago)

yeah and the times traffic takes a big hit w/ silver gone. its not that espn would keep chugging along but that in the long term its not a big deal. there is always newer, cheaper talent

max, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:17 (eleven years ago)

yeah simmons is prob the most popular writer on the nets, as to whether his deal w espn is working financially for them i dont know, their willingness to roll up nate silver points to yes tho

lag∞n, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:18 (eleven years ago)

and like, simmons is WAY bigger than klein, and also WAY more important to espn's brand than klein is to wapo's

max, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:18 (eleven years ago)

grantland itself idk it's just a website, how much money does it take to run a website? espn has enough money anyway tho you're otm about that i think

k3vin k., Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:18 (eleven years ago)

xp thats fair, idk. i think if the nyt had espn-level dough they wouldve kept silver... its kinda apples to oranges comparing a multiplatform sports brand to a newspaper

max, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:19 (eleven years ago)

i mean grantland is pennies to espn im sure but have you seen their masthead, they have like 20 people working for that shit, and im sure their traffic is shit

max, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:20 (eleven years ago)

the formula might be more like its not really worth paying for brand writers unless you can leverage that brand, like now all that newer cheaper talent has been infused w the sweet simmons bro-juice, i just wish they wouldnt let him on tv during basketball broadcasts

lag∞n, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:21 (eleven years ago)

and im sure their traffic is shit

― max, Wednesday, January 22, 2014 12:20 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

idk man i think theyre doin pretty good, at least the sports stuff, the more pop culture things i could see absolutely no one reading

lag∞n, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:22 (eleven years ago)

stuff that gets the espn homepage pipeline probably does pretty well yeah

max, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:24 (eleven years ago)

~synergies~

lag∞n, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:24 (eleven years ago)

i enjoy simmons on basketball broadcasts

k3vin k., Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:27 (eleven years ago)

omg that is so terrible, u need to go on a visionquest

lag∞n, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:28 (eleven years ago)

the whole new yorker has always been a big red line for conde nast, afaik

i think it's just an ancient thing that owners run prestige media for their own nefarious cultural capital reasons

goole, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:36 (eleven years ago)

what kind of cool ski resort ideas summit hookup parties do the people at tv guide throw, i ask u

goole, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:38 (eleven years ago)

nyer is profitable or very nearly so over the last decade, im pretty sure! not that i dont see your point

max, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:40 (eleven years ago)

oh huh i seem to recall a profile of remnick that said the opposite.

goole, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:43 (eleven years ago)

...that could just be that remnick himself is clueless about the NYer's numbers

goole, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:44 (eleven years ago)

i mean, i dont think si newhouse is expecting it to make money, ever

max, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 17:52 (eleven years ago)

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/01/ezra-klein-next-roger-ailes

this is a nothing of a post so i think KD just wanted to air out that title

goole, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 19:28 (eleven years ago)

The only thing on Grantland I read regularly is Mark Harris on the Oscars, but I've occasionally followed links there and think, "I should read Grantland more often."

jaymc, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 19:37 (eleven years ago)

they have really good basketball stuff m/l all i read there

lag∞n, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 19:48 (eleven years ago)

yeah simmons, lowe, keri is all i read there

k3vin k., Wednesday, 22 January 2014 20:00 (eleven years ago)

grantland nba shootarounds are frequently awesome

le goon (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 20:06 (eleven years ago)

eh i find those corny tbh

k3vin k., Wednesday, 22 January 2014 20:18 (eleven years ago)

it's kind of weird how they got like all of knicks twitter to be contributors even though none of them really has anything to say

k3vin k., Wednesday, 22 January 2014 20:19 (eleven years ago)

i hope ezra klein's new website is 100% devoted to nba basketball.

Daniel, Esq 2, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 20:24 (eleven years ago)

there's a guy who does longer bball features (not zane lowe type analysis) that's pretty great. i read all the nerds he brought in - barnwell, lowe, keri. the only pop cult guy i really like is wesley morris; steve hyden is fucking awful and the rest just kinda seems like warmed over vulture (by design obv)(one reason i always kinda blanche at boutique/prestige talk around grantland). love love love rembert browne. the fallout from their fuckup this past week has been interesting cuz i've always been curious at just how hands on simmons is at this point. then something like an oral history of swingers goes up...

balls, Thursday, 23 January 2014 02:48 (eleven years ago)

probably most entertaining grantland thing this week was finding out that nate silver has hired a weather nerd.

balls, Thursday, 23 January 2014 02:49 (eleven years ago)

what does rembert browne do, middlebrow cultural criticism? i've never read him

k3vin k., Thursday, 23 January 2014 02:51 (eleven years ago)

would've preferred "Nate Silver has hired a boyfriend"

Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 23 January 2014 02:52 (eleven years ago)

rem does rap, race, reality tv... pop cult, i guess. great, great writer, smart kid

max, Thursday, 23 January 2014 03:00 (eleven years ago)

it's generally gawker/vulture kinda stuff though less 'here's some shit i found on the internet' than that. occasionally he does a 'but seriously folx' thing like this - http://grantland.com/the-triangle/stanford-man-richard-sherman-and-the-thug-athlete-narrative/. i'm an old man and when i find a millenial internet writer whose voice i not only find tolerable but charming (maybe entertaining is a better word there but somehow not specific enough - there's tons of interent things i find intolerable yet entertaining)(www.ilxor.com) i take what i can get. i mean i don't think caity weaver should get a pulitzer prize but when i see that byline i go 'this should be good', there's added value there beyond just the 'well here's a story i'm gonna read eventually cuz every internet outlet is gonna write their version so i might as well read this one' (which reminds me i've been meaning to start a thread about the homogenization of the internet but have never bothered enough to investigate how much my hunch there is accurate)(i mean seriously why did thinkprogress do golden globes red carpet coverage?)

balls, Thursday, 23 January 2014 03:08 (eleven years ago)

i've been meaning to start a thread about the homogenization of the internet but have never bothered enough to investigate how much my hunch there is accurate

been feeling this real bad lately, like whatever happened to being able to -find- something, something fresh to you. instead the internet is like this ever-constricting circle of empty attempts to up the urgency on anything fool enough to poke its head up and become 'news'

j., Thursday, 23 January 2014 03:16 (eleven years ago)

rip geocities

lag∞n, Thursday, 23 January 2014 03:18 (eleven years ago)

yeah it's tough for me to know how real it is or if it's just i've liked/followed too many fluffy sites. i strongly suspect it's largely the latter but man i've followed junkfood internet sites for awhile and it didn't used to seem like this. i think the way upworthy has nearly destroyed the likelihood of seeing a non-obnoxious headline this decade is a factor also. i mean ppl hate buzzfeed and god knows there's evil lurking there (perpetua) and there are things there that horrify me personally (look i know the numbers and i get the demographics to understand why the entire 90s has been reduced 'man remember tgif on abc' but it still hurts *goes off to give new malkmus album another chance*), but there's a few 'good' things and they save me time finding youtube clips of dogs so i bear no ill will toward them really but upworthy man. a fucking cancer. lately it reminds me of how cable used to be really diverse and the channels had a purpose (the 'a' and 'e' in a&e meant something man) and then everybody figured out their lives would be so much easier if they just showed friends reruns.

balls, Thursday, 23 January 2014 03:29 (eleven years ago)

btw global warming will likely devastate our way of life within our lifetimes

balls, Thursday, 23 January 2014 03:31 (eleven years ago)

good tv shows today are way better than good 90s tv shows

iatee, Thursday, 23 January 2014 03:31 (eleven years ago)

no show is better than homicide

j., Thursday, 23 January 2014 03:37 (eleven years ago)

yeah i think the golden age etc is over or close enough (still rep for mad men what can i say) but agree that the yr average 'good, not great' tv show now (justified, game of thrones, whatever) is way better yr average 'good, not great' from the 90s.

balls, Thursday, 23 January 2014 03:38 (eleven years ago)

it's a brand new era but it came too late

Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 23 January 2014 03:39 (eleven years ago)

tv inequality is like income inequality, the average tv show has suffered and its quality of tv-life continues to decrease, but the top 1% of tv shows are living the good life

iatee, Thursday, 23 January 2014 03:40 (eleven years ago)

lol

k3vin k., Thursday, 23 January 2014 03:41 (eleven years ago)

nbc = detroit

balls, Thursday, 23 January 2014 03:42 (eleven years ago)

tv is better now because televisions are better, homicide is even better than it used to be

lag∞n, Thursday, 23 January 2014 03:45 (eleven years ago)

i definitely feel like grooming an rss account is like a part time job - u have to be constantly weeding + looking for hot new rss edge

Mordy , Thursday, 23 January 2014 04:23 (eleven years ago)

no you can do it without smoking mordy

iatee, Thursday, 23 January 2014 04:36 (eleven years ago)

who is smoking mordy

Mordy , Thursday, 23 January 2014 04:57 (eleven years ago)

I just smoked you, sorry

iatee, Thursday, 23 January 2014 05:00 (eleven years ago)

Matt Yglesias ‏@mattyglesias 1m
Excited to be pursuing some new opportunities in the near future with @MelissaBell, @EzraKlein, & @DylanMatt — more details soon.

ha this is def a joke right

lag∞n, Thursday, 23 January 2014 19:45 (eleven years ago)

gross

Murgatroid, Thursday, 23 January 2014 19:46 (eleven years ago)

Matt Yglesias ‏@mattyglesias 2m
Excited about the next thing, but I’m very sad to be leaving @Slate and its amazingly creative, brilliant, funny, and fun team.

lag∞n, Thursday, 23 January 2014 19:50 (eleven years ago)

hire pareene so I don't have to look at salon anymore

polyphonic, Thursday, 23 January 2014 19:52 (eleven years ago)

naw hes goin w greenwald

lag∞n, Thursday, 23 January 2014 19:53 (eleven years ago)

Is he? That makes 100% sense

polyphonic, Thursday, 23 January 2014 19:53 (eleven years ago)

ha i just made that up

lag∞n, Thursday, 23 January 2014 19:54 (eleven years ago)

i do KNOW him irl tho so maybe he told me

lag∞n, Thursday, 23 January 2014 19:54 (eleven years ago)

I heard he's going to Howie Kurtz's new portal at world net daily

polyphonic, Thursday, 23 January 2014 19:55 (eleven years ago)

max is leaving gawker for breitbart can you keep a secret

lag∞n, Thursday, 23 January 2014 19:55 (eleven years ago)

yglesias should take weigel w/ him

Mordy , Thursday, 23 January 2014 19:56 (eleven years ago)

oh man I so predicted this

iatee, Thursday, 23 January 2014 19:56 (eleven years ago)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-calderone/slates-matt-yglesias-join_b_4653747.html

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 23 January 2014 19:57 (eleven years ago)

this thread is like voltron now

lag∞n, Thursday, 23 January 2014 19:58 (eleven years ago)

does this mean he is going to drop the taco bell posts or RAMP THEM UP

j., Thursday, 23 January 2014 20:05 (eleven years ago)

all taco bell and game of thrones blogging all the time

lag∞n, Thursday, 23 January 2014 20:07 (eleven years ago)

this is kinda awesome tho that we don't have to start a new thread for their new venture we can keep using this one

Mordy , Thursday, 23 January 2014 20:13 (eleven years ago)

also use it to speculate about internal power-scheming

j., Thursday, 23 January 2014 20:15 (eleven years ago)

http://i.imgur.com/TsyonCR.png

lag∞n, Thursday, 23 January 2014 21:56 (eleven years ago)

am hoping their new adventure will include no one I care about, so that I can more easily avoid these two by avoiding one website

Pale Smiley Face (dandydonweiner), Thursday, 23 January 2014 22:36 (eleven years ago)

lol xp

flopson, Friday, 24 January 2014 01:52 (eleven years ago)

he needs to start a band and that can be the title track of the debut album

iatee, Friday, 24 January 2014 02:03 (eleven years ago)

that can be the name of the band, they are emo

puple prijan (lag∞n), Friday, 24 January 2014 02:04 (eleven years ago)

Huh, today's his (Klein's) last day at the Post already.

channel 9's meaty urologist (WilliamC), Friday, 24 January 2014 16:40 (eleven years ago)

http://i.imgur.com/2VpCfH4.png

hes for sure not a menswear blogger folks

puple prijan (lag∞n), Friday, 24 January 2014 22:42 (eleven years ago)

Looks like Jesse Thorn if he let himself go.

Murgatroid, Saturday, 25 January 2014 00:04 (eleven years ago)

looks like dom p landed on his feet

rhyme heals all goons (m bison), Saturday, 25 January 2014 02:56 (eleven years ago)

lol i guess i'll do the honors

markers, Sunday, 26 January 2014 23:49 (eleven years ago)

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/26/5348212/ezra-klein-vox-is-our-next

markers, Sunday, 26 January 2014 23:49 (eleven years ago)

now you don't have to choose

markers, Sunday, 26 January 2014 23:52 (eleven years ago)

damn yglesias is a principal in this he just sat around blogging while Klein was doing all the hard work building his brand lol

lag∞n, Monday, 27 January 2014 01:12 (eleven years ago)

explanatory journalism is kinda an interesting concept curious to see to what extent its a real or different thing u can do

lag∞n, Monday, 27 January 2014 01:14 (eleven years ago)

They started out calling it Bono Vox but then they shortened it.

Plasmon, Monday, 27 January 2014 02:24 (eleven years ago)

"we're founding" = I wish I knew how much capital each of the "principals' put up

Pale Smiley Face (dandydonweiner), Monday, 27 January 2014 15:39 (eleven years ago)

lol at every commenter on that verge piece being all who tf are these people

lag∞n, Monday, 27 January 2014 15:49 (eleven years ago)

yeah, 'i googled this guy and turns out there's a wikipedia page on him already'

balls, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 00:40 (eleven years ago)

one month passes...

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2014/02/chipotle_and_economic_destiny_it_s_time_to_take_fast_food_seriously.html

over the course of my time as Slate’s Moneybox correspondent, I’ve frequently had occasion to write about the fast-food sector. Chipotle, especially, but also Chopt and Taco Bell and KFC. To some, this has become an object of fun. Why is this guy writing so much about fast food when there are so many real economic issues in the world? The answer is simple. Fast food is an important issue. If you want an image of the future, imagine a burrito stomping on a human face—forever.

omg

j., Friday, 28 February 2014 23:13 (eleven years ago)

lmao

lag∞n, Friday, 28 February 2014 23:15 (eleven years ago)

@mattyglesias: My final Slate column will deal with the relationship between fast casual burritos and neoliberalism.

lag∞n, Friday, 28 February 2014 23:17 (eleven years ago)

@mattyglesias: Help! I have nowhere to blog.

lag∞n, Friday, 28 February 2014 23:17 (eleven years ago)

the line that follows the quote above:

Think about it.

illuminations follow

i ain't allergic i just sneeze a lot (Hunt3r), Saturday, 1 March 2014 03:58 (eleven years ago)

He is so annoying

curmudgeon, Saturday, 1 March 2014 16:41 (eleven years ago)

Retweeted by Jonah Peretti
Ezra Klein ‏@ezraklein 3h
I don't think Buzzfeed gets enough credit for how good it is at video

lag∞n, Saturday, 1 March 2014 19:59 (eleven years ago)

so who's in this new venture with ezra klein? matt yglesias is, i gather.

Daniel, Esq 2, Saturday, 1 March 2014 20:09 (eleven years ago)

"project x"

Daniel, Esq 2, Saturday, 1 March 2014 20:09 (eleven years ago)

three weeks pass...

Matt Yglesias ‏@mattyglesias 15m
Last time I went this long without blogging, I was 20 and hand-coding HTML files.

man loves to blog

lag∞n, Friday, 28 March 2014 18:04 (eleven years ago)

everyone, back-up and give matthew yglesias room to blog

Daniel, Esq 2, Friday, 28 March 2014 18:17 (eleven years ago)

no vox thread so here we are

http://vox.com

haven't had a chance to read this yet: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/07/business/media/voxcom-takes-melding-of-journalism-and-technology-to-next-level.html

markers, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 02:19 (eleven years ago)

it's too bad there's no general vox media thread either, because ppl on the verge's forums have been going nuts and stuff has been happening over there

markers, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 02:21 (eleven years ago)

not that most people on ilx give a shit

markers, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 02:21 (eleven years ago)

journalists in my fb feed are really annoyed at the unanimous positive coverage vox has been getting

Mordy , Tuesday, 8 April 2014 02:29 (eleven years ago)

it is a v pretty website

Clay, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 02:34 (eleven years ago)

i think the front page is kinda ugly

surfbort memes get played out, totally (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 04:37 (eleven years ago)

u shndt have to "launch cards" why cant u just scroll through them on the bottom of the page, and then when you do launch it overlays the page except that not really clear except a lil exit button

lag∞n, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 13:41 (eleven years ago)

swear I've seen a site with a similar graphical layout, but it was a few years back
the name vox irritates me

have a nice blood/orange bitters cocktail (mh), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 13:52 (eleven years ago)

i actually like those launch-cards, but yeah, you should have the option to scroll thru them if that's yr preference.

Daniel, Esq 2, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 13:55 (eleven years ago)

Ezra Klein’s first big piece for his new venture (heretofore known as Project X) at Vox is on a topic that quite naturally worries the former Wonkblogger: the limits of evidence-based reasoning when it conflicts with political allegiances increasingly based on polarized ideologies.

Klein will almost certainly get some blowback from progressives for projecting a false equivalency of Left and Right in exhibiting “identity protection” in the face of inconvenient evidence,

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_04/party_ideology_and_evidence049794.php

curmudgeon, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 14:03 (eleven years ago)

it's just too much it's all jumping out at me, i just want words

surfbort memes get played out, totally (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 20:59 (eleven years ago)

hamlet would be appalled

surfbort memes get played out, totally (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 20:59 (eleven years ago)

max, good looking out

http://www.vox.com/cards/the-internet/what-is-the-internet#E5357695

j., Tuesday, 8 April 2014 21:06 (eleven years ago)

what the unholy fuck

waterbabies (waterface), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 21:12 (eleven years ago)

The short guide to Capital in the 21st Century
Matthew Yglesias April 8, 2014, 10:30 a.m. ET

retch

purposely lend impetus to my HOOS (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 21:14 (eleven years ago)

oh thank god its a book review

purposely lend impetus to my HOOS (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 21:15 (eleven years ago)

they r writing wikipedia?

lag∞n, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 21:16 (eleven years ago)

artisanalpedia

j., Tuesday, 8 April 2014 21:19 (eleven years ago)

they r writing internet

waterbabies (waterface), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 21:20 (eleven years ago)

artisanalpedia

― j., Tuesday, April 8, 2014 10:19 PM (56 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

waterbabies (waterface), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 21:20 (eleven years ago)

artisanalpedia

― j., Tuesday, April 8, 2014 5:19 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

lag∞n, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 21:22 (eleven years ago)

http://i.imgur.com/FZezeWM.png

lag∞n, Wednesday, 9 April 2014 01:30 (eleven years ago)

why is it a + k its not ashton plus kutcher makes no sense u dillweed

lag∞n, Wednesday, 9 April 2014 01:36 (eleven years ago)

vox is a nice website. but how does it make money? it isn't a subscription service, and i don't see any ads on the pages.

Daniel, Esq 2, Sunday, 13 April 2014 18:13 (eleven years ago)

http://i.imgur.com/Zznnt3u.png

lag∞n, Sunday, 13 April 2014 18:17 (eleven years ago)

spending all that ad money on jobs is no way to run a business

surfbort memes get played out, totally (k3vin k.), Sunday, 13 April 2014 23:05 (eleven years ago)

i don't see any ads on the pages

wasn't ge or gm their "launch sponsor"?

markers, Sunday, 13 April 2014 23:51 (eleven years ago)

look at the right side of the site, above where it says "#pressing"

markers, Sunday, 13 April 2014 23:54 (eleven years ago)

also in the middle of the page

markers, Sunday, 13 April 2014 23:54 (eleven years ago)

one ad on this page

http://i.imgur.com/3VlpXUh.png

lag∞n, Sunday, 13 April 2014 23:56 (eleven years ago)

right. i spotted an ad on second-look, but there aren't many (maybe just the one i remember). normally i expect to see almost all the available "real-estate" occupied by ads. this site seems different, in that regard.

Daniel, Esq 2, Sunday, 13 April 2014 23:57 (eleven years ago)

prob just easing their way into it

lag∞n, Sunday, 13 April 2014 23:58 (eleven years ago)

guess you didn't see that article where they said the internet was invented by GE and you should buy GE products to best use internet

a strange man (mh), Monday, 14 April 2014 13:43 (eleven years ago)

i only read graphs

lag∞n, Monday, 14 April 2014 13:57 (eleven years ago)

http://www.vox.com/2014/4/22/5636156/basic-a-beginners-guide-to-everyones-favorite-new-insult

on the verge of unfollowing everyone associated with this site

k3vin k., Tuesday, 22 April 2014 16:38 (eleven years ago)

might as well put this here

http://www.nytimes.com/upshot/

goole, Tuesday, 22 April 2014 16:42 (eleven years ago)

*farts*

waterbabies (waterface), Tuesday, 22 April 2014 16:43 (eleven years ago)

I think there's something potentially insidious about "just explaining complicated stuff in an objective way" journalism, since it tends to obscure agendas and ideology. I'm reminded of that widely-cited Daily Beast piece about the Allen/Farrow molestation charges that took that "Whoa whoa, let's look at ALL the facts" approach to mask an obvious pro-Allen bias.

None of this has anything to do with "basic."

Doritos Loco Parentis (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 22 April 2014 16:44 (eleven years ago)

next they'll explain because

waterbabies (waterface), Tuesday, 22 April 2014 16:45 (eleven years ago)

the internet really is the worst

waterbabies (waterface), Tuesday, 22 April 2014 16:45 (eleven years ago)

surprised how frivolous theyve gone w a lot of their stuff

lag∞n, Tuesday, 22 April 2014 17:10 (eleven years ago)

almost like theyre making fun of themselves

lag∞n, Tuesday, 22 April 2014 17:11 (eleven years ago)

might as well put this here

http://www.nytimes.com/upshot/

― goole, Tuesday, April 22, 2014 12:42 PM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this seems way better than 538

lag∞n, Tuesday, 22 April 2014 17:22 (eleven years ago)

can they have a vlog where a youth explains things to me? it'd be more honest and you'd understand the narrative bias instead of this run-around they're trying

a strange man (mh), Tuesday, 22 April 2014 18:03 (eleven years ago)

https://twitter.com/alex_abads/media

makes u think

a strange man (mh), Tuesday, 22 April 2014 18:05 (eleven years ago)

surprised how frivolous theyve gone w a lot of their stuff

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 22, 2014 5:10 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

almost like theyre making fun of themselves

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 22, 2014 5:11 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Silver barks into conference call phone: "we want smart buzzfeed readers"

purposely lend impetus to my HOOS (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Tuesday, 22 April 2014 20:00 (eleven years ago)

disappointed that felix salmon is leaving reuters for some new bullshit thats 'post-text'

just sayin, Saturday, 26 April 2014 06:54 (eleven years ago)

post-text is the worst buzzword ive hear in a long time

lag∞n, Saturday, 26 April 2014 11:41 (eleven years ago)

sounds like some derrida shit

markers, Saturday, 26 April 2014 13:29 (eleven years ago)

tbf his estimation that folks will follow him is correct imo, i know i'll go read wherever he winds up

purposely lend impetus to my HOOS (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Saturday, 26 April 2014 23:17 (eleven years ago)

Vox tucking sucks balls

Doritos Loco Parentis (Hurting 2), Sunday, 27 April 2014 04:57 (eleven years ago)

"Post-text" just seems to mean "literally not text like videos and stuff" which isn't the revelation I ws thinking it might be

sonic thedgehod (albvivertine), Sunday, 27 April 2014 05:23 (eleven years ago)

Hey remember the "hypertext" craze?

Doritos Loco Parentis (Hurting 2), Sunday, 27 April 2014 05:25 (eleven years ago)

hire pareene so I don't have to look at salon anymore

― polyphonic, Thursday, January 23, 2014 2:52 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

naw hes goin w greenwald

― lag∞n, Thursday, January 23, 2014 2:53 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ smartest most psychic ilx poster

lag∞n, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 14:10 (eleven years ago)

close enough!

balls, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 14:29 (eleven years ago)

bullseye

lag∞n, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 14:55 (eleven years ago)

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/03/stat-happy-news-ignores-journalism-s-need-for-narrative.html

i think there is room for legitimate criticism of "data journalism" being written primarily by people who can't write, but this ain't it

k3vin k., Sunday, 4 May 2014 01:53 (eleven years ago)

three months pass...

http://i.imgur.com/4df05Jx.png

interesting choice of words

lag∞n, Friday, 29 August 2014 14:12 (ten years ago)

idgi

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 29 August 2014 16:30 (ten years ago)

nobody blogs anymore people storystream their livejournals

iatee, Friday, 29 August 2014 16:33 (ten years ago)

lj drama

Allen (etaeoe), Friday, 29 August 2014 16:34 (ten years ago)

three weeks pass...

wtf

http://i.imgur.com/c3obU8M.png

lag∞n, Sunday, 21 September 2014 22:49 (ten years ago)

lol

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 22 September 2014 14:21 (ten years ago)

three months pass...

http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/46-times-vox-totally-fucked-up-a-story-1673835447

k3vin k., Monday, 12 January 2015 05:41 (ten years ago)

one month passes...

http://i.imgur.com/dcP9XfR.jpg

welcome to the world baby blogger

lag∞n, Thursday, 5 March 2015 19:35 (ten years ago)

lol

flopson, Thursday, 5 March 2015 19:46 (ten years ago)

tbh i love matt yglesias

flopson, Thursday, 5 March 2015 19:46 (ten years ago)

one month passes...

http://gawker.com/please-stop-showing-your-thumbs-on-social-media-1674295275

Overall, the thumb is round and stumpy, as if at one point in Yglesias's life it was mechanically compacted. It is openly unpleasant.

j., Thursday, 16 April 2015 22:18 (ten years ago)

six months pass...

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2015_10/are_democrats_complacent_going058182.php

excerpt:

After reading Matt Yglesias’ cri de coeur against “complacent” Democrats who don’t seem to be aware the Donkey Party is a presidential loss away from a total conservative makeover of the country, my basic reaction is that Matt needs to get out more. The whole premise of his Vox piece is that Democrats either don’t know or don’t care that they are at a historic disadvantage at the state government level and have little chance of—or a “plan” for—regaining control of the U.S. House, either. The Democrats I talk to seem pretty aware of the situation, if perhaps too sanguine about their long-term prospects (thanks to faith in demographics or doubt that the craziness rampant in the GOP will enable that party to pull of a trifecta).

But aside from Matt’s questionable assessment of Democratic self-knowledge, his hypothesis also suffers a bit from the assumption that the party’s downballot problems can be dispelled by more effort or some undefined “plan.”

curmudgeon, Monday, 19 October 2015 14:54 (nine years ago)

the yglesias post that is replying to is a banger IMO

flopson, Monday, 19 October 2015 22:19 (nine years ago)

The GOP might be in chaos, but Democrats are in a torpor.

http://i.imgur.com/dvoWIpH.gif

lag∞n, Tuesday, 20 October 2015 00:37 (nine years ago)

ezra koenig

Treeship, Tuesday, 20 October 2015 00:41 (nine years ago)

matt le blanc

Treeship, Tuesday, 20 October 2015 00:41 (nine years ago)

I don't know if things are as bleak as Yglasias thinks, but it's at least a strong corrective to the endless stream of articles predicting the impending collapse of the GOP. So long as they hold congress, the supreme Court and lots of state offices, it seems just a tiny bit myopic to call them dead.

too young for seapunk (Moodles), Tuesday, 20 October 2015 01:00 (nine years ago)

feel like ezra is a more likable and otm but matt is a deeper thinker so i dunno

― ice cr?m, Monday, January 3, 2011 12:43 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

basically. i don't have much use for hayes either. vox turns out some interesting stuff here and there, though.

it's not a tuomas (benbbag), Tuesday, 20 October 2015 01:02 (nine years ago)

three months pass...

@ezraklein
Hot fire from @mattyglesias: https://t.co/PjUZ81wDvM https://t.co/YZGNKz0tCk

hot fire yall

bloat laureate (schlump), Tuesday, 2 February 2016 05:39 (nine years ago)

http://i.imgur.com/vucM0pm.png

lag∞n, Friday, 5 February 2016 17:07 (nine years ago)

there

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 8 February 2016 04:10 (nine years ago)

six months pass...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CrsQ-QMUEAAuuXm.jpg

flopson, Wednesday, 7 September 2016 20:54 (eight years ago)

one of my favourite things on twitter is when u can tell ppl are mad at somthing matty wrote but u have yet to figure out what, just picking up the faint signal of abuse

flopson, Wednesday, 7 September 2016 20:55 (eight years ago)

he wrote that government transparency is bad while being wrong about how fioa works

lag∞n, Wednesday, 7 September 2016 22:05 (eight years ago)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CrsOJnzXgAA-Y5R.jpg

lag∞n, Wednesday, 7 September 2016 22:09 (eight years ago)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Crru0kPWIAAgfWu.jpg

lag∞n, Wednesday, 7 September 2016 22:09 (eight years ago)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CrxLyi_WcAAfbyw.jpg

lag∞n, Wednesday, 7 September 2016 22:11 (eight years ago)

don't sleep on this gem:

https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/701785854159822848

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 8 September 2016 03:02 (eight years ago)

xp- yeah i saw that tweet. was wondering what does it mean to make a record of a phone call though? like can i just write 'chatted with hilary clinton on the phone' on a post-it? the asymmetry he's talking at least practically exists if ppl are always saying 'lets talk on the phone'.

a good reminder that bloggers aren't journalists and don't know anything about journalism

flopson, Thursday, 8 September 2016 14:06 (eight years ago)

yeah he made a bunch of finger painty points abt things he obvs doesnt know much abt or bothered to think through

lag∞n, Thursday, 8 September 2016 15:16 (eight years ago)

like phone calls are bad because he doesnt like to make them, but obvs for a journalist phone calls are good cause the chance of the person youre talking to slipping up and saying something actually revealing is much higher than w an email

lag∞n, Thursday, 8 September 2016 15:17 (eight years ago)

but then why do ppl ask yglesias to phone? if they're equally foiaable as emails and you can make someone slip up, seems more risky... idgi

btw u seen these videos of ezra explaining things and doing lots of hand gestures and scrunchy thinking face? he is p handsome imo but the videos are so bad lol

http://www.vox.com/2016/7/28/12281222/trump-clinton-conventions

flopson, Thursday, 8 September 2016 19:48 (eight years ago)

prob just ppl are habituated to the phone

lag∞n, Thursday, 8 September 2016 19:54 (eight years ago)

Nah i looked it up i don't think the foia thing really matters, the Public Record thing applies to stuff like 911 calls and there isn't a record of a phone call 99% of the time. so Real Journalist Steve Rilly is right that *if* there's a record u can foia it but that *if* almost never happens. the journalist pressing interviewee to slip thing doesn't really matter to foia cuz why would you foia a convo between a journalist and a politician the journo can just transcribe it and publish it

the awesomely stupid thing about this take is like, ok, so granted there's this asymmetry of transparency depending what form of communication politicians... and u want to reduce transparency on the one we do have?

flopson, Thursday, 8 September 2016 20:39 (eight years ago)

"doesnt really matter" isnt really an argument when u "dont know what youre talking about" is the point re the foia point

lag∞n, Thursday, 8 September 2016 20:44 (eight years ago)

but yeah the bigger goof is believing that transparency is bad, both symptoms of incredibly lazy thinking, mistaking ones own habits for virtue

lag∞n, Thursday, 8 September 2016 20:48 (eight years ago)

When you're talking about Senate-confirmed appointments (especially Cabinet positions) phone calls with non-federal parties are frequently transcribed, if not at least partially scripted or even advertised on the federal register. When you're talking about other appointed positions, much less than managerial or staff functions below and around them, yeah, phone calls are pretty much all non-record, except if you're talking to a reporter, because DC and Virginia are one-party consent states for recording - Maryland is all party consent but I dunno how that works across jurisdictions.

All this seems like a complete DUH to any journalist working in this town or covering politics generally - I'm not even in public affairs and I know this shit. But Yglesias, as pointed out, is "just a blogger"

Anacostia Aerodrome (El Tomboto), Friday, 9 September 2016 02:43 (eight years ago)

And I'm leaving out secured phone calls with foreign heads of state in case that isn't obvious

Anacostia Aerodrome (El Tomboto), Friday, 9 September 2016 02:55 (eight years ago)

Same with the infamous Bangladesh piece. Speak to anyone with even the vaguest knowledge of the country's manufacturing industry and they will tell you that international pressure has forced importing companies to get more serious about safety in factories, that safety standards are notionally being improved by the government and that one of the major problems was factory owners flouting the existing standards that were in place. But nobody with even the vaguest knowledge of manufacturing in Bangladesh was involved in the piece.

On a Raqqa tip (ShariVari), Friday, 9 September 2016 05:16 (eight years ago)

basically just philosophy major first principals bs

lag∞n, Friday, 9 September 2016 05:25 (eight years ago)

one year passes...

disappointed that felix salmon is leaving reuters for some new bullshit thats 'post-text'

― just sayin, Saturday, 26 April 2014 06:54 (three years ago) Permalink

lol

just sayin, Monday, 29 January 2018 05:22 (seven years ago)

two years pass...

this fucking dweeb

The message is simple: Joe Biden likes you. He likes you even if you don’t like him.

If that sounds trite, consider the contrast it offers to the reality we live in, and the politics President Trump practices. https://t.co/8II1Kln2ID

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) August 21, 2020

Donald Trump Also Sucks, Of Course (milo z), Saturday, 22 August 2020 03:16 (four years ago)

This is strictly about campaigning, Klein acknowledges in the piece that this man for all seasons shit isn’t a viable strategy for governing.

Evans on Hammond (evol j), Saturday, 22 August 2020 04:35 (four years ago)

feel like Matty has been on some wild bad takes as of late

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 22 August 2020 04:35 (four years ago)

wait, milo, you started Best American Pundit 2020 even though this thread already exists?

jaymc, Saturday, 22 August 2020 04:58 (four years ago)

I don't even have to read the piece, but I agree with Ezra's tweet

jaymc, Saturday, 22 August 2020 04:59 (four years ago)

This one didn't show up when I searched back then for some reason - Googled both their names this time instead of just the Ez

Donald Trump Also Sucks, Of Course (milo z), Saturday, 22 August 2020 04:59 (four years ago)

Ezra's Tweet and column are nonsense.

"The core of Joe Biden’s politics is his talent at fulfilling the simplest of political and emotional needs: Joe Biden likes you. That was the message of this convention, and it’s the message that has always been at the core of his politics." - this is the guy who will literally tell you to vote for someone else if you express displeasure with him!!!

Donald Trump Also Sucks, Of Course (milo z), Saturday, 22 August 2020 05:00 (four years ago)

the tweet is fine

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Saturday, 22 August 2020 06:06 (four years ago)

one month passes...

I unironically love twitter but it’s honestly embarrassing how people get spun up over policy fads (abolish ICE! defund police!) only to forget about them seven weeks later.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) October 21, 2020

Donald Trump Also Sucks, Of Course (milo z), Wednesday, 21 October 2020 17:17 (four years ago)

"let's get to one billion americans" didn't even reach the status of "policy fad" lol

it bangs for thee (Simon H.), Wednesday, 21 October 2020 17:34 (four years ago)

sad

lag∞n, Wednesday, 21 October 2020 17:54 (four years ago)

dear matthew yglesias,

with all due respect, please eat a bag of dicks. thank you.

Aimless

the unappreciated charisma of cows (Aimless), Thursday, 22 October 2020 04:14 (four years ago)

two weeks pass...

Truly the happiest time of the year — Open Enrollment Season! — when Americans get to enjoy the freedom™ to choose our own insurance plan.

Comparing monthly premiums to annual deductibles is fun!

— Matthew Yglesias 🍦 (@mattyglesias) November 11, 2020

Matt made a good post!!!!

onlyfans.com/hunterb (milo z), Wednesday, 11 November 2020 01:25 (four years ago)

he goes through periods where he seems like a normal reasonable online liberal guy but then doesnt get enough attention and so returns to his horrible ways

lag∞n, Wednesday, 11 November 2020 01:43 (four years ago)

who among us etc

Clay, Wednesday, 11 November 2020 02:43 (four years ago)

loool

I’ve been wanting for some time to reclaim what I had in my blog days as an independent voice, and a great opportunity has arisen for me to do that on Substack where today I’m launching a new site that you can find and read all about here:https://t.co/hwxPOtHsHm

— Matthew Yglesias 🍦 (@mattyglesias) November 13, 2020

lag∞n, Friday, 13 November 2020 16:15 (four years ago)

An independent voice for independent terrible ideas.

onlyfans.com/hunterb (milo z), Friday, 13 November 2020 17:52 (four years ago)

And of course, this asshole weighs in:

Another independent thinker quits a website he co-founded. The woke claim another scalp. https://t.co/Ikl4BPGwHG

— Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) November 13, 2020

As someone said, Sullivan's been fired so many times he can't comprehend the idea that someone might leave a job voluntarily.

but also fuck you (unperson), Friday, 13 November 2020 17:58 (four years ago)

lol did he even read the thread

Parting is always bittersweet and I’ll miss so many colleagues so very much but I’m looking forward to really telling everyone what’s on my mind to an even greater extent than I do now :)

— Matthew Yglesias 🍦 (@mattyglesias) November 13, 2020

lag∞n, Friday, 13 November 2020 18:03 (four years ago)

1. Scoop: Ezra Klein is leaving Vox per three sources familiar with his plans. https://t.co/F5H4190gSr

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 20, 2020

jaymc, Friday, 20 November 2020 18:29 (four years ago)

Three sources familiar with his plans tell me he is likely to join the New York Times under their opinion section.

jaymc, Friday, 20 November 2020 18:30 (four years ago)

https://www.nytco.com/press/ezra-klein-joins-times-opinion-as-columnist-and-podcast-host/

jaymc, Friday, 20 November 2020 18:40 (four years ago)

goofus has to go to the shithole email startup, gallant gets to defend the status quo at the paper of record

lag∞n, Friday, 20 November 2020 18:58 (four years ago)

it's not quite press secretary though is it

it bangs for thee (Simon H.), Friday, 20 November 2020 19:14 (four years ago)

goofus has to go to the shithole email startup, gallant gets to defend the status quo at the paper of record


I’ve got the image of the actual Highlights comic in my head w Matt’s & Ezra’s faces and I honestly can’t quit laughing

A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Chooglin (will), Friday, 20 November 2020 22:34 (four years ago)

:]

lag∞n, Friday, 20 November 2020 22:35 (four years ago)

damn rip vox

flopson, Saturday, 21 November 2020 06:33 (four years ago)

been enjoying slow boring. not gonna start paying for it tho. idg the substack model. i pay like 5$ a month for nyt and the idea is wed each pay a similar amount per shitty op-ed writer?

flopson, Saturday, 21 November 2020 06:35 (four years ago)

i liked the og vox explain the news concept, feel like it instantly turned to clickbait tho and also the website looks like a piece of shit

flopson, Saturday, 21 November 2020 06:37 (four years ago)

substack is OnlyFans for wonking instead of wanking

onlyfans.com/hunterb (milo z), Saturday, 21 November 2020 06:46 (four years ago)

i am legit Old etc but idgi

how is substack different from tinyletter or tumblr or otherwise bcc-ing a shitload of people?

who are these people paying actual money to read GG or matty blogs?

(explain podcast money here too while you're at it pls)

mookieproof, Saturday, 21 November 2020 06:54 (four years ago)

Podcasts have adverts in them and/or some or all of the episodes are only made available to people who pay a subscription

Politically homely (jim in vancouver), Saturday, 21 November 2020 07:10 (four years ago)

There’s also venture capital and incumbent content company money pits but as an independent the model tends to be to put out a free episode that is good, and then a worse bonus episode that is less work to make to your Patreon backers

is right unfortunately (silby), Saturday, 21 November 2020 07:18 (four years ago)

Remains to be seen if a real number of people pay money to read GG/Yglesias. With the former it seemed like a lashing out of ego with nowhere else to go, Matty might be happy to make lunch money blogging and his real income via books/podcasts/other media.

onlyfans.com/hunterb (milo z), Saturday, 21 November 2020 07:39 (four years ago)

Greenwald has a p big fan base. not sure if yglesias can pull it off tho. i looked into it tho and so far u pay to comment? lol

flopson, Saturday, 21 November 2020 07:48 (four years ago)

i understand a subscription model! just not why these particular people are worth it -- what are they offering that cannot be had free?

mookieproof, Saturday, 21 November 2020 07:55 (four years ago)

If you really enjoyed Greenwald's reporting on Bolsonaro or natsec or whatever, or Taibbi on Wall Street, it might be worth tipping them a Starbucks a month as a show of support plus you get a couple of posts.

onlyfans.com/hunterb (milo z), Saturday, 21 November 2020 08:11 (four years ago)

Taibbi is clearly pulling in enough money to make this route attractive to others

Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Saturday, 21 November 2020 22:45 (four years ago)

ngl as someone who has been saying things like “bring blogs back” for the last 5 years i actually like substack quite a bit. before sullivan taibbi and greenwald all angrily resigned and it got a reputation as the platform for bad boy anti wokeists, the mailing lists i was subscribed to were (1) an economic historian writing about the lives of inventors in 18-19th c europe (2) rap blogger andrew noz (who retired his substack last week when it stopped being cool) (3) a labor lawyer (4) online friend who does the hipster variant of post-keynesian economics mixed with anime and psychoanalysis (5) leftist tech guy (hasn’t posted in a while, i followed cus of max read recommend). it’s kind of annoying that they go to my email instead of rss but it’s pretty cool to see ppl writing longer form stuff, im getting p tired of twitter threads

flopson, Saturday, 21 November 2020 23:17 (four years ago)

Taibbi is still a Rolling Stone regular, seems like substack might be his outlet for things that can’t go to the day job.

onlyfans.com/hunterb (milo z), Saturday, 21 November 2020 23:34 (four years ago)

If the piece on the Chicago PD that's on the site right now is any indication, they really don't need him for anything and would be better off cutting ties.

but also fuck you (unperson), Sunday, 22 November 2020 00:24 (four years ago)

FYI flopson you can get an RSS feed of any Substack, just put /feed after the domain. Doesn't work for paid posts though.

Ari (whenuweremine), Sunday, 22 November 2020 14:47 (four years ago)

if you're gonna call something "slow boring" it better be really good which is why i think it might not have been a great choice

superdeep borehole (harbl), Sunday, 22 November 2020 17:11 (four years ago)

yeah slow and deep is not really the matty g brand lol

lag∞n, Sunday, 22 November 2020 17:18 (four years ago)

ya awful name

flopson, Sunday, 22 November 2020 17:25 (four years ago)

Slow Boring: A Podcast About The Band Low

but also fuck you (unperson), Sunday, 22 November 2020 17:37 (four years ago)

being unshackled from Vox certainly seems to have made Matty's takes even shittier. i'm also reminded of the fact that I heard him on Ezra's podcast relatively recently and I guess I had largely managed to avoid hearing Yglesias's voice in the past, but holy shit, not to nerd-shame, but I think if I sounded like he does I consign myself exclusively to the written word

Evans on Hammond (evol j), Wednesday, 2 December 2020 17:54 (four years ago)

lol yeah his voice is...a lot

jaymc, Wednesday, 2 December 2020 18:43 (four years ago)

could be a consequence of (apparently) lacking a neck

mookieproof, Wednesday, 2 December 2020 18:48 (four years ago)

maybe his OnE BILlION American stance is his best shot at getting to have sex

A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Chooglin (will), Wednesday, 2 December 2020 20:03 (four years ago)

I was involved in a living wage campaign on campus when I was a student that helped win a big pay increase for janitors and food service workers.

— Matthew Yglesias 🍦 (@mattyglesias) December 3, 2020

This is a lie. I actually was involved in the Living Wage Campaign (fact check: there’s photo evidence in the NYT, I won an award for my participation, among other things) along with @BLMcKean and Stephen Smith of WV Can’t Wait and that’s not true, Matt.

— Ethereal AnarchoPansexual Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (@IBJIYONGI) December 3, 2020

lag∞n, Thursday, 3 December 2020 21:51 (four years ago)

nice

k3vin k., Thursday, 3 December 2020 21:55 (four years ago)

As far as I can recall, you came to a couple of meetings and wrote some articles about us and that was it.

— Ethereal AnarchoPansexual Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (@IBJIYONGI) December 3, 2020

eh I guess this is a reasonable standard for "involved"

k3vin k., Thursday, 3 December 2020 21:56 (four years ago)

rather a stretch for "helped win"

Respectfully Yours, (Aimless), Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:00 (four years ago)

I see way too many people use “hey look it’s activism” as a kind of all-purpose rebuttal to criticisms of people for advancing confused or erroneous ideas, and I sincerely do not believe that this is how effective movements for beneficial change work.

— Matthew Yglesias 🍦 (@mattyglesias) December 3, 2020

Have you ever... done activism, Matt?

— Jillian C. York (@jilliancyork) December 3, 2020

pretty weak

lag∞n, Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:04 (four years ago)

not only is he effectively lying about doing any activism it seems pretty clear that as with pretty much everything he writes about he has not seriously engaged with the subject rather relying on facile first principals logic like so

imo the big problem with “defund the police” is that defunding the police is a bad idea — austerity is bad, public services are good, policing is important, and better policing will be more costly than bad policing not cheaper

— Matthew Yglesias 🍦 (@mattyglesias) December 2, 2020

lag∞n, Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:13 (four years ago)

AND he considers this approach to constitute the superior approach of critical thinking

This seems to me to be not primarily about the 2020 election but about letting social media vibes and a vague desire to be good allies override critical thinking about policy and the nature and purpose of issue advocacy groups.

— Matthew Yglesias 🍦 (@mattyglesias) December 2, 2020

lag∞n, Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:16 (four years ago)

unclear what his theory of change is, blogging, writing big idea books that no one but people interested in writing brutal reviews will read

lag∞n, Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:20 (four years ago)

his phrasing here cracked me up

Want to see me talk with @joerogan for over three hours?https://t.co/vObFlJpkHJ

— Matthew Yglesias 🍦 (@mattyglesias) December 3, 2020

global tetrahedron, Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:21 (four years ago)

Strong nah

onlyfans.com/hunterb (milo z), Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:22 (four years ago)

matt mcardle

mookieproof, Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:24 (four years ago)

still take him over lee fang tho

mookieproof, Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:25 (four years ago)

smh show some respect for mattys body of work

lag∞n, Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:30 (four years ago)

'actually, sweatshops are good' classic matty

mookieproof, Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:33 (four years ago)

his biggest hit

lag∞n, Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:35 (four years ago)

a guy who has shown major concern for human rights

lag∞n, Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:36 (four years ago)

some people prefer his early work such as supporting the iraq war

lag∞n, Thursday, 3 December 2020 22:40 (four years ago)

— Pacific Coast Republic (yellow)

— Trumplandia (Red)

— United States of Canada (Green)

— Republique de Québec (Blue)

— Maritime Provinces (Pink)

— Georgia Autonomous Republic (Orange) pic.twitter.com/GwwmILmue4

— Matthew Yglesias 🍦 (@mattyglesias) December 10, 2020

onlyfans.com/hunterb (milo z), Friday, 11 December 2020 01:23 (four years ago)

are hawaii and the territories obamastan or ?

pence's eye juice (Hunt3r), Friday, 11 December 2020 05:28 (four years ago)

China took them over because we didn't reach a billion people

onlyfans.com/hunterb (milo z), Friday, 11 December 2020 06:29 (four years ago)

both better and worse than the original shitpost

mookieproof, Friday, 11 December 2020 06:43 (four years ago)

wasn't this on SNL 16 years ago?

Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Friday, 11 December 2020 15:22 (four years ago)

gotta break that red part in to two pieces man, they control too much territory

lag∞n, Friday, 11 December 2020 16:40 (four years ago)

we should kept Texas or we’ll just have to invade them for their oil later

i am become boomer, destroyer of entitlements (will), Friday, 11 December 2020 18:17 (four years ago)

i mean its all a prelude to war obvs

lag∞n, Friday, 11 December 2020 18:17 (four years ago)

pic.twitter.com/HtPf6NuOW3

— Mr. Victor Berger IV (@VicBergerIV) December 20, 2020

lag∞n, Sunday, 20 December 2020 04:21 (four years ago)

god I’d avoided ever hearing him speak before

k3vin k., Sunday, 20 December 2020 04:50 (four years ago)

that man is a successful podcaster lmao

lag∞n, Sunday, 20 December 2020 04:53 (four years ago)

a face made for radio and a voice made for TV

k3vin k., Sunday, 20 December 2020 05:03 (four years ago)

Lol

flopson, Sunday, 20 December 2020 05:17 (four years ago)

a neck unmade

mookieproof, Sunday, 20 December 2020 05:22 (four years ago)

a head made for floating over the countryside

lag∞n, Sunday, 20 December 2020 14:08 (four years ago)

Real life Nicholas fehn pic.twitter.com/PJpP0CdY2r

— Barrel Caskin’ (@ughprice) December 20, 2020

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 20 December 2020 17:32 (four years ago)

two titans, engaged in the Marketplace of Ideas

Washington Generals D-League affiliate (will), Sunday, 20 December 2020 21:32 (four years ago)

I'm for a modest student debt forgiveness program (which I think is what Biden will do) but as you shift from "modest" to "total" debt forgiveness you are increasingly talking about helping dentists and lawyers rather than sympathetic cases. https://t.co/lmFCDbCyqg

— Matthew Yglesias 🍦 (@mattyglesias) December 24, 2020

Today’s invitation for people to call him a moron.

Joe Biden Stan Account (milo z), Thursday, 24 December 2020 20:28 (four years ago)

Conveniently leaving out doctors

Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Thursday, 24 December 2020 20:42 (four years ago)

two months pass...

Getting dumber by the day.

Convincing Joe Manchin that curbing the filibuster would allow the passage of legislation that Joe Manchin is enthusiastic about > yelling at Joe Manchin that upholding the filibuster is blocking the passage of legislation that Joe Manchin is iffy on.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) March 2, 2021

Joe Biden Stan Account (milo z), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 01:00 (four years ago)

you missed

To be provocative: What if instead of backing someone good for the open 2022 Ohio senate race who will almost certainly lose to someone terrible, we backed an independent bid by John Kasich who would probably win and in office serve as a check on democratic backsliding?

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) March 1, 2021

not to mention his take on don mcneil's stupidity (he's funny and has a bright future on substack!)

mookieproof, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 01:33 (four years ago)

He should lead that charge. Maybe give up the substack to manage that campaign.

Joe Biden Stan Account (milo z), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 01:49 (four years ago)

To be provocative: the first of those two tweets is good and the second of those two tweets is bad

Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 01:57 (four years ago)

the first one is so abstract as to be meaningless

lag∞n, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 02:00 (four years ago)

You have to have eaten lead paint as a child to think you can sway Manchin by facts and logic or that he has some ideological core that would require abolishing the filibuster to accomplish. Cutting off the tops of mountains and protecting his daughters revenue aren’t impeded by the filibuster.

Joe Biden Stan Account (milo z), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 02:13 (four years ago)

Klein’s podcast is some boring ass sh1t

calstars, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 02:23 (four years ago)

keep your head down and be boring thats how you get to the ny times, know nothing and consider everything a thought experiment thats how you get to substack

lag∞n, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 02:30 (four years ago)

Like he’s interviewing George Saunders, one of the most interesting, creative writer dudes alive, and somehow 20 minutes goes by and I’m like huh?

calstars, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 02:33 (four years ago)

“Tell me about kindness...” stfu

calstars, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 02:36 (four years ago)

been enjoying the free weekly post i get emailed from matt's substack. his writing on vox had definitely gotten less saucy compared to slate era. it's interesting the trade-off ppl like him make in switching to mailing lists where they can either maintain or increase their income while (a) increasing their writing output and (b) tanking their reach (he tweeted some numbers a while ago comparing substack views to vox articles and it was orders of magnitude lower). in his case in terms of policy influence it likely doesn't matter much bc enough DC people will read him, and he still has a million twitter followers, but it is kinda crazy that someone who has been so saturated in the discourse now writes 7/8 posts a week behind a paywall strictly for his biggest fans that are willing to pay double an nyt online subscription to read them

flopson, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 06:56 (four years ago)

He still does a Vox podcast iirc

Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 16:24 (four years ago)

substack is really doing good work keeping some of the worst takers work under wraps

lag∞n, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 16:26 (four years ago)

tho theyll prob be back once the subsidies run out

lag∞n, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 16:26 (four years ago)

Libby Watson's healthcare substack is the only one I've heard of that doesn't sound like torture (and even then I can't imagine paying for it)

Joe Bombin (milo z), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 16:49 (four years ago)

I too have a solution for the joe manchin problem and it also involves "curbing"

stimmy stimmy yah (Simon H.), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 16:52 (four years ago)

yeah ive read some newletters that are focused deep reporting on one topic that are good but i have no idea why anyone would pay for takes takes are plentiful and free xp

lag∞n, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 17:16 (four years ago)

the thing that seems better for both writers and readers than these sole proprietor newsletters on capricious vc backed platforms is subscription based journalist owned coops like defector or brick house

lag∞n, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 17:19 (four years ago)

yeah I'm glad that model seems to be turning out to be somewhat sustainable, at least for certain personnel/subject matter

stimmy stimmy yah (Simon H.), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 17:21 (four years ago)

I wonder if you could make a substack advice column work - Dear Prudie but flatter the yuppie readers and advice-seekers with the veneer of exclusive access and a guaranteed response once a month or whatever

Joe Bombin (milo z), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 17:23 (four years ago)

yeah seems like the writers having big social media followings is pretty central for the proposition, but once you have that ability to get yr message out the whole thing makes a lot of sense, and not having advertising simplifies the whole thing so much from tech staffing and editorial perspectives xp

lag∞n, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 17:25 (four years ago)

yeah ive read some newletters that are focused deep reporting on one topic that are good but i have no idea why anyone would pay for takes takes are plentiful and free xp

― lag∞n, Tuesday, March 2, 2021 12:16 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

this ones dope, goes deep on labor law https://brandonmagner.substack.com/

flopson, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:10 (four years ago)

matt’s is the only one i read that puts a significant amount of stuff behind the paywall, for the most part they’re just blogs

flopson, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:13 (four years ago)

i think the only newsletter id consider paying for is matt levine money stuff. i imagine he’s gotten a huge raise from bloomberg in the last 6 months

flopson, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:15 (four years ago)

tho theyll prob be back once the subsidies run out

― lag∞n, Tuesday, March 2, 2021 11:26 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

i feel like it’s actually a p sustainable business model, similar to patreon. having people paying money is key imo. is patreon subsidized by vc?

flopson, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:17 (four years ago)

matt’s is the only one i read that puts a significant amount of stuff behind the paywall, for the most part they’re just blogs

I believe Andrew Sullivan's is entirely paywalled, which is the greatest act of kindness he's ever done the world.

but also fuck you (unperson), Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:18 (four years ago)

lol

flopson, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:23 (four years ago)

not sure if Glenn greenwalds is private too but i haven’t heard much from him lately

flopson, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:25 (four years ago)

i feel like it’s actually a p sustainable business model, similar to patreon.

― flopson, Wednesday, March 3, 2021 10:17 AM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

idk are people really going to want to keep paying nytimes money for matts takes it seems crazy to me, and if they are how many other newsletters are they willing to pay for, surely patreon only provides an actual livelihood to a relative handful of people, not to mention these big name writers are denying themselves exposure which is not great for their long term viability

lag∞n, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:31 (four years ago)

notable both glenn and matty have become even dumber and takier on twitter since moving over which i mean they were already very dumb and takey

lag∞n, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:35 (four years ago)

snubstack just represents the atomization of "well-actually" culture afaict. didn't realize it was...snubsidized.

pence's eye juice (Hunt3r), Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:35 (four years ago)

glenn has become a full time cancel culture warrior / tucker carlson guest, just totally unsubstantial, something to see

lag∞n, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:36 (four years ago)

i agree but ppl do it for podcasts on patreon

the extreme price discrimination is in tension with writers wanting long term exposure, but writers who need more exposure will just opt to set more posts to free mode so there’s a built in mechanism for that

flopson, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:38 (four years ago)

xps to lagoon

flopson, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:38 (four years ago)

yeah but even then its like having a personal blog, you dont have a media org to push yr stuff out

lag∞n, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:40 (four years ago)

and how many podcasters are making a living on patreon 20? 50? and is the market for written takes even comparable to that

lag∞n, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:41 (four years ago)

yeah, i was gonna say that seems like the market for written vs pods is quite distinct

pence's eye juice (Hunt3r), Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:43 (four years ago)

snubstack just represents the atomization of "well-actually" culture afaict. didn't realize it was...snubsidized.

― pence's eye juice (Hunt3r), Wednesday, March 3, 2021 10:35 AM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

eh i feel like u guys are basing your opinion of it on 3 writers. it’s basically just blogs with an option to pay for premium content. its just like the podcasts you guys all love but with text. there was a similar path dependence where podcasts were initially uncool on twitter at first bc the first big pods were corny then cool ppl eventuality got on

flopson, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:43 (four years ago)

blogs have pretty much died out tho

lag∞n, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:44 (four years ago)

fwiw there have been people making big money off newsletters for a long time but theyre all tech (business) and finance

lag∞n, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:44 (four years ago)

i read that that kid whos mom got fired from nike for passing him sneaker info was not only using that info in his sneaker flipping business but was in fact selling it to third parties... in a newsletter lol

lag∞n, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:45 (four years ago)

xps- it’ll be a smaller market than podcasts prob but it doesn’t mean it’s unsustainable i don’t think. there are lots of specialist writers with followers of a few hundred/couple thousand that do well

flopson, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:46 (four years ago)

anyways i don’t really care abt substack the company i just liked blogs and it’s gotten ppl to write more blog style content than medium did so im invested in its success to the extent i want that to continue

flopson, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:47 (four years ago)

even the podcast economy seems pretty dicey a majority of it seems to be propped up by those we reinvented socks type companies

lag∞n, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:49 (four years ago)

the paywall is against the spirit of blogs open discourse is the thing im most opposed to but as long as most writers use the paywall option sparingly (which so far all but a few do) it should be fine

flopson, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:50 (four years ago)

podcasts are here to stay imho

flopson, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:51 (four years ago)

im sure theyre not going away but that doesnt mean the current conditions will persist, theres already big consolidation, and various factors will prob make it harder to have the types of grassroots success that weve seen til now

lag∞n, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:54 (four years ago)

it seems like if substack had a like 10 newsletters for $20 type deal then you could have a li feed and whatnot it wld be good

lag∞n, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 15:54 (four years ago)

i don't have anything against the substack model itself, but the people it seems to be rewarding most are just . . . Posters

being edited improves essentially everyone's writing, and traditional news organizations at least make a stab at certain guidelines and proprieties. (my understanding is that nymag had a team devoted to keeping sullivan from trodding too heavily on his own dick.)

the substack stars are stars because they tweet 75 times a day and are willing to be 'provocative' about matters they understand little better than anyone else. gg at least used to have sources; i'm not sure matty or sullivan have ever actually reported anything.

they're just making shit up as they go along, and being wrong about iraq or political horserace stuff or whatever that shit sullivan was on about sarah palin's baby never ends up mattering. there's already way too much op-ed in the world -- it's cheap! it riles people up! -- but at least in a newspaper you might get some other stuff too. paying money to read individual dumbasses' tweetstorms is for suckas

mookieproof, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 19:03 (four years ago)

i don't have anything against the substack model itself, but the people it seems to be rewarding most are just . . . Posters

https://defector.com/we-are-living-in-the-shitposter-economy/

Joe Bombin (milo z), Wednesday, 3 March 2021 19:05 (four years ago)

Klein’s podcast is some boring ass sh1t

― calstars, Monday, March 1, 2021 8:23 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Disagree! Long-time listener, big fan.

jaymc, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 19:17 (four years ago)

I also got a lot out of that Saunders interview, but YMMV.

jaymc, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 19:18 (four years ago)

Yeah i think most of klein is good. Def fan also.

pence's eye juice (Hunt3r), Wednesday, 3 March 2021 21:15 (four years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS6Y_Mhtz8U

Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 21:52 (four years ago)

Ha, I remember that. So funny.

jaymc, Thursday, 4 March 2021 04:52 (four years ago)

of course ezra klein's wife wrote one of those "this one weird policy trick will fix everything!" books. just like yglesias' latest embarrassment, these ppl cannot help themselves

stimmy stimmy yah (Simon H.), Thursday, 4 March 2021 14:13 (four years ago)

Seems a bit reductive to characterize a book about the potential benefits of UBI in that way. I mean, all books extolling a particular policy are going to be marketed with that sort of superficial gloss. I haven't read Lowrey's book, but I seem to recall that it was well-reviewed; I don't see her as the kind of journalist who's prone to the kind of glib provocation that Yglesias traffics in.

jaymc, Thursday, 4 March 2021 16:18 (four years ago)

_goofus has to go to the shithole email startup, gallant gets to defend the status quo at the paper of record_


I’ve got the image of the actual Highlights comic in my head w Matt’s & Ezra’s faces and I honestly can’t quit laughing


5 months later this is the first thing that pops in my head any time I see either name and it never fails to make me smile

Washington Generals D-League affiliate (will), Thursday, 4 March 2021 16:47 (four years ago)

w/ my conventional tastes, that shit is hilarious and now it’sin my head too. esp because my blog awareness of them links em together always even pre-vox. they are yin and yang the faces of janus and now goofusngallant ty

pence's eye juice (Hunt3r), Thursday, 4 March 2021 17:01 (four years ago)

Seems a bit reductive to characterize a book about the potential benefits of UBI in that way

compared to my reductive opinions about her husband this is nothing

stimmy stimmy yah (Simon H.), Thursday, 4 March 2021 17:19 (four years ago)

lmao

Glenn Greenwald Says ‘I Consider Tucker Carlson To Be A Socialist’ https://t.co/rPxAqLCtoA

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 4, 2021

lag∞n, Thursday, 4 March 2021 20:29 (four years ago)

being a pundit just ravishes peoples minds

lag∞n, Thursday, 4 March 2021 20:29 (four years ago)

Lowrey is still on the UBI beat:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/03/stocktons-basic-income-experiment-pays-off/618174/

Philip Nunez, Friday, 5 March 2021 19:17 (four years ago)

Ezra should have delayed his latest column a bit, I think.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/04/opinion/biden-american-rescue-plan.html

"If you can dial down the conflict, you can dial up the policy."

Joe Bombin (milo z), Friday, 5 March 2021 19:29 (four years ago)

Performatively not understanding performative outrage.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Wednesday, 10 March 2021 01:43 (four years ago)

the tweet didn't post

I don’t really get this story … if people aren’t happy with the expensive private schools they’ve enrolled their kids in then maybe … don’t send them there? https://t.co/bu2V5RYpZ0

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) March 10, 2021

Joe Bombin (milo z), Wednesday, 10 March 2021 02:33 (four years ago)

let them fight

This is an extremely good faith summary of my view from the blogger most devoted to his couch.

Let me observe again that the more impactful journalism someone does, the more hatred is harbored by bloggers who can't & don't: that's why they're fine with seeing Assange imprisoned. https://t.co/ncBp2A8aog

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 9, 2021

lag∞n, Wednesday, 10 March 2021 17:24 (four years ago)

Misrepresentation of facts x facts not in evidence from the dude couchsurfing at tucker’s crib

pence's eye juice (Hunt3r), Wednesday, 10 March 2021 18:01 (four years ago)

his second tweet there indicates he has embraced an amusing form of projection-trolling

rob, Wednesday, 10 March 2021 18:06 (four years ago)

Remember the racist cop who excused the Atlanta spa shooter by saying he had a “really bad day”?

Turns out that if you watch the video in context that’s not what happened ... he was relaying the suspect’s statement to the press as part of a briefing. https://t.co/RjRcsjroXz

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) March 19, 2021

Absolute pudding brain

Joe Bombin (milo z), Friday, 19 March 2021 22:25 (four years ago)

two weeks pass...

It’s not going to happen, but IMO it would kind of be better if 80% of the nation’s housing stock were owned by like 7 giant national landlording franchises and the normal way for families to live was to sign a long-term lease with some kind of early termination option. https://t.co/kjSIICRXOQ

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) April 4, 2021

Serfdom: c/d

Joe Bombin (milo z), Sunday, 4 April 2021 19:47 (four years ago)

almost like ‘guy Twitter made up to be mad at’ if he wasn’t real

just spectacular

Washington Generals D-League affiliate (will), Monday, 5 April 2021 00:44 (four years ago)

yeah that's what i was thinking like if he was just an experiment to post the dumbest thing? is this for a documentary someone is doing, or a paper? it's just unbelievable

superdeep borehole (harbl), Monday, 5 April 2021 00:53 (four years ago)

candid camera but for twitter

superdeep borehole (harbl), Monday, 5 April 2021 00:54 (four years ago)

he's "good at" making a certain segment of twitter get v mad at him, seems to relish it and intentionally frame points in a way to push their buttons. like homeownership as a vehicle of societal wealth accumulation is a pretty terrible institution; real estate being a "good investment" for one generation by definition makes homes "unaffordable" for the next generation and also invites speculation, bubbles, etc. but framing it in relation to a national landlord oligopoly seems engineered to make ppl mad

flopson, Monday, 5 April 2021 01:32 (four years ago)

Maybe his kink is having people yell “why not just have social housing?!?!” at him.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Monday, 5 April 2021 01:53 (four years ago)

I think this substack thing is inherently bad for him -- once you don't have a salary are are paid by the subscriber, your incentives flop all the way over to "write whatever drives the most engagement" which is "stuff that annoys people and gets quote-tweeted and gets my name out there." I know a lot of you are like "he is exactly the same and he sucks before and he sucks now" but that's not what I think, I think he's basically good and this new system will inevitably make him worse.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 5 April 2021 02:32 (four years ago)

do you know that he supported the iraq war and responded to mass death at a factory collapse with an article arguing that lax safety standards were ok for poor countries? and that these opinions are very much in line with idk if its a world view or something deeper down in his psychology a way of being seeing everything as a thought experiment, its quite sociopathic, and of course is completely in line with the current technocratic liberal regime

lag∞n, Monday, 5 April 2021 02:49 (four years ago)

he is also on a more minor note as with everyone who thinks they can figure things out from first principals consistently extravagantly wrong

lag∞n, Monday, 5 April 2021 02:56 (four years ago)

more than wrong really just fundamentally clueless out in left field, his recent arguing against the messaging of defund the police was just crystalline yglesias completely ignorant of the fact that he didnt even posses a theory of of the issue at hand 100% confidently reasoning his way through it in public, saying things like "police are public servants therefor", completely shamelessly contemptuous of the entire concept of knowledge, an utterly lazy dire take factory

lag∞n, Monday, 5 April 2021 03:07 (four years ago)

do you know that he supported the iraq war and responded to mass death at a factory collapse with an article arguing that lax safety standards were ok for poor countries? and that these opinions are very much in line with idk if its a world view or something deeper down in his psychology a way of being seeing everything as a thought experiment, its quite sociopathic, and of course is completely in line with the current technocratic liberal regime

― lag∞n, Sunday, April 4, 2021 10:49 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

eh i think rxn is basically hysterical, your position in 2011 is still p much otm. he's a centrist econ pundit, useful to the extent he entertainingly digests the news and policy discussions, the people still blood-boilingly mad at dumb takes he has had should relax imho

flopson, Monday, 5 April 2021 06:03 (four years ago)

I think this substack thing is inherently bad for him -- once you don't have a salary are are paid by the subscriber, your incentives flop all the way over to "write whatever drives the most engagement" which is "stuff that annoys people and gets quote-tweeted and gets my name out there." I know a lot of you are like "he is exactly the same and he sucks before and he sucks now" but that's not what I think, I think he's basically good and this new system will inevitably make him worse.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, April 4, 2021 10:32 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

less ppl read him now than at any point in the last ten years, cause it now costs 8$ a month to read his posts v.s. free. even if it means he's pivoted to the right/centre as a result, haters ought to relish this

flopson, Monday, 5 April 2021 06:07 (four years ago)

feel like ezra is a more likable and otm but matt is a deeper thinker so i dunno

― ice cr?m

lol, ezra is actual shit but Matty y is less likable and as shallow as they come and almost never anywhere near the money except for sweet substack $ which even there he fucked himself with the lesser guaranteed payout

10 years ago though, we all had bad takes back in the day

buzza, Monday, 5 April 2021 07:48 (four years ago)

both can be true

lag∞n, Monday, 5 April 2021 12:38 (four years ago)

eh i think rxn is basically hysterical, your position in 2011 is still p much otm. he's a centrist econ pundit, useful to the extent he entertainingly digests the news and policy discussions, the people still blood-boilingly mad at dumb takes he has had should relax imho

― flopson, Monday, April 5, 2021 2:03 AM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

does he digest anything i dont think so, and i think its fine to be mad at awful people

lag∞n, Monday, 5 April 2021 12:40 (four years ago)

i mean its maybe not a worthwhile use of ones time but

lag∞n, Monday, 5 April 2021 12:44 (four years ago)

If they weren’t allowed to be such giant dumbasses in public, we wouldn’t be able to get mad at them

armoured van, Holden (sic), Monday, 5 April 2021 13:05 (four years ago)

I feel like Matty infuriates people because no matter how many times he gets dunked on for idiocy it only makes him stronger and richer

Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Monday, 5 April 2021 13:32 (four years ago)

go ahead. keep screaming "Shut The Fuck Up " at me. it only makes my opinions Worse

— wint (@dril) March 10, 2018

armoured van, Holden (sic), Monday, 5 April 2021 19:35 (four years ago)

Matty parody account that quotes his tweets and appends them with “ain’t I a stinker.”

Joe Bombin (milo z), Monday, 5 April 2021 19:43 (four years ago)

Sadly, not every good idea is electorally viable. pic.twitter.com/QQO4yC1Oni

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) April 18, 2021

How are we getting to a billion Americans without expanded immigration?

Joe Bombin (milo z), Sunday, 18 April 2021 18:18 (four years ago)

I like how Matt bravely protects Gun Regulation by killing a member of the public.

sharpening the contraindications (Aimless), Sunday, 18 April 2021 18:22 (four years ago)

I guess he looked at his book's sales figures.

but also fuck you (unperson), Sunday, 18 April 2021 18:23 (four years ago)

Shout out to Andy Sullivan for being worse than both of these nerds combined.

What is your explanation of the simply incredible over-representation of Ashkenazi Jews in Nobel Prizes? A group long despised and discriminated against and murdered? Tell me.

— Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) April 19, 2021

Joe Bombin (milo z), Monday, 19 April 2021 17:19 (four years ago)

Simple: Swedes are thirsty for our swarth

Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 19 April 2021 17:34 (four years ago)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ezf1XusXsAQlhhN?format=jpg&name=small

mookieproof, Wednesday, 21 April 2021 15:31 (four years ago)

I think he deleted it, but I don't even understand that one. "The police killed someone" is a factual description of what happens when the police use lethal force in a manner that causes someone's death, regardless of their intent.

jaymc, Wednesday, 21 April 2021 16:00 (four years ago)

What are the exceptions he is worried about?

jaymc, Wednesday, 21 April 2021 16:01 (four years ago)

yeah I was gonna ask which incident inspired him to write that horseshit, but there's not a good answer to be had

rob, Wednesday, 21 April 2021 17:29 (four years ago)

how many times is this now that he's freely announced he's a fucking moron

intern at pepe le pew research (Simon H.), Wednesday, 21 April 2021 17:31 (four years ago)

icymi:

Not aligned with her on policy, but Sinema definitely seems like the senator it would be most entertaining to hang out with. pic.twitter.com/UnkmJTZCtE

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) April 18, 2021

rob, Wednesday, 21 April 2021 17:46 (four years ago)

"Police killed someone" is plain language whose meaning is immediately understood, but "used lethal force" is antiseptic and inert, implying that the event was wholly impersonal, as if both the victim and the police were variables in an equation whose product was "the deceased".

sharpening the contraindications (Aimless), Wednesday, 21 April 2021 17:49 (four years ago)

xp Matt Yglesias’s favorite TV show is Young Sheldon.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Wednesday, 21 April 2021 17:51 (four years ago)

I don't mind some of Yglesias's contrarian impulses when they are in the service of advocating for progressive policies, but as mainstream journalists have become more receptive to ideas on the left, it feels like Yglesias has now decided to exercise his contrarianism from the right, questioning what he now sees as liberal orthodoxy by positioning himself as a reasonable moderate.

jaymc, Wednesday, 21 April 2021 18:58 (four years ago)

He always seemed to want to carve out his own position, separate from orthodoxies on the right or left. He tends to focus on issues that aren't traditionally associated with the left-right spectrum, such as NIMBYism and zoning. So I don't think he has changed all that much, apart from maybe realizing there is an underserved market niche for an audience (call them moderates, or maybe traditional neoliberals) who are increasingly uncomfortable with how some identity issues are becoming polarized in the mainstream liberal media.

o. nate, Wednesday, 21 April 2021 19:14 (four years ago)

I think he deleted it, but I don't even understand that one. "The police killed someone" is a factual description of what happens when the police use lethal force in a manner that causes someone's death, regardless of their intent.

― jaymc, Wednesday, April 21, 2021 9:00 AM (three hours ago)

this is the kind of thing he posts that makes me think he is dumb as a rock. using lethal force is killing. whether or not you believe it is justified or a murder it's a killing either way. unless his point is that we should be more euphemistic when referring to police killing people

《Myst1kOblivi0n》 (jim in vancouver), Wednesday, 21 April 2021 19:42 (four years ago)

Between Matty and this Eichenwald Tweet it's reallyt crossing the line from "ah, the pundit class" into "maybe these guys are just sick fucks sitting around thinking about ways to inject nuance into murdering children"

George Floyd: Murder
Tamir Rice: Reckless murder
Breonna Taylor: Reckless murder
Eric Garner: Murder
Philando Castille: Murder
Stephon Clark: Reckless murder or manslaughter
Daunte Wright: Probably manslaughter
Trayvon Martin: Manslaughter

I'm sorry. Ma'Khia Bryant: justified.

— Kurt "Masks Save Lives" Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 21, 2021

bruce spr!ngisH3r3 (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 22 April 2021 02:39 (four years ago)

*really

bruce spr!ngisH3r3 (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 22 April 2021 02:39 (four years ago)

my esteem for eichenwald has plummeted after following him diligently on twitter for the past eight months; every good thing he says is countered by something asinine, something he didn't research on his own (he asks Eric Feigl Ding for insight on coronavirus--Ding is a twitter grifter who should not be consulted), or something hyperbolic that results in nothing (he loudly proclaimed he 'had' the people responsible for harassing him online, that it involved all kinds of important people on the right, that the revelation was coming soon.....that was like five months ago). I think he's kind of a dummy.

akm, Thursday, 22 April 2021 14:43 (four years ago)

yeah this has been known for years that he's a nutjob

k3vin k., Thursday, 22 April 2021 15:43 (four years ago)

eichenwald is the hentai guy, no?

voodoo chili, Thursday, 22 April 2021 16:30 (four years ago)

close enough lol: https://nypost.com/2017/06/08/reporter-posts-screen-grab-showing-porn-tab-in-his-browser/

voodoo chili, Thursday, 22 April 2021 16:46 (four years ago)

he did something else extremely weird and creepy and probably illegal "investigating" child porn, iirc?

superdeep borehole (harbl), Thursday, 22 April 2021 17:28 (four years ago)

imo you’ll never go wrong assuming 97% of “”pundits”” are utter perverts

Washington Generals D-League affiliate (will), Thursday, 22 April 2021 17:31 (four years ago)

Aside from the tentacle porn and weird conduct with a child abuse survivor story, Eichenwald just seems like such a zero it’s wild that he has a readership that can sustain a career.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Thursday, 22 April 2021 17:57 (four years ago)

wow something to think about yeah

Leaving without comment pic.twitter.com/rpDeibttOx

— Andrés Bernal ☀️🇨🇴🇺🇸 (@andresintheory) October 22, 2020

lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 17:03 (four years ago)

He's so boring! He can't even go full Tucker Carlson like the other substack goons, he has to resolve to a civics textbook from 1949.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Monday, 26 April 2021 17:05 (four years ago)

the market for milquetoast neoliberal takes may not be what it once was but prob still enough to maintain a newsletter audience

lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 17:10 (four years ago)

kinda wondering btw but i guess not enough to actually figure it out if substack is juicing their numbers somehow like are they giving away free intro subscriptions, maybe some big corporate deals where they can claim tons of subscribers but no ones really paying much, idk some of the numbers seem kind of fishy

lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 17:14 (four years ago)

He has about 7,000 subscribers, I think. At the price point he charges, you could make a decent living from 2000. It’s negligible stuff.

Scampo di tutti i Scampi (ShariVari), Monday, 26 April 2021 17:34 (four years ago)

yeah 7000 is not that many people, i just cant imagine paying for those takes lol, tho stubstack being a venture funded startup you kinda have to assume theyre doing some at least halfway shady growth hacking

lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 17:37 (four years ago)

I really like Yglesias (I know, I know) and I'm not paying -- the Twitter feed is exactly the right amount of MY for me. And for that amount of money I can get access to an entire magazine's worth of writing, or a whole nother streaming service. I don't really get who the customers are.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 26 April 2021 17:44 (four years ago)

CNN's Rick Santorum: "We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here. I mean, yes we have Native Americans but candidly there isn't much Native American culture in American culture" pic.twitter.com/EMxOEYDbg7

— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) April 26, 2021

lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 17:46 (four years ago)

I feel like if substack was giving away free "paid" subscriptions we'd be hearing about it already. Also most substacks I'm familiar with (not Matty's) have a level of free content and then content that's available only for paid subscribers.

Van Halen dot Senate dot flashlight (Boring, Maryland), Monday, 26 April 2021 17:52 (four years ago)

sorry to be sanctimonious, but that that video clip of MY isn't considered disgustingly racist is shocking. Like I literally never want to hear another thing from this dude who giggles his way through a mealy-mouthed endorsement of white supremacy and genocide. WTF

rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 18:30 (four years ago)

the neoliberal technocracy is plainly sociopathic amoral etc

lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 18:49 (four years ago)

yeah that was more or less my existing impression of him. I think what surprised me with that clip is how nakedly ideological he actually is, and it's not neoliberalism he's endorsing it's imperialism and colonialism. There's nothing really neoliberal about the US Army waging war on and committing genocide against sovereign native populations followed by the govt handing out free land to white settlers

rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:04 (four years ago)

anyway, this guys sucks, sorry for ranting

rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:05 (four years ago)

neoliberalism IMHO strongly endorses american empire eg dem leadership are all crazy hawks, love american exceptionalism etc, tho i guess you could just call that liberalism since it predates the neoliberal shift

lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:16 (four years ago)

I'm using a stricter definition for sure, not that there's an agreed-upon consensus, plus the fact it's anachronistic to call the settlement of the West neoliberal. We're probably due for a better term to describe the US's combination of domestic neoliberalization + a culture of nationalism + a powerful interventionist state abroad

rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:24 (four years ago)

That little clip of Yglesias talking about Manifest Destiny is so shorn of context I honestly have no idea what his view is on anything, other than that he thinks the US should be successful and powerful (whatever that means).

o. nate, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:29 (four years ago)

im not calling the settlement of the west neoliberal im observing that neoliberal ideology necessarily endorses american empire both historical and present, i mean if you want corporate power to flourish you need a enforcement mechanism, and of course you need to glorify whatever got us to this point xp

lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:30 (four years ago)

That little clip of Yglesias talking about Manifest Destiny is so shorn of context I honestly have no idea what his view is on anything, other than that he thinks the US should be successful and powerful (whatever that means).

― o. nate, Monday, April 26, 2021 3:29 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

sounds like something yglesias would say

lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:32 (four years ago)

tho im sure the great minds yglesias et al would discard past glories if it suited their purpose i dont think theyre super invested in it

lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:33 (four years ago)

*cue obama giving a super sleepy speech about the city on the hill*

lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:35 (four years ago)

I mean is the knock that he shouldn't want the US to be successful and powerful or is it that he mentioned American westward expansion without proper emphasis on the crimes associated with it?

o. nate, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:38 (four years ago)

feel like you can do better maybe rewatch it

lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:39 (four years ago)

m not calling the settlement of the west neoliberal im observing that neoliberal ideology necessarily endorses american empire both historical and present, i mean if you want corporate power to flourish you need a enforcement mechanism, and of course you need to glorify whatever got us to this point xp

― lag∞n, Monday, April 26, 2021 3:30 PM (eight minutes ago)

got it, agreed

rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:41 (four years ago)

🙏

lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:42 (four years ago)

he mentioned American westward expansion without proper emphasis on the crimes associated with it?

lol ok

rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:42 (four years ago)

feel like you can do better maybe rewatch it

I don't think there's any point in rewatching 20 words taken out of context. If I want to actually understand something, I'd be better off watching the whole segment that was extracted from, or even better, reading his book.

o. nate, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:43 (four years ago)

dare you

lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:43 (four years ago)

This leaves out all the hee-hee tittering, but here's what he said:

"you know my progressive friends will want me to acknowledge that some bad things happened across the settling of the West and all that kind of stuff. But, you know, it was done for a reason, and I'm basically arguing for a continuation of that kind of vision. That, you know, the United States is great and should want to be great and powerful and that means having more people."

rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:47 (four years ago)

by all means read his book though, I'm sure it is enlightening

rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:47 (four years ago)

well, I feel edified. Thanks!

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 26 April 2021 19:48 (four years ago)

I live to serve

rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:50 (four years ago)

"some bad things" is a strange way to rephrase "genocide and crimes against humanity"

sharpening the contraindications (Aimless), Monday, 26 April 2021 19:51 (four years ago)

“Gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette” seems to indicate that Marty’s future turn is to neoconservatism. Presumably there are still a few billionaires who’ll cut checks for that.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Monday, 26 April 2021 19:51 (four years ago)

Maybe there are some good omelette recipes in his book.

o. nate, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:54 (four years ago)

mattys plan for a billion americans is so loony, the idea that population equals power is comically simplistic thinking, i mean bangladesh is in the top ten, the usa has ~800 foreign military bases, i wonder if he just looked at china and was like hey lots of people, kinda points to the fact that if you want to have a career as an apologist for the awful things done in the name of power you have to be deeply stupid, some would argue that its all careerism and cynicism but i think the job really requires natural ability

lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:57 (four years ago)

even without casually dismissing genocide, just the idea of looking at what america is up to in the world and thinking yeah we need more of that is fucking deranged and unmoored from anything good, id be willing to bet he makes some sort of lesser of two evils argument re china in the book, no doubt appreciated by everyone trying to cook up a new cold war, but obviously *extremely debate club voice* thats a fallacy

lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 20:02 (four years ago)

IOZ shredding this book is probably embarrassing niche nostalgia but I enjoyed it: https://newrepublic.com/article/159306/emptiness-matthew-yglesias-biggest-idea-billion-americans-book-review

rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 20:03 (four years ago)

he links to this old MY Slate post in that piece, which is p amazing: https://slate.com/business/2013/04/international-factory-safety.html

rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 20:09 (four years ago)

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire wasn’t a tragedy and here’s why...

Joe Bombin (milo z), Monday, 26 April 2021 20:13 (four years ago)

in short, Matt Yglesias is a man of reasons

Long Tall Arsetee & the Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Monday, 26 April 2021 20:14 (four years ago)

lol xp

Long Tall Arsetee & the Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Monday, 26 April 2021 20:14 (four years ago)

You have to admit Matt's billion-population-or-bust Big Idea has managed to gain more attention than anyone could have predicted, if they'd based their prediction purely on its merits (hint: it has no merits). In that sense, Matt has already succeeded beyond his wildest dreams (hint: if he ever thought for a moment anyone would pay attention to this, it was a wild dream).

sharpening the contraindications (Aimless), Monday, 26 April 2021 20:18 (four years ago)

Yglesias has neither the visionary scope nor the technical expertise to make any of this remotely plausible as a sustained argument, a “case for thinking bigger” if you will, or even as a set of discrete proposals. He has no theory of political power or change, no idea how any of this will come to pass. “There’s no way that all the specific ideas in this book will ever command broad consensus in American society,” he writes on page one.

actually! i think this is a more important pundit qualification than being dumb, im moving being dumb down to #2, tho obvs theyre related, and its interesting to see what pundits do when confronted with people who do have a theory of change, an example would be matty et al criticism of BLMs messaging particularly re defund the police, it freaks them out, they cite polls like this is not popular! and will not work, in complete ignorance of every movement ever, including those they claim to support, without history, the end of history

lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 20:19 (four years ago)

idk if it was address itt but when he was criticizing defund the police people on twitter asked him if he had ever been part of a collective action and he said that in college hed helped to get the minimum wage havard pays its workers raised, then one of the organizers of that campaign showed up and said that he had come to a couple meetings as a reporter for some harvard newspaper or maybe his blog and then just talked about all his beautiful ideas for what they should do and that was the extent of his involvement

lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 20:24 (four years ago)

Relevant to today's revive:

In a footnote, he writes that “Argentina, famously, was one of the richest countries in the world at the beginning of World War I, only to stumble into a seemingly endless series of policy errors that have ended with it left in the dust.” Most of this happened not after WWI, and not in a “stumble,” but after the U.S. initiated Operation Condor to destroy South American democracy and ignite decades of torture, murder, and terror. The U.S. small truck market, the complexities of the U.S. visa system, and the interpretation of economic statistics from “Purchasing Power Parity” to worker productivity all fall within the ambit of Yglesias’s ability to hit the backboard but never make a layup.

bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Monday, 26 April 2021 20:39 (four years ago)

can Yglesias write an explainer about basketball

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 26 April 2021 20:43 (four years ago)

just join ILH

k3vin k., Tuesday, 27 April 2021 03:07 (four years ago)

Me every time this thread is revived: "I hope this is about Yglesias and not Klein."

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 03:40 (four years ago)

klein is ok imo, we could do worse

k3vin k., Tuesday, 27 April 2021 13:44 (four years ago)

the boy who was impressed when he saw paul ryan with a pie chart

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 13:49 (four years ago)

Policy is what serious people write about: Matthew Yglesias is a serious person; ergo, Yglesias writes about policy.

applies equally to klein, a very serious young man

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 13:52 (four years ago)

think he technically qualifies as an invertebrate

Bill Gates saw the coronavirus coming. Here’s his plan to beat it. https://t.co/7qufRnD6xd

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) April 27, 2020

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 13:56 (four years ago)

suit jacket and tie with jeans

https://i.imgur.com/NjbIHs6.png

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 14:00 (four years ago)

lmao

If we were to have royals in this country, the Gates family would be my choice. They lead by example, not nouveau riche.

— Peter (@AtGreenScreen) April 27, 2020

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 14:01 (four years ago)

tech bro

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 14:01 (four years ago)

the boy who was impressed when he saw paul ryan with a pie chart

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 27, 2021 9:49 AM (sixteen minutes ago)

I'm not a klein stan or anything but his approach just seems completely apart from yglesias's, for example I can't fathom yglesias having the thought and sensitivity to write this essay on the dignity of work, or have the sort of discussion with chomsky klein just did -- I see a certain humility in him that matty lacks but maybe some of this has to do with klein's like, relative patrician erudition, but there's a difference there, and as I was saying for a NYT columnist we could do a lot worse

k3vin k., Tuesday, 27 April 2021 14:12 (four years ago)

yeah i mean thats why hes gallant and works at the new york times and goofus has a newsletter that makes him 5x as much $$$ but ultimately its all schtick which gets exposed with his frequent pointed deference to power

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 14:34 (four years ago)

yeah for sure and you can see his deference to corporate power all over that chomsky interview, just saying for the purposes of this thread question he's capable of a little better than matty

k3vin k., Tuesday, 27 April 2021 14:37 (four years ago)

low bar lol

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 14:39 (four years ago)

Define schtick.

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 14:40 (four years ago)

(lol I guess I brought this on, didn't I?)

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 14:40 (four years ago)

its thoughtful young man routine, entertainment, a lullaby for npr listeners, which is exposed as such when his first question to bill gates isnt "why is the microsoft word guy running global public health"

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 14:44 (four years ago)

doesnt really appeal to me since i happen to despise nice young men, but to each their own

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 14:47 (four years ago)

xp But why does it have to be a "routine"? I think Klein genuinely believes in what he does and finds it worthwhile. You may think it's bullshit, which is fine, but it seems strange to call it an act. By your definition, I'm a mark because I buy into it (I'm not an NPR listener, but I am a regular listener of EK's podcast). But I also work for a publication that has interviewed Bill Gates about such things, so maybe that's to be expected.

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 14:55 (four years ago)

Never mind, I'm sorry I took the bait.

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:00 (four years ago)

he might actually genuinely believe everything he does, more likely some consideration of career advancement is also in the mix there, and needless to say he is subject to multitude powerful institutions, but regardless the end product, the public ezra klein if you will, is no more than a consumable

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:00 (four years ago)

i mean you can call it bait if you want but might be more interesting to try to justify his career long sycophancy

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:02 (four years ago)

what kind of young men do you like lag∞n

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:02 (four years ago)

I have work to do, and don't feel like getting riled up, so I'm going to pass. But thanks!

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:04 (four years ago)

kinda points to the fact that if you want to have a career as an apologist for the awful things done in the name of power you have to be deeply stupid, some would argue that its all careerism and cynicism but i think the job really requires natural ability

― lag∞n, Monday, April 26, 2021 3:57 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

fwiw i do think these people, your david brookes and whatnot, tend to be true believers, but also thats convenient for their bank account and resume which makes it easier, and the result is generally an uncanny imitation of sincerity and insight, a schtick

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:06 (four years ago)

what kind of young men do you like lag∞n

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, April 27, 2021 11:02 AM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

you know funny, creative, big hearted, the good stuff

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:08 (four years ago)

creative not a creative, say

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:19 (four years ago)

is there any more depressing term than "a creative" its so powerfully corporately bad it almost rises to the level of... creativity

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:21 (four years ago)

i was at a wedding and a girl seated at my table was like wait is everyone at this table a creative, i have since become a purely technical worker

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:24 (four years ago)

You excused yourself and had a drink at the table of influencers.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:25 (four years ago)

lol there was no such thing as influencers then!

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:26 (four years ago)

i kind of like influencers tho you know for being so cyberpunk

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:28 (four years ago)

the only influencers then were spirits and drugs nyuk nyuk

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:32 (four years ago)

ayye

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:33 (four years ago)

I'll be over at the disruptors tent. They've got vapeable stem cells.

Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:59 (four years ago)

Personally, I have found a lot of value in reading and listening to Ezra Klein. I find his views insightful and thought-provoking, from his analyses of U.S. politics to his journeys into psychological terrain on subjects like creativity, happiness, anxiety, etc. I'm sure he has made some mistakes in his career as a journalist, and I'm confident that I wouldn't agree with every word he has written. But at the same time, a few episodes of his podcast were especially helpful to me when I was suddenly laid off a couple of years ago and was searching for some meaning and direction. Maybe my admiration for him makes me a dupe of the establishment, a dumb member of the bourgeoisie. So be it. I'm happier this way.

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 16:56 (four years ago)

Namaste. 🙏

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:05 (four years ago)

ek is willing to explore a pretty wide range of ideas and does not exclude his own judgments from his own examinations. these are good things. my is like the king of smug conclusory argumentation for the most part. imo.

Hunt3r, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:09 (four years ago)

mistakes in his career as a journalist? idk his sycophancy seems more like a feature than a bug, i have not followed kleins recent career that closely but seems like hes branched out into more of the world of ideas where he used to be a pure wonk guy, i suspect i would not like his ideas about ideas but im not begrudging anyone who likes to listen to a podcast about interesting stuff, however i do think we should be critical listeners as far as whats being sold to us, and klein as a times columnist is certainly being sold as someone with serious political ideas, which i think is pretty clearly not true

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:12 (four years ago)

i enjoyed how ek's obsession with the filibuster for the past like 5 years became the running joke of some of his dialogue commentary-- about him having a this nerdy, perseverative tick, but fuck. weren't wrong. and yeah, i know he was not unique on the warnings, but he was definitely most insistent upon mentioning it.

Hunt3r, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:14 (four years ago)

I don’t think Klein’s a bad guy and I think I’ve read worthwhile things from him recently but it’s a little hard to get over the fact that Joe Biden had a much clearer understanding of Paul Ryan than he did.

JoeStork, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:17 (four years ago)

if I fucked up as bad as Klein did there I'd have run away in shame and changed careers tbh

not even saying this as a criticism really, I just don't understand pundit mindset.

intern at pepe le pew research (Simon H.), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:21 (four years ago)

yeah i mean credit where both of the guys itt tend to be right about procedural things like that, and tbh both of them have prob had a real effect towards normalizing killing the filibuster xp

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:21 (four years ago)

if I fucked up as bad as Klein did there I'd have run away in shame and changed careers tbh

not even saying this as a criticism really, I just don't understand pundit mindset.


True and tbf this equally applies to writers I like much much more. Jamelle Bouie for example spent the summer of 2016 confidently informing me trump had no path to the White House.

rob, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:28 (four years ago)

takes a certain type to be a pundit, and its not necessarily good lol

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:31 (four years ago)

i have not followed kleins recent career that closely

To be fair, while I have been familiar with Klein for a long time, I have not actually followed him closely *until* the past 4-5 years (basically, when he started his podcast, though I also liked a lot of what he wrote for Vox). So I missed the whole Paul Ryan thing that people always bring up, as though whatever he said in 2012 or whenever renders him a pudding-brained sycophant who lacks the critical faculty possessed by the wisest ILXors. Based on reading his Vox/NYT articles, reading his book, and listening to his podcast, I do find him to be "someone with serious political ideas," so what does that say about me?

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:47 (four years ago)

idk really know what are his serious political ideas you like

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:48 (four years ago)

Probably that you don’t go on Twitter very much xp

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:49 (four years ago)

I *wish* I didn't go on Twitter that much. I spent far too much time there. I follow a lot of other journalists who probably hold similar opinions to Ezra.

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:50 (four years ago)

Most of the good political opinions I see are from 21 year old transgender Maoists

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:52 (four years ago)

I think he has been OTM about the filibuster, and I thought his book about polarization was pretty good. (Which, by the way, is an analysis grounded in political science that makes clear that the mid-20th-century era of bipartisanship was a corrupt bargain in many ways and also directly blames Republicans for the current era of gridlock. It's not a plaintive exercise in nostalgia, as the title may unwittingly suggest.)

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:57 (four years ago)

theres a general consensus on the left about the failure of the technocratic approach, and erza is certainly if nothing a technocrat, someone who can be right about the filibuster but then sit down with bill gates, an utterly ruthless operator in service of his own power and perfect emblem for all thats wrong with the world, and see a fellow logic driven problem solver, turns out abandoning morality in favor of reason, false binary obvs, was... immoral

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:59 (four years ago)

an utterly ruthless operator in service of his own power and perfect emblem for all thats wrong with the world

You've lost me

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:00 (four years ago)

My general impression was that Klein would write well-argued columns about a particular political situation that viewed Republicans as mainly good-faith actors with principles that he didn’t share, and then the Republicans would do something to make it clear they had no interest in governing, and then Klein would write something castigating Republicans for their behavior, and then his brain would reset and he would not have changed his general viewpoint at all.

JoeStork, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:00 (four years ago)

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation worse for the world than anything Microsoft ever did certainly

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:01 (four years ago)

Yeah, the eradication of wild poliovirus from all but two countries in the world is a travesty.

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:02 (four years ago)

might want to check out what bill gates is trending for today

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:03 (four years ago)

My general impression was that Klein would write well-argued columns about a particular political situation that viewed Republicans as mainly good-faith actors with principles that he didn’t share, and then the Republicans would do something to make it clear they had no interest in governing, and then Klein would write something castigating Republicans for their behavior, and then his brain would reset and he would not have changed his general viewpoint at all.

― JoeStork, Tuesday, April 27, 2021 1:00 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

It's entirely conceivable that Klein operated in this way in the Bush/Obama era. I don't recognize it at all as a description of his writing in the Trump/Biden era.

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:04 (four years ago)

(I say "entirely conceivable" because I didn't read him back then. It wouldn't surprise me!)

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:05 (four years ago)

It's entirely conceivable that Klein operated in this way in the Bush/Obama era. I don't recognize it at all as a description of his writing in the Trump/Biden era.

― jaymc, Tuesday, April 27, 2021 2:04 PM (twenty-nine seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

thats become untenable due to uhh developments but his approach with gates et al is no different

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:06 (four years ago)

don't really care about these people but i sure do enjoy reading lag00n pinning them down.

John Cooper of Christian rock band Skillet (map), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:16 (four years ago)

*bows deeply*

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:20 (four years ago)

its my personal feeling that it would be best if everyone just agreed that accumulating billions of dollars is a fundamental moral wrong, but if anyone wants some details on how exactly bill gates is saving the world

Gates's role in vaccine apartheid is laid out in exquisite detail in @nataliesurely's outstanding @newrepublic feature, which delves into Gates's longstanding project to sideline democratic governments and cooperation in favor of monopoly tyranny.https://t.co/ZCKTy1CGOU

7/

— Cory Doctorow (@doctorow) April 13, 2021

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:22 (four years ago)

you gotta tip you hat to the gates pr machine while he was running microsoft it wouldve been hard to find someone who took issue with calling him ruthless, even his fans lol

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:40 (four years ago)

I like The New Republic and will read that article. I don't have much interest in defending Gates as a person, though I do maintain that his foundation has done good work.

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:45 (four years ago)

sideline democratic governments and cooperation in favor of monopoly tyranny

People who stand at the apex of hierarchical institutions are predominately biased in favor of monopoly tyranny. They see it as supremely efficient and fail to see its inherent weaknesses, because its greatest weakness is complete reliance on one highly fallible individual: themself. They're far more likely to be megalomaniacs than egalitarians.

sharpening the contraindications (Aimless), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:57 (four years ago)

I like The New Republic and will read that article. I don't have much interest in defending Gates as a person, though I do maintain that his foundation has done good work.

― jaymc, Tuesday, April 27, 2021 11:45 AM (thirteen minutes ago)

and Hitler was a vegetarian, or whatever.

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:59 (four years ago)

i am reading No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy, it's pretty good

superdeep borehole (harbl), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 19:05 (four years ago)

in defending Gates as a person, though I do maintain that his foundation has done good work.

Would better work have been done taxing the shit out of him for the last 40 years, though?

Joe Bombin (milo z), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 19:05 (four years ago)

If we had a 98% estate tax we wouldn’t even have to know his name.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 19:06 (four years ago)

That book sounds good, harbl. I've liked some of Anand Giridharadas's work in a similar vein.

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 19:12 (four years ago)

Would better work have been done taxing the shit out of him for the last 40 years, though?

― Joe Bombin (milo z), Tuesday, April 27, 2021 2:05 PM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

The answer to that question doesn't seem very clear to me. He absolutely should be taxed to the hilt; as far as I'm concerned, we should go back to Eisenhower-era marginal tax rates. On the other hand, there are a lot of people in developing countries who have benefited from the Gates Foundation's funding of large-scale public-health initiatives.

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 19:18 (four years ago)

His money could have built us some cool aircraft carriers though

Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 19:23 (four years ago)

If you've seen one cool aircraft carrier, you've seen 'em all.

sharpening the contraindications (Aimless), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 19:47 (four years ago)

I guess...in a universe where the US still had Eisenhower-era tax rates...the military budget would also be slashed to the bone? I mean, if we're dream-wanking and all.

but also fuck you (unperson), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 19:55 (four years ago)

don't dream, it's wanking

intern at pepe le pew research (Simon H.), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 20:01 (four years ago)

I guess...in a universe where the US still had Eisenhower-era tax rates...the military budget would also be slashed to the bone?

https://i.imgur.com/dfzbMN1.jpeg

bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 21:27 (four years ago)

a funny thing about matt and ezra as old millennials is that not long ago coming up as bloggers they were considered state of the art, but then everyone younger than them ended up taking a hard left turn and now theyre like total grandpapaws, you couldnt pay a 25 year old to take technocratic ideas, turns out they were the last of a dying breed

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 21:44 (four years ago)

you couldnt pay a 25 year old to take technocratic ideas,

I'm hesitant to wade into this mess but, uh, have you met Elon Musk stans?

soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 21:54 (four years ago)

Musk stans can't organise their thoughts enough to pass as pundits

bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:00 (four years ago)

obviously individuals will vary but all evidence points towards a large and unprecedented in at least most peoples living memory generational shift to the left, god forbid we ever see a generation that has a substantial musk fan cohort lol

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:01 (four years ago)

lol sic

Oh god, the thought of an entire generation in thrall to Musk is terrifying, but I don't think we can completely throw dirt on the technocrat dream (read: nightmare) just yet.

soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:05 (four years ago)

it still has a lot of institutional power but its unclear how much said institutions are aware of the ground shifting beneath their feet

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:06 (four years ago)

Musk and Yang people aren’t really technocrats. They don’t want to turn society over to rationalized systems, they want to turn it over to “smart guys.”

Joe Bombin (milo z), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:08 (four years ago)

yeah true

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:09 (four years ago)

I don't know that there is a meaningful difference between those to your average Twitter Musk stan tho, wherein lies the problem imo.

soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:11 (four years ago)

The Fuehrer principle but the Fuehrer is always Joe Rogan’s most recent guest.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:11 (four years ago)

Musk stannery is only possible through a subsumation of your own ability to interpret things into obviously fallacious belief in a strong daddy who tells you he's great. The stans have no arguments to even make, only faith, that vigorously conflicts with existing evidence.

The failure of Trumpism, religion, and all cults show us what little chance that ideology has of gaining a substantial foothold.

bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:12 (four years ago)

There’s a huge difference to them. The appeal of Musk/Yang is that they’re asystematic (as persons and in the sense of being outside of systems like NASA or traditional car manufacturers) - they keep it real man, fly by the seat of their pants just bang bang bang good ideas everywhere.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:14 (four years ago)

Fwiw, I'm not advocating for Musk, his stans or any of them getting within sniffing distance of meaningful leadership, but I would argue that there is a competing (or maybe not?) definition of "technocracy" that doesn't emphasize rationalized systems so much as "we think this dude is smart so he should be a decision maker for our society". Obviously Musk isn't that smart, but my point was his fans really think he is a galactic brain genius that should make more decisions that impact our day to day lives. It's a dark, dystopic version of "technocracy" when a dumb dude hides behind a veneer of "science" to gain money and power, but isn't it still a "technocracy"?

soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:34 (four years ago)

not in the way people usually use that term, no

Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:34 (four years ago)

it means policy wonks who tinker with incentives and macroeconomic policy

Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:36 (four years ago)

The answer to that question doesn't seem very clear to me. He absolutely should be taxed to the hilt; as far as I'm concerned, we should go back to Eisenhower-era marginal tax rates. On the other hand, there are a lot of people in developing countries who have benefited from the Gates Foundation's funding of large-scale public-health initiatives.

Maybe not the best example, as Gates is currently actively making the pandemic worse in developing countries!

But let's rephrase - when you say you won't defend him personally but his organization has done 'a lot of good,' shouldn't we treat that good as a balance sheet with all the harm the acquisition of $80 billion caused in the first place?

Joe Bombin (milo z), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:37 (four years ago)

Argh, I botched part of that in getting distracted by a work call. I'm not saying that would make us a "technocracy" by definition if Musk rose to power, but rather that his fans think it would. There seems to be a lot of use of that word among his stans, is part of what I was (badly) getting to.

soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:38 (four years ago)

they think "technocracy" means "government by tech people"

the mai tai quinn (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:40 (four years ago)

gates and musk are similar in that they are doing "good" while actively working for the long term success of the underlying bad that made the good necessary

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:42 (four years ago)

musk has already risen to power!

Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:44 (four years ago)

xpost - Right, I'll back out of my detour here and let this thread go back to EK and Matty Y, I really shouldn't try to jump in on these when I'm distracted by work, my point was mangled and lost.

soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:46 (four years ago)

i think real technocrats would see themselves as the good guys fighting against the overweening vanity and mercurial personal ambition of yr musks or gateses (or trumps) on behalf of a better-functioning establishment

Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:47 (four years ago)

lol np xpost

Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:47 (four years ago)

My point was more that I think there is a competing vision of what a "technocracy" would look like in the US and voodoo chili's definition is the one that Musk stans embrace. It's technically incorrect, but I think it's another term that is being bastardized.

soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:50 (four years ago)

aiui, technocracy was a movement in the 1930s when there was a lot of political ferment and people searching for remedies to the massive social crash of the Great Depression. Its appeal was based more on analogical thinking than anything else. It assumed that the increasing technological complexity of the world, as typified by radio, combustion engines, airplanes, urban electrification and such, meant that society needed to be fixed by putting it in the hands of scientists and technologists, who would neutrally and objectively find and fix whatever was wrong, like an auto mechanic working on a car or truck. Its program was never sophisticated and it had some affinities with fascism.

sharpening the contraindications (Aimless), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:53 (four years ago)

But let's rephrase - when you say you won't defend him personally but his organization has done 'a lot of good,' shouldn't we treat that good as a balance sheet with all the harm the acquisition of $80 billion caused in the first place?

― Joe Bombin (milo z), Tuesday, April 27, 2021 5:37 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Sure, I just don't know how it's possible to assess this in any kind of meaningful quantifiable way.

Also, I get that people want to trash Gates over COVID. I haven't had time to dig into that, so I can't really speak to it. But I think it is inarguable that the Gates Foundation has done a lot to support public-health initiatives in the developing world over the past 20 years, which has helped to reduce rates of infant and maternal mortality, stop the spread of infectious diseases like polio, HIV, and malaria, etc. Should a private foundation have as much power, money, and influence as the Gates Foundation has? Probably not! But its size also enables it to make a tangible impact and not just dole out a few small grants here and there for the sake of publicity.

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:06 (four years ago)

gates is blatantly using his foundation to support and expand the systems that cause people to need his help

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:12 (four years ago)

and is whitewashing his reputation in the process

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:13 (four years ago)

I can't argue about this anymore.

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:19 (four years ago)

ABAB

bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:24 (four years ago)

They also spend a lot of money on charter school shit

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:25 (four years ago)

They spend a lot of money on a lot of things

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:29 (four years ago)

hes also caused a lot of chaos in the public health world making people meet his wacky non expert ideas because he thinks hes the smartest person in the world because he has the most money

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:33 (four years ago)

OK, fine, he sucks, I don't care

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:36 (four years ago)

(although I would like a source for that)

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:37 (four years ago)

one down, lag∞n

Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:37 (four years ago)

should also be noted he has more money now than when he pledged to give it all away (non binding) and that most of the money he has given away hes given to his own foundation which hes used to become the single most powerful person in public health, all completely accountable to no one but his beautiful self

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:38 (four years ago)

one down, lag∞n

― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, April 27, 2021 7:37 PM (thirty-five seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

grimly draws a line on wall of cell

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:38 (four years ago)

I'll quit my job tomorrow so I don't have to be associated in any capacity with such an awful man

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:39 (four years ago)

hate to tell you its awful men all the way down

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:40 (four years ago)

not trying to indict anyone who doesnt have the power to make governments do things fwiw

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:41 (four years ago)

You're one of the good ones, though. I can tell.

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:42 (four years ago)

this may be outdated info but wasn't he also a major shareholder in monsanto while trying to get african countries to implement agriculture programs that required them to buy monsanto seeds. like a one man IMF putting conditions on aid. he's bad. i don't care if people take money from him at their jobs though, whatever puts food on the table.

superdeep borehole (harbl), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:43 (four years ago)

i at least have never blocked a temporary pause in patent enforcement on life saving drugs xp

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:44 (four years ago)

harbl, what if I also find it motivating to believe that the organization I work for does good in the world? Should I just forget about that, or?

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:45 (four years ago)

waaait do you work for the gates foundation

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:45 (four years ago)

Man, you guys sure know a lot about Bill Gates! Must be hard to keep track of it all!

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:46 (four years ago)

No, I work for an organization that works with them. (I do not personally work with them.)

jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:47 (four years ago)

ah ok i was gonna feel like i wouldve liked to know that before we started lol, anyway i dont know anything about your job but obvs its possible to do good things with gates money, its still green, i mean id take it if hes giving, but overall his track record/ideology pretty bad imho

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:50 (four years ago)

i don't know, do you just believe it because it makes you feel good? i think that's what people are struggling with on various threads. they aren't pointing it out for the purpose of making you feel bad.

superdeep borehole (harbl), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:51 (four years ago)

tbh if i had known i was shitting on both your favorite podcaster and your job i prob wouldve picked just one

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 23:52 (four years ago)

It's fine, it's pretty tangential to my job, tbh, I just have to write/edit stuff sometimes that approvingly refers to the Foundation's work

jaymc, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 00:00 (four years ago)

ok i hope i have not caused you to feel bad about your job or listening habits, you have always seemed like a good decent person to me

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 00:02 (four years ago)

But I do prefer to feel good about the work I do. I mean, in general, I prefer to feel good about the writers I read and the politicians I vote for and the podcasts I listen to. I don't like being bummed out all the time. Today was kind of a bummer for me, tbqh.

jaymc, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 00:04 (four years ago)

xp It's OK. I don't blame you.

jaymc, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 00:05 (four years ago)

yeah understandable re bummer shit, i would say we live in bummer times which is true, but i dont think that means we have to be bummers ourselves, at least not all the time, tho obvs its not easy

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 00:07 (four years ago)

fwiw i just asked my dr. friend who has worked for the cdc and others in senegal/guinea/niger/nigeria/ghana/togo/south africa/indonesia/cambodia/etc what he thinks of the gates foundation

his response was 'big swinging dicks who do better than most'

mookieproof, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 00:11 (four years ago)

jaymc nobody here wants to make you bummed out! but things like this:

Man, you guys sure know a lot about Bill Gates! Must be hard to keep track of it all!

― jaymc, Wednesday, April 28, 2021 9:46 AM (twenty-two minutes ago)

-- read a lot like "I am bummed out by facts, which I would rather avoid, so people who do not avoid them suck."

bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 00:14 (four years ago)

International development is a very treacherous field. Some shitty things happen due to aid organizations Implementing not well thought out ideas, but some have done a lot of good. The problem is that most of the good actors in these organizations are really held hostage by the donors desires

Heez, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 00:15 (four years ago)

fwiw i just asked my dr. friend who has worked for the cdc and others in senegal/guinea/niger/nigeria/ghana/togo/south africa/indonesia/cambodia/etc what he thinks of the gates foundation

his response was 'big swinging dicks who do better than most'

― mookieproof, Wednesday, April 28, 2021 1:11 AM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i very much doubt the "big swinging" part of this is true.

John Cooper of Christian rock band Skillet (map), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 00:17 (four years ago)

Like, "I want to focus on good things done by (x) billionaire or interesting ideas introduced to me by (y) pundit" is a perfectly fine attitude to have. You seem to be having a problem with personally applying "...and I don't care / do compartmentalise about the bad stuff they also do or write," and blaming other people who do care, or who eyeroll, about it. You express that you actively want to believe in the overwhelming good intentions of these people, and of politicians, and seem opposed to compartmentalising their good actions ...perhaps because that inherently acknowledges the need to exclude other words and actions?

xp lol map

bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 00:22 (four years ago)

This Epstein case is horrific and the young women deserve justice. It is quite likely that some of our faves are implicated but we must follow the facts and let the chips fall where they may - whether on Republicans or Democrats. #WeSaidEnough #MeToo https://t.co/2mvskwQwW1

— Christine Pelosi (@sfpelosi) July 7, 2019

Joe Bombin (milo z), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 00:29 (four years ago)

I remembered Pelosi’s wording as “problematic faves” the real thing isn’t quite as good.

Also Gates has totes skated on Epstein.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 00:29 (four years ago)

the phrase "some of our faves are implicated" has been stuck in my head forever, it's so perfect

superdeep borehole (harbl), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 00:34 (four years ago)

Hasn't nearly everyone "skated on Epstein" because he and Maxwell cultivated connections for the sake of the size of the network, rather than direct influence, and there's not much evidence of most of the fame-os on his flight logs being implicated in anything more untoward than Matt Groening having gnarly feet?

bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 00:37 (four years ago)

i think that is plausible, not ready to conclude gates is a pedo yet based on what i've seen. bill clinton is another thing though.

superdeep borehole (harbl), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 00:40 (four years ago)

xp lol that is completely incomprehensible to me

Dan S, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 00:40 (four years ago)

Gates laundered donation money for Epstein years after his conviction. His ties were a bit deeper than Chris Tucker.

I don’t think this pegs him as a pedo, just an amoral narcissist whose sole true passion is self-aggrandizement at any cost.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 00:48 (four years ago)

the phrase "some of our faves are implicated" has been stuck in my head forever, it's so perfect

― superdeep borehole (harbl), Tuesday, April 27, 2021 8:34 PM (twenty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

epic post for sure

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 01:01 (four years ago)

the fact that so many of the masters of the universe were still involved with epstein after he was convicted of child prostitution is just so utterly damning of their whole thing

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 01:05 (four years ago)

i'm not a particular fan of bill or melinda, and jaymc makes an easy target because he's nice and will blame himself first . . . but to my knowledge lag∞n/milo etc. have no experience in public health whatsoever and are just 'rich people incapable of anything even minimally positive'

his organization has done 'a lot of good,' shouldn't we treat that good as a balance sheet with all the harm the acquisition of $80 billion caused in the first place?

you are absolutely permitted to keep bill gates out of heaven for his acquisitiveness, but we cannot now go back and change that. (although i might support you nationalizing him!) he might even be able to do a wee bit of good with it despite his mighty hubris

if absolutely nothing else, the gates foundation has spent some of its money on mosquito nets instead of shooting a car into space. i don't doubt that each of us would be a better administrator of all that money -- the monsanto thing is unfortunate and bad! -- but that doesn't make it a net negative influence. just a disappointing one

mookieproof, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 01:16 (four years ago)

but to my knowledge lag∞n/milo etc. have no experience in public health whatsoever and are just 'rich people incapable of anything even minimally positive'

this is totally dismissive and inaccurate and your whole post is pretty lame and makes no attempt to engage with the info shared in this thread let alone the massive amount available not on this thread

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 01:20 (four years ago)

but i guess you got one sentence from an ngo worker so go wild man

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 01:23 (four years ago)

k

mookieproof, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 01:25 (four years ago)

good responce

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 01:25 (four years ago)

but to my knowledge lag∞n/milo etc. have no experience in public health whatsoever and are just 'rich people incapable of anything even minimally positive'

Hope rich people see this, bro.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 01:30 (four years ago)

Defensive responses are so fucking weird - FINE I'LL QUIT MY JOB IF THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT/FINE HE CAN'T GET INTO HEAVEN. No one asked you too/y'all are the ones trying to imprint moral seriousness and value onto Zuckerberg 1.0.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 01:32 (four years ago)

the gates foundation is currently working to deny people covid vaccine in order to protect patent monopolies!!! and its typical of their approach, its not that complicated

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 01:34 (four years ago)

i don't like the "no experience" arguments. is everyone else supposed to just withhold judgment regardless of how much other stuff they know? and what do we do about public health experts who feel differently? bill gates is also not a public health expert. i don't have experience as an education expert but i am against charter schools and also against having an unelected rich person influence education policy just because (in part) our failure to tax people like him enough has left schools desperate for money.

superdeep borehole (harbl), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 01:34 (four years ago)

most of his bad acts are on more of a governance level than on an actual doing public health level, but i guess im not a governor so

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 01:39 (four years ago)

There’s years of reporting on Gates self-dealing and ideologically driven donation schemes!

You don’t have to be a public health expert, you just have to be interested and not like the taste of boot polish.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 01:44 (four years ago)

I read mookieproof's post several times. It was so well-hedged with qualifiers and repeatedly cast only as his opinion so that I'm not sure how it could be described as "inaccurate". As defenses of the Gates Foundation go, it was about as mild and vaguely neutral as it could possibly be. I think g∞n was mainly reacting to the 'charge' of not having any known expertise in public health.

otoh, I can see the descriptors "dismissive" and "makes no attempt to engage with the info shared" as perfectly justified, though.

sharpening the contraindications (Aimless), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 02:13 (four years ago)

i think we are not quite arguing the same thing, but yes, i will take the word of someone i know extremely well on the ground over ilx!

i don't actually mean to denigrate the knowledge of lag∞n or harbl, i just disagree with them on a very specific point

milo, however, is a clown

mookieproof, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 02:16 (four years ago)

what specific point would that be that we just hate rich people

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 02:17 (four years ago)

fair, you do like the celtics

mookieproof, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 02:19 (four years ago)

your friends personal experience with the gates foundation might not be like represent the totality of their actions i mean maybe hes bill gates idk in which case tell him to fuck himself

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 02:19 (four years ago)

the gates foundation is currently working to deny people covid vaccine in order to protect patent monopolies!!! and its typical of their approach, its not that complicated

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 27, 2021 6:34 PM

is this true? I don't know but at this point lagoon your statements have been so inflammatory that I’m inclined not to believe you

Dan S, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 02:34 (four years ago)

i have already posted a link but here you go https://newrepublic.com/article/162000/bill-gates-impeded-global-access-covid-vaccines

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 02:37 (four years ago)

lol that is completely incomprehensible to me

― Dan S, Wednesday, April 28, 2021 10:40 AM (one hour ago)

(teenage sex slave of Epstein) alleges that she was ordered to give ‘The Simpsons’ creator Matt Groening a foot massage

“I was enjoying our conversation when Jeffrey insisted that I gave Matt a foot massage throughout the duration of the short flight. I never turned down a client but when I saw the shape of his feet, I nearly threw up at the thought of having to touch them.

“He had yellow crusty toenails that even someone with a chainsaw would’ve had troubles cutting through and then there was the fluffy balls of leftover pieces of sock wedged between he crevices of his sweaty toes, now that was the real icing on the cake for me.

“No way could I attempt this, I thought.

“Then I had an idea. I went to the back of the plane and rinsed a wash cloth in warm soapy water and returned for his dreaded foot massage but not before attempting to clean them first,” she said.

Roberts said Groening gave her a signed sketch of Homer and Bart Simpson.

“In return for my services Matt was kind enough to draw me two quick sketches on blank paper from his briefcase of my two favorite characters, Homer and Bart.

“I asked if he could make them out to my little brother and dad, the true fans of the family not missing an episode during dinner over the past 10 years or so.

“Next to the A-4 size drawing he was able to fit the quote ‘To my greatest fan from Matt Groening’ and their names next to it. I knew they’d absolutely love it and it was such a nice gesture his feet were no longer an issue as I laughed it off and even made a joke to the comedian about getting a pedicure before hitting L.A.’s beaches.”

bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 02:39 (four years ago)

ok that is gross, I couldn't read beyond the first paragraph

thanks for the link lagoon, I hadn't seen that article

Dan S, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 02:47 (four years ago)

np enjoy lol

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 02:48 (four years ago)

you couldnt pay a 25 year old to take technocratic ideas,

idk i kinda suspect the opposite is true; there's probably more young ppl receptive to center-left/normie liberal ideas than ever because of the shift to the left among young people. because (1) it's a shift and (2) the majority of people are around the center. so that large mass of young people who would have been on the center-right or center are now more likely to be in the center-left. you also have young people who were on the center-left who are now far-left, but i would guess it's approximately in proportion (they're over-represented on twitter obvs). joe rogan (who politically is sketchy inchoate-populist rather than lib but had both matt yglesias and elon musk on recently) has 200m downloads a month, pod save america has 1.5m, chapo trap house has 150k. in relative terms the far left did amazingly well, but partly that's because they started from such a low base

flopson, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 10:11 (four years ago)

Joe Rogan is not centre left in any way shape or form.

Scamp Granada (gyac), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 10:13 (four years ago)

Immediate kneejerk response aside, judging the views of a demographic cohort by the podcasts they listen to seems...odd.

According to our survey respondent demos, Joe’s listenership is 71% male and evenly split between high school and post-secondary graduates. Fifty seven percent of his audience reports earning over $50k per year, with 19% making over $100k. The average age of his listeners was 24. The most likely additional podcast responses from his listeners were “Serial,” “The Daily,” “This American Life,” and “This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von.” Joe Rogan’s listeners varied only slightly from the survey average on number of podcasts listened to and exclusivity, but he received nearly 3x the number of responses compared to the next most-responded podcasts, “Phil in the Blanks” and “Crime Junkie.”


This is not really a surprise to me; I live in the UK and in the last two general elections, every single demographic under 40 in both voted left, and manifestos that were extremely left in both elections:

https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/inlineimage/2019-12-17/How%20Britain%20voted%202019%20age-01.png

It was not exactly a surprise to me, though, that young men were much more conservative than women.
https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/inlineimage/2019-12-17/How%20Britain%20voted%202019%20age-01.png

A lot of resentment politics is aware of that specific slice of demographic and targets young male voters for that reason. It’s very much a thing. That’s the JR audience.

I’m also questioning whether you actually know/are friends with any people in their twenties? The people I know who are, regardless of their originating political views and background are concerned with housing, wages, and climate change, if you pick three issues they talk about most. They tend to be strongly in favour of LGBT+ equality. It’s not a mystery why the young are seen as left when the left is the only ideology either addressing those concerns or even acknowledging them as such atm.

Scamp Granada (gyac), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 10:26 (four years ago)

Sorry, second graph was meant to be
https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/inlineimage/2019-12-17/How%20Britain%20voted%202019%20age%20and%20gender-01.png

Scamp Granada (gyac), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 10:28 (four years ago)

xps- not saying he is. he's kinda an incoherent mix of right wing/anti-pc, libertarian, left, but imho it washes out as MOR centrist in 2021. and tonnes of young dudes listen to it

flopson, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 10:49 (four years ago)

I’m also questioning whether you actually know/are friends with any people in their twenties?

i am in my twenties lol

flopson, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 10:50 (four years ago)

The people I know who are,

that's kinda my point tho. the people you and i know in their twenties aren't necessarily representative. there are a lot of young people with normal opinions. the shift left is def real but it's a shift. you can see that in those polls you show, too. you also just gave a stat showing that the average age of joe rogan listeners was 24

flopson, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 10:55 (four years ago)

Why wouldn’t they be representative? Are only rightwing political opinions representative/the default?

Scamp Granada (gyac), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 11:07 (four years ago)

_The people I know who are,_


that's kinda my point tho. the people you and i know in their twenties aren't necessarily representative. there are a lot of young people with normal opinions. the shift left is def real but it's a shift. you can see that in those polls you show, too. you also just gave a stat showing that the average age of joe rogan listeners was 24


And 71% male which tied in with my point about young men tending to be more right wing because of resentment politics. Did you miss that part?

Scamp Granada (gyac), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 11:08 (four years ago)

Why wouldn’t they be representative? Are only rightwing political opinions representative/the default?

because they're not a large random sample, they're just the people we know through circumstance and social connections; that's a highly selected group, whether intentional or not. in my case it's partly intentional, i have basically zero right wing social acquaintances. i can't speak for you but the people i know are extremely unrepresentative in many ways. i have lived for the last decade in some of the most left-wing neighborhoods in my country, met a lot of people through arts and music scenes, etc.

And 71% male which tied in with my point about young men tending to be more right wing because of resentment politics. Did you miss that part?

the original point i was responding to wasn't restricted to either gender, but imho the point holds for women too. young women are more left wing on average now than in the past, but that shift didn't come about through an increase in the number of women who are far-left and a decrease in the number of young women who are centre-left. rather, both the number of young women who are centre-left and the number of young women who are far-left increased. therefore, there are more young women who are receptive to center-left ideas increased, due to the shift left

flopson, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 11:21 (four years ago)

You have to stop saying “the shift left” if you’re not going to address the fact why young people are voting left in the first place: because the things most important to young people as a cohort are largely addressed by left wing parties, and that is true in the UK as it is in my native Ireland. (And the gender differential there was pretty apparent during the referendum too.)

As it happens, I live in a pretty right wing area, and I work with a mixture of people from various backgrounds, with a mix of qualifications and who have entered the workforce directly from school. But mainly you can tell about how people feel about politics by how they vote, which is a much more reliable indicator than anecdotal knowledge. The reason I cited this is because from talking to people, even people I know who don’t vote or who are not political in any way have real daily concerns because they are affected by high housing costs and the lack of opportunities, it’s not ideology so much as material circumstances.

http://www.electionanalysis.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Henn_and_Sloam_figure_2.png

This too is educational: young voters placed much higher importance on social and environmental issues than older voters and voted accordingly.

As for women, as someone who was pretty centre-left in her mid twenties (to the point of voting Lib Dem in 2010, UGH) and who has now moved left from that, I stopped voting for the centre left because they had nothing to say to me and they were engaging in policies that were anathema to me and my values. I won’t be voting again next chance I get for much the same reason.

Scamp Granada (gyac), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 11:33 (four years ago)

Are you each talking about your respective countries of residence? Could be one reason you're not connecting here, especially since you're also including the US. Tbh I'd be curious to see YouGov-type polls for Canada

rob, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 12:26 (four years ago)

It might be, but it might also be that flopson hasn’t provided any evidence for this opinion besides a feeling that it must be true. The trend of younger voters voting left is one that is seen across counties and different political cultures where the same conditions I mentioned upthread exist - wasn’t Bernie’s base younger voters?

Scamp Granada (gyac), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 12:43 (four years ago)

aiui bernie's base was 'bros'

plax (ico), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 14:26 (four years ago)

this is wild weve not seen anything like it

https://i.imgur.com/dVXFwup.png

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 14:49 (four years ago)

its funny bernie is old, but on the other hand joe biden also old, warren and bloomberg old as well

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 14:51 (four years ago)

that is a confusing graph

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 14:52 (four years ago)

should be candidates in color with age buckets as the groups, not the other way round

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 14:53 (four years ago)

or else it should be the share of each candidate's voters per bucket, not the like share of each age bucket that went to each candidate, when it's grouped like that

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 14:53 (four years ago)

should be photos of the candidates standing in buckets

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 14:54 (four years ago)

idk i kinda suspect the opposite is true; there's probably more young ppl receptive to center-left/normie liberal ideas than ever because of the shift to the left among young people. because (1) it's a shift and (2) the majority of people are around the center. so that large mass of young people who would have been on the center-right or center are now more likely to be in the center-left. you also have young people who were on the center-left who are now far-left, but i would guess it's approximately in proportion (they're over-represented on twitter obvs). joe rogan (who politically is sketchy inchoate-populist rather than lib but had both matt yglesias and elon musk on recently) has 200m downloads a month, pod save america has 1.5m, chapo trap house has 150k. in relative terms the far left did amazingly well, but partly that's because they started from such a low base

― flopson, Wednesday, April 28, 2021 6:11 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

idk about podcasts they seem lame but i will say whatever joe rogan is its definitely not a technocrat lol, but but even if there are more people in the middle, an assumption im not totally ready to believe after all there is the famous polarization, doesnt mean they have to be fans of the technocracy, technocracy was prob never that popular to begin with outside libs liking reasonableness, but also there could be a new centrist approach, i mean hillarys competent manager schtick really did not sell well, obama while being a total technocrat ran on hope and change, not sure what biden ran as

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 14:58 (four years ago)

bernie the kids fave, not a technocrat

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 15:01 (four years ago)

trump not too much of a technocrat lol

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 15:02 (four years ago)

seem like were entering an era of more populism but who knows what tomorrow will bring

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 15:02 (four years ago)

since I'm basically not following US national politics rn the only things I'm aware of are headlines that contain the words "Biden" and "trillion" and I'm like hell yeah

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 15:08 (four years ago)

except for when it's "Biden" and "trillion" and "defense" then I'm like hell nah

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 15:09 (four years ago)

joe biden is also denying people covid vaccine in order to protect patent monopolies

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 15:11 (four years ago)

hell nah

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 15:11 (four years ago)

watch them work

momentum against vaccine inequality, like all social outrages, is being channeled away from actually useful things like freeing patents and materials from the grip of US corporations into dopey Gates-funded celebrity "charity" framework. https://t.co/uLzIA8G3LR

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) April 28, 2021

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 16:11 (four years ago)

one can think of pharmaceutical patents as a kind of debt that sucks demand out of the economy, enriches the 1%, adds to everyone’s crippling health insurance bills and oh yeah is currently killing tens of thousands of people lol

Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 17:33 (four years ago)

patents in general are one of the prime mechanisms of entrenched wealth

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 17:36 (four years ago)

and somehow still a more reasonable system than copyrights, we’re lucky Disney doesn’t develop pharmaceuticals

Joe Bombin (milo z), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 17:40 (four years ago)

idk about podcasts they seem lame but i will say whatever joe rogan is its definitely not a technocrat lol, but but even if there are more people in the middle, an assumption im not totally ready to believe after all there is the famous polarization, doesnt mean they have to be fans of the technocracy, technocracy was prob never that popular to begin with outside libs liking reasonableness, but also there could be a new centrist approach, i mean hillarys competent manager schtick really did not sell well, obama while being a total technocrat ran on hope and change, not sure what biden ran as

― lag∞n, Wednesday, April 28, 2021 10:58 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

ya it could be that it's polarization and there are also more far-right young people more far-left young people and less in the centre/centre-left. i'm not sure. i think some polarization happened in relative terms but not enough to shift it in absolute numbers

i don't think podcasts are a great metric either my point was just that normies vastly outweigh the type of left wing young people i know irl or that we follow on twitter, and even though young people are a lot more left wing on average that includes a shift among ppl like rogen bros to the left at the margin. like your poll is of young people who vote in dem primaries. imho in the country at large there are multiple changes happening (1) more young people vote for democrats (2) among the ones who vote democrat, a larger share of them are further left. all im saying is when you take both those into account, there are still a lot of young people (prob more than ever in absolute numbers) on the centre and centre-left

in terms of a certain technocratic style of politician typified by obama, buttigieg, hillary i agree that's out of style among young people broadly (especially mayor pete lol). however i could see that evolving, for example andrew yang undeniably has technocratic elements and he seems to have some cachet among young people. but also there's a difference between politicians style and policies. like obama and biden are p similar on policies, but biden is not "presenting" as technocratically as obama did. also i feel like there's some uncertainty in how things will shake out post-bernie, since he's such a unique figure who was able to draw a lot of people with idiosyncratic politics into the left

tbh i was thinking more of the market for centre left political media than about politicians. politician preference can mask the finer variations im thinking of, like a young person could vote bernie but read vox dot com

You have to stop saying “the shift left” if you’re not going to address the fact why young people are voting left in the first place: because the things most important to young people as a cohort are largely addressed by left wing parties, and that is true in the UK as it is in my native Ireland. (And the gender differential there was pretty apparent during the referendum too.)

As it happens, I live in a pretty right wing area, and I work with a mixture of people from various backgrounds, with a mix of qualifications and who have entered the workforce directly from school. But mainly you can tell about how people feel about politics by how they vote, which is a much more reliable indicator than anecdotal knowledge. The reason I cited this is because from talking to people, even people I know who don’t vote or who are not political in any way have real daily concerns because they are affected by high housing costs and the lack of opportunities, it’s not ideology so much as material circumstances.

This too is educational: young voters placed much higher importance on social and environmental issues than older voters and voted accordingly.

As for women, as someone who was pretty centre-left in her mid twenties (to the point of voting Lib Dem in 2010, UGH) and who has now moved left from that, I stopped voting for the centre left because they had nothing to say to me and they were engaging in policies that were anathema to me and my values. I won’t be voting again next chance I get for much the same reason.

― Scamp Granada (gyac), Wednesday, April 28, 2021 7:33 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i didn't take a stand in my post on the cause of why more young people vote left, i was just taking it as a given and thinking about its consequences. i think it's complex and has many causes but for sure the reasons you give are a huge part of it (although sadly i don't know anything about ireland). tbh i don't disagree with anything you're saying, feel like there was a misunderstanding maybe. i've always voted for the left wing party here but that's in part bc i live in ridings where it's "safe" to do so (in the sense of not having to do strategic voting for the center-left party)

flopson, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 17:46 (four years ago)

three weeks pass...

gates update

Bill Gates hoped Jeffrey Epstein would help him land the Nobel Prize, "which is what Bill wants more than anything else in the world,” ex-foundation staffer tells us. With @LachCartwright https://t.co/SAwuMyqgfd via @thedailybeast

— kate briquelet (@kbriquelet) May 18, 2021

lag∞n, Wednesday, 19 May 2021 14:47 (four years ago)

man who would have ever guessed that the quickest way to a Nobel prize AND sex trafficked teenaged girls was through one weird guy from Coney Island

Washington Generals D-League affiliate (will), Wednesday, 19 May 2021 15:17 (four years ago)

what i want to know is why gates thought epstein was his ticket to a nobel

lag∞n, Wednesday, 19 May 2021 15:20 (four years ago)

Dumb guy probably

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Wednesday, 19 May 2021 15:28 (four years ago)

Ezra Klein vs Matt Yglesias vs Jeffrey Epstein

o. nate, Wednesday, 19 May 2021 15:29 (four years ago)

seem like it but still there must be some reason, which tbh could be as simple as epstein telling him he could xp

lag∞n, Wednesday, 19 May 2021 15:29 (four years ago)

if bill gates wants a nobel prize why doesn't he just ask to buy one from an actual winner for the low low price of $5 bil or so

the mai tai quinn (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 19 May 2021 15:30 (four years ago)

btw lol at bills entire deal with philanthropy being trying to get a medal, our lords are deranged, which is why we must relieve them of their estates

lag∞n, Wednesday, 19 May 2021 15:31 (four years ago)

also lol at melinda just assassinating him via the news media, incredible

lag∞n, Wednesday, 19 May 2021 15:34 (four years ago)

wonder if she trying to remove him from the foundation

lag∞n, Wednesday, 19 May 2021 15:35 (four years ago)

Imagine how much he regrets not just getting divorced 15 years ago or w/e

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Wednesday, 19 May 2021 15:37 (four years ago)

“Paul doesn’t have to put up with this shit he’s dead”

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Wednesday, 19 May 2021 15:37 (four years ago)

imagine how much he regrets not getting a prenup

lag∞n, Wednesday, 19 May 2021 15:41 (four years ago)

Shoulda bought a basketball team like his buddies

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Wednesday, 19 May 2021 15:43 (four years ago)

he was already the second richest person in the world when they were married

lag∞n, Wednesday, 19 May 2021 15:44 (four years ago)

Again, dumb guy

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Wednesday, 19 May 2021 15:45 (four years ago)

my own dumb guess is that prominent members of the Committee just have a taste for underage girls, too, and ol Jeffy was a prime dude to have in the Rolodex

Washington Generals D-League affiliate (will), Wednesday, 19 May 2021 15:47 (four years ago)

is epsteins blackmail scam just common knowledge in oligarch circles, is he telling bill hes got some of these guys in his pocket and bill just knows what hes talking about, does bill just think epsteins got normal connections, is bill just making all sorts of stuff up in his head cause epstein seems well connected, last one seems unlikely cause like isnt gates himself insanely well connected

lag∞n, Wednesday, 19 May 2021 15:51 (four years ago)

i think epstein had to have been overtly gassing him up about the award but who knows what he was saying and what bill believed to be true

lag∞n, Wednesday, 19 May 2021 15:54 (four years ago)

erza got the intellect of a local tv news anchor

Violent crime is spiking. Homicides in cities were up by 25-40 percent in 2020, the largest single-year increase since 1960. And 2021 isn’t looking any better.

This is a crisis on its own terms. But it’s also a crisis for the broader liberal project in two downstream ways.

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) May 21, 2021

lag∞n, Friday, 21 May 2021 21:14 (four years ago)

It actually isn’t, crime is basically fine.

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Friday, 21 May 2021 21:15 (four years ago)

This is my most extreme take, most crime is fine,

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Friday, 21 May 2021 21:15 (four years ago)

imho violent and many but not all other crimes are bad but ezra is indistinguishable from some sensationalistic enumerate right wing freak there

lag∞n, Friday, 21 May 2021 21:18 (four years ago)

like crime is short term up from historic lows to still low, and it was a very weird year

lag∞n, Friday, 21 May 2021 21:19 (four years ago)

like "spiking" what is he up to, seems fucked to me

lag∞n, Friday, 21 May 2021 21:20 (four years ago)

isnt he supposed to be mr sensible, must have something to sell

lag∞n, Friday, 21 May 2021 21:22 (four years ago)

didnt check on ezra but there was a ton of stuff coming out of centrist land about how krasner couldnt survive

We’re not there yet. Larry Krasner survived his primary challenge in Philadelphia.

But we are seeing other signs. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms isn’t running for reelection after being attacked by challengers as soft on crime. https://t.co/KhFq8wOZ1a

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) May 21, 2021

lag∞n, Friday, 21 May 2021 21:23 (four years ago)

and by survive of course we mean landslide

lag∞n, Friday, 21 May 2021 21:25 (four years ago)

anyway this shit is shameful and prob part of some larger pr campaign in service of an establishment freakout about over the left making waves

lag∞n, Friday, 21 May 2021 21:27 (four years ago)

it’s extremely weird.

his vocab and cadence now indistinguishable from people like friedman. does the nytimes just do this to people somehow? no analysis, just a lot of “i spoke to a guy who says liberals need to wake up!”

Tracer Hand, Friday, 21 May 2021 21:34 (four years ago)

Many people are saying it.

bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Friday, 21 May 2021 21:39 (four years ago)

def time to discipline the left

Washington Generals D-League affiliate (will), Friday, 21 May 2021 21:47 (four years ago)

violent crime shit is just naked trumpian white supremacy isn't it? why are liberals so fucking racist

Left, Friday, 21 May 2021 21:55 (four years ago)

Noah Smith should probably be added to the Klein/Yglesias scourge-of-the-left axis:

Even at our nadir of crime in 2013, we were still an order of magnitude more violent than other rich nations

— Noah Smith 🐇 (@Noahpinion) May 21, 2021

o. nate, Friday, 21 May 2021 21:55 (four years ago)

oh this wanker

Left, Friday, 21 May 2021 21:56 (four years ago)

accidentally right about american violence. it's not "crime"

Left, Friday, 21 May 2021 21:58 (four years ago)

PMC lib crime panic is completely unsurprising. That’s how you get Joe Biden complaining Reagan isn’t being tough enough on drug crime.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Friday, 21 May 2021 22:02 (four years ago)

yup

lag∞n, Saturday, 22 May 2021 00:29 (four years ago)

Homicide rates are up. Don’t know if homicide is considered crime though.

Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Saturday, 22 May 2021 00:36 (four years ago)

So’s suicide but the ghouls hollowing us out don’t do much about that

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Saturday, 22 May 2021 00:37 (four years ago)

But that’s why we have to reopen everything now! (or so I’m constantly told)

Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Saturday, 22 May 2021 00:46 (four years ago)

Suicides aren't up

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/15/health/coronavirus-suicide-cdc.html

Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, 22 May 2021 03:41 (four years ago)

isn't that tweet a promo for Ezra's podcast with James Forman Jr?

jaymc, Saturday, 22 May 2021 03:57 (four years ago)

i mean, i haven't listened to the episode yet, but this is the full description:

Early estimates find that in 2020, homicides in the United States increased somewhere between 25 percent and nearly 40 percent, the largest spike since 1960, when formal crime statistics began to be collected. And early estimates indicate that the increase has carried over to 2021.

Violent crime is a crisis on two levels. The first, and most direct, is the toll it takes on people and communities. The lost lives, the grieving families, the traumatized children, the families and businesses that flee, leaving inequality and joblessness for those who remain.

It’s also a political crisis: Violent crime can lead to more punitive, authoritarian and often racist policies, with consequences that shape communities decades later. In the 1970s and ’80s, the politics of crime drove the rise of mass incarceration and warrior policing, the political careers of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, the abandonment of inner cities. If these numbers keep rising, they could end any chance we have of building a new approach to safety, and possibly carry Donald Trump — or someone like him — back to the presidency in 2024.

There’s still time. Just this week, Philadelphia’s progressive district attorney, Larry Krasner, handily fended off a primary challenge. But the politics are changing, and fast: Democratic primary voters in New York City say crime and violence is the second most important problem facing the city, behind the coronavirus but ahead of affordable housing and racial injustice. And just a few weeks ago, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta, who was facing political challengers attacking her for being soft on crime, announced she would not seek re-election in the fall.

So do liberals have an answer to violent crime? And if so, what is it?

James Forman Jr. is a professor of law at Yale Law School and the author “Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America,” for which he received a Pulitzer Prize. In the book, Forman uses Washington, D.C., of the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s as a case study to explore the political and psychological dynamics that rising crime produces. We discuss the toll of living amid both street and state violence; what the crime wave of the ’70s and ’80s did to Black politics; the causes of the “Great Crime Decline”; the extent to which policing and prisons actually reduce crime; why we should think of violence the way we think of pandemics; the Black community’s complex views of policing; the three-pronged approach liberals should take to safety; and much more.

jaymc, Saturday, 22 May 2021 03:58 (four years ago)

Idk maybe try taking some people’s guns away

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Saturday, 22 May 2021 04:12 (four years ago)

that podcast description is the dictionary definition of concern trolling

anyway

The subways will be filled with cops due to the political class's conviction, in the face of all evidence, that it is still 1980.
https://t.co/1L6hdj9zRs

— VICE (@VICE) May 18, 2021

lag∞n, Saturday, 22 May 2021 13:20 (four years ago)

In my experience, affluent New Yorkers (off all political colors) ALWAYS think crime is going up. They think it's going up when it's going up, they think it's going up when it's going down.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, 22 May 2021 13:24 (four years ago)

generally this is true of americans of all wealths

lag∞n, Saturday, 22 May 2021 13:34 (four years ago)

yeah I recall a poll showing exactly that

k3vin k., Saturday, 22 May 2021 13:44 (four years ago)

the richer you are the more obsessed you are with minorities taking your money hmmm

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 22 May 2021 13:52 (four years ago)

crime is funny in that the more police there are "doing their job" the more crime there is, weird

John Cooper of Christian rock band Skillet (map), Saturday, 22 May 2021 14:18 (four years ago)

the memo has gone out

Important thread. On some issues, e.g. homosexuality and marijuana, public opinion has moved to the left and will probably stay there.

Crime is different. If crime surges, public opinion will move back to the right, fast. If progressives don't rein in crime, conservatives will. https://t.co/eTjXXSGCZo

— Will Saletan (@saletan) May 22, 2021

lag∞n, Saturday, 22 May 2021 16:04 (four years ago)

Silicon Valley weirdos are melting down over an alleged “shoplifting epidemic” pic.twitter.com/sk7SMHGceI

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) May 22, 2021

Joe Bombin (milo z), Saturday, 22 May 2021 16:18 (four years ago)

Idk I cringed when I saw the tweet, but I'm going to listen to the podcast later to understand EK's perspective better.

jaymc, Saturday, 22 May 2021 16:36 (four years ago)

so is this like a US attempt at blue labour or is it just reheated 90s clintonism

why does this prick's racism deserve a more generous reading than trump's or whoever? because he's got graphs?

Left, Saturday, 22 May 2021 16:45 (four years ago)

idk stinks of a manufactured moral panic and I guess I just don’t believe em. guess we’ll see in time.

Washington Generals D-League affiliate (will), Sunday, 23 May 2021 02:40 (four years ago)

wonder where wed be if anyone on the dem side ever tried to sell the fact that weve had a huge drop in crime oh well

lag∞n, Sunday, 23 May 2021 02:43 (four years ago)

ratchet effect

Washington Generals D-League affiliate (will), Sunday, 23 May 2021 02:47 (four years ago)

Idk I cringed when I saw the tweet, but I'm going to listen to the podcast later to understand EK's perspective better.

― jaymc, Saturday, May 22, 2021 12:36 PM (ten hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

thing is regardless of how thoughtful the podcast is doesnt excuse him writing fucked up sensationalistic headlines, pushing literal trump talking points, and further overnight this shit is just all over centrist media/politics, its trash

lag∞n, Sunday, 23 May 2021 02:52 (four years ago)

Matty: not very bright

https://i.imgur.com/G4oqbOi.png
https://i.imgur.com/ar6XZtz.png

Joe Bombin (milo z), Sunday, 23 May 2021 22:40 (four years ago)

loll

flopson, Sunday, 23 May 2021 22:42 (four years ago)

omg

mh, Sunday, 23 May 2021 23:24 (four years ago)

p surprising that the first ngrams instance of empathy was around 1950

flopson, Sunday, 23 May 2021 23:39 (four years ago)

Someone on Twitter traced its growth to a paper from 1957.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Monday, 24 May 2021 00:37 (four years ago)

i bet the people looking into this are very empathetic

Linda and Jodie Rocco (map), Monday, 24 May 2021 00:49 (four years ago)

I retweeted the Yglesias tweet because I think Ngrams are neat, and I even paused before doing so to wonder whether it was case-insensitive, but the screenshot showed the words "Case-insensitive"! But I guess that's something that you have to click, which would've highlighted that little bubble. I deleted the retweet after I saw that exchange. :/

jaymc, Monday, 24 May 2021 03:45 (four years ago)

this guy

https://i.imgur.com/K7pMtAh.png

lag∞n, Friday, 4 June 2021 00:48 (four years ago)

What a guy to call someone “incurious”

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Friday, 4 June 2021 00:52 (four years ago)

Young Matt Yglesias

https://media2.giphy.com/media/3oriff8YpKIxspTvsA/giphy_s.gif

Joe Bombin (milo z), Friday, 4 June 2021 00:56 (four years ago)

Well saying "nothing is popular at the start" is clearly hyperbole.

o. nate, Friday, 4 June 2021 02:14 (four years ago)

Today in "if only someone had tried this brilliant idea before!"

A good way to not have everything held hostage by Joe Manchin would be to nominate politicians who are more conservative than Joe Biden and try to win senate races in North Carolina, Florida, Iowa, Ohio, and Texas.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) June 4, 2021

but also fuck you (unperson), Saturday, 5 June 2021 14:17 (four years ago)

lol unbelievable

lag∞n, Saturday, 5 June 2021 14:43 (four years ago)

theres literally never been a time when the democrats havent been doing that

lag∞n, Saturday, 5 June 2021 14:44 (four years ago)

The centrist troops who ran against Cornyn and McConnell got crushed IIRC

Joe Bombin (milo z), Saturday, 5 June 2021 14:46 (four years ago)

yeah centrism as practiced over the last 30 odd years is just not too popular right now

lag∞n, Saturday, 5 June 2021 14:51 (four years ago)

Is there any reason to think Theresa Greenfield isn't more conservative than Joe Biden? Was Cal Cunningham a flaming liberal? Not as far as I know. What exactly is the bad choice he thinks the Democrats are making here?

Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, 5 June 2021 14:54 (four years ago)

and the only democratic senator in those five states (Sherrod Brown) is markedly less conservative than Joe Biden

symsymsym, Saturday, 5 June 2021 17:03 (four years ago)

Maybe he wants to clone Strom Thurmond circa 1946 and bring back the Dixiecrats.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Saturday, 5 June 2021 17:09 (four years ago)

two weeks pass...

Hardcore identity politics surfaced in 2016 as an opportunistic anti-Bernie gambit but most of the Young Left took the critique to heart and woke radicalism was very in vogue in 2020 as Sunrise etc hopped on the defund police bandwagon. Adams now bringing it back full circle.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) June 20, 2021

totally

lag∞n, Monday, 21 June 2021 00:49 (three years ago)

Sunrise etc

symsymsym, Monday, 21 June 2021 03:28 (three years ago)

what percentage of americans have any clue who adams is

mookieproof, Monday, 21 June 2021 03:33 (three years ago)

Who is he talking about? The Dilbert guy?

Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Monday, 21 June 2021 13:37 (three years ago)

nyc mayor candidate

lag∞n, Monday, 21 June 2021 13:46 (three years ago)

Not going to make an argument that this guy was ever good, but it's pretty clear that twitter has steadily fried his brain over the past 6 years or so

intheblanks, Monday, 21 June 2021 13:59 (three years ago)

the twitter/substack combo has made brain fry irresistible to a handful of famous bloggers

lag∞n, Monday, 21 June 2021 14:05 (three years ago)

him greenwald taibbi sully are just out there tweeting "big woke identity politics cancelation today" then writing insane emails and making millions of dollars, easy work

lag∞n, Monday, 21 June 2021 14:08 (three years ago)

Yeah, was gonna say seems like Vox helped rein in some of his worst/laziest impulses.

jaymc, Monday, 21 June 2021 14:10 (three years ago)

i think one thing with the aforementioned substackers is despite building careers around being iconoclasts they really all are ultimately elitists and mass movements like blm really just offend their sensibilities

lag∞n, Monday, 21 June 2021 14:14 (three years ago)

its amazing that matty tries to categorize defund the police as identity politics, its name is literally a policy proposal lol

lag∞n, Monday, 21 June 2021 14:15 (three years ago)

oh so Iglesias has become one of those people who uses woke ironically/unironically, scare quotes/no scare quotes

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 21 June 2021 14:28 (three years ago)

It's not just Adams, the fact that none of the top three candidates in the Democratic primary in a famously liberal city are willing to support "defund the police" as a slogan is telling.

o. nate, Monday, 21 June 2021 15:34 (three years ago)

amazing that matty tries to categorize defund the police as identity politics

not so amazing if matty firmly believes that the major function of the police is to enforce racial and class norms and that voters clearly understand this and vote according to where they stand within that system of privilege. I've no idea if matty grasps this concept consciously and openly or just unconsciously and implicitly bcz he's a white American.

What's It All About, Althea? (Aimless), Monday, 21 June 2021 16:54 (three years ago)

reasonable point

lag∞n, Monday, 21 June 2021 17:07 (three years ago)

someone posted a screencap of Yglesias in 2016 essaying about how you can't divorce identity politics from politics because it's the only real and consistent form of politics

but Matty has deleted yesterday's tweet so I can't find it

bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Monday, 21 June 2021 18:39 (three years ago)

The contrarian grift is getting competitive so here's Matty insisting Tucker Carlson and Stephen fucking MILLER are not white nationalist extremists: https://t.co/zb11RWpfr1

— Eli Valley (@elivalley) June 25, 2021

Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Friday, 25 June 2021 23:49 (three years ago)

He deleted the tweet — the sad part is, I bet it's because he spelled Miller's first name with a "v" instead of a "ph".

but also fuck you (unperson), Saturday, 26 June 2021 00:00 (three years ago)

The tweet

Deleted already, usually he waits a few weeks pic.twitter.com/tq5787D9dN

— Eli Valley (@elivalley) June 25, 2021

Joe Bombin (milo z), Saturday, 26 June 2021 00:09 (three years ago)

Do you think he has an inner life or is he just an automaton

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Saturday, 26 June 2021 00:11 (three years ago)

Anyone defending this fucker past this point is extremely suspect imo

underminer of twenty years of excellent contribution to this borad (dan m), Saturday, 26 June 2021 02:02 (three years ago)

brooks to yglesias is approximately the rate of change pic.twitter.com/ZXZTg49X26

— Whet Moser (@whet) July 3, 2021

jaymc, Saturday, 3 July 2021 00:42 (three years ago)

tf

Tracer Hand, Saturday, 3 July 2021 07:40 (three years ago)

lol at "twitter is real life" tbf

lag∞n, Saturday, 3 July 2021 13:47 (three years ago)

hell yeah bud they’re totally buying in on those hard hitting truth bombs you’re selling out of the back of your substack, and def not just a bunch of bloodless freaks who require their worldview reflected back to them while the ocean burns

Washington Generals D-League affiliate (will), Saturday, 3 July 2021 15:46 (three years ago)

i know haters itt won't cop to it but klain reading yglesias is a huge improvement over obama reading david brooks. just on monetary/fiscal policy (probably the most important thing the white house has leverage on rn) matt is way more dovish than the median wonk

flopson, Saturday, 3 July 2021 17:06 (three years ago)

in general it's kinda wild how online the biden administration are. like economists on staff and in advisory positions are disproportionately ones who have been active on twitter within the past 3 years

flopson, Saturday, 3 July 2021 17:10 (three years ago)

Yglesias may be relatively dovish but the Biden team still seems to be fixated on triangulating with increasingly extreme (R) positions which I guess is how we end up at privatizing the TVA.

That, or they’re just using all this posturing to cover for the fact that the core platform of the Democratic Party is still rapacious neoliberalism.

recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Sunday, 4 July 2021 01:08 (three years ago)

Failing ever upward...

🚨NEW: D.C. journalists @lkmcgann and Mark Bauman are launching a new, DC-based media company with $10 million+ Series A funding
@mattyglesias will be editor at large
— Have already hired 20+ people, aiming to have ~60 by end of year
— Launching Septhttps://t.co/syKJXKefrd

— Sara Fischer (@sarafischer) July 10, 2021

but also fuck you (unperson), Saturday, 10 July 2021 16:34 (three years ago)

Guess we'll never get to witness the pure race science era of Matty's substack career.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Saturday, 10 July 2021 16:55 (three years ago)

(Until whatever billionaires are funding this pull the rug out when Biden's not in the White House anymore.)

Joe Bombin (milo z), Saturday, 10 July 2021 16:56 (three years ago)

https://i.imgur.com/XDownVq.png

Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 20 July 2021 22:12 (three years ago)

Not politicians comfortable calling people faggots, politicians who *only just recently* became uncomfortable and thus make people with retrograde cultural views feel comfortable with him. https://t.co/C1dnv4wEaq

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 2, 2021

Tracer Hand, Monday, 2 August 2021 03:36 (three years ago)

I think Yglesias's main things right now are "kill single family zoning" and "the DOJ should be prosecuting crimes committed by Trump administration officials instead of gaily letting bygones be bygones"

Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 2 August 2021 03:54 (three years ago)

I'm in favor of killing single family zoning, Matty is good again

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Monday, 2 August 2021 17:58 (three years ago)

Matty is good again

he'll move on to worse crap soon enough

it is to laugh, like so, ha! (Aimless), Monday, 2 August 2021 18:10 (three years ago)

I don’t think people were upset that you engaged in something contentious— I think they were upset that you dropped the F bomb as a straight person. pic.twitter.com/zNcLPbaYcc

— Michael Havlin (@HavlinMichael) August 2, 2021

I honestly hadn't realized that a straight person typing out 'the f-slur' was considered beyond the pale in a context like this (responding to a direct question about the word, obviously not 'using' the slur etc), but lots of people responding to Yglesias here seem think so. I knew that this was conventual wisdom with the n-word but thought that was essentially a unique thing? Is this a recent development, or is are people just mad in this case because it's Yglesias and he's an annoying guy who likes to passive-aggressively troll people on twitter?

soref, Monday, 2 August 2021 18:39 (three years ago)

I think people got pissed at him because he was the one who broached the subject, and it seemed like he did so specifically because it would allow him the opportunity to use the word (in a "just askin' questions here, guy" way, of course of course of course). It was a typical asshole move.

but also fuck you (unperson), Monday, 2 August 2021 18:55 (three years ago)

that's his own affair

Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Monday, 2 August 2021 19:11 (three years ago)

Matty deleted all his tweets - not just the ones related to this latest kerfuffle.

o. nate, Monday, 2 August 2021 19:11 (three years ago)

It’s like the Library of Alexandria has burned all over again.

(Also this shit was stupid even without the slur, cultural conservatives aren’t going to see Matt Damon as anything but another Hollywood liberal pedophile no matter how many slurs he uses.)

Joe Bombin (milo z), Monday, 2 August 2021 20:22 (three years ago)

To answer soref's question, I certainly wouldn't use the f slur even in a context like that. It's just not necessary, everyone knows what's being talked about, imo.

Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 3 August 2021 09:55 (three years ago)

does anyone even remember what the joke was and if it's anything other than making fun of fearful teen masculine absurdity by having conjoined twins call each other gay as a put-down

bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Tuesday, 3 August 2021 14:44 (three years ago)

Yglesias wrote something smart. I guess the key is to just not follow/read him on Twitter.

but also fuck you (unperson), Friday, 6 August 2021 23:06 (three years ago)

honestly him trolling the Orbanites on twitter all week is his redeeming quality

symsymsym, Saturday, 7 August 2021 01:27 (three years ago)

xp. In my opinion, not much good comes out of twitter to begin with.

Van Horn Street, Saturday, 7 August 2021 01:33 (three years ago)

Matty deleted all his tweets - not just the ones related to this latest kerfuffle.

― o. nate, Monday, August 2, 2021 3:11 PM (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

hes had his tweets auto deleting for a while

lag∞n, Saturday, 7 August 2021 14:02 (three years ago)

I think Yglesias is trying to bait the Orban-simps into pointing out that he's Jewish and he may well succeed

Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, 7 August 2021 15:25 (three years ago)

Well whaddaya know, the rare Jew named “churches”

Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Saturday, 7 August 2021 17:13 (three years ago)

When I'm right I'm right

They’re onto me pic.twitter.com/FWVzrPEwn2

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 10, 2021

Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 10 August 2021 13:36 (three years ago)

read mattys hungarian nationalism piece, shockingly lazy writing even for him, good work if you can get it i guess

lag∞n, Wednesday, 11 August 2021 15:50 (three years ago)

I think there's a genuine conflict in life between good politics, which necessarily emphasizes structural factors and the importance of social change, and good advice (or good teaching or good therapy etc.) which emphasizes internal locus of control and making the best of things. https://t.co/IynWIGd6dN

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 13, 2021

I think there was an ilx thread specifically about this tension Yglesias observes here, but I can't find it, does anyone remember?

like the bit in the Black Stuff where Bernard Hill tells Michael Angelis that he hates him because he's "too nice" - that being content with your lot is more likely to make you happy, even a better person, but Yosser is still right to be furious and bitter even though it doesn't do him or anyone else any good

soref, Friday, 13 August 2021 18:20 (three years ago)

i vaguely remember a thread/discussion but i'm not sure what it was or if it's the same one you're thinking. unhelpful, i know. this quote from the fake therapist is such a strawman though.

criminally negligible (harbl), Friday, 13 August 2021 18:37 (three years ago)

also shocked to see a bad faith essay from Sally Satel is a psychiatrist who works at a methadone clinic in Washington, D.C., a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a visiting professor at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, who is bothered by some therapists having politics she doesn't like instead of her politics, which are normal and neutral and in no way make it into her practice. like i would be bothered to hear a therapist say some of the things she's talking about, but i also would not visit one who works at AEI, because her philosophy is likely way incompatible with mine. so what? a couple times i have googled people saying racist or otherwise bad things on nextdoor and found that they were psychiatrists or therapists. why would one want to see them?

criminally negligible (harbl), Friday, 13 August 2021 18:40 (three years ago)

i think it was maybe the elitism thread

criminally negligible (harbl), Friday, 13 August 2021 18:50 (three years ago)

have to say big media matt's been on a righteous (and basically correct) anti-blob twitter-tear abt afghanistan for the last couple of days

"fool me once" i guess -- he was bad on iraq at the very very start (when he was still baacially a student) but also good on why and how he'd been so wrong

(this is not an endorsement of the many many things he's annoying and wrong about)

mark s, Monday, 16 August 2021 15:50 (three years ago)

I've never heard that expression "the blob" before used in the way Matty is using it. Is it basically a new term for "military-industrial complex"?

o. nate, Monday, 16 August 2021 19:54 (three years ago)

Sort of, I think of it more as the think tank/natsec bureaucracy complex.

this is the first time I remember it being used, coming from an Obama guy so grains of salt, etc.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/magazine/the-aspiring-novelist-who-became-obamas-foreign-policy-guru.html

Joe Bombin (milo z), Monday, 16 August 2021 20:00 (three years ago)

not that new: as milo says obama aide ben rhodes famously used it in 2016 -- more of the foreign policy establishment than the MIC -- but it's been a more general term of dismissive impatience for self-interested bureaucracies since the 80s

(in the uk michael gove used it of the educational establishment in the early teens)

mark s, Monday, 16 August 2021 20:02 (three years ago)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/05/07/blob-abides

This weekend will be the four-year anniversary of “the Blob” entering public discourse with respect to America’s foreign policy community. The term emerged from a New York Times Magazine profile of Ben Rhodes, Barack Obama’s foreign policy amanuensis. According to Rhodes’s account in the story, “the Blob includes Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates and other Iraq-war promoters from both parties who now whine incessantly about the collapse of the American security order in Europe and the Middle East.”

The term soon became omnipresent in foreign policy discussions as its definition expanded in scope. It came to mean the foreign policy “establishment” that included those working in government, think tanks, and academia. Four years later, the term, like “globalization” or “neoliberalism” or “populist” or “elite,” tends to obscure as much as it reveals.

jaymc, Monday, 16 August 2021 20:04 (three years ago)

OK, so I guess it seems to be more along the lines of "hawks", ie those who believe the US needs to project dominance for its own sake internationally.

o. nate, Monday, 16 August 2021 20:07 (three years ago)

I guess typical of Matty that he's doubling down on his take that Biden basically made the right call despite everything that's happened.

o. nate, Monday, 16 August 2021 20:15 (three years ago)

^ a member of Team Stay Forever

it is to laugh, like so, ha! (Aimless), Monday, 16 August 2021 20:19 (three years ago)

Nothing lasts forever.

o. nate, Monday, 16 August 2021 20:21 (three years ago)

I don’t think making it a synonym of hawks or neolibs is accurate, really - the blob is imperialism by bureaucratic inertia and tradition rather than clearly defined goals.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Monday, 16 August 2021 20:23 (three years ago)

well of course MY always doubles down, right or wrong, but the argument that it had to be done this way (fast and chaotic) and not e.g. well organised and drawn out with ordered contingencies in place -- bcz the slow and steady way wd certainly have been stalled and derailed by the blob -- is his argument, yes; less defend biden at all costs than identify the forces arrayed against withdrawal and identify what needed to be done to defeat them

josh marshall more or less agrees: another surprising lib centrist in the "fool me once" space

mark s, Monday, 16 August 2021 20:25 (three years ago)

Hindsight is 20/20, but I don't buy that this was the only other option besides a generations-long, semi-permanent deployment of US troops in Afghanistan. A few weeks ago I wonder what odds Biden would've given that this would be how it would play out. If he thought there was even a 5% chance it would happen this way, I think he was irresponsible to proceed as he did. If he thought it was less than that, then I guess it was a failure of intelligence.

o. nate, Monday, 16 August 2021 20:28 (three years ago)

i think they call it "the blob" because it represents a neoliberal sort of pro-interventionist "conventional wisdom" that transcends party and ideology. the traditional divisions (gop vs. dem, etc.) don't apply.

bezos did the dub (voodoo chili), Monday, 16 August 2021 20:38 (three years ago)

The time for a long orderly withdrawal and acceptance of defeat was 2010 at the latest.

Joe Bombin (milo z), Monday, 16 August 2021 20:46 (three years ago)

iirc one of the examples of the Blob that Ben Rhodes used was all the Saudi money going into DC thinktanks producing all of these anti-Iran pundits and "intellectuals"

Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Monday, 16 August 2021 23:51 (three years ago)

two weeks pass...

Ross Douthat has penned the most incendiary anti-blob screed I've seen yet:

Our botched withdrawal is the punctuation mark on a general catastrophe, a failure so broad that it should demand purges in the Pentagon, the shamed retirement of innumerable hawkish talking heads, the razing of various NGOs and international-studies programs and the dissolution of countless consultancies and military contractors.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/opinion/afghanistan-biden.html

o. nate, Tuesday, 31 August 2021 22:52 (three years ago)

based ross

《Myst1kOblivi0n》 (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 31 August 2021 23:19 (three years ago)

The worst person you know just etc etc

papal hotwife (milo z), Wednesday, 1 September 2021 00:10 (three years ago)

man ross needs to chill if he wants to be invited back to aspen

lag∞n, Wednesday, 1 September 2021 00:54 (three years ago)

Since this is kind of the blob commentary thread now

Lay off and give the Blob some mulligans. pic.twitter.com/64qSWz3Sqd

— Daniel Denvir (@DanielDenvir) September 2, 2021

papal hotwife (milo z), Thursday, 2 September 2021 15:46 (three years ago)

just noting -- since i mentioned him upthread -- that we just got a powerful shitposter's "let's be frank: laws are made up" from josh marshall lol: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/scotus-delenda-est

mark s, Thursday, 2 September 2021 19:27 (three years ago)

(ugh i hate it when it does that)

mark s, Thursday, 2 September 2021 19:27 (three years ago)

Ezra had Robert Wright on his podcast to talk about the blob

Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Thursday, 2 September 2021 22:49 (three years ago)

https://i.imgur.com/sSLp1cp.png

lag∞n, Thursday, 2 September 2021 22:50 (three years ago)

one month passes...

I will basically turn in my dirtbag card at this point and say ezra is Good. I usually like his podcasts (the ones I choose to listen to)

I feel like this current act of his career allows him to be chiller and read more cool books and I definitely think he’s moved to the left

mens rea activist (k3vin k.), Saturday, 9 October 2021 22:28 (three years ago)

About 5 years ago Hayes wrote something for the Nation I disagreed with (in part) so I wrote him a brief & somewhat unfriendly email telling him as much. He replied with about a thousand words thoughtfully explaining himself to me when he had no obligation to do so, and he did as if he were having a conversation with one of his colleagues or someone he respected and not some random butthurt internet dude. Our politics are basically the same but I would be Team Hayes even if they weren't.

― All kinds of heinous things, Friday, December 28, 2012 12:11 AM (eight years ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is incredible btw and hates is the Only Good Cable News Guy. I loved his new yorker essay a couple weeks ago tho personally I would have edited out the trump stuff

mens rea activist (k3vin k.), Saturday, 9 October 2021 22:35 (three years ago)

hayes*

mens rea activist (k3vin k.), Saturday, 9 October 2021 22:35 (three years ago)

im still #TeamYglesias but i liked Ezra’s piece on David Shor this week, particularly how it gave a pretty thorough airing of the critical perspectives on popularism. most of the interviews with shor so far have been with people who just agree with him fully (like eric levitz, noah smith or matt yglesias) so it was nice to see some thoughtful pushback

flopson, Saturday, 9 October 2021 22:44 (three years ago)

i get a slightly manic vibe from Chris Hayes

flopson, Saturday, 9 October 2021 22:45 (three years ago)

I need to read that, I started it and then realized how long it was and I was already in the middle of a couple of other long things

mens rea activist (k3vin k.), Saturday, 9 October 2021 22:50 (three years ago)

in complete agreement with basically everything k3vin said here! i have some shame about enjoying ezra's podcast but he's a good interviewer and has a very curious mind

Clay, Saturday, 9 October 2021 23:15 (three years ago)

ezra is okay but annie lowrey is better

mookieproof, Saturday, 9 October 2021 23:24 (three years ago)

#OneOfUs #TeamEzra

jaymc, Sunday, 10 October 2021 01:12 (three years ago)

ezra has a curious mouth (for gargling balls [of the ruling class])

lag∞n, Sunday, 10 October 2021 01:13 (three years ago)

ezra is okay but annie lowrey is better

― mookieproof, Saturday, October 9, 2021 6:24 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

There's actually an amazing moment in Ezra's interview of Jenny Odell where she recommends Annie Lowrey's book, not realizing that he's married to her.

jaymc, Sunday, 10 October 2021 01:14 (three years ago)

one of the flaws in general with interviews, podcasts, and other interesting things is people can come on there are just say whatever they want and the interviewer will nod along and make nodding along noises, like ezra is no different than npr in that its soothing entertainment dressed up as something serious, i say this because very much against my will the other day someone started to tell me about ezra interviewing tyler cowen who they had never heard of, and i guess he was on there pushing some cosmopolitan thing about the joys of travel and encountering different cultures which is all fine and good, but! tyler cowen is an influential political actor one who often has libertarian affixed to his name, so i started telling this person about his shitty defense of big business and various other bad harmful politics and she was like oh that wasnt the impression i got he seems like a nice liberal, i was like well he is very good at chess

lag∞n, Sunday, 10 October 2021 01:33 (three years ago)

I deliberately avoid the ones with bad ppl like cowen but like the ones with amia srinivasan, adam tooze, maggie nelson ie actual original thinkers have been really good imo

mens rea activist (k3vin k.), Sunday, 10 October 2021 01:55 (three years ago)

your friend who has never heard of tyler cowen may not have absorbed the intricacies of the interview tbf

mens rea activist (k3vin k.), Sunday, 10 October 2021 01:57 (three years ago)

ah yeah the ezra klein interview was probably too intricate

lag∞n, Sunday, 10 October 2021 02:04 (three years ago)

that shor guy is such an obvious fraud my sophisticated computer projections 12 years out into the future that tell me that democrats should run on popular things and by that i mean target swing voters lmao, i mean god bless ezra for pushing back a little bit i guess but it was funny to see twitter described as the dem echo chamber because it is very much not! in fact the dem establishment is quite obviously being exposed to ideas that disturb them on twitter, as evidenced by attempting to blame defund the police, a position which effectively zero dem politicians have endorsed blamed for future electoral failures

the real dem establishment shines through the article in its unexamined assumptions about the primacy of above all else targeted messaging in winning elections, that the point of winning elections is to win more elections, and of course total lack of refection on the actual governing democrats do and how that might contribute to how people feel about them, i mean if this guy were just a campaign worker talking to other campaign workers fine but the dem establishment and many rank and file dem hobbyists very much have 24/7 campaign worker brain

another kind of funny tell that shor is processing washington consensus through algorithms is the total absence of the big recent novel trend in the polling, which is of course the huge generational divide! the likes of which weve not seen since before we started tracking that sort of thing

ezras momentary grappling with the intricacies of class was pretty painful too, his conclusion that if you are a white millionaire who drives a pickup truck you are the same as a poor white guy who also has a pickup truck because you both voted for trump i think is prob pretty much liberal consensus, shows how alienated our politics are from any real class analysis, which is of course super fine with powerful people across the political spectrum

lag∞n, Sunday, 10 October 2021 02:20 (three years ago)

i do agree that hillary would have won if she had gotten strongly behind even just one popular policy, like if instead of saying that economists favor raising the minimum wage to $12 she had run around the country saying fuck it you all deserve $15 an hour, and not just because its a popular galvanizing policy but because it wouldve shown that she was capable of standing for anything at all, but of course she was not

lag∞n, Sunday, 10 October 2021 02:29 (three years ago)

also interesting that the consensus around obamas big win has become that he was simply incredibly talented, the fact that he ran on HOPE and CHANGE is maybe too painful to reflect upon

lag∞n, Sunday, 10 October 2021 02:33 (three years ago)

wait I feel like i agree with all the stuff you just said but also am not sure how it pertains to ezra klein

mens rea activist (k3vin k.), Sunday, 10 October 2021 02:41 (three years ago)

hes one of them man, lol occurs to me hes kind of the david brooks of centrists

lag∞n, Sunday, 10 October 2021 02:59 (three years ago)

yglesias is bill kristol

lag∞n, Sunday, 10 October 2021 03:03 (three years ago)

ahhh lmao ilx undefeated

https://i.imgur.com/6ngjErV.png

lag∞n, Sunday, 10 October 2021 03:23 (three years ago)

hes one of them man, lol occurs to me hes kind of the david brooks of centrists

― lag∞n, Saturday, October 9, 2021 9:59 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I guess I thought that David Brooks was the David Brooks of centrists.

I think Klein is temperamentally similar to someone like Brooks or an NPR commentator or whatever. He seems to place a virtue on seeming reasonable and open-minded, and he occasionally invites someone on the podcast with whom he disagrees politically but believes is making their arguments in good faith (like Ross Douthat or, indeed, Tyler Cowen, whose libertarianism was pointedly brought up and critiqued by Klein on the podcast, so I don't know how much your friend was actually paying attention).

Politically, however, he feels to me more simpatico with Jamelle Bouie or Brian Beutler or the folks writing for The New Republic these days. He's fundamentally earnest, so he's not going to take on the sarcastic edge of someone like Alex Pareene, but with that earnestness comes a streak of righteous anger and moral clarity about certain issues, like expanding the social-welfare state and strengthening democracy.

At the end of the day, he's someone who is paid handsomely to pontificate for the New York Times, so I get that he may come across as a foppish establishment type. But that's not really the impression I get from engaging with his work, at least over the past few years.

jaymc, Sunday, 10 October 2021 04:51 (three years ago)

imo klein is pretty clearly to the right of the new republic staff which isnt to say there isnt some overlap in views, i think also hes fundamentally a technocrat, but we live in interesting times where even technocrats maybe be moved to moral indignation, i wont hold my breath for yglesias (sociopathy)

also brooks is most certainly a conservative, but hes a conservative for centrists, which is to say his job is to apologize for republican horrors

lag∞n, Sunday, 10 October 2021 15:40 (three years ago)

also brooks is most certainly a conservative, but hes a conservative for centrists, which is to say his job is to apologize for republican horrors

otm

Klein is most certainly a technocrat first, and even when he argues in good faith he can't help sounding like a pundit for whom the risk of enacting social policies benefiting the people who don't read him scares him more than explaining over tweets or podcast how these policies would look.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 10 October 2021 15:46 (three years ago)

wish we could have a safe space wonk thread where we could talk abt pollsters and bloggers without fear of bullying from lag∞n :P

flopson, Sunday, 10 October 2021 16:23 (three years ago)

1. i have no problem with polling or blogging, in fact i like both

2. lack of bullying is one of the things that has allowed technocracy to flourish, something is deeply wrong with a society where mathew yglesias has such elevated self esteem

3. if you started a technocrat thread i would probably never find it

lag∞n, Sunday, 10 October 2021 16:29 (three years ago)

i for one only read these revives if lag00n is involved in them

Linda and Jodie Rocco (map), Sunday, 10 October 2021 16:41 (three years ago)

xp- milo and julio would find it tho

flopson, Sunday, 10 October 2021 16:43 (three years ago)

since i did start this thread i feel i have a duty to patrol it

lag∞n, Sunday, 10 October 2021 16:43 (three years ago)

another kind of funny tell that shor is processing washington consensus through algorithms is the total absence of the big recent novel trend in the polling, which is of course the huge generational divide! the likes of which weve not seen since before we started tracking that sort of thing

that's the core of his argument actually. young white people disproportional shifted to the left in the last 5 years relative to any other demographic group -> those ppl are disproportionately dem staffers and disproportionately live in liberal cities (where their votes weigh zero at the margin in the senate) -> democrats increasingly out of touch on which issues are popular

flopson, Sunday, 10 October 2021 17:20 (three years ago)

idk i just read the ezra article and it didnt mention the generation gap, also its not just white yuppies who have shifted left its true across races, geographies etc; feel like pollsters have gotten so used to slicing and dicing for soccer moms and whatnot theyve somehow missed this big ass shift or just dont know how to deal with it cause their models are so overfit

lag∞n, Sunday, 10 October 2021 17:28 (three years ago)

which is not to say the dem elite arent out of touch but being too liberal is not really their problem lol

lag∞n, Sunday, 10 October 2021 17:29 (three years ago)

i mean legal weed medicare for all raising the federal minimum wage eliminating the filibuster are all popular things that are considered insanely leftist by at least a good chunk of the dem establishment

lag∞n, Sunday, 10 October 2021 17:32 (three years ago)

his argument is basically that politicians should talk more about popular economic policy stuff but try to avoid talking about social issues and immigration. in one interview i read with him he said the reason bernie did so well in 2016 was because he ran economic populist and socially moderate (iirc he also said bernie would have won in that interview lol). which was the inverse of hilary's priority in talking points, shifting to the left on social issues while staying moderate on economics

imo a good criticisms of popularism is that, on some level hilary clinton's team were doing exactly what it prescribes: polling and focus-grouping every issue and prioritizing things that polled well. the problem is (1) their polls were subject to the same non-response bias that made all polls so inaccurate in 2016, and (2) they were plagued by her life-time of earnest shilling unpopular policies. a recording of hillary saying "My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders" to a room full of bankers leaked in october 2016. you can't find any recording or bernie ever saying anything like that

flopson, Sunday, 10 October 2021 19:12 (three years ago)

This cleaving of "issues" into "political" and "social" remains the commentariat's most grievous sin. Fuck them.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 10 October 2021 19:15 (three years ago)

i mean i was just being reductive by grouping them that way to make analogy to 2016, there are unpopular 'economic' talking points and popular 'social' issues ones. but the popularist idea is that you talk about the popular ones and not the unpopular ones

flopson, Sunday, 10 October 2021 19:19 (three years ago)

oh to be clear flopson I wasn't attacking you; it's the way these choads think.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 10 October 2021 19:21 (three years ago)

no worries, just wanted to clarify the pt i was making didn't really hinge on the distinction. because you can dis-aggregate issues and messages beyond that (admittedly dubious) binary

flopson, Sunday, 10 October 2021 19:30 (three years ago)

the thing this guys needs to understand is the reason dems dont do popular economic things is because they dont want to

lag∞n, Sunday, 10 October 2021 21:58 (three years ago)

Is this being presented as an either/or? Because couldn't you easily have both? pic.twitter.com/pnByQX0FVx

— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) October 10, 2021

lag∞n, Sunday, 10 October 2021 21:59 (three years ago)

wow @ that shor tweet

Tracer Hand, Sunday, 10 October 2021 22:16 (three years ago)

Better dead than red

St. Twel'mo, or the Cuneiform Cyclopedist of Chattanooga (President Keyes), Monday, 11 October 2021 03:15 (three years ago)

more like david whore (for us imperialism)

Linda and Jodie Rocco (map), Monday, 11 October 2021 14:37 (three years ago)

So people are still doing the parentheses, huh

St. Twel'mo, or the Cuneiform Cyclopedist of Chattanooga (President Keyes), Monday, 11 October 2021 14:42 (three years ago)

the thing this guys needs to understand is the reason dems dont do popular economic things is because they dont want to

― lag∞n, Sunday, October 10, 2021 5:58 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

i would like to add and they dont care about winning

lag∞n, Monday, 11 October 2021 14:45 (three years ago)

right so the evidence here is that the polls showed people were content and didn't want much to change throughout the period between 1979 and 2021 https://t.co/lr1nAQPez0

— 'Weird Alex' Pareene (@pareene) October 12, 2021

certified juice therapist (harbl), Tuesday, 12 October 2021 13:51 (three years ago)

73 to 90 percent of people answered the phone and told a stranger that things were going ok

certified juice therapist (harbl), Tuesday, 12 October 2021 13:52 (three years ago)

"How's it going?"

"Uh, okay."

"Thanks for your input!"

St. Twel'mo, or the Cuneiform Cyclopedist of Chattanooga (President Keyes), Tuesday, 12 October 2021 14:22 (three years ago)

love to use a poll about peoples personal lives to make some sort of... point?

lag∞n, Tuesday, 12 October 2021 14:22 (three years ago)

if Matthew Yglesias called to ask me a question for a poll I'd hang up and call the NSA.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 October 2021 14:26 (three years ago)

i know there are ppl here who like him but over and over he shows himself to be incompetent and i don't get it. i mean there are reliable statistics available that indicate whether things are or are not going well for people, that would not require them to respond to a survey. many people who are not doing well in a material sense might also say they don't want things to change, and there are interesting things to be said about this phenomenon but nah, people are just "contented" and "change averse." it's their nature as americans, couldn't be that it's a very common way of handling immiseration.

certified juice therapist (harbl), Tuesday, 12 October 2021 15:17 (three years ago)

he is so lazy ive read a couple of his substacks and i really just couldnt believe what i was seeing, good work if you can get it i guess

lag∞n, Tuesday, 12 October 2021 15:19 (three years ago)

one billion americans, though. who else is thinking that big

mookieproof, Tuesday, 12 October 2021 15:25 (three years ago)

me, check this out: two billion americans

lag∞n, Tuesday, 12 October 2021 15:27 (three years ago)

spitting at the sight of this

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FClY0nsXMAcZufL?format=jpg&name=large

lag∞n, Tuesday, 26 October 2021 00:17 (three years ago)

what?

— Sir Loin of Beef (@SotoAlfred) October 25, 2021

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 26 October 2021 00:18 (three years ago)

Waiting for a politician to have a Soulja Boy moment

Chappies banging dustbin lids together (President Keyes), Tuesday, 26 October 2021 02:13 (three years ago)

in these challenging times for our nation im calling upon president biden to step up and superman that hoe

lag∞n, Tuesday, 26 October 2021 02:32 (three years ago)

lol

mens rea activist (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 26 October 2021 03:26 (three years ago)

My theory is that white folks try to tattletale to the media employers of black folks (like Matty Yce tried it on me last week) on the theory that the white people in charge honestly don't know what the Negroes are running around saying.

— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) October 29, 2021

Chappies banging dustbin lids together (President Keyes), Saturday, 30 October 2021 17:19 (three years ago)

tried to figure out what happened but matty has his tweets on auto delete

lag∞n, Saturday, 30 October 2021 17:24 (three years ago)

i tried https://polititweet.org/figure?account=15446531 but don't want to spend time on it, you might

certified juice therapist (harbl), Saturday, 30 October 2021 17:50 (three years ago)

I think Matty was upset about some of these replies though his own tweets are gone now:

I know hurting white feelings is a big no-no on your feed, but I have literally no time for the white use of the word "riot" especially as it was used in the context of the Floyd protests. The violent/nonviolent distinction whites use to drive a wedge here is tiresome.

— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) October 21, 2021

Chappies banging dustbin lids together (President Keyes), Saturday, 30 October 2021 17:50 (three years ago)

i think it was this column https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/democrats-election-shor/

certified juice therapist (harbl), Saturday, 30 October 2021 17:58 (three years ago)

https://polititweet.org/tweet?account=15446531&tweet=1451257638990323712
https://polititweet.org/tweet?account=15446531&tweet=1451301248938938374
https://polititweet.org/tweet?account=15446531&tweet=1451313842697428998

too bad polititweet doesnt preserve images and threads but third one is where matt tags the employer i guess

lag∞n, Saturday, 30 October 2021 18:06 (three years ago)

I saw that Elie Mystal tweet and thought he was talking about someone named Matty Weiss

jaymc, Saturday, 30 October 2021 23:09 (three years ago)

Have to admit, Matty's gotten better at the throwaway joke:

In addition to turnout, the big question in Virginia is which candidate do the voters vote for.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 2, 2021

Is this what the kids call a shitpost?

o. nate, Wednesday, 3 November 2021 01:06 (three years ago)

Revolting little cockroach

She would never do it, but easy opportunity here for Kamala Harris to say the SF DAs office was better when she was running it and become more popular.https://t.co/fjkW8MAYBA

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 9, 2021

I have no idea — maybe the way she ran the office was terrible and all of his changes have been for the better. But my guess is that *she* doesn’t think it was terrible, and it would improve her public image to make a public case for her way.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 10, 2021

papal hotwife (milo z), Wednesday, 10 November 2021 07:13 (three years ago)

the Real America expert has logged on

One thing I think you see here is that writers who live in New York City tend to underestimate the life of material abundance enjoyed by the typical person who living outside a high-cost metro and working in a more normal industry. https://t.co/ca1fd8zZgn

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 12, 2021

mookieproof, Friday, 12 November 2021 20:07 (three years ago)

The central funny/infuriating thing about this bit of would-be reverse snobbery is Yglesias was raised on velvet cushions inside a vitrine in New York City and Hamilton hails from Shithole, Fla. https://t.co/5jKsWs7d86

— Tom Scocca (@tomscocca) November 12, 2021

lag∞n, Friday, 12 November 2021 20:08 (three years ago)

The rough draft lyrics of “Walk On The Wild Side” needed some work.

papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, 12 November 2021 21:51 (three years ago)

three weeks pass...

I'm a fan of @mattyglesias' creativity on twitter.

— Ronald Klain (@WHCOS) December 3, 2021

jaymc, Friday, 3 December 2021 00:49 (three years ago)

fireable offense

lag∞n, Friday, 3 December 2021 01:31 (three years ago)

it's like watching a kid make a sculpture out of dog poop

Chappies banging dustbin lids together (President Keyes), Friday, 3 December 2021 15:26 (three years ago)

I don’t think the American left is going to get far until it can acknowledge that average living standards in this country are actually very high, and that’s the appropriate context in which to think about specific problems. https://t.co/Ma7JhPZD81

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) December 6, 2021

papal hotwife (milo z), Monday, 6 December 2021 05:23 (three years ago)

This stupid motherfucker.

papal hotwife (milo z), Monday, 6 December 2021 05:23 (three years ago)

1 admit living standards are high
2 ???
3 profit

lag∞n, Monday, 6 December 2021 13:05 (three years ago)

never think about specific problems like such as "this post doesn't even say the thing i'm responding to and my substack subscribers don't care"

towards fungal computer (harbl), Monday, 6 December 2021 13:15 (three years ago)

you know, in roman times they didn’t even have iphones

Tracer Hand, Monday, 6 December 2021 13:21 (three years ago)

this pareene essay from a few years ago is more or less a nice rebuttal to that way of thinking

https://thebaffler.com/salvos/consolation-prizes-pareene

k3vin k., Monday, 6 December 2021 13:27 (three years ago)

1 admit living standards are high
2 ???
3 profit

This is the key thing with him, at least as far as his Twitter presence goes - it’s hard to say he’s wrong, per se, as he’s too glib and vague for it to be clear what he’s actually arguing or what he would do differently.

You could spin out a wonk take that exaggeration of the US’ problems makes them seem more intractable than they might actually be, or that it makes middle-income voters who are doing ok think you’re alarmist, or encourages the tendency to pull up drawbridges…but he’s too lazy to do anything other than point to a graph and say ‘ah, seems like you might be incorrect’.

Scampo di tutti i Scampi (ShariVari), Monday, 6 December 2021 13:39 (three years ago)

in lieu of a better thread

I just assumed that American teachers discovered they like working at home and burnout was a device to allow them to do so.

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) December 8, 2021

mookieproof, Thursday, 9 December 2021 19:52 (three years ago)

You try teaching a bunch of first graders over zoom, Ms. McArdle. Remember, if any of them fail to learn the curriculum, it's YOUR FAULT.

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Thursday, 9 December 2021 19:54 (three years ago)

really the worst xp

mookieproof, Thursday, 9 December 2021 19:55 (three years ago)

she's so consistently a moron about everything

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 9 December 2021 19:58 (three years ago)

meggy mcglesias

towards fungal computer (harbl), Thursday, 9 December 2021 19:58 (three years ago)

I think pretty much everyone who has had the option of working from home has discovered that it has some pretty nice side benefits. Wouldn't be surprised if the same was true for teachers.

o. nate, Thursday, 9 December 2021 20:08 (three years ago)

no. nate

mookieproof, Thursday, 9 December 2021 20:13 (three years ago)

the three teachers I know well couldn't stand it and said it was the worst year of their career

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 9 December 2021 20:14 (three years ago)

as a parent, having to endure the cacophony of 30 elementary kids on zoom was terrible even for a few minutes

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 9 December 2021 20:15 (three years ago)

I dont know maybe teachers are the one group of people in the world who don't like sleeping in and saving an hour or more of commute time every day.

o. nate, Thursday, 9 December 2021 20:17 (three years ago)

says the man who has never discussed his hypothesis with a teacher

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Thursday, 9 December 2021 20:20 (three years ago)

So if teachers hate ZOOM so much how does having more ZOOM help burnout?

o. nate, Thursday, 9 December 2021 20:21 (three years ago)

it doesn't

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Thursday, 9 December 2021 20:25 (three years ago)

megan makes matt look normal

lag∞n, Thursday, 9 December 2021 20:26 (three years ago)

I taught college students over Zoom for two semesters. Not the same experience as teaching kids obv, and while I didn't loathe it I would never do it again unless compelled to.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 9 December 2021 20:36 (three years ago)

my friend that taught special ed was depressed all year, it just didn't work and the kids were all from a pretty low income urban district, he just started losing kids as it went on, they had so many technical difficulties because it was hard for some of them

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 9 December 2021 20:39 (three years ago)

I dont know maybe teachers are the one group of people in the world who don't like sleeping in and saving an hour or more of commute time every day.

In exchange for having to corral 30 children and listen to them scream over your iMac speakers all day.

It's a bit different if your WFH experience is a couple of zoom meetings with adults and typing in Excel while you listen to podcasts.

papal hotwife (milo z), Thursday, 9 December 2021 20:50 (three years ago)

are we really have this convo based on a mcardle tweet???

rob, Thursday, 9 December 2021 20:51 (three years ago)

now the convo is based more on o. nate's posts. megan's idiot tweet was just the catalyst.

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Thursday, 9 December 2021 20:56 (three years ago)

rob
Posted: December 9, 2021 at 3:51:26 PM
are we really have this convo based on a mcardle tweet???

see what these freaks do to us

lag∞n, Thursday, 9 December 2021 20:57 (three years ago)

Yeah, I would say, *I* like working from home way more than my friends who are teachers like working from home. Among people I know, teachers are among those who like it least.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 9 December 2021 20:58 (three years ago)

You could spin out a wonk take that exaggeration of the US’ problems makes them seem more intractable than they might actually be
― Scampo di tutti i Scampi (ShariVari), Monday, December 6, 2021 8:39 AM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I believe this is absolutely the case, alarmist media (mainstream or social) tend to overlook how well americans have it compared to the rest of the world. Any acknowledgement of that fact only gets you scorn from populists.

Van Horn Street, Thursday, 9 December 2021 21:36 (three years ago)

the original quoted tweet was not about income and that, among his other bad qualities, is why he was scorned and will continue to be scorned unless he shapes up

towards fungal computer (harbl), Thursday, 9 December 2021 22:00 (three years ago)

When it comes to many things outside of standards of living metrics, say stuff like quality of life and civil rights, US remains one of the best countries to live in. Not saying there isn’t room for improvement, there is obviously much to work on. But if the US is a dystopia, what is the DRC?

Van Horn Street, Thursday, 9 December 2021 22:10 (three years ago)

in terms of quality of life and civil rights, the US is certainly in the top four of the four countries i've lived in, it's true.

𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Thursday, 9 December 2021 22:11 (three years ago)

Ah, the old "well you could live in Ethiopia during the famine, quitcherbitchin"

papal hotwife (milo z), Thursday, 9 December 2021 22:38 (three years ago)

this is so pointless to argue about. literally a 2 a.m. throwaway tweet.

towards fungal computer (harbl), Thursday, 9 December 2021 22:44 (three years ago)

haha i just read what megan mggargle was responding to. it's hard to understand what burnout is when you've never had a real job. it's not "having the hardest job," ffs

towards fungal computer (harbl), Thursday, 9 December 2021 22:51 (three years ago)

Ah, the old "well you could live in Ethiopia during the famine, quitcherbitchin"

― papal hotwife (milo z), Thursday, December 9, 2021 5:38 PM (thirty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Not saying there isn’t room for improvement, there is obviously much to work on.

Van Horn Street, Thursday, 9 December 2021 23:11 (three years ago)

Mcardle obviously not worth responding to, the whole exchange mainly highlights goldfish-brain in media. It was less than five years ago that K-12 educators throughout the country engaged in mass labor action around the decade-long perpetuation of 2008 austerity policies. There’s also been a notable backlash from teachers against the neoliberal/charterization policy that both parties have embraced since the 90s, and the Democratic Party has attempted to distance itself from some of Obama’s trademark ed policies.

This is pretty relevant context! The idea that schoolworkers mysteriously started acting out because of the pandemic just shows media folks’ total inability to focus on anything other than the shiny object in front of them.

intheblanks, Friday, 10 December 2021 03:07 (three years ago)

US rates considerably higher in terms of quality of life and civil rights in the imagination of both its population and (crucially) the world population than it does in reality, thinking ppl underrate it on those counts is prime evidence of living in a bubble.

Daniel_Rf, Friday, 10 December 2021 10:15 (three years ago)

Yes, the US is not ‘the greatest place on earth’ like some republicans will want you to believe. Yes, there’s a (relatively small) bunch of countries that offer better of qualify of life to its citizens. But the gap is so large with so many of the other countries that cries of misery or dystopia rings extremely out of touch with reality.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 12:40 (three years ago)

did you know that the united states has the largest prison population and that its police kill and abuse with impunity

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 12:43 (three years ago)

responding to someone saying that the usa has many dystopian qualities by pointing out that it has a relatively high standard of living is not only a non sequitur its also you know uh possessing many of the qualities typically associated with sociopathy

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 12:50 (three years ago)

its also as far as the political geniuses like matty go just not a good political argument, reminiscent of hillary gift shops america is already great hat, check out the country wrong track polling number if you dont belive me, also just check out the country lol

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 12:53 (three years ago)

The definition of dystopia is that every aspect of society is catastrophically terrible, of course I understand it’s hyperbolic, the point made still sounds like first world privilege crying. I find it’s a description of the US that does not fit my experience with nations in which things are much closer to catastrophically terrible than the US, nor with the US itself.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 12:59 (three years ago)

anyone who cant see that the usa creates tremendous suffering for a vast number of people worldwide and at home and is currently in grave danger of getting much worse absolutely has their head up their ass or is benefiting from said suffering or some combination of the two

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 13:05 (three years ago)

i mean why would people think this looks like dystopia when they have large clothes driers (on average)

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/07/31/magazine/31onphoto1/31mag-31onphoto-t_CA0-videoSixteenByNineJumbo1600.jpg

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 13:10 (three years ago)

look at the vast selections of food available you whiners

https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5c3e10b2f92c694343cc71b9/4:3/w_1424,h_1068,c_limit/Rosner-Fast-Food-Trump.jpg

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 13:12 (three years ago)

Ah yes, police interrupting protests using violence, an uniquely american experience.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 13:12 (three years ago)

The last time I ate a quarter pounder was a dystopic experience.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 10 December 2021 13:14 (three years ago)

you should be thankful to live here and be a rich blogger

https://i.redd.it/c6ft6k1tuli51.jpg

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 13:14 (three years ago)

Ah yes, police interrupting protests using violence, an uniquely american experience.

― Van Horn Street, Friday, December 10, 2021 8:12 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

this argument is not quite as clever as you think, and does fwiw contradict your previous one

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 13:16 (three years ago)

The definition of dystopia is that every aspect of society is catastrophically terrible, of course I understand it’s hyperbolic, the point made still sounds like first world privilege crying. I find it’s a description of the US that does not fit my experience with nations in which things are much closer to catastrophically terrible than the US, nor with the US itself.

― Van Horn Street, Friday, December 10, 2021 7:59 AM (sixteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

if you understand it then why are you arguing with no one here

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 13:18 (three years ago)

pointing out the U.S.'s problems is not first world privilege ffs. NO ONE knows what the tweet was actually about but if it was about being #1 in school shootings or incarceration that would not be "privilege"

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 13:20 (three years ago)

that definition of dystopia is such a lame attempt to not engage with what people are saying too lol

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 13:23 (three years ago)

our already imperfect democracy is clearly eroding further to the point that we are in obvious danger of becoming a fully authoritarian state

shut up you baby put your clothes in the big expensive drier

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 13:25 (three years ago)

I just find the notion insulting to all the people who live in conditions that are much much worse than what the average american get to live, and that happens to be the vast majority of the world. I just think the rethoric is a populist device that is detached from reality (things like quality of life and standards of living are measured, the US is doing very well).

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 13:29 (three years ago)

xpost i mean at least a comment about the definition is responsive in a way that "well actually the income/quality of life (whatever that means) is higher than everywhere" is not, but that definition is also so extreme that it would like never be OK to say the word in this context

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 13:29 (three years ago)

i'm pretty sure kate aronoff is aware of that and was frustrated about something at 2 a.m., i'm not sure why you haven't considered that

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 13:30 (three years ago)

the people saying these things might actually care about the suffering of their fellow humans worldwide, rather than just using them for a dismissive rhetorical device, something to think about

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 13:32 (three years ago)

because of course a huge issue with the usa is its responsible for a lot of that suffering

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 13:33 (three years ago)

yes, it's dystopic

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 13:35 (three years ago)

I don’t think she is the only one using that sort of doom/dystopia rethoric. I just agree with Yglesias that the left shouldn’t engage with that sort of thinking. Any domestic problem in the US is of its own making, most nations on earth don’t have the luxury to solve problems in that way.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 13:40 (three years ago)

Anecdotally the ppl I know who come from the countries that are worst off in terms of living conditions would actually enthusiastically agree with the statement "the UK is a dystopia" because, being mostly undocumented migrants, they have experienced its dystopian elements more than myself or anyone on this thread. Pretty sure that'd be the same for the US.

Daniel_Rf, Friday, 10 December 2021 13:41 (three years ago)

how dare you use the bad word

https://i.imgur.com/u3hBxgk.png

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 13:42 (three years ago)

just glad being ruled by sinister mega corporations is something that only happens in scifi

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 13:43 (three years ago)

hey that looks like a useful word to describe many aspects of the american experience

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 13:44 (three years ago)

The reason the US feels dystopian is because of the massive disparities between rich and poor and between racialized groups. Appealing to averages misses the point--what's infuriating and depressing about the place is that there is a ton of money sloshing around that could be used to help people (see the just passed defense bill) and that certain classes of people do enjoy civil rights while others do not. That America is not North Korea isn't particularly relevant when considering Black teenagers spending months or years in Rikers without a trial or immigrant detention or etc.

Also, merriam says the "essential" definition of dystopia = "an imaginary place where people are unhappy and usually afraid because they are not treated fairly"; there are parts of the US that are undeniably captured by that description.

I would also say that dealing with the privatized health care system can indeed feel dystopian in a classic literary, Kafkaesque way

rob, Friday, 10 December 2021 13:45 (three years ago)

sorry bit of an xpost

rob, Friday, 10 December 2021 13:45 (three years ago)

Any domestic problem in the US is of its own making, most nations on earth don’t have the luxury to solve problems in that way.

― Van Horn Street, Friday, December 10, 2021 8:40 AM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

jolly good ill just get on that then, oh the police seem to be hitting me now, but thats ok its normal no worries im sure well get to the bottom of this in no time

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 13:47 (three years ago)

it does feel luxurious to be able to solve these domestic problems that i made all by myself

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 13:52 (three years ago)

Also, merriam says the "essential" definition of dystopia = "an imaginary place where people are unhappy and usually afraid because they are not treated fairly"; there are parts of the US that are undeniably captured by that description.

Absolutely, but in my experience unhapiness, fear and injustice are even higher in second and third world countries. Also, the fact that americans itt are mainly talking about problems happening americans society atm and not the specific problems plaguing other nations, as if the barometer was their own culture/nation/society is telling.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 13:58 (three years ago)

We have done a magnificent job in the last century inflicting problems on other nations.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 10 December 2021 13:59 (three years ago)

if someone is suffering they shouldnt complain if someone somewhere else is suffering worse, only the most suffering guy can complain, then when he dies its next man up

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 14:02 (three years ago)

we need to get this important message to all the people rotting in american jails for selling a crack rock in 1992

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 14:04 (three years ago)

yeah i'm wondering when it's appropriate to talk about our own country's problems

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 14:05 (three years ago)

sir did you know saudi jails are actually much worse than this now please shut up ok

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 14:05 (three years ago)

Saying that the US is not a dystopia is not saying that the US is an utopia.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 14:06 (three years ago)

you are extremely frustrating

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 14:07 (three years ago)

Certainly not as much as having to deal with american-centric views 24/7 for a whole life.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 14:12 (three years ago)

Sounds pretty...dystopian

rob, Friday, 10 December 2021 14:14 (three years ago)

lol i wasnt going to bring up that you were canadian but now that you have well yeah i can understand why you might be annoyed obvs but your arguments in this thread dont go much further than that and are on their merits extremely poor

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 14:17 (three years ago)

there's america-centric and there's "on topic." i'd like to live in a less america-centric world too. when i think about how america's *average* standard of living got to be so much higher than everyone else's i feel a little bit sick, tbh.

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 14:23 (three years ago)

Sounds pretty...dystopian

― rob, Friday, December 10, 2021 9:14 AM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

If the sentence was ‘the US sometimes imposes dystopia on other nations’ then yes, I would agree.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 14:26 (three years ago)

and on its own citizens too, good im glad we could all agree on this very obvious truth

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 14:28 (three years ago)

Can't really complain about American-centric thinking, 100% no reason for anyone outside the US to have even the most cursory knowledge of a complete non-entity like Matthew Yglesias unless you're already complicit in talking too much about America.

Part of the problem myself ofc

Daniel_Rf, Friday, 10 December 2021 14:35 (three years ago)

Then almost everything in the world today and in history has been a dystopia. I don’t get the point of the singling out the US.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 14:36 (three years ago)

uh oh lol

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 14:37 (three years ago)

The point is that the US propaganda machine continues to successfully spin it as the best of all possible worlds to its own population and the world population at large.

Daniel_Rf, Friday, 10 December 2021 14:37 (three years ago)

Ok, the thread has convinced me that using the dytopiometer to measure nation-states is a bit pointless, but I am curious VHS: what do you make of a place like Canada whose unarguably high quality of life is based on past and present forms of colonialist extraction both within and without Canada? How would you describe that situation? Dystopia doesn't seem right to me either, but how would you describe a society that achieves such comfort by stealing land, poisoning the atmosphere, exploiting global labour, etc.? There are classic fictional dystopias that are hierarchical in this exact manner.

I mean, I guess I'm saying "earth is a dystopia" which is maybe a bit absurd too, but idk (lol xp)

rob, Friday, 10 December 2021 14:39 (three years ago)

I don’t get the point of the singling out the US.

i don't either, good thing no one has done this here

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 14:41 (three years ago)

The point is that the US propaganda machine continues to successfully spin it as the best of all possible worlds to its own population and the world population at large.

― Daniel_Rf, Friday, December 10, 2021 9:37 AM (three minutes ago)

This is very true, and I do wonder if non-Americans can fully grasp the torrent of American exceptionalism that is pumped into you from a young age. That VHS said "Republicans" are the ones who primarily do this says a lot to me

rob, Friday, 10 December 2021 14:43 (three years ago)

the reason people call america dystopian is because it resembles one if those movies, hope this helps, its not actually that deep… but also it kind of is

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 14:45 (three years ago)

people have speakers in their home that listen to and record everything they say, why are we even arguing about this

rob, Friday, 10 December 2021 14:48 (three years ago)

yes but their quality of life is good

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 14:52 (three years ago)

but for how long? amazon echo / google voice / siri / alexa / VR / smart speakers ~~THINK ABT IT~~

rob, Friday, 10 December 2021 14:55 (three years ago)

just reading the isaac chotiner interview with enes kanter and his arguments are basically verbatim what VHS is saying

Heez, Friday, 10 December 2021 15:00 (three years ago)

Ok, the thread has convinced me that using the dytopiometer to measure nation-states is a bit pointless, but I am curious VHS: what do you make of a place like Canada whose unarguably high quality of life is based on past and present forms of colonialist extraction both within and without Canada? How would you describe that situation? Dystopia doesn't seem right to me either, but how would you describe a society that achieves such comfort by stealing land, poisoning the atmosphere, exploiting global labour, etc.? There are classic fictional dystopias that are hierarchical in this exact manner.

I mean, I guess I'm saying "earth is a dystopia" which is maybe a bit absurd too, but idk (lol xp)

― rob, Friday, December 10, 2021 9:39 AM (twenty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

It's colonialism, which sucks and should be prevented as much as possible. I worked a lot with victims of the residential school system over the past two years, I am well aware of the horrific origins of my standards of living. If the sentence is 'Being a FNIM in Canada is a dystopia' I would agree, if it were 'Canada is a dystopia' then no, it isn't.

Also people outside of the US are very aware of American exceptionalism, thinking we wouldn't be is condescending (in a very american way). I just believe that the problems Americans are facing are standard problems most societies have to deal with, the only unique thing is exceptionalism distorts the image.

That americans happen to deal with these problems with an accumulated wealth and power that places them among the luckiest of the world, if the nation decides to vote Trump and a dumb wealth tax instead of building a health care system, it is the fault of americans, it doesn't change the fact that being born american is mostly having won the lottery.

That there is a reason why Bangladeshis move to the US and Americans don't move to the Bangladesh, yes, foreign policy has a large horrific impact on Bangladesh but its citizens are not stupid enough to think that life is Bangladesh is better than in the US, it has nothing to do with American 'propaganda', they are smart, they have the made the calculus, it's just, life in the US is better, and it might be for reasons an american with no experience living in Bangladesh won't understand.

That saying the US is a better place than most of the world is neither absolving US of its domestic problems (I am firmly in the single payer health care and no guns camp) or its horrendous foreign policy.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 15:33 (three years ago)

i think it's condescending that you aren't reading the posts of anyone who is arguing with you

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 15:59 (three years ago)

That would be inconvenient to the shite he wants to post

mardheamac (gyac), Friday, 10 December 2021 16:01 (three years ago)

That americans happen to deal with these problems with an accumulated wealth and power that places them among the luckiest of the world, if the nation decides to vote Trump and a dumb wealth tax instead of building a health care system, it is the fault of americans, it doesn't change the fact that being born american is mostly having won the lottery.

like this is ridiculous. which americans have the benefit of the accumulated wealth and power? which decided not to build a health care system? i didn't decide to have a senate, or an electoral college, or a cabal of catholics who are going to decide i don't have a constitutional right to an abortion.

go ahead and tell me the definition of cabal next though

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 16:04 (three years ago)

I mean maybe all countries are utter shit for quite a swathe of people, or maybe Americans living somewhere where school shootings are routine, healthcare is the most common form of bankruptcy, and the government throws the money needed to solve the preceding problems on its army might look at other developed countries where these things don’t happen and draw the obvious conclusion, it’s a choice and the choice is for US citizens to suffer. And that’s not even touching on foreign policy. But sure, tell them they have first world problems and should be more grateful. Cunt.

mardheamac (gyac), Friday, 10 December 2021 16:05 (three years ago)

Wonder which lottery Tamir Rice won

mardheamac (gyac), Friday, 10 December 2021 16:06 (three years ago)

i live in baltimore. i think i'm going to take a walk to johns hopkins hospital (a non-profit health care system that is extremely predatory and has a history of unethical human experimentation) and tell all the lead-poisoned children in the neighborhood how fortunate they are. oh but i'm not saying the US doesn't have domestic problems! ok then why do you object to people talking about them?

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 16:08 (three years ago)

I mean, tell me this wasn’t completely insane and don’t they still not have clean water there?!

mardheamac (gyac), Friday, 10 December 2021 16:11 (three years ago)

come to the Mississippi delta VHS I will show you dystopia

caddy lac brougham? (will), Friday, 10 December 2021 16:14 (three years ago)

somehow now the definition is that it's only dystopia for the people who are doing badly, which is confusing given that it contains "topia"

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 16:17 (three years ago)

it's been consistently like 20 degrees above F the norm here for most of the month, I'd call that just by itself dystopian , nevermind the daily mass murder.

A Pile of Ants (Boring, Maryland), Friday, 10 December 2021 16:17 (three years ago)

Lots of folks back East, they say, is leavin' home every day
Beatin' the hot old dusty way to the California line.
'Cross the desert sands they roll,
Gettin' out of that old dust bowl
They think they're goin' to a sugar bowl
but here's what they find...
Now, the police at the port of entry say:
"You're number fourteen thousand for today!"

[Chorus]
Oh, if you ain't got the do-re-mi, boys
If you ain't got the do-re-mi
You better go back to beautiful Texas
Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee.

California is a garden of Eden,
A paradise to live in or see!
But believe it or not
you won't find it so hot
If you ain't got the do-re-mi

[Verse 2]
You want to buy you a home or a farm, that can't deal nobody harm
Or take your vacation by the mountains or sea
But don't swap your old cow for a car
You better stay right where you are
You better take this little tip from me
'Cause I look through the want ads every day.
And the headlines on the papers always say...

[Chorus]
If you ain't got the do-re-mi, boys
If you ain't got the do-re-mi
You better go back to beautiful Texas
Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee.

California is a garden of Eden,
A paradise to live in or see!
But believe it or not
you won't find it so hot
If you ain't got the do-re-mi

Tracer Hand, Friday, 10 December 2021 16:19 (three years ago)

ok then why do you object to people talking about them?

― towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, December 10, 2021 11:08 AM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I never objected to americans talking about their problems. Just objecting to the notion that the US is a terrible place to live in. The ironic thing now is the constant listing of problems in the US when the point is that if you take any international standard the US does actually well. I don't know, read about other countries or travel. There's a world out there.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 16:19 (three years ago)

lol

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 16:23 (three years ago)

Taking Flint's water problem as an example of the US being a terrible place to live in when the US still ranks way above most nations when it comes to clean water and water security is exactly the sort of short-sightedness I'm talking about.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 16:26 (three years ago)

I suppose even when it comes to be flawed americans need a way to feel exceptional.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 16:28 (three years ago)

I’m not American you fucking weapon. You couldn’t even pay me to live there.

mardheamac (gyac), Friday, 10 December 2021 16:30 (three years ago)

no one is arguing the proposition that "the US is a terrible place to live in." that would be a broad generalization just like it would be to say that everyone in the US has clean drinking water.

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 16:31 (three years ago)

It’s ok that the richest country in the world has huge problems because at least you weren’t born somewhere else. Was that about it? Can’t imagine the nuke stockpile is of much comfort to people living below the poverty line.

mardheamac (gyac), Friday, 10 December 2021 16:33 (three years ago)

any international standard

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate

Also people outside of the US are very aware of American exceptionalism, thinking we wouldn't be is condescending (in a very american way).

Was this in response to my post about the torrent of American exceptionalism? If so, thank you for the textbook bad-faith reading of what I was saying. I wasn't born in the US and I've lived in Canada for 7+ years now, so I think I can with some authority assert that there are aspects of national acculturation that cannot be vicariously experienced, like being compelled to recite the pledge of allegiance every morning for years of my life. Of course I'm not shocked non-Americans are aware that that happens, but actually have to do it is different, no?

rob, Friday, 10 December 2021 16:35 (three years ago)

i can't get over the accusations of condescension coupled with the instruction to "read about other countries"

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 16:37 (three years ago)

The you-should-be-grateful types aren’t actually interested in anything getting better anywhere.

mardheamac (gyac), Friday, 10 December 2021 16:40 (three years ago)

If the sentence is 'Being a FNIM in Canada is a dystopia' I would agree, if it were 'Canada is a dystopia' then no, it isn't.

Again, I basically agree that saying "Canada is a dystopia" is a bit self-aggrandizing for a white settler, but my question was: what do you call it? Obviously I'm not expecting you to say "utopia," but how do you characterize a society marked by such devastating inequality, even if you, personally, are on the lucky side of the inequity? If FNIM experienced colonization as an apocalypse, what does it mean to live comfortably in their post-apocalypse?

Was the antebellum south not a dystopia?

rob, Friday, 10 December 2021 16:44 (three years ago)

notwithstanding our high average yearly income and high standard of living relative to other countries we are still living with the whole antebellum south thing with the school board members and teachers getting death threats over teaching about it

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 16:54 (three years ago)

Considering most societies have and are being marked by large devastating inequality and injustice, I just take it as the norm. So I just call it society. Within that norm, the US does well. I believe that americans and people from the West in general take a lot of stuff for granted. Having lived in a country where often there is no sewage system, were being a woman means being forced married at an early age, were access to vaccination is probably still a year away at best and where the actual best prospect for your kids is moving to the US (despite all its flaws) with people begging me to help them doing so almost every day, it just sounds disgusting when a white american calls their nation 'a dystopia', I'm pushing back against that, it's the same self-aggrandizing sentiment from the white settler in Canada but the relationship is between rich and poor nations instead. Also, I misunderstood your post about exceptionalism, I am sorry about that, there was no bad faith there.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 16:56 (three years ago)

xpost to rob

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 16:57 (three years ago)

so tonight, thank God it's them instead of you

Daniel_Rf, Friday, 10 December 2021 17:29 (three years ago)

Was the antebellum south not a dystopia?

Wasn't apartheid a dystopian system? Given that the South basically operated under the same system for a century postbellum, it seems pretty clear that both are dystopian.

Was Brave New World dystopian? Anyone read Always Coming Home by Le Guin? It presents the strongest perspective on modern America being an ecological dystopia that I've seen.

recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Friday, 10 December 2021 17:42 (three years ago)

I do think the reason the issue can be so emotionally fraught is largely based on the rapidly changing expectations for America's prognosis. My take is that much of our emotional state is based on changes in future expectations.

recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Friday, 10 December 2021 17:48 (three years ago)

I was thinking about Le Guin too, specifically The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. Naturally she should have conceived of a VHS type for the story to pop up and scold the child and go “you have no idea how good you have it, you could be in Bangladesh”.

mardheamac (gyac), Friday, 10 December 2021 17:49 (three years ago)

lol "technically its not a dystopia"

plax (ico), Friday, 10 December 2021 17:50 (three years ago)

also lol at complaining on a thread about two american pundits that yr sick of things being so america-centric

plax (ico), Friday, 10 December 2021 17:54 (three years ago)

Naturally she should have conceived of a VHS type for the story to pop up and scold the child and go “you have no idea how good you have it, you could be in Bangladesh”.

No she shouldn't, because she's a great writer and she lets the story itself do that

Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 10 December 2021 17:57 (three years ago)

See also her classic "The New Atlantis"

https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-new-atlantis/

Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 10 December 2021 17:58 (three years ago)

I've seen The One Who Walk Away From Omelas referenced quite a bit lately. I should read it again, it's been awhile. I don't think I've read The New Atlantis yet either so thanks eephus!

Always Coming Home is novel-length but it's not really a novel, more like an anthropological study of society in northern California, post-ecological collapse. It's a challenging read, I wouldn't highly recommend it to normals for sure. The way the characters talk about modern America really is horrific tho, I remember one description of a freeway that made me want to never drive again. I don't think freeways themselves are definitively dystopian but I do think the overall level of environmental destruction cooked into American society is pretty fucked.

recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Friday, 10 December 2021 18:02 (three years ago)

_ Naturally she should have conceived of a VHS type for the story to pop up and scold the child and go “you have no idea how good you have it, you could be in Bangladesh”._

No she shouldn't, because she's a great writer and she lets the story itself do that


I don’t think you understood my post.

mardheamac (gyac), Friday, 10 December 2021 18:11 (three years ago)

The New Atlantis:

He said, “Behavior mod is expensive. Even just the drugs. They save it mostly for the VIPs. But I’m afraid they got a notion I might be important after all. I got questioned a lot the last couple of months. About my ‘foreign contacts.’” He snorted. “The stuff that got published abroad, I suppose. So I want to be careful and make sure it’s just a Camp again next time, and not a Federal Hospital.”

“Simon, were they . . . are they cruel, or just righteous?”

He did not answer for a while. He did not want to answer. He knew what I was asking. He knew by what thread hangs hope, the sword, above our heads.

That last bit, that's what I was trying to get at with my blather about 'expectations'.

recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Friday, 10 December 2021 18:29 (three years ago)

The prosecution rests:

I’ve never been more ashamed to be an American. pic.twitter.com/jkeWa0bzQD

— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) December 9, 2021

rob, Friday, 10 December 2021 18:44 (three years ago)

ive millions of computers surveilling me no access to health care and a sitting president who btw is an absolute technicolor freak attempted a coup this shit is fucking dystopian dude

yglesias, van horn, and enes "freedom" kanter: no no no no no no no

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 18:56 (three years ago)

ive millions of computers surveilling me no access to health care and a sitting president who btw is an absolute technicolor freak attempted a coup this shit is fucking dystopian dude

The word utopia was coined in 1516 from Ancient Greek by the Englishman Sir Thomas More for his Latin text Utopia. It literally translates as “no place”, coming from the Greek: οὐ (“not”) and τόπος (“place”)

Every τόπος has elements of dysfunction, so if all that is required to define a place as a dystopia is naming several of its prominent (and very real) dysfunctions, then everywhere at any time is a dystopia. Arguing if the USA is "a dystopia" or not basically just comes down to which pile of attributes you poke at.

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Friday, 10 December 2021 19:21 (three years ago)

yeah totally man

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 19:24 (three years ago)

Oh hell yeah, Wonder Twins activate!

papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, 10 December 2021 19:24 (three years ago)

Seems to me that a) a great many Americans experience inadequate living conditions (often as the direct result of structural and institutional failures), b) the U.S. nevertheless has above-average living conditions compared to the rest of the world, and c) it is kind of dickish and missing-the-point to cite B in response to A, even if A is shorthanded with a specific word that you find hyperbolic and imprecise.

jaymc, Friday, 10 December 2021 19:26 (three years ago)

the usa is experiencing high levels of cyberpunk activity is how i break it down to an extent and i think everyone trying to make this into some lowest common denominator of deprivation is being disrespectful to the genre

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 19:29 (three years ago)

i mean it is deprivation but its deprivation with cyberpunk qualities, like the current crypto currency bubble, obviously very dystopian, the housing bubble of 2008? not that dystopian, its like you guys have never seen a movie

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 19:31 (three years ago)

ive millions of computers surveilling me no access to health care and a sitting president who btw is an absolute technicolor freak attempted a coup this shit is fucking dystopian dude

yglesias, van horn, and enes "freedom" kanter: no no no no no no no

― lag∞n, Friday, December 10, 2021 1:56 PM (fifty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

The whole world cries your predicament.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 19:54 (three years ago)

xposts it is tremendously dickish. not to mention that the offending tweet was already stated in relative terms and as an adjective (i.e., "how dystopian" like "to what degree is it LIKE a dystopia") and once you've acknowledged your understanding that it was hyperbole it seems unnecessary to continue to argue why it doesn't meet this or that definition but that was hundreds of posts ago.

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 19:55 (three years ago)

The whole world cries your predicament.

― Van Horn Street, Friday, December 10, 2021 2:54 PM (thirty-five seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol youre crying from everyone telling you your posts suck

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 19:56 (three years ago)

good post, jaymc

to lagoon's point:

pic.twitter.com/P8sWID1Htu

— Edward Ongweso Jr (@bigblackjacobin) December 10, 2021

rob, Friday, 10 December 2021 19:58 (three years ago)

I am not responding to the idea that there isn’t any problems in the US, I’ve stated over and over that I recognise these problems, simply that I agree with Ygglesias that these gross exagerations lead to nothing good and I’m adding it sounds like first world problem crying. It’s a tendancy on both the populist left and right to describe the US as a quasi-failed state where absolutely nothing works and everything is a catastrophe, considering what some states elsewhere go through it sounds ignorant, but go ahead name me yet another problem the US is facing as if I was saying it didn’t exist and as if 75% of nations weren’t facing something similar but way on worse terms.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:09 (three years ago)

https://i.imgur.com/SbRrBLp.gif

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:11 (three years ago)

, considering what some states elsewhere go through it sounds ignorant

https://bfy.tw/P66l

papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, 10 December 2021 20:14 (three years ago)

imo the question 'is the US a dystopia' is unhelpful

the question should be 'what is bad, and what can be done'

imago, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:15 (three years ago)

read about other countries or travel. There's a world out there.

― Van Horn Street, Friday, December 10, 2021 11:19 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://i.imgur.com/RjXRH5I.png

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:18 (three years ago)

Yes and the ppl fixated with the former question are dickheads quibbling with how ppl phrase the latter xp

coombination gazza hut & scampo bell (wins), Friday, 10 December 2021 20:19 (three years ago)

these gross exagerations lead to nothing good

This seems pretty debatable to me? Or rather, there's no way to test this claim, so it's basically just a hunch to justify some tone policing. As a counterpoint, anti-abortion activists spent years screaming 'baby holocaust' and it seems to be working out for them

rob, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:22 (three years ago)

i will concede that other countries also experience dystopia

Holy shit why is this so terrifying lmao pic.twitter.com/4JY2mkOkqc

— ɐ͎ʞ͎ć͎ı͎ɹ͎ɐ͎ɯ͎ (@LeaMaric) December 5, 2021

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:23 (three years ago)

imo the question 'is the US a dystopia' is unhelpful

the question should be 'what is bad, and what can be done'

― imago, Friday, December 10, 2021 3:15 PM (twelve minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

100%

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:29 (three years ago)

You seemed very invested in this unhelpful question earlier but glad you will stfu now

coombination gazza hut & scampo bell (wins), Friday, 10 December 2021 20:31 (three years ago)

i agree its useless to ask if the usa is a dystopia, because thats a settled issue, it is a dystopia

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:31 (three years ago)

You seemed very invested in this unhelpful question earlier but glad you will stfu now

― coombination gazza hut & scampo bell (wins), Friday, December 10, 2021 3:31 PM (thirty-eight seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

Nah, I'll insist each and every time it is said or considered that the US is a 'terrible place to live'.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:33 (three years ago)

and i'll fp each and every time

Nedlene Grendel as Basenji Holmo (map), Friday, 10 December 2021 20:34 (three years ago)

WHICH NO ONE HAS SAID YOU ASS

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 20:35 (three years ago)

That tweet said it, I responded to the tweet.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:36 (three years ago)

ive said it before and ill say it again, if youre going to be condescending you gotta be smart, being condescending is such an affront that you really have to bring your A game, if youre condescending and dumb youre gonna hear about it, its just too much for people to bear

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:38 (three years ago)

the tweet didn't say the us is a terrible place to live it said People really underestimate how dystopian the United States is

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 20:38 (three years ago)

i think "People" might mean the People who say "waahhhh but the average income is this high look at this graph"

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 20:38 (three years ago)

isn't "condescending and dumb" the name of matty's substack blog

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 20:40 (three years ago)

lol should be, tho in his defense he has made quite a career out of it, good work if you dont mind people calling you a soulless moron every day, and also being a soulless moron every day

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:42 (three years ago)

no, you don't understand, that's the name of his dog

rob, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:43 (three years ago)

pretty incredible that yglesias began his career by supporting the iraq war and here we are 20 years later with him denying its effects, the story of national decline as told through one blogger

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:44 (three years ago)

Doing it on ilx for free is some sicko shit tho, what are you getting off holding a blue tick by your head and scattering pictures of a pig taking a shit around yourself

coombination gazza hut & scampo bell (wins), Friday, 10 December 2021 20:45 (three years ago)

the tweet didn't say the us is a terrible place to live it said People really underestimate how dystopian the United States is

― towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, December 10, 2021 3:38 PM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I doubt her conclusion is that the US is barely a dystopia.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:48 (three years ago)

Her conclusion is that US is more dystopian than people estimate which is unfalsifiable

coombination gazza hut & scampo bell (wins), Friday, 10 December 2021 20:51 (three years ago)

Unfalsifiable but also insulting to people elsewhere, as you can see in many tweets.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:52 (three years ago)

The US is a terrible place to live for a significant percentage of its population.

"other places are also bad" or "other places are also dystopian" are, shockingly, even less useful than "the US is a dystopia"

papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, 10 December 2021 20:53 (three years ago)

Your "making guillotine jokes about billionaires is insulting to the people of Algeria" schtick was better, IMO.

papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, 10 December 2021 20:54 (three years ago)

oh gosh i didnt know this was a repeat performance i wouldve just ignored it, this thread is my only interface with the ilx politics massive

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:55 (three years ago)

people underestimate how good i am at finding more than one thing to be bad

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 20:55 (three years ago)

Oh yeah that moment where you guys were cool with the death penalty and using the civil war imagery of other nations without reflecting on it. Another great moment in left ilxor Americana.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:56 (three years ago)

i know about more than 10 bad things

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:56 (three years ago)

Seems insulting to the 11th

coombination gazza hut & scampo bell (wins), Friday, 10 December 2021 20:57 (three years ago)

VHS right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IFcm4yu7QU

xyzzzz__, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:57 (three years ago)

you guys were cool with the death penalty

When it's royalty it's cool as hell. Kept hoping the Crown would end in an alternate timeline where Liz got the chop chop like Charles I.

papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, 10 December 2021 20:58 (three years ago)

You realise it wasn't just the royalty right?

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:59 (three years ago)

xp
Barbados missed a trick there tbh

rob, Friday, 10 December 2021 20:59 (three years ago)

one might ask about the motivation to take the word dystopia and the imagery of the guillotine super literally, but we dont have to ask its in order to scold

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 21:00 (three years ago)

everyone on ilx is American and poor VHS stands alone against the barbaric hordes

mardheamac (gyac), Friday, 10 December 2021 21:01 (three years ago)

imagine crying tears for the rich who’d sell you for parts without thinking about it? Couldn’t be me!

mardheamac (gyac), Friday, 10 December 2021 21:01 (three years ago)

pray 4 canada they dont know how to make their own tv shows

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 21:02 (three years ago)

Honestly when even the most dedicated simp for the ruling class is calling your defence of the status quo dickish

coombination gazza hut & scampo bell (wins), Friday, 10 December 2021 21:02 (three years ago)

What VHS is doing is pretty similar to Carlson in that monologue btw. 'Ignore the problems this is a beautiful place'.

xyzzzz__, Friday, 10 December 2021 21:03 (three years ago)

And not even American himself, inspiring, isn’t it?

mardheamac (gyac), Friday, 10 December 2021 21:04 (three years ago)

VHS backs the filibuster because he thinks "the nuclear option" actually involves an ICBM.

papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, 10 December 2021 21:04 (three years ago)

pray 4 canada they dont know how to make their own tv shows

― lag∞n, Friday, December 10, 2021 4:02 PM (two minutes ago)

ice cold, which is fitting

rob, Friday, 10 December 2021 21:05 (three years ago)

Kids in the Hall is brillant, to be fair.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 21:06 (three years ago)

'Ignore the problems this is a beautiful place'.

― xyzzzz__, Friday, December 10, 2021 4:03 PM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I am not going to watch a Tucker Carlson video but I never said to ignore the problems.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 21:11 (three years ago)

it's hyperbole

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 21:13 (three years ago)

I might be too neurodivergent to handle that much hyperbole all the time.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 21:14 (three years ago)

People's lives ruined by the state being described as exaggerations and 1st world problems xxp

xyzzzz__, Friday, 10 December 2021 21:15 (three years ago)

Kids in the Hall is brillant, to be fair.

― Van Horn Street, Friday, December 10, 2021 4:06 PM (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

one of my all time faves

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 21:25 (three years ago)

VHS, plz notice that you will make no headway in resolving this disagreement and it is not because you are failing to make your points, but rather because your points do not penetrate the carapace of the people who are still responding to you.

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Friday, 10 December 2021 21:30 (three years ago)

...Oh, so that's what's been happening itt, I see, I see (briskly turns and leaves)

Rep. Cobra Commander (R-TX) (Old Lunch), Friday, 10 December 2021 21:30 (three years ago)

Man I wish we could bottle whatever caused that

coombination gazza hut & scampo bell (wins), Friday, 10 December 2021 21:32 (three years ago)

lol

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 21:33 (three years ago)

i think his points are clear but stupid

plax (ico), Friday, 10 December 2021 21:41 (three years ago)

i also found them to be very clear. transparent even.

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 21:50 (three years ago)

VHS, plz notice that you will make no headway in resolving this disagreement and it is not because you are failing to make your points, but rather because your points do not penetrate the carapace of the people who are still responding to you.

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Friday, December 10, 2021 4:30 PM (sixteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah, I'm getting to that conclusion. Considering it comes from the usual people who seem to take pleasure in insulting other people instead of advancing a discussion, it doesn't matter much.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 21:53 (three years ago)

The good news is that most of them live in a country with very high standards of living.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 21:54 (three years ago)

I’m really sorry Aimless but I have a rare form of synaesthesia that causes me to hear all your posts as a long fart noise, so I can’t engage with whatever it is you’re saying :(

mardheamac (gyac), Friday, 10 December 2021 21:57 (three years ago)

Someone remind VHS how much he cares about Muslims when they happen to live in the same countries as the rest of us and can’t be used as props in an argument.

mardheamac (gyac), Friday, 10 December 2021 21:58 (three years ago)

You are making a lot of assumptions.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 22:01 (three years ago)

VHS, plz notice that you will make no headway in resolving this disagreement and it is not because you are failing to make your points, but rather because your points do not penetrate the carapace of the people who are still responding to you.

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Friday, December 10, 2021 4:30 PM (sixteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah, I'm getting to that conclusion. Considering it comes from the usual people who seem to take pleasure in insulting other people instead of advancing a discussion, it doesn't matter much.

― Van Horn Street, Friday, December 10, 2021 4:53 PM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

dont make me tap the if youre going to be condescending you have to be smart sign again

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 22:01 (three years ago)

No, I remember things you’ve posted. I don’t think anyone will have a more accurate take on you than lagoon though.

mardheamac (gyac), Friday, 10 December 2021 22:02 (three years ago)

(long wet fart for the aural entertainment of gyac)

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Friday, 10 December 2021 22:02 (three years ago)

oh now it's bad to make assumptions, from the guy who implied none of us care about people outside the U.S. and told us to travel

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 22:02 (three years ago)

Honestly when even the most dedicated simp for the ruling class is calling your defence of the status quo dickish

― coombination gazza hut & scampo bell (wins), Friday, December 10, 2021 3:02 PM (fifty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol is that me? I think I have some hang-ups about demonizing individuals, but I freely admit that the system is fucked

jaymc, Friday, 10 December 2021 22:04 (three years ago)

damn did u have to make it wet

rob, Friday, 10 December 2021 22:08 (three years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzhmy9YJBH0

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 22:10 (three years ago)

nothing is too good for gyac

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Friday, 10 December 2021 22:11 (three years ago)

Ha yep xps

these individuals = actual billionaires = the actual fucked system

But you are the reasonable one in this instance imo sorry to use you as the bar

coombination gazza hut & scampo bell (wins), Friday, 10 December 2021 22:11 (three years ago)

sometimes i feel we rely on crude binaries, the system and the individuals can both be bad

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 22:13 (three years ago)

dont make me tap the if youre going to be condescending you have to be smart sign again

― lag∞n, Friday, December 10, 2021 5:01 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

There is a particular sadness in being brought to call anonymous strangers stupid because you do not agree with them.

Good luck with the dystopia folks.

Van Horn Street, Friday, 10 December 2021 22:14 (three years ago)

were all stupid sometimes

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 22:15 (three years ago)

If we knew your name it wouldn’t make you less stupid

coombination gazza hut & scampo bell (wins), Friday, 10 December 2021 22:16 (three years ago)

only if you are going to be condescending

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 10 December 2021 22:17 (three years ago)

Staying out of this moronic clusterfuck except to say that that trampoline video was great, lagoon!

DJI, Friday, 10 December 2021 22:26 (three years ago)

lol ive watched it so many times

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 22:27 (three years ago)

reminded me of when I was visiting my sister last week and for reasons I can't remember, I got her two children to start chanting in unison TOTAL DOMINATION. It was alarmingly easy

rob, Friday, 10 December 2021 22:31 (three years ago)

classic uncle behavior

lag∞n, Friday, 10 December 2021 22:32 (three years ago)

imo the question 'is the US a dystopia' is unhelpful

the question should be 'what is bad, and what can be done'

― imago, Friday, December 10, 2021 3:15 PM (three hours ago)

i wash my hands of your DEMOLITION
DIE if you want to, you half-assed SHIT PUPPET

mookieproof, Saturday, 11 December 2021 00:19 (three years ago)

guy just think you could have been born on venus. it's over 800 degrees fahrenheit there. seriously, check your privilege

Tracer Hand, Saturday, 11 December 2021 00:53 (three years ago)

van horn street more like ban, scorn, yeet wow owned

class project pat (m bison), Saturday, 11 December 2021 01:33 (three years ago)

Anybody read this from ftgi a couple of days ago:

I have in recent years felt frustrated when I observe a difference of opinion turn heated, turn into a pile-on. I have felt a desire to express things with the intention of de-escalation, that in turn have been perceived that I’m “siding” with the person who is being excoriated— though the opposite is generally true, at times I’ve myself felt revulsion at what is being expressed by the person being excoriated. I’ve been seen as playing Devil’s Advocate when oftentimes I’m genuinely interested in the ideas and thought processes of people I fundamentally disagree with.

This tends to be a thing that has caused conflict for me irl. I’ve stated that I’m interested in learning about the psychology behind people who espouse viewpoints that I think are fundamentally wrong, as a way of better understanding them, and perhaps finding a way of gently convincing them. I wish the same for myself when my own opinions are in the wrong. I do not think escalating a disagreement into conflict teaches anybody anything. I think that escalation only causes certain individuals to become more entrenched in their viewpoints. I feel that this point of view is out of step with present-tense discourse both here and elsewhere online, and also oftentimes irl. This is not so much a comment on this board specifically but a general observation on present tense state of discourse, which includes discourse on this board.

DJI, Saturday, 11 December 2021 01:41 (three years ago)

https://i.imgur.com/bnDvjPk.jpg

lag∞n, Saturday, 11 December 2021 02:14 (three years ago)

i wash my hands of your DEMOLITION
DIE if you want to, you half-assed SHIT PUPPET

― mookieproof, Friday, December 10, 2021 7:19 PM bookmarkflaglink

i always appreciate you dropping Jesus Christ Superstar lyrics into threads

hopefully this review helped someone (Neanderthal), Saturday, 11 December 2021 02:15 (three years ago)

ffs if ilx isn't a safe space for white supremacists

let's make lunch and listen to five finger death punch (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 11 December 2021 02:17 (three years ago)

https://quotefancy.com/media/wallpaper/3840x2160/3033-Carl-Sagan-Quote-It-pays-to-keep-an-open-mind-but-not-so-open-your.jpg

towards fungal computer (harbl), Saturday, 11 December 2021 02:23 (three years ago)

He was high as giraffe pussy when he said that, though.

papal hotwife (milo z), Saturday, 11 December 2021 03:08 (three years ago)

lol that ftgi post is gonna become ILX's Exiting The Vampire Castle.

Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 11 December 2021 13:56 (three years ago)

Seems relevant.

What level of capitalism is this? pic.twitter.com/6BG7PrThiC

— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) December 10, 2021

xyzzzz__, Saturday, 11 December 2021 14:21 (three years ago)

lol that ftgi post is gonna become ILX's Exiting The Vampire Castle.

I found it admirable.

Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 11 December 2021 14:37 (three years ago)

i'm not unsympathetic to it but don't believe it applies to all disagreements. it's a two-way Street, like.

towards fungal computer (harbl), Saturday, 11 December 2021 14:44 (three years ago)

As I said in the thread it first appeared in: if the objective is to "better understand and gently persuade" viewpoints diametrically opposed to your own, a message board discussion is amongst the worst ways of trying to go about that. Much more likely to be constructive if done one-on-one and/or offline.

Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 11 December 2021 15:10 (three years ago)

but also don't think it really relates to this thread at all - VHS's point isn't particularly extreme and I don't think anyone's had any difficulties understanding his motivations for holding it, really.

Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 11 December 2021 15:12 (three years ago)

Tell me in your own words what you think the original West Side Story was about, I’m dying to hear

— Muse of Ire (@MuseofIre) December 10, 2021

Max Hamburgers (Eric H.), Saturday, 11 December 2021 15:16 (three years ago)

(in response to)

They remade West Side Story to be Race Class Narrative about gentrification and I’m here for it.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) December 10, 2021

Max Hamburgers (Eric H.), Saturday, 11 December 2021 15:16 (three years ago)

and I don't think anyone's had any difficulties understanding his motivations for holding it, really.

― Daniel_Rf, Saturday, December 11, 2021 10:12 AM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Which are they?

Van Horn Street, Saturday, 11 December 2021 15:17 (three years ago)

You think Americans are oblivious to the hard predicaments of vast parts of the rest of the world and resent what you see as excessive self-involvement on their part. No?

Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 11 December 2021 15:19 (three years ago)

Was someone doing the de-escalation thing itt? jaymc made a pretty reasonable post, but I didn't really see it otherwise. Also I would think de-escalation would entail trying to get both sides of an argument to stop digging in, though I suppose that's what's useful about calling something a pile-on: you can separate the piled-on, whose behaviour needn't change, from the undifferentiated mass of pilers.

I will say I had no idea what VHS was talking about w/ the guillotine thing, so I looked it up and learned some interesting/dismaying stuff about French colonialism

rob, Saturday, 11 December 2021 15:23 (three years ago)

I believe a lot of them are yes, and that the excessive self-involvement is a net negative. Also that the more the populist and on the fringe of political extremes, the more the self-involvement is crucial to the discourse.

Van Horn Street, Saturday, 11 December 2021 15:24 (three years ago)

Life is all right in America

rob, Saturday, 11 December 2021 15:25 (three years ago)

but also don't think it really relates to this thread at all - VHS's point isn't particularly extreme and I don't think anyone's had any difficulties understanding his motivations for holding it, really.


I think I directly addressed this in my first reply to VHS, yeah.

Am generally very much a fan of fgti and his posts and respect the idea of his sentiments but can’t agree with it. Specifically on here: a lot of these disagreements that turn ugly are based on previous history with the poster(s) on the receiving end. Most people will never apologise for their wrongs and that’s human nature, but also most of us aren’t saints and find it difficult to turn the other cheek when someone who’s either been a prick in the past (whether to us or not) is acting a cunt.

With ilx where posting histories go back decades sometimes and it’s all still there, people form pictures of others that are difficult to shift with regard to other posters. That’s a problem sometimes, especially if people have significantly changed over time, but sometimes they haven’t and people are reacting to the past as well as the present. What do you do with that?

I posted a bit more on this shit the other day and would be interested to know fgti’s opinion on it (if he ever visits this thread or indeed that one again!)

mardheamac (gyac), Saturday, 11 December 2021 15:27 (three years ago)

Yeah, so. I don't think anything on this thread indicates anyone didn't get that this was where you were coming from, so the posting of fgst's post feels misapplied, is all I was saying.

xpost

Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 11 December 2021 15:27 (three years ago)

i mean he was making bad posts like they were some deep jewels of knowledge, either of those on their own are are prob not going to set people off, but you put them together and youll get told about it, was pretty funny to see the aimless the master of the form show up to lend support

lag∞n, Saturday, 11 December 2021 15:36 (three years ago)

re hand wringing about pile ons brought to mind max writing about something awful

When the 2016 Democratic Primary tore Twitter apart, and establishment liberal journalists and political operatives complained of pile-ons by vicious BernieBros, anyone who’d been on a forum before could see that this was, simply, what happened when you made dumb posts.

good piece https://maxread.substack.com/p/the-most-influential-man-on-the-internet

lag∞n, Saturday, 11 December 2021 15:40 (three years ago)

Yeah, so. I don't think anything on this thread indicates anyone didn't get that this was where you were coming from, so the posting of fgst's post feels misapplied, is all I was saying.

xpost

― Daniel_Rf, Saturday, December 11, 2021 10:27 AM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Well some people read it as ‘you shouldn’t complain’ which was not the point at all and then insulted me when I tried to make the case that yes, there are problems in the US and I made sure it was acknowledged.

Van Horn Street, Saturday, 11 December 2021 15:45 (three years ago)

The guillotine episode reminds me that mostly this is an overwhelmingly anglo-saxon messageboard with very angl-saxon viewpoints on most things. Enough for when I mention something that is jarring because it comes from my history and culture (the guillotine) it is being met with scorn. I don’t think I’m the first (or the last!) who is facing that sort of cultural barrier, and I don’t think some posters understand the level of assymetry at play here.

And yeah if it’s dumb lagoon, which you are still making a very poor case for, shitting on people is not just exactly how you advance anything. Some posters do try to engage in good faith and I appreciated it, other will just use the word ‘cunt’ and think this is some performative battleground of theirs to show how valuable their fight against fascists is and I think this is sort of the pile on goon was discussing.

Van Horn Street, Saturday, 11 December 2021 16:05 (three years ago)

not sure why were talking about the guillotine when the more relevant execution device is the cross

lag∞n, Saturday, 11 December 2021 16:08 (three years ago)

Anglo-Saxon
lol

Enough for when I mention something that is jarring because it comes from my history and culture (the guillotine) it is being met with scorn.

Look, I already said “lol”.

Plenty capable of arguing any/all of my points btw but why waste any time or effort on the immovable?

Lagoon, that post is great, max really gets it.

mardheamac (gyac), Saturday, 11 December 2021 16:09 (three years ago)

VHS, pretty sure that the blowback you've gotten on this thread in particular is hardly the result of lack of familiarity with your position; it's probably much more to do with frustration at a viewpoint that most of the posters are exposed to on a very regular basis - certainly the case for me! "We have it very good in America/the West" is a pretty common think to think/say.

I'd also argue that you can't complain too much about "performative battlegrounds" when half of your posts here were about characterizing everyone disagreeing with you as an incurious American when several of those ppl, myself included, aren't American or even "Anglo-Saxon".

Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 11 December 2021 16:18 (three years ago)

The point is not merely ‘you have it good in the West’, it’s that populist movements describing the West as something that is out of touch with reality is bad. The right wing does it ‘we are becoming the third world’ and some on the left does it too. I considered calling it a dystopia an exageration, perhaps I was wrong about the word, but you’ll see people on the left making hyperboles the norm and I think it’s both disrespectful and useless. Never said there’s no reason to complain, I live in Canada and I complain a whole bunch.

Never said that everyone who disagreed with me was incurious, but certainly some posters seem to embody the caricature of the self-involved american and british. And c’mon, the percentage of anglo-saxons people on this board is what? 65%?

Van Horn Street, Saturday, 11 December 2021 16:31 (three years ago)

there were several posts acknowledging your point about averages and international standards but you still told us to read a book (to learn the same thing we had already conceded, i guess) and implied that we couldn't possibly understand why people would want to immigrate here. but it's just others who are self-involved, performative, condescending, and insulting. now it's anglo-saxon, i'm not even sure what to think about that one.

towards fungal computer (harbl), Saturday, 11 December 2021 16:33 (three years ago)

Yes I agree it was out of line to say to read the book and I lost patience and should not have.

Van Horn Street, Saturday, 11 December 2021 16:37 (three years ago)

when can we return to insulting Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 11 December 2021 16:38 (three years ago)

van horn wants to call americans self involved ignorant babies and be applauded for it, which i mean if he had just done that mightve gone over better but he also wants credit for it being some serious intellectual position, combining those two requires a lot more finesse and depth of understanding than has been demonstrated, and then of course were hitting rock bottom with the complaints about being treated poorly

lag∞n, Saturday, 11 December 2021 16:43 (three years ago)

i want to know who the some posters are who are embodying the caricature of the self-involved american and british

towards fungal computer (harbl), Saturday, 11 December 2021 16:45 (three years ago)

The point is not merely ‘you have it good in the West’, it’s that populist movements describing the West as something that is out of touch with reality is bad. The right wing does it ‘we are becoming the third world’ and some on the left does it too.

Yeah, this to me is a fundamental misunderstanding of what people itt are doing when they characterise the US as dystopian. It's not about a lack of awareness of how bad things are elsewhere (Americans who don't care about what goes on in the rest of the world tend to think the US is BETTER off than it is, not worse); it's pushback against the official mainstream narrative (not just "republican", this is a bipartisan consensus) that America is The Greatest Country In The World and obviously the best place to live in the world. It's holding a mirror to the country's propaganda and looking just how far sgort it falls.

Additionally, it certainly rankles with me for you to take offense in the name of ppl from countries that are worse off when, as I said previously, immigrants from those countries who come to places like the US and the UK are amongst the ppl most likely to face the worst of what those countries have to offer dystopiawise, in terms of state surveillance, inequality, racism, etc.

Never said that everyone who disagreed with me was incurious

No, you just casually ignored ever post that you couldn't twist into that narrative :)

And c’mon, the percentage of anglo-saxons people on this board is what? 65%?

If you want to switch that to native English speakers, I'm not at all arguing that this isn't the main demographic of ILX. What I am arguing against is that your disagreements with ILX consensus are down to that factor - I mean even my father in law enjoys a good guillotine reference, and he voted Macron!

Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 11 December 2021 16:47 (three years ago)

And I dunno harbl you kept saying that tweet wasn’t important even though it was important to me, you scoff at the fact that I might think a cultural barrier exist instead of listening and trying to make things better. You keep saying you understood my point and yet there’s no mention on how first world privilege and rethoric might seem really off to many people, without acknowleging my expressions that yes, some stuff in the US is quite terrible. Maybe if you don’t quite get what to make of it is because you’ve come to your conclusions without reading and can’t seem to understand that someone who don’t agree with you doesn’t neccessarily come from a place of bad faith to piss you off.

Van Horn Street, Saturday, 11 December 2021 16:52 (three years ago)

I should note that I live in one of the world's worst countries, Florida.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 11 December 2021 16:54 (three years ago)

And I dunno harbl you kept saying that tweet wasn’t important even though it was important to me, you scoff at the fact that I might think a cultural barrier exist instead of listening and trying to make things better. You keep saying you understood my point and yet there’s no mention on how first world privilege and rethoric might seem really off to many people, without acknowleging my expressions that yes, some stuff in the US is quite terrible. Maybe if you don’t quite get what to make of it is because you’ve come to your conclusions without reading and can’t seem to understand that someone who don’t agree with you doesn’t neccessarily come from a place of bad faith to piss you off.


Fuck me, the whine off this

coombination gazza hut & scampo bell (wins), Saturday, 11 December 2021 16:59 (three years ago)

since i don't want to be accused of being mad online, i'll respond. i've read what you said. it was not an important tweet. it was disingenuous of matt yglesias to use it as a jumping off point for a dunk, especially when the response is to post data that must be well known to the original poster of the tweet, as it is to us here. i also don't value his comments on left-wing strategy, not least because the tweet was not a part of any strategy. the tweet only became important here because it's a thread about how much matty sucks and is frustrating.

i reject the notion that a general comment on the state of the u.s. is exhibiting "first world privilege" without some other context. it is not "first world privileged" to comment on things that are bad here. these conditions would be bad for all humans even if they are worse elsewhere, and as daniel pointed out, often negatively affect people who have come here from other countries to have a better life. we've also talked about things that are uniquely dire here such as high incarceration and school shootings. discussing that and other problems does not "insult" people in other countries who are doing poorly. i am frustrated because you have persisted in trying to force people to address things primarily in relative terms (unless they want to be self-involved), when that is not called for in this particular discussion.

i also have noticed on this and other threads that when challenged you like to attribute it to others just not knowing the things you know, which is offensive and also not the source of the problem.

towards fungal computer (harbl), Saturday, 11 December 2021 17:15 (three years ago)

Yglesias's West Side Story tweet should get him a suspension lmao.

hopefully this review helped someone (Neanderthal), Saturday, 11 December 2021 17:16 (three years ago)

hmmm that seems like an intelligent and well argued refutation of Betamax’s points but probably more likely they just didn’t penetrate your carapace xp

coombination gazza hut & scampo bell (wins), Saturday, 11 December 2021 17:21 (three years ago)

Fuck me, the whine off this
― coombination gazza hut & scampo bell (wins), Saturday, 11 December 2021 16:59 (twenty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Lol first world problems amirite?

plax (ico), Saturday, 11 December 2021 17:27 (three years ago)

what da fuck is anglo saxon

lag∞n, Saturday, 11 December 2021 17:28 (three years ago)

It does seem to me that VHS has here espoused an entirely unsupportable argument because if you take it on its own terms it invalidates itself

plax (ico), Saturday, 11 December 2021 17:28 (three years ago)

I want to hear what Ezra Klein has to say about all this.

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Saturday, 11 December 2021 17:33 (three years ago)

folks i just want to remind you that if u want to achieve maximum civility make me a mod and i will simply ban ppl who do Bad Posts without further explanation thus saving you many evenings of consternation #wellness

class project pat (m bison), Saturday, 11 December 2021 17:34 (three years ago)

hmm might want to take a look at his record as ilh mod when evaluating this campaign promise comrades

lag∞n, Saturday, 11 December 2021 17:35 (three years ago)

banns are self care

towards fungal computer (harbl), Saturday, 11 December 2021 17:38 (three years ago)

wowwwww betrayed by my hoops brethren, a betrael if u will

xp

class project pat (m bison), Saturday, 11 December 2021 17:39 (three years ago)

What even is a hoop

plax (ico), Saturday, 11 December 2021 17:41 (three years ago)

maybe if bad posts were less tolerated on ilh we wouldnt have gotten to this point

lag∞n, Saturday, 11 December 2021 17:41 (three years ago)

What even is a hoop

― plax (ico), Saturday, December 11, 2021 12:41 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://i.imgur.com/Ndl8ody.png

lag∞n, Saturday, 11 December 2021 17:43 (three years ago)

;_; i just want to ban ppl

class project pat (m bison), Saturday, 11 December 2021 17:44 (three years ago)

it is aggravating that people from the US, a nation entirely made up of middle class white people, whine about their first world problems

let's make lunch and listen to five finger death punch (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 11 December 2021 17:54 (three years ago)

Oh right, for kids?

plax (ico), Saturday, 11 December 2021 17:57 (three years ago)

thats the one

lag∞n, Saturday, 11 December 2021 18:55 (three years ago)

All I know is before she leaves for school I tell my daughter to put her Anglo socks on

Lavator Shemmelpennick, Saturday, 11 December 2021 19:16 (three years ago)

In order to channel the dystopia discussion to the dystopia thread may I present:

The absolute most Covid-cautious people I know are less cautious than like random NYT articles and I’m not really sure how much deeper into the educated/lib bubble you can get than my life.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) December 12, 2021

Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 12 December 2021 22:26 (three years ago)

I think this is an interesting one for many reasons. First among them is the idea, which must be hard to avoid sinking into in MY's line of work, that the real question is not "what should people be doing about COVID" but "what ARE people doing about COVID, especially the people I know, and is the NYT staff appropriately calibrated to it?" Like a music critic who never writes about whether the music is good or bad, only about whether it's over- or underrated by Pitchfork.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 12 December 2021 22:29 (three years ago)

But also: what does Yglesias see as the level of caution espoused by "random NYT articles"? I'm finding it hard to imagine he really knows no one who, e.g., is eating inside in restaurants less than they usually do. So the level of caution he sees as NYT-median is.... more cautious than that? Does he think the NYT line is "no eating in restaurants at all?" "Mask on when you're jogging in Central Park?" What?

Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 12 December 2021 22:31 (three years ago)

There’s a lot of people who think they are more Covid cautious than they are in real life. I’m thinking people who won’t let vaccinated family members in their homes but go to the supermarket regularly. Stuff like that.

— Helaine Olen (@helaineolen) December 12, 2021

could it be that one of these is optional and involves long-term direct exposure and the other... is a requirement to survive?

papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, 12 December 2021 22:32 (three years ago)

"a lot of people." how old are the family members? what was the person's stated reasoning? very mysterious.

towards fungal computer (harbl), Sunday, 12 December 2021 22:49 (three years ago)

look helaine's got it covered okay

Tracer Hand, Sunday, 12 December 2021 22:51 (three years ago)

I don't know who Helaine Olen is, is she part of the Extended Yglesias Universe?

Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 12 December 2021 22:51 (three years ago)

WaPo opinion columnist

papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, 12 December 2021 22:53 (three years ago)

Centrist dweebs starting to circle toward the May 2020 MAGA argument of "if you're so concerned with COVID why don't you quit your job and stay home forever SO I CAN GO OUT AND LIVE MAH LIFE"

papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, 12 December 2021 22:55 (three years ago)

I had to read the Yglesias tweet several times. One of my buddies posted it in our WhatsApp thread a couple hours ago. He offered the following interpretation: even among liberal circles the performative standard of care talked about in outlets like the NYT doesn’t align with the actual behavior of the community. In NY at least even in the most liberal pockets like the West Village less and less people are wearing masks, people are having parties, going to bars, concerts because you can’t do anything without being vaxxed in NY.

Which made the most sense to me. I still don't get the point of posting such a thing, though.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 12 December 2021 22:56 (three years ago)

there's a lot of people who think they are more washing-your-hands-after-using-the-bathroom cautious than they are in real life

towards fungal computer (harbl), Sunday, 12 December 2021 23:01 (three years ago)

And I'm not willing to go to their barbecues. If I want poop on my burgers I'll just go to

hopefully this review helped someone (Neanderthal), Sunday, 12 December 2021 23:14 (three years ago)

It seems plausible that Matty’s irl friendship circle is composed of liberal/educated ppl who are giant idiots and narcissists

bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Sunday, 12 December 2021 23:58 (three years ago)

the performative standard of care talked about in outlets like the NYT doesn’t align with the actual behavior of the community.

But that's what I don't get. I read the New York Times every day. Its coverage takes for granted that people are going to restaurants, having Thanksgiving and Christmas with family, etc, and talks about how to do that in a way that doesn't create unneeded extra risk of accelerating COVID spread. Which seems to me like... exactly in keeping with what the people in Matt's SES/political tranche are doing, to the extent that it's the same as the people in my own etc etc? I feel like he's reading some shadow version of the New York Times that advocates individual commitments to Austria-style lockdown.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 13 December 2021 00:28 (three years ago)

Like maybe he's saying he doesn't know anybody who's taken a rapid test? That's a thing people certainly sometimes do in my circles when they have symptoms they're concerned might be COVID, maybe it's unknown in DC, I dunno.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 13 December 2021 00:29 (three years ago)

It seems plausible that Matty’s irl friendship circle is composed of liberal/educated ppl who are giant idiots and narcissists

I have vague memories of pictures of him and Megan McArdle hangin' out at the gun range, like people do.

but also fuck you (unperson), Monday, 13 December 2021 01:46 (three years ago)

cmon do we really think matt has friends or even knows people

lag∞n, Monday, 13 December 2021 02:56 (three years ago)

I'm sure he found his profile on OKCUPID and started to date himself.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 13 December 2021 03:06 (three years ago)

It seems plausible that Matty’s irl friendship circle is composed of liberal/educated ppl who are giant idiots and narcissists

― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Sunday, December 12, 2021 6:58 PM (yesterday)

lol otm. Also, I've found it pretty easy to hang out with more "educated" people than Matt Y. Not a cheap own, I just know a bunch of academics

rob, Monday, 13 December 2021 14:51 (three years ago)

I live in Montreal and just visited Chicago and Milwaukee. The level of local variation in Covid caution can't be exaggerated, even just between the two US cities

rob, Monday, 13 December 2021 14:53 (three years ago)

what are the particularities of that

lag∞n, Monday, 13 December 2021 14:54 (three years ago)

Montreal: masks everywhere, you can't ride public transit without one, so people are often wearing them outside too, plus it's winter now; official vax proof required to enter bars/restaurants; masks required in stores; pretty high vaccination rate in Quebec; however, cases are super spiking right now anyway

Chicago: lots of masks outside due to an outdoor mask requirement (now lifted I think, but people stuck with it, honestly it was a little weird seeing solo people walking around at night masked); no official vax proof required anywhere I went; rampant dick-nosing in ORD, though that's obvs not "local"; crazy high prices for a quick-ish PCR test

Milwaukee: no vax mentions whatsoever; no mask mandate anywhere; the hotel we stayed at had a sign in front when we checked in asking unvaccinated people to wear a mask, it had been taken down the next day; majority of restaurant staff I saw when getting takeout were unmasked; reasonable prices for a quick-ish PCR test (free); mix of masked/unmasked at the art openings we went too (my partner was installing a show)

pretty subjective of course, and in Chicago I stayed with family, in Milwaukee a downtown hotel, so not an equal comparison probably

rob, Monday, 13 December 2021 15:07 (three years ago)

interesting thanks

lag∞n, Monday, 13 December 2021 15:11 (three years ago)

I've been pretty locked down in MTL, so staying in a hotel was something of a culture shock: locals coming to a *hotel bar* to listen to bad music, company holiday parties in the ballroom, sales conferences in interior, windowless rooms, unmasked coworkers packing the elevator, etc.

I was also on edge the whole time because I couldn't reenter Canada if I tested positive. So even if I got a not-bad case of Covid, my life would have been seriously disrupted

rob, Monday, 13 December 2021 15:15 (three years ago)

just come to vermont well take you over on a quad

lag∞n, Monday, 13 December 2021 15:17 (three years ago)

I could quarantine in Vermont. When I stayed in White River Junction a few years ago, the elderly hippie woman selling me coffee asked me where I was from and unhesitatingly launched into an anti-trump tirade as soon as I said Canada

rob, Monday, 13 December 2021 15:21 (three years ago)

lmao

lag∞n, Monday, 13 December 2021 15:24 (three years ago)

i know the place

lag∞n, Monday, 13 December 2021 15:25 (three years ago)

It seems plausible that Matty’s irl friendship circle is composed of liberal/educated ppl who are giant idiots and narcissists

― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Sunday, December 12, 2021 6:58 PM (yesterday)

lol otm. Also, I've found it pretty easy to hang out with more "educated" people than Matt Y. Not a cheap own, I just know a bunch of academics

― rob, Monday, December 13, 2021 8:51 AM (forty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I've found it pretty easy to hang out with people who are smarter than Matty Y just because I know literally anyone

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 13 December 2021 15:41 (three years ago)

xpost - Rob went to Milwaukee twice last summer (gf is from there) and yeah on the whole Wisconsin was pretty much a wild west in terms of Covid.

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 13 December 2021 15:42 (three years ago)

I'm just gonna include Megan McArdle in the EK/MY discussion because I think this thread is pretty interesting:

There is lots of opprobrium for that! Every time we have this conversation I repeat that I am against your son wearing a mask during speech therapy! I now repeat it again!

Now, are you going to say that it's irresponsible not to get vaccinated?

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) December 15, 2021

You really see her struggling to come to terms with the limits of her libertarian philosophy, which demands that people largely left to make free choices will converge on optimal collective behavior because markets/information-sharing, and here she is confronted with the fact that people largely left to make free choices will choose en masse to eschew vaccination despite this not being the right choice for their own self-interest and the self-interest of others, and she just keeps on arguing with this guy -- don't you see that the invisible hand DEMANDS that you and people like you act correctly in this situation? and it's kind of tragic as it dawns on her that nothing short of the heavy-handed governmental freedom-squashing she hates most will get her to the policy outcome she most wants.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 16 December 2021 01:32 (three years ago)

she's amazing. to my knowledge she's been right about absolutely nothing ever; the only book she's managed to write is subtitled 'Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success' and her ultimate legacy is supporting the grenfell tower fire as economically sound

mookieproof, Thursday, 16 December 2021 04:18 (three years ago)

people are not and have never been “left to make free choices” tho - this is partic the case with vaccination and public health. would that they were! opinions have been shaped by demagogues and bandits

Tracer Hand, Thursday, 16 December 2021 12:31 (three years ago)

freedom isn’t free, we just argue about the fee

mh, Thursday, 23 December 2021 16:53 (three years ago)

Get back in your area pic.twitter.com/2YNtCv7I0B

— Nolan🌹 (@VoidOfRoses) January 4, 2022

mh, Thursday, 6 January 2022 16:07 (three years ago)

Suppose you think that school closures were a disastrous, invasion-of-Iraq magnitude (or perhaps greater) policy decision. Shouldn't that merit some further reflection?

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) January 6, 2022


You think this was a policy decision (which of course is totally a decentralized one) equivalent to the deaths of 460,000 people and the destabilizing of an entire region?

And...do you think parents and educators have not been reflecting, ffs?

— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) January 6, 2022


Yeah, I think depriving tens of millions of school children of an in-person education for a year or longer is absolutely on that magnitude. No question.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) January 6, 2022

lag∞n, Thursday, 6 January 2022 17:10 (three years ago)

stick to telling me who's going to win my state's senate race, Nate, and bow the fuck out

they were written with a ouija board and a rhyming dictionary (Neanderthal), Thursday, 6 January 2022 17:13 (three years ago)

were there any schoolchildren in iraq

mh, Thursday, 6 January 2022 17:17 (three years ago)

considering how many educations were disrupted in iraq and the surrounding region we must conclude that the iraq war was worse than the iraq war

lag∞n, Thursday, 6 January 2022 17:20 (three years ago)

this guy dumb

rob, Thursday, 6 January 2022 17:28 (three years ago)

he has suffered from learning loss

towards fungal computer (harbl), Thursday, 6 January 2022 17:30 (three years ago)

doing asynchronous days with my kid were my personal Afghanistan

Chappies banging dustbin lids together (President Keyes), Thursday, 6 January 2022 17:33 (three years ago)

Nate's desire to be seen as a Rational Thinker unencumbered by foolish human biases has led him to be overly skeptical of some views that he, in his detachment, can judge as extreme and/or irrational. I think COVID mitigation measures fall into that category for him because it is unfortunately easy to view them through the lens of political and emotional bias (i.e., driven by anxious liberals).

jaymc, Thursday, 6 January 2022 17:38 (three years ago)

remember when

This is not unique to coronavirus, but it feels like the people who know the *most* about something often express more uncertainty and doubt than people who have some adjacent knowledge but fall short of being subject-matter experts.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) March 13, 2020

I'm in the high-risk zone for having adjacent, sophomoric knowledge myself (know statistics, have written about epidemiology) which is why I'm mostly trying to shut up about coronavirus. But I will say be wary of overconfidence and trust folks who express uncertainty/doubt.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) March 13, 2020

symsymsym, Thursday, 6 January 2022 17:41 (three years ago)

Someone tell Nate a good way to avoid the appearance of being encumbered by foolish human biases would be to not to double down on making grotesque racist equivalencies

rob, Thursday, 6 January 2022 17:42 (three years ago)

Why didn't the morons who called the Steel Dossier worse than the Iraq War get this treatment?

Chappies banging dustbin lids together (President Keyes), Thursday, 6 January 2022 18:09 (three years ago)

(citation needed)

symsymsym, Thursday, 6 January 2022 18:16 (three years ago)

now that nate silver has compared remote learning to the iraq war, matty is hard at work writing a 3000-word blog post in favor of it

— 𝖙𝖎𝖒𝖔𝖙𝖍𝖞💀𝖋𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖙 (@crulge) January 6, 2022

papal hotwife (milo z), Thursday, 6 January 2022 18:19 (three years ago)

Xpost

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/russiagate-is-wmd-times-a-million

Chappies banging dustbin lids together (President Keyes), Thursday, 6 January 2022 20:19 (three years ago)

otm

nate silver's Very Bad Tweet perfectly reveals how the school reopening moral panic has worked: people say "we have to do cost-benefit analysis on covid mitigations," which sounds very reasonable, and then they say "okay, let's assume the cost of school closures is infinity"

— Will Stancil (@whstancil) January 6, 2022

towards fungal computer (harbl), Thursday, 6 January 2022 20:23 (three years ago)

And, teachers are expendable.

DJI, Thursday, 6 January 2022 20:26 (three years ago)

xxp yeah no one ever roasts Taibbi on Twitter or ILX

papal hotwife (milo z), Thursday, 6 January 2022 20:39 (three years ago)

xxp oh sorry, I thought you were saying that people were comparing the allegations in the dossier to the war in Iraq. Yes, that Taibbi column is pretty dumb!

symsymsym, Thursday, 6 January 2022 20:41 (three years ago)

That substack thing doesn’t appear to say Russiagate was worse than the Iraq War, though.

papal hotwife (milo z), Thursday, 6 January 2022 20:42 (three years ago)

it does say Russiagate is WMDs times a million!

symsymsym, Thursday, 6 January 2022 20:44 (three years ago)

specifically stupid times a million

"If he isn’t, news outlets once again swallowed a massive disinformation campaign, only this error is many orders of magnitude more stupid than any in the recent past, WMD included."

papal hotwife (milo z), Thursday, 6 January 2022 20:46 (three years ago)

Taibbi's 'media criticism' schtick deserves one giant jackoff motion at this point but it has about the same relationship to "remote schools are the equivalent of 500k dead people" as a gnat does to an elephant.

papal hotwife (milo z), Thursday, 6 January 2022 20:47 (three years ago)

no comment necessary pic.twitter.com/08sRqJaaei

— austerity is theft (@wideofthepost) January 15, 2022

Chappies banging dustbin lids together (President Keyes), Saturday, 15 January 2022 19:27 (three years ago)

one month passes...

lmao

The ape pictures from Bored Ape Yacht Club are pretty cool just evaluated as pictured. They’ve shown a lot of range here within the confines of the basic concept.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) February 15, 2022

rob, Tuesday, 15 February 2022 15:36 (three years ago)

some regular Andy Borhols

Chappies banging dustbin lids together (President Keyes), Tuesday, 15 February 2022 15:39 (three years ago)

one month passes...

I like Les Miserables too (especially the 1998 film adaptation!) but how many people do we think are in prison for this loaf of bread to feed your family scenario? https://t.co/ejcqeJUU1x

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) March 25, 2022

papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, 25 March 2022 18:40 (three years ago)

In the tweet he quoted, Matt had three choices to respond to:

"if you sleep on the street or steal a loaf of bread or cross a border to escape violence against your family, the law will come for you"

His choice describes him well.

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Friday, 25 March 2022 18:49 (three years ago)

"especially the 1998 film adaptation"

Daniel_Rf, Friday, 25 March 2022 18:54 (three years ago)

Aimless otm even before you read the replies from public defenders citing cases where clients were arresting for stealing a candy bar, a can of baked beans, and a salami

rob, Friday, 25 March 2022 19:14 (three years ago)

The dividing line between the middle class and the upper middle class. https://t.co/rKxCyv1gHn

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) March 28, 2022

towards fungal computer (harbl), Monday, 28 March 2022 18:34 (three years ago)

the lower middle class will cut you

Chappies banging dustbin lids together (President Keyes), Monday, 28 March 2022 19:01 (three years ago)

“Talk Shit Get Hit” was the original slogan of the IWW.

papal hotwife (milo z), Monday, 28 March 2022 19:09 (three years ago)

four weeks pass...

this fuckin' guy

I mean at this point it’s hard to say — my hypothesis is that progressives spending days freaking out about Musk has pushed him further to the right.

Does that seem crazy to you?

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) April 27, 2022

a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 27 April 2022 18:53 (three years ago)

my hypothesis is that Musk does what Musk thinks is good for Musk and whatever politics might be reflected in his public statements have nothing to do with Musk having political convictions.

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Wednesday, 27 April 2022 18:58 (three years ago)

I think the people catastrophizing about contraception or interracial marriage being next after Roe sincerely believe it. But I'm sorry, I cannot take this seriously.

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) May 5, 2022

towards fungal computer (harbl), Thursday, 5 May 2022 12:14 (three years ago)

The net effect of overturning Griswold is that contraception will continue to be legal in all 50 states. In a few states, it might become harder to get certain IUDs and the morning after pill, but even that is dubious.

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) May 5, 2022

i mean sure i think they will do it but

lag∞n, Thursday, 5 May 2022 12:36 (three years ago)

and this idiot is still beloved by rightist intelligensia:

Planned Parenthood was founded not simply as an organization for limiting the size of families in general but more particularly to reduce the reproduction of the black population in the United States, as Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger herself noted.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) May 4, 2022

And the Dems were once the party of segregation!!!!

Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 5 May 2022 12:44 (three years ago)

The rhetorical move McArdle is doing here is to verbally suggest that the "catastrophe" is merely speculative and has to do with birth control or Loving v. Texas, rather than the actually imminent catastrophe re Roe that she would rather not talk about.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 5 May 2022 12:55 (three years ago)

(Also she carefully skips over the most frequent "what's next????" question, which is Obergefell. I wonder why?)

Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 5 May 2022 12:55 (three years ago)

lord knows I hate Sowell, but that isn't his personal twitter; it's an account that tweets out quotes from his books (which I suppose could be him actually). That one is from 2006. I'm sure context doesn't make it any more compelling a fact, but still

rob, Thursday, 5 May 2022 13:06 (three years ago)

it is very sad to think there is a guy out there who is a big enough thomas sowell fan to create such a project

towards fungal computer (harbl), Thursday, 5 May 2022 13:23 (three years ago)

men will literally set up a thomas sowell quotes account instead of going to therapy amirite

towards fungal computer (harbl), Thursday, 5 May 2022 13:24 (three years ago)

yes and lol

rob, Thursday, 5 May 2022 13:26 (three years ago)

oh, I'm sure the effects of any of these things being overturned will never filter up to these columnists. Remember Welfare Reform? They said it would be a catastrophe, and then we did it and never heard a peep about it from any of our friends.

Chappies banging dustbin lids together (President Keyes), Thursday, 5 May 2022 14:16 (three years ago)

Finding out King Buzzo is a Sowellhead was a tough one. Next up, Keith Morris singing the praises of Ben Shapiro.

papal hotwife (milo z), Thursday, 5 May 2022 16:19 (three years ago)

she will not stop

Yes, I think there's a lot to work out, but in practice, I'm skeptical that a lot of prosecutors are going to want to probe into a grieving woman's miscarriage; the optics are horrific.

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) May 5, 2022

towards fungal computer (harbl), Thursday, 5 May 2022 22:20 (three years ago)

ma'am do you know what prosecutors are

towards fungal computer (harbl), Thursday, 5 May 2022 22:20 (three years ago)

Oh, Ms McCurdle, are you familiar with the concept of selective law enforcement, especially used as a tool for intimidating poor people and people of color? If not, let me suggest you start living in the country where you currently reside, instead of the fairyland inside your head.

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Friday, 6 May 2022 01:23 (three years ago)

overzealous prosecutors? in MY uterus?!?

mh, Friday, 6 May 2022 03:09 (three years ago)

He’s so good at this, the perfect post to drive engagement by people explaining how you’re wrong.

I know you go more viral with indignant takes accusing Dems of being top to bottom political failures, but in the real world what’s so striking about losing Roe is that in almost ever other policy area the status quo has either moved left or stayed steady over the last 25 years.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 5, 2022

papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, 6 May 2022 18:30 (three years ago)

I know the Right really thinks we live in communist Russia now bc they have to see a biracial family on car insurance commercials now, but I’m starting to think a lot of commentariat libs believe these things are a practical stand-in for actual leftward movement. I literally can’t think of one thing outside of Oberfell where the broadly defined “Left” can point to a single noteworthy victory in my lifetime.

I know you go more viral with indignant takes accusing Dems of being top to bottom political failures, but in the real world what’s so striking about losing Roe is that in almost ever other policy area the status quo has either moved left or stayed steady over the last 25 years.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 5, 2022

OG Bob Sacamano (will), Friday, 6 May 2022 18:34 (three years ago)

lol xpost

OG Bob Sacamano (will), Friday, 6 May 2022 18:34 (three years ago)

Reminds me of the twitter conservative who had to point to the show "Dear White People" when asked about what radical legislation the Congressional Dems are pushing

Chappies banging dustbin lids together (President Keyes), Friday, 6 May 2022 18:49 (three years ago)

"almost ever(y) other policy area"

towards fungal computer (harbl), Friday, 6 May 2022 18:51 (three years ago)

welfare? public ownership of utilities? antitrust law? labor organizing? show me the fucking money matt

Tracer Hand, Friday, 6 May 2022 20:22 (three years ago)

Matty's on a roll these days

ugh, missing out on so much trash spyware, heartbreaking

You know GDPR for creating those annoying cookie warning pop-overs but it seems to have also genuinely knee-capped European app development.https://t.co/79GUy5mvot pic.twitter.com/wcp2aPQNUo

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 9, 2022

lol retweet edition:

Jesus pic.twitter.com/3tomCtgL6H

— ℮oin Higgins (@EoinHiggins_) May 9, 2022

papal hotwife (milo z), Monday, 9 May 2022 22:25 (three years ago)

wont someone think of the apps

lag∞n, Monday, 9 May 2022 22:31 (three years ago)

two weeks pass...

For all its very real problems, one shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the contemporary United States of America is one of the best places to live in all of human history and there’s a reason tons of people of all kinds from all around the world clamor to move here.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 24, 2022

papal hotwife (milo z), Tuesday, 24 May 2022 23:21 (three years ago)

the clamor is a rifle report

Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 24 May 2022 23:26 (three years ago)

Those people just want to come here to get away from the poverty, war, and corruption imposed on them by colonialism and capitalist exploitation and to get some small crumbs of benefit from the wealth that was stolen from them.

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Wednesday, 25 May 2022 00:30 (three years ago)

that tweet = whatever the opposite of evergreen is. always timely to those who offer it, always eyeroll and rage inducing to the rest of us

Lavator Shemmelpennick, Wednesday, 25 May 2022 15:15 (three years ago)

I’m always reminded of a review Max Read wrote about Richard Seymour’s _The Twittering Machine_, about how social media creates these omnipresent idiots who just exist to spout off idiotic takes and can never be corrected, because being accurate isn’t their job:

On Twitter, the usual pundits and pedants sprang up demanding explanations for every slogan and justifications for every action. In these concern trolls and reply guys, Seymour’s chronophage was literalized. The social industry doesn’t just eat our time with endless stimulus and algorithmic scrolling; it eats our time by creating and promoting people who exist only to be explained to, people to whom the world has been created anew every morning, people for whom every settled sociological, scientific, and political argument of modernity must be rehashed, rewritten, and re-accounted, this time with their participation.

These people, with their just-asking questions and vapid open letters, are dullards and bores, pettifoggers and casuists, cowards and dissemblers, time-wasters of the worst sort. But Seymour’s book suggests something worse about us, their Twitter and Facebook interlocutors: That we want to waste our time. That, however much we might complain, we find satisfaction in endless, circular argument. That we get some kind of fulfillment from tedious debates about “free speech” and “cancel culture.” That we seek oblivion in discourse. In the machine-flow atemporality of social media, this seems like no great crime. If time is an infinite resource, why not spend a few decades of it with a couple New York Times op-ed columnists, rebuilding all of Western thought from first principles?

Glower, Disruption & Pies (kingfish), Wednesday, 25 May 2022 15:57 (three years ago)

Review is here https://www.bookforum.com/print/2703/a-psychoanalytic-reading-of-social-media-and-the-death-drive-24171

Glower, Disruption & Pies (kingfish), Wednesday, 25 May 2022 16:02 (three years ago)

“A chronophage” seems a handy descriptor for some many people and platforms.

Glower, Disruption & Pies (kingfish), Wednesday, 25 May 2022 16:47 (three years ago)

like the langoliers

adam, Wednesday, 25 May 2022 17:14 (three years ago)

two months pass...

Spent most of the day finally getting the garage organized.

Growing up in Manhattan, I never dreamed I’d be able to achieve this level of dad. pic.twitter.com/YWmIM4ew0c

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 31, 2022

lag∞n, Monday, 1 August 2022 21:22 (two years ago)

That is the saddest pegboard I've ever seen.

DJI, Monday, 1 August 2022 21:28 (two years ago)

https://queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com/2021/04/Screen-Shot-2021-04-22-at-9.12.36-AM-670x438.png

papal hotwife (milo z), Monday, 1 August 2022 21:42 (two years ago)

I never thought I'd feel sympathy for either of these fuckers, but this Atlantic piece by Klein's wife is fucking harrowing.

but also fuck you (unperson), Monday, 1 August 2022 21:52 (two years ago)

haha when we prevent this thing weve done absolutely nothing to prevent the haters are gonna be so mad

I guess some people are going to be disappointed when it turns out the world adopts enough policy to keep climate change to survivable levels without radically overthrowing capitalism or abandoning economic growth, but personally I think it's good.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 8, 2022

lag∞n, Monday, 8 August 2022 17:35 (two years ago)

Wouldn't it be even cooler if we did even less and it turned out to be almost survivable?

F'kin Magnetometers, how do they work? (President Keyes), Monday, 8 August 2022 17:44 (two years ago)

Matt just figures the democrats will be able to squeak just enough climate change policy and budget past the Republican death cult and their own clowns in the Senate that the US middle class won't die in great numbers, because, hey, how hard can it be? All it took this time was throwing some red meat to the hedge funds and billionaires and a 50-50 tie-breaking vote from the Vice President. No sweat. And maybe in another dozen years there'll be another bill to move the needle a bit. What more does anyone need?

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Monday, 8 August 2022 17:58 (two years ago)

From unperson's linked Atlantic article:

(My doctor) had a feeling about some pregnancies, she told me. Mine was one of them. Then she told me about two patients who had had severe pruritus (itching) during pregnancy. The first gave herself frostbite during a blizzard, ripping her clothes off and letting the snow numb her. The second threw herself out a window.

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Monday, 8 August 2022 18:16 (two years ago)

ok thanks

lag∞n, Monday, 8 August 2022 18:23 (two years ago)

pic.twitter.com/QTuFPUYeW7

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) August 21, 2022

papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, 21 August 2022 20:01 (two years ago)

meanwhile, in real life, every university in the entire fucking universe keeps raising tuition constantly, every single year, far outpacing inflation, and they will keep doing it, and no one has any plan

Karl Malone, Sunday, 21 August 2022 21:50 (two years ago)

Heh. In Florida we're forbidden to raise tuition!

Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 21 August 2022 21:56 (two years ago)

Thanks, Rick 'n' Ron!

Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 21 August 2022 21:56 (two years ago)

Well, as I understand it you're also forbidden to teach anything but The Passing of the Great Race and The Art of the Deal, so raising prices would be unjustifiable.

but also fuck you (unperson), Sunday, 21 August 2022 22:05 (two years ago)

Heh. In Florida we're forbidden to raise tuition!

that seems like a difficult law to repeal, politically, and something tells me it will be a Democrat who does it

Karl Malone, Sunday, 21 August 2022 22:10 (two years ago)

Now that Biden has delivered for his base on climate and student loans, I unironically think it would be smart to pivot to some bipartisan commissions.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 26, 2022

Hell yeah Marty that would really seize upon the moment.

papal hotwife (milo z), Saturday, 27 August 2022 16:05 (two years ago)

it's too late, it's already happening

NEW— Biden is taping with Jay Leno this afternoon.

Pool is waiting for his arrival via Marine One at the James Rowley Training Center in Maryland, which is operated by the US Secret Service.

— AlexGangitano (@AlexGangitano) August 26, 2022

Karl Malone, Saturday, 27 August 2022 16:10 (two years ago)

it's about cars

Karl Malone, Saturday, 27 August 2022 16:11 (two years ago)

Leno finally gets to hang with someone who remembers Stanley Steamers.

Mar - a - Lago, or 120 Days of Sodom (Boring, Maryland), Saturday, 27 August 2022 17:59 (two years ago)

Is that where a guy from Pittsburgh shits on your chest?

papal hotwife (milo z), Saturday, 27 August 2022 18:01 (two years ago)

Joe and Jay have a history

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP-hyDSlmUs

underminer of twenty years of excellent contribution to this borad (dan m), Saturday, 27 August 2022 18:11 (two years ago)

lol milo

flopson, Sunday, 28 August 2022 00:56 (two years ago)

this guy has come out of nowhere to be one of the worst guys

Worth remembering the vicious abuse that @ProfEmilyOster & others who made this argument were subjected to.

Then think about other debates like that.

You're not hearing from a lot of people on some topics because they don't want to deal with it.

The result is worse outcomes. https://t.co/YLEok7ZyJW

— Jason Furman (@jasonfurman) September 1, 2022

lag∞n, Thursday, 1 September 2022 14:34 (two years ago)

lol remember when Emily Oster was platformed everywhere and continued to be so despite some people online being rude

You can't spell Fearless without Earle (President Keyes), Thursday, 1 September 2022 14:37 (two years ago)

they were vicious to her simply because she was writing dishonest sociopathic articles about a major public health crisis

lag∞n, Thursday, 1 September 2022 14:44 (two years ago)

two weeks pass...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FdMlVXAX0AIxr0B?format=png&name=large

lag∞n, Wednesday, 21 September 2022 17:41 (two years ago)

looking at data for which system of plunder had the best outcomes is so MattY. It's like ranking Slave Plantations based on the SAT scores of the descendants of the slaves who worked them.

SincereLee 'Scratch' Perry (President Keyes), Wednesday, 21 September 2022 17:49 (two years ago)

I missed the news of this new Yglesias podcast.

On the new show, they will tackle one “bad take” per week. The show will take the form of conversations between a writer and an editor, with McGann pushing Yglesias to strengthen his argument.

She said the show developed out of their own conversations, in which they would talk about a bad tweet or a bad argument they had seen online. The show’s producer, Olivia Reingold, pushed them to bring their offline dynamic to the show.

“He starts with a fairly clear point of view. I think I play a role in forcing him to pause and think through his argument,” McGann said. “I really do find myself talking to Matt the way I would talk to him as a writer. I think it forces Matt to step up his game and convince his editor of something.”

jaymc, Wednesday, 21 September 2022 17:53 (two years ago)

i love how that entire blurb leaves open the possibility that the "bad take" or bad tweet that they will be discussing will in fact be one of Yglesias' bad takes

Karl Malone, Wednesday, 21 September 2022 18:20 (two years ago)

so Matt we found a tweet that’s actually a book where this idiot says there should be a billion americans, nobody could defend such a thought, have at it

Clay, Wednesday, 21 September 2022 20:24 (two years ago)

really unnecessary to center the podcast episode around a tucker carlson monologue, especially when there were a million other dumbshits making the same points

symsymsym, Thursday, 22 September 2022 02:01 (two years ago)

i love how that entire blurb leaves open the possibility that the "bad take" or bad tweet that they will be discussing will in fact be one of Yglesias' bad takes

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, September 21, 2022 1:20 PM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Haha yes. It's also just funny that she admits that his arguments are usually half-baked.

jaymc, Thursday, 22 September 2022 02:08 (two years ago)

matt as we all know is an incredibly lazy loser, my job as an editor is to make him not be like that

lag∞n, Thursday, 22 September 2022 02:10 (two years ago)

https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Bad-Takes-2.jpeg?w=681&h=383&crop=1p

jaymc, Thursday, 22 September 2022 02:12 (two years ago)

i love how all the other pundits have some pet theory in mind -- even if it's something as abhorrent as 'jews will not replace us' -- and in 20 years all matty has come up with is ONE BILLION AMERICANS

why does he have a following? just impossibly mediocre

mookieproof, Thursday, 22 September 2022 02:16 (two years ago)

oh

I don’t know if the @maggieNYT defense squad needs another member, but one reason journalists don’t always tell you everything they know right away is that which things people are willing to tell you hinges in part on what you are planning to disclose and when.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) September 27, 2022

Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 28 September 2022 18:53 (two years ago)

One reason governments lie to you is that you won't like things they want to do

“uhh”—like, this is an insane oatmeal raisin cookie “uhh” (President Keyes), Wednesday, 28 September 2022 19:13 (two years ago)

I often read his name as "Matty Glesias," which sounds like a brand of cheap beer.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 28 September 2022 19:16 (two years ago)

the big brain

IMO the relationship between Twitter content moderation policies and electoral outcomes is a little ambiguous — letting Trump back on here almost certainly good for Dems, letting more Nazis and bigots back on also probably good for Dems. https://t.co/CFmELzyz4t

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) October 4, 2022

lag∞n, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 17:31 (two years ago)

🤔

Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 21:01 (two years ago)

More Nazis?
Maybe be more specific about a number.
How about 1 Billion Nazis!

“uhh”—like, this is an insane oatmeal raisin cookie “uhh” (President Keyes), Tuesday, 4 October 2022 22:38 (two years ago)

what this country needs is a big challenge to unite us all. like 700 million nazis

Karl Malone, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 22:44 (two years ago)

or you know what, a billion will work, that's more of a challenge

Karl Malone, Tuesday, 4 October 2022 22:46 (two years ago)

the billion nazi march is so disrespectful in every way, but it is not dangerous. dems should just take the w. click here for more hot takes.

i'm intentionally vague, intending to front multitudes (Hunt3r), Tuesday, 4 October 2022 22:50 (two years ago)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FeRuo6mX0AIh21J?format=jpg&name=medium

lag∞n, Wednesday, 5 October 2022 03:57 (two years ago)

I’m in a hotel room right now with two sets of curtains on the wall but one actual window. I guess it looks more symmetrical with an implied second window

mh, Wednesday, 5 October 2022 04:33 (two years ago)

listened to a few minutes of the bad takes pod, it was terrible. and i liked the weeds

flopson, Wednesday, 5 October 2022 08:14 (two years ago)

Anytime Yglesias offers one of his stupid-ass social prescriptions (people should live in windowless rooms!) the only appropriate response is "You first, fucker."

but also fuck you (unperson), Wednesday, 5 October 2022 11:46 (two years ago)

Matty: Windowless rooms are the future!
Tokyo: *yawn*

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Wednesday, 5 October 2022 16:51 (two years ago)

MattY: People are going to have to learn to live without their noses. Prove me wrong.

“uhh”—like, this is an insane oatmeal raisin cookie “uhh” (President Keyes), Wednesday, 5 October 2022 17:17 (two years ago)

it's impossible to have a functioning nose and read MattY's tweets

stank viola (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 5 October 2022 17:26 (two years ago)

blue check marks in absolute shambles pic.twitter.com/2Xg3JWLK01

— brandon access memories (@uncledoomer) October 10, 2022

lag∞n, Tuesday, 11 October 2022 15:43 (two years ago)

if he did his own dishes maybe he'd know about his indicator lights too somehow pic.twitter.com/w1yptAoclF

— The Pumpkin Dipshit (@ParSpec) October 11, 2022

lag∞n, Tuesday, 11 October 2022 15:52 (two years ago)

hot take probably but it would be good if matt yglesias got banned from the internet

terence trent d'ilfer (m bison), Tuesday, 11 October 2022 17:05 (two years ago)

someone should create a twitter account of just his hot takes, called "Y Glesias?"

but then it might get shut down because it would just be all of his tweets.

stank viola (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 11 October 2022 17:28 (two years ago)

it's more cost effective for MattY to crowd source reading his vehicle's owner manual. You don't want a mind like that wasting time.

“uhh”—like, this is an insane oatmeal raisin cookie “uhh” (President Keyes), Tuesday, 11 October 2022 17:37 (two years ago)

wish someone had convinced him that it meant his engine was about to blow

stank viola (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 11 October 2022 17:38 (two years ago)

i just remembered the “organizing my toolbox” tweet

Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 11 October 2022 18:34 (two years ago)

Well well well actually look who’s the guest on the Ezra Klein Show today

KPH, Friday, 21 October 2022 22:17 (two years ago)

lol

https://i.imgur.com/2dhRTDn.png

lag∞n, Saturday, 22 October 2022 16:23 (two years ago)

Yglesias meets data sorta like friedman meets cabdrivers. Always foreign significant and revealing. Possibly imaginary.

i'm right back on my shit (Hunt3r), Sunday, 23 October 2022 10:04 (two years ago)

Living the unverified life

— Matthew Yglesias (@MatthewYglesia1) November 1, 2022

jaymc, Wednesday, 2 November 2022 03:23 (two years ago)

reading the latest twitter and SBF news and stunned at the prescience of the GOAT. how does he do it pic.twitter.com/dyPYXXWRWr

— Dr Lyingin Tweets, MD (@FuzzyMarth) November 11, 2022

lag∞n, Friday, 11 November 2022 15:30 (two years ago)

wow that second thread is impressive even for him; "a few years ago" lmao

rob, Friday, 11 November 2022 16:54 (two years ago)

can practically see the kickback checks sticking out of Matty's pocket there

Fash Gordon (Neanderthal), Friday, 11 November 2022 16:55 (two years ago)

It's worth remembering how nice it feels to win.

Like if you're a Democrat who follows politics at all, you're really psyched that Laura Kelly won. You don't know much about her or her positions on the issues, you're just glad she won.

That's why pandering is good.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 9, 2022

Fash Gordon (Neanderthal), Friday, 11 November 2022 16:57 (two years ago)

its funny to simultaneously be a "nothing you do while governing matters to voters" and a "everything you do while campaigning matters to voters"

lag∞n, Friday, 11 November 2022 17:01 (two years ago)

what if and just hear me out we could give our people that nice winning feeling all the time

lag∞n, Friday, 11 November 2022 17:02 (two years ago)

I honestly don't know what point he's trying to make there, but I may have suffered brain damage from the previous "checkmark drama is cuz NYT did journalism" tweet

rob, Friday, 11 November 2022 17:08 (two years ago)

I think he's on his "Tell the undecided voters what they want to hear" thing

“uhh”—like, this is an insane oatmeal raisin cookie “uhh” (President Keyes), Friday, 11 November 2022 17:46 (two years ago)

the problem with tech coverage is that it's not glowing enough

Instead of covering the industry with a business press lens or a consumer lens they started covering it with a very tough investigative lens — highly oppositional at all times and occasionally unfair.

Almost never curious about technology or in awe of progress and potential.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 3, 2022

Karl Malone, Saturday, 12 November 2022 03:59 (two years ago)

Matty is probably still in awe of the potential represented by Theranos and its game-changing technology

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Saturday, 12 November 2022 04:05 (two years ago)

its a small thingin the wider world -- and sure he's not unflawed himself -- but jeet heer's open contempt for yglesias, increasingly robustly and directly stated ("reactionary cetnrist" etc etc), is funny and good

mark s, Saturday, 12 November 2022 11:29 (two years ago)

Fascinating piece from Matthew Yglesias from a few months ago defending the intellectual integrity of Sam Bankman-Fried ("SBF is for real"). Worth revisiting in light of recent news https://t.co/xKzyijbAFz

— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) November 12, 2022

lag∞n, Saturday, 12 November 2022 17:53 (two years ago)

lol he despises him so much

mark s, Saturday, 12 November 2022 17:55 (two years ago)

lol, this is kind of onethread with a lot of other things, but i love how in that yglesias substack where got ratio'd, he includes a Wasserman tweet where Wasserman says "I've seen enough."

i'm starting to get to know these characters and their catchphrases

Karl Malone, Saturday, 12 November 2022 18:02 (two years ago)

haha, this is from that same Yglesias article (https://www.slowboring.com/p/understanding-effective-altruisms). i don't read him that often but

SBF is for real

Sam Bankman-Fried’s life choices are unconventional, and I think that has made it easy to dismiss Carrick Flynn as a “crypto-backed” candidate or Protect Our Future as a crypto play. But there’s a pretty clear and plausible argument that this is simply not the case:

SBF was raised by a leading consequentialist moral theorist.

While attending MIT, SBF went to a Will MacAskill lecture on Effective Altruism and got lunch with him.

At this point in time, MacAskill was heavily promoting “earn to give” as a life plan, specifically promoting the virtues of the then-unfashionable life choice of going to work in finance.

SBF then went to work at Jane Street Capital, a proprietary trading firm notorious for employing smart weirdos, giving half his salary away to animal welfare charities.

He left Jane Street to briefly work directly for the Centre for Effective Altruism, which MacAskill founded, but while there hit upon a crypto trading arbitrage opportunity.

He left CEA to focus on crypto trading, starting a company called Alameda Research focused on making money through crypto arbitrage and other trading strategies.

He then left Alameda to found FTX. Now the co-CEO of Alameda Research is Caroline Ellison, also an EA who writes posts on EA Forum explaining how much weight2 she puts on ensuring that potential hires are aligned with EA values.

FTX has been incredibly successful, and Bankman-Fried is now a multi-billionaire.

lol

Karl Malone, Saturday, 12 November 2022 18:08 (two years ago)

effective alt is like "why we can be complete pricks and that's good not bad"

turns out that in a billion years our being pricks will be proveably beneficial for humanity QED, ps i was raised by a leading consequentialist

mark s, Saturday, 12 November 2022 18:21 (two years ago)

or "leading consequentialist moral theorist" as yggy puts it

mark s, Saturday, 12 November 2022 18:22 (two years ago)

let's just do it and be dickheads, man

Fash Gordon (Neanderthal), Saturday, 12 November 2022 18:22 (two years ago)

lol at ‘got lunch with him’

mookieproof, Saturday, 12 November 2022 18:49 (two years ago)

SBF then went to work at Jane Street Capital, a proprietary trading firm notorious for employing smart weirdos, giving half his salary away to animal welfare charities.

people really abuse the word notorious

lag∞n, Saturday, 12 November 2022 19:01 (two years ago)

matty could totally rescue this for me by going to bat for polycules

mark s, Saturday, 12 November 2022 19:16 (two years ago)

wait that's the polycule on the lower rolley traintrack isn't it

mark s, Saturday, 12 November 2022 19:17 (two years ago)

trolley

mark s, Saturday, 12 November 2022 19:19 (two years ago)

trofl

mark s, Saturday, 12 November 2022 19:19 (two years ago)

one track has a polycule on it the other has baby hitler which one do you choose

lag∞n, Saturday, 12 November 2022 19:21 (two years ago)

rockefeller figured this one weird trick out a century and a half ago and iirc his dad was only a snake oil salesman. idk whom he might have had lunch w later tho.

difficult listening hour, Sunday, 13 November 2022 08:44 (two years ago)

also you could purchase petroleum from him, and ignite it to make things go.

difficult listening hour, Sunday, 13 November 2022 08:45 (two years ago)

The fact that even Republicans are now realizing that transphobia is bad politics makes it even more shameful that reactionary centrist Matt Yglesias (among others) urged Dems to throw trans people under the bus just a few weeks ago. https://t.co/AGgpAdEW5Q pic.twitter.com/ko5OCsPmvi

— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) November 11, 2022

“uhh”—like, this is an insane oatmeal raisin cookie “uhh” (President Keyes), Sunday, 13 November 2022 13:56 (two years ago)

ah matt replied to the jeet tweets yesterday asking for constructive criticism via email and everyone was telling him to stop being such a loser lol he deleted tho shouldve screencapped

lag∞n, Sunday, 13 November 2022 14:13 (two years ago)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FhZTanMXEAEua37?format=jpg&name=large

lag∞n, Sunday, 13 November 2022 14:15 (two years ago)

love how any time something happens that matty was absolutely wrong on, the alarm sounds and everyone shows up

mh, Monday, 14 November 2022 19:42 (two years ago)

“It’s plausible that without SBF’s money, Trump would still be in the White House.”

papal hotwife (milo z), Thursday, 17 November 2022 16:57 (two years ago)

Wasn't sure whether to post this in the outbreak thread or the Ezra/Matt thread but I decided to post it here because (and I say this as someone who generally likes Yglesias's work) this one really highlights a very particular way in which he sometimes misses

There’s a faction on US Twitter that insists we could have had Xi Jinping’s Covid policies if not for David Leonhardt and Emily Oster. https://t.co/5B2UpVbiW9

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 26, 2022

Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 28 November 2022 00:57 (two years ago)

truly cannot imagine liking this slug at this point

lag∞n, Monday, 28 November 2022 01:09 (two years ago)

we’ve got some fans left it seems!

k3vin k., Monday, 28 November 2022 01:16 (two years ago)

ride or die

Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 28 November 2022 02:22 (two years ago)

ah well

mookieproof, Monday, 28 November 2022 02:25 (two years ago)

You can post pepe memes because you're the richest person on the planet and nobody can tell you what to do or you can convince brand advertisers that you're a safe bet they can count on but you can't do both at the same time.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 28, 2022

o. nate, Monday, 28 November 2022 21:14 (two years ago)

matty in his role as The Littlest Echo

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Monday, 28 November 2022 21:27 (two years ago)

is lagoon prepared to apologize for the time he said klein was just as bad as this guy

k3vin k., Thursday, 1 December 2022 22:44 (two years ago)

im prepared to do a yglesias level galaxy brained take on why klein is just as bad if it comes to that

lag∞n, Thursday, 1 December 2022 22:52 (two years ago)

klein is a very dull writer imo

flopson, Thursday, 1 December 2022 22:53 (two years ago)

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/11/21/business/00VOX-print/00VOX-articleLarge.jpg

pretty funny how klein has become an "ideas" podcaster and matty has become a substacker, the two perfect paths for vacuous blogger scoundrels

lag∞n, Thursday, 1 December 2022 22:56 (two years ago)

even tho matty is the laziest person in the world ezra is more likely to get caught in a plagiarism scandal

lag∞n, Thursday, 1 December 2022 22:57 (two years ago)

was thinking the other day about how when vox started their big idea was to have little linked explainers you could click through to get more info on various topics, this was going to save journalism

lag∞n, Thursday, 1 December 2022 23:02 (two years ago)

omg its ok to say ur wrong, the two guys are literally not in the same orbits at all right now, matty is a sad clout-chasing blogger, ezra for all his faults tries to understand stuff, they’re not the same!

k3vin k., Friday, 2 December 2022 00:10 (two years ago)

if youre a sucker for ezras shtick thats 100% your problem not mine

lag∞n, Friday, 2 December 2022 00:22 (two years ago)

i don't see much difference between them. ezra doesn't really write about politics as regularly anymore (seems to be positioning himself as a post-wonk ira glass figure) and is now attached to a legacy media company while matt writes constantly about politics and is an independent blogger

flopson, Friday, 2 December 2022 00:29 (two years ago)

matt is better cause he stayed true to blogging, ezra became a professional apologist for power which is the lowest form of writer, even lower than a worm (matt yglesias)

lag∞n, Friday, 2 December 2022 00:31 (two years ago)

Dunno why you would need to read either of these guys when you can just read a book

G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Friday, 2 December 2022 00:37 (two years ago)

a book about how america should get a billion people?

lag∞n, Friday, 2 December 2022 00:41 (two years ago)

Idk whatever book you want, there’s dozens of em

G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Friday, 2 December 2022 00:44 (two years ago)

like when it comes down to it, who actually are these guys?

G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Friday, 2 December 2022 00:45 (two years ago)

Has Ezra ever written about effective altruism?

papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, 2 December 2022 00:53 (two years ago)

0/0 results on this thread for "Better Than Ezra"

papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, 2 December 2022 00:54 (two years ago)

Good

Fash Gordon (Neanderthal), Friday, 2 December 2022 01:00 (two years ago)

Has Ezra ever written about effective altruism?

― papal hotwife (milo z), Thursday, December 1, 2022 7:53 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

excellent question! he has a podcast with the longtermism philosopher and crypto hanger on William MacAskill https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/09/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-will-macaskill.html

this one also seems to be about that shit https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-holden-karnofsky.html

im sure ezra thinks very deeply on this obvious garbage

lag∞n, Friday, 2 December 2022 01:02 (two years ago)

Dunno why you would need to read either of these guys when you can just read a book

― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Thursday, December 1, 2022 7:37 PM (twenty-nine minutes ago) book

the thing is ezra actually reads books and interviews ppl about them smh they’re not even the same species

k3vin k., Friday, 2 December 2022 01:08 (two years ago)

Yglesias broods like a champ

Fash Gordon (Neanderthal), Friday, 2 December 2022 01:09 (two years ago)

I'm a sucker for Ezra's shtick, but you knew that

jaymc, Friday, 2 December 2022 01:30 (two years ago)

I even listened to his podcast interview with MacAskill when it dropped, while on a pleasant late summer walk.

jaymc, Friday, 2 December 2022 01:31 (two years ago)

should listen to podcasts while snaking your sink, bathtub, and sewer lines to make sure you're not letting the outside leak in

mh, Friday, 2 December 2022 01:33 (two years ago)

I even listened to his podcast interview with MacAskill when it dropped, while on a pleasant late summer walk.

― jaymc, Thursday, December 1, 2022 8:31 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

the people demand to know what ezra thinks about effective altruism

lag∞n, Friday, 2 December 2022 16:21 (two years ago)

marveling at how incredible it is that matty's podcast is called bad takes. is he trolling his haters? or just his archetypal obliviousness as always

Lavator Shemmelpennick, Friday, 2 December 2022 16:45 (two years ago)

genuinely surprised you think he has any self-awareness

Tracer Hand, Friday, 2 December 2022 16:46 (two years ago)

matt is 100% a troll hes being doing it his whole career and its worked out very well for him

lag∞n, Friday, 2 December 2022 16:47 (two years ago)

tho i do think hes gone too far since going on substack, he is no doubt making some obscene high six figures salary, but he seems to have totally lost all his peers in the thinky bloggy community, like jeet heer who is someone that has in the past engaged with matty is now regularly calling him a piece of shit on main just total disrespect, long term careerwise it doesnt seem great

lag∞n, Friday, 2 December 2022 16:50 (two years ago)

the people demand to know what ezra thinks about effective altruism

― lag∞n, Friday, December 2, 2022 10:21 AM (twenty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'd say he's largely sympathetic, if not entirely bought in. Or at least he was. IIRC, he didn't talk about his own broad views on the movement too much in the MacAskill interview, which was mostly about MacAskill's new book. But about a year ago, he interviewed another EA figure, Holden Karnofsky, and said this up front:

Over the past — I don’t know — five, six years, I’ve been very influenced by the effective altruism movement. On one level, effective altruism is simple. It asks, how do we do the most good we can with the money and the resources we have? That turns out to be, one, a deceptively difficult question and, two, weirdly, one that we don’t ask all that often, one that oftentimes you think people are asking and they are not.

But the difficult parts are maybe more interesting. How do you measure the most good? What about when you think something is good, but it cannot really be measured? Who defines good? Who verifies impact? How do you judge the value of, say, supporting art against the value of building housing for the poor?

Effective altruism has roots in the academy. Philosophers like Toby Ord and Will MacAskill and Peter Singer, they’ve been central in creating the movement. And importantly, they’re central in the way the movement thinks and reasons. The culture of effective altruism, in my experience — and this is both its best and worst quality, in a way — can feel like a philosophy grad seminar that never ends.

By that, I mean it delights in taking the logic of its questions as far as it will go. It’s unafraid, even ecstatic, to follow answers that strike others as very strange or unintuitive, sometimes even cruel. It’s always, always questioning its own assumptions and everyone else’s. It can, in my view, sometimes be performatively cold or logical in a way that’s actually quite narrow about human flourishing. But as I’ve said, I have learned a lot from these thinkers.

jaymc, Friday, 2 December 2022 17:18 (two years ago)

lmao perfect ezra no notes

lag∞n, Friday, 2 December 2022 17:20 (two years ago)

a man can go far in life by simply never asking the question "is this just eugenics"

lag∞n, Friday, 2 December 2022 17:22 (two years ago)

Peter Singer has a lot to answer for

G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Friday, 2 December 2022 17:25 (two years ago)

Because that excerpt reads like a This American Life parody voiceover I’m now with lagoon on Ezra being worse.

papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, 2 December 2022 17:41 (two years ago)

tho i do think hes gone too far since going on substack, he is no doubt making some obscene high six figures salary, but he seems to have totally lost all his peers in the thinky bloggy community, like jeet heer who is someone that has in the past engaged with matty is now regularly calling him a piece of shit on main just total disrespect, long term careerwise it doesnt seem great

― lag∞n, Friday, December 2, 2022 11:50 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

eh i think this is a bit of a misread. the center-left/left split in media has polarized a lot in the last few years--matt got pushed out of vox for being too far to the right of its younger staff--and matt has clearly gone "mask off" since the 2020 election, during which he randomly endorsed Bernie (a position he's since recanted). but matt was always the troll/contrarian attack dog of the center-left/technocratic wonk faction who would frequently (and gleefully) punch left. but he's still in good standing with all people (eric levitz, matthew zeitlin, john chait, josh barro, noah smith, kevin drum, josh marshall, dave weigel, paul krugman and all other media-adjacent economists). but jeet heer was never really part of that crew. he started out somewhat unaligned (before being a pundit he was an indie-comics critic) but after getting bullied on twitter for writing a critical article of chapo sided with the left, and is now on staff at the nation

flopson, Friday, 2 December 2022 21:43 (two years ago)

jeet is just an example of a guy who was matty tolerant in the past but now considers him a total clown you could slot any number of writers in there

i dont follow that group containing many of the worst guys online too closely but it would be hard to see that as anything but a narrowing audience for mattys schtick considering he used to play pretty much clear across the technocratbloggosphere

lag∞n, Friday, 2 December 2022 22:06 (two years ago)

o to be in good standing with this chucklehead

"Conservative" should mean what it meant in 2003 -- a chubby middle-aged real estate guy watching Fox News while chopping meat on his granite kitchen island, complaining about welfare moms and crime and kids these days just hooking up instead of settling down with a real job.

— Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 (@Noahpinion) December 3, 2022

papal hotwife (milo z), Saturday, 3 December 2022 21:09 (two years ago)

Ezra Klein still finds value in effective altruism, though offers some critiques in his latest column:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/04/opinion/charity-holiday-gift-givewell.html

jaymc, Monday, 5 December 2022 02:34 (two years ago)

Velvet-gloved eugenics imo

G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Monday, 5 December 2022 03:19 (two years ago)

Ezra seems disinclined to recognize that the whole concept is just telling people that their greed is, in fact, good.

papal hotwife (milo z), Monday, 5 December 2022 04:11 (two years ago)

ezra is a classic npr paradox, like how with david sedaris it needs to be true to be funny, you have to believe he tried to understand his topic when any normal person would be incredulous at effective altruism, coddled oxford professors, crypto con men and so forth; its no more than entertainment, low quality too

lag∞n, Monday, 5 December 2022 04:12 (two years ago)

selling some ersatz thoughtfulness, lol sad

lag∞n, Monday, 5 December 2022 04:13 (two years ago)

Ezra seems disinclined to recognize that the whole concept is just telling people that their greed is, in fact, good.

― papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, December 4, 2022 10:11 PM (twenty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I don't think that's the whole concept.

jaymc, Monday, 5 December 2022 04:39 (two years ago)

I think Ezra is attracted to the idea that some forms of altruism are more effective than others, in terms of where an individual can make the most impact. He likes GiveWell because it assesses charities on those kinds of metrics and thus helps him and others decide where their charitable spending will go the furthest. But in that column he is explicitly critical of the "earn to give" philosophy, which "adds a darker possibility of rationalizing unethical means in service of virtuous ends."

jaymc, Monday, 5 December 2022 04:54 (two years ago)

hes a professional apologist for power, no more and no less

lag∞n, Monday, 5 December 2022 04:56 (two years ago)

That's a bizarre takeaway

jaymc, Monday, 5 December 2022 04:58 (two years ago)

apologetics is an interesting an i think under examined aspect of media, its imho prob the primary form of the opinon economy or whatever you want to call it, like for instance if i made the same claim about daivd brooks no one on here would bat an eye, but the posters to ilx are not the target audience for david brooks apologetics, our parents are, theyd say hes reasonable

people are generally blind to apologetics aimed at them, its entertainment but its serous but dont take it too serious its just entertainment, a podcast to fall asleep to, but in order for it to work you have to believe its serious ideas, but also its just to fall asleep to so dont take it too serious

ezra klein is exactly as much of a serious thinker as daivd brook, which is to say not at all, they are both completely vacuous, they exist to compliment their audience for listening to their podcasts/opinon columns

this is obvious to me since im not their audience

anyone who took sam bankman fried, various effective altruists, paul ryan (had graphs) etc etc is it should go without saying not worth dirt, they did let him interview obama tho lol

lag∞n, Monday, 5 December 2022 05:18 (two years ago)

*scales fall from my eyes*

flopson, Monday, 5 December 2022 05:42 (two years ago)

But in that column he is explicitly critical of the "earn to give" philosophy

Which is the key to 'effective altruism,' given the prior existence of rating charities on how much money goes to salaries and advertising or simply running cost benefit analyses on various policy strategies.

The encouragement of leeches like SBF is the intellectual project of 'effective altruism.' Which is, for the reasons lagoon notes, perhaps why it is ultimately appealing to him - his job is also to encourage those same leeches but he has to be a bit more cowardly about it to suit his audience.

papal hotwife (milo z), Monday, 5 December 2022 05:44 (two years ago)

*scales fall from my eyes*

― flopson, Monday, December 5, 2022 12:42 AM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

if only one were so cutting re shitty dudes in the thread title

lag∞n, Monday, 5 December 2022 05:46 (two years ago)

lag∞tm

mookieproof, Monday, 5 December 2022 07:19 (two years ago)

there are a bunch of different strands that make up effective altruism - the givewell side that truly does focus on evidence-based outcomes & cost-effectiveness is fine (although it has its issues where they've developed their own weird biases about things but the basic principles are fine), but the 'earn to give' stuff is just comically self-serving, and the longtermist nonsense that came out of all the rationalist idiots from lesswrong who are heavily involved in it all is unbelievably stupid and falls over if anyone normal thinks about it for a second

ufo, Monday, 5 December 2022 08:46 (two years ago)

like i'm no fan of klein but he's mostly just endorsing the givewell side of things which is pretty reasonable. the main dumb thing in the piece is 'Effective altruists have fought hard to persuade people to worry more about artificial intelligence, and they have been right to do so' which is right out of the longtermist rationalist stuff and while ai ethics is certainly something that's important to work on, the rationalists' worries are bizarrely disproportionate (worrying about superhuman intelligence that could enslave us all or whatever) and are not who should be listened to at all here.

ufo, Monday, 5 December 2022 08:54 (two years ago)

ah very interesting point from the man who is famously fine with the risk of foreign garment workers dying in building collapses

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjN2OQPXoAE6qrk?format=jpg&name=900x900

lag∞n, Monday, 5 December 2022 13:41 (two years ago)

I don't think he's the greatest intellectual of our time, and I don't agree with him on everything, but I still do like Ezra and his podcast and find myself generally on his wavelength. Sorry you find him vacuous.

jaymc, Monday, 5 December 2022 13:59 (two years ago)

to be precise hes professionally vacuous, its his job

lag∞n, Monday, 5 December 2022 14:03 (two years ago)

yglesias on ai, his future unemployment

We are on the brink of an unprecedented explosion in the pace at which people can produce midwit opinions and mediocre writing.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) December 3, 2022

lag∞n, Monday, 5 December 2022 14:24 (two years ago)

lol

Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 5 December 2022 14:32 (two years ago)

matty almost hit the mark there on accident!

longtermism re: AI paranoia is probably one of the best examplars of the genre. a bunch of bozos fawning over every model trained on stolen text and images or cars that keep running over pedestrians while pretending that skynet is going to pop up and nuke our asses. the problem's right in front of you, stop worrying about skynet while creating dumb skynet

mh, Monday, 5 December 2022 16:03 (two years ago)

Absolutely stunning that the Centre for Effective Altruism *bought* this place. #effectivealtruism pic.twitter.com/0az4ilPvuT

— Émile P. Torres 🏳️‍⚧️ (@xriskology) December 4, 2022

papal hotwife (milo z), Monday, 5 December 2022 18:44 (two years ago)

they think they're the X-Men

death generator (lukas), Monday, 5 December 2022 18:58 (two years ago)

absolutely the best thing abt the jeet-yggy feud is how much jeet (who is generally good at getting on with ideological foes) is getting to yggy (who is generally p amiable abt even quite sharp criticism)

pic.twitter.com/SnaGpAC1QO

— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) December 5, 2022

LMAO. pic.twitter.com/Oqnoq3nbD5

— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) December 5, 2022

mark s, Monday, 5 December 2022 19:00 (two years ago)

The mistake @mattyglesias and popularists generally keep making is assuming that reactionary politics are the result of leftist overreach. They aren't.

55-year-old+ white dudes have *always* been uncomfortable with young people and social progress. They still are. /1

— David Atkins (@DavidOAtkins) December 5, 2022

...

What's particularly sad about this is that a lot of biggest media people involved in this (Yglesias, Shor, Klein, etc.) had some bad experiences in internal liberal org Slack channels and listservs, then extrapolated their own niche resentments to the broader electorate. /4

— David Atkins (@DavidOAtkins) December 5, 2022

lag∞n, Tuesday, 6 December 2022 14:25 (two years ago)

Not to keep being Cap'n Save-an-Ezra, but he has voiced skepticism about popularism:

And this is a place where I think I end up having a real disagreement with the David Shors, and my friend Matthew Yglesias and others, who — I’m a policy guy. I’ve been covering policy my whole career. I think they’ve become too literal about policy, and too literal about how much voters know about policy and how much policy positioning matters.

I think a lot of things are tributaries into this overall gut sense of whether or not this politician is like you, and they like you, which are different ideas.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/10/podcasts/transcript-ezra-klein-interviews-aaron-retica.html

jaymc, Tuesday, 6 December 2022 15:17 (two years ago)

hes good at voicing mild skepticism, as is the job of the thoughtful apologist, the problem of course is that shors claims are total self serving bullshit, pure advertising for his company backed up only by extremely shaky data, ygelgais is in it i guess just cause he likes shoddy centrist nonsense

lag∞n, Tuesday, 6 December 2022 15:24 (two years ago)

the whole argument comes out totally garbled and confused cause its resting on a foundation of jello and promoted by people who dont care much about whats true or not, like what is this lol

I think a lot of things are tributaries into this overall gut sense of whether or not this politician is like you, and they like you, which are different ideas.

lag∞n, Tuesday, 6 December 2022 15:28 (two years ago)

tfw a politician is like me and as a very justifiable consequence hates me

mark s, Tuesday, 6 December 2022 15:30 (two years ago)

lol

lag∞n, Tuesday, 6 December 2022 15:30 (two years ago)

I mean, it's a podcast transcript, read the rest of it to find out what he means.

jaymc, Tuesday, 6 December 2022 15:41 (two years ago)

nah lol

lag∞n, Tuesday, 6 December 2022 15:42 (two years ago)

Here's that whole Ezra quote, this feels like popularism. . . appealing to "people" vs. appealing to "the elite" and definitely not anything about policy unless you count bar fights as policy

EZRA KLEIN: Yeah. And he probably does, weirdly enough, knowing a little bit about him. But Fetterman has the aesthetic, right? And this is a place where I think I end up having a real disagreement with the David Shors, and my friend Matthew Yglesias and others, who — I’m a policy guy. I’ve been covering policy my whole career. I think they’ve become too literal about policy, and too literal about how much voters know about policy and how much policy positioning matters.

I think a lot of things are tributaries into this overall gut sense of whether or not this politician is like you, and they like you, which are different ideas. You know, are they like you? Do they come from the world you come from? Do they understand you? And also, how do they feel about you? And Fetterman, who I think in a lot of ways is more liberal than Ryan, Fetterman visually and communicatively signals like he’s a guy who not only would be at the bar, but would be in the bar fight.

And that’s not Tim Ryan. And so Fetterman is a kind of visual of this — rightly or wrongly, whether or not you believe this to be true about him — this sort of working-class aesthetic. And so will that work in Ohio? It’s interesting. It’s an interesting question. But if you’re comparing the two of them, I think you’re comparing trying to signal whose side you’re on through the positions you take and the things you say versus who you are, how you move through the world, how you dress, what your temperament and comportment as a person are.

And I think at a candidate level, the latter set of qualities tend to trump it.

a (waterface), Tuesday, 6 December 2022 15:48 (two years ago)

the unwashed masses want a big boy who wears shorts in the winter

lag∞n, Tuesday, 6 December 2022 15:51 (two years ago)

hahaha but who also does yoga i cut that part off.

a (waterface), Tuesday, 6 December 2022 15:52 (two years ago)

All that said, and I’m very happy to see Fetterman win, what Fetterman had and has as a candidate, which is different than Ryan — Ryan is a capable politician whose policies and beliefs position him in this older, labor-oriented tradition. He’s always been very skeptical and hawkish on China. He’s very pro organized labor. But he’s not somebody who if you meet him, or you look at him, or you listen to him talk, he bleeds a working class aesthetic. He’s a big meditator, right? I mean —

AARON RETICA: You don’t imagine John Fetterman doing a lot of yoga.

EZRA KLEIN: Yeah. And he probably does, weirdly enough, knowing a little bit about him. But Fetterman has the aesthetic, right?

a (waterface), Tuesday, 6 December 2022 15:52 (two years ago)

either a big boy or a grumpy old jewish man from vermont, its complicated but thats the new popularism

lag∞n, Tuesday, 6 December 2022 15:53 (two years ago)

"Ah he probably does yoga but also at the same time gives off the vibe that he *doesn't* do a lot of yoga."

Bunch a jello brains

a (waterface), Tuesday, 6 December 2022 15:53 (two years ago)

*extremely policy guy voice* on the one hand you have a guy who helped fix bread prices while working a huge corrupt consultancy right he recently helped crush a rail strike this is who the party should be elevating by all rights everyone should love him but the only problem is he doesnt own a hoodie, then on the other side youve got a guy who does have a hoodie who is very pro labor and wants to legalize weed he wins because he has the hoodie, we need to figure out where to get this sweatshirt

lag∞n, Tuesday, 6 December 2022 15:58 (two years ago)

^^^^^^^^

difficult listening hour, Tuesday, 6 December 2022 15:59 (two years ago)

and weirdly enough he does yoga

Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 6 December 2022 16:04 (two years ago)

He does Yoga, but he doesn't know he does Yoga.

“uhh”—like, this is an insane oatmeal raisin cookie “uhh” (President Keyes), Tuesday, 6 December 2022 16:06 (two years ago)

alright youve got a huge big boy who doesnt even own pants only shorts band tees hoodies and slides, also he does yoga hes very flexible he can suck his own dick, youve got the sicko block wrapped up right there, its too much to overcome president big boy is all but assured

lag∞n, Tuesday, 6 December 2022 16:08 (two years ago)

I know it "doesn't work this way" but I don't care what a politician does in their spare time or how they dress and if I spot a pundit/journo talking about "carhartt shorts" or "hoodies" w/r/t Fetterman I will probably not listen to anything they say and also probably dismiss them altogether, it's literally the dumbest shit ever. like it's fine if I talk about that shit! but why are you wasting peoples time not talking about all the things Fetterman has done as mayor and stuff?

a (waterface), Tuesday, 6 December 2022 16:11 (two years ago)

xpost he's also polling among those who like to hold doors and smell the blood of an Englishman

“uhh”—like, this is an insane oatmeal raisin cookie “uhh” (President Keyes), Tuesday, 6 December 2022 16:12 (two years ago)

imo image matters, crude brand name signifiers prob arent the deepest way of looking at at it tho, and policy matters too, what youre really looking for is a person whos image and policy are aligned and natural, thats called making sense or being genuine

lag∞n, Tuesday, 6 December 2022 16:15 (two years ago)

i.e. The Shorts in Winter Clause

Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 6 December 2022 16:16 (two years ago)

when you see some generic ivy league dem party ass technocrat you pretty much know what theyre all about

lag∞n, Tuesday, 6 December 2022 16:17 (two years ago)

i don't read yelp reviews because I can tell what i'm getting into with a restaurant. same with politicians? maybe?

a (waterface), Tuesday, 6 December 2022 16:21 (two years ago)

the one thing that has surprised me about Mayor Pete is how he owns people on Fox, that's a pleasant surprise but again that's not really stuff that's gonna change people's lives

a (waterface), Tuesday, 6 December 2022 16:21 (two years ago)

I can't even call him Mayor Pete, I instantly think of Cuban Pete.

Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 6 December 2022 16:22 (two years ago)

Is he saying Tim Ryan is just as liberal and pro-laboras Fetterman? LOL

Lord Pickles (Boring, Maryland), Tuesday, 6 December 2022 16:24 (two years ago)

ultimately the "funny" thing about "popularism" is the shor is wrong about what policies are popular, and thats charitable, it would also be fine to say hes lying

and they of course the entire premise of the thing completely ignores any sort of idea working to make good polices popular, a thing which ygelias has said is impossible, which pretty much reveals the scam right there

lag∞n, Tuesday, 6 December 2022 16:24 (two years ago)

tbf he may actually believe it but its a scam nevertheless

lag∞n, Tuesday, 6 December 2022 16:24 (two years ago)

one month passes...

The boring journey of Matt Yglesias
The Washington ur-blogger’s slightly contrarian, mildly annoying, somewhat influential, very lucrative path toward the political center
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/01/11/matt-yglesias-slow-boring-in-bidens-washington/

The Terroir of Tiny Town (WmC), Thursday, 12 January 2023 14:28 (two years ago)

That is a perfect Matt Yglesias quote: grandiose but granular. Draped in idealism and wisdom but anchored in data and incrementalism. Clear on its face but dotted with leaps like “incredible” and “very,” then hedges like “sort of” and “slightly.”

kill me

Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 12 January 2023 14:33 (two years ago)

I lol'd at the comparison of his speaking voice to Jiminy Glick's

jaymc, Thursday, 12 January 2023 14:58 (two years ago)

its da matty lifestyle baby

lag∞n, Thursday, 12 January 2023 14:59 (two years ago)

i was just thinking about jiminy glick the other day and how much i loved that show

Tracer Hand, Thursday, 12 January 2023 15:06 (two years ago)

“There’s a broad sense that he’s a public intellectual, and they take his ideas like they’ll take other ideas,” says a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss outside influences on the administration. “He’s not super influential, but he’s a prominent normie liberal, just like Joe Biden is a normie liberal.”

bad ass in the white house alert!!

Karl Malone, Thursday, 12 January 2023 17:12 (two years ago)

in a just world Dan Zak would be getting paid the big bucks

G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Thursday, 12 January 2023 18:29 (two years ago)

Matty got pwned by Matt Levine yesterday, good to see some Matt on Matt violence.

papal hotwife (milo z), Thursday, 12 January 2023 18:38 (two years ago)

Gotta say, 13,000 people paying $80 a year each seems like a pretty sweet gig.

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 12 January 2023 18:45 (two years ago)

Perhaps it’s instructive to think about two topics that bookend his public life. At age 21, Yglesias was laying out the logician’s case for the invasion of Iraq, because how could the most powerful, informed men on Earth be so stupid? In May of this year, Yglesias declared that Bankman-Fried “is for real,” because why else would wealthy people risk their money?

“Unfortunately I think, like most people, I just kind of took it at face value,” Yglesias says now, about Bankman-Fried’s endeavor. “‘Well, if his company has a $20-billion valuation, there must be something to it.’ Even if I don’t understand what a cryptocurrency exchange is.”

mookieproof, Thursday, 12 January 2023 18:57 (two years ago)

you could almost admire how difficult he makes it to make fun of him

rob, Thursday, 12 January 2023 19:05 (two years ago)

this guy is an informed, credulous dumbfuck and that's normally enough, and he's got a huge income. so i guess where we are is normal.

normal AI yankovic (Hunt3r), Thursday, 12 January 2023 23:02 (two years ago)

its always hard to tell to what extent a pundit naturally dumb or just doing it for the job

lag∞n, Thursday, 12 January 2023 23:04 (two years ago)

have we seen this one yet

Going crazy upon learning that @mattyglesias thought basis points and percentage points were the same thing, and apparently frequently read sentences like “the yield on the 10-year treasury is up six basis points” and thought that was normal and fine? pic.twitter.com/JyzKOYqIbs

— cephalopod_v7 (wirefraud (parody)) (@macrocephalopod) January 11, 2023

mh, Friday, 13 January 2023 00:15 (two years ago)

he was literally a business blogger for years it was his job lol

lag∞n, Friday, 13 January 2023 00:20 (two years ago)

the “counterexamples” people tried to find are even more confusing to the point I’m not sure if he knows what a percent is

mh, Friday, 13 January 2023 00:26 (two years ago)

maybe he does know what a basis point is but not a percent

lag∞n, Friday, 13 January 2023 00:47 (two years ago)

idk as someone who makes math and coding mistakes and typos all the time it’s hard to judge the bond yield mistake. it’s pretty tricky. using premium bond to get around the debt ceiling is a good idea tho

flopson, Friday, 13 January 2023 02:57 (two years ago)

you should charge people $40/yr to read your slightly more accurate takes

mookieproof, Friday, 13 January 2023 03:03 (two years ago)

the flopstack seems doomed by name but readers may give is a fair shake

mh, Friday, 13 January 2023 03:18 (two years ago)

crazy to think that matty is actually good at his schtick and theres a whole ecosystem of subyglesiases out there

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FmcW1cYX0AATJiL?format=jpg&name=large

lag∞n, Saturday, 14 January 2023 15:36 (two years ago)

and that thread, which I made the mistake of reading with morning coffee a few hours ago, gets worse

Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 14 January 2023 15:41 (two years ago)

if you dont want to see him anymore its very easy to get blocked

trying to remember why this guy banned me pic.twitter.com/PHLLYtNSEX

— br◎seph (@on3ness) January 14, 2023

lag∞n, Saturday, 14 January 2023 15:45 (two years ago)

I thought at first, he's snarking.

Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 14 January 2023 15:45 (two years ago)

yeah hes actually dumb with terrible ideas

lag∞n, Saturday, 14 January 2023 15:46 (two years ago)

or at least thats how he pays the bills

lag∞n, Saturday, 14 January 2023 15:46 (two years ago)

two weeks pass...

matty finds a way, a true provocateur, i can only tip my cap

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnmxDRjagAAWoiY?format=jpg&name=large

lag∞n, Sunday, 29 January 2023 17:18 (two years ago)

send matty into the drugs den first like that scene in serpico

mark s, Sunday, 29 January 2023 17:24 (two years ago)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnqBwyMXkAEDwBu?format=jpg&name=large

lag∞n, Sunday, 29 January 2023 17:31 (two years ago)

I didn't notice the significance of "Police For America" the first time I read it.

o. nate, Sunday, 29 January 2023 22:04 (two years ago)

They're rebranding opposing banning books as "identity politics for librarians" pic.twitter.com/4dlXQ5Vf4i

— Lincoln Michel (@TheLincoln) February 9, 2023

papal hotwife (milo z), Thursday, 9 February 2023 22:56 (two years ago)

Are there any Matt journalists who don't suck

waiting for a czar to fall (Neanderthal), Thursday, 9 February 2023 23:59 (two years ago)

Matt Levine!

G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Thursday, 9 February 2023 23:59 (two years ago)

AMAB (except for Levine)

papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, 10 February 2023 00:00 (two years ago)

Guy who thinks that instead of carceral solutions we should be offering the January 6 perpetrators affordable housing and good jobs.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) February 10, 2023

o. nate, Friday, 10 February 2023 18:59 (two years ago)

these same perpetrators who yell about personal responsibility and mommy having a job rather than staying home made her kid go bad?

waiting for a czar to fall (Neanderthal), Friday, 10 February 2023 19:02 (two years ago)

once again Matty not entirely wrong about the carceral state but choosing to use it in a limited capacity and focus on poor beleaguered people who only tried to overthrow a government, like

what about everybody else who needs these things who aren't trying a coup?

waiting for a czar to fall (Neanderthal), Friday, 10 February 2023 19:03 (two years ago)

Why is his twitter avatar bearded Moby?

INDEPENDENTS DAY BY STEVEN SPILBERG (President Keyes), Friday, 10 February 2023 19:13 (two years ago)

Matty otm: Jan 6 is the coup de grace for prison abolition. The systemically unjust policing and the continual imprisonment and execution of innocent people is an externality of vital anti-coup deterrence

rob, Friday, 10 February 2023 19:30 (two years ago)

I think it should probably tell you something about the overall level of quality and attention to detail in Yglesias’ work that he seems to have critiqued my podcast without understanding that on every single episode one of us has read the book and one of us has not. pic.twitter.com/T1yfwUpPQF

— Michael Hobbes (@RottenInDenmark) February 10, 2023

lag∞n, Friday, 10 February 2023 21:21 (two years ago)

so he read a dumb substack post about a podcast episode that he didn't listen to and responded to the original podcast based on that?

excellent source vetting

mh, Friday, 10 February 2023 21:26 (two years ago)

I also have no idea who Ned Resnikoff is but hoo boy are his conclusions really something

mh, Friday, 10 February 2023 21:28 (two years ago)

Policy director at California YIMBY

oh. ohhhh

mh, Friday, 10 February 2023 21:28 (two years ago)

in my podcast, the person who hasn't read the book (me) pretends to have read the book, while the person who has read the book (or wrote it) has to pretend that they've never read it. one of the long running gags is that the person who has read the book but has to pretend that they haven't read it "pretends" to be upset with me and to not understand what my whole podcast is about. we keep doing this until i get a job

Karl Malone, Friday, 10 February 2023 21:35 (two years ago)

what are the odds that matty himself has read 'the end of history'

mookieproof, Friday, 10 February 2023 21:41 (two years ago)

lol he dirty deleted the original tweet

waiting for a czar to fall (Neanderthal), Friday, 10 February 2023 22:00 (two years ago)

never go to war against @the_law_boy

mark s, Friday, 10 February 2023 22:04 (two years ago)

as a side note, I've enjoyed the Michael Hobbes podcast format with one host explaining a book or phenomena to the other, but I've mostly listened to Maintenance Phase

mh, Friday, 10 February 2023 22:32 (two years ago)

A lot of people giving me shit in a way calculated to annoy me this evening — that’s your right, but I’m gonna block you if you do it.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) February 10, 2023

lag∞n, Saturday, 11 February 2023 00:14 (two years ago)

What a little worm

G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Saturday, 11 February 2023 00:15 (two years ago)

Matty Y acting like a hyena
Matty Y, what a little weiner

waiting for a czar to fall (Neanderthal), Saturday, 11 February 2023 00:34 (two years ago)

reading some of the tweets that went after him in the last 24 hours and I didn’t realize a guy could be murdered multiple times

mh, Saturday, 11 February 2023 16:30 (two years ago)

link?

lag∞n, Saturday, 11 February 2023 16:35 (two years ago)

In 2021, I wrote this piece about how Ron DeSantis was trying to crack down on speech and about how the people who signed the Harper's Letter wouldn't care. And YOU were the example I used. That's how predictable and hypocritical the letter people were. https://t.co/UZX3l5FLxS

— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) February 9, 2023

mh, Saturday, 11 February 2023 19:35 (two years ago)

In the last three days, Peter Coy, Matt Yglesias, and Jason Furman have all argued against Biden's push to make things in the U.S. It's fascinating reaction to the new industrial policy. pic.twitter.com/A3zauP1G9N

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) February 13, 2023

lag∞n, Monday, 13 February 2023 19:03 (two years ago)

That’s extreme beltway brain right there

G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Monday, 13 February 2023 19:08 (two years ago)

That Furman one is especially baby-brained because it's the end-run of economists thinking the ultimate good is optimizing the supply chain, globally, at all costs

Maybe it makes sense to have a materials/labor supply chain locally to support critical infrastructure, especially when we've had obvious international trade issues in recent years? It's not 10 bridges or 20 bridges, it's thousands and while a bunch are currently in need of replacement, things have a lifespan and there will be a rolling need for bridge maintenance as long as there are bridges. So you fund a labor force that's paid as if they work on critical infrastructure and keep them around to do the jobs we know need done

I mean, you could argue that they'll run out of work and there's the possibility of make-work like we've seen elsewhere where development overruns demand, but that's a separate issue entirely. idk if they run out of bridges make them work on high speed rail or something

mh, Monday, 13 February 2023 19:22 (two years ago)

According to the ASCE in 2021:

One particular concern is the condition of the nation's bridges. According to the Infrastructure Report Card, 42% of the 617,000 bridges in the U.S. are more than 50 years old, and more than 46,000 of them are rated as structurally deficient. That doesn't mean that they're in danger of collapsing but indicates that they are in poor condition. The number of bridges that slipped from good condition to fair over the last four years increased as well.

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/03/973054080/potholes-grid-failures-aging-tunnels-and-bridges-nations-infrastructure-gets-a-c

I'm not sure I even understand this as an economic issue, but as a public safety one it seems pretty dire

rob, Monday, 13 February 2023 20:12 (two years ago)

It’s absolute mind-boggling to me. My city’s been replacing the bridges over the river downtown at a rate of about one per year, and the one’s that still there is eroding rapidly. And these are relatively short bridges in both length and height. I still remember the Minneapolis bridge collapse in 2007 and worrying about several people I knew who lived in the area.

mh, Monday, 13 February 2023 20:21 (two years ago)

fwiw the commenters saying that maybe we don’t need as many bridges are being just as purposefully ignorant — a number of bridges in rural areas have been retired and/or deconstructed based on usage, some resulting in much longer routes for people in rural areas

mh, Monday, 13 February 2023 20:22 (two years ago)

two months pass...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuZW-doWAAEHSR_?format=jpg&name=medium

lag∞n, Sunday, 23 April 2023 13:00 (two years ago)

^hasn't aged well

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Sunday, 23 April 2023 18:21 (two years ago)

did it seem more accurate 361 days ago?

least said, sergio mendes (sic), Sunday, 23 April 2023 19:05 (two years ago)

No

a (waterface), Sunday, 23 April 2023 19:25 (two years ago)

The headline implies this, yes, but the article still reads pretty true

Davey D, Sunday, 23 April 2023 20:27 (two years ago)

lol no it doesnt

lag∞n, Sunday, 23 April 2023 20:28 (two years ago)

Musk tweets as if he had been raised by the blue bird and the fail whale. ...
That’s a man who understands what Twitter truly is.

lag∞n, Sunday, 23 April 2023 20:29 (two years ago)

ha max wrong too

Musk’s stated agenda for Twitter is confusing mostly for its modesty. He’s proposed an edit button, an open-source algorithm, cracking down on bots and doing … something … to secure free speech. I tend to agree with the technology writer Max Read, who predicts that Musk “will strive to keep Twitter the same level of bad, and in the same kinds of ways, as it always has been, because, to Musk, Twitter is not actually bad at all.”

lag∞n, Sunday, 23 April 2023 20:31 (two years ago)

tbf i didnt think musk would change much either, but i also didnt think he was mr twitter the guy who gets it lol just a ridiculous thought, tho ezra prob didnt believe it either i mean what is belief to a hack

lag∞n, Sunday, 23 April 2023 20:59 (two years ago)

The CHUDs' attitude toward "blue check elites" is so baffling to people who aren't brain damaged that it was hard to predict just how much of a culture war issue they'd turn Twitter Blue into.

papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, 23 April 2023 21:01 (two years ago)

the whole situation is an alltimer, wild stuff lol

lag∞n, Sunday, 23 April 2023 21:02 (two years ago)

Goes both ways a bit tbf, the blue check removal saga is a delightful farce but too many of the people on the other side of the culture war have to pretend it's a tragedy.

papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, 23 April 2023 21:28 (two years ago)

Not gonna go back and read that Klein thing but I also thought at the time that Musk wouldn't change Twitter much and in retrospect still think he hasn't changed it much. In fact, I even agree with Klein that as of April 2022 Musk was good at Twitter, and one of the only things that's really changed -- though this is not a very big change if like me you don't live in the part of Twitter where you see his stuff a lot -- is that he's now quite bad at Twitter.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 23 April 2023 21:36 (two years ago)

the only change in twitter post-musk that has affected my ux is the following/for you tab. imo it’s a good improvement over the previous status quo where you had to click a star/plus sign symbol to turn algorithmic feed off, and it was always ambiguous which one you were on since it would switch back randomly

all the other changes (10k character limit, blue check, bookmark and views counters) haven’t affected me personally and/or i haven’t noticed. maybe the farcically bad business moves they’re constantly making mostly affect power users, celebs, orgs etc

flopson, Sunday, 23 April 2023 21:56 (two years ago)

flopson must not read the comments (replies) and I respect that

mh, Sunday, 23 April 2023 22:35 (two years ago)

I even agree with Klein that as of April 2022 Musk was good at Twitter

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, April 23, 2023 5:36 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

you loike meme mate

lag∞n, Sunday, 23 April 2023 22:41 (two years ago)

this is primo stuff

pic.twitter.com/Vn0Rv0yQ5q

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 15, 2020

lag∞n, Sunday, 23 April 2023 22:42 (two years ago)

he got engagement of sorts but I don’t think engagement alone is being good at twitter. he’s like the guy who introduces the most popular minions memes on a local grandparents facebook group by copying them from the regional one

mh, Sunday, 23 April 2023 22:43 (two years ago)

Pronouns suck

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2020

Based on current trends, probably close to zero new cases in US too by end of April

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 19, 2020

?

lag∞n, Sunday, 23 April 2023 22:44 (two years ago)

pretty funny to think if he wasnt a billionaire with a pr team thats spent a decade plus boosting his brand hed just be some 47 follower reply guy instead of tanking $50b and his reputation buying twitter

lag∞n, Sunday, 23 April 2023 22:46 (two years ago)

as for whether hes changed twitter a lot im going to vote a definitive yes, for one hes instigated a year long mod war its become the talk about elon site, tons of good posters have left because of it, he made dril break character lol, this whole blue check situation which as mh mentioned has really gummed up the replies, various reliability issues, but id say most of all hes sent twitter into a death spiral, its over folks, and theres no change bigger than death

lag∞n, Sunday, 23 April 2023 22:54 (two years ago)

dril breaking character is actually weirdly super upsetting, it feels like a watershed

k3vin k., Monday, 24 April 2023 01:29 (two years ago)

the jig is up

lag∞n, Monday, 24 April 2023 02:03 (two years ago)

Whenever any lefty asks me why society ought to have billionaires, I say "Because otherwise they'd be warlords", and if recent events don't make this point abundantly clear I don't know what to tell you

— Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 (@Noahpinion) April 23, 2023

As bad as Ezra and Matty are, it gets worse.

papal hotwife (milo z), Monday, 24 April 2023 03:37 (two years ago)

lol its true you go far enough down the centrist pundit hole and matty and ezra seem totally normal in comparison

lag∞n, Monday, 24 April 2023 03:41 (two years ago)

i mean tbf ezra is normal mattys a freak tho

lag∞n, Monday, 24 April 2023 03:43 (two years ago)

this whole blue check situation which as mh mentioned has really gummed up the replies, various reliability issues, but id say most of all hes sent twitter into a death spiral, its over folks, and theres no change bigger than death

So otm. Aside from all the Twitterati who have already jumped ship, why would any new (and sane) celebrity/influencer join Twitter when the main feedback they will actually see is blue check birdbrains harassing them for not coughing up $8/month and otherwise generally just being as toxic as possible?

recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Monday, 24 April 2023 05:04 (two years ago)

I mean Twitter reply threads always sucked as a nobody, that’s the one massive advantage Reddit had (before it was captured by the alt right concern trolls).

With all this talk about cloning Twitter circa 2019, what about combining the best of Twitter and Reddit? Personality-based but with actual intelligent sorting of replies so that it can function as an advanced discussion forum as well.

recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Monday, 24 April 2023 05:07 (two years ago)

Posting is over

G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Monday, 24 April 2023 05:22 (two years ago)

ILX WILL NEVAH DIE

recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Monday, 24 April 2023 05:28 (two years ago)

Nothing based on a less-than-24 hour life cycle like Reddit or Twitter can be useful for discussion. Niche forums just need to make a comeback (but you’ll never go viral on 2023 Something Awful and get $20 to advertise something your follow up posts).

papal hotwife (milo z), Monday, 24 April 2023 05:32 (two years ago)

Reddit used to have some pretty good discussions in the more heavily moderated subreddits. I agree it’s very difficult to scale though, I’m probably thinking of the time when the total activity there was at most 10% of what it is now.

recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Monday, 24 April 2023 05:40 (two years ago)

no offense to any itt but reddit is the absolute pits the whole voting sorting format is just the deepest nerd hell

lag∞n, Monday, 24 April 2023 12:08 (two years ago)

also not everything has to be a deep discussion twitter was never really about that it was about other things

lag∞n, Monday, 24 April 2023 12:11 (two years ago)

most of all hes sent twitter into a death spiral, its over folks, and theres no change bigger than death

See, I guess this is where I disagree -- my expectation is that a year from now, two years from now, I'll still be using twitter about the same amount and with about the same experience as I do now, which is about the same as it was pre-Musk.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 24 April 2023 13:04 (two years ago)

i suspect youre wrong but also a single user doesnt really tell the whole story

lag∞n, Monday, 24 April 2023 13:08 (two years ago)

The biggest reason why eephus is unlikely to be using Twitter in exactly the same way two years from now isn't necessarily that the buggy software issues and chaotic new policies will impinge heavily on eephus's user-experience, but rather that the continuing exodus of advertisers who bankroll the system will lead to the complete failure to cover the interest payments on the multi-billion dollar loans used to take Twitter into private ownership.

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Monday, 24 April 2023 17:39 (two years ago)

theres that and also once an exodus of users starts its hard to stop

lag∞n, Monday, 24 April 2023 17:47 (two years ago)

Well, we're still here?

Andrew Farrell, Monday, 24 April 2023 19:41 (two years ago)

I do hope Musk manages to kill Twitter because (a) it would be the funniest outcome and (b) I spend way too much time there.

o. nate, Monday, 24 April 2023 20:02 (two years ago)

no offense to any itt but reddit is the absolute pits the whole voting sorting format is just the deepest nerd hell

Lmao I don’t identify with Reddit in the slightest, no offense taken. Just idle speculation from a ‘reply guy’ about how text-based social media can survive in the era of TikTok. It’s true that downvotes are just horrible.

also not everything has to be a deep discussion twitter was never really about that it was about other things

It doesn’t have to be a deep discussion to be better than Twitter ffs. The benefit of Reddit is that you actually see replies to replies, so there’s some actual exchange of ideas.

(Not to harp on Reddit but it’s also much worse since they totally revamped the site maybe ~7 years ago. It made it more like Twitter/FB to zero actual benefit for the user.)

recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Monday, 24 April 2023 21:56 (two years ago)

Exchange of ideas sucks ass

G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Monday, 24 April 2023 23:38 (two years ago)

I prefer hoarding ideas

INDEPENDENTS DAY BY STEVEN SPILBERG (President Keyes), Monday, 24 April 2023 23:40 (two years ago)

heh

McElwee told @bterris that he'd placed bets against JOHN FETTERMAN, whom he was working for, saying "I think he's fucked." McElwee showed Ben a spreadsheet of bets he'd made on the midterm --most AGAINST Dems. “I think I’m going to make a lot of money on election night,” he said

— Rachael Bade (@rachaelmbade) April 26, 2023

lag∞n, Wednesday, 26 April 2023 14:15 (two years ago)

this section is killing me

She had “drunk the Kool‐Aid” that Sean had offered, but part of being 25, she said, is “drinking lots of Kool‐Aid and figuring out what flavor you like.”

Now Marcela was 26. And she wasn’t sure if any amount of Kool‐Aid was healthy.

mh, Wednesday, 26 April 2023 14:35 (two years ago)

When I was 25, it was a very good year. It was a very good year for Kool-Aid men who broke through the walls.

INDEPENDENTS DAY BY STEVEN SPILBERG (President Keyes), Wednesday, 26 April 2023 14:37 (two years ago)

lol

lag∞n, Wednesday, 26 April 2023 14:39 (two years ago)

trying all kinds of kool-aid hmm what was the deal with the kool-aid originally idk

mh, Wednesday, 26 April 2023 14:45 (two years ago)

everyone yelling at me to not drink the koolaid whats their deal

lag∞n, Wednesday, 26 April 2023 14:51 (two years ago)

its very funny how this guy who everyone on the left was deeply suspicious of turned out to be completely worthy of suspicious

ARE YOU KIDDING ME SEAN MCELWEE HAD A SECRET FAMILY https://t.co/MtrwxdbnFU pic.twitter.com/6TJDdsDZlH

— tom mckay (@thetomzone) April 26, 2023

lag∞n, Wednesday, 26 April 2023 14:53 (two years ago)

lmao

this is worse than making bets pic.twitter.com/JMGC8likdP

— rain (actual speed) enjoyer (@notnotnuanced) April 26, 2023

lag∞n, Wednesday, 26 April 2023 14:54 (two years ago)

oh, tweeting "abolish ice" all the time had nothing to do with ice. got it

mh, Wednesday, 26 April 2023 14:56 (two years ago)

amazing

“All of the Zoomers that work for me are bisexual, and all of them have long covid,” Sean McElwee said. “I’ll believe long covid is real when someone who is not bisexual has it.” https://t.co/cOufE8zD2M

— David A. Graham (@GrahamDavidA) April 26, 2023

lag∞n, Wednesday, 26 April 2023 14:57 (two years ago)

The Crypto Council for Innovation

I'm gonna start some conspiracy theories about this org

INDEPENDENTS DAY BY STEVEN SPILBERG (President Keyes), Wednesday, 26 April 2023 14:58 (two years ago)

that quote would be kind of funny if you had a veep-style show about these dorks

mh, Wednesday, 26 April 2023 14:59 (two years ago)

my one sean mcelwee story is i ended up at his media happy hour by accident once and he apparently recognized me as someone who made fun of him and kept pulling people away from me mid conversation, which is baffling on like ten different levels

— 30 minute review of amtrak as a rollercoaster (@Boringstein) April 26, 2023

lag∞n, Wednesday, 26 April 2023 15:03 (two years ago)

don't give attention to the mean man he say bad things

mh, Wednesday, 26 April 2023 15:17 (two years ago)

getting strong vibes that this man had a lot invested in being a 30-ish knowledge master who staffed his office with impressionable youth and rubes, and wanted to make sure they only ever heard things about him from other swindlers and rubes

mh, Wednesday, 26 April 2023 15:20 (two years ago)

one of the biggest freaks out there for sure

k3vin k., Wednesday, 26 April 2023 15:22 (two years ago)

“I’m like Radiohead for donors — you can’t really explain why I’m good but everyone knows that I’m good at it,” McElwee shouted over the din of bar talk

INDEPENDENTS DAY BY STEVEN SPILBERG (President Keyes), Wednesday, 26 April 2023 15:26 (two years ago)

is the answer because rich people feel kinship with vacuous amoral weirdos

lag∞n, Wednesday, 26 April 2023 15:30 (two years ago)

trying all kinds of kool-aid hmm what was the deal with the kool-aid originally idk

tbf it was framed

least said, sergio mendes (sic), Wednesday, 26 April 2023 22:18 (two years ago)

new one seems like it might be even worse than Crystal Skull

papal hotwife (milo z), Thursday, 27 April 2023 02:08 (two years ago)

Indiana Jones and the Legend of the Substack Pivot

Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 27 April 2023 08:45 (two years ago)

Temple of the Woke Agenda

papal hotwife (milo z), Thursday, 27 April 2023 08:47 (two years ago)

"What I remember from my economics textbooks" is the most likely beginning of an answer from this crowd in historyhttps://t.co/1iZpAMF7D8 pic.twitter.com/kKDvmWXtKb

— David Dayen (@ddayen) May 6, 2023

mookieproof, Saturday, 6 May 2023 06:33 (two years ago)

To all the Russia stans who are like "Yes we are in Ukraine, because we spend a bunch of money trying to help them", by this standard we're also in your grandma

— Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 (@Noahpinion) May 17, 2023

Lol

o. nate, Wednesday, 17 May 2023 02:57 (two years ago)

three weeks pass...

I feel myself negative polarizing against the rightwing dreck in the “for you” tab and wanting to do more progressive columns.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) June 9, 2023

THEY ARE FORCING ME LEFT

INDEPENDENTS DAY BY STEVEN SPILBERG (President Keyes), Friday, 9 June 2023 15:58 (two years ago)

loooooool

J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Friday, 9 June 2023 17:29 (two years ago)

two weeks pass...

Coupla tweets away from making underwater basket weaving jokes

I feel like history departments would attract more students to their classes if they taught more “old fashioned” military and political history like you hear on podcasts or see among popular press books.

Maybe nobody cares but… https://t.co/XPFVmGKDY5

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) June 25, 2023

papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, 25 June 2023 18:12 (one year ago)

Sure thing, matty. education should always be managed as market-driven capitalism.

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Sunday, 25 June 2023 18:48 (one year ago)

if they made college courses more like the books dads read they might attract more dads

lag∞n, Sunday, 25 June 2023 18:49 (one year ago)

Ph.D in Airport Bookstore History

Alito Bit of Soap (President Keyes), Sunday, 25 June 2023 21:03 (one year ago)

For the Love of the Game by Michael Jordan, autographed by Scottie Pippen

sad Mings of dynasty (Neanderthal), Sunday, 25 June 2023 21:28 (one year ago)

A lot of factors have contributed to the decline in public discourse, but we have reached a point where people who don't know much on an issue think it's a "waste" of time to talk to people who have devoted their lives to an issue if the person rejects a few key premises. https://t.co/U3d5uEv0fH

— Alec Karakatsanis (@equalityAlec) June 28, 2023

lag∞n, Wednesday, 28 June 2023 19:53 (one year ago)

Matty really just wants to talk about inventing cheaper cages that are also carpeted.

Alito Bit of Soap (President Keyes), Wednesday, 28 June 2023 20:21 (one year ago)

blocking Matty is one of the best twitter moves

a (waterface), Wednesday, 28 June 2023 20:23 (one year ago)

you can still click through and see what sort of dipshittery he's up to though

a (waterface), Wednesday, 28 June 2023 20:23 (one year ago)

https://i.imgur.com/Ea1uQBX.png

lag∞n, Saturday, 1 July 2023 23:36 (one year ago)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F0CeOc7XwAEk8oA?format=jpg&name=medium

lag∞n, Sunday, 2 July 2023 14:50 (one year ago)

two weeks pass...

https://qz.com/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-nauru-court-case-money-laundering-1850662899

Do you think Sammy would have made room for Matty and Ezra in the bunker?

papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, 21 July 2023 21:24 (one year ago)

Isn’t Nauru threatened by sea level rise (and all it’s guano is depleted)?

Gerard Grisey Funk (Boring, Maryland), Friday, 21 July 2023 22:52 (one year ago)

lmao perfect

lag∞n, Saturday, 22 July 2023 03:23 (one year ago)

Its a guano replenishment program

toenail fungus (Hunt3r), Saturday, 22 July 2023 04:38 (one year ago)

horrified by this post by josh barro titled "Grilling Is Still Bad — Here's What to Do Instead"

it's not so much the anti-grilling stance--which i disagree with but also whatever--it's the recipes he recommends to cook for a summer backyard instead

on a hot summer day, make a platter of roast pork tenderloin

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F490665c6-23ca-4936-bd9e-60fe162b1db2.heic

"What could say ‘summer’ more than that?" <- actual quote

next up is...baked fish

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff022fcb3-0e62-46ef-a315-76e284a2e4bd.heic

he also recommends pork stew and chickpea stew lol

i'm sure these taste fine, but they all seem really heavy and dry, and using your oven in the summer is just insane

flopson, Saturday, 22 July 2023 08:10 (one year ago)

luv 2 write columns that include the phrase “A lot of people mocked me”

Tracer Hand, Saturday, 22 July 2023 08:25 (one year ago)

always funny when pundits decide to talk about cooking

lag∞n, Saturday, 22 July 2023 12:26 (one year ago)

i always thought of josh barro as the poshest of the centrist wonks. or at least on the opposite end of the spectrum from slovenly yglesias. gay, manhattanite, clean-cut menswear style, seems to be a bit of a socialite. so it threw me off that he was like "come to my place in august and i will serve you baked fish"

flopson, Saturday, 22 July 2023 12:36 (one year ago)

he really twisted around the words in that podcast that were specifically about hamburgers and then didn’t make one himself. sus

mh, Saturday, 22 July 2023 14:02 (one year ago)

by far the most popular sport in the world

I’m sure this is a simpleton take but just like MLB made baseball more popular this year by finally taking crude measures to speed up the game, I feel like soccer would be more exciting if the pitch were somewhat smaller so there were more shots.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 29, 2023

lag∞n, Saturday, 29 July 2023 17:46 (one year ago)

dont get me wrong i have some soccer rule change ideas but theyre for making the sport better not more popular

lag∞n, Saturday, 29 July 2023 17:46 (one year ago)

that's the most blatant troll for engagement i've seen recently

i guess it's made him rich but he also kinda seems to get off on being called an idiot

mookieproof, Saturday, 29 July 2023 18:00 (one year ago)

I still think about this quote from that WaPo profile of him a few months ago:

"I find it relaxing to work. I put things out. People yell at me. I will write again the next day."

jaymc, Saturday, 29 July 2023 18:58 (one year ago)

Goals are worth two points if you do it off some cool shit like a bicycle kick.

papal hotwife (milo z), Saturday, 29 July 2023 19:13 (one year ago)

“You’re a smart guy with interesting things to say but” pic.twitter.com/CcOhlUQzPc

— Jonathan M. Katz theracket.news (@KatzOnEarth) August 6, 2023

papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, 6 August 2023 04:00 (one year ago)

lmao at "re-radicalized"

linoleum gallagher (Neanderthal), Sunday, 6 August 2023 13:08 (one year ago)

how radical to turn it on and off like a light switch

linoleum gallagher (Neanderthal), Sunday, 6 August 2023 13:08 (one year ago)

When a Nazi calls you pure evil it doesn’t sting as much.

hardcore technician gimmicks are also another popular choice f (President Keyes), Sunday, 6 August 2023 13:51 (one year ago)

since musk turned off the free api matt doesnt auto delete his tweets anymore lol

lag∞n, Sunday, 6 August 2023 14:20 (one year ago)

So did Matty say this after Hananana’s racist and anti semitic group texts were discovered?

Chevy Chase drumming mystery (Boring, Maryland), Sunday, 6 August 2023 15:02 (one year ago)

no but his official work is also explicitly racist (and it was pseudonymous articles not texts)

lag∞n, Sunday, 6 August 2023 15:07 (one year ago)

Nah, he doesn't give a shit

But what is the error in judgment? Was I running around vouching for Hanania’s good character? Assuring people he’s not racist? He’s clearly quite racist! But I also think he’s written some good pieces and it’s important to read conservatives.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 6, 2023

Andrew Farrell, Sunday, 6 August 2023 15:14 (one year ago)

The key thing here is that Yglesias thinks of the revanchist & racist right as part of his universe of discourse, people who are wrong on some stuff but worth engaging with. By contrast, for him left & left-liberals beyond the pale. pic.twitter.com/sjUAC4Yw1E

— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) August 6, 2023

lag∞n, Sunday, 6 August 2023 15:21 (one year ago)

funny lil baby trick mattys trying to pull there conflating reading the right for educational purposes with thinking theyre good and interesting and complimenting them

lag∞n, Sunday, 6 August 2023 15:23 (one year ago)

cnn should tell matty and a few others that they’re rebooting the crossfire tv show, and then put the soundstage at the bottom of the ocean with no actual broadcast

mh, Sunday, 6 August 2023 15:29 (one year ago)

one thing the huffpost article showed is how much substack has become fulcrum for this shit including the ceo going on podcasts with this guy and others like him, worth reading if youre wondering what the deal is with this racist man https://www.huffpost.com/entry/richard-hanania-white-supremacist-pseudonym-richard-hoste_n_64c93928e4b021e2f295e817

lag∞n, Sunday, 6 August 2023 15:32 (one year ago)

no but his official work is also explicitly racist (and it was pseudonymous articles not texts)


Oh right, that was Pedro Gonzalez, another rising young “intellectual”, with the texts. Hard to tell them apart!

Chevy Chase drumming mystery (Boring, Maryland), Sunday, 6 August 2023 16:11 (one year ago)

yeah young conservatives are exclusively nazis these days, its not great

lag∞n, Sunday, 6 August 2023 16:16 (one year ago)

that RH guy is like 37 which is probably still below the median conservative age but not super young

also it’s weird he’s so into eugenics when he looks like one of his parents was a toaster oven

mh, Sunday, 6 August 2023 16:26 (one year ago)

its always like that lol

lag∞n, Sunday, 6 August 2023 16:27 (one year ago)

hes also repeatedly talked about how he was a terrible fast food employee when he was young cause he was too smart

https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/64cc26912000001b00f839be.png

lag∞n, Sunday, 6 August 2023 16:31 (one year ago)

Grown ass adults obsessed with their IQs.

Chevy Chase drumming mystery (Boring, Maryland), Sunday, 6 August 2023 22:11 (one year ago)

and with comma splices

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 6 August 2023 22:17 (one year ago)

who invented IQ tests anyway. surely not anyone an antisemite would want to cite

mh, Sunday, 6 August 2023 23:19 (one year ago)

Anti-Semites tend to emphasize how high-IQ Jewish people are, as both a backhanded compliment and as an example of how dangerous and a formidable enemy they are to non-Jews.

Chevy Chase drumming mystery (Boring, Maryland), Monday, 7 August 2023 00:13 (one year ago)

what a effin shit head

The conservative position on abortion is unpopular but the other thing Republicans need to accept is that the weirdly timed election gimmick now plays into the hands of Democrats’ highly educated neurotic base.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 9, 2023

lag∞n, Wednesday, 9 August 2023 02:43 (one year ago)

one month passes...

still chatting with the nazi

https://i.imgur.com/FT2WdQj.png

lag∞n, Sunday, 24 September 2023 19:57 (one year ago)

Hmmmm wonder what the white nationalist's "theory of crime in American cities" consists of

papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, 24 September 2023 20:09 (one year ago)

It’s healthy to listen to different points of view!

Beyond Goo and Evol (President Keyes), Sunday, 24 September 2023 20:43 (one year ago)

These are people for whom the Chapo guys are beyond the pale but actual Nazis have outside the box thinking

Beyond Goo and Evol (President Keyes), Sunday, 24 September 2023 20:44 (one year ago)

one month passes...

Holy shit my brother is sitting across for Matty right now at a cafe what should he ask him??????

deep wubs and tribral rhythms (Boring, Maryland), Saturday, 11 November 2023 21:29 (one year ago)

I told him he should talk really loudly about how much sweatshops rule

deep wubs and tribral rhythms (Boring, Maryland), Saturday, 11 November 2023 21:31 (one year ago)

one month passes...

one of the greats

https://i.imgur.com/L19661W.jpg

mookieproof, Thursday, 28 December 2023 19:50 (one year ago)

"Follow Megan McArdle's opinions" no i dont think i will

polyamerie "it's more than this 1 thing" (m bison), Thursday, 28 December 2023 20:21 (one year ago)

Fallow Megan McArdle's opinions

Disco Biollante (Neanderthal), Thursday, 28 December 2023 20:25 (one year ago)

"Fellow! Megan McArdle's opinions!"

Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 28 December 2023 20:53 (one year ago)

two weeks pass...

Seems like the best lace for this:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/jan/12/casey-newton-quits-substack-nazi-newsletter

xyzzzz__, Saturday, 13 January 2024 12:59 (one year ago)

Ganz isn't quitting:

https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/an-issue-of-concern

"From a political point of view, if you consider yourself a leftist or progressive, I think the correct strategy would be to compete for reach on all platforms—within reason, of course."

What would within reason be though?

xyzzzz__, Saturday, 13 January 2024 13:04 (one year ago)

Of the newsletters I subscribe to that were on Substack, two have already left over this (Today in Tabs and Last Week's New Yorker Review), two have committed to leaving soon (Garbage Day and PJ Vogt), one hasn't committed yet but is exploring other options (s1ocki's Something Good), and two have addressed the issue but decided to stay for now (Fran Magazine and Alan Sepinwall).

A few others have spotlighted the issue but without saying anything about what they personally plan to do about it (Culture Study, The Reveal, The Present Age). And others still haven't mentioned it at all.

I guess Newton's decision to leave is notable because he's a leading tech journalist with a lot of subscribers.

jaymc, Saturday, 13 January 2024 18:30 (one year ago)

yeah hes a guy they recruited and gave a special deal to

lag∞n, Saturday, 13 January 2024 18:52 (one year ago)

had also been pretty wishy washy in his coverage of the nazi newsletter situation up until announcing his departure

lag∞n, Saturday, 13 January 2024 18:53 (one year ago)

that is pretty weak sauce from ganz

mookieproof, Saturday, 13 January 2024 22:29 (one year ago)

I agree with Ganz. Fleeing Substack — which is a tool, not a website, and one of the best tools on the market — because people you disagree with politically also use that tool is typically self-defeating pseudo-leftist bullshit. Where you gonna run to? What blogging platform has explicitly promised that it will always agree with you politically, and will never welcome anyone with whom you disagree? Who could ever make a promise like that? Who would ever expect it to be kept? This whole "campaign" has been unserious and embarrassing from the beginning. And frankly, anybody who'd unsubscribe from a newsletter simply because of where it's hosted isn't a reader you want.

Tahuti Watches L&O:SVU Reruns Without His Ape (unperson), Saturday, 13 January 2024 22:43 (one year ago)

This whole "campaign" has been unserious and embarrassing from the beginning.

damn wow......

lag∞n, Saturday, 13 January 2024 22:55 (one year ago)

as to the question of what substack is, its a company, which profits from nazi newsletters, and its run by right wing shitheads, i dont personally care if people leave it or not, everyones got their own calculations to make, but the fact that there are people who are willing to put their livelihoods at risk in order to not just let nazi and right wing shithead schemes slide is an obvious good

lag∞n, Saturday, 13 January 2024 23:06 (one year ago)

its easy to be all "all the companies are bad" which is true to some extent, however what you cant say is "all the companies profit off explicitly nazi shit" because generally companies try very hard to not deal with nazis, for obvious reasons, except substack

lag∞n, Saturday, 13 January 2024 23:08 (one year ago)

xp is accessibility and availability dependent upon them using substack specifically? are they growing readership principally or even noticeably only because they exist on substack, and people only look for known writers there?

“self limiting” or “useless” ok, but is it really “self-defeating?”

also is this situation mere “political disagreement,” or something more? recruitment? activation? radicalization?

a single gunshot and polite applause (Hunt3r), Saturday, 13 January 2024 23:15 (one year ago)

Ganz should be pricing in substack getting a lot worse. Understand he might want to keep the rent money rolling in for a bit but it's weak not to look to other platforms/pitch to other publications. The guy is fairly established...

xyzzzz__, Saturday, 13 January 2024 23:19 (one year ago)

what you cant say is "all the companies profit off explicitly nazi shit" because generally companies try very hard to not deal with nazis, for obvious reasons, except substack

True today. Not at all guaranteed to be true tomorrow, because capitalism...and particularly because techbro capitalism. Eventually Ghost and Buttondown are going to piss off the people currently pissed off at Substack. I guarantee it.

is accessibility and availability dependent upon them using substack specifically?

It's an email program. You're communicating directly with your subscribers. There is a "recommendations" homepage, but I never even looked at it until just now.

I like Substack because it's easy to use, and because it's free. Ghost and Buttondown would each charge me about $100 a month to reach the roughly 2700 subscribers I currently possess, and only about 60 of those people are paying me $50 a year for their subscriptions, so the math doesn't add up. The platform hasn't bought my loyalty; if it starts to suck in terms of functionality, I'll look for something else. But I will not give up a free tool with good features just because assholes get to use it, too. My list of assholes doesn't begin or end with Nazis; I would probably find the majority of Substack users boring, annoying, or offensive in some way if I bothered to check their shit out. But I haven't, and I won't.

I kinda agree with this guy. There's a difference between Nazis and assholes, and you need to be able to tell the difference and respond accordingly.

Tahuti Watches L&O:SVU Reruns Without His Ape (unperson), Saturday, 13 January 2024 23:34 (one year ago)

might want to reflect on the fact not wanting to bother leaving a newsletter has inspired you to defend nazis

lag∞n, Saturday, 13 January 2024 23:39 (one year ago)

I have done nothing of the kind.

Tahuti Watches L&O:SVU Reruns Without His Ape (unperson), Saturday, 13 January 2024 23:58 (one year ago)

I kinda agree with this guy. There's a difference between Nazis and assholes, and you need to be able to tell the difference and respond accordingly.

the newsletters at the centre of this discussion are pretty openly neo-nazis & white nationalists, they're not victims of the adl's bad faith smears against critics of israel nor are people simply exaggerating in relation to more minor transgressions

substack has long made a point of refusing to enforce their own terms of service in relation to transphobes who blatantly breached it, so the most surprising thing about this whole debacle is that they actually caved to pressure a little bit and have taken action against a few of the most egregious nazi substacks.

ufo, Sunday, 14 January 2024 00:09 (one year ago)

denying that nazis are nazis easily meets the definition of defending nazis

lag∞n, Sunday, 14 January 2024 00:11 (one year ago)

substack at the basic level isn’t a specific tool, it’s a vendor. by the way people are transitioning to others, it sounds like subscriptions are paid through stripe and you can just pop the customer id from one site into the other. it’s transparent to readers, unless they use the substack app

substack has that app, discovery services, charts, etc. and that’s their value add. that’s what makes them a platform and not just a turnkey software vendor. if it was all white label publishing and email delivery with your own domain, then they’d just be a tool among others. but that’s not what they’re selling

“i’m sure the other tools host bad stuff too” is a valid complaint but substack’s media angle is that they promote and even paid a premium to publish certain writers, signaling they care about content but they don’t care enough to curtail abuse

ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Sunday, 14 January 2024 00:12 (one year ago)

I’m old enough to know that I’m beholden to all kinds of institutions for my basic needs, sometimes my social ones, that also serve people who are ideologically repugnant to me, but their use isn’t in direct service of those beliefs.

If you were publishing a zine and the last guy, doing the same, is at the same copy shop and they keep flashing their swastika-heavy shit around the store and accidentally keep leaving gross stuff on the copier, maybe you tell the store what they’re doing or you find a new place to do your work if they don’t give a shit

ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Sunday, 14 January 2024 00:21 (one year ago)

sad subtext to this story re people relying on substack for their livelihoods is as a venture funded company it will prob not last very long, even tho charging for newsletters is a good idea and prob could be a good business we know that their investors wont be satisfied with a good business, you can already see it in how theyre grafting all this social stuff onto the core product

lag∞n, Sunday, 14 January 2024 00:22 (one year ago)

yeah that’s the wild thing, it’s a commodity service readily replicated

the other thing they risk is people actually deciding it’s a moral hazard and killing their ability to send the newsletters via email. not sure how many people read in email versus the app versus website, but getting added to an email blocklist is possible

ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Sunday, 14 January 2024 00:25 (one year ago)

not sure how many people read in email versus the app versus website

Speaking only for myself, my latest post was read 96% via email (and the open rate was 48%, which is a little below average; I usually get 50-53%), 3% via the app.

Tahuti Watches L&O:SVU Reruns Without His Ape (unperson), Sunday, 14 January 2024 00:32 (one year ago)

monetizing writing in any way is such a shitshow right now and I wouldn’t be surprised if substack’s got some goal of getting a subset of their approved work aggregated into something like the paid Apple News+ plan or whatever else some people pay for and they won’t get that if they have this problem

there are no real numbers but it looks like Apple News+ pulls somewhere near 5x the number of paying subscribers, presumably giving a cut to what people actually click on and read as opposed to the newsletter-specific substack opt-in model

ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Sunday, 14 January 2024 00:34 (one year ago)

xp yeah so you have next to zero incentive to use substack over something else

ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Sunday, 14 January 2024 00:35 (one year ago)

fwiw molly white rolled her own, although it is apparently quite technical: https://citationneeded.news/substack-to-self-hosted-ghost

mookieproof, Sunday, 14 January 2024 00:39 (one year ago)

if theres nothing thats as easy and cheap to set up and use as substack im sure there will be soon

lag∞n, Sunday, 14 January 2024 00:40 (one year ago)

question is how valuable there other non email stuff is, social, growth things, ive heard conflicting reports

lag∞n, Sunday, 14 January 2024 00:44 (one year ago)

David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social

But what substack did was something better - over the last few years it built a referral engine that worked pretty well. A network of blogs that built audience for each other. It was a good product. Attractive. Easy to manage. Interconnected. With growth from mid-list to significant possible. /2

https://bsky.app/profile/lollardfish.bsky.social/post/3kis24vxje32a

lag∞n, Sunday, 14 January 2024 00:47 (one year ago)

yeah it varies pretty wildly

I think every substack I’ve subscribed to, def the paid ones, have been from following someone on social media or a podcast to their newsletter. I might be a total outlier

ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Sunday, 14 January 2024 00:55 (one year ago)

Adding unperson to my spreadsheet

G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Sunday, 14 January 2024 02:05 (one year ago)

two months pass...

sez the guy who's his own boss

Slorg is not on the Slerf Team, you idiot, you moron (Boring, Maryland), Thursday, 4 April 2024 13:42 (one year ago)

the ubermenschs drive to podcast

lag∞n, Thursday, 4 April 2024 13:49 (one year ago)

one month passes...

Weirdly, I've come around to liking Ezra Klein's podcast a lot. Yes, it has a bit of a chin-stroking, this-is-NPR tone, but it's sharp.

longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Wednesday, 8 May 2024 18:18 (one year ago)

one of us!

jaymc, Thursday, 9 May 2024 00:13 (one year ago)

yeah he’s clearly a cut above the yglesias/chait class that people still mistakenly group him with

brony james (k3vin k.), Thursday, 9 May 2024 03:09 (one year ago)

https://i.imgur.com/XPuwv94.gif

lag∞n, Thursday, 9 May 2024 03:13 (one year ago)

lagoon similar to our suns/wolves debate you need to take the L on this one. to be clear I don’t think he’s anything special! but he’s different than those sorts of hacks

brony james (k3vin k.), Thursday, 9 May 2024 04:00 (one year ago)

I don’t think he’s anything special! is not an acclamation

mookieproof, Thursday, 9 May 2024 05:35 (one year ago)

k3v how many podcasts do you listen to?

mookieproof, Thursday, 9 May 2024 05:37 (one year ago)

ehem sir you must take the L regarding the podcast i listen to where a dipshit interviews airport book authors

lag∞n, Thursday, 9 May 2024 11:35 (one year ago)

I mean I’m not saying it’s on the level of Two Dirtbag Leftists One Cup, but sometimes it has its moments, ya know?

longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, 9 May 2024 12:20 (one year ago)

what are you even talking about

lag∞n, Thursday, 9 May 2024 12:21 (one year ago)

You either interview the airport book writers or you read passages from airport books and mock them

Never fight uphill 'o me, boys! (President Keyes), Thursday, 9 May 2024 13:29 (one year ago)

The cool thing is you can listen to both

jaymc, Thursday, 9 May 2024 13:31 (one year ago)

In an airport

Never fight uphill 'o me, boys! (President Keyes), Thursday, 9 May 2024 13:41 (one year ago)

or neither

lag∞n, Thursday, 9 May 2024 13:42 (one year ago)

while reading them

the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 9 May 2024 13:42 (one year ago)

Are you guys doing a Printer play

RICH BRIAN (Neanderthal), Thursday, 9 May 2024 15:00 (one year ago)

*Pinter

RICH BRIAN (Neanderthal), Thursday, 9 May 2024 15:01 (one year ago)

more of an Arthur Hailey novel

Never fight uphill 'o me, boys! (President Keyes), Thursday, 9 May 2024 15:24 (one year ago)

k3v how many podcasts do you listen to?

― mookieproof, Thursday, May 9, 2024 1:37 AM (ten hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

ha not very many tbh, and I haven’t listened to one of his pods in prob 6 months or so. I just think lumping him in with obvious hacks is silly…you could argue his version of lib trojan horsing is even more pernicious if anything

brony james (k3vin k.), Thursday, 9 May 2024 16:04 (one year ago)

i mean in the big scheme of things they arent that different, in the small scheme of coming up in the blogosphere, "founding" vox.com together, and being hacks, sure there are differences i guess thats what the threads about tho

lag∞n, Thursday, 9 May 2024 16:09 (one year ago)

the thing is he’s just obv a lot smarter and more contemplative and curious than those other guys. but again maybe that’s my hang up

brony james (k3vin k.), Thursday, 9 May 2024 16:16 (one year ago)

hes very contemplative and curious and never ever reaches a conclusion that might threaten his continued employment at the nytimes

lag∞n, Thursday, 9 May 2024 16:20 (one year ago)

hes very contemplative and curious and never ever reaches a conclusion that might threaten his continued employment at the nytimes

― lag∞n, Thursday, 9 May 2024 12:20 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

nah nyt needs klein more than he needs them. he has a huge audience and would bring lots of readers/listeners with him if he left for the atlantic or set up a substack or patreon or whatever. no doubt they’re paying him a fortune but he’d probably make even more if he went solo. yglesias is making seven figures and is much less popular than klein, and there’s no way ezra is making that much from nyt. he’d have both more money and more editorial freedom if he left the times, imo the reason he takes the pay cut is cause he likes having the nyt audience and values the prestige

flopson, Thursday, 9 May 2024 19:10 (one year ago)

if anything writing/podding for nyt makes ezra shade his takes left relative to his “true” personal opinions

flopson, Thursday, 9 May 2024 19:13 (one year ago)

the nytimes does not need ezra klein lol, and yeah im sure substack would pay him more, but the whole thing about being a good careerist is well thinking about your career, he likes having the nyt audience and values the prestige yeah those are good career things, cashing out via substack is just cashing out but theres no guarantee of that being a lasting way to make money or advance yr career

lag∞n, Thursday, 9 May 2024 19:25 (one year ago)

yglesias is making seven figures

You think??? This is really hard for me to imagine.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 9 May 2024 19:35 (one year ago)

Like, from what?

Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 9 May 2024 19:35 (one year ago)

sadly its from people paying to read his newsletter

lag∞n, Thursday, 9 May 2024 19:38 (one year ago)

Now he’s struck gold on the newsletter platform Substack, where at least 13,000 people each pay Matt Yglesias an average of $80 a year for access to his Yglesiasms https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/01/11/matt-yglesias-slow-boring-in-bidens-washington/

lag∞n, Thursday, 9 May 2024 19:45 (one year ago)

yglesias is making seven figures

You think??? This is really hard for me to imagine.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 9 May 2024 3:35 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

last time i saw numbers (which was over a year ago) he had about 13,000 paying subscribers, paying about 110$ per year. i assume he has quite a bit more than that now

cashing out via substack is just cashing out but theres no guarantee of that being a lasting way to make money or advance yr career

― lag∞n, Thursday, 9 May 2024 3:25 PM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

idk a few years ago i would’ve said it’s a risk but by now it seems pretty sustainable

in a way it’s sweet that you think that klein secretly holds consensus shattering opinions that would get him fired from the nyt but holds back due to financial incentives. i prefer the occam’s razor explanation and think that his writing from the past 15 years is an accurate depiction of his true ideology

flopson, Thursday, 9 May 2024 19:45 (one year ago)

in a way it’s sweet that you think that klein secretly holds consensus shattering opinions

― flopson, Thursday, May 9, 2024 3:45 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

first of all suck my dick, thats all actually

lag∞n, Thursday, 9 May 2024 19:49 (one year ago)

damn it’s getting sexual in the ezra and matty thread

brony james (k3vin k.), Thursday, 9 May 2024 20:08 (one year ago)

its been 0 posts since a good post

lag∞n, Thursday, 9 May 2024 20:10 (one year ago)

i think i got that backward anyway in the american vernacular suck my dick is actually sentiment of aggression not sexuality which i know is kinda weird if youre not familiar with it

lag∞n, Thursday, 9 May 2024 20:12 (one year ago)

lol sorry if my post struck a nerve.. but the idea that financial incentives of writing for the nyt audience are constraining *ezra klein* to be more of a centrist and less critical of power just seems to be based on an outdated model of how this stuff works. it’s not like big legacy media is just shifting around pundits like pawns. klein is an independent and highly successful vector of technocratic centrism. he’s one of the main conduits by which libertarian policy ideas are re-packaged and sold to liberals—that’s why people like tyler cowen love him. from blogging to founding vox, that’s been his ideology for decades, he doesn’t need dean baquet to tell him to write that stuff. and if yglesias is a good counterfactual for what klein would be writing if he were unconstrained by establishment media, klein would be writing much more centrist and aggressive left-punching stuff. you can even see it in the way this thread’s got bumped over the last few years; whenever it’s bumped about yglesias it’s someone mad that he’s written a substack called like “Why Joe Biden Should Moderate On Abortion” or “Now Is A Wonderful Time For Fiscal Austerity”, whereas when it’s bumped about klein it’s k3v or jaymc being like “this podcast where klein interviews michael pollan about the psychic benefits of microdosing lsd and mushrooms is highly elucidating.” nyt refashioning klein into a new ira glass means he’s doing much *less* of the centrist policy writing he used to do. if he weren’t at the nyt most likely he’d be doing more of that stuff

flopson, Thursday, 9 May 2024 23:02 (one year ago)

instead of writing snippy media explainers you couldve considered my post in the context of the conversation we were having which was only two posts long and was not that complicated, kevins claim the klein is contemplative and curious doesnt square with his perfect technocrats career is all, thats why his current ideas man phase seems very schticky imho, because if youre truly curious and introspective you will eventually arrive at least a single inconvenient conclusion

lag∞n, Thursday, 9 May 2024 23:18 (one year ago)

it's funny that contemplative and curious people seem to always arrive at the conclusion that supports their preconceived notions and ideology

ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Friday, 10 May 2024 16:08 (one year ago)

bunch of wasted effort, inefficient

lag∞n, Friday, 10 May 2024 17:51 (one year ago)

always important to appear convincingly as something other than what you are though, crucial part of ideology

he/him hoo-hah (map), Friday, 10 May 2024 18:09 (one year ago)

im not really ideological more of a common sense guy

lag∞n, Friday, 10 May 2024 18:17 (one year ago)

Let's dig into the data

Never fight uphill 'o me, boys! (President Keyes), Friday, 10 May 2024 18:22 (one year ago)

No, let's never look at data at all because that's too wonky and boring and something something neoliberalism technocracy ideology. The recent episode on drug policy, just for example, was excellent, and gets into the details of what is and isn't working in trying to achieve the very goals I'm guessing posters itt would share, but let's ignore it because neither EK nor his guest called for the end of capitalism and that stuff is boring.

longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Saturday, 11 May 2024 21:58 (one year ago)

you gotta laugh you know thats just life

https://i.imgur.com/Qf703B0.png

lag∞n, Saturday, 11 May 2024 22:02 (one year ago)

Reading the drug policy transcript, it does in fact seem pretty technocratic wonk-y and doesn't share the right goals IMO.

ie

If what you care about the most was a drop in drug arrests and involvement of people who use drugs and deal drugs in the criminal justice system, then it was a success clearly because there was very little contact anymore between law enforcement and people who sell and deal drugs.

Yes.

But on the health side, no, I don’t think that. And those statistics on treatment I believe count a lot of one time consultations. I think what most people, particularly people who love someone who has an addiction, are looking for is evidence on people getting better, people getting into recovery, not just at some point having some transitory contact with the system.

Yeah, I don't think that addiction/recovery and 'people who love an addict' (shades of victims' rights ideology) should be a key part of drug policy given the state of law enforcement in the US. They go on to overdoses and fent and such but IMO that just highlights the fundamental flaw of (libertarian) decriminalization over legalization (and regulation). If heroin/coke users had regulated, legal avenues of obtaining their drug of choice fentanyl contamination from powder being cut on the wrong surface is minimized if not eliminated, same with overdoses related to unexpected strength of the product.

papal hotwife (milo z), Saturday, 11 May 2024 22:16 (one year ago)

Matt Yglesias deleted this heinous tweet so I volunteer to archive it for him pic.twitter.com/BZmLOb7jtF

— Kate Willett (@katewillett) May 12, 2024

Matty revised

US bombing of Vietnam was destructive and morally wrong. But when I tried to look up the long-term impact on economic development, I found this paper arguing that it was smaller than you might think. pic.twitter.com/5Mhc1ebz7i

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 12, 2024

papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, 12 May 2024 00:57 (one year ago)

"But"

the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 12 May 2024 00:58 (one year ago)

bombing him wouldnt have much long term impact either

lag∞n, Sunday, 12 May 2024 01:05 (one year ago)

Yeah, I don't think that addiction/recovery and 'people who love an addict' (shades of victims' rights ideology) should be a key part of drug policy given the state of law enforcement in the US. They go on to overdoses and fent and such but IMO that just highlights the fundamental flaw of (libertarian) decriminalization over legalization (and regulation). If heroin/coke users had regulated, legal avenues of obtaining their drug of choice fentanyl contamination from powder being cut on the wrong surface is minimized if not eliminated, same with overdoses related to unexpected strength of the product.

― papal hotwife (milo z), Saturday, May 11, 2024 5:16 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

The guest is very pro legalization with regulation and very critical of libertarian decriminalization. That’s what a lot of the episode is about.

longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Sunday, 12 May 2024 01:47 (one year ago)

I’m also straining to see the victims rights comparison you are drawing tbh.

longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Sunday, 12 May 2024 03:05 (one year ago)

A third party's feelings (victims of crime, families of addicts) being used to determine public policy is a poor idea in general.

The guest's references to legalization and regulation consist of weed and the need to regulate dispensaries - his other positive examples are all individual criminalization (if lighter than the mass incarceration regime) but that's okay because they also added more money for rehab. And he's explicitly critical of regulated, legal supply.

One of his statements on that - "But the problem with that reasoning is we did flood communities with legally made, consistent quality, clearly labeled opioids for years. And the net effect was millions of people getting addicted and hundreds of thousands of people dying." - ignores that overdose rates increased when that legally made, consistent supply was withdrawn. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/09/12/us-overdose-deaths-opioid-crisis/) Never mind that actively pushing opioid use (via pill mills) (differs greatly from the existence of regulated supply.)

papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, 12 May 2024 03:25 (one year ago)

Matty had the wrong continuation, so I fixed it.

US bombing of Vietnam was destructive and morally wrong. But... it killed hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians, continuing decades after the US lost the war, through unexploded bombs and mines peppered across all three of those nations, with many of them killing children, all of... which had a smaller economic impact than you might think.

more difficult than I look (Aimless), Sunday, 12 May 2024 03:29 (one year ago)

xp which is simply to note that when you say that if one just had an open mind toward the Ezraverse one might actually have a lot in common with the former Obama staff wonk of the week, I’m not sure that’s true.

(And that’s ignoring the dumb throwaway line about destroying capitalism.)

papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, 12 May 2024 03:39 (one year ago)

Ezraverse

you lost me

mookieproof, Sunday, 12 May 2024 03:49 (one year ago)

Center-Man: Across the Ezraverse

Never fight uphill 'o me, boys! (President Keyes), Sunday, 12 May 2024 16:02 (one year ago)

i listened a bit to klein’s piece with “GROWTH AT ANY COST” pethakoukis which presented an infuriating and astonishingly dishonest mischaracterization of the past 50 years of usa economy. i was like out of my body angry at klein’s refusal/inability to address the many primary factors of the fundamentals of changes in it, which results in a slowing of economic growth vs the 50s and 60s. Very accepting of “yeah it’s just suffocating effects of regulatory government” by my quick listen. shit work. he’s writing a book about it now, wtf it better point at waaaay more than that.

well below the otm mendoza line (Hunt3r), Thursday, 23 May 2024 17:08 (one year ago)

Really? I actually got the sense that Klein was disagreeing with him and asking him questions he couldn’t answer that gave the lie to his thesis.

longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, 23 May 2024 21:43 (one year ago)

Our goal should be to get to 1b loyal, dynamic Americans this century. https://t.co/dzildfstLM

— @jason (@Jason) May 28, 2024

lag∞n, Wednesday, 29 May 2024 02:16 (one year ago)

We should test them, vet them and embrace them deeply.

A So-Called Pulitzer price winner (President Keyes), Wednesday, 29 May 2024 02:46 (one year ago)

Help us, neoliberalism, you’re our only hope

I don’t think Biden should shift his rhetoric to start talking down the economy or whatever it is people are now advising — he should issue regulatory waivers and re-write rules in ways that promote lower costs and higher productivity and stop inflationary debt cancellations.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 29, 2024

papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, 31 May 2024 21:14 (one year ago)

When Obama was president, liberal pundits loved to quote Keynes “the boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the Treasury.”

This is the boom he was talking about! https://t.co/V5x4LwqDxN

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 29, 2024

papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, 31 May 2024 21:15 (one year ago)

two months pass...

This week’s Politix tees up a timeless debate: @mattyglesias would be a better politician than Tim Walz because his substantive views are to Walz’s right.

vs.

No he wouldn’t.https://t.co/V9xVRLfzVH pic.twitter.com/ZWdGqAM6zr

— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) August 7, 2024

jaymc, Thursday, 8 August 2024 02:07 (ten months ago)

i dare matty to run for literally anything at all

mookieproof, Thursday, 8 August 2024 02:18 (ten months ago)

it would be nice to see him be literally parachuted into a rural district, the spectacle would be a certain vote winner

symsymsym, Thursday, 8 August 2024 03:33 (ten months ago)

Give him a wingsuit and point him toward the Royal Gorge Bridge.

papal hotwife (milo z), Thursday, 8 August 2024 03:55 (ten months ago)

And you thought RFK's voice was offputting

jaymc, Thursday, 8 August 2024 04:11 (ten months ago)

lmao nightmare scenario

Anti-Stancil PAC is delivering his tweets to physical real world mailboxes. Arrived today. pic.twitter.com/7loURm61Vu

— Wedge LIVE!™ (@WedgeLIVE) August 7, 2024

lag∞n, Thursday, 8 August 2024 12:53 (ten months ago)

lol

Bad Bairns (Boring, Maryland), Thursday, 8 August 2024 13:36 (ten months ago)

A stancil is an instrument only used for writing dumb shit

There’s a Monster in my Vance (President Keyes), Thursday, 8 August 2024 14:25 (ten months ago)

Sniglet of the day

There’s a Monster in my Vance (President Keyes), Thursday, 8 August 2024 14:26 (ten months ago)

isabel roffle

Bad Bairns (Boring, Maryland), Wednesday, 14 August 2024 14:34 (nine months ago)

no congrats to his opponents, no thanks to his supporters, nothing for the out of state suckers who gave him $100k for a state house race, sad

Hey, you can always lose an election, that’s politics. Nothing ventured nothing gained

— Will Stancil (@whstancil) August 14, 2024

lag∞n, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 14:54 (nine months ago)

crazy that the #1 genius of political messaging couldnt win state house race

lag∞n, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 15:01 (nine months ago)

why do the people i spent all day everyday picking fights with hate me so much

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GU80rj8WAAAakzf?format=jpg&name=medium

lag∞n, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 15:12 (nine months ago)

heh

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GU8zB6iWkAAc22m?format=jpg&name=medium

lag∞n, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 15:14 (nine months ago)

I have never really known who this guy is, but I guess now I know he is a loser

rob, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 15:16 (nine months ago)

Gives off pissed off adjunct professor "why won't university give me a parking spot close to the building I teach?" vibes.

the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 14 August 2024 15:18 (nine months ago)

He is the son of Ezra Klein and Matt Ygelias.

There’s a Monster in my Vance (President Keyes), Wednesday, 14 August 2024 15:19 (nine months ago)

with major behavioral problems

lag∞n, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 15:21 (nine months ago)

btw the out of district folks hes complaining about are the ones who did this lmao

Anti-Stancil PAC is delivering his tweets to physical real world mailboxes. Arrived today. pic.twitter.com/7loURm61Vu

— Wedge LIVE!™ (@WedgeLIVE) August 7, 2024

lag∞n, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 15:24 (nine months ago)

if the out-of-district ppl tried this to a real poaster (me) i wd be president of the US *and* france and um also japan by now

mark s, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 15:27 (nine months ago)

same

lag∞n, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 15:27 (nine months ago)

some people are just too online

a (waterface), Wednesday, 14 August 2024 15:31 (nine months ago)

he shouldve stayed on twitter where his theory that hes smarter about politics than everyone in the world couldve gone untested forever

lag∞n, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 15:34 (nine months ago)

that will stancil facts website already seems to be gone

There’s a Monster in my Vance (President Keyes), Wednesday, 14 August 2024 15:39 (nine months ago)

weird thing about him was he was just spewing boring conventional pundit wisdom at people, people reacted poorly because that's pundit-coded and not candidate-coded, and he was wondering why people were so angry

being extra-strident when all you're doing is posting Paul Krugman-lite or Obama-lite content and acting like it's important is an interesting personality quirk

ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Wednesday, 14 August 2024 16:13 (nine months ago)

yeah i mean hes extremely combative and pretty dumb

lag∞n, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 16:19 (nine months ago)

the trick that few people use well with giant everything-to-everyone sites is picking a lane and replying/posting specifically for a catered audience. it does blow up when other people jump into your mentions when something "breaks containment" but that's kind of an outlier situation where you have to ignore the noise with the understanding things will calm back down

the alternative is the terrible strategy that huge accounts use where you're just posting pure engagement bait all the time and revel, consciously or unconsciously, in your haters. this usually breaks your brain and makes you think 90% of the world is woke haters that are actively trying to destroy you (see: Elon, many such cases) and you become a reactionary dipshit when the truth is that you could unplug and walk around outside and no one will know or care who you are

Stancil's flaw is that he tries to engage everyone while speaking to no one imo

ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Wednesday, 14 August 2024 16:30 (nine months ago)

matty at least got rich not sure what stancil got

lag∞n, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 16:36 (nine months ago)

tbf most people don't win their first election and he did reasonably well. he's got a little more name recognition in the community, maybe could be a shoe-in for an unpaid spot on a county board or something

ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Wednesday, 14 August 2024 16:58 (nine months ago)

didnt matty start out rich? his entire family tree is made of novelists (ok that doesn't exactly follow i know but either way i think he was p comfortably off from the get-go)

quotes from wikipedia that make him good again: "The tweets also expressed a lack of empathy for Carlson's wife, which caused outrage.[29][30][31]"

mark s, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 17:13 (nine months ago)

he shouldve stayed on twitter where his theory that hes smarter about politics than everyone in the world couldve gone untested forever

― lag∞n, Wednesday, August 14, 2024 8:34 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Not to defend Stancil here, but this is also true about 99.9% of the lefties who spend their days dunking on him as well

intheblanks, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 17:16 (nine months ago)

people pick on stancil because they can feel him getting emotional about it, getting defensive in replies, etc. people have an instinct for when someone is thin-skinned, and stancil is definitely that.

a guy like brian beutler posts essentially the same stuff as stancil but doesn't get the ridicule because it's not incredibly easy to get a rise out of him

intheblanks, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 17:18 (nine months ago)

again idk who this guy is, but all those dunking lefties stay on twitter, no?

rob, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 17:27 (nine months ago)

tbf stancil is actively fighting with people i think is the main differentiator, and sure there are a lot of arrogant leftists but stancils thing where hes a master of optics and particularly how he thinks his posting is changing the world is just so far gone

lag∞n, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 17:28 (nine months ago)

xp yeah i guess i'm just saying "thinking you're smarter about politics than everyone in the world when you're not" is not a sin unique to this doofus

intheblanks, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 17:30 (nine months ago)

yeah pretty much everyone thinks that but stancil is an olympic level performer

lag∞n, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 17:32 (nine months ago)

at this point whenever i saw this guy in my feed it's because someone who i agree with substantively on the left was helping his stancil's weak takes go viral, i know that's how social media works and twitter is essentially machine built to ridicule people. all i'm just saying i also think people are going out of their way to fight with stancil as much as he's actively fighting with them

intheblanks, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 17:34 (nine months ago)

thats because hes special

lag∞n, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 17:35 (nine months ago)

tbf he does have some other complimentary trollish qualities that set people off too

lag∞n, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 17:36 (nine months ago)

yeah like i said, folks can sense he's crying about it so it puts a target on his back.

intheblanks, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 17:37 (nine months ago)

he has a who me schtick that people dont react too well to

lag∞n, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 17:38 (nine months ago)

those tweets are weirdly out of body, fully detached from self, like he's conducting his own autopsy

omar little, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 17:40 (nine months ago)

otm

lag∞n, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 17:41 (nine months ago)

i do think stancil changed the narrative on vibecession in the media, maybe only in a marginal way and you can’t separate correlation from causation, but you don’t see as many headlines like the ones he was complaining about anymore and the change happened right around his period of peak posting, so i give him some credit on benefit of the doubt. but he was super annoyingly and ineffectively biden or bust in june-july. and he was excruciatingly shrill during covid

flopson, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 17:44 (nine months ago)

are bad headlines the problem or is it that people cant afford housing

lag∞n, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 17:45 (nine months ago)

people pick on stancil because they can feel him getting emotional about it, getting defensive in replies, etc. people have an instinct for when someone is thin-skinned, and stancil is definitely that.

a guy like brian beutler posts essentially the same stuff as stancil but doesn't get the ridicule because it's not incredibly easy to get a rise out of him

This seems OTM to me. Stancil has a bit of Frank Grimes in him.

jaymc, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 18:07 (nine months ago)

It’s funny, I interviewed Stancil like 5-6 years ago for an article about gentrification— he did some really interesting mapping work on it — and he was just an agreeably wonky grad student. Should have stayed in his lane I guess.

Blitz Primary (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 14 August 2024 19:40 (nine months ago)

problem is before he was ever a grad student he was a something awful poster

lag∞n, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 19:42 (nine months ago)

idk, i think he clearly *wants* ppl to pick on him, that’s how he drives engagement, his feed is like 90% QT dunks of ppl replying to or QTing him. i don’t think he’s trying to say things everyone likes and failing badly, he’s deliberately using the antagonistic response he drives to get more eyeballs. the algorithm seems to love him; I’ve never followed him but always see his stuff in the algorithmic feeds

flopson, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 19:45 (nine months ago)

(xp to jaymc)

flopson, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 19:46 (nine months ago)

thats right

lag∞n, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 19:46 (nine months ago)

yeah, he's definitely in some sort of symbiotic relationship with the "dogpiling is praxis" crowd

intheblanks, Wednesday, 14 August 2024 20:32 (nine months ago)

I'm sad that he never really dunked on the people who would say "if the economy is not bad how can millennial me not buy house" by just saying "I'm posting instead of earning money to buy a house, maybe you are too?"

ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Wednesday, 14 August 2024 21:15 (nine months ago)

very funny how the one thing the no theory of change centrists believe you absolutely must do is pick fights with anyone to the left of them

‪Dave Karpf‬ ✧@daveka✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬

Yglesias has another long post today, arguing that Harris/Walz’s immaculate campaign vibes are *actually* a sign of overcautious campaigning because they aren’t picking internal fights with the left to appeal to moderates.

And (1) 🙄

But also (2) he doesn’t get *why* vibes are such an asset.

https://bsky.app/profile/davekarpf.bsky.social/post/3l2377ioumx2l

lag∞n, Monday, 19 August 2024 16:06 (nine months ago)

not to mention that this sort of centrist auto piloting is even more dangerous than usual with progressives already more suspicious than usual due to the genocide

lag∞n, Monday, 19 August 2024 16:17 (nine months ago)

its amazing how often our technocrat geniuses fail at knowing obvious things, think maybe thats what attracts them to analyzing the world through stats in the first place

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ageaevo6axza2xvzrpqbu674/bafkreic3auxhamryk3ig6vk3sqqoezl6zlkfyhuwc6u6urqt57lmj5pw6m@jpeg

lag∞n, Monday, 26 August 2024 15:47 (nine months ago)

how would he know about real humans

the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 26 August 2024 15:50 (nine months ago)

he could read one of those articles where they talk to people in diners

lag∞n, Monday, 26 August 2024 15:51 (nine months ago)

lmao

This is so funny… it’s so specific pic.twitter.com/Pe4NAd49em

— naomi (@lachancenaomi27) August 27, 2024

lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 August 2024 14:28 (nine months ago)

lolllllll

a (waterface), Tuesday, 27 August 2024 15:14 (nine months ago)

all time

There’s a Monster in my Vance (President Keyes), Tuesday, 27 August 2024 15:18 (nine months ago)

LOL

budo jeru, Tuesday, 27 August 2024 15:27 (nine months ago)

stancil debrief pretty interesting as a personal essay, politically hes not beating dumb and dishonest charges tho

https://www.offmessage.net/p/what-i-learned-running-for-office-stancil

lag∞n, Thursday, 5 September 2024 16:14 (nine months ago)

two weeks pass...

Yglesias is apparently in my town — he's taking part in some debate at the university about Harris and Trump's economic plans, facing off with a guy from the American Enterprise Institute. None of which would have been enough to get me out of the house even if I didn't have a bunch of work to do. But I hope he has a nice time.

Blitz Primary (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 25 September 2024 22:52 (eight months ago)

one month passes...

ugh

a (waterface), Wednesday, 30 October 2024 14:01 (seven months ago)

what a pair of dopes

a (waterface), Wednesday, 30 October 2024 14:01 (seven months ago)

Maybe Vivek will rap

Raising Azure Asia (President Keyes), Wednesday, 30 October 2024 14:02 (seven months ago)

That expression is perfect.

the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 30 October 2024 14:02 (seven months ago)

"What is the voice we really need to hear the week before the election?"

Blitz Primary (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 30 October 2024 14:03 (seven months ago)

I am as we all know a Kleinhead but I couldn't bring myself to download that one.

(Also still haven't gotten used to that new podcast photo; he looks so uncomfortable.)

jaymc, Wednesday, 30 October 2024 14:19 (seven months ago)

i don't mean to be rude, but it just floors me that anybody can take this guy seriously

budo jeru, Wednesday, 30 October 2024 14:51 (seven months ago)

I think the podcast can be good depending on the guest, but Vivek is quite a choice.

Blitz Primary (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 30 October 2024 15:02 (seven months ago)

Vivek went to Harvard and Yale. He's part of the club.

Raising Azure Asia (President Keyes), Wednesday, 30 October 2024 15:04 (seven months ago)

one month passes...

https://i.imgur.com/g3WBmPd.png

lag∞n, Saturday, 7 December 2024 03:39 (six months ago)

otm

mookieproof, Saturday, 7 December 2024 03:58 (six months ago)

reiterating my longstanding opinion that for whatever ezra’s faults, matty is in a different class of pundit douchbag

brony james (k3vin k.), Saturday, 7 December 2024 06:49 (six months ago)

Think Y blocked Heer, who couldn't stop bitching about his posts.

I talk with @DavidKlion about Matthew Yglesias and the problem of popularism, an ideology of technocratic expertise that tries to pass itself off as populist common sense. https://t.co/MLFvpz3Nlw

— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) December 9, 2024

xyzzzz__, Monday, 9 December 2024 21:55 (six months ago)

heh

https://i.imgur.com/G1yEA67.png

https://bsky.app/profile/whstancil.bsky.social/post/3ldwszqoocc2i

lag∞n, Monday, 23 December 2024 05:04 (five months ago)

Will Stancil? more like Will Fightyou

kendrick lamaze "to push a baby out" (m bison), Monday, 23 December 2024 05:31 (five months ago)

This story from @DavidGriscom about Matt Yglesias is so revealing 😂 pic.twitter.com/4v5kDSQQSv

— DintMentalFloss (@DintMentalFloss) December 24, 2024

lmao

brony james (k3vin k.), Thursday, 26 December 2024 10:55 (five months ago)

get him

lag∞n, Thursday, 26 December 2024 13:15 (five months ago)

I’m sure Ygeslias has thoughts about tipping

Grape Fired At Czar From Crack Battery (President Keyes), Thursday, 26 December 2024 14:06 (five months ago)

West Side Story (2021), the most underrated film of the post-Covid era, has both excellent heavy-handed political messages and also nonstop bangers and great choreography.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) January 1, 2025

the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 1 January 2025 20:15 (five months ago)

if this fuck is now going to start having opinions abt music… 😩

mark s, Wednesday, 1 January 2025 20:17 (five months ago)

Those opinions will be non-stop bangers

the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 1 January 2025 20:18 (five months ago)

He's not that far off on West Side Story

Gukbe, Wednesday, 1 January 2025 20:36 (five months ago)

"west side story is good actually" cannot be allowed to be his route into yr good graces!

mark s, Wednesday, 1 January 2025 20:53 (five months ago)

We need a Popularist critical movement in music

Grape Fired At Czar From Crack Battery (President Keyes), Wednesday, 1 January 2025 21:10 (five months ago)

some sort of pop(ular)ism

lag∞n, Wednesday, 1 January 2025 21:15 (five months ago)

I vaguely recall he had a big thing for Metric (or was it Stars?) back in the blogging days. Also hated 90s bands - what did they have to be sad about? or something to that effect.

KPH, Wednesday, 1 January 2025 21:26 (five months ago)

everyone has to stop making me agree with him >:(

mark s, Wednesday, 1 January 2025 21:27 (five months ago)

he has a letterboxd too

brony james (k3vin k.), Thursday, 2 January 2025 02:27 (five months ago)

follow mine instead (note to self: maybe update it some time)

mark s, Thursday, 2 January 2025 11:50 (five months ago)

three weeks pass...

oh man

I’ve said this before but the extent to which left politics has just merged with mental illness is a real problem. https://t.co/XRwGavC5RC

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) January 25, 2025

the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 26 January 2025 13:48 (four months ago)

Hardly surprising.

xyzzzz__, Sunday, 26 January 2025 13:52 (four months ago)

matty take the psychopath test

lag∞n, Sunday, 26 January 2025 14:23 (four months ago)

Klein: To at least give the other side of this a hearing: Doesn’t the existence of birth tourism suggest there is something indefensibly broad in the way that citizenship has been interpreted? I am as pro-immigrant as you can possibly be, and I think that’s abusive of the rules.

oic

rob, Monday, 27 January 2025 15:22 (four months ago)

wind sock as you can possibly be

lag∞n, Monday, 27 January 2025 15:26 (four months ago)

yeah I raised an eyebrow at that while listening the other day

jaymc, Monday, 27 January 2025 15:38 (four months ago)

whoa dont go overboard here

lag∞n, Monday, 27 January 2025 15:44 (four months ago)

I may even have had a wry smile.

Dialysis Den (Boring, Maryland), Monday, 27 January 2025 16:08 (four months ago)

Sorry, I also pulled out my earbuds and threw my phone out the window.

jaymc, Monday, 27 January 2025 16:30 (four months ago)

https://i.imgur.com/9XNP7l2.gif

the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 27 January 2025 16:31 (four months ago)

the ideas prince got kissed by fascism and turned into a toad

lag∞n, Monday, 27 January 2025 17:43 (four months ago)

i hate these dickheads so much

kendrick lamaze "to push a baby out" (m bison), Tuesday, 28 January 2025 03:04 (four months ago)

I get the impulse to find some word that actually stings that idiots, dumbasses, dipshits, doesn't really work anymore but the "oh boy I can say the R word like it's the 90s and people yelled that at me" is really obvious in many cases

ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Tuesday, 28 January 2025 03:27 (four months ago)

I think Yggy is trying to be ironic there, given the lede of his latest newsletter, but that's no excuse.

jaymc, Tuesday, 28 January 2025 04:27 (four months ago)

"the dems need to say the r word more to win" is certainly one way of looking at the last election

a ZX spectrum is haunting Europe (Daniel_Rf), Tuesday, 28 January 2025 10:53 (four months ago)

It’s gonna be a long time before I can listen to EK again

Marten Broadcloak, mild-mannered GOP congressman (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 28 January 2025 10:59 (four months ago)

two months pass...

lol

the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 15 April 2025 16:27 (one month ago)

‪nobody really‬ ‪nobodyreally.bsky.social‬

He was running very obvious sock puppets in his old blog comments section back when he was posting about why we should invade Iraq, one of the many reasons why he used to be a punchline in the old internet days.

https://bsky.app/profile/nobodyreally.bsky.social/post/3lmsbplwg2c2w

lag∞n, Tuesday, 15 April 2025 16:31 (one month ago)

Kind of sad that he can't even do better than faint praise from his own sock puppet.

papal hotwife (milo z), Tuesday, 15 April 2025 16:35 (one month ago)

Matt Yglesias - "I have a tiny penis"

Matt Yglesias's Supportive Sock Puppet - "It's actually totally fine and good enough."

papal hotwife (milo z), Tuesday, 15 April 2025 16:36 (one month ago)

denying that youre a provocateur and a troll is some unseemly shit youre supposed to just go teeheehee and skip away

lag∞n, Tuesday, 15 April 2025 16:36 (one month ago)

maybe some day he'll learn how to love himself 🥹

five six seven, eight nine ten, begin (map), Tuesday, 15 April 2025 16:37 (one month ago)

Has Matty considered that people don't dislike him because he's wrong, but because of his personality.

Iza Duffus Hardy (President Keyes), Tuesday, 15 April 2025 16:41 (one month ago)

denying that youre a provocateur and a troll is some unseemly shit youre supposed to just go teeheehee and skip away

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 15, 2025 5:36 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

seriously. whatever you think about his ideas, he definitely posts to get people enraged and to not admit that seems totally hilarious. also he is REALLY mad which is funny.

i have the dude blocked tho he is seriously noxious

a (waterface), Tuesday, 15 April 2025 16:51 (one month ago)

same

https://i.imgur.com/bgsvg2i.png

lag∞n, Tuesday, 15 April 2025 17:27 (one month ago)

i am not trying to hand it to isis, but i do believe him that he was making a dumb joke and not doing a sock puppet fail

gestures broadly at...everything (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 15 April 2025 17:44 (one month ago)

he deserves every annoyance that comes to him tho, so i don't care

gestures broadly at...everything (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 15 April 2025 17:45 (one month ago)

it just doesnt scan as a joke, also hes a known sockpuppeter

lag∞n, Tuesday, 15 April 2025 17:48 (one month ago)

like whats the joke

lag∞n, Tuesday, 15 April 2025 17:49 (one month ago)

if it was supposed to be a joke, it was a feeble attempt to mock people who react strongly to his opinions. we're the dummies, his opinions are supposed to be very boring and uncontroversial, you see?

ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Tuesday, 15 April 2025 17:52 (one month ago)

The only way that's a joke is if he's making fun of his own past sock puppetry.

Iza Duffus Hardy (President Keyes), Tuesday, 15 April 2025 17:52 (one month ago)

stancil kind of does that kind of posting and it's like, if your opinion is just an observation of the world, then does everyone else not have eyes and ears?

ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Tuesday, 15 April 2025 17:54 (one month ago)

i just went and unblocked him to see if there was more earlier in the thread that would make the "joke" make sense but theres not https://bsky.app/profile/mattyglesias.bsky.social/post/3lmpu7uxyys26

lag∞n, Tuesday, 15 April 2025 17:54 (one month ago)

why does he suddenly start talking about himself in the first person

lag∞n, Tuesday, 15 April 2025 17:55 (one month ago)

third person

lag∞n, Tuesday, 15 April 2025 17:55 (one month ago)

dont worry i reblocked him i like how bluesky blurs the profile pic of the blockee you dont even have to look at that fucker

lag∞n, Tuesday, 15 April 2025 17:57 (one month ago)

if it was supposed to be a joke, it was a feeble attempt to mock people who react strongly to his opinions. we're the dummies, his opinions are supposed to be very boring and uncontroversial, you see?

― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Tuesday, April 15, 2025 12:52 PM (fifty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah that's what i was thinking. i wasn't surprised the joke wasn't funny because, you know, iglesias

gestures broadly at...everything (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 15 April 2025 18:44 (one month ago)

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:fry2xajzhrlzuh2exueu4b6s/bafkreico67it2yaumqaa2qx4ee2osep4ggq7e7zolpjtwqxyvm3scx47gi@jpeg

so sad to see a once staunch centrist decide the fascist money is better

lag∞n, Tuesday, 22 April 2025 01:18 (one month ago)

That’s as lazy as it gets. Hope they’re not paying well.

papal hotwife (milo z), Tuesday, 22 April 2025 01:25 (one month ago)

it's gotta be kind of a joke right. like not the type of joke that is funny or that should ever be uttered by anyone

symsymsym, Tuesday, 22 April 2025 01:46 (one month ago)

idk on bluesky theyre saying hes gone deep down the silicon valley right wing rabbit hole

lag∞n, Tuesday, 22 April 2025 01:49 (one month ago)

I mean the tweet before that was pretty bad too. Who instinctively likes Hegseth??

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:x3kx2kiv7wu4qlzkxzn4qmjt/bafkreih7mzz5xyzkmbuqestjbygcunytdah3a7shz5laeyrzqunuxujhxi@jpeg

jaymc, Tuesday, 22 April 2025 02:22 (one month ago)

Everyone loves a drunk

Crack's Addition (Boring, Maryland), Tuesday, 22 April 2025 03:19 (one month ago)

three weeks pass...
three weeks pass...

pic.twitter.com/f8hXi5mM2r

— Harlo Pippenger 🥕🛠🎀 (@PippengerHarlo) June 5, 2025

Iza Duffus Hardy (President Keyes), Thursday, 5 June 2025 19:46 (six days ago)


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