I find all the Harper’s letter/”cancel culture” stuff too dumb and navel-gazey to talk about (tho I like doing parody tweets about it), but there is one thing that fascinates me: there are now several “writers” who talk exclusively about “cancel culture” — Sully, Jesse Singal, Bari, Thomas Chatterton Williams, probably others. That’s it. No “oh Trump is bad” or discussions of what they’re streaming on Netflix or anything. I think that’s strange. Also, I’m not able to understand most of their tweets, there’s a lot of stuff about “critical race theory” and “neo-Marxism” and banh mi. I wonder if we’ve entered the age of “post-centrism” or Pale Fire centrism as we did years ago with conservatism.
Anywho, let’s do some plain old reg’lar Senate fundraising today.
Let’s do Cunningham in North Carolina
And Greenfield in Iowa:
Sebastian
What changed is people are sick of the propagandists and hacks and so they squeal.
Omnes Omnibus
Wow, Rick Springfield.
DougJ
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s a good song.
joel hanes
Sullivan has jumped the shark, and is no longer worth discussing.
Ken
What, no love for post-modern deconstructionism?
(Wow, it’s been over 20 years since Sokal published “Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity”.)
Yutsano
Why are they trying to ruin a perfectly good sandwich? Cultural appropriation rears its ugly head again.
Except banh mi is itself an appropriation of French culture by the Vietnamese. And it’s quite delicious.
Marcopolo
For those who care, President Obama put out his first list of endorsed candidates for 2020 a few hours ago. A lot of folks in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas, which I am guessing is because we are trying to either flip state legislatures there (or end R supermajorities).
Or if you prefer reading his list on Medium you can do that here.
Roger Moore
I suspect the root cause of this is that it’s the one vaguely conservative topic they can talk about while maintaining a modicum of self-respect. They don’t want to write anything obviously connected to Trump. Being pro-Trump is obviously out, being anti-Trump would get them exiled, and even being anti-anti-Trump has lost its steam. That doesn’t leave much to talk about in the conservative world, since Trump has so dominated the discourse. Opposing “cancel culture” is relatively safe, since they can claim to be in favor of free speech, while still getting under liberals’ skin.
West of the Cascades
If those particular people are only talking about cancel culture, we have more cancelling we need to do.
Nicole
Oh, “Jessie’s Girl.” The anthem of Nice Guys everywhere.
I would like a companion song, “Jesse’s Friend” where the girlfriend opines on her guy’s creepy buddy who’s always staring at her and telling obnoxious jokes.
Yutsano
@Marcopolo: That’s just the first wave? How many more does he have left? Also: nice of him to include my future ex-husband Max on there.
JaySinWA
They are creating a language of shibboleths. Symbology that few believe literally, but signals you are a member of the cult. Who is the they? I suspect there are probably different factions with their own symbols. The anti-cancel-culturalists are one faction, launching a war against criticism by conflating criticism with mob violence.
JaySinWA
@Yutsano: It has something to do with the Oberlin obsession.
Marcopolo
Also a nice article in the Atlantic about the possibilities that our current political/economic/health situation opens up for making serious inroads towards electing Ds to state legislatures:
The Pandemic Is Damaging the GOP Brand EverywhereThe 2020 election undoubtedly offers Democrats their best chance yet to reclaim state legislative chambers across the country.
I’m glad to see a lot of folks both here on the blog and around the country are focusing a lot of their effort on state parties & elections.
State Democrats mount big comeback in 2020
JPL
@Omnes Omnibus: He probably did that intentionally cuz he knows it’s your birthday.
Roger Moore
@Yutsano:
It’s the same reason Republicans in 2008 were so obsessed with bear DNA. It is something they see as so self-evidently ridiculous that anyone who hears about it will immediately take their side. The problem is that they’ve now talked about it so much they don’t feel the need to bother telling the full story; they can just reference the shorthand version of it. This is how you get to the Pale Fire situation DougJ is talking about. They talk so much to other insiders that everything they say is said in summaries and allusions rather than explanations someone who hasn’t been following along the whole time can understand.
oatler.
@DougJ:
Al Molina liked it in “Boogie Nights”.
rp
@Roger Moore: Bingo. It’s a safe space for them.
Betty Cracker
As usual, the people with gigantic megaphones who are making a cottage industry out of “cancel culture” — with themselves starring as its principle victims — have rendered an issue that was maybe worth discussing ridiculous. Michelle Goldberg wrote a worthwhile column (IMO) about it in The Times a while back.
Marcopolo
@Yutsano: Honestly, probably 3 waves. I expect Jill Schupp, who is running to flip MO-2 (next door from me) to be on one of them, and there isn’t anyone from MO on this list. I wouldn’t be surprised if just about everyone on the DCCC’s Red to Blue list winds up on one of Obama’s lists.
I really also like looking over RunForSomething‘s endorsements. They get down in the weeds to local elections for city council, local DAs, & county commissioners Their Juneteenth list had a woman running for Coroner. And their folks are young and amazingly diverse.
JaySinWA
@Roger Moore: Yes. Here is one of the many articles about the bahn mi “atrocity”. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/the-food-fight-at-oberlin-college/421401/
@Yutsano:
See, it was Oberlin what ruined the sandwich, and the student protest that ruined the world!
Teapot tempests turned into cultural warfare.
Hildebrand
@Roger Moore: Additionally, if you criticize them, they can say that said criticism is itself trying to cancel them. It’s the perfect perpetual grievance machine.
Citizen_X
Wait, what are they doing about banh mi? They can leave our sandwiches alone!
BGinCHI
In Chicago, it’s the lazy, stupid, racist asshole columnist John Kass, who makes David Brooks look like Francis Bacon.
Being the victim is his life’s calling.
The Moar You Know
Hurts to read that thread. We were all so confident back then that everything was going to turn out OK.
8 years later Donald Trump would beat Hillary Clinton for the presidency.
11 years later Trump would be murdering 2000 Americans a day with the help of well over half the American populace who find “staying inside” and “just watch TV for two months straight” – challenges that anyone would have bet cash money this nation could rise to – just too damn difficult to do.
Omnes Omnibus
@DougJ: Now that I can look back at it without my youthful condescension toward mere pop, I agree.
Jeffery
When the left does it, it is cancel culture. When the right does it, it’s freedom of speech and the free market.
Ken
From the article, the Oberlin College food service was trying for efficiency, with a single sandwich that can be sold both as banh mi and pulled-pork with coleslaw.
Call it the Taco Bell principle: The kitchen has seven vats of ingredients, and the rest is labeling.
Citizen_X
@Ken: Yeah, I just read the article JaySinWA posted. Seems a little overwrought, but not as much as the conservative outrage against the outrage.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’m bored with the endless speculation about what might have caused the bruise on Trump’s hand. Whatever it was, did it kill him or put him in a coma? If not, then he’s in charge and busy burning it all down. So what does it matter?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Consider it a b-day present. Happy b-day, bud.
JaySinWA
@Citizen_X: Never underestimate the ability of the Wingnut Wurlitzer to amplify trivia into Breaking News airing of grievances outrage at 11
Remember the Oberlin banh mi mascacre!
Soprano2
I saw a tweet this weekend that highlighted a magazine cover from Newsweek in 1990 where they were talking about “political correctness” and people’s “fear of speaking out” to highlight that this is an old issue they’re just giving a new name to. I do like to poke my conservative friends on FB about it, though, like when they talk about not watching the NFL because their leaders said it was OK for the players to kneel. I say “So does that mean you’re….cancelling the NFL? I thought cancelling things was bad”. I never get a reply to that.
narya
As an Oberlin alum jackal, I . . . roll my eyes. We’re used to being the Symbol of All That Is Wrong With the Left, and we don’t care. More seriously, one of the things I appreciate about the place–then and now–is an ongoing attempt to figure out how to do good in the world, both in the immediate small-town Ohio place and in general. It’s genuine and heartfelt. It goes awry sometimes, because it’s a human endeavor, but that doesn’t make it not worth doing.
Nicole
@DougJ: Even though he attempts to rhyme “cute” with “moot,” I really like the song, too. I also like “Don’t Talk to Strangers,” even though it, when paired with “Jessie’s Girl,” makes Rick Springfield come across as the worst guy to get involved with, ever.
Frankensteinbeck
@Roger Moore:
“Tweety.” “This is good news for John McCain.” “Infrastructure week.” But hopefully none of us think that the world outside Balloon Juice understands these references.
low-tech cyclist
Wonder what, if anything, the ‘cancel culture’ crew ever wrote about SLAPP lawsuits. (I’ll take ‘nothing’ for $200, Alex.)
If they’re genuinely bothered by voices being silenced, that’s exactly the sort of shit that should enrage them. But I bet they didn’t give it a thought.
Yutsano
@Citizen_X: I was about halfway through when I recognised the whiff of descension. Then the liberal quotations of Freddie told me “this is a Conor column.” And I was right.
Roger Moore
@narya:
Unfortunately, there are plenty of people who believe it isn’t worth doing. They love pointing out any time it goes awry, because that’s much easier than making concrete arguments for why it’s a bad idea.
Uncle Cosmo
How about a fundraiser for Kathleen Williams, the Democratic nominee for Montana’s at-large House seat?
Anyone concerned with what happens should Electoral College hijinks prevent certification of a winner in the Presidential election before 20 January 2021? The question could get tossed to the House – where each state has a single vote determined by its Congressional delegation. Currently the GOP control 26 state delegations, Democrats 23, with PA tied.
A win for Williams in November would flip the MT delegation from red to blue. Last I looked she was within striking distance (47-44 GOP, MoE ~5) striking distance. Looks like the easiest flip from where I stand. What say yinz?
Jesse
@doug Loved looking back at that old post of yours. Brings back the good old times. Wish we could see more of that side of you. (Though your fundraising and post titles remain gold.)
Looking back on that Pale Fire conservatism, at that time: it was clear the right was driving off a cliff. I remember my girlfriend at the time not even understanding things at all; her sentiment was like Doug’s. I think the people who, today, can “speak wingnut” probably picked up their skills during those times.
narya
@Roger Moore: Yup. Exactly. And those conversations are where my philosophy/government double major comes in handy.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Hee hee
how exactly does the statute of limitations work? if he’s indicted, can he still run out the clock? if a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich, is Cohen’s testimony about the lying about valuations for taxes and loans not enough?
A Ghost to Most
But, but, cancel culture is Balloon Juice’s central theme these days.
No wonder DougJ only stops by to raise money.
L85NJGT
@BGinCHI:
The Tribune’s bad faith Royko replacement? Doesn’t he opine from the mean streets of some high dollar suburb? Bruce Dold was another top notch hire. It was like they were all waiting around for 1982 to return.
The tip off for NPR types is “every one is moving out of state X”. That means my suburb is no longer 99% white.
Miss Bianca
@A Ghost to Most: Awwww, what’s the matter, Ghostie – getting butthurt over being called out on your ridiculous “mountain man tough guy realpolitik” BS?
Roger Moore
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The statute of limitations only limits the beginning of proceedings, not the end. You can’t escape punishment by dragging out the trial so long the statute of limitations applies. In this case, though, Trump is trying to drag out the investigation long enough that it might apply. There are other things that might get in the way, though. Most states have a continuing offense exception where ongoing criminal offenses keep resetting the statute of limitations. That would apply in a case where, for example, someone cheated on their property taxes by getting an unreasonably low assessment; as long as that assessment stayed on the books, they would be engaged in an ongoing crime and the statute of limitations would continue to be extended. My impression, though, is that getting around the statute of limitations that way is always tricky, so it’s much better to get the indictment out in time.
L85NJGT
White male fossils are expensive, and problematic for the subscription department.
Chris Sherbak
@Ken: I had no clue there was such a thing. (Sorry my BA is in Math and most of the philosophy I studied was Quine and Cantor.) I have the Wikipedia page up right now about it – sounds very inside-baseball sorts of things like Marxism and Epistemology where the usual meaning of words go waaaay out the window. I may give it a go if only because I have enjoyed Sully for so very long – figured it’s the least I can try to do for that memory.
J R in WV
@Ken:
And I got to revisit both Freddie de Boer and Conor Friedersdorf in one article. Why was an article about a mid-western liberal arts school written by the Atlantic’s West Coast author?
Also, too… no food is worse than poorly done sushi, that I am aware of.
HI, how ’bout some crawdad sushi, folks?
Steeplejack
@Frankensteinbeck:
You left out the biggest one: “Wilmer”!
redactor
If you’re interested in critical theory/postmodernism as abused by Sully & Co., this article is long and dense but interesting.
https://asadhaider.substack.com/p/critical-confusion.
Trinity
@DougJ: Jessie’s got himself a girl and I want to make her mine.
cokane
I mean it’s not in the least bit accurate to say that these writers don’t talk about anything else. I dunno all of them, but Sullivan is still regularly including Trump in his columns. LOL he even had a lengthy recommendation of Perry Mason on HBO in one of them. I dunno man, why have the writers here gotten so bad at factual accuracy lately?