"After alcohol and drugs and organized religion, the cheapest form of anti-anxiety medication is being told by someone with a microphone that you are right" https://t.co/2Zz60X2h8O
— John DeVore (@JohnDeVore) January 30, 2022
For your reading pleasure. Ran across this on Kilgore Trout’s twitter feed:
… Hey, I believe in open debate. Sure. Absolutely. Your anti-vaccine newsletter sucks. That guy on TV telling grandparents to be afraid of everything? He’s a vain asshole. The popular podcast dude who gets off beating up on trans people just for fun? I mean, he’s a moron who regularly fucks up Google searches.
I’d have more respect for conservative bloggers and talking heads and fussy millionaire comedians if they just said what they were thinking: fuck the old and the sick and anyone, really, who catches COVID-19 because I want to go to brunch. Fancy brunch.
I’d have more respect if they were honest and didn’t hide behind falsehoods. I would still think they were pieces of shit, though.
Feel free to disagree with me. It’s your right. I have the right to say or print whatever I want without interference from Johnny Law. So do you, and you, and yes, even you. This is why I can publish the following sentence: selling paid subscriptions to newsletters that knowingly peddle the low-hanging fruit of misinformation is immoral. Sure, to write is to manipulate a reader, sometimes for a paycheck or pleasure or to educate, and sometimes for political gain. That’s the game.
But there are too many right-wing political opportunists with giant bullhorns who have decided there is nothing but upside in telling whoever will listen that 2 + 2 equals whatever they tell you that day. Even if 2+2 equals die in an ICU with a tube down your throat because some evil jabroni told you to trust him about the COVID-19 vaccine…
… No one’s inalienable rights are compromised by little ol’ me pointing out that it is fucked-up to publish dishonest information that hurts people, even if that strategy is lucrative. You are not a free speech hero if you knowingly go into business with people who are either unfathomably cynical or simply out of thair minds and give them a platform from which they can announce that vaccines are dangerous, despite centuries of evidence to the contrary. That’s not free speech. It’s snake oil for the brain…
The freedom for free speech martyrs to shout “freedom!” is one of this country’s greatest pleasures. In a truly totalitarian regime, free speech martyrs don’t make any noises, except for whimpering in dungeon cells. I will never say “it can’t happen here” but not only can it happen here, it has also happened here, and it can happen again. But until such a tragic moment, the USA remains the home of the brave and the habitual whiner. Complain all you want, it’s your right. You’re not a victim, nor a martyr. You’re just an average Joe, making millions.
japa21
How many people are willing to lead to their deaths for a million dollars? How many for 2 million?
West of the Rockies
Is the anti-trans dude Chapelle? ( I suspect there are several possibilities.)
LongHairedWeirdo
However, if some dumb punk scaredy cat does a whole lot of stupid thing, rights *are* removed. You gotta be fair here!
They’re even doing the *dance*, “Kyle killed your people, kyle killed your people, kyle killed your people.” NYT will point out that this immature behavior is innovative, and wonder why Democrats aren’t trying to buff up their assets in that realm.
zhena gogolia
@West of the Rockies: I was confused by that too. I don’t think Chappelle has a podcast, so I’m going with Rogan.
Gawd, I overheard my physical therapist talking to another patient about what genius Rogan is.
WereBear
@japa21: like that Richard Matheson story about the red button. And that only killed one person.
LongHairedWeirdo
Oh, dear, are the Republicans playing the “elimination of too many people” game with the court? You know, that means they think there *must* be a better candidate (nb: and “better” is subjective; Democrats don’t trade appointments for loyalty, Republicans do).
There must be another candidate, clearly better, who is… not a black woman. Why don’t they come up with this hypothetical better candidate? If they do find a clearly better one, great! Thanks for the assist, dudes, you still owe us for all the damage you’ve done to the Constitution. “Faithfully executed” my ant fanny! (Yes, ant! I was having a talk with Scott Lang… nevermind. Didn’t happen.)
The Thin Black Duke
Joe Rogan is the guy who gets them closer to putting the “White Only” signs back up again. He’s the personification of White Dick Grievances.
Villago Delenda Est
Hear, hear!
laura
Good luck unshitting that bed Spotify. I’ll be ordering all the popcorn to enjoy this week as actual decent music makers make some business moves and I’ll be laughing myself silly at the extreme butthurt in dude bro town.
Villago Delenda Est
@LongHairedWeirdo:
The Vichy Times needs to be nuked from orbit.
Ohio Mom
@zhena gogolia: Ugh. Why is someone like a PT so clueless about what is and isn’t appropriate to make small talk about?
I just found out that the job coach assigned to Ohio Son isn’t vaccinated — when I told her the place Son is working requires a vaccination card, she said she didn’t have one.
Well this is a self-limiting problem. She won’t be allowed to coach and the job developer who made this assignment will have to come up with a Plan B.
Leaves us with the question, why is the job developer so lax about this, she works with disabled people, many of whom are at higher risk, particularly people with Doen Syndrome.
LongHairedWeirdo
@LongHairedWeirdo: Oh, I am as reasonably sane as a person can be. I’m goofy, weird (I *do* hope you noticed, one does one’s best!), I’ve been told I’ve been funny, but the joke was over a .9 bar connection, so we’re waiting for confirmation.
I think I’m too cute for words, but if you’re going to argue with what my mom said when I four years old, I’ll have to ask you to step outside! I’ll stay here, and no one will be busting on my mom.
I’m angry – but ridicule can be more potent, and, besides, I think it’s fun to break the brain of a brandoner (one who brandons).
Brandon: the phrase, general deliberate assholery, and a word I think will tweak the “Fred Your Feelings” crowd.
(No, that’s a substitution for the big scary (whispers) eff word. Wouldn’t want to trigger any brandoners who come in.
eversor
@zhena gogolia:
Dave doesn’t have a podcast and is actually funny and talented but he’s a recluse. Joe has a podcast and isn’t funny or talented and is all over the place.
But anyways the trick with conservative “cancel culture” complaints is that it’s not actually about canceling people. It’s that they are demanding more people they agree with be given platforms and everyone else shut up about it.
This is a big thing with Rod Dreher that Christians have been canceled and silenced because major TV networks, streaming services, and Hollywood don’t go out of their way to produce media specifically for Christians endorsing their point of view. Nevermind the fact that with rare exceptions all these things bomb. The fact that people aren’t creating the media he wants and corporations aren’t taking a financial hit to produce and distribute it means Christians are canceled. He has the same gripe about the news, government, and academic institutions.
So the religious liberty fight is the same as the cancel culture fight for him. It’s about legally silencing critics and then legally forcing patforms and positions for Christianity after. And if they can’t get the public to go along with it then they get to cheat to get it. And if they can’t cheat to get it then they need a Franco and they were forced to do it because Christianity is that important and it’s everyone elses fault.
They care much more about private speech than public speech.
Villago Delenda Est
@LongHairedWeirdo:
The Enlightenment hating scum of the Federalist Society need not apply.
Kay
Neil Young released Harvest in 1972 and Joni Mitchell released Blue in 1971 and people still pay to listen to those songs. No one is going to be replaying Joe Rogan podcasts 50 years from now. He has to keep feeding words into the big bullshit machine or his audience goes away, because cheap junk doesn’t last.
Geminid
Excelsior!
A proposed redistricting map released today by New York’s Democratic State Assembly Majority could change its congressional delegation from 19D-8R to 22D-4R (New York loses a seat through reapportionment).
Ad Astra? Kansas is not yet done with redistricting it’s four Congressional districts. A plan put out by the state’s Senate would make Democrat Sharice Davids’ 3rd District more Republican, but still slightly Democratic. Or at least that’s what the Republican Senate leader says.
Joshua Todd James
The author is a friend and a great writer, I highly recommend you follow him.
LongHairedWeirdo
If we could call ACB the bunny lady (for coney, dirty shot, about one’s name, and there are probably other reasons to go ahead). We could spread rumors that Lennie’s own Aunt Clara let Lennie play with bunny , which explains the head trauma… I mean, just look at her!
Oh, cause brandoners gotta brandon, we should note that Lennie touched only actual bunnies, which were far more pleasant to be around, and children sometimes play too rough. Because some brandoning brandoner will insist “play” has a dirty meaning. Lennie wouldn’t try touch a woman in anything approaching *that* way for many more years. What filthy minds bradoners have.
Leto
@Geminid: The TN redistricting will result in the elimination of Nashville’s D representative. Nashville will be split up 3 ways and absorbed into it’s +13-20 Trumpov voting surrounding districts.
Kay
ABC News now doing push polling for the RNC. What wasn’t a controversy when Reagan did it and wasn’t a controversy when Trump did it is now miraculously a controversy, because Republican politicians and operatives deemed it one.
Baud
@Kay:
All Nominees Matter.
Suzanne
@eversor: Rod Dreher cannot adjust to a society in which he has the right to say what he wants, but that nobody cares. He doesn’t understand that conservative Christians have destroyed their credibility with most of those outside their bubble and as such, those outside the bubble aren’t going to give them money or amplify their voices. It’s a hierarchy, and he keeps sliding further down, because most conservative Christians are detestable people. They are not used to thinking of themselves this way.
He was going on and on about Neil Young and Joni Mitchell “self-canceling” or something, as if that was a thing that exists or happens, and is not just free people with free speech rights deciding with whom they want to do business. Like, the way people have done business since time immemorial.
zhena gogolia
@Ohio Mom: People are scum.
Kay
@Baud:
They have their narrative! It’s all he’ll be asked about.
It always reminds me of the run up to the Iraq War when Dick Cheney would point to something he planted in the NYTimes as evidence on why we had to invade Iraq. It was so, so slick. He’d be on one of those interview shows and he’d gravely bring up his planted evidence and attribute it to the NYTimes, which worked like a charm, every time- when I watched it after the lies were revealed I felt like I could see a tiny little smirk.
Suzanne
I will note that, in conservative Christian land, refusing to the bake the gay wedding cake is principled exercise of religious liberty, and boycotting Disney is awesome. But Neil Young taking his music off Spotify is “censorious” and “self-canceling” and boycotting Chik-FIL-A is being “a cry bully”.
A reminder that the right loves canceling and hates free speech, when you’re the one getting canceled and it’s your books getting taken out of the library.
CliosFanBoy
What a great essay!
Nelle
@Geminid: From what I saw of the gerrymander map of Kansas, Lawrence (Democratic and mostly progressive, at least for Kansas, and only one county from the Missouri line, is put in with western Kansas by means of a long snaking line, coming out to ensnare it. In other words, neutralizing all the D voters of Lawrence, home to the University of Kansas, the institution western Kansans love to hate. Take that, libs!
LongHairedWeirdo
I found that tweet interesting, and offer up “jaqing off” (not original) as a way to mock the morons.
eversor
@Suzanne:
I know that. But it goes back to the same thing. “Cancel culture is when people don’t say what I want them to say and don’t agree with me”.
I also don’t agree they are sliding. I think they’ve been waging and cold civil war for decades and winning. While we talk about normals, elections, laws and pretend it isn’t actually happening.
Suzanne
@eversor: Eh, I think they’re sliding a bit. I see it being much easier, socially, in many places for people to live atheist/gay/childfree lives. Much more than it was a few years ago.
schrodingers_cat
Our media is broken, NYT is both sidesing (Sp?) voter suppression and journo bros MattY, Josh Barro along with Trump mouth piece MAGA Haberman etc are in full force attacking Mark Elias.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kay: Fuck The Mouse. Hard.
Villago Delenda Est
@schrodingers_cat: It’s doing precisely what the parasite overclass wants it to do: defend the status quo at all costs.
schrodingers_cat
@Villago Delenda Est: NYT is incorrigible.
schrodingers_cat
OT: I made a Twitter thread on the assassination of M. K. Gandhi. Today is the 74th anniversary of that fateful day.
Geminid
@Nelle: I think there was a Kansas district besides David’s 3rd that was getting too purple for Republican comfort. Lawrence may have been in it, which would explain making it the eastern outpost of the western district.
I’ll be interested to see how Sharice Davids’ district ends up. The Senate Republicans may want the state’s House to redraw the 3rd to her detriment, so they can then “reluctantly” go along. It sounds like Davids will have a fighting chance for reelection, though. It will be a much watched race.
trnc
Well, we’ve pretty much seen it coming since day one of CRT complaints. If it weren’t for the fact that Biden campaigned on it, I’d have thought that he should publicly say he’s considering several nominees and then nominate the one he actually wants. Hardly matters, though, because the shitheels are just as determined to undermine the legitimacy of the court as they are to undermine every other public service, and that’s the case even with their 6-3 majority.
trnc
I suspect the easiest answer to that would be, “I made a campaign promise. If I broke it, you’d be writing about that, but I’m keeping that promise.”
Bonus for “I promise that every Supreme Court nominee that I have a chance to make will have more judicial experience than Amy Coney Barrett or Clarence Thomas,” just to hear the screeching.
taumaturgo
All nominees matter! Democrats in charge break into hives and begin to scramble like headless chickens and run to deploy their surrender bipartisan flags. GQP could give a shit as to what the public at large desires. Only the base and donors matter, not in this particular order.