If you’ve ever wondered why a certain formerly left-leaning journalist/current full-time cancel culture decrier declines to criticize elected Republican fascists who censor the teaching of history, enact laws that enable motorists to run down protesters, prosecute parents for seeking medical care for trans children, etc., well, you have your answer:
I guess Republicans really ARE irrelevant if you don’t have a uterus, are not yourself LGTBQ and don’t love anyone who is, are not a teacher or librarian, are white, are financially secure, etc. As the great moral philosopher Tom Servo once said, “Solipsism is its own reward.”
Open thread.
germy
Baud
I remember during the metadata wars where the response was government was worse than private data collection because the government can imprison you.
Bad faith all around. At least he took time to show his ass.
germy
Taibbi is such a smirking dishonest asshole. Who will repeal these bad laws if he convinces enough people it’s a “waste of time” to vote for Democratic candidates?
Old School
And people have a right to use Twitter!
germy
“I’m not particularly a leftist” Oh My God He Admit it as the saying goes. I wonder how many of his leftist followers noticed that one.
Mike in NC
Matt Taibbi is a name that hasn’t been in the news lately. Apparently he earned a reputation as a sexual predator when he worked in Moscow years ago.
In other news, it has been reported that there is a bear in our development. It goes around at night raiding trash cans and bird feeders. Just what we needed to deal with.
lowtechcyclist
God, what a schmuck.
Sure, it would bug me to get kicked off a platform if I spent a lot of time there, but it’s still all just shit that happens in this electronic world that I can close my laptop on and walk away from anytime. The Twitter Police aren’t going to show up in my driveway with a warrant for my arrest.
Meanwhile, the state can deprive you of your life, liberty, and property. That’s kinda big, and doesn’t go away when I shut the laptop.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
as I recall, he was always part of the anti-Democratic Left
that line about “vampire squid” was awesome though (what’s the sarcasm tag again?)
To be Frank
I had no idea that people zapped from platforms had lost their access to the courts. Does the plaintiff’s bar know of this travesty?
scav
So, apparently to his mind, being murdered by the police / government isn’t a problem (unlike being murdered by civilians) because because that can be managed by the magic of laws? Police accountability being manifestly the easy-peasy to manage process glittering about us.
Ruckus
@germy:
My take on reading that tweet was WHAT THE FUCK?
I know Matt’s not been OK for a while but still that load of crap is about as stupid as it gets. Did he fall down and get his head run over by an 75,000 lb truck?
waspuppet
Gosh it’s been about 40 years since I was in the presence of someone who actually employed the “The government can’t FORCE you to stop doing anything; they can only put you in jail if you do that’s not the same thing maaaaan” argument.
Of course, that was my college roommate, who was 19 and high. Taibbi doesn’t have those excuses.
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Vampire Squid isn’t even an original concept of his.
“The Octopus” was a 1901 novel by Frank Norris about robber barons, and that was based on an 1882 novel by George Frederick Keller, “The Curse of California” which depicted the Southern Pacific Railroad monopoly as an octopus.
eclare
I don’t even know what to say, it is so…asinine is not strong enough. I have already used the word reprehensible. I’ll go with that again.
Someone’s identity, family members, social support…yeah. Removing that equals not tweeting. Tell me about your pain.
Someone needs to expose him as a snowflake. I don’t know who.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Tabbi’s not wrong that the Republican just say stuff that means nothing to them. It’s the laws they enact that’s problem, they don’t give a shit about anything but tax cuts for the rich so all these laws they enact are random crap and god only knows what horrible things can out of them.
Martin
That last sentence is great. It’s so versatile:
Laws can be repealed. There’s a process. People ghosted by friends have no rights and no recourse.
Laws can be repealed. There’s a process. People fired from their journalism job have no rights and no recourse.
Laws can be repealed. There’s a process. People murdered by hyenas have no rights and no recourse.
eclare
@scav: Not as bad, but don’t forget civil forfeiture! Hey, we the cops found a bag of weed in your car. Keys please! Good luck getting it back.
MomSense
Taibbi has always been this bad.
Mai Naem mobile
Years ago I thought Taibbi was an interesting writer. Ugh. I can handle some contrarian crap but for this guy to be saying this stuff at this time is beyond attention whoring.
OzarkHillbilly
@Martin: People who’s faces are eaten by leopards…
realbtl
Taibbi always struck me as a Hunter S Thompson wannabe. Maybe he tried to follow the drug routine too.
debbie
@germy:
Well, that sucks. Every female politician will now be at risk. ?
Brachiator
This pretty much nails it. But I would add that some of these people are financially or socially secure, but may be women, gay, etc., but they believe that they will always be immune from the political or social consequences of bad laws.
They don’t believe in much of anything, and see the cynical game that often is part of politics, but they think that they are above it all. They are members of the club, or at least are allowed to swim in the pool from time to time.
They also really don’t mind if others are censored, as long as they get to keep yapping.
Also, this guy is also obviously wrong about conservative efforts to censor society. And of course you have people like Laura Ingraham, who believes that only the right white people should be allowed to voice their opinions.
mrmoshpotato
Waaahhhh!!!! Being “cancelled” is worse than oppressive laws! Waaaahhh!!!!!
J R in WV
Given what he admitted to doing in Russia in his books and articles, this guy should still be in prison and remain there for the foreseeable future.
Not free to be writing pro-Russian fascist propaganda. What a dweeb!
A Fascist Monster~!~
mrmoshpotato
Happy second day of baseball, everyone! Today’s Cubs game was rescheduled, and it’s snowing now.
debbie
Speaking of baseball:
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Who coulda known a fratboy who openly bragged about assaulting Russian women and harassing female reporters would be turn out to be flaky
Suzanne
I missed where the Constitution said I had a right to a Twitter account. Please, point it out to me, Taibbi.
In all seriousness, these sort of comments always betray of what their speaker is most afraid. Most of us who are not white dudes fear — with evidence to support the position — that the law won’t be there to protect our interests. He obviously has never had that fear. I wonder what it’s like, to genuinely believe that institutions will be there for you.
mrmoshpotato
Nominated.
LeftCoastYankee
When Republicans were badgering those platforms to treat their bullshit nonsense as valuable content, that was OK. But when the platforms get push back from their users for promoting bullshit nonsense (and worse), the Democrats are corporate puppet-masters.
OR “What I imagine is happening is much more dangerous than what everyone actually sees happening.”
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: And she got it over the plate.
burnspbesq
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Not quite. They also give a shit about ending Social Security and Medicare, and they care deeply about making life hell for anyone who isn’t a white cisgendered evangelical.
JWR
O/T for some Junior news:
Jeebus, the way this guy talks/writes. He’s insufferable.
Gin & Tonic
@JWR: Apple, tree.
Tom Q
He lost me permanently when he wrote about the Affordable Care Act during that period when it looked like it might go down because of Scott Brown. He opined that Democrats would suffer for this failure for decades, and his glee at the prospect just about jumped off the page.
Taibbi is what I call a To Kill a Mockingbird liberal: you lose your case and your client dies…but you have the satisfaction of knowing you’re more morally upright than any of your neighbors. Far too many of the left end fall into this losing-proves-our-virtue category.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Suzanne
One of the douchebag-identifying glibertarian phrases (along with a lot of concern about the age of consent) is “the state has a monopoly on violence”. Lots of them genuinely believe this, because they can never conceive of living a life in which they’re targeted for violence, not can they conceive of officers of the law not giving a shit.
scav
@Suzanne: Irredeemable Right to a Twitter account is enshrined right next to having the right to enter any vagina irregardless of the vagina’s “host” saying no.
Captain C
Perhaps Taibbi, with his past, is secretly hoping for Republicans to win as he figures that they’re more likely to eliminate age of consent laws (cf. Tennessee).
Skippy-san
Taibbi is so in love with his own voice that he has lost any shreds of decency. He become such a contrarian that he cannot understand that some issues don’t have two sides, only a choice between the right thing and evil.
He’s a jerk who needs to be cosigned to the outer darkness of journalism.
E.
@debbie: Athletes of any stripe live in another universe from the rest of us. I bet she could land a three-pointer on her first try, and pole vault at a very high level with an afternoon’s practice.
Ken
See, that’s the problem, the courts refuse to give them justice*. The lawyer representing the platform says some legal argle-bargle about “contracts” and “terms of service” and “egregious violations”, and the court says “yep, that’s what paragraph 2 says, they can deny service at any time,” and boom! No more access to
pornhubthe service.* “Justice” of course meaning “everything the way I want.”
Steeplejack
@Popehat:
@janecoaston:
@NotJoshBlackman:
WaterGirl
Good for you for not linking to him, where 500 of us would probably click on the tweet and end up promoting him and his awful content.
OzarkHillbilly
Ummm, that’s 2 sides, I’ll let you decide which he chose.
zhena gogolia
@MomSense: yeah when was this golden age when he was anything but an ass?
zhena gogolia
@Tom Q: haha never saw that interpretation. Even as a kid that aspect of the story bugged me
The Golux
@Gin & Tonic:
I’ve always preferred the more colorful, “The turd doesn’t fall far from the asshole.”
zhena gogolia
Kudos to OP for Tom Servo reference.
Barbara
It’s been so long since Taibbi has been interesting or insightful. I think, basically, that there was some point in time when his voice briefly and randomly intersected with the current situation so well that it was cathartic to read his prose. Disgust with Bush and Iraq, mostly. It’s been all posing and self-caricature ever since.
Raven
@E.: zThere is an incredible performance going on at Augusta right now.
dexwood
Fuck Taibbi. He is, was, will forever be a gaping asshole.
Sister Golden Bear
Easy to say if you’re a privileged cis-het white dude.
Summoning my inner. E.F. Goldman: FUCK ‘EM.
Barbara
@Skippy-san:
He long ago confused his “style” with meaning. He doesn’t actually have anything to say.
Dan B
@germy: The verdict on the Whitmer kidnap planners is awful. Is it no longer possible to have a jury deliver justice in the USA? Jurors believed these perps were entrapped by the FBI when two of them had already stated they were not played by the FBI.
When is the Gay Panic defense coming back? Will there be a return to “The black person scared me.” ? Or, “Her clothes told me she wanted to have sex.”
dexwood
@Dan B: Brings new meaning to a a jury of your peers. So much is broken in this country.
edited
RandomMonster
Taibbi doesn’t quite appreciate that people don’t have “rights” to a platform. I don’t have a right to publish my exalted ruminations in whatever dudebro newsletter he slobbers in.
Kay
I never trusted him because he used made-up numbers for the ’09 financial crisis/bailout. Was I surprised that he joined the cancel culture panic? No, I was not.
I maintain it’s people who are approaching middle age or middle aged who think of themselves as “current” and they can’t accept changing norms, which are mostly driven by people younger than they are. They want to decide what the culture is, and they no longer control that.
Starfish
@WaterGirl: Between this and this morning, there has been entirely too much attention given to garbage people.
prostratedragon
@debbie: And it’s even a pretty good pitch!
prostratedragon
@Suzanne: For a moment there I thought he meant train platforms, but then I remembered that that wouldn’t be our Matt.
Baud
@Raven:
Tiger?
OzarkHillbilly
@Dan B: You go to deliberations with the jury you have, not the one you’d choose.
.
.
.
Wait a minute… That doesn’t really work here.
Raven
He made the cut!
Raven
@Baud: Insane, compound fractures in both legs 17 months ago!
Kay
@germy:
I think it would be genuinely easier and much more efficient if they would just join the Republican Party, since at this point everything they imagine is some unique, contrarian insight is just “the position of the Republican Party”.
trollhattan
@debbie:
No lie, she was great!
trollhattan
@RandomMonster:
It must be pointed out that if you get kicked off a platform you can just invent you own, Trump style!
Ken
@Raven: “Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology…”
(And readers of a certain age are now hearing that theme music.)
Kay
@germy:
Freddie DeBoer supports standardized tests which he presents as some kind of contrarian position.
So he’s like Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Obama and also the federal government.
kindness
Taibbi at one point was such a good writer for Rolling Stone. Now it seems like he is auditioning for a Village Elder job 24/7.
Steeplejack
@JWR:
Cocaine-fueled delusions of grandeur.
Ken
Fixed. No charge.
prostratedragon
@Barbara:
According to that profile that @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch linked he never was more than randomly worthwhile.
Calouste
@E.: There are a large number of athletes who competed at a high level in one sport before settling on another. Often playing both sports concurrently. Russel Wilson played college football and minor league baseball at the same time for example.
Starfish
@Kay: The quantity of standardized tests is a lot. My fifth grader finished Day 4 of 9 today. He has tested 6 hours and 15 minutes this week and has 5 hours and 30 minutes next week.
Kay
I could stand it if it were like “as a traditionalist I support the idea that famous men should be able to sexually harrass women at work without social or economic sanction from the public” but instead it’s them supporting what is the status quo as an original thought. Just support the status quo! Say “it was good enough for ME, it should be good enough for them”.
kalakal
mrmoshpotato
@JWR: Dump Jr, I have multiple bags of unseasoned dicks, and you can suck them all.
mrmoshpotato
@debbie:
Wow. That was awesome.
geg6
@Calouste:
Babe Didrikson Zaharias. ‘Nuff said.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JWR: huh, if he’s been called by the 1/6 committee, I missed it
Uncle Cosmo
@The Golux: Mine is “Road apple don’t fall far from the horse’s ass.” YMMV
Soprano2
@mrmoshpotato: i had tickets to the opening day game for the AA Cardinals team we have here – it’s tonight. It’s 44 degrees right now. I traded those tickets for the April 19th game!
JWR
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Maybe those emails showed up in those surrendered by Meadows? I remember Ewick showing up remotely, I don’t know about junior.
gene108
@Barbara:
People with public platforms showing disgust with Bush and Iraq, especially when so much of the media and public opinion supported the fool and his folly, were so rare that many of us never looked beyond their criticism of Bush and Iraq and assumed they’d be cool about everything else.
Kay
@Starfish:
They go a little nuts with them. Agreed. But supporting them is a conventional position – the 20 year bipartisan concensus to mandate standardized tests and use them to measure progress. It’s not at all contrarian. He could just say “I would prefer if things stay the same”.
If his position is “I sorta like No Child Left Behind” he can just claim that. No one has to fight the woke mob to say it. Jeb Bush says it. No one cancels him.
James E Powell
@realbtl:
The internet is overrun with HST wannabes. They all fail. HST was a man of his time.
Kay
These are the people who will be lecturing you on “grooming”.
James E Powell
@Tom Q:
Comparing Taibbi to Atticus Finch is blaspheme!
Steeplejack
@JWR:
From the linked article:
No mention of exactly where the “records” were obtained.
JeffH
@James E Powell: Probably unpopular take: one HST was one too many. Every time I’ve tried to read him, my reaction is “What a smug, insufferable jackass.” So it’s not surprising Taibbi and all the wannabes are awful.
Geminid
@Steeplejack: Mark Meadows may have provided the records before he made his belated decision to stop cooperating with the January 6 Committee.
different-church-lady
Say, this Tabbi fellow does not seem very bright.
Lumpy
In 2004, Taibbi wrote in Rolling Stone that there wouldn’t be any appreciable difference in electing Kerry instead of a 2nd Bush term. He said Kerry was a stuffy and boring blue blood, while you could have a beer with Bush, because he was a ‘regular guy’. The boring aspect of the Kerry campaign was a big focus of his writing. Of course, Bush got a second term (due in some part to a Dem electorate who didn’t bother to show up to vote) and he appointed two Supreme Court justices (Roberts and Alito) who we will have to contend with for decades to come.
After the Mueller report was revealed to be a disappointment, Taibbi’s RS article took some pleasure in all the liberal talkers who had spent too much time on the story (as if Rachel Maddow’s reporting was the real problem we should be talking about). And the Mueller report had plenty of dire content, even though there wasn’t any blatant ‘collusion’ that was provable (because hey, stonewalling and coverups work). Taibbi thought the real scoop was about all the liberal hosts who had gone too far out on a limb by covering the story in detail.
Just a couple of quick examples to show that despite his book about Wall Street vampire squids, he has always been a Grade A Knob, with seemingly no aptitude or appreciation of electoral politics… even though that is one of his main topics.