The refs would be the voters in this case, who they hope will see the Republicans' perfidy and punish them at the polls. It's delusional, but it seems like a healthier attitude than believing every member of society is already an immovable member of one of two camps, and therefore any and all behavior in support of your side is justified. That's depressingly common.
Is this to some extent an appeal to the HR/university administrators/tech companies that many seem to want to set up as arbiters of what's true and what isn't? I feel like this is part of the general trend of labelling something as 'misinformation' in the hope that Facebook or whoever will ban it.
It does seem like they imagine that if you say racism enough, the ref will come by and give the other person a red card. You only have to keep saying "racism." It's funny because it doesn't even work that way in sports. Sometimes the player rolls around on the ground all he wants and the ref doesn't give his opponent a red card.
Side note, I read an old style thinkpiece years ago, from before we were absolutely overloaded with thinkpieces, about how maybe the detached authority of refs in most american sports is a bad image for kids to see, and euro kids are better prepared for life by watching soccer refs, who can't even pretend they're catching every bad thing going on or making scientifically correct calls.
I know who Tom Scocca is. But, I think one of my first awarenesses of a generational divide was being perplexed about Tom Scocca.
'What it the purpose of a Tom Scocca?'
'What does a Tom Scocca do?'
'Why does a Tom Scocca exist?'
A Tom Scocca is stridently Left wing, is ironic and smug, has lots of takes, and somehow manages to get attention by riding social media churn and injecting themselves, at least tangentially, into the news cycle.
That said, Tom Scocca writing isn't good and Tom Scocca takes aren't that interesting or thoughtful. There's the standard flavor of Gawker alum commentary written from the perch of the keen observer. But the observer isn't that keen. And often writing from the burned out husk of some decrepit zombie legacy media property burning bucks from some tech oligarch or dead tech oligarch's wife.
The meta-irony with the Gawker alum is that the mean spirited irony if not malevolence has been turned back on them. 'So you thought you were going to have a cool career? Lol.'
I think you're onto someone. The other day I saw a plumbers van and on the back were "All Lives Matter" "Police Lives Matter" and "Trump 2020" bumper stickers. That guy is obviously one of those conservatives who are motivated by a respect for authority. As was traditionally the case with the left being anti-authoritarian.
These days however it seems like a libertarian disrespect for authority has spread on the right while the those on the left are beholden to a certain received wisdom. It goes along with the "front of the class" aspect of the current debate. If they've been taught something in a formal setting it's true and accepted without question. I think we've all known super eager students who are really into whatever they've just been taught.
However, what probably sunk the Dems was an incoherent COVID policy, failure to make it appear that anyone was working competently to mitigate supply chain issues, the interminable foot dragging with getting schools open, and worsening inflation which is best understood as a wealth transfer.
Whether a Tom Scocca would have anything interesting to say on those issues of much greater societal importance is irrelevant because of what a Tom Scocca is.
Reminds me of Obama et al constantly complaining about McConnell obstructing bills, blocking the Supreme Court nomination, etc. Like, yeah, fuck the GOP. But complaining about process doesn't so anything, you gotta actually win at some point
The "that isn't AcKSHuaLLy CRT" defense, so popular on Twitter, was strangely ineffective with actual voters in Virginia for some mysterious reason. Some blue check strategist might want to dig deeper on that one.
Democrats have exactly one year to finally learn the lessons of 2016 or face relegation to semi-permanent minority party status. So far it’s not looking good…
I really hate Twitter. It has absolutely made liberals its bitch. It's basically an Evangelical church for the Left. The toxic social incentives are strikingly similar.
So Dems, get the fuck outta there and start talking to average people (of all races and genders) if you want to start winning again.
There's some truth to the notion that Chris Rufo was one individual who drove a major shift in the political landscape across the country. Why would someone whine about that instead of learning lessons from his success to apply to their own preferred cause?
Why has Rufo succeeded? He started with a message that resonated with a lot of people, practiced strong message discipline, and used the power of slogans to his advantage.
It's easy to contrast that to something like BLM, which had #1 and #3 working in its favor, but lost its way on #2 and blunted its impact despite infinitely greater resources than Rufo.
"The only opinion that matters is that of the voters, and they think your whining about unfairness makes you look weak" emphasizes the moral rather than rational foundation of voters' choices, but moral in the
The refs would be the voters in this case, who they hope will see the Republicans' perfidy and punish them at the polls. It's delusional, but it seems like a healthier attitude than believing every member of society is already an immovable member of one of two camps, and therefore any and all behavior in support of your side is justified. That's depressingly common.
Is this to some extent an appeal to the HR/university administrators/tech companies that many seem to want to set up as arbiters of what's true and what isn't? I feel like this is part of the general trend of labelling something as 'misinformation' in the hope that Facebook or whoever will ban it.
It does seem like they imagine that if you say racism enough, the ref will come by and give the other person a red card. You only have to keep saying "racism." It's funny because it doesn't even work that way in sports. Sometimes the player rolls around on the ground all he wants and the ref doesn't give his opponent a red card.
Side note, I read an old style thinkpiece years ago, from before we were absolutely overloaded with thinkpieces, about how maybe the detached authority of refs in most american sports is a bad image for kids to see, and euro kids are better prepared for life by watching soccer refs, who can't even pretend they're catching every bad thing going on or making scientifically correct calls.
I know who Tom Scocca is. But, I think one of my first awarenesses of a generational divide was being perplexed about Tom Scocca.
'What it the purpose of a Tom Scocca?'
'What does a Tom Scocca do?'
'Why does a Tom Scocca exist?'
A Tom Scocca is stridently Left wing, is ironic and smug, has lots of takes, and somehow manages to get attention by riding social media churn and injecting themselves, at least tangentially, into the news cycle.
That said, Tom Scocca writing isn't good and Tom Scocca takes aren't that interesting or thoughtful. There's the standard flavor of Gawker alum commentary written from the perch of the keen observer. But the observer isn't that keen. And often writing from the burned out husk of some decrepit zombie legacy media property burning bucks from some tech oligarch or dead tech oligarch's wife.
The meta-irony with the Gawker alum is that the mean spirited irony if not malevolence has been turned back on them. 'So you thought you were going to have a cool career? Lol.'
I think you're onto someone. The other day I saw a plumbers van and on the back were "All Lives Matter" "Police Lives Matter" and "Trump 2020" bumper stickers. That guy is obviously one of those conservatives who are motivated by a respect for authority. As was traditionally the case with the left being anti-authoritarian.
These days however it seems like a libertarian disrespect for authority has spread on the right while the those on the left are beholden to a certain received wisdom. It goes along with the "front of the class" aspect of the current debate. If they've been taught something in a formal setting it's true and accepted without question. I think we've all known super eager students who are really into whatever they've just been taught.
CRT has gotten all the social media heat.
However, what probably sunk the Dems was an incoherent COVID policy, failure to make it appear that anyone was working competently to mitigate supply chain issues, the interminable foot dragging with getting schools open, and worsening inflation which is best understood as a wealth transfer.
Whether a Tom Scocca would have anything interesting to say on those issues of much greater societal importance is irrelevant because of what a Tom Scocca is.
Reminds me of Obama et al constantly complaining about McConnell obstructing bills, blocking the Supreme Court nomination, etc. Like, yeah, fuck the GOP. But complaining about process doesn't so anything, you gotta actually win at some point
The "that isn't AcKSHuaLLy CRT" defense, so popular on Twitter, was strangely ineffective with actual voters in Virginia for some mysterious reason. Some blue check strategist might want to dig deeper on that one.
Democrats have exactly one year to finally learn the lessons of 2016 or face relegation to semi-permanent minority party status. So far it’s not looking good…
I really hate Twitter. It has absolutely made liberals its bitch. It's basically an Evangelical church for the Left. The toxic social incentives are strikingly similar.
So Dems, get the fuck outta there and start talking to average people (of all races and genders) if you want to start winning again.
There's some truth to the notion that Chris Rufo was one individual who drove a major shift in the political landscape across the country. Why would someone whine about that instead of learning lessons from his success to apply to their own preferred cause?
Why has Rufo succeeded? He started with a message that resonated with a lot of people, practiced strong message discipline, and used the power of slogans to his advantage.
It's easy to contrast that to something like BLM, which had #1 and #3 working in its favor, but lost its way on #2 and blunted its impact despite infinitely greater resources than Rufo.
"The only opinion that matters is that of the voters, and they think your whining about unfairness makes you look weak" emphasizes the moral rather than rational foundation of voters' choices, but moral in the