Jezebel gets in on some sweet sex-shaming
Shikha Dalmia wrote some things about affirmative consent laws. I agree with some of it, some of it I am troubled by. Jezebel and Erin Gloria Ryan responded, in contrast, by sex-shaming her for the...
View Articleyes, carceral feminism is A Thing
Amber A’Lee Frost critiques this (excellent) Jacobin post by Victoria Law about carceral feminism: Here are the interpretations of the term I am able to come up with. a) There is a feminist movement...
View Articleeverything personal can’t be political
I’ve really been genuinely disturbed by #GamerGate. Obviously, some of that is just the threats and harassment of women online. But it’s also disturbing how successful they’ve been in pressuring...
View Articleincentives for argument, continued
So it strikes me that these (utterly ridiculous) allegations that Lena Dunham sexually abused her sister are a good example of what I’m talking about when it comes to argumentative incentives. As I...
View ArticlePondering the Imponderables with Adam Kotsko
Adam Kotsko fears that the Great Lena Dunham Sister’s Vagina Freakout of 2014 may be an irresolvable problem for the left. I have started to notice how often politically-charged online memes open out...
View Articlegood people, bein’ good
Drew Magary: Now 90 percent of all internet thinkpieces are dedicated to explaining why you should have a problem with something you originally had no problem with. OPEN YOUR EYES, SHEEPLE. Don’t you...
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performative morality, part a zillion
Film critic Matt Zoller Seitz: So: what is the active moral question, here? What is the issue before us that has actual ethical valence? Is it “should there be harassment of people online”? Are there a...
View Articlepedantic ridicule never convinced anybody of anything
Lauren Davis of io9 has a collection of internet comics that, she claims, “shut down terrible internet arguments.” I suppose that depends on your definition of “shutting down.” If that just means...
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the dead know no privilege
One of my basic beliefs about politics is that, over a long enough time frame, all political movements become indistinguishable from the parodies their opponents make of them. So in the world of...
View Articleyou can only ring the bell so many times
So here’s this Gawker piece about Fred Armisen that accuses him of being a bad boyfriend. (A point he readily concedes, as it happens.) I don’t want to get into some useless, wearying discussion of...
View Articleif you write “the terrorists have already won,” then the terrorists have...
Seriously: is there a more worthless cliche in our well-stocked bag of worthless cliches? It’s made a non-ironic comeback with The Interview and Charlie Hebdo, and it’s such a ponderous, self-important...
View Articlelisten to Adolph Reed
Here’s a really interesting conversation on the Remix with Dr. James Peterson with Dr. Adolph Reed, one of the most prescient, brilliant commentators on left-wing politics, race, and activism. I highly...
View ArticleI don’t know what to do, you guys
So, to state the obvious: Jon Chait is a jerk who somehow manages to be both condescending and wounded in his piece on political correctness. He gets the basic nature of language policing wrong, and...
View Articledon’t be an accelerant
So this is deeply related to the post yesterday, but it reflects on the online version of things. It’s complex and so I have to write at length, so if you don’t feel like reading a couple thousand...
View Article“take control” = “invoke your privilege”
Some confusing responses to my thoughts on “political correctness.” A remarkable number of people are choosing to frame their response as if I’m saying boohoo, woe is me. But that’s the opposite of...
View Articlehe-man free speech defenders policing my speech
I’ve gotten all kinds of responses to my recent series on political correctness, but one kind stands out for its seeming attempt to exemplify irony. I’m on the record as saying that, unlike some, I...
View Articlethat was fast
It probably won’t surprise you to learn that I am predisposed to not agree with Matt Novak’s argument that The Anti-Vaccine Movement Should Be Ridiculed Because Shame Works. I’m a big fan of Novak’s...
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the Rich Uncle Pennybags test
For awhile now I’ve counseled leftists to apply the inverse of Gandhi’s famous dictum: think of the most privileged person you have ever seen, and ask if your next act will be of any threat to him. I...
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the basic logic of bigotry
This is a topic about which I will reliably lose my temper, so let me try to stay in control. It’s an undeniable fact that there’s a level of casual bigotry against Muslims that is permissible in our...
View Articletrue vs good, again
As time goes on, I’m more and more convinced that the fundamental contemporary political failing is the inability or the refusal to sort “this is true” statements from “this is good” statements. So...
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