Chapo Trap House and the rise of the dirtbag left

nfw online ny media leftists read less nyt than ft. just judging by stuff they rt/quote it’s a blowout

It seems to me she implies she is only the only one to prefer FT but that all the left detests NYT.

god these descriptions are so corny:

I feel like this is my fault, since they described me thusly: “a writer for the intercept who occupies the class first wing of the online left, arguing that liberal identity politics and call-out culture are distractions from true populist politics.” pic.twitter.com/P8XZpZ2cbS

— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) March 8, 2019

makes me never want to go on the internet ever again. "socialist kingmaker"?? "socialist power couple"?? barf.

(I'm sure all of these people would object to these characterizations too of course).

reminded by that, the bruenigs' podcast is pleasant, listen in on a married couple, and you can learn about the nordic model of state ownership

I don't think I can ever get past Mrs. Bruenig being anti-choice, that was real disappointing to learn (I'm assuming I'm not mischaracterizing her position, that she's not merely personally opposed. maybe i'm wrong).

she has a deeply weird position on it that isn't restricted to her personal views, and she's remarkably evasive about it

That issue has been muddied enough that I'm not sure what her current stated position is? I got the impression her stance is a rhetorical one, with the idea that an actual pro-life platform requires economic and social support structures that don't exist in the US that would, if implemented, naturally drive the abortion rate toward zero.

So while in theory she could support a candidate or platform that banned or highly restricted abortion, she wouldn't do so unless said platform also included said social support. The terminology she uses strikes me as another attempt to reframe the debate and honestly, the rest of her stances and writing are decent enough that I have to sigh and shrug and agree to mildly disagree

I was kinda hoping Chapo would do a reading series on the NYMag piece. People I know were interviewed for it and either grossly distorted or just cut out for saying actual substantive stuff.

One of my favorite points I've seen a few people make is that they spent apparently little or no time going to actual DSA meetings to watch the surprisingly grinding and boring hard work of actual politics these people are doing. Instead they went to a book party with the pretty people. But of course that's the lens NYMag views everything through.

i took it to be about that mh, abortion is immoral but creating a society where abortion doesn't exist would require state funding for healthcare childcare education rather than a law against abortion, abortion under the current situation (in the west and the rest of hte world) often isn't a choice (but they never talk about abortion on the bruenigs if that helps)

She talks about it as little as possible. But she has publicly spoken about being a "pro-life socialist" and what a special unicorn that makes her in one or two places in the past.

I'm hoping Chapo doesn't cover the NYMag piece tbh (though Matt did make fun of McElwee's quotes on twitter). There's already way, way too much content on the Brooklyn left. There are other places!

those nymag blurbs make me want to gouge my eyes out

nymag would've called stalin, "rough around the edges with a manly mustache, you don't wanna get on this fashionable brute's bad side!"

Liz Breunig is a devout catholic and that basically all the info I need to know re what informs her abortion stance.

im more of a Matt stan but since ive followed liz she’s never brought up abortion or emphasised those views in any way, yet there are always 1000 people in replies to unrelated tweets on any topic screaming at her abt it

it looks like they're in it for the purity politics, but really it's because most of them think they finally found a valid reason to yell at a woman imo

there's plenty of women who give her shit for it tbh

holding my tongue here

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yelling directly at someone on twitter is pretty dud but 'abortion on demand without apology' is a criterion for my solidarity and that's classic

not to be an annoying stinker, but if it's ok to be like "abortion is wrong" and still be part of "the left" because you don't specifically advocate for the criminalization of abortion; would it be ok if she was like "homosexuality is wrong" if she didn't oppose equal rights? where is the line?

to be clear: i don't think anyone should be yelling at her on twitter

If it was her personal belief and she kept it to herself 100% of the time I doubt anyone would care. Alas she has written/spoken about it a few times, publicly, and that's never coming off. (on my phone and don't have links handy)

yeah i mean she has definitely spoken about it publicly. people aren't just assuming it from her catholicism (plenty of catholics are pro-choice)

i do think framing this particular scenario as a bunch of dudes being super-eager to yell at a woman online is dumb and honestly belittling to Bruenig. yes, dogpiling on people on Twitter is generally lame but I don't think this situation is extra-bad because of her gender.

while we’re having a liz breunig struggle session, i’m pretty sure her position on homosexuality is that it’s cool to be gay as long as you don’t act on your desires which uh

those two things seem diff to me, ymmv

xp jim

re: bg's post

oh noooo

fwiw it was Mike not me who implied (even he didn’t actually specify) it was men in her replies. all forms of idiots with nothing better to do with their lives have united in this cause

hate to be the bearer of bad news 🤷‍♂️ xp

those two things seem diff to me, ymmv

― flopson, Friday, March 8, 2019 9:33 AM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they're not the same thing but they're fairly binary moral issues which pretty much anyone from centre-right leftward is generally expected to have the "right" opinion regarding

as i said, ymmv

i was looking around for the evidence of BG’s claim and couldn’t find it but stumbled upon this book review by liz of a memoir by a celibate lesbian christian. kinda skimmed it but didn’t see the smoking gun. i have an aunt who is a minister of a united church in rural Ontario and im 99.9% sure is lesbian, and is on the political left. my father (her brother) and i have speculated about whether or not she’ll come out after her mother dies, guess this out-celibate thing is a third way option i hadn’t considered. Christianity is so weird lol

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/is-there-a-christian-way-to-be-gay/

Eli Valley vs Meghan McCain FITE

This is one of the most anti-semitic things I’ve ever seen. Also, this reveals so much more about you than it does me... https://t.co/IdfGuWcJZu

— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) March 8, 2019

didn't realize there were non-gay UCC ministers

wau

"This is one of the most anti-semitic things I've ever seen" [retweets it to 631k followers]

I will clarify that it was overly broad of me to imply there's a class of people who feel emboldened to yell at Elizabeth Bruenig over other targets because of misogyny and they're the primary noisemakers

on the other hand, there are definite reasons why women would yell at a woman over a man who has said the same stance, including misogyny

new ep of the Antifada w/ Matt that seems to be sickeningly timely

In this episode, we discuss the 'controversial' French 'novel' that is 'just asking questions' about the Migrant Invasion, the Great Replacement, and Yt Genocide. How did a 1970s book by some grenouille asshole named Jean Raspail become a prophetic lodestar for an ascendant white nationalist movement? How does a historical materialist analysis help us understand why dickheads like Steve Bannon and Marine Le Pen are lauding this novel 50 years later?

http://podbay.fm/show/1372879721/e/1552633440?autostart=1

I would listen to pretty much any ep of any pod that has Christman on it. We should compile a list.

there's a pretty complete list of all their side appearances over on the subreddit

i didn't like this tweet, but i am putting in this thread for you to look at:

pic.twitter.com/PirIC5kr1I

— Redneck Kong (@MICHAELfilm94) March 20, 2019

this is disgusting

beto would never do anything that cool

ahsjfhshfj https://t.co/FJqqaPAbXi pic.twitter.com/SEt7QBbCnF

— libby watson (@libbycwatson) March 20, 2019

I feel like Bill Oakley had to be a Virgil pick but then Christman seems very into fast food as well

feels more like they'll leap at any opportunity to have a golden-era simpsons writer on the show, and the fast-food stuff was just a bonus

so it turns out one of the Chapos is from Manitowoc and I actually knew him about 10 (??) years ago

more of a friend of a friend type thing but still kinda neat

you knew matt? the best chapo?

I mean, I don't have anything interesting to say about him...we played cards sometimes, I remember him being nice & funny, he was tight with a few people I still keep up with. I wonder if they know he's sorta famous now. would never have recognized it before, he looked way different back then

hiding in plain sight with a large beard and receding hairline