EZRA KLEIN v MATT YGLESIAS

the clamor is a rifle report

Those people just want to come here to get away from the poverty, war, and corruption imposed on them by colonialism and capitalist exploitation and to get some small crumbs of benefit from the wealth that was stolen from them.

that tweet = whatever the opposite of evergreen is. always timely to those who offer it, always eyeroll and rage inducing to the rest of us

I’m always reminded of a review Max Read wrote about Richard Seymour’s _The Twittering Machine_, about how social media creates these omnipresent idiots who just exist to spout off idiotic takes and can never be corrected, because being accurate isn’t their job:

On Twitter, the usual pundits and pedants sprang up demanding explanations for every slogan and justifications for every action. In these concern trolls and reply guys, Seymour’s chronophage was literalized. The social industry doesn’t just eat our time with endless stimulus and algorithmic scrolling; it eats our time by creating and promoting people who exist only to be explained to, people to whom the world has been created anew every morning, people for whom every settled sociological, scientific, and political argument of modernity must be rehashed, rewritten, and re-accounted, this time with their participation.

These people, with their just-asking questions and vapid open letters, are dullards and bores, pettifoggers and casuists, cowards and dissemblers, time-wasters of the worst sort. But Seymour’s book suggests something worse about us, their Twitter and Facebook interlocutors: That we want to waste our time. That, however much we might complain, we find satisfaction in endless, circular argument. That we get some kind of fulfillment from tedious debates about “free speech” and “cancel culture.” That we seek oblivion in discourse. In the machine-flow atemporality of social media, this seems like no great crime. If time is an infinite resource, why not spend a few decades of it with a couple New York Times op-ed columnists, rebuilding all of Western thought from first principles?

Review is here https://www.bookforum.com/print/2703/a-psychoanalytic-reading-of-social-media-and-the-death-drive-24171

“A chronophage” seems a handy descriptor for some many people and platforms.

like the langoliers

Spent most of the day finally getting the garage organized.

Growing up in Manhattan, I never dreamed I’d be able to achieve this level of dad. pic.twitter.com/YWmIM4ew0c

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 31, 2022

That is the saddest pegboard I've ever seen.

https://queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com/2021/04/Screen-Shot-2021-04-22-at-9.12.36-AM-670x438.png

I never thought I'd feel sympathy for either of these fuckers, but this Atlantic piece by Klein's wife is fucking harrowing.

haha when we prevent this thing weve done absolutely nothing to prevent the haters are gonna be so mad

I guess some people are going to be disappointed when it turns out the world adopts enough policy to keep climate change to survivable levels without radically overthrowing capitalism or abandoning economic growth, but personally I think it's good.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 8, 2022

Wouldn't it be even cooler if we did even less and it turned out to be almost survivable?

Matt just figures the democrats will be able to squeak just enough climate change policy and budget past the Republican death cult and their own clowns in the Senate that the US middle class won't die in great numbers, because, hey, how hard can it be? All it took this time was throwing some red meat to the hedge funds and billionaires and a 50-50 tie-breaking vote from the Vice President. No sweat. And maybe in another dozen years there'll be another bill to move the needle a bit. What more does anyone need?

From unperson's linked Atlantic article:

(My doctor) had a feeling about some pregnancies, she told me. Mine was one of them. Then she told me about two patients who had had severe pruritus (itching) during pregnancy. The first gave herself frostbite during a blizzard, ripping her clothes off and letting the snow numb her. The second threw herself out a window.

ok thanks

pic.twitter.com/QTuFPUYeW7

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) August 21, 2022

meanwhile, in real life, every university in the entire fucking universe keeps raising tuition constantly, every single year, far outpacing inflation, and they will keep doing it, and no one has any plan

Heh. In Florida we're forbidden to raise tuition!

Thanks, Rick 'n' Ron!

Well, as I understand it you're also forbidden to teach anything but The Passing of the Great Race and The Art of the Deal, so raising prices would be unjustifiable.

Heh. In Florida we're forbidden to raise tuition!

that seems like a difficult law to repeal, politically, and something tells me it will be a Democrat who does it

Now that Biden has delivered for his base on climate and student loans, I unironically think it would be smart to pivot to some bipartisan commissions.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 26, 2022

Hell yeah Marty that would really seize upon the moment.

it's too late, it's already happening

NEW— Biden is taping with Jay Leno this afternoon.

Pool is waiting for his arrival via Marine One at the James Rowley Training Center in Maryland, which is operated by the US Secret Service.

— AlexGangitano (@AlexGangitano) August 26, 2022

it's about cars

Leno finally gets to hang with someone who remembers Stanley Steamers.

Is that where a guy from Pittsburgh shits on your chest?

Joe and Jay have a history

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP-hyDSlmUs

lol milo

this guy has come out of nowhere to be one of the worst guys

Worth remembering the vicious abuse that @ProfEmilyOster & others who made this argument were subjected to.

Then think about other debates like that.

You're not hearing from a lot of people on some topics because they don't want to deal with it.

The result is worse outcomes. https://t.co/YLEok7ZyJW

— Jason Furman (@jasonfurman) September 1, 2022

lol remember when Emily Oster was platformed everywhere and continued to be so despite some people online being rude

they were vicious to her simply because she was writing dishonest sociopathic articles about a major public health crisis

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FdMlVXAX0AIxr0B?format=png&name=large

looking at data for which system of plunder had the best outcomes is so MattY. It's like ranking Slave Plantations based on the SAT scores of the descendants of the slaves who worked them.

I missed the news of this new Yglesias podcast.

On the new show, they will tackle one “bad take” per week. The show will take the form of conversations between a writer and an editor, with McGann pushing Yglesias to strengthen his argument.

She said the show developed out of their own conversations, in which they would talk about a bad tweet or a bad argument they had seen online. The show’s producer, Olivia Reingold, pushed them to bring their offline dynamic to the show.

“He starts with a fairly clear point of view. I think I play a role in forcing him to pause and think through his argument,” McGann said. “I really do find myself talking to Matt the way I would talk to him as a writer. I think it forces Matt to step up his game and convince his editor of something.”

i love how that entire blurb leaves open the possibility that the "bad take" or bad tweet that they will be discussing will in fact be one of Yglesias' bad takes

so Matt we found a tweet that’s actually a book where this idiot says there should be a billion americans, nobody could defend such a thought, have at it

really unnecessary to center the podcast episode around a tucker carlson monologue, especially when there were a million other dumbshits making the same points

i love how that entire blurb leaves open the possibility that the "bad take" or bad tweet that they will be discussing will in fact be one of Yglesias' bad takes

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, September 21, 2022 1:20 PM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Haha yes. It's also just funny that she admits that his arguments are usually half-baked.

matt as we all know is an incredibly lazy loser, my job as an editor is to make him not be like that

https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Bad-Takes-2.jpeg?w=681&h=383&crop=1p

i love how all the other pundits have some pet theory in mind -- even if it's something as abhorrent as 'jews will not replace us' -- and in 20 years all matty has come up with is ONE BILLION AMERICANS

why does he have a following? just impossibly mediocre

oh

I don’t know if the @maggieNYT defense squad needs another member, but one reason journalists don’t always tell you everything they know right away is that which things people are willing to tell you hinges in part on what you are planning to disclose and when.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) September 27, 2022

One reason governments lie to you is that you won't like things they want to do

I often read his name as "Matty Glesias," which sounds like a brand of cheap beer.

the big brain

IMO the relationship between Twitter content moderation policies and electoral outcomes is a little ambiguous — letting Trump back on here almost certainly good for Dems, letting more Nazis and bigots back on also probably good for Dems. https://t.co/CFmELzyz4t

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) October 4, 2022

🤔

More Nazis?
Maybe be more specific about a number.
How about 1 Billion Nazis!

what this country needs is a big challenge to unite us all. like 700 million nazis

or you know what, a billion will work, that's more of a challenge