Have you taken the time to investigate KDW's actual views on abortion or capital punishment? Are you aware that he opposes capital punishment? Have you ever read some of his columns? Do you know that he's the walking, talking definition of a Never-Trumper? Have you ever read some of his brilliant theater reviews for The New Criteron? Have you read his excoriating, searing take down of white identity politics and the populist right (The White-Minstrel Show)? Have you read his heartbreaking and nuanced piece of the opioid epidemic (How Prescription-Drug Abuse Unleashed a Heroin Epidemic)?
I don't remember attacking you personally, so I'd appreciate if you didn't attack me. I'm not going to engage with this kind of response.
I'll just close by saying yes, I have read much of what you mention, and maybe that says something about you that you would immediately assume and then attack based on wrong assumptions. Maybe some time for some introspection?
This isn't about whether you agree or disagree with KDW. It's about the cowardly smearing he endured and the fact that Jeff Goldberg, the so called "editor-in-chief" of The Atlantic, is not really the editor-in-chief at all, his staffers and the Twitter mob are.
People are forgetting that KDW did NOT apply to work at The Atlantic, he did NOT actively set about getting a job there, he was contacted and recruited by The Atlantic, by the so called "editor-in-chief", they WANTED him there and extended him an offer.
His comments and views about abortion were public; he didn't mince words or attempt to conceal or walk back his comments. Knowing all this, the Atlantic extended him an offer, and then dumped him when the twitter mob went berserk.
They smeared KDW, they gave into the mob, they acted like cowards, and they should be shamed for publicly ridiculed by by sides of the political aisle for their behavior.
Then stop reading The Atlantic. Voila, problem solved.
Unless you’re running low and need a new source to feed your outrage addiction.
Update:
What was your response to MSNBC booting Sam Seder over his Polanski tweet (tasteless joke)?
Sorry, I don’t do corporate media, took me a while to remember enough details to google this example.
I’m sure there’s acres of examples. From my time, it was Fox News shutting down the Ayre (dairy cow) whistle blowers.
Just curious if your outrage is equal opportunity or selective.
For my part, I still haven’t forgiven The Atlantic for getting Cheney elected and pimping the 2nd Iraq War. Cracks me up that the alt-right hates them now. No good deed goes unpunished.
Again, you missed the point. It isn't about outrage or my stance on abortion (I'm pro-choice). It's that The Atlantic caved into the Twitter mob, and cowardly backtracked even though KDW's views were public.
The firing of Sam Seder was absurd and wrong, but I don't see any parallels with the KDW fiasco. I'm not interested in firing people over this or that Tweet or "edgy" political view. It's the same reason why I'm not calling for the firing of the Fresno State professor whose been in the news lately.
Ok. I reread your first reply. I don’t think you’re being cynical enough.
I believe, but could never prove, that Seder and KDW and the like were fired because they fell out of favor with their pay masters, and the faux outrage is the public justification.
Like you said, there were no revelations. Ellsburg explains this phenomenon in his thesis about the structure (economics) of presidential scandals. Mix-in equal measures of The 48 Laws of Power and the attention economy, and you get these silly popularity contests.
> For decades, America has embraced a civic nationalism over a European-style ethnic nationalism
Doesn't this fly in the face of the contemporary liberal/progressive critiques of society? It seems to me that race has had a central role in both the founding (genocide of native americans), expansion (slavery), and liberalization (civil rights era) of the United States.
>This is that certain notions of freedom and responsibility, not blood and soil, were the real ties that bind...A sense of community can transcend religion and race, and this is what we should strive for.
I hope to God that you are right, I really, really do - but when I look at history in terms civilizations, eras, etc., not in years or a couple of decades, I have little hope that ideas about "freedom" or "responsibility" are capable of sustaining a nation. It seems to me that religion can, or something transcendental, and I say this as an ardent atheist.
I wasn't suggesting that the ideologies are identical, just that they share those elements.
And no, the hatred does not go both ways, but you might think so because another big part of modern Republican ideology is victimization and resentment. Which are also powerful dangerous forces historically.
I wasn't suggesting that the ideologies are identical, just that they share those elements
The way you worded your comment obviously made that implication - between Republicans and the Khmer Rouge, when in fact the Khmer Rouge was a leftist, communist, Marxist government, whose leaders were steeped in academic Marxist "intellectualism" (they studied in Paris, no less).
Deciphering whether you intended it or not is not my motive, so I'll leave that to the readers.
And no, the hatred does not go both ways,but you might think so
I disagree, but I have no horse in this race - my personal politics are boring centrist liberalism.
so because another big part of modern Republican ideology is victimization
All that I'm saying is that Khmer Rouge hated cities and Republicans hate cities. The reason it is dangerous is because it creates a hated "other" (urban elites) that can ultimately lead to atrocities.
I think HN is better example of "brutalist" web design than most of the examples. Plain typefaces and colors, rigid lines and block-y structures.
As for the bit about brutalism being "honest, unpretentious and anti-bourgeois" - LOL - the only people who actually rave about it as an aesthetic are the most pretentious people I know (not that there's anything wrong w/ that).
And "challenging" people or making them "uncomfortable" was never what the Brutalists were trying to do. They were utopians trying to build useful, life-improving structures unhampered by convention and superficial decoration. Any aesthetics had to come from the fundamental design and undisguised materials. Their designs often had a lot of practical problems, but they were never trying to be weird or off-putting for the sake of artiness. Hell, a lot of Brutalist buildings were the most functional, utilitarian structures you can picture.
This whole thing uses Brutalism as a clickbait buzzword; it has nothing to do with the principles.
A web site inspired by Brutalism would consist of the elements that the designer considered core to building it and avoid anything else. If CSS is not core, don't use it and instead rely on the browser styles. If JavaScript is core to function, use it. Etc.
I agree with you. I went mattress shopping a couple years ago and was taken aback by the prices. The whole thing felt like a scam, as people have been sleeping perfectly well for hundreds of years without all this extraneous marketing crap.
I ended up buying a $200 queen size mattress on Amazon. My fiance and I have been sleeping on it for ~2 years - never once had an issue, easily the best mattress I've ever owned. I can post the brand if someone wants to know, but I'll refrain for now as I'm not interesting in shilling for some company.
Edit: removed personal comment.