The Internet, 2020s (mixed media)

Backing the release of the "Epstein files" was always such a colossally bad idea. There's nothing there, it's just and always was fodder for conspiracy theories, and a stalking horse for antisemitism (as every conspiracy theory is). It's just a left version of the Cathedral.

This is what I mean about not seeing a path back from increased antisemitism. People reflexively assume anyone talking about antisemitism must be talking about Israel and not actual antisemitism. I just don’t see how to undo that because it requires people to stop and reflect.

Curious about whether most New Yorkers even know this thing's a data center

One cool thing I like about Seattle that doesn’t exist in my hometown of Dublin, Ireland is that there are actually a lot of apartments and homes available to move into at any given time and we don’t have a crisis every academic year where students are physically unable to find accommodation.

This is like calling “That’s so gay” Millennial slang. I mean, yeah, I guess so. And…the reason for that was because homophobia was rampant, normalized, and only beginning to be seriously challenged.

its crazy how this guy has been out of office almost 10 years and we are just *now* beginning to see politicians who can, again, speak the language of American civil religion in ways that can grab an audience.

communist who doesn’t vote: “i guess everyone who doesn’t vote must secretly be a communist”

Listen up, liberals: *forfeits the game* www.abc27.com/local-news/y...

I was reading a 2005 book by a British political correspondent and it claimed that 'gay' now just generically meant 'bad' and had lost its homopnobic connotations.

This idea was introduced to the discourse by a series of videos that actively lied about every study flashed on the screen, it's crazy that this is having any effect on how people think at all, never mind making it to the NYT blog.andymasley.com/p/contra-ben...

There hasn’t been a functional distinction between The Onion and the Babylon Bee for quite some time now

I actually don’t think liberals are the reason why the world sucks so much.

No they aren’t

The claim that "Israel wants to kill its way out of every problem" is the sort of thing that tends to draw a DOJ investigation and the blocking of federal funds when made by campus actors.

There was a life before “coffee shops” and actual restaurants (in the way you know them) that your parents lived, and it sucked!

There is actually a good article buried in here about the normalization of bigoted, extremist rhetoric across left-right divides. But “lots of young people use this term, so it can’t be bigoted” feels a lot safer than “lots of young people are becoming antisemitic because of the internet.”

“This teenager was absolutely not a far-right antisemite - they were just spending tons of time in online spaces where antisemitism is being normalized, and we’re going to downplay how concerning that should be for parents.”

The implication of this "New York Times" headline is that "goy" is simply a slang term used by Generation Z now, no longer attached to antisemitic implications. I think this is not only wrong, but rather dangerous for the newspaper to be printing.

The thing about people like “Boots Riley” is that you do not in fact have to take anything they say or produce as having any sort of insight or merit worthy of anyone’s consideration. Squarely in the “Paperboy Prince” category. They’re nothing.

This is why “liberal Zionist,” and “Zionist” itself, are pointless labels these days. Goldman calls himself a liberal Zionist because he’s pro-Israel and liberal on domestic US politics, even if not on Israel. Lander would probably not call himself a Zionist at all if he were a generation younger.

Removing the character limit was so stupid

How do we get cultural critics to stop grounding all of their criticism of art/ music/ public life in the scourge of “commodification” or “gentrification” or whatever. You can just say shit is tasteless or common or boring. Not every uninspired cafe or trend Actually Says A Lot About Capitalism.

Still not great that you can get 5000 likes on here for saying “America capitalist country 😒”

Haha so true, pretty soon they’ll be showing ads throughout the entire game. There’ll be like a digital banner that runs around the entire field and says MCDONALDS MCDONALDS MCDONALDS or something

I've slowly come to believe that one of the main rifts in American liberalism is the growing divide between those with a Enlightenment worldview, and those who are basically Romantics Glonzo glazing, muscular white male volk aesthetic, abolish the police, woo-woo shit (but leftistly) - all Romantic

Love to be preached at about the sanctity of sports by the people who invented putting ads on the players like they’re billboards

I enjoy this exchange because it features both kinds of commie dipshits.

It’s fine

i wish it wasn't the case but elon buying X seems to be one of the most successful propaganda campaigns of all time. he bet that people would be addicted enough to posting that they wouldn't leave no matter what. he was basically right and can effectively change how they think and act now!

No one is saying that populist mass beliefs were invented in 2016. But there has been a staggering collapse of the epistemological structures that were developed over literally centuries to hold those mass beliefs at bay, leading to a worldwide shift in politics towards lurid populism

The context of this quote is Moshe Ya’alon condemning the genuinely fascistic ideology of many West Bank settlers, yet people are spreading this quote around out of context to make it seem like Ya’alon is endorsing this belief.

there is a persistent idea that sensible people can appeal to cranks by adopting crank-adjacent positions, exposing them to sensible arguments which they will like and will lead them to other good positions. And, man. That's just not the direction the gravity usually pulls.

spoiler: it always ends at the Jews

I think it’s one of the rare mistakes the CDC made during that time and it’s opportunistically exploited by influencers who were looking for any excuse to promote distrust trust medical institutions anyway.

I guess my big concern with Glonzo-ism is that you can't control it. Yes, sure, today it's data centers, and while that's not harmless, exactly, it's close enough. But every conspiracy theorist inside the tent is a ticking time bomb.

Be interesting to see how the "Luigi didn't do it, but if he did, it's awesome" accounts and the "Luigi did do it, and he was right to do it" accounts square this one.

For some reason posts from leftists complaining about "Zionists" get a lot of action over on the Groyper app. Strange coincidence probably

There’s nothing special about being a New Yorker, but there’s something truly magical about New York City, and that comes from people who want to be New Yorkers coming together

All this video tells me is that a whole lot of people have never baked anything in their lives and are easily scared by vitamins if they're given in their scientific name. It's pure MAHA Flavor-Aid and it's a path that ends with bringing back measles and polio.

people become wildly authoritarian when it comes to what people should and shouldn't be allowed to do on their phones

My subway take is “New Yorker” is just a normal demonym like “Mainer” or “Michigander” that refers to the place someone lives

throwing out a random land acknowledgment mid-paragraph because she realized she's making a blood-and-soil argument is the most cynical deployment of wokeness i've seen since 2024 nature is healing

Sounds awful honestly

They’ll never build a model train set. They’ll never amass a stamp collection. They’ll never go planespotting.

it is extremely heartening to see the NYC left wholeheartedly embrace YIMBY policies to bring down rents. it’s also politically smart for two reasons: 1) it gives them an angle to attack NIMBY establishment pols 2) the people who move into these new buildings are typically very left leaning

america is an ideal worth fighting for

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that no member of the public who has ever made a claim about infrastructure capacity at a public hearing has any notion whatsoever of the relevant nearby infrastructure capacity. It's completely meaningless patter.

John Fetterman has voted to kill and immiserate fewer people than Mehmet Oz would have and that is literally the only metric that matters.

“Bro these old Soviet propaganda posters go so fucking hard though bro” and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race