Whatever happened to successful writers still clinging to their unshakeable fear of rejection? You know, that thing that kept them as balanced and humble as they were when they were still scratching for rent money? I think the best writers tend to be those who are insecure and lacking in self-confidence. There's always a degree of hunger, of fear, of wondering if we'll ever be good enough to be successful. Sure, some of us stick our heads in ovens or swallow shotguns, but the QUALITY!!
Is it possible to be secure AND lacking in self-confidence? Because that is definitely me, and not for lack of self-confidence. More because I question everything I think or do and see it from 5 million angles. I have a feeling you do the same.
Taibbi's behavior at the 'eXile' is significantly worse than anything I had imagined. That's way more than a simple shrug and "oopsie" can excuse, especially when your response is to dig in your heels and double-down on how it is all every/any body else's fault.
I am less and less convinced that "Cancel Culture" is anything beyond a neo-fascist construct whose only purpose is to justify savage license. Rowling's TERF-dom caught me by surprise, but I'm not sure the reaction was misplaced. When someone denies the Shoah, for example, is the proper response reasoned debate? My friend Toni came up in the '60's & '70's, and there were fairly common stories (possibly apocryphal) of people going as far as self-mutilation. In the face of so many generations of abuse, torture, and murder, in the face of overwhelming countervailing evidence, is reasoned debate really reasonable? Thomas Paine once quipped something to the effect that using logic with persons' who have abandoned reason is like giving medicine to the dead.
Instead, the best I see are grease-stain hypocrites like Bill Maher sniveling because comics aren't given unlimited opportunity (and money) to spew savage bigotry and hate on platforms they can scarcely claim to have earned or deserve being given to them. In the hands of the full-bore Reichwhiners, the term "cancel culture" is a bludgeon to silence any and all criticism.
(On that account, I do like your term "cultural arsonism." "Cancel culture" is, I am convinced, irreparably lost to any form of reasoned discussion.)
Where things can, and occasionally have, gone too far (I would argue) is with matters of artistic portrayal (for example), or historical examination. People have wanted to ban Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" because he portrays racists as racists using the "n" word. People have condemned John Ford's "The Searchers" for the anti-Indian racism of the whites, missing the fact that these people *WERE* racists (John Wayne's character being the biggest one), even as one of the two heroes is himself 1/4 Native American.
I am right there with you on all of it. I just had a three-hour discussion with my son about free speech, a subject he, like Maher, feels should have no conditions placed on it. And he makes a good argument, but the argument is theoretical. In real life, making no distinction between free speech and hate speech leads to exactly what we have now, which is a country drifting closer and closer to full-on mutiny.
Time was, we existed in a state of ignorant bliss about our neighbors' less-than-savory thoughts on matters like sexism and racism. In a way, things were better then. Not knowing the truth is a lot more comfortable.
There is no right that exists in unlimited license. Your son is in LEO, if I recall? One of the questions you might present is whether free speech includes conspiracy to commit murder. Should RICO statutes be removed from the books?
Freedom of religion does not mean a devout Aztec gets to perform human sacrifices. 2nd Amendment does not mean citizens have a right to possess binary nerve agents. And so on.
I've been wondering for a while if I was insane, if I was misremembering Taibbi being a great writer and source of info around Occupy, given the ridiculousness he's involved with now. Thanks for bringing the clarity.
NOT insane, Laureen. Just observant. None of these people has someone wise and knowledgeable saying to them, Hey, let's rethink this approach. Let's see this from another perspective. And let's take a look at how your wounded ego might be filling you with vitriol instead of understanding. So, they're allowed to run amok, and here then is the result.
Best definition EVER of how to find out if someone is a narcissist?
Gaslighter - A person who when they are called out for wrong doing blames the accuser. They were kidding, just kids, doped up. And when
that fails? accuser is vindictive, mentally ill etc. He is gaslighting the left press.
When we don't practice cancel culture people die. We have failed to practice it as needed. It should be used profligate manner.
No one is dying because they cancelled Ye. But there are dead jews, burnt synagogues since he started anti-semite raving.
People died when they took ivermectin, when they were told covid was a government plot. MILLIONS
i call BS on the freedom of the press argument.
There us a difference between reasoned discourse, arguments and giving a rabid maniac a platform.
Tabbi was and is a narcissistic bully. He cannot own up to the damage he did to those women. He wants to regain credibility? Go find as many of those women as he can and apologize and make reparations. Oh wait! That might actually cost him some money. In his world I am sorry washes all sins. Well sir it does not So you truly do NOT deserve a platform.
We are descending to Germany 1932 and if we don't start calling out these expletive deleted, if we don't stop giving them platforms, if we don't drive them back under the rocks the crawled out from?
Brecht's play, Mother Courage, puts a woman and her kids in no-man's land where she trades with both of the warring sides. I prefer - and admire - journalists who exist in that kind of space, who somehow survive, who observe the contest and the players and assess the underlying issues without favour, even if in fear. I guess the precariousness of holding that ground might drive a person to the perceived security of one side or another, an emotional, not an intellectual drift. A sad nuttiness ensues.
Whatever happened to successful writers still clinging to their unshakeable fear of rejection? You know, that thing that kept them as balanced and humble as they were when they were still scratching for rent money? I think the best writers tend to be those who are insecure and lacking in self-confidence. There's always a degree of hunger, of fear, of wondering if we'll ever be good enough to be successful. Sure, some of us stick our heads in ovens or swallow shotguns, but the QUALITY!!
Is it possible to be secure AND lacking in self-confidence? Because that is definitely me, and not for lack of self-confidence. More because I question everything I think or do and see it from 5 million angles. I have a feeling you do the same.
Pretty much. Edit. Edit. Re-edit. Edit again. Think about. Sleep on it. Edit again. Publish.
THEN.... Fear I mis-stated something. Or didn’t make a point clearly enough. Or....
FINALLY.... Stop obsessing and move on.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat. 😝
Taibbi's behavior at the 'eXile' is significantly worse than anything I had imagined. That's way more than a simple shrug and "oopsie" can excuse, especially when your response is to dig in your heels and double-down on how it is all every/any body else's fault.
I am less and less convinced that "Cancel Culture" is anything beyond a neo-fascist construct whose only purpose is to justify savage license. Rowling's TERF-dom caught me by surprise, but I'm not sure the reaction was misplaced. When someone denies the Shoah, for example, is the proper response reasoned debate? My friend Toni came up in the '60's & '70's, and there were fairly common stories (possibly apocryphal) of people going as far as self-mutilation. In the face of so many generations of abuse, torture, and murder, in the face of overwhelming countervailing evidence, is reasoned debate really reasonable? Thomas Paine once quipped something to the effect that using logic with persons' who have abandoned reason is like giving medicine to the dead.
Instead, the best I see are grease-stain hypocrites like Bill Maher sniveling because comics aren't given unlimited opportunity (and money) to spew savage bigotry and hate on platforms they can scarcely claim to have earned or deserve being given to them. In the hands of the full-bore Reichwhiners, the term "cancel culture" is a bludgeon to silence any and all criticism.
(On that account, I do like your term "cultural arsonism." "Cancel culture" is, I am convinced, irreparably lost to any form of reasoned discussion.)
Where things can, and occasionally have, gone too far (I would argue) is with matters of artistic portrayal (for example), or historical examination. People have wanted to ban Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" because he portrays racists as racists using the "n" word. People have condemned John Ford's "The Searchers" for the anti-Indian racism of the whites, missing the fact that these people *WERE* racists (John Wayne's character being the biggest one), even as one of the two heroes is himself 1/4 Native American.
I am right there with you on all of it. I just had a three-hour discussion with my son about free speech, a subject he, like Maher, feels should have no conditions placed on it. And he makes a good argument, but the argument is theoretical. In real life, making no distinction between free speech and hate speech leads to exactly what we have now, which is a country drifting closer and closer to full-on mutiny.
Time was, we existed in a state of ignorant bliss about our neighbors' less-than-savory thoughts on matters like sexism and racism. In a way, things were better then. Not knowing the truth is a lot more comfortable.
There is no right that exists in unlimited license. Your son is in LEO, if I recall? One of the questions you might present is whether free speech includes conspiracy to commit murder. Should RICO statutes be removed from the books?
Freedom of religion does not mean a devout Aztec gets to perform human sacrifices. 2nd Amendment does not mean citizens have a right to possess binary nerve agents. And so on.
I've been wondering for a while if I was insane, if I was misremembering Taibbi being a great writer and source of info around Occupy, given the ridiculousness he's involved with now. Thanks for bringing the clarity.
NOT insane, Laureen. Just observant. None of these people has someone wise and knowledgeable saying to them, Hey, let's rethink this approach. Let's see this from another perspective. And let's take a look at how your wounded ego might be filling you with vitriol instead of understanding. So, they're allowed to run amok, and here then is the result.
1 word....narcissist.
Best definition EVER of how to find out if someone is a narcissist?
Gaslighter - A person who when they are called out for wrong doing blames the accuser. They were kidding, just kids, doped up. And when
that fails? accuser is vindictive, mentally ill etc. He is gaslighting the left press.
When we don't practice cancel culture people die. We have failed to practice it as needed. It should be used profligate manner.
No one is dying because they cancelled Ye. But there are dead jews, burnt synagogues since he started anti-semite raving.
People died when they took ivermectin, when they were told covid was a government plot. MILLIONS
i call BS on the freedom of the press argument.
There us a difference between reasoned discourse, arguments and giving a rabid maniac a platform.
Tabbi was and is a narcissistic bully. He cannot own up to the damage he did to those women. He wants to regain credibility? Go find as many of those women as he can and apologize and make reparations. Oh wait! That might actually cost him some money. In his world I am sorry washes all sins. Well sir it does not So you truly do NOT deserve a platform.
We are descending to Germany 1932 and if we don't start calling out these expletive deleted, if we don't stop giving them platforms, if we don't drive them back under the rocks the crawled out from?
The cost will be our lives AND our honor.
Brecht's play, Mother Courage, puts a woman and her kids in no-man's land where she trades with both of the warring sides. I prefer - and admire - journalists who exist in that kind of space, who somehow survive, who observe the contest and the players and assess the underlying issues without favour, even if in fear. I guess the precariousness of holding that ground might drive a person to the perceived security of one side or another, an emotional, not an intellectual drift. A sad nuttiness ensues.