He always seemed to want to carve out his own position, separate from orthodoxies on the right or left. He tends to focus on issues that aren't traditionally associated with the left-right spectrum, such as NIMBYism and zoning. So I don't think he has changed all that much, apart from maybe realizing there is an underserved market niche for an audience (call them moderates, or maybe traditional neoliberals) who are increasingly uncomfortable with how some identity issues are becoming polarized in the mainstream liberal media.
― o. nate, Wednesday, 21 April 2021 19:14 (three years ago) link
I think he deleted it, but I don't even understand that one. "The police killed someone" is a factual description of what happens when the police use lethal force in a manner that causes someone's death, regardless of their intent.
― jaymc, Wednesday, April 21, 2021 9:00 AM (three hours ago)
this is the kind of thing he posts that makes me think he is dumb as a rock. using lethal force is killing. whether or not you believe it is justified or a murder it's a killing either way. unless his point is that we should be more euphemistic when referring to police killing people
― 《Myst1kOblivi0n》 (jim in vancouver), Wednesday, 21 April 2021 19:42 (three years ago) link
Between Matty and this Eichenwald Tweet it's reallyt crossing the line from "ah, the pundit class" into "maybe these guys are just sick fucks sitting around thinking about ways to inject nuance into murdering children"
George Floyd: MurderTamir Rice: Reckless murderBreonna Taylor: Reckless murderEric Garner: MurderPhilando Castille: MurderStephon Clark: Reckless murder or manslaughterDaunte Wright: Probably manslaughterTrayvon Martin: ManslaughterI'm sorry. Ma'Khia Bryant: justified.— Kurt "Masks Save Lives" Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 21, 2021
― bruce spr!ngisH3r3 (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 22 April 2021 02:39 (three years ago) link
*really
my esteem for eichenwald has plummeted after following him diligently on twitter for the past eight months; every good thing he says is countered by something asinine, something he didn't research on his own (he asks Eric Feigl Ding for insight on coronavirus--Ding is a twitter grifter who should not be consulted), or something hyperbolic that results in nothing (he loudly proclaimed he 'had' the people responsible for harassing him online, that it involved all kinds of important people on the right, that the revelation was coming soon.....that was like five months ago). I think he's kind of a dummy.
― akm, Thursday, 22 April 2021 14:43 (three years ago) link
yeah this has been known for years that he's a nutjob
― k3vin k., Thursday, 22 April 2021 15:43 (three years ago) link
eichenwald is the hentai guy, no?
― voodoo chili, Thursday, 22 April 2021 16:30 (three years ago) link
close enough lol: https://nypost.com/2017/06/08/reporter-posts-screen-grab-showing-porn-tab-in-his-browser/
― voodoo chili, Thursday, 22 April 2021 16:46 (three years ago) link
he did something else extremely weird and creepy and probably illegal "investigating" child porn, iirc?
― superdeep borehole (harbl), Thursday, 22 April 2021 17:28 (three years ago) link
imo you’ll never go wrong assuming 97% of “”pundits”” are utter perverts
― Washington Generals D-League affiliate (will), Thursday, 22 April 2021 17:31 (three years ago) link
Aside from the tentacle porn and weird conduct with a child abuse survivor story, Eichenwald just seems like such a zero it’s wild that he has a readership that can sustain a career.
― Joe Bombin (milo z), Thursday, 22 April 2021 17:57 (three years ago) link
wow something to think about yeah
Leaving without comment pic.twitter.com/rpDeibttOx— Andrés Bernal ☀️🇨🇴🇺🇸 (@andresintheory) October 22, 2020
― lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 17:03 (three years ago) link
He's so boring! He can't even go full Tucker Carlson like the other substack goons, he has to resolve to a civics textbook from 1949.
― Joe Bombin (milo z), Monday, 26 April 2021 17:05 (three years ago) link
the market for milquetoast neoliberal takes may not be what it once was but prob still enough to maintain a newsletter audience
― lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 17:10 (three years ago) link
kinda wondering btw but i guess not enough to actually figure it out if substack is juicing their numbers somehow like are they giving away free intro subscriptions, maybe some big corporate deals where they can claim tons of subscribers but no ones really paying much, idk some of the numbers seem kind of fishy
― lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 17:14 (three years ago) link
He has about 7,000 subscribers, I think. At the price point he charges, you could make a decent living from 2000. It’s negligible stuff.
― Scampo di tutti i Scampi (ShariVari), Monday, 26 April 2021 17:34 (three years ago) link
yeah 7000 is not that many people, i just cant imagine paying for those takes lol, tho stubstack being a venture funded startup you kinda have to assume theyre doing some at least halfway shady growth hacking
― lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 17:37 (three years ago) link
I really like Yglesias (I know, I know) and I'm not paying -- the Twitter feed is exactly the right amount of MY for me. And for that amount of money I can get access to an entire magazine's worth of writing, or a whole nother streaming service. I don't really get who the customers are.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 26 April 2021 17:44 (three years ago) link
CNN's Rick Santorum: "We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here. I mean, yes we have Native Americans but candidly there isn't much Native American culture in American culture" pic.twitter.com/EMxOEYDbg7— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) April 26, 2021
― lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 17:46 (three years ago) link
I feel like if substack was giving away free "paid" subscriptions we'd be hearing about it already. Also most substacks I'm familiar with (not Matty's) have a level of free content and then content that's available only for paid subscribers.
― Van Halen dot Senate dot flashlight (Boring, Maryland), Monday, 26 April 2021 17:52 (three years ago) link
sorry to be sanctimonious, but that that video clip of MY isn't considered disgustingly racist is shocking. Like I literally never want to hear another thing from this dude who giggles his way through a mealy-mouthed endorsement of white supremacy and genocide. WTF
― rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 18:30 (three years ago) link
the neoliberal technocracy is plainly sociopathic amoral etc
― lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 18:49 (three years ago) link
yeah that was more or less my existing impression of him. I think what surprised me with that clip is how nakedly ideological he actually is, and it's not neoliberalism he's endorsing it's imperialism and colonialism. There's nothing really neoliberal about the US Army waging war on and committing genocide against sovereign native populations followed by the govt handing out free land to white settlers
― rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:04 (three years ago) link
anyway, this guys sucks, sorry for ranting
― rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:05 (three years ago) link
neoliberalism IMHO strongly endorses american empire eg dem leadership are all crazy hawks, love american exceptionalism etc, tho i guess you could just call that liberalism since it predates the neoliberal shift
― lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:16 (three years ago) link
I'm using a stricter definition for sure, not that there's an agreed-upon consensus, plus the fact it's anachronistic to call the settlement of the West neoliberal. We're probably due for a better term to describe the US's combination of domestic neoliberalization + a culture of nationalism + a powerful interventionist state abroad
― rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:24 (three years ago) link
That little clip of Yglesias talking about Manifest Destiny is so shorn of context I honestly have no idea what his view is on anything, other than that he thinks the US should be successful and powerful (whatever that means).
― o. nate, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:29 (three years ago) link
im not calling the settlement of the west neoliberal im observing that neoliberal ideology necessarily endorses american empire both historical and present, i mean if you want corporate power to flourish you need a enforcement mechanism, and of course you need to glorify whatever got us to this point xp
― lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:30 (three years ago) link
― o. nate, Monday, April 26, 2021 3:29 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink
sounds like something yglesias would say
― lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:32 (three years ago) link
tho im sure the great minds yglesias et al would discard past glories if it suited their purpose i dont think theyre super invested in it
― lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:33 (three years ago) link
*cue obama giving a super sleepy speech about the city on the hill*
― lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:35 (three years ago) link
I mean is the knock that he shouldn't want the US to be successful and powerful or is it that he mentioned American westward expansion without proper emphasis on the crimes associated with it?
― o. nate, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:38 (three years ago) link
feel like you can do better maybe rewatch it
― lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:39 (three years ago) link
m not calling the settlement of the west neoliberal im observing that neoliberal ideology necessarily endorses american empire both historical and present, i mean if you want corporate power to flourish you need a enforcement mechanism, and of course you need to glorify whatever got us to this point xp
― lag∞n, Monday, April 26, 2021 3:30 PM (eight minutes ago)
got it, agreed
― rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:41 (three years ago) link
🙏
― lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:42 (three years ago) link
he mentioned American westward expansion without proper emphasis on the crimes associated with it?
lol ok
― rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:42 (three years ago) link
I don't think there's any point in rewatching 20 words taken out of context. If I want to actually understand something, I'd be better off watching the whole segment that was extracted from, or even better, reading his book.
― o. nate, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:43 (three years ago) link
dare you
― lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:43 (three years ago) link
This leaves out all the hee-hee tittering, but here's what he said:
"you know my progressive friends will want me to acknowledge that some bad things happened across the settling of the West and all that kind of stuff. But, you know, it was done for a reason, and I'm basically arguing for a continuation of that kind of vision. That, you know, the United States is great and should want to be great and powerful and that means having more people."
― rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:47 (three years ago) link
by all means read his book though, I'm sure it is enlightening
well, I feel edified. Thanks!
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 26 April 2021 19:48 (three years ago) link
I live to serve
― rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:50 (three years ago) link
"some bad things" is a strange way to rephrase "genocide and crimes against humanity"
― sharpening the contraindications (Aimless), Monday, 26 April 2021 19:51 (three years ago) link
“Gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette” seems to indicate that Marty’s future turn is to neoconservatism. Presumably there are still a few billionaires who’ll cut checks for that.
― Joe Bombin (milo z), Monday, 26 April 2021 19:51 (three years ago) link
Maybe there are some good omelette recipes in his book.
― o. nate, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:54 (three years ago) link
mattys plan for a billion americans is so loony, the idea that population equals power is comically simplistic thinking, i mean bangladesh is in the top ten, the usa has ~800 foreign military bases, i wonder if he just looked at china and was like hey lots of people, kinda points to the fact that if you want to have a career as an apologist for the awful things done in the name of power you have to be deeply stupid, some would argue that its all careerism and cynicism but i think the job really requires natural ability
― lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 19:57 (three years ago) link
even without casually dismissing genocide, just the idea of looking at what america is up to in the world and thinking yeah we need more of that is fucking deranged and unmoored from anything good, id be willing to bet he makes some sort of lesser of two evils argument re china in the book, no doubt appreciated by everyone trying to cook up a new cold war, but obviously *extremely debate club voice* thats a fallacy
― lag∞n, Monday, 26 April 2021 20:02 (three years ago) link
IOZ shredding this book is probably embarrassing niche nostalgia but I enjoyed it: https://newrepublic.com/article/159306/emptiness-matthew-yglesias-biggest-idea-billion-americans-book-review
― rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 20:03 (three years ago) link
he links to this old MY Slate post in that piece, which is p amazing: https://slate.com/business/2013/04/international-factory-safety.html
― rob, Monday, 26 April 2021 20:09 (three years ago) link
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire wasn’t a tragedy and here’s why...
― Joe Bombin (milo z), Monday, 26 April 2021 20:13 (three years ago) link