i mean you can call it bait if you want but might be more interesting to try to justify his career long sycophancy
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:02 (three years ago) link
what kind of young men do you like lag∞n
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:02 (three years ago) link
I have work to do, and don't feel like getting riled up, so I'm going to pass. But thanks!
― jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:04 (three years ago) link
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, April 26, 2021 3:57 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
fwiw i do think these people, your david brookes and whatnot, tend to be true believers, but also thats convenient for their bank account and resume which makes it easier, and the result is generally an uncanny imitation of sincerity and insight, a schtick
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:06 (three years ago) link
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, April 27, 2021 11:02 AM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
you know funny, creative, big hearted, the good stuff
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:08 (three years ago) link
creative not a creative, say
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:19 (three years ago) link
is there any more depressing term than "a creative" its so powerfully corporately bad it almost rises to the level of... creativity
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:21 (three years ago) link
i was at a wedding and a girl seated at my table was like wait is everyone at this table a creative, i have since become a purely technical worker
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:24 (three years ago) link
You excused yourself and had a drink at the table of influencers.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:25 (three years ago) link
lol there was no such thing as influencers then!
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:26 (three years ago) link
i kind of like influencers tho you know for being so cyberpunk
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:28 (three years ago) link
the only influencers then were spirits and drugs nyuk nyuk
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:32 (three years ago) link
ayye
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:33 (three years ago) link
I'll be over at the disruptors tent. They've got vapeable stem cells.
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:59 (three years ago) link
Personally, I have found a lot of value in reading and listening to Ezra Klein. I find his views insightful and thought-provoking, from his analyses of U.S. politics to his journeys into psychological terrain on subjects like creativity, happiness, anxiety, etc. I'm sure he has made some mistakes in his career as a journalist, and I'm confident that I wouldn't agree with every word he has written. But at the same time, a few episodes of his podcast were especially helpful to me when I was suddenly laid off a couple of years ago and was searching for some meaning and direction. Maybe my admiration for him makes me a dupe of the establishment, a dumb member of the bourgeoisie. So be it. I'm happier this way.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 16:56 (three years ago) link
Namaste. 🙏
― jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:05 (three years ago) link
ek is willing to explore a pretty wide range of ideas and does not exclude his own judgments from his own examinations. these are good things. my is like the king of smug conclusory argumentation for the most part. imo.
― Hunt3r, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:09 (three years ago) link
mistakes in his career as a journalist? idk his sycophancy seems more like a feature than a bug, i have not followed kleins recent career that closely but seems like hes branched out into more of the world of ideas where he used to be a pure wonk guy, i suspect i would not like his ideas about ideas but im not begrudging anyone who likes to listen to a podcast about interesting stuff, however i do think we should be critical listeners as far as whats being sold to us, and klein as a times columnist is certainly being sold as someone with serious political ideas, which i think is pretty clearly not true
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:12 (three years ago) link
i enjoyed how ek's obsession with the filibuster for the past like 5 years became the running joke of some of his dialogue commentary-- about him having a this nerdy, perseverative tick, but fuck. weren't wrong. and yeah, i know he was not unique on the warnings, but he was definitely most insistent upon mentioning it.
― Hunt3r, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:14 (three years ago) link
I don’t think Klein’s a bad guy and I think I’ve read worthwhile things from him recently but it’s a little hard to get over the fact that Joe Biden had a much clearer understanding of Paul Ryan than he did.
― JoeStork, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:17 (three years ago) link
if I fucked up as bad as Klein did there I'd have run away in shame and changed careers tbhnot even saying this as a criticism really, I just don't understand pundit mindset.
― intern at pepe le pew research (Simon H.), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:21 (three years ago) link
yeah i mean credit where both of the guys itt tend to be right about procedural things like that, and tbh both of them have prob had a real effect towards normalizing killing the filibuster xp
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:21 (three years ago) link
― rob, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:28 (three years ago) link
takes a certain type to be a pundit, and its not necessarily good lol
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:31 (three years ago) link
i have not followed kleins recent career that closely
To be fair, while I have been familiar with Klein for a long time, I have not actually followed him closely *until* the past 4-5 years (basically, when he started his podcast, though I also liked a lot of what he wrote for Vox). So I missed the whole Paul Ryan thing that people always bring up, as though whatever he said in 2012 or whenever renders him a pudding-brained sycophant who lacks the critical faculty possessed by the wisest ILXors. Based on reading his Vox/NYT articles, reading his book, and listening to his podcast, I do find him to be "someone with serious political ideas," so what does that say about me?
― jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:47 (three years ago) link
idk really know what are his serious political ideas you like
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:48 (three years ago) link
Probably that you don’t go on Twitter very much xp
― Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:49 (three years ago) link
I *wish* I didn't go on Twitter that much. I spent far too much time there. I follow a lot of other journalists who probably hold similar opinions to Ezra.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:50 (three years ago) link
Most of the good political opinions I see are from 21 year old transgender Maoists
― Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:52 (three years ago) link
I think he has been OTM about the filibuster, and I thought his book about polarization was pretty good. (Which, by the way, is an analysis grounded in political science that makes clear that the mid-20th-century era of bipartisanship was a corrupt bargain in many ways and also directly blames Republicans for the current era of gridlock. It's not a plaintive exercise in nostalgia, as the title may unwittingly suggest.)
― jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:57 (three years ago) link
theres a general consensus on the left about the failure of the technocratic approach, and erza is certainly if nothing a technocrat, someone who can be right about the filibuster but then sit down with bill gates, an utterly ruthless operator in service of his own power and perfect emblem for all thats wrong with the world, and see a fellow logic driven problem solver, turns out abandoning morality in favor of reason, false binary obvs, was... immoral
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:59 (three years ago) link
an utterly ruthless operator in service of his own power and perfect emblem for all thats wrong with the world
You've lost me
― jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:00 (three years ago) link
My general impression was that Klein would write well-argued columns about a particular political situation that viewed Republicans as mainly good-faith actors with principles that he didn’t share, and then the Republicans would do something to make it clear they had no interest in governing, and then Klein would write something castigating Republicans for their behavior, and then his brain would reset and he would not have changed his general viewpoint at all.
― JoeStork, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:00 (three years ago) link
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation worse for the world than anything Microsoft ever did certainly
― Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:01 (three years ago) link
Yeah, the eradication of wild poliovirus from all but two countries in the world is a travesty.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:02 (three years ago) link
might want to check out what bill gates is trending for today
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:03 (three years ago) link
My general impression was that Klein would write well-argued columns about a particular political situation that viewed Republicans as mainly good-faith actors with principles that he didn’t share, and then the Republicans would do something to make it clear they had no interest in governing, and then Klein would write something castigating Republicans for their behavior, and then his brain would reset and he would not have changed his general viewpoint at all.― JoeStork, Tuesday, April 27, 2021 1:00 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink
― JoeStork, Tuesday, April 27, 2021 1:00 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink
It's entirely conceivable that Klein operated in this way in the Bush/Obama era. I don't recognize it at all as a description of his writing in the Trump/Biden era.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:04 (three years ago) link
(I say "entirely conceivable" because I didn't read him back then. It wouldn't surprise me!)
― jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:05 (three years ago) link
― jaymc, Tuesday, April 27, 2021 2:04 PM (twenty-nine seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink
thats become untenable due to uhh developments but his approach with gates et al is no different
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:06 (three years ago) link
don't really care about these people but i sure do enjoy reading lag00n pinning them down.
― John Cooper of Christian rock band Skillet (map), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:16 (three years ago) link
*bows deeply*
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:20 (three years ago) link
its my personal feeling that it would be best if everyone just agreed that accumulating billions of dollars is a fundamental moral wrong, but if anyone wants some details on how exactly bill gates is saving the world
Gates's role in vaccine apartheid is laid out in exquisite detail in @nataliesurely's outstanding @newrepublic feature, which delves into Gates's longstanding project to sideline democratic governments and cooperation in favor of monopoly tyranny.https://t.co/ZCKTy1CGOU7/— Cory Doctorow (@doctorow) April 13, 2021
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:22 (three years ago) link
you gotta tip you hat to the gates pr machine while he was running microsoft it wouldve been hard to find someone who took issue with calling him ruthless, even his fans lol
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:40 (three years ago) link
I like The New Republic and will read that article. I don't have much interest in defending Gates as a person, though I do maintain that his foundation has done good work.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:45 (three years ago) link
sideline democratic governments and cooperation in favor of monopoly tyranny
People who stand at the apex of hierarchical institutions are predominately biased in favor of monopoly tyranny. They see it as supremely efficient and fail to see its inherent weaknesses, because its greatest weakness is complete reliance on one highly fallible individual: themself. They're far more likely to be megalomaniacs than egalitarians.
― sharpening the contraindications (Aimless), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:57 (three years ago) link
― jaymc, Tuesday, April 27, 2021 11:45 AM (thirteen minutes ago)
and Hitler was a vegetarian, or whatever.
― Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 18:59 (three years ago) link
i am reading No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy, it's pretty good
― superdeep borehole (harbl), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 19:05 (three years ago) link
in defending Gates as a person, though I do maintain that his foundation has done good work.
Would better work have been done taxing the shit out of him for the last 40 years, though?
― Joe Bombin (milo z), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 19:05 (three years ago) link
If we had a 98% estate tax we wouldn’t even have to know his name.
― Joe Bombin (milo z), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 19:06 (three years ago) link
That book sounds good, harbl. I've liked some of Anand Giridharadas's work in a similar vein.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 19:12 (three years ago) link