even more quiddities and agonies of the ruling class - a new rolling new york times thread

maybe i shld have hideytagged all that

My god, when I was in grad school every single professor was either sleeping with students or had married one of their students, and the Graduate TAs were sleeping with their undergrad students.

There were no boundaries at all—one of my professors would call me at late hours for long chats, professors were always at the student parties and bars

archive.ph for all your paywall evading needs IMO

Not to derail but the reason I posted that in this thread was stuff like

She set the long rectangular table in the grass precisely, with a Wedgewood-blue and white tablecloth, cloth napkins tied up in yellow ribbons, place cards inked in a neat cursive hand and melamine dishes in a Provençal design.

...

At the dinner table, Ms. Gold, wearing a checked kitchen apron over her yellow dress, sat at one end and Dr. Katz at the other. Ms. Gold said a swift prayer (“Come Lord Jesus be our guest, and let these gifts to us be blessed”) and the chilled pea soup was served.

I saw Emily Nussbaum on twitter claim the article was actually a subversive "character assassination" and while I can't imagine anyone sympathizing with the subject, I'm not persuaded that was the intent. But I get why you'd think that with the weird NYT house style for covering elites applied to these despicable people. Plus, with apols to the paywalled, the photo of the full party is brutal

I'm often disgusted with The NY Times sanitizing fascists & then I remember that 2 weeks before Hitler invaded Poland, NYT published a profile of Hitler hanging out at his mansion.

"He likes to see color on the table & excellent tomatoes are supplied from nearby greenhouses." pic.twitter.com/QVCFg10A3C

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) July 1, 2022

Fwiw, in my undergraduate days, there were certainly times when i went out for meals with faculty, or had a beer with a professor. Not really sure what’s so wrong with that? Now if the prof had tried to kiss me or something, that’s definitely not okay. But like, my advisor taking me to lunch when I’ve told him I’m in a mental health crisis and need to leave school? That’s what a good prof does, afaic! That guy saved my life!

I find it very easy to distinguish that story from that of the classics or philosophy prof who believes in the erotics of education and thinks it should be part of the normal course of the semester to socialize with the students. Like, I think most professors can distinguish between "go beyond the usual boundaries because this student is having a mental health crisis" and "go beyond the usual boundaries because I'm hoping this student might be into me."

I guess what I think is that there's nothing intrinsically wrong with having a beer with students just like I don't think there's anything intrinsically wrong with drinking beer. But if you find out about yourself that when you drink beer, you black out and drive drunk and get in fights, it is not OK for YOU to drink beer, at least not without some serious work on yourself. And if you find out about yourself that when you have beer with students, you sometimes end up fucking them, then it's not OK for YOU to have beer with students, at least not without some serious work on yourself, because you have not been honest with yourself about what your actual motives are. That's how I see it, anyway.

Odd for NYT to say Princeton fired Joshua Katz for a single relationship (odder still to imply the real reason was his “anti-wokeness”). A @princetonian investigation found at least three separate cases of alleged misconduct. pic.twitter.com/4tEUYTQJrk

— Megan Greenwell (@megreenwell) July 2, 2022

aaaaaaaaaaaaaah fuck we're being played aren't we

one of her parents' influential connections had the story planted so we'd all scoff and ghouls would rush in to defend her from the heartless scoffers and next week she's awarded a show on fox news

the future continues to find new ways to be garbage

the future nyt continues to find new ways to be garbage

holy shit this @ this fucking thing. they really bout to do it huh. ‘hey don’t fret you can be a rich learned aesthete and just play footsie with fashy sentiment now. very chill, very cool.

"I had the good, godly kind of abortion, not the kind you sluts used to be able to get."

good lord, if the right of the wealthy to speculate on the inflationary art market isn't sacred then what is??!? https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/06/arts/design/chagall-sothebys-expert-panel.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/08/nyregion/abortion-access-texas-new-york.html

https://i.imgur.com/dmJXu1f.jpg

o rly

My favorite is

“Young women may say, ‘I’m not planning on getting an abortion,’” Janice Reals Ellig

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition, Janice.

NYT: What if we just became The Onion pic.twitter.com/0zSCwOXzVK

— Mindy Furano (@MindyFurano) July 16, 2022

It's like horseshoe theory, but the ends of the horseshoe are the NY Times and Sassy.

I for one support the hot economy. can they couple it w uni hc?

Hotness is not longer just in the eye of the beholder, it's in the fork of the diner.

^^^ underrated steve winwood album

i've got my own pasta to twirl

Britain Girds for Scorching Heat That Could Break Records
Extreme Heat Continues Its March Across Western Europe
Heat Wave In Texas and Central Plains Could Be the Hottest Yet
Can’t Talk, I’m Busy Being Hot

not today satan

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-upper-middle-class-is-getting-squeezed-11658741402

paywall bypass - https://archive.ph/60MOo

Mark Yu had a profitable pandemic. Like many Americans, he added to his savings and pulled in big gains from the stock-market rally. He purchased a house in his new hometown of McAllen, Texas, then a duplex and an eight-unit apartment complex in Cleveland.

But 2022 hasn’t been so kind.

Heartbreaking, really.

I'm sorry but if you own two houses and an apartment building it does not matter to you how much gas costs. Don't get me wrong, it matters to a lot of people. But it does not matter to Mark Yu.

“had a profitable pandemic”

i know it’s a common phrase but it still contains such depths of evil

similar vibe phrase

"The war was a modest headwind" to year-on-year growth, says Google CFO Ruth Porat in a brief aside on earnings call that I now have stuck in my head, possibly permanently

— Will Oremus (@WillOremus) July 26, 2022

i guess we are ferengi now ("now")

capital is an evil demon that feeds on human misery and blood sacrifice

but on the plus side it has also destroyed the planet

“had a profitable pandemic”

i know it’s a common phrase but it still contains such depths of evil

― CYANIDE MUKBANG (cat), Tuesday, July 26, 2022 9:06 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

It's not like the dude profiteered off the pandemic tbf.

lol, this otoh:

While poorer families might feel the effects of inflation more deeply, they also have had the biggest wage increases and have the smallest share of their net wealth invested in financial markets.

Many of these workers got unemployment benefits during the pandemic, but the benefits didn’t pay as much as their jobs did—unlike lower-wage workers, who often got more money from unemployment benefits than from working.

aw

that's just fucking stupid. poor people *might* have gotten bigger wage increases proportionally; they certainly did not in absolute terms

and unemployment benefits are there to help you survive, not maintain a certain lifestyle. besides, we all know that if those middle-income people made too much on unemployment they'd never go back to work, eh?

clear explanation of why 1) inflation hurts those with the lowest incomes more 2) a relatively large % increase may not be enough to stop it hurting (unless it's big enough to allow you to save money, it still hurts) https://ofdollarsanddata.com/youve-been-thinking-about-inflation-all-wrong/

Rent is driving inflation, 20% year over year in Cleveland, I wonder if this landlord increased the rents when he bought 10 units and "remodeled" them?

I'm sorry but if you own two houses and an apartment building it does not matter to you how much gas costs. Don't get me wrong, it matters to a lot of people. But it does not matter to Mark Yu.

Also, Mark Wu is 33. He puzzles me. Before reading the article I was expecting him to be retired, but he's not, he's 33. He works as a physical therapist. The article points out he could afford to save $3,000 a month, which is $36k, so obviously he's earning more than that. He sends money to his family in the Philippines, which is spelled one-two. Accommodate is two-two. Millennium is two-two. Philippines is one-two. One-two. One-two. Mississippi is two-two-two. Accommodate is two-two. Millennium is two-two. Philippines is one-two. I work with a man from the Philippines. His name is Tim. One-two.

He sends money to his family so presumably he's not being supported by his parents. And he can afford to buy two houses - plus an apartment complex(!). The article doesn't even hint that he has a partner. Do physical therapists get paid a huge amount of money in the US? At the age of 33 he can only have been investing for 18 years, and the article implies that $36k pa was the absolute maximum he was able to invest. I realise the stock market has done well, but the sums feel wrong.

From my point of view inflation is fantastic. My maximum credit card limit is £800. My plan is to load it up with debt, and then when hyperinflation hits £800 will be nothing! Hahaha, suckers! Albeit that my real plan is to wait until just before my credit card is due to expire, then load it up with debt. Then when it expires it all gets wiped out!

And when I say Mark Wu I mean Mark Yu. Different people. One is a neurologist who may or may not have a property portfolio. The other is a physical therapist with a property portfolio. They are two different answers to the question of how to survive in a hostile world.

oi man alive, i maybe shoulda over-explicated a little: wasn't pointing to depths of evil in the individual dude, who's probably just average evil. more the systemic evil, and the casualness, even enthusiasm with which that evil is embraced/exploited by those who have profited (and/or hope to profit) from it.

like. the pandemic is bad. many people have died; exponentially more grieving; many suffering long-term effects from infection that may permanently debilitate them; many immunocompromised people still having to live in isolation when most everyone else has gone back to licking handrails; many healthcare workers dead, quit, burnt out; many kids had their social/scholastic development stunted (a serious concern of yours, iirc!); many people lost their jobs; many people lost their homes; a lot lot lot of people, and i cannot emphasize this enough, fucking died. and every item in that list (which is a paltry little nubbin of a list! there is so much more horrible stuff to add!) is one tiny tip of its own massive miserable iceberg of consequences.

covid has been a global catastrophe, and the rich having profited from it by further exploiting the non-rich is evil, and the system that facilitates this exploitation is evil, and that someone could think and write and publish the phrase "a profitable pandemic" and not be immediately disowned by everyone on earth makes me sad.

i would probably have done the same as mark yu :/

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/29/realestate/investing-self-care-real-estate-women.html

that’s so good

i know therapy’s expensive - but this is ridiculous!

Shouldn't the Times have to tag advertorials?

Ms. Nova charges $2,400 for a three-month coaching package. An annual mentorship program with Real Estate InvestHER costs $7,500.

happiness is being a landlord?! I am so confused.

or is the real self-care in just owning the property and paying other people to do the work of maintaining it and taking flak from tenants, so that you can be protected from the stress of it all?

https://memegenerator.net/img/instances/56840731.jpg

lol whatever

Nicholas Kristof Returns to The Times