Chapo Trap House and the rise of the dirtbag left

re: theri dating woes, I've always just assumed it's awful for everyone all of the time

Taibbi on those accusations:

http://exiledonline.com/about-those-exile-smears/

This is where I ask if any real people have actually accused him of impropriety or if the sole evidence is the book excerpts. (Obviously the coffee-throwing thing is...not great.)

it's solely the book excerpts afaict

No it's not. They said the same thing in interviews back then: http://observer.com/2000/06/from-russia-with-lust/

“Russian women, especially on the first date, expect you to rape them,” said Mr. Ames. “They’ll go back home with you and say, ‘No, no, no,’ and if you’re an American, you’ve been trained to respect the ‘No,’ because you’re afraid of sexual harassment or date rape, and so you fail over and over. But it took me a while to learn you really have to force Russian girls, and that’s what they want, it’s like a mock rape. And then you come back here and you’re really freaked out–because you don’t know if that actually exists deep in all women’s psyches, that that’s what they all want. All relations between guys and girls is basically violent, I think. It’s all war.”

Also, wasn't there photos in the book?

Book and interviews still from the same source tho Fred.

I do wonder if, assuming Ames/Taibbi were being honest about this shit back in the day, this will get less traction because the victims are less likely to be aware of US media trends.

It's all vile edgelord stuff if they made it up of course.

The victims were non-english speaking teenage girls, and I'm guessing Ames and Taibbi changed their names. Yeah, this won't get any traction at all.

But it's not just a satirical book, is what I'm saying. This was an elaborate persona, that they kept up when they were interviewed, and I think they supported with photos. And I guess it's theoretically possible it was all just made up, and kept on for years, and that the photos were staged. Or it's an elaboration of real bad behaviour, of drugs, booze and misogyny. And come on, it's not the first one.

Ames' defense is not about explaining what went on back then - he never talks about how they really lived in Moscow - it's an attempt to short-circuit the use of the book as evidence against him. And then to attack people who complain as either disingenuous, or just not smart enough to get it. It's bullshit.

And it's libidinal. I'm probably going to repeat this over and over, but stuff like that book is absolutely what has happened when leftist politics has gone 'libidinal' or 'dirtbag' in the past. This is another excerpt from the book:

"Of course it was absurd," writes Taibbi elsewhere in the book, "that a paper which appeared to celebrate serial murder and sexual abuse would rant righteously about things like free speech and the rule of law. But we also knew that if we didn't have those conspicuous moral deficiencies, we'd have been just another 'right thinking' left leaning alternative paper—the dog of dogs in the post-End of History, post-Clinton publishing world....With all due respect to these people, nothing scares the powers that be less than an opposition of bearded lefties and nitpicking academics."

This is the reason Chapo keeps getting drawn into these things. Because in the past, proponents of libidinal politics have been really open about how it aligns with misogyny and 'edge lord' stuff, and things that are much much worse. And the simple fact is that Chapo and co. can either draw the line and explain why this time it's different, or they will have to accept that a lot of people aren't going to trust their project at all.

Chapo aren't journalists, and most actual journalists in the dirtbag/nu-US-left sphere don't write or otherwise express themselves in anything close to a style you could describe as "libidinous."

Amber is probably the closest to being a serious journalist/writer and her style is absolutely not that.

I got bullied in Junior high once and the dude was a really good wrestler and gave me a huge black eye and I didn't say shit, and then tried to be cool with him as much as possible. I was the second person he beat up that day.

year after high school he liked a woman he met in a bar and tied her to a car transmission and sunk her in the river behind her dad's house.

so what I'm saying is the whole stand up to bullies thing can be a dangerous fallacy.

I remember one time he grabbed a kid's mullet and ripped out a handful of the party in the back portion

Huh, I guess they didn't change the names:

The club's PR man, Stan, came up to take offense at The eXile rating of the place and also to complain about a recent sample of Ames' regular eXile column Moscow Babylon, which could be described as a lonely, angry rake's progress through an urban hell of whorish indulgence and sexual, emotional and physical violence. In the column that upset Stan, Ames recounted threatening to strangle a girlfriend if she didn't have an abortion. "I know that girl," Stan chided. "You should have at least changed her name. You're too cruel for Moscow." Ames shrugged it off but later said, "He's right. I should have changed her name."

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/bright-lights-red-square-19981126

Frederik B truly making himself ridiculous ITT referringto guys like Matt Christman and Will Menaker as “libidinal”.

Tbf it’s a reference to Matt’s quote that politics are inherently “libidinal” in the pulled Harvard Crimson article earlier this year.

Also the mincing of words & defense of Taibbi itt is pretty disappointing. Quality & influence of his writing has no bearing on his despicable behavior and how it should be discussed. He’s a fucking monster, sorry y’all like him, he’ll be blackballed within the week.

This is where I ask if any real people have actually accused him of impropriety or if the sole evidence is the book excerpts. (Obviously the coffee-throwing thing is...not great.)

that ames "apology" post is some real garbage

The Taibbi/Ames book is literally evil but I’m not sure there is any indication chapo would head in a similar direction. Is the idea just that any irreverent style leads to psychopathy? Seems trenchant

I mean wtf is this? Come on

I mean it seems like a fair question since everyone seems to be pointing at the book excerpts almost exclusively! (I did see V Mochama tweet that she was "warned" about him but again it's not clear to me that it was based on anything but the book.) It seems very likely that someone who wrote what he and Ames did would be a creep but I would like a little more concrete stuff to go on, esp since the era the book comes from had a whole lot more tryhard edgelord writing kicking around. I would absolutely not be surprised to see someone come forward in the next little while - it's not like he hasn't been in his share of offices in the intervening years.

Like, the "lol it was satire chill out" claim is definitely sketchy as fuck but they were also dealing with a political environment I know less than nothing about.

that ames "apology" post is some real garbage

Pretty weird to call it an apology, even in quotation marks - it's pretty explicitly not that.

I don't think misogyny and rape/murder fantasies is the right response to any political environment...

There was this thing in Russian arts in the late eighties/nineties called 'chernukha', which was this really dark, nihilistic way of describing society. But eXile is a piss poor example of that. And there's a fairly big difference when a Russian and foreigner does it.

Taibbi left First Look Media in 2014 after a female staffer complained he was 'verbally abusive and unprofessionally hostile': http://gawker.com/matt-taibbi-left-first-look-media-after-female-staffer-1652961860

And a thread on his use of misogynist language:

So Taibbi has a fairly incoherent excuse claiming his 2000 book was fictional "satire" that he regrets. https://t.co/C7fBU2vpou

— Aphra Behn (@Shaker_aphra) October 29, 2017

I'd forgotten about the First Look Media thing.

episode is recorded but the audio was fucked up for reasons beyond our control, you'll have an ep monday night at the latest, sorry https://t.co/6KKaQyVZrQ

— Partisan Gridlock (@ByYourLogic) October 30, 2017

FFS it’s really not that hard to record and post an hourlong show

Proves socialism is bad and inefficient if these schmucks can't record an hour-long podcast properly even with decent funds behind them

I can't seem to figure out what got Krang T. Nelson suspended from Twitter? Was it really just the antifa thing? If so, that's exceptionally lame.

people just can't understand that "antifa super soldiers" is satire after seeing all the super soldiers on the streets these days

Taibbi did fucked up shit 20 years ago. He apologized. Pending further information, I don't care.

(but he must never be forgiven, bcz that's how it goes in Woke Church)

xp, I think a guy who bats .346 with 24 HRs is probably a little different on the protection scale than a fierce debater.

haha wrong thread

Taibbi did fucked up shit 20 years ago. He apologized. Pending further information, I don't care.

There's literally further information about fucked up shit from 2014 in this thread.

she felt the conduct may have been motivated, at least in part, by her gender

how unambiguously damning!

p4reene said there was no there there. good enough for me.

believe what you want to believe (apparently every word from every single woman who doesn't work for Trump)

Bill Clinton did fucked up shit 20 years ago. He apologized. Pending further information, I don't care.

grow up and move on, witch hunters

high five each other

Probably an indication of how this Taibbi thing is going to play out (w/o any victim testimony) in the mainstream is the interview he did on On the Media this weekend, where Brooke Gladstone was very much "Because this is in the news I guess I have to ask you about this eXile thing that's 20 years old and a satire."

the lengths y'all go to to defend and excuse the actions of someone you like

yeah Brooke Gladstone is a rollover enabler now

the "it was actually fiction" excuse is almost beyond belief to me, like who the hell is buying that shit?

really surprised there's been no post yet by kingfish about how they apparently fucked up the recording of yesterday's premium episode

lol there was though

hahaha doh

brooke gladstone u say

http://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&noapp=1&v=8zQEmDL6efo

wow this thread got disgusting

Brooke Gladstone’s book tour hits Portland tonight, should I ask her about it?