Chapo Trap House and the rise of the dirtbag left

I don't know much about Cardin other than his not being a particularly charismatic but reliable Democratic vote (and I knew about his Espionage Act crap already).

Ben Cardin is exactly the kind of Dem that should be primaried, in my very limited understanding.

manning won't win the primary but it's sure gonna be an interesting uh national conversation that'll happen about this, such as it is

it's gonna be a horrible shitshow on numerous levels for sure

gotta admire chelsea's courage in deciding to stand in the face of it anyway

does this mean it will be cool to like wikileaks again

no

Pareene another one of those guests who slots in perfectly as a co-host.

But goddamn do they need to use headphones and more robust hosting since they continually talk over each other

a friend of mine is dating manning & she's been vaguebooking all week about "something big coming"

this is not what i thought it'd be

how could u have guessed it would be that she would be outed as a russian disinformation agent on social media by some guy who, confusingly, shares her surname

well Peyton's got a lot of time on his hands now

Ev’rybody gotta have a hobby

The NYT, which helped lie out way into an illegal, immoral war, has opinions in it's headlines. https://t.co/syNQXDUU6S

— David Kaib (@DavidKaib) January 14, 2018

Chelsea Manning, who was found guilty of leaking more than 700,000 government files to WikiLeaks, files for a Senate run in Maryland. https://t.co/nsry7wOetT

— NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) January 13, 2018

I'm not sure what 'dirtbag' means in this context. Can someone define it?

having your mattress directly on the ground

A more precise label might be the Dirtbag Left, a term coined by the writer Amber A’Lee Frost, who is Biederman’s roommate, and who, this week, officially joined the “Chapo” roster. In an essay for Current Affairs, Frost argued that while vulgarity isn’t “inherently subversive,” it can help tarnish the unearned prestige of the powerful—something that many Democrats, as well as Republicans, hunger to do. We can either “reclaim vulgarity from the Trumps of the world,” she wrote, or “find ourselves handicapped by civility.”

“Chapo Trap House” has embraced this mission. “If you sleep on a mattress on the floor and fuck in a sleeping bag, then you just might be the dirtbag left!” Menaker told Paste. “If you’re the only dude at a function not wearing a pocket square in a linen blazer and adulting like a boss, then you’re in the dirtbag left!” People who belong to the Dirtbag Left, Christman said, aren’t afraid “to offend the sensibilities of ‘leftist’ language police whose only goal is sabotaging social solidarity in order to maintain their brands as arbiters of good taste and acceptable speech.”

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2016/05/the-necessity-of-political-vulgarity

this is the Amber essay referred to.

That language police line set the stage for a lot of the cliches about them, I think, when Amber's essay is more on the mark. It's not a "why can they say it" response to language policing but reveling in cheering on John McCain's brain tumor.

You have to apply a sense of leniency considering the terrible ordeal she’s been through but Manning’s politics tweets are reliably among the dumbest version of any “both sides are the same” thing you’ve ever heard. She’s obviously not part of any “Russian plot” or whatever but her defining role in the discourse has been as an almost uniformly “anti anti Trump” voice which obviously resonates with some.

which tweets did you have in mind

I think the difference between what Amber advocates and what, say, the alt-right does is that, at least in theory, the "dirtbag left" types are arguing that "civility" is a barrier to effective political discourse and action, and therefore we should ignore it when necessary, whereas the alt right is specifically interested in tearing down civility so they can be more racist, sexist, etc., because that's their agenda.

i cannot parse that nerdstrom post

I think it's "let's not fear offensiveness so much that it trumps other more important goals" vs "we have offensive goals"

and the parts i think i understand suggest they’ve been reading a parody Chelsea account or something

on *some* issues of course "both" "sides" are the fucking same, Nerdstrom, or did I dream Nancy Pelosi and Paul Ryan marching in lockstep on FISA 702?

Nerdstrom's posts are all The Dems Are Practically Perfect In Every Way

"anti Trump" is the absurdly minimal requirement for Dem rank-and-file strokeoffs these days

No I’ve criticized Dems.

I get that she’s trying to own one of the worst people who had ever lived here but this is downplaying racism in a kind of gross way.

"oh no, racism and hatred are bad m'kay, don't do it, m'kay" 😳 we can do better 😎🌈💕 #WeGotThis https://t.co/jQrq3yXpKB

— Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) August 12, 2017

This isn’t great either.

*ahem* seem to remember your contempt when you signed off on all those FISA warrants for surveillance of a military prisoner 😉🌈💕 #WeGotThis https://t.co/FoaU5pB6mR

— Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) August 26, 2017

Her #wecandobetter #wegotthis series is like dorm room poster level “both sides are bad” . Harder challenge is finding tweets of hers that are good.

how is that "both sides are bad"?

you seem to be going out of your way to read a pretty obvious criticism of a platitudinous hillary tweet as ‘downplaying racism’

the second one seems, again, like a legit criticism of surveillance-state hypocrisy from chelsea’s own fairly unique perspective

idgi

for NP-approved messaging, seek out the "centrist rally" tweet I can't seem to post right now

That first one is definitely shitty. If your response after Charlottesville is to criticize Clinton-tweets, then you've become a caricature.

She can walk and chew gum at the same time.

the second one is Chelsea talking about something that was specifically and directly done to her and her circle of acquaintances

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/01/15/transgender-activist-chelsea-mannings-senate-video-listed-as-inappropriate-by-youtube

She could have expressed in a way that wasn’t dismissive about what Yates was addressing.

Xpost

She can walk and chew gum at the same time.

― Simon H., 16. januar 2018 20:44 (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Seriously dude?

You might want to do a quick google search to see what her most popular charlottesville tweet was

She could have expressed in a way that wasn’t dismissive about what Yates was addressing.

You might want to do a quick google search to see what her most popular charlottesville tweet was

The one w the picture of herself in it?

oh, fuck off

With all due respect the Hillary one is better, acknowledges the gravity/tragedy of what happened. Second is as much s platitude w added level of branding I guess.

I mean the Chelsea one is as much of a platitudinous statement.

"we can do better than just blandly dismissing prejudice" is not as platitudinous as...blandly dismissing prejudice, esp coming from someone who actually advocates for transformative policy changes

fucking love the turn this thread has taken, as we agonise over which of two chelsea manning tweets from months ago are better

also lol at chastising someone for putting themselves in their tweet, on twitter, that most selfless and anonymous of platforms where your name and picture are plastered on every message

Imagine if HRC had done that Manning tweet lol

what the fuck are you talking about

curb stomping in cedar rapids

imagine if hrc did 9/11, or hrc was a duck, or if hrc had screwed a homeless man’s femur to an icbm

The same people would love it if she did that exact same tweet I think. No one would say she was “making it about her”, probably.

https://media.giphy.com/media/etfzQDfD0nSLu/giphy.gif