Chapo Trap House and the rise of the dirtbag left

I don't understand any of this

A bunch of very online people got very mad at a slightly less online person for the most anodyne column about how having kids is cool even if you’re not ready and the government should help you more.

If it starts to make sense, that’s when you should worry.

it's pretty simple really, people hate her for being anti-abortion and look for any excuse to get mad at even her mildest op-eds about having kids even though she seems to take pains to never ever reference abortion (because she's not a complete dummy and knows there's absolutely no demand for a "left" anti-abortion position). I agree with everyone calling the op-ed boring tbh - I get it, you like having kids. in fact it's only the vitriolic responses that make them noteworthy at all xp

also it really seems like anti-natalism is becoming more prevalent online but that's just my feeling

having kids, and especially not being depressed about it, is an offense against people who can't have kids or don't want to have kids. And asking the government to fund things like pre-K and paid maternity leave is right wing because it encourages more white people to have kids. And birth rates.

What

outlining the position of her detractors

That's absolutely batshit

That is an accurate summary of the views of some online ultraleftists who are indistinguishable from ops, yes.

i don't know who joel curzon is, is he an online ultraleftist? i'm ok with paying parents and letting them have tons of leave from work fwiw (though i think everyone including me should get tons of leave from work for whatever they want)

oh, looks like he's an "overpopulation" guy, cool

It is a boring and inoffensive article onto which a social media-savvy editor slapped an "AND I'M NOT SORRY" headline in order to make it sound like she was accusing 35-year-old primagravidas of missing out on What Is Good In Life

“Malthusian Marxist”

I mean yes the responses are terrible but getting responses like that is the goal of the publication in running the piece (i.e. not Bruenig's goal in writing it, I would think)

And I was going to say that the blame thus lies with the publication, but they have been left with no financial path forward that doesn't involve either clickbait-mining like this or selling the headquarters to a hedge fund and firing all the reporters so I don't even know if blame is the right word

Anyway thanks to these freaks for reminding me to stay off Twitter.

being anti-abortion is indefensible and it seriously bothers me how so much of the online left seems to think it's nbd. she is also transphobic

the article excerpt seems fairly inoffensive in itself and all the critics cited here are also pretty terrible afaict

How is she transphobic?

Let me count the ways

I actually have no idea btw, it just seemed like the thing to say

childcare, housing and education should be more affordable. this is a good goal of public policy. it will allow people who wish to become parents to be able to do so. it will also benefit people who do not wish to become parents, as everyone benefits when fewer people are in poverty. crime rates decrease, healthcare costs decrease, people have more time and energy to volunteer and invest in other pro-social behaviors, etc.

(because she's not a complete dummy and knows there's absolutely no demand for a "left" anti-abortion position)

catholic worker erasure

this is bruenig's position as far as i understand it. people who say she is worried about "white birthrates" are just lying. self xp

re:transphobia e.g. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ExF1fYPWUAUX6YX?format=jpg&name=900x900

shit https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ExF1fYPWUAUX6YX?format=jpg&name=900x900

well you can click the link

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ExF1fYPWUAUX6YX?format=jpg&name=900x900

Left are you noah berlatsky?

lmao fucking disgusting screencap

xp no and i do not like him either. i just really fucking despise this crypto conservative subculture on the left

why agree with jesse singal about anything

I would not exactly be surprised if Liz saw that Noah tweet by itself on some "Oh, notorious dumbass Noah is doing bad opinions again" and didn't follow the thread up to find out he was making some oblique argument about transness

notorious dumbass and Pitchfork contributor Noah Berlatsky!

she's responding to signal though which is the giveaway that it's likely about that issue.

i think liz bruenig is likely pretty socially conservative. she is a "catholic worker"-style social democrat. i don't know how "crypto" it is but it's a different political project than the mainstream american left today.

Yeah, I don't care enough to do Liz/Noah/Jess fan fiction and/or forensic analysis, I'm just gonna say that's a pretty weak argument to call someone transphobic

oh yeah that screencap did not make me assume liz bruenig is transphobic but like also log off

being anti-abortion is indefensible

echoing left on this one tho

I mean I agree but ppl should be honest and just say they hate her for that instead of trying to glean genocidal intent from innocuous statements

the “catholic worker” types never talk about birth control or abortion at all, really. it’s by no means a non-religious organization, but that’s not really anything on their radar

I wouldn’t begin to pretend I’m an expert on catholic anything, but I don’t think being socialist/pro-labor and also catholic necessarily means you’re in the catholic worker vein

they don't emphasize it but privately, when pressed, most would likely say they have a "personal" objection to abortion. gay marriage is a different story.

a lot of people active in catholic worker houses are openly anti-abortion.

it is fairly heterogenous and non-hierarchical organization but broadly following the church's social teachings is a common aspect

i mean, for catholics that is a central issue. and it's completely valid to take a stand against someone like bruenig on this. but simon is otm that it's not fair to pretend that bruenig is some sort of nazi.

I think it varies wildly? A friend who was active in that community told me the majority of the people involved in a local one weren’t catholic

idk there are just so, so many more deserving objects/subjects of scorn out there it's so silly to me that she generates this much Discourse. I realize I am not currently helping

I don’t even SUBSCRIBE to the New York Times!!

fuck the church's teachings

the transphobia thing is obvious too unless you really don't want to see it

for me this also demonstrates how easy it is to get leftists to abandon their supposed anti establishment principles at the slightest proximity to power, I mean defending a fucking nyt columnist

are all establishments equally repugnant?

what's your point

I've seen enough of this clique pouring scorn on critiques of work and the family and the state to know they're the enemy

do you carry around cards that list all of offenses of your various enemies so you can read them off whenever their names are mentioned, or do you just memorize them