And no one is "learning history" via a statue and you are feasting on your own bs if you believe that.

The Harper's Letter was dumb as hell; a circle-jerk for the signatories, all of whom have immense platforms and each of whom can directly reach an audience that all of us combined are unlikely to ever experience. The letter was so pitiful that it couldn't even provide direct, unambiguous examples of people who have been "canceled" and the whole term, (which is extremely goofy, by the way) is primarily a concern for people of a certain class or occupation or politico-ideological beliefs that want to distract away from actual material concerns that a majority of people face. What's also exceptional to me, is that a number of signatories are prominent political scientists who are unable to grasp the fact that "cancel culture" is a fundamental component of liberal democracy, i.e., the ability to freely associate with a group of other individuals with a common identity (ideological, ethnic, class, etc.) and to defend/protect that collective identity, which will always be in tension with the freedom of speech insofar as the latter does or potentially harms the former, as is the case with say transrights (which signatories Jesse Singal and JK Rowling have done), or Black Americans (Haidt et. al. has defended race science), or Palestinians (Bari Weiss, who in fact become famous by trying to "cancel" i.e. fire a pro-Palestinian professor at Columbia). What the signers decry as a "force of illiberalism" is in actuality an element of liberalism, Freedom of Association, expressing itself.

I think that the letter is appropriate to be fully quoted:
Editors are fired for running controversial pieces — ssu

NYT sacking of their opinion editor because of complaints from readers — Benkei

Even more to the point than losing subscribers and caving to "mOb mEnTaLlIty" James Bennet, the Editorial Page Editor, was fired because he didn't do his job. He said he "did not read the essay before it was published" and an internal review found that the publication was rushed and contained multiple false statements. This has happened multiple times under Bennet (here is my favorite one). This was simply the straw the broke the camel's back. What the letter is expressing is an outright lie. Being fired because you suck at your job isn't an example of "cancel culture".

But do you know what is an example of "cancel culture"? An Amazon worker who was fired for leading a protest due to the company's poor COVID response (and at-will employment in general), but I didn't see that example spelled out in the letter. In fact that right there is a more concrete example than anything offered by the letter.

Feels like we are on the raft with Aguirre

Happy Juneteenth, Maw — 180 Proof

Happy Juneteenth to you too!

I'm also pretty partial to Miles Davis: A Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew, and In A Silent Way. And Coltrane's A Love Supreme, and Mingus' The Black Saint and Sinner Lady.

Recently I've been listening to a lot of 50s/60s R&B, The Supremes, The Ronettes, The Marvelettes, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, etc.



(pretty certain that's Tony Randall introducing them)

Biden and Trump don't need to debate policy and precedent. The American people don't want that. What we need is a water drinking contest. And if Biden can run down a ramp he'll have November locked down.

Favorite jazz album?

I'm so smart I invented a high IQ society (Mensa), and tell people how smart they are so they join and pay me a monthly fee.

They are all bad, didn't vote for any of them.

Anyway Trump just owned the libs at his rally tonight by drinking water while the crowd cheered in excitement, doing great.

I have no plan to buy the book. The point - my point - is that you're confused. The man is the man; the book is the book. Two different things. — tim wood

Fuck dude this is really blowing my mind. A man is a man, and a book is a book. Two different things. Shit this is profound and insightful, thank you so much for this.

ok then buy the book and give $20 to a guy who wouldn't give a shit if he bombed you and your family, I don't care

Why not? — tim wood

Because he's a shithead war hawk who is doing this for profit and nothing else. He knew about Trump's conversation with Xi, said and did nothing about it until he could turn it into a monetizable moment for his book. Don't give him money.

Thanks, but I think I'm just going to continue with 18th century stuff for the time being and slowly make my way to fascism and the police (same thing really)

Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life by Jonathan Sperber
The Age of Empire: 1875–1914 by Eric Hobsbawm

Don't purchase Bolton's book

What should I read I'm kind of at a loss

Did we talk about the Tom Cotton NYT op-ed piece? Crossing fingers that Bennet and Bari get fired from the backlash. — Maw

Joy to the world, Bennet was fired

Lots of war criminals then starting from all the US Presidents, Clinton and Obama included. — ssu

I think you might be on to something

A pretty extraordinary BTS look at Times staffers pushing back vigorously against management and the publishing of that piece. — StreetlightX

I believe upper management stated that they didn't review the piece before it was published, although I wouldn't be surprised if that was an effort to save face (the alternative, reviewing it and publishing it being even worse). Certainly, there have been repugnant pieces published in the op-ed section of the NYT in the last few years under Bennet, but this piece in particular has the potential to shake things up.

Did we talk about the Tom Cotton NYT op-ed piece? Crossing fingers that Bennet and Bari get fired from the backlash.

Mattis is also a war criminal who is trying to brand himself as a resistance Republican

:up:

(while (re)writing an essay/story) — 180 Proof

:chin: :up:

ok but streetlight i had a good point mate

It's become abundantly clear in the last 24+ hours that the USA is past the point in getting constructive around solving police brutality and militarization. Since we'd rather beat down protesters regardless if they are peaceful or, heaven forbid, destroying sweet precious property, law enforcement will once again be off the hook. This will enable them to, once again, murder a black person even on video without charge which will lead to more protest and uh no, oh god dare I say, property damage, which will lead to beating down protesters regardless if they are peac...

antifa are the fucking very definition of fascism. — Chester

Does your mom help you dress in the morning? Does she pick out the cloths the night before?

Really no point in letting these two continue to howl about property damage while remaining silent about police brutality

Was going to respond but @180 Proof summed it up better.

James Wood is a washed up actor turned twitter fascist

Why not just make it simple and condemn police brutality while also condemning lawless rioting? — BitconnectCarlos

Because police brutality is directed at people and "lawless rioting" is directed at property and guess which one I care about

Imagine seeing how militarized the police are, rolling tanks and wielding riot shields and guns as if they were an occupying force in a foreign country, seeing their unprovoked violent reaction towards protesters , running people down with vehicles, macing indiscriminately including elected officials, shoving people into the curb and landing people in the hospital....and all your consternation is directed towards a store owned by a multibillion dollar company. Capitalism is a helluva drug.

Yeah, keep punching up. The CEO of Target and the board of directors will really get the message now. Meanwhile, you've got all the (presumably lower or lower middle class) entry-level target workers out of a job and the people of the community have one less place to shop and will likely need to travel further now and possibly pay more elsewhere. But we showed the rich! — BitconnectCarlos

Oh no people won't be able to shop why won't these protesters think of the consumer??? :groan: :cry:

I think the White House may become overrun by protesters??

It's insane to think about how much money has been stolen from working class people

Thsoe figures are just mind-boggling to me. I mean, culturally, burglary an larceny are seen as paradigmatic of crime in general - but this... wage theft counting as around 2/3s of theft? What in the actual fuck?? — StreetlightX

My country sucks ass

Wait til people crying over TVs stolen from Target hear about Capitalism

Does seem like there is a bubble that is about to pop