Pongalh
1mo ago
Once in a while The Motte ditches culture war and sounds admirably left populist...
Pongalh
1mo ago
I have gone months without checking my bank account when I was depressive.
Interesting. Depressive but able to maintain a steady stream of income from a reliable job? I've only been very depressed when unemployed of massively underemployed. I envy the six figures, whew.
Pongalh
1mo ago
As a civilian my impression of the military is that it is made up of mostly literal cuckolds, 4’10” fat latinas and idiots that had absolutely zero job prospects outside of what amounts to a government make-work program.
Far preferable to being a gooning NEET who don't even the hustle to take advantage of government make-work. Also they still have to submit themselves to a level of discipline and physical rigor at least initially in a way I want nothing to do with. No one's interfering with my waking up at 10am and doing remote work.
Pongalh
1mo ago
Robinson had a partner but threw his life away anyway. I mean, technically. Presumably they were intimate.
Pongalh
1mo ago
There are still too many right wingers (mostly boomers, but also some enlightened center-rightists) who think we can rollback the clock to 1990 and will thus aid and abet the left by chiding and policing their own side.
This criticism of these boomers is also a form of "chiding and policing their own side." It's just called intra-conservative dialogue.
Pongalh
1mo ago
The standards should be much higher for state-led censorship efforts though. Like fraud level deception. Claiming Robinson graduated from Hillsdale or something. Someone's perception of an ideology is much too murky.
"Just stop."
No
Pongalh
1mo ago
Of all the people to understand the weird indeterminacy of 21st century ideologies interacting with the "firehose of bullshit" of new media, I'd think it was the smart "grey tribe" people who frequent this site
Pongalh
1mo ago
"Frankly I'd respect a simple 'fuck you' more."
I'm sure you would, because it provides a greater sense of righteous indignance due to being up against an uncivilized beast
Pongalh
1mo ago
I think this it, the motivation for taking Kimmel down wasn't misinformation but the seeming concern trolling. He made Trump look insensitive and petty, and that stings.
Pongalh
1mo ago
If you want to use a "comedy" defense, then you have to actually do comedy. That was just an isolated insult slotted into position.
We're at the point in the culture wars where we're parsing exactly which part of a comedian's routine counts as comedy and which doesn't. Line-by-line style.
Pongalh
1mo ago
Right. Kirk unleashed the inner That's Not Funny that had been lurking within the allegedly thick-skinned
Pongalh
1mo ago
except your specific person being insulted is just the category of "Republican." Not the same.
Pongalh
1mo ago
libertarians are either that or the opposite, some truck driving Gadsden flag-waving fella with little money
Pongalh
1mo ago
no, those were formal armies involved. not shifting vague weird internet politics combined with political inference from a romantic partner
Pongalh
1mo ago
Because the type of one-sided vitriol exhibited by Kimmel and Colbert has no place on a broadcast network, broad audience, light-hearted variety show.
Vitriol? It's all smiles. He's not Father Coughlin.
Pongalh
1mo ago
Well it's not untrue in the way saying Robinson was 50 years old would be untrue. Ideology and political philosophy don't work that way. We don't even have a manifesto from Robinson. He's directionally prog and for common conversational purposes you'd be on much stronger ground claiming he's not at all MAGA, and coming from the left. iow not enough to warrant being pressured by the FCC.
It's just vibes and vengeance. And frankly Trump's preference for talking about his ballroom over Kirk was a real zinger from Kimmel. "This must be the fourth stage of grief." On point. Who's the coldhearted demon again?
Pongalh
1mo ago
Agreed. The right is ideologizing themselves into thinking THIS thing right here is so massively offensive. They were making the case of tolerating so much more back in the late 2010s.
Pongalh
1mo ago
You're right and this is all a cope. It's ridiculous. "Full-scale insult...from some sassy comedian. Suddenly that right-wing thick skin dissolves.
Pongalh
1mo ago
So for the record, you were never on board with "no sacred cows, this country was built on thick-skinned free-ranging freedom of speech; comedy, satire and irony is the fruit of western civilization" right of 2018?
Pongalh
1mo ago
"There is pressure from Trump, but more importantly..."
More importantly? I'd say secondarily. The more straightforward answer is that they were scared of the FCC: https://x.com/MattZeitlin/status/1968444362754269623
Pongalh
1mo ago
"But the morality they adopted wasn't egalitarian therapy culture with the State as mother, it was woke culture with the State as HR lady."
Good point. You may remember the age of "everyone gets a gold star" or "a trophy just for playing." The turn of the last ten years by progs has been far more discerning about whose esteem should get boosted.
Pongalh
1mo ago
This goes way back. In the 90s I understood the Republicans as the daddy party and the Democrats the mommy party. That notion seems stronger than ever now, though.
"people are swapping stories about popping in old DVDs so that they can escape the ads and the subscription fatigue."
Funny you say that. I bought a DVD of an HBO series from over a decade ago called Family Tree. Anytime I play it I have to sit through a nearly 5 minute long ad promotional for HBO, featuring series from the time (Girls, Game of Thrones, some cancelled one about New Orleans). I can't skip. Nice time capsule at first but awful over and over
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