The NYT interviewer says at one point „I can’t believe I’m arguing this“ when debating Yarvin on whether SLAVERY WAS BAD. Which is an excellent example of why news outlets should never platform right-wing extremists, even if they have the ear of the Musks, Vances and Thiels of the world. - ThreadSky

ardenthistorian.bsky.social • 44 days ago

The NYT interviewer says at one point „I can’t believe I’m arguing this“ when debating Yarvin on whether SLAVERY WAS BAD. Which is an excellent example of why news outlets should never platform right-wing extremists, even if they have the ear of the Musks, Vances and Thiels of the world.

Reposted from Michael Senters the Sigillite (Yang Wen-li stan)

Why the fuck is the NYT giving Yarvin any sort of coverage at all?

Comments

tyrfing-nokebi.bsky.social•44 days ago

Why the people in charge provide the stage for those kind of people? Don‘t they know those risks? I bet they know the risks very well, don’t you agree?

annular.bsky.social•44 days ago

Seriously the first rule of journalism should be that it’s unethical to print the words of someone who cannot identify objective reality.

wndlb.bsky.social•44 days ago

I do, for one, want to know that the person that the Veep looks up to is a person I would likely block and never follow.

Oh, and he’s Veep for a near-80yo with a family history of dementia.

ardenthistorian.bsky.social•44 days ago

That’s not what I’m arguing against. I’ve been yelling about the fact that Yarvin is one of the „intellectual influences“ the incoming VP cites for months and why it hasn’t made mainstream media news. That’s important! It doesn’t mean interviewing the guy and giving him a glossy photoshoot!

hollyphantpants.bsky.social•44 days ago

They should have written an article about him, not interviewed him.

ardenthistorian.bsky.social•44 days ago

Generally, a good rule of thumb when portraying/writing about Nazis and right wing extremists is „does this platform their ideas? Normalize them as a regular part of daily politics? Would the Nazi like their portrayal or would it make them mad?“ (same goes for movies about them).

vicesignalling.bsky.social•44 days ago

Fully agreed. Moldbug has been posting unhinged nonsense for over a decade. If the NYT actually wanted to challenge Yarvin, run an expose critiquing his blog posts, put them in the context of his influence on white nationalism, hire academics to mock all the dumb claims he makes. Don't interview him

lukebro92.bsky.social•43 days ago

Or interview someone like @iwriteok.bsky.social who analyzes the likes of Yarvin for a living... Or, ya know, @ardenthistorian.bsky.social ...

kaygirl8lawana.bsky.social•43 days ago

This where we are in the United States in 2025
bc some ppl are AFRAID of and are Whitewashing History
Are these ppl that can’t face facts about life now?
Do they believe in Unicorns also ?
😡

kawntent.bsky.social•44 days ago

What point was Yarvin trying to make here? Lol

candidwoods.bsky.social•44 days ago

Yep, debating and arguing only work when it's in good faith. If it's bad faith, your destroying a tolerant society trying to be tolerant to the intolerant. So many people never heard about Carl Popper and it shows. Punching a Nazi is self defense.

jasonmiklian.com•44 days ago

10000%. And the glowup pics were appaling. This will make him a mainstream actor.

nyaeko.bsky.social•44 days ago

New York Times and multiple other outlets have continously platformed right-wing ideologues, giving negligible time or misrepresenting people as liberals or progressives to push Conservative propaganda
https://bsky.app/profile/nyaeko.bsky.social/post/3lfynigtofc26

lukebro92.bsky.social•43 days ago

If you want to know who this Yarvin guy is, I recommend the excellent work by @iwriteok.bsky.social in his podcast "behind the bastards" where he did a two parter on that individual...

taylorlorenz.bsky.social•44 days ago

Covering someone isn’t inherently platforming them, I think the issue is when you launder someone’s reputation by giving them favorable and soft coverage rather than doing hard reporting and holding them to account

jakobjoachim.bsky.social•44 days ago

social deviant behaviour hast to be sanctioned to ensure the maintance of liberal structures. how should main stream media fulfill this function while covering such deviations? thereby its not about the context or frame - the simple reproduction of those thoughts from the original source is toxic

rowyourbot.bsky.social•44 days ago

The picture does not increase my confidence that he is not being platformed.

ardenthistorian.bsky.social•44 days ago

I agree with you - I’m not arguing that it’s better to ignore Yarvin, quite the opposite, I’ve been aghast that legacy media has largely ignored his influence so far. But I don’t think that an interview (which here is accompanied by a glossy photoshoot) is a good form to cover right-wing extremists

ardenthistorian.bsky.social•44 days ago

(There are very, very few exceptions, of course). But most of the time, it doesn’t work - you won’t get a “gotcha”, the subject gets clout, maybe even imagery (as in this case) they enjoy because it portrays their sense of themselves, and you normalise them by engaging with them)

rowyourbot.bsky.social•44 days ago

Chotiner is the only one who should ever be allowed to ever do interviews--especially with people like this.

deficit-hawktuah.bsky.social•44 days ago

Well they view it as important to keep the ear of fascists.

sopranospinner.bsky.social•44 days ago

To anyone who says or implies slavery was better than anything, I say "They sold people's children." There is nothing to justify that.

josephebacon.bsky.social•43 days ago

Pinchy Sulzberger and his GOP Stenographers are all in for Trump becoming a dictator. They are gladly mainstreaming Yarvin to achieve his goal of ending democracy in America.

potrzebiesystem.bsky.social•44 days ago

Just leaving this here bc it’s what I do whenever that psycho Yarvin is mentioned https://bsky.app/profile/potrzebiesystem.bsky.social/post/3ldwsle2xfk2c

potrzebiesystem.bsky.social•44 days ago

For any NYT journos or otherwise: lots of coverage in newspaper archives on this. Norman Manda Yarvin, Curtis’ brother. Just an explosives & gunpowder enthusiast…with some metal pipes…in is apartment… in New Haven, Connecticut.” ~ normal guy, Norman M. Yarvin, computer engineer

douglaslucas.bsky.social•38 days ago

Same Norman Yarvin or not, do you know? https://yarchive.net/about.html

potrzebiesystem.bsky.social•38 days ago

Yep

edwardgivens.bsky.social•44 days ago

NYT has been "normalizing" people like this for ages. Israel ring a bell? The genocide is where this got us.

riverparkmatt.bsky.social•44 days ago

The legacy medias normalization of these dangerous ideas and people for ratings is unforgivable. They know what they are doing and it is nothing short then propaganda for an autocracy/ oligarchy.

witchcolby.bsky.social•44 days ago

squizzradical.bsky.social•44 days ago

This should not even be up for debate. It should not even be discussed.

shenloop.bsky.social•44 days ago

He’s a moron, a predator, a little man looking for an excuse for his own weakness. He’s coming at you making you a target. Be a weapon not a target. Give it back.

missingmarple.bsky.social•44 days ago

Genau wie die Leute, die jetzt ernsthaft erklären, warum Hitler kein Kommunist war…
Stöckchen ignorieren!

edgarallandoh.bsky.social•44 days ago

Statt die Vogelscheuche einfach auszulachen und wegzugehen.

courtneyminick.bsky.social•44 days ago

With the added bonus of posing him in b&w as a bad boy from the 1980s who’s about to steal the prom queen. What the fuck.

dissenterbedamned.bsky.social•44 days ago

While your correct, this ignores the fact that the majority of journalists are just corporate paper pushers that regurgitate whatever opinion their boss tells them to have.

harmvandergaag.bsky.social•44 days ago

How is that "an excellent example"? The interview exposes the man as a complete douche.

janusroberts.bsky.social•44 days ago

Exposing a douche who had little exposure before *still exposes* them more than they would have organically. If you streamed an idiot claiming 1+1=3 being debunked to every phone in the world all at once, the % of people who believe 1+1=3 *goes up.* it’s self-defeating.

edgarallandoh.bsky.social•44 days ago

The US just elected a complete douche and all his Yarvin-quoting buddies to the White House. We have to do better than that.

honeckmischa.bsky.social•44 days ago

Tbh, it’s the “I did some random research on Google” to buttress my outlandish proslavery claims part that really made me die inside.

johnhatchard.bsky.social•43 days ago

"Curtis Yarvin wants American democracy toppled" ...

This Bluesky thread includes additional links that the original article didn't have.

mbdonner.bsky.social•43 days ago

They should cover him and write about him, because he is dangerous but influential. They shouldn't platform him and treat him as a legitimate thinker.

ardenthistorian.bsky.social•43 days ago

Agreed.

anonmrbear.bsky.social•44 days ago

You know how i deal with NYT propping up neo-Nazis? I stopped reading the NYT a year ago. F’em

notwittyvicki.bsky.social•44 days ago

I think there was value-at least for me-in listening to this interview. I’ve read ABOUT Yarvin but hearing him articulate his immature (middle school maybe) arguments was shocking and comforting at the same time. Hard to believe anyone takes him seriously.

hollyphantpants.bsky.social•44 days ago

He is taken VERY seriously among the conservative elite such as the billionaire Peter Thiel and the VP JD Vance. He is the most influential conservative thinker in America.

notwittyvicki.bsky.social•44 days ago

I’m continually surprised to hear from many of the tech elite (not conservative by any stretch) and realize how immature and stunted their understanding of and thought process regarding humanity is. In a way I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising.

bobooten.bsky.social•44 days ago

It’s all about ethics in game journalism.

divisionbyzero.bsky.social•44 days ago

All that did was to give him a platform. Yarvin doesn't need to be heard.

jasonyaw.bsky.social•44 days ago

I think given the current state of politics and who was elected president, we should stop thinking that just because they’re ‘crazy’ means we shouldn’t learn what they are about. Given that Andreesen & Vance have all quoted Yarvin and they will be in power soon means we can’t just stay in our bubble

badlandslib.bsky.social•44 days ago

Or at least do it BEFORE the election to scare the swing voters. 🤦🏼‍♀️

jakemobley.bsky.social•44 days ago

Is this the depths that we've fallen to? Debating slavery on the New York Times? What a joke.

tyrfing-nokebi.bsky.social•44 days ago

Perhaps we are tumbling at the cliff right now. Next week could open many eyes. The complete machine behind the mandate for leadership is ready and set this time… . I‘ll gladly fail with my interpretation of the near future.

hollyphantpants.bsky.social•44 days ago

African American Trump voters should ponder what their new friends think of them.

ardenthistorian.bsky.social•44 days ago

Analyze and contextualise the danger of their ideas, expose their shallow thinking, their cruelty. Don’t let them use your platform to argue that Nelson Mandela and Anders fucking Breivik were the same. Jesus Christ! There IS no „gotcha“ moment. You won’t „get“ Yarvin in the interview.

ardenthistorian.bsky.social•44 days ago

All this does is legitimising Yarvin as an intellectual - which he isn’t, not that it matters - he’s a right-wing blogger, who thinks Breivik only „failed“ because his mass murder of teens didn’t collapse the state and dreams of a dictatorship. That’s it.

squareandplumb.bsky.social•44 days ago

This, writ large. So often we treat ideas and speakers with an undeserved level of attention and respect out of some form of intellectual politeness or fairness. Breivik and Yarvin deserve none of this; they weaponize intellectual openness. They must be called out, criticized and shunned.

valoisdubins.bsky.social•44 days ago

The whole notion of “debate” as a sport has really corrupted intellectual life in the US. People don’t disappear into thin air just because you think you outdebated them.

ardenthistorian.bsky.social•44 days ago

I can’t believe it’s 2025 and I still have to scream „don’t give Nazis glossy photo shoots goddammit” into the ever yawning void

tersuki.bsky.social•44 days ago

That they include a photo of him as a child is bonkers

wizzyprobs.bsky.social•44 days ago

Well... nazis like to give other nazis blowouts...

ardenthistorian.bsky.social•44 days ago

Yarvin is an extremist dipshit, and not even a particularly clever one. He’s popular with Vancce & Thiel et al because he tells rich people who like dictators & kings that it’s good to have dictators & kings. That’s it. He’s not even good at what he does - and he doesn’t need to be

zoraoneill.bsky.social•44 days ago

I don't even know what Yarvin claims to believe, having heard his name for the first time only today, but just seeing the pic of him in the NYT, I'm confident he's popular with insecure right-wing billionaires mainly because he wears a leather jacket. "Cool kid thinks like me, ergo I am cool" logic.

ardenthistorian.bsky.social•44 days ago

Don’t get me wrong - I’ve been screaming about the fact that mainstream media coverage has largely ignored that one of the incoming VPs “intellectual” influences is a right wing blogger who thinks dictators are great and mass murderer Breivik had a point. Analyse! Don’t do a glossy photo shoot! Jfc

asazernik.bsky.social•44 days ago

Everyone thinks they're Isaac Chotiner

profstykel.bsky.social•44 days ago

Arguing for slavery should disqualify you as an intellectual and philosopher.

mjr1.bsky.social•44 days ago

And also, a lot of his faux-historian gobbledygook sounds convincing to ppl who may not know that all of its underlying historical "facts" are wrong.

pdawkins.bsky.social•44 days ago

Shaming the NYT and any legacy publication that deliberately platforms right-wing extremists doesn't work any more. They know exactly what they're amplifying.

The only audience that wants to "debate" whether slavery was bad are raging white supremacists.

androgynous-mind.bsky.social•43 days ago

In one or two years, opposing slavery will be considered woke.

fry69.dev•44 days ago

The Overton window by now has been shattered, stomped upon, melted and reforged as a Tr*mp statue showing a Hitler salute.

777nocomment.bsky.social•44 days ago

Black people watching white people argue ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT on a "reputable" "news" outlet

2gay4broadway.bsky.social•43 days ago

I wish I had said this first, but the New York Times has become All The Puzzles and Recipes Fit To Print.

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