People look at a site that doesn't tolerate Nazis, isn't owned by a complicit billionaire, and that has robust muting/blocking features...and see an "echo chamber?"
We argue with each other all the time. We just do it while being able to block racists, trolls, and disingenuous people.,
Hi. As someone who has signed up for multiple social media accounts and you are one of hundreds of pundits that I follow, I have zero personal knowledge or opinion of Elon, Donald, or the two major American political parties. Can you and only you tell me what I should think about those?
Ah yes, I too am actually really struck by how these people seem to think that all of us are mindless drones who depend on your direction to, uh, have opinions?
Did they not see you get egged multiple times by people on here? Or does it not count as criticism because you didn't become permanently hostile to all dissent? Maybe you need to freak out more.
If they want, they can come to apartment andI can tell them exactly why I personally think they are pieces of shit who are absolutely no better than Trump supporters.
I can’t promise I won’t throw something at them. But at least they will know that it is being thrown from my hand and not yours.
(1) Don't have the stomach for the gagging stench of sanctimony, but this caught my eye early; "of the left’s growing hypersensitivity to ideas they find offensive" What? Like book banning and denying human rights to female humans? Fuck me...
Oh, and we refuse to engage "in rigorous debate".
(2) Which, according to Meigs, would be the sensible way to find solutions to the issues we find problematic, like finding myriad ways to make it difficult if not impossible for people, especially those likely to vote for Democrats, to vote.
(3) Then this; "progressives now treat opposing ideas not as errors that need to be rebutted with facts, but as dangerous contagions". What bollocks is this?
We rebut with facts until we're blue in the face and get the response, "well, I don't agree. I believe..."
How can you argue with that?
(4) That's about as far as I could go. Meigs is annoyed that the left, liberals, progressives, humanists and those that actually hold to the tenets of whatever faith they follow, don't want to have tea and crumpets, on the lawn, with people who think gas chambers were a great "solution".
It's all projection.
This is how conservatives function. Their opinions are given to them from higher sources, so they understand that is how liberals operate and the they point to singular, popular liberals as the singular source on our side.
Yeah, they presume that, despite so many of us being in knowledge-work (STEM and liberal arts), as well as parents who care what world is being left to their kids, we are unable/unwilling to think for ourselves. They need to take a step back, a few deep breaths, and examine their own behavior.
Any time I’m confronted with a topic on which I need to have an opinion I hand-write a letter and send it to you. How lucky I am that you respond every time!
Maybe this is one of their “I know you are but what am I” -type missives where they know, in their hearts, that too many on their side are reprogrammable meatbags, while they insist that no, it is we who are
Not sorry to say, I do 100% listen to you for how to shop clothing for my husband. Your commentary is a bonus read that validates many of my already-held opinions. 🤷♀️
They're very unpopular so they're unfamiliar with having people organically agreeing with them. Maybe they should try having smart and persuasive positions?
Ok just so I'm clear on the messaging here: first, we all hate Commentary now. That's fine, never heard of them anyway. Second, we are all to spend some time outside today. Touching grass? Smoking weed? Doing yardwork? Awaiting your direction here before making any moves
Yes, your readers are mindless drones, as opposed to the two dozen enlightened thinkers who have recycled the same three opinion pieces and patted themselves on the back endlessly ever since some students had the gall to suggest their school's pulled pork sandwich wasn't bahn mi.
They're used to the standard NYT columnist, who has the goal of writing a thing that no one agrees with, usually because it's very obviously wrong. Someone who says things people agree with must be using mind control.
legit man, i have respected ur writing and considered ur opinions thought-provoking for years, yet never once have i like. brigaded someone at your behest, and sometimes im like “hm nope, not sure about this post” and scroll on by
and i think this is a fairly common Bouie Experience???
The idea we can’t be stupid of our own volition and that we need someone to coach our idiocy…no, we OWN our occasional brainlessness. We don’t need it shoveled down our gullets like MAGA baby birds waiting for mom and dad FOXNews to feed them propaganda worms.
related to this are the people who have said that my being mean on the internet is emblematic of why democrats lose elections. and it’s like, huh? what are you talking about? go touch grass!
Yes, if there is a lesson from the Trump era, it is that being mean turns off voters. Heaven help you if you admit to sexual assault! You’ll definitely lose the Bible belt.
All of the focus on you notwithstanding, what do you make of the central thesis—that Bluesky has created a zone where left-leaning voices self-isolate and lose the ability to reach outside our own bubble?
I think it is just nice to listen to people that have educated opinions with actual substance behind them. The list of those people is getting smaller by the month.
He’s so close to connecting the dots. On bksy he can simply block the very extreme voices that bother him. No big deal. And I say this as someone who *has* swum in bi-political waters. I wrote for NY Press in the 90s ffs.
The biggest issues of the last election
(1) the economy
(2) people elevating low follower accounts or bots for a well deserved swatting on social media accounts
(3) whether the constitutional republic should be permitted to exist
(4) no DMs, no lists, unlimited emojis
I mean that crema looked really good yesterday, but I'm not doing your will until I at least know more specifics about the type of bean your using (how roasted, where from, how processed). 🙏☀️💙☕
Their problem is that they view voters as a resource, they don’t fear us. Republicans have to keep pushing farther right because they fear being primaried for not being extreme enough.
The Democrats win elections in spite of the fossilized party leadership, wall to wall conservative agitprop, and voter suppression schemes. I doubt some dickhead that is taking offense to feeling seen will make that much of a difference.
Jamelle - I knocked doors in suburban Philadelphia last fall and the voters were crying out for Starship Troopers episode of Unclear and Present Danger.
I don’t know about you, but my being mean on the internet is because it’s a place to vent; I get that in person we have to grit our teeth and try and persuade the stupidest people on the planet (this is also why I’m not a campaign consultant).
I think it advances the false idea that liberal or leftist people don't really exist and therefore shouldn't be acknowledged as a real option, much less something to engage with honestly.
They ascribe the ethos of the right wing maga cultists to everyone.
Many of them support the tech fascists because they have a truly incredible level of disdain for the intellectual firepower and critical thinking ability of all but the insular “cognitive elites” they imagine themselves a part of.
I'm probably considered center-right here, unless I'm being added to a "Zionist Fascism Supporter" list.
And that's fine, because interactions here don't support Elon Musk!
Of course they do. They will attack any way they can. But know this, they attack with futility. Nobody can contain Good people who refuse to be subjugated any longer. This subterfuge by our politicians has gone on too long under the guise of good. These people have been lying to us. Now we know.
They’re just mad because they don’t know 75% of the words we use on this app. They need a companion dictionary to actually understand most of the content.
Well, when you consider THEIR readers probably don't have any thoughts about anything beyond what their columnists tell them to have... surely you can understand why they'd reach that conclusion.
They sound like they are sad that Bluesky exists. They were hoping there was no place that left lining people could go so that we could block them. All Bluesky allows us to do is block A$$hats.
I truly think they don’t know how to respond to genuine intellectual arguments and—deep down—know this about themselves. So this is what they got left to try to save face as “public intellectuals.”
“move made sense as an expression of the left’s growing hypersensitivity to ideas leftists find offensive.” Yeah offensive ideas like trans people don’t deserve rights and only white men are there on merit, and women shouldn’t have bodily autonomy.
It’s always easier to rationalize a leader with minions than to face the idea that others share opinions, thoughts, and beliefs. It fits their narrative of the “liberal media,” meanwhile everyone here is screaming for said media to wake up and stop carrying water for tyranny.
Slightly off topic but it's a real tell of incompetence that he insisted on a still from Get Smart before the show switched to color. Takes a lot of work to go for bespoke cultural references and still screw them up
I do indeed seek and respect your opinions and council on important (newfangled cereals) matters and less-important (90s crime-ish pictures) matters ❤️
Comments
They cannot conceive that we are ourselves sentient beings.
😋
We argue with each other all the time. We just do it while being able to block racists, trolls, and disingenuous people.,
But what do we do next?
How do you think we should feel about that?
Sir.
I can’t promise I won’t throw something at them. But at least they will know that it is being thrown from my hand and not yours.
Oh, and we refuse to engage "in rigorous debate".
We rebut with facts until we're blue in the face and get the response, "well, I don't agree. I believe..."
How can you argue with that?
If I encounter an event on which you have not opined, I simply do not have an opinion on it. Very straightforward.
This is how conservatives function. Their opinions are given to them from higher sources, so they understand that is how liberals operate and the they point to singular, popular liberals as the singular source on our side.
and i think this is a fairly common Bouie Experience???
They clearly have never seen the other sides posts or podcasts. Lots of stupid people out there to ignore.
So maybe a reverse style cultism?
(1) the economy
(2) people elevating low follower accounts or bots for a well deserved swatting on social media accounts
(3) whether the constitutional republic should be permitted to exist
(4) no DMs, no lists, unlimited emojis
https://bsky.app/profile/theverge.com/post/3lkduffxlds2o
Related evergreen meme about those people:
Always.
please my children are starving
And one who takes this guy on walks
Many of them support the tech fascists because they have a truly incredible level of disdain for the intellectual firepower and critical thinking ability of all but the insular “cognitive elites” they imagine themselves a part of.
And that's fine, because interactions here don't support Elon Musk!
~Us probably
That which they are aware is true of MAGA **must** also be true of not-MAGA, right?
Please restate.
beans, beans, beans, beans, beans, beans, beans,
baked, baked, baked, baked beans
That beautiful bean footage
A baked bean haiku
seven then five aren't much, but
that's haiku for you
Properly it should have a nature reference and a moment of insight.
A seasonal reference with this version would be tough, though.
(I'd be plumping for a "chained haiku" so that you could work in a snowball in Hell...)
Baking them makes them better
Trees are also nice
😊
Thanks
Now, what should I have for lunch, JB?
They're always telling on themselves.
Do you pull it off better than I would have though? Begrudgingly, yes. Frustratingly so, even!
But at the end of the day it's still a denim suit, and too much for me. Call it Millennial trauma.