Jen Davies SchneiderJan 6, 2023
Evan Urquhart 🏳️‍⚧️

Powerful piece of journalism by Lydia Polgreen for the New York Times. It's in the opinion section, but to me it represents everything opinion ought to be, but rarely is, weaving the story of a math teacher in Alabama who was forced to retire after Libs of TikTok targeted him for also performing as a drag queen into a reflection on where we are, how we got here, and how, as queer people, we need to resist the movement to strip our humanity away.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/opinion/lgbtq-rights-activism-alabama.html

Opinion | Want to Understand L.G.B.T.Q. Life in America? Go to Alabama.

I went to Alabama to understand what our country’s anti-gay backlash looks like on the ground — and what it really means to fight back.

Jan 6, 2023 at 12:53pmWeb
Show threadEvan Urquhart 🏳️‍⚧️Jan 6, 2023

Something that I think can be lost in more shallow critiques of NYT and NYT opinion is that there's a divide between the reactionary writers and everyone else.

The reactionaries are LAZY. Pamela Paul gets a column out of "What ever happened to Free to be You and Me?"

But progressive writers like Polgreen (or Jamelle Bouie, others) often do real reporting or in depth analysis to complement their opinion writing. They work harder, for less credit. Important to remember them in our critiques.

Show threadMazal ​Jan 6, 2023
@e_urq 🙏​
Show threadmyrmepropagandistJan 6, 2023
@e_urq I do more serious research for my social media posts than I suspect David Brooks does for his pithy columns about how the left just doesn’t get the working class — but his pampered east coast literal servant having self somehow does … for reasons.
Show threadEvan Urquhart 🏳️‍⚧️Jan 6, 2023

@futurebird There's part of me that never stops being shocked by how lazy and bad David Brooks' writing is.

I first had the revelation that the guy from the PBS NewsHour was a complete hack 15 yrs ago (or whenever) but the rawness and anger of that realization goes on and on and on.

Show threadMollyNYCJan 6, 2023

@e_urq

Intellectual laziness is a fundamental characteristic of the Right overall.

Show threadSasha AkhaviJan 6, 2023
@e_urq Reactionariness *is* at heart lazy; it’s physical and intellectual laziness politicized. When Buckley said they were standing athwart history yelling “Stop!” he was being 100% honest. The reactionary stance is *reaction* to a world pressing for more universal justice and well-being, by those whose primary concern is that the amount they now enjoy might be lost.
Show threadAndres MorenoJan 6, 2023

@e_urq

It's not just the OpEd columnists: the headlines and the coverage is shallow.

What happened to the "Red Tide" in the 2022 elections? Why the headline with the House being deadlocked when it is the GOP that is deadlocked?

And the "both sides" fetish! Even the binary opposition between the Dems and the GOP is shallow--what about truly progressive politics?

And don't get me started on their coverage of US wars...

Show threadJustine S. HarrisonJan 6, 2023
@e_urq libs of tiktok is run by a psychotic orthodox Jewish woman from Brooklyn and it’s really sad that the gop and the Christian right have so bought into this ultra orthodox view of homosexuality and humanity. Fuck this crap.
Show threadyuletideJan 6, 2023
@e_urq wow that was amazing