Y'all are really pushing all of the Black journalists out of the industry, so that you can ask trash questions like this?
Embarrassing.
Some questions are harmful in and of themselves. It doesn't matter what's said in the debate, or who "wins."
Pretending that this is not trash, is weakness.
Wow. The NYTimes is so far over the shark it's all the way to Missouri.
@mekkaokereke I saw that on the homepage and decided not to give it my click
Is it deeper than the headline at least?
I will never know.
@mekkaokereke Oh ok. You're in the same position as me, then? I.e., didn't give it your click
Being in media/writing/journalism I know all too well that homepage editors or social media editors may change headlines, deks, teasers to be completely non-reflective of the story, so sometimes I am wary. But anything that shows up in that right-most NYT column on the homepage is usually ope-ed trash and I ignore it
It's Ross Douthat. So no.
I was once approving of Ross Douthat as a *New York Times* oped columnist. But that was when I was younger. And easily misled. From Ross Douthat, *Privilege,* bottom of p. 184: >One successful foray ended on the guest bed of a high school friend's parents, with a girl who resembled a chunkier Reese Witherspoon drunkenly masticating my neck and cheeks. It had taken some time to reach this point--"Do most Harvard guys take so long to get what they want?" she had asked, pushing her tongue into my mouth. I wasn't sure what to say, but then I wasn't sure this was what I wanted. My throat was dry from too much vodka, and her breasts, spilling out of pink pajamas, threatened my ability to. I was supposed to be excited, but I was bored and somewhat disgusted with myself, with her, with the whole business... and then whatever residual enthusiasm I felt for the venture dissipated, with shocking speed, as she nibbled at my ear and whispered--"You know, I'm on the pill..." What squicks me out is (a) that the real turnoff for Ross Douthat is that she has taken responsibility for her own fertility and gone on the pill, and (b) that Ross Douthat does not take this to be a learning moment--is not self-reflective enough to say "Hmmm... If there are other men like me who are turned off by women who take responsibility for fertility control, isn't that likely to be a cause of more abortions?" Combine that with what Ross Douthat's dismissal of Belle Sawhill's point that free-as-in-beer (but not free-as-in-no-hassle) birth control appears to prevent 1/5 of abortions--and there is an awful lot here not to like, and an awfully good reason to think that Tyler Cowen or Kerry Howley or Virginia Postrel or any of a large number of other candidates would be an infinitely better choice for the job. And, of course, there is the other point: here is a Reese Witherspoon look-alike who has offered Ross Douthat the extremely precious gift of wanting to make love to him, and he writes her into his book in this way with what look to be sufficient identifying details. You can write that paragraph in a way that is calculated to try to make her feel bad about herself should she ever read it; you can write that paragraph in a way that does not try to make her feel bad about herself should she ever read it; normal human sociability and empathy suggests that one should try to do the first **second**; Ross Douthat chooses to do the second **first**....
@jilleduffy @mekkaokereke
they start with the desire to end "wokeness" and freely admit to just "working backwards" from there
in other words, it's a lurching slog just to say "racism and patriarchy are best friends, so if you want to help us bring back turbo-racism, you'll accept the need for patriarchy, too"
then they do some evo psych nonsense
(i did not pay for it, an online friend tracks these things to study conservative messaging)
@mekkaokereke I had originally not intended to let my nyt subscription lapse, but late last year that card expired and I needed to update payment details.
Only thing was, card numbers are 16 digits and the nyt payment info form has 16 chars for that field. Which has been instrumented with logic to insert a space after every 4 chars entered, so I only got to enter 13 digits.
Their customer service was all bots, no humans, so I just gave up.
Seeing s**t like this, I'm just happy about that.
@mekkaokereke for one, questions in journalism usually are answered with "no". But it still reads like a really biased piece.
And, of course, from a conservative standpoint, the previous head honchos did lose _some_ influence, due to more women in the workplace. Which, from their point of view, is negative.
From every other point of view, it's a positive development!
@mekkaokereke Can someone explain to me like I am a five year old what "conservative feminism" is?
I so far thought I know what "conservative" is and what "feminism" is.
And the Venn diagram of those two concepts shows to circles beneath each other. The distance between them is debateable, but they do not even touch!
WHAT THE FUCK IS "CONSERVATIVE FEMINISM"?!?!?!
"Dutiful Aryan Mothers of the Reich"
@mekkaokereke Did men ruin the workplace?
And can normal, actual feminism fix it?
@cstross @mekkaokereke @sophieschmieg Sure, but just like the quid pro quo for the quality is "restore de jure chattel slavery everywhere", the quid pro quo for the folks in the MAGA hats is "force women to marry".
Which in turn means "women can't get jobs, bank accounts, loans, or higher education" (at a minimum); all that is in living memory and the bottom two fifths of the male population, should we rank them by social desirability, want it back real bad.
@fazalmajid It takes about 10% of the population to have a revolution.
It's a system under selection. (Life is involved, so…) Incumbents (a man granted patriarchal status is an incumbent) cannot accept change because incumbency means "meaningful change" is the same thing as loss of status.
But there's no changing local maxima without going downslope some, and thus we get politics. (This is the problem of armies in an evolved hat. That _is_ progress.)
@cstross @graydon @fazalmajid @mekkaokereke @sophieschmieg
I wish this extinction burst would extinct, already. I remember discussion of this phenomenon back on Making Light, back in the late teens....
Until I see some actual measurable change, it's hard for me to think about this notion as anything but whistling in the dark.
@sidereal @cstross @graydon @fazalmajid @mekkaokereke @sophieschmieg
& Ghu knows, they'll be fighting every inch of the way....
@mhoye @steevmi1 @cstross @mekkaokereke @sophieschmieg
Oh, good. I thought I was the only one who finds tradwives to look and act like a kink.
Conservatives are always telling on themselves.
@cstross @mhoye @steevmi1 @mekkaokereke @sophieschmieg
That's the only reason "homophobia" and "transphobia" make sense as labels. They aren't afraid OF them, they are afraid they ARE them.
It feels like ninety percent of the hate is jealousy that they can't enjoy being themselves.
@realtegan @mhoye @steevmi1 @mekkaokereke @sophieschmieg
Remember those surveys OKCupid and Pornhub used to release, showing how their US user base was mostly in the Deep South and concentrated heavily in evangelical areas? (And you've got to have noticed the "sex abuser/pastor-or-republican" overlap in the news.)
@cstross @mhoye @steevmi1 @mekkaokereke @sophieschmieg
I was raised very conservative Christian, and I *know* the guilt and self-hatred involved in all this.
The difference between me and them is that I don't blame other people for my hang-ups, and I love it when other people are happy.
Plus, I freed myself of much of the guilt (although that stuff is soaked in deep, it's taking awhile to remove it), so I'm happy with myself now, too.
@atzanteol @mekkaokereke Ah, but it's not a stupid question, it's a bad-faith one. You could even call it smart, in a "low cunning" kind of way.
It's a very deliberate part of a very conscious effort to create a fascist state, one foundation of which is outright misogyny.
This is one case where "stupid or evil?" has a clear answer. Fucking evil.
@mekkaokereke "Can Conservative Feminism Save It?"
No.
It can't even protect itself from it's own men, why would anybody expect anything from White Feminism? You just have to look at JK Rowling....
@mekkaokereke lol, backlash then....
Rarely the Betteridge's Law applies this strongly.
Would Betteridge like this Headline? Read this terrible article to find out! 🤡
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