I’ve seen a lot of explanations for this but I think the stupidest, pettiest one is correct - college kids being rude really has been the most pressing problem facing the opinion column set turning “someone protested me” into a national crisis because it’s the only time they experience negativity
I saw Thomas Friedman get cream-pied onstage at Brown
*not that kind
Not which kind!?
It's truly staggering how many of these people's villain origin story is "a woman/minority was rude to me once and I decided to become the Joker over it."
"I’ve seen a lot of explanations for this but I think the stupidest, pettiest one is correct" might be the new Occam's Razor
It can be hard to believe unless you've actually been able to spend time in these milieus, but the thing about the media elite, meaning the top top levels, is that they are rich successful people who hate themselves and everyone around them and are breathtakingly un-self-aware
Bc if they spend a second in real self reflection they will realize all the harm they’ve caused
I personally found how they first decry “personal experience” as an unreasonable obstacle (implied leftwing argument) and then, several paragraphs later, highlight how important it was to have Jewish students provide their personal perspective post 10/7.
I think the latter point is totally valid but at least be vaguely consistent within your own oped!
The irony is once the “snowflake” crowd encountered any pushback, they immediately took steps so they’d never have to encounter pushback ever again.
It's less them being rude and more them being heard at all. Because, now this is history, College Kids have been "Rude" since the concept came into being and you can easily find examples of stories of Toffs in Top hats causing actual harm "in the name of Japes" going back as long as you like
College kids being rude predate the English language by a fair bit. Frankly they’re better behaved now than the denizens of the Cathedral schools.
Social media was that it addicted the wealthy and triggered narcissistic injury on a new scale. Robber barons and aristocrats of the past were always getting soothed and isolated. Now the rage machine got ahold of them.
my rep (MGP) has a grudge against urban constituents because a dumb 20something was condescending toward her husband while they were in college. it’s very cool when people make their shit our problem instead of just like, going to therapy or growing up or whatever 🤷🏻♀️
From pundits to tech oligarchs to mansion owners so many in that class use an excuse for going fascist that's just the hack comic who blames and resents the audience for not laughing at mean unfunny bits. An entire authoritarian regime with the mindset of an aggrieved shock jock.
Hurt feelings are more important than genocide
My default assumption from when I was at college til now was 'Students will protest, and represent all manner of opinions, and that is a) thought provoking b) healthy for students AND society c) part of the college experience'. We live in a time where the stupidest and pettiest triumph.
I think it was a @nberlat.bsky.social take that the Chattering Class folks tell themselves that fascists are their friends and they'll always be One Of The Good Ones but can absolutely see themself being booed off a college campus, so they're instinctively defensive of figures like Charles Murray.
Yet many if not most of them are on a list nonetheless
more or less; chattering class solidarity.
Yes, and it hits them in the pocketbook because the easy money for the high-profile pundit is in paid speaking engagements (many on college campuses)
Similarly to how not being able to go to spin class and get a latte afterwards because of Covid sent all the upper middle class white people into a death spiral.
This is essentially my theory of reactionary centrism: guys like Chait and Yglesias pine for the Obama years because 1. that was the apex of their influence 2. they didn't get yelled at online and they're mostly upset that the party moved left without them (though Yggy's Nazi chatrooms don't help)
Many were "me too"ed, even if it wasn't made public. Settlements, NDAs, and quiet resignations.
They had resentments before. Young female employees and interns are no longer putting up with their harassment and general shittiness to women.
Is there anything to hiring policies and tenure at news organizations being such that the opinion class tends to run in cyclical age cohorts. So, in the past few years a bunch of columnists asked themselves all at once, "why do my kids (grandkids) hate me?"
more "kids these days" 🤦
They are special ivy educated people. How dare children tell me my experience is wrong!
Once again, they are desperate to make not liking them against the law.
Yep. Very similar to Hannity leaving NYC because of “mean looks”.
their primary experience of suffering in modern life is from rude replies on social media and from their college age kids' disapproval at the dinner table
How about we just take the whole opinion column set (and tv pundits) and fire them into the sun?
Well, they obviously enjoy fantasizing about being persecuted so that would be a dream come true for them as well.
See? Now everybody's happy! Oh wait no... No they won't like that, it's too *utopian*
Jon Chait is worried he'll be scolded at Middlebury so makes a huge issue out of Charles Murray being scolded at Middlebury. It's a real threat to him, unlike racism, eugenics, or even censorship from right-wing governments.
If you can’t not care about what students think because, for God’s sake, they’re students, then you have no business shaping public opinion as a pundit.
I really cannot wrap my head around the protested individuals simultaneously 1) being proud of having "controversial takes" that piss people off and 2) being upset when they've pissed people off/people don't like them for their takes
yes “people were rude to me on the internet” is a huge factor in the reactionary turn of the tech elites - they’d rather support a dictator as long as he ensures no one is allowed to say mean things about them
“My unpopular opinions should be popular ” runs our lives
wealthy narcs have been the bane of history since the pyramids
💯
It’s also the whole basis of the anti-woke “comedy” set. Rogan can’t stand being told he’s not funny for bashing trans people and therefore civilization is on the brink of collapse
“They’re all terrified. When do you stop with the jokes?” "Marc Maron rips “hacks” Joe Rogan & co. for punching down at trans people, immigrants etc. even after they’ve had their rights stripped and are now living in fear." bsky.app/profile/thet...
That Duncan dude backtracked. I didn't know who that was until Maron recommended Elephant Graveyard this week.
Someone else watched Comedy Jonestown this week! Depending on who I talk about it, I have to mention Bouie to some, Maron to others.
At least until the tanks roll down their streets. Again there are a LOT of people who just won't learn until they personally get burnt
it's why theyre largely quiet or even cooperative on id-scan and face-scan internet legislation - it will give them the tools they need to find and punish people for being rude
Skin like crepe paper
meanwhile they've been shitheads to everyone who isn't them for the last 500 years and none of us have become fascists.
I don't even think "ensures no one says mean things about them" is going to satisfy them. They seem to want "must say nice things about them"
Trump unleashing an authoritarian power grab and shredding the constitution NYT Opinion Writer: “ The issue is that my daughter at NYU had the tenacity to question my infallibility. Therefore she and NYU, and not the masked goons kidnapping people, are the problem.”
That for sure, and also, for a lot of these assholes, their cultural milieu is a bunch of wealthy, well-educated, coastal elites, who they find annoying while resenting not being fully respected intellectually or ideologically by them.
Interesting! Makes a lot of sense. @fisherdanar.bsky.social @farhanasultana.com