Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #BretBug
Most recents (5)
Bret Stephens thinks that progressives on twitter engaged in counterspeech are more powerful and more dangerous than president Trump.
Bret likes to invoke Socrates, but his notion of free speech can not withstand an ounce of Socratic inquiry.
(Sigh.., 1/x, I guess)
Bret likes to invoke Socrates, but his notion of free speech can not withstand an ounce of Socratic inquiry.
(Sigh.., 1/x, I guess)
Stephens asserts that Trump is not dangerous because he is incompetent.
With over 120,000 Americans dead of COVID, he might consider that Trump’s incompetence is itself a clear and present threat to the country and all its traditions.
(2/x)
With over 120,000 Americans dead of COVID, he might consider that Trump’s incompetence is itself a clear and present threat to the country and all its traditions.
(2/x)
But let’s set that aside. Stephens warns that the real danger is that statues will come down, and that advertisers will pull advertising from hateful content, and that people will be held to account for racist speech acts when they only meant them ironically.
(3/x)
(3/x)
IMO, the post #Bretbug commentary has been pretty good at interrogating what's going on underneath beyond the fact that Stephens is a thin-skinned hypocrite. The discussions of power have been especially useful.
As a lot of folks have noted, Stephens was convinced of his own power in CC'ing the provost. He believed his status conferred some kind of juice that held sway in the world. It's obnoxious, but I think it's part of a larger system of elites.
I immediately thought of Amy Chua defending Kavanaugh, using her privileged status as a Yale law professor, while denying that her daughter was even eligible for a clerkship, followed by daughter getting a clerkship. This is a mindset immune from broader social consideration.
Alrighty then.
1 - @davekarpf, I read the tweet and laughed. I regret not retweeting it.
2 - #StreisandEffect writ large (@bretstephensNY you should Google this)
3 - Do any American conservative pundits or pols understand what "punching down" means?
#thread
1 - @davekarpf, I read the tweet and laughed. I regret not retweeting it.
2 - #StreisandEffect writ large (@bretstephensNY you should Google this)
3 - Do any American conservative pundits or pols understand what "punching down" means?
#thread
I found this @Slate essay from 2017 about a @bretstephensNY interview with @voxdotcom to be enlightening. Thank you, @bing, for putting it in the right sidebar when I went looking for Brett's age (45)
slate.com/news-and-polit…
slate.com/news-and-polit…
Dear @washingtonpost - seriously folks. Update your stock photo of @bretstephensNY! He barely looks 21 in that pic.
washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08…
washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08…
The PERFECT thing is that this asshole tries to intimidate an online critic by CCing his boss, when called out in public quit Twitter, and then sought out the platform *where he knew he wouldn’t be held accountable for his actions* to complain. This is WEAPONS GRADE ENTITLEMENT.
The ability of #BretBug to think “I’m going to use my unfettered access to national television to complain about how a literary prof oppressed me with a joke” and not see the irony there should be immediately disqualifying for any job as a public thinker or writer.
I’m a little hurt, obviously, as I’ve called out #BretStephens as a preening intellectual lightweight lickspittle multiple times and gotten way more retweets than this professor and he’s never tried to contact my studio heads.
Here’s a brief story about @davekarpf, @BretStephensNYT, bedbugs, and heavy-handed attempts to stifle campus speech.
Attention, Internet:
@BretStephensNYT’s nickname is “Bedbug” now.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
@BretStephensNYT’s nickname is “Bedbug” now.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
