Share this page!

David Roberts Profile picture
Twitter logo
11 Feb, 5 tweets, 1 min read
I'm watching the Britney documentary and I'm barely 15 minutes in and I'm already gripping the arms of my chair and grimacing. 😬
There is absolutely no way to exaggerate the misogyny of the '90s and '00s. It's so grotesque.
OMFG I hate all these people.
What's staying with me is that the famous incident of bald Britney attacking the vehicle was completely different than I remembered. I would have attacked that MFer too.
I should have known @constancegrady would write a great post about this. vox.com/culture/222765…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with David Roberts

David Roberts Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @drvolts

David Roberts Profile picture
12 Feb
Across the country, every day, the petty tyrants of America's local gentry hire & fire people, promote or don't promote them, for arbitrary sexist & racist reasons. These ubiquitous miniature "cancellations" don't get any press or any notice. No one writes op-eds about them.
But cumulatively, especially over the course of decades, they add up to an amount of suffering & injustice that absolutely DWARFS any conceivable estimation of "white people getting fired for racism." They are the REAL cancel culture & they're so familiar as to be invisible.
What makes prominent white people getting called out for racism so salient -- what makes it jump out to us, to feel awkward & unusual & noteworthy -- is that it is, comparatively, *vanishingly rare*. It's anomalous & thus remarkable.
Read 8 tweets
David Roberts Profile picture
11 Feb
Twitter is so painful to read right now. People want the merits of the impeachment case to matter so badly. They want the anguish & eloquence of those whose lives were threatened to matter. They want TRUTH to matter & decency to finally win a round. But it's not going to happen.
It didn't ultimately matter when they stole the 2000 election, or crammed a bunch of authoritarian policy through in response to a terrorist attack they failed to prevent, or went to war with the wrong country at a cost of billions of dollars & millions of lives ...
... or wandered haplessly into a global economic meltdown (hastened by their deregulation), or supported racist conspiracy theories about the first black president, or degraded norms to obstruct everything that president tried to do, or elected an incompetent narcissist ...
Read 6 tweets
David Roberts Profile picture
11 Feb
I'm a longtime filibuster hater, and I thought I understood how random, contingent, & ridiculous it is -- but even I underestimated. HIGHLY recommend this discussion b/t @chrislhayes & @AJentleson.
The Founders were intensely aware of the difference between majority & super-majority rule & very consciously did NOT choose the latter for the Senate. The filibuster was literally created by accident. It is a random historical quirk that is destroying this country.
And I would say that, to a first approximation, 100% of filibuster defenders are operating in bad faith -- defending it because it produces outcomes they support, not because it makes any f'ing sense or has any connection to the Founders' intent.
Read 4 tweets
David Roberts Profile picture
11 Feb
Good thread. If I may summarize: if you're a NIMBY, you're not a progressive, you're a conservative. Preserving your contingent historical privileges at the expense of newcomers is pretty much the definition of conservatism. All your yards signs won't change that.
Example: in Seattle, there's a district called Wallingford w/ a near-ideal location. Just incredibly valuable land. It's covered w/ single-family homes & homeowners are now seeking to designate the *entire district* "historical" to prevent zoning changes. historicwallingford.org
I guarantee 95+% of the homeowners involved identify as "liberal." I bet they have hemp tote bags & would have voted for Obama for a third term. But in fact they are involved in a morally repellent attempt to reify past racism & classism. They are agents of racism & classism.
Read 4 tweets
David Roberts Profile picture
8 Feb
The more I think about the Bruce Springsteen Jeep ad, the more disgusted I get. It's allegedly a call for unity, but it is drenched in a very particular culture's iconography: a Christian church (that superimposes the cross on the US flag), farms, rural living, "the middle" ...
... it's all so white. This is the "America" of nationalist fairy tales: rural land, settled by self-reliant white farmers & good Christians. It's all trucks & dust & manual labor & squinting at the horizon while wiping sweat from your brow. This is the kind of "unity" ...
... designed to comfort (or at least not threaten) white people. It says, "let's unify by joining together to reaffirm America's mythical self-conception, despite the real-world violence & repression it has always entailed."
Read 8 tweets
David Roberts Profile picture
7 Feb
I guess I really am Gen X because watching Daveed Diggs & Sesame Street shill for f'ing Doordash gives me the hurls.
Wow I was kind of kidding before, but watching these ads ... there really is zero compunction about selling out any more. Any old actor will reprise/exploit any old role, any artist will sell any song, all IP is up for grabs. Am I silly to be a little bummed out by this?
Read 6 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @drvolts has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @drvolts!

Read all threads by @drvolts