One other line from that piece on The Closer that's worth unpacking:
The implication seems to be that it's inherently suspicious or problematic for someone with more power to claim to be the victim of someone with less power. Let's test that general view.
If a meth-addicted homeless man stabs a middle class insurance adjuster to death outside her home, is she his victim?

Was Princess Diana the victim of the paparazzi?

Can teen hackers victimize millionaire actresses?

Power dynamics are tremendously complicated and dynamic.
That's not to say that Cobb is totally wrong--inflated claims of victimhood from the powerful absolutely can be wrongheaded and even dangerous. But you've got to make the fleshed out argument, not beg the question based on relative power along one dimension.

• • •

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

Keep Current with Conor Friedersdorf

Conor Friedersdorf 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 @conor64

24 Oct
Here's part of @jelani9's article on The Closer that deals with a claim I've been thinking about more 1/x
Is there any evidence that content on Netflix can lead to direct harm? Yes, 13 Reasons Why, seems to have done so, and was irresponsible, given what we've long known about suicide.
npr.org/2019/04/30/718…

Is there any comparable evidence of a comedy special doing harm? Ever?
I have found no evidence of that. No one has cited any evidence of it. Yet it's treated in piece after piece as though it's *obviously* a well-grounded concern. I want more than question begging on this point, partly for normal reasons of rigor, but also because
Read 4 tweets
19 Oct
There's one claim in this essay on the Chappelle special that I want to discuss real quick:

rainofterra.com/it-was-never-a…
To me, this is clearly mistaken, which is to say: Dave Chappelle, other famous comedians, and many not so famous comedians can and do routinely mock, disparage, and poke fun at all sorts of groups, including the ones that the Successor Ideology understands as the most powerful
To be clear, I don't deny that our culture sometimes does devalue trans people. It does, and that's a shame. My claim is that *famous comedian can joke about group with impunity* is true of almost all if not all groups, not evidence of anything about any particular group.
Read 4 tweets
13 Sep
The confidence with which some attribute this monocausally to "racism" despite significant evidence that other factors are at play is the latest illustration of how reflexive adherence to an Ur narrative harms our ability to address what is, in this case, a life or death problem.
Here is a USA Today poll about attitudes toward public safety in Detroit usatoday.com/story/news/pol… Ask yourself if @jasonintrator's claim can be squared with its findings
One needn't pay particularly close attention to know there is an uptick in murders in many American cities, and that people are concerned by that trens because murder is scary and bad.
Read 5 tweets
6 Sep
I've been thinking a lot about this. I share @radleybalko's view that far more damage is being done by Tucker Carlson (e.g.) than people making horse paste jokes. I disagree that a profusion of condemnatory pieces would improve things. Here's my thinking for your consideration:
1. While I have long believed that e.g. Tucker Carlson is acting in bad faith on many things, I don't think, e.g., Joe Rogan is acting in bad faith on Ivermectin, and condemning people who are wrong in damaging ways but are acting in good faith automatically loses a lot of people
2. Likewise, the premise that one *must* be acting in bad faith and/or be worthy of condemnation for believing in the promise of Ivermectin obviously rings hollow to *people who believe Ivermectin has promise to treat Covid*
Read 13 tweets
3 Sep
Here again is my piece on pandemic Australia
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

And below, a thread with some of the email responses to it:
From an Australian expat: Image
From a frustrated Australian: Image
Read 18 tweets
13 Aug
Yesterday, @Grits4Breakfast, a criminal justice reformer I respect and frequently agree with, criticized the recent piece wherein I argue that, as a matter of substance and rhetoric, the slogan/lodestar "defund the police" should be replaced. (1/x)
My piece made clear that the national Democratic Party had abandoned the slogan--indeed, that is a cornerstone of my case that it is utterly unpopular and politically untenable. But in @Grits4Breakfast's telling, the slogan at this point is nothing but a GOP talking point.
Yet here is a new article in The Nation, which chose, among all the criminal justice debates it could have hosted, "Do We Need Police?" thenation.com/article/societ…
Read 11 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!

:(