"What happened to Matt Taibbi?" 1.) He retained a journalist's skepticism of insane BS, 2.) he noticed that more and more of it was coming from the professional classes whose authority derives from sobriety in judgment and impartiality in execution
taibbi.substack.com/p/the-lets-go-…
taibbi.substack.com/p/the-lets-go-…
3. He did not succumb to the peer pressure that overtook journalists in the Trump years to collude with the insane BS
4. He makes a lot of money because there is demand for independent writing that preserves critical distance from a vertically integrated messaging system that has enshrined verbal and emotional incontinence as a form of virtue
He opposes the coalescence of natsec operatives, corporate news outlets, party apparathiks, and oligarch-astroturfed pseudo-events -- like all sensible people, he sees it as an insane carnival
Substack is just a platform...but those at the top of its leaderboard fit a similar profile: non-right-wingers who saw that zombie speech and insane histrionics have become endemic as journalism was integrated into the messaging system
One of my purposes in launching my own Substack is to help build out a journalistic culture that proceeds from the aforementioned axioms. wesleyyang.substack.com/p/personal-note
Taibbi is a frontline warrior inveighing against the derangement of our professional classes. I take that derangement as axiomatic, inquire into its cultural sources, but also seek to elaborate a sensibility for those forced to live in its midst wesleyyang.substack.com/p/in-the-cathe…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
