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Conor Friedersdorf Profile picture
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25 Nov, 3 tweets, 1 min read
Three quick thoughts on the Ahmaud Arbery verdict. 1) This was a terrible crime perpetrated by despicable men who belong locked up until their deaths. May the victim rest in peace, and I hope this helps give his family closure. (1/x)

nytimes.com/live/2021/11/2…
2) As in every individual jury verdict, we should be slow to extrapolate wildly and draw sweeping conclusions about America.
3) If you're someone who drew sweeping conclusions about the Rittenhouse case, notice that a Georgia jury where every member save one was white just rejected a self-defense claim and found three white men guilty of murdering a black man. They all face mandatory life sentences.

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More from @conor64

Conor Friedersdorf Profile picture
24 Oct
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.
Read 4 tweets
Conor Friedersdorf Profile picture
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
Conor Friedersdorf Profile picture
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
Conor Friedersdorf Profile picture
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
Conor Friedersdorf Profile picture
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
Conor Friedersdorf Profile picture
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

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