Thread by @PnictogenHorses

one more rumination for tonight, I think. this one is about something that's been called "contrarianism"—a word that's been coined in some attempt to describe the perplexing behavior of celebrity 'influencers', specially the more toxic ones like @mtaibbi and @mattyglesias.

(1/x)

but the behavior is probably quite general. just about *all* of the #journalist and #media figures who have some privileged access to the press and to mass audience have learned to behave in this way on @Twitter and social media: they run away from challenging questions.

(2/x)

the blue-checked "influencers" of the @LPDonovan / @StevenTDennis / @JakeSherman sort (I've picked three names almost at random) are the people who have *benefited the most* from the #Internet-ization of #journalism. social media has amplified their social privilege.

(3/x)

these are the rank-and-file of the corporate #media apparatus. a lot of them work for big-name media outlets: @MSNBC, @Bloomberg, @FoxNews, @TheAtlantic. but there a huge cloud of smaller-time #journalists, "independent" people, and @SubstackInc and @Quillette detritus.

(4/x)

the extreme social stratification and inequality that's intrinsic to #capitalism means that even though someone like (say) @MattZeitlin or @mtracey has far more social privilege than most folks, they're very far down the pecking order from (say) @maddow or @KeithOlbermann.

(5/x)

this steep gradient in social status have fuelled the false narrative, promoted by @mtaibbi and @bariweiss and the rest of @elonmusk's gang of kept propaganda-slingers, that there's something vaguely *working class* and even *revolutionary* about the smaller-timers.

(6/x)

this brings me back to the "contrarianism".

it's very easy to tell that people like @mtaibbi and @bariweiss and @jbarro aren't "working class" or "just folks" in any genuine way for a simple reason: they never act like it.

infallibly, they behave like obnoxious snobs.

(7/x)

they all *advertise* on @Twitter, freely do business with fellow #journalists on #Twitter, and spend a lot of time toadying up to Twitter's boss @elonmusk (and asking him for special favors), but they all act like they're above this place—gods condescending to the rabble.

(8/x)

now, AS journalists (that's how @mtaibbi &c. all describe themselves, anyway) these blue-checked #media snobs therefore have a duty to the public that they're supposed to be fulfilling. this is basic journalistic ethics: they're *supposed* to be responding to the public.

(9/x)

the @Twitter community IS "the public"—there's a few hundred million persons here.

here, the decades of lies that #capitalism has told about the #Internet come into play: remember, capitalism has tried asserting that the Internet is merely a *toy*...a *luxury* in fact.

(10/x)

#conservative propaganda and @GOP politician eagerly promote this lie—but then, Republican politicians love claiming that food and housing and medicine are mere luxuries.

phone and Internet service is necessary to daily life, but they claim it's a technological toy.

(11/x)

of course, @mtaibbi's buddy @elonmusk—the spoiled-rotten man-child of Mars, who once played with emeralds smirched with the miasma of human suffering—also endorses this fraudulent pretence that the #Internet and @Twitter are mere toys; that's how he sees *everything*.

(12/x)

the only folks on @Twitter who are *real* to @elonmusk, @mtaibbi, @bariweiss, @lhfang, and the rest of the right-wing conspiracy that's trying to exploit @Twitter for the @GOP's political aims, are the _loyal fans_.

the rest of us are scum in mom's basement, or whatnot.

(13/x)

after all (to follow the twisted "logic" at work) the #Internet and @Twitter are merely playthings, which means that nobody here must be *serious*, right? we're all just playing around. the @elonmusk / @mtaibbi / @MrAndyNgo fanclub are grownups among snotty children.

(14/x)

needless to say the @elonmusk / @mtaibbi fanclub *tell on themselves*: Musk and Taibbi are profoundly immature and emotionally _stunted_ human beings, and most of their fanclub is even worse off. they project their own puerility onto the people who ask awkward questions.

(15/x)

so, @mtaibbi and @mattyglesias and the rest of the blue-checked "influencer" crowd feel no obligation whatever to do their duty to the public here, and answer questions put to them by members of the public (such as myself and my friend Chara.) we are *beneath them*.

(16/x)

hence the "contrarianism", which amounts to nothing more than a refusal to answer questions. @mtaibbi and @bariweiss and the rest of them know very well that nobody over an Internet connection can FORCE them to answer, so they think they can brazen it out with deception.

(17/x)

refusing to answer legitimate questions—especially when those questions impinge *directly* upon @mtaibbi's fitness and honesty as a #journalist—is in fact _lying_, even if Taibbi consoles himself with the illusion that he's telling no falsehoods. it's *lying by omission*.

(18/x)

that's why @mtaibbi's #TwitterFiles and #Hamilton68 "reporting" is deceitful: it's carefully selected to advance a biased narrative in which @GOP criminality is discreetly erased whilst trivial details about Democrats are blown up into the *suggestion* of a scandal.

(19/x)

@mtaibbi is *lying by omission* on behalf of @elonmusk, to whom Taibbi almost _certainly_ has financial ties (e.g. a stake in $TSLA) that he's refusing to come clean about—MORE lying by omission. Taibbi's used to lying by omission; it's how he hopes to evade rape charges.

(20/x)

similarly #journalist @mattyglesias refuses to answer questions about his associations with 'whıte' supremacist and eugenicist cranks like @EPoe187 and @wesyang—again, lying by omission. it's not "contrarianism" for Yglesias to dodge questions; it's plain, simple deceit.

(21/x)

no member of the Fourth Estate is supposed to be behaving in this way; "it's @Twitter lol" is not an excuse.

@jack Dorsey is guilty of a myriad sins—like helping to incubate a fascıst movement—but *one* of those sins is enabling the disappearance of journalistic ethics.

(22/x)

honestly it was probably a grotesque breach of professional ethics simply to allow #journalists to use @Twitter as an advertising platform, though that may be going too far. it was certainly near-criminal for @jack to allow *politicians* to advertise here.

~Mona Drafter

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