Thread by @KrisAtLarge

let's talk more about this business of bigotry being *fun*—an endlessly variable, endlessly *exciting* parade of crackpot theories and bizarre notions about colorful stereotypes that dazzle the childlike imaginations of @NateSilver538 and @jonathanchait and other bigots.

(1/x)

https://twitter.com/KrisAtLarge/status/1631358281162854400

I've been kicking @NateSilver538 a lot the last couple days, so I'll switch to @jonathanchait—peddler of transphobic rubbish that he's learned from his *own* "echo chamber". Chait, like Silver (and @mtaibbi &c.) lives in a little intellectual bubble saturated with bigotry.

(2/x)

@jonathanchait is hence *unable to tell* that basically all the information that he ever gets about trans persons is worthless garbage. there's an enormously well-funded right-wing machine for churning out transphobic propaganda, with heavy extremist #Christian support.

(3/x)

and because @jonathanchait (like @NateSilver538) is basically a complete infant, emotionally, he reacts badly to being told that he's peddling garbage. he's been taught a certain line of blather about "woke" this and "leftist echo chamber" that. it's mostly lies of course.

(4/x)

I've talked before about how bigots *spiral downward* into bigotry, since they run away from criticism and towards praise. @jonathanchait's "reward" for spreading transphobic bigotry is fawning praise and adulation and sweetheart treatment from other bigots. he likes that.

(5/x)

confronting *reality*, i.e. confronting the fact that he's been peddling nothing but propaganda all this time, would be very *hurtful* to @jonathanchait—and as a fearless truth-teller and paladin of the Fourth Estate, the last thing that Jon Chait wants to feel is *pain*.

(6/x)

*staying* bigoted, *staying* committed to peddling bigotry about trans people, is the more _fun_ option for @jonathanchait. all the other bigots are so nice to him, so flattering of his inflated opinions about himself and his journalism! so, Chait stays maximally bigoted.

(7/x)

it's one of those "positive feedback" loops that I've been taunting @sama about: @jonathanchait is rewarded *more and more*, the more deeply he commits himself to the irrational cause of penis policing—which he tries to convince himself is "science", because he's a dolt.

(8/x)

but also @jonathanchait wants to keep on having *fun*—this is why the UK "gender critical" circle, the @bindelj / @HJoyceGender / @RGalbraith people, want to preserve their transphobia. they want to keep on regarding "men in dresses" as a reliable source of cruel humor.

(9/x)

@jonathanchait is a bully; being a bully is probably *why* he's an elite "influencer": he was better than average at kicking better, less corrupted journalists and commentators out of the way to make room for himself and his pet bigotries. and bullies like their "jokes".

(10/x)

(@jonathanchait is surely the *real* joke here but we'll set that aside.)

you'll notice there's always a lurid, "just wait for what comes next" to bigots' claims and theories. that's part of the fun of bigotry—hinting and winking about shocking revelations to come.

(11/x)

it's like @mtaibbi's breathless #TwitterFiles drops (though for a while it was #Hamilton68 drops, now it's not even a popular hashtag! pity), which adopt the same antic mood as the QAnon drops—for Taibbi is appealing to the same sort of crowd. they want news to be *fun*.

(12/x)

proper reporting and journalism are often drab and boring because competent leadership is boring. @jonathanchait and @mtaibbi and @NateSilver538 are like spoiled kids who want politics and "the news" to be like a TV show or game all the time, full of exciting plot twists.

(13/x)

because bigotry and bigoted conspiracy theories are always mutating and changing and adopting fresh disguises (like the "blood libel" being costumed as @HogwartsLegacy or the @elonmusk / @mtaibbi "adrenochrome" thing), bigots feel like they can be endlessly entertained.

(14/x)

did @jonathanchait actually *care* that much if the transphobic nonsense he was transmitting was, in fact, nonsense? of course not! what mattered to him was that it was "funny". he'd get to signal his loyalty to the same bigotry as his friends, and have a good laugh.

(15/x)

I suppose one question for @jonathanchait now is...whether he's still laughing.

~Chara of Pnictogen