Thread by @KrisAtLarge

"it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game," that well-known bromide about #sports and sportsmanship (@mtaibbi and @NateSilver538 may or may not remember this clichéd phrase) is ultimately a statement about *ethics*. or morality, if you like.

(1/x)

@elonmusk and @NateSilver538 and @mtaibbi, and their entire reactionary movement, have habituated themselves to rolling their eyes at talk of "morality", even though they do try to pretend to be moral. they always fail; Elon Musk defends "free speech" through censorship.

(2/x)

the *cynical* way in which the @elonmusk / @mtaibbi / @GOP conspiracy have used #FreeSpeech as a slogan for their activities, even as @RonDeSantisFL and @GregAbbott_TX and other fascist politicians do their best to rip education and journalism to shreds, is their weakness.

(3/x)

bigotry and cynicism go hand and hand; the dedicated bigot (especially if they're REALLY dedicated, like @EPoe187 and @charlesmurray) is a dedicated cynic about human beings and society. they view most people like they're mere specimens of pathology, "stochastic" animals.

(4/x)

(animals aren't "stochastic" any more than most people are, but don't tell that to @EPoe187—these folks believe a lot of very stupid things about literally everything on Earth, including biology and zoölogy.)

cynics don't think morality and ethics really matter.

(5/x)

it's all just noise to them, which means that whenever anyone starts talking too loudly about ethics and morality and justice and other such things that must seem like pure *tedium* to an easily "bored" racist like @charlesmurray or @NateSilver538, these folks get *irked*.

(6/x)

"surely this must be as fake as I am," @NateSilver538 &c. tell themselves. "surely this is mere 'tribalism'."

(*shrugs*) I don't know what to tell you, Nate! I'd suggest that you should have paid more attention in class, but...what good would THAT have done?

(7/x)

honestly, @NateSilver538, it probably would have been better if you'd never gone to college at all. college simply ruins some people. you're one of those people.

~Chara of Pnictogen