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Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

newsweek.com

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Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#151

Post by filmgirlcw »

dguaraglia wrote: post #144
neartheplain wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author and her family received death threats over this. She briefly left the US for her own safety, and was harassed and bullied “to the brink of suicide.” Flippant dismissal of the Internet hate mob is all well and good until it comes for you. The Metro employee faced no disciplinary action. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tasneemnashrulla/dc-met...

I fail to see how the author's plight at the hands of the internet mob makes the situation less nuanced. Flippant dismissal of facts isn't going to help things get better either.

This.

For the record, I’m not saying she should have been harassed. I’m not even arguing she should have lost work or had her book distributor who didn’t have a contract with her say they didn’t want to distribute her book. I find the outcome fitting given the circumstances, but I’m not rallying for that outcome. What I am arguing is that framing her as a victim of cancel ignores a much bigger part of the story and as dguaragalia says, dismissing the facts and eschewing the nuance for optimum outrage is extremely unhelpful.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#152

Post by hellgas00 »

sdenton4 wrote: post #40
mandragon wrote: post #3

Was the agent fired for writing something specifically, or simply for signing up for these networks?

The agency statement doesn't mention specific posts, but that doesn't mean they don't exist... Feels like there's /probably/ more here than we're hearing. There's plenty of space to be loudly outraged on the barest shreds of information, though! Meanwhile: There's presumably a lot of very free* speech in the Parler data dump, connected to people's verified accounts, which could easily be finding its way to employers,…

"but that doesn't mean they don't exist."

Guilty until proven innocent.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#153

Post by kenneth »

floatingatoll wrote: post #60
nobodyandproud wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An employee can claim that politics, affiliation, etc. was a pretext for firing based on religious beliefs.

Given that this statement is false — "Gab and Parler are religious social networks" — a judge would likely require a pattern of hostility to be shown, or for the firings to coincide with expression of protected religious beliefs that are not also considered hate speech. (If they're considered hate speech, they're no longer protected expression, regardless of whether they're claimed to be religion or not.)

Say you refuse to hire or fire people from a predominantly black neighborhood — not because they're black, but based on the neighborhood — it's pretty accepted these days that that's discriminatory and not allowed.

But now liberals here are saying that refusing to hire or firing people from a predominantly Republican and/or Christian social network is different.

It's the same. That position is hypocritical regardless of whether you think it should be legal.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#154

Post by boomboomsubban »

tomcam wrote: post #98
tptacek wrote: post #63

Just a reminder that Newsweek ceased publication back in 2013, and the rights to its brand were purchased by an odd Christian sect, somewhat along the lines of The Washington Times and the Reunification Church. The new "Newsweek" capitalizes on the brand reputation of the old one, but has no connections to it; a good thing to do with Newsweek pieces is to check the byline and look up what their background is.

I’m old fashioned. I judge articles not on whether they are published by “an odd Christian sect”, but how accurate and well-sourced they are. But hey, I’m a Boomer.

Zero sources provided. There's a link that looks like it should go to the twitter post, but is a list of Newsweek stories about twitter. And the posts are apparently now private. So what did you judge this article on?

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#156

Post by DetroitThrow »

Barrin92 wrote: post #145
nilkn wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This line of reasoning breaks down whenever a population is experiencing any form of mass hysteria, and I think there's a reasonable argument that the US is very much in the midst of such a phenomenon right now. Indeed, that was the point of the example being provided by the poster you replied to: her staff quit because they acted based on a hysterical rather than rational analysis of the situation. They didn't break…

I don't really see where the mass or the hysteria is. It's an individual business parting with an employee because the views shared in public are likely going to harm the business. Happens probably every day somewhere, why has this even become noteworthy?

There seems to be mass hysteria about the claimed "mass hysteria", at least when it relates to private business or individuals cutting ties with someone over their actions and statements as opposed to online harassment.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#157

Post by imveryconcerned »

dguaraglia wrote: post #135
dehrmann wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to Wikipedia, it was bought by IBT Media in 2013, then spun-off as an independent entity in 2018 that I assume is owned by the same people as IBT. I found claims that IBT's other notable property, the International Business Times (which I haven't heard of), has been a content farm, but I only glossed over it. I can't seem to find Newsweek on the Median Bias chart, but it's ranked similarly to CNN. https://w…

See, the best trick for pushing propaganda isn't fabricating stories, but choosing carefully what stories you publish and which ones you don't. The perfect example of that is Breitbart's infamous 'black crime' tag: Breitbart didn't need to invent stories, they'd just go and pick up out of the bunch of criminal prosecutions happening every single day in a country with >300 million inhabitants. But by choosing to focus…

It's true, although obviously it applies to the both sides. In fact, BLM protests were caused by exactly the same mechanism you're describing - liberal media was creating false narratives about police brutality towards black people.

"Transgender murder epidemic" is an even better example, it was completely made up by the media. Look up the numbers and compare them with the general population.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#158

Post by esja »

at_a_remove wrote: post #79

This new wave of McCarthyism is really exciting from a historical perspective. And, you know, perversely, my long-standing belief that so many "historical" victims are eager to strap on the jackboots themselves gets yet another data point.

Today's Red Guards will never achieve this level of self-awareness:

"Hans, are we the baddies?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWvpvlT9pJU

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#159

Post by closeparen »

Barrin92 wrote: post #145
nilkn wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This line of reasoning breaks down whenever a population is experiencing any form of mass hysteria, and I think there's a reasonable argument that the US is very much in the midst of such a phenomenon right now. Indeed, that was the point of the example being provided by the poster you replied to: her staff quit because they acted based on a hysterical rather than rational analysis of the situation. They didn't break…

I don't really see where the mass or the hysteria is. It's an individual business parting with an employee because the views shared in public are likely going to harm the business. Happens probably every day somewhere, why has this even become noteworthy?

I downvoted you because I am very confident you are acting in bad faith. Why is it notable? Because “Some rioters crashed a van through a gas station and I called the police” being a “view” that will “harm the business” is a novel take. I understand the logic behind it. I also know that the most fervent believers in that logic understand it is provocative and radical relative to the mainstream.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#160

Post by sdenton4 »

hellgas00 wrote: post #152
sdenton4 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The agency statement doesn't mention specific posts, but that doesn't mean they don't exist... Feels like there's /probably/ more here than we're hearing. There's plenty of space to be loudly outraged on the barest shreds of information, though! Meanwhile: There's presumably a lot of very free* speech in the Parler data dump, connected to people's verified accounts, which could easily be finding its way to employers,…

"but that doesn't mean they don't exist." Guilty until proven innocent.

We people wringing our hands on the internet do not necessarily have all the information to judge what's going on here. We have a very thin article with a tiiiiiny shred of information about people we have otherwise never heard of.

This whole discussion is a great encapsulation of mindless, reflexive outrage on hacker news.

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