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Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

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

#301

Post by moduspol »

LarvaFX wrote: post #240
imveryconcerned wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sorry that goes against the every-day experience of black people in the USA; one of the reasons so many people got on the streets.

For many people, the idea that black people don't commit crimes at a higher rate than others goes against their every-day experience in the USA.

Maybe your response is ironic: I genuinely can't tell. But clearly "my every-day experience justifies my actions regardless of the facts about (my view)" is not a fair rebuttal, because anyone can make that claim about anything.

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

#302

Post by krok »

neartheplain wrote: post #138
dguaraglia wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, get out of here with your nuanced and fair analysis! Don't you realize we just want reasons to be outraged about the 'cancel culture'?

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 don't want to dismiss what she experienced and how upsetting it must have been, but "she received death threats" covers a lot of ground.

Apparently lots of people make internet death threats all the time. Every single case like this mentions death threats. I don't think these death threats are in general credible. Clearly at least some of them are made by people who just join in with and escalate online arguments for amusement. I assume at least some of them are made by people hoping to 'discredit the other side'.

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

#303

Post by girvo »

D13Fd wrote: post #15
common_crow wrote: post #10

Reminds me of Dawn Frederick, a literary agent who was "cancelled" for calling 911 on looters who rammed a van into the gas station on her apartment block: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/p... This happened during the BLM protests this summer in St. Loius. The looters she reported were blocks away from any BLM protest, and other looting bands were setting fires on nearby blocks. Frederick w…

I honestly don't know why people use "post what you're thinking" style social media at all at this point. With employers being so sensitive, how can the cost/benefit analysis ever really result in a determination that it's a good idea to be active on Twitter/Facebook (or Gab, Parler, TheDonald.win, etc.)? Maybe that's part of what makes things get so extreme on those sites. The most reasonable people know enough not…

I post about music on my Twitter. Tech stuff here. Instagram for my hobby photography. Facebook itself is long gone. And all for the reasons you’ve stated. I use none of them particularly often.

I’m as left as they come, but I don’t trust that the winds won’t change or I will make a stupid decision, and my future is too important to risk that. And honestly I’m not missing much. If I want to talk politics, I do it with my friends over a beer.

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

#304

Post by kasey_junk »

Guthur wrote: post #270
pvg wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest I have no idea who Newsweek were or are These things seem germane to the discussion, though.

Not at all. The OP was maintaining because the brand changed hands that it was somehow a scam, that feels quite disingenuous.

Newsweek was a bastion of print media for decades in the US. It would be similar to someone turning the BBC into a Christian news organization.

The organization that took over Newsweek did it with the intention to improve their own credibility by banking on the name, while removing all the people and processes that built that credibility in the first place. If it’s not an outright scam it’s certainly approaching it.

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

#305

Post by hluska »

common_crow wrote: post #29
paperwasp42 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have literally seen NYT bestselling authors talk about how they're super excited to publicly heckle an author at his next book signing. And join in on conversations promoting burning his book. His crime? Writing a female character who goes on the run, has limited food, and trains in martial arts--which leads to her losing weight. This was, apparently, fat-shaming and deeply sexist. The authors involved in these thr…

I assume you're speaking of the Scott Bergstrom debacle? Yeah, I remember that one. Link to Scott's interview that infuriated those authors is here: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/child... Don't want to dox anyone and post which authors had such horrible behavior, but I will say I personally witnessed those tweets discussing book burning, stalking, and public harassment.

I’m not sure that I’d call the reaction to Bergstrom a debacle. Here are a couple of quotes from the excerpt that made everyone angry:

“It’s a novel with a teenage heroine set in a dystopian future. Which novel in particular doesn’t matter because they’re all the same. Poor teenage heroine, having to go to war when all you really want is to write in your diary about how you’re in love with two different guys and can’t decide between them. These novels are cheesy, I know, and I suck them down as easily as milk.”

“They love this—the school uniform, the flash of seventeen-year-old legs.”

The first quote is a pretty direct attack at the Hunger Games. HG has a rabid following so that was risky. The second is just godawful writing. He still would have been okay but he went a little too far mocking the amount of talent needed to write YA.

Scooter Braun recently learned a lesson about screwing with media that rabid young adults identify with. It’s a bad idea, but if you’re going to do it, bring better prose. Or at least accept that the genre’s bestsellers are way better at the internet than you are.

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

#306

Post by nudpiedo »

ronenlh wrote: post #134
forgingahead wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question - it's obvious how you identify politically by all your posts here, but what has your comment got to do with the story? If it's a false story, say it. If it's not - what exactly are you saying with your comment?

I know it sounds like he’s “poisoning the well,” but this comment answered the question I had in my head. I thought the source was left-leaning but the article had a conservative voice. It’s important to know who’s writing: The article is not an objective list of facts. They did not reach to the publication for comment. Some nuances might have been ironed out. This is true regardless of the political side talking.

why it is not an objective list of facts? To me it sounds quite objective, it answers all five W, exposes the facts chronologically and it even showed compromise to show the side of the company firing:

> Newsweek reached out to the agency and to Oefelein for comment and will update this article with any response.

Instead, your comment to me sounds likme an apology to the ad hominem fallacy.

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

#307

Post by eric_b »

forgingahead wrote: post #113
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.

Honest question - it's obvious how you identify politically by all your posts here, but what has your comment got to do with the story? If it's a false story, say it. If it's not - what exactly are you saying with your comment?

I used find GPs comments insightful, particularly with regard to computer security.

Now his comments are predictably and assiduously leftist-political, and rarely on-topic to the article from what I've seen.

> The new "Newsweek" capitalizes on the brand reputation of the old one, but has no connections to it

From an external perspective it seems like the same argument could be made about the tptacek HN account. The posts from years ago which I enjoyed reading are nothing like the posts from recent history. It's like different people wrote them.

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

#308

Post by krok »

reitanqild wrote: post #189
tptacek wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can do that. I'm just pointing out that people have a conception of what Newsweek is that doesn't match what it currently is. It's worth knowing about.

You are also bothering to mention the religion of the owner, adding the (in this context) pejorative adjective "odd" and possibly more.

I mean, they are Christians and they are odd. Should he not be allowed to say this?

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

#309

Post by cdubzzz »

neartheplain wrote: post #128
filmgirlcw wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m very much against people being fired for their social media posts (unless we’re crossing way over a line that delves into calls for violence or is doing something illegal), but that situation was a bit more complicated. That author, who was PR professional and verified on Twitter, was using her account and her blue-checkmark to shame a worker on a train for eating on her break. She literally tried to get that emp…

You’ve gone and assumed the worst. “Trying to get that employee fired?” I just don’t see it. Anyway, the Metro employees union would never go for it. The no-eating rule is a fairly big deal on Metro. A twelve-year-old girl was famously arrested for eating a single French fry [0], in a case (Hedgepeth v. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority) that went all the way to the U.S. Court of Appeals, where the arres…

As a regular user of the DC metro for about five years, I can say that rule is often enough ignored. Overall the system is impressively clean and people generally do not eat or drink on the trains, but hop on after like 9pm and it’s a very different story.

As for “vitriol, racism, and naked hate”, is that not just standard stuff on social media? Any tweet that goes viral for better or worse will get it.

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

#310

Post by girvo »

unishark wrote: post #205
filmgirlcw wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not defending the vitriol or racist and toxic remarks she received; I’m saying she was using her position as a blue checkmark to publicly shame someone and to try to get them fired. And as a self-described social media and communications expert, she should have known that using her position of power to shame/snitch on someone could carry consequences. She could have reported it privately, but she chose to use her…

> She could have reported it privately, but she chose to use her platform that included her social status ... to be a narc instead. Reporting it privately is still "narcing", isn't it? You're saying she'd have been ok if she kept her anonymity while doing the snitching that the twitter mob seeks to "cancel" people for? Well sure.

Attempting to rile a Twitter mob is quite a bit different to reporting something to the authorities who should be the ones to act on something.

The adoption of “no snitching” culture well outside of its original contexts confuses me somewhat, but also in this case, how is this a situation someone should even concern themselves with? The entire thing is baffling to me: the original tweet, the Twitter mob against herself and firing afterward. Just seems out of this world.

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