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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

#421

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

rayiner wrote: post #326
OJFord wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had no idea what it meant and actually guessed it was some kind of slur (in line with PoS) until I learnt recently. Weird term. Doesn't work unabbreviated as an adjective, an adjectival formation ('coloured') is long out of politically-correct favour (at least it is in the UK), and why, is 'of colour' different/better/at all a good description of someone anyway? I'm, er, 'without colour', so it's hardly for me to o…

It’s a socially constructed term that was popularized in 2010 or so to figure out a way to lump Black, Latino, and Asian people together. It almost never makes any sense talk about all of those different groups as one (“Latino” and “Asian” are by themselves over-broad categories) but that’s where we are.

I get that there is a need to differentiate, for the purpose of discussion, traditionally privileged white people from, well, literally everyone else. Any label using a negative prefix like "non-white" or "un-privileged" is not desirable because it suggests a lack of something. But it seems to me like we should be able to do a lot better than a rephrasing of a term associated with the Jim Crow era.

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

#422

Post by baron_harkonnen »

paperwasp42 wrote: post #22
D13Fd wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 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…

> is super safe if you're on the far left

Liberals are not considered the "far left" and people on the far left dislike them as much as people on the right do.

This isn't a "no true Scotsman" issue either, there are clear distinctions between various left-wing ideologies and mainstream liberalism (radical or not). Finger pointing and blaming individuals, the type of behavior your describing, is classic dominant capitalist ideology, something that all flavors of the left are deeply skeptical of.

Both "radical" liberalism and rising right-wing extremism are different varieties of nihilism, stemming from the same root cause of a degradation in our overall material conditions and the breakdown of late capitalist society. Both are essentially empty systems of rhetoric with no underlying values that ultimately lead to a totalitarian way of thinking.

To reiterate, the thinking your describing is absolutely not "far left".

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

#423

Post by commandlinefan »

cblconfederate wrote: post #13
polka_haunts_us wrote: post #2

I feel like my choice to not participate in non-anonymous social media in any but the absolute most bland and uninteresting ways is the best long running decision I've ever made. The end of anonymized internet is the end of my participation in it and sadly I think that day is fast approaching.

but if a future employer asks to see some social credentials and they don't see any, they ll be suspicious

> future employer asks to see some social credentials

So it's no longer enough to just keep your "wrong" opinions to yourself, you have to actually prove that you have the "right" opinions. Enjoy having the right opinions at the moment, I guess - until fashions change, anyway.

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

#424

Post by tptacek »

rayiner wrote: post #337
enkid wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any evidence the "left wing" is in any more of an echo chamber than the right wing? Is this just personal observation or do you have something more to point to?

It’s not any more of an echo chamber, but in my experience it’s easier these days to hold heterodox opinions on the right. (Partly because over the last couple of decades the right has become more heterodox while the left has become more ideologically uniform.)

That's a thing you can only say if you've never watched a DSA person talk to a non-DSA person.

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

#425

Post by tptacek »

forgingahead wrote: post #346
enkid wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, this is a different argument from the one you were making before. You first post is about ingestion of media. This one is about production. This is a very different claim, but still requires evidence beyond stating that there is some. Can you help me out and provide some?

I'm not sure if you're asking in good-faith, your comment history shows a history of "Sea-lioning" (a term I just learned myself today): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealioning From the original web-comic: http://wondermark.com/1k62/

The moderators of this site specifically ask you not to employ this tactic of trying to summarize people's comment history as a rhetorical weapon.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25130908

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

#426

Post by cercatrova »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #386
ljm wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you go with the horseshoe theory then the far left is barely distinguishable from the far right. The only thing that changes really is the framing of the issue and the motivation. If you're looking at people being criticised because they're not writing characters of their own skin colour or sexuality, or 'staying in their lane' with their culture, or because their own experiences don't conform to some expectation…

I don't think the horseshoe theory works. The critical factor is authoritarianism. Which is a grown-up word for bullying and narcissism. Authoritarians are invariably toxic damaged people who are full of rage and are looking for a target to make themselves feel better. Sometimes they end up on the left. Sometimes they end up on the right. Sometimes they end up in management or venture capital. Same issues, same dynam…

You're just redescribing the horseshoe theory. The X axis is political leaning, the Y axis is level of authoritarianism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory

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

#427

Post by theandrewbailey »

loveistheanswer wrote: post #392
Person5478 wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It blew me away when the ok symbol somehow became a white supremacist symbol. I couldn't believe people would actually allow white supremacists to have so much power over them that they'd circumvent such a benign symbol.

If my meme history is correct, the okay symbol was created as a troll on 4chan, and the media took the bait

Same thing with white milk.

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

#428

Post by AustinDev »

loveistheanswer wrote: post #392
Person5478 wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It blew me away when the ok symbol somehow became a white supremacist symbol. I couldn't believe people would actually allow white supremacists to have so much power over them that they'd circumvent such a benign symbol.

If my meme history is correct, the okay symbol was created as a troll on 4chan, and the media took the bait

You are correct. It was the beginning of the modern ‘clown world’ movement in memery.

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

#429

Post by cercatrova »

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…

Something I don't understand is, why don't people simply ignore such harassment and forcibly proceed towards whatever they were doing anyway? Such as publishing those books for example.

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

#430

Post by brodouevencode »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #386
ljm wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you go with the horseshoe theory then the far left is barely distinguishable from the far right. The only thing that changes really is the framing of the issue and the motivation. If you're looking at people being criticised because they're not writing characters of their own skin colour or sexuality, or 'staying in their lane' with their culture, or because their own experiences don't conform to some expectation…

I don't think the horseshoe theory works. The critical factor is authoritarianism. Which is a grown-up word for bullying and narcissism. Authoritarians are invariably toxic damaged people who are full of rage and are looking for a target to make themselves feel better. Sometimes they end up on the left. Sometimes they end up on the right. Sometimes they end up in management or venture capital. Same issues, same dynam…

Pretty sure leftist authoritarianism exists and is violent. i.e.: Communist Russia, Maoist China, Cuba.
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