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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

#441

Post by Udik »

hluska wrote: post #305
common_crow wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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’…

I find those quotes absolutely normal, what's wrong with them?

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

#442

Post by segfaultbuserr »

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.

Thanks for the warning. I don't care about what Newsweek writes, but I mistakenly believed that International Business Times is a legitimate publication and have used it in citations before, from now on I'll start avoiding it as much as possible. Just checked on Wikipedia, IBT has been flagged as unreliable since 2019.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:IBTIMES

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

#443

Post by kofejnik »

Dirlewanger wrote: post #275
bentcorner wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in California, you cannot be fired for your political view. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio...

Tell that to James Damore.

... or Brendan Eich

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

#444

Post by specialist »

tptacek wrote: post #114
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?

That stories from "Newsweek" are routinely submitted here and often voted onto the front page, despite "Newsweek" being essentially an SEO scam.

FWIW, I recently learned that Wikipedia has list of perennial sources. The entry for Newsweek 2013-present says "not reliable".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Per...

Maybe aggregators like HN can leverage this list, like a pre-filter for the moderators.

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

#445

Post by dguaraglia »

filmgirlcw wrote: post #151
dguaraglia wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

Thanks for formulating this in much more understandable terms than my comment!

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

#446

Post by Jochim »

jansan wrote: post #264
LarvaFX wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is that the fallout of the right wing's promised "tickle down" economics and the neoliberal politics of thatcherism is making people angry.

I think it is more the obvious ubiquitous hypocrism. Everybody is anti racist and anti sexist, but blames the white man. Looting and burning buildings is ok, as long as the ideology behind it fits the narrative. Everybody is anti fascist, but if you have a different opinion you will get fucked up. Who in his right mind wants to argue with this bullshit?

I used to think this. I used to watch a lot of media from youtube creators that were previously part of the atheism movement and gradually transitioned into right wing content. Once I started also consuming media from people on the left, I found that this was a caricature designed to prevent me from listening to people on the left that did have good points.

Yes there are extremists that like to shout, but they are in the minority or a person in riled up circumstances.

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

#447

Post by Udik »

baron_harkonnen wrote: post #422
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…

> 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 capit…

Political trials, formal and informal, against "class enemies" are typical of extremist left wing movements. See for example Maoist "struggle sessions", which seem nothing else than an in-person version of a twitter mob:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struggle_session

Note that the targets of cancel culture are in the most proper sense "class enemies" since their sins are not directed against specific individuals but entire classes of people: blacks, women, transsexuals, etc.- and can be as vague as dismissive attitudes or generic antagonism.

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

#448

Post by babesh »

pelliphant wrote: post #214
babesh wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People seem to be doing what losers do when facing destruction: move away. You see movement in both physical and virtual spaces. In people and in companies to different states. In people moving to different social media. People stop fighting with you, they just avoid you. China is going to be the obvious dominant world power within Biden’s term.

Haven't China been the obvious world power for atleast 10 years now? Or, atleast, that it have been obvious that they will soon be...

I think what will happen is that a larger percentage of the US will realize it and not like it. I think the US lives in a bubble but other parts of the world are feeling that shift already.

I wonder how many Americans know that Europe trades more with China than the US. Or that Japan also trades more with China than the US. Same with Africa.

The US is retreating into protectionism, internal struggle, and the opiate of social media.

It’s not that China didn’t play dirty. It’s just that the US is losing.

Having the most expensive military force isn’t nearly as useful if other sides possess nuclear weapons like you. Then it becomes a struggle along other dimensions.

The US seems full of entrenched institutions there just to increase their own power. Yet it is these institutions that are causing the greatest issues.

You have medical costs spiraling out of control. You have educational costs spiraling out of control. You have infrastructure costs spiraling out of control.

Changes in the political order have changed none of this. I don’t see the latest change addressing these either.

You can see this in the actions of the current alpha and the previous alpha. Neither addressed or is addressing how the above consume the largest and ever increasing percentages of GDP without producing corresponding gains.

Are Americans living longer and healthier lives? No, they are living shorter and less healthy lives.

Can a high percentage of the population make good incomes with their expensive educations? No, many are relegated to low wage, dead end service and gig jobs.

Why do we have to deal with inadequate and overpriced transportation, water, and energy infrastructure? How many consecutive years of forest fires does California have to live with?

The new administration just patches things without taking on the institutions themselves.

$15 minimum wage and making college free doesn’t make college more useful. It just provides an endless trough for bad education to feed.

More medicine for all doesn’t address the problem that it is way too expensive. It just feeds more money into a money eating pit.

More purchasing of clean energy infrastructure but enforcing domestic production doesn’t address the problem that your companies produce uncompetitive products. Will buying Ford electric trucks at higher prices than you could get elsewhere help anyone but Ford?

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

#449

Post by smaryjerry »

iso1631 wrote: post #206
nmfisher wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's a free country" doesn't really add much to the discussion. No-one is saying her employees should be legally forced to stay with the company. What is being said, however, is that we should reverse this spiralling cultural trend of thinking it's OK to rail-road/strong-arm those not on your "side". It's a base, mob instinct that has caused riots, factionalism, witch hunts and genocide all throughout human history.…

> It's a base, mob instinct that has caused riots, factionalism, witch hunts and genocide all throughout human history This is it. In the last 10 years or so mob instinct has shown up in many ways - in looting stores, in doxing people and cancelling people who say the wrong things, in trying to overthrow governments, or just simple pile-ons. In part this has been fanned by big tech, but not entirely The trick is tack…

I think trying to stop what causes mobs can be noble but will be done in vain, validate people’s ideas since they are now being blocked and it also has the ability to be abused. Media sites spent months blocking, banning, demonetizing, and posting disputes about election fraud but none the less there were still riots at the capital building. I like to think of all these websites as a search engine and so will use Google as an example. If Google blocks searches for illegal activity does it stop that illegal activity? No. Does it even lessen that activity? No. In my opinion is hides it which is actually what those committing illegal acts want. They may not know they want it, but it literally protects them from being found by the ones who can stand up to them, sometimes the police. Let’s say you have a person who makes a threat towards another person and that is blocked before it’s posted. Now, the person who was threatened has no idea they were ever threatened. That person is unable to report to the police the treat and has no evidence of the threat. Not only can they not prepare to protect themselves or defend themselves but their evidence is gone and the person making the threats has no consequences. Google and others do turn over threats to the FBI but let’s be honest they don’t have the time or man power to investigate every threat on the internet. So who does? Websites don’t, but the people who are being threatened do. They need to know. This example obviously doesn’t apply as well to mob attacks, but I think the solution is the same. You need transparency and more visibility to these things not less. You literally need police for the internet, not just moderators. Stop the activity where it becomes illegal but not with hiding it, find a way to enforce that through the government with real world consequences, not through moderation of a narrative.

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

#450

Post by profunctor »

eplanit wrote: post #400

The Left is using psychological projection as a technique. They accuse their opponents of doing exactly what they themselves are doing. They'll call you a fascist while they burn books. They'll call you racist while accusing you of "white privilege". Like you say, they'll destroy people's lives, based on racial hatred, while accusing those people of racial hatred. Domestic terrorism.

There is a clear difference between racism and acknowledging white privilege. White privilege simple describes one way in which racism manifests itself. If you can't tell the difference between a KKK member and someone says that people with white names getting called back for job interviews more than people with black names is white privilege then you are willfully ignorant. It is not racist to say that someone benefits from white privilege.

Also the person you are replying to didn't say they destroy peoples lives based on racial hatred. They haven't destroyed anyone's lives because they're white.

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