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Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

nytimes.com

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Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

#241

Post by Kye »

jl6 wrote: post #207
toyg wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article is funny and I agree with overall sentiment, but it's always surprising how people just forget Kosovo and Somalia. Clinton bombed a European country and doubled down on a hopeless mission in an African hellhole (before giving up), not exactly "sustained peace abroad". Even if you agree with the moves, you can't say it was all peace and love.

True, but those were tiny interventions that hardly affected mainstream USA at all, unlike the brutalizing experience of 9/11, Iraq, and Afghanistan in the following decade.

It's telling that the Iraq or Afghanistan vet (or both!) has replaced the Vietnam vet in TV shows and movies.

Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

#242

Post by philipov »

tootie wrote: post #109
pavel_lishin wrote: post #6

From a different article: https://www.businessinsider.com/twilio-founder-jeff-lawson-b... > When asked whether he had purchased The Onion, Lawson played coy. "What's The Onion?" he replied. Then, "What's a Tetrahedron?" > Business Insider was unsure how to respond to these questions.

Had no idea Ben Collins had become an executive at whatever this thing is. He was an excellent reporter and a guy who really, really understands how the internet works and how communities flourish or go toxic. He reported a lot about Kiwi Farms and Cloudflare's response to public pressure. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/worst-plac...

> who really, really understands how the internet works and how communities flourish or go toxic

Got a good article of his on this specifically?

Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

#243

Post by Kye »

justin66 wrote: post #223
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think any of the articles that grandparent linked are really the most exemplary Onion articles. The onion is really at its best when it manages to nail it exactly right. Sometimes they are just so perfectly in touch with cultural zeitgeist it’s uncanny. Here are two of the most memorable ones in recent memory: https://www.theonion.com/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-na... https://www.theonion.com/the-onion-s…

> ‘The Onion’ Stands With Israel Because It Seems Like You Get In Less Trouble For That This is a recent Onion classic. The thing about the Onion is, once you’ve got a great headline - and maybe a photo, which will usually be a head shot - the text of the article sometimes seems largely superfluous. They actually ought to be doing better in the age of Twitter and so on, but it didn’t work out that way.

https://www.theonion.com/report-we-don-t-make-any-money-if-y...

>> "Report: We Don’t Make Any Money If You Don’t Click The Fucking Link"

Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

#244

Post by berkes »

dev_by_day wrote: post #189
qsdf38100 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just used "extreme", "left" and "leftist" 7 times in 4 sentences. Sounds a bit "extreme" and "biased" to me.

[flagged]

There's a very big difference between "left" and "extreme left". Or, at least, in most of the world there is.

Yet you use them offhandedly like synonyms. It gives your response an air of propaganda and FUD.

Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

#245

Post by Kye »

internetter wrote: post #90
modeless wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny, to me these are the worst type of Onion articles, pandering to people on one side of a political issue. I think it's lazy and predictable.

The onion has always been political commentary. In my opinion, it is some of the most impactful, even to this day. Every time there is a mass shooting, the onion reposts the same article — linked above. All they do is edit the time and place. They also bump every other article they published to the front page. It's incredible commentary on the fact these things keep happening in completely predictable ways.

This was especially prescient: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjonGtrCyVE

Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

#246

Post by tootie »

dev_by_day wrote: post #175
tootie wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had no idea Ben Collins had become an executive at whatever this thing is. He was an excellent reporter and a guy who really, really understands how the internet works and how communities flourish or go toxic. He reported a lot about Kiwi Farms and Cloudflare's response to public pressure. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/worst-plac...

[flagged]

You can listen to the thing I posted. I think he crystalized really well how unfettered free speech is fundamentally a contradiction. So long as one party's speech can chill the speech of another (ie coordinated harassment or doxxing of trans influencers) then site owners are going to be obligated to pick a side and limit some kinds of speech. That just sounds like logic to me.

Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

#247

Post by howenterprisey »

ed_voc wrote: post #231
tootie wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had no idea Ben Collins had become an executive at whatever this thing is. He was an excellent reporter and a guy who really, really understands how the internet works and how communities flourish or go toxic. He reported a lot about Kiwi Farms and Cloudflare's response to public pressure. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/worst-plac...

I'm not sure I'd call it good reporting to investigate this case and not look into Doxbin. There has been no evidence that Kiwifarms users have coordinated harassment towards keffals; however, the website that actually coordinated the harassment gets absolutely no mention. When the reporter brings up the Uber hack, he's insinuating that this was done by Kiwifarms, but the receipts were actually posted on Doxbin. Doxb…

Interesting. I haven't heard of doxbin. Got anything else I can read about them?

Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

#248

Post by shombaboor »

mwexler wrote: post #240

I'll note that most of the comments refer to a different era of The Onion, known as the "Funny" era. The more recent years have been referred to as the "Meh" era, reflecting the repetitive humor, recycling of jokes, and general lack of energy. Every once in a while, I check back to see if The Onion got funny again. Still hoping. Maybe this purchase will be the catalyst, the peeling every onion needs over time.

it's definitely been in its 'clapter' era, where there joke is: you should find this funny because you agree with this viewpoint. Every joke about jk rowling barely qualifies as a joke but they go viral for the sake of insulting her.

It's best when it's subversize and zagged somewhat unpredictably.

Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

#249

Post by spencerflem »

1over137 wrote: post #238
spencerflem wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I downvoted because: 1. Babylon Bee has like 1 good article for every 20-30 lame ones and in general spreads anti-trans hate. It is not news & 2. fake news is a problem, but fake news doesn't make the onion no different from a real news site. that's silly

>...spreads anti-trans hate. Hmm, how do you define that? They make fun of trans issues sometimes, but that's not 'spreading hate' in my books. A sibling comment gives an example headline: NCAA Swimming Champ Caught In Possession Of Performance-Enhancing Testicles

I was thinking of the one they got kicked off twitter for-

"The Babylon Bee's Man Of The Year Is Rachel Levine"

featuring gems like "UPDATE: Since announcing this award, we've been told that Levine actually identifies as a woman. We have still chosen to give the award as his self-identification has no bearing on the truth. Congratulations, Rachel Levine!"

Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

#250

Post by neilk »

dev_by_day wrote: post #189
qsdf38100 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just used "extreme", "left" and "leftist" 7 times in 4 sentences. Sounds a bit "extreme" and "biased" to me.

[flagged]

According to your comment history you’re a leftist who, among other things, supports Kyle Rittenhouse. I would say this is a rare configuration of positions.

The point you’re making about Collins suffers because you only labelled him an “extreme leftist”, over and over again, without examples of this behavior. So I went looking, myself. Apparently he was pulled off Twitter coverage because he made posts mocking Elon Musk for suspending the accounts of other journalists. While this might be too opinionated for a professional whose beat includes Musk, it isn’t evidence of “extreme left” views.

> Collins has been yanked off the air from NBC and MSNBC but remains on staff. He has been actively tweeting and retweeting the latest developments related to Musk’s controversial decision to ban the accounts of several left-leaning journalists who were critical of his management of the social media app.

https://nypost.com/2022/12/16/nbc-suspends-ben-collins-for-m...

I hope you will concede that the NY Post has not yet fallen to left-wing extremism.

Labeling critics as “extremist”, without evidence, and attempting to make it stick through sheer repetition, is itself a tactic of extremists.

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