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I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

theatlantic.com

251–260 of 292 posts

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#251

For anyone curious, it seems he now has a full-time job as a journalist at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Happy he's being paid for his words again. https://twitter.com/ausmurph88/status/1096838031804227584

Really glad to hear that!

And writing that piece for The Atlantic is a fine accomplishment, too.

I read somewhere (or internalized) something like: great mythologies are full of good humor. I love how his opening paragraph is of angst so relatable (social group) and so laughable (here's my consulting partner, Rabbit).

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meh -- they've done themselves such harm in recent years by embracing activism and deliberate bias that it's hard for me to feel too bad for the industry. That said, I'll applaud whichever journalists are brave enough to start pushing their industry/art back towards objectivity and diversity of perspective.

They didn't choose activism because they are lazy or ideologues (although the industry may increasingly populated by lazy ideologues). The journalism industry chose activism because it sells better than objective journalism. I could start an online paper about my local town and write purely objective stories. "Town council meeting today went as expected, complicated issue without clear solution continued unsolved". T…

Journalism is not "reporting exactly what happened" - journalism is supposed to be investigation, and to draw conclusions.

Obviously there's bias, but that's the point: journalism has never and should not be "this person said 1 thing, someone else said a different thing". It's the path of "should you drink bleach? Scientists say no, this random nutbag says yes."

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Angles and saxons were 2 tribes from modern day Germany who migrated to England for better farming and conditions. They're a very small part of "white". A very small part even of "British" descent. Even in England, not everyone is Anglo Saxon, the ruling classes are Norman, there are Celts still, Cornish people count themselves out, Londoners date back to pre-Roman times, vikings settled some areas...

Actually, the term Anglo-Saxon refers to the traditionally three tribes (and probably at least four tribes) who emigrated from the Frisian coast region (North Sea coasts of Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands): the Jutes (traditionally originating from Jutland, the main Danish peninsula), the Angles (traditionally from the neck that is part Danish and part German), and the Saxons (which would have been from what is…

> The modern term "Anglo-Saxon" thus effectively means "English German"

But that's surely an anachronism, since correctly it would need to be "Danish German"?

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, the term Anglo-Saxon refers to the traditionally three tribes (and probably at least four tribes) who emigrated from the Frisian coast region (North Sea coasts of Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands): the Jutes (traditionally originating from Jutland, the main Danish peninsula), the Angles (traditionally from the neck that is part Danish and part German), and the Saxons (which would have been from what is…

Thanks, that's a great comment! One question, do the Normans count as Germanic? I thought they were from Scandinavia originally and then spent enough time in France to pick up the language?

Old Norse culture is very clearly linked to Germanic cultures. Linguistically, the descendants of Germanic languages are broken up into North Germanic (modern Scandinavian languages), West Germanic (English, Dutch, and modern German, along with siblings), and East Germanic (now all extinct). We can also see clear parallels between Norse and Germanic religion. I'm less certain of similarities in other areas of culture, but I would be shocked if they were much greater than the linguistic or religious evidence would imply. It is not at all wrong to call Norse Germanic.

It is much less clear if Normans should also count as Germanic. I wrote it as such mostly for the pun of having England be invaded by three waves of Germanic peoples from three different places. The actual reality is murkier, as the Normans themselves are an amalgamation of existing Breton, Gallo-Romanic, and Frankish (another Germanic people!) peoples with a hefty Norse influx both before and after the ceding of territory to Rollo. It's probably more accurate to say that the Normans represent a new cultural identity which is a fusion of several that came before it, just as the English did with their several invasions, or the French did during their centralization push in the Early Modern.

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#255
post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While "urinating in bottles" sounds like some sort of standard by which to indict, if you tried it you would find it's quite convenient. I'd guess that it's far down on the list of drivers' actual concerns. What are you proposing should replace this? Trips back to the depot would be terribly inefficient. Portapotties in trucks would be just fancier bottles. And time to visit public restrooms would be better spent tak…

I assume this is more true for men than women.

There are portable solutions for women, but since they're built for the purpose they don't sensationalize as well as "peeing in bottles".

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#256
post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume this is more true for men than women.

Yeah, that's what I was wondering : is this why I haven't seen a single delivery gal in my life ? ( Unlike trucker women.)

A little company I worked for ~20 years ago (Michigan, U.S.A.) had a female UPS driver. Her route was ~99% residential - so extremely few bathrooms. (Vs. it was easy, then, for UPS drivers delivering to office buildings, restaurants, etc.) We made it clear that she was free to use our bathroom at any time. She made it clear that our package delivery time & pick-up time could be far, far better than "that's where you are on my route" when we needed them to be.

(And I'm sure more things got shipped UPS than should have...I guess you'd call that "UPS's cut" of the deal.)

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#257

The world has more than enough journalists and exceptionally few reporters.

The internet has commoditized facts. It doesn't matter who reports the news as it is everywhere in minutes as soon as it breaks. There is little to no reward for being first. The financial incentives therefore all push these companies into more profitable areas of journalism outside of reporting.

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meh -- they've done themselves such harm in recent years by embracing activism and deliberate bias that it's hard for me to feel too bad for the industry. That said, I'll applaud whichever journalists are brave enough to start pushing their industry/art back towards objectivity and diversity of perspective.

Faux-objective journalism is such a soulless drag. Everyone has biases, attempting to hide them is just gutless.

Most people I know don't mind reading a journalist that is open with their biases as long as that journalist is objective when it comes to facts. The problem in today's media is that biased journalists ignore facts or just outright lie when the facts don't jive with the narrative they are trying to push. Its one thing to report on a story and spin the facts in such a way that correlates with your perspective and entirely another thing to conceal facts or invent your own. Most legacy "journalism" has devolved into a toxic brew of woke hot takes and the uncritical, anonymous dissemination of intelligence agency assertions.

The Guardian was mentioned above, and is an excellent example of this. The Guardian never made much attempt to hide their social and political biases in the past, but it was still a widely respected and credible newspaper, even to those who didn't necessarily share the same perspectives. Unfortunately, The Guardian, like most other legacy news outlets, went off the rails at some point over the last 5 years. They stopped reporting the news, and starting inventing it. Anyone following their coverage of the Assange saga saw numerous examples of this such as the, "Manafort met Assange in the embassy" fairy tale (including details like what Manafort was wearing to make the lie extra convincing). The problem is, it never happened! Yet still, 4 years later, it sits on their website, no retraction, no correction. The credibility problem is real.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/27/manafort-hel...

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

people who have large enough audiences to generate an income by simply being controversial That is neither journalism, nor reporting. That is editorial.

It can be all three at the same time. Glenn Greenwald and Bari Weiss are two figures on opposite sides of the political spectrum who have both mastered this.

[deleted]

Re: I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon (2018)

#260
post #212

I listen to a lot of retrogaming and retrocomputing podcasts, ANTIC and Retronauts are my favorites. It turns out ANTIC interviews quite a few people from the old computer magazine and book industry, and retronauts is mostly made up of struggling video game journalists who cycle between the same magazines and being jobless or freelance. A few of them, especially the more senior folks basically have thrown in the towe…

Someone close to me has worked at Macy's their entire career, through college, after college, through grad school, after grad school. Nearly 15 years now.

Much as you mentioned these folks not seeing the closure as a result of the Internet, but rather local competition dynamics, no matter how many stores close or odd situations happen, they believe the precise details of each narrative are what matter (i.e. the alcoholic manager) rather than the continual pattern of the store they're working at closing, every 2-3 years like clockwork

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