If our moral betters are going to publicly act out a bunch of petty high school drama, I see no reasons us unwashed needn't deny ourselves the sophomoric pleasure of watching.
This whole thing reminds me of the first episode of Hacks, in which Ava explains to Deborah Vance that Ava's writing career is finished because of some lame joke she tweeted. Vance tells Ava that her problem is that the joke isn't *funny*, and as Ava's driving away, Vance gets in her car, cuts off Ava and insists that they rework the joke until it *is* funny.
In this case, Weigel must have known that his tweet would generate heat. But why choose to die on *this* hill, armed only with one of the lamest attempts at humor that I've read in a year or so?
I mean, I get it. He was a libertarian at least into his mid twenties, which is about 10 years longer than anyone has any excuse for. But seriously, if he's going to blow up his career, why do it over this?
This was great to read. I find myself quite often in the burn-it-to-the-ground camp, "illiberal" side of things. I'm afraid to be wrong, so I embrace the inflexible rightness that leaves no room to be an actual human. Gotta work on that. One of my own mottos is Kindness Is Righter Than Truth. And being right can be so unkind. And unkindness is wrong. And here we are.
Reading this, I think of Alfred North Whitehead's dividing the world into clear-headed thinkers and muddle-headed thinkers and wonder how I ever got to be a TV critic because I am the most muddle-headed thinker I can think of. I had an editor who routinely said, "Did you like the show or not?" Like anyone I can fire out a bon mot in 280 characters or less (e.g., "it's 'rout' not 'route' and if Jordan Pickford's helmet hair gets mussed during said rout, I could die happy"), but stringing together paragraph after paragraph of razor-sharp commentary along a single line of thought, as all my favorite substackers do—that's hard!
Did you have similar feelings when Gawker went down? Older people I know really enjoyed when various tele-evangelists were brought down by sex scandals. We enjoy watching fate toy with hubris.
This is pretty much how I was about kidneygate. I then tried to explain it to someone who wasn’t familiar with the story and realized I sounded completely insane.
"I'd like to think that I’m no longer the person who skipped basketball practice in seventh grade to watch two kids fight underneath the bleachers, but it turns out that I am still that person"
You meant EEG not EKG. If you hire me (for free) as your medical consultant this will never happen again
If our moral betters are going to publicly act out a bunch of petty high school drama, I see no reasons us unwashed needn't deny ourselves the sophomoric pleasure of watching.
I don't know if it's healthy, but, man, this was better than any old Dickenson's Lemon Curd-slathered English muffin as a morning pick-me-up.
Wickedly delicious! So, so satisfying!
Conflict *plus* humor is the winning combo, actually
Jeff Maurer fails to specify that Dave Wiegel retweeted a joke, and didn’t compose the joke, which does change the tenor of saga slightly.
This whole thing reminds me of the first episode of Hacks, in which Ava explains to Deborah Vance that Ava's writing career is finished because of some lame joke she tweeted. Vance tells Ava that her problem is that the joke isn't *funny*, and as Ava's driving away, Vance gets in her car, cuts off Ava and insists that they rework the joke until it *is* funny.
In this case, Weigel must have known that his tweet would generate heat. But why choose to die on *this* hill, armed only with one of the lamest attempts at humor that I've read in a year or so?
I mean, I get it. He was a libertarian at least into his mid twenties, which is about 10 years longer than anyone has any excuse for. But seriously, if he's going to blow up his career, why do it over this?
This was great to read. I find myself quite often in the burn-it-to-the-ground camp, "illiberal" side of things. I'm afraid to be wrong, so I embrace the inflexible rightness that leaves no room to be an actual human. Gotta work on that. One of my own mottos is Kindness Is Righter Than Truth. And being right can be so unkind. And unkindness is wrong. And here we are.
Reading this, I think of Alfred North Whitehead's dividing the world into clear-headed thinkers and muddle-headed thinkers and wonder how I ever got to be a TV critic because I am the most muddle-headed thinker I can think of. I had an editor who routinely said, "Did you like the show or not?" Like anyone I can fire out a bon mot in 280 characters or less (e.g., "it's 'rout' not 'route' and if Jordan Pickford's helmet hair gets mussed during said rout, I could die happy"), but stringing together paragraph after paragraph of razor-sharp commentary along a single line of thought, as all my favorite substackers do—that's hard!
Did you have similar feelings when Gawker went down? Older people I know really enjoyed when various tele-evangelists were brought down by sex scandals. We enjoy watching fate toy with hubris.
Correction: Weigel didn't make the joke that cost him a month's pay. He just laughed at it.
Which is fine, because he sucks too. Win/win.
This is pretty much how I was about kidneygate. I then tried to explain it to someone who wasn’t familiar with the story and realized I sounded completely insane.
Back in the day journalists fought rivals for. the best scoop/snarkiest headline. Now they are neurotic hall monitors in the safe space institute.
"I'd like to think that I’m no longer the person who skipped basketball practice in seventh grade to watch two kids fight underneath the bleachers, but it turns out that I am still that person"
Jeff, we are ALL that person.
Listen here you little shit
A good and serious point made here. I think. Just haven't been able to stop laughing long enough to think about it much yet.