Kurt Newman

the only people who benefit from this are child predators and i'd like dem officials to say so into a microphone

Goodbye, Pamela Paul The contrarian columnist showed us the intolerable side of liberalism.

been a long time since I've seen such a merciless vivisection nymag.com/intelligence...

I think at their heart, they do believe the version of themselves is the greatest version of man. Which would be a white-guy, supreme kind of thing. I think they actually believe that at their heart. So you’re going to see that manifested in these statements that he makes all the time. I forget what he said, but essentially: We need more South Africans here in this country — or something like that. And he’s always sort of pulling in that direction.

If only there were a succinct, well-known phrase to summarize this worldview in a way that would be instantly recognizable to billions of people

And in July 2024, just before he came out in support of Trump, he accused Democrats of trying to “import as many illegal voters as possible.” And in this way, I think what is going on with him is a little bit distinct from a lot of the people who superficially have similar politics. Because I think he’s really bought into a lot of great replacement theory. Yes. So have a lot of people in Silicon Valley. Let me say: He’s not alone. This Curtis Yarvin stuff. They’ve all sort of been taken by these — it’s almost religious, if you think about it. One of the things that I think it goes back to — and I hate to say this — is: sad little boy who wasn’t loved enough as a child is searching for meaning, is searching for love. And again, not an excuse, because I think he’s become a terrible person, and he should get therapy. But when there are easy answers like that — Oh, this is why you’re so unhappy. Oh, this is why the world is the way it is — these right-wing conspiracies do scratch an itch for these people. It’s a religion. It’s their answer to the world.

Right. It’s sort of the rid me of this annoying priest kind of thing. Rid me of these people. Again, it’s a king thing. The way they set up their companies is a kingship. Mark Zuckerberg has complete control. He can’t be fired. He’s there for life. So they like that. But in practice, it doesn’t work that way. Because he’s got reporters annoying him. He’s got his staff. He’s got to at least give a nod to diversity or else he gets shamed. He doesn’t have the fortitude that Musk has in that regard. So they are trying to assert themselves in what they consider a man. This is the definition of what a man is. A lot of them were not considered manly when they were in high school. Revenge of the nerds. With Mark, it’s the stupid chain and the T-shirt, which — good luck. It’s fine. I think it looks ridiculous, but fine. He likes it. Or the mixed martial arts. Or I’m going to hydrofoil. Or I’m going to work out. I’m going to show off my muscles there. That’s what Jeff Bezos is doing. Like: Here’s my muscles. Here’s my pretty fiancée. They’re trying to cosplay a version of a man. It seems pathetic to me. But I think it gives them great comfort.

This Kara Swisher interview is both revisionist history and empty pablum. Shameful for Ezra Klein and his people to help her launder her reputation as if she wasn't enabling every single one of these guys and literally doing her book tour with them!
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/o...

I don't really have words for this. I'm disappointed. I'm mad. This is cowardice and capitulation before we've even fucking started. I really got nothing.

Just, what the fuck.

Step 1: Elon takes over Twitter, unbans and amplifies the worst white nationalist posters, methodically turns it into a right wing echo chamber.

Step 2: Users who aren’t white nationalists or MAGA extremists leave for Bluesky en masse.

Step 3: op-ed columnists fret, “is Bluesky an echo chamber?”

You're hearing a lot these days that Democrats need to break with neoliberalism by adopting many of the stylistic flourishes and policy positions of Ronald Reagan

Thomas, do you think the "i have a glock and liz cheney" campaign was somehow an example of a left-populist campaign as opposed to a centrist one?

not sure they know too much about struggle sessions, starting to wonder if they have done the reading

X CEO Linda Yaccarino finally puts out a statement about antisemitism on the platform.

everyone knows you’re supposed to make all of your most important announcements at 10pm on a Friday night

Nicholas Kristoff: On their high horse, too many liberals disdain Oliver Anthony

I’ve been reading the same take for 30 years with the names changed. It is never written in reverse because it is a product of media dynamics rather than any actual or particular set of facts

BREAKING: Federal judge in Kansas ends 2019 consent judgment that allowed transgender Kansans to change their birth certificate to reflect their gender identity. Kansas AG Kris Kobach sought the change following the state's passage of a law defining "sex" as "biological sex ... at birth."

Richard Hanania is still scheduled to speak at Stanford in October (and it seens like the talk info was recently updated) cli.stanford.edu/events/semin...

I don't even know what Bayesian priors are, but I feel like my gut sense of whom NJR is and what happened at his magazine are basically correct. This is a bizarre read, start to finish. yasminnair.com/march-what-r...

They're Not With Us The right wants to cast itself as the "party of parents." Its vision of parenthood is objectively unpopular.

The right wants to cast itself as "the party of parents." I dug into how conservative policies poll with parents. It's abysmal lmao: momleft.substack.com/p/theyre-not...

Confronting a pair of dangerous arguments as trans people remain under attack On protecting transgender people's lives and dignity in the face of this week; Yglesias's "compromise"; and Singal, Powell, & Drum's anti-advocacy cry.

A response to Yglesias, Singal, Powell, and Drum, specifically, but, more broadly, a reflection on a scary moment for trans people and the way we should — and should not — respond. Tonight, at Law Dork:

There’s a special place in hell for people who practice journalism to hurt the vulnerable.

Rudy Giuliani Was A Creation of The New York Media This is for every New Yorker who in the 1990s watched our local press launder a racist authoritarian mayor into someone who'd save the city from… the people who live here. He always was who he is no...

Let’s take ‘em back to 1997.

I'm not a mean person, but I would have been very tempted to see if I could make him cry before we reached the lobby

it’s up: www.lawdork.com/p/dangerous-...

this man is dressed like a Semaphore

This was after Jan 6 but same idea:
Who are the hypothetical refs of discourse we are offering up our fealty to fairness to in this situation? What good-will redemption credits are we banking right now that will be honored at a later date and by whom?
www.welcometohellworld.com/you-do-not-u...

Listening to Ariana Madix's interview with Scheana Shay for the 2nd time today. Because I have a healthy relationship with the television.

Essential reading

Holy shit

All of political media is a dorm-room debate, in fact. Trans issues for sure, but really all issues.

loving this moment of the dialectic

Searched “hurricane” on here and got “earthquake” what is going on & godspeed

Intriguing cast of characters from this review of a bizarre psychoanalytic cult called the Sullivanian Institute https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n15/james-lasdun/chumship

Happy 20th anniversary week to Roy Moore refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument on state property, beginning an incredible sequence of events that culminated in a partisan debate on the ethics of child brides and a lawsuit against Borat