Notices by Ken White (popehat@mastodon.social), page 2

Jack boosting the lunatic RFK Jr. Is no surprise. Entrepreneurs, and particularly techbrahs, are vulnerable to the great-man-outsider narratives because they see it as resonating with their own stories. They’re suckers for all sorts of Kirkland-brand Ubermensch poseurs.

Proposition: convince these people that toiletries — toothpaste, deodorant, toilet paper, soap — are gay and trans and woke, until they wind up looking and smelling like the newscasters from Batman after the Joker poisons stuff with Smilex.

The “automatically remove books from the school library when a parent objects” movement in one quote:

We regret that Twitter Spaces’ algorithm misidentified Ron DeSantis as a toddler and ran him over

So just a reminder that a complaint, even if very entertaining, even if against a horrible person, even if it describes things the person would credibly do, even if it supports all your priors, is just an accusation.

Ron De Santis coming out of a charity screening of Schindler’s List

“He was genocidal. Now he’s contemplative. Are they two sides of the same coin? Does he like cats? Don’t miss the NYT’s profile of Thanos.”

A journalist is writing a story about the trend I've talked about before -- defamation threats and lawsuits against women telling #metoo type stories of their experiences.

The journalist is interested in talking to people who've received such threats. If anyone is interested email me. I can put you together with the journalist. I've talked to her and she's serious about the story and has a good outlet for it.

What if I told you there is no end point to Elon Musk’s insecurity, emotional brokenness, and spastic egotism

FIRE notes that TPUSA targeted 61 professors in 2021. FIRE doesn’t note that it sponsored a TPUSA “free speech” event in 2017. One of my criticisms of FIRE is that it occasionally has difficulty distinguishing between free speech supporters and people who support speech they agree with.

https://www.thefire.org/news/report-scholars-punished-their-speech-skyrocketed-over-last-three-years

Physics, aerodynamics to lose blue checkmarks

Good cautionary tale about judgment-rushing, which is a temptation to all of us.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/davidmack/bob-lee-murder-suspect-arrested-cash-app-san-francisco

/2 I mean most of these people like to imagine that they’re fuckin Galileo tugging at the hem of my robe asking me to consider their alternative to geocentricity in the name of Science. Guys, that’s just not you. I’ve got plenty of people already yelling at me about how I’m a cuck or wanting to lecture me about whether or not women have penises or about how the incorporation doctrine is wrong. If I need input on those subjects I’m all set, thanks.

/4 This kind of goes to my whole quarrel with the “complain to kids about cancel culture” approach. The free speech bargain — leave the government out of your beefs and solve them yourselves with speech and association — relies on me feeling free to say when I think people are assholes and shun them. A society that tries to sell me on “oh assholes have a maximum right to speak but we are going to enact a quasi-Victorian set of social rules about how you react” is unappealing to me.

/3 Sometimes it seems like some sort of stylized cult of manhood, where to be a Real Man you have to constantly surround yourself with people you find completely insufferable. Leave me out of that one Charles Atlas. And it’s not like they really mean it. The dudes wanting me to sit through their right-wing bullshit are not seeking out dialogue with purple-haired Che-shirt wearers screaming at them that meat is murder. Spare me the pretense.

I continue to be mystified by the sentiment that being a First Amendment advocate means *socially* tolerating people I find obnoxious or contemptible. I keep getting “what kind of free speech advocate blocks people?” The kind who doesn’t deal with assholes when not professionally compelled to do so. The First Amendment isn’t a hair shirt.

Her: What is it? Your fetish. Your deepest, darkest fantasy. You don’t have to be afraid to . . .

Me: THE WORST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD FIGHTING

https://www.mediaite.com/tech/twitter-files-journo-matt-taibbi-ditches-twitter-over-latest-musk-move-and-expects-it-will-come-with-a-price/

Shoutout to anti-SLAPP practitioners: any of y’all remember a relatively recent case that addressed “can you invoke the anti-SLAPP statute if you assert you didn’t say the thing that you’re accused of saying?” California, I think.

This is my favorite part of the Justice Thomas story. The sheer bullshittery.

Happy New York State Criminal Procedure Expert Day to all who celebrate