drunk tweeting
Happy Sunday!
With Bari Weiss’s resignation from The New York Times this week, I want to do a quick follow up on last week’s newsletter on cancel culture.
Weiss makes a lot of claims — without proof — of being bullied by her “woke” colleagues at the Times — appearing to refer to the criticism she faced. Criticism is a form of free speech — which Weiss and other signers of ~the letter~ say they’re defending. Weiss calls the criticism of her “Wrongthink” without stopping to ask why such a large group of people find her work to be offensive.
But the main point I want to drive home is that no one’s platforms are being taken away from them, and no one is getting “censored.” Alex Shepherd does a good job summarizing this sentiment in The New Republic:
Weiss wants to frame her resignation as a consequence of this supposed hostile takeover—that she’s a free thinker cast out by an intolerant, illiberal regime. But her letter, while long on invective (and just plain long), is short on evidence, and what she’s done instead amounts to auto-cancellation: quitting, then blaming her peers for driving her out.
And by us having this very discussion, Weiss has succeeded at centering the conversation around her. So instead of digging into this even further, I’d like to move onto other topics:
what else i’ve been reading:
The New York Times, John Lewis, Towering Figure of Civil Rights Era, Dies at 80, by Katharine Q. Seelye
A must-read on John Lewis’s life:
On the front lines of the bloody campaign to end Jim Crow laws, with blows to his body and a fractured skull to prove it, Mr. Lewis was a valiant stalwart of the civil rights movement and the last surviving speaker from the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.
More than a half-century later, after the killing in May of George Floyd, a Black man in police custody in Minneapolis, Mr. Lewis welcomed the resulting global demonstrations against police killings of Black people and, more broadly, against systemic racism in many corners of society. He saw those protests as a continuation of his life’s work, though his illness had left him to watch from the sidelines.
Oregon Public Broadcasting, Federal Law Enforcement Use Unmarked Vehicles To Grab Protesters Off Portland Streets, by Jonathan Levinson and Conrad Wilson
What’s happening in Portland is really scary — and it could be a foreshadowing of how the government treats protesters across the country in the future.
Federal law enforcement officers have been using unmarked vehicles to drive around downtown Portland and detain protesters since at least July 14. Personal accounts and multiple videos posted online show the officers driving up to people, detaining individuals with no explanation of why they are being arrested, and driving off.
what I’m obsessed with:
Writer Susan Orlean did a TON of drunk tweeting Friday night, and it was a real MOOD. A quick selection here — feel free to scour her Twitter feed for more:
Besides now being known for her drunk tweeting, Susan Orleans wrote The Library Book, which I highly recommend. Come for the mystery of who set the devastating Los Angeles Public Library fire in 1986, stay for a deep dive into the history of libraries in the United States and the role they play as one of the only true community centers left in society today, providing resources for the homeless and those who wouldn’t have access to learning otherwise.
what i’ve been listening to:
The Chicks: Gaslighter (am obviously OBSESSED with this one & will never think about tights or boats the same way again, definitely give it a listen)
Kacy Hill: Is It Selfish If We Talk About Me Again
Riverby: Smart Mouth
Gracie Abrams: minor
Sarah Barrios: Letters I Never Sent
hope you all have a great week!