ok i just watched both of his videos and some thoughts incoming:
- i generally really like and admire him and appreciated his thoughts
- i still find it a bit odd that he refuses to be on an app that he perceives as "a direct propaganda organ of a foreign state" and that he has no problem being on tiktok? im sure he has some sort of distin…
ok i just watched both of his videos and some thoughts incoming:
- i generally really like and admire him and appreciated his thoughts
- i still find it a bit odd that he refuses to be on an app that he perceives as "a direct propaganda organ of a foreign state" and that he has no problem being on tiktok? im sure he has some sort of distinction he feels comfortable making, but its going to have to be a hella nuanced one to keep that needle fully threaded!
- i get and understand his point about people "not reading" and about people technically being able to go to China, but also like: yeah, lol, duh? like to me that is not the subtext but the actual text here! of course an elite class of people travel to china/know about chinese culture/are educated on how china is good and bad in real life, but that elite class is not an accurate sample demographic of our country at all! And yes, reading is cheap, get a library card etc, but let's be completely honest with ourselves and acknowledge that asking the average american to do a random self-imposed book report on china is... a failed errand lol, we are lucky if people can make it to the end of an emily henry book at this point in american history. it just feels a bit like a purity test to me, especially coming from someone who is probably predisposed to research and reading in a way that most americans are not. (i'm sensitive about this because i am also predisposed to those things, and im not interested in making other people feel bad for having less time or inclination to do that, for a wide number of reasons)
- also i guess im going to show my own bias/personal frustrations here but like: this man speaks like a man who works for the nytimes. the whole video is designed as a slap-on-the-snoot for people "not knowing things," not "reading enough," not being "curious" enough, etc. very college-coded, very hillary-clinton-calling-people-deplorables coded.
-LASTLY (bless anyone who made it this far): american news and social media networks are, at this point in history, quite literally overrun with misinformation and bad faith takes, so for bouie to kind of tongue-in-cheek be like "no one is lying to you, you're just lazy" is to me a wildly insincere analysis of the media landscape most americans live in. Like you don't have to call it a state-led, big bad boogeyman conspiracy to acknowledge that the average american is literally waterboarded with misinformation whenever they go online, so its weird to me that he takes the approach of kind of shading that concept as being not the case? it is totally the case?
-I appreciate your compassionate stance on people’s lack of inclination for reading and research because it is a stance I wish I had. Instead, I have spent A LOT of time since the election being unbelievably frustrated at the lack of intellectual curiosity and discernment from large swaths of Americans. And it’s not even, “why don’t you read more?” Because if you can sit through an hour of some bullshit incel YouTuber or THREE hours of Joe Rogan, then how about you take an hour to listen to Ezra Klein or Trevor Noah? Take three hours to listen to an audiobook on folks who were sucked into QAnon. I’ve been really frustrated at the way we let ourselves off the hook for our incuriosity. I know that isn’t compassionate or productive, but when you hear enough bad faith arguments or justifications clearly rooted in blatant lies from people you know in real life, it’s really hard to maintain compassion. Like, I am no one special but I’ve managed to figure out how hear something/read something, interrogate it, and verify it with widely trusted sources. Why can’t my cousin with the same (or better!) resources, support, and education as me do the same?
- yes, Bouie’s stance on rednote versus TikTok feels ultimately hypocritical. I wonder if he has justified the distinction in any of his videos. I’d have to look.
- my bias: I do not feel the same strong rage against the NYT as many for a variety of ultimately boring reasons (although ask me how I feel after any given episode of The Daily). So Bouie’s stance of “no one is lying to you” doesn’t rankle me quite as much. If my dumb ass can turn the radio dial to NPR, then so can anyone. But I definitely get where you are coming from with your perspective and you’re right that we ARE faced with a firehouse of misinformation every time we get online if we’re not careful.
- my liberal snobbery (and Bouie’s as well) is not helpful. Intellectually I know that. No one likes the teachers pet. But I am an oldest daughter, advanced learner, workaholic, Capricorn — these snobby characteristics are DEEPLY ROOTED and being worked out in therapy 😅.
Just want to add that even NPR is EXTREMELY invested in upholding the neoliberal order because it’s how they and their largest donors stay afloat. Just because they are public doesn’t mean they don’t editorialize within the confines of the system. I don’t know what the big solution is for media at this point, but I don’t think telling people to do their own research/change the channel/read a book/etc. is fair 1) because you have to have the privileges of education, stability, time for leisure to learn beyond the media which is just not the case for a LOT of people and 2) because ALL of the “trusted” sources are ultimately invested in our current economic order proceeding (with small tweaks to improve life for the plebes on as small a scale as possible to keep their profit margins high, haha). Just as an example, every mainstream media source AND the most promoted/popular voices on social platforms (except for TikTok) have downplayed Israel’s actions in the war on Gaza the entire time, just like they did with WW2, Korea, Vietnam, and all of our interference in South/Central America and the Middle East for decades. Is this because they just happen to all actually believe the US military and its allies are faultless and always doing the best they can? Definitely not, but the people who fund and own and run these publications must maintain that “logic” for the sake of upholding western capitalist imperialism.
Working people in the US (without a ton of time to dig/learn) only have access to the range of acceptable truths that the capitalist class (that runs our government) permits, just like Chinese citizens (without putting in extra effort/taking big risks) only have access to whatever acceptable truths their government permits.
ok i just watched both of his videos and some thoughts incoming:
- i generally really like and admire him and appreciated his thoughts
- i still find it a bit odd that he refuses to be on an app that he perceives as "a direct propaganda organ of a foreign state" and that he has no problem being on tiktok? im sure he has some sort of distinction he feels comfortable making, but its going to have to be a hella nuanced one to keep that needle fully threaded!
- i get and understand his point about people "not reading" and about people technically being able to go to China, but also like: yeah, lol, duh? like to me that is not the subtext but the actual text here! of course an elite class of people travel to china/know about chinese culture/are educated on how china is good and bad in real life, but that elite class is not an accurate sample demographic of our country at all! And yes, reading is cheap, get a library card etc, but let's be completely honest with ourselves and acknowledge that asking the average american to do a random self-imposed book report on china is... a failed errand lol, we are lucky if people can make it to the end of an emily henry book at this point in american history. it just feels a bit like a purity test to me, especially coming from someone who is probably predisposed to research and reading in a way that most americans are not. (i'm sensitive about this because i am also predisposed to those things, and im not interested in making other people feel bad for having less time or inclination to do that, for a wide number of reasons)
- also i guess im going to show my own bias/personal frustrations here but like: this man speaks like a man who works for the nytimes. the whole video is designed as a slap-on-the-snoot for people "not knowing things," not "reading enough," not being "curious" enough, etc. very college-coded, very hillary-clinton-calling-people-deplorables coded.
-LASTLY (bless anyone who made it this far): american news and social media networks are, at this point in history, quite literally overrun with misinformation and bad faith takes, so for bouie to kind of tongue-in-cheek be like "no one is lying to you, you're just lazy" is to me a wildly insincere analysis of the media landscape most americans live in. Like you don't have to call it a state-led, big bad boogeyman conspiracy to acknowledge that the average american is literally waterboarded with misinformation whenever they go online, so its weird to me that he takes the approach of kind of shading that concept as being not the case? it is totally the case?
anyways v fascinating and a lot to chew on, ty!!
OF COURSE I read the whole comment!
-I appreciate your compassionate stance on people’s lack of inclination for reading and research because it is a stance I wish I had. Instead, I have spent A LOT of time since the election being unbelievably frustrated at the lack of intellectual curiosity and discernment from large swaths of Americans. And it’s not even, “why don’t you read more?” Because if you can sit through an hour of some bullshit incel YouTuber or THREE hours of Joe Rogan, then how about you take an hour to listen to Ezra Klein or Trevor Noah? Take three hours to listen to an audiobook on folks who were sucked into QAnon. I’ve been really frustrated at the way we let ourselves off the hook for our incuriosity. I know that isn’t compassionate or productive, but when you hear enough bad faith arguments or justifications clearly rooted in blatant lies from people you know in real life, it’s really hard to maintain compassion. Like, I am no one special but I’ve managed to figure out how hear something/read something, interrogate it, and verify it with widely trusted sources. Why can’t my cousin with the same (or better!) resources, support, and education as me do the same?
- yes, Bouie’s stance on rednote versus TikTok feels ultimately hypocritical. I wonder if he has justified the distinction in any of his videos. I’d have to look.
- my bias: I do not feel the same strong rage against the NYT as many for a variety of ultimately boring reasons (although ask me how I feel after any given episode of The Daily). So Bouie’s stance of “no one is lying to you” doesn’t rankle me quite as much. If my dumb ass can turn the radio dial to NPR, then so can anyone. But I definitely get where you are coming from with your perspective and you’re right that we ARE faced with a firehouse of misinformation every time we get online if we’re not careful.
- my liberal snobbery (and Bouie’s as well) is not helpful. Intellectually I know that. No one likes the teachers pet. But I am an oldest daughter, advanced learner, workaholic, Capricorn — these snobby characteristics are DEEPLY ROOTED and being worked out in therapy 😅.
Just want to add that even NPR is EXTREMELY invested in upholding the neoliberal order because it’s how they and their largest donors stay afloat. Just because they are public doesn’t mean they don’t editorialize within the confines of the system. I don’t know what the big solution is for media at this point, but I don’t think telling people to do their own research/change the channel/read a book/etc. is fair 1) because you have to have the privileges of education, stability, time for leisure to learn beyond the media which is just not the case for a LOT of people and 2) because ALL of the “trusted” sources are ultimately invested in our current economic order proceeding (with small tweaks to improve life for the plebes on as small a scale as possible to keep their profit margins high, haha). Just as an example, every mainstream media source AND the most promoted/popular voices on social platforms (except for TikTok) have downplayed Israel’s actions in the war on Gaza the entire time, just like they did with WW2, Korea, Vietnam, and all of our interference in South/Central America and the Middle East for decades. Is this because they just happen to all actually believe the US military and its allies are faultless and always doing the best they can? Definitely not, but the people who fund and own and run these publications must maintain that “logic” for the sake of upholding western capitalist imperialism.
Working people in the US (without a ton of time to dig/learn) only have access to the range of acceptable truths that the capitalist class (that runs our government) permits, just like Chinese citizens (without putting in extra effort/taking big risks) only have access to whatever acceptable truths their government permits.