In this conversation…
A critique of work that best illustrates different elements of the, “I used to be a liberal, but…” media personality that purports to have invented a bold new form of centrist, independent thinking—but upon further inspection, it’s…just conservatism, and often cloaked in the language of the left.
This is the first bonus episode of Diabolical Lies, so the first 40 minutes of yap will be free to everyone, and the remaining …oh, God, hour and 20 minutes? will be for our paying subscribers, because Caro has to edit this shit herself for 20 hours a week in Garageband. I’m biased, but I think the back half of this episode slaps, so do with that information what you will.
References, Bonus Reading, & Timestamps, Oh My
References
Dopplegänger by Naomi Klein, which is, to date, the most clarifying and enjoyable articulation of this idea
“Naomi Klein Sees Uncanny Doubles in Our Politics,” an interview in The New Yorker between Klein and Jia Tolentino
“The I in the Internet,” an essay by Jia Tolentino that explains the cycle of backlash necessary to fuel this phenomenon, found in full in Trick Mirror (abridged version linked, notably scrubbed of the Weiss references in the full print essay)
“Meet the Conspiracy-Peddling Gossip Blogger Who’s Cast Herself as a Trump-RFK Player,” a recent Mother Jones “hit piece” on Jessica Reed Kraus’s “paranoid politics”
“Shopping for Sheep’s Clothing,” by
, which unpacks the proliferation of right-wing-friendly pieces under the guise of “girlhood”“Bari Weiss Knows Exactly What She’s Doing,” by Matt Flegenheimer for The New York Times, which admittedly reads like an aggrieved former employer venting for 5,000 words, but honestly, go off
