***Official Political Discussion Thread***

I have zero faith in Montana ever turning blue.

The state is trending in the other direction from my knowledge. I could be wrong

Unless some major migration happens into the state, I think it stays solid red
 
Seems like Erza Klein is leaving Vox. Won't be writing for them, and I think his current podcast is dead

He is moving over to the NYT to be an opinion writer, report on policy issues, and lead a new policy podcast. Seems like he is going back to what he used to do during his WOnkblog days.

Couple thoughts:

-NYT finally improves its Opinion Page. NYT been getting drunk off of ****ty right-wing takes for the past 4 years. Nice to see them go in the other direction

This reinforces my view that Mathew Yglesias is fragile as hell.

Klein leaves Vox by talking up them up and wishing them well. He moves on to a potentially bigger platform. Yglesias on his way out said he felt he could say what he wanted without pushback from his co-workers. Now mans is trying to peddle a paid newsletter, and he still needs that Vox podcast check. :lol:

Eh, if you feel like you’re being dealt with in bad faith, you don’t have an obligation to stick around. I’d like to think that he went too left for Vox but from what I’ve gleaned, he got some flack for signing that anti “cancel culture” letter. That letter purported to be non ideological but it was clearly a defense of rich and powerful people not wanting to face any consequences for conservatives expressing reactionary views. It was basically a Magna Carta for transphobic author JK Rowling anyone who may find themselves in a position similar to hers in the future.

Going forward, for at least the next two years, the left, by the broadest interpretation of the name, will not be able to get much done. The Status quo will have a stacked defense, featuring the killer M’s: Manchin, Murkowski and McConnell standing athwart progressive and behind them, a 6-3 Confederate Court looms.

Among the left, we need to be less eager to accuse and purge each other but we also must know where to draw the line of who is in the left e.g Davis Frum and Nicole Wallace should be shunned. If you don’t want to at least somewhat flatten existing hierarchies, you’re not on the left. Most importantly, whenever we want to take out our frustration over the left’s current lack of power on different members of the left, let us make more phone calls, do more mutual aid, do more work with whatever orgs we are members of and build power.

That said, arguing over our choice of podcasts can be our indulgence. We can have left unity except for media consumption choices, that intramural battle will never end.
 
-He didn't go too left for Vox, though. He said it was him being the so-called "moderate" of the Vox staff that he said caused friction. But to be honest I think it is his Twitter activity that gets him in trouble more than anything. His constant need to throw people under the bus for a cheap "I told you so". Sometimes he has insightful points, sometimes it really seems like he is just a troll looking for a reaction.

His editors were not trying to silence him, his coworkers were just critical of his behavior.

-And with the letter, it went beyond that. A transgender member of the Vox staff said that his signing the letter made her feel less safe at Vox. At that point I was kinda with him that was kinda a reach to put that all on him. Since he and the person are in different cities, and that he had no editorial power over her work, and he seemed very supportive of transgender rights. But then all of this blew up on Twitter, and people started insulting, attacking, and threatening his coworker. he had to make tweets demanding people defining him stop doing that, which kinda put a ton of egg on his face.

I mean if you leave a new organization and your grievances sound kinda like the ones Bari Weis and Andrew Sullivan when they left theirs, then maybe you are just being fragile
 
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Seems like Erza Klein is leaving Vox. Won't be writing for them, and I think his current podcast is dead

He is moving over to the NYT to be an opinion writer, report on policy issues, and lead a new policy podcast. Seems like he is going back to what he used to do during his WOnkblog days.

Couple thoughts:

-NYT finally improves its Opinion Page. NYT been getting drunk off of ****ty right-wing takes for the past 4 years. Nice to see them go in the other direction

This reinforces my view that Mathew Yglesias is fragile as hell.

Klein leaves Vox by talking up them up and wishing them well. He moves on to a potentially bigger platform. Yglesias on his way out said he felt he could say what he wanted without pushback from his co-workers. Now mans is trying to peddle a paid newsletter, and he still needs that Vox podcast check. :lol:

the substack is great. highly recommend it.
 
I have zero faith in Montana ever turning blue.

The state is trending in the other direction from my knowledge. I could be wrong

Unless some major migration happens into the state, I think it stays solid red

I don't know, I think with the boom that Bozeman and Missoula are going to continue to see and Billings slowly getting an influx of left-leaning younger folks coming in I think it's possible down the line. Probably not likely but possible.
 


I'm tired of the "Trump's outreach to Black voters" nonsense from conservatives who are constantly trying to delude themselves of their party's bigotry and racism. No more than a day ago, their whole argument in Michigan (and elsewhere) was to throw out votes due to "irregularities" in predominantly Black counties. WS is a hell of a drug, man.
 
Yglesias talked about it in the sub stack.



They thought digital native properties would eventually disrupt and replace entrenched legacy media like the NY Times.

so they created Vox.



but rather than failing to adapt and getting replaced by Vox.


NYtimes responded by not only adapting...
but by using their immense resources to poach their top talent.

they started their own podcasts,
and poached top talent from Buzzfeed and Vox.



So seems like Vox has hit a ceiling growth wise, and since Klein and Yglesias since they are no longer in management positions
they have no reason to stick a round. especially when the can get bigger checks away from Vox.
 
I don't know, I think with the boom that Bozeman and Missoula are going to continue to see and Billings slowly getting an influx of left-leaning younger folks coming in I think it's possible down the line. Probably not likely but possible.

that’s what I was thinking too. Plus Montana is a labor friendly union state.
 
no one hates anything more than Glen Greenwald hates the democratic party.

It's a type of hate I couldn't even summon for my worst enemy. :lol:
Mans sacrificed all his journalistic integrity, and had to leave the news outlet he started, all because he couldn't get past his hatred of the party :lol:

I could understand if it was a specific Democrat, but he hates him all. I think if his kid moves back to the US and become Dems, he gonna start hating them too.

Dude swears that he is afraid for his life because Bolsonaro might one day throw him in jail on BS charges, yet a while back I heard buddy saying he agreed with the dude because Bolosanaro said something critical of Biden. :lol: That some uncut, unstepped on hatred.
 
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-He didn't go too left for Vox, though. He said it was him being the so-called "moderate" of the Vox staff that he said caused friction. But to be honest I think it is his Twitter activity that gets him in trouble more than anything. His constant need to throw people under the bus for a cheap "I told you so". Sometimes he has insightful points, sometimes it really seems like he is just a troll looking for a reaction.

His editors were not trying to silence him, his coworkers were just critical of his behavior.

-And with the letter, it went beyond that. A transgender member of the Vox staff said that his signing the letter made her feel less safe at Vox. At that point I was kinda with him that was kinda a reach to put that all on him. Since he and the person are in different cities, and that he had no editorial power over her work, and he seemed very supportive of transgender rights. But then all of this blew up on Twitter, and people started insulting, attacking, and threatening his coworker. he had to make tweets demanding people defining him stop doing that, which kinda put a ton of egg on his face.

I mean if you leave a new organization and your grievances sound kinda like the ones Bari Weis and Andrew Sullivan when they left theirs, then maybe you are just being fragile

I mean as a general principle, if you feel that your arguments or even your character is being consistently misrepresented by your colleagues, it maybe is better to move on.

That doesn't seems to be the case with Matt Yglesias though. It seems like he signed onto a letter with a transphobic subtext, he got called on it but one of his colleagues really hurt him by saying that they felt unsafe and it probably festered. Yglesias certainly considers himself an ally of the trans community and its an awkward position to be in when you feel that you’ve been treated unfairly and that person treating you unfairly is using your allyship with their community to get away with it. It’s a tough call since the left needs webs of allyship/solidarity to succeed.

I suppose that could be fragility but whatever it is, it seems different than Weis and Sullivan’s departures. Those two consistently called for genocide, their colleagues engaged with their arguments, as they were constructed, and those two moved on so they could advocate for genocide in a more supportive environment.
 
Yglesias talked about it in the sub stack.



They thought digital native properties would eventually disrupt and replace entrenched legacy media like the NY Times.

so they created Vox.



but rather than failing to adapt and getting replaced by Vox.


NYtimes responded by not only adapting...
but by using their immense resources to poach their top talent.

they started their own podcasts,
and poached top talent from Buzzfeed and Vox.



So seems like Vox has hit a ceiling growth wise, and since Klein and Yglesias since they are no longer in management positions
they have no reason to stick a round. especially when the can get bigger checks away from Vox.
Vox's future seems to be producing video content

That is one area they are ahead of other outlets, and apparently, they signed couple more deals.
 
I don't know, I think with the boom that Bozeman and Missoula are going to continue to see and Billings slowly getting an influx of left-leaning younger folks coming in I think it's possible down the line. Probably not likely but possible.
I think the party is bleeding older voters at a much higher rate than migration can make up for it.

Plus they are probably splitting whatever potentially gains with Idaho anyway
 
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