5 ms·

Social media has completely transformed this type of protest. People who have nothing to do with the university can now join a 'cancel mob' to attack a politica

Social media has completely transformed this type of protest. People who have nothing to do with the university can now join a 'cancel mob' to attack a political opponent on the other side of the world.

klyrs 5y ago
Oldsters remember when this was a slower process, where people would write angry letters. They would undertake letter-writing campaigns, persuading others to take up the literary torch. They'd write to newspapers and magazines, where "free speech" was subject to the gatekeeping editor. Shorter screeds would appear in classified ads, again, to be censored if the editor didn't want to print what you had to say. It's faster, it's more transparent, the gatekeeping is more often post-facto and more there are more platforms to try if one blocks you. Writing quality and wit has definitely declined, though. But I wouldn't say that this is a complete transformation. My dad would fume over his letters for days before sending them.
- WalterBright 5y ago
  > Writing quality and wit has definitely declined I concur. The skewering of Sarah Palin "I can see Russia from my house!" by SNL was brilliant. SNL's skewering of Trump just wasn't funny. Edit: Ok, if you disagree, note that everyone recognizes the SNL "I can see..." quote. Any memorable ones from SNL's Trump skits?
  - mhh__ 5y ago
    Alec Baldwin was pretty good, no? I always found Trump-satire a little bit symbiotic. He thrives on non-boring politics, satire only normalizes his actions - i.e. mocking war hero's, regardless of what you make of the war they fought in, is just inhuman and satire only serves to form a grotesque hyperreality which we saw explode at the beginning of this year with all this nonsense over the election.
    - WalterBright 5y ago
      Was he? I didn't watch all his Trump skits, but the ones I did were not memorable. Trump should be a gold mine for parody, but SNL muffed it. Jay Leno was always good and skewering both sides. He never took it seriously, and his targets usually found them funny, too. Perhaps Baldwin's jokes fell flat because they sounded more like a "let's all pile on him because we hate him" form of bullying rather than funny.
      - mhh__ 5y ago
        FWIW I think that says more about SNL than Trump, just seems a bit crap really from my admittedly non-nostalgic European-elitist perspective. If you've heard of the private eye, they had some very well observed pieces on trump e.g. Trump likes it when people call him an orange racist because it plays to his base, call him a poor businessman and a fraud and he's not so happy. P.S. on the subject of trump, Michael Lewis's book "The fifth risk" is very good. It's a good insight into the man, his team, and basically everything you shouldn't do in their shoes. My favourite piece of trivia from the above book is that Trump never fires anyone personally. The whole "Yuh fired"-schtick from the TV show is just pantomime. He was also apparently unable to understand that money raised in his name to fund a transition team wasn't his own personally, which didn't exactly surprise me but should shatter any illusion of rationality.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - klyrs 5y ago
    FWIW, I don't think your reply is quite on-topic here. I was talking about wit in letters to the editor in decline in contrast to short-form platforms like Twitter etc., that is, writing by the masses distributed to the masses. SNL is an entirely different beast; 'ordinary folks' don't get a platform there.
- wussboy 5y ago
  Yes, it was slower. And that slower speed gave more time for people to reflect, to calm down, to see if their moral passions had longevity. I think social media has perfect “outrage” because it can be so immediate. There’s no time for cooler heads to prevail. And we are the worse for it.

klyrs 5y ago

Oldsters remember when this was a slower process, where people would write angry letters. They would undertake letter-writing campaigns, persuading others to take up the literary torch. They'd write to newspapers and magazines, where "free speech" was subject to the gatekeeping editor. Shorter screeds would appear in classified ads, again, to be censored if the editor didn't want to print what you had to say. It's faster, it's more transparent, the gatekeeping is more often post-facto and more there are more platforms to try if one blocks you. Writing quality and wit has definitely declined, though. But I wouldn't say that this is a complete transformation. My dad would fume over his letters for days before sending them.

WalterBright 5y ago
> Writing quality and wit has definitely declined I concur. The skewering of Sarah Palin "I can see Russia from my house!" by SNL was brilliant. SNL's skewering of Trump just wasn't funny. Edit: Ok, if you disagree, note that everyone recognizes the SNL "I can see..." quote. Any memorable ones from SNL's Trump skits?
- mhh__ 5y ago
  Alec Baldwin was pretty good, no? I always found Trump-satire a little bit symbiotic. He thrives on non-boring politics, satire only normalizes his actions - i.e. mocking war hero's, regardless of what you make of the war they fought in, is just inhuman and satire only serves to form a grotesque hyperreality which we saw explode at the beginning of this year with all this nonsense over the election.
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    Was he? I didn't watch all his Trump skits, but the ones I did were not memorable. Trump should be a gold mine for parody, but SNL muffed it. Jay Leno was always good and skewering both sides. He never took it seriously, and his targets usually found them funny, too. Perhaps Baldwin's jokes fell flat because they sounded more like a "let's all pile on him because we hate him" form of bullying rather than funny.
    - mhh__ 5y ago
      FWIW I think that says more about SNL than Trump, just seems a bit crap really from my admittedly non-nostalgic European-elitist perspective. If you've heard of the private eye, they had some very well observed pieces on trump e.g. Trump likes it when people call him an orange racist because it plays to his base, call him a poor businessman and a fraud and he's not so happy. P.S. on the subject of trump, Michael Lewis's book "The fifth risk" is very good. It's a good insight into the man, his team, and basically everything you shouldn't do in their shoes. My favourite piece of trivia from the above book is that Trump never fires anyone personally. The whole "Yuh fired"-schtick from the TV show is just pantomime. He was also apparently unable to understand that money raised in his name to fund a transition team wasn't his own personally, which didn't exactly surprise me but should shatter any illusion of rationality.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- klyrs 5y ago
  FWIW, I don't think your reply is quite on-topic here. I was talking about wit in letters to the editor in decline in contrast to short-form platforms like Twitter etc., that is, writing by the masses distributed to the masses. SNL is an entirely different beast; 'ordinary folks' don't get a platform there.
wussboy 5y ago
Yes, it was slower. And that slower speed gave more time for people to reflect, to calm down, to see if their moral passions had longevity. I think social media has perfect “outrage” because it can be so immediate. There’s no time for cooler heads to prevail. And we are the worse for it.