Kind of sounds like the male version of Naomi Wolf, especially the part about how getting cancelled/embarrassed publicly sent him looking for a new home base.
Yasha, have you read his "The Left is Now the Right"? It's a textbook example of sophistry, but the title is so absurd it got me to sit down and write an essay on what left and right are to put my ideas in order. So it served a purpose, but at the same time convinced me he isn't a serious thinker.
His notion of an ideal free market you've quoted is so frustratingly naïve I wonder that he used to be considered an expert in financial rackets. Capitalism has never, nowhere worked the way he thinks it should. It's like he doesn't understand why smaller companies get gobbled up by bigger ones and why corporations engage in regulatory capture and market rigging.
I did read "Hate Inc." He writes well, and much of what he rails about against liberalism is cogent. But then again, I've long realised that anyone can bash liberalism and sound cogent while doing it, from Matt Taibbi to Tucker Carlson to Vladimir Putin. It's a bankrupt ideology. It's what one advances as an alternative that merits consideration. And the snake oil he sells is long past the use-by date.
I vaguely knew Taibbi from his Moscow Times days and followed the eXile pretty closely the first few years. One important element of Taibbi’s personality you don’t mention is that he is a jock at heart, and carries a lot of the homophobic misogynistic baggage typical of the GenX jock. He likes muscular socialism - the socialism of steel workers, Teamsters and steely eyed Bolsheviks in leather jackets, but he always had contempt for the “effeminate” soft liberalism of the American upper middle class. There’s probably no world where Taibbi would have been a fan of Hilary Clinton, Kamala or even Buttigieg. The Trump approach of governing more like Tony Soprano than like a CEO seems to me pretty aligned with Matt’s core values. He’s one of the people who finds a transwoman on a swim team more dangerous to the planet than climate change or paramilitaries in masks sending brown people to concentration camps in Florida.
The irony of such a high profile genx character so obviously selling out (maybe even right from the start) throws the whole genx trope right under the bus... I guess it could also be argued it's because Taibbi is really just another boomer, which seems to check out pretty good (probably why the Kirn collab made sense to him).
It has been funny to watch him turn into yet another "no, no, the left left me, I was actually always a chud" washout.
Couldn't agree more with what you wrote in your last paragraph.
"All that said I don't think Matt is uniquely corrupt. He is corrupt in a way that a lot of people are corrupt. Most people hold many contradictory ideas and political views and moral stances in their heads. We're not rational in our beliefs and our allegiances aren't set in stone...all that is based on complex social and cultural factors rather than some hard logic or moral principles. In short, our politics our social..."
Is the origin of your fury about Matt because you feel he betrayed your friend Mark Ames or is it something else.
Kind of sounds like the male version of Naomi Wolf, especially the part about how getting cancelled/embarrassed publicly sent him looking for a new home base.
It takes a certain almost disciplined kind of shamelessness to keep the pivot or refocus going after Musk humiliated him in public. grindset baby
As John Dolan put it well for people like him: No gag reflex.
Yasha, have you read his "The Left is Now the Right"? It's a textbook example of sophistry, but the title is so absurd it got me to sit down and write an essay on what left and right are to put my ideas in order. So it served a purpose, but at the same time convinced me he isn't a serious thinker.
His notion of an ideal free market you've quoted is so frustratingly naïve I wonder that he used to be considered an expert in financial rackets. Capitalism has never, nowhere worked the way he thinks it should. It's like he doesn't understand why smaller companies get gobbled up by bigger ones and why corporations engage in regulatory capture and market rigging.
I did read "Hate Inc." He writes well, and much of what he rails about against liberalism is cogent. But then again, I've long realised that anyone can bash liberalism and sound cogent while doing it, from Matt Taibbi to Tucker Carlson to Vladimir Putin. It's a bankrupt ideology. It's what one advances as an alternative that merits consideration. And the snake oil he sells is long past the use-by date.
I used to watch Matt Taibbi.
One year ago I made some comments against his ideas.
The vitriol I experienced from his commenters was uncomfortable and vicious.
Such a shame.
When I first wrote critically about Taibbi 5 years ago people got mad trolled the comments and unsubscribed. People create their own cults.
Yes they do. It's is sad because 'divided we fall but together we overcome'.
Thank you Yasha for bringing this to our attention.
Me too - very sexist and racist which I can take but surprised. He’s a good writer but needs to be liked.
I think Power went to his head.
I vaguely knew Taibbi from his Moscow Times days and followed the eXile pretty closely the first few years. One important element of Taibbi’s personality you don’t mention is that he is a jock at heart, and carries a lot of the homophobic misogynistic baggage typical of the GenX jock. He likes muscular socialism - the socialism of steel workers, Teamsters and steely eyed Bolsheviks in leather jackets, but he always had contempt for the “effeminate” soft liberalism of the American upper middle class. There’s probably no world where Taibbi would have been a fan of Hilary Clinton, Kamala or even Buttigieg. The Trump approach of governing more like Tony Soprano than like a CEO seems to me pretty aligned with Matt’s core values. He’s one of the people who finds a transwoman on a swim team more dangerous to the planet than climate change or paramilitaries in masks sending brown people to concentration camps in Florida.
"He’s one of the people" yes, he definitely knows how to press the transphobe button for coins
Survival tactics. It’s like coworkers who laugh at all the bosses jokes to ensure their employment. Kind of.
The irony of such a high profile genx character so obviously selling out (maybe even right from the start) throws the whole genx trope right under the bus... I guess it could also be argued it's because Taibbi is really just another boomer, which seems to check out pretty good (probably why the Kirn collab made sense to him).
It has been funny to watch him turn into yet another "no, no, the left left me, I was actually always a chud" washout.
Couldn't agree more with what you wrote in your last paragraph.
"All that said I don't think Matt is uniquely corrupt. He is corrupt in a way that a lot of people are corrupt. Most people hold many contradictory ideas and political views and moral stances in their heads. We're not rational in our beliefs and our allegiances aren't set in stone...all that is based on complex social and cultural factors rather than some hard logic or moral principles. In short, our politics our social..."
Is the origin of your fury about Matt because you feel he betrayed your friend Mark Ames or is it something else.
Nah I gave the same treatment to Bari Weiss who I dont know and have no personal beef with.
It really does need to be easier to be a good communist . . . .