Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
However: earlier in the book, on page 15, Nagle quotes this 2008 article by Matthias Schwartz for The New York Times.
Nagle argues that the pain, suffering and victimhood-affirming culture of Tumblr-liberalism is one of these reasons for the failure and I think she is right. It’s hard to settle on a label that would encompass what Nagle is talking about, since she lumps together many groups and ideologies based on how some of them present their views/arguments. Bush, who had waged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and embarrassed educated people with his Southern style, his regular gaffs and ‘Bushisms’, the feeling of shame among US liberals was captured by books like Michael Moore’s Stupid White Men.
I suspect the author will be attacked by both right and left which is possibly the best endorsement I can give the book. When people get so far down the rabbit hole of obscure online political subcultures and forums it becomes impossible to relate to or explain things to a normie who is also seen as being partially to blame for the problems of the world because of their ignorant unenlightened state. A reader can't expect you to present information completely or accurately if you say a game you've never played is shit, seemingly because you hate how you assume the game works based on a biased view of a person involved in making the game. To me nothing speaks more about this obsession with identity than the transgender bathroom ban debate in the United States on the run-up to last year’s election.
The book kept popping up on my newsfeed, and so I decided to read it to see if it fulfills its hype (Spoiler alert: it doesn't). There are no citations, no interviews, no statistics, nothing (Maybe I'm unfamiliar with how books of this genre are written, but you'd think she'd cite something)! There's SO MUCH to critique and point out about the left - and rather than look at that from an honest and informed perspective and raise valid and insightful criticisms, Nagle seems to regurgitate alt-right hyperbole and get the majority of her information from a game of Telephone. This is somehow accurate, but being such an important part of video game culture, and as a WoW player, I thought that it deserves a better explanation. Unfortunately it's near impossible to have a sane or good faith conversation about this because of how heated the culture wars have become online, but the longer term social implications, which apply to men and women, are surely going to be very significant as millennials get older.
The claim to truth of such politics is purely affective, as challenging political statements from a left-ethical position may elicit the refrain its not my job to do the emotional labor of explaining this to you. Let me explain - Nagle will throw out terms that either 1) have multiple meanings/uses, and she should identify how she uses the word and use it consistently, or terms that 2) she can't/shouldn't expect the audience to be familiar with in this sort of medium and should define when using it. Hillary Clinton tried to repeat this formula in 2016 by dancing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, drafting in Beyoncé once again, assuring listeners of her penchant for hot sauce and attracting feminist celebrities like Lena Dunham with the ‘I’m With Her’ slogan.
The weird question to be asked is then how to answer such an effective version of “Gramscian” right who successfully waged a cultural war against the cultural Marxism? A practice of the alt-right is to make the left look stupid as possible via trolls which are taken to be legit representatives by outsiders, and Nagle fell for it hook, line, and sinker. But to do that, we need to look at the big picture and stop engaging in tiresome witch-hunts that do nothing but antagonise and alientate potential allies. But liberalism is extremely weak right now and I think much stronger ideologies are likely to trample it in the coming years. The implied Social Justice association with Tumblr is a result of years of mockery by those on the Alt-Right (mainly Reddit/r/TumblrInAction and 4chan).Many people are attracted to progressive politics because they see that the world is unequal and unfair and they want better wages or education or healthcare. It's ironic that in a book so occupied with the practice of trolling the author probably got trolled herself.
Great Deal 
New Comment