After Jesse bravely expresses an opinion that is likely to get him cancelled by Cancel Culture, and to potentially destroy the podcast entirely, the hosts, who are clearly hated by God Himself (of maybe... HERself??), devote almost the entire episode to Letter Discourse and Counter-Letter Discourse. The discussion mostly concerns the harassment of a Vox staffer, which Jesse contributed to and feels bad about, even as he is aggrieved at the unhinged-in-light-of-the-evidence Jesse Did It narrative that took over bluecheck Twitter earlier this week. What are individuals' responsibilities during online pileons? Will journalists ever stop being full of shit with regard to which acts -- screencapping, quote-retweeting, mocking -- are and aren't considered harassment? In the closing segment, the hosts briefly discuss President Trump's interesting strategy of fighting for free speech and open academic inquiry by unleashing the federal government to investigate universities, as one does.
Show notes/Links:
Rough week for Jesse on Twitter: https://twitter.com/search?q=jesse%20singal&src=typed_query
(We said we would include links to the right-wing pieces and tweets bashing the Vox staffer mentioned in the podcast, but whoever wrote this summary began feeling guilty about doing so. If you search for her name and the name of the outlets mentioned, you will find it all -- we promise.)
Episode 20: Online Harassment Is Bad But Also People Are Extremely Disingenuous About It, And Other Observations