By David Futrelle
On Sunday, freelance journalist Talia Jane took to Twitter to report a truly grotesque sexual message she’d gotten from a male colleague whom she later identified as Seattle Times reporter Mike Rosenberg.
Then this all happened:
- Rosenberg suspended his Twitter account at Jane’s request.
- The paper suspended Rosenberg while they looked into the matter.
- Twitter suspended, then unsuspended, Jane’s account over an innocuous tweet because some annoying nitwit got mad at her for reporting the DM, and Twitter’s abuse reporting system is so broken that annoying nitwits can get people suspended over innocuous tweets.
- Australian podcaster Aimee Terese, ostensibly a leftist, attacked Jane in a tweet that somehow managed to be even grosser than Rosenberg’s DM, and my mouth dropped open, leaving my lower jaw suspended in the air. (Figuratively.)
Before we get into #4, let’s go back to the original gross DM, sent at the tail end of a late-night conversation between Rosenberg and Jane, when the Seattle reporter suddenly transitioned from such topics as journalism jobs and the cost of living in Seattle to, well, this:
Rosenberg, who has acknowledged that he did indeed send these messages, claims that that last one was meant for someone else whose picture he was presumably masturbating onto. The out-of-the-blue strangeness of his comment had led some to think he may be telling the truth, but Jane isn’t buying this explanation.
You can find out more details on all this in Jane’s original thread, or in some of the news pieces that have been written about it already.
But I’m just going to move on to Aimee Terese’s tweet, though, because, holy hell, it’s in many ways even grosser than Rosenberg’s DM:
(This tweet has since been deleted; I grabbed the clearest screenshot I could find of it here.)
When someone asked if she really meant what she seemed to be saying, she doubled down:
And then she doubled down again:
Terese even tried to lay out a twisted sort-of Marxist case for … attacking someone with a gross sexual tweet for reporting a gross sexual DM.
(In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I am Twitter-friendly with @RivkaGheist and that as far as I can tell she is not in fact “ruling class scum.”)
In other tweets, Terese declared that Jane was “hysterical and cruel,” compared her to an abusive cop, and suggested she was a narcissist because … she once wrote an open letter to her then-employer demanding better pay and working conditions:
Shitting on someone for demanding better pay seems like an odd thing for a supposed Marxist to do, but I guess I don’t understand the finer points of the dialectic.
Terese even doubled down on calling Jane ugly:
Other ostensible leftists jumped into the fray with similar attacks on Jane, including the co-host of the Red Scare podcast:
Writer and podcaster Conner Habib alternated between sarcastic tweets laced with Marxoid jargon and … cum jokes.
Meanwhile, this guy evidently thought that the only thing this discussion needed to make it complete was a meme, er, humorously referencing the Chinese crackdown on students in Tiananmen Square.
Terese retweeted his meme, because of course she did.
It would be one thing if Terese and her pals in this discussion were just some tiny subgrouplet of a subgrouplet on the left.
But in fact they’re part of what seems to be a growing subculture of purported leftists who somehow manage to spend as much time attacking so-called “identity politics” — or IDpol, as they call it — as they do pushing their own reductionist class analysis, which as in this case often turns out to consist of little more than calling people they don’t like “ruling class scum.” They’re a sort of successor to what what was once called the “dirtbag left.”
This subculture now boasts a subreddit of its own — r/stupidpol, with nearly 10,000 subscribers — and it’s gotten celebrity endorsements of sorts from several relatively well-known names like journalist Michael Tracey — formerly of The Young Turks, now an occasional guest on Tucker Carlson’s White Power Hour — and Angela Nagle — a sometime writer for The Baffler and Jacobin whose book on the alt-right has won plaudits from none other than “dapper Nazi” Richard Spencer, who was especially pleased with her extended diatribe against so-caled Tumblrinas.
The Spencer endorsement is no fluke. Given their delight in “triggering” liberals and those on the intersectional left, people like Terese and the whole r/stupidpol crowd bear more than a passing resemblance to the alt-right — so much so that some people describe them as a new variety of NazBol, or National Bolshevism, a sort of mixture of (you guessed it) Nazi-style nationalism and Stalinesque Marxism.
I think (I hope!) that’s overstating it a bit. But these folks are truly the political equivalent of a creepy DM slide.
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Geez, Mike Rosenberg, if you’re going to be sexting during work hours, get a separate phone. Sheesh.
(Slightly) Less flippantly, this story makes me wonder if I’m the only person left who double-checks recipient names before she hits “send.”
This is just so obnoxious of Terese since the one time I heard her, she was a guest on a podcast I like and did an excellent take-down of Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris and Steven Pinker. Here she sounds as bad as any of them.
Aimee Terese’s mother needs to wash her mouth out with soap.
Great article but I wish you could cite Peter Soeller (@soellerpower) as a person who spoke up about all of this and the NazBol connection a week ago, and paid a heavy price by being trolled to hell and his Medium account suspended.
I’d never thought the “alt-left” would go from being a dog whistle to an actual thing, but it seems it might be in the process of happening now. One can only hope they and the alt-right proper start wasting their time fighting each other rather than making everyone else miserable.
Also, am I the only one who notices that most of these pseudo-Marxists are “ruling class scum” themselves? Though come to think of it, I guess that does follow the tradition set by Marx, Lenin, and Mao…
To be honest, I still wouldn’t call them “alt-left” – they’re just the same old bunch of authoritarian bastards. Further proof that there is no discourse so pure that it cannot be co-opted by authoritarian reactionaries.
That’s absolute and total gibberish. It’s a collection of Marxist shibboleths strung semirandomly together in something approximating sentences. Even within the context of pure doctrinaire Marxism, what she wrote there is basically equivalent to… Well, to the Manosphere and Nazi screeds so often highlighted here. Funny thing, that.
@Anonymous
These clowns are nothing new, they’re just louder and more obvious now. Tankies and brocialists, basically. And invariably antisemites.
These are the so far left, they are effectively right “radicals” one here’s about.
Some are a species of Purity Pony. Others confuse fighting for social justice with being anti government. Others are such anarchist radicals that nothing less than the system burning to the ground will satisfy them. They are all susceptible to both sides/right-left is the same libertarian propaganda.
Yet they claim to identify as being politically left, while often undermining real left goals. A high percentage are naive and gullible, but others are grifters.
They all seem to have a talent for getting on that last nerve.
See:
Glenn greenwald, reality winner, Snowdon, media Benjamin, codepink and more.
Well, she certainly needs something doing to shift the thesaurus stuck in her throat.
On behalf of Australia, I apologise sincerely for Aimee Terese and I cannot believe that she has such a big following. Her tweets are just a constant stream of toxic bile.
@Victorious Parasol, I posted on the open thread, but it got eaten as far as I can tell – I was so relieved to hear that Mr Parasol’s health is ok. You two have been through quite enough <3
Brocialists and the women who enable them do always seem to be a mere step or two from fascism.
This is why I don’t get so upset at “alt left” and “extreme left” claims… because tankies, brocialists, and the like exist. Just as bigoted as the fascist right, only coded in so-called “leftist” language.
These are the people who praise the authoritarianism masquerading as a bastardized form of communism that was the USSR and such…
I’m tempted to wonder if these r/stupidpol “leftist” people are some kind of deep 4chan/internet plant the way a lot of “SJW blogs” on Tumblr were a while back.
But on the other hand, I know [non-intersectional, especially] leftists really can be this shitty.
The “serial snitch” thing is so toxic, too. There’s being anti-authoritarian, and then there’s being cult-y.
None of that actually sounds leftist to me. It sounds alt-left in the sense of alt-right assholes deciding to put on a cloak of leftism to create confusion and discord. But then I am not particularly well versed in the many shades of communism, socialism, anarchism, etc. Not at all surprised that the extremist fringes shake hands (and more) to create a full circle out of the political spectrum, much like TERFs and fundamentalists. That is some seriously misogynist shit coming from Aimee Terese et al. Never let it be said that men have a monopoly on misogyny, just hegemony.
And of course, the original non sequitur DM was horrible. WTF! This is a professional colleague! They were discussing professional colleague stuff! There is no graceful pivot from that to cum. How could any reasonable person think that was a natural segue? I will never, never, never understand this kind of work-related sexual harassment.
‘Hold my kombucha’
1st of all, this kind of looks shaming is awful, harmful, and unacceptable
2nd of all, has she fuckin seen Rosenberg? My guy look like he, well, does this *exact* kinda thing on the reg
I mean…
Just say All Lives Matter and be done with it, Jayzess. I’m actually mad about this one, real rap…
What is with these people and podcasts?
Also, this is from his website
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/orly.gif
I prefer to just stick with calling em national socialists, but y’all do y’all
The “snitch” objection to reporting on harassment is so… I want to say weird, but the real answer is probably “disingenuous”. “How dare she object to being harassed! It’s like she doesn’t want to be harassed anymore or something.”
How do cloaks reproduce, exactly?
Then we move straight onto “discursive gasoline”, in a sentence that she apparently found crumpled up inside Heartiste’s dumpster.
oh dear, speaking of “snitches”
She’s tweeting up a minor storm about this very post, and she is not happy
@Mish of the Catlady Ascendancy
Heh. I just went to check it out.
Wait. How can one talk about feminism and “politically heterogeneous women” (does that mean not actually feminist, after all?) when also spouting seriously misogynist arguments about poor mean woman ruining man’s life and also she’s ugly?
Good to know you’re “stepping on necks of dissenting women” on your way to fortune and glory, David. Not like other people who would never do that. Or project unto others. At all.
look at her whining about Davids post & calling him “white knight” lol.
@Mish of the Catlady Ascendancy
“Dissenting women”? What does that even mean? What are they dissenting from, other than people who lack holier than thou pseudo-Marxist horseshit?
it’s cool that you, as a man, are tripping over your clown shoes to yell at women for being misogynists when they voice their opinions. really shows how women must toe the line or else people like yourself with no stake in the situation will harass them into acquiescence.
@solecism, @Anonymous
Isn’t she just astoundingly awful and incoherent? And her followers are trotting out the usual tired old white knight stuff. There’s even the obligatory “Futrelle is fat” :\
I’m so tempted to pop on and tell them that it worked, and we’re all on here clamouring to have sex with David… but I’ve seen her and her followers in action, and I do not need that crap.
I actually first found Aimee about a year ago, when she was making fun of another Tweeter for being autistic. Really charming.
Aww poor little baby is upset. Maybe if David makes a gross sexual comment about her body or face she’ll start to like him more. Considering she thinks the other dude was heading out complements when he talked about ejaculating on a woman’s face.
(Also david I know you wouldn’t do that. sorry just got a bit fighting mad at her accusation about you not carrying after you go through all of this bullshit to make post about it. That can’t be easy on ones mental health)
Seriously this obnoxious, rude, mean girl from high school snob needs to really shut up.
Um, first year pol sci was a while back but…how does the ruling class benefit if you tell people not to share their weird face-spooge fantasies with random women on account of that being offensive and shitty behavior? Clue me in here!