By David Futrelle
The last time we checked in on the Skidmarxists — which is what I’m now calling the post-Dirtbag-Left collection of faux leftists who use Marxian verbiage to defend Nazis, attack feminists, and justify slur-filled shitposts — one of their own, Aimee Terese, was attacking lefty writer and podcaster Jamie Peck as an “ageing starfucker” for coming forward to talk about the predatory behavior of now-disgraced photographer Terry Richardson.
Now Terese and her shitposting Skidmarxist comrades are going after comedian Kath Barbadoro for committing the apparently counterrevolutionary act of … speaking up against comedy clubs that have resumed booking the unredeemed and apparently irredeemable comedian Louie CK, who in 2017 admitted to being a sex pest who used his power in the business to compel much-less-powerful female comedians to watch him masturbate.
This was the Tweet that set the Skidmarxists off:
An assortment of Skidmarxist influencers decided to weigh in on this with the absolute worst takes possible. On Instagram, Red Scare podcast co-cost Anna Khachiyan responded to Barbadoro with these garbage thoughts:
NARRATOR: Louis CK had in fact done something wrong … repeatedly.
On Twitter, she offered this bit of mockery:
Amber A’Lee Frost, a semi-regular on Chapo Trap House (and, ironically, the inventor of the “Dirtbag Left” moniker) offered up a virtual garbage dump of thoughts, also on Instagram.
In fact, sexual harassment and worse is common in the food service industry; it is neither “paranoid” nor “hysterical” to worry about it.
On Twitter, meanwhile, our old new friend fiend Aimee Terese offered up this baffling take:
After I spent a while trying to figure out how a comedian could possibly be extracting surplus value from audience members who voluntarily pay money to see her, several Twitterers helped me to see that Aimee was actually trying to speak from the point of view of a comedian talking about a “petty bourgeoise” [sic] club owner.
As best as I can figure it, she’s saying that the interests of workers and their “bourgeoise” are so fundamentally opposed that we can only truly solve the problem of sexual harassment after the revolution – so why bring it up now?
Of course, by that logic, virtually any kind of labor organizing around working conditions — or even just for higher wages or minimal worker safety improvements — rather than immediate general strike and socialist revolution is a waste of time. Anyone who thinks that’s a Marxist position clearly hasn’t read Marx very carefully.
Then again, Terese also habitually spells “bourgeois” as “bourgeoise,” with that extra “e” at the end. (“Bourgeoise,” not to be confused with either “bourgeois” or “bourgeoisie,” means “a female member of the bourgeoisie.”)
In any case, this weird and muddled and decidedly un-Marxian argument — that it’s somehow self-indulgent to bring up the issue of sexual harassment before some imagined future revolution — helps to clarify what’s wrong with the whole Skidmarxist approach.
On the one hand, Terese is advancing an ultraleftist argument — that the only sort of labor organizing that counts is organizing for revolution now. But the practical effect of this rhetorical ultraleftism is that she ends up supporting a millionaire sex pest and his “petty bourgeoise” enablers (the club owners and festival organizers that book him) and trashing a working comedian.
Others in the Skidmarxist milieu, meanwhile, refuse to see sexual harassment in comedy as a workplace issue at all, most notably Nick Mullen, the alleged leftist co-host of the unfortunate and unfortunately named Cum Town podcast.
He was responding to this (obviously quite sensible) tweet from Barbadoro:
Mullen, who makes an extreeeeemely comfortable living doing a comedy podcast, replied by more or less declaring that comedy isn’t a job and that comedy clubs are not workplaces, at least not for the comics who appear at them. (It’s not clear if he thinks that they’re workplaces for the waitstaff.)
Never mind that comedy clubs are workplaces and that comedians are workers — and that only a few of them make as much as Mullen does from comedy, even fewer as much as Louis CK has. Never mind that there is no good reason to assume that there’s zero chance he’d at some point re-offend (perhaps not immediately, but later, after the heat dies down).
The real issue here goes way beyond Louis CK. Comedy has been rife with sexual harassment and worse for decades; female comedians put up with an astonishing level of shit. Any club owner who hires the largely unrepentant Louis CK, as Barbadoro suggested in her original tweet, is publicly announcing they don’t give a shit about the safety of female performers.
If they let Louis CK get away with it, why wouldn’t they also let other comics get away with it? The issue isn’t Louis CK jumping from the bushes; it’s a lesser-known comedian preying on some even-lesser known comedian backstage.
The ultimate irony here is that, for all the outrage they’ve directed at Barbadaro — and at other women complaining of sexual harassment- – some of the Skidmarxists have been remarkably quick to accuse others of sexual harassment and worse, often with no evidence at all.
Only a few days ago, in fact, the Skidmarxists and their allies from the Stupidpol subreddit were heading up a Twitter harassment campaign against democratic socialist politician Lee J. Carter, currently running for re-election to the Virginia House of Delegates, after he declared on Twitter he was “FINALLY officially divorced from my abuser.”
One particularly unethical Skidmarxist troll photoshopped some tweets by Carter, who served in Afghanistan, to make it look like he was admitting to sexually abusing Afghan boys.
Here’s a more readable version of the faked screeenshot; I took the liberty of adding the word “FAKE” in huge letters.
This is literally no different from the alt-right and alt-lite trolls — I’m looking at you, Mike Cernovich — who regularly smear people they disagree with as “pedoes” based on no evidence.
Along with telling Wilson to “shut the fuck up,” Terese also offered these thoughts on abuse in general that more than a few observers saw as a not-very-carefully disguised bit of innuendo directed at Wilson.
Terese, for her part, insists that the tweet had nothing to do with Wilson. I guess you’ll have to decide for yourself whether you believe her.
At this point I think we need to accept that the Skidmarxists, whatever their ideological claims, are not in any real sense leftists at all.
While most of them, I suspect, would insist they have nothing in common ideologically with the alt-right, in practice they have come down on the wrong side of issue after issue — attacking liberals, leftists, and feminists and siding, again and again, with antifeminists and reactionaries of all stripes. Their language echoes the worst misogynists (“starfuckers”) and retrograde assholes (“cuck,” “soy boy,” “shitlib,” “degenerate”). In their trolling campaigns, they are virtually indistinguishable from alt-right and alt-lite trolls — and the A Voice for Men flying monkey squad, back when that site was a going concern.
At this point the only genuinely leftist things that the Skidmarxists seem to support are Medicare for All and the candidacy of Bernie Sanders. As writer Nina Illingworth put it on Twitter, these people are basically “just doing fascism with fucking healthcare.”
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@occasional reader
Classist terms? In my english? But of course! It is also called “nouveau riche”, which has the added benefit of sounding extra pretentious because foreign.
I’ve heard that described as “champagne socialism”.
@David
I think for some reason you started calling Carter “Wilson” at the end, when discussing Terese’s tweets?
All American conservatives are interested in is abusing people they consider “less than”…
I’m sorry if you’ve already addressed and discussed this in a previous post somewhere, but if not, I was wondering if anyone else here thinks that this has a whiff of modern-day Strasserism to it? Briefly, for anyone who isn’t familiar with the term:
Or do the people here more familiar with these people’s politics think I’m completely off the mark?
(And hello all, I’ve been reading on and off for years, but I don’t remember ever commenting before. 🙂 )
https://youtu.be/CysJLhfeaVc
I can appreciate that it must look weird if you spend more time with the French language than the average English speaker, but it’s a perfectly standard Anglicisation on my side of the Atlantic, often hyphenated as “petty-bourgeois”.
A quick search on the Guardian website has turned up 110 examples, but just 38 instances of “petite bourgeoisie” – and Google ranks them as pretty much equal.
“Skidmarxists.” I think I might have to steal that term. I like it.
I think we need to do away with this idea of “victimhood gives people social currency.” I can’t really think of a single instance where somebody actually capitalized culturally off being a victim of abuse. Civil lawsuits can be filed and sometimes end in settlement, sure, but even then still something kinda fucked up in the notion that money makes these kind of problems go away. Regardless, that’s not what the #MeToo movement is about; it was always about accountability and cultural change. It’s not like Rose McGowan is getting the roles of a lifetime now (especially after her other cringe-worthy moments). Similarly Lucy Decoutere didn’t need a spotlight shined on her when she accused Jian Ghomeshi. She was already well-known from Trailer Park Boys and had an Air Force career established.
Women coming forward might get a media spotlight for a second or two, but it fades fast, and often it’s not wanted. I don’t think Anita Hill wanted to become a household name because of what Clarence Thomas did to her.
Oh and OT, but it’s my berfday today. Yay! Hard to believe I’m 34 already. It’s an odd feeling, seeing so many folks around in public life born in the 90s. Heck, I read in the paper the Leafs top draft pick was born on 9/11. God, that makes me feel old.
I don’t think I’d call it a mid-life crisis or anything, but I’m kinda feeling the weight of the years on me. If I might be permitted to get real a moment (and frankly, being a loner, I don’t really have anybody else to sound off on it), I think a lot about the lasting impact of what I do creatively. If I have any fear, it’s being completely lost in this sea of seven billion people and just fading into obscurity, another headstone in a field of headstones. A first-world problem to be sure, but in a first world where really obnoxious people get to be known by millions on YouTube… just kinda like to be known by at least a few people. Not easy when you’re anxious around people and like being alone. That’s kinda why I write and draw stuff, it’s just that porny furry stuff is kinda niche, although it’s definitely its own thing now. Gotten plenty of eyeballs on my DA page, for instance. But I’ve never been very fast at content generation, nor very good at marketing.
I think I’ll set a goal for myself: finish my set of novels by 2025. I have four or five planned. One is complete (but needs revision), a second is nearly done and the others have their story beats in line. And all the pervy side stories I’ve written can be edited and compiled (and with any luck, be illustrated).
I suppose, looking back at the arc of my own life, I’ve definitely grown more comfortable in my own skin and of my own abilities. I definitely didn’t feel that way in my 20s, where the world seemed so big and important and I felt like I didn’t really matter. Seeing a lot of the smoke and mirrors stripped away, you realize that it’s all just illusionary. People who puff themselves up on social media (looking your way, NYT Columnists) aren’t as important or intelligent as they claim to be. Kinda lets me feel a little more confident in myself.
Also gotta get that 7th Guest Let’s Play edited. I’ll start this weekend. But for today, I’m takin’ it easy. Cheers, folks!
When I just tried the Guardian search, I got 81 results for “petite bourgeoisie”, but 470 for “petit bourgeois”. Then 464 for “petty …”, although in some of those the highlighted text was the “petit” form.
So I’d thought that “petit bourgeois” was a Thing, but “petty bourgeois” a malapropism. Given that Terese previously claimed that “bourgeoise” was a typo, and still uses it (often preceded by “petty”) I’m not convinced that she’s adding the feminine ending to show off her French skillz.
@Jorgan:
I have to defend Chapo a bit here. Amber was always the one with the worst takes on many topics. And when you go the Chapotraphouse Subreddit you’ll find several threads where the community is very much not on her side.
They are dirtbags but they are not that bad in this case.
@Shadowplay
Aww, thanks. Secure systems certainly aren’t my specialty, but I know a botnet from a terrible person. And no, Pyxxxie, troll doesn’t apply if they’re saying the things they’re saying because they actually believe them. Not that it really matters whether they’re genuine or not; an ironic goat fucker is still a goat fucker, after all.
@Pyxxxie, you do serious harm when you dismiss these accounts as botnets.* There are a vocal number of very real people who spend their time harassing vulnerable groups on Twitter and making their lives hell. I mean, ffs, an account whose sole purpose was giving detailed guides on anatomically correct manga drawings was driven off for using the innocuous terminology “correct” and “beginner”. A ten-year-old got blasted for not fawning over Keanu Reeves. Trans folx get harassed for existing.
You’re on a website dedicated to mocking some of the worst groups of humans in existence and you have the gall to tell us that some of the more tame shit David has dredged up to date is fake because it has bad grammar? Have you MET the internet? FFS.
* That’s honestly not what botnets are used for, btw. People don’t spend good money to troll on Twitter; they use botnets for more lucrative prospects. Mostly bitcoin farming these days. I’m sure you mean bots, but since you want to throw around terminology from my field, I thought I should clarify for readers.
Always remember that Louis CK didn’t just masturbate in front of unwilling women, but that he also deliberately destroyed their credibility and careers afterward so that he could get away with it.
Incoherence, thy name is the internet.
@Katamount:
If you want to feel younger, well, I’m about as old as you can be and not have been around when the Leafs last won the Stanley Cup. (I’m 51.) I have convention T-shirts that are of legal drinking age in the U.S, and in fact are probably older than half the attendees at some of the conventions I go to.
Thanks for the help guys.
Hold on, the Leafs once won the Cup?! Let me guess, it was before any of the other teams existed or something. 🙂
@Jenora Feuer
It’s amazing, innit? Feels like you’re the elder statesperson in any given group.
But I’ll be alright. As far as those racier stories go, I checked my iCloud account and somehow I’ve compiled about 70 novella-length stories in the probably about eight years I’ve been pecking away at them.
Editing them will be fun!
Hold on, you trust that sort of thing to an iCloud account? Which Apple employees, their “marketing partners” (aka “every corporation and rich individual on Earth, potentially”), the NSA, law enforcement, and any passing hacker (see also: fappening, the) can view? Aren’t you worried about plagiarism or some other appropriation of your unfinished work, and/or that it will match some keyword search and land you on a terrorism watch list because somewhere in one of them the villain kidnaps the President’s daughter or something, while also causing you to get very strange ads served to you in the meantime?
I would keep stuff like that local. Or at least encrypt it with something I could be sure applied the crypto on my own hardware at my end and did not entrust anyone other than me with the key …
@ Leafs fans;
Stanley Cup wins: 1967, 1964, 1963, 1962, 1951, 1949, 1948, 1947, 1945, 1942, 1932, 1922, 1918
While I will freely admit to being the only one in attendance here who actually WAS alive for their last win….
Still, let’s not make Chicago Cubs of them….
@WeirdEddie LOL no. I apparently was around for ’67 and ’64 (though I was actually in Winnipeg at the time :D).
Yeah, I’ve commented before that the last time the Leafs won the cup, Tim Horton was still best known for playing Defense for them.
I am so tired of how we’re all apparently supposed to forgive Louis C. K., Al Franken and Aziz Ansari now, just because…I don’t even fucking know. Because they’re “allies”? Because they’re not as bad as Trump? Because they gave fake apologies?
Just goes to show how much progress we still haven’t made.
Around for their last 4, so don’t go feeling all old and shit. Hell, I’m old enough to actully remember England winning the World Cup. 😛
@Pyxxie: I’d like to echo kupo here and say it is dangerous whenever people automatically pass these off as trolls or Russian bots. It reminds me of when kids who are being bullied go to the teacher and instead of helping, they just tell the kid the bullies don’t really mean it and just ignore it. A lot of times that attitude allows those who want to abuse someone to escalate, because they know now they’ll get away with it.
Also, on the Russian bots… I am a Russian speaker and I have a master’s in linguistics and I can tell you these are not written by Russians. There are some grammatical mistakes (I won’t tell you what they are) that are very specific to native Russian speakers learning English. These mistakes are subconscious and have nothing to do with anyone’s intelligence or anything, they just have to do with some things that are very basic to English that are not present in Russian at all.
@Feles ex machina: the Soviet Union was also extremely anti-Semitic, especially under Stalin. I’d say she’s more a Stalinist than a Strasserite.
Trigger warning: spying, sexual assault and harassment.
No, Amber Lee Frost, I will not pardon you. I also worked in the service industry. At one place my boss kept giving me massages that I never asked for. I was 16 and he was 30. He was also actively trying to date another girl my age who worked at another place nearby. At another place, a guy was caught after he put cameras in the women’s restrooms and apparently watched for months. And at yet another place, our assistant manager really loved drawing pictures of what he wanted to do to us and then giving them to us. We reported this, and nothing was ever done. He was finally fired after he showed up to work drunk several times.
Women should have the right to feel safe at work, no matter what you think.
So go fuck yourself, Amber Lee Frost.