Alan Jacobs

Noah Smith:

So, Elon Musk bought Twitter. Personally, I’m pretty sanguine about this development. It’s no secret that I think that Twitter is a uniquely dystopian feature of the modern media sphere — a bad equilibrium that traps the nation’s journalists, politicians, and intellectuals in close quarters with all the nastiest and most strident anonymous bottom-feeders. There’s a nonzero chance Musk will be able to improve this situation; if not, it’s hard to see how he could make it particularly worse. If he destroys the platform, we’ll find something else — probably a number of different somethings, which I think would be good for the media ecosystem. Our entire society was not meant to be locked in a single small room together; we need more room to spread out and be ourselves. 

This is the right take, I think. For those who haven’t seen it, here is a collection of my posts on micro.blog in particular and and open web more generally. And here is a useful brief guide to getting started with blogging. 

Re: my recent post on antisemitism, this from @lmullen and crew is exciting.

Currently listening: The Campfire Headphase - Boards of Canada 🎵

Re: Kyrie Irving, Ye, and others, this remains permanently relevant. Antisemitism is a pathological bigotry that can’t be eradicated because it’s always socially acceptable, if not socially favored.

If I were at the Emirates I’d teach people a song for Tomiyasu: It would be “Tomi Gunner,” to the tune of the Clash’s “Tommy Gun.”

Derek Thompson’s take on baseball is similar to mine from a few years back, but he adds a compelling theory about “Cultural Moneyballism.”

OH COME ON

Dave Winer: “Why would I leave Twitter? It’s like living in NY and not taking the subway. Sure it’s dirty and smells bad, but it’s how you get places.” The problem with this analogy is that I would pay and pay heavily to avoid the places Twitter takes me.

Trying a little experiment here, which I will explain in a future audio post. Source.

Trying to do my part to show people A Better Way.

A first experiment in microcasting.

Auden, from “The Garrison”:

Whoever rules, our duty to the City
is loyal opposition, never greening
for the big money, never neighing after
a public image.
 
Let us leave rebellions to the choleric
who enjoy them: to serve as a paradigm
now of what a plausible Future might be
is what we’re here for.

I’m feeling thoroughly moskered.

So close to greatness.

Looking forward to this new podcast from my friends at Comment Magazine, featuring Shadi Hamid and Matthew Kaemingk.