On Just Give Reddit A Few More Decades, They'll Crack This Boston Thing Yet
@Non-Anonymous Carte blanche! Everyone thinks they're giving out cartes blanches these days! Delusions of grandeur, everywhere you look!
I think hershmire's point is simply that it's generous to be tolerant of people who feel unsettled and afraid. This seems wise to me. If you jeer at such folks instead, then surely you're inviting everyone to return the favor when you're the one who feels uncertain and fearful. And that's just ridiculous.
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On NPR Is a Sad, Sad Place
@zybhjk Expecting a media organization — or any corporation — not to care about an employee becoming a lightning rod for criticism is naïve in the extreme. It can fairly be said of all of us that part of our jobs include not drawing large amounts of public criticism onto our employers. And this would be especially important for a "listener-supported" entity like NPR.
I don't actually think you're this naïve — practically no one is, really. Instead I think you're professing this naïveté in bad faith, simply because it offers you a logical shortcut toward making your ultimate point. That failing is much more common these days, for various reasons we can argue about if you like.
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On The Violent Femmes' "The Violent Femmes" At 30
http://gawkerdating.tumblr.com/post/33361489172/wait-a-minute-honey
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On Twitter Stomps Out Micropayments
@Choire Sicha Thanks for your thoughtful response, Choire.
Also, it was surprisingly difficult to draft that comment without using the word "just" adverbially, as a qualifier. (E.g.: "Just sounds like a funny phrase to me....") A lesson for anyone who leans on adverb crutches as frequently as I do.
And I suppose any attorney would be happy to persuade you to view "justice" as a complex metaphor, rather than as a concrete product which can be reliably dispensed...by courts or members of the bar, for instance.
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On Twitter Stomps Out Micropayments
a more just Internet.
Merely sounds like a funny phrase to me. As if we're all able to freely choose between more-just and less-just internets, and we occasionally opt for the less-just one due to simple laziness or confusion or something.
I imagine there are people who literally try to shop for "more just" fabric softeners, or try to avoid drinking "less just" beers. But it sounds funny to try to sort very complex phenomena into simple categories like that. "More-just window reglazing." "Less-just techno music."
Another view would be that "justice" is a series of complex compromises among competing power blocks with shifting priorities, and it's a messy, opaque, and hard-to-understand phenomenon even when it's the explicit goal of a system (the justice system, for example).
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On Ask Polly: I Am 40. Will I Be Alone Forever?
Wow, that letter from "Older, not Wiser" really lays out an unfamiliar dilemma in very vivid terms. I don't think I've ever seen an advice-seeker describe a problem more convincingly.
An exceptional missive like that might deserve more than just further platitudes in response. Maybe an answer along the lines of, Yes, many platitudes do wind up being false when you dare to test them. Some people probably are meant to be alone. Part of the existential dilemma is trying to figure out how to be happy if you're one of those people.
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On Ross Douthat on Abortion: A Case of Op-Ed Malpractice
For my money, this is what Made The OC Great.
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On What Would Jack Kerouac Be Doing If Here Were Alive Now?
He'd be Jon Hamm. Or Mike Rowe. Maybe both guys.
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On It May Not Be Evil But Quinoa Does Pretty Much Suck
@cherrispryte If your real name is Persephone, then I have to admit that's freaking cool.
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On Just Give Reddit A Few More Decades, They'll Crack This Boston Thing Yet
@the fridge Eh, there's such a thing as being beneath mention. If Calacanis doesn't fall into that category for you, then who does?