It all really comes down, in the end, not to axioms about snark vs smarm or self care vs not, but "What are you defending yourself about? what are your foundational premises?" and we're not comfortable making arguments on premises so we focus on forms.
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Replying to @loudpenitent @mssilverstein and
Right, Scocca I think was reacting to a then-current trend where people were decrying "snark" or "irony" *universally* and saying this was often a deceptive defense of the powerful, which is true But the better argument is just that they don't mean it and don't do it
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Replying to @arthur_affect @loudpenitent and
We can argue back and forth over whether having catapults is a good thing for the world and if wishing they didn't exist so there'd be no more war between city-states is just defending the wealthiest cities But the real point is no one is actually disarming their catapults
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Replying to @arthur_affect @loudpenitent and
The flip side of this is that pretending that attacking rather than defending *automatically* makes you the good guy is just as blinkered and hypocritical a worldview, and one that way more people than Scocca admits seem to hold
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Replying to @arthur_affect @loudpenitent and
"On Smarm" predates Jon Ronson's So You've Been Publicly Shamed, which is about how, to modernize the argument a little, the Internet has given us all loaded guns and itchy trigger fingers and has no interest in inventing better bulletproof vests
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Replying to @arthur_affect @loudpenitent and
And trying to argue about the moral value of this in a vacuum is kind of impossible Like when Twitter mentions they're gonna roll out some armor - like being able to hide replies to "quell the ratio" - people immediately go "Oh so you want DONALD TRUMP to be bulletproof?!"
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Replying to @arthur_affect @loudpenitent and
And, yeah, I'm not gonna say public shaming is universally evil and we should be nice to all other humans at all times (the disingenuous Maximum Smarm worldview) But come on, WE ALL KNOW that going on the offense is pleasurable for its own sake in an ugly way
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Replying to @arthur_affect @loudpenitent and
And, moreover, that in the absence of an effective defense the offense *is* the best defense The best way to avoid getting canceled is to make sure someone else is getting canceled, to be uprange of the direction everyone's shooting today
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Replying to @arthur_affect @mssilverstein and
Somebody's gotta draw the black spot today!
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Replying to @loudpenitent @arthur_affect and
To tie it into current events, that's the bapp!n crew's whole shtick epitomized, I guess—and a major reason divisions this year are probably fatally acrimonious All these white people calling others racist for disliking people who aided in the inevitability of a rapist candidate
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Yeah at its maximum level Maximum Snark and Maximum Smarm really do blend together and become identical "HOLY SHIT are you trying to cancel me for making a little rape joke against JUSTINE SACCO of all people? Hey everyone get a load of this white knight for the racist"
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Replying to @mssilverstein @arthur_affect and
Like, so much of this lacks the sincerity to admit that you're angry. Not righteously outraged about Trump or health care, but simply angry at the people you're talking to.
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