HoS Pod with guest Freddie DeBoer: On Deadspin, Gawker and Drew Magary
www.houseofstrauss.com
Episode details
23 comments
House of Strauss pod is back! This time, we welcome one of the best writers on the internet, Freddie DeBoer. We discussed, among other things, the fall of Deadspin in relevance and what that meant. Hope you enjoy it.
For those who don’t know, future podcasts are going to hinge on one question as a jumping off point. In this case, the question is, “Why didn’t Drew Magary become the next Bill Simmons?” Happy to hear your theories on that one below.
HoS Pod with guest Freddie DeBoer: On Deadspin, Gawker and Drew Magary
This was such a great discussion. The part about Gawker’s tone and orientation (civility is bad; bullying is okay because we’re the good guys) gave me flashbacks to Jezebel 10+ years ago. In fact, “tone policing” was a common topic on Jezebel for years.
Someone should write a piece about how Jezebel pioneered a lot of what we now see on “feminist” Twitter. They were sassy and nasty and outright cruel to their various targets, and 100% convinced they were the good guys. Like, “Hey, this guy said obesity is bad -- he’s clearly a worthless piece of shit who should die in a fire.”
I’ve also been pondering the argument that for many people in media, the social incentives are bigger than the financial ones. I think there’s something to this. After all, if you’re writing for online outlets you’ve already made a decision that money is not your top priority (since the pay is terrible). It’s not a stretch to imagine the same people prioritizing social status over money.
Woo hoo! Freddie's a Bulls fan!
You guys mentioned Substack and Patreon and how so many people are signing up for them. But I'll add something else: people are doing it because they really hate Woke Media Inc. and the cancel culture it fuels, and they crave something else. Those people (and I include myself in their numbers) don't want to go over to the Fox News/Breitbart crowd because those guys are gross. So they opt for something in between, something that truly speaks to their frustration.
I've never voted Republican and likely never will. I'm as saddened by the abortion law in Texas as anyone left of center can be (especially the part that encourages ordinary people to be little narcs on each other). And diehard anti-vaxxers frustrate me as well. But you wanna know what else? I really, really hate Woke Twitter. Like REALLY hate them.
I'm a diehard Chicago Bears fan. If Woke Media Bluecheck Twitter had a football team, and they played the Green Bay Packers, I would root for the Packers to annihilate them. I would want Aaron Rodgers to throw 10 TD passes on them. That's how much I hate them. They're bullies. I want them to lose at everything.