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“Because a few of you have asked, I have (maybe temporarily) deactivated my account on Bluesky. The constant harassment by a handful of people probably doesn’t seem like much when viewed from the outside, but I’ve been dealing with these same trolls for nearly 10 years, and frankly, I’m exhausted and my mental health is suffering. I understand why social media platforms embrace things like easy accessibility and transparency, but Bluesky simply hasn’t given users enough tools to combat harassment and remain safe yet. I hope they are able to do so soon. No one should be able to create hundreds of new accounts to get around being blocked.
Sadly, a few high visibility journalists, namely Jamelle Bouie from the NYT, have also deactivated for a similar reason, though he was obviously getting it on a much bigger scale than I was.
Over the years, I’ve evolved from a free-speech absolutist (this was my default position on everything in law school) to believing that social media is largely unhealthy for us all and rueing the day it was created. Aside from the disinformation and intentional harassment (which is disproportionately aimed at marginalized groups), it’s just caused so many of us to forget how to talk to each other. And we’ve created this weird world where people who spout racist, misogynist, and homo/transphobic nonsense have risen to the top of the pyramid while those who are doing their best to do the right thing are regularly attacked by their own side for not being pure or radical enough in their beliefs. The whole thing is insane.
I canceled my subscription to the NYT because of what I see as their biased coverage of the election and their continual platforming of anti-trans voices. While I decided that I didn’t want to monetarily contribute to their bottom line anymore, I certainly would never tell a journalist like Bouie, one of the few reliably progressive voices in their op-ed department, that he was wrong to take a paycheck from the outlet. Don’t we want people like Bouie in there pushing back against the status quo? Haven’t we just had a whole conversation about platforming more Black voices? And why is Bouie the one who is somehow responsible for things written by other opinion columnists? Go harass Brett Stephens off social media if people are looking for something to do.
If there’s one thing I learned while working for the second iteration of Deadspin, it’s that the general public has very little idea of how media outlets work. Too often, readers assumed that, because we work at the same outlet, my opinions were in lockstep with my colleagues. Or that we all agreed on what everyone’s take would be. That’s what an editorial board does, but not what individual columnists or reporters do. At least at the outlets where I’ve worked, columnists pitch their ideas individually to an editor, then work on the piece alone. One columnist generally has no idea what someone else is writing about until they see it in print. And we certainly don’t all agree with what everyone else writes. Asking journalists to denounce a colleague publicly is akin to asking them to resign. And there are already too few journalism jobs left.
I think the NYT’s coverage of the trans community has been dehumanizing, has relied on false information, and is written by biased columnists seeking to advance a particular viewpoint. The NYT deserves all the blowback and canceled subscriptions in the world for that. You know who doesn’t deserve it, though? Jamelle Bouie. One of the few prominent Black voices at America’s paper of record.”
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Hawaii (fuck) You
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