my blog post titles demonstrate my ironic detachment and caustic verve

Freddie

Freddie deBoer used to blog at lhote.blogspot.com, and may again someday. Now he blogs here.

Related Post Roulette

27 Responses

  1. paul h. says:

    Actually I thought that was one of the less ridiculous Gawker posts; both with that student and the NYU protest, there really is something sort of ridiculously “effete vegan 20something white academic socialist” about it … claiming police brutality or imperalist domination when dealing with cops who are just doing their jobs. The post didn’t seem particularly snarky, just sort of incredulously annoyed at the trend in general. Etc.

    Also, and I realize that my earlier commentary on this matter (at l’Hote) didn’t exactly make your day, but SERIOUSLY, writing things like “graduates of second-choice colleges” and “the bloggers’ burning envy, resentment, sexual frustration [?!] and impotence”, plus the fact that you’re doing a vapid, snarky takedown of something that is itself … vapid and snarky (except, not really, in the case of that particular post), making angry, bitter attacks on a website that jumped the shark in like 2006, etc. It just comes off as very weird.Report

  2. Freddie says:

    plus the fact that you’re doing a vapid, snarky takedown of something that is itself … vapid and snarky

    Yes. Indeed.

    Seriously, for someone who seems to take such satisfaction in this sort of thing, I think you really need a tune up of your self-critical process. Like, for reals.Report

  3. paul h. says:

    Except … there was no snark, and I didn’t insult you.Report

  4. paul h. says:

    And in all seriousness — how can you not see what I’m talking about? Do you notice anyone else (on your blogroll, on LOG) calling Robert Stacy McCain a “tedious nothing”, or calling Gawker bloggers “whiny, bitchy nothings,” apart from, say, someone like Gawker bloggers? Who, as you’ve established, are incredibly insecure about their lack of status, meaning, accomplishments … which they exhibit by means of an incredibly caustic, snarky tone. Something like, e.g., your post.

    And so when I try to helpfully point out this parallelism (i.e. that shrill insults ALWAYS indicate insecurity and speak very badly of the writer, whether it’s you or a Gawker blogger), in a non-snarky way, you can only think to respond with … a caustic, snarky comment.Report

  5. Freddie says:

    Long post coming for you, paul.Report

  6. paul h. says:

    Sigh … just please keep in mind that I say these things AS A FAN OF YOUR BLOG. I’ve been reading you for a while and take great interest in your opinion.Report

  7. paul h. says:

    (And maybe there’s really no other way to address Gawker bloggers? A dignified analysis somehow seems like a category mistake.)Report

  8. E.D. Kain says:

    Can’t we all just get along??? 😉Report

  9. Steve Johnson says:

    I agree with Gawker’s post AND think this critique of Gawker is incredible and hilarious. Right on.Report

  10. Joseph FM says:

    Freddie,

    I do not understand why you bother reading these smarmy New York idiot cultists. Everything you say about them is true, yes, but also obvious and generally unimportant. Why does anyone give a crap about Gawker?Report

  11. Rortybomb says:

    Speaking of whitness and lack of, I just realized the abbreviation of Ordinary Gentlemen is “O.G.”

    Crap Email From a Dude, via Jezebel, is one of my favorite things on the internet, for whatever that is worth.Report

  12. E.D. Kain says:

    I think the point Freddie is making is not that one should never be a snarky, sarcastic bastard or that one should never use ridicule, but only that it should not be one’s modus operandi, the driving force behind basically all one’s content. So what if this response exhibits some of the same qualities? Sometimes one must meet one’s objects of scorn on their own level. Communication’s a bitch.Report

  13. Bob says:

    “I think the point Freddie is making is not that one should never be a snarky, sarcastic bastard or that one should never use ridicule, but only that it should not be one’s modus operandi….”

    Does the above define Gawker? Always snarky? Bitchy? Tell dick jokes?Report

  14. Rortybomb says:

    There’s an Oxes album where people are protesting the band, and someone is holding up a sign that says “Sarcasm Does Not Equal Irony!” It’s pretty awesome.Report

  15. Philip says:

    I’m with the other poster who said this is one of the less annoying Gawker posts. Nothing I hate more than privileged white kids crying oppression. Get over yourselves, twerps!

    But, yeah, fuck Gawker and the whole of Denton’s perverse empire of misery and loathing. What really bugs me is that the commenters are like putty in the staff’s hands. Nolan or Choire or whoever says jump, they ask, How high, sir?! Like little monkey children.Report

  16. Philip says:

    Also, I don’t get why he’s wailing like a little bitch at times when the cop is clearly NOT kneeling on his neck (which, yeah, can be pretty painful). They twisting little baby’s arm? Whatever, I had worse done to me during middle school wrestling matches.

    From what I know of the situation, the police acted responsibly. When someone keeps trying to approach a speaker even after having been warned/rebuffed, the authorities need to assume the real possibility that harm is intended, and act accordingly.

    Glad this dope got a reality check.Report

  17. E.D. Kain says:

    Does the above define Gawker? Always snarky? Bitchy? Tell dick jokes?

    Bob…always? No, of course not always. Most of the time? Yes, and that’s pretty obvious. I said modus operandi because that sums up basically the mission and style of the Gawkers.Report

  18. lj lindhurst says:

    Wow. I get it! You hate Gawker. Sheesh.Report

  19. Freddie says:

    The point, LJ, was to take a mostly-random Gawker post, and give it the Gawker treatment. I don’t think I did that in a particularly smart or funny way, and I certainly can be criticized on those grounds. But that was the point, at least.Report

  20. raft says:

    epic rant freddie.Report

  21. Christian says:

    Excellent work nailing exactly what I loathe about Gawker/Defamer. And for the ultimate proof of Gawker’s vapidity, don’t forget one of their former premier snarkers getting her privileged ass handed to her by Jimmy Kimmel, of all people:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-avakrRUaUReport

  22. tompain says:

    I’ve never been to Gawker or this blog before now, and now that I have I don’t see anything there or here worth reading.Report

  23. Joel says:

    Freddie, I appreciate your candor, and I hate Gawker, too, but little good comes from this.Report

  24. Erin says:

    Thank you, Freddie. Thank you. That was beautiful. As someone who was once bullied by a Gawker blogger, THANK YOU.Report

  25. Sandra Dalene VanAlstine – Wanted to introduce myself

    Thanks
    Sandra Dalene VanAlstineReport

  26. Excellent site, keep up the good workReport