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Reid Baron's avatar

Showing my generational disability here, but, did anyone ever declare whether Fried Chicken Trump was real, SNL, Memorex?

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Helen Lewis's avatar

I think it was an SNL parody.

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Reid Baron's avatar

Thnx

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Liz's avatar

Yep... was (and am still!) a bit fan of tumblr, and was thrilled that its role in the growth of identity politics/cancel culture was given due force in The Witch Trials... . 4chan though I found far too scary - thought if I even went on it for a second I would get doxxed/malwared. It's interesting that both sides are featured a lot in Rowling's latest, The Ink Black Heart, with characters Kea Niven and Wally Cardew pretty much embodying tumblr and 4chan respectively.

Interestingly, livejournal was not mentioned - it had a similar obsession on purity/cancel culture but was very much turned on itself, Crucible style, so perhaps didn't have quite the same effect on the outside world. But those brave souls who escaped (such as Ana Mardoll) did pretty well at creating similar toxic communities on twitter.

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Helen Lewis's avatar

Yes, it wasn’t until the Strike novels that I realised Rowling was Very Online (see also: the adult baby takeover in the previous one). I did think, listening to the podcast, “I’m sad that you know who Milo Yiannopoulos is”. But then I really like the Strike novels, including the one that’s a massive subtweet of Corbynite twitter.

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To cut a long story short's avatar

I'm confused about the Steve Baker clip too. On the one hand I think I should feel empathy and publicly say this, on the other, as Baker always put himself at the centre of any story, I can't but help feel he is the co-author of his misfortune. I also wonder whether I would feel differently if I believed he had been fighting these past seven years for something I considered an important and just cause?

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Helen Lewis's avatar

Yes, I think I waver between “how awful for him” and “but your cause unleashed a load of uncertainty and anxiety on *other* people” and “also the cause itself was a bad idea and a huge opportunity cost.”

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JonPB's avatar

Link 4 is broken (it's a repeat of 2). I wanted to read the article, so hunted it down here: https://farrah.substack.com/p/the-terrifying-cult-of-good-taste

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David Kernohan's avatar

Is quick link #5 the first time someone has subtweeted themselves via their own substack? If so don't take your own advice!

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Helen Lewis's avatar

Savage! On Gurus, the amount of work required to go talk about a project vs the amount of work required to do a project made me realise why some writers transcend to a plane of pure waffle. Way better than working for a living.

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Peter Krijgsman's avatar

The middle para of your opener is a foreign language. Should I learn it or will I die happier if it passes me by?

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Helen Lewis's avatar

DEFINITELY the latter. Although if you do find yourself curious, the podcast explains it pretty well from first principles. Also features me saying, “the other big group of people on Tumblr were masturbators.” WHY do these things come out of my mouth?

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