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Comment by hanklazard | Hacker News Reader

“…the Twitter Files, a series of tweets by conservative journalists Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss.”

Two interesting moves to observe here:

1. Matt Taibbi is not a conservative and anyone who is at all familiar with him or his work knows he is left-leaning. Calling him a conservative is a signal to their audience that he is one of the “bad guys.” 2. Calling this reporting “a series of tweets” is not false but is subtly demeaning to the work. It’s not an “article” (it is also being published in long-form) or “reporting”, just a little series of tweets … you know, like what you do when you’re mad about the rude barista that ruined your latte or something.

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> Calling this reporting “a series of tweets” is not false but is subtly demeaning to the work.

How is repeating information fed to you by the tech billionaire who’s platform your publishing on worth dignifying as actual journalistic effort?

They’re glorified mouthpieces.

I used to have a lot more respect for taibbi, but he’s spending that down faster and faster these days.

As opposed to the fiercely independent journalists at the New York Times and Washington Post who would never regurgitate Democratic Party propaganda? Give me a break.

I'm sure Elon chose them because he thought they were sympathetic. So what?

The New York Times is an establishment mouthpiece, not Democratic. The message they regurgitate is the ongoing power of the US over the world. They happen to align with the democrats now because the democrats represent the establishment, while the republicans are trying to overturn that.

Ah so because I was critical of them, I somehow must be all about the nytimes and Washington post? My comment has nothing to do with those outlets nor do I honestly care about them one way or another.

The retorts are so obvious at this point it’s pathetic.

I don’t really care why Elon chose them, I care that they are basically just regurgitating a press release and acting like it’s serious work.

Anything you disagree with or wish to disbelieve is "Democratic Propaganda", as opposed to the truthiness of Fox News amirite

> he is left-leaning. Calling him a conservative is

in Italian we have a word for this kind of people: rossobruni[1]

[1]halfway through this article explains what they are: https://italicsmag.com/2022/07/28/the-italian-axiom-crisis-r...

Thanks for article, it explains a lot of very irresponsible, sophomoric, morally degenerate political opinions I have seen arise from 2016 onward.

In the US "horseshoe theory" is used to describe a similar phenomenon.

he may have been left leaning before but that label seems debatable at best for the last couple years

  https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/10/what-happened-to-matt-taibbi.html

"left-leaning" and "Democrat" aren't synonymous. What are his right wing views? And don't conflate "right-wing" with things that Replublicans support.

This is a pretty gaslighty comment. Clearly Democrats are left wing and Republicans are right wing, and ppl who are on those wings tend to vote for those respective parties.

Are Democrats super far left? Not by international standards, no, but they are clearly to the left of Republicans.

> Clearly Democrats are left wing and Republicans are right wing

Mostly.

> ppl who are on those wings tend to vote for those respective parties

Tend to but not always. Would a person who supports Universal healthcare, safe access to abortion and reducing their carbon foot print but also thinks immigration is an issue that needs addressing and supports the second amendment be left or right? Individuals are rarely going to fall in line and Taibi is no exception.

> This is a pretty gaslighty comment.

The narrative is that he's moved right somehow. I just want to know how. I'm sure if you asked him he'd say that the "left" has moved right and his opinion, that the left used to support, hasn't changed. If someone's going to say he's "moved right", I assume they have some reason to say that so I just want to know how, because I'm not sure if I see it (but I'm not intimately familiar with his positions).

I don't believe Taibi has changed much at all, I think the a segment of the people who consider themselves "left" in the US have taken positions on some topics that he disagrees with and since he's being critical of them, he must be the opposite of them. Since they view themselves as "left", he must be "right" (and even worse, "far-right"!).

He's not "moved right" because he's suddenly agreeing with Republicans, he's "moved right" because he's being critical of the "left".

> Would a person who supports Universal healthcare, safe access to abortion and reducing their carbon foot print but also thinks immigration is an issue that needs addressing and supports the second amendment be left or right?

This isn't really what you said, you said "right-leaning and Republican" aren't synonyms, not that people don't fall neatly into the left/right dichotomy. The Republican party is objectively the right-leaning party of the US. If you're a journalist that mostly publishes articles aligning with Republicans talking points today, then it is fine to characterize that journalist as right-wing.

> If you're a journalist that mostly publishes articles aligning with Republicans talking points today, then it is fine to characterize that journalist as right-wing.

I disagree. And I think you're missing the point of my plea to disambiguate "right" with "Republican". For example, without referring to a political party, explain to me how being pro second amendment is a right wing position. That may be a Republican position, but it's also a liberal argument (as in, part of the ideology of liberalism).

From my understanding, Taibi is really only vocal about "cancel culture", which he is critical of and sees as an illiberal position of the left. He's concerned about it because he considers himself left. He's basically Bill Maher. That doesn't make him right wing.

The terms "right-wing" and "left-wing" do not refer to objective philosophical positions. They literally referred to where French delegates sat in the National Assembly of 1789. Today they refer to a web of political alliances that are historically - as opposed to philosophically - determined. So to answer your question, being pro second amendment is a right wing position because most American politicians who consider themselves right-wing are pro second amendment.

> "It’s not an “article” (it is also being published in long-form) or “reporting”, just a little series of tweets".

Given that Twitter does not engage in independent fact checking or peer review, I feel that this is a fair characterization. Pre-Musk or post-Musk, Twitter should not be viewed as a serious journalistic enterprise.

He's about as left-leaning as Tim Pool, which is someone who claims to be left-leaning while promoting right-wing ideals.

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