Taibbi has fallen so fucking far. from Griftopia to grifter
Chapotraphouse
Banned? DM Wmill to appeal.
No anti-nautilism posts. See: Eco-fascism Primer
Slop posts go in c/slop. Don't post low-hanging fruit here.
What getting #MeToo'd by a fictional character does to a mf
he what now?
Matt spent his early career in Russia and he published the book "The Exile: Sex, Drugs, and Libel in the New Russia" in 2000 which is some sort of memoir about Russian society and life as American expat during the fall of Soviet Union era. The book was co-written with another expat US journalist in Russia Mark Ames. Supposedly these are "fictional" memoirs, but they're both too dumb and literally use their real names. The book includes this excerpt
Talking about their other American colleague (Kara) in Moscow
We’d never given her any respect or credit. We were glory hogs and obnoxious jerks. Worst of all was our sexism. Our sexism and sexual harassment of the Russian female staff, as well as the sexism in our newspaper, was too much for her. Watching us harass the young female staff had to be the most painful part—because we’d never, in a million years, have thought of harassing her. “You know I’m not PC. But there’s a limit. You go too far. You’re always trying to force Masha and Sveta under the table to give you blow jobs. It’s not funny. They don’t think it’s funny,” Kara complained. “But . . . it is funny,” Matt said. We have been pretty rough on our girls. We’d ask our Russian staff to flash their asses or breasts for us. We’d tell them that if they wanted to keep their jobs, they’d have to perform unprotected anal sex with us. Nearly every day, we asked our female staff if they approved of anal sex. That was a fixation of ours. “Can I fuck you in the ass? Huh? I mean, without a rubber? Is that okay?” It was all part of the fun. Fun that Kara was no part of.
Obviously when 2017 and #MeToo came around, Matt got called out. His defense was these were fictional accounts. No accuser ever came forward against him but he was cancelled anyway (lol) - deservedly so. The controversy happened during his book tour and completely gadoosh'd his #GoodLib book "I can't breathe" which is about the killing of Eric Garner and systemic racism in police work. All major outlets cancelled their interview with him. The book might literally sold only 10 copies, was a massive flop and it ended his career as mainstream book writer. Everything Matt does afterward is "self-published"
Ames the radio war nerd guy?
Yeah back then The eXile was Matt Taibi, Mark Ames, and Yasha Levine; John Dolan (a.k.a. Gary Brecher) was a contributer
oh right, I remember that now
It's such a shame about Matt. He was one of the key figures in lefty media during the Iraq war and I really respected him. When he left useful idiots I tried his podcast with Walter for a while but eventually I was like, this is reactionary garbage WTAF Matt.
Yes, it's a shame. Matt Taibbi did great on financial reporting and was THE journalist for 2008 crash. I still like his work afterwards as well. He's one of the few Russiagate skeptic who were proven right. He was a fantastic as on the field reporter for 2016 Democratic primary. Even his early work on Racket, I like when he and Walter covered short stories like Dostoevsky, Gogol, Tolstoy, etc. I even still liked Racket during the early 2024 primaries, as they provided an alternative populist POV when the media was so full on cheering for Biden. I stopped listening to their podcast after October 7th, I can't stand his both side'ism, hypocrisy on how they are supposedly free-speech absolutist but cheering against and making fun of college students who are protesting for Gaza. During peak 2024 election season apparently Walter Kirn went full on unhinged MAGA. I still kinda follow Matt like a lolcow, it's still funny that he's cancelled by a fictional character, made "why I left the Left" video, embarrassed himself in #TwitterFiles, and now his podcast and friendship with Walter imploded over disagreement over Covid and gain-of-function research, like literally who cares it's 2026. Matt thinks he's Hunter Thompson but he's just a rich kid who went to bourgie liberal arts college and ended up as lolcow journalist.
100% agree. His descryof Goldman Sachs being a vampire squid sucking on the face of humanity was chefs kiss. I think the twitter files shit messed him up as well. Like he looked into the seeing stone and got convinced to join Sauron or something
Proof that no understanding of theory turns you into a fascist all the time