You’re being way too harsh on someone who’s arguably the best journalist of our time. Taibbi is going harsh on the Democrats and the left because they totally dominate the narratives/contemporary culture —look no further than our schools, something Taibbi probably knows on a personal level because he has kids probably being subjected to obsession with pronouns and sexuality in elementary school. I’m disappointed in Taibbis coverage of Zionism and Gazan genocide but we can’t write off someone who has been immensely successful in educating people about the Twitter File, Russiagata and so many other issues that were obscured before he reported on them. I’m grateful to him and I hope he keeps up the great but imperfect work
I think going harsh on Democrats is both fine and justified.
However, pretending the Republicans are small beans with no power is not. They are expressing immense power every day. It would be one thing if he was a Hollywood reporter, an arena where liberals have overwhelming hegemony, but he is a political journalist, so it’s like reporting on SEC football without mentioning Georgia or the Gators.
I followed Tiabi long before my news knowlegable friends had ever heard of him. I watched him on Useful Idiots and, to be honest,was somewhat surprised as to how such a brilliant writer could be a rather poor verbal communicator but I hung in.
Then he set up shop with Walter and while at first, America This Week was the first thing I turned to when my eyes opened on Friday morning, I began to notice after awhile that Matt was always turning to Walter and asking "what do you think, Walter?". Never having heard of Walter and becoming increasingly tired of hearing about his many trips. tv appearances and influential friends, I listened but only with one ear and finally just turned the program off before it finished. And why did we then have another two hour AMT on Monday night when there was nothing at all to say of interest except the same old same old?
Then came Gaza, Matt's peculiar interview with Sabby Sabs followed by his excuse that he didn't mention Gaza because he knew nothing about it and wasn't really interested!!!!! Really Matt?
Do you have any idea how tired I was going into the weeds on every broadcast re RUSSIAGATE? tired as I was, I defended him against others who criticized his editorial choices by saying - "Gaza is not his lane" But lane or no lane, Gaza was that most important, and most visible news story, of my long lifetime and yet Matt continued to ignore it. How could he write about free speech when the Israeli Lobby controlled every word out of the mouths of the Washington establisment? Finally, I had to say goodbye and to be honest, I haven't missed either Walter or him one bit. But he does have his cult followers who adore whatever he does or doesn't do. I am way too old to follow cults - they are for the young and blind.
I remember the exact moment I gave up on Taibbi. On a previous podcast he and his cohost had on Thomas Frank, the author of What’s The Matter With Kansas. Frank and Taibbi agreed that Trump’s 2016 economic populism was an effective campaign strategy but then Frank made the obvious point that, like everything else about Trump, it was a complete fraud and that Trump instead pursued a conventional course of cutting tax rates. From Taibbi, a prolonged silence. After that, I bailed. Permanently. It find it genuinely sad.
"Best journalist of our time??" Dude was an edgelord who was a mediocre reporter but because he wasn't doing traditional journalism, he's viewed as being punk rock. We're seeing Matt's true skills on display right now. No expert reporting or engaging word play. It's just "lol mainstream media is stupid!"
The idea that the Democrats "totally dominate the narratives and contemporary culture" you're so fucking delusional and insane that it's incredible to me that you can actually type this comment out.
"Totally dominate" may be somewhat of an exaggeration, but what Americans refer to as "the left" (and intelligent people recognize as liberals) does hold a dominant position in framing the narratives that underly current American "culture".
One clear marker of this is how the whole Trump/MAGA phenomenon is treated as a paradigm shift of epic proportions, hence "fascist/racist/sexist/transphobic" because in the dominant narrative not buying into what passes for "anti-racism/anti-sexism/transphobia" is still treated as a sign of moral/ethical/political failure.
In actual fact the whole MAGA sphere is nothing all that different from what America and Americans have always been. But because of the overwhelming dominance of narratives from "the left" (liberals), it looks discontinuous.
The view from outside "the west" does not perceive "America" as a culture where abortion is anaethema, marriage is sacred and heteronormativity is the hill upon which Americans choose to die.
How a cranky PMC cosplay "Marxist" who makes his living pointing out the stupidity of the "dominant narrative" as represented on TikTok is hardly relevant to an assessment of what constitutes the "dominant narratives" in American culture.
We need to be able to distinguish "the narratives" from "what America and Americans are and always have been".
The nativist, xenophobic, racist good ol' boys and girls were the ones with the dogs and the cops on their side in those old videos of negroes demanding the vote.
They were Dems then; they're Republicans now. They were and are 100% American.
Wait. If he’s saying the democrats control the cultural landscape at schools(teachers union) and the colleges where there is a huge leftward shift, he’s correct.
Enough with the school fear mongering. Elementary school kids need to know about subject pronouns (it’s a grammar thing!) and they are very much exposed to the concept of “sexuality” already (I assume you mean gay people, though). It’s 2025–these kids are on the Internet, God forbid they have a teacher with a same-sex partner. There is an executive order out from the president saying teachers can’t use kids’ preferred pronouns and some states even use hyper-partisan Republican curricula like PragerU, which emphasizes the positives of chattel slavery. I’ve even known a Christian high school biology teacher in a liberal state who refused to teach the state assigned standard of evolution, and there were no repercussions. Teachers and students have a range of politics; they are human beings after all. If you wanna go insert yourself into the K-12 system, feel free to do so. You might just learn something.
Depending on where you live, many children will also have not just teachers with same-sex partners but also several classmates with same-sex parents, too. Do conservatives seriously expect those children to stay completely silent about their families to "spare" the other children?
I'd like to know the overlap between people who think that Taibbi is the best journalist of our time and people who think that RFK Jr. is being genuine. I'm primarily a finance journalist myself, but I would say the best reporter working today is Sharon Lerner, because she is exposing how we are actually being poisoned by corporate America and regulatory capture at the EPA. Not to be all determinist about it, but the fact that people seem to be wholly uninterested in this basic fact could be a cause of why we're in the mess we're in.
I like Taibbi, read all of his books but am disappointed by his recent posts. I think we got here because:
1. Taibbi holds a grudge against a lot of people that unfairly attacked him on issues like Russia-gate, the Great Awokening, twitter files, etc.
2. There is strong overlap between the people on the other side of those three issues and the Palestinian cause.
3. A lot of those people are shrill, sanctimonious, obnoxious, holier-than-thou.
4. Taibbi has an almost knee-jerk reaction to go against the popular sentiment, which often serves him well.
My issue is that people he knows personally like Lee Fang, Glenn Greenwald, Aaron Mate faced the exact same pushback on those three issues but are staunchly against the slaughter in Gaza. Of course, he doesn't have to write about it, but it is odd that he is not writing about one of the defining issues that has free speech implications, one of his core causes.
He really lost me with his dishonest comparison of Palestine supporters as deep-down antisemites to honest pro-Israel supporters, who, I suppose, will calmly and politely argue that ethnic cleansing is a good thing. It is very clear that his grudge against the wokesters really clouded his judgement on this issue.
I read your article. It is not clear to me at what level you would be satisfied with for people to express moral outrage at the other terrible conflicts going on throughout the world. I am pretty sure most people protesting against what Israel is doing in Gaza are against the detention of Uighurs and the war in Sudan. I would guess you are against those too, but also spend more time on the topic of Israel. People have limited time and Gaza is a tangible concept to most people since our government is so heavily involved in the conflict (more so than the Uighur and Sudan tragedies) and it has been going on for decades.
And because our government is so heavily involved wouldn't it make more sense for people to focus their energies on that? The U.S. is the most important ally by far to Israel politically and militarily. The U.S. is directly giving munitions to Israel who then drops bombs that has killed tens of thousands of civilians. What has the greatest potential for change? Getting people we elect to influence Israel to stop what they are doing or getting China to stop what they are doing?
It's not just spending more time on Israel, it's the excessive condemnation as I point out in the article. Calling it a genocide when it's not (or if you'd like, it's debatable) when the Sudanese Civil War has been declared a genocide without argument. Israel having twice as many UN Condemnations of any other country when, to take one example, there are 400k civilian deaths in Sudan.
I can get behind focusing more energy on Israel for the reasons you give, but people are not just "focusing energy"; they are castigating Israel as the worst moral stain on the earth since Hitler. But even here, again we sell weapons to the UAE and Saudi Arabia that are carrying out far worse (by any conceivable moral theory) harm to civilians.
And many of these harms are completely unjustified by the situation--rape gangs and sex slavery, for example. You mentioned thousands of civilians are killed by the Israeli govt, true. But even here you're ignoring the tactics of HAMAS (human shields) and their being funded by Iran.
Just to be clear, your argument regarding what has the greatest potential for change is a practical and not a moral one. Even here I disagree. Not sure how old you are but do you remember the Free Tibet movement? There were college protests and celebrities that spoke out against China. That could happen, there could be a BDS movement with China, of Chinese companies, universities, etc.
I suspect Tabbi’s mind has been corrupted by his new BFF Walter Kirn. Matt seems to adore Walter and gush about his “high level contacts.” I was an early subscriber to Matt’s Substack and even loved the first year or so of his collab with Walter but the perspectives they offer have taken a sharp right turn especially since the presidential election. They do actually mention Israel Palestine on occasion, but usually it’s to condemn student protestors similar to how people would criticize Vietnam war protestors. Makes me wonder if this is the same man who wrote a
Book condemning divisive media. Racket news is probably just a factual description rather than an ironic joke.
I am strongly critical of Israel and also think student protests are mostly ignorant cosplayers with childish Manichean views. Musa Al-Gharbi shows how one can be anti-Zionist, critical of Israel, but also think performative and disruptive clueless protest on campuses both simplistic and counterproductive. https://www.compactmag.com/article/behind-the-ivy-intifada/
I share your suspicion about the malign(?) influence Kirn seems to exert; I think he's cast Matt in an eager little brother role in his dealings with him, a role that Matt seems to want very much to succeed in playing. Thus, it is reasonable to expect that the more conservative-seeming Kirn might also influence Matt's political opinions as well.
On the other hand, I often get the feeling that the main effect of that influence is just to be skeptical and critical of a too easy adoption of ANY political pose or posture, the poses and postures that all factions of the political spectrum rehearse with equal vigor. If that criticism should be of those who criticize Trump, pointing out that Democrats, say, do the same thing(s) they may criticize Trump and his followers for doing or saying, then they may be seen as "anti-left" (Can anyone still believe the Democrat party is the home of the political left in America?), which, insofar as it amounts to pointing out an example of their frequent hypocrisy, may in such an instance be partially true. But I don't think that makes them anti-left, whatever that may mean now, though I could definitely be mistaken.
Where I have a serious problem with Taibbi now is in his continuing refusal write much expressing his thoughts about the genocide underway in Gaza and the Israeli-Pallestinian conflict more broadly. His defense, that he's not interested in the matter and that he therefore doesn't both know much about it or have the motivation to find out more and he doesn't want to write about something he knows little about, seems, given the undeniable slaughter and brutality, to say nothing good about Taibbi's capacity for empathy or about his judgment as to what's important and what a serious free-lance journalist should therefore feel compelled to look into and report on. And then, in the matter of choosing sides in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, his smarmy defense of Bari Weiss and her deal with the new zionist owner of CBS News makes me want to vomit, especially when his principal praise of her is what he claims is her courage to go off on her own (wasn't she fired or "eased out" by the Times?) and start her blog with only 3(?) million in "seed money" from some wealthy benefactors (Who, one wonders?).
Like you I followed and admired Taibbi's writing for years. Read his books, listened to his podcasts and defended him against my centrist Democrat friends. But I too have noticed the same change you have. There is simply a paucity of criticism against the Trump Administration that I found strange. Trump no matter what you think of him, is a transformative president. Things now will never be the same in this country. Taibbi generally ignores Trump's behavior and instead focus's on that dead horse formally known has the Democrats. I agree with Taibbi they are awful, but why the tepid criticism for Trump? I can only assume its because he doesn't see much to criticize. Really? OK. But this is not the same guy of 20 years ago.
And his simple refusal to talk about Palestine because its complicated and he doesn't know much about it, is disingenuous. Genocide isn't complicated.
I defended Taibbi both to you and to Leighton Woodhouse. I don't regret it, even though I got on the wrong end of Taibbi in his comments section in the second article. I was fine with Taibbi not talking about Israel. He writes about what he writes about. He doesn't want to write about Israel, I can kind of figured out the reason (either he agrees or he thinks he will anger the people who pay his way), but fine. If I gave up every writer I disagreed with about Israel, I'd be living in a very small bubble.
Now I didn't know how long "not talking about Israel" could go on, given that the issue is so pervasive and is likely to have such an impact on our political system in 2026 and 2028, if not going forward, because the issue of US support of Israel is the crystalization of everything that has gone wrong with government in America: a special interest with a lot of power hijacks the US government to do its bidding even if its interests are diametrically opposed to the interests of the US population at large, even to the point of getting us involved in a genocide (or what Taibbi called in his comments a "magic word").
I did not know about The Exile article until I saw someone link to it in a comment on TwiX. So, yes, I am now forced to admit this is probably a case of audience capture, and either Taibbi is forcibly maintaining his own ignorance or molding his views to fit what makes him money. It doesn't make Taibbi useless, but it does make him only as useful as any other person I read to figure out what "that group" of people is thinking, not to find out what's really going on.
The thing with Bari Weiss that got him in trouble was that you really, really, really can't talk about Bari Weiss's sale of her blog (large as it is) to CBS/Paramount without talking about Israel. You can't. And if you play down Weiss's overt almost Goebbels level propaganda, reducing it to her "politics," and pretend that her simping for a foreign country had nothing to do with the obscene price when the person who is giving her the money is David Ellison, someone who donates gobs of money to Israel and has an *American* company that won't hire anyone who has a negative opinion of *Israel* . . . well, you're going to get called on it. But the first article was not what got Taibbi in trouble. The focus of his article was the hypocrisy of the propaganda machine that is mainstream media getting angry about Bari Weiss getting a windfall. Fine and fair.
The problem was his reaction to an audience far more educated on the subject than he was. If you're not going to talk about something, then don't talk about it. But he accidentally found himself dipping a toe in the water, and he had two good choices: (1) listen and get an education, or (2) back quietly away. But he chose the third: to dive in with both feet and exhibit a level of callousness and ignorance that is inexcusable if you're going to engage in the subject at all.
On a meta-level, swinging between the COVID craziness and now the Israel craziness, one coming primarily from the "left" and the other primarily from the "right," I'm starting to think people are hardwired toward this sort of insanity, and I'm only sad that Taibbi is the rule rather than the exception to the rule.
Well said. I’ll add one point: If Matt Taibbi spent half the time he spends explaining that he doesn’t understand the Genocide, on learning about the Genocide, then he would understand the Genocide.
It reminds me of Lenny Bruce’s description of the lawyers trying to put him in jail for saying ’Cocksucker’.
They spent the afternoon saying: “He said Cocksucker? No! Yeah! He said “Cocksucker!”
Bruce: “Then I dug something, they LIKED saying Cocksucker.”
Thank you for making me laugh. And you are completely on target. I subscribed to your substack. I subscribe to so many, I miss a lot, but I'll keep an eye out.
If you’re a journalist whose brand is sounding the authenticity alarm about msm, but also lying, you’re worthless. Taibi should be exposed for becoming what he warned us about
I suggest You and Taibbi get together on Zoom or something akin to it and hash this out face to face. Rackets recent post concerning the young man nudged along to end his life by ai left me chilled to the bone. ai is in my estimation is where power brokers are going all in— so for MT and Racket to shove/smash this story in their face— somewhat crushes your argument Taibbi cow tows to the powerful. In fact— I’ve been looking and have not been able to find coverage on this young man’s story elsewhere
I used to subscribe to Racket. I’m no Democrat, but his shift was noticeable enough for me to cancel. Now I read him just so I don’t live in any echo chamber. Disappointing though.
MT is not obliged to write about things just because you want him to. He is clearly doing a great job holding people to account on other issues eg Russiagate, one can't be an expert or have the time to research and write about every current issue. To say he's pandering because he doesn't write in support of things you like or write about things you want to know his opinion on is ridiculous. There is MORE than enough coverage on both sides of the Israel/Palestine issue, it's actually a relief to read about something else. Furthermore this concept of him being corrupted by Kirn?!?!? What a joke, he hasn't maintained his own brand of journalism only to fall to influence now because he seeks someone else's perspective on something?
I think that what people really don't like is that he hasn't publicly agreed with other journalists and in this stupid polarised 'us versus them' public discourse, it puts him in the "baddies" camp.
Nailed it 100%! And if more serious journalists actually invested time reporting on Russiagate, the biggest political scandal and abuse of power in living memory by Obama/Brennan/Hillary/Comey etc, then perhaps Matt would have time to breathe, let alone report on your pet issues.
As a long-time fan of Taibbi, excellent article. You nailed it. Also, I think it's worth mentioning his getting swept into the vortex the pro--Israel The Free Press has created, his positioning on the issue seems to be more about his own financial reasons than ethics or morals, which is disappointing for someone who used to champion the underdogs and the disenfranchised. Go dawgs.
I too am jealous of people in my field who are much more talented, accomplished, and frankly, discerning, than me. I get it Zaid. These feelings are natural.
I dislike articles where one journalist is criticizing another journalist. I read articles to learn about issues. Write about the issues of the day please, not about other journalists.
Trump is by far the better alternative compared to the Democrats. In a binary system, "choice" boils down to selecting the lesser of two evils, and the Democrats are simply much, much worse.
It is important to understand that Trump is the symptom, not the cause. He is the personification of the pendulum swinging back. The liberal establishment attempted to forestall that reset with radical and extreme measures aimed at not only political reform but cultural transformation; now that the dam has broken, the nature of that reset is both violent and swift.
Thank you for writing this. I was a huge fan of Taibbi for years, and I agree with the general premise of his views on “woke,” the Russiagate stuff, etc. But he has become something between obsessive and a caricature. He goes on about how CNN and MSNBC are dead or dying then watches their clips and mocks them for a couple thousand words. Cable news sucks dude. Everyone knows it. I literally don’t know anyone under 60 who disagrees.
And I don’t blame him for turning on the left. Similar to Rogan et al. The left made them enemies for no actual good reason. But Taibbi seems to have taken it to such a personal degree that it’s all he’s interested in extorting about anymore. Russiagate, “the left” particularly the craziest and perennially online variant, Twitter files, and MSM.
It’s important to say I don’t even disagree with his takes on these subjects. I tend to agree. But I also don’t think they are the most pressing issues of our current moment, and in my opinion Taibbi comes across more like the Charlie Day conspiracy board meme these days than the actual hard-hitting (and very funny) journalist I used to love. Like lots of people on both sides, I think the Trump and Covid phenomena broke his brain, and it’s sad.
His bitterness over the durability of the Russiagate narrative, despite his relentless undermining of it, seems to have gotten the better of him. He comes across as very defensive and nasty, so much so that I can't even share his articles with people who subscribe to Russiagate b/c I know his abrasive tone will just make them double down. It's sad to see a talented reporter shoot himself in the foot.
I genuinely respect you both as reporters, writers, and opinion makers. To be honest I didn't read your whole piece because it seems like your beef with Taibbi is Israel. He doesn't report on it and doesn't go after the conservatives who support Israel.
I hope that isn't correct, but that is very much what it feels like.
Dave F. Is correct. You two would make a great interview/commentary/debate.
You’re being way too harsh on someone who’s arguably the best journalist of our time. Taibbi is going harsh on the Democrats and the left because they totally dominate the narratives/contemporary culture —look no further than our schools, something Taibbi probably knows on a personal level because he has kids probably being subjected to obsession with pronouns and sexuality in elementary school. I’m disappointed in Taibbis coverage of Zionism and Gazan genocide but we can’t write off someone who has been immensely successful in educating people about the Twitter File, Russiagata and so many other issues that were obscured before he reported on them. I’m grateful to him and I hope he keeps up the great but imperfect work
I think going harsh on Democrats is both fine and justified.
However, pretending the Republicans are small beans with no power is not. They are expressing immense power every day. It would be one thing if he was a Hollywood reporter, an arena where liberals have overwhelming hegemony, but he is a political journalist, so it’s like reporting on SEC football without mentioning Georgia or the Gators.
100%
I followed Tiabi long before my news knowlegable friends had ever heard of him. I watched him on Useful Idiots and, to be honest,was somewhat surprised as to how such a brilliant writer could be a rather poor verbal communicator but I hung in.
Then he set up shop with Walter and while at first, America This Week was the first thing I turned to when my eyes opened on Friday morning, I began to notice after awhile that Matt was always turning to Walter and asking "what do you think, Walter?". Never having heard of Walter and becoming increasingly tired of hearing about his many trips. tv appearances and influential friends, I listened but only with one ear and finally just turned the program off before it finished. And why did we then have another two hour AMT on Monday night when there was nothing at all to say of interest except the same old same old?
Then came Gaza, Matt's peculiar interview with Sabby Sabs followed by his excuse that he didn't mention Gaza because he knew nothing about it and wasn't really interested!!!!! Really Matt?
Do you have any idea how tired I was going into the weeds on every broadcast re RUSSIAGATE? tired as I was, I defended him against others who criticized his editorial choices by saying - "Gaza is not his lane" But lane or no lane, Gaza was that most important, and most visible news story, of my long lifetime and yet Matt continued to ignore it. How could he write about free speech when the Israeli Lobby controlled every word out of the mouths of the Washington establisment? Finally, I had to say goodbye and to be honest, I haven't missed either Walter or him one bit. But he does have his cult followers who adore whatever he does or doesn't do. I am way too old to follow cults - they are for the young and blind.
I remember the exact moment I gave up on Taibbi. On a previous podcast he and his cohost had on Thomas Frank, the author of What’s The Matter With Kansas. Frank and Taibbi agreed that Trump’s 2016 economic populism was an effective campaign strategy but then Frank made the obvious point that, like everything else about Trump, it was a complete fraud and that Trump instead pursued a conventional course of cutting tax rates. From Taibbi, a prolonged silence. After that, I bailed. Permanently. It find it genuinely sad.
"Best journalist of our time??" Dude was an edgelord who was a mediocre reporter but because he wasn't doing traditional journalism, he's viewed as being punk rock. We're seeing Matt's true skills on display right now. No expert reporting or engaging word play. It's just "lol mainstream media is stupid!"
The idea that the Democrats "totally dominate the narratives and contemporary culture" you're so fucking delusional and insane that it's incredible to me that you can actually type this comment out.
"Totally dominate" may be somewhat of an exaggeration, but what Americans refer to as "the left" (and intelligent people recognize as liberals) does hold a dominant position in framing the narratives that underly current American "culture".
One clear marker of this is how the whole Trump/MAGA phenomenon is treated as a paradigm shift of epic proportions, hence "fascist/racist/sexist/transphobic" because in the dominant narrative not buying into what passes for "anti-racism/anti-sexism/transphobia" is still treated as a sign of moral/ethical/political failure.
In actual fact the whole MAGA sphere is nothing all that different from what America and Americans have always been. But because of the overwhelming dominance of narratives from "the left" (liberals), it looks discontinuous.
The view from outside "the west" does not perceive "America" as a culture where abortion is anaethema, marriage is sacred and heteronormativity is the hill upon which Americans choose to die.
How a cranky PMC cosplay "Marxist" who makes his living pointing out the stupidity of the "dominant narrative" as represented on TikTok is hardly relevant to an assessment of what constitutes the "dominant narratives" in American culture.
MAGA is not only not representative of what America has always been, it's not even representative of what *Republicans* have always been.
Republicans were, in living memory, pro-free market, pro-NATO internationalists. They are now pro-Russian, anti-NATO protectionist autarkists.
There is no such thing as "what America and Americans have always been."
Ah, yes.
We need to be able to distinguish "the narratives" from "what America and Americans are and always have been".
The nativist, xenophobic, racist good ol' boys and girls were the ones with the dogs and the cops on their side in those old videos of negroes demanding the vote.
They were Dems then; they're Republicans now. They were and are 100% American.
Wait. If he’s saying the democrats control the cultural landscape at schools(teachers union) and the colleges where there is a huge leftward shift, he’s correct.
You could have said he was the one of the best during Trump's first term, but not anymore. He is seriously audience captured.
One cannot be too harsh of any1 supporting zionists and their incredibly dangerous influence.
You would be insanely harsh to journalists taking sides for nazis. Why are you ok with taking sides with modern day nazis?
Enough with the school fear mongering. Elementary school kids need to know about subject pronouns (it’s a grammar thing!) and they are very much exposed to the concept of “sexuality” already (I assume you mean gay people, though). It’s 2025–these kids are on the Internet, God forbid they have a teacher with a same-sex partner. There is an executive order out from the president saying teachers can’t use kids’ preferred pronouns and some states even use hyper-partisan Republican curricula like PragerU, which emphasizes the positives of chattel slavery. I’ve even known a Christian high school biology teacher in a liberal state who refused to teach the state assigned standard of evolution, and there were no repercussions. Teachers and students have a range of politics; they are human beings after all. If you wanna go insert yourself into the K-12 system, feel free to do so. You might just learn something.
Depending on where you live, many children will also have not just teachers with same-sex partners but also several classmates with same-sex parents, too. Do conservatives seriously expect those children to stay completely silent about their families to "spare" the other children?
Yes he has said this before. Covering the GOP is already incredibly well served
I'd like to know the overlap between people who think that Taibbi is the best journalist of our time and people who think that RFK Jr. is being genuine. I'm primarily a finance journalist myself, but I would say the best reporter working today is Sharon Lerner, because she is exposing how we are actually being poisoned by corporate America and regulatory capture at the EPA. Not to be all determinist about it, but the fact that people seem to be wholly uninterested in this basic fact could be a cause of why we're in the mess we're in.
I like Taibbi, read all of his books but am disappointed by his recent posts. I think we got here because:
1. Taibbi holds a grudge against a lot of people that unfairly attacked him on issues like Russia-gate, the Great Awokening, twitter files, etc.
2. There is strong overlap between the people on the other side of those three issues and the Palestinian cause.
3. A lot of those people are shrill, sanctimonious, obnoxious, holier-than-thou.
4. Taibbi has an almost knee-jerk reaction to go against the popular sentiment, which often serves him well.
My issue is that people he knows personally like Lee Fang, Glenn Greenwald, Aaron Mate faced the exact same pushback on those three issues but are staunchly against the slaughter in Gaza. Of course, he doesn't have to write about it, but it is odd that he is not writing about one of the defining issues that has free speech implications, one of his core causes.
He really lost me with his dishonest comparison of Palestine supporters as deep-down antisemites to honest pro-Israel supporters, who, I suppose, will calmly and politely argue that ethnic cleansing is a good thing. It is very clear that his grudge against the wokesters really clouded his judgement on this issue.
🎯🎯🎯
I don't agree with him that all Palestine supporters are antisemites, but almost all of them have terrible arguments, as you seem to. I challenge you to give me a good argument in response to this, but I bet you cant: https://lukecuddy.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/171147372?referrer=%2Fpublish%2Fhome%3Futm_source%3Dmenu
I read your article. It is not clear to me at what level you would be satisfied with for people to express moral outrage at the other terrible conflicts going on throughout the world. I am pretty sure most people protesting against what Israel is doing in Gaza are against the detention of Uighurs and the war in Sudan. I would guess you are against those too, but also spend more time on the topic of Israel. People have limited time and Gaza is a tangible concept to most people since our government is so heavily involved in the conflict (more so than the Uighur and Sudan tragedies) and it has been going on for decades.
And because our government is so heavily involved wouldn't it make more sense for people to focus their energies on that? The U.S. is the most important ally by far to Israel politically and militarily. The U.S. is directly giving munitions to Israel who then drops bombs that has killed tens of thousands of civilians. What has the greatest potential for change? Getting people we elect to influence Israel to stop what they are doing or getting China to stop what they are doing?
It's not just spending more time on Israel, it's the excessive condemnation as I point out in the article. Calling it a genocide when it's not (or if you'd like, it's debatable) when the Sudanese Civil War has been declared a genocide without argument. Israel having twice as many UN Condemnations of any other country when, to take one example, there are 400k civilian deaths in Sudan.
I can get behind focusing more energy on Israel for the reasons you give, but people are not just "focusing energy"; they are castigating Israel as the worst moral stain on the earth since Hitler. But even here, again we sell weapons to the UAE and Saudi Arabia that are carrying out far worse (by any conceivable moral theory) harm to civilians.
And many of these harms are completely unjustified by the situation--rape gangs and sex slavery, for example. You mentioned thousands of civilians are killed by the Israeli govt, true. But even here you're ignoring the tactics of HAMAS (human shields) and their being funded by Iran.
Just to be clear, your argument regarding what has the greatest potential for change is a practical and not a moral one. Even here I disagree. Not sure how old you are but do you remember the Free Tibet movement? There were college protests and celebrities that spoke out against China. That could happen, there could be a BDS movement with China, of Chinese companies, universities, etc.
I cannot access whatever it is you sent me.
You're right, my mistake. Here's the link: https://lukecuddy.substack.com/p/you-might-be-an-antisemite-if
💯
I suspect Tabbi’s mind has been corrupted by his new BFF Walter Kirn. Matt seems to adore Walter and gush about his “high level contacts.” I was an early subscriber to Matt’s Substack and even loved the first year or so of his collab with Walter but the perspectives they offer have taken a sharp right turn especially since the presidential election. They do actually mention Israel Palestine on occasion, but usually it’s to condemn student protestors similar to how people would criticize Vietnam war protestors. Makes me wonder if this is the same man who wrote a
Book condemning divisive media. Racket news is probably just a factual description rather than an ironic joke.
I am strongly critical of Israel and also think student protests are mostly ignorant cosplayers with childish Manichean views. Musa Al-Gharbi shows how one can be anti-Zionist, critical of Israel, but also think performative and disruptive clueless protest on campuses both simplistic and counterproductive. https://www.compactmag.com/article/behind-the-ivy-intifada/
I share your suspicion about the malign(?) influence Kirn seems to exert; I think he's cast Matt in an eager little brother role in his dealings with him, a role that Matt seems to want very much to succeed in playing. Thus, it is reasonable to expect that the more conservative-seeming Kirn might also influence Matt's political opinions as well.
On the other hand, I often get the feeling that the main effect of that influence is just to be skeptical and critical of a too easy adoption of ANY political pose or posture, the poses and postures that all factions of the political spectrum rehearse with equal vigor. If that criticism should be of those who criticize Trump, pointing out that Democrats, say, do the same thing(s) they may criticize Trump and his followers for doing or saying, then they may be seen as "anti-left" (Can anyone still believe the Democrat party is the home of the political left in America?), which, insofar as it amounts to pointing out an example of their frequent hypocrisy, may in such an instance be partially true. But I don't think that makes them anti-left, whatever that may mean now, though I could definitely be mistaken.
Where I have a serious problem with Taibbi now is in his continuing refusal write much expressing his thoughts about the genocide underway in Gaza and the Israeli-Pallestinian conflict more broadly. His defense, that he's not interested in the matter and that he therefore doesn't both know much about it or have the motivation to find out more and he doesn't want to write about something he knows little about, seems, given the undeniable slaughter and brutality, to say nothing good about Taibbi's capacity for empathy or about his judgment as to what's important and what a serious free-lance journalist should therefore feel compelled to look into and report on. And then, in the matter of choosing sides in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, his smarmy defense of Bari Weiss and her deal with the new zionist owner of CBS News makes me want to vomit, especially when his principal praise of her is what he claims is her courage to go off on her own (wasn't she fired or "eased out" by the Times?) and start her blog with only 3(?) million in "seed money" from some wealthy benefactors (Who, one wonders?).
Like you I followed and admired Taibbi's writing for years. Read his books, listened to his podcasts and defended him against my centrist Democrat friends. But I too have noticed the same change you have. There is simply a paucity of criticism against the Trump Administration that I found strange. Trump no matter what you think of him, is a transformative president. Things now will never be the same in this country. Taibbi generally ignores Trump's behavior and instead focus's on that dead horse formally known has the Democrats. I agree with Taibbi they are awful, but why the tepid criticism for Trump? I can only assume its because he doesn't see much to criticize. Really? OK. But this is not the same guy of 20 years ago.
And his simple refusal to talk about Palestine because its complicated and he doesn't know much about it, is disingenuous. Genocide isn't complicated.
I defended Taibbi both to you and to Leighton Woodhouse. I don't regret it, even though I got on the wrong end of Taibbi in his comments section in the second article. I was fine with Taibbi not talking about Israel. He writes about what he writes about. He doesn't want to write about Israel, I can kind of figured out the reason (either he agrees or he thinks he will anger the people who pay his way), but fine. If I gave up every writer I disagreed with about Israel, I'd be living in a very small bubble.
Now I didn't know how long "not talking about Israel" could go on, given that the issue is so pervasive and is likely to have such an impact on our political system in 2026 and 2028, if not going forward, because the issue of US support of Israel is the crystalization of everything that has gone wrong with government in America: a special interest with a lot of power hijacks the US government to do its bidding even if its interests are diametrically opposed to the interests of the US population at large, even to the point of getting us involved in a genocide (or what Taibbi called in his comments a "magic word").
I did not know about The Exile article until I saw someone link to it in a comment on TwiX. So, yes, I am now forced to admit this is probably a case of audience capture, and either Taibbi is forcibly maintaining his own ignorance or molding his views to fit what makes him money. It doesn't make Taibbi useless, but it does make him only as useful as any other person I read to figure out what "that group" of people is thinking, not to find out what's really going on.
The thing with Bari Weiss that got him in trouble was that you really, really, really can't talk about Bari Weiss's sale of her blog (large as it is) to CBS/Paramount without talking about Israel. You can't. And if you play down Weiss's overt almost Goebbels level propaganda, reducing it to her "politics," and pretend that her simping for a foreign country had nothing to do with the obscene price when the person who is giving her the money is David Ellison, someone who donates gobs of money to Israel and has an *American* company that won't hire anyone who has a negative opinion of *Israel* . . . well, you're going to get called on it. But the first article was not what got Taibbi in trouble. The focus of his article was the hypocrisy of the propaganda machine that is mainstream media getting angry about Bari Weiss getting a windfall. Fine and fair.
The problem was his reaction to an audience far more educated on the subject than he was. If you're not going to talk about something, then don't talk about it. But he accidentally found himself dipping a toe in the water, and he had two good choices: (1) listen and get an education, or (2) back quietly away. But he chose the third: to dive in with both feet and exhibit a level of callousness and ignorance that is inexcusable if you're going to engage in the subject at all.
On a meta-level, swinging between the COVID craziness and now the Israel craziness, one coming primarily from the "left" and the other primarily from the "right," I'm starting to think people are hardwired toward this sort of insanity, and I'm only sad that Taibbi is the rule rather than the exception to the rule.
Well said. I’ll add one point: If Matt Taibbi spent half the time he spends explaining that he doesn’t understand the Genocide, on learning about the Genocide, then he would understand the Genocide.
It reminds me of Lenny Bruce’s description of the lawyers trying to put him in jail for saying ’Cocksucker’.
They spent the afternoon saying: “He said Cocksucker? No! Yeah! He said “Cocksucker!”
Bruce: “Then I dug something, they LIKED saying Cocksucker.”
Thank you for making me laugh. And you are completely on target. I subscribed to your substack. I subscribe to so many, I miss a lot, but I'll keep an eye out.
If you’re a journalist whose brand is sounding the authenticity alarm about msm, but also lying, you’re worthless. Taibi should be exposed for becoming what he warned us about
I suggest You and Taibbi get together on Zoom or something akin to it and hash this out face to face. Rackets recent post concerning the young man nudged along to end his life by ai left me chilled to the bone. ai is in my estimation is where power brokers are going all in— so for MT and Racket to shove/smash this story in their face— somewhat crushes your argument Taibbi cow tows to the powerful. In fact— I’ve been looking and have not been able to find coverage on this young man’s story elsewhere
You haven't looked if you've not found coverage elsewhere.
Thought this might interest you. It appears the AI did not in fact push him to commit suicide: https://www.freethink.com/artificial-intelligence/chatbot-suicide-moral-panic
I get the impression that a lot of erstwhile Taibbi fans in the influencer/blogosphere have already invited him on and got the cold shoulder.
That would, of course, be the right shoulder.
I used to subscribe to Racket. I’m no Democrat, but his shift was noticeable enough for me to cancel. Now I read him just so I don’t live in any echo chamber. Disappointing though.
MT is not obliged to write about things just because you want him to. He is clearly doing a great job holding people to account on other issues eg Russiagate, one can't be an expert or have the time to research and write about every current issue. To say he's pandering because he doesn't write in support of things you like or write about things you want to know his opinion on is ridiculous. There is MORE than enough coverage on both sides of the Israel/Palestine issue, it's actually a relief to read about something else. Furthermore this concept of him being corrupted by Kirn?!?!? What a joke, he hasn't maintained his own brand of journalism only to fall to influence now because he seeks someone else's perspective on something?
I think that what people really don't like is that he hasn't publicly agreed with other journalists and in this stupid polarised 'us versus them' public discourse, it puts him in the "baddies" camp.
Nailed it 100%! And if more serious journalists actually invested time reporting on Russiagate, the biggest political scandal and abuse of power in living memory by Obama/Brennan/Hillary/Comey etc, then perhaps Matt would have time to breathe, let alone report on your pet issues.
As a long-time fan of Taibbi, excellent article. You nailed it. Also, I think it's worth mentioning his getting swept into the vortex the pro--Israel The Free Press has created, his positioning on the issue seems to be more about his own financial reasons than ethics or morals, which is disappointing for someone who used to champion the underdogs and the disenfranchised. Go dawgs.
I too am jealous of people in my field who are much more talented, accomplished, and frankly, discerning, than me. I get it Zaid. These feelings are natural.
Was Taibbi jealous when he wrote Hate Inc. about both MSNBC and Fox? They surely made a lot more money than he did. It was purely envy?
I dislike articles where one journalist is criticizing another journalist. I read articles to learn about issues. Write about the issues of the day please, not about other journalists.
Trump is by far the better alternative compared to the Democrats. In a binary system, "choice" boils down to selecting the lesser of two evils, and the Democrats are simply much, much worse.
It is important to understand that Trump is the symptom, not the cause. He is the personification of the pendulum swinging back. The liberal establishment attempted to forestall that reset with radical and extreme measures aimed at not only political reform but cultural transformation; now that the dam has broken, the nature of that reset is both violent and swift.
Thank you for writing this. I was a huge fan of Taibbi for years, and I agree with the general premise of his views on “woke,” the Russiagate stuff, etc. But he has become something between obsessive and a caricature. He goes on about how CNN and MSNBC are dead or dying then watches their clips and mocks them for a couple thousand words. Cable news sucks dude. Everyone knows it. I literally don’t know anyone under 60 who disagrees.
And I don’t blame him for turning on the left. Similar to Rogan et al. The left made them enemies for no actual good reason. But Taibbi seems to have taken it to such a personal degree that it’s all he’s interested in extorting about anymore. Russiagate, “the left” particularly the craziest and perennially online variant, Twitter files, and MSM.
It’s important to say I don’t even disagree with his takes on these subjects. I tend to agree. But I also don’t think they are the most pressing issues of our current moment, and in my opinion Taibbi comes across more like the Charlie Day conspiracy board meme these days than the actual hard-hitting (and very funny) journalist I used to love. Like lots of people on both sides, I think the Trump and Covid phenomena broke his brain, and it’s sad.
Good piece. Wokeness broke a lot of rational brains on both sides and Taibbi’s was one of them. He’s cooked. Used to love him back in the day too
His bitterness over the durability of the Russiagate narrative, despite his relentless undermining of it, seems to have gotten the better of him. He comes across as very defensive and nasty, so much so that I can't even share his articles with people who subscribe to Russiagate b/c I know his abrasive tone will just make them double down. It's sad to see a talented reporter shoot himself in the foot.
I genuinely respect you both as reporters, writers, and opinion makers. To be honest I didn't read your whole piece because it seems like your beef with Taibbi is Israel. He doesn't report on it and doesn't go after the conservatives who support Israel.
I hope that isn't correct, but that is very much what it feels like.
Dave F. Is correct. You two would make a great interview/commentary/debate.