TYT - ANA KASPARIAN

[honorentheos]

Most people hold views that don't fit neatly into the binary of right or left, often choosing nonparticipation unless or until an issue or their sense of obligation leads them to side with one or the other due to a few highest priority issues they come to feel make participation worth the effort. Most people aren't on a side at all, really. They want the economy to work, they want their families to be safe, and they want to feel like they are aligned with good.

Folks who identify as right, left, green, liberal, conservative, or whatever label you choose are pretty likely to share that basic desire. They just see the access and threats to these very differently.

While at the individual level the worldview folks hold is incredibly resistant to change, at the level of a nation life events lead people to shift on the handful of positions that may affect the party they back all the time. Generationally, people tend to become more conservative as they age less because their values change as it turns out they are more likely to be the contributing side rather than receiving side of social benefits. Self interest and a person's economic situation make for a good predictors of a person's politics.

I don't watch nor read material from Cenk or Ana as noted elsewhere. But her existence as a political commentator makes her move described in the OP probably inevitable as her own experiences include traumas and self-interests coming into conflict with others in the hotbed of public political drama. I mean the Lincoln Project is organized around this idea that Trump took conservativism away from conservatives, not that a bunch of former Republicans suddenly flipped a switch and turned liberal. I highly doubt Ana Kasperian and Ann Coulter are suddenly besties even if they may agree on a few issues in public.

If anything the OP reads like Ana discovered her political side isn't objectively good. Will she develop a more nuanced approach? Tap into the sweet sweet cash crop of foreign interests seeking to buy social media influencers? follow the views and become whatever the algorithm is paying for like Megan Kelly? Who knows.

[Res Ipsa]

There's a bunch of inside baseball that comes into play here. In oversimplified terms, the left is composed of three groups. I'll call them the institutional left, the economic left, and the social justice left. The institutional left are the DNC democrats (think Hillary Clinton), the economic justice left (think Bernie Sanders) and the social justice left (think ... I'm not sure they have a major candidate). Each group has its own "purity" faction that tries to police the boundaries between the good guys and the bad guys.

These factions do not play nicely with each other. The different candidates supported by these factions in 2008 (Obama v. Clinton) and 2016 (Sanders v. Clinton) created angry, ugly, bitter rifts within the left. The economic justice group really, really, really, really hates Clinton because she represents the capture of the democratic party by big corporations. The institutional and social justice left went at each other hammer and tongs in 2008 because Obama jumped the queue and cut in line in front of Clinton. But the war in 2016 was uber nasty. While Clinton wasn't a social justice warrior by any stretch of the imagination, the social justice faction tended to back Clinton because of the historic ties between the institutional democratic party and racial minorities. So, not only were the "Bernie Bros" extremely hostile and antagonistic toward the institutional Democrats, they directed some of their venom at the social justice wing.

The Young Turks, and Kasparian in particular came out of economic justice wing. They were brash, they were loud, they were aggressive, and to that extent, they were the smashmouth left voices that were appealing to lots of folks -- at least when they trained their guns on the right. I read a bunch of Kasparian's posts over time, and she is absolute death on Clinton.

I've never been a fan of the Young Turks. I tend to hang out at the Daily Kos, which is site established to elect (1) more; and (2) better Democrats. In 2008, the Hillary backers got so angry about the Obama backer, they packed up and left the site. Most eventually came back after the general election. 2016 was even nastier, with the Sanders backers leaving the site. I don't think the return rate was as high. Cenk used to be active at Daily Kos. He left there when the Young Turks were formed.

Among the economic justice faction, social justice issues are pretty sus. Which brings us to Ms. Kasparian. The left can ignore these internal divisions as long as the big guns are trained on the right. The incident with the attack by the homeless person seems to have been something that played out internally at TYT. But the tweet referred in the OP isn't about that at all. What happened was Ms. Kasparian started to take shots at transgender activists and people. There wasn't just one tweet -- there were several. One was in response to some transgender activists who occupied or blocked someone's office. She posted a Xit chiding them and claiming that black people never acted that rude during the civil rights era. She was lambasted on X because she was flat wrong. Next, she Xeeted that "they" had lied about puberty blockers being reversible. That is also flat out wrong. Anti-trans groups had misrepresented "reversible" as meaning "without side effects." That wasn't what medical professionals meant, but it was grounds for still more anti-trans hysteria over the decisions other parents made for their children. (Funny that the same people become apoplectic over the notion that someone else gets to decide whether their child gets a measles shot.) Finally, she put a belligerent statement in her profile to the effect of "Don't ever call me a person with a uterus. I am a woman." I couldn't find any reference to anyone actually calling her a person with a uterus, but sticking it in one's profile like a declaration of war is pretty over the top. I live in a liberal area of the country and spend lots of time in a community that is trans friendly, and I've never heard a trans woman insist on being called "person with a uterus." Woman works just fine, thank you very much.

The U,S. is pretty scary right now for trans folks. It's not quite as bad for them as is for immigrants (at least the non-white ones), but they are being both scapegoated and made the targets of a moral panic. They are explicitly made targets in Project 2025 of the right's culture war. Not surprisingly, people react strongly when someone with a microphone that they thought was on their side starts taking shots at them. I imagine the responses on X were pretty brutal. By the same token, given the cesspool that X has become, "people were mean to me on X" sounds like something a Young Turk should be able to handle.

Part of my reaction is live by the sword, die by the sword. Or at least expect a few cuts. Part of this is my typical frustration is purity movements that eat their own. Part of me is the usual skepticism over a story in which the protagonist was savaged for doing nothing wrong. It's always more complicated. Part of me thinks that relabeling oneself as an independent is probably a positive thing. Part of me despairs that we've lost some of civility glue that binds societies together forever.

Most of me thinks I have bigger fish to fry. People were horrible to me on social media = dog bites man.

[Res Ipsa]

Most people hold views that don't fit neatly into the binary of right or left, often choosing nonparticipation unless or until an issue or their sense of obligation leads them to side with one or the other due to a few highest priority issues they come to feel make participation worth the effort. Most people aren't on a side at all, really. They want the economy to work, they want their families to be safe, and they want to feel like they are aligned with good.

Folks who identify as right, left, green, liberal, conservative, or whatever label you choose are pretty likely to share that basic desire. They just see the access and threats to these very differently.

While at the individual level the worldview folks hold is incredibly resistant to change, at the level of a nation life events lead people to shift on the handful of positions that may affect the party they back all the time. Generationally, people tend to become more conservative as they age less because their values change as it turns out they are more likely to be the contributing side rather than receiving side of social benefits. Self interest and a person's economic situation make for a good predictors of a person's politics.

I don't watch nor read material from Cenk or Ana as noted elsewhere. But her existence as a political commentator makes her move described in the OP probably inevitable as her own experiences include traumas and self-interests coming into conflict with others in the hotbed of public political drama. I mean the Lincoln Project is organized around this idea that Trump took conservativism away from conservatives, not that a bunch of former Republicans suddenly flipped a switch and turned liberal. I highly doubt Ana Kasperian and Ann Coulter are suddenly besties even if they may agree on a few issues in public.

If anything the OP reads like Ana discovered her political side isn't objectively good. Will she develop a more nuanced approach? Tap into the sweet sweet cash crop of foreign interests seeking to buy social media influencers? follow the views and become whatever the algorithm is paying for like Megan Kelly? Who knows.

There was one other thing I noticed: after she was attacked by a homeless man, she started xitting stories of homeless people attacking other people. The vibe was, OMG I was attacked and now I realize that this is a serious problem no one is talking about. Apparently, she wasn't either until it became personal.

[Marcus]

She posted a Xit...

Omg I am so far behind the times! I appreciated all of your post but in practical terms, this was absolutely the most helpful right now.

Now I know what to call the 'formerly-known-as-tweets' thingies. Prior to this, I only had Seth Meyers' input,

"“F” it, it's still Twitter..."

Which, while funny, is less diplomatic than one would want to be in most cases.

Thank you again!

[Marcus]

The extreme left is nutty and loud. However, the difference between the extreme left and extreme right is that those lefties aren't in government. The extremists on the right are House members and senators. That's the primary reason I worry about the right way more than the left.

Exacty this.

Anyone can dig up ‘extreme’ examples from either side of the aisle. This was AtlanticMike's specialty; painting the entirety of the left-sided voting block as ‘extremist’. The article above may use a few anonymous examples that Ana found. The same exercise can be repeated for MAGA fanatics displaying racist/fringe/violent/whatever behavior.

However, when ‘the far left’ starts writing policy and government strategy and packaging it up for use by a proposed new Administration as the fringy right has done with Project 2025, or are given positions within a new Administration to reward their loyalty or their extreme POV, or when they start having to be hauled into court for trying to usurp the election process as Tina Peters has done, or when they rally around a grifter, fraud and crook as their presidential candidate, then Ana’s anecdote might become relevant.

For Ceeboo: you might want to include an image of ‘the tweet’, or include its content in some way. That additional context would be helpful.

Is this the tweet referred to in the OP?

Ana Kasparian ✔ @AnaKasparian I'm a woman. Please don't ever refer to me as a person with a uterus, birthing person, or person who menstruates. How do people not realize how degrading this is? You can support the transgender community without doing this crap. 2:29 PM Mar 22, 2023 27.6M Views

[Res Ipsa]

She posted a Xit...

Omg I am so far behind the times! I appreciated all of your post but in practical terms, this was absolutely the most helpful.

Now I know what to call the 'formerly-known-as-tweets' thingies. Prior to this, I only had Seth Meyers' input,

"“F” it, it's still Twitter..."

Which, while funny, is less diplomatic than one would want to be in most cases.

Thank you again!

My pleasure. It's not original with me, but I can't recall who I stole it from.

[Res Ipsa]

Exacty this.

Anyone can dig up ‘extreme’ examples from either side of the aisle. This was AtlanticMike's specialty; painting the entirety of the left-sided voting block as ‘extremist’. The article above may use a few anonymous examples that Ana found. The same exercise can be repeated for MAGA fanatics displaying racist/fringe/violent/whatever behavior.

However, when ‘the far left’ starts writing policy and government strategy and packaging it up for use by a proposed new Administration as the fringy right has done with Project 2025, or are given positions within a new Administration to reward their loyalty or their extreme positions, or when they start having to be hauled into court for trying to usurp the election process as Tina Peters has done, or when they rally around a grifter, fraud and crook as their presidential candidate, then Ana’s anecdote might become relevant.

For Ceeboo: you might want to include an image of ‘the tweet’, or include its content in some way. That additional context would be helpful.

Is this the tweet referred to in the OP?

Ana Kasparian ✔ @AnaKasparian I'm a woman. Please don't ever refer to me as a person with a uterus, birthing person, or person who menstruates. How do people not realize how degrading this is? You can support the transgender community without doing this crap. 2:29 PM Mar 22, 2023 27.6M Views

Based on other reading I did, I think that's the one.

[ceeboo]

Hey RI,

As a politically right lump of carbon, I always enjoy reading your posts about politics. In almost every case, I learn something, or I am forced to think about something that I hadn't given much thought to prior. This post is one of those I speak of (Thanks).

The U,S. is pretty scary right now for trans folks. It's not quite as bad for them as is for immigrants (at least the non-white ones), but they are being both scapegoated and made the targets of a moral panic.

Regarding the immigrants - can you elaborate a bit about them being scapegoated and this moral panic targeting?

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

The PWAU term is used, correct me if I’m wrong please, mainly in healthcare. NIH, I believe? There might be some crossover ever since the appointment of the trans surgeon general, but I think it is probably something bouncing around lgtbq and feminist circles? I’m out of my element here, but I have seen PWAU dropped on a Reddit thread a couple of times.

- Doc

[ceeboo]

The PWAU term is used, correct me if I’m wrong please, mainly in healthcare. NIH, I believe? There might be some crossover ever since the appointment of the trans surgeon general, but I think it is probably something bouncing around lgtbq and feminist circles? I’m out of my element here, but I have seen PWAU dropped on a Reddit thread a couple of times.

- Doc

For those of us who are ducks, can you tell me (us?) what PWAU and NIH stand for?