If I wanted to read the snarky, know-it-all voice of New York magazine, I would read newsletters from New York magazine. Common Sense until this installment has been the smart and interesting and challenging alternative.
If I wanted to read the snarky, know-it-all voice of New York magazine, I would read newsletters from New York magazine. Common Sense until this installment has been the smart and interesting and challenging alternative.
Is Bari trying to expose us to other view points, give us something to reflect on? Maybe see it as opposition research. You can't woo or influence those you can't listen too.
No, I think this is pretty much Bari's viewpoint from everything I can tell. Other than worrying about censorship in colleges, Bari pretty much plays defense for the Democrat Party, and this column is very much in that vein. Bari doesn't usually write the TGIF. Nellie Bowles does. That's why this feels so different. I don't know exactly what Nellie Bowles politics are, but she tends to call out the Democrats more simply by excusing less.
I’m wondering, Kristin - if William Kristol, very conservative but an ardent anti Trumper (and probably anti Biden too), were to have been invited for a TGIF, would you say the same thing? He can be smug and snarky too.
Alternatives are what this mag should be all about.
Left and Right are roughly about equal in this country. Then there are all the In betweens.
You actually think this person is "in between" and "alternative"? That's the problem. He's not "in between" or "alternative." He's utterly, painfully predictable, other than maybe the comment about Obama inviting a few of the "cruelly" displaced migrants to stay on his lawn.
And if you want alternative, Bill Kristol is not "alternative." He's a Republican, neocon stereotype whose positions and opinions are also utterly predictable. He will never vary.
And Common Sense isn't really alternative. It's just every so slightly a bubble off utterly predictable for a Democrat leaning publication. Alternative would to be to break out of the left-right/Democrat-Republican/liberal-conservative spectrum, but it never does.
Yep! Hey common sense, please get a writer from another state. Kansas! Tennessee! South Dakota! And not someone from an elite college, ok? Maybe even a conservative? Mix it up! There are lots of funny, smart voices out there and we would love to hear from them.
Yup I agree. Very much. I know she's trying to grow this newsletter and needs people but this approach is alienating. I hunger for insight and analysis NOT MSM talking points. If I needed to read the opinion of a smug and sanctimonious leftie,, there are about 376552965548656485 places I can go for that
Completely agree with your comment Kristin. I am not one of those who welcomes "the other point of view" to these pages. I can get mainstream viewpoints (usually in unison) on all sides from multiple sources (including NY Mag). I come to CS for constructive insight, not talking points, or ideology, but for the "take" on a subject or issue that I won't easily find elsewhere.
that was my biggest complaint about this writer, there was nothing unique about their point of view. It was the same stuff I would find on NBC, CBS etc, devoid of any logic or intellectual thought.
Yeah, when you defend ignoring the Hunter Biden laptop and then call what Abbott and DeSantis are doing with migrants a "cruel" stunt rather than wondering how much smaller, poorer places are coping with immigrants in orders of magnitude larger, and then worry about Facebook censoring a holocaust film but not working to swing an election, I'm kind of done.
No Anthony, you are not. The stunted intellectual voice that has announced the end of their development by name dropping the upper Eastside or Westside is a major clue.
It's faux writing, generic with a prepackaged logic that makes you yawn. Or better put, as a writer you're a graduate of Columbia school of journalism. They write almost with the expectation of getting the professors approval. Just not good stuff.
The whole jazzy, riff-y, snappier-than-thou thing. It gets kind of tedious, but each one who does this thinks he is the only one who does this. Just, you know. Spit it out. As though you weren't in Noah the Journalism Instructor's class on Friday Night Lights.
Not joking - I honestly think a lot of left leaning social media posts really are automated leftist bots built to create an impression of democratic majority. That's one reason you so frequently see the same words and phrases expressed identically outside of paid spaces, but here in Common Sense you almost never see them. Other than that one poor adolescent raised on social media who doesn't realize that these are real people here.
If I wanted to read the snarky, know-it-all voice of New York magazine, I would read newsletters from New York magazine. Common Sense until this installment has been the smart and interesting and challenging alternative.
Is Bari trying to expose us to other view points, give us something to reflect on? Maybe see it as opposition research. You can't woo or influence those you can't listen too.
No, I think this is pretty much Bari's viewpoint from everything I can tell. Other than worrying about censorship in colleges, Bari pretty much plays defense for the Democrat Party, and this column is very much in that vein. Bari doesn't usually write the TGIF. Nellie Bowles does. That's why this feels so different. I don't know exactly what Nellie Bowles politics are, but she tends to call out the Democrats more simply by excusing less.
I’m wondering, Kristin - if William Kristol, very conservative but an ardent anti Trumper (and probably anti Biden too), were to have been invited for a TGIF, would you say the same thing? He can be smug and snarky too.
Alternatives are what this mag should be all about.
Left and Right are roughly about equal in this country. Then there are all the In betweens.
You want to stay challenged?
Read everything..
Bill Kristol and that entire evil group is terrible. I would not read anything written by the likes of those grifters.
You actually think this person is "in between" and "alternative"? That's the problem. He's not "in between" or "alternative." He's utterly, painfully predictable, other than maybe the comment about Obama inviting a few of the "cruelly" displaced migrants to stay on his lawn.
And if you want alternative, Bill Kristol is not "alternative." He's a Republican, neocon stereotype whose positions and opinions are also utterly predictable. He will never vary.
And Common Sense isn't really alternative. It's just every so slightly a bubble off utterly predictable for a Democrat leaning publication. Alternative would to be to break out of the left-right/Democrat-Republican/liberal-conservative spectrum, but it never does.
Yep! Hey common sense, please get a writer from another state. Kansas! Tennessee! South Dakota! And not someone from an elite college, ok? Maybe even a conservative? Mix it up! There are lots of funny, smart voices out there and we would love to hear from them.
^^^ This.
Walter Kirn would be good.
I only recently discovered Walter Kirn and have really enjoyed his humor and writing style!
Or Amber Athey. I believe Walter is booked with Matt Taibbi’s weekly roundup, also on Substack.
Yep-If only Christopher Hitchens was still around. Absolutely.
Victor Davis Hanson is still around. I'm guessing that would break the record for Substack comments.
Smug and myopic. Thank you CS.
Bringing in new blood is important.
This is not new blood.
Yup I agree. Very much. I know she's trying to grow this newsletter and needs people but this approach is alienating. I hunger for insight and analysis NOT MSM talking points. If I needed to read the opinion of a smug and sanctimonious leftie,, there are about 376552965548656485 places I can go for that
Completely agree with your comment Kristin. I am not one of those who welcomes "the other point of view" to these pages. I can get mainstream viewpoints (usually in unison) on all sides from multiple sources (including NY Mag). I come to CS for constructive insight, not talking points, or ideology, but for the "take" on a subject or issue that I won't easily find elsewhere.
that was my biggest complaint about this writer, there was nothing unique about their point of view. It was the same stuff I would find on NBC, CBS etc, devoid of any logic or intellectual thought.
Yeah, when you defend ignoring the Hunter Biden laptop and then call what Abbott and DeSantis are doing with migrants a "cruel" stunt rather than wondering how much smaller, poorer places are coping with immigrants in orders of magnitude larger, and then worry about Facebook censoring a holocaust film but not working to swing an election, I'm kind of done.
Lillia...yeply stated
Still, it's important and educational to see how these people justify their hypocrisies and deflect to more self-empowering issues.
With respect, A TGIF is not the formula for that depth.
I really am not trying to shame the new writer.
IMO, the editors tried something they thought would work.
Based on reviewing the comments section. It did not.
Kristin post her really is spot on.
True, but leave TGIF alone. That's the one reliable staple of this Substack.
Am I the only person who feels like reading a New York writer sounds like the exact same voice as every other New York writer?
No Anthony, you are not. The stunted intellectual voice that has announced the end of their development by name dropping the upper Eastside or Westside is a major clue.
It's at 44 likes right now and I'm stunned! This was a throwaway comment, I expected little response.
Hey don't sell yourself short.... it's at 50!
It's faux writing, generic with a prepackaged logic that makes you yawn. Or better put, as a writer you're a graduate of Columbia school of journalism. They write almost with the expectation of getting the professors approval. Just not good stuff.
The whole jazzy, riff-y, snappier-than-thou thing. It gets kind of tedious, but each one who does this thinks he is the only one who does this. Just, you know. Spit it out. As though you weren't in Noah the Journalism Instructor's class on Friday Night Lights.
Snarling - my thoughts exactly. He came off as an insecure dudebro
Though on the upside, he smokes and likes speed.
Not joking - I honestly think a lot of left leaning social media posts really are automated leftist bots built to create an impression of democratic majority. That's one reason you so frequently see the same words and phrases expressed identically outside of paid spaces, but here in Common Sense you almost never see them. Other than that one poor adolescent raised on social media who doesn't realize that these are real people here.
Also, nice that he starts his intro with a link to a firewall. Sorry, not interested.