Author: luimbe

Jamelle Bouie on trolls

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From A Conversation with Jamelle Bouie at The Hairpin.

When did you start getting trolled?

I think I’ve always had trolls of some sort. I think the phenomenon of getting attention from the right-wing blogosphere, right-wing Twitter—the very hyper-specific racist trolls that seek out people of color to harass them—that started after the 2012 election. And, that was a good year for me. The great thing about election years for political writers is that, if you write well, you can increase your visibility. Which then of course means trolls.

What did a good year look and feel like to you?

A good year is when I think I’m writing a lot, writing well, when everything’s trafficking very well—traffic patterns where you can notice that you actually have an audience, and people aren’t just stumbling across your writing, but actively trying to read what you do.

I think I started doing a bit more media that year—radio and TV, I mean—and around all of that is when the number of trolls took a sharp uptick. Then, in 2013, I did way more media, I switched jobs, and the Daily Beast gets much more traffic than the Prospect, so it’s a much more public platform. Last summer is when the quantity of racist trolls quintupled.

 

“Eat, Sleep and Jeep”

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Read Businessweek’s article: “The Jeep Plant Mitt Romney Said Was Moving to China Is Hiring 1,000 Workers in Ohio”:

“You’ve gotta remember, these people [the regular workers] are working 10 hours a day, six days a week,” a UAW boss who helped negotiate the deal told the Blade. “It’s very important to have the day off you want with your family.” The Blade further reports that Chrysler has already hired 380 of these temp employees and converted 50 of them to full-time jobs.

Eat, Sleep and Jeep.

Jenny McCarthy-ites: Jay Cutler & Wife Kristin Cavallari Anti-Vaccine Truthers

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Jay Cutler & Wife Kristin Cavallari Anti-Vaccine Truthers:

Cavallari, who is pregnant with her second child, told host Lisa Kennedy Montgomery that she and Cutler hadn’t vaccinated their first son and would not vaccinate their second one once he is born. When Montgomery challenged her by arguing that there is no real evidence showing that vaccines are harmful, Cavallari responded that she had “read too many books about autism” and cited the fact that one in 88 boys are diagnosed with autism today.

[…]

Cavallari and Cutler have revealed themselves to be part of a burgeoning anti-vaccine movement that is terrifying public health officials. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) warn that misinformation about vaccines’ safety is leading to an unprecedented resurgence in contagious diseases that were once practically eradicated in the United States, such as measles, mumps, and whooping cough.

CDC officials point out that in America, 80 percent of measles cases in 2013 presented among people who were never vaccinated, and 80 percent of those people cited “philosophical differences” for forgoing vaccination. Most recently, California health officials had to issue a public warning to Bay-area residents after just one unvaccinated man potentially exposed thousands of commuters to measles that he had contracted in Asia.

This is getting to a critical point here in the states. To recap: The Measles are awful, Whooping Cough is awful. Adults are having to get re-vaccinated. This is fuggin’ serious:

Falling vaccination rates are now an urgent concern in public health. Measles incidence dropped 99 percent after the vaccine was introduced in 1963. Between 2000 and 2007, the United States saw an average of just 63 measles cases per year, and almost all of those victims brought the disease into the United States from abroad. In 2013, however, the incidence of measles tripled. Unlike in previous years, the majority of the victims contracted the disease here in the United States, meaning that measles outbreaks are now a serious national problem. It could get worse. Vaccination rates in the United States remain at about 90 percent, but in the United Kingdom, where vaccination has fallen below 80 percent, the disease is once again endemic.

This is a burgeoning public health crisis due to scared parents being hoodwinked by charlatans.