You can see how, before we even get to the arguments, just the attitude on display here is likely to provoke irritation, because it is condescending and smug. When Yglesias writes of the “socialist niece who posts obsessively about Genocide Joe,” he is not taking seriously the possibility that this woman could be correct: that she has been persuaded by the International Court of Justice filings showing evidence that Israel is engaged in genocide and posts “obsessively” because she sees genocide as morally urgent. Instead, there is an implication that this person is somehow mentally unwell. Indeed, Yglesias’s reaction to seeing a poem about the Gaza genocide is that it shows the “increasingly porous boundaries between mental illness and leftwing politics.” Setting aside the question of whether Yglesias is persuaded by the ICJ case against Israel, this is the attitude of an asshole.
We should show the same level of respect for the opinions of Matt Yglesias and his ilk that he shows for the “socialist niece who posts obsessively about Genocide Joe,” that is to say, none at all.
literal personification
