We Made "The Atlantic"... Some Interesting Press

I just stumbled upon this article as I was searching out any recent media mentions of The Chainlink.

 

Here is an article from The Atlantic from May 17th:

Cyclists Aren't 'Special,' and They Shouldn't Play by Their Own Rules

 

Read the full article here

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Permalink Reply by Zoetrope on May 21, 2013 at 5:18pm

Joanne Kass needs to be ignored. Humorless, self-serving, fascist BS.

Permalink Reply by Zoetrope on May 22, 2013 at 7:05am

In case anyone else here has a similarly depraved intellect as Luke: "The idea of authoritarian personalities prone to fascist attachments may be one reason why fascism is used as an epithet for the same kind of people who might be called "anal-retentive". On An(Archy) and Schizoanalysis by Rolando Perez uses the word fascist in an analytically informed way that is similar to the usage of epithet, showing that such usage is not necessarily ill-informed or unsystematic. One basic point of these perspectives is that a libertarian or emancipatory outlook requires openness of social space, tolerance or celebration of difference, and opposition to arbitrary authority; an absence of such an outlook contributes to social closure and exclusion..."

One of the many problems of that stupid article is that she has no remorse for equating salmoners, sidewalk riders and red light runners to motorists who are capable of and regularly (and without remorse) commit more serious road "mistakes". Think dooring, side-swiping, brake-checking, and any other forms of vehicular abuse. "They want more law enforcement for that stuff? Well tough cookies, I saw a salmoner just the other day." She is just another neurotic tight-ass with a bully pulpit who thinks that by getting cyclists to "stop being so cool and special" out there we will start to see more rapid "progress" in the cycling community. She has zero proof for the garbage she spews. 

Permalink Reply by Zoetrope on May 22, 2013 at 8:03am

Oh my...

There is nothing to "get", dude. I am happy to see you beating yourself up, though. Less work for me.

"I'm not here to be a troll." 2 minutes later... "I was beating myself up for my trollish impulses."

Whatever, Luke. Just stop now so you don't keep confusing yourself. 

Permalink Reply by Barry Niel Stuart on May 22, 2013 at 11:06am

I find that when I as a cyclist follow the same rules as others with whom I share the road, I'm more likely to get where I wish to go safely.  Why give a militant motorist the ammo to shoot you?

Permalink Reply by Zoetrope on May 22, 2013 at 12:23pm

how dare you

h' 1.0 said:

1996 called and it wants its flame-war back.

Permalink Reply by Haddon on May 22, 2013 at 3:02pm

Merits of the article and it's name calling aside (here and the article) being in The Atlantic is pretty cool.  It is one of the better magazines (along with The New Yorker) that I will grab if someone leaves an issue laying around.

Has Rachel Maddow called yet?

h

PS. the chanlink does get a tad of the cheap swipe, faux indignant thing to the point that perhaps that all could get toned down a bit.  

Permalink Reply by Zoetrope on May 22, 2013 at 4:49pm

Not a fan of it, and if this latest example is not reason enough for you I don't know what is.

Anyone like me and mostly stay informed via this site, Men's Health mags and various MMA fighting blogs? I don't mind The Atlantic Cities, however. They have good ad pages. 

Any thoughts on the article Julie linked, Daniel? Haddon? h'? 


Daniel G said:

I don't really care for it because their economics editor, an Objectivist far right-libertarian, has no education or background in economics (only an English degree, an MBA, and a sincere hatred of any future healthcare reform). I can't really recommend reading the mag cover to cover. Too much thinktank-style radical centrism; you'll just get spun round in circles and wind up right back where you started feeling dumb and disoriented. I do like theatlanticcites though.

Permalink Reply by OLB 0.1 on May 22, 2013 at 5:05pm
Radical centrism?
Color me ignorant, wtf is that?
Is that like the political version of extreme vanilla?
Not trying to be a smartass. Any explanation that doesn't require a poli sci degree would be appreciated.
Permalink Reply by Zoetrope on May 22, 2013 at 5:17pm

Use your imagination. Let's work this out together OLB 1.0. C'mon!

Permalink Reply by OLB 0.1 on May 22, 2013 at 6:28pm
That makes a lot more sense (no sarcasm). Thanks.

Anyway, Julie - congrats on the publicity.


Daniel G said:

It's taking the average of every single idea and declaring the truth to be in the exact center. Usually incoherent and always irrelevant, because ideas are not numbers and you can't take their arithmetic mean. One is always a bit closer to the truth than the other, and centrism abandons the quest for truth and declares all voices to be equally valid. Centrism is, in practice, a reactionary ideology because it is a complete and aggressive absence of an ideology, which suits the actual reactionaries just fine.

OLB 0.1 said:

Radical centrism?
Color me ignorant, wtf is that?
Is that like the political version of extreme vanilla?
Not trying to be a smartass. Any explanation that doesn't require a poli sci degree would be appreciated.
Permalink Reply by Haddon on May 22, 2013 at 6:35pm

The article is fair (a bit of cherry picking by the author to make points) and I really can't argue with any of it. She's probably right, at some point here there are going to be enough of us (bikers) on the road that we'll start to get tickets otherwise the roads will become a mess for everyone. Rush hour going up Milwaukee Avenue to Wicker part and points North East there are so many bikers globbing up the street and plowing through intersections you'd think there would be white painted bikes on every corner.

For as many drivers who are a-holes there is a cyclist who is just as bad. The other day I saw a cyclist cut off a bus (seriously, he didn't even look) But thats how it is -none of us obeys stop signs if there are no cars around, I just went from one end of Pilsen to the other and back and didn't stop once.  I think we do, on average, have a tad of holier-than-thou mixed with rebellion attitude.  This might just be built into the identity of most bikers.

And bikers don't corner civility, there are countless posts right in this message board with pointless name calling and insults, if cyclists can't even be polite to each other, of course we are going to look down on cars. In the end I'm agreeing with the author 95%

As for The Atlantic it's a great magazine and can lay around on a coffee table with the Economist and the Paris Review and not look out of place.

h

Video is slow paced but somewhat relevant:


Zoetrope said:

Not a fan of it, and if this latest example is not reason enough for you I don't know what is.

Anyone like me and mostly stay informed via this site, Men's Health mags and various MMA fighting blogs? I don't mind The Atlantic Cities, however. They have good ad pages. 

Any thoughts on the article Julie linked, Daniel? Haddon? h'? 


Daniel G said:

I don't really care for it because their economics editor, an Objectivist far right-libertarian, has no education or background in economics (only an English degree, an MBA, and a sincere hatred of any future healthcare reform). I can't really recommend reading the mag cover to cover. Too much thinktank-style radical centrism; you'll just get spun round in circles and wind up right back where you started feeling dumb and disoriented. I do like theatlanticcites though.

Permalink Reply by Zoetrope on May 23, 2013 at 6:29am

ts;dw

Feel free to post a short summary of the relevant parts here. 

Haddon said:

Video is slow paced but somewhat relevant:

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