Internet Culture

Donald Trump’s town hall debate was a leaning, meaning, inner-city bashing, Muslim-spying dumpster fire, and Twitter knew it

Oct 10, 2016 | Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Internet Culture

Published: Salon (October 10, 2016) The second presidential debate between Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump wasn’t just thoroughly unpleasant to watch. It was one of the ugliest political moments in recent memory. We knew things were going to get nasty when Trump held a pre-debate press conference flanked by three women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual...

#ThatMexicanThing: The vice presidential debate delivered some key moments for Twitter

Oct 5, 2016 | Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Internet Culture, mic

Published: Salon (October 5, 2016) Toward the end of the otherwise boring debate between Republican Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana and Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, as Kaine was speaking about things that Donald Trump has said during his candidacy, Pence interrupted him, saying out loud, “Senator, you whipped out that Mexican thing again.” Follow rachel elliott @okie_elliott "Honey, where'd...

Twitter goes bananas: From Hillary Clinton’s pantsuit to Donald Trump’s snorting, the social-media hits and misses

Sep 27, 2016 | Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Internet Culture, mic

Published: Salon (September 27, 2016) Monday night’s presidential debate between Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was almost certainly a smashing success in terms of TV ratings. If the social-media response is any indication, both candidates had more than their fair share of memorable moments. Let’s go to the Twitter roundup! Before...

Why we need trolls: Even offensive clowns like Milo Yiannopoulos can be good for the left

Sep 22, 2016 | Civil Liberties, Conservativism, Extremism, Internet Culture, Political Ideologies

Published: Salon (September 22, 2016) Breitbart columnist Milo Yiannopoulos is perhaps the most famous troll in the world right now, in large part because he was banned from Twitter last month and because the head of Breitbart News is now the CEO of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. This, of course, makes it all the more disappointing that Yiannopoulos repeatedly flaked on me when I tried to...

A deep dive into the alt-right’s greatest YouTube hits

Sep 12, 2016 | Conservativism, Conspiracy Theories, Extremism, Internet Culture, Political Ideologies, Political Parties, Republicans

Published: The Daily Dot (September 7, 2016) When Hillary Clinton pointed out the connection between Donald Trump and the alt-right, she wasn’t talking about an ordinary political movement. As the Daily Dot's Amrita Khalid notes, the alt-right is a "younger, ballsier rejection of the GOP establishment and political correctness as a whole—think the Tea Party meets Pepe the Frog." But it's also...

About my positive review for “Suicide Squad”

Aug 16, 2016 | Arts and Entertainment, Internet Culture, mic

Published: The Daily Dot (August 16, 2016) It’s a strange feeling, having written one of the few positive articles about Suicide Squad. If the Internet community can learn anything from “Suicide Squad,” it is that online culture breeds a specific kind of overly-informed and excessively quantifying approach to the art of criticism. This has become apparent in several ways just with the Internet’s...

Kevin Smith is right about online bullies

Aug 16, 2016 | Arts and Entertainment, Bullying, Internet Culture

Published: The Good Men Project (August 16, 2016) Simply put, cyber bullies deserve to be ridiculed because they are cowards. I suppose I can exclude the rare troll or hater who actually attaches his or her real name to their verbal bile. There are even a handful of individuals who make their careers out of trolling (Perez Hilton and Milo Yiannapoulos come to mind). That said, the vast majority...

From Gamergate to “Ghostbusters” to Suicide Squad: The Problem of Fan Entitlement

Aug 9, 2016 | Animals and Animal Rights, Gender and Sexism, Internet Culture, mic, Millennials, Race and Racism

Published: Salon (August 9, 2016) It’s easy to roll your eyes at the “Suicide Squad” petition. In case you’ve been lucky enough to miss the news, fans of the new movie “Suicide Squad” have created an online movement to shut down aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes for posting predominantly negative reviews of their beloved film. Cue the inevitable jokes about how nerds need to get a life. Is it...

My Aversion to Twitter and Trump

May 14, 2016 | Elections - Presidential (2016), Internet Culture

Published: The Good Men Project (May 14, 2016) Normally when I write about social media, I pepper sources throughout my article. It's a common habit among pundits; even in casual conversation, we frequently find ourselves pulling up sources to inform our audience and legitimize our position. I'm mostly going to resist that impulse here, though, because my aversion to Twitter isn't about some...

Does hashtag activism work?

Mar 24, 2016 | Conservativism, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Extremism, Internet Culture, Liberalism, mic, Political Ideologies, Science and Technology

Published: The Daily Dot (March 24, 2016) There was an interesting debate at the University of Pennsylvania this week. TheFoundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, hosted a panel discussion on the effectiveness of hashtag activism. The debate featured Zeynep Tufekci, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Zellie Imani, an educator whose...

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