February 27, 2025

Let's read a WaPo columnist who hasn't quit in disgust after Jeff Bezos announced he was taking the opinion pages in a right-wing direction..

Here's Bezos's ballsy statement (on X).

Who has quit? You can read "Jeff Bezos' revamp of 'Washington Post' opinions leads editor to quit" (NPR).

I'm most interested in who is staying, and how they might be changing. In that light, I'm reading this, from Philip Bump, published this morning: "The shift in the politics of young voters isn’t quite what it seems/The idea that MAGA-enthused bros swung the young male vote doesn’t really capture what happened."

That's a free-access link and it's very heavy on poll data. I won't attempt to summarize that other than to quote Bump's bottom line: "The problem for Democrats, then, was probably fewer White dudes listening to Joe Rogan than it was Black and Hispanic voters not voting like their parents."

Bezos should hire some good word editors, because that sentence is miswritten, probably by someone bamboozled by the "less"/"fewer" distinction. I think it needs to be something more like: "The problem for Democrats, then, was probably less about White dudes listening to Joe Rogan and more about Black and Hispanic voters not voting like their parents." 

I'm not saying I've turned that into a well-written sentence, only that I've made it comprehensible (and I hope it means what Bump meant to say).

39 comments:

Old and slow said...

I get it that mistakes happen to everyone, but that phrasing should not have passed inspection.

RCOCEAN II said...

It was really about Hispanics and other POC's - not blacks. The MSM and the Republicans are obsessed about the Black vote. Its 12 percent of the vote, and even with Trump in 2024, they vote 80 percent Democrat. Just like they have for 50 years. IRC, black women voted against Trump 95-5. You can always count on Jewish/POC women to vote for their tribe. You can never count on white women.

Iman said...

Bump’s a hump and there’s no getting around it.

RideSpaceMountain said...

Philip Bump was a key promoter of the Russiagate hoax-dossier and went all in on Hunter's laptop being fake. His opinions are invalid. His arguments contrived. His data inadmissible and very likely forged.

The actual statistics don't lie, men are leaving the plantation. There is a global chasm opening everywhere between the pragmatic views of boys and men and the luxury beliefs of girls and women. This will not stop. Bump is Nate Silvering himself by attempting to chum NPR's waters and convince their aging and shrinking pussyhat demographic there's still hope at the other end of the fishing line.

Kakistocracy said...

Under the bold leadership of President Trump, we must open the markets for unrestricted sales of testosterone, stanozolol, HGH, lip filler, and breast implants. ~ Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sanchez, and the Washington Post Editorial Board

Lazarus said...

Bezos wants to get back to Bill Clinton's Democratic Party. Most of the staff shouldn't have a problem with that. Shipley lived up to the media's reputation and didn't look too deeply into what Bezos' motivation and goals may have been and reacted emotionally. Bump is comfortable with his role as a hack (probably because he's not aware of it) and will be able to adapt.

Kakistocracy said...

What's Your Billionaire Drug of Choice?

Take the Althouse quiz to find out if your taste aligns with Elon Musk (ketamine and cocaine), Jeff Bezos (steroids and HGH), or Mark Zuckerberg (oregano that teens told him was marijuana). 😂

Jaq said...

"we must open the markets for unrestricted sales of testosterone, stanozolol, HGH, lip filler, and breast implants..."

Says the man who wants to pour gunpowder and C4 on every problem area of the world.

Iman said...

Kak is some baaaaad shit. 💩

Jaq said...

Soros's drug of choice is the high he gets overturning democratically elected governments who oppose his globalist agenda. I am sure though that George Soros doesn't take any drugs at all, because if he did, I am sure that Kakadoodledoo would have told us all about them.

Old and slow said...

Kak is a dick, but his drug of choice comment was pretty funny.

Leland said...

Iman, do you mean like “Going on a Bear Hunt” or Eric Swalwell talking about Ivanka Trump?

RideSpaceMountain said...

Kakistocracy said, "What's Your Billionaire Drug of Choice?"

Additional entries:
Soros (freshly harvested adrenochrome from Haitian children)
Reid Hoffman (homosexual prostitutes and lots of them)
Marc Cuban (impotent rage and enough lithium to kill a rhino)
Bill Gates (little girl feet)

mccullough said...

Every group shifted toward Trump. Some more than others.

Christopher B said...

Well, Bump's not completely wrong. Per Jacobin and AP VoteCast (via Jason Thurlkill writing for Ruy Teixeira's The Liberal Patriot), the Democrats actually gained vote share with white college-educated men in 2024.

The problem is they either didn't gain or actually lost vote share with literally everyone else.

Howard said...

The times, they are a changing

Iman said...

I’m talking ALL of it, Leland.

n.n said...

Liberal boys expect the privilege of affordable and available "benefits" without "burdens" without borders.

PM said...

The business of America is business. And Trump is business.

Kakistocracy said...

“Trump is business”

🤣🤣🤣🤣

That’s why Trump’s tariffs are a regressive tax on US consumers to fund tax cuts for US oligarchs.

Birches said...

(whispers) Black and Hispanic men listen to Joe Rogan too.

Temujin said...

Man, it's just amazing how easily the left has given over the idea of liberties and free markets as far right concepts. Adding to the pile that already includes government waste, fraud, and abuse- that is suddenly just a far right concept (according to those on the left). Not to mention (but I will) that not killing Jews or Israelis is also now deemed a far right concept these days to those on the left.

They have ceded all moral high ground for some, to stay on some sort of dramatic Thelma & Louise car drive right off a cliff.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Birches beat me too it. POC's can't be enthused bros?

It's hilarious how reactionary the "progressives" are. Their worldview comes from a received mindset that's almost 60 years old now.

Jupiter said...

"Man, it's just amazing how easily the left has given over the idea of liberties and free markets as far right concepts."
If I'm not mistaken, it was Althouse who decided those were right-wing ideas. She wasn't quoting His Bumpship in the heading.

Clark said...

I keep an eye out for examples of how the collapse of the less/fewer distinction is undermining related syntactical structures. The use of the form "less this ... and more that ..." has been undermined. If Bump had said "less white guys ..." people would now understand him to mean "fewer white guys" which is not what he meant—so he choked. In the old days we would have understood that "less" didn't mean "fewer" here.

I stopped to think about this after reading Bumps sentence. When I went on to read the rest of Althouse's post I was pleasantly surprise (actually I was cheering loudly) to see she had spotted the same issue.

Brava, Althouse!

Yancey Ward said...

The only difference between Bumponalog and the people who quit are that Bumponalog might be just bright enough to know he might otherwise be working at Starbucks given his complete lack of talent.

Jamie said...

Their worldview comes from a received mindset that's almost 60 years old now.

A false consciousness, one might say?

Amadeus 48 said...

Trump sounds too much like Dick Gephardt circa 1988.

Hassayamper said...

Under the bold leadership of President Trump, we must open the markets for unrestricted sales of testosterone, stanozolol, HGH, lip filler, and breast implants.

Is there any argument to be made for the genital mutilation and pharmacological sterilization of mentally disturbed children that does not also apply to skinny ectomorphs who wish to modify their bodies towards a muscular mesomorphic form with the aid of modern steroid pharmaceuticals?

Old and slow said...

I wouldn't take steroids myself, but I also wouldn't get a tattoo. I have no objection to any adult (who isn't my son) taking them.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

Things that go Bump in the darkness at the twilight fringe.

Quaestor said...

Expecting J-school grads working for Bezos to write well-crafted and comprehensible prose implies they should be reading and studying stuff written by dead white men like Gibbon, Carlyle, and Conrad.

The horror, the horror...

Rabel said...

The Post has corrected Mr. Bump's grammar.

"The problem for Democrats, then, was probably less that White dudes have been listening to Joe Rogan than it was Black and Hispanic voters have not been voting like their parents."

Althouse gets results!

They're going to be looking for new opinion columnists. Might be an opportunity for fame and glory!

Jupiter said...

It is interesting to speculate about Bezos' motivations. It has been widely suggested that he is bothered by WaPo's losing money, but that doesn't really make sense. He owns a yacht that cost more than WaPo, and probably costs more to operate as well. Both are mere pittances in the vast sluice of money that is Amazon. It is possible that he bought WaPo hoping to use it for political leverage, and now feels that he needs to relocate the fulcrum.

Anthony said...

Any bets that we'll see lots of editorials against tariffs and for streamlining/increasing legal immigration? Those are two areas where you can support free markets and personal liberty and also be definitively anti-Trump.

Drago said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Drago said...

LLR-democratical Rich: "That’s why Trump’s tariffs are a regressive tax on US consumers to fund..........." ........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Drago said...

Temujin: "Man, it's just amazing how easily the left has given over the idea of liberties and free markets as far right concepts. Adding to the pile that already includes government waste, fraud, and abuse- that is suddenly just a far right concept (according to those on the left). Not to mention (but I will) that not killing Jews or Israelis is also now deemed a far right concept these days to those on the left.

They have ceded all moral high ground for some, to stay on some sort of dramatic Thelma & Louise car drive right off a cliff."

The lefty idiots are also going full steam ahead on parents should have no rights when it comes to their childrens education or transmitting of values (right out of Animal Farm which the lefties have adopted as an instruction manual). The left/dems/LLR's are also very very, did I mention "very"(?), keen on having extremely graphic sexual conversations with very young children without parental knowledge and making explicit sexual and pornographic materials available to those children....again without parental knowledge.

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