Its a tradition round these parts (and by these parts I mean my desktop, comfy chair, and rum bottle) to end December by cleaning house of interesting bits and pieces I didnt get to use during the year. Normally, this housecleaning consists of unused back-and-forths with journalists and academics. But this years different: I had no such exchanges. This year, practically everyone I reached out to would only speak off-the-record. I attribute this to the fact that 2022 was the year in which talentless predatory hacks like Taylor Lorenz and Felicia Sonmez scanned their colleagues tweets for cancellation material. So journalists got cold feet about genially corresponding with a guy like me, at least publicly. Privately, theyre fine. They know Im not nearly as scary as my Wikipedia page implies.
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