Bret Stephens (1973- ) is a Pulitzer-prize-winning right-wing opinion writer for the New York Times, one of the top newspapers in the US. He quit Twitter this week, calling it a “sewer”, after someone called him – wait for it – a metaphorical “bedbug”.
I laughed when I first heard about this – what planet does he live on? – but it turns out to be a serious story.
Safe space: Stephens is one of those privileged White men who complain about safe spaces for the marginalized – not understanding that White men like him have been making the whole country into a safe space for themselves. And it seems that part of how they do that is by bullying professors.
Observe:
On Monday August 26th 2019, the New York Times reported:
“Breaking – There are bedbugs in the NYT newsroom.”
David Karpf, an associate professor at George Washington University, tweeted jokingly:
“The bedbugs are a metaphor. The bedbugs are Bret Stephens.”
It got 9 likes and 0 retweets.
But then that night he got an email:
Subject: From Bret Stephens, New York Times
Dear Dr. Karpf,
Someone just pointed out a tweet you wrote about me, calling me a “bedbug.” I’m often amazed about the things supposedly decent people are prepared to say about other people — people they’ve never met — on Twitter. I think you’ve set a new standard.
I would welcome the opportunity for you to come to my home, meet my wife and kids, talk to us for for a few minutes, and then call me a “bedbug” to my face. That would take some genuine courage and intellectual integrity on your part. I promise to be courteous no matter what you have to say.
Maybe it will make you feel better about yourself.
Please consider this a standing invitation. You are more than welcome to bring your significant other.
Cordially,
Bret Stephens
Stephens was trying to silence him: he sent a copy of the email to the provost of the university.
The next morning Stephens went on MSNBC and said on television coast to coast:
“There’s a bad history of being analogized to insects that goes back to a lot of totalitarian regimes in the past.”
Dehumanization: Stephens is Jewish and dehumanization (at least the non-metaphorical sort) is one of the stages of genocide. Yet Stephens himself, when he was at the Wall Street Journal, wrote about Palestinians as if they were vermin. And stood up for the right of Tucker Carlson, a racist hatemonger on Fox News, to call Iraqis “semi-literate primitive monkeys” – in the name of free speech.
Karpf can laugh it off – he is a White man with tenure – but noted:
“Bret Stephens seems to think that his social status should render him immune from criticism from people like me. …
“It cost me nothing, but it is an abuse of his power that would carry a real penalty for a younger or less privileged academic. The Times should expect more of its writers. Stephens should expect more of himself.”
– Abagond, 2019.
See also:
- The eight stages of genocide
- safe space
- BMA: Black Mental Age
- The N-word
- Black people according to US television
544
I laughed when I read this yesterday on my newsfeed. Talk about white men getting their “manties” in a bunch. Such a fragile snow flake.
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I guess I missed the point. To me this is two white men with privilege in this society that is set up on the white power structure. I guess being called a “bed bug” or anything that is not human is similar to being called the N-word. I suppose this is about not recognizing the humanity of the other person. I didn’t see the racial context of this.
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I am sure black journalists get called worse names than “bedbug.”
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So reading that this Stephens defends someone as abhorrent as Tucker Carlson makes me want to call him some disgusting names. In my opinion he is still a white man in America benefiting from the system of white privilege. This to me just looks like two white men in their feelings.
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White fragility. Fragile white male egos. Jamal Bouie, and Jamalle Hill are black journalists that get called worst names by white people that get angry by their writing.
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@ Mary
Exactly, Blacks are called way worse things than a bedbug.
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Manufactured outrage at its finest.
There’s probably a real discussion that could be had about when comparing people to animals is appropriate and when it’s not. But, I bet there’s already a post on that here somewhere.
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Lol, you black people and other POC should be glad that white people invented all these technologies or you would be using smoke signals and drums for communications.
The only thing black people created was peanut butter.
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Wait until white people become the minority, then you’ll see how much America becomes a shit hole country. And Democrats are for illegals not black people.
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You white people better start fighting back or get destroyed by the black liberals. Liberalism is a curse.
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Apparently, Bret Stephens views himself as white, sainted and untouchable -with a glass chin.
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@abagond
How dare you. How dare you write this ambiguous article you…you…bedbug! Yeah. That’s it. You’re a bedbug. So there. Hmph.
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Says the pussified leftwing party member.
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Bedbugs have breakfast lunch and dinner on your ass and they’re extremely difficult to get rid of. They swell up to like 4x the size of a tick or more, full of blood.
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Karpf is also Jewish:
https://forward.com/fast-forward/430367/bret-stephens-bed-bug-professor/
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I Just keep laughing so much at this! I think its just the idea of another grown man calling another grown man a “bedbug” , That’s just hilarious to me. If it were two black men it would still be funny (I’d just chalk it up to some type of celebrity beef) but its not even half as funny as these two professional looking white guys.
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I though Stephens was insulted, because in his mind, white men are supposed to be in solidarity all the time, and it was embarrassing for him to be called that in front of “those lesser people”,( like women and black people).
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Yeah, I though about the racial dynamics of this too, and my changing feelings according to who did it. it was a white person saying it to a black person, it would be offensive. A black person saying it to a white person would be funny based on WHO said it ,and if it were two women, Id have ignored it. Change the dynamic to two any other people, and I simply would not find it as funny as I do this version. I need to think some more about hwy, too.
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It could be worse; they could call him late for dinner!
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