Former Vox columnist David Roberts has been described as ‘one of the least likable progressives in the Milky Way galaxy’
Bluesky, the X-alternative social media app, was specifically designed for obnoxious journalists and other left-wing cranks who needed a safe space to rant. So when a prominent Bluesky user who is widely regarded as “one of the least likable progressives in the Milky Way galaxy” complained that the app had failed to live up to its promise, a handful of people took notice.
“It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Bluesky has been a net negative for US politics,” wrote David Roberts, a former Vox journalist who writes a climate-focused newsletter on Substack. “They corralled everyone on the left into a little glass fishbowl where they shout at one another & everyone else ignores them.”
Bluesky users were shocked that such a revered member of the annoying left-wing pundit class would criticize their place of worship. Doing what comes naturally, they responded by shouting at Roberts while everyone else ignored them. He was forced to write a 10-post follow-up explaining that his criticism should not be considered an endorsement of X, the far more popular, immigrant-owned Bluesky competitor, which he described as a “toxic” “Nazi” haven that is turning mainstream journalists into right-wing activists.
Roberts is not the first prominent left-wing crank to observe that Bluesky has become a cesspool of left-wing crankery. Jamelle Bouie, the New York Times columnist who suggested J.D. Vance’s mother should have sold him for drugs, has also complained after being urged to quit his job at the “anti-trans” Times, and being called a “Nazi collaborator” for disagreeing with a trans person. Democratic activist Will Stancil, who concurred with Roberts’s assessment of Bluesky, has expressed concern after being repeatedly condemned on the app for committing the moral equivalent of violence against trans people, Native Americans, and other vulnerable demographics.
Nevertheless, Roberts’s decision to weigh in was notable given his towering position in the hierarchy of obnoxious left-wing commentators. He lives in Seattle. He routinely publishes boring diatribes about why America is bad, and Americans are bad for liking it. He has scolded the Times for coddling racists and not having enough “Latinx voices” in the opinion section. He lashes out at anyone who suggests that letting children change their gender might not be a wonderful idea. Paul Krugman is a fan.
As you might expect, Roberts is obsessed with climate change; he loves electric cars and hates gas-powered pickup trucks. He hates all cars, actually, for making Americans “selfish & sociopathic.” Roberts is a slightly more annoying version of Bill Weir, the CNN climate reporter who published an angsty letter to his newborn son, River, who was conceived in a lighthouse, apologizing for bringing him into a world sullied by climate change and capitalist greed.
Roberts, a white man, is especially fond of whining about the toxicity of white men. He has argued that white men are incapable of forming legitimate opinions that aren’t in some way tainted by structural racism. This doesn’t apply to him, obviously, because Roberts is a good white man who arrived at his correct opinions by dismantling the white supremacy in his own brain.
“David Roberts is a great climate writer, but he’s also a jerk who gets on his high horse and says aggressive and mean things to people, using politics as a justification for his behavior,” wrote journalist Noah Smith. “Now he’s realizing the downsides of the toxic online culture he’s part of. Good!”
Roberts was not, in fact, realizing the downsides of the toxic online culture he’s part of. But it’s amusing to watch nonetheless.
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