I am in HCR's demographic so I appreciate your rebuttal of Silver's hit piece. Richardson's columns are always well-researched and grounded in history which gives great context to current events. I didn't bother reading Silver's column, but I got the gist of it from your analysis.
I took a brief look at the post you referred to by Nate Silver. I wonder if progressives began to reduce his compensation as his polling became more and more like on-line betting.
Nate Silver has gone off the rails and his white male privilege is offended by HCR’s intelligence and womanness, not to mention the fact that she is an historian of the kind that only comes once or twice in a generation. I would rather live in her world than his.
Shorter Nate Silver: "Heather Cox Richardson cut off my penis"
As a political data analyst, Nate was very very much a one-hit-wonder, and should have stuck to baseball stats modelling, at which I am told he was very good.
He literally called ONE election properly, and though that conferred some form of cosmic knowledge of politics to hand down to us unwashed masses like Moses.
Then when he realized the Dems weren't taking him seriously or challenging his 'insights' he hopped on the 'contrarian train' so beloved by the white male 'notionally liberal' pundits who are threatened by the greater diversity of the Democratic party (ie we keep nominating people who aren't white, straight males) like Matt Yglesias and Ezra Klein.
(Matty has another execrable bit up in the FTFNYT today scolding us 'leftists' about not loving the Oil and Gas industry like we should. smh )
Why did we ever listen to Nate Silver? He was right ONE TIME about something, so we listened. When it was clear that he wasn't right after that one thing, most stopped listening to him, but enough people must still listen to him to keep him going.
After reading your post, it's clear that Silver has problems with intelligent, educated women, hence his whine about HCR. Bless his heart!
I would love to be able to be right one time and have a lifetime career come from that where I could be wrong ever since. Reminds me of the Mark Twain quote. Give a man a reputation for being an early riser and he can show up late the rest of his life. Or something to that effect
Nate Silver knows the keys to the kingdom in this modern, turbo-enshittified political environment. All you need to do is pinch out hot takes that capitalize on FUD for benefit of billionaire owners. Whether it's concern-trolling or it's just "Hey maybe this random bigot is right because criticizing them made them has a sad," it's all the same foul result.
This is a really great take-down (or is it frisking now?) of Nate Silver's really appallingly thought-through blog, Stephen. You might also add that Silver is disingenuous. HCR didn’t 'lie' about her referring to Tyler Robinson being a Groyper. She said something along the line of “early indications are that he appears to be a Groyper”. When she got more information she did correct herself publicly. So Silver isn't being honest. Silver comes across as a male chauvinist who really finds articulate, educated women deeply offensive and annoying, especially when they are successful.
This is a response to a reply and not SER's criticism of Nate Silver with which I very much concur.
Heather Cox Richardson is not a journalist, but a professor and a historian. So-called "journalistic objectivity"(which FYI does NOT exist) is not applicable to her meticulously sourced and fact-checked writing on Substack. HCR links current events with historical ones to illuminate both.
As for HCR's appeal to "perimenopausal/menopausal/postmenopausal educated White women" - yes, we can read, and the older women she "speaks to", including her, are of the generation that stormed formerly male elite enclaves in education and business AND BTW PAID A STEEP PRICE IN TERMS OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND SEXUAL ASSAULT FOR BEING GENDER PIONEERS IN THESE PRIVILEGED PLACES.
Now Nate Silver dismisses us based on our lack of fertility utility - where he would simply use age, not the relative enlargement or disease stage of their prostate and/or reduction in sperm motility for men. Fuck you for this minimizing "dismissal", Nate.
No, these you-better-fucking-believe-we-are- politically-engaged women, who have seen an aggressive health- and life-threatening reversal of reproductive rights and access to abortion care for our daughters and granddaughters - a reversal which further threatens their educational and professional opportunities WHICH WE FOUGHT FOR - are cast by Great White Man Nate Silver as political extremists like the PAID ASTROTURFED TEA PARTY COLONIAL PLAYACTORS who were tools of the political movement that stripped us of reproductive rights and care? Fuck you for that, too, Nate.
Further, many White women voted for Kamala Harris because she was a good, smart, prepared candidate with a policy plan and a moral core, and the Republican alternative was, APPALLINGLY, a corrupt, resentful, compulsively dishonest, convicted felon and legally adjudicated fraudster/sexual abuser. Maybe we didn't want a credibly accused serial sexual assaulter and RAPIST in the White House AGAIN.
Further, if some Black People do not follow HCR, it is likely because there are also highly educated, perceptive and profound Black thinkers and academics who speak more directly to the concerns and history of Black voters. Many of them are also here on Substack and are well worth following, as well.
Firstly, I have no idea why anybody has listened to anything that man has to say, after 2016, when he had Clinton winning by what, 17 points? He should have been ignored ever since but here we are.
Secondly, his categories are fucking ridiculous, like him. Where exactly does Schumer fall? Or say, Cuellar? Or Klobachar? Like, dude, no.
Thirdly, the Tea Party was astro turfed bullshit funded by rich assholes who wanted to keep their taxes down. They pretty much succeeded. HRC is a journalist with a substack. That's not pizza/kebab. That's army/ant.
HCR is, most importantly, a historian by profession. Her journalistic and writing skills help us understand how current events mirror and diverge from our past. She’s an invaluable resource for understanding the big big picture. But the thought that she’s the leader of some political movement in the Dem party is wacko. Notice that Silver doesn’t engage with her views on history and politics. It’s his attempt to contain the truth of what she says with a contrived label so he can dismiss it from his consideration as something that maybe he should.
His “categories” seem to omit establishment Dems, black Dems, Hispanic Dems, rural conservative Dems, and lumps various types of liberals (DSA types, campus progressives, greens) all under “leftist”. Not a very helpful set of categories!
Plus a lot of “pro-abundance” Democrats (those who want to reform government to make building things and accomplishing liberal priorities easier and cheaper) have zero interest in working with Republicans. The book “Abundance” itself starts out by saying you shouldn’t expect shit from Republicans!
I think Democrats need their version of the Tea Party, in that it wasn’t really ideologically different from the establishment (you couldn’t really find a substantive policy that the TP and say Mitch McConnell differed over) but rather a difference over style, tactics and message. A Dem TP would be flushing out (or scaring straight) the Durbin types to break norms and speak honestly about Republicans and use every bit of leverage to stop the Right and make clear to the unengaged public what the distinction between the parties is.
I don’t know much about Richardson but if Silver thinks any Dem who landed an interview with Biden and used it to praise him is TP then he doesn’t know what TP is. Sounds like he made a poorly informed tweet then doubled down.
That's the way to go in this horrid environment; if you say stupid shit double down because you get more Click$ that way. It's "engagement!" No matter if it makes the world worse.
What's happening to Jasmine Crockett right now is part of the reason there wouldn't be such a movement in the Democratic Party though. It is like pulling teeth to get Dems to row in the same direction. And the elephant in the room that people ignore is that policy (which is the entire point of the Dems) doesn't actually counter sadopopulism, the tactical nuclear weapon of politics.
I am in HCR's demographic so I appreciate your rebuttal of Silver's hit piece. Richardson's columns are always well-researched and grounded in history which gives great context to current events. I didn't bother reading Silver's column, but I got the gist of it from your analysis.
I took a brief look at the post you referred to by Nate Silver. I wonder if progressives began to reduce his compensation as his polling became more and more like on-line betting.
Thanks for pointing all this out. Ugh. Silver has turned Sam Bankman Moron.
Nate Silver has gone off the rails and his white male privilege is offended by HCR’s intelligence and womanness, not to mention the fact that she is an historian of the kind that only comes once or twice in a generation. I would rather live in her world than his.
He’s morphed into a shit
Silver don't need no stinkin' historian bona fides to take down smart historian lady!
Shorter Nate Silver: "Heather Cox Richardson cut off my penis"
As a political data analyst, Nate was very very much a one-hit-wonder, and should have stuck to baseball stats modelling, at which I am told he was very good.
He literally called ONE election properly, and though that conferred some form of cosmic knowledge of politics to hand down to us unwashed masses like Moses.
Then when he realized the Dems weren't taking him seriously or challenging his 'insights' he hopped on the 'contrarian train' so beloved by the white male 'notionally liberal' pundits who are threatened by the greater diversity of the Democratic party (ie we keep nominating people who aren't white, straight males) like Matt Yglesias and Ezra Klein.
(Matty has another execrable bit up in the FTFNYT today scolding us 'leftists' about not loving the Oil and Gas industry like we should. smh )
Why did we ever listen to Nate Silver? He was right ONE TIME about something, so we listened. When it was clear that he wasn't right after that one thing, most stopped listening to him, but enough people must still listen to him to keep him going.
After reading your post, it's clear that Silver has problems with intelligent, educated women, hence his whine about HCR. Bless his heart!
Yet, I trust HCR. not a man who dabbles in "lies, damned lies, and statistics".
I would love to be able to be right one time and have a lifetime career come from that where I could be wrong ever since. Reminds me of the Mark Twain quote. Give a man a reputation for being an early riser and he can show up late the rest of his life. Or something to that effect
le sigh
Nate Silver knows the keys to the kingdom in this modern, turbo-enshittified political environment. All you need to do is pinch out hot takes that capitalize on FUD for benefit of billionaire owners. Whether it's concern-trolling or it's just "Hey maybe this random bigot is right because criticizing them made them has a sad," it's all the same foul result.
Right on, Seth T
This is a really great take-down (or is it frisking now?) of Nate Silver's really appallingly thought-through blog, Stephen. You might also add that Silver is disingenuous. HCR didn’t 'lie' about her referring to Tyler Robinson being a Groyper. She said something along the line of “early indications are that he appears to be a Groyper”. When she got more information she did correct herself publicly. So Silver isn't being honest. Silver comes across as a male chauvinist who really finds articulate, educated women deeply offensive and annoying, especially when they are successful.
Make chauvinist: bingo
This is a response to a reply and not SER's criticism of Nate Silver with which I very much concur.
Heather Cox Richardson is not a journalist, but a professor and a historian. So-called "journalistic objectivity"(which FYI does NOT exist) is not applicable to her meticulously sourced and fact-checked writing on Substack. HCR links current events with historical ones to illuminate both.
As for HCR's appeal to "perimenopausal/menopausal/postmenopausal educated White women" - yes, we can read, and the older women she "speaks to", including her, are of the generation that stormed formerly male elite enclaves in education and business AND BTW PAID A STEEP PRICE IN TERMS OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND SEXUAL ASSAULT FOR BEING GENDER PIONEERS IN THESE PRIVILEGED PLACES.
Now Nate Silver dismisses us based on our lack of fertility utility - where he would simply use age, not the relative enlargement or disease stage of their prostate and/or reduction in sperm motility for men. Fuck you for this minimizing "dismissal", Nate.
No, these you-better-fucking-believe-we-are- politically-engaged women, who have seen an aggressive health- and life-threatening reversal of reproductive rights and access to abortion care for our daughters and granddaughters - a reversal which further threatens their educational and professional opportunities WHICH WE FOUGHT FOR - are cast by Great White Man Nate Silver as political extremists like the PAID ASTROTURFED TEA PARTY COLONIAL PLAYACTORS who were tools of the political movement that stripped us of reproductive rights and care? Fuck you for that, too, Nate.
Further, many White women voted for Kamala Harris because she was a good, smart, prepared candidate with a policy plan and a moral core, and the Republican alternative was, APPALLINGLY, a corrupt, resentful, compulsively dishonest, convicted felon and legally adjudicated fraudster/sexual abuser. Maybe we didn't want a credibly accused serial sexual assaulter and RAPIST in the White House AGAIN.
Further, if some Black People do not follow HCR, it is likely because there are also highly educated, perceptive and profound Black thinkers and academics who speak more directly to the concerns and history of Black voters. Many of them are also here on Substack and are well worth following, as well.
Preach
Nate Silver is still around? Why?
Maybe he thinks he is still relevant.🤔
James Carville 2.0
'cause he generates tasty, tasty Click$.
Not from me, he doesn't.
Firstly, I have no idea why anybody has listened to anything that man has to say, after 2016, when he had Clinton winning by what, 17 points? He should have been ignored ever since but here we are.
Secondly, his categories are fucking ridiculous, like him. Where exactly does Schumer fall? Or say, Cuellar? Or Klobachar? Like, dude, no.
Thirdly, the Tea Party was astro turfed bullshit funded by rich assholes who wanted to keep their taxes down. They pretty much succeeded. HRC is a journalist with a substack. That's not pizza/kebab. That's army/ant.
HCR is, most importantly, a historian by profession. Her journalistic and writing skills help us understand how current events mirror and diverge from our past. She’s an invaluable resource for understanding the big big picture. But the thought that she’s the leader of some political movement in the Dem party is wacko. Notice that Silver doesn’t engage with her views on history and politics. It’s his attempt to contain the truth of what she says with a contrived label so he can dismiss it from his consideration as something that maybe he should.
One correction to your excellent comment - HCR isn't a journalist, she's a historian and a professor.
His “categories” seem to omit establishment Dems, black Dems, Hispanic Dems, rural conservative Dems, and lumps various types of liberals (DSA types, campus progressives, greens) all under “leftist”. Not a very helpful set of categories!
Plus a lot of “pro-abundance” Democrats (those who want to reform government to make building things and accomplishing liberal priorities easier and cheaper) have zero interest in working with Republicans. The book “Abundance” itself starts out by saying you shouldn’t expect shit from Republicans!
I think Democrats need their version of the Tea Party, in that it wasn’t really ideologically different from the establishment (you couldn’t really find a substantive policy that the TP and say Mitch McConnell differed over) but rather a difference over style, tactics and message. A Dem TP would be flushing out (or scaring straight) the Durbin types to break norms and speak honestly about Republicans and use every bit of leverage to stop the Right and make clear to the unengaged public what the distinction between the parties is.
I don’t know much about Richardson but if Silver thinks any Dem who landed an interview with Biden and used it to praise him is TP then he doesn’t know what TP is. Sounds like he made a poorly informed tweet then doubled down.
That's the way to go in this horrid environment; if you say stupid shit double down because you get more Click$ that way. It's "engagement!" No matter if it makes the world worse.
What's happening to Jasmine Crockett right now is part of the reason there wouldn't be such a movement in the Democratic Party though. It is like pulling teeth to get Dems to row in the same direction. And the elephant in the room that people ignore is that policy (which is the entire point of the Dems) doesn't actually counter sadopopulism, the tactical nuclear weapon of politics.
Doubling down on hot takes is sort of the Silver brand.