I was very sad to hear the news that Matt Christman of Chapo Trap House had suffered a serious medical emergency, days before the scheduled delivery of his first child. I don’t know him or the rest of the Chapo people personally, but I am terribly sorry that this happened and I wish the best for Christman, his friends and family, and especially his wife and child.
When I went looking for news on Twitter, I was not expecting but also not surprised to see a number of accounts expressing glee over Christman’s condition. There’s nothing to be done about that; it’s the internet, it’s Twitter. Some were engaging in the whole tired conversation about civility politics and speaking ill of the sick or the dead, which I could not have less patience for at this point. I refuse to participate in that discourse, other than to say that the fact that some think the correct emotional orientation towards the severe illness of a podcaster they don’t know personally is a matter of meaningful left debate shows only what a pale farce left debate has become in those environs. I am content to let others engage in that bitter contest and to wish Christman well. I used to be involved in those pantomimes of left intellectual struggle; I don’t miss it.
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