In the New Yorker...

[Front-Ranger]

Has anyone read "The Limits of Liberalism" in the Sept. 20th issue? I'm debating with myself whether to tackle that one.

[serious crayons]

I haven't read it, but I'll probably give it a shot. There's so much conversation about CRT lately -- the term has become a fake boogeyman scare tactic among conservatives. But frankly, I'm not even sure what it is myself. Must have to do with systemic racism, but I don't know what beyond that.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Has anyone read "The Limits of Liberalism" in the Sept. 20th issue? I'm debating with myself whether to tackle that one.

I haven't read it, but I'll probably give it a shot. There's so much conversation about CRT lately -- the term has become a fake boogeyman scare tactic among conservatives. But frankly, I'm not even sure what it is myself. Must have to do with systemic racism, but I don't know what beyond that.

I read it. I recognized the name Derek Bell, though I couldn't have said from where. I found it worthwhile for the history of how we got to where we are, and for the demonstration of how every advance in Equality is met with pushback (which we already knew)e--and how an important figure in the Civil Rights Movement came to understand that. I remember a question I've wondered about myself: Are children better off being taken by bus to a distant school to obtain racial diversity, or better off left in a neighborhood school, even if the school is effectively segregated?

[Jeff Wrangler]

In the September 27 Annals of Medicine article, it is said of the woman who contracted coronavirus that "her social-media updates went viral."

Can I get a rim shot, please?

Really TNY? You let something like that go through?   

(Yes, I'm perfectly aware of the use of viral in the context of social media posts, but ... really?)

I may actually write to TNY about this. They've probably heard from other people already, but it will make me feel better to write them.

[serious crayons]

I'm not sure I understand. Were they in the same sentence or paragraph, so it sounded clumsy and/or insensitive because TNY wasn't acknowledging? I'm not sure there are any synonyms for social-media viral unless it's "read by millions" or something like that. No one-word term, is there?

[serious crayons]

Has everybody read the one from a couple of weeks ago about the woman in rural Afghanistan? It's long and took me forever to read. It seemed a bit like a duty article, but in fact it's extremely compelling and it changed my entire view of Afghanistan -- and, for that matter, the U.S. military.

Women in cities hate the Taliban for the obvious and very valid reasons. But in rural areas, women and men like the Taliban -- men have been joining in droves -- because they're so much less violent than the careless, murderous Americans. The writer shows in many different ways how awful the Americans were, constantly killing or enabling killing of civilians and children.

This is what my son has been talking about all along and why he hates Obama (not that Obama's the only guilty party, of course, but he did send more troops -- my son, leftie though he is, loves puncturing liberal beliefs). I always knew civilians and children sometimes got droned, but this article describes case after case. By talking to people and comparing death records and eyewitness accounts, the writer calculated that every family in the town from which he was reporting had lost 10-12 civilian members.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I'm not sure I understand. Were they in the same sentence or paragraph, so it sounded clumsy and/or insensitive because TNY wasn't acknowledging? I'm not sure there are any synonyms for social-media viral unless it's "read by millions" or something like that. No one-word term, is there?

See page 37, Sept. 27 issue, in "The Damage Done," by Dhruv Khullar. The full quotation is this:

At the time, there were scattered reports of coronavirus cases, but few people admitted to being infected, and her social-media posts went viral.

I think it's kind of unintentionally funny, in a gasp-inducing, OMG, maybe even groan-inducing kind of way (not to say--OK I'll say it--bad editing), to have a sentence that says posts about a virus went viral. It's like an unintentional (I hope unintentional) pun. I love puns as much as the next person, but not in this context. I get it that the use is that posts go viral, but, c'mon, really? Did the writer and the editor (whoever edited the piece) even realize what they were saying? And if they did ...    I think it's inappropriate.

[Front-Ranger]

There aren't any good synonyms for "go viral": https://www.powerthesaurus.org/go_viral/synonyms

But, before the Internet, I used to have several words I would use, like "exploded" or, my favorite, "mushroomed". People I wrote for hated all these and insisted that I substitute the word "increased".

[serious crayons]

Hmm. I guess it doesn't bother me in either the blundering way or the offensive lame-joke way. Maybe slightly clumsy -- they could have written COVID instead of coronavirus. But you kind of have to use "viral" in that context -- saying "her posts exploded," "mushroomed," or "increased," would be at least slightly unclear, whereas the meaning of viral is instantly recognizable.

As far as clumsy editing at the TNY, I far prefer the virus/viral case to those "'This election was stolen,' Donald Trump, who may have cheated the government out of millions on his taxes, which have been subpoenaed as part of a process that may eventually lead to a conviction, said." (Made-up example.)

But to each his/her own. I'm probably more immersed in internet culture than you, Jeff, so the word doesn't stand out as much to me.

[Front-Ranger]

THere's another phrase to say in place of "go viral" that I like. It's "go into warp drive."