I woke up this morning to hundreds of notifications from this tweet, which is literally just a quote from a book I am giving away tonight.

The level of vitriol in the replies is a new experience for me on here. I love Twitter, but this is the dark side of it.

Thread...

First, this quote is from a book which examines castes and slavery throughout history. Obviously Wilkerson isn’t claiming slavery was invented by America.

She says, “Slavery IN THIS LAND...” wasn’t happenstance. American chattel slavery was purposefully crafted and carried out.
That’s not a “hot take” or a fringe opinion. It’s a fact with which any reputable historian or scholar agrees.

Second, this is a perfect example of how nefarious folks operate here on Twitter...
J*mes Linds*y, P*ter Bogh*ssian and others like them purposefully misrepresent something (or just outright ignore what it actually says as they do in this case) and then feed it to their large, angry following so they will attack.
The attacks are rarely about ideas or beliefs, because purposefully misrepresenting someone’s argument prevents that from happening. Instead, the attacks are directed at the person.
They use whatever they can find about you, in your profile or through an online search, to formulate their attacks.

They go after things like your profession...
And your appearance...
And your intelligence.

There is a really disturbing amount of ableism (the discrimination against and degradation of people with intellectual disabilities) in here...
The goal is to berate and attack those they consider “woke” or basically anyone concerned with social justice until we get so hurt and afraid that we stop speaking. This is how they maintain power.

They came at me for 1 day. They will quickly move, but they won’t stop.
I’ve seen people I look up to on here experience the exact same thing. People like @BethMooreLPM, @JemarTisby, @lisasharper, @richvillodas, @LatashaMorrison, @philvischer, @mika_edmondson, @kkdumez, @esaumccaulley, @stewartdantec, @AlsoACarpenter, and many more.
I used to sympathize with them. Now, though it’s on a much smaller scale, I can empathize with them.

This morning I spent time praying for them and everyone else courageously speaking out against injustice, but I also found myself praying for the people blowing up my mentions.
There is so much anger, bitterness, and fear in their words. I can’t imagine what it’s like to live that way.

If you are one of the angry folks in my mentions reading this right now, my DMs are open. I’m a real person and I‘d love to have a real conversation.
One thing I forgot to mention: I am especially grieved at how many of the people attacking me have something about being a Christian in their bio.

For a group who is supposed to be known by our love (John 13:35), we sure are quick to spew hate.

More from Culture

I just finished Eric Adler's The Battle of the Classics, and wanted to say something about Joel Christiansen's review linked below. I am not sure what motivates the review (I speculate a bit below), but it gives a very misleading impression of the book. 1/x


The meat of the criticism is that the history Adler gives is insufficiently critical. Adler describes a few figures who had a great influence on how the modern US university was formed. It's certainly critical: it focuses on the social Darwinism of these figures. 2/x

Other insinuations and suggestions in the review seem wildly off the mark, distorted, or inappropriate-- for example, that the book is clickbaity (it is scholarly) or conservative (hardly) or connected to the events at the Capitol (give me a break). 3/x

The core question: in what sense is classics inherently racist? Classics is old. On Adler's account, it begins in ancient Rome and is revived in the Renaissance. Slavery (Christiansen's primary concern) is also very old. Let's say classics is an education for slaveowners. 4/x

It's worth remembering that literacy itself is elite throughout most of this history. Literacy is, then, also the education of slaveowners. We can honor oral and musical traditions without denying that literacy is, generally, good. 5/x

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Recently, the @CNIL issued a decision regarding the GDPR compliance of an unknown French adtech company named "Vectaury". It may seem like small fry, but the decision has potential wide-ranging impacts for Google, the IAB framework, and today's adtech. It's thread time! 👇

It's all in French, but if you're up for it you can read:
• Their blog post (lacks the most interesting details):
https://t.co/PHkDcOT1hy
• Their high-level legal decision: https://t.co/hwpiEvjodt
• The full notification: https://t.co/QQB7rfynha

I've read it so you needn't!

Vectaury was collecting geolocation data in order to create profiles (eg. people who often go to this or that type of shop) so as to power ad targeting. They operate through embedded SDKs and ad bidding, making them invisible to users.

The @CNIL notes that profiling based off of geolocation presents particular risks since it reveals people's movements and habits. As risky, the processing requires consent — this will be the heart of their assessment.

Interesting point: they justify the decision in part because of how many people COULD be targeted in this way (rather than how many have — though they note that too). Because it's on a phone, and many have phones, it is considered large-scale processing no matter what.