Reply All - #106 Is That You, KD?

Episode Date: September 28, 2017

This week, we help Alex Blumberg understand why a Google engineer ended up complimenting the KKK, and then Yes Yes No turns bizarro. Further Reading James Damore's unedited memo Links to all of the tweets or stories mentioned in Yes Yes No can be found at http://yesyesnos.tumblr.com Article about Kevin Durant (includes screenshots of his tweets) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Gimlet, this is Reply All. I'm Alex Goldman. And I'm PJ Vote. Welcome once again to Yes Yes No, the segment on the show where our boss, Alex Bloomberg, comes to us with Internet ephemera that he can't make heads or tails of, and then we try to explain it to him. And then he just feels a deep sense of regret for ever having come to us in the first place. Hi, Alex. Hi. I have a tweet.

Why, you really know the form of this segment very well. I'm back. I'm back. Yes. Okay, so should I just die right in? Yeah, let's see what you got. Okay. The Twitter account is named Manusi in the sky from the guy whose Twitter handle is Minucleur bomb.

All right, and so this is the tweet. Ready? The caption is, love that I can just slide this guy's whole thread into the meme. And then there's a picture. And the picture is, oh, God. All right, it's two pictures side by side. And the right side is like basically a, it's a series of, you know, when you go to like a photo booth and you get like four pictures on top of each other, it's like that except it's like different pictures of sort of, I guess, skull heads. Uh-huh.

But with the brains inside sort of exposed. So the top picture is a skull with a sort of a smaller brain inside. And then the next picture, the one below it, is another sort of skullhead, although it's got more human features. and it's got a bigger sort of sparkly brain with like stars and stuff coming out of it. And then the picture below that, the brain is even sparklier and shining. And then the last picture is of this head

where the brain is just sort of like sending out these radiant beams. If you needed a picture of like, my mind is blown, that would be the picture. Okay. And the other side is a screenshot of a Twitter thread that is four tweets long. And each tweet is aligned with a picture.

With one of the brain photos. with one of the brain photos. And the tweets are from a guy named James Daymore. And tweet number one is, the KKK is horrible, and I don't support them in any way. But can we admit that their internal title names are cool, e.g. Grand Wizard. And then there's like a poll.

There's a Twitter poll. Yes, no, the names aren't cool. No, that's racist. No other. Okay. And then his next tweet, you know you've moralized an issue when you can't criticize its heroes

or acknowledge any positive aspect of its villains. Next tweet, next to an even sparklier brain. It's like teaching your child to be responsible about drugs and sex without addressing the fact that they can be fun.

Then final tweet next to the exploding enlightening blow your mind brain, James DeMore. If you make the actual KKK the only place where you can acknowledge the coolness of D&D terms, then you'll just push people

into the KKK. Hearing it read out loud is mind-blown. Okay. PJ Vote, do you understand this tweet? Yes. Alex Goldman,

do you understand this tweet? I do. Alex Bloomberg, do you understand this tweet? No. I'm going to take your pause as a no. No, but? No, but.

I think I understand it directionally. Okay. I have seen this meme. Like, I've seen the skeleton into the head, into the brighter brain head, into the brightest brain head, which I'm assuming is sort of like...

Brainhead. Which I'm assuming is like the meme of like where you walk somebody through an argument that then by the end of which it's so mind-blowing that their brain explodes. Yes, that is completely true. Yeah. Right.

So that's what that meme is supposed to represent. Yes. And this meme is typically used ironically, like to make fun of people. So the more enlightened to the brain is, the more light is emanating from it. the stupider the opinion. Got it.

And I'm pretty sure that the first iteration of this was from earlier this year and the top panel said who, the second panel said whom, the third panel

said hoomst, and the fourth panel said, whomsted? Okay. So that's like a thing that people have been doing all year and like

it's one of those memes that has a lot of legs because it's like, it's such an open forum that like anything you put into it is kind of, is going to feel satisfying. Do you know what I mean?

It's very flexible. Yes. All right. So I understand the exploding ray meme. But I still don't understand what the other part is. Like what's the all the tweets about the KKK? Like how does that, how do they fit together? This is where it gets somewhat complicated. Okay. Okay. So in early August, Google, the company, has like an internal, some sort of internal message board system. Oh, I know about this. Okay. So you know about this. So what do you know? So there was a guy who wrote a guy who wrote a thing. about, now I don't even remember what the argument he was making. He was making some argument about, like, oh, like diversity and women and engineers and sort of like, we should all just acknowledge

that like men are better coders or something. That was basically, it was this guy James DeMore, 28 years old, engineer at Google, had to go to some sort of diversity workshop, which apparently didn't like. In August, he wrote a 10-page, it's been called a Screed and a manifesto, but he wrote a 10-page memo called

Google's ideological echo chamber. Oh, James DeMore was the guy who wrote, that. Yes. Oh. And he's basically saying like what Google believes is that not enough women work at Google and they think there should be this like egalitarian society where it's like 50-50 and they're doing basically discrimination in trying to get women on board whether or not they're like the best suited person for the job. Discriminating against white men? Discriminating against whoever is best for the job. And so like it's weird. He's all over the place. It feels very like pseudo intellectual. At one point, he says, like, you know, we think women aren't in leadership positions because of sexism. But if you look at women biologically, they are more likely to be neurotic and have high anxiety. And so maybe they avoid high status roles because they don't have the stress tolerance for high stress jobs. Women are more likely to be neurotic. This is according to, like, something that he read.

But when you literally click on the link for neurotic, it goes to the Wikipedia page for neuroticism. So he's citing, he's fudging his citations. In some cases, he cites, like, studies. Some of the studies authors have actually come out and said, like, we don't mean what he says we mean, or, like, some of the studies are very questionable. It's like, it's just, like, a mess. It's not like a manifester where he's like, men are good, women are bad. He's like, I'm a reasonable intellectual approaching this problem. I'm just asking questions here.

I'm just asking questions here. And there's parts where he has, like, fixes that are not just like women shouldn't work here. Like, maybe work-life balance is wrong or something. But, like, the thing people took away was he's a person who's saying, like, gender stereotypes are real, rooted in biology, diversity is going too far. Got it. So he posts a memo. Right. He's fired.

And becomes, like, basically a celebrity for certain parts of, like, the right. And they're kind of, like, this is not what he was necessarily saying about himself. But for them, it's, like, he's, like, this perfect symbol of, like, the qualified, brilliant. genius coder, who's the best person for the job, whatever his race and gender happened to be, who said one reasonable thing and got fired because of political crimes. Because of intolerant left, yes.

Yes. So there's these really weird interviews. Like, he went on Tucker Carlson, and, like, he's not quite playing the role he's supposed to do. Like, Tucker Carlson's like, didn't they shut you up? Like, isn't this messed up? And then he's just like, he's like a little too mild manner.

He like doesn't say enough words for it to work. Like, hold on. Can I put it, plug in Ox? Did anyone at Google before firing you bother to respond to any of the points that you made? Or did they just say you're being punished for asking questions? Yeah, when I shared it with individual Googlers, they actually had an actual reasoned discussion with me. But only when it became viral did this huge emotional outrage happen. So, I mean, of all.

Like, he never says enough. Like, they're always waiting. for him to say more things that are, like, more explicitly bad, but he's, do you know what I mean? I've never actually felt, like, camaraderie with Tucker Carlson before, but in that moment where you just got, like, he got a tough interview. Yes. And they're not saying enough. And you're just sort of like, I'm teeing this up for you, pal.

Why are you stopping there? That, like, three second pause happens in every single. Because he's not quite an ideologue. You know what I mean? He's like a not very thoughtful provocateur who's, like, really stepped into a culture war. Right. But the people who were like, yes, proof, PC too far, men should be coders, they loved him. And I think he, like, loved being loved by them.

So there was this, like, love affair. Right. But then what happened over the course of the next month is, like, a series of things that suggested that kind of, like, interfere with the idea that he was the most qualified person in the world fighting the PC tyrants. So, like, it turned out like he had kind of like, like, this guy who was saying, like, we shouldn't, like, lower the bar and, like, let somebody who's not quite good enough, like, into Google. it turned out like he had kind of done that for himself like a little bit. Like he was a smart guy. He went to Harvard. He got a master's.

On the internet, he was claiming that he'd gone to Harvard and got a PhD. Just like a little bit of rounding up, not generally what you do if you think like the world's meritocracy. And then there was this really embarrassing thing where he had a tweet where he screen grabbed himself searching James D'Moor is on Google. And the suggestions, like the auto film suggestions were like, a hero, right. the smartest, and he presented it, and he was like, there's a silent majority of people who agree with me, and you should listen to them. And, like, even I know, and a lot of people know

that, like, different people get different Google search results. And, like, he works at Google. Like, this is not proof of anything. Like, people were sending him screen grabs of them putting his name and getting different stuff. It was just, like, really silly. Uh-huh. And then, and then, like, most recently, like,

the sort of, like, final nail, it felt like, was last week out of nowhere, he just sort of as, like, and goes on Twitter and he's like makes this argument which is basically can we all admit that while the KKK is racist

Grand Wizard is like a really cool name for a thing and people So wait he actually said this Yeah he actually said this And it was the first thing I think that he said There's this concept on Twitter of the ratio Which is when you look at the responses to a tweet

and the reply So they give you three numbers It's like the replies, the favorites and the retweets And like favorites and retweets are both signs that someone agreed with you. The replies usually are signs that someone didn't agree with you. Yeah. So if people get a thousand replies and 15 retweets, they just got, it's used as a verb. They got ratioed.

That disparity between replies and retweets generally means that people are really, really annihilating this person. And it was just like a series of ratio tweets. Like, all replies, very few retweets, very few favorites. And as he goes, like the ratio gets worse. God. It's just like watching someone, watching a group full of people stop supporting somebody

as they dig into their argument. Well, he also went there very quickly. Very quickly. Yeah, it isn't. He just went like, like, like, you just went from like, you can like throw a lot of dust up and you can just be like, I'm not sexist. I'm just trying to like get to the truth, you know?

Or like, there are biological differences between men and women, right? And then, and you can stay in that dust cloud forever. Right. You know what I mean? Like, you can just be like, I'm not, like, why is everybody treating me like I'm a bigot? I'm obviously not a bigot. I'm just asking questions.

Like, but then he just went on Twitter and was like, the KKK's got some cool things. It's just like, well, you just left the desk cloud, buddy. You just like, you went way far away from where you were. And like, yeah. And I think as somebody who like did disagree with his real argument and was sort of frustrated at the idea of trying to clear the dust to argue with people. Yeah. There is something, I think what this joke is actually celebrating is like how far out of the dust cloud he got. It's amazing.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. Alex Bloomberg, are you ready to explain this tweet back to us? I am. Okay. So to review, we've got this four tweet Twitter thread and we've got a four panel exploding brain meme. And the nuclear bomb lined up those two things next to each other.

And what's pleasurable about the tweet and what led everybody in the internet. to retreat it and like it is that both the Twitter thread and the exploding brain meme follow the exact same structure. First of all, there are four parts to them. They start with like, oh, a stupid idea, but like not exquisitely grandly stupid. And then they get both more ridiculous and more pompous as they march forward until by the end, the fourth panel, you've gotten to a level that is, that makes your head explode. Yeah, I think we're a yes, yes, yes. And where would you say on the,

on the expanding brain meme, am I? Where at being at yes, yes, yes? No, I mean, which brain am I? You mean like right in your life throughout your life? Yes. I feel like you're handing me a ball and a T-ball set and a bat and it feels like weird even hitting the ball. I know.

You're like, okay, before we get out of here, do you think I'm dumb? Before we get out of here, PJ, can you be mean to me? Coming up after the break, yes, yes, no goes where yes, yes, no has never gone before. Welcome back to yes, yes, yes, now. Alex. Do you have any others? I have one for you.

You've won for me? That's right, the table's turning. Wait, you have a tweet that you understand that we won't understand? Yes. What? I'm going to try it. It feels like all kinds of unfair. All right, so this is the first time I've ever done this.

This is really exciting. Okay, you guys, are you ready? Yeah, okay. You're going to read it, Ox Goldman? I will read it. Okay. So this is a tweet from Lake Show Yo, trademark, at Lake Show Yo. And they're quote tweeting someone named Coops, GM Coops.

And it says, this is the best tweet of all time. That'll teach Ines Cantor to stop talking so much shit. So that's what GM Coop says. And Lake Show Yo says, KD, is that you? You? I'm so excited to be saying these words. Alex Goldman, do you understand this tweet? Not at all.

PJ Vote, do you understand this tweet? Oh, absolutely. It's, uh, no, no, no. You couldn't even, you bailed on that so quick. I'll tell you what the tweet is. I'll explain it for you. It's sports thing. Elementary.

I assume that a lake show is some kind of synchronized swimming. Now, Katie is Kevin Durant, famous sportsman. There you go. Basketball. How are you supposed to know that that's not? Katie Lang. You know. All right. Do your thing. Wait, you have to ask me. Alex Bloomberg, do you understand this tweet? I do. All right. So tell me all the things you don't know about this. I don't know who Inez Cantor is. I don't know. I know the name Kevin Durant. I don't know what the Lake Show Yo is. I don't know who GM Coops is. I know what a best tweet of all time is. And I know what talking shit is. All right. So this isn't the best tweet of all time. It does have 173 retweets, 366 links, which is a lot of engagement for something that makes no sense to me.

Right. So I think I want to tell you a story because I'm curious if it will actually make you interested in sports. Okay. That is a tall order. What was done to you in your youth that makes you? Well, I wasn't athletic. I know that comes as a shock. I literally, I don't know if this happened to you, but I was in a bullying environment. where people would actually, they would use that word, they'd be like, you're not even athletic, like, constantly. Oh, really?

They would literally say that. They wouldn't say like you're a nerd or whatever. They'd be like, you're not an athlete. You don't look athletic. That's harsh. Wow. Also, wait, can I tell you one more sports trauma story? Sure.

So literally, like, one of the low points in my junior high life was that my dad made me play football for like traditional dad reasons. And they never put me in, which was totally reasonable. And I was also always like to practice because, like, just like a. couldn't figure out the pad situation. Like, it's a lot of equipment. Yeah. And then they finally, for some reason, put me in a game. And I had so little understanding of football and so much shyness and fear of football that I apparently didn't tell the person I had been swapped in for to leave the field. So we got a penalty for too many men on the field. So my whole team was so mad at me.

And it wasn't like you're a nerd, you're whatever. It was like, you don't have enough understanding of sports to be on a sports team. And so I'm about to never learn. You actually played on the football team. That is shocking thing. I have a, I have like the exact same story. Really? I know this sounds ridiculous. I played basketball for the rec department in seventh and eighth grade.

And I didn't realize that there was like a two second rule where you couldn't be in the paint for more than two seconds. And like, I didn't understand it for an extended period of time. So I would always, whenever we were on offense, I would get us penalized in the ball. would go away. And you never knew why. That's what they would say. They'd say the balls going away. And I didn't really understand why.

And the coach kept trying to explain it to me, but like, eventually I got it, but I was still absent-minded enough that it happened a lot. Okay. So what fresh drama is this? No. Okay. So maybe this won't make you interested. Maybe it will make you happy because it will, the sports people who traumatized you

are having drama. Okay. Okay. So, backstory. Ennis Cantor. Okay. He's the center for the Oklahoma City Thunder. That's a basketball team. Thank you.

Professional level. Professional basketball team. And they were, they are a tiny team. Oklahoma City is a small market team. But for a long time, they had two of the best players in basketball. They had this guy, Russell Westbrook, and they had a number. Another fellow, who you've mentioned by name, they had Kevin Durant. Got it.

And Russell Westbrook is like he looks literally like a human form of Superman. And then there's Kevin Durant. He is basically the closest to an unstoppable player I've seen since Michael Jordan. Like he's just like, he can shoot from anywhere, and he's really tall, and he's really fast. And it's this really rare combination of things where, like, nobody in basketball, in the history of basketball, has ever been like him. And so Oklahoma City, this tiny team that had no.

hope of ever being really good, all of a sudden had this incredible, they were just like, they were in a great position. So for like, you know, four or five years, they were making the finals or almost the finals or they were right up there and that like a couple times they went to the finals and they lost. And like, so they were always right on the verge of like winning a championship. Which is awesome. Which is awesome.

So this was Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook both played for Oklahoma City. Okay. And Ennis Cantor was the center. then do you know what happened with Kevin Durant? No. You don't know what happened with Kevin Durant? No. Is this like...

Everybody knows what happened to Kevin Redd. Let me guess. What name one basketball team that you know, though? The one basketball team... No, one basketball player that you know. Michael Jordan. No, present, current. Larry Bird.

Current. You know Larry Bird. Come on. LeBron James. Next one. Oh, Steph Curry. There you go. Steph Curry.

He's a huge Steph Curry thing because he does funny things on the internet. Right. So, Steph Curry, aside from doing things. funny things on the internet. Steph Gray plays on the Golden State Warriors. So Oklahoma City, new team, small market, middle of the country, like scrappy underdog. Golden State, owned by like some venture capitalists,

you know, like full coastal elite, you know, just sort of like. And they won. So three seasons ago, they won the championship. Two seasons ago, they went to the finals after beating Oklahoma City in the semifinals in this like super dramatic sort of seven. game series, that earned them the right to play Cleveland in the finals, and then they lost to Cleveland. So they've already vanquished Oklahoma City, and then they lose to Cleveland,

and so they're just like, we just need one more piece to beat Cleveland. And then they start recruiting Kevin Durant to come to Golden State. That's ugly. That's really ugly. Right. So already Golden State is like the most stacked teamed out there. But then they're going to the underdogs whose butt they kicked and being like, why don't we take your best guy too? But they barely, barely, barely kicked. They just eeked past them. And they're saying to, they're saying to him, hey, Kevin Durant come play with us. And you don't want to live in the world where he says yes. But he said yes. Right. Because there's lots of money and he wants to win. And he wants to, and like, obviously he's going to say yes because he's like a highly paid professional and

they're the best team and he can go to that team and then they can be a dynasty forever. But it still makes you sad. So it still makes you sad. Right. So everybody on the internet turned against him. Against Kevin Durant. Against Kevin Durant. This is so fun telling you the story. Everybody in the internet turned against Kevin Durant. Poor guy.

I understand why you did it. I understand my everybody's like, screw you. And they started calling him Cupcake. Why Cupcake? I don't know. That's what they called me. Oh, really? Yes.

Me and my friend, me and my friend Mike Boulds, when we were forced to do track and field or javelin throw, we're called Peaches and Cupcake. That is. mean, why would they do that? Because we didn't, like, throwing the javelin or pushing the shot put, and we got tired easily, so we were peaches and cupcake.

It is probably also literally the only thing that you have in common with Kevin Durant. Anyway, so then he goes to Golden State, and they win. They won the whole national championship. This year, they won the national championship. Which is like, yeah, when you buy all the good players, you get to win. Yeah. And so there's, like, a Yankees vibe to them now. And, like, everybody's mad at, like, everybody's mad at Kevin Durant for going there.

And one of the people who was most outraged about it was this guy, Ennis Cantor. The old center. The old center who's been tweeting all the time about, like, how Kevin Durant is like a traitor and this team is like a family. Like, you shouldn't have done this thing. Yeah. Okay. But so like, if you go back to the original tweet, it's somebody saying, Katie, Kevin Durant, is that you? In response to somebody saying, this is the best view of all time, they'll teach Enis Cantor to stop talking so much shit.

I still don't understand that tweet. All right. So that goes back to this one thing that happened like a week and a half ago. a week and a half ago, someone goes on Twitter and tweets at Kevin Durant, why did you leave Oklahoma City, right? And so Kevin Durant goes on Twitter and responds, but he responds in the third person. Like Kevin Durant left. I will read it to what he says. He says he didn't like the organization or playing for Billy Donovan, the coach.

His roster wasn't that good. It was just him and Russ, Russell Westbrook. Other basketball player. Other basketball player. And then he wrote again, imagine taking Russ off that team, see how bad they were. KD can't win a championship with those cats,

referring to the rest of the team. Right? So it's like, so he's, so everybody on Twitter is like, oh my God, he has a ghost account. Yeah.

He wrote from the wrong account. Yeah, he thought he was writing from his ghost account when he was really writing from his real account. It's called an alt. Like clearly somewhere out there,

he has an alt. Yeah. Right. So it's like at that point, everybody knows that somewhere out there, there's a, there's some becoming a rant, posing as somebody else on the internet to every once in a while say things in favor of

Kevin Durant. And nobody has proved this, I don't think, that he actually, nobody has uncovered, like, what is the Kevin, who out there on Twitter is, like, the secret of Kevin the secretly Kevin Durant. This is such an internet story. Right. Oh, what human foibles. So he denies that he had a ghost account, but he published this big Mayacolpa where he was like, that was a really stupid thing I did. I don't know what I was doing. But the, the explanation never really. He has a ghost account. It was not convincing. It didn't, like, it didn't address the specific question of, like, but wait, why did you keep referring to yourself with the third person?

Yeah. Yeah. And so then Ennis Cantor. The center. The center. He's pissed. And he tweets, we win, we lose. But the most important thing, we stick together because we are one.

Referring to Oklahoma City. Referring to Oklahoma City. And being like, yeah, you suck and we're together. Solidarity. So guess what happened to Enis Cantor? What? The Oklahoma City Thunder traded him. So he's like, we're a family, we're a family, how dare you leave?

This isn't the business. This is about family, and then they trade them. Oh. Okay. I think I can now explain this. Can I go back to the original tweet? This is so exciting. So the original tweet that we saw was this user named Lake Show Yo saying,

Katie, is that you? And they were quoting somebody saying, this is the best tweet of all time. That'll teach Ennis Cantor to stop. talking so much shit. What I didn't even realize then is, like, they're actually both talking about this tweet that just says that is also from Lake Show Yo, where he says, Ennis Cantor spent all summer bashing KD and preach a nonstop on how OKC is loyal, and that he considers the team family. Dot, dot, dot, dot, they traded his ass. Skull emoji. So what I now know happened is that

The Oklahoma City Thunder, which is like a small team that normally would not win, lucked into two of the best players in basketball. Everybody rooted for them really hard, but one of those players, Kevin Durant left to go play for like the traditional big team. Also, the rival team. Yeah, the traditional big rival team. And then when someone asked Kevin Durant on Twitter why he did that, he responded in a weird third person tweet that made people assume that he's, other times going online pretending to be someone else who just defends Kevin Durant anonymously. One of his former teammates, and as Cantor, was mad about that, understandably. And after he made a big show about how teams are real and family, et cetera, he then got traded.

Right. And so in the world of this tweet, someone is making fun of Ennis Cantor, and someone's making the joke that the person making fun of Annes Canter could just be a Kevin Durant's secret account. Are we at Sports, Sports? Sport, sports, sports! Reply All is hosted by PJ Vote and me, Alex Goldman. The show's produced by Shrethi Pinnamannani, Fia Bennon, Damiano Marquetti, and Austin Mitchell. Our editor is Tim Howard. Our intern is Anna Foley, and we were mixed by Rick Kwan.

Also, Reply All is hiring right now. We're looking for an editor. If you're interested in applying and you have long-form audio experience, you can apply at gimletmedia.com slash careers. Matt Lieber is getting back on your bike after you haven't ridden it in a really long time. Our theme song is by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder, and our ad music is by Buildings. Our website is replyall.Ninja. You can listen to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening.

Play anything. Get us off Monster Planet. Seriously? We am natural. I feelers. You're adding it. It's my own kids. We share a really in the real family. I know if we have made. I know of mass and it's be a video of you. Where's never seen Superman? Yeah, girls, I think it's ya. K-knot-kney. K-money, K-money. I think it's working.

Never saw Superman, too? Maybe we can spend time forward. Hey, what if we run the other direction? Is the ground spinning backwards really fast? Can you understand me? What is this place?