Elizabeth Bruenig

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@DanDhoust24 @jbarro @ZaidJilani @PetriOP Do you agree politically more with the United Methodists or the Catholic Church — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@liamstack @jbarro we decided it's @WilliamMParis — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@DanDhoust24 @jbarro @ZaidJilani thanks Dan. you can file a complaint with Jesus or @PetriOP if you'd like — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@jbarro @ZaidJilani so every time these silly kerfuffles happen, i do the same thing that usually inspired them: continue being kind of an oddball who's generally friendly and interested in people. ¯\(ツ)/¯ — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@jbarro @ZaidJilani my husband, for instance, isn't Catholic. Matt's an atheist; he's a materialist. those are some fundamental disagreements! but this marriage isn't a political alliance. i love who he is, the strength of his convictions and the quality of his soul. those things precede politics. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@jbarro @ZaidJilani so there's all this scrambling to figure out what team i'm on and what that implies about people i've developed relationships with over the years — but the reality is i'm just a person with idiosyncratic views, and my relationships *aren't* political alliances. not remotely! — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@jbarro @ZaidJilani i am inevitably different than my friends politically because i am a very odd person politically -- not in spite of, but probably *because* i hung out in school too long. i'm also just an odd person generally. i've had an odd life. i don't expect anyone i meet to be just like me. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@jbarro @ZaidJilani now, who am i, actually? i'm a 30-year-old who won a marshall scholarship, was a finalist for the rhodes and gates, and came back from cambridge to a phd program at brown. i've been a writer for the post and the times, and am now a mag writer. i've made friends along the way. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@jbarro @ZaidJilani ofc, friendships aren't political alliances; hanging out with someone isn't materially supporting their political projects; talking with people isn't 'platforming' them, etc. but that's why so much of this revolves around "cool that x hired a theocrat" or "y talks to a tradwife" — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@jbarro @ZaidJilani the derangement is just that. this perpetual effort to investigate and prosecute some shocking and unacceptable political belief that would cause their friends to terminate our friendship -- a.k.a., that would cause their political allies to terminate this political alliance. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@jbarro @ZaidJilani that's not an uncommon social behavior, to want to consolidate an in group against an out. junior high girls are queens of this type of prosecution. "oh, you're friends with allison? well did you know she said you and calvin totally made out at cameron's party?" etc. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@jbarro @ZaidJilani the way they try to go about fixing that is to unearth something they believe their 'friends' (other writers, media personalities, podcasters, etc) have somehow overlooked -- a private belief i have, maybe, that these otherwise moral people don't know they're abetting. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@jbarro @ZaidJilani now, this is a demented and impoverished view of friendship, but it's a common one on here. so when people see that i -- or the character they believe me to be -- am friendly with *their* (often parasocial) friends, that's a betrayal and an outrage. so it's gotta be fixed. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@jbarro @ZaidJilani this is the result of many cultural currents, but the end view is that being friends with someone, liking them, even just being nice to them, constitutes not only agreement with but a kind of material support for the person's views. friendship = aiding and abetting. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@jbarro @ZaidJilani naw but in all seriousness what's going on is people #onhere can't distinguish interpersonal relationships -- friendship, affection, etc -- from political alliance. for them, these are the same thing -- friendship is *primarily* an affirmation of the other's political values. — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@CDReisswriter @jbarro @ZaidJilani i hope i dream — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@jbarro @ZaidJilani maybe it's because if i copped to my private rightwing beliefs, the people on twitter who get mad about everything i post would get mad about everything i post. life's about tradeoffs... — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@jbarro @ZaidJilani what i find really fascinating is the detective angle -- if i were just a rightwinger, why on earth would i deny it. comely rightwing young lady is a hell of a racket — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@medved_bjj Cuddy is just straight up sexy and glam imho — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@lastpositivist i'm kind of inclined to say foreman should be philsopher-physician king tbh — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@CWReade i tried my best :( — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@Salthorse @AustraliaZoo oh my goodness she has a baby!! 🥺 — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

all japes aside i would really like to visit australia in part because it seems awesome and in part because i believe australians and texans share a deep subconscious kinship — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@augustinemarch no discernable inner life — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@rocxoo aww i like wilson — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

i love the television programme house m.d. because its team of physicians features the four great archetypes of heroism: the promethean genius, the naïve idealist, the byronic dynamo, the australian guy — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@cramerjaotto @gWinbags if nobody spoke to people who say the c word literally no one in the united kingdom or australia would have any social contact — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@cramerjaotto @jbarro to be clear, you're suggesting i blew off that guy with plato so that you would respond in a particular way so that alice from queens could tweet a rude remark — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@cramerjaotto @jbarro i also just have to object to the idea that declining to announce a viewpoint on every single subject instantly when prompted by random strangers is evidence of a personality disorder, fwiw — PolitiTweet.org

Elizabeth Bruenig @ebruenig

@cramerjaotto @jbarro but i am openly telling you what i think. there's no guessing involved. i'm saying i brushed off a twitter thread derail with a joke, and that my actual views are frequently published in major news outlets. i'm a christian socialist. you're choosing not to believe it! — PolitiTweet.org