The Yang Slinger: Vol. XCIV

The Yang Slinger returns with this decree: It's officially time for all self-respecting journalists to leave the hellscape that is Twitter/X. Don't walk. Run.

So, as you’ve surely noticed, I am back.

Back from the depths.

Back from the shadows.

Back with a hot new single and my new line of edible toilet paper.

Wait.

Scratch that last one.

I’m just, eh, back.

And before I dig into this week’s topic, I’d like to thank you, the readers, for exercising patience with me as I wrapped the first draft of my upcoming (Fall 2025) Tupac Shakur biography. I apologize for being away so long, but I’m also not sure my sanity would have remained intact had I not stepped aside for a bit.

So, again, thank you.

Now, onto this week’s topic …

If you’ve followed me at all through the years, you know I long had a love-hate relationship with Twitter. I first joined in 2008, and the medium felt fresh, new, exciting. It was an outlet to reach others, to find sources, to learn cool information, to stay engaged and involved. Over the course of my (dear God) 16 years on the platform, I probably Tweeted an embarrassing 200,000 times. Maybe more. It became a part of me and my media identity, and for far too long I promised to depart, then stayed, promised to depart again, they stayed again. On and on and on. I was glued to the crabgrass.

Well, three months ago, I finally pulled the trigger. I closed my account, leaving behind approximately 85,000 followers and a good number of folks who became friends and confidants. Why? Because Twitter had morphed itself into blood pudding. Beginning with Elon Musk’s 2022 $44 billion purchase of the site, what was once a hopping joint became uniquely ugly and gross and cruel. Bots ruled the landscape. Hard-right voices were amplified. Moderate voices were suppressed. When I was a kid, maybe 10-years old, I had chicken pox, and the infection spread to my balls.¹ That’s precisely what Twitter/X became. An infection of your balls. “Twitter … is designed to publish angry. (I’m not humoring the name change. I never will.),” writes Adrian Wenner of Daily Beast. “Twitter’s lifeblood today is libelous, racist and bigoted rants, spewed by shameless liars. It’s owned by a soon-to-be trillionaire who grossly overpaid for the privilege of pushing his own caustic untruths at a rate of his choosing; a man more than a few have compared to a real-life James Bond villain—only I would argue he’s not even one of the interesting, clever ones.”

So, I bolted.

And I was worried. I mean, I need to sell books, and 85,000 potential customers is nothing to sneeze at. I also have a podcast to promote, a substack to promote. How would I survive without Tweeting everything out? Would I be OK? Could I sustain my audience? Those questions kept me on Twitter for all those years. The fear of giving up something I had cultivated. How would leaving impact my career.

Answer: It made nary a ripple.

Nary. A. Ripple.

I lost no podcast listeners and no substack readers. Growth remained at the same steady rate. Book sales neither soared nor plummeted. They remained consistent. Back in February, roughly half a year before my Twitter departure, I signed up for TikTok, knowing not what to expect. As I approach 200,000 followers there, I can only rave about the vehicle, which is perfectly made for storytelling but lacks Twitter’s toxins.

Most important, giving up X has created a far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far more content and satisfied human being. Wrote Wenner: “Leaving Twitter will actually make you happier. Less anxious. Less frustrated. Think of the lost hours you’ll retrieve. I’m not even asking you to put all your tech away and go outside and become part of the world again; I’m not insane. I’m still uncomfortable in a waiting room or on a stalled subway train because I can’t not be on my phone. But I have retrained my brain. Yes, it was hard for a couple of days, but now I open a language learning app—Je deviens assez bon en francais, merci! Or I doodle in a painting app. Or I do a crossword. Or I read a poem. There’s a million better things you can do on your phone.” I was talking with the wife about this phenomenon last night. For, oh, 80 percent of my book career, I’d have a window on my Mac open to Twitter as I was writing. I justified it by explaining that authorship can be lonely and sad, and I liked the engagement Twitter provided. But, deep down, that was a lie. I was sort of addicted to Twitter. Being 100 percent honest. A-d-d-i-c-t-e-d. Sports figures! Hollywood figures! Sexy women! Combative assholes! T-shirt sales! You name it, Twitter offered it. Oh, and the biggest drug on the planet—the one we all secretly crave (whether we know it or not): Attention! Every liked Tweet is an endorphin rush to the brain. Admit it or not, the shit becomes crack. I’d certainly say it did for me.

But it also brings forth the dreaded phenomenon now known as doom scrolling. With every Trump move, I’d turn to Twitter and have my worst fears magnified and my worst suspicions boosted. With every, oh, stomach ache or wart, I’d go to Twitter and find why it had to be Levator syndrome. “Every time I opened it up, it would throw things at me that put me in a bad mood,” Kara Wurtz, a 39-year-old finance director in St. Louis, told NBC News. “I noticed Tuesday night into Wednesday I started to see a lot more anti-woman stuff. And I was like, ‘You know what? That’s personal. I’m done.’”

For me, Twitter was a toxic place overflowing with toxic people, and it impacted my mood in myriad awful ways.

In short, it turned me into a cranky, combative online dickhead.

Now I’m gone.

And you, dear journalism peer, should be gone, too.

I am not saying this to place unfair pressure on anyone. I certainly don’t want to evoke guilt or shame. But, truly, the time has come—and whether you’re someone like the superb Heather Cox Richardson with 396,000 followers, or this dude with 78, I believe (strongly) that remaining on Twitter is supporting a company and a soulless puss-festering douche sack who believes in the damnation of free speech, who strives to fuck up (and fuck with) elections, who does not support democracy and backs a level of oligarchy that can only result in American erosion and ruination. Wanna know who Elon Musk really is? Read this Washington Post article, headlined, INSIDE THE REPUBLICAN FALSE-FLAG EFFORT TO TURN OFF KAMALA HARRIS VOTERS. When Elon Musk first became Twitter, he said his No. 1 priority was open dialogue. That, regrettably was a lie. He craved power. Only power. He’s far worse than a James Bond villain. He’s a profoundly sinister and warped man who saw Twitter as a golden tool to shape society as he pleases. And the more of us who stick with Twitter, the more power the site possesses. And with each passing day, I grew tired of supporting Musk’s efforts by my mere presence. We are a profession that relies on truth. Existing on an unambiguously anti-truth platform feels … ridiculous.

Luckily, I am not alone.

In the aftermath of the 2024 elections, seemingly hundreds of thousands of people have left Twitter. Some bolted for bluesky (according to a Reuters article, the site has gained 2.5 million users in a week). Others for Threads. Just yesterday The Guardian announced it would no longer post on Twitter from its official accounts, noting in an article that, “the news organization said it considered the benefits of being on the platform formerly called Twitter were now outweighed by the negatives … The Guardian said content on the platform about which it had longstanding concerns included far-right conspiracy theories and racism. It added that the site’s coverage of the US presidential election had crystallized its decision.” Inside Higher Ed recently ran a piece about all the academics ditching Musk’s turf. Stephen King, whose 4 million Twitter followers is no joke, jumped ship. Don Lemon, the former CNN big gun who had 1.5 million followers on Twitter, recently also called it quits, as did MSNBC’s Joy Ried (1.9 million followers—adios). The actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who had 745,000 followers, said adios, and followed up with this Instagram post …

When I asked members of the press via social media whether they’ve left/are considering leaving Twitter, the response was overwhelming. One journalist after another told me they were done; that it’s too much; that Musk has destroyed what was once beautiful. Lisa Guerrero, my longtime friend and the Inside Edition investigator, closed her account after one too many awful encounters. “I have received numerous death threats, rape threats,” she told me. “It has gotten more dangerous for women and obviously more toxic with the MAGAs, Nazis, etc. The amount of threats have grown increasingly more alarming since Elon bought the platform. It got crazy during the election and turned into some pretty vile threats after Nov 5. All of my female friends who are journalists have already left Twitter or are planning to immediately for the same reasons.” Another pal, who works for a major news outlet and requested I not use his name, said: “The final straw for me was when Paul Pelosi was lying in the hospital after having his skull bashed in by a lunatic Trumper with a hammer in 2022. Elon decided to tweet a link to an obvious piece of fake news that it was the result of a gay love triangle or some such. I tweeted for the last time that day. But every single day, he has confirmed my rationale for not posting anymore, by amplifying the world's worst racists and liars with his own posts and an algorithm that obviously is designed to amplify what I consider to be the most evil, dishonest, dangerous voices in the world.”

Rich Ehisen, the Capitol Weekly scribe, added that, “I think the business portion of Capitol Weekly would like me to come back but I won’t. I don’t see how it benefits us. And as for my personal writing, everyone I enjoyed following has already left so there is zero reason for me to spend time there.”

Indeed.

A confession: In order to write this post, I briefly rejoined Twitter as an anonymous account. I needed some visuals, some insights. A glimpse at the terrain I once called home.

I rediscovered John Rocker.

As you may well know, the former Braves reliever and I have a history. Back in 1999, I wrote a piece on the moron that went pre-viral viral, and resulted in his public flogging. After reappearing to sell SPEAK ENGLISH T-shirts and write some racist columns for a hard-right website, Rocker reverted to the shadows, where for the past decade he (I’m guessing) masturbated to Ben Shaprio photos while hunting, fishing and popping vast quantities of PED.

Well, a few days ago he started a new Twitter account. And, sincerely, it’s perfect. Absolutely perfect. Here’s a taste …

And when I say “perfect,” I mean perfect for what Twitter has become. John Rocker, a man with no career, no wife or children, no business acumen, no charm; a one-time fringe pitching prospect who survived five full Major League seasons only because he cheated with a cocktail of performance enhancing drugs, is ideally made for modern Twitter, what with its echo chamber of angry white men screaming about all those Black and brown people turning their lives miserable. He is the model client, shameless in peddling $50 Cameo videos and T-shirts that were almost certainly (and unironically) made in a foreign nation. On Twitter, he can crack jokes about Michelle Obama’s testicles and Kamala Harris’ stupidity without being muted. He can throw out all sorts of conspiracy theories without being lectured. He can garner this type of reaction …

… and fret not about anyone with Twitter cracking down on his hate speech.

In short, he is once again happily cocooned by his fellow bigots and assholes. He can be himself without upsetting the PC police. He can rant and rave and gripe about everything under the sun, and commenters will happily affirm his awesomeness.

He can be home.

And, as journalists, do we really want to share a home with John Rocker?

Is that what we’ve become?

The Quaz Five with … Bob Kuska

Bob Kuska is a science writer who has delved into the world of sports books. His latest, “Balls of Confusion: Pro Basketball Goes to War (1965-1970),” is available here.

1. Bob, your new book, “Balls of Confusion: Pro Basketball Goes to War (1965-1970),” details the basketball war between the NBA and ABA. “War” feels like an awfully deliberate word. Why did you choose it?: Like all writers working on the fly, I just grabbed the word “war” from the 1960s media accounts of the NBA-ABA conflict. My big decision, though, was whether to retrospectively capitalize “war” to lend this nine-year conflagration some historical heft. In the end, I opted for the heft. After all, as I wrote in the book’s introduction, “What the Civil War is to American history, the NBA-ABA War is to the history of modern professional basketball.” Big wars deserve big letters.

2. In researching your book, did you find yourself rooting for one side?: No, since I already knew the NBA was going to win, the plot was pretty much spoiled for me. What kept me tapping away at the keyboard were all the scoops that I’d stumbled into. It’s just incredible. As far as I can tell, nobody has most of the stuff that fell into my lap—and nearly all of my sources have now passed away and can’t drop them into any other laps. For example, former NBA commissioner David Stern was the lead attorney in the seminal Oscar Robertson et al vs. the NBA antirust suit that cleared the way for the NBA player free agency that today most of us take for granted. About a year before Stern died, he spoke with me about the Robertson case. After a lengthy phone conversation, I asked him if he’d done many interviews on the Robertson case over the years. He answered, “No, this was the first I’ve ever done.” I nearly dropped the phone. That’s just one of my many oh-wows with this project and why I think “Balls of Confusion” should be a big deal for NBA fans who love reading about the league’s history.

3. Who are the ABA players you, in particular, feel as if time has somewhat overlooked? And why?: You know, I was more smitten with some of the ill-fated ABA franchises than the individual players. I write quite a bit about the Miami Floridians, the Pittsburgh Pipers, and the Anaheim Amigos/Los Angeles Stars. All three were doomed pretty quickly to the scrapheap of history, but it was a blast to follow their administrative mismanagement. At one point, for example, the Floridians’ front office operated without phone service. Can you imagine that? If you needed to reach Jim Pollard, the head coach, you had to dial a nearby pay phone and hope a passer-by would answer and kindly walk into the Floridians’ office suite to pass on the message. Yes, the pro game has come a long way.

4. You wrote a book with a former NBA player named Archie Clark. Don’t hate me, but I’d never heard of Archie Clark—an 83-year-old man who averaged 16.3 points over 10 NBA seasons. I’m curious: Why Clark?: Archie was my favorite player as a kid. He had an amazing crossover move—the best ever, according to Philadelphia basketball guru Sonny Hill, who nicknamed the move, “the Shake and Bake.” The term lives on today in basketball, but not many people remember that it all started with Archie. Neither do most people remember that Archie had the NBA’s first step-back move. I could wax on for quite a while, but I’d suggest instead getting a copy of my book titled, you guessed it, “Shake and Bake.”

5. You’re best known as a science writer. How and why did this sports thing happen?: My employer wouldn’t let me freelance about science and health. It was considered to be a conflict of interest. So, having been a huge basketball fan as a kid, I thought I’d just freelance about the game that I love. Funny thing, though, my first freelance project morphed into the book “Hot Potato.” It took the first in-depth look at the origins of Black basketball in America, and I’m really proud to have done it. I’ve been writing basketball books on the side ever since, or whenever my science writing deadlines permitted. Lucky for me, I recently retired from writing about molecules and now have more time for my basketball projects. That includes part two of “Balls of Confusion,” which will detail the merger years, 1970-76.

BONUS: Rank in order—favorite to least: Sleepy Floyd, Kendrick Lamar, Tim Waltz, cranberry on Thanksgiving, power drills, your nose, Elvis Costello, the movie “Philadelphia,” American Airlines, Dublin: Elvis Costello comes emphatically first. One of my personal anthems (play it all the time) is Elvis’ amazing version of “What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love, and Understanding.” These days, I’d like to dedicate the song at full volume to some select people in the political world. But I digress. The rest of my hit parade goes: Dublin, Sleepy Floyd, cranberry on Thanksgiving, my nose, Tim Waltz, the movie “Philadelphia,” Kendrick Lamar, power drills, and American Airlines.

A random old article worth revisiting …

On Nov. 8, 1892, Grover Cleveland became the first person to be elected president in a non-successive term. Here is what the New York World had to say …

The Madness of Tyler Kepner’s Grid …

So unless you’ve been living beneath a pebble beneath a rock beneath a big hunk of cheese, you’re aware of Immaculate Grid, the daily game that’s drawn thousands of nerdy sports fans (guilty!) to its ranks. And while the NBA grid, NFL grid, NHL grid and WNBA grid are all fun, this game is at its best when it comes to baseball—where the names are endless and the transactions ceaseless. No one owns the medium like Tyler Kepner, the Athletic’s fantastic baseball writer.

Here’s a breakdown of one of his recent efforts …

Tyler thoughts:

• Sal Butera played for the 1987 Twins. I always root for the bench guys and relievers to get to play in the World Series, and he got into one of the games in St. Louis that year. He played for four other teams but the only one I remember is the Expos.

• I remember Francona telling me once about how he was having a great season early in his career and ran into a wall in St. Louis and messed up his knee, ending his year early. Figured he must have hit .300 that year.

• Nettles is a big name but figured his time with the Expos would not be that well-remembered. I only really remember it from a baseball card.

• Chad Moeller played a bit for the Yankees when I covered him. Great guy. Did a story with him once on all the great pitchers he caught over the years.

• Kevin Reese is now an executive with the Yankees. Played very briefly for them in the mid-00s but hit well.

• Richie Sexson is another guy I covered in that era who played for the Yankees only briefly, in the summer of 2008.

• Freddie Tolliver pitched for the Phillies when I was a kid. I remember his teams.

• The Reds had a few MVPs in a row (late 30s/early 40s) who are not all that well known: Bucky Walters, Ernie Lombardi and Frank McCormick. Figured Frank must have hit .300.

• Jim Edmonds was a terrific player, of course. Played with the Reds at the very end.

This week’s college writer you should know about …

Max Tucker, the Independent Daily Alligator

A junior transfer from Santa Fe College, Tucker has been tearing it up at the University of Florida, where he and Jack Meyer have teamed to head the amazing investigative work into Gators men’s basketball coach Todd Golden.

A snippet from their recent earth-shaking piece, headlined: UF BASKETBALL COACH ACCUSED OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND STALKING …

One can read Max’s stuff here.

Bravo, kid.

Journalism musings for the week …

Musing 1: I’m just back from Dublin, and while on vacation I entered a bookstore and emerged with “Fighter,” the memoir of boxer Andy Lee. And it’s, truly, the best sports book I’ve ever read. Beautiful from front to back. Loved every moment. Trust me.

Musing 2: Along those lines, for decades I’d heard that the late Pete Hamill could straight-up bring it, and I finally read “Snow in August” and … he can straight-up bring it. I was sitting on an airplane at 2 am, crying page by page. Another winner.

Musing 3: There is nothing—nothing—better than The Onion (of all the places) swooping in and buying the charred remains of infowars. In these dark days, it provided a smile or two in the Pearlman household.

Musing 4: Florida schools pulled more than 700 books last year—which is absolutely depressing. The Washington Post digs in here. Writes Jiselle Lee: “Florida has been at the forefront of a national clash over how race, history and sexuality can be taught in school. In August, a group of major publishers, authors and parents sued Florida education officials, alleging that the law that allows local residents to limit what books are available in school libraries violates the First Amendment. Kasey Meehan, a spokesperson for PEN America, told The Washington Post the list proves books are being banned in Florida — which the state’s Department of Education has repeatedly denied and calls the ‘book ban hoax.’ ‘We are concerned that narrow, ideological viewpoints are having an outsized influence to remove access to books that are critical for students in schools,’ Meehan said. ‘These books offer students an opportunity to see themselves and also learn and empathize with others.’”

Musing 5: So my daughter Casey is a senior at UC-San Diego, and she’s started a weekly substack where she delves into quirky history subjects, Last week, she went deep in exploring women in karate, and the resulting essay is an absolute gem. Am I biased? Sure. But tell me this isn’t legitimate fascinating stuff …

Musing 6: With Donald Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to serve as America’s health secretary, it’s worth going back in time and reading this May 23, 2024 David Corn piece for Mothers Jones, headlined: RFK JR. IS EVEN CRAZIER THAN YOU MIGHT THINK. Wrote Corn: “In May 2022—about a year before he announced his presidential bid—Kennedy appeared on the podcast of comedian and reality TV star Theo Von, a recurring guest on Joe Rogan’s podcast, and he presented a harrowing tale: A global elite led by the CIA had been planning for years to use a pandemic to end democracy and impose totalitarian control on the entire world. He claimed to have proof: the ominous-sounding Event 201. This was the name of a pandemic simulation held at a New York City hotel in October 2019, months before the Covid pandemic struck. In his usual frenetic and rambling style, Kennedy told Von that the cohosts of the event were billionaire Bill Gates and Avril Haines, whom he identified as the deputy director of the CIA. He asked, ‘What is the CIA doing at a public health forum. They don’t do public health. They do coup d’etat.’ He dwelled on Haines’ participation, noting she was now the ‘top spy of the country’—the Director of National Intelligence—and ‘also in charge of the coronavirus response.’ He pointed out that in attendance at Event 201 were ‘people from all the social media companies’ and from ‘the pharmaceutical companies, mainly Johnson and Johnson.’ He added, ‘you have another guy, a peculiar guy, George Gao, who’s the head of the Chinese CDC.’ And he reported there were participants from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

Musing 7: Along those lines—Pew Research Center study shows the vast majority of Americans actually trust and applaud childhood vaccines. Read the recent piece: “Americans remain steadfast in their belief in the overall value of childhood vaccines, with no change over the last four years in the large majority who say the benefits of childhood vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) outweigh the risks, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Still, the survey finds that alongside broad support for childhood vaccines there are signs of some concern – especially among those closest to the decision-making process of vaccinating children. Parents see the risks of MMR vaccines as a bit higher than other Americans, and about half of those with a young child ages 0 to 4 say the statement ‘I worry that not all of the childhood vaccines are necessary’ describes their views at least somewhat well. Concerns tend to be higher among mothers than fathers: Roughly half of mothers with a child under 18 rate the risk of side effects from MMR vaccines as medium or high – 15 percentage points higher than the share of fathers who say this.”

Musing 8: This happened a few weeks ago, and it blew me away. Josh Barbara is a student at tiny Dean College. He broadcasts games for the school’s profoundly bad Division III football team, and his call was absolute perfection.

josh_barbara72

A post shared by @josh_barbara72

Musing 9: I need Mike Tyson and Jake Paul to go away.

Musing 10: That said, Mike Tyson’s reply to the question of a 14-year-old reporter may well be the greatest moment in media history.

Musing 11: The latest Two Writers Slinging Yang stars Chris Stone, my former Sports Illustrated colleague and a co-founder of OffBall.

Quote of the Week …

1. Don’t worry. I’m fine now.