‘The Wire’ Creator David Simon Rips Into Baltimore Bridge Conspiracists, Calls Marjorie Taylor Greene A “Complete Submoronic Pratfall Of A Human Being’
‘The Wire’ Creator David Simon Rips Into Baltimore Bridge Conspiracists, Calls Marjorie Taylor Greene A “Complete Submoronic Pratfall Of A Human Being’
The Wire producer and longtime Baltimore chronicler David Simon ripped into conspiracists spreading unfounded theories that today’s tragic and deadly collapse of the city’s Francis Scott Key Bridge could be a terrorist attack. Simon, a reporter for the Baltimore Sun before creating Homicide: Life On...
When another poster asked, “Isn’t it possible that this was a deliberate terrorist attack rather than a tragic accident?,” Simon retorted, “It’s possible that you’re a useless shitheel rando on an internet hellsite speculating wildly and without regard to what is already known by authorities in Baltimore. Quick, have someone fund your podcast. You’ll go far.”
To a poster who called Baltimore a “mismanaged, failed state,” Simon offered a well-worded correction: “The port is a state-run entity and nothing whatsoever to do with Baltimore municipal government, you absolute submoron.”
To Anthony Sabatini, the former Florida congressman who wrote “DEI did this” – referring to diversity, equity and inclusion – Simon took no prisoners. “Your mother did you, but after a hard life of service on a truck-stop lot, can we really hold her loosened, battered womb responsible for dropping you head-first on the Winnebago floor and burdening our society with another empty, racist demagogue thereafter? We cannot.”
If this is indicative of The Wire, I should watch it.
Dude! The Wire is the one of the best shows ever created! Watch on Max, rent DVDs from the library, or just do some normal piracy. You owe yourself a watch of The Wire.
Absolutely brilliant show. And yes, this is indicative of The Wire. 😅
You absolutely should.
I finally gave in and watched it after multiple independent recommendations from people who had strong educated opinions on quality nuanced literature and media. The last series sort of declined a bit, but overall I was in no way disappointed. It was exceptionally well done, and importantly for me, not too watered down with tired tropes, stereotyped single dimensional characters, painfully predictable plots and neatly tidied moral threads.
I mean, there were definitely some, but, it's TV. It holds up extremely well even with age.
You're going to love Jay Landsman's (Delaney Williams) lines.
You should. I’ve been binging it the past few weeks and it’s amazing.
This man’s gift of insult is truly magical.
Damn that's savage.
Fucking savage.
And I'm gonna binge-watch the wire again.
I wish I had a mastery of the English language even half as good as this man. There's fucking POETRY in this!
Holy shit man, that guy rips! I almost want to go piss him off to get my own!
Goddamn. Glorious.
Those replies, especially the last one, are worthy of a Pulitzer.
Good God, someone call the Hague
Literally
I....I would like to wed this man.
I don't consider a TV producer insulting a (obviously terrible) politician to be news, but I do enjoy this particular insult. It's nicely crafted. It's a pity he continues to use Twitter.
He's a chronicler of Baltimore's underbelly. He's a subject matter expert of Baltimore and graft.
For sure, but insults are just (nicely crafted in this case) words, and unless the insulter is in a certain position, they ultimately don't affect much. It's not like Simon's statement is going to change Baltimore policy or shipping or things for the citizens, or Greene's actions. And it's not like Greene will be able to make funding decisions about Baltimore or declare war on the city.
Like, I enjoy some dramatic shit-slinging, but I wish "news" were more about objective things happening than someone expressing an opinion on social media that doesn't have any obvious real consequences for anyone.
How is it that we've created a society where scientists are subordinate to lying narcissists and psychopaths?
This isn't something new. This is how society has functioned throughout history. Democracy is an ideal, but no country is truly democratic. Show me a country where the parliament or whatever legislative and executive bodies they have is truly made up of common people voted by their peers, and not part of the upper class.
Ireland has a political elite, like most other countries. However, many of our politicians are ordinary people too.. There are teachers, doctors, farmers etc mixed among the lawyers. Due to proportionak representative democracy, there are also one issue candidates who her elected for campaigning on things like special needs or other issues.
When K moved to Australia, I was quite surprised to find that nearly every politician was a lawyer by trade.
And corporations, because of the money. These aspects impact choice of research directions and results so much that I feel like rectifying them would be enough to start a new scientific revolution.
The fuck? There are conspiracies about this already even though there was a live stream of it? What the fuck is wrong with people?
There are conspiracies that the earth is flat too. Humans can be profoundly stupid.
And religion + racism + fear of the unknown + social echo chambers can all be exploited. Remember that MTG floated a few years ago that space lasers caused California forest fires. Never mind the power requirements and ridiculousness that would require.
I think the woman is dangerous as hell, but I don't think she's stupid. I think she uses dumb ideas to mobilize an ignorant base.
Most of the conspiracies I've seen are related to the fact that there were live streams of it.
Some people are just unfamiliar with the fact that there are webcams streaming 24/7 in cities all over the world.
When you're trapped in the phantasm of conspiratorial thinking you'll try to map any event that makes you feel something into that crooked framework.
It's incredibly said when it's involuntary, because it shows how damaged a person's reasoning faculties have become. It's infuriating when it's done by assholes who use it knowingly to manipulate others.
There were conspiracies the morning of. I asked if anyone at work had seen it, about 9 California time, they hadn't but soon after seeing pictures and video some of these guys were calling for a conspiracy.
So I leaned into it. Yeah Republicans refuse to fund infrastructure maintenance, so the conspiracy is get shipping companies to ram dilapidated bridges so their insurances fund the rebuilds.The Key Bridge isn't even that bad. There are WAY worse bridges. Just roll down the water a few miles and go after the Bay Bridge near Annapolis, for example. I'm still irritated that as bad as that pair of bridges is, there's STILL no long term plan for replacement. We've been talking about it for at least a decade now.
One two lane bridge (circa 1952), and one three lane bridge (1973) with a lane that is often set to the reverse direction - without barriers! No shoulders at all. You break down, you're in the lane. People freeze up from fear driving over it, and I really don't blame them - I've never had an issue, but there is little to block your view of water almost straight down out the side of the vehicle. Don't forget the metal grate section that gets nice and slick in any sort of wet weather. And they carry far more traffic than they were ever expected to handle. Oh and there are often high winds that add to the fun.
Sadly truth doesn't seem to matter anymore to a large group of people. As long as it matches their worldview they'll just take anything at face value.
Human error is a far more reasonable explanation than complicated conspiracies, but I understand the thought. It really looked like that ship aimed for the bridge. Planning such a conspiracy would be far, far harder and more expensive to pull off than simple bridge failure, though.
People who dropped out of high school and think they never needed to learn physics are all watching the video and thinking, “why would a bridge fall THAT way?” and then blaming Biden because that’s what Fox and Newsmax keyed them into blaming.
I thought it was Obama's fault?
There's not. A media personality is creating that impression for future use.
Anthony Sabatini got murdered. Condolences to his truck stop mother.
A woman dedicated to her craft 🫡
To Anthony Sabatini, the former Florida congressman who wrote “DEI did this” – referring to diversity, equity and inclusion – Simon took no prisoners. “Your mother did you, but after a hard life of service on a truck-stop lot, can we really hold her loosened, battered womb responsible for dropping you head-first on the Winnebago floor and burdening our society with another empty, racist demagogue thereafter? We cannot.”
Holy fuck, don't get on Simon's bad side. That was a solar flare level burn.
David Simon has a history of public takedowns and is pretty defensive of Baltimore. He sort of ended O'Malley's presidential ambitions. I want to say single handedly, but O'Malley did a lot of work on that too
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/04/29/david-simon-on-baltimore-s-anguish
The captain of the ship was Captain Ray Turner... That's right, C.R.T. You can't make this shit up.
I mean I made it up, but you can't.
Damn cathode ray tubes crashing into bridges!
I'm still gonna try
Didn't you get the memo? CRT is the old racist dogwhistle. Now they're going after DEI: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Weird that you say that, because I didn't even make the connection - the ship's doctor... Dr. Erica Ingold. D.E.I.
I wish I was joking, dude.... And oh, look? My wish came true!
They're starting to claim it was the fault of "DEI". That's their new thing, whenever any accident happens of any kind its the fault of "DEI", by which they mean its the fault of minorities having jobs. How convenient that all the failures of poor management and cut corners due to profit seeking can so neatly be blamed on minorities they want to discriminate against.
They're claiming that the Black mayor of Baltimore was a "DEI hire", which is an absolutely bonkers thing to say about an elected official.
Much less the mayor of fucking Baltimore. It’s an extremely historically black city. If the mayor of Baltimore was a WASP that would be weird
There will always be an "other" for them to blame. They'll invent one any time they run out of "acceptable" ones in the eyes of the public.
"We have always been at war with eastasia"
It’s not minorities having jobs, it’s minorities having good jobs. They don’t like that there are brown and queer people doing shit they want. Like why the hell am I, a trans woman, an engineer and not them? It must be DEI because it definitely isn’t that I chose to attend a college that barely even requires a pulse to attempt their engineering program and then dedicaed 5 years of my life, countless hours of work, and large sums of money to it.
Maggie 3 toes knows a terrorist attack when she sees one, she helped plan one after all.
I heard she has a cleft butthole.
No that was a portrait.
It is high time that we rid ourselves of these carnival barkers.
Dang, adding that one to the arsenal.
That's not what a pratfall means though?
Its two word put together, prat and fall. It means to PURPOSEFULLY trip up but make it look like you are clumsy.
It's a "stage" thing and done by clowns and actors generally.
Guessing it's one of those context-specific things- some words have wildly different meanings depending on how/when it's used.
I assume Madge blames the Jewish space lasers again.
Excuse me, it’s the Jewish navy and their stealth submarines powered by radioactive gold. They’re coming for our freedumb, and our kids.
someone is trying to fight back against the misinformation tide.
This dude dropped some seriously well worded “your mama” jokes on some xitheads … damn he’s my hero.
David Simon goes hard and I wish he’d do it more often.
I don't think anyone would ever own up to creating Greene, she must be an accident. Like when a man jerks off in a cinema and a woman sits on the seat after.
Go on…
Hey, I think I’d like to buy this man a beer.
FADE IN: INT. WIRE ROOM - NIGHT
A crowded room is illuminated by dim lights casting shadows across its inhabitants. In the center, DETECTIVE JIMMY MCNULTY sits at a table, surrounded by empty bottles of whiskey and beer cans. He wears his police uniform unkempt, as if he hasn't bothered to change since his last shift. His face is grim, eyes bloodshot.
A sound echoes through the room, growing louder. A bright light flashes in the window.
MCNULTY (CONT'D) (slurring) It's happening again. It always happens.
He stumbles to his feet, knocking over an empty bottle which shatters on the floor. He wobbles towards the door and disappears into the night.
CUT TO:
EXT. BALTIMORE STREETS - NIGHT
Streetlights flicker above as cars rush by. The distant sound of sirens grows closer. MCNULTY stands on a bridge, observing a cargo ship passing underneath.
MCNULTY (to himself) They need me. They don't even know it yet.
His gaze fixates on the massive ship as he fumbles with something in his pocket. With a determined look, he throws what was in his hand onto the water below.
CUT TO:
EXT. BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION SITE - NIGHT
Construction workers are busy at work, their tools clanking against metal. Suddenly, a loud crash reverberates through the air. Bricks and cement fly everywhere as the pillar supporting the bridge collapses. Screams fill the air as debris falls onto the water below.
CUT TO:
EXT. ROADWAY BELOW THE BRIDGE - NIGHT
Panicked drivers swerve to avoid falling debris. An SUV skids on its side along the road, causing a chain reaction that leaves multiple vehicles destroyed.
CUT TO:
EXT. BRIDGE COLLAPSE SCENE - NIGHT
JIMMY MCNULTY emerges from the shadows, unscathed. His face is covered in ash, but his eyes burn with an unquenchable thirst for justice. He looks up at the collapsed bridge and grins, knowing that once again, he will have a case to solve.
FADE OUT.
You forgot that he will drag his old shitty boss and department into the case against their wills by proving that the ship ran into the pillar which was land not in the water therefore it was a Baltimore jurisdiction instead of the coast guards jurisdiction.
INT. WIRE ROOM - DAY
A somber mood fills the room as detectives gather around the conference table. Lieutenant CIARAN "SNUBBY" REDMOND storms in, visibly irritated.
SNUBBY (yelling) What the hell is going on here? This is a Coast Guard case! We don't have any jurisdiction over this!
MCNULTY steps forward, unfazed by his superior's outburst.
MCNULTY (coolly) Actually, we do. Let me show you something.
He walks over to a projection screen, plugs in a flash drive, and starts playing a video. The recording shows the cargo ship smashing into the bridge's pillar. However, the video is slowed down, revealing something significant.
V/O (Mcnulty) The slow-motion footage reveals that the ship didn't just hit the pilings underwater—it also collided with solid ground.
SNUBBY (surprised) How did you get this video?
MCNULTY (smirking) Let's just say a little birdie told me that some local fishermen captured this on their boat.
Lieutenant SNUBBY runs his fingers through his hair, defeated.
SNUBBY (muttering to himself) Damn it, McNulty. You always find a way.
The other detectives look at MCNULTY with newfound respect as he takes charge of the investigation.
FADE OUT.
He's right.
Got 'em
It's not like Baltimore was a great place before the bridge came down...
Why are these people so eager to push one story or another?
The sane thing to do is to discuss the options.
There are infinite options. Entertaining all of them is not sane, and completely futile. If you have no ability to narrow down the field to the realm of plausible scenarios then you'll never discover the truth of anything.
Thank you captain pedantic
Having an open mind is a good thing. Opening your head to the point your brain falls on the floor isn't.
Except there was literally a mayday call from the ship saying that they lost power and could not steer... So... That's the only option worth descussing because that's what happened. MJT or anybody else suggestion it was intentional is indeed a submoronic pirfall of a human being.
You guys really get into the whole persecution angle.
No one really knows the whole story. But there are factors that lean into the side of conspiracy. Several redundant systems would need to have coincidentally failed in order for the ship to steer and stay off-course the way it did. All this in the backdrop of food plants blowing up, the Biden administration blowing up Nordstream, it's not hard to be skeptical in such times.
Do the world a favor, go live in a cave and make sure to close off all entrances.
Sage advice, brother. Clearly they're going to release another bio-weapon, crash the world economy, and trigger riots throughout the country. While all this is going on, nuclear war will start in the middle east, and from there spread all over the world. China and Russia will team up and try to take over a weakened United States.
Things are about to get real, for sure, but hiding only works very short term. I think the only way forward, after the initial attacks, is to link up with other like-minded people that share your values, and care for one another more than themselves. Even Mark Zuckerberg with his $100M bunker in Hawaii (with a submarine escape hatch) won't stand a chance. It's all delusion to think we're going to survive what's coming on material preparation alone.
You're totally right though. We need to get out of the cities (they're going to be death traps) and get as much storable food as you can.
Several things need to happen or fail in EVERY accident. Every car accident is a mix of multiple factors at once; weather, driver inattentiveness, other traffic or obstacles, etc. It doesn't mean every car accident or plane or boat crash is a conspiracy.
Several redundant systems would need to have coincidentally failed
Jeez, it just shows you have no fucking clue. Main engine problems happen regularly with a big enough fleet of vessels. Meaning, it doesn't happen often, but with hundreds of vessels it happens often enough.
If you'd just have investigated the assumption how often main engines have issues you'd see this Google result: https://issuu.com/marinetrust/docs/w71/s/12145703
Meaning, it happens often.
Secondly, that "several redundant systems". Wtf are you talking about here? A spare backup main engine?!?
You're assuming.
God I genuinely hope once a day while eating you randomly manage to bite your tongue. I hope it happens so much that one day you swallow a piece of it on accident and develop an addiction to the taste. Then one day you'll kiss someone you love and suddenly you'll find yourself swallowing their tongue, deaf to their screams. You'll face your loved one in a trial and beg for their forgiveness and even if they wanted to they would not be able to reply. Then when you are thrown in solitary, you'll starve yourself knowing what you did, and that you don't deserve their sympathy, but still dream of the flavor as you took your lovers speech forever.
