There’s a saying that seems to resonate all too well in certain circles: “Rules for thee, not for me.” This sentiment encapsulates the recent controversy surrounding Jia Tolentino, a staff writer for The New Yorker, who has found herself at the center of a media storm.
Tolentino, often celebrated within the media as a prominent voice for her generation, was recently highlighted in Elle magazine. However, her name might not ring a bell for those outside the industry. Her recent comments on a New York Times podcast, where she unabashedly admitted to shoplifting, have sparked widespread criticism.
The crux of the matter lies not just in her admission, but in her reaction to the backlash. Tolentino expressed indignation over the public’s negative response to her actions, seemingly surprised that her revelation did not sit well with many.
The situation escalated when the Daily Mail confronted Tolentino outside her upscale Brooklyn residence, a five-bedroom townhouse valued at $2.2 million. Her response was far from calm, as she vocally expressed her disbelief and anger at their presence, exclaiming, “I can’t believe you came to my f***ing house!”
When the Daily Mail approached the 37-year-old outside her chic, five-bedroom Brooklyn townhouse – worth $2.2 million – Tolentino exploded.
‘I can’t believe you came to my f***ing house!’ she yelped.
Really? Is she or is she not a savvy, experienced member of the media? Because that’s how these things work: You make headlines, you wind up with reporters outside your door.
In a Times podcast titled ‘The Rich Don’t Play by the Rules. So Why Should I?’ – you couldn’t make this up, rich media elites pretending they’re not rich under the auspices of the wealthy New York Times – Tolentino bragged about shoplifting from Whole Foods as an act of moral rebellion.
It’s Les Miserablés over here.
Should anyone, anywhere, retain the slightest doubts about the self-regarding liberal left-wing media, meet Jia Tolentino
Her chic, five-bedroom Brooklyn townhouse (pictured) is worth $2.2 million
The Times read-out: ‘Why petty theft might be the new political protest.’
This is the height of leftist hypocrisy. You know who suffers most from shoplifting and stealing? Poor people.
Among this assemblage of Times-branded intellects: the otherwise undistinguished nepo-baby Nadja Spiegelman, daughter of Art Spiegelman, the legendary artist and author of Maus.
Nadja’s mother is Françoise Mouly, who has been the art editor at The New Yorker since 1993.
Also contributing here is Hasan Piker, a self-admitted nepo-baby (his uncle is a media mogul) and Twitch streamer who lives in a $2.74 million house in LA’s Beverly Glen, drives a $200,000 Porsche Taycan, and has said that America – his parents are Turkish immigrants – was rightly attacked on September 11.
‘America deserved 9/11, dude,’ Piker said on his own show in 2019. ‘F*** it, I’m saying it… We f***ing totally brought this upon ourselves, dude. Holy s***. We did. We f***ing did.’
America, where his parents came to give him a chance to become a prominent multimillionaire at a very young age.
Piker also, as National Review’s Jim Geraghty so comprehensively reported, subjects his dog to a shock collar.
So, this guy is among our worst: Our worst thinkers, propped up by some of our worst outlets, doubtless valorized because he checks the right DEI boxes.
That the New York Times considers moral reprobates and intellectual lightweights such as these three among our greatest minds – that just says everything.
In that same Times podcast, Piker also said that accused murderer Luigi Mangione was morally justified in the alleged daylight assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a married father of two sons.
Thompson, Piker said, was engaged in a ‘tremendous amount of social murder.’
Neither Spiegelman nor Tolentino pushed back.
In fact, Tolentino agreed:
‘I think it’s also worth saying’ – interesting choice of word, ‘worth’ – ‘that there are not that many healthcare CEOs, there are not that many industries that are as universally understood as merchants of social murder, of structural violence upon people.’
All that liberal jargon: ‘Merchants of social murder.’ ‘Structural violence.’
So, are we to excuse all manner of crime, from shoplifting to murder, if we agree with the ostensible motive or politics of the offender?
Does that extend to rape?
Indeed, it does, according to Piker.
Here’s what he had to say about the horrors of October 7 – his views outed by Democratic congressman Richie Torres, who wrote to Twitch’s management in protest.
Torres wrote:
‘Mr Piker has all but exposed himself as an apologist for the sexual violence and savage rapes of October 7. “It doesn’t matter if rape happened on October 7. It doesn’t change the dynamic for me,” Mr. Piker declares before finally admitting that “Palestinian resistance” (his euphemism for terrorism) is not perfect.’
Torres also noted that Hasan – a self-described ‘feminist’ – has joked about female students being date-raped on campus before noting that Hasan has also questioned whether any of Hamas’ victims were raped at all.
‘Mr. Piker once described the sexual violence of 10/7 as “rape fantasies” or “rape hallucinations,”‘ Torres wrote.
In that same Times podcast, Piker also said that accused murderer Luigi Mangione was morally justified in the alleged daylight assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a married father of two sons
Perhaps Piker needs this explained more clearly, because boys and men were, and are, also raped by Hamas. Rape is an act of war.
Tolentino is even stupider than we thought, sitting across from this proud misogynist. Smiling and nodding along with this utter hypocrite, made wealthy by a country he clearly hates.
Here she is, a rich married mother-of-two, praised by none other than New Yorker editor David Remnick as her generation’s Joan Didion – ‘similarly startling and fresh,’ he told Elle magazine – justifying her thievery.
‘I think that stealing from a big box store… [is not] very significant as a moral wrong,’ Tolentino said.
She went on to frame her shoplifting in the most self-serving way possible: She belongs to a Brooklyn collective that shops for old people, so she’s actually a do-gooder.
Better than the rest of us, actually.
You have to wonder how Tolentino would feel if any of us stole her over-praised book of essays. Or if her Brooklyn brownstone was broken into – or her $200,000 upstate retreat — or if someone mugged one of her children.
Or worse.
After saying she would also ‘cheer on’ anyone who stole from The Louvre – the kind of violations that horrify decent people everywhere – Tolentino said she didn’t even think her own shoplifting makes any dent as ‘protest or direct action’.
There it is. She just does it because she feels like it.
Likely because she knows, as a prominent writer worth millions, that if ever caught shoplifting she could claim it was all a big misunderstanding and get away with it.
Intellectual and moral lightweights like these always tell on themselves.
If only the New York Times would admit it.
