On Saturday, Hannah Selinger and Rebecca Bodenheimer fought in public over Bodenheimer’s claim that Selinger’s continuous use of medical-grade face masks was unreasonable and privileged.
Selinger, who divides her time between ritzy East Hampton and Boxford, Massachusetts, subsequently launched into a multi-tweet attack on Bodenheimer.
She even implied that her online adversary deserved to grow painful areas as a result of her indiscretion.
‘If you get on here and say *everyone* you interact with wears a N95, I have no choice but to assume you interact with a very small subset of people – mostly middle/upper class and working from home – and that you get most things delivered to your home by service workers,’ Bodenheimer wrote in a series of tweets.
‘That’s simply not the way the vast majority of Americans are living at this point in the pandemic,’ Bodenheimer, who lives in Oakland, remarked. You are welcome to wear a mask for as long as you wish, but you will not claim to represent the views of a broad group of people.
‘
‘And the reason I know this is because I live in one of the most risk-averse cities in the country, but also one of the most racially and economically diverse,’ she added. I reside near the hood, and my husband is a vital worker who works *in* the hood. ‘I see a diverse spectrum of viewpoints here.’
But Selinger, who has written for the Washington Post, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal, pounced on Bodenheimer, a freelancer who has worked for CNN, Vice, Politico, and The Cut.
‘Rebecca is tweeting about me, because she’s an anti-masker,’ she added, quoting Bodenheimer’s original tweet thread.
Bodenheimer said that her first missive did indeed refer to Selinger.
She defended herself by claiming that she didn’t specifically name Selinger or call her out, and that she was simply ‘observing.’
But that didn’t sit well with Selinger, who responded with, ‘The tweet was about me!’ Of course you were pointing the finger at me! Don’t be a knucklehead.
That’s passive-aggressive bullshit.
‘Either say what you’re saying (inaccurately, per our conversation) and own it, and the repercussions, or don’t.
‘You know your tweet was inaccurate.’
‘I was trying not to have people harass you,’ Bodenheimer said again in response to Selinger’s assertions that she was a coward.
‘I do realize many individuals aren’t as risk-averse as you are, and you shouldn’t assume your opinions extend to everyone else,’ she said, adding fuel to the fire with another dig at Selinger’s COVID-safety procedures.
Selinger became even more enraged, questioning if Bodenheimer should continue to tweet at all, considering that she had followers who have gone on to ‘harass’ her.
Bodenheimer eventually exited the cyber war, telling Selinger that she was ‘done.’
That prompted Selinger to respond with a gif of a woman laughing hysterically.
Selinger then took the disagreement full circle with a tweet of her own, which didn’t specifically mention anyone but appeared to wish Bodenheimer a miserable illness.
‘It’s strange when seemingly sensible folks become anti-mask or anti-vaxx,’ she wrote. Isn’t it always the ones with flimsy, sporadic social followings? It’s difficult to know what to desire for these people. ‘Perhaps boils?’
The disagreement began earlier in the day when Selinger responded to Bodenheimer’s previous tweet, which stated that masks made little impact unless they were of great quality.
‘People are pretty much solely wearing N95s at this time,’ Selinger noted. In certain federal conditions, a mandate is essential. On a plane, for example, you can’t expect everyone to do the right thing. They Wont
The unsightly brawl between the two authors is symptomatic of what appears to be never-ending conflicts regarding COVID safety measures.
It’s also the latest instance of well-paid journalists publicly assaulting each other on social media over problems that many inflation-stricken Americans would dismiss as insignificant.
Even though new COVID variants continue to infect and re-infect thousands of Americans, COVID masking and vaccine mandates have generally been withdrawn across the US as viral deaths decline.
Meanwhile, Felicia Sonmez, a Washington Post staffer, was dismissed earlier this month after a multi-day fury at male coworker Dave Wiegel after he retweeted a sexist joke implying that all women are bisexual or bipolar.
Sonmez continued to rage about his behavior and ask for disciplinary action against the journalist who defended him after Wiegel apologized.
Other prestigious magazines have also been rocked by personnel publicly battling each other on Twitter, frequently over social justice themes.
As a result, they’ve issued a warning to employees to keep disagreements private, and the New York Times has advised its correspondents to stay off Twitter entirely if they so desire.