IN DEFENSE OF KAREN ATTIAH. Sort Of:
On October 7, 2023, as terrorists raped and pillaged Israelis, Attiah reposted tweets justifying the unfolding massacre:
“What did y’all think decolonization meant? Vibes? Papers? Essays? Losers.”
“Liberation, self-determination, and peace for all oppressed + colonized people,” with a meme that read “That’s my politics.”
About white women, Attiah has said that they are “lucky” black women are “just calling them ‘Karens.’ And not calling for revenge.” She followed up: “Indeed, black revenge is one of America’s greatest fears.”
About the writer Maureen Dowd and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Attiah wrote that they formed an “axis of shevil” with Donald Trump.
After the Post declined to endorse Kamala Harris, Attiah wrote: “Today has been an absolute stab in the back. What an insult to those of us who have literally put our careers and lives on the line. . . ”
My point is that it’s not as if The Washington Post found out this past week that Attiah held views far outside the mainstream, or acted unprofessionally, including toward her own colleagues. It seems that they kept her around for these views.
Given all this, she could have reasonably expected that her Bluesky post about Kirk wouldn’t draw the ire of her bosses. And that expectation would have been entirely in keeping with her past conduct, and the culture her bosses allowed to persist.
She could have left earlier, with much more than a Substack as her reward:
karen attiah turning down the wapo buyout offer is this generation's blockbuster turning down netflix
— Nino (@baldingschemer) September 15, 2025