Socialist magazine Jacobin was lambasted by what was dubbed the “Hiroshima” of community notes on X by critics on social media.
The official account for Jacobin was criticizing wages paid to Walmart employees when someone did the math and figured out that the magazine likely pays its writers far less on average.
“Infamous for its starvation wages, Walmart just posted staggering first-quarter profits. The surge is a result of its strategic shift toward catering to affluent shoppers while its full-time workers continue to rely on Medicaid and food stamps,” read the post by the socialist outlet.
‘This is the Hiroshima of community notes.’
The article chastised Walmart for posting a first quarter profit of $5.1 billion even as it was named as one of top employers whose workers rely on public assistance to get by.
The community note on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, quickly went viral.
“Walmart non-corporate Associates’ average hourly wage is $17.50/hour with full-time benefits. Jacobin pays writers $0.07/word, so a Jacobin writer would have to write 250 words an hour continuously to make the same wage as a Walmart Associate, but without benefits,” the note read.
According to a Copyblogger report, paying seven cents per word lands a Jacobin writer squarely in the middle of average freelance rates for a beginning writer, and far less than that of the average intermediate and experienced writer.
Others on X bashed Jacobin over the poor wages it paid.
“Ouch @jacobin this is where you pay someone .07 cents a word to write a piece to defend yourself ! Right after your mom makes you hot pockets in the basement I guess at these wages,” read one popular response.
“Socialism in a nutshell. Complain bitterly about one system. Propose a system that’s an order of magnitude worse,” read another reply.
“The beauty of this community note is that it isn’t saying Walmart is good. The point is that, if you take as true that Walmart pays its workers poorly, Jacobin pays their writers even worse,” said another detractor.
“This is the Hiroshima of community notes,” said social media autodidact David Burge.
Even Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas mocked Jacobin over the note.
“The most spectacular community note in history,” he posted.
The note garnered more than 4.4 million views on X.
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