Ron Karenga Handel’s Messiah and stock portfolio Musicology is dumb, says Matt Hip-hop is appropriation and it’s great Method Man thinks the Stones and Bootsy are the same The Fall of Minneapolis The Fifth’s verdict Some good things, some bad things
I remember when I started subscribing to Fifth Column over a year ago I was blown away by two podcasts a week at nearly 2 hours each. Frankly, I thought it was too much. But now if they go four days without releasing one I’m like an addict who needs a fix.
1:13:20 -“ I’m trying really hard not to care about what happens on college campuses because they seem like ridiculous places to me honestly…”
This is part of the problem. Everyone ignored what happened on college campuses, and all of a sudden we have DIE departments, land acknowledgments, Taylor Swift, etc.
I assume you mean "DEI" instead of "DIE" though maybe I shouldn't.
I was happy to hear the idea that this isn't just an elite institution problem creep into the conversation. Most journalists are from top schools, generally rub elbows with alumni from top schools, and seem content to assume that it's just a problem among elites. My wife's collegiate career took her from a community college in the pine barrens to Southern Utah and finally the University of New Mexico, and she was required to take DEI-centric classes at each stop.
DIE is probably more appropriate because the whole DEI movement makes me want to bang my head against the wall until it turns into a Gallagher watermelon
Just to add a dash to hypocrisy to the White House staffer protest: It's long been taken as a meme among the pro-Palestinian national movement that anyone who is pro-Israel is guilty of dual loyalty and is more loyal to Israel than to the United States. This has gone all the way up to Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. Nothing anti-Semitic about that of course.
But of course you can have pro-Palestinians literally dressing up like terrorists and we all are supposed to just assume their motives are pure. For me, at least, those days are long gone.
As we near year’s end, I’m trying to do some last minute Christmas shopping and get a head start on my New Year’s resolution to be more passive-aggressive.
To wit.
I’d like to get all my friends and foes some sweet Fif’ merch but am having trouble finding the storefront. Can someone help out and post a link?
I created my own zip hoodie for the HS where I work on rushorder tees - could be a permissions thing here...but would they care? I have thought about something crazy (like a couch throw) with a TFC theme. I'll shoot you a pic if I pull the plug and do it.
When the cop pulled the gun, he was apparently following procedure, when Floyd's hands werent on the steering wheel he pulled his gun out and held it in a specific position, and then once floyd puts his hands on the steering wheel, the cop holsters his gun.
Dec 17, 2023·edited Dec 17, 2023Liked by Matt Welch
Matt is being unfair to the Economist: they've been quite consistent on DEI nonsense for a while, including some good pieces on gender woo (a topic even you guys are afraid to talk about in detail!) The fact that none of their stories carry a byline probably helps, by shielding the authors from Twitter mobs.
One recent piece, in their Lexington column, explored how this new round of craziness might lead to improved free speech norms on campus, and includes a quote from Greg Lukianoff: https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/11/02/the-gaza-war-could-help-set-speech-free-again. Although it doesn't have a byline, you can lookup their named-column authors in the media directory, and the Lexington column since 2020 has been written by...James Bennet!
Thank you for the nuanced way you talked about the Fall of Minneapolis. I watched it last week. I found it be informative and it made me reconsider my initial read on what happened. That said, the coverage I’ve read about the documentary has been largely glowing. I was pleased to see you take a more critical look at it. It’s certainly possible to watch it with an open mind, point out its weak points, and still think it has value as a documentary.
The more time I have to stew on the Bennet piece in the Economist the sadder it makes me and more frustrated with the idiots (who15-20 years ago I had thought were my allies) who are destroying our culture because of some silly nonsense they learned in university.
The bottom line of that piece if the NYT newsroom is just a shell of its former self, which I already knew, but having it all autopsied so clearly, it is just gross. It is like someone showing you the mutilated corpse of your favorite grandma.
Thanks for reviewing the Fall of Mpls. Haven't seen it yet and I'm not sure whether or not I will.
I've lived in Mpls for 15 years. I closed on my first home, in south Minneapolis, the Friday before George Floyd died. There was some f*ckery in our alley and the corner store at the end of the blook was looted, but we were largely unaffected.
All that said, the city absolutely lost its mind during summer 2020. I'm really not going to ever forgive the behavior of our leaders and my neighbors during that time. I do not find it an "understandable" outpouring of emotion due to covid/Chauvin.
We're looking forward to listing our house in the Spring.
Regarding Frey - he is exactly the performative manchild he comes across as. Yet we had to re-elect him because his opponent would have Chesa Boudin look like Pinochet.
Born and raised in Minneapolis. I hated those riots. They made me yearn for a small town or farm. I’m getting my ducks in a row so I can go someplace else. You probably heard about the man who was killed with golf club last week? He was my friend and I’m so angry. What was once a lovely block in Loring Park is really going downhill. The city leaders really are worthless.
Harvard isn't going to do anything to President Gay because they don't want to give Chris Rufo et al a scalp. Hate to say it's that simple but until proven otherwise it seems to be.
Moynihan not wanting to report this story because he wanted to be careful even know he had information is fair. His track record leads makes me trust that fully.
But the reason no one from the NYT, Washington post, etc. broke this story is because they largely align with Gay politically. The information was out there and they will largely avoid it or excuse it. Instead the framing will be in terms of the conservative reaction to the issue instead of the actual issue. They’re not journalists, they are activists.
If this exact same information and scenario was about Ben Sasse at Florida it would be on the front page everywhere and it would be in the news until he was fired or resigned. Every “journalist” at those outlets would be crawling over each other to get the scoop.
There's also gotta be some academics that would be happier if this all got swept under the rug before someone has the idea to use AI plagiarism-checking tools to review old papers in bulk.
No one who thinks cultures should be silo’d and isolated could have a genuine creative bone in their body (which is especially ironic since it’s a pass time of so many so-called creatives).
So much beauty has been created from cultures colliding and harmonizing.
I'm no fan of censorship, but Matt, you may want edit out your reaction to Moynihan's assumption that your daughter will attend college given your wife's habit of blasting TFC audio throughout the place you currently call your home.
I’m astounded that so many smart, generally well-informed people, including Loury, McWhorter, and apparently, Moynihan, had not seen the police bodycam footage of the Floyd arrest.
Something, surprisingly, not mentioned in the documentary:
Minnesota AG explains why Floyd’s death not charged as hate crime – The Hill: https://archive.ph/3v7ol
And I will never forget the events of that summer. Not one outrageous, despair-inducing moment.
I volunteered on the Ukrainian Polish border in 2022. More than a few foreign fighters I saw entering Ukraine were of European origin, and almost all of them said some variation of "I'm going to fight them in Ukraine so I'm not fighting them in my country." In Krakow, I caught a cab, and the driver was a Polish Army veteran, who had served with the US in Afghanistan and was thinking about going into Ukraine for the exact same reason.
The Russians may not be able to take Poland after Ukraine or Moldova, but the thought is at least on many Europeans' minds. Or was in my small sample in 2022.
Biggest takeaway was that the Ukrainians are badass motherfuckers dealing with so much internal and external stuff, and deserve our support. Also, bands of gypsies suck.
It will be interesting to see what happens with Claudine Gay in about a year or two. Her position on the intersectional pyramid is quite high, meaning of course a plurality of the Harvard faculty and students, aka rubes, are going to come out and support her no matter what misdeed she is accused of committing. Even her last name is Gay! Imagine all of the taunting she must have endured as a young capital B Black woman in Amerikkka with a last name like that!
However, then we get to Liz Magill at Penn. Her crime was not moral equivocation in front of Congress. Her crime was costing the University $$$. The ultimate success of a University President is the ability of that person to bring in the dollars, so if the accumulation of all of these episodes tightens enough purse strings amongst the Harvard donors, the University will have its own version of "Don't Say Gay" when her current agreed upon tenure is up. I saw it with my own alma mater, UVa. Theresa Sullivan survived several scandals during her stewardship, but what she could not survive was the decline in fundraising when compared to peer institutions. As it was with Sullivan, Gay will be gently pushed aside, the announcement will seem as if it was of her volition, and they'll move on to someone the donor class pushes to the forefront.
I think with the big (money) schools it will always be about money. All. Ways. I keep reminding myself that these institutions will act in ways that protect funding, period, whether it's some pop social ideology, research trend, political hullabaloo, etc.
As a person who did an 8-year on-and-off west coast community college survey (quick head count: 4, with some solid weirdo travel and toe-dipping in various industries in between), I finally bit the bullet and finished at a small private school in RI (where, the year I graduated, someone trying to make a "cutting edge" name for himself created the "all white scholarship"), I'm kind of all for fucking off the elite ivy leagues. Many of my professors headed to Brown or Harvard or Yale to lecture or give talks, and they all knew one another. Note: I did receive an excellent education at good old RWU. But it was the CC years and playing that did me the best.
When people (maybe people with money?) say fuck you to those schools and stop thinking of them as high-end ways to up their child's ante in the world, we might stop having fucktarded MBAs from Harvard in places of power because a 300G education and some nepo phone calls were a drop in the bucket for those families. I'd love to see the headline: Prince Harry's son attends CSUCI so some such. That probably won't happen, as they are busy living "a simple life away from the throne" up the road from me in a mega-mansion near Oprah, but it would sure be nice.
Oh yeah baby 8 drinks in, 1am, starting now
Welfare check...
Alive. But had to rewind the episode cause I didn't remember jack.
It’s a Fifth Column Miracle!
Ooff. I’d be “hurtin’ fer certain.” Time to call Harlan Mays.
https://youtu.be/_oeU-2UkSIY?si=03YjYYwBhxLIDA7p
This was excellent and a movie I need to watch now
I’m calling it. She’s gone. Another victim of late night Fif’in. You will be missed A to the G.
Ye of little faith!
All fifth listeners are hardened drinkers via osmosis because of the boys.
I remember when I started subscribing to Fifth Column over a year ago I was blown away by two podcasts a week at nearly 2 hours each. Frankly, I thought it was too much. But now if they go four days without releasing one I’m like an addict who needs a fix.
1:13:20 -“ I’m trying really hard not to care about what happens on college campuses because they seem like ridiculous places to me honestly…”
This is part of the problem. Everyone ignored what happened on college campuses, and all of a sudden we have DIE departments, land acknowledgments, Taylor Swift, etc.
Right. I thought we learned over the last 10 years that this shit doesn't stay on campus.
I'm a college prof, there are political lithmus tests to get hired and they are called diversity statements
I assume you mean "DEI" instead of "DIE" though maybe I shouldn't.
I was happy to hear the idea that this isn't just an elite institution problem creep into the conversation. Most journalists are from top schools, generally rub elbows with alumni from top schools, and seem content to assume that it's just a problem among elites. My wife's collegiate career took her from a community college in the pine barrens to Southern Utah and finally the University of New Mexico, and she was required to take DEI-centric classes at each stop.
DIE is probably more appropriate because the whole DEI movement makes me want to bang my head against the wall until it turns into a Gallagher watermelon
Just to add a dash to hypocrisy to the White House staffer protest: It's long been taken as a meme among the pro-Palestinian national movement that anyone who is pro-Israel is guilty of dual loyalty and is more loyal to Israel than to the United States. This has gone all the way up to Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. Nothing anti-Semitic about that of course.
But of course you can have pro-Palestinians literally dressing up like terrorists and we all are supposed to just assume their motives are pure. For me, at least, those days are long gone.
As we near year’s end, I’m trying to do some last minute Christmas shopping and get a head start on my New Year’s resolution to be more passive-aggressive.
To wit.
I’d like to get all my friends and foes some sweet Fif’ merch but am having trouble finding the storefront. Can someone help out and post a link?
The storefront is homebrew copyright infringement.
The secret ingredient is crime
I created my own zip hoodie for the HS where I work on rushorder tees - could be a permissions thing here...but would they care? I have thought about something crazy (like a couch throw) with a TFC theme. I'll shoot you a pic if I pull the plug and do it.
When the cop pulled the gun, he was apparently following procedure, when Floyd's hands werent on the steering wheel he pulled his gun out and held it in a specific position, and then once floyd puts his hands on the steering wheel, the cop holsters his gun.
Matt is being unfair to the Economist: they've been quite consistent on DEI nonsense for a while, including some good pieces on gender woo (a topic even you guys are afraid to talk about in detail!) The fact that none of their stories carry a byline probably helps, by shielding the authors from Twitter mobs.
One recent piece, in their Lexington column, explored how this new round of craziness might lead to improved free speech norms on campus, and includes a quote from Greg Lukianoff: https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/11/02/the-gaza-war-could-help-set-speech-free-again. Although it doesn't have a byline, you can lookup their named-column authors in the media directory, and the Lexington column since 2020 has been written by...James Bennet!
I was going to mention their "gender affirming care" articles as well. They were well ahead of most MSM on that topic.
Thank you for the nuanced way you talked about the Fall of Minneapolis. I watched it last week. I found it be informative and it made me reconsider my initial read on what happened. That said, the coverage I’ve read about the documentary has been largely glowing. I was pleased to see you take a more critical look at it. It’s certainly possible to watch it with an open mind, point out its weak points, and still think it has value as a documentary.
The more time I have to stew on the Bennet piece in the Economist the sadder it makes me and more frustrated with the idiots (who15-20 years ago I had thought were my allies) who are destroying our culture because of some silly nonsense they learned in university.
The bottom line of that piece if the NYT newsroom is just a shell of its former self, which I already knew, but having it all autopsied so clearly, it is just gross. It is like someone showing you the mutilated corpse of your favorite grandma.
Goddamn woke privileged assholes.
Thanks for reviewing the Fall of Mpls. Haven't seen it yet and I'm not sure whether or not I will.
I've lived in Mpls for 15 years. I closed on my first home, in south Minneapolis, the Friday before George Floyd died. There was some f*ckery in our alley and the corner store at the end of the blook was looted, but we were largely unaffected.
All that said, the city absolutely lost its mind during summer 2020. I'm really not going to ever forgive the behavior of our leaders and my neighbors during that time. I do not find it an "understandable" outpouring of emotion due to covid/Chauvin.
We're looking forward to listing our house in the Spring.
Regarding Frey - he is exactly the performative manchild he comes across as. Yet we had to re-elect him because his opponent would have Chesa Boudin look like Pinochet.
We moved from St Paul to Mendota Heights April 2020. Just missed all the nonsense.
Good move. I moved from St. Paul to West St. Paul in 2011 and have never looked back. I use the Mendota Heights walking trails everyday. Great town.
Born and raised in Minneapolis. I hated those riots. They made me yearn for a small town or farm. I’m getting my ducks in a row so I can go someplace else. You probably heard about the man who was killed with golf club last week? He was my friend and I’m so angry. What was once a lovely block in Loring Park is really going downhill. The city leaders really are worthless.
I was heartbroken when I heard about that guy. That little store is/was a Minneapolis institution!
I peg peak Minneapolis at about 2013-2015. So much enthusiasm and optimism. I think that was the healthiest neighborhoods ever were.
I’m very sorry about your friend, Elizabeth.
Harvard isn't going to do anything to President Gay because they don't want to give Chris Rufo et al a scalp. Hate to say it's that simple but until proven otherwise it seems to be.
Moynihan not wanting to report this story because he wanted to be careful even know he had information is fair. His track record leads makes me trust that fully.
But the reason no one from the NYT, Washington post, etc. broke this story is because they largely align with Gay politically. The information was out there and they will largely avoid it or excuse it. Instead the framing will be in terms of the conservative reaction to the issue instead of the actual issue. They’re not journalists, they are activists.
If this exact same information and scenario was about Ben Sasse at Florida it would be on the front page everywhere and it would be in the news until he was fired or resigned. Every “journalist” at those outlets would be crawling over each other to get the scoop.
“Journavists,” as Bridget Phetasy says.
There's also gotta be some academics that would be happier if this all got swept under the rug before someone has the idea to use AI plagiarism-checking tools to review old papers in bulk.
Hey Prof, learn to plumb
No one who thinks cultures should be silo’d and isolated could have a genuine creative bone in their body (which is especially ironic since it’s a pass time of so many so-called creatives).
So much beauty has been created from cultures colliding and harmonizing.
I'm no fan of censorship, but Matt, you may want edit out your reaction to Moynihan's assumption that your daughter will attend college given your wife's habit of blasting TFC audio throughout the place you currently call your home.
Trying to save some marriages over here.
I’m astounded that so many smart, generally well-informed people, including Loury, McWhorter, and apparently, Moynihan, had not seen the police bodycam footage of the Floyd arrest.
Something, surprisingly, not mentioned in the documentary:
Minnesota AG explains why Floyd’s death not charged as hate crime – The Hill: https://archive.ph/3v7ol
And I will never forget the events of that summer. Not one outrageous, despair-inducing moment.
I volunteered on the Ukrainian Polish border in 2022. More than a few foreign fighters I saw entering Ukraine were of European origin, and almost all of them said some variation of "I'm going to fight them in Ukraine so I'm not fighting them in my country." In Krakow, I caught a cab, and the driver was a Polish Army veteran, who had served with the US in Afghanistan and was thinking about going into Ukraine for the exact same reason.
The Russians may not be able to take Poland after Ukraine or Moldova, but the thought is at least on many Europeans' minds. Or was in my small sample in 2022.
I briefly, only half-seriously, considered volunteering in Ukraine, after the war started. I salute you!
I wasn't fighting. Was doing humanitarian work. But surely saw all types of people and situations. Was quite something, for sure.
That's still worthy of salute!
Biggest takeaway was that the Ukrainians are badass motherfuckers dealing with so much internal and external stuff, and deserve our support. Also, bands of gypsies suck.
That counts.
It will be interesting to see what happens with Claudine Gay in about a year or two. Her position on the intersectional pyramid is quite high, meaning of course a plurality of the Harvard faculty and students, aka rubes, are going to come out and support her no matter what misdeed she is accused of committing. Even her last name is Gay! Imagine all of the taunting she must have endured as a young capital B Black woman in Amerikkka with a last name like that!
However, then we get to Liz Magill at Penn. Her crime was not moral equivocation in front of Congress. Her crime was costing the University $$$. The ultimate success of a University President is the ability of that person to bring in the dollars, so if the accumulation of all of these episodes tightens enough purse strings amongst the Harvard donors, the University will have its own version of "Don't Say Gay" when her current agreed upon tenure is up. I saw it with my own alma mater, UVa. Theresa Sullivan survived several scandals during her stewardship, but what she could not survive was the decline in fundraising when compared to peer institutions. As it was with Sullivan, Gay will be gently pushed aside, the announcement will seem as if it was of her volition, and they'll move on to someone the donor class pushes to the forefront.
I think with the big (money) schools it will always be about money. All. Ways. I keep reminding myself that these institutions will act in ways that protect funding, period, whether it's some pop social ideology, research trend, political hullabaloo, etc.
As a person who did an 8-year on-and-off west coast community college survey (quick head count: 4, with some solid weirdo travel and toe-dipping in various industries in between), I finally bit the bullet and finished at a small private school in RI (where, the year I graduated, someone trying to make a "cutting edge" name for himself created the "all white scholarship"), I'm kind of all for fucking off the elite ivy leagues. Many of my professors headed to Brown or Harvard or Yale to lecture or give talks, and they all knew one another. Note: I did receive an excellent education at good old RWU. But it was the CC years and playing that did me the best.
When people (maybe people with money?) say fuck you to those schools and stop thinking of them as high-end ways to up their child's ante in the world, we might stop having fucktarded MBAs from Harvard in places of power because a 300G education and some nepo phone calls were a drop in the bucket for those families. I'd love to see the headline: Prince Harry's son attends CSUCI so some such. That probably won't happen, as they are busy living "a simple life away from the throne" up the road from me in a mega-mansion near Oprah, but it would sure be nice.