Bloomberg Tells "The Poors" to Eat Gruel & Let Pets Die, MSNBC Worries You'll Join the KKK or Something If You Get a Gym Membership, Game of Thrones May Never End? (The Five for 03/25/22)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
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It’s Friday, so let’s get into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
From MSNBC:
It appears the far right has taken advantage of pandemic at-home fitness trends to expand its decade-plus radicalization of physical mixed martial arts (MMA) and combat sports spaces.
Earlier this month, researchers reported that a network of online “fascist fitness” chat groups on the encrypted platform Telegram are recruiting and radicalizing young men with neo-Nazi and white supremacist extremist ideologies. Initially lured with health tips and strategies for positive physical changes, new recruits are later invited to closed chat groups where far-right content is shared.
Physical fitness has always been central to the far right. In “Mein Kampf,” Hitler fixated on boxing and jujitsu, believing they could help him create an army of millions whose aggressive spirit and impeccably trained bodies, combined with “fanatical love of the fatherland,” would do more for the German nation than any “mediocre” tactical weapons training.
Face. Palm.
Observations:
A. I have no doubt that this is true, but it’s not uniquely true, since Antifa terrorist cells openly operate boxing clubs in England, Greece, Nashville and offer firearms classes in Chicago, which receive no negative press despite Antifa’s role in $2 billion in riot damages in the summer of 2020.
B. I have no doubt white supremacist organizations use fitness groups to attempt to recruit to their radical ideologies…considering they use video games to recruit teenagers, which is drastically under-reported, and more dangerous based on the numbers (there are a lot more gamers than gym rats, and the former group attracts more young people). So what is MSNBC really mad at here…racism, or fitness? (Both is an acceptable answer).
C. They used the “Hitler” argument? You know who else has wanted strong, fit, violent young men for their fighting forces? Literally every military leader in world history.
[two]
Controversial artist Kid Rock said he can’t be canceled in an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
“Why haven’t you been canceled? Like, people aren’t allowed to say what they think. You are,” Carlson mused.
“I am uncancelable,” Kid Rock replied.
“Why’s that?” Carlson pressed.
“I don’t give a f***,” Kid Rock said with a laugh, prompting a chuckle from Carlson as well.
The musician went on to argue that because he remained fiercely independent — he did not have corporate sponsorship deals to protect or a record company telling him he had to toe the line — he had the freedom to say what he wanted without fear of repercussions.
“I’m not in bed with any big corporate things at the end of the day,” he explained. “There’s nobody I’m beholden to. No record companies, no corporate interests, no nothing. You can’t cancel me. I love it when they try.”
Whether you love or hate Kid Rock, or love or hate (or, secretly love) his music, this is the right idea.
For years, I wrote for magazines and also lived in fear of being “canceled” from public platforms by my socialist/communist editors (subscriber Julia…you were the exception).
As the internet continues to mature (and as web3 flies towards day-to-day reality), being “cancelable” is now becoming a choice.
Don’t want anyone to take away your voice?
Build your own thing.
When I called it quits on magazine writing and decided to focus on Substack, I lost 99% of the audience I once reached.
I also gained total freedom of speech and the certainty that no one can severe the connection between my ideas and the people who engage with him.
More than worth the tradeoff.
[three]
An column from Bloomberg got torched on social media this week, because the columnist told people making less than $289,000 per year (an oddly specific number) to:
Eat lentils instead of meat
Take public transportation to work rather than driving
Avoid buying in bulk
Let’s pause there for a moment.
Most people do not have the either/or option of public transportation or driving to work. A Bloomberg columnist isn’t an expert on health (but then again, neither am I), so we’ll just leave it at…it’s a possibility that eliminating animal products from your diet isn’t the healthiest option.
And for buying in bulk…that's a long term cost-saving move.
But the strangest piece of advice was pointed at…pet chemo?!
If you’re one of the many Americans who became a new pet owner during the pandemic, you might want to rethink those costly pet medical needs. It may sound harsh, but researchers actually don’t recommend pet chemotherapy — which can cost up to $10,000 — for ethical reasons.
So “eat literal gruel, don’t buy bulk paper towels and let your pets die.”
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a more succinct example of the cultural elite hating the working class.
For the record, I’ve never even heard of someone who’s done pet chemo (didn’t even know that was a thing).
Pet bills do pop up and can be costly, but food and gas prices, which are skyrocketing, are unavoidable expenses, unless you want to starve and become quickly unemployed due to not showing up at work.
I’m not sure if this is ignorance or arrogance on the part of the columnist.
Probably both.
[four]
In one of the more odd political moves we’ve witness recently, famed running back Herschel Walker was fired from the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition by the Biden Administration, citing Walker’s run for political office.
The position is unpaid, which makes “firing” the Hall of Famer more awkward.
Herschel’s son Christian took to Twitter to point out the irony of firing a volunteer with valuable athletic experience and knowledge at the same time political controversy is dominating the sports world.
TV show host Dr. Oz, a holdover from the Trump administration, was also fired from a volunteer position.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup:
A live action movie version of the perenially popular board game Dungeons & Dragons is coming with A-list star Chris Pine (Star Trek, Wonder Woman). There’s currently no release date or plot synopsis, but Pine did describe the tone of the film to Collider, calling it a mix of “Game of Thrones, Princess Bride, Goonies and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”
That sounds groundbreaking.
Or, terrible.
We’ll have to wait and see.
Christina Ricci (Black Snake Moan, Capser) will once again play a major role in an Addams Family project. The actress first played Wednesday Addams in 1991, and presumably will step into the shoes of a different character at this point. Considering this is produced by Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd), there’s a good chance this one makes a splash in the pop culture landscape.
Eleven years after the last entry in the uber-popular fantasy novel series, 10 years and three years after the record-breaking HBO series concluded, novelist George R.R. Martin says he’s still no closer to finishing the final novel The Winds of Winter. Which, ummm, tells the story that’s already been seen on screen (more or less).
Martin published on his blog that he made “less progress on The Winds of Winter in 2021 than in 2020, but less is not none.”
OK Boomer.
The next (guaranteed) entry into the saga comes when HBO debuts the spinoff show House of the Dragon later this year (first teaser here).
The Polish-novels-turned-hit-vidoe-games-turned-Netflix-show The Witcher will continue on in video game form, although the next game is likely years away at this point. The last entry into the game series, The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt was originally released in 2015, but due out again later this year with updated graphics due to the immense popularity of the franchise.
The next entry into The Witcher TV saga is due on Netflix later this year, with The Witcher: Blood Origin set roughly 1,2000 years before the events of the main show, with Michelle Yeoh (James Bond: Tomorrow Never Dies, Crazy Rich Asians) in the lead role for the six episode miniseries.
In another blow to the business model of traditional cable TV, YouTube is now offering thousands of movies and TV episodes for free (with ads). See the lineup here.
MUSIC NEWS: It’s tough in the streaming era to determine what artists are “big enough” to constitute coverage as “music news,” but considering that Canadian rockers Arcade Fire almost single handedly kicked off the indie music revolution of the early aughts and took home “Best Album” at the Oscars for their album The Suburbs (which is worth a spin if you never heard it the first time).
This week, Will Butler (brother of frontman Win Butler) announced he left the band after recording Arcade Fire’s forthcoming 2022 album (no release date yet). There are few bands big enough to note a single member stepping away, but Arcade Fire fits the bill.
Elsewhere, legendary rapper Pusha T went public with the fact that he was paid “pennies” when he wrote the McDonalds “I’m Loving It” jingle twenty years ago. So, Push wrote a “diss track” against McDonald’s fish sandwich, and cashed a fat check from Arbys for his trouble.
And finally, my favorite band of all time, The Gaslight Anthem have returned after an eight year hiatus!
NEW MUSIC: If you haven’t heard the lore around independent country artist Zach Bryan, it’s a heck of a tale.
The Oklahoma native started posting videos of his country songs to Twitter, and the absolutely blew up. Complicating the quick success was the fact that Bryan was active duty Navy when his online fandom started to build, and sometimes deployed.
Bryan’s first two records were self-recorded in airbnb’s over the course of 1-3 days. Sound quality and polish didn’t matter.
The music video for Zach’s lastest single, “Highway Boys,” opens with one of his friends exclaiming “that’s an Okie boy in Times Square! That’s an Okie Boy in Times Square!”
When you come from a small place (as I did), sometimes you just need someone who looks like you, who’s from a place like where you’re from, to make it…just so you know for sure it’s possible.
I believe that’s what Zach Bryan is right now, the voice of a lot of kids from the sticks who have been ignored for generations in mainstream movies, TV shows and pop culture. (Note: “country” music pumped out on modern radio, and designed, edited and curated by major corporations doesn’t count).
MUSIC/MY PICK: The story of Brave Saint Saturn is an odd one. Vocalist/songwriter Reese Roper built a passionate fanbase around his (often goofy) stage presence as the frontman for 90’s ska favorites Five Iron Frenzy. But after a broken engagement and some very real life setbacks hit Roper, he realized channeling those experiences into…ska…just didn’t really work.
And so the indie-pop outfit B.S.S. was born. The side project’s debut released in 2003, and (loosely) follows the journey of an astronaut crew stuck on the dark side of one of Saturn’s moons, unlikely to make it back home again.
It’s a heck of a vehicle for Roper’s sharp pen, particularly on the track “Estrella,” chronicling the death of close friend Matt Estrella, who succumbed to a rare disease at 25 after Matt lost his hearing and part of his vision.
It’s a track that plays back-to-back with “Heart Still Beats,” which finds the humanity in a couple of overlooked souls in Denver’s homeless/druggie scene.
Roper was much younger than I am now when Brave Saint Saturn was created. But the album still holds up because losing hope at the cruelty of the world (and then, hopefully, finding it again) is a nearly universal human experience.
Until the next one,
-sth