Leaving San Francisco for...Topeka?! SNL Cast Member Thinks Being Rich(er than her) is Wrong, Defying the CDC by Double Masking Post-Vax, End of Political Bickering at Work? (The Five for 04/30/21)
Hey, welcome to The Five, a bi-weekly publication shunning clickbait to cover the stories that matter.
As a reminder of the new schedule:
Tuesdays—hard news.
Fridays—cultural analysis and commentary.
Let’s get into the Friday edition.
[one]
Here at The Five, emerging micro-trends that could later become full fledged cultural forces.
There’s been a lot of digital ink spilled over the exodus of Silicone Valley to Miami and Austin in particular and the California andNew York exodus to Texas, Tennessee and Florida in general.
But something else is happening below the surface. As companies shift to full time remote work, small towns and cities are paying workers up to $20,000 to relocate to middle America.
Tyler Jaggers is a video game designer who took his $47,000 down payment for a house in San Francisco and purchased a home outright in in Topeka, KS. The city gave him $10,000 to move there along with other perks in the Choose Topeka program.
While $10,000 by itself might not be enough to pry a skilled worker from a tech hub, Ross says the incentive helps — partly by showing tech workers that Topeka really wants them.
“Because home prices are so low in Topeka, $10,000 is meaningful,” he says. “You can get a very nice house for $140,000 or $150,000.”
Jaggers says he’s happy with his move, even if he did arrive just before a cold winter. He has connected with other game developers in town and enjoys the much lower cost of living.
“For me,” he says, “it’s a no-brainer.”
Jaggers missed out on one blandishment. Choose Topeka offers $1,000 worth of Jimmy John’s deliveries to new arrivals who live within a mile of the sandwich shop, but his house is outside those boundaries.
The craziest part of this story is that there were already other video game developers there by the time Jaggers moved in as Topeka continues to attract remote tech workers.
I’ve quoted James Altucher’s “New York is Dead Forever” article, previously in The Five, but this is new evidence he was right. This is not to say that New York, San Francisco, Chicago and L.A. will become apocalyptic wastelands, but a permanent downturn in population in the “big four” metro areas seems all but inevitable.
This is nothing more than my opinion from talking to professional contacts in New York and San Francisco who chose to move elsewhere, but I believe that when the excitement and sizzle of major cities was taken away during the COVID lockdowns and forced many to confront the transient nature of big city life.
Sure, there’s always a new restaurant, new bar, cool theater show or band to see…but your friends are always moving to better neighborhoods or other cities and most people are without the support of blood relatives or other longstanding connections to help navigate the bumps and bruises of life. Stack on the cramped housing and headaches of urban density, and it’s not surprising remote workers are finding smaller cities and towns refreshing.
Areas currently offering cash (and prizes, like a free mountain bike) include West Virginia, Maine, Northern Arkansas, Alaska, Baltimore and Tulsa. As this continues to work, expect to see other cities and rural areas offer their own incentives.
[two]
One “COVID side effect” I don’t think anyone could have predicted a year ago…was the odd trend to somehow want the pandemic life to continue.
This week, MSNBC’s Joy Reid declared that even though the CDC has told the public it’s safe for vaccinated people to be outside unmasked, she proudly double masks to go jogging alone.
While I won’t try to guess Reid’s motivations, it’s hard to view her behavior as anything other than a desire to cling to pandemic living even as government regulations lift.
The Atlantic reported this week that 100% masking at the beginning of the pandemic was for two reasons A). we didn’t know what we were dealing with and B). we needed the vulnerable to mask, and the easiest way to do that was to make everyone do it.
We wear masks for three reasons: to protect ourselves from people who might be infected, to protect others from our infections, and to set social standards and norms appropriate for a pandemic. The last one is also important: A pandemic requires a collective response. As we learn more, we move from broader precautions to targeted mitigations. Early in the pandemic, the existing guidelines that suggested only the sick should wear masks and the objection that we didn’t know all we needed about the effectiveness of masks violated both the need for social norms, by stigmatizing the sick, and the precautionary principle, by letting remaining uncertainty stop us from protecting ourselves as best we could even with imperfect knowledge. So we changed the rules.
Now, a year later, both the sociology of outdoor masks and the precautionary principle operate in the opposite direction, because the science is in. We need to change the rules again, but also explain why.
I’m going to pull out a previous source here and cite this Evie Magazine article once again on the phenomenon of “mask addiction” in Japan, where masking for disease has caused some to treat a mask as a “security blanket” they can’t leave home without after an epidemic ends, according to leading Japanese psychologist Yuzo Kikumoto.
So isn’t it quite troubling when you see some people still covering their faces when they’re by themselves (indoors and out), or even while driving alone? Then there are also those who will insist on wearing a mask while they’re exercising at the gym. In this case, the question is, why? Who are they protecting?
When a person continues to cover their face even when there’s no one around them, wearing a mask stops being “about the science of protecting other people” and becomes about an obsessive psychological need to feel safe and comfortable.
“Vax conspiracy theorist” has been thrown around a lot in 2021. If we’re going to use that term, then let’s apply it fairly across the board.
People who have received a vaccine with a 94-99% effectiveness rating and still wear a mask while outside alone in defiance of the CDC either don’t believe vaccines work or are suffering from some sort of psychological trauma in need of professional help.
It’s odd behavior, but stigmatizing it or mocking these people isn’t going to help them rejoin society. I’ll leave it to mental health professionals to determine how we best assist these people in returning to normal life. But this is certainly the “post COVID” side effect I didn’t see coming.
[three]
Jason Fried is one of the most innovative people in tech, developing the uber-popular project management platform Basecamp as well as the open source coding language Ruby on Rails. He’s also a popular author and blogger who holds the attention of many higher ups in the business world.
This week, Fried informed Basecamp’s employees that political discussions over workplace tech would no longer be allowed in an official blog post. In a world where political bickering has moved from Facebook into office meetings, Fried is the first major business leader (to my knowledge) to stand up and say “we’re avoiding politics at work completely.”
No more societal and political discussions on our company Basecamp account. Today's social and political waters are especially choppy. Sensitivities are at 11, and every discussion remotely related to politics, advocacy, or society at large quickly spins away from pleasant. You shouldn't have to wonder if staying out of it means you're complicit, or wading into it means you're a target. These are difficult enough waters to navigate in life, but significantly more so at work. It's become too much. It's a major distraction. It saps our energy, and redirects our dialog towards dark places. It's not healthy, it hasn't served us well. And we're done with it on our company Basecamp account where the work happens. People can take the conversations with willing co-workers to Signal, Whatsapp, or even a personal Basecamp account, but it can't happen where the work happens anymore.
The company is also moving away from “paternalistic benefits” designed to get employees to join gyms, use farmers markets and continue education and will instead will provide “direct compensation that people can spend on whatever they'd like, privately, without company involvement or judgement.”
Like the first story in this edition…this is a “micro trend” by a major influencer that may scale up.
[four]
Two events happened in entertainment this week that are seemingly unconnected, but I believe point towards the same major trend.
The first is that the Oscars absolutely tanked, with 1/3 of the audience (9.85 million) the show enjoyed just two years ago (29.5 million).
The second is that SNL writer Bowen Yang and cast member Aidy Bryant both took shots at Tesla CEO Elon Musk on social media for being wealthy. Musk will host the live sketch comedy show this weekend.
While it’s true Musk is the third wealthiest man in the world, it’s also true that Bryant and Yang, who both enjoy a net worth of $4 million plus, are well into the “one percent” of American society.
I called my financial planner friend Mike yesterday to see if two two SNL cast members ever needed to work again. “If they lived like an average American on $75,000 per year, they wouldn’t run out of money in a lifetime even if they didn’t invest and let that money sit in savings,” he told me.
So, Bowen and Yang don’t think it’s a moral outrage to be rich…just richer than them.
For the 34 million Americans living below the poverty line, how much of a difference do you think they can see in Musk vs. Yang and Bowen? All three live no doubt live extremely comfortable lives free of the burdens the average Joe faces, such as “how will I get to work if my car breaks down. None of them clean their own toilets, worry about what to do if there’s only enough money for rent or groceries, or hustle between low paying jobs to catch up on unexpected medical debt.
Entertainment is supposed to be an escape from the toil of daily life, and to connect the SNL debacle with the Oscars dying…I believe the common thread is that celebrities often use social media to treat their fans as peasants in a kingdom.
Being a movie star used to be an aspirational dream/fantasy, but that bubble keeps bursting when we see our favorite stars do stuff like use their acceptance speech to tell us it’s evil to eat cheese (which Joaquin Phoenix did after accepting the best actor Oscar for joker).
In 2021, the trend seems to be that we still love TV and movies, just not TV and movie stars. Before social media, we only saw snapshots of our favorite actors and singers through features in magazines and the occasional radio interview.
But when Twitter and Instagram built a direct-to-consumer pipeline for speaking directly to fans, we found out that many celebs…just aren’t in touch with the people they entertain.
This was probably always the case, but for decades PR professionals cleaned up the mess before it hurt the “professional brand” of our most famous faces.
As someone who’s interviewed a pretty decent list of big name actors, directors and athletes, I believe this stems from a deep insecurity many public figures hide from the camera. Providing great sports moments and stories to escape into for a bit and forget the burdens weighing them down is service to humanity, but all too often the people creating pop culture can’t see that.
This leads American celebs to adopt “causes” to champion, and often to so in a tone-deaf manor that alienates an offends the very audience who loves their work and who provide the collective attention has provided lives of tremendous privilege for the famous.
Which is why Americans just don’t want to devote three hours on a Sunday night to watch beautiful people present each other with trophies anymore.
[five]
And as always, let’s head into the weekend with the pop culture roundup:
Mortal Kombat is now the highest grossing R-rated movie of the Pandemic era, and has almost certainly launched a new hit franchise.
And speaking of hit franchises, the Chris Hemsworth Netflix movie Extraction looks to be expanding into an entire universe of spies and assassins if creators Joe and Anthony Russo (Avengers: Endgame, Infinity War) have their way. In addition to a direct sequel starring Hemsworth, an all female spinoff is allegedly in the works.
Michael B. Jordan (Creed, Black Panther) returns to the small screen today via Amazon’s Prime streaming service in Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse. The movie allegedly sets up a sequel following Rainbow Six, an elite counter-terrorism unit that debuted in a Tom Clancy novel by the same name in 1998 and has since lived on through 22 video games with a strong global following. Reviews are mixed, but I’m guessing Jordan’s star power will pull in a solid audience.
This is a weird one…Citizen Kane, long hailed as the greatest movie ever made, no longer has a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes thanks to a scalding review in the Chicago Tribune in 1941 which was recently unearthed. This is the first time an 80 year old movie review has ever dethroned a classic, so it seemed curious enough to note.
Popular BBC period drama Downton Abbey returns as a second feature film this Christmas.
The Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon started production this week, but no word when the show will hit HBO (or how much of the audience will care, after such a terrible ending to the original show). Set 300 years before the events of the original GOT, Dragon features Matt Smith (Dr. Who) and Olivia Cooke (Ready Player One) among the lead cast.
America: The Movie has been announced for Netflix. The animated re-imagining of the country’s founding has been re-imagined as an action/comedy with George Washington wielding a chainsaw and features a gaggle of big name actors doing voice work. You know what, let’s just look at the screenshot. As far as I can tell, that’s Robocop, along with a one-armed Geronimo (who was not born at the time of the Revolution and died in 1909…with both arms). Stream in on June 30th.
The Netflix comedy series Master of None starring Aziz Ansari (Parks and Rec) is returning for a third season after a nearly five year layoff. Based on Anasari’s personal experiences, he revealed at the wrap of season two that the show couldn’t return until he had “some significant experiences” to write about.
I’ve covered the J.J. Abrams Superman reboot previously, but an odd bit of news dropped this week. The man in the red cape will be inspired by…President Obama?! The upcoming film is being penned by bestselling memoirist Ta-Nehisi Coates who recently grabbed headlines by writing a Captain America comic where the Nazi super-villain transformed into…Psychologist and YouTube sensation Jordan B. Peterson. One of the things that makes movies work is that the protagonist isn’t strong enough to defeat the antagonist at first. Given the Obama inspiration, my concern is that Abrams and Coates will make Superman completely invincible and without flaws, which could result in an insufferably dull movie.
New Music: Coldplay are un-broken-up and return with a new single next Friday (05/07). Counting Crows dropped their first new single in seven years (Hat tip: Bonnie). Gen-Z darling Billie Eilishannounced a new album, which is the follow up to a debut that spawned a staggering seven singles (four of which went platinum). Eilish will also be heard in upcoming James Bond: No Time to Die later this year, as she snagged the theme song for the latest outing of the iconic franchise. Sam Williams (grandson of country pioneer Hank Williams) debuted a new single on Stephen Colbert, and it’s pretty great. (Not to be confused with Hank’s great-grandson IV and the Strange Band, who just debuted a single as well). Indie pop extraordinaire Maggie Rogers dropped a new song (and it’s great) and notable and singer-songwriters Birdy, and Julia Michaels released full albums, as did rapper Yelawolf as did Boston based Celtic punk rockers Dropkick Murphys. Finally, I don’t listen to a ton of modern worship music, but Old Church Basement, a joint effort from Elevation Worship and Maverick City Music is really hitting home with me.
[epilogue]
In the waning days of WWII, second Lt. Hiroo Onada (right) was left on Lubong Island in The Philippines to harass Allied troops and destroy infrastructure as the main Japanese Army retreated. His comrades-in-arms were quickly killed, but Onada continued to live in the mountains for more than 30 years, stealing food and setting fire to local villages.
During this time, thousands of pamphlets were dropped from planes explaining the war was over, and even photos and letters from friends and family that were dropped had no effect—Onada believed they were tricks to get him to surrender during a still-active war.
In 1974, a college-dropout-turned explorer Norio Suzuki showed up on Lubong Island and managed to find Onada in just four days and convince him to leave the mountains and rejoin society.
I wish we could end this tale on a heartwarming note, but Suzuki, who was named a national hero, let the fame go to his head. Two years later, Norio Suzuki died in an avalanche in the Himalayan Mountains attempting to prove the existence of the Abominable Snowman.
Until the next one,
-sth