Missing Submarine Was Controlled by $30, Video Game Controller, Palestinian Muslims Ignore Communist Genocide Against Chinese Muslims, American Author Cancels Herself?! (The Five for 06/20/23)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
One not before we kick off. I imagine that some readers on the left side of the aisle may raise an eyebrow about using Breitbart as a source in this issue. I chose to go with an American source over The Print (India) or the Nepal News, which did not read as easily. But you’re welcome to fact-check this story with the international sources.
Also, I asked you to talk back to me about your experience reading The Five:
I found your substack through my good friend Craig Dunham, and have been enjoying your wisdom and take on culture, society, etc. very much. Thank you for all the work you put into it! Your work and TGIF from Bari Weiss' Free Press are my main sources of concise and prescient information during these mad times. I'm happy that there is thoughtful, considerate, and challenging writing like yours out there.
Thanks, from a grateful reader,
Jake
It’s been a unique experience to start this publication for just 20 readers (all my friends/family) and see it grow to a readership of mostly people I've never met.
You’re always welcome to reach out with feedback/thoughts ideas to sethtowerhurd[at]gmail(dot)com or via Twitter.
With that being said…let’s dive into the news.
[one]
As hope dwindles for to rescue the survivors of the missing “Titanic Submarine” it’s possible the deep-water vehicle, which was carrying tourists to view the wreckage of the famous 1912 shipwreck, may have gone down due to…a video game controller.
While the reason for the disaster has not yet been found, one point has been brought up frequently, the fact that the sub was controlled by not just a video game controller, which is not all that unusual for some craft or even things like military drone pilots, but a $30 Logitech PC controller.
The controller, which was shown in videos about the sub before it launched with slightly modified thumbsticks, is a Logitech G F710, currently available on Amazon as a “renewed” (refurbished) version for $30. The original has a 4.2/5 rating.
This is not a PlayStation controller as some have said, even though that’s what it most closely resembles. d was not promised when the controller was built. However, Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions did say, "We run the whole thing with this game controller” before launch, indicating they made it essential to the submersible’s operation.
If you’ve ever used a video game controller, on or off-brand versions, you know that over time, they tend to degrade or can become unreliable. Looking at some reviews of this controller specifically, we can see that like all controllers this also can happen to this one.
This is also an…old controller, I’m not precisely sure when it was first made, but some of these reviews (and there are loads of positive ones!) are from 2012. It’s just a very old controller at this point, though it definitely still works today, as some recent reviews are indeed from this year. But like all controllers, it has the potential to degrade or malfunction in time.
We don’t know what happened for sure, but a CBS News story on the submarine has now gone viral, due to showing just how unsafe the vehicle looks.
The U.S. Coastguard is leading the rescue attempt, although the window to find the survivors before oxygen runs out is narrowing quickly.
[two]
Tensions have arisen between Palestine and other Muslim factions over the former’s relationship with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, who is carrying out Muslim genocide.
The East Turkistan Government in Exile, which represents the oppressed Uyghur and other Turkic communities under Chinese communist rule, condemned Palestinian leaders on Wednesday for meeting with dictator Xi Jinping and endorsing the genocide of Muslims in the region.
East Turkistan, which China calls the “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region” or XUAR, is a Central Asian region that was once a sovereign state, prior to its seizure by mass murderer Mao Zedong in 1949. The majority of its residents are ethnic Uyghurs, though many also have Kazakh and Kyrgyz backgrounds. Islam is the predominant religion in the region.
Chinese Communist Party authorities have violated the human rights of East Turkistanis for decades, but, under Xi, Beijing launched a far more advanced campaign of genocide against the indigenous population. Xi ordered the construction of concentration camps, believed to house up to three million people at their peak, to imprison Uyghurs and force them to abandon their faith and worship Xi. Survivors say they endured communist indoctrination, were forced to eat pork, and were subject to extreme torture, such as beatings, electrocution, gang rapes, forced abortions, forced sterilization, and experiencing the killing of their children.
There’s strong evidence that Uyghur Muslims are used as slave labor. Nike, BMW, Adidas, Samsung, Gap, North Face, Puma and Apple have been accused of benefitting from this practice, although several on the list have made changes.
The Israeli/Palestine conflict is often painted as a religious one…but if the Palestinians cared that much about their Muslim brothers and sisters, I doubt they would take money from the dictator enslaving Uyghurs.
There is a bit of outcry about Uyghur genocide in the U.S., but protests have been bigger in England, France and Germany.
[three]
The Russia/Ukraine war has caused one of the biggest selling American authors to…self cancel.
"I'm making a course correction and I'm removing the book from its publication schedule. It is not the time for this book to be published," Gilbert said in a video posted on Instagram.
"The Snow Forest," which is set in Siberia in the 20th century, tells the story of "a group of individuals who made a decision to remove themselves from society to resist the Soviet government and to try to defend nature against industrialization," according to Gilbert.
The author, whose 2006 bestseller "Eat, Pray, Love" was turned into a feature film starring Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem, said her Ukrainian readers expressed "anger, sorrow, disappointment and pain" over the book's slated release because of its Russian setting.
Yet her decision to pull the book from publication sparked a backlash from some literary groups and notable authors, who argued that her decision, while well intentioned, is misguided. Literary non-profit PEN America called the move "regrettable."
"Ukrainians have suffered immeasurably, and Gilbert's decision in the face of online outcry from her Ukrainian readers is well-intended," PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel said in a statement Monday. "But the idea that, in wartime, creativity and artistic expression should be preemptively shut down to avoid somehow compounding harms caused by military aggression is wrongheaded."
In the early days of the War on Terror, the U.S. did get pretty censorship-y (going as far as to re-name french fries “freedom fries” after France questioned our foreign policy decisions). The multi-platinum Grammy-winning group The Dixie Chicks (now just “The Chicks”) had their music pulled from radio, and fans gathered to destroy the band’s CD’s.
In retrospect, this was insane. The group opposed the war in Iraq, which is now all but universally recognized as a mistake.
Now, the censorship insanity is not the pro-war right reacting to the anti-war left, it’s the pro-war left bowing to…those even further left.
I’ll admit my own bias here, as I thought Eat. Pray. Love. was a terrible book and in my opinion, Gilbert is an average-at-best writer. It’s tough for me to imagine that Ukrainians care that much about an American author while they’re fighting off an invasion, and one has to wonder what the true motivation here.
Keep in mind, the novel is anti-Stalin, the guy who killed 3.9 million Ukranians through starvation.
I see four possibilities.
A. Gilbert is misguided, but genuine.
B. This is a PR move to make the book even bigger when it does release.
C. Gilbert fears the Woke Mob, and this is the easiest way out of the controversy.
D. Like many famous people, Gilbert values attention above all else…and this puts her back in the limelight after a few years of not getting press coverage.
On an individual level, it’s her novel, she can release it (or not) as she pleases.
But for society, we all lose a little when a creative voice is silenced, even when that silence is self-imposed.
It’s too bad Gilbert doesn’t take a page out of The Chick’s playbook, and double down against her detractors, rather than bend the knee.
If you’re not familiar with how the band responded to their CD’s being crushed…well, here you go.
[four]
Well, this one got strange rather quickly.
Democratic Presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast, which kicked off a debate about vaccines (not that surprising) and a demand for $50 million.
Podcast host Joe Rogan challenged vaccine researcher Dr. Peter Hotez to debate presidential candidate and anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he criticized the Democratic presidential candidate for doubling down on his controversial stance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” last week.
Rogan pledged to donate $100,000 to a charity of Hotez’s choosing if he agreed to the appear with the political scion, who has launched a longshot bid to dethrone President Biden in the 2024 Democratic primary.
Rogan’s challenge, which has since been viewed over 25 million times, prompted Hotez to respond in a now-deleted tweet, which turned into a back-and-forth exchange.
“Be serious Joe, that’s what you throw for your hunting buddies on a weekend,” Hotez said. “A $50 million endowment (which You/Spotify/ RFK Jr can easily afford), not for me but so we can continue making low-cost patent-free vaccines for the world’s poor. Preceded by RFK Jr’s public apology.”
Twitter owner Elon Musk chimed in saying Hotez “hates charity” while Kennedy, agreed to a “respectful, congenial, informative debate that the American people deserve.’
“From all the online attacks I’m receiving after this absurd podcast, it’s clear many actually believe this nonsense,” Hotez tweeted on Saturday — along with a Vice News article claiming Spotify was no longer monitoring Rogan’s “vaccine misinformation” — including the conspiracy theory that vaccines cause autism — after Kennedy’s interview on Rogan’s podcast.
Observations:
A. RFK Jr. is winning here. He already has the highest favorability rating of any Presidential candidate, but the Democratic party (so far) refuses to hold primary debates.
B. Hang on, Hotez demanded FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS to appear on a podcast? According to Google, that could be half of Rogan’s entire net worth. I can’t imagine Spotify is going to see $50 million for three hours as a solid investment in a unstable economy.
C. This is yet another example of the Streisand effect. The podcast episode gained some traction, but it wasn’t until Hotez started pushing back on Twitter that news outlets started covering RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine comments. So it was Hotez who is most responsible for spreading anti-vax views.
[five]
Another day…another Presidential candidate.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is the latest Republican to throw his hat in the ring for the crowded GOP primary. In a video on Twitter, Suarez shows himself literally running through the streets of Miami as he recounts his accomplishments as mayor.
He criticized politics as usual in Washington: "America's leaders confuse being loud with actual leading. All Washington wants to do is fight with each other, instead of fighting for the people that put them in office."
Invoking the legacy of his father, Xavier Suarez, who served as the first Cuban-American mayor of Miami, he said he's not backing down from the challenges ahead.
"My dad taught me that you get to choose your battles. And I am choosing the biggest one of my life. I'm going to run for president," Suarez declared.
Suarez is the first Latino candidate to announce a presidential run and his hometown of Miami will be pivotal in 2024. He also speaks Spanish, setting him apart from most others in the field.
In the history of the U.S., no sitting mayor has ever been elected President.
Suarez will be competing to get on the debate stage for the first Republican debate in August. To qualify, candidates must have 40,000 unique donors, be polling at 1% or higher nationally as well as rank for early voting states.
Until the next one,
-sth