"The NBA is Too Woke" -Legendary NBA Coach & Democrat, Marvel Finally Has a Hit Again?, Can Musicians Change a Political Landscape? The Conservative Pundit Civil War (The Five for 04/29/23)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
It’s Friday, so let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
This week, legendary basketball coach Phil Jackson (11 championships—6 with Jordan’s Bulls, 5 with Kobe’s Lakers) said he didn’t watch the NBA anymore, due to the game being “too political.”
This statement was called out by Jalen Rose, best known as a member of the “Fab 5” Michigan teams in 1992-1993, and an NBA journeyman who played for six different teams. Rose commented on Jackson’s distaste for replacing the players names with phrases on jerseys during the 2021 season:
You’re sitting there watching the game with your grandkids, and you think it’s funny when “Justice” passes the ball to “Equal Opportunity.”
Ummm…it’s funny because THOSE AREN’T THE PLAYERS NAMES.
However well intentioned, cheering for “Group Economics” to take a 10 foot jump shot gives off major “I’m Just a Bill” vibes. There’s just no way to keep those jerseys from redlining the meter on the Cringe Factor.
There’s an odd phenomenon happening right now where some people think that complete strangers MUST consume a product, or Group A will call Group B “racist,” “homophobic,” etc.
Rose is a part of Group A, which are also the type of people who claim blue collar workers MUST return to drinking Bud Light ASAP.
For the record, I have no dog in the fight in the Bud Light boycott, due to the fact that I’m allergic to wheat—I’ve never had Bud Light, or any other wheat-based beverage.
I first encountered a “Group A” person when I posted that I probably wouldn’t buy any U2 tickets in the future, after the band supported abortion in Ireland. (My position has since softened on this stance).
I explained that I wasn’t boycotting the band—I still liked them, and would probably pick up additional releases on vinyl—but I didn’t want to throw $100+ in their pockets.
In my opinion, U2 were unique in this situation—in that they claimed to be pro-human rights and religious Christians. I wouldn’t hold Eminem, The Rolling Stones or Beyonce to the same standards.
A woman I barely knew, who was in a local band in Chicago called me a bigot on Facebook.
Me: “so what you’re saying is that I am not allowed, as an adult, to be in control of my own entertainment budget. You get to choose how I spend the money I earned.”
Woman: “I know I’m being crazy. But you’re being more crazy.”
Me: “By not attending a concert that hasn’t even been booked yet. U2 isn’t even on tour.”Woman: “you hate women.”
Me: “Because I MIGHT not attend a U2 concert. Who knows if U2 will ever tour again?”
If basketball fans turn off the NBA…if blue collar workers never order another Bud Light again…if I do (or don’t) ever attend another concert by ANY artist…are all personal choices, not political ones.
Politics (from Greek: Πολιτικά, politiká, 'affairs of the cities') is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups.
Drinking a beer, turning the TV to (or away) from the NBA and/or buying a concert ticket are not the “affairs of cities.” If I don’t watch the NBA playoffs, it won’t create potholes on the interstate—therefore, it’s nobody’s business.
If you don’t like that other people aren’t drinking Bud Light—go buy a case, and donate it to a nonprofit fundraiser. If you’re angry that an NBA coach isn’t watching the NBA playoffs—watch them all yourself. Jackson is only one person—you can neutralize his metric with your own.
Oh, and for the record:
The NBA is currently at a 12-year high for TV ratings during round one of the playoffs.
Bud Light sales are down 17%, as of Wednesday, 04/25.
U2 has not had a national tour since that conversation—but you can catch their Vegas residency in September and October. Which I won’t be able to attend, due to just starting a business and having two kids under 5. Or, because I’m a bigot, according to a Facebook rando.
[two]
Conservative comedian and pundit Steven Crowder, who’s been riddled with controversy over the last year, announced his divorce, may finally be the downfall of one of the biggest names in politics (or maybe not).
If you’re not familiar with Crowder, who first rose to prominence in the early 2010’s as a contributor to Fox News, he boasts a larger audience than any cable network, including the one that launched him.
Last year, Crowder was offered $50 million over four years by Conservative powerhouse The Daily Wire, which he considered to be an unfair offer. Crowder responded by leaking a phone call with his longtime personal friend, Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing. Which is a slimey move, but technically not illegal.
However, due to a leaked Ring video (side note: GET RID OF YOUR RING CAMERAS—they’re easily hacked),
The Ring footage, released Thursday by journalist Yashar Ali on his Substack, shows a fight in the run-up to what the YouTuber has called a “horrendous divorce.”
While being berated, Crowder’s wife Hilary repeatedly tries to reassure her husband that she loves him and is “committed.”
“I love you … but your abuse is sick,” she told him at one point — with him warning sternly: “Watch it. Watch it. F–king watch it.”
Crowder reportedly admitted to later inside the house threatening his wife: “I will f–k you up.”
The nearly 3 1/2-minute video, from June 2021, starts with Crowder smoking as he berates Hilary — who was 8 months pregnant with their twins — for not adhering to the “boundaries” he had set for her.
Again offering to get her husband’s grocery needs, Hilary says she needs “some space,” telling him: “I love you — I love you very much.”
“I love you. I’m committed to you,” his wife tells Crowder, who snaps: “Put on some gloves. Are you committed enough to do those things? … walk the dogs and put on some gloves.
“Are you committed enough to get the medication?” he asks, referring to what the report said was a treatment for the dogs that Hilary feared would be toxic for pregnant women.
Crowder admitted on audio to his “f–k you up” threat after the couple went inside the house, realizing he went too far, Ali said. Still, it was pivotal to his wife’s decision to finally file for divorce months later.
Before then, she gave birth to their twins in August 2021 — but Crowder “chose not to be with his wife during the birth of their twin children,” Hilary’s family told Ali.
My dude, you bailed on the birth of your children? And tried to force your pregnant wife to handle dog medication that could harm your unborn children?
There’s certainly truth to the fact that every public personality has issues (you need a pretty big ego to be pretty famous), but Crowder’s troubles don’t end there.
Dave Laundau, a former personality on Steven’s show, claims Crowder attempted censor him, and allegedly tried to own the right to Laundau’s comedy special, a far worse deal than Crowder alleges the Daily Wire offered him.
It now looks as if it’s possible Crowder and Daily Wire pundit Candace Owens may sue each other over comments each of them have made about the other.
Two reasons why all this matters:
Conservative internet media is bigger than their mainstream, politically left counterparts (CNN, MSNBC, etc.) So big now, that it’s breaking into different factions.
Crowder built his own financial pipeline, and can’t be canceled. For both better and worse, this is the new creator economy. The good news is, no one can be canceled under this system. The other news is…audiences may choose to support creators who really don’t deserve the dollars or attention.
There’s nothing I can do about that latter part, but Crowder won’t be getting my $5/month, or any additional YouTube or rumble views from my phone.
It’s not the gross marriage clip. It’s not the screwing over his longtime friend by leaking a phone call. It’s not attempting to steal profits from Laundau, a fellow comedian. It’s not the potential lawsuit against Candace Owens, when Crowder claims to be a free speech absolutist.
It’s the combination of those things. At some point, the evidence becomes overwhelming. In my opinion, we reached that point this week.
[three]
This week, Old Crow Medicine Show violin player Country Music Can Lead America Out of Its Obsession With Guns, wrote an op-ed for the NY Times, with a headline proclaiming “Country Music Can Lead America Out of Its Obsession With Guns.” (It’s paywalled, but you can guess where the whole thing is going).
Earlier this month, Secor took to Rolling Stone to insist on meetings with top politicians:
I want to sit down with [Tennessee] Governor Lee. I want to sit down with Senator [Marsha] Blackburn and Senator [Bill] Hagerty. And I want to just be able to talk. I’m not upset with those people. I’m upset with the circumstances of the America that I’m bringing my children up in. And even though I didn’t vote for those guys, they are the leaders of my state, and of my state in the nation. I need them to know that I want to peaceably demonstrate how unacceptable the new terms of being a parent in Nashville, Tennessee, are. But I’m not doing it with vitriol. I’m doing it because I demand action from my elected officials on this subject.
Uhhh…wut?
My dude, if you feel the need to protest, go do that.
And I’m not mocking you (too much), but having a minor hit in 16 years ago (this one, which is quite annoying) does not give you the license for spur-of-the-moment political leaders, no matter how deeply you feel your feelings.
Saving Country Music had an excellent take:
First and foremost, lumping the responsibility for either addressing or curtailing mass shootings in America on a genre of music—or even worse, to claim a genre is somehow responsible or culpable for these tragedies—is a rather deleterious and irresponsible enterprise. It’s similar to blaming video games for mass shootings, which has been disproven in multiple studies. By titling the op/ed “Country Music Can Lead America Out of Its Obsession With Guns,” and later saying that “silence is complicity,” there is an active effort to implicate country music in these tragic events by implying that the genre is in a position of power to do something about them that it just isn’t.
Ketch Secor and I obviously disagree on guns—and that’s ok. I’m not going to stop listening to his music over it. (Well, technically, I never STARTED listening to his music, because it’s bad, but just pretend Old Crow Medicine Show is good—for the sake of argument).
As a society, we already tested the “pop culture has to push a message to the forefront” thing—specifically, with Disney and Marvel. Minds were not changed, but audiences tuned out of the Wokeness, with the MCU enduring three or four flops in a row at the box office, a once unthinkable stat.
Country music artists can’t usher in a new era of gun control—but country music artists can turn fans away from the genre, wholesale, by switching from art to propaganda.
Old Crow Medicine Show’s new single is called “Louder Than Guns,” and the lyrics are pretty ham-fisted, an infomercial set to old-timey fiddle.
If the message was reversed, and this was a pro-gun anthem, I’d still find the song to be just as off-putting.
It’s tough to define art vs. propaganda, but to paraphrase a Supreme Court Justice Stephen Potter Stewart in a lewdness case before the Supreme Court in 1964, he simply replied “I know it when I see it.”
In this case, I know it when I hear it.
Country music artists are free to churn out this kind of material, but it won’t affect the ballot box, and may just tank the Billboard Charts.
[four]
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A guy went viral on TikTok this week for admitting he had been paying for 18 months on a 36 month car lease—and realized he didn’t get to keep the vehicle at the end.
On basically every social platform—this gentleman was dunked on for his stupidity.
Was it stupid?
Sure.
However, there is no part of high school or college that teaches basic financial literacy.
Look, I’m a free markets person—but it’s arrogant and insane to think that nobody falls through the cracks of the “knowledge floor,” the baseline set of facts about the world we (hope) every adult passes.
But unless someone sits you down as a kid to discuss compound interest, investing…and how to make purchases like cars and homes, your ONLY options are A). do a LOT of self-education or B). learn through the pain of trial and error.
Rather thank making fun of this TikToker, it would be much more helpful for us to ask ourselves who in our own lives could be vulnerable to financial schemes and being cheated, and figure out how to talk to that person about money.
[five]
After several mediocre movie and TV releases, Marvel is starving for a hit. Looks like they’re going to land one with the final Guardians of the Galaxy film, which critics are calling the best MCU entry since Avengers: Endgame.
In theaters next week.
I’m trying to care here, I really am. Netflix just dropped the trailer for The Witcher season 3. What was once supposed to be a head-to-head competitor to Game of Thrones started out strong, before languishing in season 2 and producing a laughably bad spin-off (The Witcher: Blood Origin scored 30% with critics, 13% with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes).
Then, Henry Cavill either left to be Superman full time, or got fired for pushing back on the writing team’s disregard for the source material (a series of Polish novels), and Liam Hemsworth (Thor’s IRL brother) is stepping into the title role for season 4.
I love The Witcher 3 video game, and I’ve read a couple of the novels. I WANT to care, but don’t feel much of a pull to push this to the top of my watchlist.
Streaming 06/29, with a part 2 to the season later in the year.
The early reactions to The Flash are out—and they’re overwhelmingly positive. It’s possible that a storyline pulling together DC characters and actors into a single film (going back to Michael Keaton—who first portrayed the Cape Crusader during the Regan administration), can overshadow the disturbing behavior of star Ezra Miller.
The new trailer—wow. I’m pretty tepid on comic book properties these days—but I hope to catch this in theaters. Opening 06/16.
I’m probably highly biased here, as I really love basketball and grew up in the 90’s, but the remake of White Men Can’t Jump (originally starring Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes) looks WAY better than your average straight-to-streaming release.
Jack Harlow is one of the most popular rappers in the world right now…which runs the risk of a vanity casting (“just throw popular person in a movie, audiences will tune in”—like when American Idol made a rom-com with the two finalists from season 1).
But judging from two minutes of footage here—Harlow looks to be a more than capable leading man, at least for a small project. Lol
I’ll be checking this one out. On Hulu 05/19.
NEW MUSIC: If you’ve never heard of the indie rock super trio, boygenius is made up of three of the top singer/songwriters in the world right now. Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker.
This is subtle indie rock—but there’s a host of influences baked in—from the aim-for-the-rafters Bruce Springsteen anthems, to 1940’s crooner music and even a touch of tent-revival Gospel sonics.
The group’s freshman LP has been out for a month now, so I’ve spent some time with it—and I’m listing this as one of the best albums of the year so far.
Unless something crazy changes—this is a top 10 release for 2023.
Until the next one,
-sth