Virginia School District Cyber-Stalking Parents? Breaking Bad Star Ignorant to Gov. Persecution of Hollywood, Amazon's Lord of the Rings Series in Trouble? (The Five for 02/18/22)

Hey, welcome to The Five.

Apologies this one is a little late.

It’s Friday, so let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.

[one]

Working class Americans of all races are turning away from Democratic candidates, a dramatic reversal in the political landscape since 2015, when President Obama enjoyed huge poll numbers.

The American Prospect reports:

Thirty years ago, as a Yale academic and pollster, I first did research on the workers of Macomb County, Michigan, and labeled the defecting, unionized, ethnic Catholic suburban voters among them as “Reagan Democrats.” (That work appeared in one of The American Prospect’s first issues and caught the attention of the governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton.) Macomb County voters had given John F. Kennedy his biggest suburban margin of victory in 1960, but they later felt betrayed by Democrats and voted for Ronald Reagan in 1984. Since then, presidential aspirants have visited Macomb to show they could win the trust of discontented white factory workers across America’s Rust Belt.

Today, the Democrats’ working-class problem isn’t limited to white workers. The party is also losing support from working-class Blacks and Hispanics—a daunting 12 points off their margin since 2016, according to Ruy Teixeira.

Even before last November’s election, commentators and analysts were pointing to the erosion of Democrats’ working-class support. Then Democrats lost Virginia’s gubernatorial race, where Republican Glenn Youngkin won three-quarters of white voters without a four-year degree and two-thirds of those in rural and small-town Virginia. His campaign generated such high voter turnout in Trump country that it increased the white vote share from two-thirds in 2018 and 2020 to three-quarters. If Republicans continue winning working-class votes at the rate they did in Virginia, Democrats have little chance.

I spent the latter half of my childhood in a very strong union area (around Moline, IL where John Deere, and the John Deere labor union, essentially run the local economy).

Recently, one thing that’s been fascinating for me to observe on social media is second and third generation union workers defecting from being reliable Democratic ticket punchers over a handful of issues:

• Labor unions seem to be more concerned with far-left political talking points than promoting wages, benefits and safe working conditions.

• They’re sick of their kids’ in person learning being shut down, masks being required when COVID has a 99.4% survival rate for minors, according to UNICEF.

• This is just my observation, but they seem exhausted from being told they’re racists, and that everyone is racist now (including Jews and Asians apparently, as the far left is now using the term BIPOC-blacks, indigenous and people of color, which seems to exclude some minorities).

• For the first time in my lifetime, Republicans are now seen as more trustworthy on education than Democrats (see the next story for more on that).

I don’t think it’s correct or accurate to call these blue collar voters “Republican.”

I think it’s correct and accurate to call them pissed off.

After Trump’s victory over Hillary in 2016, there was a brief moment in the mainstream media where big questions were being asked about the working class and “flyover state” poverty, with a lot of attention on the incredible memoir Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance.

The book was turned into a Netflix movie with a renowned helmed by renowned directort Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13) and Oscar nominees Amy Adams (Arrival, American Hustle) and Glen Close (The Big Chill, Fatal Attraction).

Upon release, it was utterly destroyed by critics and beloved by audiences…which seems to be a major bellwether in the coastal elite’s view of working class Americans in the heartland.

A few far left Democrats, often led by the Squad (AOC and crew) are dragging the Democratic party away from kitchen table issues and towards being the official representatives of the self-proclaimed multi-hyphenates covered on the popular Twitter account Libs of TikTok.

The Dems who can drive this are from districts that are extreme outliers from the rest of the country, who really can’t be defeated.

Members of the party that appeal more broadly, such as Joe Machin, Kirsten Sinema and Tulsi Gabbard, are often attacked by the same mainstream media that ripped Hillbilly Elegy apart.

The short term results are pretty obvious…the Dems will lose big in November.

But this is not a “rah rah, Democrats lose, Republicans win” story.

When one party goes too far into the deep end in modern politics…we all lose.

The data shows that as the parties move further away from each other, extremism increases. So, the far left actually creates people on the far right, and vice versa.

[two]

A watchdog group uncovered a school district in Virginia attempting to hire a company to run surveillance on teachers, students and even parents.

Breitbart reports:

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) is looking to implement a surveillance and intelligence-gathering service to monitor student, parent, and teacher social media accounts for “hate speech” and “social media threats.”

According to documents obtained by Parents Defending Education (PDE), FCPS is looking to set aside $200,000 for a service that will “monitor social media threats, harassment, hate speech and bullying” by way of “active listening,” “deep and dark web sources not visible through traditional search engines,” and “Open Source Intelligence,” according to a request for proposal.

Using these tools, FCPS will begin data collection to “classify aliases, usernames, emails [sic] websites, etc.” and “visually identify relationships and connections between persons” in order to “detect [and] help deter any negative actions or consequences coming from social media which may be directed to racial groups or any student or teacher within FCPS.”

The surveillance system will also “save search queries and set alerts for active listening” and also sets “no limits on searches, or the amount of data that can be saved.”

The move comes after the embattled FCPS has faced significant criticism online for several actions, including supplying phonographic and pedophilic materials for students to view and playing “privilege bingo” in which they classified being a “military kid” as possessing privilege.

According to PDE, FCPS “tracked comments criticizing the ‘privilege’ bingo card and posted comments about the criticism as a reply to tweets.”

The district is one of the most controversial in the nation, in large part due to allegedly mishandling a rape allegation in 2018, resulting in a lawsuit from a student who claims her sexual assault report was ignored. The case may go all the way to the Supreme Court.

If rape allegations weren’t enough, Fairfax has been in the news for keeping two books in the curriculum (previously covered in The Five), “Lawn Boy” and “Gender Queer: A Memoir”, both of which depict sex acts between elementary school boys and adult men.

Parents are, in my opinion, more than justified in their negative emotions and I wouldn’t be surprised if some parents became unreasonable or made threats.

Which is never acceptable.

But we have a system for that—local law enforcement.

There is never a reason for a school district to go full illegal CIA and spy on parents.

[three]

Actor Bryan Cranston, best known for his seminal role in Breaking Bad, openly came out in favor of censorship while promoting his new theater production.

The LA Times reports:

The play asks if there should be limits to free speech, and if so, why? It tests the boundaries of the free speech ideal by examining the traditional arbiters of that speech — those who get to decide whose voice is lifted and whose voice is quashed. It suggests the existence of a moral compass in an age when truth is often called relative by special-interest groups opposed to it.

Brandon Scott, who plays the Black academic Baxter Forrest in “Power of Sail,” tries to stop Nichols from hosting Carver at the symposium while citing 20th century philosopher Karl Popper’s “paradox of tolerance.” Popper’s idea is that if a society — in pursuit of tolerance without limits — tolerates the intolerant, the latter will eventually destroy that society.

Cranston is taken with the theory and leans forward in his chair while discussing it.

“There need to be barriers, there need to be guard rails,” he says. “If someone wants to say the Holocaust was a hoax, which is against history … to give a person space to amplify that speech is not tolerance. It’s abusive.”

That’s certainly how the protesting students in the play feel, but Nichols dismisses them as “babies” who can “never know offense, never be challenged.” They wouldn’t last a day in the 1960s or ’70s, he scoffs. He is baffled by the idea of “safe space meets” after he is invited to one by Hillel and the Black Students Assn.

Similar debates have played out on college campuses for years now, and “Power of Sail” throws the inherent generational divide of these disagreements into stark relief. Cranston recognized the hallmarks of his own generation — and its many limitations — in Nichols’ words. The role caused him to begin reexamining his beliefs.

“What is safe? Well, emotionally safe. Without judgment, safe. All-inclusive, safe. Empathetic, safe. And that’s what gives me hope with new generations,” he says. “Because it’s a beautiful thing to say, ‘We’re all entitled to be who we are without judgment.’”

First of all, hosting a Holocaust denier at a college is a strawman argument if I ever saw one.

Secondly, the last time censorship was a major issue in Hollywood, it was the government pushing limitations on free speech, and the creative class pushing back during a dangerous time. In 1950 ten screenwriters were falsely accused of being Communist spies, and put behind bars…simply for writing screenplays somebody in the government’s House on Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) didn’t like.

From History.com:

The Hollywood Ten paid a high price for their actions at the HUAC hearings. In November 1947, they were cited for contempt of Congress. Facing trial on that charge in April 1948, each man was found guilty and sentenced to spend a year in prison and pay a $1,000 fine. After unsuccessfully appealing the verdicts, they began serving their terms in 1950. While in prison, one member of the group, Edward Dmytryk, decided to cooperate with the government. In 1951, he testified at a HUAC hearing and provided the names of more than 20 industry colleagues he claimed were communists.

Movies, careers, families and livelihoods were destroyed in a dark period of American history that shares some DNA with the infamous Salem Witch Trials.

One of the first lessons in civics should be “don’t pass any law you don’t want used against you.”

Cranston no doubt believes he’s in the right here, and the power to silence the voices of others won’t be used for ill purposes in Hollywood.

As for Bryan’s example of a Holocaust denier on campus:

A). C’mon, in 2022?

The Holocaust deniers aren’t in higher ed, but you can watch one on ABC’s The View if you feel like it.

B). I would happily debate an extremist once a week in a public forum, if I had the time.

Whoopie Goldberg is a great example as to why. I’m sure that there are people who, prior to Whoopie’s egregious statements, believed the Nazis drove the Jews towards extinction as a religion, not a race.

An idiotic celebrities ignorance opened the door for an important conversation.

Going back to Cranston’s comments, if he’s so concerned with creating a “safe, all-inclusive space” he should be calling out Justin Trudeau after the Canadian Prime Minister accused a Jewish descendent of Holocaust survivors of supporting swastikas this week or might lend his public voice to the Uyghur refugees in Southern California who see the Communist Chinese Olympic games as a slap in the face, while the CCP continues to hold their countrymen in forced labor camps.

From what I can discern, what Cranston really means is “I want to be able to shut down people who say things me and my rich and famous friends don’t like.”

Thank God an actor doesn’t have that power…because no one should wield the sword of censorship, which will swings ever wider until we’re all decapitated, eventually.

[four]

A father in Florida shot and killed an 18-year-old gunman who showed up at the family’s home in Florida to presumably murder his daughter, a 14-year-old TikTok influencer daughter.

The New York Times reports:

After that, Mr. Justin messaged Ava on Venmo with a breakdown of what he would pay for “booty pics” and photos of her feet, “stuff that a 14-year-old shouldn’t be sending,” she said. She blocked him on all her accounts. In Venmo messages viewed by The Times, Mr. Justin pleaded with her to unblock him, sending $159.18, then $100, and finally $368.50 with the message, “sorry this is all I have left i’m broke.” Mr. Majury said he texted Mr. Justin’s cellphone, told him that Ava was a minor, and demanded that he stop contacting her.

Even the most ardent gun control supporters will likely agree here…if someone shows up with a loaded 12 gauge to kill your family, you have the right to self defense.

However, the bigger question here is around parents who allowed a 14-year-old girl to sell selfies to an adult man.

If you’re a parent, you have to make your own call about kids and social media…but the simplest answer to this disturbing incident…would have been to just have the girl wait to build an “influencer” career until she was an adult, with some more life experience.

I put 0% of the blame on the girl here, she was a 14-year-old doing 14-year-old things…but her parents should have had more common sense than this.

Only the gunman died, but the psychological scars on the family may never heal.

[five]

Stranger Things will return in two parts, May 27th and July 1, respectively and then will end the show with an eventual season 5. However, creators The Duffer Brothers are stating there will be spinoff shows/movies set in this fiction world.

“There are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of Stranger Things; new mysteries, new adventures, new unexpected heroes,” But first we hope that you stay with us as we finish this tale of a powerful girl named Eleven and her brave friends, of a broken police chief and a ferocious mom, of a small town called Hawkins and an alternate dimension known only as the Upside Down.”

The Walking Dead universe may not enjoy the media coverage the show once received…but the zombie universe continues to stay relevant to audiences…with another show starting in that world. Olivia Munn (New Girl, X-Men Apocalypse) will join the cast of the anthology series Tales from the Walking Dead, on AMC/AMC+ this summer, making it the fourth TV show set in the fictional world. We can assume that if the projects still attract big name talent, the viewership isn’t slowing down.

Taylor Sheridan’s first original TV show, Yellowstone, is so far in the stratosphere that the writer/director is currently producing…a staggering amount of TV. In addition to the Yellowstone spin-off 1883 and Michigan prison drama Mayor of Kingstown, Sheridan announced he’s working on 1932 (yet another spinoff of Yellowstone), King of Tulsa, a gangster show starring Sylvester Stallone as a mafia member who’s fresh out of prison in Oklahoma, Lioness, starring Zoe Saldana (Star Trek, Guardians of the Galaxy) in the role of a real-life counter terrorist operative (Nicole Kidman is also producing) and Land Man starring Billy Bob Thorton, set in the world of the west Texas oil boom. The new series will roll out in 2023 and 2024.

The most expensive TV show in history will debut on September 2nd via Amazon Prime, when the retail giant brings viewers back to Middle Earth in Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

The first trailer, which debuted during the Super Bowl, and many longtime Tolkein fans reacted negatively…which some are blaming on racism. However, what I’m seeing in my social media feeds are takes about the trailer looking kinda dumb, and the armor looking cartoon-y.

LOTR: The Rings of Power allegedly cost a whopping $1 billion, so if this isn’t a hit…that’s a big enough loss to sting even Amazon.

MOVIE/MY PICK: It’s not exactly difficult to score the #1 spot at the box office by opening on Super Bowl weekend, but even still, Death on the Nile had a notable opening for a franchise that was largely shoved aside as an “old people movie” after the first entry, Murder on the Orient Express (2017).

Both films are just barely above “rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes, which I find baffling. No, scratch that…I should find it baffling. The pair of movies are notably lacking in the wokeness department, due to being based on Agatha Christie novels from 1934 and 1937…and this seems to be a primary motivation for the low scores from critics.

Don’t buy it. Both movies are tightly wound mysteries (not surprising, given the source material), with top notch acting and excellent cinematography that glows with the shimmer of old Hollywood. (Glamour, class and style aren’t adjectives used to describe many movies these days).

There’s also the possibility that Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) and Armie Hammer (The Social Network) create negative bias for Nile just by acting…the former, unfairly (due to being a veteran of the Israeli army, which is required in Israel) and the latter because…Hammer because the heir to the Arm & Hammer baking soda empire has claimed he’s a cannibal.

Hammer’s weirdness aside, Death on the Nile is essential viewing.

MUSIC/MY PICK: Given that it’s a rather dull week as far as new music goes, I wanted to highlight one of my favorite albums of all time…which didn’t receive much attention when it was released in 2006…and hasn’t received much attention since, either.

The first sound on Gasoline Heart’s debut You Know Who You Are, is a guitar amp turning on.

The last sound, when the final track concludes, is an amp turning off. Sonically, you’ve heard this before (mainly via Pearl Jam), but the tight songwriting and attention to detail have kept this album fresh and in regular rotation for me for the better part of two decades.

If that sounds even a little intriguing, I hope you tap the play button.

Until the next one,

-sth