Will Florida Imprison These "Red Pill" Sex Offenders?, Why the "Trad" vs "Girl Boss" Debate Matters, Kanye Wants a Musical Comeback--Here's The Reason It Won't Work This Time, (The Five for 03/07/25)
Plus, a Reacher spinoff. Tom Hardy's new crime TV show. A forgotten country pioneer gets his due.
Hey, welcome to The Five.
This was supposed to drop on Friday, but I learned that a very close friend lost his wife due to complications from childbirth, and I just couldn’t finish writing. If you would like to read more about this story or make a donation to support the family, click here.
Whatever this week brings, hold the ones you love tight.
Now, let’s get into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
To kick things off, Podcaster Megyn Kelly kicked off the digital debate heard round the world this week. But first, some background.
One of the strangest turns internet culture has taken in the last decade or so is the “Girl Boss” persona transforming into the “Trad Wife.” The former stereotype popped up in the early 10’s, when Spotify, Uber, Doordash and a host of other startups were rapidly building the world we’re currently living in…and there was a lot of messaging for women to put career before EVERYTHING in order to become millionaire founders of the next great app…or whatever.
Regardless of your gender, I would mark that up as pretty terrible advice.
The backlash came hard, in the form of the “Trade Wife” influencer on Instagram, with accounts like Ballerina Farm, a formerly high power NYC model and professional dancer, who moved out West with her husband to start a farm and have a Gaggle of kids. The farm is…a highly lucrative ecommerce business.
Or, take Nara Smith, an influencer who makes a sandwich by first baking a loaf of bread.
In light of the Trad movement, Megyn Kelly’s tweet about making your own money and getting an apartment came off as very 2010’s Girl Boss, which made part of the internet Big Mad.
But the full context is that Kelly was responding to Conservative Influencer Ashley St. Claire, who had a baby with Elon Musk. The tech founder now has 14 kids with four different women.
St. Claire is raging in the media that Elon is a terrible father…which is something that the rest of us figured out on our own. (That’s not to dismiss Musk’s behavior, which is pretty screwed up when it comes to his non-parenting).
Kelly addressed it on her uber popular podcast/Sirius XM radio show:
Bag a rich guy and make him pay for your lifestyle to me. It's so f***ing disempowering. Go earn your own money if you want to be rich if you want a nice d*** apartment. Why don't you work? Why don't you earn it? Why are you just trying to bag some rich guy? It's so f***ed up. It's wrong. It's just I feel like okay And then if you do bang the rich guy, and if you do get pregnant with his child, then when it doesn't work out, be dignified about it.
Don't go on Twitter. I don't believe her on the tabloid story I don't believe her because it doesn't seem like she doesn't want publicity. She did the whole big spread with the New York Post. She wants publicity. Even if a tabloid was about to break it, then they break it and you say nothing. That's the classy highbrow way of handling this.
She seems to want the attention and also at the same time want our sympathy. And I'm having a really difficult time giving it to her.
Kelly’s comments are not wrong, but do need a footnote or two.
Yes, you CAN have it all, if:
A). You’re super high IQ and objectively beautiful.
B). You live in a metro area with other really high IQ people.
People tend to marry someone in their IQ range, which means intellectually gifted individuals have fewer possible matches. And when they do meet, they tend to form “power couples,” like Kelly and her quasi-famous husband Doug.
Megyn was a successful lawyer, turned cable and network TV host, turned mega popular podcaster. Doug was a CEO turned podcast host and novelist. Neither has trampled the Trad movement, simply pointed out that as an autonomous individual, you have options in charting your path in life.
Megyn and Doug have been married 17 years, have three kids, and sit down to dinner most nights like a typical family (that I’m sure a private chef is preparing), so she’s speaking from experience.
My only critique here is that you have to be both VERY gifted and VERY, VERY lucky to build something like that. And I’m not sure Megyn grasps that most people…will not have the mental capacity or risk tolerance to make it work. And that’s OK.
In fact, both Girl Boss and Trad movements have a major thing in common…those trends took off because room-temperature-IQ people are looking for values to shape their lives, in a world that largely abandoned God (this is flipping, religious participation is way back up).
If you’re looking to order your life, I’d suggest you delete Instagram and replace it with the Bible app, and dive into some of the greatest books ever written. If you need a starting point, check out this list.
I promise you, Marcus Aurelius has more to teach us than the latest lifestyle influencer’s reel.
[two]
A month after selling Swastika t-shirts, Kanye West thinks it’s time for a musical comeback.
From The Atlantic:
The shirt stunt was part of Ye’s latest campaign to reclaim the spotlight by any means necessary. He crashed the Grammys; he’s been filming podcast videos with an entourage of sycophants who egg on his every provocation. All the while, he’s doubled down on his admiration for Hitler, railed against the Jewish people, and asserted his kinship with the world’s most notorious fascists. “Elon stole my Nazi swag,” he recently posted, as though antisemitism were just another fashion statement to be plagiarized. He has described his habit of parroting Nazi rhetoric as “freestyling”—as if he’s still in the business of making music instead of fueling the worst impulses of the internet’s most vile corners.
Maybe Ye is saying what he truly believes. Maybe mental health is at play (as some of his defenders still insist). Definitely, he’s trolling for publicity. In any case, he clearly believes there’s an audience for what he’s selling, and perhaps he’s right. Conservatives who are proclaiming the dawn of a post-woke era see figures like Ye as symbols of resistance, of a new culture war where the most offensive, most reactionary voices are the ones that deserve protection. The idea is that we’d been living under a kind of progressive tyranny, where political correctness and corporate DEI initiatives had suffocated the free expression of “real” Americans. Now, the entertainment regime is under assault, and Ye—like Trump, like Andrew Tate, like any number of newly uncanceled reactionaries—is positioning himself as a leader of the rebellion.
This logic is as self-serving as it is ahistorical. Certainly, the idea that the 2010s were a decade of cultural repression is ridiculous on its face. The defining TV show of the era was Game of Thrones, a series that reveled in violence and moral ambiguity. Hip-hop was driven by young rappers who embraced hedonism and nihilism in ways that made even their predecessors blush. And, of course, Trump’s first rise to power was itself a testament to the fact that the American id was alive and well. The internet was undercutting old gatekeepers, making space for voices that had never been heard before but also amplifying the worst of human nature. If there was a regime, it wasn’t a progressive one—it was the chaos of unfiltered attention-seeking, where figures like Ye could thrive.
After an incredible run of nearly flawless albums from 2004-2013, in which he changed the direction of pop and hip hop with each album…Kanye faded into musical obscurity…in 2014. He had a second creative run by designing sneakers and becoming a creative director for GAP (which he was fired from for praising Hitler), but the music fell off.
The lone exception is Kids See Ghosts, a seven song EP released with Kid Cudi in 2018. But he still dominates the headlines, which means Kanye has been riding on shock value alone for over a decade.
The public may have a morbid curiosity about what stupid thing he’ll say next, but it’s doubtful we’ll ever see Kanye in the conversation of best musicians.
Being a human car crash is pretty mutually exclusive with a career as a respected musician.
[three]
One of the strangest, and most disturbing, debates on the right side of the political aisle is the split over defending Andrew and Tristen Tate, “Red Pill” influencers who push…well, domestic abuse (see vid above). The pair fled England due to sex trafficking charges, and have been hiding away in Romania, where they face similar charges.
The brothers flew to Florida this week, where Governor Ron DeSantis promptly ordered them to be investigated.
CNN reports:
Romanian authorities arrested the Tate brothers in December 2022 and placed them under police custody. They were later placed under house arrest and then judicial control, under which they were not allowed to leave the country.
Romanian prosecutors accused the Tate brothers of forming an organized criminal group that stretched across Romania, the United Kingdom and the US, trafficking women and sexually exploiting them with physical violence and coercion.
Prosecutors have said the brothers recruited their victims by seducing them and falsely claiming to want a relationship or marriage. Andrew Tate is also accused of raping one of the alleged victims.
Last August, Romanian authorities launched a separate investigation into allegations of human trafficking of minors and sex with a minor lodged against the brothers. Andrew and Tristan Tate have denied all allegations of wrongdoing, with Andrew writing on X that the brothers “have always been innocent.”
DeSantis is one of the country’s most beloved governors, and if he successfully puts these scumbags behind bars…some will hate, but many others will cheer.
Godspeed, Ron. Go get it done.
[four]
After the apathy of the 2010’s, the 2020’s are all about the “Try Hards.” The trend of cultural irony and apathy has been replaced with good old fashioned work ethic.
When Chalamet won the Screen Actors Guild Award last week for playing Bob Dylan in the biopic A Complete Unknown, he got onstage and did a surprising thing. Instead of thanking his agents, or his co-stars, or making a political statement, he acknowledged his own hard work. “I know the classiest thing would be to downplay the effort that went into this role and how much this means to me, but the truth is, this was five years of my life,” Chalamet told the crowd, including his mother who he brought with him as his date. “The truth is, I’m really in pursuit of greatness. I know people don’t usually talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats.”
Vogue scoffed that the SAG speech was an example of “manosphere-enabled overconfidence.” Another commentator echoed, “That should have stayed in your journal, my friend.” But here’s my read on the situation: Timothée is a try-hard, and that’s a very good thing.
Chalamet campaigned mightily for the Oscar, saying yes to every interview and performing all sorts of stunts. He wore crazy outfits to premieres, and peddled up to one red carpet in London on a rented bicycle. He went shopping for records with Nardwuar, the goofy internet staple, and co-hosted College GameDay on ESPN. He visited high school students in Bob Dylan’s hometown in Minnesota and threw himself a private rave in a warehouse in an undisclosed location to celebrate his Oscar nomination. In short, he wanted this, and he wasn’t afraid to admit it.
Now, I have a prediction: If last summer was defined by being a Brat—the rude, flippant type, coined by singer Charli XCX, who would never be caught dead trying too hard—this spring will be owned by try-hards like Chalamet. Ironic distance, the default, until lately, for celebrities and cool kids, feels played out. Try-hards aren’t afraid to come off like they care too much or look silly doing so. Another try-hard: Elon Musk, who waved a chainsaw that was bestowed upon him by the Argentinian president Javier Milei—a nod to both men’s earnest obsession with cutting waste—around CPAC. Or look no further than Alex Karp, the CEO of Palantir who sees his role as no less than being a protector of Western civilization. “You want to do endeavors that are larger than yourself, more meaningful than yourself,” he said recently, “a willingness to fight is very important.”
Not all try-hards are men. Consider Ariana Grande, who tweeted in 2011 that playing Glinda in Wicked would be her dream role. “I care so deeply about Wicked,” she said in an interview about the part, which she would go on to land, and spent over a year inhabiting. “I want to give it my absolute all.” When she got the news she’d been cast, she sobbed; “I love her so much. I’m going to take such good care of her.” It’s all part of the theater kid ethos that’s part and parcel of the try-hards: Learn your lines, show up on time, and give it your all.
Slow. Clap.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup…
[movies]: Taylor Swift is rumored to be returning to acting in a major superhero or sci fi project. || Director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash, La La Land) is taking on an Evel Knievel biopic, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Adrian Brody signing up to tell the tale of the motorcycle daredevil…and the writer behind The Departed on script duties.
[shows]: Running Point, in which a character played by Kate Hudson (Almost Famous, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) takes over her family’s NBA team, has solid reviews, and is a pretty fresh take on a concept for a comedy. || The Handmaid’s Tale is getting a sequel series, The Testaments, also based on a novel from author Margaret Atwood. || Reacher spinoff Neagley is officially happening, following one of Jack Reacher’s best friends and fellow Army Special Investigators. Filming now, so probably hitting Prime Video next year.
[music]: Charles Wesley Godwin’s new EP received top marks from Saving Country Music, the gold standard publication in the roots/Americana/Actual Country Music space. || Missouri native Chappell Roan played a Grammy after party with Elton John guesting on a couple of tracks. Roan is a mixed bag for me, as I find her to be kind of annoying when not singing (particularly her regular negative comments about her home state/my current home state of Missouri), but she has a couple of truly great songs. See it here. || On the anniversary of independent country artist/rodeo rider Chris LeDoux’s death, Saving Country Music has an excellent writeup on a largely unknown artist who massively influenced the genre.
Piers Brosnan (James Bond: Tomorrow Never Dies, Mama Mia!) paired up with Hellen Mirren (The Queen, 1923) and reliable action star Tom Hardy (Lawless, Warrior) sounded like a great idea. And the trailer…confirms it.
MobLand hits Paramount+ on 03/30.
Blumhouse is best known for horror smarter horror flicks (The Purge, The Black Phone), but also produced one of the best dramas of the 2010’s (Whiplash).
Their first TV show, The Bondsman, features Kevin Bacon (Footloose, Mystic River) as a bounty hunter sending demons back to hell seems campy at first, but I’m guessing there’s something more going on beneath the surface. As weird as it sounds, the horror/demon hunting show may actually wrestle with some weightier themes.
We’ll find out 04/06.
Game of Thrones alumna Natalie Dormer starring in a pediatric cancer film looks like a tearjerker…but one with some laughs as well. It’s a true story, and just nice to see Hollywood making something that’s not a superhero flick or low budget paint-by-numbers horror movie. We don’t get many based-on-a-true-story dramas these days.
In theaters 03/28.
[new music]
Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube Music
Hailing from Ontario, Canada, Arm’s Length slots in somewhere next to 2010’s punk outfits The Wonder Years, The Menzingers, Four Year Strong and Real Friends.
The video, which features a classic 80’s punk mosh pit, is pretty cool.
If you like this one, their full length drops 05/18.
[podcast]
Bankless is a podcast that’s mostly about Crypto, but touches on economics and other topics surrounding the internet and money. Their deep dive on the AI arms race…is absolutely fascinating.
Particularly, the story of how xAI (part of Twitter/X) utilized batteries from Tesla to turn an abandoned factory in Memphis into an AI Supercenter in just 120 days.
Until the next one,
-sth