Will the "Woke Right" Return Political Power to the Dems?, Rogan Inches Closer to Christianity? Blake Lively Lawsuit Kicking off the Next #MeToo? (The Five for 01/03/24)
Plus, the John Wick team inspired by Snakes on a Plane? Live albums have become cheap cash grabs. Netflix finds it's Gen Z action star.
Hey, welcome to The Five, a publication about the stories that matter.
It’s Friday, so let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
It looks like THE cultural trend in 2025 will be the “Vibe Shift,” the unexpected move in which marriage, monogamy and religion are…cool?!
We’re seeing this everywhere, and in the most unexpected places. The most surprising example I found this week was on the Ringer Network podcast BandSplained, in which three self-proclaimed secular atheists…noted just how many great albums this year were…about God. Indie rock artist Cameron Winter, typically a genre filled with irony and anti-theism, was praised for a song that screams “God is Real” for the chorus.
God is real, God is real
I’m not kidding, God is actually real
I'm not kidding this time
I think God is actually for real
God is real, God is actually real
God is real, I wouldn’t joke about this
I'm not kidding this time
The other top album of 2024 was from Brooklyn rapper KA, who organized his entire album around Christianity and Gospel music. Neither of these albums would be considered a “Christian album” (Winter warbles “F*** these people” in the same song).
And that’s not all we saw in the Vibe Shift this week…
[two]
Notable Feminist writer Louise Perry took to Substack to dole out advice…that sounds an awful lot like a church lady grandma:
• Don’t use dating apps. They offer a large pool of options, but at a severe cost. It is far better to meet a partner through mutual friends, since they can vet histories and punish bad behavior. Dating apps can’t.
• Holding off on having sex with a new boyfriend for at least a few months is a good way of discovering whether or not he’s serious about you or just looking for a hook-up.
• Only have sex with a man if you think he would make a good father to your children—not because you necessarily intend to have children with him, but because this is a good rule of thumb in deciding whether he’s worthy of your trust.
• Monogamous marriage is by far the most stable and reliable foundation on which to build a family.
Keep in mind, this is the FEMINIST take on relationships in 2024.
The Vibe Shift…
[three]
One of the most interesting happenings online as Trump prepares to return to the White House is part of the political right calling the other part…woke.
Seth Dillon, CEO of the Christian satire site The Babylon Bee sat down with Bari Weiss of The Free Press, when the conversation turned to Dillon battling back against Christians (I’ll avoid the scare quotes, though I’m tempted to use them), who have quickly adopted the following fringe beliefs:
A). The Jews caused WWII, and the Holocaust didn’t kill that many people. Churchill was a villain, according to these people.
B). The earth is neither flat nor round. Seriously, Candace Owens said she is “exploring other theories” that are not flat earth or round earth. So…Cube Earth? Pyramid Earth?
C. The Jews are “anti-Christian and hate Christ.” These days, Twitter is full of people who are probably conspiring on 8Chan (a fringe message board filled with morbidly obese, lonely basement dwellers who live off gas station burritos and the anger of strangers—who often conspire to push messaging together on other social networks under anonymous accounts).
The only way you can say that Jesus, who descended from the greatest Jewish king, lived in Israel, was raised in Temple isn’t “Jewish” is because you’re a chronically online moron who uses ChatGPT to pull Bible verses out of context to make a wildly inaccurate graphic about what the New Testament says.
Dillon pushed back on the stupidity, the anti-Semitism, the victim-feigning, by calling these people the “Woke Right.”
The oppressed, uh, oppressor dynamic, the critical consciousness awakening to see this and having this scapegoat that you, you know, attribute all the bad things to, and then judging people based on their immutable characteristics. Identity groups and the grievances that, you know, that certain groups have against other identity groups, this kind of collectivist thinking, you know, all of these things kind of work together.
It's s a cohesive system and a cohesive outlook. It's a framework. You can have. Marxist ideas and solutions that you plug into that framework, but there's no reason in principle Why you can't kind of play plug and play and say I want to adopt that same framework And just swap out who my scapegoat is swap out who my victims are swap out what you know like Which narratives I revise which historical narratives I choose to accept or not accept and what narratives do I build in their place?
All of those things are individual kind of like blank spaces in the woke framework that you can fill in anything in that blank. And it's still, in my mind, be considered wokeness, because if you check all those boxes, if you have all the same methodological and rhetorical features in place that the woke left uses, and you call it something else, why, I mean, you could call it anything you wanted to, I guess, but why wouldn't the woke label fit, I guess is my point, is that if you're in fact adopting the same operating system, And you're just plugging in different things into those blanks, then you are operating on the woke methodology, whether you admit it or not, whether you like it or not, you may, you may find it very offensive.
We've come to, I kind of think of woke means left, but it doesn't. It's just the left has used that framework. And if people on the right are also using that framework. Then that itself is proof that we shouldn't just assume that this is inherently a leftist thing. Obviously, it can be and is being used by people on the other side as well.
Dillon isn't the only one whose noticing the rhetorical shift. Online right-wing pundit James Lindsay pointed out that the left and right are using the same story about a Cybertruck exploding outside of a Trump hotel as judgement from God.
Several comments echoed this one:
Sure. That’s quite possible that politically left accounts are stirring up the political right against each other.
It’s more probable that some people are on the political right, not because they believe a certain ideology, but because they need an enemy. The left was so thoroughly trounced in November that now the only people left to fight with online are on their own side.
In a concealed carry group I’m in on Facebook that typically just focuses on gun/holster selection and the like, a member posted the screenshot of a story from The Hill on the FBI thwarting a terrorist attack against AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee). The comments quickly went to accusing Jews of planning an attack against themselves, conspiring with the allegedly Jewish-controlled FBI to thwart it, then having a Jewish reporter push the story in the corporate press.
Which is, of course, coocoo for Coco Puffs. A year ago, I didn’t see anything like this in the gun community, or Conservative groups in general.
Which is not to say that the modern state of Israel is sinless—in 1951, Jewish extremists may have bombed Jews in Bagdad, Iraq to get the Iraqi Jewish population to move to the newly re-formed Israel…and this is coming from a British-Jewish historian. On the flip side, 97% of Palestinians deeply hate Jews—which means that Palestinian Christians are notably more antisemitic than the run-of-the-mill American-born Muslim.
But the conspiracy that anything that happens to a Jewish person in the U.S….was planned by the Jews…is in fact, quite woke. It puts American Jews in the “oppressor” class where the left puts straight, white Christian males, and makes straight white Christian males the “victim class.”
This is just getting started, and may be what hands political power back to the Dems in 2028 or 2032. The right apparently learned no lessons from why their political opponents fell, and are wielding their newfound power quite badly.
[four]
Look, I hate celebrity gossip about as much it’s possible to hate something…but it’s worth keeping tabs on the ongoing sexual harassment allegations/lawsuit/feud between Blake Lively and her It Ends with Us co-star…because we may be on the verge of another #metoo style social movement…only over online reputation smearing.
E Online reports:
Three days after the It Ends With Us star filed a lawsuit against The New York Times for their Dec. 21 report centering costar Blake Lively's allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation, his attorney confirmed that they "absolutely" plan to sue the actress.
"We plan to release every single text message between the two of them," Bryan Freedman told NBC News in a Jan. 2 interview. "We want the truth to be out there. We want the documents to be out there. We want people to make their determination based on receipts."
On Dec. 31, Baldoni sued the NYT for libel in a $250 million lawsuit obtained by E! News, which claimed if the outlet "truly reviewed the thousands of private communications it claimed to have obtained, its reporters would have seen incontrovertible evidence that it was Lively, not Plaintiffs, who engaged in a calculated smear campaign."
This feels like something more than just two famous people arguing. When this case is decided, it certainly feels like it will have wider cultural ramifications.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup:
MOVIES: Jason Momoa will be the lone actor returning to DC from the Zack Snyder era, only he’ll be swapping his Aquaman trident out to play Lobo, an intergalactic bounty hunter who’s a violent anti-hero. He’ll first appear in Supergirl in 2026. Armie Hammer (The Social Network, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) recently appeared on a podcast where he declared himself “uncancelled” and claims he’s getting tons of movie offers again after losing jobs to accusations that he…literally wanted to eat people. Hammer had previously been a rising star before his…cannibal wishes came to light.
TV: Apple TV+ is free all weekend, if you want to give it a test run. If you’re looking to keep up on the show release dates in 2025, The Hollywood Reporter’s got you covered.
MUSIC: Ugh, I hate doing this…but it’s worth calling out that a trend in music is releasing sub-par live recordings to boost streaming numbers. I’m a HUGE fan of both Zach Bryan and NEEDTOBREATHE, and both artists dropped uninspired recordings that sound like they’re right off the mixing board, with no real attention paid to mixes or sequencing. What’s telling is that NTB, who are coming up on 20 years as a band, have multiple live recordings that are much better, and Bryan’s All My Friends Hate Ticketmaster can punch in the same weight class as his studio projects. It’s a lazy move at best, a cheap cash grab at worst.
And it’s not just these two artists…the music industry is developing a habit of dumping live recordings haphazardly at the end of the year. A notable exception is the latest from Ed Sheeran, who carefully curated a massive collection from his entire career…which sounds like a collection that’s had some attention paid to it (Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music)
An assassin must fight off a bunch of other assassins due to an eight-figure bounty on his head—this is, of course, the plot to John Wick 3: Parabellum. And that movie was a hit, so why wouldn’t the John Wick team use the same plot, but just mix in a little Snakes on a Plane.
Fight or Flight looks REALLY stupid (I mean, a chainsaw on a commercial flight?!) But on the other hand…I don’t watch movies like this to get smarter, but this one appears to require an extra helping of suspension-of-belief. For some reason, this appears to be getting a theatrical release.
Unstoppable, the true story of a one-legged college wrestler, doesn’t just have major Rocky vibes, it has an homage to the Italian Stallion in the trailer (note, I previously covered a teaser, which showed less of the story).
I’m always down for a project with the highly underrated Michael Pena (End of Watch, Ant-Man) in a supporting role. Tragically, Ben Affleck produced this movie while was married to Jennifer Lopez, the the professional-divorcee will grace the screen with her notable lack of talent.
Still, this looks great, if you’re into sports movies…or just underdog tales. On Prime Video 01/16.
Uhhh…wut? After the death of all people, a satellite and an internet-connected buoy in the ocean…fall in love.
That’s super weird, but the film is carried along with flashbacks of a relationship with Kristen Stewart (Twilight, Snow White and the Huntsmen) and Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead, Okja).
This looks…surprisingly fresh and watchable. In theaters 01/31, but I’d probably wait to stream it.
The average action star is…aging, Keanu Reeves (59) and Tom Cruise (62) may still be dominating at the box office and pulling off big stunts, but both are AARP card holders. (Reeves has said he likely won’t return for additional John Wick films stating ‘my knees can’t take it’).
With that in mind, it’s great to see a Gen-Z focused show continue to shine. The first season of The Recruit centered on freshman CIA agent Owen Hendricks who…messed a lot of stuff up. Season two picks up with another off-the-books mission, this time set in South Korea. Cause, you know…if you want a Gen Z audience, throw in some K-Pop. No release date yet.
[new music]
nothing,nowhere. makes music for people of…a specific taste (mainly…Millennials. Gen X/Z, feel free to cringe).
The New England alt-rapper draws as heavily from the acoustic emo of Dashboard Confessional as he does from indie outfits Bon Iver and Death Cab for Cutie, and even hardcore acts like Underoath and Slipknot.
It’s a heck of a soundtrack for staying in and bumming around the house, which much of the country will be doing this weekend. I get that the musical mashup sounds…odd. But give this one a spin.
[read & learn]
I haven’t finished this one yet, but Grizzley Confidential is a heck of an outdoor book, if you’re into those. Amazon | Barnes & Noble
And finally, Joe Rogan set a corner of the internet on fire this week when he posted a photo from an upcoming episode with Wesley Huff, a Canadian expert on Biblical manuscripts.
Rogan, once highly critical of Christianity, continues to explore the topic on his show…yet another example of the “vibe shift” happening in culture.
No word on when the episode will drop, but you can check out Wesley debating Billy Carson earlier this month. Carson is a critic of Christianity who has focused on disproving the Bible. It’s a long, fascinating watch.
Until the next one,
-sth