It’s John McWhorter time once again here at The Glenn Show. Let’s get into it. John and I are both busy guys, but people might not realize how much juggling it takes to manage life as both an academic and a public intellectual. I talk about why I may soon
Isn’t it funny that a language fraught with masculine and feminine structure, generally spoken throughout the communities it references, needs to be appended with a ‘x’ vs ‘o’ or ‘a’.
‘ Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.’
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I appreciate you guys. The podcast economy makes me feel like the Riddler in the new Batman movie. Catwoman calling mobsters white privileged seems very topical. I rolled my eyes but I was curious if it was meant to be impotent and miss the point. Batman is supposed to be better than her after all. He beats these guys to a pulp, but doesn't kill them, and even saves them from Catwoman. The times they are a changing.
My Mexican father is part of the 30-40% of Latinos that find the term "Latinx" offensive. Even if it's not another example of US cultural imperialism, "Latinx" just doesn't work in Spanish. If English speaking people want to be gender neutral, there's already a gender-neutral variation of "Latino" they can use to refer to this population: Latin/Latins
Glad to hear that Glenn is cutting back on his responsibilities at Brown. This would be a good time to also get away from those long, cold, dark, depressing New England winters. They wreaked havoc on the Pilgrims.
Is it me or is Putin's attack on Ukraine reminiscent of the BLM riots. Leaders with an delusions of grandeur an agenda & a "religious zealotry" that trample the lives and livelihoods of innocent people.
"Why does this have to be something out of Arthur Miller?" Yes, exactly, Prof. McWhorter, it's something out of Arthur Miller. But we don't look at The Crucible and say "ah yes, clearly the only thing going wrong in Salem was excess religiosity, which was factually incorrect - witches aren't real, we know that now." If someone wrote that and turned it in as a collegiate term paper we'd recognize it as a bit superficial. Instead, Miller's genius in "the Crucible" is in showing that people's stated reasons, including their moral judgments, are often mere smokescreens for entirely separate underlying goals (whether conscious or unconscious). Translate that lesson to the present and the conclusion is clear: status anxiety, personal grudges, the coveting and protection of wealth and power, and other non-moralistic interests are just as likely to be the reason behind a cynical or motivated deployment of woke reasoning as an honest and idealistic moral umbrage.
As a person of lowercase, I just want to point out that a lot of people are case fluid. Too many people think it's a binary choice: always uppercase or always lowercase. In reality, there's a whole spectrum of capitalization. Whatever a given person decides, society should accept and welcome their choice. (Everyone I know puts their capitalization choices right after their gender pronouns.) I don't have strong feelings one way or the other, but why in the world would I go out of my way to be rude to someone when it's so simple to ask for their capitalization choices?
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I've often thought it would be useful if someone did a catalog of good podcasts. The only two I can depend on week after week are The Glenn Show and The Fifth Column. The others are, to greater and lesser extents, very dependent upon the guest. (Example: I think Joe Rogan is excellent, but I only listen when he has a guest that interests me.)
I'd want a catalog of podcasts which reviews each episode. I'd need a like-minded person to do it, though, and one person wouldn't have the time. As it is, I've got 30 or 40 bookmarked. I scan through them until I find something of interest.
Speaking of good podcasts, I just listened to one last night. Bari Weiss sent her sister to cover the trans swimmer (who competed as a man just last year) at the Ivy League women's swimming championship. Every single parent and swimmer there was angry and thought it unfair for a former man to compete against the women. And every single parent and swimmer was afraid to say anything publicly. Pardon my language, but that's f---ed up.
I posted a lecture online about the euphemism treadmill last week in which I, off the cuff, used "negro" as an example (alongside Black and African American) to illustrate how the socially prescribed terms we use to refer to groups of people change over time. After the lecture, it occurred to me that someone might think negro is a slur and I would catch hell for it (I am white). Revisionist history in the service of canceling well-meaning people and ideas is the type of misinformation that keeps me up at night. Thank you for the thoughtful discussion.
From what I've seen, referring to someone as a freak of nature is almost universally done in the context of athletics and not just in reference to Black athletes. I've heard Lebron James, Usain Bolt, Tom Brady, Yao Ming, etc. all be referred to as freaks of nature.
In the case of Jeffrey Lieberman it appeared to have been used in reference to Nyakim Gatwech's skin tone, which definitely comes across as awkward. That being said it seems pretty excessive that his career has basically been ended because of it. A reprimand would've sufficed. In my opinion the bigger issue was someone in his position of authority publicly opining on the appearance of another female, whether laudatory or not. That strikes me as somewhat unprofessional.
Everyone should be required to watch “Finding your Roots” on PBS. It’s amazing and it’s an answer to Glenn’s black being a “people.” Our history is way more complicated and relationships between black and white or “owner and slave” were not always abusive. It’s truly a beautiful documentary of history.
Isn’t it funny that a language fraught with masculine and feminine structure, generally spoken throughout the communities it references, needs to be appended with a ‘x’ vs ‘o’ or ‘a’.
‘ Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.’
“Fish don’t know they’re wet….”. Nice one, John!
“Fish don’t know they’re wet….”. Nice one, John!
Note: This TGS episode features a video ad. If you're a subscriber and want access to the early release, ad-free version, use the link you received in the Monday email.
This Ukraine stuff has me switching from Dostoevsky to Tolstoy. I'm halfway through The Idiot, and just started War and Peace. Light reading.
Guys...guys...you pronounce Latinx with an s like your sexy Spaniards not Malcolm. I think it's bullshit too, but at least give the style it deserves.
I appreciate you guys. The podcast economy makes me feel like the Riddler in the new Batman movie. Catwoman calling mobsters white privileged seems very topical. I rolled my eyes but I was curious if it was meant to be impotent and miss the point. Batman is supposed to be better than her after all. He beats these guys to a pulp, but doesn't kill them, and even saves them from Catwoman. The times they are a changing.
My Mexican father is part of the 30-40% of Latinos that find the term "Latinx" offensive. Even if it's not another example of US cultural imperialism, "Latinx" just doesn't work in Spanish. If English speaking people want to be gender neutral, there's already a gender-neutral variation of "Latino" they can use to refer to this population: Latin/Latins
Glad to hear that Glenn is cutting back on his responsibilities at Brown. This would be a good time to also get away from those long, cold, dark, depressing New England winters. They wreaked havoc on the Pilgrims.
Is it me or is Putin's attack on Ukraine reminiscent of the BLM riots. Leaders with an delusions of grandeur an agenda & a "religious zealotry" that trample the lives and livelihoods of innocent people.
"Why does this have to be something out of Arthur Miller?" Yes, exactly, Prof. McWhorter, it's something out of Arthur Miller. But we don't look at The Crucible and say "ah yes, clearly the only thing going wrong in Salem was excess religiosity, which was factually incorrect - witches aren't real, we know that now." If someone wrote that and turned it in as a collegiate term paper we'd recognize it as a bit superficial. Instead, Miller's genius in "the Crucible" is in showing that people's stated reasons, including their moral judgments, are often mere smokescreens for entirely separate underlying goals (whether conscious or unconscious). Translate that lesson to the present and the conclusion is clear: status anxiety, personal grudges, the coveting and protection of wealth and power, and other non-moralistic interests are just as likely to be the reason behind a cynical or motivated deployment of woke reasoning as an honest and idealistic moral umbrage.
As a person of lowercase, I just want to point out that a lot of people are case fluid. Too many people think it's a binary choice: always uppercase or always lowercase. In reality, there's a whole spectrum of capitalization. Whatever a given person decides, society should accept and welcome their choice. (Everyone I know puts their capitalization choices right after their gender pronouns.) I don't have strong feelings one way or the other, but why in the world would I go out of my way to be rude to someone when it's so simple to ask for their capitalization choices?
-----
I've often thought it would be useful if someone did a catalog of good podcasts. The only two I can depend on week after week are The Glenn Show and The Fifth Column. The others are, to greater and lesser extents, very dependent upon the guest. (Example: I think Joe Rogan is excellent, but I only listen when he has a guest that interests me.)
I'd want a catalog of podcasts which reviews each episode. I'd need a like-minded person to do it, though, and one person wouldn't have the time. As it is, I've got 30 or 40 bookmarked. I scan through them until I find something of interest.
Speaking of good podcasts, I just listened to one last night. Bari Weiss sent her sister to cover the trans swimmer (who competed as a man just last year) at the Ivy League women's swimming championship. Every single parent and swimmer there was angry and thought it unfair for a former man to compete against the women. And every single parent and swimmer was afraid to say anything publicly. Pardon my language, but that's f---ed up.
I posted a lecture online about the euphemism treadmill last week in which I, off the cuff, used "negro" as an example (alongside Black and African American) to illustrate how the socially prescribed terms we use to refer to groups of people change over time. After the lecture, it occurred to me that someone might think negro is a slur and I would catch hell for it (I am white). Revisionist history in the service of canceling well-meaning people and ideas is the type of misinformation that keeps me up at night. Thank you for the thoughtful discussion.
"Negro" in Spanish is the word for the color "black" and also for Black people.
From what I've seen, referring to someone as a freak of nature is almost universally done in the context of athletics and not just in reference to Black athletes. I've heard Lebron James, Usain Bolt, Tom Brady, Yao Ming, etc. all be referred to as freaks of nature.
In the case of Jeffrey Lieberman it appeared to have been used in reference to Nyakim Gatwech's skin tone, which definitely comes across as awkward. That being said it seems pretty excessive that his career has basically been ended because of it. A reprimand would've sufficed. In my opinion the bigger issue was someone in his position of authority publicly opining on the appearance of another female, whether laudatory or not. That strikes me as somewhat unprofessional.
Everyone should be required to watch “Finding your Roots” on PBS. It’s amazing and it’s an answer to Glenn’s black being a “people.” Our history is way more complicated and relationships between black and white or “owner and slave” were not always abusive. It’s truly a beautiful documentary of history.