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Humans are not too dissimilar from our simian cousins. The less related we are from one another, the greater the zeal for violence. You will never see a group of chimpanzees numbering more than 150 or so. Yes, we have better institutions but our DNA is essentially unchanged for hundreds of thousands of years. We are genetically hunter gatherers. History tells us that institutions hold until they don't.

About ten years I was watching program about the rise of the Nazi Germany. My wife, who is Jewish, walked in and I wondered aloud if that could ever happen here. She replied with such incredulity that I could even ponder the question. The events of Jan 6th has crystalized in my mind that she was correct. The Kraken was almost released. Established rules of behavior particularly among those in authority, keeps the beast in its cage.

Institutions hold until they don't.

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Amazing to me how many people consider themselves to be part of some sort of club (whether Black, Jewish, or otherwise). I have no idea what my relatives were doing more than two generations ago, or where they lived, and they’re from several different places so I don’t feel strong ties to any of them. As a Washingtonian, I was brought up on the idea that we don’t have any representation in Congress, so the idea that one is “represented” in some broad cultural sense doesn’t compute to me at all. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a room where I felt any sense of community, and it took me a while to grasp the idea that others do. I’m all alone out here.

At least in America, it seems to me that many of us are mongrels like myself in the genetic sense and lack any strong cultural affiliation, which I think is a good thing. I’ve got some Ashkenazi ancestry, but that doesn’t make me one of “the Jews”, and I’m fine with that. I just wonder how long it well take for the median American to move into that mindset.

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5,000 years is a big stretch. Abraham, Moses, and David are mythical, and the timeline of the Old Testament is fictional. Beyond the archeological silence textual analysis of the layers of the Old Testament has gone a long way in unraveling who wrote the Bible and why it is the way it is. It’s pretty fascinating stuff.

3,500 years is still a bit of a stretch, but I’ll give you that much.

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I have just seen the email but if John will defend the teaching of Great Books and happily showed us his contribution to Antigone Journal on Twitter then he is not as skeptical about the deep past as he thinks. Almost everyone has inherited a set of commitments from premodernity and investigating the African past can help to say that you have chosen your commitments instead of a set of Western commitments being chosen for you because you didn't know.

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What many in the comments are doing is mistaking antisemitism with ANTI-WHITISM !

That’s the real issue plaguing our society!

At the behest of the King Of America - Jonathan Greenblatt ADL chief- the White House has convened a council to address antisemitism, because a Black rapper wore a 'White Lives Matter' t-shirt and then, after powerful Jewish people began cancelling him, he said "powerful Jewish people are cancelling me."

It's amazing how that sequence of events triggers such a robust response at the highest levels of power.

It also begs some questions about the hatred faced by the group Jonathan Greenblatt advocates for as compared to the kind of hatred faced by the group that Jonathan Greenblatt has dedicated his life to spreading hatred of: White people.

~ Is openly Anti-Jewish hatred that blames Jews for all of America's problems taught in schools throughout the country like the openly Anti-White hatred known as "Critical Race Theory" or "Anti-Racism" is?

~ Is "Anti-Jewness" a philosophical tenet of academia, big business, and government policy like "Anti-Whiteness" is?

~ Do "Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion" boards and initiatives exist specifically to police and exclude Jews like they do to police and exclude White people?

~ Is "Abolish Jewness!" a mainstream, celebrated call for the genocide of Jews like "Abolish Whiteness!" is for the genocide of Whites?

~ Do Walmart, Coca-Cola, AT&T, The Salvation Army, and an endless list of businesses and organizations put employees through dehumanizing "Jew Privilege" training like they put employees through dehumanizing "White Privilege" training?

~ Is there an unrelenting stream of media headlines that openly blame, blood libel, and attack Jewish people like there is blaming, libeling, and attacking White people?

~ Is there a continuous, popular, deconstructionist assertion that "Jewish people don't actually exist" like there is asserting that "White people don't actually exist?"

~ Are Jews legally discriminated against in hiring and admissions for being Jewish like White people are discriminated against for being White?

~ Are Jews being targeted and framed by the White House, FBI, and ADL for nonexistent "hate crimes" and "domestic terror" like White people are?

No - but what a coincidence that the CEO of the ADL - the Jewish NGO that literally trains the FBI - will be at that very White House to discuss how to more effectively and fully cancel the Black rapper who wore the 'White Lives Matter' shirt and then said who's cancelling him for it.

But there will be no "roundtable" to address the only institutional, systemic hatred in America: Anti-White hatred - because, as you see, the people around the table are the institutional powers behind that system.

And don't let it go unnoticed that while virtually every politician - Republican and Democratic alike - has publicly condemned the rapper who King Greenblatt commands they condemn...

Not a single Republican or Democratic politician has condemned the White House, the FBI, the ADL, or Jonathan Greenblatt for targeting and framing innocent White Americans - as publicly confirmed by whistleblower reports earlier this year.

Because if they do, they'll never get a seat at the table.

WAKE UP PEOPLE !!!!!!

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The Fifth Column, Kmele Foster specifically, covered the "Jew thing" quite well on 11/23 when they hosted sports writer Ethan Strauss. I encourage everyone to give it a listen.

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Good podcast.

Yes, I'd like to see a discussion on transgenderism as this is a phenomenon I never saw coming to the extent that it has had such a bizarre impact on society from such a tiny, fringe, group. John said, no, no, no, he's got a mortgage and young children and refuses to go there. Lol - understood, but what a pity that such a Chappell-eesque blowback would be anticipated.

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Hallelujah, Brothah John! Say it again! Movies SUCK these days!!! :)

Otherwise, sterling debate, guys!

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A great episode!

I was hoping that the history of Blacks and Jews would be explored more, from the period of slavery to Reconstruction to the Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras, because it appears that people like Kanye and Irving may be making pedestrian statements without knowing this history.

As for the need for Blacks to mythologize their past in understanding their present, whether through religious sects (Nation of Islam) or fantasy (Black Panther, Kwanzaa, etc.) or conspiracy theories (Black Hebrew Israelites), it is a subject that the audience may find is worth exploring at a relaxed pace.

Wakanda Forever is great, by the way, well worth your movie ticket and 2 hours plus of your life!

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Agreed, great podcast gentlemen. I thought the segment about Wakanda was very interesting.

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Note to Glenn: not to contradict your point, but Barack Obama is likely descended from John Punch, a seventeenth-century slave in Virginia, on his maternal line!

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This is the last time I will waste words on KW. John's impulse is correct even as he underestimates West's cultural authority (and oddly again, oversells his fondness for West's music). The real question is -- and I say this in spite of my Hebrew inheritance -- why does anybody -- *anybody* -- give two shits about what this guy has to say? How has he held court for more than a decade and a half? Why was he lecturing at the Oxford Guild? It should turn your stomach to see a black man so venerated when he is, at best, mentally ill, and less charitably, simply not a deep thinker.

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Dec 13, 2022·edited Dec 13, 2022

On of the topic of the war on drugs, I'm curious if Glenn and John ended up discussing the question posed in the most recent Q&A pointing out that Rafael Mangual actually argues that there's a decent overlap between non-violent drug offenders and violent offenders. Many individuals move back and forth between the two categories of crime and I believe Mangual argues that targeting drug offenders is actually an effective way to crack down on more serious types of crime.

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Yeah, we take this up in our Q&A responses that will be posted shortly...

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I think this is a question that could be answered empirically (although it would be a giant pain) - couldn't researchers look at a statistically significant sample of people in jail for pleading guilty to a drug charge, and compare original charges with the plea deals that were submitted to see the dropoff rate from violent charges to non-violent plea deals?

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Dec 13, 2022·edited Dec 13, 2022

John, your point about Marvel movies brings to mind Martin Scorsese comparing the MCU to theme parks back in 2019. I think fears of superhero movies taking over cinema are a bit exaggerated. The MCU typically releases 2-3 movies a year. I checked and in 2019, the year before the pandemic broke out, there were apparently 792 movies released in the US and Canada. There were 3 Marvel movies and one DC movie released that year. 99.5% of movies being non-Marvel/non-DC isn’t bad.

Granted, these movies certainly punch above their weight at the box office. I remember there being only around 5 screenings during open day for Dr. Strange 2 at my local theater not for that movie. 5 screenings, not 5 theaters. That was kind of nuts and definitely speaks to the phenomenon that John’s alluding to.

I can’t speak for the specific Chinese American student John’s describing, but I definitely feel like many immigrants have a sense of connection to their country of origin, even if they consider themselves to be American first and foremost. I immigrated from China when I was about 6 and a half. My parents made me take Chinese school on Saturdays for a number of years. Granted I didn’t absorb much of that long term given that it’s hard to learn a language without being fully immersed in the culture and once one’s past a certain age. But there was always at least a sense of connection to that cultural inheritance.

Authors like Martin Jacques and Kishore Mahbubani stress the fact that China isn’t merely a nation-state, but rather a civilization state spanning 5,000 years. Akin to the Jewish people, I believe that the Chinese diaspora feels a similar sense of cultural belonging rooted in historical continuity. In some ways this cultural heritage is sui generis. Most Americans see themselves as part of a universal melting pot in a way that most Chinese don’t. American ideals of universalism are anathema to the Chinese mindset. Americans believe that the entire world can and should be like us. Chinese believe that only they can be Chinese. I believe that this difference explains much of the geopolitical tension inherent in the 21st century.

In my opinion, The Clash of Civilizations won out over The End of History. People aren’t homogenous atomic units untethered to any larger cultural or civilizational agglomeration. Kmele’s abolitionism seems to me inadequate for grappling with the geopolitical forces governing the 21st century.

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Dec 13, 2022·edited Dec 13, 2022Author

Briefly on the Marvel point. People in the industry have pointed out that it's not so much that there are ONLY superhero movies but that a certain kind of serious, mid-budget film that characterized so much cinema in the '80s and '90s doesn't get made anymore. Bullworth is a great example of this kind of movie.

The argument being that lots of relatively low-budget films get released every year (often on streaming platforms, where almost no one sees them) and a handful of massive-budget franchise films get made, but there's virtually no room left for, say, courtroom dramas with a mix of big movie stars and up-and-comers. And when those movies do get made, they disappear from theaters almost instantly. See Glass Onion ($40 million budget), which was in theaters for I think a week before Netflix pulled it and held it. If you missed it in that week (like I did), you'll have to wait until December 23 to watch it on Netflix. Which is a bummer, because it's much more fun to see a comedy in a crowded theater than alone or with one or two other people in your living room.

Obviously this is not the most important issue discussed in this episode, but it does drive me nuts!

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*Cough* Confess, Fletch *cough* This movie did not have a particularly large budget but in the 20th century it would have shown in a lot more than 500 theaters, and it's a movie for adults. (Director and co-screenwriter Greg Mottola admitted that they tried very hard to get something that Chevy Chase could do in this movie but they could not do it and be faithful to the original book.)

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Dec 13, 2022·edited Dec 14, 2022

I’m not much of a movie expert or cultural critic and haven't seen Bullworth, so I’ll defer to you and John here. I think I agree with you guys at a high level that there’s been a shift in the kinds of movies that gain traction these days versus 20-30 years ago, certainly in terms box office exposure if not as much in terms of what movies do or don’t get released. As I noted above, I was taken aback by the fact that only 5 showings that weren’t Dr. Strange 2 played at one of my local theaters during opening day for the movie.

The first Knives Out movie had a wide theatrical release and ended up grossing over $300 million. It was both a critical and commercial success which I’m sure resulted in the sequels being greenlit and bought by Netflix for $469 million. Had Netflix not paid for Glass Onion in order to bolster its streaming platform, I assume the movie would’ve had the same theatrical release that Knives Out did. But to your point, it certainly wouldn’t have gotten the number of showings that Black Panther 2 did during its theatrical run.

I was able to catch Glass Onion when it was out in theaters. It was a good movie, but I definitely enjoyed the first one more. I remember being blown away by Knives Out and left Glass Onion feeling like it was adequately good.

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I think of Groundhog Day. How could that ever get made today?

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Yeah, it probably wouldn't. Although it does keep getting remade, and maybe it will continue to be remade for the rest of eternity.

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Or until Bill Murray has another spiritual epiphany...

Of course, the music industry has followed the same arc, with A&R and the erosion of professional songwriting in particular. I know John would agree.

How much longer can we remake pop music?

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Glen, if you're champing at the bit to engage on the transgender topic, please consider inviting Wesley Yang back on the show. His account of the political and cultural mechanisms that currently sustain that ideology's mainstream acceptance is unusually incisive. It would be very valuable to see where you guys overlap.

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Great talk. So many interesting points. I think Glenn made a very good/wise point when he talked about certain ideological groups having a specific interest in certain things being discussed a certain way. George Floyd is a good example. There’s no question Chauvin is an asshole and that he acted terribly and obviously did a horrible, reprehensible thing. Chauvin got what he deserved. No sane person would question this. That said: The notion that from the jump the media and culture labeled it as a racist hate crime: that is much more complex. Someone here mentioned direct life experience for low-income urban black Americans versus The Actual Data. This is very true. Anecdotal evidence affects us all, even if the systemic concept isn’t really accurate. And we know the data re police brutality against black Americans: it’s a very tiny percentage, about 10-20 unarmed black men killed per year. (This should be good news but instead the media on the left creates the false perception of rampant police violence.) We all know Floyd had a complicated past. We all know what happened that day. What happened was wrong. But was it clearly and obviously racism? Harder to say. Enter Tony Timpa, who also complicates the narrative.

One comment: There’s a long history of hostility from blacks against Jews. It’s not everyone, obviously; it’s not totalizing. But it’s there. Thomas Sowell writes about it in Black Rednecks and White Liberals. Hell: James Baldwin writes about it in Notes of a Native Son, in the 1950s.

Michael Mohr

‘Sincere American Writing’

https://michaelmohr.substack.com/

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Like I've written here before, it's what Shelby Steele calls the "Poetic Truth."

The interactions between blacks and the cops has a deep history that relates to America's ugly past. The Left uses modern day tragic events to manipulate their audience into believing narratives whether they are real or not. It's sad that so many people fall for it. They can't distinguish fact from fiction when it comes to blacks and the cops because there is a stigma hanging over both sides.

I welcome you and my fellow subscribers to agree or disagree.

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Every discussion seems to mention Trump. Kanye has said way more about living everyone including Jewish people then he has ever said negatively. No one hears it or wonders why this is “new” behavior. Honestly I believe he’s proving his bigger point, possibly his entire goal.

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