Here’s a theory for the gossip column. This is a heel turn to precipitate Smith’s return to music. The “nice guy” is going to release a thug album, and it will probably sell a million copies. Lest we forget where Smith came from, and who he is married to. It’s about show business more than it is politics. Best part is, everybody wins. Rock looks like the face, Smith is the heel, Jada is still married to a thug who keeps it real, in fact she turned the nicest nice guy rapper ever. I couldn’t have written it better myself.
Enlightening and deep analysis as always Mr. Roscoe. I have two thoughts:
First, While we may be seeing political revolts against the woke ideology, is it meaningful in a era where business and capital trumps political power? I've long been concerned with this. Examples include Halliburton's out-sized impact on our war footing in 2003 or, separately, the way that business provide better services during a disaster than FEMA. Essentially, American governance is weak and faltering in the shadow of our industries and culture.
A recent post on Wesley Yang's substack, Year Zero, by guest contributor Darel E. Paul, does a great job of laying out this argument and demonstrating how labor is subverting public policy. He uses the recent Disney LGBT quarrels with Florida as prime example, but has numerous other examples and a fairly deep case, IMO. (https://wesleyyang.substack.com/p/woke-capital-in-the-twenty-first?s=r). It may be that a shifting political awareness changes the economic realities eventually, but Mr. Paul lays out a seriously compelling case that all of this 'wokeist' behavior is simply a reflection of class war in overdrive and there's no guarantee that 'the will of the people' will win out over the will of a powerful minority. We find ourselves at the whims of an elite class which can only reliably be expected to eschew principled reason and rationality.
This leads to my second question: if we have reached 'Peak Woke' and we're entering the reactionary period, what will prevent us from backsliding into the exact opposite footing? It's easy to point at all of the bad stuff, but it's foolish to pretend that it comes from nowhere of crazy simpletons, and is not an expression of some sort of need or problem in society, even if that need has been addressed or attenuated. While I think it's unlikely that we're going to 'react' our way back to Jim Crow, or anti-gay lynch mobs, these are always dangers, and it's not difficult to find examples of people going from, "CRT is wrong to teach in schools," to throwing bricks or assaulting school board officials. These are difficult and complex topics and that makes it almost certain that a large portion of the populace will engage at the most superficial,and by extension, dangerous levels. I fear the backlash, and then the backlash to that; at some point we're going to tip over into absolute authoritarianism because people can't regulate their beliefs.
Do these seem like reasonable concerns, particularly if your hypothesis is correct?
Maybe I'm just cynical, but here it is five days after the Oscars and people are still talking about the event. Was it staged? Don't know for sure but it would hardly be surprising. Awards shows have taken ratings hits for several years now.
They’d better not be calling themselves populists instead of progressives. The name games on the left need to stop. They were never progressive. They sure as heck aren’t populist. They think people are too stupid to see through the labels. The left is good at marketing, terrible at listening. They need to eat some humble pie, recognize that they nearly destroyed the US with their policies, demands and blatant, proud arrogance. I can only breathe a sigh of relief at the prospect that things will settle down into a somewhat-peaceful middle ground.
With utmost respect Mr. Roscoe, this piece feels repurposed. Other than organized warfare, men have never been more violent than when fighting over women. Even the back story of the Iliad is a conflict over a woman. "Old wine in new bottles."
It just sounds too good to be true, publicity stunt? Don’t want to be too conspiracy minded. I feel superior to my Elect friends who are giving some really heterodox arguments to justify the slap, or tell white people they can’t comment on it as the views are somehow tainted by privilege. Like the Fresh Prince doesn’t have any privilege?
Thank you Glenn and Clifton. On the Chris-Will conflict; I am probably the least qualified to comment on their relationship because I know so little about either one. People respond to their own anger differently. My weapon is the ink pen. While I understand my pathway of anger to pen; I do not know the psychological pathway of strangers and therefore do not condescend when their “weapon” is different from mine. We humans have been demoted especially since June 01, 2020 when mayors illegally abolished “the table” from civic life. One week ago, I actually connected to two friends of several decades because I insisted that location of discussion be at “the table” (kitchen table, dining room table, large office desk, conference room table, customer service counter at bank or supermarket, restaurant table or bar counter). I said no to living room sofa and no to park walk as locations. At the kitchen table and at the dining hall table with my two friends, respectively was where I placed papers and pointed to sentence #3. This allowed me to succeed at communication for the first time since 2019.
In SF municipality; an entire department (not mine) abolished the bricks and mortar office space where in-person discussion between provider and customer takes place at “the table”. First was “Two and a half weeks to flatten the Covid curve”, then no in-person discussion forever. The physics problem of “Defund and Abolish the discussion table” becomes a psychological problem of non-communication. Every PhD psychologist in the USA knows this effect, period. While BLM as vehicle for CRT racism policy may be on the decline; the other vehicle “Equity” is ascending. Everyone should expect many many more “Chris and Will Bitch-slaps” until mayors and governors return the actual physical table to civic life. I allow 30 governors and 100 mayors one alibi only; “The discussion table and in-person communication will return to civic life very soon.” Of course Equity overlords will disapprove. But the governors and mayors need to realize that their legitimate boss is the entire population, not the anti-table and clandestine “Racial Equity Alliance”.
By the way, I have a small apartment with no sofa, but a dining table for 6-12.
I wish we had hit peak woke.....but what I think is happening is that woke is just becoming part of the daily backdrop. Here is what I am talking about in this great twitter thread from Aaron Sibarium about the Georgetown Law School, considered among the top 14 in the nation:
I can observe two non-circumstantial facts that make this incident racial, and therefore at least peripherally related to a hypothetical woke backlash:
1) Blacks are disproportionately likely to defend Smith (honor culture). And even if this can't be proven, it reflects the common perception.
2) Smith is not granted full agency for his actions.
I found it interesting that the next day The Atlantic had an article by Jemele Hill titled, "The Two Americas Debating Will Smith and Chris Rock. Black people and white people aren’t necessarily discussing the Oscars slap in the same way." In the article she mentioned not having seen it live, but that she had 653 text messages when the the flight she was on landed. And "Most of my 653 texts, I should note, came from Black folks." She then goes on to tell us "one poll found that, across racial lines, most Americans think Smith shouldn’t have slapped Rock. But I can’t help but notice the disproportionate outrage that many people in white America—and many in the Hollywood elite—are showing." The key phrase here is "I can't help but notice". I would assume that Jemele "can't help" but notice that "white" and "Black" America "aren't necessarily discussing" lots of thing the same way. Aren't necessarily... Uh, yes. PEOPLE don't necessarily all discuss the same topic in the same way. People, whether or not those people are seen through the prism of Black and white, discuss things in different ways. Thanks for the reminder though.
Will Smith looked weak, Chris Rock behaved like a seasoned professional. I felt bad for the other winners, whose moments of celebration were stolen and replaced by a weird atmosphere of self serving piety by an embarrassed Will Smith. I have wondered how the Williams family took this in. The consistent effort and hard work they have put in for decades puts them into a well deserved realm of genuine mastery. The character and strength grown by such effort puts them into an elect level attained by few, an initiation of sorts. Self discipline was thrown into the waste basket by Will Smith's behavior, which is the antithesis of the man and family values he represented in movie. The final kicker was to see Mr. Smith apologize to the power (the Academy) and not to Chris Rock.
Sorry forgot to say on my post below that I appreciate Mr. Roscoe's responses. He is usually inciteful and engaging and willing to put in the work most of us don't have the time and inclination to do. Keep it up, Clifton!!
Here’s a theory for the gossip column. This is a heel turn to precipitate Smith’s return to music. The “nice guy” is going to release a thug album, and it will probably sell a million copies. Lest we forget where Smith came from, and who he is married to. It’s about show business more than it is politics. Best part is, everybody wins. Rock looks like the face, Smith is the heel, Jada is still married to a thug who keeps it real, in fact she turned the nicest nice guy rapper ever. I couldn’t have written it better myself.
Enlightening and deep analysis as always Mr. Roscoe. I have two thoughts:
First, While we may be seeing political revolts against the woke ideology, is it meaningful in a era where business and capital trumps political power? I've long been concerned with this. Examples include Halliburton's out-sized impact on our war footing in 2003 or, separately, the way that business provide better services during a disaster than FEMA. Essentially, American governance is weak and faltering in the shadow of our industries and culture.
A recent post on Wesley Yang's substack, Year Zero, by guest contributor Darel E. Paul, does a great job of laying out this argument and demonstrating how labor is subverting public policy. He uses the recent Disney LGBT quarrels with Florida as prime example, but has numerous other examples and a fairly deep case, IMO. (https://wesleyyang.substack.com/p/woke-capital-in-the-twenty-first?s=r). It may be that a shifting political awareness changes the economic realities eventually, but Mr. Paul lays out a seriously compelling case that all of this 'wokeist' behavior is simply a reflection of class war in overdrive and there's no guarantee that 'the will of the people' will win out over the will of a powerful minority. We find ourselves at the whims of an elite class which can only reliably be expected to eschew principled reason and rationality.
This leads to my second question: if we have reached 'Peak Woke' and we're entering the reactionary period, what will prevent us from backsliding into the exact opposite footing? It's easy to point at all of the bad stuff, but it's foolish to pretend that it comes from nowhere of crazy simpletons, and is not an expression of some sort of need or problem in society, even if that need has been addressed or attenuated. While I think it's unlikely that we're going to 'react' our way back to Jim Crow, or anti-gay lynch mobs, these are always dangers, and it's not difficult to find examples of people going from, "CRT is wrong to teach in schools," to throwing bricks or assaulting school board officials. These are difficult and complex topics and that makes it almost certain that a large portion of the populace will engage at the most superficial,and by extension, dangerous levels. I fear the backlash, and then the backlash to that; at some point we're going to tip over into absolute authoritarianism because people can't regulate their beliefs.
Do these seem like reasonable concerns, particularly if your hypothesis is correct?
Mr. Roscoe, enlightening and thought-provoking as ever. Thank you.
Maybe I'm just cynical, but here it is five days after the Oscars and people are still talking about the event. Was it staged? Don't know for sure but it would hardly be surprising. Awards shows have taken ratings hits for several years now.
They’d better not be calling themselves populists instead of progressives. The name games on the left need to stop. They were never progressive. They sure as heck aren’t populist. They think people are too stupid to see through the labels. The left is good at marketing, terrible at listening. They need to eat some humble pie, recognize that they nearly destroyed the US with their policies, demands and blatant, proud arrogance. I can only breathe a sigh of relief at the prospect that things will settle down into a somewhat-peaceful middle ground.
With utmost respect Mr. Roscoe, this piece feels repurposed. Other than organized warfare, men have never been more violent than when fighting over women. Even the back story of the Iliad is a conflict over a woman. "Old wine in new bottles."
It just sounds too good to be true, publicity stunt? Don’t want to be too conspiracy minded. I feel superior to my Elect friends who are giving some really heterodox arguments to justify the slap, or tell white people they can’t comment on it as the views are somehow tainted by privilege. Like the Fresh Prince doesn’t have any privilege?
You Americans really like to use acronyms ;-) what is TGS?
Thank you Glenn and Clifton. On the Chris-Will conflict; I am probably the least qualified to comment on their relationship because I know so little about either one. People respond to their own anger differently. My weapon is the ink pen. While I understand my pathway of anger to pen; I do not know the psychological pathway of strangers and therefore do not condescend when their “weapon” is different from mine. We humans have been demoted especially since June 01, 2020 when mayors illegally abolished “the table” from civic life. One week ago, I actually connected to two friends of several decades because I insisted that location of discussion be at “the table” (kitchen table, dining room table, large office desk, conference room table, customer service counter at bank or supermarket, restaurant table or bar counter). I said no to living room sofa and no to park walk as locations. At the kitchen table and at the dining hall table with my two friends, respectively was where I placed papers and pointed to sentence #3. This allowed me to succeed at communication for the first time since 2019.
In SF municipality; an entire department (not mine) abolished the bricks and mortar office space where in-person discussion between provider and customer takes place at “the table”. First was “Two and a half weeks to flatten the Covid curve”, then no in-person discussion forever. The physics problem of “Defund and Abolish the discussion table” becomes a psychological problem of non-communication. Every PhD psychologist in the USA knows this effect, period. While BLM as vehicle for CRT racism policy may be on the decline; the other vehicle “Equity” is ascending. Everyone should expect many many more “Chris and Will Bitch-slaps” until mayors and governors return the actual physical table to civic life. I allow 30 governors and 100 mayors one alibi only; “The discussion table and in-person communication will return to civic life very soon.” Of course Equity overlords will disapprove. But the governors and mayors need to realize that their legitimate boss is the entire population, not the anti-table and clandestine “Racial Equity Alliance”.
By the way, I have a small apartment with no sofa, but a dining table for 6-12.
Wanted to point out that Bari Weiss's Substack today ran this:
"Harvard's War Against Its Superstar Black Professor
A new documentary casts light on the story of Roland Fryer."
Check out the comments.
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/harvards-war-against-its-superstar
I wish we had hit peak woke.....but what I think is happening is that woke is just becoming part of the daily backdrop. Here is what I am talking about in this great twitter thread from Aaron Sibarium about the Georgetown Law School, considered among the top 14 in the nation:
https://twitter.com/FreeBeacon/status/1509179884538576908
I can observe two non-circumstantial facts that make this incident racial, and therefore at least peripherally related to a hypothetical woke backlash:
1) Blacks are disproportionately likely to defend Smith (honor culture). And even if this can't be proven, it reflects the common perception.
2) Smith is not granted full agency for his actions.
Is it me, or does this particular tribe seem to always be surrounded in drama or trauma?
I found it interesting that the next day The Atlantic had an article by Jemele Hill titled, "The Two Americas Debating Will Smith and Chris Rock. Black people and white people aren’t necessarily discussing the Oscars slap in the same way." In the article she mentioned not having seen it live, but that she had 653 text messages when the the flight she was on landed. And "Most of my 653 texts, I should note, came from Black folks." She then goes on to tell us "one poll found that, across racial lines, most Americans think Smith shouldn’t have slapped Rock. But I can’t help but notice the disproportionate outrage that many people in white America—and many in the Hollywood elite—are showing." The key phrase here is "I can't help but notice". I would assume that Jemele "can't help" but notice that "white" and "Black" America "aren't necessarily discussing" lots of thing the same way. Aren't necessarily... Uh, yes. PEOPLE don't necessarily all discuss the same topic in the same way. People, whether or not those people are seen through the prism of Black and white, discuss things in different ways. Thanks for the reminder though.
Will Smith looked weak, Chris Rock behaved like a seasoned professional. I felt bad for the other winners, whose moments of celebration were stolen and replaced by a weird atmosphere of self serving piety by an embarrassed Will Smith. I have wondered how the Williams family took this in. The consistent effort and hard work they have put in for decades puts them into a well deserved realm of genuine mastery. The character and strength grown by such effort puts them into an elect level attained by few, an initiation of sorts. Self discipline was thrown into the waste basket by Will Smith's behavior, which is the antithesis of the man and family values he represented in movie. The final kicker was to see Mr. Smith apologize to the power (the Academy) and not to Chris Rock.
Sorry forgot to say on my post below that I appreciate Mr. Roscoe's responses. He is usually inciteful and engaging and willing to put in the work most of us don't have the time and inclination to do. Keep it up, Clifton!!