John McWhorter and I wrapped up our latest livestream earlier this afternoon, and I figured, why make everyone wait? So here is two hours of John and I talking about politics and culture, taking questions from the chat, and talking with subscribers for our monthly Q&A session. It’s as fresh as it can possibly get.
After we discuss John’s latest musical venture—a cabaret show featuring long-lost numbers by Fats Waller—we move onto our central topic: the vulgarity of our present discourse. Though “vulgarity” doesn’t quite capture what we’re talking about on this show. It’s not news to say that the tenor of public speech has coarsened over the decades—words and phrases that would have been utterly taboo in the media of the 1960s hardly give us pause today. But what does seem new is the sometimes shockingly racist, sexist, and homophobic sentiments that have become a part of “ordinary” political debate. My instinct is to ignore much of it. Am I really going to debate someone who believes that women shouldn’t be allowed to vote? I wouldn’t dignify that opinion with a response.
The Overton window is shifting, and it’s not doing it on its own. One force moving it is surely the wide availability of online platforms. Everyone has a camera and a microphone, and as more and more people avail themselves of the communication tools available to them, views that were once filtered out by mainstream and legacy outlets are finding their way to the center of the conversation. But another force moving the window is what’s going on in the world. While I may roll my eyes when, for example, Nick Fuentes touts the virtues of Jim Crow, he’s responding to items in the news, like violent crime committed by black youth, that do need to be taken seriously. I could call Fuentes a racist and leave it at that, but that wouldn’t negate the issue to which he is (over)reacting. And then, of course, there’s Trump. It’s a much more complicated problem than it appears at first glance, and John and I get into it.
From there, we move on to Ukraine, Trump’s surprisingly friendly press conference with Zohran Mamdani and his equally surprising call to prosecute Democrats who reminded members of the military that they’re not obligated to carry out illegal orders.
Then it’s on to our subscriber-only Q&A session, where John and I took questions about God and morality, the Democrats’ electoral prospects, Black English vernacular, China’s outpacing of American economic growth, AI and education, Looney Tunes, and socialism vs. social democracy, plus questions from the YouTube chat.
Since we’ve got the Thanksgiving holiday at the end of the week, I’m releasing the first half of the conversation to everyone today instead of this Friday. You can watch it in Substack’s player above or on YouTube. The whole video is available to full subscribers only in the Substack player.
For access to the entire conversation, including the Q&A, become a full subscriber.
The Glenn Show is almost entirely viewer supported, so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one. The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year, you’ll get weekly episodes of The Glenn Show earlier than their public release, monthly Q&A episodes with John McWhorter, access to the full Substack archives, and other exclusive bonus content.
