I don’t like hit pieces. I really don’t. But as I explain in this week’s episode there is something different about a figure like Scott Galloway presenting misinformation in a mainstream media setting. He’s an older, white, wealthy entrepreneur-turned-professor who perfectly encapsulates the establishment liberal mindset and is therefore fair game. No punching down on this one.
Taking his appearance apart serves a couple of purposes. First off, it helps us tune our ears to the sound of propaganda. In other words, it’s about media literacy. But it’s also a way to highlight the genuine disconnect establishment liberals have when it comes to discomfort and something challenges their orthodoxies. It’s different and somehow more insidious than the cannon blast of bullshit that streams on the right because it’s more difficult to detect.
On the flip side of Galloway, our Progressive Spotlight this week is on Abby Martin, a longtime advocate for Palestinian rights and true example of fearlessness. Abby has been speaking truth to power for her entire career and is one of the more principled journalists I’ve ever met.
I’m not sure about you, but I’m really nervous about this summer. Election year. Cicadas. Fed holding high interest rates. Gas creeping closer to $4/gallon. Tragedy in Palestine. Anti-Semitism on the rise at home. Diversity and inclusion movements backsliding. Household debt spiraling out of control. Another “scorching” summer ahead. And the mainstream media is providing wall-to-wall free media coverage of the Donald. Make no mistake, the Stormy Daniels thing isn’t hurting this guy. If anything, his followers think he’s the man. It’s human nature to feed off the salacious.
As for future contents, I’m working through a couple of options right now including Yanis Varoufakis’ book Technofeudalism. Aside from loving YV, I’m hoping it helps set the groundwork for a couple of different pieces on tech oligarchies and the rise of AI. If you have specific thoughts or questions on AI or the tech industry that can help frame future episodes, let me know. I’m all ears.
Other things I’m obsessing over…
Despite being romantically involved with conservative shitgibbon Dinesh D’Souza...Despite leading with the statement that she aligned most closely with him politically out of all the Republican candidates… Ann Coulter told Vivek Ramaswamy to his face that she wouldn’t have voted for him because he’s Indian. And he was totally cool with that.
Here’s the lede in an OilPrice.com article: “Following several weeks of declines, oil prices are now rising once again on a combination of geopolitical risk, rising demand, and supply concerns.” Tick tock, tick tock. We’ve said for a while in this newsletter and on the podcast that one of the biggest and sneakiest factors in this (any really) election will be prices at the pump come the end of summer and early fall. And this is where it all begins. Oil powers the world and might also power headwinds. We’ll be sure to keep an eye on this.
Headlines
Robert Reich Could Have Written This Article
There’s been plenty of hand-wringing in recent earnings calls apparently. CEOs are warning of “stretched consumers” with little self-awareness that they’re largely responsible for this phenomenon despite strong job growth since the pandemic. Will they ever connect the dots? Hard to see past those stock buybacks and golden parachutes I guess.
From the article:
“The split-screen view of the economy is becoming clearer as earnings season draws to a close. Mass-market brands, like the fast-food companies McDonald’s, KFC and Starbucks, have reported that a lot of customers are pulling back on spending as high inflation bites. But less price-sensitive sectors, such as airlines and hospitality, say customers are still booking flights, hotel rooms and tables at pricier restaurants. The starkly different snapshots may explain why voters give President Biden poor marks for economic management, even as jobs are plentiful and growth is resilient. This is ‘an economy of the haves and have-nots,’ Michael Reid, an economist for RBC Capital Markets, told DealBook. ‘The haves just have so much more spending power.’”
RFK Jr. revealed that a worm ate part of his brain, which led to a cognitive decline a few years back but that everything is okay now. Oh, and that he ate so many tuna sandwiches he probably gave himself mercury poisoning. It’s fine. Trust him. He’s a doctor and a scientist even though he’s neither.
From the article:
“Aside from the dead parasite nestled inside his brain, Kennedy claimed that as a result of mercury poisoning (which he blamed on his love of eating fish), ‘I have cognitive problems, clearly. I have short-term memory loss, and I have longer-term memory loss that affects me.’ The presidential hopeful ruefully acknowledged, ‘I loved tuna fish sandwiches. I ate them all the time.’ To find someone else as in love with tuna as Kennedy, you have to turn to a movie: In the 2002 black comedy Matchstick Men, the addled and creepy Roy Waller (played by Nicholas Cage) is a tuna junkie on par with Kennedy.”
Perhaps the one cool thing about the reservation system is that they can ban shitty Americans from entering their land. A few newsletters ago we linked an ICT article about how the Oglala Sioux banned governor Kristi Noem from tribal lands for making disparaging remarks linking them to drug cartels. Noem since doubled down and so have five additional tribes.
From the article:
“Previously the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate attempted to work with Noem after her claims that the cartel was operating on the Lake Traverse Reservation. The two parties had reached an agreement for Noem to not single out tribal governments further. However, during a March town hall in Winner, South Dakota, Noem again claimed that cartels are operating on tribal land in South Dakota. She also alleged that tribal governments benefit from cartel presence.”
Max takes aim at NYU professor Scott Galloway who recently appeared on CNN to criticize student protests with the most bizarre analysis that smacks of laziness and propaganda. While “takedowns” and “gotchas” aren’t Max’s favorite thing, he makes an exception for Galloway because of the space he occupies in the media ecosystem and on the spectrum of white male bro-influencers with independent platforms that are poisoning the media. Max also provides closing thoughts on the rise of anti-Semitism and the dangers of conflating Judaism with the far-right ruling government in Israel.
Here’s a snippet from the pod:
MAX: “If your conversations are anything like mine they’re typically derailed by specific examples designed to portray global meaning. Here’s what it sounds like. ‘Did you see the video of the [insert confirmation bias example here]? What do you say to that?’ Or any sentence that starts with ‘A lot of people are saying.’ Or, ‘You should watch [insert confirmation bias media figure that supports one’s world view here]’s take.’ And the ever popular and annoying, ‘There was an article the other day, I can’t remember where I read it, but basically it said the opposite of what you’re telling me now.’”
“We’re joined by Faayani Aboma Mijana, spokesperson for the Coalition to March on the DNC and a member of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and Hatem Abudayyeh, chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network and also a spokesperson for March on the DNC. They will discuss plans for mobilization during the Democratic National Convention and why it will focus on Palestine. They are joining us from Chicago, where the convention will be held.”
Nothing new on the ol’ reading list. Still working through Technofuedalism. More to report in the coming weeks. What are you reading?
Unf*cker Comment of the Week
Jesse T.:
“I grew up extremely conservative. I was raised as a straight, white male. In my early twenties, I began to question a lot of what I’d formerly been taught, to deconstruct much of the toxicity of my upbringing. I found my way, gradually, to progressivism. And it was *gradual*. I went from thinking of myself as conservative, to center-right, to moderate, to center-left, to progressive and now I’m effectively ideologically aligned with democratic socialism. But for much of that journey, I was siloed away from community because every time I tried to join a community, I felt attacked for not holding some sort of ideological purity, as though they expected the kid with two decades of far right indoctrination to immediately become a bleeding heart liberal and socialist overnight. Because I held some views and had some blind spots, I didn’t feel welcome in most lefty spaces.”
Abby Martin, the independent journalist behind Empire Files, is among the most tenacious, probing, and uncompromising reporters in the field—and she’ll never stop shining a light on abuses of colonialism, neoliberalism, and the military industrial complex.
“The National Women’s Law Center fights for gender justice—in the courts, in public policy, and in our society—working across the issues that are central to the lives of women and girls. We use the law in all its forms to change culture and drive solutions to the gender inequity that shapes our society and to break down the barriers that harm all of us—especially women of color, LGBTQ people, and low-income women and families. For 50 years, we have been on the leading edge of every major legal and policy victory for women.”
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