Tag: cancel culture

We’re Both Right: Why The Culture War Over Beer Is The Perfect Encapsulation Of How Dumb Everything Is In Modern America

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Ok, here’s what’s going on. One of the rallying cries of the MAGA Right is “go woke go broke.” They point to how Bud Lite has lost, like, 20% of its market share for sending *1* promotional beer can to a trans “influencer” for an Instagram post.

And, yet, globally, I’ve seen evidence that overall, Anheuser-Busch has only lost 1% of its market share. What’s more, because of consolidation in the beer market,almost all of that lost market share is going to other beer brands, also owned by Anheuser-Busch!

As such, this is the perfect culture war battle — both sides are right and both sides are wrong — depending on how you look at things — if you ever get into any sort of argument over things.

In short — lulz, nothing matters. And everything sucks.

But I have to say — I am growing more and more alarmed at how Red and Blue are receding away from each other. Something’s gotta give. There is going to come a point where all these macro trends come to a head and God-only-knows what sort of fucked up things will happen.

The greatest country in the world is going to potentially imploded because of ‘vibes.”

Tinx, Cancel Culture & Me


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Tinx

So, apparently the Internet’s Big Sister, Tik-Tok superstar Tinx is in trouble for “fat shaming” people on Twitter. This makes me think about my own ranting about how Mike Pompeo is a fat fuck and if, one day, those ranty tweets will come back to haunt me.

Fat Fuck Mike Pompeo

Of course, for that to happen, I would have to win the literary equivalent of lottery. Sometime totally unexpected would have to happen to me in a big way. But I don’t know — I guess given how all-powerful “cancel culture” is, that just me drunkenly ranting about how I think would-be autocrat Mike Pompeo is a fat fuck probably would be enough to get me “canceled.”

It’s shit like that which makes center-Right people (which definitely doesn’t include me) get mad and start thinking about how center-Left people are “groomers.”

All of this is very dumb.

But there is a great book about the implications of cancel culture — in a metaphorical sense — called Kiln People. It’s by David Brin.

Woke Cancel Culture Is So Corrosive to Democracy


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This is an example of if I would sell my soul to the MAGA New Right I could be up there with Jesse Kelly. But for my self-respect, I could be having dinner with Trump, plotting how he is going to win re-election in 2024.

Jesus Christ, fuck that.

I say this because I’m capable of enough empathy to understand why being “canceled” is at the forefront of my conservative Traditionalist relatives’ minds. Even though Blue Check liberals have moved on, the average Traditionalist is still very, very concerned that through some mishap, they will slip up in public because of their conservative sensibles and a recording of the event will go viral. They will then have their life ruined simply for being conservative.

Now, on the face of this, this is bullshit.

The vast majority of people who are “canceled” are malevolent racists, or mysognists or bigots. But my Traditionalists relatives miss that part. Things are far more simplistic for them — if you’re conservative, you risk having your life ruined in a very public manner.

And the reason they think this is the thought leaders of the MAGA New Right know they can use that fear as a bludgeon. They scare the shit of out Traditionalists about being “canceled” in hopes that they won’t really get woke and make common cause against the MAGA New Right and the rise of fascism.

Anyway, the point is — we’re fucked.

The are only so many bolts left on American democracy. There will come a point, no later than 2024 – 2025, when we face the existential choice of autocracy or civil war. I keep telling my Traditionalist relatives that their side is ascendant and they will get everything they want politically if their only patient.

But, lulz, because of the thought leaders of their side being so fucking blood thirsty, we’re fucking doomed.

Forget Joe Rogan — Let’s Talk Howard Stern


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This is going to be extremely lazy. I’m not getting paid, but I am getting drunk as I write this. Anyway, I’ve always respected Howard Stern’s interviewing ability. He’s probably one of the best interviewers in the media today. AND YET. He’s got a real problem — he has within the last 10 years, maybe more recently — used the n-word on multiple occasions.

If I was getting paid to write this, was not drunk and knew anyone was actually going to read this outside of my usual randos and stalkers, I would look up instances of this on YouTube, but, lulz. Anyway, the point is, Joe Rogan — who I’m not fond of — is rightfully getting all this shit for using the n-word, when Stern is out there using it all the time, too.

What the what?

I can remember the first time I heard him say it. I was so taken aback I couldn’t listen to him again in the same way. But I don’t know, maybe he and South Park are the two last remaining pre-“Cancel Culture” pieces of media that can still get away with some really objectionable shit.

With Stern, some of it has to do with who is his core audience — the Blue Check liberals who would be the most likely to lead the charge to “cancel” him in the first place.

Anyway. Lulz. This bourbon is good.

A Creative Conundrum



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I find developing and writing female characters a lot more fun because of how much of a challenge it is to do so as a man. I often also populate my work with POC including American Asians, etc. This is all well and good, but for the fact that at same time this thing that I’m told is expected in a modern writer is also, in itself, something that can cause problems.

‘Double dees, double deeze”

Because I’m a white “CIS” male.

So, there is something of a paradox. I’m suppose to have representation in my work, which I find myself doing anyway, and, yet, because I’m a white man, that, by definition, is a problem.

It can make the whole act of creation rather frustrating. All these rules I have to follow — which often have contradictory expectations — can cause you to grow angry at them. As an aside, I will note one of these rules that makes me seethe is the Bechdel Test, which I’ve heard described as originally proposed as a “half joke” in a fucking comic of all things.

So here I am, slaving away to write the best four novel series that I hope might be popular — especially with women readers — and I’m expected to have representation, but if I do have representation then it’s bad because I’m a white man writing from a female, or POC point of view.

What’s more, it’s now a fairly ridged ideology among some that these works also have to feature two women talking about something other than a man. I call bullshit.

The point is for me to tell the best story possible that entertain the audience for hours using only their imagination.

As such, you, as the writer, in my opinion, need to follow your truth north. If you’re a white “CIS” male, you just can’t win with some people. By definition, they don’t like you and don’t like anything you produce. It’s enough to make me want to write under an assumed identity or something. I’m only half-joking, as it were.

Anyway. All I can do is try my best to flesh out my vision on the page and see what happens.

Let’s Unpack J.D. Vance’s Fears of ‘Cancel Culture’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Oh boy. There’s a lot to unpack with this Axios profile of J.D. Vance’s Senate campaign in Ohio. Here’s the part that sticks out for me:

Vance told me in a phone interview from Cincinnati that so-called cancel culture was a big part of conservatives’ conversations as he worked Fourth of July parades over the holiday weekend.

“People are terrified that if they speak their minds about what’s going on in the country, they’re going to lose their job,” he said. “‘If I say that I voted for Trump on Facebook, somebody’s going to try to get me fired.”

This abstract fear is something I hear a lot from my conservative relatives. Because MAGA has no policies that are popular outside their own bullshit echo chamber, they latch on to the vague unease that a lot of people feel about “cancel culture” (whatever the fuck that is.)

To me, the crazy thing about all of this everyone benefits by having a liberal democracy that has an ebb and flow to it. But that’s now how MAGA cocksuckers see things — they want to take power and never let go because they fear the browning of America, or women with economic and sexual agency, the list goes on.

So that abstract conservative fear that their life will be ruined for just being conservative is what MAGA has hung its entire political future on. MAGA talking points have now completely consumed the conservative to the point that my conservative-but-not-MAGA relatives pretty much echo all the major MAGA complaints without even realizing it.

One thing that I struggle with is — how real is, in practical terms, “cancel culture.” I have one conservative relative who can tick off half a dozen concrete examples of conservatives being canceled, and, yet, I also think his abstract fears of cancel culture are extremely recursive. In my center-Left experience, there are very few examples of honest-to-God average conservatives who have had their lives ruined “just for being conservative.”

The problem, of course, the divide between MAGA and everyone else has grown so enormous that we can’t even agree on what is acceptable public behavior. I mean, is it ok for a police official to donate $20 to the defense fund of a 17-year-old serial murder because they supported his political agenda? (The crybaby defense that it was “leaked” doesn’t hold much water since Republicans seem to get off on using leaked e-mails for political gain.)

The real problem is a massive difference in perception. Or, put another way, the media narrative of Trumplandia is so dramatically different from the media narrative of everyone else that it’s like talking to someone from a political Upside Down. Or, even more specifically, negative polarization is now so absolute that MAGA’s political foundations are now 100% recursive and abstract.

I Struggle With The End Of The Victoria’s Secret Show


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

When it comes to the demise of the annual Victoria’s Secret show I’m reminded of Oliva Wilde’s movie Booksmart. I fucking hated, hated HATED that fucking movie, but I also knew I wasn’t the audience. The audience was a GenZ bi-curious girl living in a purple suburb.

So, obviously not me.

And, in all honesty, it’s not like I actually sat down and watched the Victoria’s Secret show on TV. I was aware of it each year, saw clips on YouTube and that was it. But something about it becoming culturally untenable rubs me the wrong way.

I totally get that wealthy liberal women in metropolitan areas are now so woke that they now either spend money on a Peloton or, in general, just want lingerie that is more representative of how most women really look. Ok, I can accept that.

And, yet, it makes me sad that “lingerie needs to be more representative” is mutually exclusive with the glamor and allure of Victoria’s Secret. Why can’t all the various body types — including the traditionally hot ones — be celebrated? Why, by definition, is a stunning woman in lingerie a bad thing?

Anyway, no one listens to me. But the people who want to “slay the patriarchy” are doing themselves no favors by “canceling” something as popular and easily-to-understand as the Victoria’s Secret show. While it might allow “woke” people to feel smug that another oppressive aspect of the patriarchy has been felled there are a lot of men — and women — who are like me.

The Decline of Victoria’s Secret & ‘Cancel Culture’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If anything can give us some insight into what “cancel culture” is — and isn’t — it’s the gradual decline of Victoria’s Secret. This legacy brand is very much a creature of the pre-‘cancel culture’ morality, so its decline in popularity is a helpful tool on that particular social front.

I’m male and of just the right age for Victoria Secret to be taken for granted as socially acceptable quasi-soft porn that takes the beauty pageant concept one step further. But the brand has had a lot problems of late, both internally and with women’s shifting self-perception.

I would prefer that we could come to some sort of middle ground whereby Victoria Secret could continue to do its pre-2020s thing in peace for people who enjoy it, but that’s not to be. That ship has sailed and now the whole endeavor is probably going to tank because “the center has not held.”

It’s difficult to sell the concept of Victoria Secret to wealthy women in major metropolitan areas when they’ve moved on to buy a Pelton or whatever. Or, put another way, in the public sphere at least, the Victoria Secret ideal is seen as an attack on the vast majority of women who don’t look like that. I’m obviously not a woman, but just casually observing things, it seems as though macro things are afoot that are leading us to a New Era — one without Victoria’s Secret.

But I will note that if you look at the broad swaths of human history, things don’t go in a straight line. Sex with always sell and all it would take is a Second American Civil War and we might come out the other side (if, thankfully, the Good Guys win) with a whole different set of priorities than we do right now.

I’m really pushing it with that bit of speculation, however. Just like how good movies and rock music have apparently faded into oblivion, so, too will Victoria Secret join them soon enough.

My Hot Take On ‘Cancel Culture’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I say the following knowing damn well that my own personal history — and views — don’t fit the media narrative and are, as such, ripe for me to be “canceled” rather abruptly if I ever make it big somehow.

But, having said that, to me, it’s a clear mark of someone with very simplistic and recursive political views if they ever start ranting about “cancel culture.” I say this because most of the people who rant about cancel culture don’t even really know what the fuck it is. In general, I think, they see it as evil liberals destroying the lives of conservatives like themselves for just being conservative.

Things grow a lot more muddled, however, when inevitably these “canceled” people either pop back into the mainstream media world after a little while or if you look into why these people were canceled. The vast majority of the time, the conservatives who were canceled for just being conservative usually did something that they deserved to be “canceled” for. They used the N-word. They were forcing women around them to jerk off, they were being over-the-top abusive in some way. Or, they were just assholes who happened to be conservative, too.

But the reason that the abstract fear of “cancel culture” resonates with the average conservative is ever since about 2012, America’s culture has been changing at light speed relative to what your typical conservative thinks of as “normal.”

So, what you often find happening now is conservatives are told by their thought leaders to live in abject fear of the abstract concept of being “canceled” when the average person just living their life — even conservative people — don’t really have much to worry about. All the instances of conservatives being “canceled” I can think of off the top of my head, they were assholes who deserved it.

The abstract concept of “cancel culture” is now something for really earnest, really masculine men to hide behind whenever they “red pill” themselves and start ranting about this or that fucked up thing. The worst part of all of this is I agree that a lot of people have grown too sensitive at the edges of social and political debate. But I think that is more a problem that is a sign of our late-stage Republic than anything else.

Once we either become an autocracy or we have a civil war, shit like “cancel culture” is going to be, well, uh, canceled. When the autocracy comes, we’re all going to be so worried about not getting pushed out of windows by ICE that we won’t have time to worry about who got canceled. Or, if we have a civil war, by the time it’s over, cancel culture will be the least of our worries.

But something about how people who are into Joe Rogan’s podcast getting all bent out of shape about “cancel culture” and seeing it as some sort of vague monster that is holding them back really fucking gets on my nerves.

The Rise Of American Fascism


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It used to be I had at least one conservative relative I had regular, friendly debates with. That has ended, ominously, however, because my conservative interlocutor finally was so detached from reality that I got mad and he said he didn’t want to talk politics with me anymore.

I try to be empathetic, so I find myself rolling around in my mind the topics we talked about in our last debate. The key take away I can think of off the top of my head is how much conservatives fucking hate science. It’s not that they don’t believe in it or that they deny it — they just hate it. This is the origin of their collective hatred of Dr. Fauci. In fact, Dr. Fauci was one of several instances where what my conservative relative started to say seemed like it was being beamed out of the Upside Down. It was surreal. It was bonkers. And it was dangerous.

Anyway, another re-occurring theme with conservatives is they “just want to be left alone.”

I assume what they mean is they think that just by being conservative, that just by having an opinion that doesn’t fit the “liberal media’s agenda” that they risk having their lives destroyed via “cancel culture.” I find it curious that conservatives get so worked up over the power of the liberal media when it’s also pretty obvious that for all the talk about the Republican Party dying it is actually growing more powerful as it marinates in its hate.

I struggle to figure out what the solution to how the United States is tearing itself apart. My fear is the only way there’s any solution is some sort of historic “reset” of our politics that involves an actual hot civil war. I could be a lot more empathetic to the concerns of American conservatives if they weren’t so hysterical that they were willing to throw their lot with fascism. Because that’s what we face right now — the rise of American fascism.

And, really, ironically, what has allowed us to doge the fate of the Weimer Republic for the time being is the Right is completely consumed with hero worship of a…ding-dong. Trump pretty much is an American Hitler…but for the part where he just talks a lot and never actually takes the next step of knocking heads. Trump is soooo fucking lazy and disorganized that while he has helped us lurch towards a Fourth Reich, he has also delayed its creation because of his, specific, personality quirks.

It’s not like Trump has the wherewithal to organize any sort of SA-type paramilitary group. So, a crucial aspect of the rise of American fascism doesn’t exist. We have a few would-be paramilitary groups but they’re small and disorganized at the moment. And, hopefully, will stay that way and never organize into one big jackbooted organization.

But let me be clear — the MAGA Republican Party isn’t dying. If we were still a liberal democracy, then, yes, you could make that argument. But we’re not that anymore –we’re an autocracy without an autocrat. What I mean by that is — all the conditions are there for an autocrat to turn us into a managed democracy like Russia…but for someone to actually do it.

And the one person who history would have do it — Donald J. Fucking Trump — is such a dingbat that for the time being we have a few years of peace. Either Trump will come back tan, ready and rested and take us into the dark night of fascism, or any one of seemingly endless stream of would-be MAGA autocrat presidents will do it instead.

And, as such, that’s why, as I keep saying, we face a stark choice between now and January 2025: autocracy or civil war.