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Good morning and Happy Free Friday. I hope everyone is hanging in there despite what has turned out to be a truly awful week.
Given what’s transpired with media outlets over the last few weeks, I hope you’ll consider upgrading to a premium subscription. Legacy media owners like Jeff Bezos and dot com billionaires like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have already begun kissing Donald Trump’s ring. In the coming days, an independent media that holds Trump accountable will be more important than ever. I wish I could do this newsletter free for everyone every day but, like so many other out-of-work journalists, I have to find a way to make living, even though the media landscape has been decimated by layoffs and shuttered outlets. I know you’re being bombarded with requests for donations and support right now — I am, too. And I know that none of us have the money to give we wish we did.
Here’s my promise to you: I remember what it was like during the last Trump administration. I remember the sheer exhaustion of waking up every day dreading looking at the news. I remember how tired the raging at watching institutions that have defined our democracy tossed aside like Kleenex. I certainly don’t want to contribute to tanking anyone’s mental health or their strength to fight back. So I will do my level best not to bombard you with nothing but bad news each day. I will try to make you laugh. Where I can, I will tell you what you can do to push back against racism, sexism, restrictions on our reproductive freedoms, transphobia, and everything else that’s about to come barreling down the pipe from the White House. I promise to leave you each day on a hopeful note. Sometimes a funny one.
We are, all of us, in this together.
It’s the sexism, stupid
I was listening to the first few minutes of Pod Save America this morning, a podcast I generally like. If you’ve never listened, PSA is Crooked Media’s flagship show, and probably the most popular lefty political show out there. It’s hosted by a bunch of a men, and I listened for about 15 minutes to them break down why they believe Kamala Harris lost the race. They talked about the border issues, the economy, and the drag of having an unpopular President in office during a time of high inflation, which, by the way, is happening globally and has nothing to do with the President of the United States.
But not once in these 15 minutes or so did I hear these men talk about sexism. They mentioned Trump doing better across every demographic than he did in 2020, but never mentioned sexism/racism as a likely factor. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I’m sure plenty of people would jump up and say, “Wait a minute! I didn’t vote for her because of X, not because she’s a woman!” This is exactly what we heard with Hillary Clinton, with Elizabeth Warren, with Amy Klobuchar, with Kamala Harris running in 2020. It seems people are always willing to vote for the theoretical woman President, just not any of the women who have actually been up for the part. Funny, that.
There are subtle and not so subtle forms of sexism. There’s the Nick Fuentes “Your body, my choice” assholes who are talking about forming rape squadrons over on X. There are men who speak about women like they are lesser creatures who should be subservient to men, always. There’s the kind of sexism we often see from religious men, who talk about men needing to “lead” their women, couching the subservience in language from the Bible and making being a homemaker sound like the ultimate act of love for a ife to take on (ask any woman who’s done it, it’s the hardest, most thankless job in the world). We see these guys coming a mile away.
Then there are the men who purport to be allies. Perhaps they even think they’ve unlearned the sexism America ingrains in boys from birth. But they hold women in power to standards that are impossible to meet. They will always find a reason not to support a woman for a leadership position. Sure, they’ll always have an alternative reason for why they chose the man, but the end result is the same as the guy who flat-out says he’ll never vote for a woman. And it’s not just the men, internalized misogyny is rife among conservative women. If you watch Always Sunny, think of Charlie’s mom being afraid to fly when there’s a woman pilot.
Donald Trump was found to be a rapist by a jury of his peers and has been accused by dozens more women of various forms of sexual misconduct. He routinely calls women “dumb” and comments on their appearance. He’s admitted to groping and kissing women without their consent. He threatened to “protect” women “whether they like it or not.”
None of these things, which would have sunk the electability of any other candidate in history, was a dealbreaker to 72 million Americans, including many women. But Kamala Harris, in the limited role of Vice President to an unpopular President, was found to be lacking, despite being one of the most qualified candidates ever to run for the office. Despite economists telling Americans that her economic plan was better than Trump’s. Despite coming up with a road map to address some of America’s most pressing problems in only 100 days.
When a woman is required to sell every aspect of her candidacy and vision for her Presidency while the man is allowed to skate with “concepts of a plan,” that’s sexism. It’s the kind of sexism nearly every woman has experienced in the workplace, where she is handed an assignment at the last minute, forced to clean up the mess the man before her made, and is met with disappointment for not having done more. Those who voted for Trump can claim they aren’t sexist all they want. Their vote says otherwise. (Of course, I’m not dismissing the racism at play here, as well. But at least America has elected one Black president in 248. years.)
My fear now is that the Democrats will wait 20 years to run another woman, despite Harris having run an incredible and disciplined campaign. I weep for what where this country could be had Hillary and Kamala been voted into office. Instead, we keep sending not only mediocre but avaricious and morally deficient men to Washington. Then, the masses complain that the government doesn’t work for “regular people.” And around and around we go. Rinse and repeat.
How do you solve a problem like our media?
I wanted to touch on this briefly, as it’s something I’ve been thinking of a lot. I make a lot of Idiocracy jokes, but it’s whistling in the dark, as we now have the guy from Fear Factor (don’t you dare drag News Radio into this) and a guy on trial for sex trafficking influencing huge swaths of young men on the right. There is simply nothing on the left to counter it.
There was a time when guys like Charlie Kirk, Nick Fuentes, and Ben Shapiro were pathetic little wannabes that we all laughed at on social media. Now, they influence millions of young men and have the ear of Trump’s inner circle. The incels have entered the building, and nothing good will come of it.
The entire situation is horrifying. I’ve got some thoughts on how we got here, but I’ll save them for next week when (hopefully) my mind is clearer than the Golden Oreo and Diet Mountain Dew-addled mess it currently is. (Was I the only one who did the “calories don’t count this week” thing?)
_________________ To IkeSouth, bigfan wrote: Are you stoned or pissed off, or both, when you create these postings?
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