Hope everyone’s weekend going? Thanks for spending a portion of it with the Six.
Wow. What a week it was.
Elon Musk’s deal to buy Twitter finalizes. Western Civilization is on the brink of collapse, if we were to read, ironically, certain left-leaning scribes and publications on the Twitterverse.
And Kanye West (or “Ye” as he officially changed his name to) got cancelled. Although when worth billions of dollars, ‘cancel’ is a relative term. Ye will recover as uber-famous people do and I’m sure will channel his anger through his art.
Re-listened to “The College Dropout” this week on stream. Hope Ye goes back to being Kanye West and makes an album like that.
Let’s proceed with the Six.
1. Election Anxiety Creeps Inside the White House.
We are nine days away from mid-terms. Depending on what polls you read (or news service you subscribe to), some races are super tight, some are pretty much over. In Illinois, the governor and senate races appear to be more in the ‘over’ category (blue) while down-ballot campaigns are less certain. What is the scuttlebutt in Washington? Politico has the story on how “anxiety is growing within the White House and allied Democrats that Republicans will capture at least one chamber of Congress and possibly both.”
2. More Americans Are Getting News Off Tik-Tok.
In tech news…Facebook’s parent company (Meta) stock is tanking although Mark Zuckerberg is so convinced of virtual reality’s success that he’s plowing more resources into it. A new Pew Research reveals how Americans are increasingly getting their news from Tik-Tok, a social media app owned by a hostile foreign power. I can’t imagine anyone predicted these outcomes in 2019: Kanye owns Parler, Elon owns Twitter, and a company called ByteDance owns your kids. Grab the nearest bottle and take a swig.
This article is over five years old but holds up quite well. The author’s grandmother is 94 years old, and barely knows who or where she is. Clearing out her old house, he finds chemicals in her shed and starts to understand why, when she was younger, people were always dying around her – her children, her husbands, her boyfriend. "I don’t wonder whether Grandma got what she deserved as a mother; I wonder whether she got what she deserved as a murderer." A compelling read from Vice.
4. The Boys Feminism Left Behind.
The author, Richard Reeves, writes about the decline of male patriarchy in society and “women are no longer dependent on men for material resources. By tearing down barriers to education and the labor market, feminism has achieved a central goal of securing for women economic independence and power.” He adds how the “rise of women has been accompanied by male decline.” A fascinating essay from the Common Sense newsletter.
5. The Return of the Lipstick King.
In China, social media influencer Austin Li ran a live shopping show that sold millions of dollars worth of products every night. That is, until he disappeared, mid-show, after a possible reference to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. His shocking return to the air only added more questions about the country’s censorship regime, which may have backfired in this case.
Reminded of why we love the “Jackass” movies after seeing this clip. You’ll “LMAO” after viewing.
Thanks for reading everybody and enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Have a suggestion for The Sunday Six? Send email to jonjkerr@gmail.com.