America’s Depressing New Culture War
1st September 2019
Tyler Cowen, a Real Economist, has some bad news.
There is a new culture war in America, between the ordinary and the transcendent. And the ordinary is winning.
…
The largest recipient of Patreon funds is the Chapo Trap House podcast, whose 31,000-plus donors send in more than $138,000 per month. This podcast is a leading voice of what one of its hosts has dubbed “the dirtbag left,” which Wikipedia calls “a style of left-wing politics that eschews civility-for-its-own-sake in favor of subversive, populist vulgarity.” Not my cup of tea, I thought, but OK; 49 more entries to go.
Alas, reassurance was not forthcoming. Eight of the top 50 are marked “NSFW” (not safe for work). Podcasts are the most common kind of project on the list, but too many are along the lines of the Timesuck podcast of Dan Cummins, which describes its subjects as “serial killers, historical events, enduring mysteries, paranormal encounters, conspiracy theories, cryptozoology and more — nothing is off limits if it’s interesting.”
And, of course, a sign of the times:
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Otherwise there’d be a ‘woke’ mob outside their offices.