As I stated in the Rahm comments, I like him, don't "Agree" with him on many things but who do I agree with on a lot of things? (Vincent Gallo and Courtney Love perhaps but they aint running for anything, oh what a ticket that would be!). Rahm seems genuine (For a politician, being from the top eastern part of country like me its great to hear) and unlike the frauds like Harris and other who are just robots of stupidity, its nice to see. His and the Christie interview where "Top Notch" and reason you are one of the few I still pay for and watch/listen to each show. (Eli did a great job battling with the now mostly intolerable Andrew Sullivan but doubt I will subscribe to AS once its expires, shame really) Great shows of late, I love that MK makes no mention of The Fifth when Kmele introduced, also like how you showed up on Batya, appears you guys have no trouble talking to Moynihan's 'Ex's" who cut him off, could make throwing company holiday parties a bit difficult yeah? That said YANKESS ON TRACK TO WIN 162 games!!!! George would be proud!!!
I truly believe Andrew needs to stop smoking weed during his shows, the last time I heard him here on Fifth He was completely blitzed and made for a terrible appearance. He states during Eli show He was going to start a 2nd one. I dunno, He has gone mental from this orange fella and the weed isnt helping. His Batya interview was dismal, She just tuned out 3/4's in after He decided to just go off the handle and yell at Her (Worse then the Moynihan yelling episode), I was in car listening and could feel the sea change, She just "Stopped" and soon after hurried out, didnt do anything unprofessional just halted Her interactions to "Yes" , "No" etc... Eli just stays calm, doesn't even raise his voice or interrupt.
I will also probably not renew my annual Dish sub when it expires. Sad, because reading AS back when he was at nymag.com (!) was my gateway drug to conservative/center right thinking. AS is also how found the Fifth. But he seems to be suffering from an incurable (and insufferable) case of both TDS and IDS (Israel Derangement Syndrome.) And Fried is looking like an ace!
7:00 pm EDT will be 2:00 AM in Israel, by which time I hope to be well into my 4th (plus?) cup of wine at the Passover seder. But I shall try to remember to raise a toast in appreciation of the freedom-loving TFC lads.
I'll vote for Rahm or any Dem (or Republican for that matter) who denounces the hateful bigots on their parties' fringes.
Let's just hope we can collectively restore the TABOO against the overt hateful bigotry we're seeing before it becomes fully normalized within polite society and our mainstream politics. We didn't defeat the Nazis in Skokie or the KKK by preventing them from speaking their hate. We made it so costly that they were shamed out of the workplace and polite society and were toxic for anybody to publicly associate with. We must do the same today, especially for those that are explicit in their overt hateful bigotry and endorsement of violence.
While I agree with this to an extent in principle. Chesterton's fence and all that. However, this is also what led to the mass psychosis, and cancellation wave starting in 2020. So this needs to be clearly linked with a positive vision to make sure there are fundamental principles we can point to that are being violated.
I agree on all of that. I have drafted 4 principles to help restore what I call our universal moral TABOOS, which I believe help prevent this from succumbing to the excesses of "cancel culture":
1. The Red Line: Limit actionable taboos to overt bigotry, dehumanization, and the endorsement of violence.
2. The Consensus Test: Distinguish between subjective offense (which is partisan and open to individual interpretation) and a Shared Moral Violation (which reflects a broad, trans-tribal consensus and warrants consequence).
3. The Private Mechanism: Enforce standards through civil society (employers, associations), never government coercion.
4. The Open Door: The goal of consequence must be correction, not permanent destruction; always offer a path to redemption.
I'm writing about this topic exclusively at 'Holding the Line' elevin11.substack.com, where I've defined these terms and topics more specifically and demonstrated a broad consensus behind these viewpoints.
There were parts of the Rahm interview I liked and parts I didn't. Still don't know what to make of him; compared to most Democrats he seems reasonable, though the bar for that is very low. Was a good interview, even if I didn't love it. I've been listening since the Summer of 2020 when you had on some journalist Wesley something....then also that guy who was the Jacob Urofsky Professor of something who ran to Canada after Wesley Yang bullied him off Twitter.
I did notice the high output and appreciate the shift to more production! The Batya interview was excellent btw.
MO #310 was a real callback to the early years: it was half about crazy Trump on foreign policy, half trashing idiot commie journalos and a 3rd half going through 20th century history and the lies the commies tell us. Trump’s saying crazy shit while fighting a Chinese aligned dictatorship over nukes while out of touch online commies talk about the fascism and downtrodden. It’s not repeating but it rhymes with 2017 a lot.
Thanks for letting us peak into the business side, feels like there’s a lot here on that. The guest strategy is clearer now—getting more politicians who are running for the Presidency is a dark horse event, IMO. I mean, perhaps it’s a bit lofty but it does some quite plausible a Fifth Column interview would make news and change the course of someone’s candidacy and thus having some measurable impact on the next US Presidency! I think you’ll have to add Slotnik to the list when she runs (I was thinking 2028 would be Rubio/TBD vs Slotnik/Kelly last year, so betting my grandfather’s war medals on that on Polymarket, It’s a sure thing!)
And an early happy 10 years! It’s a little over 7 (wow) as a listener, hooked in by Kmele’s famous 2018 NAACP panel on race. 🍻 to 10 more!
Congratulations on the upcoming anniversary. I’ve been listening since the beginning when Thad Russell was a (way too) frequent guest and Moynihan’s willingness to participate was a coin toss on any given week. We’ve all been through a lot. Glad to have made it this far. Here’s to the next ten years
Thank you for the time stamps on MK for Kmele, plus the episode # on the thumbnail! Only thing missing is Moynihan flirting with Megyn and her calling you Welsh.
For love of Kmele, I held my nose and watched his stint on MK. Not sure if it annoyed anyone else here, but for the love of God, someone needs to tell her the word is interventionist not interventionalist 🙄. (Of course, if it were Matt’s mispronunciation, I would have found it endearing, so there goes my objectivity 🤷♀️.) And, geez, the Britney/ Justin - Trump/Bibi metaphor? She really has gone off the deep end. Kmele truly pulled off brilliance in the face of crazy.
Sometimes I get frustrated at the blatant contrast between Kmele’s genuine efforts to be objective, thoughtful, fair, and open to persuasion, and his interlocutors’ frequent and obvious (to me) mere play-acting at those traits. This is one of those times
The Pro-Life song is a period piece, no pun intended.
What it was back then was pretty gruesome.
The resurgence of some of the worst parts of the 70s found newfound respect during The Great Awokening.
Perfect example of this is Biden declaring that the Equal Rights Amendment was now in effect after Virginia passed it…whatever it was, thirty years after the extended deadlines had passed.
(And there’s lots of legal protections passed since the ERA failed that really come into question if the ERA is in effect….same goes for many sane-sex rights.)
But back to abortion, paying attention to what European countries do makes a lot of sense. Stupid Flanders are very Catholic (And I’m talking about Belgians) have restrictions that are far in excess of what Democrats want. But for many on “The Left “ not only is abortion the most-important thing ever, AND you have to force Catholic doctors to perform them. And see that they’re performed in Catholic hospitals.
Boring Competent Bureaucrat Who Hates Being on TV 2028.
As I stated in the Rahm comments, I like him, don't "Agree" with him on many things but who do I agree with on a lot of things? (Vincent Gallo and Courtney Love perhaps but they aint running for anything, oh what a ticket that would be!). Rahm seems genuine (For a politician, being from the top eastern part of country like me its great to hear) and unlike the frauds like Harris and other who are just robots of stupidity, its nice to see. His and the Christie interview where "Top Notch" and reason you are one of the few I still pay for and watch/listen to each show. (Eli did a great job battling with the now mostly intolerable Andrew Sullivan but doubt I will subscribe to AS once its expires, shame really) Great shows of late, I love that MK makes no mention of The Fifth when Kmele introduced, also like how you showed up on Batya, appears you guys have no trouble talking to Moynihan's 'Ex's" who cut him off, could make throwing company holiday parties a bit difficult yeah? That said YANKESS ON TRACK TO WIN 162 games!!!! George would be proud!!!
Eli did a good job with Sullivan. Despite Sullivan coming across like a smarter version of too online cousin.
I truly believe Andrew needs to stop smoking weed during his shows, the last time I heard him here on Fifth He was completely blitzed and made for a terrible appearance. He states during Eli show He was going to start a 2nd one. I dunno, He has gone mental from this orange fella and the weed isnt helping. His Batya interview was dismal, She just tuned out 3/4's in after He decided to just go off the handle and yell at Her (Worse then the Moynihan yelling episode), I was in car listening and could feel the sea change, She just "Stopped" and soon after hurried out, didnt do anything unprofessional just halted Her interactions to "Yes" , "No" etc... Eli just stays calm, doesn't even raise his voice or interrupt.
I will also probably not renew my annual Dish sub when it expires. Sad, because reading AS back when he was at nymag.com (!) was my gateway drug to conservative/center right thinking. AS is also how found the Fifth. But he seems to be suffering from an incurable (and insufferable) case of both TDS and IDS (Israel Derangement Syndrome.) And Fried is looking like an ace!
7:00 pm EDT will be 2:00 AM in Israel, by which time I hope to be well into my 4th (plus?) cup of wine at the Passover seder. But I shall try to remember to raise a toast in appreciation of the freedom-loving TFC lads.
I'll vote for Rahm or any Dem (or Republican for that matter) who denounces the hateful bigots on their parties' fringes.
Let's just hope we can collectively restore the TABOO against the overt hateful bigotry we're seeing before it becomes fully normalized within polite society and our mainstream politics. We didn't defeat the Nazis in Skokie or the KKK by preventing them from speaking their hate. We made it so costly that they were shamed out of the workplace and polite society and were toxic for anybody to publicly associate with. We must do the same today, especially for those that are explicit in their overt hateful bigotry and endorsement of violence.
While I agree with this to an extent in principle. Chesterton's fence and all that. However, this is also what led to the mass psychosis, and cancellation wave starting in 2020. So this needs to be clearly linked with a positive vision to make sure there are fundamental principles we can point to that are being violated.
I agree on all of that. I have drafted 4 principles to help restore what I call our universal moral TABOOS, which I believe help prevent this from succumbing to the excesses of "cancel culture":
1. The Red Line: Limit actionable taboos to overt bigotry, dehumanization, and the endorsement of violence.
2. The Consensus Test: Distinguish between subjective offense (which is partisan and open to individual interpretation) and a Shared Moral Violation (which reflects a broad, trans-tribal consensus and warrants consequence).
3. The Private Mechanism: Enforce standards through civil society (employers, associations), never government coercion.
4. The Open Door: The goal of consequence must be correction, not permanent destruction; always offer a path to redemption.
I'm writing about this topic exclusively at 'Holding the Line' elevin11.substack.com, where I've defined these terms and topics more specifically and demonstrated a broad consensus behind these viewpoints.
I welcome any feedback, questions, etc.
What a nice conversation between you and Batya, Matt! I really enjoyed it. The mutual respect you have for each other is genuinely refreshing.
Slightly disappointed that all of your Gigachad AI images didn’t make it into this Firehose. 😂
Thanks for putting all this together and the conversation with BATYA!
🫡
When is the new studio gonna be completed? You did a NFC release saying you’d do more NFC updates of it, but you have done nothing of the sort… 😑
How a wonderful week! 👋
There were parts of the Rahm interview I liked and parts I didn't. Still don't know what to make of him; compared to most Democrats he seems reasonable, though the bar for that is very low. Was a good interview, even if I didn't love it. I've been listening since the Summer of 2020 when you had on some journalist Wesley something....then also that guy who was the Jacob Urofsky Professor of something who ran to Canada after Wesley Yang bullied him off Twitter.
I did notice the high output and appreciate the shift to more production! The Batya interview was excellent btw.
MO #310 was a real callback to the early years: it was half about crazy Trump on foreign policy, half trashing idiot commie journalos and a 3rd half going through 20th century history and the lies the commies tell us. Trump’s saying crazy shit while fighting a Chinese aligned dictatorship over nukes while out of touch online commies talk about the fascism and downtrodden. It’s not repeating but it rhymes with 2017 a lot.
Thanks for letting us peak into the business side, feels like there’s a lot here on that. The guest strategy is clearer now—getting more politicians who are running for the Presidency is a dark horse event, IMO. I mean, perhaps it’s a bit lofty but it does some quite plausible a Fifth Column interview would make news and change the course of someone’s candidacy and thus having some measurable impact on the next US Presidency! I think you’ll have to add Slotnik to the list when she runs (I was thinking 2028 would be Rubio/TBD vs Slotnik/Kelly last year, so betting my grandfather’s war medals on that on Polymarket, It’s a sure thing!)
And an early happy 10 years! It’s a little over 7 (wow) as a listener, hooked in by Kmele’s famous 2018 NAACP panel on race. 🍻 to 10 more!
Congratulations on the upcoming anniversary. I’ve been listening since the beginning when Thad Russell was a (way too) frequent guest and Moynihan’s willingness to participate was a coin toss on any given week. We’ve all been through a lot. Glad to have made it this far. Here’s to the next ten years
He seems relatively normal. But, how many times did he use the word “free” to describe the various policies he pushed through as mayor? A lot!
I think it’s time someone asks the real question: is greenwood literally retarded,
Thank you for the time stamps on MK for Kmele, plus the episode # on the thumbnail! Only thing missing is Moynihan flirting with Megyn and her calling you Welsh.
For love of Kmele, I held my nose and watched his stint on MK. Not sure if it annoyed anyone else here, but for the love of God, someone needs to tell her the word is interventionist not interventionalist 🙄. (Of course, if it were Matt’s mispronunciation, I would have found it endearing, so there goes my objectivity 🤷♀️.) And, geez, the Britney/ Justin - Trump/Bibi metaphor? She really has gone off the deep end. Kmele truly pulled off brilliance in the face of crazy.
Not gonna lie I been Moyni-curious since the Patreon days.
Sometimes I get frustrated at the blatant contrast between Kmele’s genuine efforts to be objective, thoughtful, fair, and open to persuasion, and his interlocutors’ frequent and obvious (to me) mere play-acting at those traits. This is one of those times
The Pro-Life song is a period piece, no pun intended.
What it was back then was pretty gruesome.
The resurgence of some of the worst parts of the 70s found newfound respect during The Great Awokening.
Perfect example of this is Biden declaring that the Equal Rights Amendment was now in effect after Virginia passed it…whatever it was, thirty years after the extended deadlines had passed.
(And there’s lots of legal protections passed since the ERA failed that really come into question if the ERA is in effect….same goes for many sane-sex rights.)
But back to abortion, paying attention to what European countries do makes a lot of sense. Stupid Flanders are very Catholic (And I’m talking about Belgians) have restrictions that are far in excess of what Democrats want. But for many on “The Left “ not only is abortion the most-important thing ever, AND you have to force Catholic doctors to perform them. And see that they’re performed in Catholic hospitals.