Workin’ for the Weekend #74: Megyn Kelly's Gas Problems

Also: More fallout from the Fraudine Gay affair

Hi, 2024 people! As you can see, part of my New Year’s resolutions include living life like it’s a 1978 album cover. Let’s get on with the links from Planet Fifdom:

* On Wednesday we took our monthly spin on The Megyn Kelly Show, her first episode since Claudine Gay resigned as president of Harvard (which was the main subject of Episode #437). So we talked about that, and that some more, and the chaos at the southern border, and the “conservative dads’ calendar,” and Megyn’s absolutely insane way of managing her gas tank. With the odd lacrosse ex-boyfriend thrown in:

* On Tuesday, our pal Coleman Hughes (#121, #144, #181, #188, #201, #379, #412) went on CNN to talk about the Gay affair, disagreeing with host Abby Phillip’s premise that the prez was targeted because of her race.

* Over at his The Eternally Radical Idea Substack Thursday, Greg Lukianoff (#216, Members Only #183, #427) took a look at some of the left-of-center rationalization:

Once Gay resigned, we then saw people like Nikole Hannah-Jones, Ibram X. Kendi, and others (including the Associated Press, with its coverage being mocked for its original headline, “Harvard president’s resignation highlights new conservative weapon against colleges: plagiarism”), pointing the finger at racism and right-wing animus rather than on the real problem: Harvard itself, and our institutions of higher learning as a whole.

In my and Rikki Schlott’s book “The Canceling of the American Mind,” we outline a fourth “Great Untruth” (adding to the first three Jonathan Haidt and I described in “The Coddling of the American Mind”) which is that “bad people only have bad opinions.” This is the foundational assumption of what we call the Perfect Rhetorical Fortress, the method by which cancelers on the political Left shut down arguments. By declaring someone a “conservative,” a “right winger,” — or, if you REALLY want them to be ignored, “far right,” “fascist,” or, my new favorite, “Neo-confederate” — whether they actually are conservative or not, they are also declaring that they are evil and therefore incapable of being correct. This form of non-argumentation, which I have dubbed “fasco-casting”, along with the political Right’s Efficient Rhetorical Fortress tactics (which similarly use labels like “liberal” and “woke” to automatically dismiss counterarguments) is a near-ubiquitous anti-intellectual habit these days. 

* Speaking of Kendi, on Thursday John McWhorter (#84, #121, #188 & #366) did one of his frequent appearances on the podcast of Glenn Loury (#121, #188, #366), where they go there on “The Decline of the Black Liberal Public Intellectual.” Teaser/trailer:

* Moynihan on Tuesday appeared for a second time on the Yael Bar tur/ChayaLeah Sufrin Ask a Jew podcast, to talk about (among other things) the “list of Jewish celebrities who are dead to us is growing every day,” how “all the Jewish rich people who control the media aren’t doing enough,” and “Rape denial — so hot right now.”

* Nadav Eyal (#382) went Thursday on Dan Senor’s increasingly indispensable Call Me Back podcast, to talk about how “Gaza runs like no sovereign entity. On the one hand, Hamas rules Gaza like any government does — it has a health system, an education system, a security, force, and a finance system. Hamas works with international agencies based in Gaza (like the U.N.). But Hamas does not see itself as responsible for the people it governs. How does this all work at a practical level? What is Gaza's unique operating system?”

* Upcoming events include (but are not limited to): Jan. 22 Reason Speakeasy in which Nick Gillespie (Special Dispatch #72, #379) interviews the one and only David Stockman about his new book  Trump’s War on Capitalism (featuring a forward by RFK Jr., no less!); then a Jan. 29 SoHo Forum debate in which Tony Mills and Terence Kealey grapple over the proposition “Government must play a role in fostering scientific and technological progress by funding basic research.”

* Comment of the Week comes from Not a True Scotsman:

Freeloaders, let's use the New Year as an opportunity to upgrade your subscription (and life) to paid! If Dr. Gay can earn $900k / year, these lads should too..... for equity!

* Chat of the Week comes from Michael Clardy:

Goddammit why did y'all let me discover Malört?

Sitting in a random Portland bar and Malört is on the menu. I had a shot.

Dear God.

You Chicagoans are nuts. At the same time, I need a bottle at the house. How they made pizza and beer that sat in a dumpster for a week taste inspiring is wacky.

#drunkfifdom

Walkoff music again comes from my People Who Died (2023) playlist, a folk-diss by lefty troubadour (and Black Panther fan) Len Chandler that has me back rooting for the hippies: