Group chat leak: comedians, nazis, or lesbians?
Dueling factions emerge on the right while the left has a rare laugh
Though I love to mess around, I’m not here to play games with you. If and when there is one story dominating the creator universe I so valiantly distill for you, I will make that clear.
🗣️ So hear me clearly when I say today is one of those days 🗣️ — the Politico story by Jason Beeferman and Emily Ngo unmasking a Republican group chat is fuckingggg insane. Libs are obviously having a field day, we’ll get to that. But first, let me tell you why I think the MAGA world might never be the same.
Reminder: Paid subs get the first Saturday send this week.
FROM THE RIGHT WING:
WHERE RIGHT MEETS WRONG: It took 48 hours from the Young Republicans leaked-chat saga to feel a chasm between what’s left of trad-coded conservatism and the radical, retributive alt-right. Taking a cue from the literal vice president, tons of young Republicans waved off the (frankly) Hitler-horny messages as locker room talk, edgy jokes, and just dudes being dudes, using it as an opportunity to redirect attention to Jay Jones, who I wrote about last week. The first sign of plates shifting came in the furious response to the Young Republicans’ “disgusting,” disloyal apology post. But the effort to stop the cannibalizing created a new problem of its own.
“No enemies to the right” is the most fascinating (angry) dialogue I’ve seen come out of the right-wing in years. It is the first hint to liberals that MAGA might not have abandoned self-awareness as successfully as they thought. In response to an extensive Matt Walsh crashout about party unity, a new faultline emerged. It drove a wedge between those who want blind party loyalty and those who are acknowledging the problems with “loser edgelords” trying to “latch themselves onto the Right in order to gain legitimacy they don’t deserve.” Interestingly enough, they are all heeding a warning — one they’ve, curiously enough, extrapolated from the left:
DEATH BECOMES HIM: I’ll be honest, I feel genuine annoyance when Liquid Death is the only water available at concerts — you can’t reseal it!!! Streamer Tim Pool is also a hater, coming after the canned water brand for allegedly using plastic lining. Liquid Death offered their founder up for a debate (I wonder if he knows that) adding only “little girls complain on social media.” Tim publicly accepted and got to taunting and more taunting, and using Grok to talk about plastic lining and foot-tapping, waiting to schedule something. But patience, unlike water companies, is in short supply. Four hours later, Pool Water launched. The $20 24-pack from an unknown source is already sold out.
JOURNALISM TRIP WIRE: A journalism conference called Media Fest disinvited a Daily Wire reporter who was due to talk about how religion mixes with her work. An Oregon State student media adviser threatened to pull his students from the event unless they cut Mary Margaret Olohan and two others with histories of anti-trans coverage. So naturally, the Daily Wire team dug up a truly bizarre article by a board member of a Media Fest’s sponsor, graphically detailing all of the sexual encounters he’s had as a result of journalism since his youth. There are multiple references to the word “poontang.” Vom.
My view: It’s useful for young journalists to hear from anyone who has a spot in the White House Briefing Room. It’s also useful to hear from someone who can speak to the young religious right’s current revival. But more than that, it’s important for young journalists to learn that listening to ideas you might not agree with doesn’t hurt you. They should be capable of basic levels of discernment. If they’re not, good night and good luck.
FROM THE LEFT WING:
WHAT’S MY AGE AGAIN: So about that Vance downplay I mentioned in the first bullet — yeah, that didn’t go well in the left lane. The number one hangup was on the framing that these were random kids just joshin’ when in reality one is a State Senator and some are just barely his junior. Even more than that though, it would appear to me, based on the volume of posts and their performance, that liberals have been waiting to unload on how ugly they think Republicans are and how voluptuous these specific Republicans are and lesbian-like this one in particular is. Jokes aside, this was a ripe opportunity for many to point out the dissonance in writing off these texts in comparison to the free speech suffocation that occurred in response to Charlie Kirk’s murder.
ANIMAL HOUSE: Alt-right icon Pepe the Frog found dead at the hands of rival species, the Anti-Fascist Freedom Frogs. I saw a video on Oct. 3 of law enforcement shooting pepper spray straight into the air vent of a lone inflatable frog. That moment spawned tadpoles of all kinds: a giant Pikachu, peacocks, unicorns, giraffes, sharks, pandas, squirrels, you name it, the new Portland Zoo’s got it. They gather outside of the ICE detention center to do a lot of dancing. The hope is to de-escalate the situation on the ground, change the narrative nationwide, and laugh “in the face of absurdity.” A local group has made a website to accept donations to fund more costumes for their community. Their website makes sure to note they “are not funded by Soros!”
DRAWING A BLANK: The Supreme Court is hearing a massive voting rights case. This is a five-alarm fire for Democrats fighting the threat of GOP redistricting around the country. This can be an extremely hard-to-rile issue with the long tail SCOTUS decisions can carry, forcing people to contend with the future today. And when Democrats are consumed with a whirlwind of violations with effects they see in real time, it’s both a tough sell and a tall task for the messengers.
That said, if there is one vertical of content creation that Democrats have really deeply developed, it’s law. A legion of liberal lawyers is making a push to get their base engaged with this Voting Rights Act threat right the fuck now. Mark Elias’ has notched 500k views on two different appearances with Brian Tyler Cohen and another 300k on Democracy Docket. And it’s a full-court press, pun absolutely intended, from LegalAF, All Rise, and more.
LOOSE ENDS:
📝 Word I learned today: roughshod
in a roughly forceful manner — Chuck Schumer “feared a shutdown would unshackle Trump to run roughshod over what remains of Congress’s funding power.” (via Leigh Ann Caldwell, Puck)
📰 Something you should read today: Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead — Consumer Repots
🥹 Something to make you smile today: This is a 1:40 YouTube video titled, “that 1 friend who listens to ‘both sides’ of the news.” I fear this is what my friends and family hear when I talk about anything since I started Who Broke It. “My brain is a machine, I must feed on all the information” … no, like exactly …
This is extremely well written