The US Cabinet was smaller 100 years ago so yes, various departments were in weird places. ICE was under the Department of Labor! So Frances Perkins used that to try and save Jews from the impending Holocaust (long story).....
I’m honestly kinda baffled you’re not familiar with the concept of medicinal whiskey, most of the women in my family would give their kids a small swig for a cold up to my grandmother’s generation …but yes, we are Irish 😅
I used to think there was only ONE song in the 1920s -- "Charleston." Every TV show about Prohibition plays "Charleston." Just last night, PBS reran a Prohibition history show and sure enough... "Charleston." PBS also had a show about the late Weimar period and the rise of the Nazis; when they got to Franz von Papen, the "wealthy playboy" who was briefly Chancellor before Hitler... again of course "Charleston." (I think it's a legal requirement for any English speaker to describe Papen as a "wealthy playboy.")
Andrew Mellon testified to Congress that Prohibition MIGHT be enforceable if Congress spent *five times* as much money on enforcement as they had appropriated. He suspected, correctly, they wouldn't be willing to do that. See the great HBO series Boardwalk Empire, which also has Mellon selling his distillery to the fictional Nucky Thompson. It's been awhile since I've seen it but I think that show was a little more adventurous with music choices than just playing Charleston all the time!
Great episode. The point of progressive left censorship having no rules is to keep adherents of the cult worried about uttering Wrongspeak, busy with self-censorship, and too scared of standing up to the mob totalitarianism behind it. It is a feature, not a bug. Having this constantly shifting dogma achieves the Orwellian goal of indoctrinating people about thought crimes, which engulfs anything really. Punctuality and math are racist, after all.
Jeff, I was surprised to hear that other comedians were so frank about the weirdness of the Awakening when talking behind the scenes. I probably should have guessed that this was happening, but somehow I'd got the idea that the comedy world was overwhelmingly on board with all that crap, with a few exceptions like you and Andrew Heaton. Was comedy yet another area in which people were publicly in favour but privately freaked out?
I strongly agree with the point about people forever using the expression "black bodies" after Ibram X. Kendi's book. It became a shibboleth by which to spot some of the loonier leftists.
I recall that many of the left of center opponents of cancel culture and speech restrictions pointed out, quite obviously and presciently, that once this tactic became an acceptable tool, it would at one point be used against them. I think there was a lack of imagination that their “side” would ever lose power. I don’t just mean the federal government, but the commanding heights of the culture. Of course, they were so unpleasant that it drove many people, even normie libs, to the other side. Lots of Harris voters probably were happy to see the woke scolds humiliated. I didn’t like either candidate -January 6th was disqualifying for Trump, but I am a conservative. I did a write in. I was not thrilled Trump won, but damn, he (often accidentally) picks the best enemies!
A better person - say a Mitt Romney type- might have shown grace and not used the federal government to do the same thing against his political opponents. That would also have been an opportunity to use the bully pulpit to call for grace. This would hopefully make the cancel culture era a historical period that cancelers run away from, like the satanic panic or 70s fashion. Donald Trump is not that person. To be fair, he never claimed to be.
Another thing is that the GOP and associated organizations have traditionally been far better and building up political institutions that have outsized influence. On college campuses, you have turning point and college Republican, which build up candidates and staffers who understand the left, because they swimming among them. The best example is the Federalist Society. Agree or disagree, but it was a political, legal, and philosophic project that built up a bench of intelligent, like minded lawyers that had to be taken seriously, even though most lawyers are democrats. How easy would it be to turn that infrastructure and organizing chops on people who think that “you’d have to be blind to miss it” is ableist and need therapy, or who need mental health days when the GOP wins an election. Most candidates I have voted for lost, so you don’t want my endorsement!
There’s a cocktail bar (old school, in a 100 year old hotel) I go to sometimes and I was talking to the bartender and he mentioned they are required to stock Old Overholt whiskey for some reason even though no one ever ordered it and the unopened bottle they had had been sitting there for like 15 years. So I ordered it and while it wasn’t amazing or anything like that it was perfectly fine so I’m not sure why it’s so unpopular.
The US Cabinet was smaller 100 years ago so yes, various departments were in weird places. ICE was under the Department of Labor! So Frances Perkins used that to try and save Jews from the impending Holocaust (long story).....
I’m honestly kinda baffled you’re not familiar with the concept of medicinal whiskey, most of the women in my family would give their kids a small swig for a cold up to my grandmother’s generation …but yes, we are Irish 😅
Also sipping a whiskey can be soothing when one has a sore throat
Yep! I’ll do a little bit either alongside or mixed with some tea and honey for a sore throat or anything with head/chest congestion.
Looney Tunes taught me the benefits (and harms!) of medicinal whiskey.
I used to think there was only ONE song in the 1920s -- "Charleston." Every TV show about Prohibition plays "Charleston." Just last night, PBS reran a Prohibition history show and sure enough... "Charleston." PBS also had a show about the late Weimar period and the rise of the Nazis; when they got to Franz von Papen, the "wealthy playboy" who was briefly Chancellor before Hitler... again of course "Charleston." (I think it's a legal requirement for any English speaker to describe Papen as a "wealthy playboy.")
Andrew Mellon testified to Congress that Prohibition MIGHT be enforceable if Congress spent *five times* as much money on enforcement as they had appropriated. He suspected, correctly, they wouldn't be willing to do that. See the great HBO series Boardwalk Empire, which also has Mellon selling his distillery to the fictional Nucky Thompson. It's been awhile since I've seen it but I think that show was a little more adventurous with music choices than just playing Charleston all the time!
https://youtu.be/9KJ_Hv9orWo
Thank you, no wonder it rang a bell for me!
Great episode. The point of progressive left censorship having no rules is to keep adherents of the cult worried about uttering Wrongspeak, busy with self-censorship, and too scared of standing up to the mob totalitarianism behind it. It is a feature, not a bug. Having this constantly shifting dogma achieves the Orwellian goal of indoctrinating people about thought crimes, which engulfs anything really. Punctuality and math are racist, after all.
Jeff, I was surprised to hear that other comedians were so frank about the weirdness of the Awakening when talking behind the scenes. I probably should have guessed that this was happening, but somehow I'd got the idea that the comedy world was overwhelmingly on board with all that crap, with a few exceptions like you and Andrew Heaton. Was comedy yet another area in which people were publicly in favour but privately freaked out?
I strongly agree with the point about people forever using the expression "black bodies" after Ibram X. Kendi's book. It became a shibboleth by which to spot some of the loonier leftists.
I recall that many of the left of center opponents of cancel culture and speech restrictions pointed out, quite obviously and presciently, that once this tactic became an acceptable tool, it would at one point be used against them. I think there was a lack of imagination that their “side” would ever lose power. I don’t just mean the federal government, but the commanding heights of the culture. Of course, they were so unpleasant that it drove many people, even normie libs, to the other side. Lots of Harris voters probably were happy to see the woke scolds humiliated. I didn’t like either candidate -January 6th was disqualifying for Trump, but I am a conservative. I did a write in. I was not thrilled Trump won, but damn, he (often accidentally) picks the best enemies!
A better person - say a Mitt Romney type- might have shown grace and not used the federal government to do the same thing against his political opponents. That would also have been an opportunity to use the bully pulpit to call for grace. This would hopefully make the cancel culture era a historical period that cancelers run away from, like the satanic panic or 70s fashion. Donald Trump is not that person. To be fair, he never claimed to be.
Another thing is that the GOP and associated organizations have traditionally been far better and building up political institutions that have outsized influence. On college campuses, you have turning point and college Republican, which build up candidates and staffers who understand the left, because they swimming among them. The best example is the Federalist Society. Agree or disagree, but it was a political, legal, and philosophic project that built up a bench of intelligent, like minded lawyers that had to be taken seriously, even though most lawyers are democrats. How easy would it be to turn that infrastructure and organizing chops on people who think that “you’d have to be blind to miss it” is ableist and need therapy, or who need mental health days when the GOP wins an election. Most candidates I have voted for lost, so you don’t want my endorsement!
There’s a cocktail bar (old school, in a 100 year old hotel) I go to sometimes and I was talking to the bartender and he mentioned they are required to stock Old Overholt whiskey for some reason even though no one ever ordered it and the unopened bottle they had had been sitting there for like 15 years. So I ordered it and while it wasn’t amazing or anything like that it was perfectly fine so I’m not sure why it’s so unpopular.