Y’all, before you comment: Consider that mainstream media creates “fan culture” around political figures precisely so that you cheer them on like they’re your besties without substantively engaging with their place in abusive systems of power. This dynamic is especially dangerous, because it encourages you to develop para-social relationships with political and media figures in a way that gives abusers cover and encourages you to lash out at the glaringly few people diligent enough to actually read the public record and assess political figures’ place in a larger political ecosystem. I implore you to remember that oligarchs bought out our media landscape, including Substack, for a reason, and it’s not out of the goodness of their hearts but, rather, to limit the frames through which you view power. Fascism is enabled through fan culture, glossy propaganda, and people who learn to accept the narratives handed to them without engaging in critical thinking. If you do not have the emotional or intellectual bandwidth to engage with my offerings: move on.
Jack Smith is no patriot. He’s a sellout. He’s holding the line for power, not for people. He’s doing the exact opposite of what Victor Frankl instructs us to do when a tyrant rears his ugly head: Smith is protecting the institution over his people. He has forfeited his moral compass for institutional status, and the people who will pay for his cowardice are the most vulnerable. You can do something about that, though. You can vocally call his ass out and push him to act in right relationship.
YWF’s Show Notes
Lama Rod Owens, Love and Rage: The Path to Liberation [on anger]
Resmaa Menakem, My Grandmother’s Hands [on letting feelings percolate]
Wayne Booth, The Rhetoric of Rhetoric [on stories shaping reality]
Parkrose Permaculture, “Jack Smith Is Right” [he’s not really tho]
MS Now, “Jack Smith Breaks Silence on Trump” [legit fell asleep watching this]
BC Campus, “Understanding Your Social Location” [on social location]
Kait Justice, “Jack Smith Finally Spoke: What He Couldn’t Say Points to Kash Patel”
Sarah Kendzior, They Knew [on the mobster state]
Kimberle Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins” [on identity and moving through space]
NPR, “Ex-Prosecutor Charged with Sending Herself Report on Trump” [Carmen Lineberger is the G.O.A.T.]
CTV News, “U.S. Service Member Arrested at Capitol after calling for Trump’s Impeachment” [Jason Watson uses privilege for good]
Hafiz Rashid, “DOJ Accidentally Gives Jack Smith Report to Person They’re Suing”
Your Weirdo Friend, “I’m So Sick of White Men Sticking to Protocol”
Robert Penn Warren, All The King’s Men
Rich Tenorio, “Fascism in America: A Long History that Predates Trump”
American Bar Association, “The Unsettling Truth About Our Legal System”
Karla McClaren, The Language of Emotions
Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
