Proxy wars, market dips, and Greek democracy
How the history of power imbalances have shaped democracies and capitalist systems
Greetings people from space!
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The opinions below are my lived space experience and therefore should not be taken seriously, as truth, or shared with meaningful conviction.
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🗞 THE NEWSSTAND
Coming off the stock markets' worst January since 2009 the market rallied today but anxiety amongst investors persists with rising inflation and looming monetary policy changes following the Fed’s announcement to begin raising rates in mid-March. The rout of tech stocks in particular have dragged the market down, with companies like Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) finishing nearly 30% down from the start of the year.
Another tech stock recently hit is Spotify (NYSE: SPOT), which reported a $2B loss as #CancelSpotify began trending on Twitter following the proxy war led by Neil Young in response to the COVID misinformation spread on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. In the end Joe apologized and committed to invite more balanced “controversial viewpoints” and Spotify has reacted by adding notices related to COVID information on its content.
Speaking of proxy wars, tension is heating up at the Ukraine-Russia border where 100,000 Russian troops are deployed in an effort by President Putin to force his demands that NATO thwart its expansion of Eastern European countries, which President Biden has rejected as violations of the open-door policy of the transatlantic organization.
In Washington last week, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement paving the way for Biden to nominate his successor. Following precedent by Ronald Reagan, Biden has vowed to nominate a woman to fill the seat, while also fulfilling his campaign promise to nominate a black woman.
It wasn’t all bad for the markets, Apple (NASDAQ: APPL) reported its largest single quarter in terms of revenue ever, despite supply challenges. Google parent company Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) reported fourth-quarter revenue of $75B, an increase of 32% from a year earlier while we wait to hear the earnings report from its Silicon Valley cousin Facebook under its new parent Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: FB) today.
Happy trading folks!
🎙FIRESIDE CHAT
With recent controversy around the unlikely proxy war led by 70s rocker Neil Young against America’s favorite testosterone-driven podcast host Joe Rogan, it seems appropriate to scan the recent and ancient archives on the power of ostracism.
Social psychologist and professor Kipling Williams defines ostracism as “any act or acts of ignoring and excluding an individual or groups by an individual or a group" without necessarily involving "verbal or physical abuse". Enter the infamous “silent treatment.”
Of course, in recent years a modern form of shunning individuals or groups that society deems as bad, negligent or gross actors has evolved. Enter “cancel” culture.
But where does this unusual mode of human solidarity to express distaste or disapproval of others get its roots? And how do we wrestle with its place in a liberal democracy?
Well, it turns out the first recorded existence of this mechanism dates back to the roots of democracy. That’s right, ‘cancel culture’ is as old as democracy itself folks.
Back in 5th century BC ostracism was a formal procedure in Athenian democracy in which any citizen could be expelled from the city-state for 10 years. The method was used as a way of neutralizing those regarded as potential tyrants or threats to the state. The name itself is an eponym derived from the shards of pottery known as “ostraka” used during the voting process.
Each year Athenian citizens were called to vote on whether or not to hold an ostracism. Following a majority vote, citizens would be invited back two months later to each scribe a name on an ostraka and set it in an urn. If a quorum was reached, then the citizen with the most votes would be banished from society for a decade, whilst not being stripped of their citizenship or property.
Unlike the Athenian law of the time, this unique condemnation process involved no formal charge or defense. Power was diffused to the electorate and believed to ease political tension rather than increase it.
Now you could make a strong case that ostracism has persisted throughout social and political history. For hundreds of years people of color, immigrants, women, and other minority groups have been shunned from workplaces, public spaces, and government. At times this came informally and others formally through lists of people to be avoided or deemed unacceptable to the group making the list.
During the McCarthy era in 1940s and 50s Hollywood became entangled with politics and government with the “Hollywood blacklist” whereof studios maintained names of those recognized as Communist members or sympathizers and denied them industry jobs. Whilst this anticommunist crusade subsided into the 1960s, this blight on Hollywood history had long lasting impacts on many people's careers.
Yet ostracism led by the people seems to be distinct from that of corporations and government bodies. While both appear to be the manifestation of power imbalances, the latter appears to be a discriminatory and coercive effort led by those in power.
So, you’re probably wondering where all of this ties together with our favorite Fear Factor superstar and the guy who brought us “Harvest Moon” and “Down by the River.” Well, you see it all dates back to an episode on VH1’s Love and Hip Hop in New York in 2014 when Cisco tells Diamond Strawberry she is ‘canceled’ for withholding what he considered to be pertinent information. That week canceling entered the zeitgeist via Black Twitter and would soon morph into a way of carving out space for public discourse and eventually to ostracize those regarded as offensive or problematic.
When survivors came out against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein for a history of sexual abuse against women and the #MeToo movement gained attention, canceling became an effective tactic for calling out other prominent figures for their egregious assaults on women—#MuteRKelly #LouisCK #KevinSpacey.
Of course with any action there is always a reaction, or backlash if you will. On the campaign trail in 2015, then presidential candidate Donald Trump declared war on #MeToo and ‘cancel culture’ before eventually being challenged by then Fox News superstar Megyn Kelly for his offensive comments towards women. But it was weeks before the November election when the bombshell TMZ video was released followed by multiple allegations of sexual assault against Trump that things really heated up.
Over the next four years the backlash dug its tiny claws into these movements and any other attempt to carve out discussion for societal imbalances of power. Cancel culture joined the likes of other movements defamed by the right—wokeism, feminism, liberalism, progressivism, and essentially any -ism contrary to the old guard.
Then in 2020, “A Letter on Justice and Open Debate'' appeared in Harper's Magazine featuring 153 signatories criticizing “illiberalism” and threats to freedom of thought and speech whilst maintaining Donald Trump as “a real threat to democracy.” And like that, it became permissible for educated elites to stand against cancel culture, further feeding the rightwing media machine.
In an ironic twist of events, the backlash from the right led a broader effort to vilify and censor any and all collective demands of accountability for our nation’s long history of failures toward marginalized groups. “Cancel culture” and “wokeness” became interchangeable dirty words to be suppressed and destroyed.
The first wave of overt censorship came with the push to ban the teaching of the New York Times 1619 Project at publicly funded schools and universities. Then came the war on “critical race theory” and other public attempt to right our historical wrongs. For all of those distorted analogies of the left and the Nazi Party, the recent list of book banning on the right leaves one with the sort of confused look you’d see on a certain rightwing media host.
When corporations like Delta Airlines and Major League Baseball publicly condemned the Georgia voting laws restricting voter rights, Republican lawmakers made public threats and attempted to strip the companies of their tax and antitrust exemptions warning that “corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs.”
Somehow the irony is lost on these lawmakers. But as previously stated, attempts to ostracize manifests itself quite differently depending on which side of the imbalance of power you stand on.
With the pandemic upon us, anti-wokeness soon found its home within the anti-vaxxer and anti-masker community. Misinformation and unsubstantiated claims against vaccines became the rallying call for the anti-woke mob.
After testing positive, Butte Community College alumni quarterback Aaron Rodgers was asked by reporters why he lied about his vaccination status, which he quickly shot back against the “woke mob” and “cancel culture.” He then went on to discuss his recent consultation with his friend, Joe Rogan, on COVID treatment.
With that the mainstream world learned that the Spotify pod-shaman was offering anti-scientific and mixology tips on how to ‘throw the kitchen sink at’ a deadly virus.
It was around this time when I began speaking up within my inner circle on how this spider eating expert was potentially a dangerous figure given his vast influence and even greater ignorance. But I was met with mostly “don’t worry he’s just asking questions,” and “it’s only entertainment.” Right.
Well, when the creative genius and former drinking buddy of alt-right conspiracy theorist invited a Dr. Robert Malone on his podcast to refute the effectiveness of vaccines, spread misinformation about ivermectin, and state that its “nucking futs” for people who’ve had COVID to get vaccinated, the gig was up.
It took a rockstar older than the decade he performed in to bring Spotify to its knees for failing to edit the content it distributes. The idea that a media company should have no responsibility to reasonably fact check the information it publishes is “nucking futs.” And the notion that Spotify may claim “platform immunity” despite having exclusive rights to the most listened to podcast in the world is utterly fanciful.
When Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and other artists threatened their departure from Spotify if the company did not remove misinformation about COVID it was met with a ‘money talks’ sort of response. We learned money talks indeed; though it speaks both ways.
Now I don’t typically take part in these sorts of activities but I thought ‘what the hell, I dig Neil Young and much less dig the MMA enthusiast, so, I’ll take my talents to Apple Music.’ Sure enough Spotify saw its market cap dip $2.1 billion two days after my departure.
Okay, so maybe there were some other factors at play but the point is money is power, which in more ways than not has led to power imbalances in our capitalist society. But as learned from our Greek democratic ancestry the method of ostracism can rewrite that imbalance of power.
Professor Scott Galloway refers to capitalism as letting us “choose who we rent our financial and human capital to.” It gives us a voice in a conversation by refusing to participate with those we deem unworthy.
And let me be clear that Rogan has been very calculated in his efforts to bring certain archetypes on his show. The market for misinformation and anti-wokeness has grown tremendously in recent years. So, before we rush to the defense of “The Joe Rogan Experience” and its Swedish Platform Mafia, remember these are profit-making entities.
Accountability is what most of us are looking for. Not censorship. And when those held accountable take action to acknowledge, apologize, and address their missteps, then we may very well decide to offer them our capital again. That is progress.
Whoopi Goldber’s recent comments on ABC’s The View regarding The Holocaust not being about race but rather about “man’s inhumanity to man” offended a great deal of people in the Jewish community. After being called out she quickly acknowledged her offensive commentary, apologized, and addressed the public. Though the network decided to still give her a two week suspension from the show. Whether or not network president Kim Godwin made the right business call is just that, a business decision. It’s on us the viewers who generate her profits to determine that.
Personally, I’m mildly satisfied with either Spotify’s attempt to rectify its content missteps or Joe Rogan’s public ‘apology’ to listeners. So, for now I’m on standby enjoying free listening. But let’s hope for progress because I quickly learned free agency is better than joining team Apple Music.
Sorry Tim.
🎧 WEEKLY MIXTAPE
In honor of Black History Month I’ve curated a few of my favorite albums from Black artists who have shaped my musical tastes from an early age. Listen and enjoy!
2Pac - All Eyes On Me
The Notorious BIG - Ready to Die
Ms. Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
The Meters (self-titled)
Miles Davis - ‘Round About Midnight’
The Roots - Things Fall Apart
Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle
Nas - Illmatic
A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
Bob Marley & The Wailer - Exodus
Sade - Love Deluxe
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” —Martin Luther King Jr.