The Kayfabe Coalition

Tapping into the conspiracy market.

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Hulkamania’s running wild on the latest excruciatingly indulgent Ruminant, which sees Jonah’s curmudgeonly ranting reach new heights of excess. Major topics today include the rise of antisemitism on college campuses, the hideousness of Vivek Ramaswamy, and whether the ongoing GOP primary is just one big waste of time. But devoted listeners should also tune in to learn about the link between pro wrestling and Donald Trump, Jonah’s growing urge to deport his assistant, and why the Howard Zinnification of the left is so dangerous.

Show Notes:

–The Dispatch Podcast on another pointless GOP debate

–Advisory Opinions on antisemitism in higher education

–Jonah: “Antisemitism Is Just a Symptom”

–The Remnant with Ruy Teixeira

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Comments (32)
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  1. Randall Briggs

    Jonah: I hope that you are right about the majority of Republicans, that they will not be Trump's shock troops. But the overwhelming majority of Republicans I know, my relatives and former friends, are at least rhetorically with those shock troops, although not in the service of other politicians or any particular ideology.

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    EmmyCab

    58:50 to around 1:05:30 is some of the best stuff I've ever heard re: why our politics has gotten so weird. Thanks, Jonah!

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    Dina

    Hey Jonah, new word for you: I heard you struggling with the right word for "mensch-ness." The Yiddish word for that is menschlichkeit.

    Also, I have grown skeptical of people reassuring us that Donald Trump won't turn out to be as bad as we fear. Their track record is pretty dismal.

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    Ben Connelly

    I had something insightful to comment about some particular bit of this episode, which came about halfway through, but I’ve completely forgotten what I was going to say, so I’ll just say that I agreed with everything Jonah said and leave it at that.

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      Dina

      Very reasonable :)

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    Pgrossjr47

    The reason the interns have not signed the letter to Biden is this generation was raised on the internet flaming people with anonymous screen names. They are the ones marching in the streets with their masks on. They have learned to say things to and about people without any consequences. 90% of what is on Twitter would never be said if they had to face the person and say it.

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      Richard Maxton

      This is one of the reasons I use my real name here. Reminds me to not say here what I wouldn't say in person.

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  6. Kinneyde32

    My late grandfather sometimes used a characterization that appears applicable to Rmaswamy: "Too smart for one man, not enough for two."

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    Kyzyl Tuva

    Jonah, 100% agree with your characterizations of Ramaswamy. He's almost a clone of Trump. I am curious about one item in your description of him and that is "billionaire." Is his wealth indicative of his other behaviors? That sounds somewhat Marist to me. What am I missing?

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    1. Photo of Jonah Goldbergcircle-angle-nib
      Jonah Goldberg vertical-nib Author

      Thank K,

      I don’t begrudge anyone their wealth per se. But my understanding is he made the bulk of his money by hyping a mediocre Alzheimer’s drug (some say he knew it was a dog, I have no idea) and dumping stock before it bombed — and similar tactics.

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        Kyzyl Tuva

        I was not aware of the way he made his billions so appreciate you enlightening me. I’ll just refer to him as a huckster.

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  8. Joe Fisher

    There are many problems with replacement theory, but maybe one of the most fundamental ones is that yall make up 2.2% of the population. You've gotta start breeding like rabbits if you're gonna live up to their conspiracy theories

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      CynthiaW

      I think the argument is that Jewish people are facilitators for immigration, mainly of Hispanics, in order to "replace" "white" people for whatever reason. It's not that Jewish people themselves will become orders of magnitude more numerous.

      Nonetheless, as I keep observing, if "white" people don't want to be "replaced," or to be a shrinking percentage of the population, reproducing themselves is the obvious solution. It's not that difficult. I have ten children, myself, not out of concerns about "whiteness" but simply because they're fun.

      Jonah accurately pointed out, though, that a belief about the future - a "majority-minority" United States in which Democrats win all the elections - was considered unremarkable-to-admirable if you considered this a positive outcome and an evil conspiracy theory if you believed it to be a negative outcome. This was nuts.

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        Dina

        I think it best if people concerned about the Great Replacement not take your advice. This country does not need more white supremacists running around shouting, "The Jews will not replace us!"

        White people who are worried about people of color becoming too numerous are odious racists.

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          CynthiaW

          Maybe if they had families, they would be happy and go to Cub Scouts and stuff instead of being basement-dwelling nutters.

          What are "people of color" who want to eliminate "whiteness"?

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            Dina

            As far as I know, Tucker Carlson, who promotes the theory, has a family.

            People of color who want to eliminate whiteness are also odious racists.

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      2. Joe Fisher

        I think the entire idea of being replaced is silly. Live your life, let others live their lives and rock and roll. Why would it POSSIBLE matter what the skin color of your neighbor is. I'm much more concerned with ideology. That's why racism just strikes me as stupid. People of every color believe dumb things, like replacement theory.

        I'm with you, have kids because they are fun and avoid conspiracy theories.

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    Toog

    Students who break university rules in their anti-Israel protests should be punished firmly, and certainly at least as firmly as students who break the same rules in some other cause that fails to excite inexplicable sympathy from modern campus culture.

    Nevertheless, I think MIT may not be as wrong as some people suggest on the international student suspensions. Maybe those kids deserved to be expelled. If so, fine, expel them. But it seems like the university thought they deserved a lesser punishment, and the immigration system would have turned suspension into de facto expulsion.

    To my mind, the school should know the consequences when it imposes the punishment, rather than mechanistically doling out suspensions as if it is none of their business that the students will get deported. As I say, if expulsion is warranted, fine. But if the university botched the initial decision for failure to understand the consequences, better to fix it by giving them an alternative punishment short of expulsion than to stick to the mistake. Even though on this particular issue, I entirely agree that overall universities should have reacted much more strongly.

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      Richard Maxton

      And I think we're worrying far too much about these students facing the consequences of their actions. We're talking about grown adults here, not grade-school kids.

      And grown adults who were smart enough to get into Ivy League colleges. To suggest they weren't capable of understanding the possible consequences of their bad behavior is ridiculous.

      "Oh, you lost your student visa because you couldn't comport yourself respectfully because you thought the rules were different for you? Sorry bout your damn luck." I have NO pity for this kind of nonsense.

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    Adaam James Levin-Areddy staff-badge Editor

    Long time listener, first time commenter. One of my favorite Ruminations.

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