Ben Sixsmith

Saturday

Ben Sixsmith

Substack attack

The online platform Substack has attracted thousands of writers seeking an independent home for their ramblings in the past year. Finding a freelance writer without a Substack account is like finding a businessman who does not know the meaning of the word ‘LinkedIn’. On Substack, you can publish your writing for free or offer readers exclusive essays and podcasts in exchange for paid subscriptions. Substack has also offered sizable advances to some notable writers to tempt them to the platform. (To declare an interest, I have a Substack but I have not been paid directly by the company. If Substack felt so inclined, I take cash, check or bank transfer...

substack

Sunday

Ben Sixsmith

The cult of Elon Musk

It is a testament to Elon Musk’s genius that it transcends how fantastically immature he is. Musk is knocking on the door of 50 but released a song called 'RIP Harambe' that included the lyrics, 'RIP Harambe/Sippin’ on that Bombay/We thinkin’ about you/Amen, amen.' At this point, Harambe, and the Harambe meme, had been dead for almost three years. Maybe that was the point. When Musk’s contribution to the rescue of Thai schoolkids from waterlogged caves was insulted by British diver Vernon Unsworth, Musk summoned up all the wisdom of his five decades on Earth and called him 'pedo guy'. He appears to love nothing more than uploading memes involving anime characters to Twitter.

elon musk

Monday

Ben Sixsmith

When a Nobel Peace Prize-winner goes to war

Maryam Dengelat is a church cut into the mountainside near Adigrat in Tigray, Ethiopia. Tigrayans are largely Orthodox Christians and according to local legend the church was built in the sixth century. In 2019, priests, aided by Italian mountaineers, ascended the mountain and held Mass in the church for the first time in 400 years. Elsewhere in 2019, the Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in ending the long conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. 'Blessed are the peacemakers,' said Ahmed, quoting scripture, 'For they shall be called the children of God.' Sadly, peace was short-lived. Instead of fighting one another the Ethiopians and Eritreans have been focused on someone else: the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

tigray

Monday

Ben Sixsmith

Does anybody practice what they preach?

Former loved ones and associates of Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and The Cabin in the Woods, have formed an orderly line to charge the writer and director with cheating and abuse. At this point it is only a matter of time before his gardener comes forward to claim that his checks bounce. Whedon's ex-wife accused him of serial infidelity and gaslighting. Justice League star Ray Fisher accused him of ‘gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable’ behavior. Now, Charisma Carpenter of Buffy and Angel has accused Whedon of calling her fat when she was pregnant and mocking her religious beliefs.

joss whedon

Thursday

Ben Sixsmith

Hi, historian here…

Hi, historian here. Have you encountered a faux-cheerful introduction like this online? Wherever you look on Twitter, historians, doctors, biologists and what have you are brandishing their credentials in people’s faces as if they confer immediate victory in arguments. Hi, biologist here. Hi, virologist here. Hi, urologist here. Of course it’s good for experts to engage with the public. We need scientists, doctors, historians and mathematicians to explain their work in an accessible way, both because it’s inherently interesting and in order to advance knowledge and dispel popular and unpopular misconceptions. Still, how they do it is important. Let’s imagine that I’m a family physician. I see someone tucking into a big slice of pizza.

historian

Wednesday

Ben Sixsmith

The problem with conspiracy theories

The most poignant delusion of the QAnon subculture, as David Hines suggests, is not founded in paranoia but in blissful optimism: they believe that the US has been subverted by a cabal of Luciferian child molesters, yes, but they also believe that Donald Trump has been preparing to arrest the conspirators and restore freedom and righteousness.  This optimism rests on the presumption of Donald Trump’s unsurpassed genius. Even Republicans who are not explicitly supporters of QAnon have a tendency to attribute godlike powers to the President. Chris Zimmerman, chairman of the Nye County GOP, writes to his comrades: ‘We do well to remember that for more than four years Donald Trump has been five steps ahead of everyone in every attempt to derail him, impeach him, or confound him.

conspiracy

Sunday

Ben Sixsmith

The meaning of Monster

A great friend of mine once beautifully summarized the appeal of smoking. He said that he could wake up early on a dark winter morning, with the prospect of hours of back-breaking work ahead of him, but if he had a cigarette he had a moment of pure peace and pleasure and the day somehow brightened. I feel much the same, except that my addiction, while perhaps less damaging, is less romantic — when I get up I can’t wait to crack open a can of Monster Energy. I can be tired, sick, stressed or sad, but somehow when those liquid diamonds fall out the can I feel much improved. Like cigarette smokers, energy drink enthusiasts have clear and particular tastes. Some love Red Bull. Some love Rockstar.

monster

Thursday

Ben Sixsmith

The carnival in the Capitol

Generally, events that we think are significant will be passed over by historians — much in the same manner as how events in our lives that outrage or excite us one day are forgotten by the next. Remember when Beto O’Rourke seemed like an important political figure? Remember when everyone was talking about Tiger King? You see what I mean. Still, I feel confident in saying that future historians will be attracted like wasps to syrup to the image of a man dressed like a Visigoth standing at the dais in the Senate chamber, having stormed the Capitol Building with hundreds of other fanatical advocates of President Donald Trump. Whatever the political repercussions, which will doubtless be significant, its sheer symbolic power will be enough for it to outlive us.

capitol

Sunday

Ben Sixsmith

The sad irony of celebrity pastors

When I was a young attendee of a Charismatic Christian church, people were very keen to make themselves look ‘cool’. There was Christian rock. There was Christian rap. There was something called The Street Bible, which reframed Biblical stories through a modern lens. I don’t want to be too mean about this stuff. Some of the Christian rock was pretty good. The Street Bible had a sense of humor about itself. Even the rap wasn’t that bad. (I say that because I know what you are imagining. ‘My name is Ben and I’m here to say/Worship God and don’t be gay.’) Hillsong, at the time, was a very cool church. They had enormous services, and hit songs, and pastors who looked as if they had walked out of daytime television.

pastors carl lentz

Tuesday

Ben Sixsmith

Jake Paul, the Great White Nope

It’s easy to hate Jake Paul. No, really, it is easy. It is easier than fixing a bowl of instant soup or making your way home from your next door neighbor’s house. It is easier than beating a three-year-old at golf or the US triumphing in a war with Liechtenstein.The well-known YouTuber is immensely unlikable. His face conveys gormlessness and smugness simultaneously. His voice is off-puttingly nasal yet serenely self-assured. He is so insanely, shamelessly money-hungry that he put out a Christmas song with the refrain ‘buy that merch’.  His videos appeal to an audience largely consisting of young teenagers with thumbnails of women’s backsides and titles like ‘SURPRISING Best Friend with EMILY WILLIS STRIPTEASE.

jake paul

Tuesday

Ben Sixsmith

What is the Great Reset?

The phrase has shot throughout the fringes of Right-Wing Twitter like a virus through a karaoke bar. According to Pauline Hanson of the Australian party One Nation it is an attempt to establish a 'socialist left Marxist view of the world’. James Delingpole describes it as a 'global communist takeover plan’. This might sound like something cooked up in the lizard-stalked imagination of a nut but it refers to a real phenomenon. The World Economic Forum, which organizes the annual conference Davos, has launched an initiative called, yes, 'the Great Reset’. It has its own website. So, it is not just a feature of hot-headed conspiratorial fantasies. It exists. But as what?

great reset

Thursday

Ben Sixsmith

COVID, lockdowns and misery

Like most people, I have had a rotten 2020. I have missed my family. I have missed my friends. My work has been disrupted. With that said, I do not live alone. I have a job. I have my health. Really, I’m among the lucky ones. People who have endured isolation, unemployment and ill health have had a far more miserable time. In such a gloomy period, it’s natural to think about the consequences for people’s mental health. Lockdown-induced loneliness and virus-induced stress seem liable to have lasting effects. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found that ‘symptoms of anxiety disorder and depressive disorder increased considerably in the United States’ during the summer compared to the summer months of 2019.How serious is the problem?

connected loneliness lockdown heads covid-19

Wednesday

Ben Sixsmith

Sarah Cooper’s Netflix special is a crime against comedy

Watching Sarah Cooper’s special Everything's Fine feels like dying — not a short, intense, violent death as well but a long, slow, painful one. About 10 minutes in, I had to check my pulse. Unfortunately, I was still alive.How did we come to this? Ms Cooper rose to fame, having been a relatively obscure stand-up comedian and moderately well-regarded humorous author, lip-syncing to audio of Donald Trump. Johnny Knoxville, of Jackass notoriety, rose to fame being zapped with a Taser and shooting himself in the chest. Of course, not every comedian should have to go to such extremes to get ahead. But there was still something a bit lazy about Ms Cooper’s routine — and absolutely nothing funny. I wrote about it here.Granted, you can’t blame Cooper for her success.

sarah cooper

Friday

Ben Sixsmith

Andrew Cuomo’s revisionist history

‘I normally don't turn off my cellphone when I sleep,’ writes Andrew Cuomo in his new book American Crisis: Leadership Lessons From the COVID-19 Pandemic, ‘because the work of being governor is literally 24 hours a day, and the phone pings all night long.’ Wait a minute. Is he joking? If Cuomo is so busy, how on Earth has he found the time to write a book in a matter of months? I can't find the time to write a book. How in Hell can he? A few pages later, Cuomo is at it again:‘I don’t have what you call a balanced life either. I work all the time. Enjoyment for me is when I’m with my daughters or my family, and in the summer I spend time on the water with my brother and friends, but usually I just work.

andrew cuomo

Friday

Ben Sixsmith

Duty of care: the trouble with America’s nursing homes

We can debate the value of sacrificing normal life to COVID-19. Personally I think the measures are increasingly destructive — but nobody can deny their scale. Social and economic activity has been tightly limited. Jobs have been lost. Businesses have collapsed, and boredom and anger set in.Yet Western politicians have done a bad job of protecting the most vulnerable. In Europe and the US, COVID has torn through nursing homes. Sometimes, as in New York under Gov. Andrew Cuomo, infected elderly patients were knowingly returned to them.The failure to anticipate this crisis — by politicians, public health authorities and, yes, the media — reflects a broader indifference towards the state of nursing homes.

nursing homes

Friday

Ben Sixsmith

The conspiracy and credibility of Trump’s COVID diagnosis

Late on June 23, 1953, Winston Churchill had a stroke. As the great bulldog recovered, his advisers made the bold decision to keep his illness a secret. Officially, the prime minister was resting because of an arduous schedule. His doctors’ diagnosis of a ‘disturbance of the cerebral circulation which has resulted in attacks and giddiness’ was struck from the records.In public, John F. Kennedy shone with youthful health and vigor. Behind closed doors, he was a mess. As Robert Dallek has written for the Atlantic, JFK suffered from ‘ulcers and colitis as well as Addison’s disease...terrific back trouble...urinary-tract infections and depression.

diagnosis covid

Saturday

Ben Sixsmith

Mark Zuckerberg’s quest for redemption

Stung by recent criticism, and fearing major regulation, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, has announced the establishment of a kind of ‘Supreme Court’ for his company. Selected and paid by Facebook, the members of this ‘Oversight Board’ will in theory behave as independent adjudicators capable of making rulings over content moderation and other important aspects of the business. No doubt Mr Zuckerberg is looking at the example being set by the US Supreme Court and thinking, ‘What could go wrong?’ It's hard to believe now but in 2017, it seemed plausible that Mark Zuckerberg might become president.

zuckerberg

Wednesday

Ben Sixsmith

Candace Owens’s book is a work of performance art

I doubt most of the belligerents associated with Turning Point USA, the Daily Wire and Blaze TV would know what to do if they were dropped into a combat situation. If you dropped Candace Owens behind enemy lines, she'd bite the throat out of an Isis fighter and stroll back to civilization without a scratch. Not to say Ms Owens is insightful or honest, or even that she means what she says. She means to succeed, and no one will stop her.Owens’s new book Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation is far more entertaining than the recent duds from Dave Rubin and Charlie Kirk. That doesn’t mean it's a good book. Intellectually it is completely incoherent.

candace owens

Wednesday

Ben Sixsmith

The tragedy of Aaron Coleman

‘While it is true I was abusive to my ex-girlfriend,’ writes Aaron Coleman, the improbable candidate for a seat in the Kansas State House, ‘I do not agree with the characterization being made about our experience in the hot tub the day after Christmas.’ This is such a morbidly evocative sentence. Abusive. Hot tub. Day after Christmas. It is a novel in 30 words.Coleman, who is 19, first came to prominence when he was found, in the aftermath of an underdog triumph in a Kansas primary, to have committed acts of bullying and ‘revenge porn’ five years previous. ‘He got one of my nudes and blackmailed me with it,’ said a victim:‘And told me if I didn’t send him more he would [send] it to all of my friends and family...

aaron coleman

Sunday

Ben Sixsmith

The Vicky Osterweil delusion

Vicky Osterweil, a trans woman who describes herself as a ‘writer, editor, and agitator’ and whose Twitter handle is ‘Vicky_ACAB’ (all cops are bastards), must have been overcome with joy when rioting and looting broke out in the wake of George Floyd’s death. This is partly because she is a radical leftist and partly because she had just finished writing a book called In Defense of Looting. What a stroke of luck! It's as if I had written a book called Beware of Pandemics in late 2019. I have to salute her timing.Osterweil is the classic sort of leftist who attempts to wrap enough pretty language around violence and destruction as to ennoble it. The riots, arsons and looting of 2020 needed such a character.

looting