The world is falling apart. Maybe physically, with climate change. Maybe politically, with the rise of authoritarianism. But I’m talking emotionally.

There is too much information and no center. People aren’t sure where they belong anymore.

Sure, there’s a crisis of misinformation, mostly fostered online. But once you get past the effects of said falsehoods, the most interesting element is that people can post and get traction. And most people are still unaware of what they’ve written, proffered.

It used to be simple. You read the newspaper, you watched the network news, and you were caught up.

If you wanted to know about music, you just turned on the radio. And in the late sixties, when FM burgeoned, you knew that Top Forty was on AM, and more esoteric, boundary-pushing stuff was on FM.

And then MTV came along and made it appear we lived in a monoculture. The edges were shorn off. If it wasn’t on MTV, it had a lot less meaning. Suddenly there were Top Forty stations on FM, getting their playlist from MTV. But then the internet came along and blew it all apart.

For a minute there, we were excited about the envelope-pushing.

Some got in in the late seventies, like Steve Jobs. Then there were others who entered in the eighties, using computers as tools, for desktop publishing, creating spreadsheets. And then came the internet revolution.

In the late nineties, there was a run on computers akin to the arrival of the Beatles and the British Invasion. Suddenly, all those who were computer illiterate and never planned to buy a computer laid down bucks just to play on AOL. Which was all point and click. It was very exciting.

And then came Napster and broadband and…

Today’s landscape looks nothing like that of twenty years ago, but the oldsters still in control keep laying their skewed, ancient templates on top of a world they no longer fit.

Let’s talk about the news business itself. If I hear one more ancient reporter talk about the death of local newspapers… Didn’t they observe the death of record stores? What do they not get? Oh yeah, most still don’t understand digital disruption. They like their assured jobs where like-minded people all travel in the same circle and everybody in Silicon Valley is screwing up the world. These reporters want someone to stop the world, and they want every innovator to get off, but that’s not how it works.

So, the aughts were about physical items. You iPod and then your iPhone. The teens were all about software. And the twenties are all about consolidation, realizing the internet behemoths have way too much power and because of their market share and monetary power they can’t be dethroned, try to compete with them and they’ll force you to sell out to them.

So, Congress missed the purchase by Facebook of Instagram and WhatsApp, and everything in the “Wall Street Journal” articles isn’t news to those living online, so once again the government is behind. No matter how much you clean up Facebook’s practices, you cannot solve the underlying problems. There aren’t enough people to police the posts, and AI is inefficient, so in truth we’re talking about the margins. It looks like the center, change must be made, but it won’t have the dramatic consequences all the bloviators believe it will.

You see there’s just too much information.

The prognosticators, the old guard in music, had this one wrong too. If Napster wasn’t shut down, if file-trading wasn’t ended, no one would make music anymore. But just the opposite occurred, with the barrier to entry so low, seemingly everybody is making music these days, and you may never hear their tunes, but you’ll have a hard time eluding their hype. Marketing has far outstripped the product. And marketing is easier. So marketing is what we’ve got. But in an on demand world the public, which hates advertising, can mostly avoid it. Apple comes down on the side of the consumer, focusing on privacy, and Wall Street and Main Street freak out, GIVE US OUR DATA! Like they’re entitled to everybody’s info, like every business entity is Cambridge Analytica.

But that’s all top-down, let’s talk bottom up.

There’s not enough time for ANYBODY to keep up. That’s right, NOBODY can keep up!

Oh, you can try by reading the “New York Times,” our national newsgatherer, just tune in Fox, they quote it all the time. But the “Times” misses so much! Stories break online first. And then if the noise gets loud enough they decide whether to cover it. Which is why every reporter is addicted to Twitter. They’re trying to keep their finger on the pulse! There are too many feeds and it’s unclear which ones you must pay attention to. You self-curate, and no one else sees the exact same things, NOBODY! Same deal with Google results, which are customized to the searcher.

So, if the mainstream news can’t keep its finger on the pulse, and if the “Times” is superior to other news outlets, how in hell is the general public supposed to keep up?

But since everyone has a microphone, the pillars of society have had their images demolished, rightly or wrongly. According to the right, you can’t trust a thing in the “Times.” But there is no alternative other than websites and social media. As for Fox News, it does almost no reporting. And for all the reporting on the outlet’s power, check the ratings, almost no Americans even watch it. After all, they’ve got more visual programming than they can watch in a lifetime!

Forget three networks, forget pay cable, forget basic cable. Now there are all these streaming platforms, seemingly every DAY Netflix introduces new product. Not only can no one keep up, if they’re not overwhelmed and dive in, they’ll find that most of what they’re watching no one else is, leaving them isolated.

This isolation is America’s problem. Greater than online misinformation. Everybody’s got their own smartphone with content customized for them and there are no points of connection, there is no overlap. And the end result is you feel disillusioned and depressed. It’s like Mickey Mouse in “Fantasia,” you can never catch up.

So you’re looking for a group, a tribe. That’s the power of Republicans, the right wing, you belong! And stunningly, elected officials feel they must be on the Trump train even though they were elected and he was not. You want to feel like you’re included. As for the deep issues, most people are unaware of them. Immigrants are coming for your job and the Democrats are socialists who will eradicate the American way of life. That’s enough, that’s all most people have got. But they can sit with their buddies and feel like they belong. And there’s always information online to support your position, ALWAYS!

As far as getting someone to leave their tribe… They’re never going to do it unless there’s a ready-made tribe eager to embrace them, make them feel warm and fuzzy. And the only people who’ve been able to do this are cults. And the truth is the right is akin to a cult, they’ll embrace seemingly anyone. As for the Democrats? They’re in disarray, living in the last century, the aughts at best, and with Manchin and Sinema their lack of cohesion is on display, adding fuel to the fire of the other team.

But forget politics, most people do. Most people are really damn busy.

Let’s start with your job. Either you’re making big bucks and your issue is keeping up with the Joneses or you’re making few bucks and your issue is staying alive. Numbing, back-breaking work, then you go home, play with your kids, drink, watch TV and do it all over again.

But now the issues have come home. Critical race theory. What are your kids being taught? I mean that’s important, right? We’ve been told forever to think for ourselves, should we just let the school board have its way?

And once again, this isn’t about politics so much as the individual. You’re told that you must care about everything, otherwise the world as you know it will come to an end, so you should do your best to get involved, get your voice heard, correct? That’s almost more important than your position, as long as you align with your tribe.

So you’re sitting at home..

What are you gonna eat?

Well, should you go to the store or have your groceries delivered? Should you order in via Uber Eats? Should you worry about eating too much junk food? There are so many more choices than before, so many decisions to be made that you become fatigued with the most basic issues.

And then you sit in front of the flat screen…

Or should you fire up your internet-connected device. Where you can watch what’s on the flat screen or endless videos on YouTube, and TikTok and Snap…

Or maybe you should just play videogames.

And maybe you’ve got a clearly-defined passion. But then one day you become tired of it, you’re looking for more stimulation, WHERE SHOULD YOU GO? The tyranny of choice is overwhelming.

The fashion industry says baggy is in and skinny is out. The public didn’t get the memo, turns out most people are still wearing skinny jeans. None of the traditional power-wielding entities have the dictatorial power they once did.

As for clothing… You can buy a shirt for five bucks, maybe even less. Parents can’t digest this, a kid can have a closet akin to a Beverly Hills housewife for the same price of school clothes decades ago. And not only do kids have to keep up on their social media feeds, they’ve got to look the part when they leave the house, assuming they do, but of course they all have to go to school, unless they’re home-schooled, where even if the kids get a better education, they’re not integrated with society, they only hear one opinion and lack socialization, they don’t know how to hang with other kids, never mind get along.

So you’re gonna dive in, get your handle on what’s going on.

Well, first you watch “Squid Game,” bigger than any other entertainment product at the moment, Adele doesn’t even have a fraction of the power. And why are most people watching it? BECAUSE EVERYBODY ELSE IS WATCHING IT! They yearn to belong.

But after “Squid Game,” then what? “Ted Lasso” is already in the rearview mirror, no one’s talking about it anymore. They say the new season of “Succession” is secondary, but you haven’t even caught up with the old seasons. And you can do your own research, forget all the misinformation out there, an agile surfer can hoover up a wealth of information unavailable anywhere else but online. And you find a great show, and you talk to people about it and…no one has seen it. And you can’t convince them to. The investment is too great, and they don’t know who to trust. So the smarter and more informed you are the more isolated you become.

It’s even worse in music. We keep hearing that it’s a hip-hop nation, that only pop has a chance of competing, yet the new IFPI report says that rock is the dominant world genre. Huh? Then how come it isn’t in the Spotify Top 50? I mean how many people are even listening to that? Maybe it’s just a sliver of society. And the playlists are created by humans manipulated by those controlling recordings and 60,000 tracks are added each and every DAY! No wonder many people give up, just go back to the old tunes, and when they burn out on those, they watch TV or play videogames… But if you say you’re burned out on the oldies you’re a pariah. But if you say you only listen to the oldies you’re a pariah. You can no longer fit in!

The biggest bands in the world can come to your town and you don’t even know. Then again, do you want to go for over a hundred bucks? Now it’s a Broadway show, not a concert.

And if everybody says something good, you’d better not say it’s bad. Because then you just show you don’t get it. So stifle your personality to fit in, otherwise you’ll have no friends.

And the old tribes have been blown apart. It’s not only the news reporters, but the music cognoscenti with their black leather jackets, telling everybody what is good and what is bad. No one is listening to them anymore, no one has the time, no one even cares. If anything, they feel liberated to be able to listen to what sounds good to them. Never mind all of the pariahs of the past being seen as godhead today, like the Carpenters.

Doesn’t matter the age. Babies are registered for elite schools. The truth is you could fall behind before five and never really recover. Unfortunately, this is true, therefore parents spend uber amounts of time piloting their kids’ lives. Never mind the enrichment programs piled up to make their kids’ college applications look good.

As for the kids… You can’t leave home without being accompanied by a parent. Furthermore, you live in a police state, your parents track your phone. And there is a camera everywhere. You’re locked down, and you can feel it. Maybe you can band together with like-minded kids online and influence the discussion, like the TikTokkers who got tickets for Trump’s appearance in Oklahoma, but you can’t keep the tribe together, not only does everybody have other interests, there’s not another topic everybody can rally around. Just like Coldplay and Dave Matthews owe their huge ticket numbers to being the last acts to have made it before MTV/VH1/TV music paradigm imploded, Trump gained his national fame before network TV eroded to the point of minimization. I never even watch network TV, do you?

And then the old paragons of entertainment news keep telling us what’s coming. We don’t want to know what’s coming, just tell us if it’s worth paying attention when it’s here!

And we can’t go against our tribe, no way. You know what your tribe thinks, what it believes in, that’s bedrock. And it’s not only politics. If you go against the groupthink you’re soon squeezed out. So not only is everybody busy hoovering up information to try and stay abreast of what is going on, they’ve got to keep up their image on social media and in real life.

And everything we were told was important is sinking. Sports… As for the Super Bowl, it’s got nothing to do with the game, it’s a national holiday with some of the best visual entertainment of the year, i.e. the commercials, and you know everybody is watching it, so you can argue about the quality of the commercials thereafter. The commercials outstripped the game DECADES AGO! The day after that’s all anybody wants to talk about. Credit Steve Jobs, the outsider. Who bought more consecutive time than anybody and created a mini-movie, not only introducing the Macintosh but showing Madison Avenue there was a new way to sell a product, that was BETTER!

And there are still disrupters. Elon Musk being one. They keep selling more Teslas. Diehards, environmentalists buy them, but who are the rest of these purchasers? Maybe people are afraid of laying down big bucks for a gas-guzzler that will be worthless in only a handful of years, like your old MacPlus… Hell, you don’t even want to have an Intel Mac! As for a 3G phone… All those technophobes are about to have their main communication method wiped away.

We need more points of communication. We need national rallying points. We need to make society more fluid. Then again, the odds of achieving the American Dream are higher in Europe, never mind Canada. That’s right, you can play the lottery, but your odds of moving up the economic food chain have never been worse. Meanwhile, you keep being told it’s your fault! You just need to work harder. But so many of these people are working multiple jobs and still falling behind economically. As for socially, emotionally, they’ve got almost no time for the rabbit holes delineated above.

So the gossip sites are still full, but you don’t know who most of the people are. Even if you’re in the target demo. Kinda like that old saw that if you’ve got a tech problem ask your youngster to tackle it. That turned out to be untrue, oldsters were better at solving tech problems, hardware and software. Then again, a lot of these problems have evaporated, with better equipment and operating systems.

And then we’re told we’ve got to be able to fix our devices when the truth is in many cases we want them to break so we can buy new ones! And even if you can fix it, the cost is prohibitive. VCRs were a thousand bucks. You fixed ’em. Then they were under a hundred and you threw them away and bought a new one. Now they no longer exist. Kinda like the EU mandating connections, USB-C. Well, they missed USB-A and Mini-USB and…if you’re stopping the wheels of progress, you’re hurting society. Apple threw over their initial iPod multipin connector for Lightning, don’t you think they would have wanted to support all those radios with docks in hotels? But they knew Bluetooth was gonna rule in the future when most people did not. Heard anybody complain about the lack of a headphone port in their smartphone recently? Remember when that was a big thing? As for iPods, Apple had to stop making them because they could no longer source the parts!

And speaking of parts, do you put thousands into your old car or get ripped-off on a new one, if you can find one. Yes, there’s a chip shortage. And shipping delays too, you’re being told to do your Christmas shopping NOW!

Meanwhile, there’s no one at the center leading the way. The artists are all mini-brands. Hyping themselves to high heaven, just so make sure everyone on Vanuatu gets the memo Adele has a new album. The rest of us are overwhelmed. Adele’s new album isn’t even out and I’m tired of it and her.

But the marketing machine rolls on.

And money is everything, because if you ain’t got it, not only do you fall behind, but your whole damn family. So those with the money and the power, they don’t want to let any of it go. Even worse, they think they DESERVE IT! Why should they question this? They’re part of a tribe that has been told for years they are the job creators, they worked really damn hard to make it, no one is bringing them down to earth. Hell, Bloomberg thought he was entitled to be President, and as soon as we got a look at him it was clear…NO WAY!

And then you’ve got people without portfolio, like Yang, who say they can fix it all. When have rank outsiders fixed a business? The lifers have acquired expertise. Andrew Lack blew up Sony Music and now no one even remembers him, never mind Bob Morgado. Hell, Time Warner no longer even owns Warner Music. And the cable system and HBO were sold off in pieces.

Confused yet?

Like I said, no one can keep up.

And what’s the use of keeping up? It’s easier to just live in the echo chamber of your tribe, that will keep you warm at night.

I’m overwhelmed. And if you tell me you’re not, you’re lying.

I was just talking to an English musician who is afraid to go on the road. Covid is raging, people aren’t wearing masks and he doesn’t trust the government. Which has pooh-poohed and botched the Covid response:

“Covid: UK’s early response worst public health failure ever, MPs say”: https://bbc.in/3jovPlN

As you will remember, it was just a month ago or so that Covid infections suddenly dropped in the U.K., no one knew why, maybe it was never going to come back. But now:

“UK government accused of being ‘willfully negligent’ as Covid cases mount”: https://cnn.it/3m4P1qu

“On Thursday it reported 52,009 new infections, the highest mark since July. 

The government has nonetheless ruled out moving to its ‘Plan B’ approach, which would see the introduction of vaccine passports and mandates in line with many European countries.

‘We are sticking with our plan,’ Boris Johnson said Thursday. ‘The numbers of infections are high but we are within the parameters of what the predictions were.’

But in a scathing intervention on Wednesday, the British Medical Association (BMA) said Johnson’s government ‘has taken its foot off the brake, giving the impression that the pandemic is behind us and that life has returned to normal.'”

And the rest of Europe is freaking out:

“UK’s neighbours criticise Covid policies as cases begin to surge across EU – Several European nations have questioned British response but there are growing signs of fresh wave across continent”

But it’s always sunny in Philadelphia, er, the United States, because we’re different, we’re immune, right.

It wasn’t like we didn’t get a heads-up on the Delta variant. It was crawling all over the U.K. and Europe before it got here. And it was here for quite a while before anybody took action. And now there’s a new variant. As a matter of fact, it’s already here:

“COVID-19: New, infectious strain of Delta variant detected in the US”: https://bit.ly/3m2LU2d

Rust never sleeps, nor does Covid. You might be out living your life willy-nilly, but Covid keeps mutating and each new iteration is MORE TRANSMISSIBLE!

But we can’t take further action in the U.S. because of people’s FREEDOM!

Yeah, right.

And then there’s that bozo Washington State football coach Nick Rolovich who decided to get fired rather than get vaccinated. Now he’s suing for illegal termination: https://es.pn/3C7qR41

Ain’t that America. No one can lose out. Everyone thinks their way will prevail. You see Rolovich is a “devout” Catholic, and therefore he deserves an exemption.

What hogwash.

You’ve got to read this article:

“Many are searching for vaccine mandate loopholes. These are the people trying to stop them.”: https://wapo.st/3B4tN0b

“Almost all of Troup’s applicants for religious exemptions objected to taking a vaccine developed using fetal cell lines (whose origins can be traced back to cells from electively aborted fetuses several decades ago). So Troup and his team devised a strategy: Those employees would have to sign an agreement not to take any other medical treatments developed using fetal cell lines. Among the 28 medications on the list: Tylenol. Motrin. Preparation H. Claritin. Benadryl. Tums.”

“‘I very gently and politely asked, “Well, you know, tell me: What medicines on that list…do you think were not developed with fetal cells or tested on fetal cells?”‘ Troup recalls. ‘The response was this diatribe about how evil the vaccine was, how much harm it causes, how data and reports are being covered up. Which told me that it really wasn’t about fetal cells at all. It’s all about a vaccine hesitancy.'”

In other words, the claimed religious exemptions are just b.s. And we should call everybody on their b.s. I’m sick and tired of the minority holding sway over the majority.

Fewer than 13% of Americans are anti-vaccine: https://bit.ly/3Ga7bPu This happens again and again, with guns, abortion, taxes on the rich, the majority supports the foregoing, but it never ever goes their way. You think there’s not pent-up anger?

And the both sides media gives attention to anybody who causes a ruckus, who expounds upon their bogus position loudly, when the truth is they should be ignored or their position skewered.

It’s hard to have faith in America today. Manchin takes money from fossil fuel companies and therefore there can’t be strict climate controls. Yes, that’s America, where companies are not only people, they’re immune to the long hand of the government. People in West Virginia want what’s in Biden’s infrastructure bill:

“In deep red West Virginia, Biden’s $3.5tn spending proposal is immensely popular – Working-class people – even Trump voters – understand the Build Back Better plan will benefit them”: https://bit.ly/2Zg48EA

And then there’s the inane Republican January 6th position. Nothing happened, there is no need to investigate…BUT WE SAW IT WITH OUR OWN TWO EYES!

As for Steve Bannon… That’s what I want to do, next time I get a traffic ticket, just not show up. Maybe I’ll claim a religious exemption when they come after me. Or sue saying I should be paid by the police for stopping me. Everything up is down.

And most of America knows it.

But this is the same America playing by the rules while the rest do not.

Do you know why Covid raged in the south over the summer? BECAUSE EVERYBODY WENT INSIDE! You need the A/C to survive. And as soon as the weather cooled, they went back outside and infection rates went down. And then it got cold again in the north and people went inside, and BINGO!, increased infection rates, especially amongst the unvaccinated.

But the vaccines don’t work, you know that, right? And they kill your immune system and by December everybody who gets a booster will no longer have an immune system. PEOPLE E-MAIL ME THIS IDIOCY EACH AND EVERY DAY! They’re in a paper war, albeit online. There are endless sites preaching this nonsense. If you believed these people you’d think millions of people have died from the vaccine and it’s new and experimental and while we’re at it, we should eliminate the need for any vaccines, while we hobble government’s right to take action. No masks, no mandates… It would be utterly laughable if it wasn’t so scary.

So America is open for business. And since the nincompoops are not abiding by the rules, the rest of the population shrugs its shoulders and gives up too. It’s like letting the wild child in school ride herd over the rest of the students, and you know that never happens, because there are CONSEQUENCES! Actually, there are consequences for the unvaccinated, they could die. But the fact that the vaccinated can die too means the vaccine doesn’t work. But the truth is the unvaccinated get infected and die at a much higher rate. And the vaccinated are infectious, can spread Covid, for a much shorter period of time than the unvaxxed. But good luck convincing these flat-earthers like Kyrie Irving of the truth, which is everywhere if you just look. But oh no, better to do your own research than depend upon experts. I’ve got it, you’d rather fly in a plane built by Facebook followers. Or maybe go to their health clinic. THEY DON’T EXIST! No one is holding them back, the main problem is THEY’VE GOT NO EXPERTISE!

So now what happens.

Well, we need more mandates and vaccine cards/documentation. But we can’t even get voting laws passed, never mind the infrastructure bill, because one party keeps on saying no and Manchin and Sinema are whored-out to their donors as opposed to their constituents. After all, you can’t continue to win without money!

We’ve got to close the window on these crybabies, like they do in reasonable countries, like France. The country is no longer a punch line. You can go unvaxxed, BUT YOU JUST CAN’T GO ANYWHERE! It’s your CHOICE! Why can’t we have the same damn thing in America?

Then there’s that story that Paul Stanley’s guitar tech died of Covid, HE FAKED HIS VACCINATION CARD! That was on the radio. Don’t take it to the bank without further confirmation. But the bottom line is the guy did have Covid and he did die. How’d you like to work with that prick?

And it’s not only the wingnuts, it’s the above the law rich too:

“Broadway folks bragged about forging COVID tests to go to Tonys parties”: https://bit.ly/3C3Pj6r

Seems like you’re a sucker if you obey the rules.

Meanwhile, Biden is afraid of his shadow while the right wing press keeps going on about the drop in his approval ratings…WHICH THEY’RE CAUSING! It’s the do-nothing right wing congresspeople who are doing their best to shut down the government, LITERALLY!

And no one can see further than their nose. The big problems? We can’t afford to tackle them. This is like the jerk who refuses to buy health insurance and then gets into a major accident or gets cancer or… Oops! Then we end up taking care of this freeloader. But who is going to take care of us on climate change… NOBODY! And it’s happening while we speak:

“Climate Change Poses a Widening Threat to National Security – Intelligence and defense agencies issued reports warning that the warming planet will increase strife between countries and spur migration.” https://nyti.ms/3E5GQA6

It seems like the goal of many Americans is to be an ostrich, they never learned this parable in school. Then again, many believe God will save them, you know, that old powerful man in the sky. And you’ve got to know, just like they want monoclonal antibodies, just like when they go to the hospital to treat their infection, they want a complete pass when they wake up and need science. They’re picking and choosing. Let’s see, why don’t we let Boeing pick and choose which parts they install in the airplane. As a matter of fact, Boeing is screwing up building their planes, and who is holding them to account? THE GOVERNMENT! Which wastes all your tax money and should be drowned in the bathtub. Yeah, right.

So Covid could die out. It’s possible. But past is prologue, and looking at the U.K….it appears that a new wave is on the horizon, HOLD ON, IT’S COMING!

And no one is immune.

“One in three music industry jobs were lost during pandemic”: https://bbc.in/3vxT3dX

“One in three jobs in the British music industry were lost during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a report from trade body UK Music.

The research said there were 69,000 fewer jobs in music in 2020 than in 2019 – a drop of 35% – due to the ‘devastating impact’ of coronavirus.”

You may want to go to the show, but there may be no show to go to! Ticket sales have slowed to a crawl, so many of the big acts are delaying their tours.

Yes, we live in a society, networked, where the actions of one affect the actions of another. You won’t get vaccinated so other people are scared to go to the show and then there is no show… You call this victory?

Strict mandates. Vax cards. Masks. That’s the only way to improve the situation.

Do I expect this to happen?

NO!

Stevie Van Zandt, aka “Miami Steve,” aka “Little Steven,” aka “Silvio Dante,” has written an autobiography, “Unrequited Infatuations.” We dig into the process of writing the book, and we also cover the landscape from New Jersey…back to New Jersey! Growing up with the radio, the greatness of the Beatles, struggling in Asbury Park, failing to make the E Street Band, going straight and doing construction, playing the oldies circuit, making the E Street Band, going solo, returning to the E Street Band and appearing in “The Sopranos” and… Steven says he’s not good with money, but he’s had a jam-packed career, his life is rich with experiences, listen as we go deep!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/stevie-van-zandt/id1316200737?i=1000539270201

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast?returnFromLogin=1&


This is hysterical! My inbox is blowing up! I don’t get anywhere near this amount of response when I write about music. As George Drakoulias said to me on the Staples Center floor, he used to argue about records, not anymore. How did the cultural zeitgeist switch so much? Did music let us down or is it just that issues of gender and democracy have more gravitas.

Which is what Dave Chappelle is trying to address here, the society we live in.

I watched it.

But first I started listening in the car on my drive back from Santa Monica, starting around the recommended 55:00, when Chappelle goes deep, focusing on the trans comedian. And what did I think? WHAT IS ALL THE HOOPLA ABOUT! I mean this has been in the news for days and no one has actually written what Chappelle actually said?

Of course there is cherry-picking. Just like they do on the right. But in context, Chappelle gets a pass. The fact that trans people want him canceled is ridiculous.

Not that I think Chappelle needs to be applauded, to a great degree he’s appealing to a dumbed-down public that believes it’s oppressed when it is reaping the fruits, like white men. Then again, affirmative action is anathema, unless it is for white people!

So I got home and I started watching from the beginning. I was cruising along and then Chappelle made a very funny but quite offensive joke about Jews and Israel. And I found it funny that there was no blowback about this. I mean usually the ADL is on this stuff. So I’m thinking, Sarah Silverman made that absolutely brilliant joke about Asian people, that got her blowback, and it was years ago. It was an intellectual twist couched in stupidity and when you thought about it you couldn’t stop laughing, it’s still hilarious today. Then again, Silverman wasn’t putting down Asians.

So the longer I watched “The Closer,” the less funny and interesting it became. I mean the man doth protest too much. That’s the nature of being a celebrity, the online hate. And the fact that he admits it gets to him, does that help the problem at all? A slew of articles in “The Wall Street Journal” have had a much greater effect. But there is no celebrity involved in that story, except for Mark Zuckerberg, and people want his money, maybe even his power, but they don’t want to hang out with him and have sex, which is the essence of a big time celebrity. They radiate a charisma that draws you to them.

So the e-mail is flowing and suddenly I’m confronted with the issue confronting the antivaxxers. Do I double down on my position or am I open to saying I’m wrong.

I WAS WRONG!

Not about everything, but about the trans brouhaha re the special. I’ll stand by a lot of peripheral things I said, but I don’t want to muddy the water, I was wrong, plain and simple.

And that’s the most important thing, but even more interesting was the feeling of belonging. Seemed like everybody had seen the special, I wanted to be a member of the club, so I could talk about it further. And I’ve learned seemingly better than Chappelle that you can’t pay attention to the feedback, the rabble-rousers. I mean come on, you’re Dave Chappelle and they’re..?

As for Twitter not being a real place. Oh yes it is, it may be virtual but it’s patently real. The news media keeps saying it’s a self-selecting society whilst addicted and quoting from it. That’s the world we now live in, where what happens online is seemingly always more interesting than real life. After all you can cater your online time to your interests. So why in hell did Netflix not use the online tools to spread the message?

It would have been very simple. Post an excerpt of the special on YouTube. It would have quieted people, put the protesters in perspective. But so worried about putting stuff outside the paywall, it didn’t. Meanwhile, HBO posted John Oliver’s complete episodes on YouTube and Bill Maher’s show is available as a free podcast moments after it finishes airing. Want to clear the air? Put a little sunlight on the issue.

And I will say if you’re a minority it’s frustrating to be talked down to by white males time and time again, it’s like you don’t even count. It’s kind of like Killer Mike on “Real Time” a couple of weeks ago. Mike said Blacks got Biden elected, they performed their magic and leveled the playing field in the Senate. But everything they were promised in return never arrived. Free community college, free child care… No, those must be secondary to the white issues, they’ve got to take one for the team. Huh? The Blacks vote time and again for Democrats and then they’re told to get in the back of the bus.

Which is kind of Chappelle’s point re the women’s movement. He’s got sympathy for Black people first. But he also understands the women’s plight better than they do. He says celebrities should fire their agents and enable the woman in the mailroom, who can’t get ahead. Look at LeBron James, he’s got a team of Blacks from his hometown, led by his childhood friend Maverick Carter, and he seems to be doing better than all his contemporaries. Carter wasn’t born into the business, but he was willing to learn, after all celebrity/Hollywood business is not rocket science. Oftentimes, it’s just a matter of leverage, albeit with bullying.

So Chappelle’s ultimate point, that the minority groups are too strident and they’re doing their cause a disservice? I hear it. He’s right about the trans people at Netflix. But why is the kerfuffle being kept alive in the press. Where people who don’t watch the special spend their time and get a misimpression. Are these scribes just reporting, or is there an underlying issue…do they really just want to preach to their subscribers?

Can we never talk about trans people again, is the whole topic taboo?

OF COURSE NOT!

Then again, the suits are scared of the talent, if the talent is big enough, it has huge leverage and opportunity. Then again, Chappelle should make more money than most of the suits, he’s the one drawing eyeballs. I mean Reed Hastings came up with the concept of Netflix, but why do the suits with little creativity end up richer than the talent, always?

Do I recommend you watch the Chappelle special?

You don’t need to. Unless you want to weigh in on this subject, i.e. the trans debate, whether Chappelle should be canceled.

And Chappelle really saves himself with his ending bit, about the trans comedian, but before that you’ll wince at times. Not that he should not be able to say what he does, but to a degree he’s fanning the flames of biased people. First and foremost the Chappelle fans, who believe he can do no wrong. I think it’s fine to blow back, and people should. I mean this is his whole routine, talking about how hard it is to be a comedian and speak your truth? Not that there aren’t great observations contained therein, but the ultimate spin…this is my last special for a while, but I’ve just got to tell you how I’ve been burdened and… It’s like the special doesn’t exist in context, it’s just for the people who watch it.

And that would be fine, except what are the basic precepts of this audience?

In the old pre-internet days, never mind the pre-cable days, we would all consume the same material and then weigh in on it. Not that I want to go back to those days, I prefer the cornucopia of content. But society has suffered, we’re no longer in it together, the truth cannot reach everybody.

Like there’s no way in hell Chappelle should be canceled for this special.

But, Netflix could have done a much better job of defending him.

And then there’s the issue of the trans protests. I get it, woke society, everybody’s got to lay off. But, once again, there is a line, where is it? It’s obviously not at Chappelle in this special, but elsewhere transphobia is rampant, and it’s not the benign transphobia Chappelle labels himself with.

So what we’ve got is a discussion point.

And informed and uninformed.

And a lack of sunshine on the underlying product.

It’s a microcosm of America in general.

And I was honest in saying I hadn’t watched the special. But no one caught that point, they equated me with the rest of the bloviators who comment on that which they’re unaware of. THAT WAS EXACTLY MY POINT! That didn’t make me right, but no one could set aside their biases for a minute and look at the issue from my perspective. If they disagreed thereafter, fine with me. But no, I’ve got scores and scores of e-mails saying WATCH THE SPECIAL! That doesn’t convince antivaxxers to get the jab, they just dig in deeper.

I won’t dig in deeper. I’ll try to crawl out of the hole I dug. I was wrong, full stop.

But the issues remain.