The Bluestocking 334: Moscow and a Bourbon
"I don’t like all these horrid white cows"
Surprise!
I know I said there wouldn’t be a newsletter this week, but I keep adding links to the draft, and then decided to drop them while they’re hot.
Also, I was desperate to share with you this hilarious Department of Justice indictment against TENET, an American anti-woke media company that did deals with former Intellectual Dark Web nominee turned basic-bitch conservative Dave Rubin, fired-from-BuzzFeed-for-plagiarism’s Benny Johnson, semi-repentant white nationalist influencer Lauren Southern, and beanie-wearing Ukraine-hater Tim Pool.
Brace yourself for a revelation, but the DOJ alleges that Tenet—which paid one of the commentators above $400,000 a month for four hours of YouTube content a week—was not a viable internet media business. Instead, nine-tenths of its cash, the DOJ says, came from the Kremlin—through former Russia Today journalists operating through a network of shell companies.
Did anyone involved know they had become Russian intelligence assets? Well, there is some incredible slapstick in the indictment, such as the moment that one of Tenet’s founders can’t get hold of their paymasters on email, and searches “time in Moscow”. Or the bit where the Russian handlers suggest posting the infamous clip of Tucker Carlson marvelling at how cheap Russian groceries are on Tenet’s social media, and a junior producer queries that with one of the founders: “They want me to post this, but it feels like overt shilling.”
Both Benny Johnson and Tim Pool have since put out statements saying they are the “victims” in all this, which is a funny way to describe receiving thousands of dollars for airing your terrible opinions that just happen to coincide with key Kremlin talking-points. (Here is Tim Pool saying that America should “apologise” to Russia over Ukraine.) Still, I for one am happy to accept their explanation that they were simply greedy and incurious, which are excellent qualities for a journalist to have.
Elsewhere in the incredibly healthy online rightwing media, Tucker Carlson this week interviewed Darryl Cooper, a formerly respected history podcaster. On the podcast, Cooper argued that there’s a conspiracy of silence about World War II. (Has he seen any middle-aged dad’s book shelves?) Apparently, no one will talk about how Churchill was the aggressor, Hitler actually wanted peace throughout, and maybe concentration camp commandments killed their prisoners because it was more humane than letting them freeze in winter?
This is a classic trick of the conspiracy theorist arsenal, of course: Just Asking Questions. Why don’t we have a proper conversation about World War Two? (Again, my man, go to a book shop. People are on this.) Eventually, you notice that all Darryl Cooper’s spicy questions trend in one direction, which is towards suggesting that Hitler wasn’t really a murderous racist with a well-documented plan for genocide, just an unlucky general who understandably wanted his territory to be Judenfrei. In this telling, the British ended up opposing him because Churchill was “installed” by Jewish financiers, a story with a basis in fact—much like his would-be spiritual heir Boris Johnson, Churchill often took loans from wealthy friends—but which here shades into anti-semitic conspiracy.
If you think I’m being uncharitable to Cooper by assuming that these are not entirely good-faith questions, then peep this (deleted) tweet he sent around the Paris Olympics.
Pop quiz! Which is worse—Nazi occupation or big lasses and drag queens in leotards?
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It’s very interesting to see who has edged away from Carlson—The Free Press, Reason—and who hasn’t. Four months ago, Carlson was on the smash-hit Kill Tony podcast, with other luminaries of the Austin heterodox comedy scene; he was also given a speaking slot at the RNC. Now, along with the openly antisemitic Candace Owens, will a cordon sanitaire be erected around him? Will he spend the rest of his career interviewing more crackheads who claim to have slept with Barack Obama? (Yes, this was a real Tucker interview.) Maybe. Even the US Spectator thinks that relitigating Hitler’s badness is A Bit Much, while Elon Musk appears to have stealth-deleted his tweet promoting the discussion as “interesting.”
It’s fascinating to see what taboos the online right will actually observe, given its fetishisation of free speech. But “taking a wry, sideways look at whether Hitler was actually misunderstood” appears to be one. Also, might I note that this is a delicious example of horseshoe theory in action? The other group of people dedicated to taking Churchill down a peg or two are the anti-colonialist left, because of his actions during the Bengal Famine. The opposite ends of politics, united by the belief that their countries are uniquely evil.
Schadenfreude is the greatest of all emotions, so I’m taking a few moments to savour the fact that both Carlson and the Tenet influencers’ woes could have been avoided if they’d just had some basic morals. But instead, they chased money and attention, and were at first richly rewarded for it. Now, that same thirst for edginess and relevance has seen them be humiliated in public. Good. If only I believed there was the slightest chance they would learn from the experience.
Helen
The Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandson of France’s Last Bourbon is Ready to Rule. Seriously (Financial Times, £)
Despite not growing up on his inherited lands, and describing himself as a creature of Paris’s Latin Quarter, the prince stressed again how much he values “simple, simple, simple” in his life. He’s happiest in the countryside, smoking cigarettes and talking to farmers about breeds of cattle, he said. His role dealing Hirsts, and the ambassadorships for luxury brands, may contradict such simplicity, yet he protested, “It’s not me, it’s the companies I work for!”
Something of a mover and shaker himself, he said, “My phone is always open. If you have a problem, I can fix it. People seem to like to call me.” His clientele is eclectic to say the least. He told me he is brokering an interview with Donald Trump for a French journalist friend (“I promised his team could pre-approve the questions”), closing a deal on a luxury hotel development in Paris (“I did yoga with the buyer’s wife”) and securing an ambassadorship for a Chinese electric car manufacturer (“We will put a car in the Place de la Concorde, it will be easy!”). Charles occasionally silenced the seemingly innumerable phone calls he received as we drove through the countryside. He never answers calls from unknown numbers. “People call it lobbying, but it’s not lobbying,” he said.
Passing field after field, the prince peered at them from the car, sometimes with a benign smile, sometimes with a look of revulsion. “I don’t like all these horrid white cows,” he remarked. “I’ve got a farmer introducing some lovely brown ones instead.” He pointed through the windscreen occasionally. He had helped that farmer to acquire some land, he said, indicating a fallow field. But he’ll get rid of that one. Or, “Keep going past this farmer, I don’t want to speak to him.” A total of six farmers work his ancestral land, providing the cheese, honey and soon enough the wine, and maintaining a new solar farm.
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You know I love the eccentric aristocrat beat, and here is a profile of one of the MANY claimants for the French throne (not the eyebrow-raisingly rightwing one from Spain, nor the Bonaparte who works as an investment banker, another one). The backdrop to Charles Bourbon’s lord-of-the-manor stylings is that National Rally, the French far-right party, is notably sympathetic to the idea of restoring the monarchy, as part of its nostalgic project for France. Also, you might have noticed that France does like electing quasi-imperial figures (De Gaulle, Sarkozy, Macron).
PS. If this FT link takes you straight to the paywall, try googling the headline and going in that way. The site is a bit more generous with access via search than through direct clicks. Also, the mini FT app offers a handful of free stories every day, which is a good deal.
Trump’s Red-Pill Podcast Tour (The Atlantic, gift link)
[Lex] Fridman, who started out as an artificial-intelligence researcher, is not part of the dipshit circuit. He is a smart guy who covered some genuinely uncomfortable topics for Trump, such as the former president’s association with the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his repeated suggestions that the 2020 election was stolen. But the arc of podcasting is long, and it bends toward interviewing tech CEOs about their morning routine. Fridman is now known for dressing like the protagonist of the video game Hitman, being a black belt in jiu-jitsu, and responding to any criticism of his softball style by insisting that he is all about “love.” He really seems to think that if he could get Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky on his podcast, he could sort out this whole unfortunate Ukraine-war business.
Like many in the new podcasting elite, Fridman does not maintain even a thin veneer of journalistic detachment from his subjects. He is a personal friend of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, and boasted on LinkedIn last year that he had spent Thanksgiving at their house, watching The Godfather. In doing so, he wasn’t breaking any kind of norm. By podcasting standards, his refusal to join in with Trump’s thumbs-up in the preinterview photo counts as Cronkite-like rectitude. Before their interview with Trump, Logan Paul and his co-host, Mike Majlak, cheerfully accepted merchandise from him carrying reproductions of the former president’s booking shot in Fulton County, Georgia; [Adin] Ross gave Trump a Rolex and a customized Tesla Cybertruck with a photo of Trump’s attempted assassination on it. (If Trump keeps these gifts, it will be a violation of campaign-finance rules.)
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I attempt to answer the question of why Donald Trump is going on so many bro podcasts: his son Barron likes them; it’s good outreach to young male voters; and he loves sounding off to easily impressed listeners. Lex Fridman, who started out as an AI researcher, is the latest to receive a visit from the presidential candidate.
You may notice a certain . . . sharpness in my tone here. That’s because I could do without complaints about how the “mainstream media” is corrupt from people who interview their mate’s dads, or trade gifts with their interview subjects on camera.
Quick Links
“[Craig] Brown gathered these insights via a rather “mad” and “pedantic” system, which was to look up “Queen Elizabeth” in the index of every 20th and 21st-century book in the London Library’s memoir and biography section, and then group them in themes.” This is such a cool way to research a biography (Sunday Times, £).
“The way elites talk about their taste has changed. Early guests pass judgment on the intrinsic quality of the music they play, or focus on its form or texture […] Fast forward to contemporary guests and the tone is different. While tracks are often still critically-acclaimed, elites rarely mention anything about prestige. Instead they focus more on how the music is nostalgic, connecting it to family or biography.” Sam Friedman (not Sam Freedman) has a new book out on what it means to be elite today. One of the answers to that question is “pretending not to be elite.” (Comment is Freed, Substack, paid)
“What he calls “a bunch of lies and bullshit” about his possible KGB links still rankles. “I was in touch with a florist the other day,” he says. “A florist?” I repeat, unsure that I have heard correctly. “Yes, a florist. A fucking florist, John, to get some flowers. They said, ‘We can’t take you on as a client.’ For what reason? ‘We can’t tell you.’ That, to me, is racism.” Evgeny Lebedev has classier problems than you (Financial Times, £).
American pennies cost a boatload to produce, are almost never used, and corrode from the inside because they’re now made from zinc covered with copper. Here is seven thousand words on why America should stop making them—and yet never gets around to it. You’re welcome (New York Times).
See you next time! Maybe I will actually take next week off, who knows? If you like this email, why not forward it to a friend, or recommend it on social media—and if you want to sign up, the button is below:
Candace Owens isn't anti-Semitic, she's *anti-Frankist*. Lots of Frankists around, I hear they pal about with the Shakers.
Thanks for doing the newsletter anyway. I’ve spotted an auto correct error: concentration camp commandments- I’m sure you meant commandants?