What was special about the way he made what Grose is calling his "endorsement"? Reading the transcript and rewatching the video, I realized that Eminem did not make an endorsement at all — not of a candidate anyway. What Eminem endorsed was freedom of speech. That's where he put his Michigan clout:Obama casually rapping a few bars of “Lose Yourself” got a lot more attention than Eminem’s brief speech. But in this tight election that could be decided by a few swing states — including Michigan — I wonder if Eminem’s endorsement, and the way he made it, will be the most consequential one that Vice President Harris receives.
I have been trying to figure out why so many Gen X white men, who were the creators of the culture I was ingesting as an ancient millennial teenager, are relatively conservative, when millennial white men are less so. And the shorthand I have come up with is that I want the male cultural legacy of the 1990s to be Kurt Cobain — who was angry, but also a feminist artistic genius who had a more fluid idea of masculinity....
Though Eminem has never been a Trump fan and endorsed Biden in 2020, I think his decades-long bona fides as a free speech champion matter. I’m old enough to remember that complaining about — and attempting to curb — Eminem’s lyrics used to be a bipartisan activity, one that infuriated him and that he found hypocritical.
Focusing on the idea that, actually, Harris, not Trump, is the candidate who will allow you to say and do what you want is a message that is perfectly tailored to the middle-aged, white audience that Harris needs to do a better job reaching....
I almost needed to diagram that last sentence. The subject is "focusing on the idea," an abstraction. Focusing on the idea.... is a message.... This sentence is a mess, perhaps because Grose is trying to be honest and knows that Eminem never said that "Harris, not Trump" is the better protector of freedom of speech.
Then there's the confusion of freedom to "say... what you want" and freedom to "do what you want." Who said anything about the freedom to do what you want? Not Eminem, whose songs speak— in the first person — about raping and murdering.
And finally, speaking about free speech becomes a means to an end — a way to get those aging white guys who've had the gall to maintain non-fluid masculinity and not lived up to the promise of the dear young man who blew his brains out.
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The point of free speech is that it encounters opposite speech. Thesis, antithesis, synthesis doesn't happen in a cancel culture. Don't wait for a celebrity to say that.
…pretty sure if your endorsement gets Altparsed and those who like weasel words see weasel words…maybe Taylor Swift can hold up a cat again? Is there still time for Clooney to summon another one?
"I think vice president Harris supports a future for this country where these freedoms and many others will be protected and upheld.“
That was clear. He expressed what he thought. Trying to cast doubt on his sincerity seems to be a way to muddle up his message of support.
Trying to understand this from Eminem’s perspective, as the victim of people wanting to cancel his lyrics, which they perceive as vile. Could he be implying that there should be no barriers to his type of speech, including children? Recall the kerfuffle surrounding “book-banning” in elementary schools in FL.
Attention women: Idolizing and pining for the lovely man who blew his own brains out leaving a small daughter behind is a losing strategy. Do you get that?
There’s gotta be a pony in there somewhere! Keep digging
NYT political was told this was the best thing to happen to their candidate this week so she needed a way to promote the thing…
Did NYT endorse yet?
He's using the standard liberal code words.
Get out and vote (for the right person, 'natch)
Protect 'other freedoms' i.e. abortion.
Now that the DLC has been ejected from the Democrat Party (witness the digs that Bill Clinton is getting in) he's got no reason to worry about them canceling him.
Harris, of course Almost a month ago.
who's this M&M? was he a reality show player, back in the '90's, or something?
Eminem was an able entertainer at the turn of the century, but this endorsement reinforces the weakness of Kamala Harris. She needs celebs to cover up her near total lack of policy and likability. But dramatically-received endorsements from Beyonce and Taylor Swift only reinforce Kamablah's lack of gravitas.
The Only Patriotic Choice for President
"...this freedom and many others will be protected and upheld."
Not all of them. Only the ones we like. Some we make up.
An NPC as far as I know.
About Point #2, there is one candidate that talks about taking on censorship and he has a surrogate in Elon Musk who explicitly says that is the key to this election. Musk and Kennedy and Gabbard have all cited the Democrats hostility to free speech as a key reason they switched from supporting Democrats to supporting Trump.
“Bitch better have my money!”
—— M&M
Yeah, I also question the impact he would have on men of his own generation. I also question if this chick actually read what she wrote ... "the creators of the culture I was ingesting as an ancient millennial teenager". Eminem didn't become a star until virtually all of Gen-X had passed out of their formative teen years and, as the Professor noted, a substantial number of them in both the Republican and Democrat parties were horrified at the turn music lyrics took as rap and hip-hop displaced rock in popular music.
“Future.” Why isn’t Harris supporting free speech here and now? Because she explicitly says Trump is such a threat that dealing with him requires extra-constitutional action. She also believed COVID required that authoritarian rule. So what other huge exceptions to your rights are you willing to risk for possibly having free speech in the “future?”
Marshall Mathers is a very careful wordsmith. That Althouse and others have noted qualifying phrases is meaningful IMO. This was a non-specific “endorsement” that supported the process more than the person.
We’re about to see what happens when two diametrically opposed forms of reality collide. Hint: It ain’t likely to be pretty.
Voting for someone because they are endorsed by someone you liked as a pop culture figure once long ago is the equivalent of putting your money in an investment vehicle because they just paid for the naming rights to the stadium where your favorite sports team plays ball. Any Miami Heat fans out there? Anybody using Tom Brady or Kanye as their investment pro?
The votes of people who can't or won't think are piled high and shining at the end of this tunnel. Cave-ins are a clear and present danger.
Both Eminem and Jessica Grose are saying that Trump is a fascist, broadly defined.
A future, as in, well we have to imprison those we disagree with, pack the court, limit speech to what we approve of, and generally act like totalitarians- but after that, we promise to support speech.
One of the many reasons this blog is so enjoyable, are the times Ann dissects an essay or article or book review. Altparsed, a great term.
Yes, he is, and he designed his endorsement to align with the dominant Democrat campaign themes.
"... get out and vote, please." - Resist Republican efforts at voter suppression
"... where people are worried about retribution of [sic] what people will do if you make your opinion known." - Trump is threatening to put his opponents in jail.
"... these freedoms and many others will be protected and upheld." - abortion, abortion, abortion.
Ah, yes, I had forgotten about the all-important Eminem voting bloc.
Eminem uses "I think" for all three statements. He thinks everyone should vote, he thinks people should be able to express an opinion, and he thinks Harris is a good choice.
Harris is not Trump. You know that is true, and won't change after the election. That's the solid reason to vote for her. If Eminem didn't say that Trump is evil, then it isn't much of an endorsement.
This Marshall Mathers is not very smart and has little talent. How in the world can he conclude that Harris is a free speech advocate? He’s blinding by her celebrity of our modern shit culture. Barack likes her so MM does. Get along, go along.
I attended my first World Series game last night with my son. One of the themes was: We not like that. Huh?
Then Mr. Ice Cube came strolling in from centerfield rapping a song that I couldn’t understand. It was not music as I know it. Every rap song sounds exactly the same to me. But the super weird thing was people knew the words to this so-called song.
But it was a great game and that rap crap didn’t wreck the baseball. Baseball is the one thing that has endured. Watching Freddie Freeman’s frozen rope HR to left was beautiful as Ice Cube’s song was horrible.
I have not seen any evidence that Harris and Walz believe in free speech. Just the opposite.
Mathers is the flipside of j d vance, the way they want poor people to be weak and begging for the government eight mile came from the deindustrialization the government encouraged
“I think…” is weak. How do you not know? Why do you not know? It’s wishy-washy, indecisive and an excuse. Of course, Eminem uses that word deliberately.
He aborted himself.
...I want the male cultural legacy of the 1990s to be Kurt Cobain — who was angry, but also a feminist artistic genius who had a more fluid idea of masculinity....
Young people today, especially the guys, are becoming aware that societies with a fluid idea of masculinity do not survive, and suffer as they die.
some fat lady (lizzo?) sang: You know, they say if Kamala Harris wins, the whole country will be like Detroit
Meanwhile.. If we're concerned about middle aged white rappers from Detroit.. What is Kid Rock doing?
Yes, this is a Harris endorsement. He wants freedom to publish profanity, freedom from religious and moral sentiment, and he sees Harris as further from the sort of moral perspective that would balk at his lyrics.
Eminiem: "I think vice president Harris supports a future for this country where these freedoms and many others will be protected and upheld."
Kamala Harris: "I will double the civil rights division and direct law enforcement to hold social media platforms accountable for the hate infiltrating their platforms because they have a responsibility to help fight against this threat to democracy. And if you profit off of hate, If you act as a megaphone for misinformation or cyber warfare and don't police your platforms, we are going to hold you accountable as a community."
Kamala Harris is LITERALLY calling for restrictions on free speech, by using law enforcement top arrest social media company executives who allow certain speech (so-called "hate") on their websites.
Eminem needs to quit snorting his mom's spaghetti.
The only choice for President who was SELECTED, not ELECTED.
Her ideal symbol of masculinity not only killed himself, he never aged and became a man who might vote for Trump.
He's the male Rachel Dolezol.
We're about to see Democrat criminals bring their criminality out into the open for all to see. They usually keep it behind Diddy Doors.
It certainly wouldn’t hurt Harris for people to think she is for free speech. She’s not, but her vocalizing a preference for government censorship will cause loyal Democrats voters to sit this one out on principle.
Here's Kamala Harris telling the NAACP that she'll use cops to arrest people for "misinformation" they post to Social Media.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOcXkIBPx2o
Thank you, Althouse for this parsing. I hear this clip and thought it was more from our cut and paste world and that I hadn’t hear his entire speech. Then I thought they must have something on he, Diddy stuff probably. He sounded like he was being held hostage.
Thanks, Inga. Your desperation has helped to fully appreciate Samuel Johnson's iconic remark, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
It wasn't such an enthusiastic endorsement, but maybe that's his style. Anyway the people in the crowd perceived it as an endorsement. I watched the clip. Obama provided the enthusiasm, although it was more for Eminem than for Harris. When you look at the way Obama riles the crowd, you can't help but draw invidious comparisons with Harris. She really is a weak candidate......I think Taylor Swift might corral a few votes but not Eminem. So far as courage goes, it would really take a lot of courage for someone in Hollywood or the music industry to speak out in favor of Trump.
The idea that liberal/leftwing Democrats, including Harris, will support "Free speech" is laughable. You might as well claim Harris will control the border and end illegal immigration or stop the Genocide in Gaza!
Read the twitter files again. The DHS/FBI and others in the Biden adminstration were telling Twitter who to censor. Show me one statement by Harris attacking Trump being banned from social media and airwaves for over two years. This was the ex-POTUS of the USA!
Harris, the liberal/leftists who pull her strings, are the No. 1 enemies of free speech in the USA. Who do you think was Shutting down the Gaza protests? Who do you think supports Antifa, which mysteriously shows up to attack attack anyone who disagrees with the Left in public. Antifa even attacked a "Free Speech March" in SF, to covert approval of people like Harris.
As for M&M, he's a multi-millionaire working in a field where 90 percent of the Record execs vote D. He knows which side is bread is buttered. And where was his "Free Speech uber alles" attitude when Ye was being cancelled and censored over a tweet!
Let me translate M&M attitude, when he says "I'm for free speech", he means I want to write songs about rape and murder and not be censorsed. I doubt he gives a damn about anything else.
But I appreciate the well written Althouse analysis. Much better than anything in the NYTs
Where's the word editing?
"I think his decades-long bona fides as a free speech champion matter."
"Bona fides" is singular.
what if MM want to say = Kamala is like my objectionable lyrics
There weren't a lot of people in the music and entertainment industry who spoke out against Harvey Weinstein or P Diddy until such time as critical mass was achieved. The music and entertainment industry are damaged brands, more so than, say, Big Pharma. They do, however, still retain more credibility than Hamas spokesmen, but give it time........The decline and fall of Detroit is attributed to many factors, but no Democrat or rap singers will ever point a finger at Mayor Coleman Young and the people who kept electing him for twenty years.
Additionally, voting for someone who has now TWICE promised a Beyoncé concert only to NOT have even one song performed is telegraphing exactly how many of her campaign “promises” you can depend on her keeping.
"the idea that, actually, Harris, not Trump, is the candidate who will allow you to say and do" Which raises the perennial Althousian question: do progs believe what they profess to believe? I mean, to the rest of us, particularly the supposed white male target audience, the claim is so obviously absurd that it becomes a form of self-ridicule. Too deplorable for us deplorables.
It would appear that the only game the Progressive Democrats can bring, at this stage, is an appeal from star power. Sad ! As if any number of movie / recording stars, trotted out and induced to speak into a microphone could make the coherent argument that Kamala has failed to make. That's an exhausted playbook, right there. Obama is fighting hard for his next term, but he's unable to claim the authority of a candidate. A self-own.
...I want the male cultural legacy of the 1990s to be Kurt Cobain — who was angry, but also a feminist artistic genius who had a more fluid idea of masculinity....
And I'm counting on a Gangsta Rapper to get the message across, because everyone knows that Gansta Rappers are very fluid in their masculinity! -- Said no one ever.
Eminem is worth $250 Million so his worries in life are probably not those shared by most of the rest of us. I wonder what he gets out of this, is he hoping to be named Ambassador to the Netherlands or something? Not that I think being wildly rich means you aren't allowed to participate in electoral politics. It just seems so conventional. I read something in Wikipedia, that Eminem is considered the Rap Elvis Presley. And/or Bob Dylan. Also, according to Wikipedia, he is not without controversy, of the type that one would wonder why the Democrats want him on the stage representing them.
…a constructive activity. Contrast with navel gazing, lexicographic masturbation…
"Reason #1: Eminem is here to tell everybody to vote. That's not telling you who to vote for. And he wouldn't say "everybody" if he only wanted votes for Harris."
It's a Harris rally that he's addressing, and its purpose is to gin up support for Harris, the Democrat candidate - so it's reasonable to assume that he means Harris voters - i.e. all the voters that are present at the rally he is addressing, not all voters....
Are we just going to Ignore this?
Kamala wants to shut down free speech. she said so!
This. The ultra rich will not be harmed when Kamala and her mob-handlers cut the ordinary man off at the knees.
After all, it did have the vibe of an endorsement.
Was Eminem paid to there, like Beyonce (reportedly)? Here's what I speculate happened: He agreed to show up and make a short speech, perhaps for a paycheck. When he got there, the dems handed him a speech that was a full-on KH endorsement. He didn't like it and, after some negotiation, they came up with the version he actually delivered. My guess is he ended up focusing on free speech because that was the only thing he was willing to take an overt stand on. I can't believe that KH's people originally brought him in in order to talk about free speech, which is not a strong issue for her.
Of course, the real reason they wanted him (and all the celebrities they've been using) was to try to get people in the door.
It was clear. Clearly dishonest.
Inga supports censorship. Kamala unambiguously supports censorship.
You are fascists. It is time to be honest.
Inga fully demonstrates the Fascist's paradox. She just cannot be honest about anything.
I am getting the feeling that Mathers is rather interested in the Diddy files being kept secret.
He sure has seemed to gain some motivation since Diddy was arrested.
He had to detect the cognitive dissonance in his speech.
Testing… Xkcd-3002
what if MM want to say = Kamala is like my objectionable lyrics
could be MM want to say = I see Kamala is like my objectionable lyrics people want to cancel
"There will be 2 reasons stated. Let's find 2 reasons and not hallucinate additional reasons.
"As most of you know the city of Detroit and the whole state of Michigan mean a lot to me. And going into this election, the spotlight is on us more than ever, and I think it's important to use your voice, so I'm encouraging everybody to get out and vote, please."
Reason #1: Eminem is here to tell everybody to vote. That's not telling you who to vote for. And he wouldn't say "everybody" if he only wanted votes for Harris.
"I also think..."
He's moving on to the second reason.
"... that people shouldn't be afraid to express their opinions and I don't think anyone wants an America where people are worried about retribution of [sic] what people will do if you make your opinion known."
Reason #2: Eminem wants freedom of speech in America. He's pushing back the power-seekers who would control and censor speech.
"I think vice president Harris supports a future for this country where these freedoms and many others will be protected and upheld."
Reason #1 - he's at a Harris campaign event. It's an endorsement.
Reason #2 - he says it outright, that in his view, Harris is the one who will support those freedoms and others (presumably, abortion). It's an endorsement.
"Kurt Cobain — who was angry, but also a feminist artistic genius who had a more fluid idea of masculinity...."
Was Cobain a feminist with a more fluid idea of masculinity? Maybe compared to some rappers (and some rockers), but was that what many people thought of him? Some people think feminism (i.e. his wife) ki .... Well, I won't go there.
Was Cobain angry? Sure, but I can't help seeing that for progressives, leftists have reasons to be angry, while others are just angry period, full stop, for no justifiable reason.
One thing I do remember about Cobain was an interview where he contrasted his growing up with that of young people in the 90s. 15-20 years may not be a long time, but if I recall correctly, he contrasted the freedom and engagement with life he saw in his own generation with the less adventurous, more controlled upbringing of the next. That may be the reason why X-ers and Millennials/GenZ look at things differently.
"He's a wordsmith, and he tells us he wrote it down."
Oh, come off it. A "wordsmith"? Are you trying to claim that you regularly sample Eminem's tasteful ouvre, returning again and again to encounter fresh insights? He's a fucking "rap artist", which means he's a tattooed degenerate wigger who can make simple rhymes. Or is that the "w-word"?
It's probably my age but if you want to talk about anger and fluid ideas of masculinity this would rank right up there. Gene Simmons probably has thoughts, too.
Huh. Blogger would not accept my ‘A’ tag but you apparently had no trouble. Good work, @Democrat Paychecks.
So in defiance of what Eminem might “think,” Harris believes that there needs to be “oversight and regulation” of social media. One wonders whether Althouse considers what the logical conclusion of a Harris Presidency is likely to be: a requirement that blog posts be submitted to pre-scrutiny by officials before posting. Don’t think it could happen? You don’t know government bureaucrats!
So Harris doesn’t much care for the First Amendment, and we already know that she utterly despises the Second. (Does anyone believe that she owns a Glock? Or that Tim Walz knows how to load a shotgun?) I’ve seen a clip from when she was the California AG asserting the right of the police to engage in warrantless searches of people’s homes to verify that the citizenry is storing their firearms in accordance with legal requirements. So much for the Fourth Amendment. How do the Democrats describe the Constitution? “Outmoded”? “Pesky”? Perhaps a Con Law Professor can weigh in?
"The Only Patriotic Choice for President" was the title given to the editorial by the NYT
"I want the male cultural legacy of the 1990s to be Kurt Cobain"
Kurt Cobain was a gifted but tortured individual who couldn't stand his life anymore. I would never wish that kind of existence on anyone. (Even if it made them a great artist.) He was in pain and he brought pain to those he loved.
You can appreciate the art and still see the artist and his life as a tragedy.
I was going to say that he was a younger version of Vanilla Ice, but I noticed that he's only four years younger than Vanilla Ice. Eminem is 52.
That was also the poem that Fly Guy recited for the Pimp of the Year pageant in the movie, I'm Gonna Get You Sucka.
Loose to non-existent causality is the hallmark of Harris and her entire campaign. Her every word-salad utterance involves loose to non-existent causality. Here's a verb, a noun, a participle, and an adjective. Each can be part of a sentence -- super genius Noam Chomsky and his generative grammar proved it. He's very left wing, so Democrats achieved Chomsky's dream of anarchy here. Causes matter not, as joyful feelings for Harris are all that matters.
Campaign events need not be causal. Say Beyonce will make an appearance (but make angry enemies by not singing), trot out rambling elderly Bruce Springsteen, trot out middle-aged Marshall Mathers. Celebrity after celebrity, because fame = competence.
Adults don't expect a store clerk to be an investment banker. They don't expect celebrities to have any political talent, and they never expected Kamala to rise above being a store clerk. But she could. Because women can do anything. BLACK women can do anything. Women can change their sex to male and their race from South Indian to black. A.n.y.t.h.i.n.g.
The cause is the effect is the cause. World salad is much better than expressing sequential ideas. We've proved it. Kamala -- I'm a speechwriter, hire me!
Say what you want unless it's..you know.."disinformation".
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