Here is what I want to see from you as a subscriber:
Are you capable of insightfully critiquing the Trumpist Right in the same way you've been critiquing the Woke Left for the past four years?
Yes, the Woke Left is annoying. You've earned a lot of success from pointing that out. But they are not in power anymore - Trumpism is.
And there are so many obvious connections between Trumpism and Sports that you could investigate. His relationship with the UFC and NASCAR. His obsession with (and involvement in) LIV Golf. His connection to the Online Bro-Right and sports gambling.
So can you investigate and critique those areas in the same way you've dug into the Woke Left? Or are we just going to get more anti-anti-Trump stuff about how his critics can sometimes be hyperbolic?
Because if you can't hold the movement that is currently in power to the same harsh standard you applied to the last one, I think this newsletter will be both not very honest and not very interesting.
I for one dispute the notion that this newsletter will be less interesting if our (respectfully) Berkeley educated, Bay Area dwelling, glasses wearing, Millennial host is not providing harsh anti-maga takes. Not an underdeveloped perspective.
Good points. Many of the Substacks I've read the past few years, including Freddie DeBoer, Jesse Singal, Noah Smith, and Jeff Maurer, have made a pivot now that the Woke Era is behind us. I'd like to see Ethan do it too.
But what if Ethan, or someone else, doesn't think the woke era is behind us? DEI programs aren't going away, just being renamed. For example, the NCAA claimed they were banning men in women's sports, but that is still allowed depending on the state.
Ethan should just write about what he wants to write about.
The audacity to subscribe and demand a writer follow the tone and rhetoric of left-wing mainstream media is just wild. People saying Ethan was "extra harsh" on the Biden administration brings tears of laughter. I appreciate your ability to think for one's self!
No. The narrative is decades old is because there is a lot of truth to it. As for the original post... fuck off. Ethan can write and think how he wants. Being a subscriber doesn't entitle you. Go to the restaurant and eat what they prepare. If you don't like it there are a lot of other restaurants.
Obviously, a writer should write whatever he wants and thinks, but I think it is fair to call him out if he is being one-sided or not engaging in some sort of self-reflection.
Ethan explicitly markets himself as the "voice of reason" in a sea of craziness which he definitely has been. However, if he writes a post that doesn't mention he lives in liberal Berkeley, it will be a first. At some point,t he should declare victory, that the crazies on the left were wrong and it cost them the election. Liberals have admitted they were wrong and are changing tactics.
My biggest complaint about Ethan is that he has gotten boring as a writer. He has nothing new to say, just plays the same hits all over again. His articles are less in-depth and unique. Even if I disagreed with him on a subject, I always found what he had to say interesting. Any reporting has gone 100% out the window.
The data reflects this with his most popular articles being several years old while his subscriber base is much bigger than those articles were posted.
Ethan’s Nike’s End of Men story should’ve been published at The Atlantic or The New Yorker. Last week after Alex Ovechkin scored goal 895 The Atlantic published a story about how Wayne Gretzky was a big Trumper and was buddies with Kash Patel. Wow, how original, how fresh.
For me as a long time subscriber I like HoS because it has interesting stories and takes that I don’t see or read elsewhere. The idea that perhaps the best way to react to a chaos agent like Trump is to be calm and zen is not an opinion you’re likely to read elsewhere.
1. Unless you are day trading, following the market day to day (especially now) vacillates between useless and masochistic.
2. The people who want hysterically vigilant focus on how awful Trump is have not learned anything, and don’t understand that the return of the “King of the Morons” is partially explained by such previous conduct. We’d all be better off if everybody let his actions speak for themselves and then allowed people to form their own conclusions.
I don't need a daily freakout from a sports business substack but Stephen's comment is spot on.
You spilling a long article cause Mina Kimes makes a pro left tweet or complain that we memory holed Joe Biden being old hits a lot different when the current administration is running around setting everyone's retirement on fire. It would be nice to see you turn a little scrutiny on them. Like Stephen said there's plenty there to look at including an interesting parallel between Nike and Elon. If Nike has hurt it's brand by being aggressively woke I'd love to read your take on what Elon is doing. For all of Nike's complaints people still want the shoes, there's still a fire customer base. Can Tesla say that right now?
Last thing, and this is coming from a Marine and combat vet. Please stop talking about Tim Walz like he's made a bunch of inflated claims about his service record. Stolen valor is a real thing and Tim isn't guilty of it. The way you talk about him on podcasts is glib and rude. You wanna criticize his policies go nuts, but he served honorably.
Joe Biden being "old" was not the problem, and your willingness to hide the ball that glibly makes me unwilling to even interact with the rest of your comment. Intellectual honesty matters.
He served honorably and then afterwards repeatedly lied about where he was and what he did. He also lied about being in China when Tiananmen Square was happening. Waltz is clearly a bullshit artist and has a record thats easily confirmed.
I think Ethan is correct in approaching things this way and I personally have tuned out a great deal of people I actually agree with because they won't stop freaking out at every little thing.
That being said, while I'm not one of these people who have messaged or contacted Ethan about this, I can get frustrated sometimes on what he chooses to spend time on, mostly in these cases:
-Thing happens that is ostensibly bad (usually something related to Trump or the cultural right) that will have an effect on the nation/world, to what degree no one knows but its likely not good long-term
-There's a swift reaction to the bad thing from a specific co-hort (usually the liberal media or the cultural left) that is oversized, sanctimonious and generally annoying, even though this cohort might be right, however the reaction itself doesn't have much effect on the world (especially in this era with fewer cancellations) and goes away after 2 days
-Ethan writes about this thing, spending 1 sentence on the former, 50 sentences on the latter
Doesn't always frustrate but has at times, and if that's what these people are referring to I kind of agree, but I also don't want this substack to change to where Ethan has to comment on and freak out about everything.
The sanctimonious reaction is counterproductive in that it makes it harder to prevent the bad things from happening going forward. That’s kinda just the way it is, even if people wish it wasn’t true. Fighting that helps to prevent the bad thing.
**Thing happens that is ostensibly bad (usually something related to Trump or the cultural right) that will have an effect on the nation/world, to what degree no one knows but its likely not good long-term**
Thanks for this personal opinion.
Have you considered providing evidence or are we expected to trust in your objectivity and depth of knowledge?
I don't think it's fair to judge the Trump presidency until after his 3rd term is completed, at the earliest. He is playing the long game, and this is exactly the kind of deal-making you lib losers never understood to begin with. As mentioned this week by press secretary Karoline Leavitt, Trump currently has an over 90% favorability rating nationally, the highest of any President in history. So sit back, relax, and let the Stable Genius cook! And if for a few weeks or months or years you have to go without extravagent "food" and "cars" and other cheap unnecessary foreign crap, so be it. This is going to make America great again, even if it kills us! Which it definitely won't! But still worth it even if it does.
What you seem to be missing Is that if time is not linear but actually a 2 dimensional plane that goes infinitely in all directions than there is a timeline where in Trump is in fact right about everything
It's really not that complicated. Donald Trump is a relatively unintelligent malignant narcissist driven solely by his need for fealty, admiration, and bullying people he sees as his enemies. Trump 1.0 was restrained by "the adults in the room" and over the course of his 4 years in charge and then January 6th.. the adults left the room. Trump 2.0 is absolutely off the rails and is only going to get worse. Buckle up, we have no idea how weird things are going to get.
The reason I hated wokeness so much is it made everything stupider.
Our discourse was forcibly degraded.
I resented this more even than the oppressive social vibe it fostered.
An analogous thing is happening here, but MAGA is a like a stupid guy who’s played dizzy bat, been whacked in the face with a 2x4, then shoved into a conference room to negotiate the biggest trade war in history on my behalf.
If I’d known this is what was coming when I was railing against wokeness in 2015, I’d have dyed my hair blue to stop it.
Dan Carlin has a very popular podcast called "Hard Core History". I haven't listened to it in a while, but around the pandemic he came out with a book called "The End is always near".
Trump Part II is potentially leading us to a major disruption in society. Trump Part I was chaotic enough, and he was President during COVID-19, which clearly was the greatest interruption in society that any of us has ever witnessed, (to date!)
How much blame Trump deserves for the pandemic, is a semantic "lose-lose" argument.
But, clearly Trump isn't a steadying hand in the least. How anyone can argue otherwise, clearly is a fool. And those that engage with them, are running a fools' errand. This is why I'm done talking to Trumpers about this unpredictable lunatic in the White House. Just too tiring.
And Ethan not for nothing, but I'm tired of so many people falling into this trap of wanting to talk about both sides are bad. It has been well-documented by some really qualified modern political thinkers, that the Republican Party has been incredibly effective at waging "asymmetrical partisan warfare" effectively always stealing the Dems lunch money.
And no I'm not stressed about the day to day, because Dan Carlin says "The end is always near", but I also have no problem sharing my issues about Trump or questioning people that always want to split the difference when it comes to him.
Shedding a tear seeing all my fellow subscribers respect Ethan’s right to not just become another anti-maga substack, even though I suspect most of us, including Ethan, aren’t fans of Trump
I’ve been off Twitter and all social media for Lent and reading this is like reading a dispatch from a foreign country. I know what’s going on but I haven’t really been experiencing it.
Does anyone disagree that neither R’s nor D’s have displayed any interest in blue collar America? (Google Kamala meets with AFL-CIO for documentation of a particularly egregious moment). I see a whole lot of “what comes back won’t be what it was” doom speak from lefties. I never see any “we don’t WANT those jobs” comments from anyone. My LinkedIn feed is the same. “Trump and Elon are stupid…….it’s so easy to see from my cubicle” comments don’t do much to enhance my view of 30-60 year old corporate types who don’t believe that American blue collar labor exists. Strategically it’s not tenable to have China (and Taiwan) manufacturing chips. I haven’t seen AOC’s alternative plan, but maybe I haven’t been paying close enough attention.
Trump 2.0 has me reading more political content than ever before. That said, I will lose more sleep over late night playoff basketball than I will "doom scrolling" for political content. I think you do a great job. It's why I'm here. There will be times I disagree when you have a post that is an intersection of sports and politics. That said, I believe you're coming from an honest place and that's ultimately what matters to me. I can't stand grifters and wish we could banish them to an island where they can troll each other and leave the rest of us alone.
Here is what I want to see from you as a subscriber:
Are you capable of insightfully critiquing the Trumpist Right in the same way you've been critiquing the Woke Left for the past four years?
Yes, the Woke Left is annoying. You've earned a lot of success from pointing that out. But they are not in power anymore - Trumpism is.
And there are so many obvious connections between Trumpism and Sports that you could investigate. His relationship with the UFC and NASCAR. His obsession with (and involvement in) LIV Golf. His connection to the Online Bro-Right and sports gambling.
So can you investigate and critique those areas in the same way you've dug into the Woke Left? Or are we just going to get more anti-anti-Trump stuff about how his critics can sometimes be hyperbolic?
Because if you can't hold the movement that is currently in power to the same harsh standard you applied to the last one, I think this newsletter will be both not very honest and not very interesting.
I for one dispute the notion that this newsletter will be less interesting if our (respectfully) Berkeley educated, Bay Area dwelling, glasses wearing, Millennial host is not providing harsh anti-maga takes. Not an underdeveloped perspective.
Good points. Many of the Substacks I've read the past few years, including Freddie DeBoer, Jesse Singal, Noah Smith, and Jeff Maurer, have made a pivot now that the Woke Era is behind us. I'd like to see Ethan do it too.
But what if Ethan, or someone else, doesn't think the woke era is behind us? DEI programs aren't going away, just being renamed. For example, the NCAA claimed they were banning men in women's sports, but that is still allowed depending on the state.
Ethan should just write about what he wants to write about.
The audacity to subscribe and demand a writer follow the tone and rhetoric of left-wing mainstream media is just wild. People saying Ethan was "extra harsh" on the Biden administration brings tears of laughter. I appreciate your ability to think for one's self!
You realize this is a narrative that's decades old, right?
"I don't think like lefty mainstream media! I think for myself!"
No you don't. You're just on the other side parroting right-wing media. It's no different.
Not all opposition comes from the evil caricature of the opposing team you imagine in your head.
Depth and nuance have seemed to have escaped you. That's unfortunate
No. The narrative is decades old is because there is a lot of truth to it. As for the original post... fuck off. Ethan can write and think how he wants. Being a subscriber doesn't entitle you. Go to the restaurant and eat what they prepare. If you don't like it there are a lot of other restaurants.
No. Fuck You and fuck this increasingly MAGA comments section. I'm out.
Obviously, a writer should write whatever he wants and thinks, but I think it is fair to call him out if he is being one-sided or not engaging in some sort of self-reflection.
Ethan explicitly markets himself as the "voice of reason" in a sea of craziness which he definitely has been. However, if he writes a post that doesn't mention he lives in liberal Berkeley, it will be a first. At some point,t he should declare victory, that the crazies on the left were wrong and it cost them the election. Liberals have admitted they were wrong and are changing tactics.
My biggest complaint about Ethan is that he has gotten boring as a writer. He has nothing new to say, just plays the same hits all over again. His articles are less in-depth and unique. Even if I disagreed with him on a subject, I always found what he had to say interesting. Any reporting has gone 100% out the window.
The data reflects this with his most popular articles being several years old while his subscriber base is much bigger than those articles were posted.
You just replied to a post that doesn't mention he lives in liberal Berkeley.
Ethan’s Nike’s End of Men story should’ve been published at The Atlantic or The New Yorker. Last week after Alex Ovechkin scored goal 895 The Atlantic published a story about how Wayne Gretzky was a big Trumper and was buddies with Kash Patel. Wow, how original, how fresh.
For me as a long time subscriber I like HoS because it has interesting stories and takes that I don’t see or read elsewhere. The idea that perhaps the best way to react to a chaos agent like Trump is to be calm and zen is not an opinion you’re likely to read elsewhere.
Name 3 unfair "harsh standards" applied by Ethan to the Obama-Harris administration...
1. Unless you are day trading, following the market day to day (especially now) vacillates between useless and masochistic.
2. The people who want hysterically vigilant focus on how awful Trump is have not learned anything, and don’t understand that the return of the “King of the Morons” is partially explained by such previous conduct. We’d all be better off if everybody let his actions speak for themselves and then allowed people to form their own conclusions.
I don't need a daily freakout from a sports business substack but Stephen's comment is spot on.
You spilling a long article cause Mina Kimes makes a pro left tweet or complain that we memory holed Joe Biden being old hits a lot different when the current administration is running around setting everyone's retirement on fire. It would be nice to see you turn a little scrutiny on them. Like Stephen said there's plenty there to look at including an interesting parallel between Nike and Elon. If Nike has hurt it's brand by being aggressively woke I'd love to read your take on what Elon is doing. For all of Nike's complaints people still want the shoes, there's still a fire customer base. Can Tesla say that right now?
Last thing, and this is coming from a Marine and combat vet. Please stop talking about Tim Walz like he's made a bunch of inflated claims about his service record. Stolen valor is a real thing and Tim isn't guilty of it. The way you talk about him on podcasts is glib and rude. You wanna criticize his policies go nuts, but he served honorably.
Joe Biden being "old" was not the problem, and your willingness to hide the ball that glibly makes me unwilling to even interact with the rest of your comment. Intellectual honesty matters.
My loss, I suppose. Dork.
Yeah, maybe wait two seconds next time before you post something this unnecessary.
Sure thing, dork.
He served honorably and then afterwards repeatedly lied about where he was and what he did. He also lied about being in China when Tiananmen Square was happening. Waltz is clearly a bullshit artist and has a record thats easily confirmed.
He also honorably ended his service earlier than expected and lied about it.
Did he have bone spurs? I hear that's a real problem amongst the older folks. Dork.
I think Ethan is correct in approaching things this way and I personally have tuned out a great deal of people I actually agree with because they won't stop freaking out at every little thing.
That being said, while I'm not one of these people who have messaged or contacted Ethan about this, I can get frustrated sometimes on what he chooses to spend time on, mostly in these cases:
-Thing happens that is ostensibly bad (usually something related to Trump or the cultural right) that will have an effect on the nation/world, to what degree no one knows but its likely not good long-term
-There's a swift reaction to the bad thing from a specific co-hort (usually the liberal media or the cultural left) that is oversized, sanctimonious and generally annoying, even though this cohort might be right, however the reaction itself doesn't have much effect on the world (especially in this era with fewer cancellations) and goes away after 2 days
-Ethan writes about this thing, spending 1 sentence on the former, 50 sentences on the latter
Doesn't always frustrate but has at times, and if that's what these people are referring to I kind of agree, but I also don't want this substack to change to where Ethan has to comment on and freak out about everything.
The sanctimonious reaction is counterproductive in that it makes it harder to prevent the bad things from happening going forward. That’s kinda just the way it is, even if people wish it wasn’t true. Fighting that helps to prevent the bad thing.
**Thing happens that is ostensibly bad (usually something related to Trump or the cultural right) that will have an effect on the nation/world, to what degree no one knows but its likely not good long-term**
Thanks for this personal opinion.
Have you considered providing evidence or are we expected to trust in your objectivity and depth of knowledge?
Yes
This is 100% the correct way to approach things. A bit of dispassion helps
I don't think it's fair to judge the Trump presidency until after his 3rd term is completed, at the earliest. He is playing the long game, and this is exactly the kind of deal-making you lib losers never understood to begin with. As mentioned this week by press secretary Karoline Leavitt, Trump currently has an over 90% favorability rating nationally, the highest of any President in history. So sit back, relax, and let the Stable Genius cook! And if for a few weeks or months or years you have to go without extravagent "food" and "cars" and other cheap unnecessary foreign crap, so be it. This is going to make America great again, even if it kills us! Which it definitely won't! But still worth it even if it does.
What you seem to be missing Is that if time is not linear but actually a 2 dimensional plane that goes infinitely in all directions than there is a timeline where in Trump is in fact right about everything
You can’t be serious. Trump deserves at least 4 terms before we can properly judge him.
That’s fair, but I accountes for the fact that libs may try to steal another election at some point. But overall I agree.
It's really not that complicated. Donald Trump is a relatively unintelligent malignant narcissist driven solely by his need for fealty, admiration, and bullying people he sees as his enemies. Trump 1.0 was restrained by "the adults in the room" and over the course of his 4 years in charge and then January 6th.. the adults left the room. Trump 2.0 is absolutely off the rails and is only going to get worse. Buckle up, we have no idea how weird things are going to get.
Contact your doctor if TDS lasts longer than 72 hours.
So lazy, listen to the man talk for longer than 10 minutes and if you don't have "TDS" by the end of it you should talk to your doctor
I'm rubber your glue whatever you say bounces off me and sticks on to you
Childish insults, makes sense the president you support
I honestly thought it was funny.
It's not even an insult 🤣. Lack of comprehension, makes sense the non-president you support.
Lol see how easy that is to do?
I can get anti-Trump content plenty of places. Happy if you write about it but I don’t really care - just write about what you think is interesting
The reason I hated wokeness so much is it made everything stupider.
Our discourse was forcibly degraded.
I resented this more even than the oppressive social vibe it fostered.
An analogous thing is happening here, but MAGA is a like a stupid guy who’s played dizzy bat, been whacked in the face with a 2x4, then shoved into a conference room to negotiate the biggest trade war in history on my behalf.
If I’d known this is what was coming when I was railing against wokeness in 2015, I’d have dyed my hair blue to stop it.
One of my favorite types of argument - The left is dumb, but the right is dumber, trust me bro.
I’m glad I could serve up one of your favorites but you shouldn’t trust me, bro, you don’t even know me.
I don't trust you 😘
I've been an annual subscriber basically since day 1. Time for me to step off the bus - just canceled. It has been a good ride. Thanks and cheers.
Dan Carlin has a very popular podcast called "Hard Core History". I haven't listened to it in a while, but around the pandemic he came out with a book called "The End is always near".
Trump Part II is potentially leading us to a major disruption in society. Trump Part I was chaotic enough, and he was President during COVID-19, which clearly was the greatest interruption in society that any of us has ever witnessed, (to date!)
How much blame Trump deserves for the pandemic, is a semantic "lose-lose" argument.
But, clearly Trump isn't a steadying hand in the least. How anyone can argue otherwise, clearly is a fool. And those that engage with them, are running a fools' errand. This is why I'm done talking to Trumpers about this unpredictable lunatic in the White House. Just too tiring.
And Ethan not for nothing, but I'm tired of so many people falling into this trap of wanting to talk about both sides are bad. It has been well-documented by some really qualified modern political thinkers, that the Republican Party has been incredibly effective at waging "asymmetrical partisan warfare" effectively always stealing the Dems lunch money.
And no I'm not stressed about the day to day, because Dan Carlin says "The end is always near", but I also have no problem sharing my issues about Trump or questioning people that always want to split the difference when it comes to him.
Shedding a tear seeing all my fellow subscribers respect Ethan’s right to not just become another anti-maga substack, even though I suspect most of us, including Ethan, aren’t fans of Trump
I’ve been off Twitter and all social media for Lent and reading this is like reading a dispatch from a foreign country. I know what’s going on but I haven’t really been experiencing it.
Does anyone disagree that neither R’s nor D’s have displayed any interest in blue collar America? (Google Kamala meets with AFL-CIO for documentation of a particularly egregious moment). I see a whole lot of “what comes back won’t be what it was” doom speak from lefties. I never see any “we don’t WANT those jobs” comments from anyone. My LinkedIn feed is the same. “Trump and Elon are stupid…….it’s so easy to see from my cubicle” comments don’t do much to enhance my view of 30-60 year old corporate types who don’t believe that American blue collar labor exists. Strategically it’s not tenable to have China (and Taiwan) manufacturing chips. I haven’t seen AOC’s alternative plan, but maybe I haven’t been paying close enough attention.
I would say Bernie has a long enough track and consistent message that he is absolutely interested in blue collar America.
Just checked, he is not an R or a D so your comment is accurate. No R or D has an interest in blue collar America.
Trump 2.0 has me reading more political content than ever before. That said, I will lose more sleep over late night playoff basketball than I will "doom scrolling" for political content. I think you do a great job. It's why I'm here. There will be times I disagree when you have a post that is an intersection of sports and politics. That said, I believe you're coming from an honest place and that's ultimately what matters to me. I can't stand grifters and wish we could banish them to an island where they can troll each other and leave the rest of us alone.
And just like that Trump pivoted for tech today. He’s officially ahead of Napoleon by 500,000,000 401-K’s saved.