Micah's Read of the Week, Vol. 12
Willie Week, all about QAnon, stories from Hall & Oates about Andy Warhol and Hunter S. Thompson, farewell to the NBA Bubble, a Whole30 update, Chicken Wings, and more.
Hello, and welcome to Micah’s Read of the Week.
This is a newsletter filled with things Micah Wiener finds interesting.
Check out the introduction post here, and the entire archive of previous newsletters here.
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Willie Week on Mind of Micah
Have you subscribed to my podcast Mind of Micah yet? Well, now is as good a time as any. It’s Willie Week. We actually kicked it off Friday with a piece about how we need Willie Nelson now more than ever. Today and Tuesday we’re talking about Willie, the people’s champion. And Wednesday and Thursday we take a fascinating look at Willie the landlord.
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No one wants to do this, but we need to talk about Q
Election day is 15 days from today. Holy hell.
I voted Saturday, it was very easy. It felt good.
I’ll warn you ahead of time: this section about the insane QAnon conspiracy theory is quite long. If you don’t want to read about it, please skip down to the Fun Corner.
A peak behind the curtain: each week I keep a document open with a list of articles and links that I find interesting. Sometimes those links get used the following newsletter. Sometimes they stay on the doc. I’ve had a collection of links about the QAnon conspiracy theory marinating in my master doc for several weeks now. It’s time to share and get rid of them forever.
The newest piece appeared in the WaPo yesterday. It’s a jaw-dropper. If you go out of your way to read one thing today, read this piece.
The 31-day campaign against QAnon
In Georgia, what happened when a ‘nice guy’ named Kevin Van Ausdal ran for Congress against a candidate known for her support of extremist conspiracy theories.
Anything still seemed possible in the spring of 2020, including the notion that he, Kevin Van Ausdal, a 35-year-old political novice who wanted to “bring civility back to Washington” might have a shot at becoming a U.S. congressman.
So one day in March, he drove his Honda to the gold-domed state capitol in Atlanta, used his IRS refund to pay the $5,220 filing fee and became the only Democrat running for a House seat in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, which Donald Trump won by 27 points in the 2016 presidential election.
All of that was before August, when Republican primary voters chose the candidate with the history of promoting conspiracies, and President Trump in a tweet called her a “future Republican Star” and Kevin began learning more about Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose first major ad featured her roaring across a field in a Humvee, pulling out an AR-15 rifle and blasting targets labeled “open borders” and “socialism.”
He read that she was wealthy, had rented a condo in the district earlier in the year to run for Congress, and that before running she had built an online following by promoting baseless, fringe right-wing conspiracies — that Bill and Hillary Clinton have been involved in murders, that President Obama is a Muslim, and more recently, about the alternate universe known as QAnon.
“I’ve seen some mention of lizard people?” Kevin said, going through news articles to learn more about QAnon. “And JFK’s ghost? Or maybe he’s still alive? And QAnon is working with Trump to fight the deep state? I’m not sure I understand.”
He plunged deeper, reading about a world in which a cryptic online figure called Q is fighting to take down a network of Democrats, Hollywood actors and global elites who engage in child-trafficking and drink a life-extending chemical harvested from the blood of their victims. He read about an FBI memo warning that QAnon followers could pose a domestic terrorism threat, and the reality sank in that the only thing standing between Marjorie Taylor Greene and the halls of Congress was him. Kevin.
“I’m the one,” he said. “I’m it.”
The gist of this amazing story:
That was how the campaign began. Thirty-one days later it was over, and within those 31 days is a chronicle of how one candidate representing the most extreme version of American politics is heading to Congress with no opposition, and the other is, in his words, “broken.”
Like I said. Read the whole thing. It’s remarkable.
Conspiracy theories can be dangerous for a lot of reasons. They are clearly a determent to the public discourse. They can lead unstable people to commit crimes or act out in violent and dangerous ways.
Conspiracies undermine the truth. This has terrible consequences.
Here’s a piece from October 12th.
QAnon is tearing families apart
According to Jacob’s recollection, his mother spent her days browsing these various theories on YouTube and Twitter. “I told her, ‘I came here to visit you,” he recalled. But she refused to stay offline.
“I finally got her to turn [her phone] off once, and it was unreal. She treated it like a chore,” he said. “It’s like she’s addicted. It feels like she’s been swallowed up by a cult."
“Finally, I realized that my relationship with her had brought me nothing but stress and unhappiness for, at that point, really years,” he said. “That smart, awesome person that I used to know just didn’t exist anymore. So I decided to cut my losses and cauterize the wound.”
Jacob hasn’t spoken to her since February, but she continues posting conspiracy theories multiple times a day to Facebook. She declined a request for comment, and to protect her privacy, The Post is using only Jacob’s first name.
“It’s devastating,” he said. “It really, really does feel like my mother abandoned me. She implicitly chose QAnon … over me.”
Heartbreaking.
But how do seemingly functioning adults fall into the insane rabbit hole of Q? Here’s a piece from August 26th.
Evangelicals are looking for answers online. They’re finding QAnon instead.
How the growing pro-Trump movement is preying on churchgoers to spread its conspiracy theories.
The first family to quit Pastor Clark Frailey’s church during the pandemic did it by text message. It felt to Frailey like a heartbreaking and incomplete way to end a years-long relationship. When a second young couple said they were doubting his leadership a week later, Frailey decided to risk seeing them in person, despite the threat of covid-19.
Pastors and congregants disagree all the time, and Frailey doesn’t want to be the sort of Christian leader whom people feel afraid to challenge. But in that restaurant, it felt to him as if he and they had read two different sacred texts. It was as if the couple were “believing internet memes over someone they’d had a relationship with for over five years,” Frailey says.
Before the pandemic, Frailey knew a little bit about QAnon, but he hadn’t given such an easily debunked fringe theory much of his time. The posts he started seeing felt familiar, though: they reminded him of the “Satanic panic” of the 1980s and 1990s, when rumors of secret occult rituals tormenting children in day-care centers spread quickly among conservative religious believers who were already anxious about changes in family structures. “The pedophile stuff, the Satanic stuff, the eating babies—that’s all from the 1980s,” he says.
If the panic was back with fresh branding as QAnon, it had a new ally in Facebook. And Frailey wasn’t sure where to turn for help. He posted in a private Facebook group for Oklahoma Baptist pastors, asking if anyone else was seeing what he was. The answer, repeatedly, was yes.
So why does the author argue evangelicals are more susceptible to this kind of fear?
“QAnon community construction, from the start, has emphasized a traditionalist American morality that is closely aligned with popular Christianity,” he says. “Q himself posts in a style that both invokes evangelical talking points and encourages deep scriptural research.”
QAnon followers will often repeat a commandment they learned from Q: that in the presence of doubt, you should “do your own research.” And that impulse will feel especially familiar to evangelicals, says William Partin, a research analyst at Data & Society’s Disinformation Action Lab, who has been studying QAnon. “The kind of literacy that’s implied here—close reading and discussion of texts that are accepted as authoritative—has quite a bit in common with how evangelicals learn to read and interpret the Bible,” he says.
OK. So there’s some theory about why some people fall into this hole. Here’s a piece from September 23 that explains how this goes viral in a community.
HOW QANON CONSPIRACY THEORIES SPREAD IN MY COLORADO HOMETOWN
During the pandemic, some of the people I grew up with got sucked into QAnon and the Q-adjacent “Save the Children” movement.
Once a fringe conspiracy theory among Trump’s most ardent supporters, QAnon’s latest iteration is taking over white women in suburban communities, particularly mothers, and several other unexpected demographics. In Parker, Colorado, the suburban town I lived in for nearly a decade, and surrounding cities, it now feels like QAnon is everywhere.
A few of the friends I spoke with were young moms who recently began posting Q-curious content, adopting the anti-trafficking cause as their top issue — despite openly detesting the Trump administration and otherwise holding left-leaning positions.
“During the last six months, QAnon has really, as a movement, found a lot of success breaking out of its confines among sort of the far-right fringe,” Holt said. “You are now seeing mommy bloggers, health and wellness influencers, MMA fighters, various celebrities embracing parts or the whole of QAnon.”
Zoë Royer, a 23-year-old youth advocate based in Denver, said QAnon and Save the Children is everywhere. “The Parker bubble is so real,” she said. “It’s this exurb that’s very new, and it takes a while to get to the major highways, like — you really can just stay in Parker and have no idea of what the entire rest of the world is like.”
She agreed that the theories have captured moms especially, adding that most people have been bored and cooped up at home during the pandemic. “This all kind of popped up around the same time that the [Black Lives Matter] protests did as well,” Royer said. “I think that because it’s such a conservative area — and the fact that there was a popular movement and reaction to all the police brutality, that they couldn’t straight up say, ‘no, we’re anti-BLM’ — they kind of had to grasp onto this other basically fake story to make it seem like they are the ethical crusaders.”
A fundamental problem with conspiracy theories is that they are based so far from traditional truth, that once someone falls into them, it’s very difficult to find the way out.
“As a Trump supporter, I kinda feel like I’m alone most of the time in my beliefs,” Campbell said. “But this one I feel like I’m part of the majority because everyone is kind of thinking the same thing.”
But QAnon isn’t just a set of beliefs. The movement draws adherents into an alternate reality, which, at its core, is calling for the mass arrests and execution of the president’s political enemies. And because followers inherently distrust traditional media and most forms of authority, it becomes difficult to deradicalize them.
So are the social media companies to blame? This piece from October 3rd makes the argument.
As QAnon grew, Facebook and Twitter missed years of warning signs about the conspiracy theory’s violent nature
Feverishly analyzing cryptic “drops” of information from the anonymous leader “Q,” followers spread misinformation about a host of seemingly unconnected issues, from the Sandy Hook, Conn., mass shooting to the supposed dangers of vaccines to the recent wildfires in the Pacific Northwest. Throughout, they traded in anti-Semitic tropes and other hateful content.
“These accusations were so deranged,” said researcher Travis View, who co-hosts a podcast called “QAnon Anonymous” and has watched in growing horror as the conspiracy theory grew. “I always knew it would get to the point where people would ask: How did it get to this point? How did it get so bad?”
One key answer, researchers who have studied QAnon say, was Silicon Valley’s fierce reluctance to act as “an arbiter of truth” even as disinformation with potentially dangerous consequences ran rampant across its platforms. Mainstream social media companies permitted the growth of the conspiracy theory in part because they considered it authentic domestic political speech at a time when President Trump and other Republicans were bashing the firms for alleged bias against conservatives, people familiar with internal debates at the companies say.
Feeling sick yet? We’re almost done.
It’s clear the major social media companies reacted too slowly to misinformation, allowing it to spread. Facebook posts among moms in the suburbs are dangerous, but how did we get to the point that our country’s leaders at the highest levels embraced this insanity? From August 2nd:
How the Trump campaign came to court QAnon, the online conspiracy movement identified by the FBI as a violent threat
The Trump campaign’s director of press communications, for example, went on a QAnon program and urged listeners to “sign up and attend a Trump Victory Leadership Initiative training.” QAnon iconography has appeared in official campaign advertisements targeting battleground states. And the White House’s director of social media and deputy chief of staff for communications, Dan Scavino, has gone from endorsing praise from QAnon accounts to posting their memes himself.
The president has repeatedly elevated its digital foot soldiers, sharing their tweets more than a dozen times on the Fourth of July alone. His middle son, Eric, who is 36 and a campaign surrogate, recently posted, and then deleted, an image drumming up support for his father’s Tulsa rally that included a giant “Q” and the text, “Where we go one, we go all.”
The apparent convergence of Trump’s inner circle with an ever-widening cohort of QAnon believers is alarming to scholars of extremism and digital communications, some of whom characterize the theory’s adherents as a cult. What most troubles analysts, however, is not that McEnany and others responsible for carrying out Trump’s agenda are amplifying QAnon, which has permeated right-wing politics and inspired a cadre of congressional candidates who could soon bring the philosophy to Capitol Hill. Even more worrisome, these observers say, is that the president’s messaging is increasingly indistinguishable from some key elements of the conspiracy theory.
OK. I’m done with this. I am closing all tabs with reference to Q and I’m gonna try not to think about this anymore. Vote.
Now on to some fun stuff.
Fun Corner
Here are some fun stories from John Oates
It’s no secret, I’m a huge Hall & Oates guy. I’ve seen them several times and the fellas always put on a tremendous show. They are the best selling duo in music history, yet because of their timing as stars in the 80’s, their legacy is often overlooked. The period of their greatest success wasn’t a historically great time for pop music, and much of the work from that era doesn’t age well, especially on video. The rise of MTV lead to a lot of regrettable images.
But the music? The music endures. H&O are defined by their great pop songs, master musicianship, and groundbreaking genre-bending. I’m a huge fan.
Anyway, this interview with John Oates from British rock mag NME is fun.
What was it like to hang with Andy Warhol?
“Enigmatic. It was almost like he was playing the character of Andy Warhol. I remember visiting his Factory and he had all his paintings lying against the wall, and he said: ‘If you see anything, just tell me’. I bought a couple of small pieces which were inconsequential, but now I think: ‘How stupid! I could have had this incredible private collection of Warhol pieces for a song!’”
“He took pictures of me in nightclubs and would come to our shows. He snapped a picture of me in a ‘War Damn Eagle’ t-shirt which was the motto of Auburn University in Alabama. When I’d play colleges in the old days, I’d always buy the local T-shirts. I’d totally forgotten about it but when my son was looking at colleges, we visited that university and in their art museum was that picture of me! I’d never even seen it before. My son didn’t end up going there – maybe that’s why!” (Laughs)
How about Hunter S. Thompson?
“When we were looking at the property, we heard a shotgun blast and bullets hitting the cabin’s metal roof. We went: ‘What the hell is that?!’ and the real estate agent said: ‘That’s your neighbour – Hunter S. Thompson.’ We got to know each other well and it was a comfortable relationship. He was a lot like Andy [Warhol] – he liked being the character of Hunter Thompson.
“I’d written an article about him and I didn’t want to publish it without his approval so I went up there during Monday night football. He had a salon and would have the sheriff and his cronies over to get high and watch football. He’d control the remote and when the commercials came on, he’d click mute – and that’s when you’d have a discussion about politics or whatever. But as soon as the game came back on, we’d stop and watch.”
“I handed the article to him and he demanded: ‘No! Read it aloud!’. So I had to read it aloud in segments during the commercials of the football. I was intimidated and reading it quietly, and he kept poking me in the ribs with his giant Bowie knife saying: ‘Top notch! Speak up!’ So that was his tacit approval.”
Oates also talks about what it was like to tour in the 80’s.
Hey, listen, I don’t remember a lot about those days! It was a blur. Everything in the ‘80s was exaggerated and overblown and money flowed like proverbial water. The average person on the street assumes that because we had our biggest commercial success in the ‘80s, that would be my favourite time. It was my least favourite because the demands on our time were unbelievable. Between 1979 ‘til 1986, I had no life other than writing, recording, making videos and touring. The ‘70s were more fun because everything was new – the process of becoming it is more interesting than the victory lap.
There’s also some great stories about ‘We are the World,’ George Harrison, David Bowie, and Lou Reed. Enjoy.
Farewell to the NBA Bubble
This piece by WaPo NBA writer Ben Golliver is delightful.
I will remember the bubble fondly, but I won’t miss much. I loved the courtside seats and the wildlife around campus. I photographed alligators, egrets, snakes, anhingas, hawks, raccoons, armadillos, deer, frogs, turtles, butterflies, dragonflies, geckos, snails and Florida-size bugs. I cherished my ability to attend every single playoff game from the start of the second round, something that might never again be possible. I enjoyed seeing the referees compete at morning pickleball like it was their own professional sport. The daily testing was the ultimate privilege.
This wasn’t summer camp, and it wasn’t glamorous. I have lived for three months in Casitas 4432, a simple hotel room that I have treated like a dorm. My mother would be appalled by the cold pizza in the corner and the piles of dirty clothes, but visitors were forbidden so all bets were off.
Most nights, I stayed up past 3 a.m., and I occasionally watched so much basketball that I left the arena dizzy and lightheaded. Work-life balance was nonexistent, and my iPhone screen time peaked at more than 11 hours per day in August. I coped by shopping online late at night; I now own the same polo shirt in seven different colors. I don’t even like polo shirts.
Recipe Corner + Whole30 Update
How’s Whole30 going for Micah? Well, it’s OK. It’s also over, or at least broken. See, Saturday was supposed to be our wedding day. Due to COVID, we have rescheduled for next year. It sucks. Saturday was pretty sad. To be honest, much sadder than I anticipated.
Anyway, we decided to splurge and went for a very nice dinner to “celebrate” Saturday night. We went to one of Austin’s finest restaurants, Jeffrey’s. It was lovely. It was our first meal inside a restaurant since March. Jeffrey’s is very private and the tables are naturally separated into little nooks and crannies, so we felt extremely safe.
It still isn’t normal (and doesn’t seem fair) that restaurant servers (and countess other workers) are still in masks. But, that’s not the point.
Anyway, we decided to break Whole30 for the weekend. Caitlin’s friends sent us a very dope cheese plate and some Champaign, so we enjoyed that in the afternoon. We also drank wine at dinner. I ordered the New York strip. It was delightful. We ordered dessert. I drank Fernet. I also made a steak sandwich Sunday with my leftovers. I have no regrets.
Back on the plan today.
Baked Chicken Wings With Shishito Peppers
Wings are good. But they can be intimidating to make at home. There’s no secret why restaurants are famous for wings and specialize in making them. It’s because frying chicken wings at home is a nightmare.
This technique seems extremely doable. The secret to super-crispy chicken wings? Brine them and roast them — no frying needed.
Ingredients
Neutral oil, such as canola or vegetable oil
3 pounds chicken wings, or any combination of drumettes, wingettes and tips
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided, plus more as needed
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more as needed
4 cups (8 ounces) shishito peppers
3 teaspoons toasted sesame oil, divided
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
1 lime, finely zested and cut into wedges
The technique is pretty simple. cover wings in baking powder and salt, let sit for an hour or overnight.
Roast at 450 degrees for 15-20 minutes per side. Then toss the shishitos in sesame oil and spread them on top of the chicken. Roast for another 10-15 minutes.
Stir together the sesame seeds, ginger, lime zest and salt. Add the remaining 2 teaspoons of sesame oil and toss with the finished wings.
Yum.
Tweet of the Week
Big shouts to Russ for the nice comment. I would like to hear from you. Are you enjoying the newsletter? What would you like to see more often? What do you hate? Please leave that comment below.
Thank you.
Where else can I find Micah content?
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12 weeks in and Micah's still killing the game. Great to see my guy spreading his wings and fly.
Now this is an A+ worthy newsletter. I concur on the greatness of Hall & Oats. Might I recommend getting a limo service for their next concert? Not frivolous at all. Great updates on the QAnon stuff as well. I don't think that people fully grasp the crazy. I'm sure none of your loyal subscribers fall victim to it though. Good luck finishing strong on the Whole30.
EVERYBODY VOTE! Try your local NBA stadium if you have one close. No lines.