By Thomas Anderson
I feel fairly confident in viewing our elections now as international events that are wide open to influence from abroad in ways most people are unaware of. The easiest way to notice foreign influence is by watching any of the news networks or reading national newspapers and magazines. This is not to say they are all anti-American; they simply highlight the parts of America that foreigners care most about. Meanwhile, the issues Americans care about tend to receive less attention or are spun in ways that make them seem unimportant in the overall scheme of things. This is why the latest controversies that have sprung up away from the national media but have caught the national spotlight are a sign that something populist may be afoot.
Roaring Kitty, Kendrick vs. Drake, Diddy, Club Shay Shay, and Kat Williams have intriguing overlaps on the social issues of the day. This suggests they might be the opening salvos in a new populist movement, which appears to be a backlash against the abuse of government and corporate power, sexual perversion, theft, financial fraud, and media manipulation. Roaring Kitty and Meme Stocks are a populist backlash against the casino most people and the media call the financial markets. The Club Shay Shay Katt Williams interview broke the record for most-watched interview in YouTube history
because it exposed the perceived abuses of Hollywood- mostly allegations involving sexual perversion and blackmail. The Diddy Bruhaha centers on alleged theft of intellectual property, music industry corporate abuse, and sexual abuse. When I ask myself if I am making a mountain out of a molehill here I simply look at some of the economic measurables that indicate the rap war between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, which is about alleged economic and corporate abuse, sexual assault in the music industry, and pedophilia, created explosive commercial success. Here are some of the figures:
I like a good populist movement as they sweep across the land like a wild hurricane, cleansing the landscape by collapsing and blasting away anything hollowed and rotted out from the inside. Trump’s MAGA movement is the most recent example that comes to mind when thinking back on populist movements in American history. Unfortunately, it seems the populist uprising is happening in a media environment designed to ignore domestic issues in favor of international interests during an election year. This means there’s potential for the hollowed-out media to remain in its current zombie state instead of collapsing under the pressure of the populist backlash rising against them and the abusive corporate culture they exist under. Foreign interests have no problem propping up a zombie media, especially in a Presidential election year. This will be done through shareholder pressure on the legacy media, which will trickle down to everyone else. It’s evident in the way they’ve handled the populist events I’ve outlined above, barely covering the political implications of the Drake/Kendrick rap war, for example.
There’s a retail and polished feel to the populist issues of 2024, meaning they’ll likely have an impact on election night. Polished populist messages crafted through hundreds of hours of on-the-ground work and reflected in social media traction through streams and downloads can have a massive impact on elections. The best way to encapsulate their potential political impact in November is through a throwback TV commercial that started as a funny way to sell hamburgers but turned into a populist saying with a direct impact on the 1984 Presidential election. “Where’s the beef?” became a catchall term questioning anything with great packaging but little or no substance.
The commercial was hilarious, with little old ladies standing around a giant hamburger bun with a tiny burger patty in the middle, wondering if their aging eyes were tricking them. Wendy’s finished the commercial with a slogan that seems to have inspired the title of Kendrick Lamar’s rap track “Not Like Us”: “You Want Something Better, You’re Wendy’s Kind of People.”
The entire world is now filled with “Kendrick’s kind of people”, with thousands of videos from around the world posting anti-Drake content under the moniker “BBL Drizzy,” over the purported surgery Drake got on his derrière.
There’s also a litany of videos of parties being thrown around the world where revelers go crazy to the sounds of “Not Like Us,” as Drake and anyone supporting him are now not Kendrick’s kind of people. Kendrick Lamar, in less than a week, is breaking all types of streaming records and has resuscitated his career, while leaving Drake’s career on ice.
It’s hard to imagine the top artist of any musical format having a career-altering week because of one song, but that’s 2024, and Presidential campaigns should take heed.
“Where’s the Beef” launched the Mondale campaign into the leading spot for the Democratic nomination where Mondale used the line to top off a strong debate performance against a field that included Jesse Jackson. It struck a chord the national media caught on to which created a wave Mondale rode into a Reagan incumbency campaign that was almost impossible to beat. This election season has already given the candidates their “Where’s the Beef” moment in Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us”, creating a quandary for both Presidential Campaigns.
The Biden team is ramping up a traditional multi-billion-dollar modern marketing campaign, while Trump is a walking marketing machine. Neither candidate is built for a “Where’s the Beef” moment, as both are basically old with not much to add to a modern world increasingly hostile to marketing campaigns that lack actual policy for real problems facing Americans. Trump recently bemoaned not being able to campaign on the issues, yet he’s trapped as much as Biden in the Washington, DC marketing version of a cotton candy mindset. A friend of mine likes to remind me of how much cotton candy is spun from a few kernels of disparate facts in Washington, DC, and the media. I tend to agree with him, which is why I call it the “Where’s the Beef” situation everyone is eyeballing concerning the media and the candidates for President.
As for my prediction: I believe the Trump team currently has a better chance of plugging into the populist energy we are drenched in, which in turn gives them a chance at an upset against Biden. Biden still has an overwhelming money and infrastructure advantage. Where this race will be won is in the media space, and we’ve got a hollowed-out media facing a populist hurricane. With that said, I believe Biden will win, but the results will be thrown into chaos by the media, resulting in a constitutional crisis that will land with the Supreme Court.
Until then the nation wants to know, “Where’s the Beef”?