"Hey Jealousy"
I, like, literally don't understand hatred toward Jews. And in the Music Box: In defense of December, "December," and "A Long December"
How ‘bout that Kanye West, huh?? (He hates it when I refuse to call him “Ye,” eat your heart out, KANye!!)
I’ve tried to give the guy some grace since he is so clearly dealing with mental health issues. But at some point the ‘narcissist’ part of those mental health issues needs to be given exactly zero grace.
WARNING: Today’s CeeGees: Ideas will be based almost entirely upon the author’s opinion and limited personal knowledge of the topic. The research that went into the post could be described as “slight,” at best. Speaking with other human beings with direct knowledge and personal understanding of the plight in question will be non-existent. Which is unfortunate, because one of CeeGees: Ideas’s primary objectives is for the author to better understand people unlike himself—that is, people who aren’t SWAMs, or straight white American males. And in today’s case, we can add “Christian” to that list of indicators (so, SCWAMs?). But anyway. The author promises a newsletter that gathers insight and opinions other than his own in 2023. Further, the author promises to never again refer to himself in the third person when he’s obviously the one writing. The author also commits to never calling himself an ‘author’ ever again, unless he actually writes a book that gets read by more than his extended family.
So, as has been widely reported, one of the most successful and artistically revered rappers in history went on an antisemitic Twitter tirade, saying he was going to go “death con 3” on the Jews.
Which…there is the moral problem with that statement, of course, but there are also a couple problems I feel particularly qualified to attack as a copy editor by trade.
It’s “DEFCON,” as in “defense readiness condition.” Although maybe he meant it the way he wrote it.
“DEFCON 3” is two whole DEFCONs away from full DEFCON! Which is “DEFCON 5.” And I get the feeling he meant “DEFCON 5.”
When I say I don’t ‘understand’ hatred toward Jews, part of it is that I don’t understand hatred toward any group, really. Except those who deserve it…Michigan Wolverines fans, Stones-over-Beatles people, etc.
But also, I literally don’t understand it. And I don’t have the bandwidth today to research where the hate comes from. So I’m going to use today’s post as a historical marker of sorts for myself.
Here is what I know about all this “hating Jews” stuff as of today, Thursday, December 1, 2022:
There is a feeling amongst some famous Black people that Jews in powerful positions have it out for them. (And I’m sure non-famous Black people believe this, too, but we’ll just key in on “famous” Black people so as not to suggest a significant number of Black people feel that way. Although…I guess technically any number of people who feel that way is ‘significant’…)
Thanks to both Ye and Kyrie Irving, I’ve also recently learned of a theory that insists Blacks are the “real” Jews. Which, I understand, is news to most Black people and especially actual Black Jews. I started to research further here but it’s complicated enough that for now let’s just say Ye’s and Kyrie’s logic seems a tad flawed (as I sit here popping ibuprofens to cure the headache this topic is already giving me).
A classmate of mine in high school swore that Jews had tails. He was also known to use the n-word, despite wearing Michael Jordan t-shirts all the time and loving rap music. So I already knew he was an unreliable source, thankfully. Also of note: I don’t think I even knew what it meant for someone to be Jewish at the time (believe it or not, I lived in an almost all-white, all-Christian community).
The other stereotype I am familiar with about Jews is that they tend to go into finance? Which appears to be the source of some groups’ quarrel with them. Currently, my interpretation of this phenomenon is that Jewish culture lends itself toward valuing money (not a bad thing!). Which leads to a healthy percentage of Jews being adept at finance (great!). Which means Jews perhaps appear to non-Jews to be somewhat disproportionally represented in positions of power? They’re often head honchos at the banks, the movie studios, the record labels. Which leads to unfounded resentment and jealousy that Jews get to make decisions that affect these non-Jews’ livelihoods.
Personally, the best musicians I’ve played with were Jews. Some of my greatest loves were Jews. Many of my best friends are Jews. And…I’ve never once asked them about any of this stuff. Which is a problem.
So today, I announce my intention to learn where all this bias against Jewish folks really comes from by not only researching on my own but actually talking to Jewish scholars, Jewish religious leaders, and just Jewish buddies who might provide some perspective based on their own personal experience. And then I’ll write about it in the New Year, from the humble perspective of a bona fide LISCWAM (i.e. a literally-ignorant straight Christian white American male).
And I will try very hard to not let this become my “devoting my life to finding the real killer” moment.
I hate it when we write off the entire month of December as a time that must serve as a black hole of holiday pandemonium and nothing else. It’s as if 2022 is over and the whole next 31 days—a not-insignificant one-twelfth of the year—is solely about Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/etc. And of course buying a bunch of crap for Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/etc.
(Ooh, I also need to ask my Jewish friends if they prefer “Hanukkah” or “Chanukah”…apparently either is fine?)
Case in point: I myself just begged off doing a bunch of research for today’s post and kicked the can of proper journalism and fact-based insight down the road to 2023 because of the faint notion that December doesn’t really matter and no one is reading as closely! See above!
But seriously, I’ve got a lot of stuff to do still in 2022. And yet earlier this week—which, you’ll note, was still November, for Peter’s sake—I started getting “best of 2022” album lists emailed to me. Paste magazine (and I love Paste magazine) sent theirs on November 28th. The New York Times couldn’t quite wait till the turn of the month and sent theirs yesterday. And Time magazine published theirs over the weekend!
LAST weekend! November 20th! (At least Rolling Stone had the decency to wait to publish theirs until today.)
I know, I know. Albums come out before December anyway so they can be given and received as Christmas presents. (Like anybody buys albums anymore.) But what if Deströyer 666’s new record, which comes out tomorrow, is really good? Then what? You think they’re gonna be remembered for 2023’s best-of lists? Unlikely!
And there are other bigger names (sorry Deströyer 666) releasing albums in the coming days that could be contenders, too, like A Boogie wit da Hoodie. But I guess my main point is…I’ve got a lot of stuff to do still in 2022, dangit!
ASIDE #1: Why does Collective Soul catch so much shit? They were/are great. Seven Billboard Mainstream Rock No. 1’s, including the below, which also cracked the Top 20 on the pop charts. (“Shine,” their first hit that was so annoyingly ubiquitous and the only good song on the first record, which was essentially a demo, made it to pop No. 11.):
ASIDE #2: Why does Counting Crows catch so much shit? Oh wait, I know. It’s ‘cuz Adam Duritz is annoying. (And about 79% of that take is because he’s dated so many crazy-gorgeous women and it just doesn’t compute and I’m jealous; while 21%, for me, is that he’s one of those singers who gets bored with the hits and takes it upon himself to change up the words, melodies, and cadence of the tune, ruining it for everybody but himself. Or at least that’s what he did with “Mr. Jones” when I saw CC play the IU Auditorium in 1997. It was gross. Although…I could stand to never hear that song again myself at this point...)
All that said, this is still a pop masterpiece in my book:
Yours,
~Dean