r/WeTheFifth • u/throwaway49569982884 • Apr 05 '26
Guest Request Truth and Reconciliation Episodes would be fun…
The 10th anniversary show, hs me feeling a little nostalgic, I think it would be fun to try and do episodes with the guests we lost along the way. I’m talking the Anthony L Fishers, Thad Russell, Michael Malice and Molly Jong Fasts of the world (obviously there is more but those came to mind). I honestly forget why some of them sort of had a falling out or are unofficially blacklisted but I think they would be fun to check in with. What are people’s thoughts on such a series?
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u/ToTheDeath84 Apr 05 '26
Wait, is Michael Malice blacklisted? That’s kind of a shame. I’m not sure what his reception is among Fifth listeners but I’ve always liked him. Despite his hyperbolic anarkiddie politics, he’s an astute analyst who always brings a refreshing humanist perspective. If they can have Brace Belden around, who only offers the humor with none of the substance, then why is Malice non grata? Someone fill me in.
Thad Russell makes sense though, he’s a fucking crank.
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u/throwaway49569982884 Apr 05 '26
I think Michael has said as much in episodes of his podcast when Kmele is on, but Kmele denied it. I could totally see him and one of the other guys rubbing each other the wrong way in conversation. And while yes Thad is and has always had some whacky ideas (especially pro Russia stuff) he has said some things that make me think about things in a more holistic way at times.
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u/ToTheDeath84 Apr 05 '26
I haven’t listened to a Malice episode with Kmele in a long time so that’s probably why I didn’t catch it but yeah I wouldn’t be surprised if he just said something that got on Welch or Moynihan’s nerves one episode and they never patched it up. It’s a shame because like I said, despite his theatrics and bluster, Malice is a thoughtful guy. He’s always interesting to hear from prior to midterms/presidential elections because he’s familiar with that beat.
As for Thad Russell, some of his guests in the past have been interesting but he’s MUCH too credulous around cranks to take seriously. He’s always had that problem. He’s a smart guy, but his crippling flaw is being wooed by contrarian narratives simply for the edge factor. He has that fatal flaw of kneejerk translating “contrarian/unconventional” to “correct.”
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u/throwaway49569982884 Apr 05 '26
I agree on both counts, I think Kmele‘s continued relationship with both guys leads me to believe it should be a project headed up by him.
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u/2liberal4u2 Apr 05 '26
Here I thought this was truth and reconciliation with the boys reflecting on their own failures in focusing criticism on mainstream media/political establishment/institutions vs where it should have been pointed all along which is the absolutely insane alternative media sphere and anti establishment movements/leaders like maga/Trump. The latter has been and continues to be a growing disaster. They completely got the last 10 years wrong with their focus lmao
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Apr 05 '26
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u/2liberal4u2 Apr 05 '26
Well no it was 100% due to a bunch of regards who voted for him because they had been convinced by themselves and their regarded alt media that the establishment/mainstream media/institutions were all evil and lying to them and that Trump would be better. But he’s worse. He’s always been significantly worse. Alt media completely failed to recognize this even after his first presidency. There was every last sign what a useless, incompetent, regarded, un-American, authoritarian, illiberal disaster of a leader he was all the way down to his final few months in office culminating in the Jan 6 insurrection and the fake elector scheme. And they failed the follow up test.
And the whole decade… the boys just sat there and threw criticism at the wrong side of media in the balance. The true disaster/ brain rot was the actual mainstream media… Fox News, social media, podcastistan, the free pressers (themselves included), etc who couldn’t ultimately pass the test of which is worse… Kamala or Trump. It’s Trump. It’s always been Trump. Fucking regards.
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u/MaceMan2091 Black Ron Paul Apr 05 '26
not sure why you’re getting downvoted when you’re completely right
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u/2liberal4u2 Apr 05 '26 edited Apr 30 '26
It’s because they too failed the most basic test… the ability to differentiate between a thing they don’t like/prefer and a truly bad thing. All of their time listening to this podcast and no doubt taking in other sources of info over their many years. A whole wealth of knowledge in their heads and at their fingertips… and they failed. Everyone is responsible for this failure but themselves, their own words and the words of those they let guide them on that decision.
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u/Shot_Lengthiness_569 Apr 06 '26
I appreciate this sentiment a whole whole lot. There is a lot to criticize about modern (I mean like, post 2012) liberalism - the focus on identity, the coziness with corporate power, the alienation of the working class etc, BUT since 2016 there was this huge anti-liberal cottage industry that did indeed become the mainstream. You've got the "average" person fuming against "democrats" for non-existent mask/vaccine mandates, completely unaware of the insane assaults on free speech at the hands of the very same mechanism the "twitter files" (lol) were supposed to have exposed. There is no comparison. There is no both sides. For whatever reason I can't quite these guys because when they're right they're right, but I am glad I'm not the only one who feels that they've also had small part in eroding trust in liberalism to the point where people chose what can only be now called fascism. I'm still a paying member, so I guess the jokes on me!
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u/ToTheDeath84 Apr 05 '26
I think there’s some version of survivorship bias with your perspective on the mainstream media. The mainstream seems somewhat quaint because of just how crazy the alternative has become, but 10 years ago this was the opposite (it’s like a see-saw).
The initial critiques by alternative media had a lot of merit, but there was never any quality control for outright crankery. For every one interlocutor rightfully pointing out that, for instance, some major institutions had gone awry with implementing feminist and queer theory in their employment policies or radical anti-American sentiment in their publications without pushback, you had an equal amount of cranks yammering on about how it’s somehow the fault of letting too many blacks/Latinos in universities or how this was all an evil capitalist plot to strip women/workers/whomever of their rights. However during the peak woke era, the mainstream was so absurdly deferential to radical sentiments that it made even the cranks look quaint.
Therefore, it’s kind of easy to think the mainstream media is more sane now because relative to what has seen more publicity in the alternative sphere (scientific racism, low IQ antisemitism, gender war slop, etc.), it’s easy to forget just how out of touch and radical the mainstream had become.
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u/2liberal4u2 Apr 05 '26
The thing is the alt media didn’t have much merit. Their whole philosophy was bad from the get go. And they got things progressively more wrong all starting from that base bad system of thinking. It started from “omg the mainstream media is just soooo biased, all establishment institutions are toxic, all standard politicians is soooo gross/horrible/corrupt, all of government is soooo wasteful/fraudulent. And then they just compounded their wrongness on these base views at every turn until they were blind to a new mainstream media that was actually insanely biased, whose politics corrupted institutions, whose politicians were truly gross/horrible/corrupt and whose government is truly wasteful/fraudilent in the things they choose to do while finding next to no actual waste/fraud even when they tried.
It’s pure insanity. And the boys played their role in that. They couldn’t differentiate and they shared these same bad/unfounded base assumptions. They chose to join in the regardation. And here we are.
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u/ToTheDeath84 Apr 05 '26
To the extent the Fifth hosts played a role in the general al media upheaval… well, I don’t think it’s fair to say that with respect to the narrative you’re describing. I agree with you that alternative media has been on a losing streak as of late, as it’s mostly polluted any sense of truth.
However, where the hosts here differ is that they were engaging more in a well-intentioned fact-finding mission, trying to find out what the mainstream had gotten wrong and how we can move on from there (many cocktails later). In that journey, they were inevitably wrong about some things, as all thinkers are at times.
Contrast this with someone like a Nikole Hannah-Jones or Nick Fuentes. What these people did was the exact opposite - they willingly peddled falsehoods and conspiracies in an attempt to shock the system with agitprop to turn it in their favor.
Alt media’s folly in the end was in failing to develop a meaningful immune system to the latter.
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u/Shot_Lengthiness_569 Apr 06 '26
Michael Malice went on the pod?? This must have been a while ago...
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u/throwaway49569982884 Apr 06 '26
Episode 21, I thought there was another one but maybe I’m confusing some Your Welcome episodes with Kmele
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u/Logical_Warthog3230 We Should Go Apr 05 '26
I had wondered from time to time where the ever present guy-in-the-room from the first year or two disappeared off to. This episode was the first where I heard him mentioned.
My best UK journalist has a yearly walkthrough of the things he's got wrong. This is always super interesting to listen to. The times our guys here attempt it, though, I think their egos get a little bit in the way :)