Don Hall 2/20/21 Don Hall 2/20/21

How Zero Tolerance Policies in the 1990s Caused Our Modern Puritanism

Isabella would be roughly thirty-six years old now and would classify as a Millennial. Her kids are the pro typical Gen Z crowd. Both she and her kids seem to operate still with this zero tolerance policy in mind. They have become the hall monitors for their collegiate experience, the snitches of social media, and the ‘Karens’ of every Walmart and Starbucks in America.

Don Hall 2/17/21 Don Hall 2/17/21

Wandavision is the Most Woke Television Program in History

Granted, as of this writing, only six episodes have been aired. Likewise granted, given my immense love for all things Marvel, I’m loving every second.

One of the big questions of the chattering class is Who is the Big Bad?

Don Hall 2/15/21 Don Hall 2/15/21

I Believe... [ Grogu is the Unifier]

...that the fact that we all find Grogu fucking adorable indicates that we all are far more similar than we are different.

Don Hall 2/13/21 Don Hall 2/13/21

Advice Unsolicited | The Cost of Virtue

There’s a story in the Bible—I’m paraphrasing it here—where a woman goes to prayer every day and prays loudly and obviously. She makes such a noise in her show of virtue and piety that another woman goes to Jesus and asks if making that much of a show is going to get the signaler’s prays answered more quickly. “She has already received her reward, so fuck no. Here's a loaf of bread and a fish. Now scram.”

Don Hall 2/9/21 Don Hall 2/9/21

History is a Puzzle Box of Rashomon

That’s all history is, after all. A slew of stories we tell over and over to indoctrinate a sense of national pride. It grows more perilous when those revising the stories weren’t present. The source of the tales becomes less reliable and the reframe more suspect.

Don Hall 2/8/21 Don Hall 2/8/21

I Believe... [Freedom is Harder Than Previously Advertised]

I believe... that the revival of cultural conformity and political zealotry shows that freedom is not as easy as we assumed.

Don Hall 2/6/21 Don Hall 2/6/21

Culture in Real Time

As I read it, culture is comprised of four things in increasing levels of significance: symbols, heroes, rituals and values. By that quite academic frame, it seems that as we parse out our differences in our current multi-cultural war in America, it is a fixation on the symbols that trip us up.

Don Hall 2/3/21 Don Hall 2/3/21

I Can't Drive 55 | Lessons Learned in the 55th Year

Sometimes I wonder if there’s anything else. I wonder if I’d miss anything important if I simply ceased to breathe on the couch I bought back in Chicago as it sits in Nevada.

Don Hall 2/1/21 Don Hall 2/1/21

I Believe... [Do I Get Paid to Be Old Now?]

…that turning fifty-five years old this week has officially made me an old curmudgeon in the professional sense. I hope I get my badge and sash soon.

Don Hall 1/30/21 Don Hall 1/30/21

Advice Unsolicited | Your Job Isn’t High School

We all love binary thinking because it's easy. She's white, you're black. She's old, you're young. She's incompetent, you're competent. She's a liar, you are honest.

I like to use a different binary in these situations. There are two kinds of people in the world: those who focus on themselves, their work, their responsibilities and those who focus on the work and responsibilities of others.

Don Hall 1/28/21 Don Hall 1/28/21

The Graveyard of Creativity

Orthodoxy is simply the authorized doctrine of a group. When there is no acknowledged and agreed upon authority, like the Church or Science, we confront multiple orthodoxies and competing authority and the idea of a unified vision goes out the window.

Don Hall 1/26/21 Don Hall 1/26/21

SPOILER ALERT! I'm Ruining Culture for You

Guardians of the Galaxy

Chris Pratt is a Christian and kind of dislikes gay people. This likewise spoils the Jurassic World movies. Can't watch 'em. Cancel.

Don Hall 1/25/21 Don Hall 1/25/21

I Believe... [Some of the Kids Are Alright]

...that for every instance of an Amanda Gorman or Greta Thunberg, there are 50,000 GenZ kids snorting crushed Sour Patch candy and arguing adamantly about a video they saw on TikTok so contain your need to claim that the kids are adults.

Don Hall 1/23/21 Don Hall 1/23/21

Advice Unsolicited | It’s OK to Pretend Because Everyone is a Fraud

We are currently in an epic defined by people pretending to be someone they are not.

Don Hall 1/22/21 Don Hall 1/22/21

The Angels of Our Better Nature Are a Lesson Away

Reframing it a second and it looks like the vast majority of people are not engaged in conflict, violence, and overt racism in the country.

Don Hall 1/19/21 Don Hall 1/19/21

The Phrase That Pays in the Age of Massive Conspiracies and Tribalism

In order to be shared values, people within the culture have to find agreement on the fundamentals of the narrative. No agreement, no shared values, and the result is a series of competing cultural narratives. The result is a whole room full of people screaming at each other their sometimes bizarre, sometimes lunatic tribal memes.

Don Hall 1/18/21 Don Hall 1/18/21

I Believe... [in Public Dildo Stories]

...that the problem with telling a dildo story in a off-shoot casino bar and grill is that there might be a kid somewhere in the room who will overhear it. On the other hand, any kid today who hasn’t heard about dildos is far too sheltered with the ideological plastic helmet to survive past ten years old.

Don Hall 1/12/21 Don Hall 1/12/21

The Rise and Fall of Free Speech: What Big Tech Giveth, Big Tech Taketh Away

Zuckerberg and Dorsey have the power to melt our faces off with their laser eyeballs and we either trust that they won’t use that power on the wrong people when their having a rough morning or regulate their power in ways that no longer leave it up to their whim. Because that’s why Trump has been de-platformed. The whim of two men in charge of the most powerful communications networks in the history of mankind.

Don Hall 1/11/21 Don Hall 1/11/21

I Believe... [Switching Out Identifiers Exposes the Game]

I believe... that if changing “white” to “black” or “men” to “women” in your polemic makes you suddenly sound like a Southern politician from 1950, you’re a bigot and a sexist.

Don Hall 1/10/21 Don Hall 1/10/21

Advice Unsolicited | STAY AWAY FROM THE HOUSE!

The movies are fiction. Most of us know and accept this. While they are fiction, many can be instructive in our own non-fiction lives…