What we should do with manifestos
📝 Library of Congress tier · Mystery in the sky · Week in streaming · Much more!
Good afternoon, everyone.
Christmas Party tomorrow. RSVP here for location.
Onward.
Tragedy struck Wisconsin yesterday after a 15-year-old girl opened fire at a Christian school in Madison, killing three—including herself—and injuring six others. As is typically the case with the media coverage and discourse around these horrible acts, we’ve learned a lot about the shooter and her motives in the interim. Understandably, the victims' names have been kept out of the press, and in their place have come calls for gun control—and a dark fascination with the girl who carried out the act.
Something that’s started to emerge whenever a school shooting occurs is the algebraic formulation of when and how the “manifesto” is released. Like hanging on to the edge of our seats for the cliffhanger at the end of a series finale, we calculate the time it takes for the materials to be distributed to the broader public for consumption and proper sorting of the act into whatever political box they seem to fit into. Too long, and the murderer is probably a leftist—maybe even trans. Too short, and the perp expresses opaque or vaguely right-wing sentiments.
This has become especially true given the withholding of the Covenant killer’s manifesto. Since then, every time another deranged person has gone into a school with a gun to kill, a chorus of questions regarding the Covenant manifesto emerges from the broader right with as much surety as the gun control messaging comes from the left. It’s about “free speech,” they will claim. We need to know the motive of these killers.
I’ve consistently taken the opposite stance on this. I think we should censor, burn, and launch into the stratosphere all materials related to school shootings, be it the writings of the shooters themselves, the basement tapes of the famous Columbine kids, or social media profiles revealing any amount of information about the killer.
These crimes are mimetic. In 1890, French sociologist Grabiel Tarde argued in his book The Laws of Imitation that the media were the primary source of all crimes. "Epidemics of crime follow the line of the telegraph," Tarde noted. If people with deranged and violent intentions knew that their acts of ritualistic murder wouldn’t lead to millions of people reading their manifestos, poring over their thoughts, and—intentionally or not—lauding them with attention, they would be less likely to carry out these murderous acts.
But, in the interest of preserving my status as a staunch free speech advocate, I’ve come to something of a compromise with those who scream about freedom whenever you suggest burying the deranged scribblings of the most despicable people in our society—or maybe any society in the history of mankind—produces: let’s put these writings in the Library of Congress. These are seminal works pushing the bounds of permissible speech. Works of art. Let the scholars, and potentially, the especially motivated school shooters pore over them in the sacred confines of our nation’s most lofty chamber of knowledge.
In the absence of comedians probing the bounds of acceptable speech, we get school shooters whose thoughts and inner world illuminate the extant boundaries of what the Founders envisioned when they enshrined the right to free speech in the Constitution.
I’m exaggerating my claim to make a point, but realistically, the only alternative I see is to turn elementary, middle, and high schools into what amount to mass surveillance prison complexes to keep these deranged freaks out (which is absolutely necessary in the short term, to be clear) and amp up the surveillance state to pre-empt such attacks.
Over 90 percent of school shooters announce their intentions before carrying out their attacks. Tennessee’s law punishing children for making such threats will no doubt catch some of them, but proactive surveillance would be the next logical step in the quest to eradicate school shooters.
In the long term, I think that the slight infringement on the rights of school shooters is a better policy here than impugning all of our rights. If you disagree, then let’s meet in the middle, put them in the Library of Congress, and admit to ourselves what we are turning these writings into: a testament to the power of the First Amendment. DAVIS HUNT
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🏛️ Last Metro Council Meeting Of 2024 Though Morgan Wallen was officially sentenced last week for throwing a chair off Eric Church’s rooftop bar, it seems the council will get its chance to make the final judgment on his character during tonight’s meeting. Once again, the body faces the decision to either accept or reject Wallen’s request to hang a standard-issue honky tonk neon on Broadway. The body rejected the initial aerial encroachment resolution in May after at least one council member made it clear that they do not appreciate the country crooner’s past antics—a seemingly biased decision that could have invited a lawsuit.
The council will also weigh in on a few other important pieces of legislation, including the mayor’s $527 million Capital Spending Plan, applications for School Resource Officer grants that could add officers in Nashville elementary schools, and Councilmember Jeff Pretits’ refiled legislation addressing MNPD hate group and gang affiliations. Though we may see a few flurries overnight, it won’t hinder tonight’s meeting.
🤠 Brooks Finds Himself In Low Places Speaking of courtroom drama and country music legends, a California judge denied Garth Brooks’ request to dismiss a sexual assault lawsuit last week. According to Fox17, one of the singer’s former makeup artists has alleged he raped her in 2019. In addition to denying the allegations, Brooks also filed a countersuit back in October citing extortion and defamation.
😶🌫️ Mystery In The Sky Yesterday, Senator Marsha Blackburn sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin urging the Department of Defense to address the drone sightings reported across the Eastern United States. “These incidents, which seem to involve clusters of drones appearing near critical infrastructure and sensitive areas, represent a growing threat to our national security that demands immediate and serious attention,” she wrote. Blackburn requested that the department take action in protecting US airspace, including military intervention if necessary, to deter foreign interference and intimidation—and she’s not the only Tennessee legislator sounding the alarm.
Republican Congressman Tim Burchett of Knoxville also raised concerns. “Somebody’s testing us, and we’re failing that test,” he told WKRN on Friday. “This White House—this administration—they can study it, do all the reports, but until somebody knocks one of those things daggum things down and finds out what the heck they are or where they’re from, we’re not ever going to solve it.” Though he jokingly admitted to being the “UFO guy,” Burchett doesn’t believe the mysterious drones are extraterrestrial: “Why would they fly a hundred lightyears or whatever and have blinking lights under our federal regulations?”
DEVELOPMENT
- Earnest Bar & Hideaway in WeHo to re-open as The Hideaway (NBJ)
- East Nashville building located near Five Points listed for sale (Post)
- Boutique brewery Czann's to close in The Nations (Post)
✹ THE WEEK IN STREAMING (December 17th)
Joker: Folie à Deux (Max) The year’s most loathed blockbuster makes its streaming debut as Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga bridge incel culture and the heyday of the Hollywood musical. Forget what the critics and fanboys think. As we said in October, it’s a stunning and savvy piece of work.
Christmas Flix Those tired of BB guns and the Griswolds could do worse than this eclectic hub for short videos, public-domain movies, and classic TV ranging from recipes with Natasha Burre to episodes of Dragnet and Jack Benny. Our pick: The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet Christmas collection–especially the heartfelt, cross-generational crowdpleaser “A Piano for the Fraternity.”
Red One (Prime) The Rock enters the Christmas movie fray with Jumanji director Jake Kasden as the head of North Pole security, who teams up with a bounty hunter (Chris Evans) to thwart a plot to kidnap Santa (J. K. Simmons). It’s more Fred Claus than Miracle on 34th Street as its middling November box-office indicates, but it’s a nice throwback to a simpler time.
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide and yearly festival guide.
TONIGHT
🎸 Drew & Ellie Holcomb's Neighborly Christmas @ Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 7:30p, $94, Info
🎄 Amy Grant & Vince Gill Christmas at the Ryman @ Ryman Auditorium, 7:30p, $50+, Info
🎸 Honky Tonk Tuesday @ Eastside Bowl, 8p, $10, Info
+ two-step lessons @ 7p, The Cowpokes @ 8p
🎸 Cole Ritter and the Night Owls @ The Underdog, 11:30p, Free, Info
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