Chinas Loves Y.M.C.America + Phetasy Digest
Another Plague, Seriously? | Noah Rothman Talks Leftist Violence | Trump Tours China, Friendship Restored | The Internet Is On Life Support (Just Like Us) | Love Letters To The Sane Lads And Ladies
President Trump brought an impressive entourage to China, maybe the most impressive entourage of all time, short of Jesus and the Apostles. The entire spectacle was breath-takingly surreal, from a thousand different angles. Like the exuberance of the Chinese school children as Trump walked alongside Xi Jinping, the glimpses of Elon meta-memes, the grace of Trump’s and Xi’s speeches. Or how we learned from Xi’s remarks that when he was young, he fell in love with America through The Federalist Papers and Thomas Paine, and studied the lives of great American presidents—that this staid leader of the CCP admires some of the most classic American literature (Whitman, Twain, Thoreau, Hemingway), and this whole time we had assumed that he hated Western civilization.
Then, after giving Trump a tour of the Temple of Heaven, Xi treated the President and his entourage to an opulent banquet dinner featuring Beijing roast duck, overcooked beef (a Trump favorite), and tiramisu. The People’s Liberation Army band played “America the Beautiful,” “We Are the World,” and the Elton John song from Lion King. Then, to end the night, The Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” Utterly surreal. The relationship between Donald Trump and “Y.M.C.A” deserves its own book. In an effort to explain this to my kids, I played “Y.M.C.A” and they shouted, “It’s the Minions song,” because they only know the Minionese cover from Despicable Me 2. I told them that last month, a marching band played the song in St. Peter’s Square to honor the first American Pope. That’s how American “YM.C.A” is—from every angle. Even the institution is based on. Did you know that the YMCA invented basketball, volleyball, and Father’s Day? Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X are just two of the YMCA’s many important guests since its founding in 1844.
And we shout its name at football games, weddings, proms—any major public gathering. Americans are practically born knowing how to do the “Y.M.C.A” arm dance, which was invented by Dick Clark, “America’s Oldest Teenager,” live on American Bandstand. It’s impossible to describe how culturally ubiquitous that song is in our country. If we die knowing only a handful of the most important national rituals, the “Y.M.C.A” dance will be one of them.
While covering the 2020 presidential election, I undoubtedly suffered hearing loss from the volume that Trump played “Y.M.C.A” at his rallies. It lit up a MAGA arena with volcanic force. And even this has its own subplots: In 2022, the Village People asked Trump not to use the song at his rallies, but gave up, assuming Trump would eventually get tired of it. But then the “Trump dance” went indescribably viral. Globally. It was everywhere. And “Y.M.C.A” shot to the top of the Billboard Dance/Electronic chart—47 years after its release. And the world changed and the Village People performed at Trump’s 2025 inauguration eve rally. Most recently, “Y.M.C.A.” songwriter Victor Willis said that he’ll sue any news agency that describes the song as a “gay anthem,” which is a whole other discussion deeply rooted in American cultural history.
Trump’s China visit should make everyone in the world drop their shoulders with relief. Maybe we’re not stuck in a tragedy after all, maybe the human story really is a happy one, where rivalries don’t necessarily end with carnage, and humanity is actually redemptive. Maybe we’ve just lived through a Dark Age and now we’re witnessing its social Renaissance. Maybe, despite our digital era, “face-to-face” encounters can still improve moral responsibility and prevent wars and advance political stability. Anyone who’s complaining through this historic moment should be treated like a teenage nihilist. Who knew that life on earth could reach this level of beauty and hope? And America’s 250th birthday celebrations haven’t even started. We’re still a month from the UFC showdown on the White House Lawn, to celebrate Donald Trump’s birthday, which also happens to be Flag Day. I mean, come on, man, this is great stuff!
DUMPSTER FIRE - EPISODE #314
New Plague, Who Dis?
A deadly virus is spreading around the globe. Health officials are scrambling to keep it contained. We’ve seen this movie before and we did not enjoy it. But this time it’s a virus with a 40% mortality rate. Bridget walks us through the Hantavirus outbreak, how people are reacting to a potential Pandemic: The Sequel when our trust in our institutions is already shattered, and why the World Cup could be the accelerator event to a catastrophe. Are any of us actually ready to do this again? Definitely not.
WALK-INS WELCOME - EPISODE #390
Why Left-Wing Violence Is a Suppressed History | Noah Rothman
Bridget sits down with Noah Rothman, senior editor at National Review and author of Blood And Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence in America, to trace the long, suppressed history of radical left-wing political violence in the United States — from the anarchist bombings of the 1920s to the Weather Underground to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Noah argues that this history isn’t obscure, it’s deliberately buried, and that the same patterns driving today’s wave of violence have shown up in 50-year cycles throughout American history.
DUMPSTER FIRE - EPISODE #315
America and China Are Pretending to Be Friends Again
America and China are in the world’s most expensive bad marriage — they need each other, they don’t trust each other, but it’s too expensive to get divorced. Bridget breaks down Trump’s trip to Beijing, the CEO delegation that proves capitalism always wins, the handshake heard round the world, and why the Left would rather Trump spit in Xi’s face than narrowly avoid World War III. Elon took pictures like a tourist and Marco Rubio has a new name and a new look.
THE SPECTATOR
The internet is dying and so are we
There is a lot of proof that the internet is dying. People aren’t burned out of politics, although that’s part of it. They are burned out from going “is this real?” No one has the bandwidth to become an investigative reporter for each post.
A Love Letter to the Sane Women Holding It Down
Mar 22
I’ve been wanting to write this for a while because, more often than not, I find myself doomscrolling, screaming “NOT ALL WOMEN!” It seems like most of the women represented in media are, for lack of a better word, insane. I blame the algorithms for elevating the craziest of us. So this is for you—the woman reading this who has been quietly holding it t…
THE DAILY WIRE
America Tried To ‘Fix’ Men For Two Decades. Here’s What It Got Instead.
America spent two decades trying to “fix” masculinity. It nearly broke the country — and the guys who complained the loudest about it turned out to be the ones with the least ability to fix it. America needs manly men — not men who are afraid of their masculinity, and not men who only talk about it.
What the heck. I'm always open to a little optimism.
YMCA’s popularity will always be a lingering mystery to me