The West is in trouble.
One of the reasons is that the West has fundamentally failed to distinguish between tolerance of one another&#8217;s traditions and lifestyles on the one hand, and the bizarre bend-over-backward celebration that accompanies the undermining of traditions unique to the West.
A perfect example is what&#8217;s happening in Germany now. It seems like a small story, but it is indicative of a broader mindset that has been setting in throughout the West for generations.
In Germany, McDonald&#8217;s decided on an ad campaign. The German population is roughly 6.5% Muslim at this point. Muslims celebrate Ramadan around this time of year, which means they are fasting from sunup to sundown.
Fine. That is the Muslim tradition. There are a lot of Muslims who live in the West who are perfectly fine Western citizens.
McDonald’s is not halal, meaning food that religious Muslims can eat. If you are a Muslim who is celebrating Ramadan or commemorating Ramadan, chances are that you are eating halal in your non-Ramadan hours and in your non-fasting hours, because if you&#8217;re religious enough to actually not eat all day, you probably don&#8217;t go at sunset and find a rasher of bacon and eat it.
But McDonald&#8217;s decided to put up an ad campaign in Germany. The ad campaign removes the food from the billboards during Ramadan hours out of respect for Islam. The food appears on the billboard after sunset, but it disappears during the day, presumably so as not to tempt Muslims to feel hunger pangs.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2376-wth-mc-donald-s-celebrates-ramadan"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
That is Bizarro World. It’s weird and self-defeating, and it bespeaks of something that lies at the heart of the cowardice of a lot of both corporations and people in the West.
It&#8217;s Bizarro World because McDonald&#8217;s is not halal. The people who are presumably going to be very moved by these billboards are not going to head over to McDonald&#8217;s after dusk and start chomping down on their cheeseburgers.
So what is McDonald&#8217;s doing? According to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/mcdonalds-new-ad-campaign-empty-boxes-no-food-ramadan-germany-11578866?utm_source=chatgpt.com">Newsweek</a>: 
<blockquote>The campaign was created by the German agency Scholz &amp; Friends, whose concept centers on removing McDonald’s most recognizable visual element—its food—as a gesture of respect for those observing Ramadan.</blockquote>
This is strange. The reality is McDonald’s is a food company that sells food, and the vast majority of the food that you sell is not to the people to whom they’re trying to appeal.
Who exactly is McDonald&#8217;s appealing to? Who&#8217;s the target audience?
The answer is: The dullards in the West who believe that it is a mark of virtue to subsume your own values beneath the values of other cultures.
That is the problematic part. It is a strange form of cultural reparation that somehow the West owes it to other cultures to participate in their religious activities while subsuming its own interests.
I don&#8217;t think McDonald&#8217;s cares all that much in Germany about whether or not Muslims like McDonald&#8217;s. I think what German McDonald&#8217;s cares about is that there are a lot of people in Germany who see this as a form of left-wing social virtue signaling, in the same way that in the United States, you have major corporations that every year decide they&#8217;re going to signal for Black History Month or Gay Pride month.
But the basic idea is not that you are going to earn vast oodles of cash from doing that. The idea is you&#8217;re appealing to left-wing people in the United States who will give you more money because they believe that you share their values.
The reason that you see all these companies doing DEI in the United States is absolutely not because they think it&#8217;s going to be good for their balance sheet. Hiring on the basis of non-merit is always bad for the balance sheet.
The reason these companies do it is because they believe they can appeal to an entire group of consumers who have warm feelings toward them if they take their own corporate business interests, throw those aside, and start signaling their politics.
This is a major problem. It&#8217;s not unique to Germany and is a widespread symptom of a disease that is spread across the West, where you are supposed to be overtly apologetic about not celebrating Ramadan.
This is not a sign of cultural respect.
It&#8217;s a sign of cultural disintegration.
It would be the same thing as if companies in the UK decided that they were suddenly going to take female models and suddenly cover up their faces out of respect for radical Islam.
It&#8217;s saying something, but it&#8217;s not the thing they think they&#8217;re saying.
There is an assumption that in the Trump era, DEI is basically dead, that we&#8217;re never going back to a time when corporations were virtue signaling like this, when policy did not reflect this idea that the dominant American culture ought to be put under the foot of splinter cultures.
But the reality is that it can very easily come back.
It doesn&#8217;t take a lot for it to come back. All it takes is a group of people who see it as a mark of virtue to yell at their own culture and pretend that it is somehow inferior and owes it to other cultures to demonstrate its own inferiority.
There&#8217;s a piece from Time magazine titled “<a href="https://time.com/7377439/donald-trump-cant-kill-dei/">Why Donald Trump Can&#8217;t Kill DEI</a>.” The point the piece makes is that the anti-DEI era, which is a backlash to the Barack Obama/Joe Biden era, will be followed by a backlash to the backlash, and that all this stuff will come back with a vengeance.
The piece states:
<blockquote>Ideas of inclusion and diversity also permeate everyday institutions, including schools, universities, foundations, nonprofits, and corporations. &#8230; Many companies have retreated from DEI under legal and political pressure. What makes fewer headlines is that most companies that have sidled away from the acronym continue to affirm the values of DEI under a different name. &#8230; 
Boeing stated that it maintains “procedures aimed at encouraging an equality of opportunity.” Lowe’s has proclaimed that it remained “committed to fostering an environment where individuals are treated fairly, valued, respected, safe, and inspired to serve customers and the communities where we live and work.” These statements sure sound like diversity, equity, and inclusion to us. &#8230; The education sector is equally if not more committed: a 2025 review of 262 colleges and universities found that 245 of them still maintained DEI offices and programs.</blockquote>
This is only going to continue. What does it mean?
It means this will come back if Republicans lose the forward momentum.
I know that we&#8217;re also riding high on the horse right now because Donald Trump won and because Republicans are in charge of the legislative branches of the government.
But if you think this stuff can&#8217;t come back, you’re wrong.

Germany’s Milder Recession With Stimulus Offsetting Shutdown

WTH?! McDonald’s Celebrates … Ramadan

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Ben Shapiro

Europe

Germany

Islam

McDonald’s

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Woke Culture

Actor Ted Levine apologized recently for his iconic turn as cross-dressing serial killer Jame Gumb in the 1991  horror classic &#8220;The Silence of the Lambs,&#8221; saying that it was &#8220;f*cking wrong&#8221; that the film had &#8220;vilified&#8221; the apparent gender confusion of his character.
Levine told The Hollywood Reporter that his intent had always been to play Gumb — nicknamed &#8220;Buffalo Bill&#8221; — as a &#8220;f*cked-up heterosexual man&#8221; despite the fact that the character dresses in women&#8217;s clothing, wears makeup, and skins his female victims in an effort to make himself a suit of female flesh.
&#8220;There are certain aspects of the movie that don’t hold up too well,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We all know more, and I’m a lot wiser about transgender issues. There are some lines in that script and movie that are unfortunate.&#8221;
Levine said that when they were making the film — based on the 1988 Thomas Harris novel by the same title — he had not been particularly concerned, but that &#8220;over time and having gotten aware and worked with trans folks, and understanding a bit more about the culture and the reality of the meaning of gender — it’s unfortunate that the film vilified that, and it’s f*cking wrong. And you can quote me on that.&#8221;
&#8220;I didn’t play him as being gay or trans. I think he was just a f*cked-up heterosexual man. That’s what I was doing,&#8221; Levine explained.
Director Jonathan Demme offered a <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/silence-of-the-lambs-lgbt-criticism_n_5609372">similar take</a> on Buffalo Bill&#8217;s motivations, arguing during a 2014 interview that the character was drowning in self-loathing and that turning himself into a woman was a means of escape from who he was rather than an effort to become something he specifically wanted to be.
&#8220;He didn&#8217;t wish to be another gender. He didn&#8217;t really have a sexual preference. He loathed himself — he wanted to transform himself so that there was no sense of him in the &#8216;new&#8217; him [and] becoming a woman &#8230; that was his method of doing it.&#8221;
&#8220;We were really loyal to the book. As we made the film, there was just no question in our minds that Buffalo Bill was a completely aberrant personality — that he wasn’t gay or trans,&#8221; producer Edward Saxon <a href="https://pagesix.com/2026/02/16/celebrity-news/silence-of-the-lambs-star-ted-levine-denounces-his-legendary-villain-role-after-transgender-criticism/?utm_term=Autofeed&amp;utm_campaign=pagesix&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter#Echobox=1771222232">added</a>. &#8220;He was sick. To that extent, we missed it. From my point of view, we weren’t sensitive enough to the legacy of a lot of stereotypes and their ability to harm.&#8221;
&#8220;There’s regret, but it didn’t come from any place of malice. It actually came from a place of seeing this guy. We all had dear friends and family who were gay. We thought it would just be very clear that Buffalo Bill adapts different things from society, from a place of an incredibly sick pathology,&#8221; he continued.
Despite the confusion surrounding Buffalo Bill, &#8220;The Silence of the Lambs&#8221; became the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102926/awards/">third film</a> in Academy history to sweep all five major awards: Best Picture, Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins), Best Actress (Jodie Foster), Best Director (Demme), and Best Screenplay (adapted). The other two films to do so were &#8220;It Happened One Night&#8221; (1934) and &#8220;One Flew Over the Cuckoo&#8217;s Nest&#8221; (1975).

“Child Of Grace” – Los Angeles Premiere

‘Silence Of The Lambs’ Actor Apologizes To ‘Trans Folks’ For Iconic Cross-Dressing Role

'Silence Of The Lambs' Actor Apologizes To 'Trans Folks' For Iconic Cross-Dressing Role

Celebrities

Hollywood

Movies

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Transgender

Before Donald Trump stunned the legacy media by winning the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton reassured Americans that “the challenges we face today do not approach those of Lincoln’s time. Not even close.”
Measured by bloodshed alone, she was right. Nothing today rivals the carnage of Antietam or Shiloh. Yet in a deeper sense — culturally, psychologically, and spiritually — the United States may now be more divided than it was when Americans were literally leveling rifles at each other.
The reason is profound: in 1861, both sides still believed in the legitimacy of the American experiment itself.
That may sound counterintuitive. How could the Confederacy — founded on secession and slavery — have believed in the principles of 1776, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights that followed? The answer lies in what the Confederates themselves said. In their Declarations of the Causes of Secession, Southern states were explicit. Mississippi declared, “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world.” Across the declarations of South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, Texas, and Virginia, preserving slavery appears more than eighty times as the central justification for rebellion. Taxes appear once. Tariffs not at all.
This clarity explains a historical paradox: how the country could fight a war of extraordinary savagery and yet reconcile with relative speed once it ended.
The South believed — wrongly and catastrophically — that it was defending the founding principle of self-governance. In its view, states retained sovereignty and thus the right to secede if the federal government threatened their interests. That those interests included the enslavement of millions was morally rationalized or ignored. The North, meanwhile, increasingly understood the war as a test of whether the Declaration’s claim that “all men are created equal” had any binding meaning at all.
As Abraham Lincoln recognized, both sides could not be right. But both believed they were acting in service of America. The Civil War resolved a single, defining question: whether self-government extended to the right to enslave others without due process. The ruling was handed down with prejudice at Appomattox.
The defeated South accepted the verdict — grudgingly, imperfectly, but decisively enough to prevent endless insurgency. By the end of the nineteenth century, former Confederate states had become among the most patriotic regions of the country. Former Confederate general James Longstreet captured that reconciliation when he wrote in 1899, “Barring a little family misunderstanding of a generation back, the South has never been anything but loyal.”
That sentence would be unimaginable today.
Reunion after the Civil War was possible because, once slavery — the central issue — was settled, North and South still shared a reverence for the nation’s founding. They disagreed violently about its application, but not about its legitimacy. They still loved and believed in the innate goodness of their country.
Now consider the present.
What comparable issue divides us today — one that, once resolved, would allow the country to heal? What shared assumptions remain beneath our disputes?
The uncomfortable answer: very few.
We no longer merely disagree over policy. We disagree over whether the United States itself is a moral enterprise. Americans increasingly do not share a common origin story. When one looks at John Trumbull’s painting of the presentation of the Declaration of Independence, one side sees flawed but courageous men risking everything to found a republic that, despite its contradictions, expanded human freedom. The other sees little more than oppression: “racist, sexist, slave-owning hypocrites” whose words about liberty are dismissed as fraudulent from the outset.
<div id="attachment_1041603" style="width: 901px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1041603" class="size-large wp-image-1041603" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-113494983-891x576.jpg" alt="John Trumbull's oil painting, 'Declaration of Independence', 1818, depicting the five-man drafting committee of the Declaration of Independence presenting their work to the Congress, 28th June 1776. The committee are (left to right) John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. They are presenting the draft to Charles Thomson (standing) and John Hancock (seated). (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)" width="891" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-113494983-891x576.jpg 891w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-113494983-300x194.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-113494983-768x497.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-113494983.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 891px) 100vw, 891px" />Universal History Archive/Getty Images</div>
These are not policy disagreements; they are competing realities. They cannot be resolved by elections or concluded by a surrender ceremony. There is no Appomattox for a conflict this diffuse.
Today’s divide is not organized around a single issue like slavery. It is cultural and perceptual. It plays out not on battlefields but across classrooms, workplaces, media, and daily life. Even our fiercest moral debates — abortion, immigration, gender — are symptoms rather than causes. They reflect a society that no longer agrees on truth, limits, or even basic definitions.
The Civil War removed a localized moral cancer, and the body politic survived. Today’s divisions resemble something more metastatic, dispersed throughout the entire system. There are no clear fronts, no decisive battles, no final terms — only endless skirmishes.
Lincoln urged “charity toward all and malice toward none.” But charity requires reciprocity. It requires a shared belief that persuasion matters and that one’s opponent is still a fellow citizen.
Whether such an audience still exists is the question that will define the years ahead.
* * *
Brad Schaeffer is a commodities fund manager, author, and columnist whose articles have appeared on the pages of The Wall Street Journal, NY Post, NY Daily News, The Daily Wire, National Review, The Hill, The Federalist, Zerohedge, and other outlets. He is the author of three <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id=55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">books</a>. You can also follow him on <a href="https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Substack</a> and <a href="https://x.com/bschaeffer123" target="_blank" rel="noopener">X</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Lee Surrenders To Grant At Appomattox Court House

There Is No Appomattox For America’s Current Conflict

Abraham Lincoln

American History

Civil War

Culture

Southern States

United States

Over the weekend, we learned about a very powerful, very rich cadre of people who think they have inordinate control over the direction of our nation&#8217;s politics.
I&#8217;m speaking, of course, about the Grammys.
This year’s Grammys were filled with our usual celebrity geniuses spouting their usual performative politics to the cheers of their fellow celebrities.
The reason I&#8217;m pointing this out is because if you ever wonder what the room is like where special people hash out what our culture ought to look like, it looks like the Grammys.
What makes the Grammys and so many of our award shows fascinating is that they are an inside look for the rest of the world of what these people actually sound like at dinner parties.
I know a lot of the people in Hollywood. I&#8217;ve spoken with many of them. Far too often, we see people patting themselves on the back for their performative version of the most extreme radical politics in our society.
That’s the reason we are so annoyed when it shows up on our television. When people tune into the Grammys or the Oscars or any other awards show, what they expect is a celebration of the culture that we all share, the music or films that we all enjoy.
<div id="attachment_974957" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2359-the-grammys-vs-ice?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-974957" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>DailyWire+</div>
Instead, what we usually get is a cocktail party punctuated by some people who share lifestyles holding up the trophy. These are the most protected, wealthy people in our society, and the people who share that lifestyle are people who tend to share their politics.
And they act as if we, the little people, are privileged because they are sharing their politics with us.
Sunday night at the Grammys, virtually every performer decided they were going to lead by ripping into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Trump administration. 
Obviously, there are other things going on in the world, and sometimes that’s the focus. Just a year or two ago, virtually everyone at the Grammys said something about the supposed evils of the Israeli Defense Forces in the Gaza Strip.
Now, of course, the Iranian government has been mowing down protesters, perhaps by the tens of thousands.
Not one single word about that at the Grammys.
But lots of words for Immigration and Customs Enforcement doing its job in Minneapolis.
Bad Bunny, whose real name is apparently Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, and who was nominated for six Grammys, won an award for his album.
He’s the same guy who is supposed to perform at the Super Bowl, apparently wearing a dress, which is exactly what we all want.
(Because if you&#8217;re showing your nine-year-old son the Super Bowl, where men are men and athletic performance and grit and determination and heart are the keys to victory, what you really want is a dude gallivanting around in ladies&#8217; garments during halftime.)
<div id="attachment_1037523" style="width: 888px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1037523" class="size-large wp-image-1037523" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2258958804-878x576.jpg" alt="LOS ANGELES - FEBRUARY 1: Bad Bunny receives the award for Album of the Year at The 68th Annual Grammy Awards, broadcasting live Sunday, February 1, 2026 on the CBS Television Network, and streaming live and on demand on Paramount+*. (Photo by Stewart Cook/CBS via Getty Images)" width="878" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2258958804-878x576.jpg 878w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2258958804-300x197.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2258958804-768x504.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2258958804.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 878px) 100vw, 878px" />Stewart Cook/CBS via Getty Images</div>
Bad Bunny proceeded to rip into ICE, which is precisely what we need to hear from this human.
“Before I say thanks to God, I&#8217;m going to say ‘ICE out,” he declared to thunderous applause. “We&#8217;re not savages. We’re not animals. We&#8217;re not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans. And also, I want to say to people I know it&#8217;s tough not to hate on these days. &#8230; The hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love.”
Deep words. Love is more powerful than hate. That is deep verbiage. I can see why he is such an acclaimed songwriter and performer.
I love how celebrities really believe that they are Michael Scott in “The Office.” They think they can walk into the middle of a room and shout, “I declare bankruptcy,” and it is legally effective.
If you go into a room with all of your fellow celebrities protected by armed security outside, where every single human who comes into that arena has to have their background checked, you can sit there and tell the rest of America that no protection is available — for them.
Billie Eilish —whom I would guess not only has armed security but a palatial estate surrounded by a fence because she has stalker problems— said, “nobody is illegal on stolen land.”
By stolen land, I assume she means all of planet Earth, since populations have been moving since the beginning of recorded human history.
Billie Eilish does look significantly less unhappy since she started dating a dude. At least, she’s got that going for her.
Olivia Dean chimed in, “I guess I want to say I&#8217;m up here as a granddaughter of an immigrant, I wouldn&#8217;t be here.”
I should point out that a huge percentage of Americans have ancestors who came here at some point.
Oh, the bravery of these people. They all think alike. They all act as if they have similar lifestyles, and they are speaking to you, the little people, the people who don&#8217;t have armed security at your palatial estates or have people pay you millions upon millions of dollars to sing songs written by a large coterie of other people.
You need to hear their voices. You need to hear their words. These are the tastemakers. These are the people shaping the culture for our children.
Gloria Estefan compared ICE to the Holocaust.
You can&#8217;t just compare something to the Holocaust. Picking up individual illegal immigrants and sending them back to their home countries is not the same as an entire war infrastructure set up to systematically murder millions of people of a particular race.
America is not Nazi Germany. You know what you didn&#8217;t see in the middle of World War II? A bunch of artists getting up on red carpets, talking about how terrible the Nazis were — in Berlin.
<div id="attachment_1037525" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1037525" class="size-large wp-image-1037525" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2258940660-864x576.jpg" alt="LOS ANGELES - FEBRUARY 1: Trevor Noah at The 68th Annual Grammy Awards, broadcasting live Sunday, February 1, 2026 on the CBS Television Network, and streaming live and on demand on Paramount+*. (Photo by Francis Specker/CBS via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2258940660-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2258940660-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2258940660-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2258940660.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Francis Specker/CBS via Getty Images</div>
And of course, we got Trevor Noah hosting the Grammys, where he was his usual smarmy, obnoxious self, ripping Nicki Minaj for the great sin of having gone to the White House to promote the Trump accounts, which are savings accounts being set up for American children. “She is still at the White House with Donald Trump discussing very important issues,” he mocked to cheers from the audience.
I love that all the people cheering when he mocks Nicki Minaj for “discussing serious issues” act as though they are discussing serious issues.
They sing songs that are overproduced in autotune, and then they go on stage and pretend they know something about policy.
Noah dropped what he thought was a joke about Epstein Island and Trump and suggested that the president had been to Epstein Island. Trump fired back, threatening to sue Trevor Noah.
Why is any of this really important? Because when you have all the cultural tastemakers who are all pushing the same politics, that is likely to seep out into the broader culture, and sometimes these politics can go viral and turn into a brain worm that eats the American body politic.
You saw this, for example, with the trans issue, pushed by every cultural arbiter in American society. For a decade, this was promoted as the way to decide whether a person was virtuous or not, whether they were willing to say that a boy could be a girl and a girl could be a boy. 
It does make a difference when the entire cultural apparatus mobilizes behind an issue.
But there is something else here that is also worthy of note. Celebrities have their own social circle that tends to mirror itself. It is, in fact, a hallway of mirrors. You&#8217;re not welcome in a lot of these social circles if you have different politics. You cannot succeed if you don’t mirror their politics.
The story of Hollywood in its most depraved form, writ small, would be the Diddy “White Parties.” That was Hollywood in its most depraved form, writ small. That was a microcosm of what Hollywood is. That was the most extreme version of what&#8217;s happening in that cultural milieu.
But we are supposed to be privileged to listen to what these kinds of people have to say.

The 68th Annual Grammy Awards

The Grammys Hallway Of Mirrors: How Celebrity Performative Politics Infects Culture

Grammy Awards

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Music

As tensions in Minnesota continue to flare up over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions and allegations of rampant fraud, far-Left actors and activists have decided that it would be expedient to inflame the issues further. So, it shouldn&#8217;t come as a shock that the teachers unions and their activist allies have chosen to join in and provoke further unrest and strife.
In fact, a recent <a href="https://x.com/BGOnTheScene/status/2011524444905435353">video</a> posted on X claims to show K-12 students and teachers in Saint Paul, Minnesota walking out of school in protest over ICE. Days later the Saint Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE) put out a <a href="https://x.com/JennaReports/status/2011493535812338109?s=20">statement</a> calling for its members to engage in a “Day of Action” and stating that there would be “no work, no school, and no shopping.” Unsurprisingly, the communiqué comes with a list of demands such as the removal of ICE from the state and the defunding of the federal agency.
The organization of “educators” then publicly proclaimed that it was “on the side” of the students, while simultaneously shutting down schools in a district where roughly 70% of all elementary students are not <a href="https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/minnesota/districts/saint-paul-public-schools-104201">proficient</a> in math and reading. However, SPFE and its members are sending a clear message that their top priority is not the education of the children and families they serve, but far-Left social justice activism.
Unfortunately, this is a feature, not a bug, of the dominant ideology permeating the Gopher State’s education system writ large. Social justice activism is now the primary ethos of a system corrupted by Left-wing political actors who have been turning classrooms into street activist training programs in service to a Revolutionary Industrial Complex.
In the Colleges of Education, for instance, teacher candidates are conditioned into far-Left political ideas that are often sold to budding educators as “best practices.” Future K-12 instructors are then expected to incorporate these ideas into their own methodologies.
For example, Minnesota State University Mankato’s College of Education <a href="https://defendinged.org/incidents/minnesota-state-university-mankato-corrupted/">states</a> in its “Conceptual Framework” that the teacher training program’s vision is to “inspire lifelong learning and professional engagement through racial consciousness, social justice, and inclusion.” The program aims to prepare “anti-racist practitioners” by using Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a foundational framework focusing on privilege, oppression, systemic racism, and social justice activism. In fact, future elementary school teachers are required to take a course titled “ED 101 – Introduction to Critical Race Theory in Education.”
But it is not just the training of teachers that is problematic. Some university programs are offering free lesson plans and resources to K-12 teachers that promote Left-wing biases and agendas.
Such is the case with the University of Minnesota Twin Cities’ Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender &amp; Sexuality Studies (RIDGS) program, which has <a href="https://defendinged.org/investigations/liberated-university-of-minnesota-twin-cities/">created</a> and made publicly available ethnic studies lesson plans for K-12 schools that are riddled with far-Left ideologies promoting youth activism. For instance, a sixth-grade lesson titled “Protest Art &amp; the Movement for Black Life” focuses on the Black Lives Matter movement and how to “create their own protest art for a cause of their choice.” The multi-day plan reads like a revolutionary training program meant to prepare eleven-year-olds for some yet to be determined protest.
However, if there is any doubt about these ideologies trickling out of the universities and into K-12, look no further than Saint Paul Public Schools’ (SPPS) <a href="https://defendinged.org/incidents/liberated-saint-paul-public-schools/">critical ethnic studies</a> curriculum. A 2023 RIDGS report on the deeply divisive course highlights the “seven principles” students are taught throughout the year, including “critical consciousness” and “resistance.” According to statements included in the document, students learned about “protests” and “civil disobedience” and were inspired by the Third World Liberation Front.
Like SPPS, Minneapolis Public Schools’ (MPS) <a href="https://defendinged.org/incidents/minneapolis-public-schools-ethnic-studies-course-teaches-students-that-capitalism-and-western-culture-is-exploitative-and-leads-to-slavery-colonialism-genocide-and-white-supremacy/">ethnic studies</a> courses are also saturated with revolutionary dogmas. In one of the classes, students learn to “challenge the ‘white savior’ narrative” and that slavery, genocide, and white supremacy all stem from capitalism and Western culture. Naturally, the course in question also includes student activism.
So, it should come as little surprise that K-12 students from both SPPS and MPS appear to be <a href="https://defendinged.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/2026_Twin-Cities-Student-ICE-protest-chat.pdf">planning</a> their own mass &#8220;strike” and “walkout” over ICE. Of course, it is highly probable that they are getting “guidance” from parents, teachers, and local activists.
While Minnesota’s streets heat up during the dead of winter, parents and the public need to be aware that far-Left actors inside and outside the education system have been preparing teachers and students for years to be street activists and protestors.
Local and national leaders, first and foremost, need to ensure that the youth and their teachers can peacefully exercise their First Amendment rights safely. But there also needs to be investigations into the Revolutionary Industrial Complex that has taken over Minnesota’s entire education system. Families, students, and communities deserve better from their education system.
 * * * 
Rhyen Staley is a researcher for Defending Education. He holds a master&#8217;s degree in elementary education and has over a decade of classroom experience in both public and private schools. He has over 25 years of volleyball coaching experience from Women’s Division I down to junior high.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

St. Paul, Minnesota student anti-ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) demonstrations, January 2026

Teachers Unions Shut Down Minnesota Schools For Activism

Children

Critical Race Theory

Education

Ethnic Studies

K-12

Leftists

Liberals

Minneapolis

Minnesota

Progressivism

Public Schools

Teachers Unions

Star trek starfleet

Woke TV Is Back With A Vengeance In This New Paramount Show

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Entertainment

Matt Walsh

Paramount

Star Trek

Television

The year in pop culture gave us reality stars smiting governors, a Coldplay concert going viral for nothing music-related, and a pop star’s career crashing upon re-entry.
And even though late-night TV had begun to fizzle out years ago, in 2025, Stephen Colbert and co. watched their gigs finally go up in smoke.
It’s impossible to look back on the last 12 months and not gawk at late-night propagandists getting their just desserts.
For Colbert of “The Late Show” fame, that meant getting a time-release pink slip. Someone finally crunched some serious numbers behind the scenes and realized Colbert’s DNC agenda is costing CBS a pretty penny … <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/go-f-yourself-colbert-unleashes-anti-trump-tirade-amid-report-his-show-loses-40m-annually">$40 million a year</a>, to be precise.
So Colbert was forced to read his professional obituary on-air. And the show won’t even go on without him. Come May, “The Late Show” heads to the dustbin of history alongside eight-track tapes and TiVo devices.
<div id="attachment_1021603" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1021603" class="size-large wp-image-1021603" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2238453774-864x576.jpg" alt="NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 30: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and guest Jimmy Kimmel during Tuesday's September 30, 2025 show. (Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2238453774-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2238453774-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2238453774-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2238453774.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images</div>
Fellow progressive Jimmy Kimmel was spared that fate, but not by much. The ABC host insinuated MAGA nation fired the bullet that killed conservative hero Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10, setting off a series of events that led to Kimmel’s week-long suspension.
He got his job back and a tepid show of support via a one-year contract extension. The damage was done. Kimmel’s “Man Show” past and irreverent shtick is no more. Now, he’s more likely to cry on-camera than make us howl.
His only hope is that Colbert’s audience tunes in for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” come May, delaying his show’s inevitable cancellation.
On the film front, theaters once again struggled to reclaim their pre-pandemic mojo. The box office receipts looked awfully similar to 2024, hardly a golden age for theatrical attendance.
Films like “Superman,” “Thunderbolts” and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” failed to duplicate that ol’ superhero magic, leaving it to video game adaptations like “A Minecraft Movie” to pick up the slack.
At least we weren’t subjected to <a href="https://variety.com/2024/film/news/skibidi-toilet-michael-bay-movie-adam-goodman-1236077245/">“Skibidi Toilet: The Movie</a>.” Not yet, at least. 
Meanwhile, Hollywood’s far-Left agenda got a workout via “One Battle After Another.” The Paul Thomas Anderson screed so overtly progressive even some Antifa types might cry foul.
And, of course, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/is-the-best-picture-race-already-over">it’s bound for Oscar glory come March</a>.
Speaking of Oscars, 2025 saw an awards hopeful crash and burn in record time. The woke musical comedy “Emilia Pérez” seemed likely to dominate awards season until we learned some of the less-than-progressive comments made by its trans lead, Karla Sofia Gascón.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce finally made their courtship official, but the best news for football fans is that his Kansas City Chiefs missed the playoffs. That means no more obligatory “Taylor is crying/cheering/laughing” shots interrupting the NFL action.
<div id="attachment_1021607" style="width: 865px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1021607" class="size-large wp-image-1021607" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2250411061-855x576.jpg" alt="WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 06: U.S. President Donald Trump (L) presents actor Sylvester Stallone (R) a medal for the 2025 Kennedy Center Honorees during a medal presentation in the Oval Office of the White House on December 06, 2025 in Washington, DC. The 2025 Kennedy Center honorees are Sylvester Stallone, George Strait, the rock band KISS, Gloria Gaynor, and Michael Crawford. (Photo by Aaron Schwartz/Getty Images)" width="855" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2250411061-855x576.jpg 855w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2250411061-300x202.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2250411061-768x518.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2250411061.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 855px) 100vw, 855px" />Aaron Schwartz/Getty Images</div>
Sylvester Stallone capped a remarkable career by picking up a Kennedy Center Honor at long last, courtesy of former reality show star and two-term president Donald Trump. The 79-year-old legend also defied Father Time by returning for the third season of Taylor Sheridan’s “Tulsa King.”
Of course, it would be impossible to recap entertainment in 2025 without a tip of the hat to Taylor Sheridan, television’s undisputed king of rugged episodic dramas. From “The Mayor of Kingstown” to the “Yellowstone” franchise, Sheridan’s shows keep attracting A-list talent and plenty of eyeballs. And he’s positioned to strike gold again in 2026 with the release of the next “Yellowstone” spinoff, “Y: Marshals,” starring Luke Grimes.
Sheridan made headlines once again in 2025 by signing a mega-deal with NBCUniversal and having his “Landman” series skewer the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/taylor-sheridan-show-landman-mocks-the-view-bunch-of-ped-off-millionaires">“p***ed off millionaires” of “The View.”</a>
<div id="attachment_1021611" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1021611" class="size-large wp-image-1021611" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-1486674789-864x576.jpg" alt="INDIO, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 30: Taylor Sheridan speaks onstage during Day 3 of the 2023 Stagecoach Festival on April 30, 2023 in Indio, California. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images for Stagecoach)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-1486674789-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-1486674789-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-1486674789-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-1486674789.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Monica Schipper/Getty Images for Stagecoach</div>
The devastating Palisades fires should have roasted Governor Gavin Newsom’s political fortunes for good. Not quite, but reality show alum Spencer Pratt made it his mission to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/reality-star-spencer-pratt-slams-california-plan-to-build-low-income-housing-in-fire-ravaged-areas">shame both Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass</a> for their extreme incompetence.
“Having the people in charge of the town they just let burn down make any decisions in rebuilding it … seems crazy to me,” Pratt said in one of many well-earned rants. Podcaster Adam Carolla piled on, filing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8IKPIDVIoY">vlog posts</a> decrying the lack of progress on the home building front all year long.
HBO Max’s “The White Lotus” became the show everyone talked about at the cyber-water cooler – AKA Elon Musk’s X. This season’s ick factor likely played a part, thanks to guest star <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/sam-rockwell-white-lotus-monologue-acting-coach-1236175014/">Sam Rockwell’s disturbing revelations</a> to that <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/the-white-lotus-brothers-kiss-season-3-1236164899/">brotherly buss</a> with Ah-nold’s son getting too much attention.
And while the culture remains hopelessly divided on political grounds, Americans did unite to mock a Coldplay concert moment that went insanely viral. A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/viral-coldplay-kiss-cam-woman-speaks-out-is-furious-with-gwyneth-paltrow">Kiss Cam caught Kristin Cabot</a> canoodling with her boss, Andrew Byron, a moment that proved inescapable for anyone remotely online.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-969733 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Coldplay-concert-1022x576.png" alt="Coldplay concert" width="1022" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Coldplay-concert-1022x576.png 1022w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Coldplay-concert-300x169.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Coldplay-concert-768x433.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Coldplay-concert.png 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 1022px) 100vw, 1022px" /></div>
Netflix remained atop the streaming heap, and its plans to swallow Warner Bros. will have sizable implications for Hollywood and beyond. The streamer’s signature show, a four-episode saga dubbed “Adolescence,” caught everyone by surprise. Each installment, shot in a single take, captured a young boy in the weeks following his arrest for a shocking murder. Must-see TV? Perhaps, but it left audiences feeling queasy for the next generation.
If that wasn’t enough, 2025 had us focus on the Sean Combs trial. Sure, we cracked wise about baby oil sales, but the particulars of P. Diddy’s life and alleged crimes made us wonder what else is happening behind the scenes in Hollywood that we won’t hear about for years to come?
<div id="attachment_1021623" style="width: 842px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1021623" class="size-large wp-image-1021623" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2229729015-832x576.jpg" alt="NEW YORK, NEW YORK - AUGUST 11: Katy Perry performs onstage during Katy Perry: The Lifetimes Tour - New York at Madison Square Garden on August 11, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for KP)" width="832" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2229729015-832x576.jpg 832w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2229729015-300x208.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2229729015-768x532.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2229729015.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 832px) 100vw, 832px" />Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for KP</div>
And then there’s Katy Perry.
The “I Kissed a Girl” superstar headed into space, or at least a small part of it, via Jeff Bezos’ New Shepard rocket. The experiment became social media fodder, in part due to the “astronaut&#8217;s’” inflated sense of self.
Perry might have been better off staying in orbit. She <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/katy-perry-experiences-frightening-onstage-mishap-concert-san/story?id=123894140">experienced not one</a> but <a href="https://www.eonline.com/news/1420864/katy-perrys-bloody-knee-injury-photo">two</a> concert accidents, watched her choreography get roasted on social media, and capped 2025 by winning a legal victory over a <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/11/28/entertainment/katy-perry-to-receive-1-8m-payout-from-dying-veteran-in-years-long-battle-over-montecito-mansion/">dying military veteran</a>.
She’ll be lucky to Dance with Any Stars come 2026.
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic, and editor of <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

TOPSHOT-US-ENTERTAINMENT-CBS-LATE SHOW-COLBERT

The Year Pop Culture Finally Began To Eat Its Own

Democrats

Film

Jimmy Kimmel

Katy Perry

Stephen Colbert

Taylor Swift

In recent decades, the leftist political ethos has taken over how to tell fairy tales.
My favorite example is the arc Disney has gone through.
I&#8217;m a huge fan of the old Disney films. It makes me really sad how Disney has destroyed its own intellectual property and really screwed itself up as a company in the service of politics.
My favorite example is the difference between the film “Pinocchio” and the film “Frozen.”
In “Pinocchio,” Jiminy Cricket sings, “Always let your conscience be your guide.” The entire story of “Pinocchio” is that the boy who is coming of age refuses to let his conscience be his guide. He has to explore every bad idea, and finally learns that responsibility for protecting his own family and his father is actually how you become a real boy. The way that you actually mature in the world is to take on responsibility and duty and act with conscience, as opposed to going to Pleasure Island.
The theme could not have been more clearly stated.
Contrast that with the immorality of the most popular song in the last 20 years from Disney, “Let It Go,” in which there is literally a lyric that says “No right, no wrong, no rules, I&#8217;m free,” which is about as pagan an ethos as is possible to get.
You can see the arc of American morality in three generations right there.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-251223-member-exclusive?elementPosition=3&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
If you look back to Shakespeare, he sometimes creates a toned-up version of fairy tales. All of his comedies are essentially a type of fairy tale, and every single one of them ends with a marriage. That’s because life is funny; all these bad things happen, and yet the generations move on. You get married, and you build something.
With the tragedies, everyone dies at the end. In these works, death is a tragedy because the characters have not fulfilled their function of passing it on to the next generation.
Moreover, in the tragedies, it&#8217;s not just an old person dying, it&#8217;s the young person dying that&#8217;s the real tragedy. The tragedy of King Lear isn&#8217;t Lear&#8217;s death; it’s Cordelia&#8217;s death.
That’s true throughout all of the stories of the West: the importance of the deepest things. And because we have become a sterile civilization, I wonder, how much of that is connected to the sterility of rationality?
I really pride myself on rationality. I love reason, reason&#8217;s great; logic is great. But the truth is that the things that people tie themselves to are beyond reason.
I’ve spoken about what I call role theory, which is the idea that all of religion and all of culture is built around particular roles that are universal to human beings.
But we as a society have decided that roles are bad. Roles are impositions from the outside. What we really are is free-floating, authentic desire. And because roles come with rules, they are an imposition on us, and therefore, we have to explode those roles to live a free and full life. In reality, the roles are what make us who we are. And that’s pretty much what every fairy tale is about.
What every great story is about is a person reconciling and making the most of the role that has been laid out for them; the world pre-exists you; you&#8217;re meant for a role the minute you&#8217;re born. That role is laid out for you. You have liberty to live out choices within that role, but the minute that liberty becomes a universal asset that destroys the role, the minute that happens, it&#8217;s no longer liberty.
Then it becomes libertinism, and everything descends into chaos.

Traditional wooden Pinocchio toy.

From Conscience To Chaos: How Modern Storytelling Abandoned Moral Roles

Animation

Cartoon

Disney

Morality

Social Issues

Last week, the White House convened an education roundtable with U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon titled, “Biased Professors, Woke Administrators, and the End of Free Inquiry on U.S. Campuses.”
Secretary McMahon opened the event by <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-secretary-of-education-linda-mcmahon-participates-white-house-roundtable-left-wing-ideological-capture-of-universities">stating</a>, “It was an honor to be at the White House today with this dedicated coalition of students, faculty, institutional leaders, and policy advocates to highlight the issue of woke ideology and the capture of our institutions of higher education. DEI policies have turned universities from free marketplaces of ideas to purveyors of manufactured ideological conformity, chilling free speech and undermining academic rigor.”
She <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-secretary-of-education-linda-mcmahon-participates-white-house-roundtable-left-wing-ideological-capture-of-universities">explained</a>, “We are committed to working with higher education leaders to reverse course from these decades of decline.”
The Secretary highlighted actions taken by the Trump Administration, including dissolving DEI programs, enforcing merit-based practices, and guiding universities to comply with federal law, noting that over 400 institutions have made substantive changes. The U.S. Department of Education is working to incentivize universities to operate with fairness, academic rigor, and civil discourse.
Providing strong, positive leadership, Secretary McMahon <a href="https://www.ed.gov/media/document/secretary-mcmahon-white-house-remarks-12325-112619.pdf">shared</a>, “We want to provide every opportunity for colleges to recommit themselves to principles like non-discrimination, open discourse and neutrality, financial responsibility, resisting foreign influence, and putting students first.” She called for a recommitment to principles of reason, individual excellence, and non-discrimination to create a “golden age” of higher education.
This was the second in a series of higher education roundtables. The first roundtable was held at the White House on November 19, titled “Administrative Bloat and Low-Value Programs: How U.S. Universities are Failing American Families and How They Can Reform.” It addressed higher-education affordability and key components of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, including new caps on graduate loan borrowing aimed at reducing costs and boosting accountability.
Undeniably, the Trump Administration is providing pivotal leadership to reform public higher education. As Eric Bledsoe, Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy with a focus on education, explained at last week’s roundtable, “universities serve a public interest and must be held accountable by the public.” Bledsoe also noted that higher education should be about “cultivating mature citizens who are prepared for the workforce.”
It’s common sense 101, and thankfully for the American people, this administration is working overtime to change the status quo and cultivate a return to normalcy in public higher education, which has been overtaken by wokeness.
In October, the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” was released by the Trump Administration and sent initially to nine institutions. It outlined eight “priorities of the U.S. government in its engagement with universities that benefit from the relationship.” It clearly <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Compact-for-Academic-Excellence-in-Higher-Education-10.1.pdf">notes</a> that “Institutions of higher education are free to develop models and values” other than those outlined “if the institution elects to forego federal benefits.”
The priorities are as follows: equality in admission, marketplace of ideas and civil discourse, non-discrimination in faculty and administrative hiring, institutional neutrality, student learning, student equality, financial responsibility, and foreign entanglements.
The Compact <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Compact-for-Academic-Excellence-in-Higher-Education-10.1.pdf">reads</a>: “The leadership of an academic institute is directly responsible for its strategy, success, and adherence to legal and governmental requirements.” More specifically, each year, the institute’s President, Provost, and Head of Admissions will be required to certify that the university abides by the principles outlined in the Compact.
Violators — whether willfully or negligently — will lose benefits for at least one year. Repeat offenders will lose benefits for at least two years. Additionally, funds advanced to the university by the federal government during the year of violation must be returned. Most <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Compact-for-Academic-Excellence-in-Higher-Education-10.1.pdf">notably</a>, “any private contributions to the university during the year(s) in which such violation occurred shall be returned to the grantor upon the request of the grantor.”
Universities collectively receive hundreds of billions of dollars each year, yet do not deliver soundly on their mission. This much-needed accountability is a major step in the right direction.
As Secretary McMahon <a href="https://www.ed.gov/media/document/secretary-mcmahon-white-house-remarks-12325-112619.pdf">communicated</a> at the most recent White House education roundtable, she is inviting those leading higher education institutions to join her in “creating a golden age of academe — committed to reason, not racial preferences. Merit, not marginalizing the so-called ‘oppressor.’ Individual excellence, not ideological indoctrination.”
University leaders would be wise to get out of the business of indoctrination and discrimination and instead focus on fulfilling their institution’s mission of open inquiry and excellence in academics. Even if they do not align with the Trump Administration, agree with the Compact, or value meritocracy, their institution’s bottom line will be better for it. And most importantly, so will their students and our nation.
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Dr. Keri D. Ingraham is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute, Director of the American Center for Transforming Education, and a Senior Fellow at Independent Women’s Forum.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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Universities II. Google Gemini design.

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“Wicked: For Good” European Premiere – Arrivals

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Ratings are down. Cultural prestige? Sinking as we speak. Yet the Best Picture race is one even casual movie fans tend to track. It’s the night’s biggest honor, and having a Best Picture logo next to a film title still holds some sway in the culture.
That’s even though most people didn’t see, or can’t remember, the last few Best Picture winners.
And, each awards season, experts track which film has the best chance to win that Oscar trophy. It’s the ultimate horse race, with box office results, critical reviews, and cultural resonance influencing the outcome.
Is this year’s race over already, weeks before some Oscar-bait films have even reached theaters? It sure looks that way.
Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” stars Leonardo DiCaprio and has already won multiple honors, and the awards season has barely begun. The film swept the National Board of Review’s 2025 honors, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor (DiCaprio).
That’s in addition to best picture wins with the Atlanta Film Critics Circle, the Gotham Awards, and the New York Film Critics Circle. The film also scored big with Sight and Sound’s 2025 Best Films Of The Year List, topping its 2025 chart.
More will follow, no doubt.
<div id="attachment_1010711" style="width: 471px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1010711" class="size-large wp-image-1010711" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Movie-OBAA-461x576.jpg" alt="Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures - copyright Warner Bros. Pictures" width="461" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Movie-OBAA-461x576.jpg 461w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Movie-OBAA-240x300.jpg 240w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Movie-OBAA-768x960.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Movie-OBAA-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Movie-OBAA.jpg 1638w" sizes=" (max-width: 461px) 100vw, 461px" />Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures &#8211; copyright Warner Bros. Pictures</div>
“One Battle After Another” stars DiCaprio as a bumbling protester who hangs up his revolutionary jacket to raise his mixed-race daughter (Chase Infiniti). His radical past comes back to haunt them when a racist, out-of-control Colonel (Sean Penn) tracks his daughter down for nefarious purposes.
It doesn’t take Peter Falk’s iconic Columbo to sleuth out why “One Battle After Another” is generating so much critical adoration. Yes, Anderson is a top-tier filmmaker, and some of the sequences in the film prove exhilarating.
The film’s political point of view is pure catnip to a community wedded to progressive ideals. The story’s heroes are anti-government radicals who will do whatever it takes to free illegal immigrants taken into U.S. custody.
If that means holding U.S. officials at gunpoint, setting off fireworks, or bombing buildings, so be it. The U.S. forces shown throughout the film are almost uniformly cruel, callous, or just plain evil. A subplot involving a White Nationalist group feels too extreme even for your average MS NOW anchor.
It wasn’t for movie critics, apparently. They’ve endlessly praised the film to the tune of a 94% “fresh” rating at RottenTomatoes.com. The general public liked it, albeit less, via an 85% “fresh” score.
Some scribes have tried to <a href="https://variety.com/2025/film/columns/no-one-battle-after-another-is-not-a-left-wing-film-1236556461/">downplay the film’s far-Left politics</a>, a funnier take than any late-night monologue.
<div id="attachment_1010715" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1010715" class="size-large wp-image-1010715" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Leo-robe-864x576.jpg" alt="Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures - copyright Warner Bros. Pictures" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Leo-robe-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Leo-robe-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Leo-robe-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Leo-robe-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Leo-robe-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Leo-robe-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Leo-robe.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures &#8211; copyright Warner Bros. Pictures</div>
It helps that no other 2025 release has “Best Picture” written all over it. Director Chloe Zhao’s “Hamnet” is getting early raves, but the film has barely registered at the box office ($1.7 million to date) and offers a maudlin subject. The film imagines what William Shakespeare and his wife endured after the loss of their son.
The Boss biopic “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” flopped in theaters and didn’t get enough critical love.
Art remains subjective, but Hollywood politics are another matter. Not only does “One Battle After Another” reflect the industry’s hard-Left embrace of open borders, it’s a thumb in the eye to both ICE and President Donald Trump.
The latter will be irresistible to Academy voters. And, chances are, the film’s key stars will lean into that sentiment during awards season.
The various arts honors do more than help predict which films and actors will emerge triumphant on Oscar night. They let the early winners test out their acceptance speeches, another unwritten part of their Oscar campaigns.
Uncork a few fiery “thank you… and” speeches, hitting all the “approved” targets along the way, and a star’s Oscar chances perk up.
Now, imagine what DiCaprio would say at the Oscar podium while collecting his second Best Actor statue for “One Battle After Another.” He used his 2017 podium time to promote his Climate Change agenda.
<div id="attachment_1010725" style="width: 808px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1010725" class="size-large wp-image-1010725" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-645717450-798x576.jpg" alt="HOLLYWOOD, CA - FEBRUARY 26: Actor Leonardo DiCaprio speaks onstage during the 89th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood &amp; Highland Center on February 26, 2017 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)" width="798" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-645717450-798x576.jpg 798w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-645717450-300x217.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-645717450-768x554.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-645717450.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 798px) 100vw, 798px" />Kevin Winter/Getty Images</div>
There’s less than zero chance he won’t blast President Trump’s attempt to enforce immigration laws in any 2026 speech. And he won’t be alone.
Recent Oscar ceremonies have dialed back, to a degree, on the hard-Left polemics. Even far-Left host Jimmy Kimmel hasn’t leaned into his progressive bona fides in recent years.
That will change in 2026 after a full year of President Trump’s return to the White House. Is there a better film to reflect that “resistance” than “One Battle After Another”? That’s rhetorical.
We still have a few more weeks before the year ends. Films like “Marty Supreme,” starring perennial Oscar-bait Timothee Chalamet, hit theaters on Christmas Day. Still, anyone who grasps Oscar culture knows a heavy favorite when he or she sees one.
There is one dark path forward that could derail “One Battle After Another.” The film’s gauzy framing of violence against immigration enforcement took an ugly turn when real attacks on ICE agents broke out close to the film’s release.
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/second-illegal-immigrant-detainee-dies-after-dallas-ice-shooting">September attack on a Dallas-based ICE facility</a> didn’t kill any U.S. agents, but it did leave two illegal immigrants dead. The media complex didn’t connect the attack to “One Battle After Another,” but if similar events follow, the connection may be unavoidable.
Hollywood may want to shrug off any ties between the film and actual carnage, but it might be enough of a problem to coax Oscar voters to select another, less incendiary film.
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic, and editor of <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
* * *
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The Cracker Barrel rebrand debacle has been one of the most misunderstood corporate wokeness sagas of 2025. For months, it’s been held up as an example of the failures of ‘culture war conservatism,’ a tempest in a teapot that no one really cared about. Yet, we recently received data-driven proof that the backlash to one of America’s most beloved country brands has been anything but imaginary.
At first glance, it would appear the outrage from consumers and shareholders was simply about the advent of a minimalist logo. The reality, however, is that Cracker Barrel’s performance has been slipping for years. For example, if you invested $1,000 in Cracker Barrel at the start of 2021, it would be worth less than $300 today. That can’t be explained away by a simple logo change. That’s a major problem, years in the making.
But the real test for Cracker Barrel wasn’t whether customers would forgive Uncle Herschel and his wayward brand. It was whether investors would forgive the Barrel’s board of directors, specifically embattled CEO Julie Felss Masino.
On November 20, Cracker Barrel held its annual shareholder meeting, and we found out exactly how much investor trust had been destroyed. Simply put: a lot. A large percentage of investor votes are guided by the recommendation of proxy advisory firms, none of which were inclined to let Cracker Barrel walk away from the debacle scot-free.
In the lead-up to the meeting, much of the ire was focused on Gilbert Dávila, Cracker Barrel’s compensation committee chair and a marketing and diversity specialist, advising a vote against, with some firms also advising against re-electing Jody Bilney, the chair of the Barrel’s nominating/governance committee. CEO Masino wasn’t spared either, with proxy advisory firm Egan-Jones <a href="https://ejproxy.com/post/cash-is-king-the-vicious-cycle-at-cracker-barrel">recommending</a> a ‘no’ vote over the brand’s underperformance. Pay attention to these names — this is how you measure impact.
The outcome? CEO Julie Felss Masino failed to gain support from a quarter of shareholder votes. Bilney, the nominating chair, lost almost a third of shareholder support. And Gilbert Dávila, the diversity specialist, barely broke two-fifths of shareholder support, <a href="https://www.scrippsnews.com/business/company-news/cracker-barrel-ceo-survives-push-for-ouster-after-logo-controversy">resigning</a> after the meeting.
In fact, of the 10 directors up for election, seven of them didn’t break 90% support. That may not sound like much, but in a corporate context, let’s be clear: that’s a vote of “no confidence” from a very sizable number of shareholders.
For comparison, in a 2024 <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/06/exxonmobils-victory-over-climate-activists-is-a-win-for-its-shareholders/">pressure</a> campaign against ExxonMobil, left-wing activist efforts successfully brought down vote counts by a single percentage point — to 95%. Exxon’s CEO, Darren Woods, lost maybe 1% percent of investor support over manufactured outrage. Cracker Barrel’s CEO lost around 20% percent investor support as a result of real outrage.
If you’ll recall, Cracker Barrel made the risky and seemingly unprompted decision to change its logo in August of 2025. In an attempt to reach a younger, less nostalgia-driven audience, they removed ‘Uncle Herschel’ from the classic logo that had been emblazoned on storefronts since 1969.
But that move didn’t proceed as anticipated. The rebrand <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/cracker-barrels-new-text-only-logo-how-you-destroy-brand-critics-claim">got</a> all the wrong attention, from ordinary customers to President Trump to a wide swath of conservative commentators, with Rod Dreher <a href="https://x.com/roddreher/status/1958293733092528218?s=20">deeming</a> the marketing shift “the New Coke of corporate logos.”
And Cracker Barrel, to its very limited credit, listened. After a flurry of negative X impressions and customer protests, the company walked back the rebrand. “We hear you,” Cracker Barrel <a href="https://www.crackerbarrel.com/allthemore">announced</a>, shortly before restoring their old logo, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/03/food/cracker-barrel-drops-design-firm">firing</a> their design firm, and embarking on one of the most embarrassing rollbacks in recent corporate marketing history. “We heard clearly that the modern remodel redesign does not reflect what you love about Cracker Barrel.”
And then, you might think, the story ends. On the business side of things, however, the apology isn’t the final salvo in any marketing fumble. Customers might forgive a brand — but there was a lot more than a logo change to forgive.
Actions have consequences. It’s one of the most foundational principles of business, economics, and politics. In Cracker Barrel’s case, however, an even more foundational principle is being played out in real time: ideas have consequences. Ideas, like allowing political bias to seep into our most prominent corporate institutions, have severe consequences — like a billion dollars&#8217; worth of largely avoidable brand damage. It’s very easy to look at the Cracker Barrel saga and conclude that it’s a non-issue, a side cultural issue invented to invent victimhood where it doesn’t exist. Yet it’s not true.
Cracker Barrel’s failure isn’t a MAGA-generated victim narrative, despite what MSNBC hosts like Jonathan Capehart might <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/msnbc-host-says-hes-sick-snowflakes-slamming-cracker-barrel-logo-redesign">want you to believe</a>. The company’s struggles have hurt people of all political stripes. Using a historic, valuable brand to test pet marketing theories isn’t just a matter of X debate. It’s a threat to the financial futures of millions of Americans, including Cracker Barrel’s roughly 70,000 employees who depend on the company’s success.
Many of those Americans just made their opinions known, sending a clear sign: there’s serious trouble ahead at the Barrel. The rebrand was only the tip of a very large iceberg, and it’s not just going to be hand-waved away, least of all by the CEO and what’s left of the corporate board that allowed it to happen.
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Isaac Willour is an award-winning journalist focusing on race, culture, and American conservatism, as well as a corporate relations analyst at Bowyer Research. His work has been featured at outlets including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Opinion, C-SPAN, and The Daily Wire. He is a member of the Young Voices contributor program and can be found on X <a href="https://twitter.com/IsaacWillour" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@IsaacWillour</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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After Rebranding Fiasco, Cracker Barrel Takes It On The Chin In Latest Shareholder Meeting

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