By the headline, you might think this version of the 5QT was all about immigration. It isn’t. It could be, and there is a little breeze of immigration blowing past one of the things, but we’re talking about other variations around that theme.

1. The Most Obnoxious Cultural Appropriation, Ever

People have been rage-quitting Netflix for a while, and that’s getting worse of late. In last week’s 5QT I gave positive notices to Season 2 of The Gentlemen, the excellent Guy Ritchie series which appears on that streaming platform, and was quickly beset by readers grousing about a promotional post Netflix’s UK division did for the series on the one-year anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s murder, noting the potential for a “neck injury” in a scene from the series the post depicted. This was taken as a celebration of Kirk’s killing, though Netflix immediately denied it; the damage was done nonetheless. (RELATED: Five Quick Things: Promises, Promises)

I decided I wouldn’t weigh in on that.

And then along came this…

Meryl Streep will officially voice Aslan in Greta Gerwig’s ‘NARNIA: THE MAGICIAN’S NEPHEW’.

🔗 https://t.co/VPXM5XAY0l pic.twitter.com/H5VYmi8BcH

— Film Crave (@_filmcrave) September 17, 2026

Being honest, this really shouldn’t be a surprise. It was obvious from the moment that Netflix handed the reins of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia universe to Greta Gerwig that we were going to get something that rivaled what Amazon did to Tolkien for sheer bastardization of the source material.

But giving Meryl Streep the part of Aslan is just… strange.

Aslan is an explicitly male character. He is, in fact, a depiction of the very pinnacle of Western masculinity as expressed in 20th century literature. Lewis’s portrayal through Aslan of the Christ-like wisdom, generosity, strength, and self-sacrifice central to his work in the Chronicles of Narnia is — has been for decades — what Western men have been taught to emulate.

It’s a cultural vandalism which can’t be written off as an accident or a “creative choice.”

To rob the modern audience of that and instead portray that quintessentially male character as female is… violence. It’s a cultural vandalism which can’t be written off as an accident or a “creative choice.” This was an intentional attack on the canon. It’s an invasion. It’s a feminist assault on masculinity so frontal, so brazen as to call into question whether there can be coexistence between the feminist movement and traditional Western society.

I’m not kidding about this. If you can’t let Christians, and Western males in general, have Aslan as written, then what limits remain? The answer is there are none. That our culture is to be remade without masculinity at all.

I could tie this into the Arch Manning mess, which I’ve got a little discussion about in Thing #5, in that we’re seeing what happens when you fail to put up proper boundaries. It wasn’t Lewis but Chesterton who noted that before you take down a fence, you should first discover why it was put up in the first place, and what this and the Manning mess demonstrate is that we, as a society, established separate men’s and women’s spaces for a reason — failing to respect those spaces leads to chaos and misery. College football is a men’s space being feminized by women in media, and everybody is fighting about it. Just as everybody fights about trannies in women’s sports.

And now everybody is going to fight about this abomination.

Meryl Streep should back out of this stupid idea and tell Gerwig to cast a man as Aslan. She doesn’t need the job, and she should know better. If she goes through with this, it ought to be the end of any respect Christians or traditional Americans (or Westerners in general) give to her. And if Netflix goes through with this project as is, it should be the end of the company. They won’t get any more of my money, for sure.

No.

2. There Is No Bigger Scumbag in America Than Reid Hoffman

I’m not really going to go blow-by-blow on what an utter waste of flesh LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman is. If you know anything about him, you already know everything I’d say. Hoffman is the guy who bankrolled Nikki Haley’s stupid presidential campaign in 2024, which wasn’t just an attempt to dirty up Donald Trump in the primaries but it also derailed Ron DeSantis’s campaign by robbing it of oxygen (if you want to argue that DeSantis was doomed from the beginning because his appeal was Trump’s appeal and voters knew and trusted Trump more, I’m not going to dispute that, but we didn’t get a real debate about the future of the MAGA movement that we could have had because Hoffman’s money sustained Haley far beyond her point of relevance). And his bad-faith backing of Haley might have been the least blameworthy thing he’s done with the filthy lucre your online resume at his website has given him.

Another example, courtesy of Lauren Washburn at the Daily Signal…

Texas Democrat Senate nominee James Talarico has been quick to invoke Jeffrey Epstein when attacking Republicans, but he is apparently willing to accept help from a billionaire with close ties to the deceased financier.

Talarico’s Senate campaign is backed by a super PAC whose biggest donor, Reid Hoffman, has close ties to Epstein and even visited his private island. Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn and a Democrat megadonor, is bankrolling the super PAC “Lone Star Rising” that props up Talarico’s campaign to the tune of $11.5 million so far.

The Senate race between Talarico, a Democrat state representative, and Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is an especially brutal race this cycle as the candidates continue to trade vicious blows about each other’s past. Talarico has made political corruption a frequent theme of his campaign, using Epstein survivors as props and accusing Paxton of giving “Epstein-style sweetheart deals to pedophiles.”

The Daily Signal reached out to Talarico, Paxton, and Hoffman, but they did not respond in time for publication.

So what’s the story behind the ads Hoffman’s PAC is running accusing Paxton of cozying up to pedophiles? Don’t be shocked at this, but it turns out the circumstances weren’t as advertised…

Talarico often blames Paxton for a plea deal offered by state prosecutors to pedophile Adam Hoffman, after a 2025 trial ended in a hung jury and the victim was unwilling to testify again.

Hoffman’s attorney, Gerry Morris, told The Daily Signal that Paxton had “nothing directly” to do with the settlement.

“I think it’s unlikely he was even aware of it until it came up on the press,” Morris wrote in an email. “My team dealt with the trial team for the Attorney General’s Office. I did not take part in the negotiations until the judge rejected the first agreement. The final agreement was reached in the courthouse after the judge rejected the second agreement. Ken Paxton has nothing to do with that.”

Morris emphasized he is “not a fan” of Paxton and does not support him for Senate, but he said Paxton is being “unfairly blamed for the Hoffman resolution.”

Hmmm.

And speaking of “Epstein-style…”

Meanwhile, Talarico’s Senate bid is supported by a different, unrelated Hoffman — one with direct ties to Epstein. Billionaire Reid Hoffman began drawing scrutiny after the Epstein files were released, exposing his relationship with the financier.

While Hoffman insists his Epstein relationship was limited to fundraising, documents released by the Department of Justice suggest more personal ties.

After Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from a minor, he was forced to register as a sex offender. Even after this conviction, Hoffman consistently engaged with Epstein. In 2014, he visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island and gave him a statue. That same year, Hoffman offered to help the pedophile resist bad publicity from allegations of sex trafficking.

I know you’re going to say there are worse villains out there. I’m going to argue there aren’t. There are people just as bad, but this guy is so low that it doesn’t get worse. And do we ever get to ask why it is that people from San Francisco and Los Angeles and New York can meddle in Texas politics with impunity and there is no price to be paid? One guy has thrown $11 million in PAC money at a Senate race in a state where he’s never lived, and it’s fine.

Hopefully somebody on Team Paxton is going to make an ad slamming Reid Hoffman as one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most prominent johns and Talarico’s puppetmaster, and ask what Talarico has promised Hoffman to get bought for so dear a price.

3. The Bushie Skinsuit Comes Off

So in Texas, or perhaps it’s in D.C., whoever is in charge of John Cornyn’s social media has decided that the proper way to express the Senator’s brand is to go full Keith Olbermann on not so much the Republican nominee who beat him in the Senate primary but the entire Republican ticket this fall. There is this…

Why I’m Voting for a Texas Democrat by @KarlRove https://t.co/S44nYRsEQv via @WSJopinion

Read more Democrats and Antisemitism in the Midterms

— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) September 16, 2026

It’s been like this for several weeks, and now it’s coming to something of a head in the wake of the GOP nominee for Railroad Commissioner, a guy named Bo French, posting on X a picture from the student section at the University of Texas’s win over Ohio State last Saturday. The picture showed a whole section of Indians decked out in burnt orange celebrating, and French’s quote was, “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.” (RELATED: The Spectacle Ep. 467: Americans Are Allowed To Be Concerned About American Culture: UT Indian Edition)

That’s become highly controversial, and it’s the reason Karl Rove, whose alignment with Cornyn is total, is now claiming he’ll vote Democrat in French’s race.

I’m not going to mount too vigorous a defense of French’s take. I don’t need to. Melissa and I did a Spectacle Podcast segment on this very issue this week, so for more on this, feel free to give it a listen. I will say that this is a tough thing to take up in the middle of an election year, and it’s entirely possible Bo French’s political consultants needed a belt or two from the whiskey bottle once that got started.

Though this kerfuffle is a small part of a much larger discussion that we absolutely must have in this country and have not been allowed to have.

And one reason we’re so overdue for having it is people like Karl Rove and John Cornyn and their insistence on mega-level mass immigration, which has done things to American culture and quality of life that nobody voted for and many people vigorously oppose.

And it’s infuriating that people who raise these issues get immediately slapped down as “racist.” Tell them that the University of Texas’s student population is only one-quarter white non-Hispanic (26 percent, to be more exact), and ask if that’s a number that is OK by them, and you’re unlikely to get much of an intelligible response.

You might get a lecture along the lines of “90 percent of UT’s accepted applicants come from Texas by state law, and you’re automatically accepted if you’re in the top five percent of your class.” All of which is true, of course, but that’s a system which is very easily gamed (and is gamed a great deal). And furthermore, the issue isn’t admissions at UT — it’s about immigration policy, and its effects on culture and quality of life.

And those are questions which don’t just get asked of Democrats. They must be asked of the John Cornyns, Karl Roves, and George Bushes of the world.

Little wonder that that crowd is turning to Democrats even though Democrats are turning to communists.

My generation was failed by people like Karl Rove, who sat on their hands as America’s borders were overrun, jobs were shipped overseas, and the left captured our institutions. After being tossed aside when the voters caught on to his politics of managed decline, he now takes the… https://t.co/tr4wW8FY45

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 17, 2026

4. Can We Close Jamie Raskin As Well As the Kennedy Center?

If you want to say that the president’s flirtation/intervention/troll-job of the Kennedy Center, which has resulted in its impending closure and potential demolition, has been a fiasco, I won’t argue with you. That said, as fiascoes go, this has been rather glorious.

For example, there was this crash-out by corrupt Maryland communist Jamie Raskin…

Closing the Kennedy Center is an affront to President Kennedy’s memory, an attack on Congressional power and an outrageous assault on the livelihoods of the artists and workers who operate and perform in our cultural center. We’re demanding it remain open and free from the… https://t.co/xyXxd0fNx0

— Rep. Jamie Raskin (@RepRaskin) September 16, 2026

I had to read it again and again. I can’t get enough of it.

Here’s a question for Raskin and his fellow Bolsheviks: you guys had complete control of the government from January 2021 to January 2023. How come you didn’t make sure the Kennedy Center was in good repair during that window? Had you maintained this irreplaceable center of American culture, it would have been able to survive well past Donald Trump’s current presidency. Instead, you left him a ruin, and he took that as an opportunity to make his own mark on it.

Then you denied him that, and so he decided to take his ball and go home.

Which he’s within his rights to do. And you’ve put yourself in a position to have zero persuasive power over him at all. Why are you surprised that this has played out as it has?

Of course, Raskin isn’t surprised. Nor can he and his people make any arguments for Trump preserving the Kennedy Center. Not when they’ve cheered on the destruction of American historical landmarks depicting everybody from Robert E. Lee to Junipero Serra.

Let it come down. The Trump Center for the Performing Arts that goes up in its space will be nothing short of majestic, though Lee Greenwood as the house band might get old pretty quickly.

5. No Holly Rowes Were Harmed In The Making Of This Video

It’s Thursday afternoon as I’m writing this version of the 5QT, and I can’t help but be amazed at the never-ending stream of whinings, hot-takes, and condemnations which continue to pour forth from a certain group of people over the Arch Manning kerfuffle.

I touched on that in yesterday’s column and also had a long post at The Hayride talking about this, so I don’t need to go back through the genesis of this controversy here. But I figured this was a one-day thing, and it clearly isn’t. Within an hour of the initial press conference, Manning had issued a hostage-confession apology on Instagram, and within a day and a half, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was apologizing as well.

Why? Because Sarkisian blew off Holly Rowe for an on-field interview after Texas beat Ohio State in a dramatic comeback from three touchdowns down. He wanted to celebrate with his team; ESPN was late getting to him for an interview, and Sarkisian gave Rowe a quick “Hook ’em Horns” and disappeared, leaving her prune-faced. That was the source of the AI parody video, which had a manic Sarkisian slapping Rowe on the way to a celebration of the win.

Nobody thinks slapping women is acceptable. AI parodies of women getting slapped are not, in fact, examples of women getting slapped. And college kids who, recognizing this, admit that slapstick comedy in AI memes is funny, do not make a capital case for reputational execution. Especially when all involved have done the generally accepted amount of requisite groveling.

And yet X and Facebook are still full of people screeching that the abasement of Manning and Sarkisian isn’t enough. We’re now in the social contagion stage of this stupid scandal.

And so what’s happening is escalation on both sides, because the Fed-Up-With-Cancel-Culture side is responding to the scolds in the only way it can. Namely, with more memes.

This one was especially amusing, as it has a callback to that famously hilarious Peyton Manning Saturday Night Live skit with the kids (if you don’t remember, just look it up and enjoy)…

🚨 Peyton Manning’s blunt response to Arch’s apology to Holly Rowe ‼️ pic.twitter.com/7UxNBfie5v

Read more AI Moral Panic Demands Leadership, Not Pandering

— AllureCrypt (@AllureCrypt) September 17, 2026

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