Five Things: Populism, Nature, TikTok, Cowboys, Calvin and Hobbes

Good morning! Grab a coffee and read this edition of Five Things!

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Thanks for being a loyal subscriber and reader! I really appreciate your comments and feedback - and I do hope that you like the five articles I picked out for you this week!

Without much further ado, let's dive into today's Five Things!

Netanyahu’s Attack on Democracy Left Israel Unprepared

This is a great article by Anne Applebaum and there’s one key takeaway: don’t get distracted by populists. It’s happening in Western democracies everywhere and it leads to defocusing instead of dealing with the core issues of societies: improving the lives of its citizens and upholding a value-based system.

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The Broken Clock

Nope, this article is not about Daylight Savings Time (Germany is moving to winter time this Sunday), but about the way our seasons are changing. This has consequences, not just for the marmots.

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Watch This Guy Work, and You’ll Finally Understand the TikTok Era

I have been around Social Media for over 20 years, when it was called blogging and we all wrote something online just because we could. And of course because we had something to say, but mostly because we could. I was actually the first to do a real commercial campaign with bloggers in Germany, also like 20 years ago. I’m writing this not to brag, but to point out that I do understand Social Media and the way it works. Maybe except for TikTok. I don’t get the appeal, I hate the usability, the content is clearly for a younger demographic and even after reading this article, I still don’t get it. Do you?

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Why We’re Dressing Like Cowboys Now

When I was a kid, the Wild West was a big theme in Germany and of course we played lots of “Cowboys and Indians” (as it was called back then), the movies based on the books by Karl May were wildly popular and all the kids knew about Winnetou, Intschu Tschuna, Apanatschi, Old Surehand, Old Shatterhand and Sam Hawkins. Every summer we’d go to an amphitheater nearby to watch a play of one of these stories, including horses, detonations and stuntmen. I had a toy gun, a rifle, a tomahawk, but my mom just didn’t want to buy me cowboy boots. It’s still on my bucket list. What you probably didn’t know (and me neither, I was too young): Hamburg was called “The Nashville of the Federal Republic” (German) and had a huge country music scene. So I guess the whole cultural approbiation thing doesn’t come into play here… Anyhow, I’m gonna cook me some fine Texas chili tonite. And the next time I’m in the States, I know what I’ll buy…

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Life After “Calvin and Hobbes”

To me, Calvin and Hobbes is the best comic strip, ever. I was deeply saddened when it stopped. Of course I own The Complete Calvin and Hobbes and I know that I will find some time in the next 20 or 30 years to sit down and actually read it. Calvin and Hobbes was magical, in every single comic strip. Bill Watterson did the right thing when he stopped it while it was still great.

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That's it for this Sunday, I hope you liked Five Thinks and enjoyed reading the five articles I picked for you!

-- Nico