Welcome to The Phoenix’s weekly digest. Every week during the quarter, you can expect our writers’ takes on some campus happenings.

This week, August Beaudreau reflects on the regret of attending, on behalf of the magazine, an on-campus debate featuring podcaster Tim Pool and fellow online personalities Luke Beasley and Jack Posobiec.

Madam, The event featuring Tim Pool you made me cover earlier this quarter was incredibly thought-provoking. The only thought in my mind after exiting ISAC was—after over a year of dedication to The Phoenix—what have I done to deserve this?

The event was a debate about why, not if, the Republican Party looks like it will fare poorly in the midterms. After its initial cancellation—there were difficulties organizing top-notch security for such high-profile speakers—I was expecting a star-studded lineup.

YouTube and TikTok creator Luke Beasley represented the left. The alt-right provocateur Jack Posobiec sat on the right of the stage. Between the two sat the ostensibly “moderate” beanie aficionado Tim Pool, present to ensure any extreme claims from the other participants were tempered by the cool logic of a centrist. Nothing screams “milquetoast fence-sitter” like Pool’s denial of election results in 2020, his peddling of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, and his argument for the imprisonment of Democratic politicians!

The first twenty minutes of the debate were reasonably substantive. At this point, I still had faith in your editorial foresight: there could be a piece worth writing here. Then Tim Pool subjected me to a verbal money spread. “[H]ere’s a simple way to know if you’re rich: do you know how much money is in your bank account… raise your hands [if you know]. You all do, I don’t.” Pool then prompted Beasley to ask him how much he’d paid in taxes last year, to which Pool responded, “I don’t know exactly. Millions of dollars.”

Damn. I’d checked my Bank of America app while walking to the ISAC and was still kicking myself for that twenty-six-dollar Wingstop DoorDash on Sunday. Now a man who had predicted Trump would win 2020 in a forty-nine-state landslide was reminding me how badly I need a job. Is student journalism really the path for me?

I collected myself and tried to refocus on the in-depth policy analysis that, surely, was on its way. I thought Posobiec’s elementary explanation of supply and demand provided a glimmer of hope that the debate was returning to more substantive topics, and for about ten minutes it did.

Unfortunately, for the next hour, the conversation transitioned to—and remained mired in—the topic of the “disrespect” Beasley had shown his interlocutors. I wasn’t convinced that Beasley had in fact been disrespectful, but Pool accused him of engaging in dishonest “internet bloodsports” rather than truly debating. I must be blind to these mind games.

This all left me very disappointed. The lead-up to this event was laden with drama: a need for heightened security, accusations that the University was suppressing free speech, and Pool arguing that conservative messaging—when delivered by such a hip, skateboarding envoy as himself—could really sway young leftists. When passing through the metal detectors and security detail in the ISAC’s foyer, I felt a certain gravitas. After two hours, that feeling had dissipated. Immense buildup was succeeded by minimal payoff.

In sum, madam editor, please ask a first-year member of The Phoenix to report on any future Tim Pool appearances at UChicago. Or at least set aside a portion of our budget to compensate me with a beanie for my efforts. If my bank account can’t look like Tim’s, at least my head can.

Sincerely,
August

Stay tuned for next week’s edition. In the meantime, if you have any thoughts, disagreements, or words of support, we want to hear them! Write to us at thechicagophoenix@gmail.com.