Red Meat and Rage Calories

On the Cracker Barrel dust-up and those who are happy to feed our addiction

On August 18, Cracker Barrel released images of its new logo. Was it boring? Sure. Did one X user think it “looks dull as dirt and reminds me of the smell of cleaner fluid?” Yes. Would any of this amounted to a hill of biscuits (sorry!) had not several people with large social media presences decided the rebrand would serve as the next bit of red meat to be thrown into the maw of the culture war? You tell me:

“Among the earliest high-profile reactions, a post by CollinRugg on X on August 20, 2025, described the new logo as "depressing" and gained significant traction, viewed over 5 million times. This was followed closely by other X accounts like bennyjohnson [3.8 million X followers, and the chap who got a giant emotional boner while showing off “Alligator Alcatraz” merch] and EndWokeness [3.8 million X followers, mission titular].” - Grok, amended

Thus, this week’s snack was chewed and chewed and chewed on, including by President Trump, who put out a press release congratulating Cracker Barrel on changing the logo back. And, because it’s never enough for Trump to “be right,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt dutifully gilded the lily, with the statement, “President Trump has unmatched business instincts, and an uncanny ability to understand what the American people want. Cracker Barrel is a great American company, and they made a great decision to to Trust in Trump!”

As if any of this has to do with Trust.

Me neither, Liz

I waded into this shallow muck yesterday, after seeing a former WSJ reporter post a long thread that began, “She knew…” and adding she “has the receipts from our new FoxNews FoxBusiness investigation.”

Gee, I wonder when that investigation started, but anyway, it is absolutely the case that CEOs will disagree with their boards; that people make poor aesthetic decisions, especially when they are made by committee and over a period of years. As it ever was and shall be.

What is not normal, or should not be normalized, are millions upon millions of social media users feeding on what they see as Ms. Masino’s culpability and shame, not for creating a pretty boring logo, but because she will serve as this week’s woke-progenitor, an avatar of everything they’ve hated for a decade, and whose public defenestration is not only warranted but tasty.

I mean, points for honesty

As someone who’s been watching these displays for years, I am 100% sure no amount of rage calories can satisfy people’s hunger for the humiliation of others. You could haul Ms. Masino into the public square and disembowel her and the reaction would be, “Next!” And I’ll bet my car we have another of these displays next week.

I commented on Asra Nomani’s tweet with my own…

… the point of which seemed to sail over the heads of many people who viewed the tweet, thinking I was supporting the CEO or criticizing the investor. Were people being deliberately obtuse when they saw my tweet as being in this camp or that? Did they not get what I was pointing out? Apparently not.

I understand we live in a climate where the first thing some people do in the morning is look for a throat to sink their teeth into. Everything and anything can become “us versus them” - bathrooms, Sydney Sweeney’s boobs, the redesign of a logo for a restaurant that, frankly, should bake better biscuits. People are enlivened by the fight - and we should fight for what we believe in. But who is leading these charges, and in what directions?

Whatever we pay attention to grows - a plant, a child, a book project - and what pleasure to watch these grow and themselves put good things into the world. Is that what’s happening here, when we pay attention to tearing people down, and try to sustain these campaigns with mingier and mingier bits tossed by people who do not know who we are but are happy to feed our addiction? I imagine some of these journalists have convinced themselves they are nourishing the masses. But let’s leave Chris Rufo to the side for now.

Careful readers of this newsletter will notice I deleted several posts, about my stepson’s death. This is at the request of family. Writers write, and sometimes that’s not the right thing for others. I was profoundly shaken by any further pain I caused. And to those of you here who reached out with condolences, thank you.

A few things I am loving this week, and one upcoming:

My first tattoo - I have three total - is of Ruscha’s painting “Parts Per Trillion,” which I saw in the SF Art Museum and could not walk away from.

It’s big, 50 inches by 120 inches

I went to five tattoo artists in Portland - this was in 2010 or so - all of whom said, he wouldn’t do it. I finally found a girl who said she would “interpret it.” Fine by me.

We went last weekend to Rodgers Book Barn in Hillsdale, New York, which I can almost guarantee is the sweetest, coolest bookstore you will have visited in a while.

Finally, my sweet daughter set decorated the latest Sterlin Harjo joint, “The Lowdown,” which drops next month on FX.