This was the reaction from one of my colleagues 30 seconds into the new Justin Timberlake music video first thing this morning, hand clasped to mouth. The laboratory-certified woke visuals strip the song of whatever scant nuance it had, which was almost nonexistent to begin with. After a brief and in a lot of ways regressive verse in which he steps in to rescue a woman from a potential attacker, he runs through a series of bizarre metaphors about supplies. JT stares numbly at a wall of TV screens apparently showing trending topics on loop.

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A Touch of Levity
Wake up. Now imagine that instead of watching footage of activism, Justin Timberlake was watching footage of himself in that Woody Allen film. Don't let the faux-woke masturbatory bad art experiment of Justin Timberlake's latest music video distract you from the fact that Supplies is also an atrocious song. Justin Timberlake is out here pretending he's made peace with Janet Jackson and wearing Time's Up pins while being in Woody Allen moves, but we "woke" now?
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Wow, wow, wow. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to a new day with a new JT music video. On Thursday, Jan. Like, really, really love it.
So is the content. This attempt to tackle Trump, MeToo, Black Lives Matter, gun violence, and anti-Muslim discrimination in one four-minute music video is not tasteful. OMG she looks so flawless! Good for Mexicans! She may clock a dude in the beginning, drive a fast car, and throw a torch, but a true pursuit of equality will take much more than performative support. You may be thinking: A world where you can wear hair curlers and firearm chokers in public seems quite liberating. Yet the video goes out of its way to suggest that this albino wonderland represents the whiteness of elite America—the emphasis placed on ostentatious buildings and outlandish fashion is unmistakable, even in this monochrome universe. Or perhaps the video simply calls for a daring individual to step up and change the status quo. Timberlake humbly offers himself up for the task.