The Adam and Dr. Drew Show - MasQlinity in the Modern Age (The Adam and Dr Drew Show Classics)

Episode Date: April 29, 2023

Adam and Dr. Drew open the show discussing a declaration by the American Psychological Association labeling traditional masculinity to be 'harmful' and what that means for our society. The conversatio...n then turns to some of the similarities that are emerging today with some of the social aspects of the 1980s. They also explore Adam's interview on The Adam Carolla Show with Leah Remini, and discuss their own personal experiences with Scientology. The guys put out a call on social media for followers of Qanon to call into the show to help them understand what they are always hearing about in the media.

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome back to the Adam and Dr. Drew Show Classics. First up for today, episode 994, released January 18th, 2019, titled, People Know What They Know, Even If They Don't Know It. Dr. Drew brings up how troubled he is by the declaration from the American Psychological Association labeling traditional masculinity to be harmful and what that can mean for our society. All right, Drew, what are you thinking about? What's important to you? A couple things thinking about.
Starting point is 00:00:33 One is toxic masculinity. Apparently now that's been, masculinity has been deemed a toxic psychological construct. Harmful to men. Aren't we dispelling that? No, it got now officially by, it was the APA, the American Psychological Association? Some mental health group who will one day eat their words because it's really just taking a position on qualities of human nature is – I've never seen anything like that before. It's the American Psychological Association. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:01:03 They've deemed it harmful. Toxic masculinity. Traditional masculinity officially deemed harmful is the headline of this article. It's too much. Well, whatever. Listen, mental health organizations have
Starting point is 00:01:19 made horrible, horrible mistakes for many, most of their, certainly in the last hundred year history, taking terrible decisions on terrible things. Well. Proven to be very, including things like calling homosexuality a pathology. Isn't it like the food pyramid? Like you need grains. You start every day with a loaf of bread and porridge and cut a banana and then there's
Starting point is 00:01:42 fruit and grains. Like, no, no, all wrong. 100% wrong. 1,000 fucking percent wrong. Thank you, experts. Don't shut the fuck up. Yep. Because you know what the fuck you're talking about.
Starting point is 00:01:52 And look no further than a rich history of being wrong. Yes. And now we're supposed to listen. That's the part I like. I like where I listen now. Here's what you should listen to when they express humility. Look, I don't know. We've been wrong many, many times before.
Starting point is 00:02:04 Maybe one day this will be proven to be something that's problematic. Here's what you should listen to when they express humility. Look, I don't know. We've been wrong many, many times before. Maybe one day this will be proven to be something that's problematic. But right now we can't possibly take a position on a social construct. Are you kidding me? Yeah, well. How much was toxic masculinity toxic on Omaha Beach? Mm-hmm. It depends what you need in the circumstance and where it is. I mean, come on now.
Starting point is 00:02:24 Come on now. Look, when we step back and look at what's going on, it's the feminization of our culture that's fucking it all up as we speak. Checks and balances, people.
Starting point is 00:02:40 Women act like women, men act like men, and things are pretty copacetic. We all take a shift one direction or the next, we're going to be in trouble. I think we could all agree. Who came out with this FACACTA report? American Psychological, so APA. APA.
Starting point is 00:03:01 How about you listen to this guy who was put on academic probation in a junior college? This is the guy I want to hear from. If we all took a shift toward toxic masculinity, men and women, and we all just, let's just say half the country's men, half the country's women. If we all got the women to start acting more like men, you would label that a disaster. Yes? APA? Because it's toxic.
Starting point is 00:03:29 Right. Okay. If we start getting the half of the populace that are men to start acting like women, that shall also be a disaster. What? Behaving more healthy? Abso-fucking-lutely.
Starting point is 00:03:44 There's a reason. Look, Drew, we like to talk about polar bears. I think we can agree if all the polar bear males just started doing the roles and acting as if they were female, that would impact negatively the polar bear population. Could be a problem for polar bears, yes. It shall be a problem with us, too. It is a problem with us. It's currently a problem for polar bears, yes. It shall be a problem with us, too. It is a problem with us. It's currently a problem with us. No one wants to talk about it because people don't like to be shouted down or called closed-minded or heretics or thugs or—
Starting point is 00:04:15 Sexist racists. Sexist racists, whatever. My family would be devastated if I started acting like my wife. We'd be destroyed in a matter of seconds. Me, Matt, and Gary would be good with that, though. Yeah, except for we'd have no jobs. That's true. There'd be no jobs. No problem.
Starting point is 00:04:42 There'd be nothing. We'd be ruined immediately if I basically just went, hey, whatever Lynette does, I'm right with her. Nope. We'd be bad. And we'd be marginally inconvenienced if she acted like me all the time.
Starting point is 00:04:57 So it's a two way street. I'm saying what works best with my family, for my kids, and society is my wife acting like she acts and me acting like I act. That's how it works. What you don't want is two people laying in bed and you hear a window break in the middle of the night and each one of them are trying to push the other one out of bed to go find out what happened. You go downstairs. No, you go downstairs. No, you go downstairs.
Starting point is 00:05:27 No. Yeah. Not good. Not good. Not good. And we've talked about this before. We are all going down that road, and it is not going to help. It is not helpful.
Starting point is 00:05:49 We're not going down that road necessarily. We are in the news, in the media. That's the point. We've sort of taken a position. An ideology has moved down the road. We haven't changed. Well, our biology hasn't changed. More men are now acting like women than ever before, and it's not great.
Starting point is 00:06:12 Do you think that's true? Oh, fuck yeah. I've never heard more guys tell me about how they feel about shit. Yeah, but that's back to what we were talking about before earlier in the week about attitude. That's just a way of fucking telling you to screw off. It's like, it's an, it's become a way of defending against listening to you.
Starting point is 00:06:31 I don't know. I, I, uh, I had my 19 year old nephew at the other shop and he did not think it was a safe place for him to work. And that's not the way 19 year olds thought formally, not males or females, for that matter.
Starting point is 00:06:48 But to your point, I think that's true. So we're on to something else maybe. See, I think that's why I want to kind of drill on it a little bit because it's ideology that's shifted, and then people use it in ways that are fucked up, right? that's shifted and then people use it in ways that are fucked up, right? Either way, the feelings-based rather than results-based society is not – Feelings-based more than results-based. Now, that's the shift, right? I'm results-based.
Starting point is 00:07:19 I'm not feelings-based. So the shift is feeling-based. All attitudes are defensible. All attitudes are based in feeling. All attitudes are good.. So the shift is feeling-based. All attitudes are defensible. All attitudes are based in feeling. All attitudes are good. That's the shift. Most of the guys I know are results-based. Well, action-based, right?
Starting point is 00:07:35 Action, well, that's how you arrive at results is actions. Many women I know are feelings based and then a lot of guys have been enticed to come over to that side and think that feelings mean more than action it's funny that personally I felt like in 2019 I need more action I need to do more
Starting point is 00:08:00 I felt languishy as far as action in fact you and I need to go pitch a TV show together. You picked the wrong day. Right. No, but seriously, I feel like maybe I'm picking up on a little bit of a shift. Maybe I just automatically or maybe – I don't know. Maybe we're moving – maybe we'll move a little bit more towards action. No?
Starting point is 00:08:24 Well, the people that move – We have no choice but to do that in a weird way, right? Well, the people that move toward action are the people that are attracted to action, and the people that aren't are going to move away from it. I'm just saying the APA is full of shit. They are full of shit, I agree. I'm just saying the APA is full of shit. And this notion of we got to get masculinity to go away. Be careful what you wish for, because they're going to be bridges that need to be built and there's going to be wars that need to be won. And masculinity does a better job at constructing those bridges and winning those wars than femininity does.
Starting point is 00:09:07 And their argument would be masculinity starts the wars. Right. Which is true. Also. As well. Yeah. So the other thing I want to talk about, you asked what's on my mind. By the way, everyone's done listening to all of the so-called experts and everything.
Starting point is 00:09:23 I told you. How do you think I feel? I am an expert and I'm not listened to about anything. Expertise doesn't matter anymore. Experts, it's just another way of looking at things because it's all built on ideas sort of brought on by white male supremacist, white male patriarchs. So none of it in science is just a work. This is an example of power and control.
Starting point is 00:09:44 Yeah. Well, people know what they know, even if they don't know it. And that's a slippery slope. And I've always said it was very evident. Drew, you tell me, have you ever had many of those sort of stop in time moments? What do you mean? Just a moment where you stop and go, oh, my God, something. There was a big shift that just happened.
Starting point is 00:10:12 Or I just I took note of this thing. I mean, like in society, like, oh, we're in a different place now. Yeah. Well, for me, I was in my garage. My wife and my daughter were yelling at me. You know, I'm hurt. I feel hurt. Thus, I am hurt. My wife was explaining the concept in non-scientific terms that she felt this way,
Starting point is 00:10:33 therefore she was that way, therefore you put her into that way, therefore you must apologize because you are responsible for making her feel that way because that's the way she feels. you are responsible for making her feel that way because that's the way she feels. I then explain it has nothing to do with the truth or reality. That's her problem. And my wife just kept saying, you made her feel that way. If she feels that way, it is true. And thus, you must apologize so we can move forward. My feeling was this weird little stop in time where I was like,
Starting point is 00:11:05 I'm not going to apologize. That's going to perpetuate more incorrect feelings. I have lots of moments like that. I mean, some of them are like horrible things, like after Sandy Hook or something where I thought, oh my God, we were in a different place or 9-11 or something. But yes, I do have those moments. Not infrequently, unfortunately. Right. They're usually not good. They're usually not, oh, man, we're in a good place now. Well, also, when did nine-year-old's feelings become the gospel? The truth, yeah.
Starting point is 00:11:32 You know what I mean? Like this sort of notion that, hey, they're kids and they have a feeling and that feeling is true because they had the feeling. It's a sort of chicken or the egg kind of thing. Like they wouldn't have that feeling unless you made them feel that way. So it must be true. And how can you say no? How can you deny someone their feelings? By the way, I could deny someone their feelings all fucking day long. And up next, we have episode 505, released January 30th, 2017, titled The Boys Are Back in Town.
Starting point is 00:12:08 Adam and Dr. Drew talk about the similarities they see between the social and political landscapes of the 1980s and the present day, before they get into the run-ins they've had with Scientology and the fallout that resulted from it. from it. I feel with the whole Trump presidency thing and seeing how things are suddenly moving forward. Is that some of it? Is it? Are we entering a new era? Do you think is there something happening right now? It feels like there's like, I don't know what's going on, but I can't figure out what we're into. But it feels like things are different. I don't know what's going on, but I can't figure out what we're into, but it feels like things are different. Well, things are always going to feel different because everybody is voicing their opinion everywhere all the time. But hold on.
Starting point is 00:12:59 Something that's newer. But the reason I'm – I remember the reason the 70s and 80s were different eras really felt like because the government switched over from the 70s to 80s. You know what I mean? It was like a really massive change. And I feel like we're going through another massive change. Is that going to – are we going to enter something because of that? Is that something happening now? What does that mean? I don't know.
Starting point is 00:13:18 All I was thinking about is it was a massive change from Jimmy Carter to carter to ronald reagan yeah that's the change i'm talking about and reagan wanted to take the wall down and donald wants to build the wall but they're both wall centric and the reason i don't pay much never mind to almost everything is because i remember when reagan was like mr. Gorbachev, take down this wall. And I remember my mom clutching her pearls, actually her armpit hair. But either way, she was clutching something. And everyone's like, oh, my God, what's he doing? No, it's going to be a war.
Starting point is 00:13:54 Nuclear war. This man's going to cause a nuclear war. First off, how dare you insult them? Number two, oh, it's an arms race. Now we're all going to have to hit the shelter. No, it was adamant that that was going to happen. And number three, what right do you have to tell these people? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Starting point is 00:14:08 And then it was like, oh, they tore down the wall. And then it's like, oh, that's nice. And then moving on. Like, it's just, there was a wall. It was there for, you know, 26 years or 30 years or whatever since 1947 and a half or 1948 or whenever it was to 19, whenever the boys, five years after the boys back in town, came on, whatever it was, and it was like there for too long, and then it was gone, and now it's just gone.
Starting point is 00:14:35 Like, it's just gone. We're not arguing about it. Nobody launched any nukes. But I remember where I was at the time. And I remember everyone in my camp going, oh. And I just kind of remember thinking, well, shouldn't we take the wall down? What year is it? And there's people living on the other side of the wall. They're being oppressed.
Starting point is 00:14:56 Why not take the wall down? And once he made the announcement, everyone freaked out. And then everyone went back to what they were doing. And then at some point, the wall was down, and then at some point, it had been five years since the wall was down, and then at some point, people went, why was that wall there? And then
Starting point is 00:15:13 I think the number one answer would be why didn't we take that wall down earlier? Someone should have done that earlier. And that was it with the wall. Are we in for something similar? I'd be nice. That's the way i look at it speaking of walls i know you had on uh in uh acs the uh leah remini and the scientology thing and and uh i've been watching that show like like like you would say with like the subruder tapes
Starting point is 00:15:37 and i at one point thought they were coming after me for you making fun of them on that apology that you read on the show. Well, you were an enabler. Right. And I had very weird stuff with the Los Angeles Times. This tip, they kept coming at me. And I asked a person that was a... Wait a minute. I want to know about this.
Starting point is 00:16:01 So we got the thing. It turns out in 1997. Yeah. The issue and apology. A scripted apology. They sent us a script because you had called them a cult or something. Oh, was that that? That was that?
Starting point is 00:16:19 No, no, no, no, no. That came later. Well, first off, I wasn't doing Loveline much before 97 so for me couldn't have been much earlier but you were accused by them of calling them a cult okay i seem to remember it was matter facty or throw away like you said it's you know not like jonestown or scientology or something you're throwing it away and you were getting to something else and they grabbed onto the nugget and they ran with it and then they sent us a script and they sent us a script to read over the air
Starting point is 00:16:51 as like an organic apology, but not as a, here's a formal apology, here's a conversation that'll end up being a form of an apology, which is pretty insanely grandiose, but I think just showed you where they were at at the time in terms of height of their powers. And it was pointed out to us that if you say anything disparaging about Scientology, that your life will be ruined. And that was about it. No one ever gave you details. They just said they're going to make your life miserable. ruined. And that was about it. No one ever gave you details. They just said they're going to make your life miserable.
Starting point is 00:17:26 They'll find a way. Right. So you had an issue when you say the Los Angeles Times. There were some deaths at the hospital where I worked. And they ran a front page article saying it's my hospital. Oh, right. Implying that I owned it and that these were my patients. What year was this?
Starting point is 00:17:45 Probably 2009, 2008. Uh-huh. Well, it's good 10 years after this. Yeah. And then I did a follow-up interview going, what are you talking about? And they just twisted everything I said. And I thought, I actually got paranoid. I'm like, oh, my God.
Starting point is 00:18:00 This is like intentional, willful trying to do something awful. Yeah. Then I thought, could they be Scientologists? Maybe that's what – I couldn't figure it out. Who's doing this? Why would they want to do this? Why would they be so ridiculous? And then I thought, oh, my God. Maybe it's still back to that.
Starting point is 00:18:16 You got the conflated, the Scientology and the LA Times? Well, then I asked just today. I met somebody who was up in the administration at the time that said, you know, funny thing. Because I was thinking about this lately because I've been watching Leah Remedy's thing. And I said, are there any Scientologists in the writers? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:18:35 Makes sense. All right. So I thought, oh, my God. There's a New World Order, which is, I was just hearing this story about Usain Bolt, and there was a guy on the 4x4 relay. One of the four guys got popped for performance-enhancing drugs. So we don't know the other three guys, but we know Bolt. guys, but we know Bolt, right? So the picture on the cover of the Times
Starting point is 00:19:05 or the Daily whatever has a picture of Bolt and says, Bolt stripped of gold medal, performance enhancing drugs. Right. So, are they right? Yes, they're technically right. They didn't lie. They just twisted.
Starting point is 00:19:22 Yeah. Spun it. It's the same way that it's like your wife dies of a heart attack the day you tell her you want a divorce. And you could say Dr. Drew Pinsky files for divorce, wife dead. Wife dies as a result. No, you can't say as a result. You just got to go wife at corners.
Starting point is 00:19:51 And so you look at it and you go, oh, she wants to kill herself or you killed her or something. Or your wife found dead. Yeah, wife found dead. All right, there you go.
Starting point is 00:19:59 While he files for divorce. So there you go. Now, are both things true? Yes, both things are true. But does one thing have to do with the other? No. If you give it to me in a little short soundbite, well, guess what? I'm a human being, and I will connect these two dots because that's what they're doing.
Starting point is 00:20:18 Oh, of course they know what they're doing. And by the way, in my case, it went on throughout the article. Same kind of weird implication and innuendo and bizarre, bizarre stuff. It was just sort of, I was shocked. I was like, what? Yeah. It would literally be the same as if I was working in the emergency room and somebody died in an operating room. Right.
Starting point is 00:20:38 And they'd go, Pinsky's Hospital, death. What? Right. Right. So that's the new world order and that's why it's not see everybody looks at it as a people look at it as a negative and as a step backwards and into the shadows or whatever it is. And for me, it's a sort of enabling freedom, which is, guess what? I feel like I'm a student in school and I got called into detention and the entire school was there.
Starting point is 00:21:21 And I just sat down and went, are we all getting called in? Yes, everyone's going in the principal's office. And I'm like, oh, well, if everyone's going, then no one's going. See, the thing is, is you have to get up in your class and everyone has to go, ooh, because they come in, your counselor comes in and goes, Mr. Pinsky, we need to see you in the principal's office. Then you stand up and the other 29 kids go oh and then you stand up you make the lonely walk down the hall and take your books and then you see the
Starting point is 00:21:49 people looking through that weird piece of glass that they put in the door and oh and then they start whispering what's he in there for but if the guy comes in and goes hey i need all you to get up everybody's going to the principal's office then you guys are gonna have a laugh on the way out to the principal's office because the entire school is now mashed into the principal's office getting dressed down spoken to about how they could be suspended and what words to use and what words not to use and my thing is is like well if everyone's in here and i'll screw it i'm not in trouble anymore you're gonna have a hard time getting people in trouble if everyone's in trouble all the time.
Starting point is 00:22:26 Are you talking about the way the press looks at things? Yeah, whatever. Social media, press, whatever. We're going to have a very difficult time weeding out Johnny Finnegan, who actually threw the rock at the cop car and should be in here, versus you, who used the wrong terminology
Starting point is 00:22:44 when you were writing down the PE schedule for boys and girls. You didn't use a third column over there for boys who identify as girls or vice versa. You're in there with Johnny Finnegan. We got one guy chucked a brick in a police car. We got the other guy who didn't use the right terminology. You're all in the principal's office. And now Johnny Finnegan is in no more trouble than you are.
Starting point is 00:23:04 That's my point and you're going to have a hard time figuring out who the real criminals are and who the real who should really be suspended when we're all in there and this is the disservice that we're doing ourselves and this is why nobody ever people somewhere around the middle of the election cycle stop listening they just stop listening nobody cared anymore well i i what i find interesting is there's all this stuff happening in our government like a lot of executive actions this that other thing and and they're talking about sort of rhetoric from three days ago i'm like i want to know what's happening and what the implications are what's going on it doesn't it literally legislation to create a job or to put a tariff
Starting point is 00:23:53 or anything things that have wide sweeping implications and real sort of boots on the ground kind of you know jobs thousands of jobs won or lost or whatever. Yeah, whatever it is. Versus arguing over how many people are on the rotunda in front of the mall, in front of the White House. That and I once again today was seeing them argue about something about stars at the CIA, where he was spending and why he didn't talk about the stars. I didn't even know that one. Oh, my God. Yeah, it's kind of it's good times. I happen to enjoy it.
Starting point is 00:24:29 We'll be right back with more of the Adam and Dr. Drew Show classics. Last up for today, we have episode 1383, released February 12th, 2021, titled Adam and Drewanon. Dr. Drew talks about his experience trying cannabis again, before the guys go to the phones and take a call from a listener trying to help them understand QAnon. All right. Give me your cannabis experience. So my wife shows up with one of these kits with vaping devices, like different vaping. She got two different ones. I'm like, why did you get two of them?
Starting point is 00:25:08 I don't know. I didn't know what I was doing. So anyway. And she wanted to try THC that would help sleep, help her sleep. And I thought, all right, it's Saturday. I've never tried cannabis. I haven't tried cannabis since I was 20. Let's do this. And I kept going back to the vape.
Starting point is 00:25:28 I thought, oh, I think we got to be careful now, right? THC is very strong right now, maybe a couple of hits. I took about six hits, maybe eight, and still didn't feel anything specific. Maybe 10. I kept going back. I don't feel anything. Through the heavyweight. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:25:45 I did notice that I was sort of through for the day. I was like, I couldn't really do anything. But I was already like that from the COVID. So it was sort of – and strangely, the post-COVID thing has changed how I feel when I drink alcohol too. So I'm wondering if the COVID has something to do with why the cannabis didn't affect me. How does it change the alcohol? It makes me feel better. It's almost like this medication I'm taking, this fluvoxamine.
Starting point is 00:26:08 It makes me just feel a little relief from the, I don't know what to call this, the fog. And, you know, I think I have to go back and try something different. Because I didn't. Didn't do it for you. Did it help your wife's sleep? Yeah. She said it helped her sleep. And I didn't do anything for me except sort of made me
Starting point is 00:26:25 I just describe it out of it. I just wasn't I wasn't high. I wasn't intoxicated. I just wasn't but I'd like to try something a little more. Maybe people need to make recommendations to me on what kind of cannabis I should get in the vape pen. Well, I wonder. And by the way, they drop it off
Starting point is 00:26:42 at your house. You just order it online. they show up. It's crazy. You got to wonder. California, it's genius. The alcohol seems to be pretty universal in its effect on people. Pretty universal. In terms of how it affects people or how it's the consistent effect on one given individual?
Starting point is 00:27:04 No, both. Yeah. Pretty consistent. Yeah. Some pot seems to be a wide variety. Oh, it's all over the place. Yeah, yeah. Some people are like, I get anxious.
Starting point is 00:27:12 Other people are like, I can't do it. I can't leave. I can't go on stage without smoking some pot. Other people are like, I'd freak out if I was on stage where I smoke pot. You don't really have that with alcohol. It's like you do a shot of whiskey. You know what you're doing. You go out on stage. Everyone on stage, it affects everyone.
Starting point is 00:27:26 So now there's a little different temperament. Some people would work better with it. Adam Carolla versus Mark Garagas. Awesome is awesome. But it's still the same effect. And pot seems to be, oh, it makes me anxious. It makes me agitated. I need it to sleep. Now they have all the different varietals that may have different effects. Maybe I didn't get the right type this time.
Starting point is 00:27:51 They keep kind of saying that, but I don't know. I normally get anxious and uncomfortable from it. Historically, back in college, that was my experience with it. Yeah, I get munchies and I get not very productive with munchies and thinking way too much about shit I don't need to think about and then not so much with the sleep as you'd like it to be. But it also kind of makes you wonder if, in fact, I wonder if, in fact, you're a pretty functional person or let's say a highly functional person, can pot ever make you more functional? It doesn't – well, some people.
Starting point is 00:28:37 Yeah, some people. Some people. But most people, it makes – it subtly over time makes them less initiating action. I've seen it again and again and again, where they're just sort of, they want to do a lot of stuff. They got a lot of great ideas. They just don't seem to do it. That definitely was me on Saturday. All right.
Starting point is 00:28:53 Maybe Johnny, 29, from Georgia can tell us about QAnon. Johnny? Yo, yo. Yo, yo. Are you in QAnon? I am not QAnon, no. But you know about it? I follow it.
Starting point is 00:29:10 How does that work? What is it? So, that's a great question. To me, it's basically, it seemed like at least for a while, a group of possibly military intelligence people who were trying to subvert the mainstream media and reach the general population, trying to awaken us to the reality that there are a lot of bad people at the highest places of government, finance, entertainment. And how did they do that?
Starting point is 00:29:44 Just through social media or websites or what? So the technological aspect access, I'm not an expert on, but basically through 4chan, right, 8chan. So when you said, I know about it and I monitor it, that's where you monitored it, 4chan? So I was introduced to it through a message board, through people who found out about it directly on 4chan? So I was introduced to it through a message board through people who found out about it directly on 4chan. So I'm kind of
Starting point is 00:30:09 down the pipeline from the sourcing of information. What's QAnon stand for? So there's Q, the actual operation. It seems to me QAnon stands for Q Anonymous. Oh, I see.
Starting point is 00:30:24 But I think in retrospect, it seems like QAnon, not necessarily Q, but it sort of resembles sort of a Bolshevik disinformation operation that was launched in the 1920s in the Russian Revolution. But there's definitely a grifter disinfo element to it. But I think, you know, the best lies are half true, right? And so I think that spoke to its authenticity and appealed to me originally and then kind of dissolved as the promises and actions that were promised never came to board. How would one join if one wanted to join? I'm not sure how that happens. I'm sure there's secret channels that you might be brought into
Starting point is 00:31:18 where you're more of a messenger as opposed to a messagee, for lack of a better term. Thanks, Johnny. I don't feel like we've got a lot of clarity there. Maybe John from Tucson 50. John? Yeah, how are you doing? What do you know about QAnon?
Starting point is 00:31:35 Are you in it? There's no in it. Oh, there is no in it. It's like saying, are you in Twitter? Oh, interesting. Okay. So people post and follow it. It's information that's put out there.
Starting point is 00:31:48 Some of it's solid. A lot of the stuff about Investigate the Investigators that's posted in news articles and different things. Is it a website? Nobody knows whether it's a LARP, right? If it is, the guys that do it are smart. What is a LARP? They're pretty it is, the guys that do it are smart. What is a LARP? They're pretty smart. Live action role play.
Starting point is 00:32:09 Kind of like the guy, you remember the guy that said he was from the future? He comes back and, you know, it's like somebody pulling a major stunt on somebody. Or if it was, I always thought of it as kind of a rallying point for Trump supporters because it was pro-Trump. So you don't really, there's nothing to join. There's just something to follow. It's exactly like Twitter. It sort of bubbles up on the chants, and there are these people that participate in the chants that are like computer nerds. So it's in the dark web?
Starting point is 00:32:40 No. Where do you find it? I don't consider the chants the dark web. I know that maybe Google doesn't put them in search results. I don't even know. It's part of the mainstream internet. Okay. It's just a...
Starting point is 00:32:50 It's a message board. It's like... It's a message board. It's like Reddit. Oh, okay. Okay, okay, okay. And so there's these people that have their interests on there, and information would be put out to follow up on this, that, or the other thing.
Starting point is 00:33:02 Got it. And so all these computer nerd types on 8chan would respond to it. And what QAnon was is just a certain trip code, which is how they determined who the poster is, that was putting some stuff out there. So it was kind of an order. You know what I would put it like what's most similar to QAnon is this recent GameStop thing.
Starting point is 00:33:22 Right, right. But I read it sort of summarized. But when they say QAnon believes, what does that mean? Well, so I don't know because half the time, if you're looking at the news media, so early on, way early on when the news media first picked up on it, they were talking about the suggestion that QAnon was saying RFK or JFK Jr. was still alive.
Starting point is 00:33:48 And that isn't what was said by QAnon. They had a Q&A. The posters said the opposite. But for whatever reason, they put that out there. It's most like Reddit. It's computer people, but people tend to be top reporters. How would QAnon, as Van Jones posited, how would QAnon get behind Gavin Newsom and the recall? Or how would they spearhead that? So towards the end, so in the beginning, I think what they did, they put out some outlandish stuff to get attention, right?
Starting point is 00:34:27 Whoever was behind it, like Hillary Clinton's been arrested and other stuff, right? And they even said misinformation is necessary. So in several posts, they would say misinformation is necessary. So I think they did some things, some red meat kind of things to get people out there. they did some things, some red meat kind of things to get people out there. Over time as it evolved, it tended to be a lot of references to news articles and different things, right, that were out there about the investigation or whatever. So QAnon wanted to get behind a recall effort. They would just post some things, news articles about people griping about Gavin Newsom. Right.
Starting point is 00:35:09 And other references to the fact that, you know, he's out eating dinner somewhere. Right. While everybody else is on lockdown. It would be hard to be a QAnon conspiracy theory because it would be like a Reddit conspiracy theory. Exactly. You're just posting shit about it. There's people out there that are doing an Internet thing, and it's kind of fascinating. I mean, it's one of the more fascinating developments. I find the GameStop thing really fascinating.
Starting point is 00:35:29 QAnon is a whole lot like that. What are these people doing? What does it even mean to say they on Reddit? Was there a head of the GameStop Reddit guys that was a conspiracy? Or is it this is the kind of shit that happens on the Internet. And you had some people that had sort of evolving mutual interests over time. Thanks, John. In a weird way, it's sort of the purest expression of mob behavior and the way the Internet allows that mob behavior to go down.
Starting point is 00:35:59 Now get back to porn. Jesus Christ. What's everyone doing on the Internet? First off, I don't even know half the jargon. I mean, either. I don't know what it means. I can help if you guys want. 8chan versus 4chan?
Starting point is 00:36:14 Those are basically message boards. That's like the broader part of Reddit where QAnon sort of sprung up and became... I thought 4chan was on the dark web. 4chan is not on the dark web. There are segments within 4chan that are on the dark web. But I think if you were to ask Van Jones what he was talking about, he would say that people on QAnon are spreading misinformation in an attempt to confuse Californians and get them to sign the recall without fully understanding it. I'm not saying I agree with that.
Starting point is 00:36:42 I'm saying I think that's how he would justify it. Yeah. All it. Interesting. I'm not saying I agree with that. I'm saying I think that's how he would justify it. I wish he had said that. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. That's all for this week. Thanks for listening to the Adam and Dr. Drew Show Classics. Remember to check back each week for new episodes. And while you're at it, don't forget to like, subscribe, and rate us five stars wherever you get your favorite podcasts.

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