Tomorrow - 240: Do something for anyone

Episode Date: November 7, 2021

On this week's Tomorrow, Josh and Ryan discuss the horror that is our political landscape, why NFTs are just MLMs for men, and a few theme parks. Also, did you know that Tony Soprano is alive and listens to this podcast? Please don't yell at us about socialism or cryptocurrency, it only makes our takes worse! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey and welcome to Tomorrow. I'm your host Josh Wittepolsky. Today on the podcast we discuss Joe Manchin, Uber Eats, and Halloween. I don't always one minute. Let's get right into it. Hi. Hello. How's it going? So listen, I mean, we should just, I think we want to preface this by saying that Ryan has been vomiting. Yes, I have. Because he's so excited about this doing his podcast.

He's like just barfing with excitement. I have some kind of infection that nobody seems to be able to tell me what it is. So I'm on my phone round of antibiotics. So we'll see. Is it possible you have chronic lime? I didn't write it out there. Let me ask Justin Bieber and Yolanda Foster. Please do. So hold on, I'm just looking at the

internet real quick as I do at the beginning of every taping of every podcast. Am I to understand here that David Chase, the creator of the sopranos, is now like, here's what happened to Tony at the end of this series. He does every few years. He does this every few years. He's like, he's like, I meant for it to be ambiguous. You can think what you want. And it's like, thanks David Chase.

But maybe he now, he's just like, definitive. Let me see. He doesn't. He's like, Tony is alive. Tony's alive. He disappeared and became a man of the woods, like Justin Timberlake. And he's listening to the tomorrow podcast. Yeah, he's, Tony's getting a lot of information. Tony is, the Tony that we're referring to is Tony's Apprentice.

I can now, I can now tell the world. Tony's soprano is not only a real person, but he's alive. He's been leaving us so many iTunes reviews. And he's our number one fan. And I think it's time to just come clean with everybody. I gotta tell you folks, it's been a wild few days on the internet. Been a wild week. I mean, when's the last time we talked?

Was it a week ago? It was. I suppose. You know, so we looked, there's a lot going on and a lot of people doing a lot of things. And I've just, in fact, I'm just reading a story here about the guy from Barstool Sports. Oh, boy.

Turns out he's a horrible person. I can't believe it. I'm shocked. Simply shocked to find out. I don't know. Here's the headline. I don't know what it means. I'm not an expert.

The headline is, I was literally screaming and paying young women say that they met Barstool Sports founder Dave Portinoi for sex and it turned violent and humiliating. I don't know. That doesn't track with his personality, but he's so funny on his podcast. I love when he gives me stock tips. I love this guy.

Anyhow, Dave Portinoi is like a Trump era. He's like, first off, he's a Trump guy. That's the first thing. He's like a Trump era artifact. I think we'll look back. I mean, he's one of the, this is the kind of guy that's like, you know, the death throws of the white, straight American man. They're the dominance is, you know,

you can see the people who are lashing out. He's Tucker Maxx for 2021. Who are upset and scared? Hold on a second. Why am I hearing, why am I hearing, am I hallucinating? I hear the Oculus sound. The Oculus sound? Like the head. You know the sound when you turn on the headset. Yeah. And you hear like a noise. Minor, but it's like another room. So I'm mind sitting right here and I thought for a second I was hearing it. See how Facebook gets us.

You mean meta? Yeah, whatever. They're burrowing into my brain. Instagram, by meta. I think it was just white noise, actually, which is interesting. It probably says something about the sound that they use. Anyhow, I don't want to talk about Dave Portanoi, but it would be unsurprising to learn

that he's a horrible person who treats people badly. And anyhow, but that's just one of speaking of horrible people and white men. I want to talk about Eliza Wood. Oh, well, you know, listen, I don't think he, I don't think he thought of horror. I don't think he's a horror person. I don't think he's a horror person. I don't think he is a white.

He is white. I mean, I don't know his, you know, ethnic background, but he appears white. He's white presenting. Let me put it that way. But anyhow, Elijah Wood, he bought an NFT. You know, it seemed like it was okay. We did a story on this on input. I highly recommend everybody check it out. You know, he bought an NFT from the Jungle Freaks, which, you know, I don't know,

like, I feel like the name raises questions, but anyhow, and then it turns out the jungle freaks NFTs were created by an artist who's just done like really, really bad. Like, when you think of, of really racist stuff, you probably have some, you probably have some ideas, you probably think, oh, it's, you know, like stuff that Trump said or, I mean, maybe you don't think you don't immediately go to like, full on clan or Nazi imagery or whatever. Yeah, I think a lot of people assume we mean like microaggressions, but no, no, no, no.

We mean like depicting lynchings and being like, this guy did cartoons in the 70s for Hustler, I guess. And they're like really, really bad. I mean, they're very bad. Like by no standards in any era, whether it's the 70s or the 2020s, would you look at these and be like, yep, like that's good.

I like that. I mean, unless you're racist, I don't think even a person in the 1970s would have looked at these cartoons and been like most people probably wouldn't have been like, ha ha, that's so good. They probably would have been like, whoa, that's horrible.

Anyhow, so it turns out that he did all these really racist cartoons. And the art that he did was obviously somewhat tainted by that history, but even some of the new stuff has weird little Nazi stuff in it. Yeah. And a lot of it is like, it's like zombies versus apes. And to like, you know, zombies lend themselves to Nazis,

apes lend themselves to racist imagery. And you can tell he's been inspired by both. Yeah, it's not good. Anyhow, Lajewood bought this to NFT and he was like, oh man, I love this. I'm so happy. I'm into NFTs now. I'm an internet guy, you know, Lajewood is an internet gamer.

Typical person. Animal crossing. Yeah, yeah. He's like, you know, a young man, youngish man. I don't know how he's about like 55 now. I don't know how old Lajewood is, but he's a, he's like, you know, guy on the internet who likes internet stuff. And then it, you know, everybody's like, hey, did you know these are super racist and then inputted a story on it.

And now Elijah Woods' life is unfortunately ruined. He's been canceled. Just like Dave Chappelle. He's been removed from the discourse and he can no longer make a statement. No anyhow, but so he was like, oh wow, this sucks. I'm gonna get rid of these NFTs and donate the proceeds to, you know, I think

it's like a Black Lives Matter fund or something. And, you know, listen, just another, just another, yeah, good work. I mean, it's not his fault. It isn't his fault. The reality is, you know, we are living in a milkshake duck society, okay, where you have to, before you promote anything, you really have to hire a research assistant to go see if they have any garbage in their past. By which I mean, just Google anything, just Google it.

If you Google it. If you Google it and race the stuff comes up, that's not good, but it's fine. Yeah, I mean, it's a big problem. Good for him. Wilfred is a great show. We like a lot. I've never seen it, but I will say this.

What's interesting about this is how many of the NFT people were like, it's not a big deal, who cares. Oh, well, I mean, not shopped to find out that the Dave Portnoy NFT craft doesn't have a problem with this. Yeah, definitely. There's definitely this fusion. I do think it's largely, now I don't want to be,

I don't want to be, I don't want to paint everybody in that world with the same brush. It does seem you don't. There's like a large community of, I don't actually how large it is, but there is a community of a very similar type of guy in there, their things are like, they're into Elon Musk and Tesla. They like NFTs. They're into bar still sports Tesla. They like NFTs.

They're into barstals sports and Dave Portonoy. They think they are. They like Joe Rogan. They like Joe Rogan. I mean, I guess I'm really. We're really talking about white guys. I mean, obviously Dave Chappelle has a very diverse audience, but mostly there are a lot. Well, there are a lot, no doubt many, many white fans of Dave Chappelle, but also, but, um,

I mean Dave Chappelle, by the way, comedy because too many white guys liked his work for the wrong reason. By the way, Dave Chappelle, I, not that I want to rehash all the Dave Chappelle stuff, Dave Chappelle is a very funny comedian. And, and if he, if he wants to apply his, his comedy chops to something other than like weirdly talking about and obsessing over trans people. I think that would be awesome.

It's just to be clear. It's not like, and also I don't know whatever, the whole thing isn't saying. I can't believe we're still talking about Dave Chappelle. There's literally stories this week about Dave Chappelle responding to the community. Anyhow, but yeah, there's this cross-section of guys. I guess they're kind of gamer-gate adjacent. There are a bunch of guys who either were in the alt-right or definitely like some alt-right means on Reddit,

but they would never publicly say that they're alt-right because that doesn't have plausible deniability, but like, they're the kind of guys who like, they get really upset when like the braves are asked to change their name. They're like, really upset. They're like the guys who were mad about the Ghostbusters movie with the whole name. To hold in it.

Which is such an interesting, I mean, I just, why are you as a man? I see this worried about Ghostbusters. Why are you the kind of like the see this worried about Ghostbusters. Why are you as a man? The kind of like defending racist cartoons from the 70s. They're kind of like the people who review bomb, like I guess the new Marvel movie. I mean, what I've seen of the reviews,

everybody's kind of like, this isn't a very good movie. So fine, but like, there's a people who review bomb like Captain Marvel or whatever, because it's got a lady in it or something. Like I don't know where these people, I don't know where their heads are at. I'm not really sure what the deal is with them. But what I will say is, and what I feel like I've seen a lot on the internet lately, is that I really think people are truly reaching a kind of like breaking point due to like

going through the last two years of COVID stuff. Like I do think we're getting to a point, and I actually think when you look at the Facebook stuff, like the metaverse conversation and the NFT conversation and all of this stuff about these like virtual places that are going to exist and these virtual monetary systems that are going to exist and like all these sort of fantasies about this future, or even things that are going to exist and like all these sort of fantasies about this future

or even things that are happening like trends on TikTok that are just like, okay, that's bizarre whatever. I do think there's like kind of at the root of all of it, people are losing it at this point. And the sooner we can get the world, and I don't mean like just America because this is truly a global thing. The sooner we can get the world back to any kind of state of normalcy in the sense of people can go to their jobs, people can go out to do normal things, people can travel, people can go to the factory

that they work in where they get paid, you know, it's like slave labor for like zero money, you know, in China get paid, you know, they're getting, it's like slave labor for like zero money, you know, in China, like, you know, it's like, people are like the supply chain. It's like, everybody seems to, they talk about it like, this is some kind of American issue and like five million people have died from COVID

and there are still, minimum, many, many, many. There are a lot of calculations that say 17 million. So if you're not sure what it's going to be, I mean, it could be a lot more right. But let's just say it's millions and millions and millions of people all over the world. And there are places today, right now, at this moment,

that are in hardcore lockdown because of the spread of the virus. And until we get that all under control, nothing's going to seem normal. And so I do think there is this, we're starting to see the real fractures in people's ability to cope with the reality that we have been in for so long. And I'll be, I'll, you know, as a person living with it, you know, living in it, I think that there's, you know, it's, we do need

to, you know, people can't live like this permanently. I don't think we can live in this kind of stasis. And I will say this would be in America, had everybody just gone and gotten the fucking vaccine. This shit would be over for the most part. We would be done. And like, I gotta tell you, they just announced that, you know, you can now get vaccines for kids,

Zelda is getting her vaccine in the next week. I believe I think we have an appointment in the next seven. I didn't know over. Five to 11, but I mean, that's a huge chunk of, and that's like the school going, those are the kids who are going to school. I just wanna make sure we note it for anyone listening.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, not babies, but I mean, we'll get there eventually. I'm sure they'll have some kind of inoculation that they just got to make the microchip smaller. They have to, they have to find a way to reduce, you see the 5G chip right now is actually, it can go into a normal bloodstream of a child or an adult, but for babies, they've got, they're working, Qualcomm is working on an even smaller 5G module, they can go into the baby's bloodstream. Looking forward to CES?

Yeah, it's going to be so good. I mean, the 5G reception is going to be so good at CES because there's going to be so many. I think they actually require vaccination this year. So you know, it's going to be like wall to wall 5G. But yeah, I think like I do think, I mean, I don't know know everything that all these Republicans are mad about except for critical race theory, which is They're all it's all culture will bore bullshit and they've turned this vaccine issue quote unquote into it's just another culture war Like they they have nothing to offer anyone and not saying the Democrats do that's a whole other topic

But they have nothing to offer anyone substantively. And even ideologically, it's not like, we've learned over 50 years that trickle down economics don't work. And they want to defend billionaires. But at the same time say that if you're poor, you can just go to welfare and exploit that, xyz, whatever.

But it doesn't make any sense. I think people fundamentally understand that it doesn't make any sense. I think people fundamentally understand that it doesn't make any sense. And denying people health care or a living wage makes less and less sense in a COVID world. But I think people are pretty beaten down by COVID, wealth inequality, student debt, nobody in my generation can own a house.

It's a very small amount of people. I think millennials account for 3% of, account for about 3% of the world's wealth period and Mark Zuckerberg is two of those percent. So I think a lot of people are tired and frustrated and done. And the Republicans and the entire sort of right wing establishment, as it exists from the Dave Portenoise all the way up to the Mitch McConnell, is channeling that rage

into culture-war stuff, and increasingly, real things are becoming culture-war things. So, like, suddenly your doctor is about whether or not you're a real American if you listen to your doctor. Why would you listen to him? He's just trying to control you. It becomes, and really, it's a medical issue. Let's just ask doctors and then do what the doctor says. I thought we're complicated. You don't have to consult Ted Cruz.

It's cool. It's cool. Yeah, I mean, I do think, you know, I do think there is, I mean, the wealth disparity is such a huge issue, and it's so weird. To me, it's not to go, we don't have to go hard on politics though there were all these elections recently, you know, this week that did not pan out for the Democrats, I think, the way they hope.

But it ends up being moderate to right wing, doesn't appeal to the progressive Democratic audience. That's a real shock every time. And it's so interesting with the Democrats where they have this like divide of the argument. Like there are Democrats who are like, you see, we need to be more like the Republicans because they're getting people who are worried about critical race theory to vote for them. And it's like, and then there's people who are like, we need to be more progressive because you're never going to get young people to vote for Terry McCullough

or whatever it is. And you're never going to be racist to the Republican party. You can't win. Right. And it is like a classic Democrat thing where they think it's always like this. It's like the way that they run things

when they're in power that, now admittedly, they are a party of striving for some diversity. So I do understand that they don't always agree on things. Even like a state-of-the-cly. I think not agreeing on things is good if you can actually then resolve your disagreements and come to get a plan together versus, the Republicans are like, we don't disagree

whatever the main guy says will do that. We don are like, we don't disagree whatever the main guy says we'll do that. We don't care. We don't have like a moral compass. We don't have like an opinion. We just want to win and be in power. And so whatever the guy at the top tells us to do, we'll do that. It's free of sharing. It's free of sharing.

If the Republican nominee, if Donald Trump was like got into office and was like, first off, like everybody in the military has to become trans and you know, like I'm doing tax breaks for the poorest people, the Republicans would have been like awesome. They would have been like sweet. We love that. We're so, we're like big on the trans community actually

where that's what we're into now. Like, they don't have a point of view. Like obviously if they can be cruel and if they can. Like, they don't have a point of view. Like, obviously, if they can be cruel and if they can hoard power, they'll do that. But the Democrats are like, we wanna hear all the opinions we wanna talk about. It's like, yeah, good, great. But like, you actually have to fucking make a call on stuff

and you actually have to like get one guy said that we can't. So we can't. Yeah, I mean, if I were a Democratic Senator and Joe Manchin was pulling the shit that he's pulling, I would ruin Joe Manchin. I would find a way to ruin Joe Manchin. I'm not a Senator and I'm not the President, but I'm pretty sure if they really wanted to,

they could destroy Joe Manchin's life. I mean, they do a pretty good, they do a pretty, and I'm not saying this to be inflammatory. They do a pretty good job of suppressing and destroying progressive movements and candidates wherever possible. They do a very, very efficient, targeted job

of keeping progressive voices from crossing over because they think that they're counterproductive. And yet, they seem unable to even, you know, openly dislike Joe Manchin. They seem unable to openly say Christians, like I see my typical. I see fucking Bernie Sanders, I see Bernie Sanders chilling with Joe Manchin on the Senate.

Floor Bernie's supposed to be your fucking guy, right? Bernie's the guy, the progressive guy. It's supposed to be. Why is he even fucking giving Joe Manchin the time of day? And I don't want to hear about this fucking, you know. We need to appeal to the party. Yeah, no, you don't. This guy, there are one-carry, there are one point,

one point, eight million people live in West Virginia, one point, eight million people should not be the deciding factor in the lives of 350 million. But my point is this actually getting, not that, again, here we are down at Rabbit Hall, politics, but it's sort of, I wanna get back to the, it's all related though. But I wanna get back to the internet stuff and the COVID stuff, what I'm saying is, but let me just Hall politics, but it's sort of, I want to get back to the code. It's all related though.

But I want to get back to the internet stuff and the code and stuff. What I'm saying is, but let me just say really quickly that it's all related. Like, NFTs are popular because people feel there's no other way that they'll ever get ahead in life. So they're like, no, I mean, the whole MLM for men or whatever. No, anything, right. Anything that appears like you can somehow get money and grow this wealth that you have been promised your whole life.

But for some reason, I just couldn't, you know, secure. I'm sure people, like, scams are an American pastime, you know? People in America, because in America, you're told, like, you can become a billionaire if you work hard enough and if you like use the tools the billionaires use which is like loopholes and tricks and whatever like so you of course a nft is like oh wow I can own I can be an art guy who owns a valuable art now because there's this like you know MLM fucking scheme that I can tap into that's accessible to me but but but getting to the point that I want to make, which is like, what has never been more apparent and what should be driving every conversation that the Democrats have with

the electorate is the disparity in wealth and the way that they are kept down has to become real to the electorate. And I think what's crazy is that the Republican voters are like, we're mad because we don't have jobs or we're mad because our taxes have been getting higher or we've been making less money or our money goes less far because of inflation or supply chain issues or whatever they are. But like at the root cause, it's like you're going through this and your wages suck and your hour suck and your employer sucks, not because of some esoteric democratic tax policy.

But because like these corporations and the billionaires that own them and run them have been working with politicians on all sides of the fence to chip away at this shit over a hundred years or longer. And it's so bad now that like, it's like you can't even explain it to people and partially they can't explain it to the Democrats,

especially can't explain to people because they have not built a platform on trying to solve the problems of these people or even try to tell them what the problems are. It's like, the fact that anybody's able to make an argument about critical race theory, when we have the actual like huge problems that are facing the country right now is it is a testament to the Democrats inability to formulate a clear strategy to make voters understand how much they have to lose or to literally it's

not even a communication issue just literally do anything for anyone and we will sing it from the rooftops. But I mean, how do you, I mean, look at the paid leaf stuff. It's like, you're telling me, it's like, I don't understand. And bipartisan support. But like, who are the people?

Who are the Republicans that are like, I don't want to be supported. If I have a kid, I don't want to be able to like, be supported and be able to take time off of work to like deal with the early days of this kids life. Like, who are the people who are like, yeah, I don't want the government to provide that for me. I don't want to get paid for that. I would rather go back to work immediately. Like, I understand, maybe there's some people that would like to go back to work sooner. I'm sure they'd be able to.

But like, you're telling me the families don't want help. Like, I've never heard that, I don't understand that. So how are they, how are they, and also, I mean, frankly, how do you end up with a fucking Joe Manchin in a Christian cinema? Like, how do you end up with these people who have literally like sleeper cells in the Democratic Party that just are there to push Republican agendas and ruin your legislation.

Like, how does that happen? You know? I just don't you think that how stupid are Republicans that like, people are really upset. There's a fomenting rage. Like, are slash anti-work on Reddit? Which I do believe Reddit is a indicator of the id of the most active and loudest voices of in the world period at this point.

It's reddit, I mean, it's way more relevant than what happens on Twitter. And everybody talks about things that trend on Twitter as if they're like defining the cultural psychological state. But are slash anti-work now has more subscribers than our slash conservative. And it's a new subreddit about how much everyone hates their jobs and everyone hates their employers. There is an enormous movement in this country and it is not a progressive movement.

It is not a democratic movement. It is barely a labor movement at this point because all those people have learned that those aesthetics are unpalatable. So they know that looking like their pro union is bad. But what they really want is to get all their friends together to negotiate a higher wage. But they don't want to call it a union.

Because that's the anti-American. But there is a movement of rage on the behalf of everyone on the bottom half, the bottom half, the bottom 99% of this country. And most of those people would shut up if you bribed them a little bit. If you gave those people what they had in the mid 2000s,

which is like a shitty house they can call a mick mansion. You know, basic healthcare coverage is, is, you know, on its way, like, slittle improvements are happening. Give them little to nothing, and these people would shut the fuck up, and they can't do that. They can't give anyone an inch. They can't pay people even close to a livable wage.

They can't... It is... The wage disparity, I mean, that is crazy. And like, I do think like, there has to be some kind of reckoning here. I mean, we have treated, we are treating the average American family and the average American worker so badly. I mean, I don't see how the only way, like the only way that this works,

and by the way, Republicans, this is their classic play. They are colluding with the people who oppress the poorest and most needy in this country and then what they do is when those people are mad they say, well it's not us, it's not the corporations, it's this black guy over here I think or it's this Mexican guy who took your job or whatever the fucking bullshit is, that's like at the root of critical race theory, and at the root of the racism of the Republican party,

which is rampant, fucking rampant, and visible, and not a mystery, it's real, like they talk about it openly now. Is that it's necessary for them, it's necessary for them to give, working class white people or anybody, an enemy that isn't them, right? Or that isn't their corporation that they work for that sucks.

And so, it's like, it is, it is, we are in this loop it feels like. And until, I don't know how you get out of the loop. And like, I feel like we've gotten deeper. And again, COVID, getting back to COVID and living on the internet and not experiencing reality and not experiencing other people, you know, we are deep in this whole now where it's like

the Republican Party has gone from being, you know, like to being, they've gone from being like liars who were very liberal with what is true and is not like on things that you could are grounded in some reality, right? Like you could talk about a jobs report and they would spin it in a way that is totally false, but the jobs report exists, right? Like there is something there, there is something

that is like, oh, but those are experts trying to trick you because they're elite. But now we're, but now we're in a place where it's like they just, they're just making things up. I mean, they're just, they're just making, they just make stuff up and you've got an electorate who is so disenfranchised that they want to believe the worst, these, the worst of the worst ideas. And which is how you get to the vaccine being a political conversation.

It's how you get to the vaccine. Like never in this, I mean, yes, there have been other times and this has popped up. But we live in a country where everybody, almost everybody, gets like, oh, you know, it's what, how many vaccines, they get a whole course of vaccines as they're growing up. Nobody flinches at that.

For the most part, I mean, the vast majority of people don't flinch at it because they know like these things work, it's what everybody does, it's historically good and safe or whatever. I'm not a doctor. And like, so why would I fucking come and weigh in on this if I'm not a doctor? So it's like, so it's, you know what, I mean, I think about, I look around at all the people I know have been vaccinated and I look around at all of the, you look at all the statistics of people who have been vaccinated, even if they get some form of COVID, the severity of the virus is way, way diminished.

The chance of death, basically almost non-existent. The chance of hospitalization, almost non-existent. This is like, that's what a working vaccine does. That's how you reach herd immunity is you've enough people protected by the vaccine that even if it circulates, it's such a reduced power that it really can't ever rise to the pandemic level. It's a negative. It's a negative growth too. It's a negative back cycle. Yeah. So, but, and then I think about how can you exist in reality and not go away to maybe, maybe I was wrong if you didn't get the vaccine. A people have the vaccine in place where the vaccine

is highly circulated. We're doing fine. Things are pretty normal. Like where we live, things are pretty normal. Like I don't know what it's like in Alabama right now. I don't know what it's like in Alaska right now, but I can tell you, we're not, our hospitals aren't overrun.

They're not filling up. People aren't dying at like a crazy clip. New York was the worst, and now it is the best because of the best. It's a pretty under control. And a lot of people got vaccinated and you only need to only look at the numbers to realize, like if you still think you were right, months and months and months later, if you're still worried about some bullshit

long-term effects that are totally invented, like, how do you not see the mistake? How do you not see what you've done? But yeah, go ahead. But don't you think, I mean, I think that it makes a lot of sense to me that people would be paranoid at this point about everything, because, I mean, we only have ourselves to blame right like

everything in people's lives so far has been a trap. Basically everything in America is if not a scam it is less than what you expected it to be you get less for your money. Everything is always as cat caveats and complications there's always fine print you will always be screwed out of just a little bit and we've all learned that and we've You will always be screwed out of just a little bit and we've all learned that. And we've all learned that you can't trust anything a store tells you. You can't trust anything of tech company tells you.

Every turn, we have let people get it, you can't trust political parties, you can't trust. We let people get away with it too, right? Like not only are all of those things scams, when it comes out that they're highly illegal, or that they, even the legal form of the scam, even the bait and switch style, like there was fine print and now you owe us,

even those, most of the time have been found, when they're found illegal, there are no consequences. When people see that in 2008, nobody gets punished. In fact, everyone rich gets bailed out and only the poor get punished. If you look at the whole entire Donald Trump situation and you're just like a regular Democrat who's like, I don't know, I think both parties have good ideas,

but I've always voted Democrat, those type of people. And you see that nothing happened to the GOP, it stops feeling like they did anything that was that wrong. And you get paranoid about whether or not you can trust anything or anyone about anything. I mean, it's very, of course you would hear about a vaccine that the government wants you to have and that everybody's saying you have to get

and that they're gonna fire you if you don't. And of course you're like, I'm suspicious I'm being tricked because you've been tricked your entire life. And this is the one circumstance in which it's like it we can definitively tell you Please just go get this it will be good for you and everybody It's one of the few times but of course who would believe us who would believe anybody who could trust anything anyone saying at this point the government has literally politicians corporations

Municipal councils nobody has any legitimacy because everything has been a grip to steal money from people. They build schools and poor areas and then they loot the budgets and they give them the most disgusting, horrifying facilities to live and work in that fall apart a couple years after they're built and then their kids live in crumbling, falling apart circumstances, trying to go to school in a pandemic. Why the fuck would you trust anything? And yet, and well, but the problem is, Republicans are fucking morons because everyone would trust them and shut the fuck up and everyone would be so happy to just go to Marvel movies and

play video games and have Netflix and their iPhones and shut the fuck up if they had a livable livable we're not talking livable livable wage if people were going into the negative and then having their bank charge them money for not having money Every two weeks. That is the real circumstance of people's lives right now. I like you know There's a I mean while you were talking. I was just looking there know, there's a, I mean, while you were talking, I was just looking, there's a, there's a, there's a hashtag that's trending right now, well, trending, who knows what that means on Twitter. It's hashtag, do not comply.

It's about Biden's new, you know, workplace related mandates around the vaccine. It's like, you know, what's so incredible to me about the anti-vax and anti-mask people, besides they're just utter disbelief of facts and lack of understanding about. And I like, listen, this is all, again, driven by people in power.

I mean, I really believe, you've got, I mean, I believe this is all, all of what we're experiencing is an extension of having somebody like Trump in office. I mean, to be clear, if George W. Bush had been in office when this pandemic hit, now I don't think George W. Bush is a good guy. I think he fucking sucks. I think he is one of the worst presidents we've ever had.

He was a terrible president that put us in a fucking endless war and got hundreds of thousands of not millions of people killed in doing in the process and amongst other huge problems. But I don't believe that a person like George W. Bush would have decided to use a vaccine as a political game, right? Because I think there's like a standard of like, what you expect from politicians. I actually don't believe most of these Republicans think or agree with the shit that they say to their constituents.

I think they are basically like, we can, this is a thing that we can dig our heels in on and win on. But what's so insane to me about all of these people is that all of the things they're mad about, like the fact that there has to be a vaccine mandate for workplaces is created by them. It is like, it exists because of them. If a decent majority of people had just,

if these people had just gotten a vaccine, you know, it's like the vaccine is not a statement of freedom. It's like we're trying to stop people from dying, and if you had just done your part as a citizen, like there wouldn't be a mandate, but you didn't. And so, you know, they're like the fucking kid. They are the kid that ruins it for everybody. They're like the person who is an asshole and makes everybody get extra homework, you know, they're like, they're like the fucking kid. They are the kid that ruins it for everybody. They're like the person who is an asshole

and makes everybody get extra homework. You know, it's like, you could have just shut your fucking mouth and now everybody has to pay for it. So, you know, anyhow, it's very frustrating. It's very frustrating to live in a reality where you're constantly confronted with like, what should be obvious solves to problems and yet people choose

this other path and the truth is they're really choosing it so much now because it is like it has been like these notions have been made it with their personality and how they define themselves as a human being in in our society and it's like being, like, you're not an anti-vaxxer, nine times out of 10. You've decided to like make this a place where you're going to try to express some desire for freedom or whatever, but the truth is, like this should not be part of someone's personality,

whether you take a vaccine or don't take a vaccine. It should be like, you should be able to follow, you know, the science and the doctors and go, yeah, you know, 99% of the time, when I do that, I'm not, I have nothing to worry about. But like, for some reason now it's become this like personality quirk. It's like, oh, you're a person who does this.

You're a anti-mask or you're an anti-vaxxer. It's like, this is just like basic shit. It's like basic medical advice. And somehow we have just diminished the concept of it down to this, like, you know, something you put on your Facebook profile as a stance. And it's so fucking depressing. I mean, it really is. But I'll tell you this, I fucking keep going in Alabama or wherever the fuck it's happening now,

where we live and where a lot of other people live, people are getting vaccinated and life's going back to normal. You keep fighting, okay, to not get the jab. Meanwhile, we'll be in the rest of the country getting shit done and being productive and living our lives. And like, that's just how it's gonna be.

And eventually those people are gonna fucking die. That's just the reality. Like, eventually a bunch of those people are just going to fucking kill, whether it's old age or COVID or something else. You know, and I don't know that there's another generation to replace a lot of these people. I really don't. I don't believe that I think there's certainly a large segment of younger people that are conservative in this country. I have no doubt about that. But I just don't see the future own being owned and operated by the conservatives or Republicans. I'm not saying it's going to be owned and operated by Democrats, at least in the current state, but it's going to be something different.

And I will say this. You know, I think Facebook's problems are a really nice microcosm of where everything is kind of headed. And the reality with Facebook is that they're doing all the shit that they're doing right now, talking about, and they're doing all of this Instagram kid stuff and trying to find a way to not be Facebook so they can be some other thing. It's all in service of a desperate need to keep young people interested in what they produce and what they do. And that is slipping away from them. Facebook is becoming the network of baby boomers. And maybe Jen Exers at this point who are, you know, unfortunate. I read a really funny tweet that was like, at this point Facebook is just people posting.

Remember when mother would set the kettle on and then 160 girls going, yes, in all counts. Mm. No, listen, I mean, one of the things that I find so interesting about Facebook is my mother for years, for years, as long as she's had email. My mother sends me these four words. And by the way, I think my parents are a little bit savvier than a lot of old people because

they've got me as a son, so I've had to tell them things. I've had to explain things to them over and over again about technology and the internet. I shiver to think who my parents would be without me trying to jam sense to their support. Well, dude, I mean, it's real fucked up. I mean, that's what you start to realize when you talk to your parents, you know, technology. I, I, I shiver to think who my parents would be without me trying to jam sense stuff. There's a good thing. I mean, it's real fucked up. I mean, that's what you start to realize when you talk to your parents and shit about what's going on out there.

But this is actually gets to the heart of this. My mother, since she's had emails been sending me these forwards, okay? And it like, it's been a running joke with me and Laura. Like, the forwards are, and not that they're, you know, and it's not a knock on her. But she'll get this forward. It's like, remember when it's like, you know, and it's not a knock on her, but you should get this forward. It's like, remember when?

It's like, things that, things that used to exist that don't appear in our society anymore, whatever. And it's like, you know, they would always be every once in a while, and it would be like shit, like rotary phones, and remember the drive-in? It's like stuff like that, you know, it's like shit for boomers, they're like, you know, remember poodle skirts?

It's like, or whatever the fucking thing is. And, and, yes. I do. I do. Every once in a, yeah, and like, she loves these. They love these like nostalgic trips, down memory lane. But like every once in a while, she'd send me one. And I'd be like, you know, did you see,

did you see the 30th thing on your list that you forwarded? Because it was like, it's just forwards. Like, she got on your list that you forwarded? Because it was like, it's just forwards. She got forwarded from one of her boomer friends, and then she forwarded it to me because she thought something was funny or interesting or whatever.

And it's like, oh yeah, Finn's, remember when cars had fins or whatever, you know, it's like, whoa. But everyone's in a wild, they'll be like, playing cowboys and Indians. And it's like, mm, ah, you know, I playing cowboys and Indians and it's like You know, I don't know and then it's like you know sitting at the front of the bus. It's like It's like remember yeah, it's like you know, it's like it's like the the you know Mom and the dad and two kids in the house or whatever it's like

Yes, mom a mom and a dad and two kids in the house or whatever. It's like, uh, I guess mom, you know, the kids, you can shut up because they, yeah, it. Yeah, like a home cook meal and it's like mom and a brain with a fucking lasagna or whatever. And anyhow, but like, but, but, but what's so interesting is that for as long as I can remember, Facebook content, a lot of what I would see on Facebook really gave me like Forward email vibes from my parents where I was like, oh, this is like people on it on on Facebook are like talking about

This is like the shit. This is where these come from, you know, and and now it's like increasingly like to your point That's what Facebook is and the reality is like you can feel do I mean do you understand like the loss of power if like Facebook can't hang on to People who are 20 right now or people who are 25? I mean I'm I'm old as shit and I have never I've never wanted to engage with Facebook since the moment that I got it and when I started using Facebook I was you know a easily a decade younger than I am now started using Facebook, I was, you know, a, a, easily a decade younger than I am now. I engage with Instagram, but, but increasingly, I definitely could see a future for myself where I'm no longer spending time on it.

And, uh, and, you know, it's pretty light engagement. It's like looking at pictures, posting a picture. It's not, there's really not much to anyone created an app that was just regular, normal, remember what it used to be like. And this isn't about nostalgia, but just regular Instagram where you post a picture, you can comment on it, you can like it, or you can turn those off.

It's about posting a picture, and then seeing the pictures your friends posted. I would leave Instagram immediately, even if three of my friends went over there. I mean, like, visco kinda does that, but, but, hold on, but let's not get stuck on it. Three of my friends are on there. No, you need a couple of buddies.

But, you know, I do think things like Apple's like I Cloud Photo stuff and the, you know, Google Photo Sharing has in many ways there are instances where, you know, like we went trick or treating the other day and I have a bunch of photos from that and like the people we are with, you know, our friends, I was like, I'm gonna share them to you but like privately, like I'm not gonna put them on Instagram, like I don't need we are with, you know, our friends, I was like, I'm gonna share them to you, but like privately, like I'm not gonna put them on Instagram, like I don't need to do that, you know, or whatever. And I, and the same is true for them for

the most part, you know, we're not, we're not posting all kinds of like, fo, anyhow, but getting back to my point, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the losing control of the attention of those people, of the next generation, of the generation that is going to be rising to power and to prominence or whatever, for Facebook is a, I mean, Facebook is a, I mean, it is a major, major problem for them. And everything they're doing is designed around trying to hook those people. I think they have the same problem as the concern. And by the way, Facebook is going more white, more conservative, more right-wing. It's focusing on like all of these things that are better for this audience that they've developed, which is like a right wing,

older, white fucking conservative audience. And it's by the way, it's rampant. I mean, you look on Facebook, I'm an appearance group where we live just because, you know, it's like you kind of need to like, not a parent's group, it's like, yeah, I guess it's like parents, but it's like people who live in this area

who have kids that go to the school here, whatever. You know, it's like mostly people going, like I need a, I have like, do they know like a garage door repair person? It's like shit like that, right? But then every once in a while somebody's like, saying some antimask shit or whatever, and people are like, this isn't the place for that.

But it's like it's all over there. I think losing young people is so toxic, it's so over, it's so bad for Facebook. It's like, it's not like Microsoft problems, right? If Microsoft loses young people or whatever, it's not really that big of a deal because Microsoft's business is not about young people. Microsoft's business is they got servers,

really, really good servers everywhere, and their software on it and all these utilities that people use that are basically the backbone of industries. And so they're good to go. You know, they don't need a 25 year old with this new surface. They would like it and it happens. They're actually doing pretty well. But, you know, Apple, sort of similar situation,

they don't need to get all the young, and obviously they want youngsters using their phones and they have them youngsters. They have the abuse of them. But like, their business doesn't rise or fall on that. But what does Facebook become when a whole segment of the population isn't part of it? You know, what does it become? Who is it for? How do you attract more people to that? And so Met is so important and the metaverse

and Oculus and all this shit they're talking about now because they really have to figure out a scheme, a trick to get young people back interested in their products, or they lose an entire generation and what they really lose there is their ability to sell products and advertise to that generation. And when they lose that, they're in real deep shit. And so anyhow, I think like in many ways that the Republican Party is a, I want to, in my best moments, I do want to believe that this horrid last few years were going through. I mean, truly the worst of the worst of the Republican Party that I've ever seen.

Now, I've only been alive for a few decades, so I can't speak to all of the years of the Republican Party. But I would say I've never in my adult life, or in a life where I could in so far in my life where I could understand what the Republican party does. I've never seen them quite this bad. I've never seen their voters quite this bad. I have to believe, and I want to believe, that what we are witnessing is the death throws of something without a clear emergence of what the next thing is. But I don't believe that we're minting a lot of new conservatives the death throws of something without a clear emergence

of what the next thing is, but I don't believe that we're minting a lot of new conservatives in this country. I just don't, like I just deep down, I mean, I just don't, I mean, I guess I don't. I don't add how many blackpill people were minting. I'm teetering on the edge myself.

Explain, can you just give me a little definition of blackpill just so I understand what that actually is? Climb a chain of coming for us all, nothing that we do will change anything. So we might as well just enjoy our lives and die early and happy because billionaires will never let us have anything or do anything or fix anything or save anybody. It's kind of a scorched earth sort of like, you know, who cares, like drop out.

The case of the fight. Yeah. Tune in, tune in, turn on, dropout. This is something that people said in the 60s, you may be familiar with. Are you familiar with it? Because what they were saying was, it's a book by Timothy Leary.

What they were saying was, you know, like, get wise to what's going on, take some fucking ass, I didn't call it a day. Which is like very, very much what I think you're describing and what people are feeling right now. Yeah, the same thing with weed, but yeah. No, no, I'm saying like whatever, the drug is sort of. No, no, no, I know.

I'm just saying like for it's aesthetically different because it's 2021, but essentially yes. It's people who are like, I'm gonna stream on Twitch. Hopefully I'll make enough money to like eat. And if I don't, but I don't wanna do, I don't wanna do a thing where I work back breaking labor and put my life on the line in a pandemic to make enough money

to have a place to sleep for the seven hours I get to choose what I do with my life. Right, well I'm interested to know. What I really, I think one of the great mysteries of this moment is the work, the labor shortages that we have in this country. And you know, it's interesting because like your ideology shapes your, your, I don't know that we have, like I haven't seen somebody say,

okay, here's what's going on. Now by the way, I haven't, I haven't really looked that hard. But, but you know, if you talk to somebody who's a Republican or has a conservative point of view, you know, if they're not like a hardcore Republican, even like people I know, like in my family, who are Democrats and vote Democrat and are not supportive of any of the Republican policies, look at this like labor shortages, kind of some kind of, they, they bought into a talking point, which seems to make sense, because there's not a lot of other explanations,

which is a Republican talking point, which is like, oh, we gave people all these stimulus checks during the pandemic, and now they've just decided to not work, and they're just lays in around, playing their PS5 that they bought with their stimulus check or whatever. Now, I don't know what people were actually getting

for stimulus, like, I don't know what the total amount people got for a stimulus check was. But I did a lot more than people did. But I'm saying, but I do grand and some unemployment insurance, which is now all right. Yeah, as far as I know, it's not enough to like live on in perpetuity. It was far too long at the time.

You know what I mean? But it wasn't like, it wasn't like, okay, you got, we gave you like 50 grand and you might be able to find a way to like, eat out a living from that over several years. It was like a couple of grand, right? Yes. And like most people I know from,

and I know people, you know, all from all different sorts of act tax brackets. In a month, if you live below poverty line, like you live in. Yeah, like I'm from Pittsburgh. I know people live in Pittsburgh and they're rents like $800. Okay, it's like okay, well, that's like,

yeah, I'm like, okay, so you get two months of rent out of that roughly and a few bucks left over. Like I, so I'm like, I'm like, I don't really, I don't, if not for a second, do I believe the actual answer is, we give people stimulus checks and now they're just like, fuck it, I don't need to work ever again. But there is something going on.

And I want to know what it is. Is it what you're describing? Is it that a lot of people who are working shitty ass jobs, like, you know what they worked at a factory for fucking 10 years and they were getting paid badly and then the factory shut down and they're like, fuck, I need to make money. Maybe I should do, I don't know, like whatever, pick a thing, maybe it's like, I'm gonna fucking deliver food for Uber Eats or, you know, I'm gonna go do something online

or I'm gonna learn a new skill or what I do believe there's gotta be a segment of the population that was like, wait a second, the work I was doing sucked and I got paid badly for it, maybe there's a different thing I can do and get paid better for it. We obviously had a huge increase in need for things like delivery people. So I assume there's a lot of new jobs in that sector.

And I assume actually for a lot of people, not to say that these gig economy fucking things are the answer. But I would bet there's a lot of people who are making shitty wages as a waiter. And they were like, then they started doing Uber eats and they're like, wait a second, I can make more money doing this. I would imagine there are people that have experienced that.

But what I really want to know is like, what is the answer? Because I do think something's happening culturally like to us. I think people, I mean, it's part of what we're talking about with anti-work. I think people, for whatever reason during the pandemic, for a variety of reasons, lots of different people, their lives changed, right? Like spend a lot more time at home with your kids, you spend a lot of, you either can't work

or you've reduced, they've reduced your hours or, like people's lives were disrupted and changed. So that's part of it, is that a lot of people learned that like, oh, even if I had less money, my life is infinitely better because having slightly more money isn't worth being enslaved six days a week. Yeah, and especially when you get it. And by the way, the jobless claims, they just release jobless claims today. It's Thursday, November 4th, 2021.

And the jobless claims are low. But the other part of what's creating this feeling is that the government gave a bunch of companies a ton of money and said, here, you can have it, but you have to spend it on payroll or you have to use it in these particular ways because we're giving you this money to protect everybody. It's not just for you to spend on bonuses and stuff.

Okay, guys, wink, wink, and the companies were like, definitely, we will do that. So they put up hot, now hiring signs with insultingly low wages that go down the younger you are at some places. And then when people interview or apply, they're like, well, we can't hire you because you don't have experience or we can't hire you because you don't have experience.

Or we can't hire you because XYZ reason, or we can't hire you because we're actually waiting for approval from corporate and they won't give it to us. So they can continually say that they're hiring, which is the legal requirement for them for a certain amount of time, and also keep the money and not spend it on anybody or anything, except themselves. And so in order to create that illusion, they need to put up signs, they need to tell their branch managers that they're hiring, but they're not gonna approve any of these new employees. And they need people, and they basically also learn to that,

they could operate their businesses at 50% capacity, and these people are so desperate to keep their, like, mid-level manager job, that they'll work the insane hours and take on, the things that were other people's jobs. And then they're like, well, I'm only paying one guy, you know, $40,000 a year. Why am I gonna even give a teenager $8 an hour

to help him out if he's just gonna do it on his own? But those people are also reaching their breaking point and saying, fuck this, fuck this company. I would rather have nothing than continue the insult that is the back breaking labor and putting my life on the line for less than I was making before. And I think that's creating this narrative that is also super easy to buy into, right?

Like it's so easy to blame. Immigrants, black people, trans people, literally anybody that you, for any reason might not already like, aesthetically, culturally, might make you uncomfortable. It's really easy to put an narrative that they are the problem with society. And it's also similarly easy to be like, everybody's lazy, don't you think,

except you and me. We know that everybody's lazy. It's real easy to buy in and be like, if people only worked harder, it makes sense. It's digestible and it's fun. It's fun to believe that you're in a secret club of people who work hard,

so everything you have you deserve. It's so easy to believe and fun to believe that you secretly know the truth about the vaccine and everybody else is a people. And that, it's just so easy to sell. It's the way that like, I always say about Republicans, it's so easy to break things, and it's really hard to build things.

And I think everybody right now, it's like Russia in the 90s. They're just looting our society, the rich and anyone with any access are looting everything, taking as much as they can, just ripping the copper piping off of poor people's homes and poor people through their turn. Of course, the response is, well, then I should do it. So I'm gonna get into an MLM or NFTs or I'm gonna start this fucking grift of some kind.

I'm gonna start a scam. And then everybody's fucking paranoid that they're being scammed, which they are. And we're gonna rip ourselves apart as a society, the way that Russia did in the 90s, and cement our status as an oligarchy. And it's fucking depressing. I mean, that's a political party where a president was to step in and say, we're going to do a new deal, some kind of green new deal, or a second bill of rights. Like we have proposed several times in American history, core American values. We're going to break up a monopoly, a core American value,

but it has become, since Reagan, so fashionable to say that all these American institutions are in fact anti-American. And the only thing that is American is to have money and to make it look easy. And so, no, and I think that, and I think that, you know, there is, I do think it's funny because like, you know, I was just looking perusing a Times article about, you know, literally like, was just losing a time's article about, literally, I just

Googled while we were talking, why is there a labor shortage? What are the types of answers that people who study labor are coming up with? There's a time's article where it does talk about this exact thing, where it's like, you know, the reality is that, that lower wage jobs are absolutely terrible in this country, and people are kind of like, well, I got a little bit of padding, like either I got laid off or I got furloughed or whatever, and then I got a little bit of money to put, you know,

from the stimulus, and now I can actually kind of figure out what kind of job I should get or should have, or maybe I'll let go back to school or do that's why I see. And I do think that there is something really interesting to this idea that, I mean to me this gets to like the heart of the union debate and not like and I'm not, you know, every industry is different but what I will say is this, like, my, I come from a family of, of, of socialists, of people who were, you know, not only in unions, but started unions and were like major, like majorly involved in the politics of, you know, of, of what those meant, you know, to the, to their families and beyond. And, and like, the truth is, like, we have a history in this country of employers

abusing the fuck out of their employees. And the way that we have historically been able to fight that is for the employees to band together and say, hey, we don't like this. And if we tell you this as a group and we tell you we won't work in this condition and you don't have infinite amounts of people to go and get, you've got to change the way you do business.

Like this should be a moment. I know it's like we get a lot of, I feel like we've gotten a lot of, everything that is wrong in this country or some of the biggest things that are wrong in this country all seem to have come to a head during the pandemic. And I think there's a reason, right? Like it's not an accident that we're suddenly talking

about systemic racism and police brutality and abuse of workers and this amassing of wealth at a level that is out of touch for 99.9% of the population and this amassing of control based on that wealth and the kind of, you know, forget about the cultural stuff that we're, you know, we're Republicans versus Democrats. Every single person, whether you're whatever your political alignment should want and be seeing this, that this can't go on in this way.

That we can't keep living, that it can't be that during the pandemic when people not only lost their lives, but I mean, do you know what I mean? Or new orphans we've created in America because of the pandemic. Like a huge amount. A huge amount, hundreds of thousands of people's,

kids have had their parents die, you know? And, but, but in the midst of all of this, you, we have to reevaluate like what we're doing here and how we're able to kind of like go on and pick back up as a country. I don't think that like what we're doing, how we're like just continually drawing this larger and larger gap between the lowest earners and the highest earners is sustainable. I mean, these are the things that cause revolution, like revolutionary wars

and civil wars. Like these are, this is the thing, right? When you have tremendous inequality and you have a hoarding of wealth and power amongst a very small group of people and just a constant degradation of the people below them, like this is exactly how you get a civil war on your hands or a revolution or a revolution. I worry that Americans just don't have the stomach for it. Like we just we're gonna be like

the police are the good guys and it's anyone who's protesting is a bad guy. Well, it isn't about the police versus other people. The police should be as pissed off about it as anybody else. I mean, I'm not, they're not, they're in a union and they make fucking $300,000 a year with their overtime bonus. So they don't give me, but, but I mean, yeah, okay, true. I'm just saying that, I mean, that's true in some places, not, not all the places. I'm not defending the police, but what I'm saying is that they're, they're part of the class that is not in control. Whether or not they want to believe it, whether or not they have a badge and the fact that they're not, they're just bright. You know, they're part of the class that is not in control, whether or not they wanna believe it, whether or not they have a badge and the fuck. Oh, no, they're not. They're just bright.

You know, they're right, they're right. And I'm just saying like at some point, you get enough people, you either give them solutions or people come and take them. And maybe things like this job shortage, this labor shortage is the first of many of these kind of changes. And I mean, I don't know, I'm taking, again, I'm taking an optimistic view that like, is the first of many of these kind of changes in, I mean, I don't know, I'm taking, again,

I'm taking an optimistic view that like, it is possible to hurt these businesses if you don't accept the way they treat you. It is possible for them to change what they do and to change how they distribute the wealth that they hoard if they no longer are able to create that wealth. The problem we have in this country right now is that Amazon became so much more valuable during the pandemic.

Obviously, their business is delivery, so I kind of get it. But Jeff Bezos got so much richer, and we don't have a mechanism to somehow distribute some of what he has amassed to the people who have allowed him to amass it. And like until we find a better balance there, like I don't know how we kind of steer off of this course from something more visceral and violent happening in this country at some point, like whether it's between the people, right now

it's between the people who believe that someone else has a better than them on their level. But the truth is, it's not on their level. It's way above them. And like, if you're mad at black people, that's just because, again, you've been positioned that way by the people who do not want you to pay attention

to the fact that they're actually the people who are fucking you over. So you know, it's like, I just don't see how we go on without some meaningful change. The problem is, I don't know. Everything seems so fucking dysfunctional. The government seems so beyond dysfunctional right now. Nobody has a plan. Nobody has stepped up to be like, I'm going to be the voice of these people.

We're going to lead a new movement. We're gonna blah, blah, blah, blah. There has been no person. And every time someone gets close to that position, I hate to say this, because I'm gonna get a ton of emails and at replies. The Democratic Party slaps them back down because they're threatened,

they're position of powers threatened. And so nobody is ever in the position. And even if someone gets close, right? Like we even AOC, right? Like she's a little Mimi, she's a little, she's a little too comfortable with hanging out with Nancy Pelosi, but she's saying the right things, blah blah blah. Not only do we shred them, like the progressive people will be like, well she wore a dress to the back of her.

And it's like, shut the fuck up. Just shut the fuck up. But anyway, we shred them, but they'll never, they reach the ceiling of their, they reach the ceiling of where they're allowed to go because they get tricked into thinking, well, I'll change it from the inside, right? Like, I'll just work with talk shumour. Or they get slapped back into their place

by a ton of money and power and fucking fixers and behind the scenes, shit. And so I don't know what happens other than people fully either opting out of the system or, and I hate to say this, we're gonna see a giant wave of disappointment in 2022 and what happened in Virginia happens across the country and we lose control of everything with the presidency

then Kamala Harris runs in 2024 and Donald Trump or Donald Trump Jr. or some fucking person who's smarter than either of them But is the exact same fundamentally with like slightly less slurs coming out of their mouth wins and fucking destroys what is left of the fabric of society Then we'll have some kind of revolution, but it will be way too late because the climate change apocalypse will be happening So I mean like this is like this is like the fantasy of the, you know, the Chappell Trap House guys or whatever that like,

it gets so bad that there's revolution, but like, yeah, I don't think it's going to go the way you think it's going to go. No, I think if we do get a revolution, it will be to water world time. I mean, if I think a revolution, I mean, listen, the scenario you depict is not totally far fetched. And the revolution that will happen

is like fascist fascist dictatorship will control this country and it will be it will be uh... i mean it's like that's like a re that's a whole it's a hopefully it's a dictator who cares about the people and then he'll die and his son will be the worst and that's the scenario for now but i mean the mevill. You know, yeah, but it's they won't be there will be somebody. It'll be a Republican and there'll be an culture. And but but the thing is, you know, the we have to do we got to do something. The Democrats have to do, and I don't mean we as the Democrats, I mean, I'm saying the Democrats

need to do something to demonstrate very clearly that they have the best interests of people in mind and that it is not just this like these like fucking talking points, you know, and like I don't know how you do that. I really don't with a guy like Joe Manchin when you have such a thin majority and then you've got these like sleeper cell people, like Joe Manchin and Kristen Sinema, who literally are just like,

no, we're actually not part of your party, and we don't want what the party wants. We want to stop that, and we want to shut it down, and we'll do it actively. How do you get anything done and demonstrate to people that you can be effective? The one thing that is so aggravating is that because of this you know

Just following order is mentality of the Republicans They can do whatever Donald Trump says he's gonna do he did it Whatever he said he was gonna do something he did it because nobody opposed him I mean literally he did an Insurrection and nobody did anything they arrested like a couple people. I mean that's another example of that's another example of like It feels like something more should have happened here so far About the fact that like we literally had like people were trying to kill our lawmakers and our law they're trying to kill by being like well uh...

yeah like like like like like okay i mean like mike pence who's a total piece of shit was like somebody asked him it's a republican convention like or whatever they were like what stopped you from overturning uh... the votes uh... you know in the favor favor of Donald Trump when the election was stolen or whatever.

And he's like, James Madison, it's like, okay, dude, I'm glad that you believe that there is a system that is worth protecting here at the 11th hour. And I'm glad that you're saying it to people. But it feels like we should be demonstrating a lot more that this is like a not tolerable position for anybody to hold that they can like try to kill Nancy Pelosi or whatever and just be like get a slap on the wrist. And also that there are people in the government who have colluded with them. Yeah, it just feels like there needs to be more action. And I don't know where-

We're not going to convict Kyle written house. We're not going to do anything about Donald Trump's insurrection. We're just going to sit on our hands and be like, well, when we really wish we could get more representation in the media. And maybe we'll get a child tax credit for families with more than three kids who have made less than, like,

fucking means testing bullshit. And they'll be merely mouthed. And people will rightly be disgusted with them. And then things will get worse And I wish that that wasn't what is gonna happen and I will fight I will donate I will fucking walk I will not go full black pill until like fucking until I'm in my jail cell I will not go full black pill, but I do think that that's the state of things and unless unless

people stop taking it. But then you'd have to convince people that their bosses aren't the good guys and that billionaires don't love them and that corporations aren't their friends and pop stars don't wanna hang out with them and politicians aren't trying to be in a secret club with them. But you can't convince these people.

They're all following resistance bots on Twitter. So I Don't I don't know. You know Brooklyn down defiant whatever. Yeah. No, right those I mean the funny thing about and I will say this is You know who has been well discussed with all with these you know sort of the current state of the Democrats It's like well, you know your platform is like get rid of Trump. It's like okay You did it but but like now what? Biden is still giving speeches about how he doesn't like Donald Trump. Well, I think I can agree, I understand that, but the party's killing itself.

I mean, this Joe Manchin shit, like, it's, what do you do? I mean, what do you do about these people who are just there to stop the progress? Like I do believe, I do believe there is like, there is an actual good plan. There is a kind of like the concept of a green new deal or even getting close to it, even trying to get close to it.

Even their original build back better, whatever fucking bullshit that wasn't even that good. It was pretty not bad. Foundationally there's a lot of stuff in there that this country needs. You know, not so perfect but a lot. But like here we are, you know, do you think that with a guy? If I didn't come down with a guy. Do you think that a newborn mother can have a weak off?

Yeah, because a guy who represents a state with 1.8 million residents just decides that that's not what he wants, because it's not good for him. And it's like, what do you do there? I don't know what you do. How do you build like, the other thing is like, I mean, I don't want to get into the fucking Jerry Mandarin and shit, but like, you know, the Republicans are masters of cheating, just basically, yeah, cheating. Like they can't win by the numbers,

but they really don't. By the way, I would say these elections that just happened, the victories that people saw in where Republicans beat Democrats is not because there was just such a huge surge in voters from the Republican side. There was some uptick, but what there really was was a downturn in voters from the Republican side, there was some uptick, but what there really was was a

downturn in voters from the Democrat side, right? Sorry, there's like extremely loud machines outside that just started up. Do you hear that here, though? Okay, great. Well, I guess my noise cancellation is working. At any rate, so it's like, you know, there is, people have to continue to be like

participating in the work of electing people who will represent them. But I guess if you don't see any of the representation ever happen, pretty hard to care. And also if you don't have any money and your work to have to death and you've never been educated on any of these issues, or in fact people have been shoving misinformation down your throats for decades, it's a little, it's hard. It is really hard. So I don't know, but maybe we should focus on nice things. Oh God. Yeah, I was like, yeah, we're not gonna have a politics. Then we literally talk about the entire. But how do you avoid it? How do you avoid it? I don't know. It is connected to all this other stuff. I mean, we started talking about, I mean, the thing was here we were talking about

you NFTs and Dave Portenhoiger, whatever the fuck it was, but like the truth is all this stuff is connected. And until we create a better reality for people to actually live in, you know, all of this feeds into what we're going through. And I'm not willing to lie to the people who listen to this podcast, and I'm not willing to make things seem nicer just to have a nicer fun or episode. Like, I... You won't lie to Tony Suprano. I'm not gonna lie to Tony soprano.

The man, the man almost deserves the truth. Almost died a few years ago. That's right. That's right. He was believed, he was believed dead, but it turns out he's alive and, and, and of course our number one fan. All right, let's do nice things and then get out of here.

And then go away. And then go into our go into our pain caves. Well, I'll tell you what my nice thing is, is Halloween. A Halloween in an area where the virus is all but gone. And I gotta tell you, we had a crazy, huge Halloween here with hundreds, if not thousands, of people on the streets. Kids, trick-or-treating treating door-to-door people serving hot cider like Remains some real like American shit going on out there on the streets, but I will say this

it was incredible to Like be back at it and to feel like for the most part it was like a normal Halloween and Everybody had a really good time and of course they'll have blast. But, but it did, I do think it was a reminder that, there is a, let me sort of on my nice thing, it's sort of on the topic, but there is a, there is an end to this stuff and there is a return to things that seem normal and maybe even better.

I do think people were like, extra having an extra good time given the fact that it's the first time that we've been able to really do like a proper Halloween in a couple of years. So yeah, I don't know what my nice thing is on this particular point except like I enjoy the hell out of Halloween. I do think next year I'm going to go all out. I mean, I have a fog machine and some Halloween decorations. When I was a kid I used to do like a full set up at my house, like a huge loser, because I had no friends. I would do like a full on like dry ice and gravestones.

Oh, this was anything I would have done if my parents had let me. This was like my dream. Oh yeah, no, no, no. My parents fully indulged this. I had like spooky sounds and I had like, you know, things hanging off the house and I had made like fake gravestones and did lighting and stuff. Oh, it was completely out of control. And I was like 12 or whatever, I don't know how I was, but I shouldn't have been doing other more fun things.

But I do think next year I'm gonna go, I might even do a party, but I do think, I love Halloween conceptually and I thought this year was great and I do. My one regret is that I didn't really do a costume and Zelda did a great, she was a Pokemon trainer, she was Ash, Catch him basically. And our friend's dressed up as Team Rocket because her friend, her friend's parents dressed up as Team Rocket and her friend dressed up as Another Pokemon trainer whose name escapes me right now and anyhow, so it was like a whole crew And they have a baby so they dress up the baby as a as a pokeball, which is amazing

Anyhow, but what I realized is like I got to do a costume next year and and luckily The Neville News a a Dune franchise, has given me many opportunities because it's got a bunch of bearded men in it. And it's tough because I don't wanna shave my beard for a costume and you see you have to kinda like a line with who has a beard. So now I can either go as stillgar

or Duke Lido at tradies, both have beautiful beards. So I'm starting to think about what I'm gonna do, but I wanna go all out next year. But so yeah, my nice thing is Halloween, and how great it was, and how great it is, and looking forward to the next Halloween. You love to hear it. You do.

My nice things are, one is a jail broke my switch, and it's awesome, and if you have an original model switch, or are good with a soldering iron, definitely. Oh, you have to solder? For the new ones you do. For the original model switch or are good with a soldering iron, definitely. Oh, you just solder? For the new ones you do. For the original model, you don't have to, but they put in some security stuff. But it rules, it's the best.

You can play Super Mario 64 in full widescreen in a lot better version of the game than Nintendo has ever released, including Nintendo Switch Online, which is a disaster. And my other nice thing is on Halloween or the day before Halloween, my husband and I dressed as Batman and Commissioner Gordon, and we went to got honestly the most decadent and disgusting version of what we've been talking about, but we went to the American Dream Pavilion in New Jersey, which is next to a stadium and probably like the

most extensive mall I have ever seen in my life. But in there they have a theme park within the mall called Enocholody in Universe and in there they threw a giant Halloween party hosted by a few of the winners from Drag Race and it was basically the rides were running and they had drinks and all these photo locations and free candy and all these performers dressed up as scary spooky things and they had a giant dance party and it was really fun and I've been super sick so I left like a little early but what I got to see of it was incredibly fun and so cool

and it was a good reminder that and we were all vaccine checked and it was a good reminder that like, things are horrible and terrible and it's very difficult to organize something like that nowadays, but they can exist. We can have a good time. People fundamentally, people just want to get together and get a little drunk and dance to crappy pop music from 10 years ago. That's all people really want.

And I believe it's possible in our time to get back there. So it was great. It was fun. And I would recommend if they do it next year that people go because it was very cool. That's interesting. I'm interested. It's some crazy rides for an indoor theme park. Like maybe I should go. I hate theme parks, but maybe I'd enjoy it. Yeah, well, you're not in the sun, right? So that's... Yeah, that's nice. That is nice. We're gearing up.

We're having, we're starting conversations about theme parks with Zelda for next summer, perhaps. She's very interested in, well, I think she'd be interested in the, unfortunately, it will give JK Rowling some money, but she's interested in the wizarding world situation. She will have the best time. I hate JK Rowling. Like, we have a blood feud, but she's my personal Lord Voldemort.

She wrote some books that are very popular with kids, okay? God damn, that is a fun theme park. That is a fun fucking theme park. It seems fun. We've never been to a Disney theme park either, and I think that there's a bunch of stuff that's out of enjoy, and she's at the age now where it's like, so anyhow, that's a whole other thing.

I gotta get like a lot of Xanax or something to be able to do. If you go, I want to weigh in to help you plan it because I, please do. Yeah, it's my biggest joy in the world. Let's plan it. We were talking about doing the Star Wars thing, you know, they have that they're doing where it's like a Westworld type of situation. It's very expensive. I don't know, but very expensive.

For what I've heard, there is no similar thing in the world. So you would have a... Right, I don't know that, I don't know that an eight-year-old will love it, you know? Maybe when she's loving it. Yeah, I don't know. All right, anyhow, let's get out of here. I gotta go, I need to eat a sandwich,

where I'm gonna die. I'm gonna go vomit. Bye. Wow. Bye. Wow, bye. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that is our show for this week. We'll be back next week with more tomorrow, and as always, I wish you and your family the very best, though I've just been informed that your family is hiring for your role. Ray.