Tomorrow - 242: Dinner party

Episode Date: November 21, 2021

Britney Spears, cell phone repair, bad dinner parties, and self driving car pile-ups are all in the mix this week for Josh and Ryan. Also: Don't let Amazon scan your biometric data! Enjoy your Thanksgiving, Tony. We're thankful for you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey and welcome to Tomorrow. I'm your host Josh Wittowski. Today on the podcast, we discuss scarves, master chiefs, buttocks, and Tesla. I don't always one minute. Let's get right into it. Hi, we're back. We're back on the podcast. By the way, just there's some leaf blowers that just revved up outside. I told them I said to the landscapers, I said, listen, I want you here right when we start the podcast because I want Ryan to, I said I want maximum suffering for Ryan when

he has to somehow noise cancel the sound of multiple people. Could you do it right against the wall or a podcast? Actually, they will, they will be on the roof. These guys get up on the roof because we have very bad, we've a ton of leaves around our house actually they will they will be on the roof these guys get up on the roof because we have very bad we've a ton of leaves around our house and they have to go up on the roof otherwise we get flooding uh enough flooding leaking leaking water into our house so very cool you get those those gutter issues this is what's known as a first world problem maybe you've heard of it I'm like oh the the roof of my mansion the roof of my mansion leaks if it's not blown off

by my team of landscapers. Anyhow. Anyhow, a lot of stuff going on this week. Yeah. Oh, shit going down. You know what they say? I will say it's finally winter weather. So I'm not.

I hate everybody who's like, I'm so excited about winter. Oh, so high. I know so many people who are like, I can't wait. I can't a sad guy. I hate everybody who's like, I'm so excited about winter. Oh, so high. I know some of you people who are like, I can't wait for winter. And it's like, well, you're a sick freak and you need to go to jail. I mean, I'll get sick of it a month in, but I do that with every single time.

I just like the change. All people who like winter and need to be put into jail, into a jail in a cold area, so they can enjoy each other's company. Like a jail, a winter jail, but it's like a just a cabin in the wood.

It's like a, you know, it's a, it's a lodge. You can never leave. It's misery with Kathy being right. Right, right. You get Coco and whatever. Anyhow, it's, it's okay. So it's November, it's mid-November. It's where we're just week before Thanksgiving.

And I should say just at Tony, I want you to know, we will not be doing a podcast a week of Thanksgiving. No, we will not. Because Ryan and I are going to be deep just in the process of giving thanks. We will be, we're just going to be spending so much time that week, singling out people and telling them thank you for all that they've done. I'll be freeing all the turkeys in the area. I tell you last Thanksgiving a huge bunch of turkeys showed up right as we began dinner in our yard. Oh like wild turkeys. Yeah but it was weird you

know like they were looking for their you know like their but in my mind they're like have you seen Frank? We were, it was Warner. It was like Warner. It was with us a few hours ago and no, we can't find a buddy where. That should make you feel really bad about Turkey. In his horribles of horrendous disgusting practice,

although Turkey does taste delicious. I'm sorry to. We used to get so many wild turkeys at Artney. We were ahead when I was a kid that the booze or the turkey We're waiting for the bus we would have to chase them out of my art. Yeah, well, you know It's like me running around waving a book you can tell you can tell Ryan said real world experience at turkey space on his turkey impersonation I was trying to think of a way to and lie those to put those words together,

but I don't have anything. Anyhow, okay, so what's going on? What is happening this? I don't know what's happening. I mean, it's been a blur. This has been honestly one of the busiest weeks of my life, and yet I can't remember anything that happened.

So I'm very concerned. Well, we freed Britney Spears. Well, yeah, that of course. We personally, Ryan and I. Ryan and I personally freed Britney Spears. Well, yeah, that of course we personally Ryan and I Ryan and I personally freed Britney Spears We went on down to the mansion and said come on like enough to doff Jamie That her dad is their dad and her sister, right? Yes, you get the hot hard you know that she's from the South because her dad's name is Jamie and her mom's name is Lynn and her sister's name is Jamie Lynn.

They were like, we don't have time to come up with a name. Just whatever's off the shelf, whatever we can grab off the shelf. It's like when you, it's like when your refrigerator is almost bare and you're like, I got ketchup and I have some pancake mix and you're like, oh, maybe I can make a ketchup sandwich

using pancake as the bread. That's Jamie Lynn Spears' name. Yeah. Basically, sorry, Jamie Lynn, but you got you got punked. You got spirit. In the punk show, did they say when they did the punking, or would they would they then go, you've got punked? Yes, they were. They were. They were there. You just got punked. Wow, it's so cool. I love it. I'm loving it as they say, as my man Justin Timberlake says. By the way, Ryan, I've already told you,

I'm wearing a shirt. I think you'll be very, I think I'm wearing a shirt I got in the mail. And maybe we'll show, maybe we'll put it in the post. Let me see if I have a photo of the shirt that I can show you that I think I took one last night because I was like, I gotta get a selfie. Hold on.

I'm gonna share this with you. And then you, maybe we'll find a better picture than this one because this one's not great. You can see my penis in this photo so I don't wanna share that with everybody. Oh, shirt cock egg. Like when do the photos? Oh, yes, the shirt, but then nothing.

Like a porky pig. Porky piggy, I believe, is what this is not as. No, hold on a second. I got this in the mail. I ordered it a while ago, and I got it in the mail. And I think it's from one of the most creative shirt designers out there. Oh my God.

You don't, no, maybe we just let it be a surprise for Tony. Yeah, you got to look up the post, give us the click. I'll give you, I'll come up, I'm gonna get a better picture than that, but just anyhow, I'm very excited. I got two shirts from this designer, and I'm very excited about them, but anyhow, we freed Brittany, oh really quickly,

but I want to say, we got, somebody tweeted us this week, and they said they didn't know Tony wasn't a real person until very recently, which. And I got news for you. Tony 100% of the real. Tony is real. And Tony, do we know for a fact, do we know if we have any listeners named Tony,

like actually, we don't know. Oh, I don't know. Maybe. I would assume. We'll allow Anthony as well. Yeah. Well, we know at least one listener, Anthony soprano, is obviously named Tony, our biggest fan.

All right, anyhow, so do you want to talk about Brittany? Is that why you brought her up? Uh, yeah, we have a really good piece on the site that I wanted to bring attention to. Please do, please do. Go on. Well, we're all listening. Go off, King. Yeah.

You dropped this. Well, Jessica Lucas wrote a very good and somber peace for those i about how british pierces now free from one of her conservatorships uh... and that's great is multiple there's multiple well her estate has its own concert oh yeah well as they as one as as as in a state does as one would as well as the state is actually recognizes a person in

america yet and the state has a good hood. I was gonna say the money legally owns the money. The money actually can vote in U.S. elections. You may not have heard about that. Anyhow, go on. Jessica Lucas has a great piece on the site about how like this whole digital campaign to free Britney was great and everything, but that there are still many people in conservatorships for whom with disabilities similar to her, for whom like

a campaign about a celebrity doesn't really help, and it's going to require people to continue to care about the issue after Britney's free and able to look happy in public. And hopefully Britney has indicated on her own social media that she's gonna keep trying to raise awareness around the issue, even despite the fact that she's now, you know, overcommit. Because it's one of those instances where like without the storytelling medium of Britney over the last like few decades, I mean, who would take the issue seriously? Because people don't take people don't take the issues of people with

disability seriously and certainly not people who've been like determined, quote unquote, by the state, quote unquote, to not be able to make their own decisions. Right. You know, yeah, it's it's it's it's well raises it raises questions that I don't think anybody would have been talking about in it. this kind of super popularized way. I mean, this is an extremely niche issue up until Brittany, basically. Yeah, I mean, it's not, obviously, it's important. It's a serious issue for people who are experiencing it and have to live with this. And there are, you know, it's not an insignificant number of people, but, but most humans in the

world and certainly in this country would have zero awareness of it if it weren't for this. Well, by definition, it's, it's a small percentage of the population and it's difficult because it's a percentage of the population that is so in every area of their lives is, so has, has, has the deck sacked against them. And it's really hard to say like, you know, well, it's a not important blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, because it is. It's like wildly important that we have to focus on human rights, especially like the human rights of the people for whom those are entirely necessary. Like, I don't, people with disabilities need to be able to make mistakes and live like full lives because it,

that's what it is to be human, right? Like, this was the thing that always bothered me about the Britney conservatorship, even before people were really talking about it, was that she wasn't free to, as it, as someone recovering from substance abuse issues and with mental health issues, and who clearly had made some fucked up choices in their 20s, which who has them? Who amongst, who, whomst among us? Whomst amongst us?

Has not made fucked up choices in their 20s. My 20s were a nothing but fucked up choices, actually. I carried it well into my 30s. I mean, honestly. But I got the luxury of fucking up and then seeing the consequences and learning from them and then growing on and then being able to turn to the people younger than me and being like,

don't do that and they're not gonna listen and they'll fuck up and they'll learn their lesson and bubble, bubble, blah. But when you're in a consequence free situation where you live like in a bubble where everything you do is observed and you're not allowed to like, you know, misspend $20 or let alone fuck anything up. How can you grow as a person or and people with disabilities deserve that right

just like everybody else does and nobody questions that when it comes to people who are like able bodyied, able-mind, like, there's no... Nobody steps in and says, like, hey, you know, you're not allowed to make choices anymore. You can't have control of your own money because you've clearly made a mistake. Because like, nobody would question that you're capable. They would just call it a mistake, you know? Right.

Yeah. Anyway, the piece is really important and I just wanted to bring it up at the beginning, because it's a good thing, but I wanted to stay top of mind for people, because this might be the one chance that this issue has to stay at the front of any conversation, and that's super fucked up. So we should take care of it now. I agree. I am. There's some legislation moving forward.

I mean, there's bipartisan support for the idea that this is super fucked up. Nobody has, nobody's making, I mean, the people who are conservative, who are the conservators, are making money on this and that's so fucked up and a lot of the judges, you know, I think there's a lot of corruption going on. But no side of the aisle has a financial interest vested in this. So hopefully before they do, we'll be able to get some kind of legislation passed to like prevent anyone from going through something like this again. I don't think other countries have this. Like a conservatorship

is a super fucked up idea. Yeah, I mean, it's it's a very unusual. I mean, I of course, again, this was a situation where I knew nothing about it. Now, I know so much about it. where I knew nothing about it. Now I know so much about it. Well, I know more about it at least. But it is an unusual arrangement of ideas. I mean, it is essentially, and I think that there are situations. I can see, I suppose there are situations where it makes sense. I guess.

I mean, I can imagine that. Well, the version of it, the version of it people are arguing for now is assisted decision making where it's like if we can come to an agreement, then yes, we can agree on this. But that kind of like having a board, a board of directors for a person.

Exactly. Like a kind of group consensus, which is still like, like the person would be the chairman of the board and then there'd be some other members. Yes, right. There would be a CEO and president and then other people would be able to win. It's still unfortunate, but at a certain, like, you should have the bare minimum ability to just say no. Right. Like, like, that's, that's a fundamental human right is to be able to just sit down and say,

I'm not doing that. People should not be able to like, get a cattle prod and push you onto a Vegas stage. Right. Now that's, I mean, I've been saying that every time I get sent to Vegas to perform, I'm like, this isn't right. Every time we go to CES, I think, John.

I'm like, why is this happening? But I've also there, so it's very disturbing. I'm like, why is this happening? But I've also there. So it's very disturbing. I'm like, why did I do this to myself? I need a board of directors to handle my situation. At any rate, ended every rate. So we'll see. But I think that at the very least, you can't buy better publicity than this for an issue.

No amount of lobbying could get this kind of attention on a topic. You know, if Brittany were, you know, if Brittany were like getting bombed in Gaza Strip, like we might actually be able to solve the Middle East crisis. I mean, the thing is, Brittany is the main character of my entire generation.

Like, she's the person to whom we've been discussing and to whom, like, multitudes of fascinating and horrible things have happened, but it means that America has paid attention to her and everything that's happened to her entire life and that's pretty unique situation. It's sort of crazy. I mean, one thing is really interesting.

And she's a good person. Like, she's always been a good person. Like, she's never done anything to anybody. She's always been nice and championed the causes. So, hopefully, she did a pretty good job. She's been murdered in the late 90s, but I mean, she was on a lot of stuff, so, you know, forgive me.

But it found cyanolid. Forgive, don't forget, that's my policy. That's right, also she's Elron Hubbard. The Elron, as I like to think of her, the, yeah, I mean, it's funny, the interesting thing about Brittany as a cultural figure is that in the era that Brittany became obviously wildly popular, which is the end of the 90s, right?

Am I wrong or is it the very early 2000s? 1998. Is that hit me, baby? Hit me? Is that one more time? What is the name of it? Is it one more time? It's baby one more time.

Baby one more time. So it's just right in the middle of what I thought it was. It could have been any of those things, but it's just right the middle of part of what I thought. It's just dot, dot, dot, baby one more time. It is, there is an ellipses at the beginning, at any rate. There's always a lot of punctuation and a pretty.

Yeah, it's like how Prince would always like swap out a word for a number, you know. Riddy's thing was like too many commas. An usual about a Cobbos in a song. A lot of Amber Sam. It's like a parenthetical. There's like a lot of her songs have a parenthetical. In fact, does that song not have a, is it not,

is there not a parenthetical in that song? I'm just gonna look it up. I just wanna be sure, baby. Okay, baby, it is three, it is ellipses at the beginning now. There is no, there is no. But similarly, oops, is oops, ellipses, no space. I did it again, exclamation point. Wait, wait, oops.

Yeah, it's oops, exclamation point. Hold on. Oh, oops, exclamation point, ellipses, I did it again. But no, wait. 100% we are on, we are correct in saying that there is an enormous amount of punctuation. This is a very 90s, you know, early 2000s, 90s. People were crazy about punctuation. They were just going, you know, now we an enormous amount of punctuation. This is a very 90s, you know, early 2000s, 90s. People were crazy about punctuation.

They were just going, you know, now we're like, no punctuation. But this was the, that was really the golden age of punctuation, right? Before the internet sort of swept the world. They had just invented it. Yeah, they were like, this is the pinnacle of how a sentence or even a title of a song. Then they took it too far with winged eggs. That's right. And we had to pull back.

Then people were like, we don't do punctuation anymore. It's just, you're gonna have to figure out. You're gonna have to read this. Or vowel. You're gonna have to read the Sally Rooney dialogue and figure out on your own who's talking now. At any rate, what the hell was I talking about? What was I speaking about?

Oh, Rooney, in her cultural moment, when she arrived on the scene back in 1998 or whatever year it was, people like Britney, the type of celebrity Britney was, was a very disposable, very impermanent fixture. So what's interesting is that you would have imagined a Britney Spears in many previous eras was like a one hit wonder or a couple hit wonder or whatever and then disappeared from our view. You know, Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, great examples of that. Bubble gum pop, right?

People underestimated it because it had always sort of just been a femoral. Well, but they also found, I think, because of the age of the rise of the internet and frankly frankly the way music companies figured out a way to get more out of these celebrities that they created. I mean, she's like a Disney celebrity, right? Yeah. I mean, she is the blooper in all of which Disney built. I mean, they figured out the entire thing. They basically figured out this

platform, which you could ride from childhood all the way into adulthood and you know You it's happened over and over and over again. I mean the genius move was to take the spice girls model and then not let them get into a fight Right, the spice ball and what they're like no sorry You send a 50 year contract with with Disney and now you have to do these things and there's no way out of it And I mean they literally did it to her, right? Like the minute that she tried to leave and really break out that image and destroy her pop career,

they legally required her to keep performing as a bubblegum pop star. And I don't want to draw a parallel between Princess Die and Britney Spears, but I will. No, I mean, there is. There is. But it's not and I have talked about it. But you know will. No, I mean, there is. There is. But it's not and I have talked about it. But you know, people, but people talk, I mean,

obviously there's a lot of conversation right now because of the film Spencer and because of the royals, the show on Netflix, about, you know, the kind of prison of the royal family, which like to be very honest, to be very honest with you, like, I mean, you know, it's a complicated topic. It's a gilded cage, but a cage nonetheless. A cage is a cage that gildes.

Yes, if anything, the gildedness of it is more torturous because nobody will listen to you or believe it or not. But I mean, again, they're like, but it's made of gold to sell the gold and you're like, I can't, I'm in a cave. But on the other hand, you know, on the other hand, and again, I'm not explaining the way any of the cage part of it,

but I mean, it's, you do get, it's a lot of upside. I mean, you know, there's a lot of upside. Oh, yeah, it's not as bad as being in a state prison. It's also not like being forced to perform in Las Vegas every night. You know, like I think there's a pretty huge difference there, but the point is there are these sort of overlapping conversation points about, you know, somebody who is perceived to be doing well or having a good time or has everything available to them and is actually in a very compromised

and sort of insane position. And I think we've done a lot of like over the last decade or so, we've done a lot of cultural re-evaluation. This is a very popular topic, whether it's Amanda Knox. It's always, it almost largely, it's always with, about women. And the misogyny makes it so easy to be like, well don't listen to what she's saying because she looks like she's having a good time. I mean, that's a pretty,

it's just what people do. It's in no way surprising because the core, of course, the core, at the kind of center of all of the horrible ways that we treat people, whether it's because of their religion or their skin color or their orientation or whatever, you know, women are universally basically shit on by everybody in every, you know, situation in every possible way. It's just like it has been the default for humanity since, for however long. And so unsurprisingly,

we're discovering that even within the confines of popular evolved culture we have done all these really horrible things to all of these women who didn't deserve it. You hear that you hear this fans by the way. Sorry. Yeah. A little little really going for right now. It sounds like the tornado and the wizard of us were in the background. You just heard. That's exactly what's happening right now. I'm gonna go to see some, I'm gonna go see some witches. It's funny because it's like you could pull the Scooby-Doo mask off of a lot of issues and pretty much it's always Old Man racism or Old Man misogyny.

Yeah, I mean, every time. I know, should I get it, you're comfortable, things are going well, why, you know, why mess up a good thing? You know, I hear you We've all been there, you know, you're enjoying yourself. You're in the bath Why get out? Right, you know, but yeah, but But you know why let somebody else in the bath?

To your bath. I don't know where this analogy is going, but at any rate. I'm think I felt like I need a bath. I need to just need to put some fucking, you know, uh, uh, essential oils into the tub and relax. After the week I've had, trust me. At any rate, so, okay, all right, let's, but Brittany, she's free-ish, and now it's going to, and now I'm sure we'll continue to beat the drum for all of the other people who are in conservatorships. And if she doesn't, we'll then turn on her,

as we'll turn on her as a... tear her right back to what we will make her pay in public for her sins of not being... of not being continuing to defend and protect everyone else. I truly, whenever I think about her, or a handful of the women to whom this kind of stuff has happened, I do think about that South Park episode where they believe they need to kill a young virgin

once every 10 years in order for there to be a good harvest. And it's like, yeah, I think we do do that. I feel like once every 10 years, we just take a young woman destroy her life as a country, play it out in the media, and then we're like, oh, well, she's fine now. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. It's so fucked up.

Well, we love a happy ending. We love a... Let's talk about something else. Speaking of musicians. Yeah. Amazon is trying to convince concert venues and Starbucks to use their hand scanning Identity system for payment and like verification of your identity Which you know of course would just happen to be a way for them to have everybody's

Identity, you know people people are worried do I want Amazon to have my fingerprints? What would they do? All I can think is, I don't know if they want it, why they want it, but all I can think is, if they want it, I don't want them to have it. Well, I just think, I mean, we're at this moment with, now, I don't know, I would imagine in the boardrooms of Amazon, they're not like, hey, let's get that biometric data so we can give it to the FBI or whatever, right? I mean, yes, they own Ring, which is a very bad actor

when it comes to data, giving data to, I wouldn't put anything past what happens in their border. Right, well, I just think they're probably like, this is a great way, somebody's like, this is a great way to verify identities. You know? It always starts like this.

To me, all of these things, everything, all of these bad ideas that all of the tech companies have, always start in a very, you know, what might be considered totally innocuous sort of, oh yeah, I mean, Facebook. No, it would be cool. We talked about this last week. It's all you needed to pay with your own palm right? It's like it's like Facebook. They're like people should connect we should cannot let people connect with one another You know very simple sounds a good idea. I mean this one's a little bit less obvious to me

It's a little bit like well couldn't they just show you an idea or I mean, I don't know like could we we all have our phones You know is there something yeah, why don't you verify? I don't know, is there some other intermediary? I don't really understand like what the benefit is, I guess it's like you can check out or go into things faster, is that the idea? Yeah, just like wave your hand over. Right. I mean, I guess there is this question ultimately,

I mean, God, the Satanist people are gonna have a field day with this one, I guess. There is this question about what is the, you know, way to do this that's the least likely to allow for fraud or impersonation or whatever. I assume they're like, okay, we need some type of, you know, people put their fingerprint on their phone. They're fine with that. They put them on their computer. They're fine with that. They have their face scanned on their iPhone. They're okay with that. So everybody clearly is somewhat comfortable in a certain way with giving over some amount of biometric data, right? Like in the context of your phone or your computer, you're pretty comfortable

with it knowing that it's not going anywhere but there, at least as you assume, you assume, it's staying within that space. I do think, is there not a better, like, is it not, is there not some better way that we don't have to scan a person's fingerprint in like at a concert venue? That just feels, the whole setup feels like it's too loose, fast and loose with the idea of sharing biometric data. I think if you were like, oh, verify you're this person as you give your ticket to them, verify you are who you say you are by doing it on your phone

I don't think that's an issue at all, right? Like if it was like an Apple pay type of situation where it wants you to give your face scan or your thumbprint to verify that Yes, you are the ticket holder or whatever. I just feel like taking it off of the phone Just talking in practical terms. Take it off of your personally own device and moving it into this cloud situation, just feels like a, it's not great. It feels like an avoidable idea, you know?

Yeah, I mean, it's better than, it is better than clear, which if you've ever used clear, they scan your retina, which is not. But travel's different. I mean, I feel like, I think traveling, but they use clear for concert venues too. That's how I talk about it.

Oh, they do? I signed up for clear when I was young, because I wanted to get into a Lady Gaga concert slightly faster, and that was my mistake, because now they have all my data. I didn't know that. I didn't know they were utilizing it for concert venues, but I don't go to shows.

So a good way to avoid this problem is to never go out or do any of these. Avoid Chase Stadium, and I think it'll be fine. I mean, to be perfectly honest, I don't wanna be that guy, but do you really need to go see the dooby brothers or whatever it is you're doing? I mean, you probably do. You gotta go see Elton John, I guess.

I don't know. I think of all the long island people and all the New York people like the guys the Firefighters who are like we love Elton John and and Freddie Mercury or whatever they're like they really Jewell, yeah, Billy Joel, but they're like seemingly unaware of how gay Elton John is and they're all oh Yeah, totally they all love They love Query like they are queeded and and And and Elton John.

They're like, I love twisted sister, but I don't wanna see any faggot. Yeah, exactly. Right, exactly. Exactly. I mean, meanwhile, I think that guy, he's like a hardcore conservative now, right? Do you sniter?

He's gotta be. Yeah, you're talking about my dad, by the way. I'm sure I am. I have no dad. He's like, I hate my gay son, but I love Elton John. No, I know he doesn't hate us. He's rude, I hate my gay son, but I love Elton John. Um, no, I know he doesn't hate his rude. But, no, he loves hair metal,

but he's uncomfortable watching drag race. I mean, he's interesting to me. Well, I understand why, because hair metal guys are like guys who love to bang ladies. And then, and there's a whole, there's like a feminine in a sexuality that he doesn't want to be confronted with in the drag world. I mean, it just like, a whole, there's a, there's like a feminine in the intersectionality that he doesn't wanna be confronted with in the drag world.

I mean, it just like, you know, it's just, I get it, I mean, I get it. It's not ironic anymore. Which, he's the, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's, what's interested in that. Any hints is just doing a branding, actually. Oh, don't get me started on kiss.

Nobody talks about at least not enough is how bad kiss is music is. Like terrible. Just shit music, bad, not good. Okay, but what were we talking about? Amazon's biometric scanners. Yeah, so I don't know. I mean, I just think the idea, their hearts in the right place in the sense of way to verify people's, you know, identity, but the execution is very wrong to me.

Yeah. I don't see this one being a popular. I don't think that this is going to be the ace in the whole that they thought it was in getting people's biometric data. It just don't see people loving that. I just think every, all of these things can be explained. They all, all of these problems that arise, so the things are many of them that arise in our, in the tech world in particular.

But now, like just in general, because it's so much of that is just what we are all living with every day. So many of these questions or problems can be solved by just stopping and saying, just going, wait a second, is this, can we game out the long-term, upsides and downsides of this,

and really just say, is this the right thing for 10 years from now? What are the possible? I just think they never do the red team stuff for their like, okay, how could this be abused? You know? Well, I mean, because the problem is, you're asking, it's the self-regulation problem

where you're asking people who have these incentives to analyze their incentives and game them out. But why would they do that? They're not incentivized to do. You know what I mean? They were incentivized to it, wouldn't be an issue, but they're not. And so what they're incentivized to do

is the thing that's gonna make the most money. And unfortunately, the thing that makes the most money is usually the most evil thing. Right, well, you know, but they gotta get that cheddar. That's true. You know, as they say. I mean, how else is Amazon gonna make money? Well, I mean, that's a great question. And I do worry for the company.

I was just thinking of the other day, I had just placed a prime order that will be delivered in two hours. And I was thinking, I'm supporting a small business. And I was thinking, what can I do to help Amazon stay a float in these trying times? Speaking of life of it.

Tag companies. Yes, yes. Can we talk about Tags? Oh my God. I mean, we can. We can. We can. Well, yeah, let's say we, I mean, I thought you kind of like, listen, we, we posted about, we wrote a blog, I mean, input, wrote a blog post about this CNN video, which is, you know, a CNN reporter using the full self-driving beta, which I have, and in a Model 3 in Brooklyn. And it's very terrifying. And there are several moments where it's like, he's like, oh, we almost hit this thing.

Anyhow, we put this funny, I thought the headline was funny. It's like, watch the CNN reporter almost die. He obviously doesn't like go through the windshield or anything, but that's the kind of the point though is that there's plenty of scenarios where somebody might go through the windshield with what the car is doing. And I have, I will say this, I have been in my car

on a not busy road where I was using self-driving like just to play around with it, just to see it, okay? And it did things that scared the shit out of me that did not feel one, like it was what it was supposed to do in two, like something that was safe, right? Like I've been in the car where I'm navigating, and this is, I only use it for brief periods of time

because I don't trust it at all, where I'm navigating, and this is, I only use it for brief periods of time because I don't trust it at all, where I'm navigating somewhere because it'll basically follow your navigation. You know, you say, I'm going to go here, so it just drives there, basically. Where you're navigating somewhere, and it's supposed to make a turn, and for whatever reason, clear lines on the road and everything, it gets like confused about the turn. And it will like jerk the car away from where you're supposed to turn or towards the turn in a way that is like completely not how a person would drive. And I could absolutely see the, and I can understand why this guy was like, whoa, this

is really scary, but also I can also see how, now, I mean, you, of course, it's hard to part, once you do something like this, once you post a story like this, you get these Tesla guys who I'm like very worried. Do you think it's a paid bot army? I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think so. I think it's a lot more. Tesla has a bot army. No, I think it's, I think people's brains are damaged by, I think there's a couple of things. I think that we've always had this,

because I actually want to, what I think is more interesting than the video itself, which is interesting, and it just further evidence, and there's well-established evidence that full self-driving, which is what they call it, is not any of those things, okay? And, but I think, to me, what I was sort of more, what I think, when I look at that story, but I think, to me, what I was sort of more, what I think, when I look at that story and I look at the reactions to it, I'm more concerned about what's going on with the brains and the mental health

of the people who are defending the company, which is like, I have seen, since I started blogging about technology. Originally, all I did all day long was write posts about tech. And what you learned very quickly when all you're writing about is technology. And particularly in the days when we were doing it, is there are factions, right?

And this has always been true. It's Apple had an entire ad campaign based around Mac versus PC, right? There are these factions, we call them fanboys. We actually did a great piece of the verge about fanboys and about the motivations of fanboys. And, you know, in the old days, it was Apple and Microsoft, and then it became Apple, Google and Microsoft, and, you know, it's kind of mutated over time. But there are, if you look at, and I don't wanna get too far down a rabbit hole here, but if you look at things like gamer gate, for instance,

and you look at some of the Trump, sort of online presence of Trump fans and supporters, and you look at the way people have gathered around Elon Musk and Tesla. And now some of these have better or worse, I think rational, like better or weaker, stronger or weaker rationale for why you might gather around these particular companies or people

or moments or belief systems. But let me just say, I think there is this very, I think there is this very, you know, troubling thread. This very troubling thread in its largely men, I'm not gonna say it's only men, but it is largely men of these defenders of things that you really have no business defending. Like it really shouldn't be, it's not in your best interest.

And unless I guess, now some of these people do, we've talked about this before, some people do have a financial stake in Tesla, they may be they bought stock or they bought a car, you know, but I think more often what you see is people who have an emotional stake or in a belief system that is built around this product. And I saw, you used to see this with Apple all the time,

you used to, I mean with Apple, but Microsoft, I mean, I still get, I posted a picture of the square monitor that I bought the other day. And in the responses, I still get people, many, many years ago, I mean, a decade ago or more, I made some off-handed comment about Windows 7 feeling like poison when you used it because it sucked, by the way. It sucked.

And it was like this on like a verge cast or something. Maybe it was even on an end gadget podcast. That's how long ago it might have been. And I get people still, to this day on Twitter, I posted a picture of a monitor that had Windows running on it in 2021, and somebody's like quoting that, like more than one person, are still, they're still bent out of shape.

Some Microsoft fanboys is so fucking excited and into, well, he's just was so into Microsoft that he's still bothered by, I said that I said one rude thing about his company 10 years ago. It's crazy. I mean, it's bizarre. But so, but and so I've seen this kind of the fanboyism has only gotten kind of more intense, but it also has, you found more pockets.

Like, there's Kanye fanboyism, right? People used to be like, I like this artist. I love their music. I like their whatever they do. I love this person's movies. Now, it's like you have to, I mean, people be like, I like this artist, I love their music, I like their, whatever they do, I love this person's movies. Now it's like you have to, I mean, people are like, I have to carve out a battle, you know, some battle position here for myself

to be able to go to the mat for Kanye when he releases his new record or whatever, or when he does some dumb shit that people are mad about. I'm like, I gotta defend him. And so many walks of our existence now, we are encountering these militant legions of defenders who are defending a piece of commerce, like a brand or a figurehead,

or even if you're defending the technology, it's like, I get that maybe you invested in the stock, but let's get real like, why are you doing this? What is the, what is the upside? Like I get you like to cheer for your team or whatever, but it just seems bizarre to me and particularly with Tesla and particularly with Elon Musk. But like this isn't a sports team.

This is a real company has real effects on people's lives that is costing people real money. I mean, these are people. These are people. Yeah. Sorry, I don't mean to cut you off. Go ahead. No, it's okay. It's impacting like things that are bigger than whether it wins or not.

And also, it's not video games where like, yes, I love video games. I think it's the biggest business in the world. I think it's my favorite form of entertainment. I think entertainment has real world effects. But it's video games. We think it's the biggest business in the world. I think it's my favorite form of entertainment. I think entertainment has real world effects, but it's video games. We're talking about cars. Cars are giant pieces of metal that people are behind, that fly around the world at 95 hours an hour,

and are the leading cause of death for whole groups of people. I mean, but yeah, but you can, by the way, that's all reasonable, but also you can love cars and not care about that stuff That's also reasonable, but what is what is unusual is this Nobody you shouldn't be fighting to the death over whether Ford or Chevy are like Should ever be questioned or criticized. I've never seen anyone do that

But they do it with Tesla and tech companies. It's it's it's do that, but they do it with Tesla and tech companies. It's, it's, it's, um, it's, they wrap their hopes for the future up and their identity up in the stories that the tech companies have told them and tech companies have learned that their marketing has to tell a story, quote unquote. So rather than just being a company that makes EVs, that's a new car company, they has to be like iron man, you know, it Tony, I'm the real life Tony star. I pulled myself up from nothing. I definitely didn't have Emerald apartheid money.

I just was a great innovator who invented the electric car. You know, like this bullshit. I mean, it's definitely wrapped up in this belief in this kind of American, largely kind of. Great man. You know, the great man, but also that like you see yourself in this person, but more than that, the great man, but also that like you see yourself in this as this person, but more than that, it's this, I mean, I've been saying this for as long as I've been writing

things on the internet, which is the identification with this brand as a component of your personality or this person who runs the brand as I kind of like as a way of framing yourself in the picture is I think very unhealthy. It's a very unhealthy way to think and I've never felt, I love this stuff. I drive a Tesla. I love, there are things I love about the car. I think it's a brilliant,

I think it's a brilliant invention. I think Elon Musk is a really smart guy. But I've never thought for a second, like he doesn't deserve criticism or that this car couldn't be better, or that there aren't major problems with it. And that would be true of literally any single thing that exists in my life. I could every single one of them. And I don't feel any attachment to that thing as a component of my existence. Like, if you told me that, I mean, I'm trying to think of anything in the world that I love that if you told me besides my family, if you told me like, this is a problem and he let me explain the problem that I wouldn't be like, okay, that's like, we should consider that. And I'm going to pay attention to that. And I am willing to accept that that is a possibility.

I mean, these are people who are basically are like, if the car drives off a cliff and kills the people inside of it, they'd be like, well, this driver was doing something wrong. And it's like, buddy, you know, maybe, but I think first we should, I'm not saying that they're doing that, but what? But it's weird that that was your knee jerk, yes, it's very odd.

Yes, there's nothing in my identity, even my family, that I don't think critically about and wouldn't want feedback on and to improve. That's the point. What's the point of being anything if you're not going to think about it and try to be the best version and improve? You can't take pride in something

if you're not willing to think critically about it and improve it and take feedback. Everything in my life, every part of my identity may be just my relationship, which seems private, but nothing else in my life, I feel like everything in my life, I'm willing to improve or willing to admit isn't perfect. That's just life.

I don't know what world you're living in. If you're, I mean, it's so childish in a matured to be like, my hometown is perfect. My family and my dad's the greatest guy in the whole world. My sports team is the coolest one. I know the best superhero. It's like, that's what little boys do. Like that's not what adults people do.

Yeah, and I think, and I think that they sort of gets to, I mean, I do that this sort of gets to I mean I do feel Over the pandemic. We've been I mean I think We're all online way too much and and by the way It's not our fault in the last two years and it's been like we were you and I were online way too much for most of our lives And now everybody now people normal people most people frankly most people, frankly, are online, have been online a bit, and a bit more, but like, the way they're online is not the way we're online or has not been in a lot of ways. But the last two years has basically been like, everybody's online the way I'm used to

being online, which is really, really online. Like I talked to people, it's, it has been rare in my life to meet people outside of work or outside of the sphere that we're in generally Who you could talk like about that? Hey, did you see that tweet or that did you see so and so's Instagram post or whatever? Yes, people most people don't know the main character on Twitter every single correct But now they do increasingly we're like yeah, and I don't think that's good. I think that's bad. I don't think, again, we kind of get back to this all the time where we're sort of in the,

you know, are we doing this right? And we're not, obviously. But I do think it's been this whole fanboy thing has been fed into. I just, I think we've so much of our technology culture has shaped the conversation to serve this idea the way that these things kind of the way that they play out. And you see, you know, Elon Musk is a great example of a CEO and now I think he may be the richest man in the world, you know, in terms of his holdings. That Bill Gates didn't do this, Steve Jobs didn't do this,

Tim Cook doesn't do it. I'm trying to think of the famous CEOs of our yesterday year, of the previous generation. Satya and Adela doesn't do it. Sundar Pachai doesn't do this. They're not online. They're like business people doing their businesses. Like they're not on Twitter posting memes. But Elon Musk is. I think he really wants to be a famous love to the library. Yeah. He wants to be like so bad.

He wants to be like the cool dank memes guy, but he's not funny and he's not that charismatic. It's like his story is compelling to people, but the more we see of him, the less we like him. Yeah, and I just, this is, I mean to me, of course, you've heard this before. I, no, yeah, you're a, if you have that much money, log on.

I truly can. I'm on there because I want more money. There's no higher position than to be richer than God. Okay? Like, I don't know what, I don't know what it is he thinks he could possibly get except, except that his ego is so penetrable that he needs to be constantly told that he's good.

Okay. And very uniquely American thing and you're gonna roll your eyes. I'm sure Tony's gonna roll their eyes at me But here's the thing. It's why I love real housewives if you've hundreds of millions of dollars Why are you gonna debase yourself on telling? I don't think those people have I don't think that yeah I don't think those people have as much money as they say they do but Elon Musk does some of them do some of them do and I wonder It's like why what's this American, Elon Musk is South African, but he's such a uniquely American figure of like an endless whole of need and want and greed and entitlement. And it's like, you're not entitled to everyone loving you. You already

got all the money. But I just don't, I'm just saying it's that one. It's definitely a personality type. But I'm, I'm, I'm simply saying, I know that he, he, again, this isn't like, it's not Elon Musk's problem. Like, it's on his fault that this thing exists. He certainly plays into it in a way that other leaders of other businesses don't, which seems to have, I mean, the effect is, it obviously helps to cement support

from this base of rabid, frankly scary people. Like, and I say this again, as a person who gives money to Tesla every month, okay? I pay for the product. Do you understand? Like, I use the iPhone, you know? Like, if you're an Apple fanboy, I've got a surface, okay?

I mean, if you're a Microsoft fanboy, right? Do you understand? I have a pixel, okay? If you're a Google fanboy, I paid for it, right? Actually, they sent me the pixel. But, and hey, you know what I'm saying? I bought a Galaxy S20. I bought the Galaxy S21 Ultra,

which is actually what I use every day. But the point is, I'm not saying this as a some kind of weird, critic who's out to take down Tesla and Elon Musk. You know, this behavior is bizarre and unusual and bad, and as a person, it's just a regular consumer of these products, I think this idea that we're gonna arrange our culture around standing a fucking CEO

Who is the richest person in the world and his company as if like that is some Lofty, you know, we've just arranged it's like we've arranged everything so much around commerce That now you can't even tell what it is you're rooting for you know What is your what is the end game for this? What is you know, what is your, what is the end game for this? What is, you know, what is it? Like, you explain it to me because I don't understand it. Elon Musk says as much dumb shit as he does smart shit. You know, I think he's a brilliant guy. I think he's super interesting. I would love to have an extended, frankly, somebody should have an extended chat with Elon Musk. One knows what the fuck they're talking about. And two is actually not afraid to have a real conversation with the guy, because everybody else who interviews him

is just jerking him off, basically. Oh, I definitely agree. I would love someone to critically, I would love somebody to be here. And I'm happy to do him. I'm happy to jump in there. I'm happy to do him. I don't think he's intelligent,

and I don't think he's faster than me. I disagree. I think he is, but the question is, but the bigger question is, you can be the most intelligent, most fascinating person in the world, but like, why that would protect you from any reasonable criticism or why it would make a person feel like it's their job to defend a person who needs no defense is, escapes me. I'm sure there, and by the way, we explored this in the fanboys piece that we wrote on

the verge many years ago. But there are, there is a, there is a question about just mental health here. And I think getting to the root of it, when we were talking about this post, when it came up, I was like, what's really odd and really, truly kind of shocking is when you just look at the comments on this video and the kind of like mental gymnastics people are doing to like defend and protect this company and this guy feel worrying to me on a level that isn't like you really like Apple. Like you think Apple's tools are great because you're a creative person and you use their you know you use their iPad or whatever to paint or whatever the fucking thing you know you edit your videos on their desktop.

Like, yeah, okay, I sort of at least can understand that a bit. Anyhow, this is not going anywhere, but I thought it was interesting. I mean, the video's funny, but also like, truly, like, gives you an idea of what it's like to use this mode, which is not good. It is better than, I'm sure anything else on the market, but that's like saying, you know, the gunshot that killed you, it made a smaller hole. You know, it's like not really either here or nor there.

But at any rate, so yes, the Tesla stuff is weird. What else is going on? There's been a bunch of electric car news though. Speaking of, I mean, what's, I do think the other thing that's happening is that the EV market's about to get way crazier. And there's like, in the last week, Fiskar, which is a company that's been sort of up and down,

they've had all kinds of weird problems, but they seem to be now like stabilizing, just to announce this new car called the Ocean, which is a pretty affordable electric SUV. And either last week or earlier in the week, Subaru showed off there. I guess they showed how they announced it last week and then showed it off this week, this thing called the Soltera.

We talked about I think a little bit last week. But anyhow, the EV market is we're now on this no offense, no pun intended, but we're on a collision course with electric cars being this kind of standard and that's going to really alter a Tesla's position. They continue to be the apple of electric cars? Great question, big open question. And I think obviously things like self-driving, maybe that's a factor. I would say more than that pricing and range

are going to be the two much bigger topics that people are going to be talking about when they're looking at electric cars. So the question ultimately is where will they compete? Obviously, the self-driving thing is somewhat important, but I don't think that's going to be mass adoption anytime soon. They've got a lot of pressure. Maybe their fans are feeling the pressure. Maybe they're starting to crack up from all these hot new electric vehicles being announced.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. What else is going on? What else is happening? So let's talk about Xbox has some interesting things going on. They, well, after having their 20th anniversary for the OG Xbox

and dropping Halo multiplayer, and infinite multiplayer, people of Halo. Oh my Yeah, yeah, yeah. Infinite multiplayer. Yeah, yeah. Oh my God, I am obsessed. But they also dropped 76 new games for backwards compatibility and then closed their backwards compatibility library, which all interesting stuff, but the most interesting thing from Xbox this week, in fact, was not planned and was not a, or maybe it's a PR move, but it's definitely not

something that I think they envisioned to themselves having to do, which is they Microsoft and Sony both teamed up to release statements denouncing Activision Blizzard's CEO because Activision Blizzard's CEO knew about all of this sexual assault that was going on at the company and just covered it up and ignored it. And when all of this came out, Activision's board put out a statement where they were like,

we have the utmost confidence in... We have the utmost confidence in Bobby Codic, is the saying... When did this happen? This happened this week? Oh, they put out this statement? Before Microsoft and Sony had their statements out. Oh, yeah They're a whole board lined up. I was not after but not after but not after What do you mean they I'm saying they put out a statement supporting this? Complete maniac who's the CEO of Activision before

And then Sony and Microsoft came together right right right right. I just want to make sure I had that I thought for some reason I thought you said they put out another statement. I was very confused denounce it. Right, right, right. I just want to make sure I had the, I thought, for some reason I thought you said they put out another statement. I was very confused for a month. Oh, no. Okay, great. Okay, so anyhow, go on. Well, Microsoft and Sony got on the same page

where they were like, this is disturbing and we, we're not cool with that. They're basically like, we're gonna stop working with this company, which is, which is, we're gonna stop bad news. We're basically doing anything with that. Yeah, we're is bad news. We're gonna stop bad news. We're basically doing anything with that.

Yeah, which is bad news for Activision. This feels to be like a no-brainer for the board. You know? I mean, CEOs aren't that great. I mean, they're not like so special. You know, like in this case, Activision, I mean, what's this guy done? I mean, I'm sure he's somewhat useful, but, you know, I just had great interview with Jeff Bezos speaking of fantastic CEOs, where he was talking

about how many decisions he makes in a day. And he was like, you know, what do I have to make like three really important decisions every day or something? Which is, I think he's very true of CEOs. Like, you don't need them to be doing a lot. Just be good at a few things. And like, one of them should definitely not be doing like sexual assault and sending people death threats.

I would just say, generally. I think CEOs in general, I think the job is to pick people to work with, tell people know, and go to meetings and be a coherent presence. And that's really it. Like nobody's asking you to do anything else. And certainly if you're, if in order to get those things, you know, we're gonna silence sexual assault victims

within your company and get 500 of your own employees to organize like a petition saying they hate you. I just don't think it's worth the trade off, even if you're really good at being in meat. You know, it's funny. I mean, I remember Activision, I mean, Activision's such a, it's so funny to see how huge they are and what a huge story

this is. I mean, I remember the Activision of my childhood, which is like, they made some pretty bad games. My recollectuals' Activision was pretty, pretty consistently putting out games that were like, based on a movie that sucked. You know, they were like, one of those publishers. They were like, we did a shark's tail of the game for Game Boy Color. Yeah. Okay. Nobody's bothered this is bad. And it's

like based on it's like you know, this is to trick parents. It's like they get found some like Japanese game that didn't do well. And they like reskin the characters and re-released it. But anyhow, but look at them and look where they are now. Look what happened. So kings of the world. So clearly the meritocracy of capitals. Let that be a lesson to you. Anyhow, I do think it's interesting to see both Sony and Microsoft speaking out very clearly on this matter. I would say, yeah, I don't know with Activision. I'm not sure how they how they don't just make some. I mean, presumably, they're biting a little bit of time to have some exoplan for this guy that is, you know, they can try to save a little bit of face in terms of how long they've taken to respond to

these. I'm guessing, I have no idea, I have no inside knowledge of this, but you know, it seems like they're maybe trying to come up with a way to do it. I would hope that is like, oh, Bobby, you know, we're gonna, no, we're not gonna like say that you did all this stuff, but you're still not gonna work here anymore. Otherwise, I don't know what the fuck they're doing, you know? I mean, I just think, you know, I know that there's the same people who defend Elon Musk are definitely right now going like, this guy who's still profited anything or whatever, you know, just because there's a, you know, well reported, or several well reported incidents.

But I just think it's, you really don't, you have to understand people don't really, it's very, very, very unlikely that people have these kinds of allegations made about them. I mean, in this situation, these types of situations, where there isn't something very inappropriate happening. Well, there's an enormous amount of smoke and then you see a fire.

You can assume it's fire. We're going to put them on leave while we investigate it, the very least. It's 500 people in the building are like, there's a fire. Then I'm going to assume there's a fire. I'm not saying that there's never a situation where somebody embellishes something or makes something up or outright lies, but they're very few and far between in terms of the outright lying part of it. And the reality is, if this person is totally innocent, they could, at the very least, they can just say, we're going to put them on leave while we do an investigation.

And if we find anything has gone wrong, then we can deal with that. But if it turns out, we hired investigators, we worked with authorities and he'd do, he's done nothing. Okay, cool, like put them back in, but I just think at this point, you got it, if you're the board, you got to be thinking, I mean, maybe they'll dump him tonight.

It's a Friday when we're recording. It is. Friday news dump would be a program. You'll know, Tony will know. Tony will feel it in his bones. There'll be a ripple through the through whatever, I don't know, bad multi-player online game Activision makes. The multi-tap. What do they feel? Well, then they're multi-tap. Yeah, what is an Activision game that's really popular?

I'm trying to think of one. Activision Blizzard game. They on Blizzard? Right. Oh, sure. Yeah. Okay. I mean, that's kind of a big. League of Legends. Yeah, those are kind of big. Those are a little bit large. Yeah, yeah. Okay, that's kind of a big one. League of Legends? Yeah, those are kind of big. Those are a little bit large. Yeah, in League of Legends, people will feel a ripple. And then they'll know. They'll say, that's the legendary rip.

It's like when Duke Lita bites it and, uh, dude, you know. It's exactly like that. Paul and his mom are like, too bit the dust. Use the voice. Yeah, they're like, he's, too bit the dust. Use the voice. Yeah, they're like, he went to heaven. Do you want to talk about nice things together? Let's do nice things. Yeah, it's been a long week.

I'm trying to think of we missed anything really crucial to talk about. Apple's right to repair stuff. Yeah, I listen, I think it's in, I mean, I don't want to, I can't, it's interesting in so far as, oh look, this thing that we should have had all along this fundamental right to like fix your own computer.

Now we have it again. Okay. It's not that interesting to me. What's interesting is that they thought we shouldn't. I think that, I think, you know, and I can attribute some of this to the newness of mobile technology and kind of this new way of tech existing and frankly to some extent the ways that the technology obviously to a huge extent, the ways the technology has been

designed. And I will say, you know, there is, and this has been true of Apple for a very long time, for a very long time, for decades and decades. The direction that PCs went in was, you know, when you just think of the foundational, right, PCs and Macs, the know, when you just think of the foundational, right, PCs and Macs, the foundations of these technologies we live with, the concept for PCs went in this very clear direction of crack it open, mess around, choose your own adventure, you know, there is this kind of extensibility and changeability to these products that's built in and inherent in the

framework. Apple was the opposite. They're like, we're going to make everything perfect for you so you don't ever have to change it. I'm even going to apply it. Right. You don't upgrade your toaster. Not that it's the same thing, but you get a toaster and you toast your toast just the way you want.

That's how we make products. This makes perfect toast every time you fire it up. And I think that carried through not just to the kind of philosophical idea of like things like the iPhone and iPad and Apple Watch or whatever, but it carried very much through to the design. And it is true that with certain types of industrial design and certain types of product design, there are things you can do when nothing has to be taken apart or moved once you put it together

that you can't do otherwise. And so I do think I will defend Apple slightly in this insane. I don't think that their resistance on the repairability and providing of parts for their products was completely born out of a just raw capitalist instinct to make that hard and expensive. I think it was also like they found themselves in a situation where they had built a lot of products that were you really can't, I mean taking them apart really is goes way beyond just unscrewing something and popping out of board. And I think that, so, you know, what will be interesting to see is if

their new changes to providing consumers with, you know, tools, and I believe it's tools and parts for their products, if that will change any design of their products, I mean, will that alter the underpins? They've already started to pivot a little bit in admitting they were wrong about a couple of things. You know, there are like, here's some ports back. Yeah, I mean, it is true on the new Macbooks,

they've added back in ports that they had removed, which is again, a very unusual move for Apple. They kind of change the design of their magical, their keyboard that was supposed to be so great when it turned out that it actually sucked. I mean, maybe, I mean, I do think the new Apple is not Steve Jobs's Apple, which definitely stuck to its guns a lot more on stuff like this

than they do now. But the question will be like, ultimately, you know, can you make an iPhone that's more repairable? And if so, will they do now. But the question will be ultimately, can you make an iPhone that's more repairable? And if so, will they do that? And I think that is a really interesting question to ponder and to perhaps explore. And, you know. I mean, for the environment,

let's pray that they do, because if some of these parts are reusable, or these products can live a little bit longer or things like, you know, a screen repair or a battery change don't fundamentally ruin the product, that's a good thing. Right. Well, I think the, I think the, this kind of goes back to stuff we've talked about a billion times, but it's this question about how these things are designed and what types of materials are used.

I mean, I think you get to the, you know, when you're like, okay, well, we should allow people to repair these. You may go, actually, should we keep using like this glass back on the phone that basically guarantees, in many cases, that you're going to have a bad repair situation if you drop this thing? I mean, I think there's some real Think there's a there's some real interesting questions that are gonna be raised about do they keep doing the things that they've been doing or do they change Certain aspects of their process or their design or their thinking that we don't know the answer to but it is interesting There we ended up talking about it, so

You got you got an extra one. I got an extra one and you You want to do nice things? Yeah, you go first. You know, you're germinating. So I can only talk about a little first part of the game. I cannot talk about anything else due to an embargo agreement with Microsoft. Oh my God. However, the new Halo game is very scary. Are you allowed to talk about this? I can talk about the beginning of the Halo game. Okay, and it's very very good.

It's very good. And I like it a lot. And I that's all I say. They show master chiefs play with it. Master chiefs, but shown in the game, yes or no? Yes, full talking balls. Have we ever seen Master Chiefs ask be in a previous Halo game?

I don't think so. I feel like it's like he's getting out of the shower. Does Master Chief shower, and if so does he shower with the helmet on? If I cannot explain this, but I do believe that if Halo games are on PlayStation, we would have seen his ass at this point. He should not want to know.

Because it's on Xbox, we have not. Oh, what I want to know. Master Chief, we've never seen his face, right? Yes, the helmet can come off. Have we ever seen his hair? Does he have hair? Does he bald? We saw a glimpse of his face during the legendary ending

of Halo 4. I did not clearly achieve the legendary ending. Can I just read you the people also ask for Master Chief face on Google? Did Master Chief show his face? How old is Master Chief face? Is Master Chief face on Google. Did Master Chief show his face? How old is Master Chief face? Is Master Chief white? Is Master Chief a boy or girl?

By the way, I think it'd be great if Master Chief was not a boy. I think that would be really cool. Just to say. Kamis, Aaron, so. Yeah, I like that would be cool. Master Chief. A one specific instantly.

I see, I'm seeing it. It's have earned a brief look. Yes. So Master Chief, one specific instance. I see, I'm seeing it. It's have earned a brief look. Yes. So Master Chief, people have extrapolated what Master Chief looks like. They've shown his eyes apparently. Yes. And he looks pretty old.

People have basically done a version of Master Chief. It's Ed Harris is what Master Chief looks like. It's according to this first card. Yeah, basically. The first render you see on Reddit is basically an ad Harris type of face. I think it would be cool if, yeah, if they like flipped something on Master Chief for us.

John, apparently his name is John. John Master Chief. John Master Chief. And he, I feel bad for the guy, all he does is's just shooting he got shoot does annoying little aliens and make that stupid sound Oh my god wait for those those guys have some real funny stuff. Oh god. I don't want it don't no spoilers Maybe I'll get into halo maybe that'll be my new thing. I it's so good. I'm pretty sure I've played halo games like to completion But I have almost no memory of any of the stuff This game has me fully in love with the franchise again back in my full love affair

Which I've been like in and out, but like the last 10 years. I've just felt like Halo. I moved on But and I loved Halo when I was growing up, but I kind of moved on this game I'm fully reengaged can't wait for Halo Infinite two or whatever. I'm fucking so hyped. Is this the new one's called Halo Infinite? Yes. I think this is incredible. Can I play this on my windows? My windows, right? My windows PC? I'm saying I don't have to get a next box. No. I was just thinking about it. I bought, because I bought a game on sale last night just before

sleeping. This is my favorite thing to do. I was like, whoa, this is on sale and then I bought it, which is Demon's Souls, which I think I'll hate, but I really wanna play the PS5 remake. And so it's on crazy sale right now. It's like $30 off. It's crazy, this is a $70 video game which seems insane to me, but you know, whatever. You know, supply chain, supply chain issues. They can't get the disc or whatever.

But we don't have the bits. Yeah, but I, but I, um, but I was thinking when I, when I bought, I'm like, oh, yeah, like, I don't, I'm not really, I'm not really getting exposed to any of the Xbox stuff because I don't, I didn't, you know, I get rid of my Xbox Series X. You didn't get it all on Game of Thrones. Yeah, that's the thing, that's what's so great about it. All right, so I need to do a nice thing.

Yes. That's my nice thing. Oh, letter box, my nice thing is, did I talk about this last week? I don't think I did. My nice thing is letter. Who did? I did, but I did, did I talk about it? It's my nice thing. I don't know if it was, yeah. No, you know, I'll do a different one? I don't think I did. My nice thing is letter. Who did? I did, but did I talk about this my nice thing?

I don't know if it was, yeah. No, you know, I'll do a different one. I'll do a different one. No, no, no, no, no, no, you didn't. You didn't, you didn't. I did talk about letter, I did talk about letterbox. I say about watchlist. We briefly said you were gonna be a letterboxed guy.

Did we? I can do a different nice thing if you think this is inappropriate. All right. Let me find a better one. Although that has been my, that has been my like main distraction. That and this week, this, which has been a very tough week, my main distraction has been that and obviously I'm, I'm remodeling a bathroom, so that's been an adventure. And,

and I'm playing the Castlevania collection, whatever the thing is on Switch that includes like the the Game Boy Color games. The D.S. games, whatever. Yeah, the advanced collection. Which is great because I haven't played any of those games. I haven't played any of those Castlevania games and I just got these new presumably better controller, you know, whatever joy cons for my switch that actually have a regular D-pad instead of the buttons. But I got like a random one that comes in light pink. It seems fine. It's kind of like noisy.

I don't know who knows. At any rate, okay, I'm just gonna say I'm gonna do my nice thing as letterbox then we're gonna move on. But I will say last week I was experimenting. And this week I've gone full on I'm like a letterbox guy now and I'm doing reviews. What I really enjoy is that I can do brief reviews. This was not my nice thing last week. Was it? No, it wasn't. Okay, good. Because I'm like my brain is mush. So if it was then Tony, I apologize. But I'm enjoying it. And I think that I get to express, you know, highly controversial opinions in a very short amount of space, which is, which is, you know, satisfying on some level. Like, you know, I get to say that I think the film breathless sucks, which it does. And, and I know a lot of people really like it

and think it's important, but I find it to be just unbelievably annoying. Anyhow, I'm enjoying it. It's nice, it's nice to change a pace because like there's no stakes for me. Like I could say whatever I want about movies and I can think about movies I like or movies I hate. And you know, it's like a brief moment.

Steal on musk fans are coming at you. I mean, they might be, well I reviewed the Taylor Swift film because everybody was talking about it. I'm like, oh, yeah, maybe I'll check this out because it's a 10 minute short film based on her song. The song is called All Too Well. All Too Well, right.

And the song is, in my opinion, is not good. Sorry, sorry, Swift is. I mean, it's a song. It certainly has a melody, is not good. Sorry, sorry, Swifties. I mean, it's a song. It certainly has a melody, you know, some lyrics, I suppose. It's not like bad, but it's not good. And I guess she's done this like extended version of it, which Gakker did a really funny story about,

I believe it was Olivia Craig had wrote about how, if you look at the sort of like, she has some line in this new extended version of the song about how some line about fuck the patriarchy, and she claims that the song was written in like 2011, and like that phrase basically didn't exist, and so she's lying. But like I think all of Taylor Swift stuff is like made up. I mean, I think it's very weird to me

that to watch all of these adults, presumably adults, buy into this narrative, this huge commerce-driven narrative about Taylor Swift's life, which I think is all, I'm not knocking it, but I don't, like, she's created this like Jennifer Aniston persona in, you know, Jennifer Aniston is like the person who in all gossip magazines has been wrongly treated and deserves better and can never buy a break. There's this archetype of a woman that the gossip magazines have created that's like, she's always gets the short end of the stick and she can never find love and she deserves better and why does this horrible man treat her so badly or whatever.

And my friend, my friend Chelsea F had a great tweet, which was like, she, her brand is predicated on simultaneously being absolutely the most successful and ubiquitous pop star in the world, and also always an underdog victim. Right. It's like such a remarkable argument. And so it's like Taylor Swift is like, I, she, you know, anyhow, so she did this, this, this, this, apparently this relationship relate that song is about her relationship with Jake Jill and Hall which lasted a I would say about two months based on everything we know okay it's three months a decade okay three months a decade ago and he was 29 and she was 20

apparently their ages are important like because Olivia after she wrote the story I've seen some DMs that people have sent her and they're like, and they're like, you know, like how dare you, she would, you know, grooming her, whatever they're like, you know, it's some crazy shit about how she was only 20 and it's like, yeah, but he was only 29 and like, that's very normal.

My dad's 11 years older than my mom. Like, it's not that weird when you're an adult. I think people have taken, and I say this to someone who fully understands the weight of sexual assault stuff, but people have taken the whole grooming narrative to like, applied to like 25 year old. Yeah, like, I'm sorry, that's not, like you're misusing the word.

You can say it was abusive, or you can say there is some level of manipulation or coercion, but grooming is literally about minor over a long period of time. And I think if like, I thought about a 20 year old, I was just met a 29 year old. I think if you're talking about like Dave Porton

only from Barstool sports being like 35 and like having sex with like an 18 or 19 year old and then being like, I felt like, I guess they're like, and if they're like, I felt like he was raping me like, okay, then yeah, that's a really problematic situation. Like that's not good. But if it's like Taylor was in a relationship

as an adult with another adult who was not wildly older than her, nine years is nothing when you're an adult to be perfectly honest. And it ended badly or something, which it sounds like it did, but based on what I understand of the lyrics, they just mean to her at a dinner party. They kinda like didn't, yeah. And based on her film, where they show,

they have a Taylor Swift character and a Jake Gyllenhaal character, and the film is directed by Taylor Swift. So I really like the idea that she's like, here's me doing a film about my life, with people who kinda look just like us, which is just funny, I like it conceptually. How much do you have to think about yourself?

I can ask you, I can ask you. But we also have to believe, and this is the important thing, is like what you just said is in keeping with Taylor Swift's narrative, that she is thinking about herself like this. But what is true is, one, the relationship is mostly fabricated

from what I can tell. It's mostly like a couple of pictures and some tabloids and a breakup over a some bad dinner party. There's something about a scarf that people are hung up on. I think because we're all desperate for something in our lives that seems dramatic and can distract us from all the bullshit that's going on and fair enough, I love distractions. But it's like anyhow, so then she made this movie and the movie is the short film, it's not a movie. It's like her and Jake Gyllenhaal dating and then they break up because they were at a dinner party

and he wasn't paying enough attention to her, which by the way, like, you know, yeah, like that's normal stuff. Like that's the normal stuff that people break up over who've only been dating for like a month. Very common, like we're not getting along, it's not working, you know? So it's like he like strangled her.

Like he didn't try to kill, like he wasn't like, I'm gonna kill you and like pull it an iPhone or an then like she found out he was cheating on her the entire time. It's not that. It's like, we're even just like psychological manipulation, gaslighting, like we don't really see, he's just like not a great, we seem like they weren't get,

they didn't really connect at the end of the day. They didn't vibe. And people are like, people are like in on, in on letterbox, they're like, Jake Gyllenhaal, you better watch your back. They're like Jake Gyllenhaal, just was just found murdered in a, in a, in a, in a,

Your time is coming, bitch. No, they're literally like, they're like people are people are like, this short film is citizen came to me. I'm like, okay, everybody needs to just relax. This is a product of a commerce she has now monetized this story twice. Once on her album, 10 years ago, and again, on this re-release where she owns the Masters or whatever,

but be very clear, this is a piece of commerce for her. It is not a real story, it maybe has some basis in reality. Taylor Swift is fine. Jake Gyllenhaal is fine. None of this concerns you. You can enjoy the fucking song and the narrative of it without being like Jake Gyllenhaal, your days are numbered. But also, what it turns out is,

probably a lot of it is very easily, you can do a little research, like Olivia did on Gawker and go, oh, fuck the patriarchy didn't actually come into popularity in common use until 2014, which is several years after the song was released. And Taylor is like, well, I really wanted to have the 10 minute version, but the label wouldn't let me or whatever. And it's like, I think you made all this up so you could make some more money on your music. And you know, hats off anyhow. So getting back to my nice thing is,

let her box a great forum for me to write a very short schedule in your review of Taylor Swift's short film about her bad song. And by the way, I think Taylor Swift has some great songs. I don't have a problem with Taylor. And frankly, if people are gonna be writing lies and mythologizing you, might as well do it yourself, I guess.

No, it's cool. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not knocking her for it. I'm more like knocking the fans who are like, taking it so seriously. It's like this is, this is a, this is theater. This is art. This is a, this is a, this is a performance. This is a lower stakes than your, than your action like it. She is a performer and she is performing. Taylor Swift is having a great fucking time

and honestly was having a great time after Jake Gyllenhaal broke up with her. She had enough of a sense about the whole thing to write a song and put it on a record and make a lot of money off of it and play it at shows for a decade. So I think it's all, you got everybody can chill out and the film itself is certainly not in the citizen

king's sphere. I can tell you that to the one highly upvoted critic on Letterbox. I get it. It's a little bit of a funny embellishment. Anyhow, Letterbox, a lot of fun. And I'm having a lot of having a good time with it. And it's also reminding me of both films I want to watch

and movies that I have watched, like stuff I forgot. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I've seen that. And I have thoughts on it. If I could spend a little bit more time with it, I probably would, but you know, I have a job in a family. So it's unfortunately just a little distraction. All right, let's get out, let's wrap up. Let's get out of here.

All right, bye. Bye. Well, that is our show for this week. We will not be back next week because it's Thanksgiving with more tomorrow, but we'll be back the week after that. And as always, I wish you and your family the very best. Though I've just been told that your family was also at the dinner party and was also ignored by Jake Gyllenhaal. you