Speaker 1: Good evening, friends, Thank you for joining us at the
Speaker 1: Nonprofits for the first show of twenty twenty five. Today
Speaker 1: is a Monday, January thirteenth, and I am with a
Speaker 1: panel of wonderful people. We're going to discuss and well,
Speaker 1: I almost said awesome but maybe disturbing article. And you know,
Speaker 1: they say forty is the new thirty. And following that
Speaker 1: line of thinking, I say, for a majority of Americans
Speaker 1: that fascism is the new constitutional democracy. While many characterize
Speaker 1: the New Republican Party as authoritarian excuse me authoritarianism, I
Speaker 1: don't think that description goes far enough. They increasingly champion
Speaker 1: the type of American, the white Christian who are predominantly male,
Speaker 1: that would benefit in the system that it would run.
Speaker 1: This is likely the outcome should the Trump administration conform
Speaker 1: to the far right thinkers who provide their agenda and
Speaker 1: political philosophy, which will result in a fascist as well
Speaker 1: as the dictatorial regime. We've seen it happening incrementally over
Speaker 1: the past decade, and there are no signs of its
Speaker 1: slowing down. This article is from The Guardian by Wilson
Speaker 1: Jason on December twenty first, twenty twenty four. And you know, Tracy,
Speaker 1: I want to jump right into it. The article talks
Speaker 1: about how conservatives in the current administration, the administration that's
Speaker 1: about to come in, I should say, are looking to
Speaker 1: attract libertarian minded youth in the tech industry. First of all,
Speaker 1: a lot of people think that libertarianism is somehow the
Speaker 1: centrist point of view on the political spectrum, somewhere between
Speaker 1: liberal and conservative. It's actually far more conservative than people
Speaker 1: people give it credit for. But why why? And I
Speaker 1: know that you have some thoughts about the tech industry
Speaker 1: and algorithms and the way that they play into this messaging,
Speaker 1: So I kind of just want to ask you, why
Speaker 1: are they interested in attracting libertarian minded youth in the
Speaker 1: tech industry.
Speaker 2: Well, Jimmy, these are my thoughts on that I was
Speaker 2: at When I was a younger man. I fancied myself
Speaker 2: as a libertarian because I saw it, like you said,
Speaker 2: as that mid range point. What I'm going to tell
Speaker 2: you is it's easy. That's why they want to do it.
Speaker 2: It's really easy to convince these younger people who think
Speaker 2: that their stance is in the middle. They're trying to
Speaker 2: be the reasonable person when they're in reality. Like you said,
Speaker 2: far off on one side, it's really easy to get
Speaker 2: them to come down to the American right as opposed
Speaker 2: to way further down to the American left, because, as
Speaker 2: you said, they think they're in the middle, but they're not.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I think that that's an important thing
Speaker 1: to highlight, because really what happens is the Libertarian Party
Speaker 1: becomes so appealing to people who are disenchanted with the
Speaker 1: current political system that they say, well, you know, this
Speaker 1: party's got some good aspects, but actually, if you break
Speaker 1: down the philosophy and the policies associated, you find yourself going,
Speaker 1: oh shit, you know, I'm like way further to the
Speaker 1: right than I thought I was. And I think it
Speaker 1: could be problematic for people who really don't know what
Speaker 1: the what libertarianism stands for. But you know, Helen, I
Speaker 1: want to kind of pick your brain on whether or
Speaker 1: not this is surprising. You know, Is it surprising, uh
Speaker 1: that this kind of philosophy, this kind of advice is
Speaker 1: coming from people that are highlighted in this article to
Speaker 1: the new administration. H what do you make of this
Speaker 1: article and everything it outlined?
Speaker 3: So when I was reading this article and plus, like,
Speaker 3: I know the person that they highlighted like I don't
Speaker 3: know him, know him, but I was there's an episode
Speaker 3: behind the Bassards and they went into a deep dive.
Speaker 4: About this dude who's terrible.
Speaker 3: By the way, these far right, you know, a conservative
Speaker 3: young men with a lot of money, a lot of influencer,
Speaker 3: very much into the tech industry, and a lot of
Speaker 3: them are Silicon Valley people.
Speaker 4: And they also use.
Speaker 3: Like the algorithms and also like the scientific data. I'm
Speaker 3: using those in quotations to say things like, you know,
Speaker 3: to promote things like white nationalism, you know, and they
Speaker 3: use what it could be you know, what can we
Speaker 3: conceived as like statistics and basically a new form of
Speaker 3: eugenics to say that, you know, certain groups of people
Speaker 3: are supposed to, you know, buy into the idea that
Speaker 3: you know, one group of people is better than another
Speaker 3: group of people. And also when when people hear a libertarian,
Speaker 3: you hear liberty in that in that word, but that
Speaker 3: means deregulations, that means letting the free market decide, you know,
Speaker 3: if people get education or healthcare, that you know, pulling
Speaker 3: back things that are for environmental protections. And also that
Speaker 3: includes that you know, normally white people are going to
Speaker 3: have a leg up because we, unfortunately in this country
Speaker 3: white people do and because of that, they want to
Speaker 3: keep that going. But only for like, you know, the
Speaker 3: very very like super special people like Elon Musk is
Speaker 3: one of these people that he thinks he's so super
Speaker 3: fucking special. And that's the issue, because when you get
Speaker 3: into these mindsets of these ultra right, very rich young men,
Speaker 3: they they want to procreate those ideas and they'll do
Speaker 3: it under libertarian rhetoric.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought that is that is a perfect point.
Speaker 1: I feel like I picked up the same things when
Speaker 1: I was reading this. I do consider this not just authoritarianism,
Speaker 1: because the the article, the author of the article talks
Speaker 1: a lot about authoritarianism, and you could be an authoritarian
Speaker 1: in multiple different types of government. But I think fascist
Speaker 1: is a more appropriate term. And and to the point
Speaker 1: that you eight, this would allow the white majority to
Speaker 1: not be influenced by people that are culturally or even
Speaker 1: racially different from them, plain and simple. Uh. And so
Speaker 1: I want to jump over to Stephen, you know, what
Speaker 1: do we do about this?
Speaker 2: Is?
Speaker 1: What what should how should American society flex to this shift? Uh?
Speaker 5: Like this was my first time hearing about this courtesy
Speaker 5: Arvin guy who seems to have so much sway over
Speaker 5: the incoming administration. And it's and it's and it's it's hard,
Speaker 5: it's frustrating. Like I know that I am a really
Speaker 5: privileged person, you know, being a white Cis male, Like,
Speaker 5: I've got a lot of privilege, and I know that
Speaker 5: I would be uh, I wouldn't be aware of it
Speaker 5: if I hadn't already like, had some of that privilege
Speaker 5: stripped away from me. I'm started like thinking critically about
Speaker 5: the experiences of other people, so I can understand why
Speaker 5: it has for the ignorance, for the ignorant let's not
Speaker 5: let's not buttergoat sugarcoat it daymore for the ignorant people
Speaker 5: who are just within their dome, it just makes sense that, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: this this benefits me, so let's go with it. So
Speaker 5: I don't know how to address that other than to
Speaker 5: like just through education, right, I think I think it's
Speaker 5: really important that we just rip this band aid off
Speaker 5: and see just how far away we have fallen. We
Speaker 5: need to just articulate what exactly are our ideals and
Speaker 5: where exactly are we because so long as we're like, well,
Speaker 5: maybe it'll be fine, like, oh, can't wait for the
Speaker 5: next four years to be over, then things can well
Speaker 5: have a chance. Like No, things are never going to
Speaker 5: go back to being normal, right man. It's because we're
Speaker 5: giving oxygens to fuck faces like this courtesy Yarvin. Guy
Speaker 5: who doesn't have the best interests of everybody in mind.
Speaker 5: He has the interests of a very small demographic in mind,
Speaker 5: and he is being listened to and supported by people
Speaker 5: in power who do not have the best interests of
Speaker 5: everybody in mind. They just have a very small demographic
Speaker 5: that they are looking out for, and we just need
Speaker 5: to see that for what it is and then start
Speaker 5: to rebuild.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know, I think that part is evident.
Speaker 1: The thing that is is I don't want to say funny,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to use that term for right now.
Speaker 1: What's funny to me is that they're encouraging or heat.
Speaker 1: Jarvin and his cast of characters are encouraging dictatorial policies, right,
Speaker 1: fascist policies, some might say, like myself, But they're encouraging
Speaker 1: it for the incoming administration. So tracy. If they think
Speaker 1: that these policies are so good, why not just encourage
Speaker 1: them for the administration that's been in office for the
Speaker 1: last four years. Why wait, you know so, I wanted
Speaker 1: to see what's your reflection on that part, my friend.
Speaker 1: You may be muted. You may very well be muted. Welcome,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the nonprofits.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you. Why would they because they don't
Speaker 2: really want at least as far as I can tell,
Speaker 2: they don't want America as it stands this mister Yarvin
Speaker 2: to take the current administration and just inject it with
Speaker 2: their ideas would still not be as screwed up and
Speaker 2: authoritarian and good for only some people as they want
Speaker 2: it to be. They want their way. They don't want
Speaker 2: anybody else to get anything. They want to be in
Speaker 2: charge because they're the big strong boys with all the
Speaker 2: money and all the everything. They're they're the best, and
Speaker 2: that is in their mind what should happen. The people
Speaker 2: who are the best should be in power and should
Speaker 2: make all the decisions.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I would I would point to that point.
Speaker 1: I would say, you know, this is actually these are
Speaker 1: not good policies then, I mean, if they if they
Speaker 1: just don't work, and they only work at a certain circumstance,
Speaker 1: well then they're not the best policy, are they? You
Speaker 1: know our policies as a country that is consistently or
Speaker 1: continuously in flux with the different demographics, and just like
Speaker 1: the changing waves of society and culture, we need to
Speaker 1: make sure that we have policies that always work for
Speaker 1: every American. And clearly these policies aren't working. So I
Speaker 1: want to, Helen, get your comment on this. Okay, So
Speaker 1: there was something that the author quoted another advisor to
Speaker 1: the Trump administration, somebody by the name of Anton, And
Speaker 1: forgive me, I don't have the first name here, but
Speaker 1: our Anton writes that the United States peaked in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty five and that Americans are ruled by a network
Speaker 1: of unelected bureaucrats. So right now, Americans are now ruled
Speaker 1: by a network of unelected bureaucrats, corporate tech, finance, senior
Speaker 1: management experts quote unquote, I'm doing my air quotes who
Speaker 1: set boundaries of acceptable opinion and media figures who police
Speaker 1: those boundaries. So Anton is accusing the United States right
Speaker 1: now of that characteristic. I would say, is that not
Speaker 1: calling the pot calling the kettle black? And Helen, I
Speaker 1: wanted to see what you thought about that.
Speaker 3: I mean, yes, I can see this, yes, and no,
Speaker 3: like like they're obviously not elected, but are they whispering
Speaker 3: in people's years? Yes, like you know, you know Yarvin
Speaker 3: is whispering in JD Vance's here, so you know, and
Speaker 3: has adopted these policies and like things, these policies are
Speaker 3: a good idea and like.
Speaker 4: You know, it's become a racist, fascist piece of crap
Speaker 4: and so like I so peaking in nineteen sixty five
Speaker 4: is hyperbole and stupid.
Speaker 1: Whether when black people had their own r Yeah.
Speaker 3: Women didn't have rights, Like I couldn't get a credit
Speaker 3: card if I was live in nineteen sixty five and
Speaker 3: couldn't get an abortion. Well that's new, that's that's that's current.
Speaker 3: But like, this is the thing when when one this
Speaker 3: is not true, we do still for now, I'll have
Speaker 3: a democracy.
Speaker 4: You know, we just had an election. You know, it
Speaker 4: didn't go.
Speaker 3: Our way, but oh my god, there's a peaceful transfer
Speaker 3: of power. So this is the thing that but when
Speaker 3: someone says like you know, we're like you're being hypocritical,
Speaker 3: like and I think that's trying to pass the buck
Speaker 3: because they know that these corporate you know Elon Musk, Yeah,
Speaker 3: that are like Trump just put a bunch of businessman
Speaker 3: millioneires as part of his cabinet.
Speaker 4: You know, you're mantling the Department of Education.
Speaker 3: There's all these things that are coming that basically like
Speaker 3: if you want America run like a fucking business, hello,
Speaker 3: you know. But the issue is is that you can't
Speaker 3: sit there and be like serious and say like, well,
Speaker 3: you know, you know, it's warned by like, you know,
Speaker 3: corporate burcrats, And I'm like, you're the corporate burcrat mofo,
Speaker 3: like shut up, you know, and the irony there, it's
Speaker 3: just so funny and I think that's just but I
Speaker 3: think that's more about deflection then what is actually going on,
Speaker 3: because like with Yarvin, like whispering and like jd Vance's ear,
Speaker 3: you know, and jd Vance you know, grew up poor,
Speaker 3: you know, came from an home with an an addicted mom,
Speaker 3: grew up in like an abusive household. Was kind of
Speaker 3: leaning a little bit to like understanding the economic issues
Speaker 3: that were happening in Tennessee where he grew up and
Speaker 3: on the Appalachian Trail and these people that became addicted
Speaker 3: to drugs and didn't have any upward mobility. He was
Speaker 3: sensitive to that to a point but then he got involved,
Speaker 3: He got involved in like you know, Ivy League schools
Speaker 3: and where mommy and daddy are paying their very rich
Speaker 3: kids to go to college and get influenced by that,
Speaker 3: and that.
Speaker 4: Is feeding into and it's the same thing.
Speaker 3: With these corporate butt heeads that want to influence government
Speaker 3: because there they don't see the world from a more
Speaker 3: diverse lunch. They just have that narrow view that only
Speaker 3: like straight white men that have a lot of fucking
Speaker 3: money in our conservative and.
Speaker 4: Far right are the ones that she ruled the country.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, that's why they think it.
Speaker 4: Peaked in nineteen sixty five, because that's what happened then.
Speaker 1: In Jdvan to jade Vance's point, or to the point
Speaker 1: you're making about jade Vance, you know, uh, he realized
Speaker 1: later in life that he can benefit, you know, he
Speaker 1: can benefit by this system like we've all alluded to.
Speaker 1: So you know, Stephen on that note, has democracy failed?
Speaker 5: Well, I don't know, like your leader is talking about
Speaker 5: invading our sovereignty and just absorbing us like that's that's
Speaker 5: that doesn't seem like a healthy democratic system. Like has
Speaker 5: has democracy failed? I think it's been co opted. I
Speaker 5: think it's been purchased, and I can't like, I can't.
Speaker 5: I can't first off, like if if like it's was
Speaker 5: it all a ploy? The fact that we that Democrats
Speaker 5: had to fight so hard to say no, there wasn't
Speaker 5: election interference last time, you just the lost yet ding
Speaker 5: bay for us to like further that narrative, and then
Speaker 5: like so that means that if they did steal all
Speaker 5: these dominion machines and figured out how to hack them,
Speaker 5: and now they stole the election, it feels like really
Speaker 5: two face in order to say well, actually, maybe it was.
Speaker 5: It just has democracy failed? It's failed? Yeah? Ah fuck,
Speaker 5: that's I don't know. I don't want to say yes.
Speaker 5: And yet how can we say anything else? So when
Speaker 5: one third of the population doesn't care or doesn't have
Speaker 5: voice to express what it wants, like that doesn't seem
Speaker 5: like a system you know that has been appointed by
Speaker 5: the people, right, And I don't know.
Speaker 1: Well, I would you know, you say our leader and
Speaker 1: fair fair. However, I do want to make a distinction
Speaker 1: that I don't think a lot of people understand. And
Speaker 1: this isn't you necessarily Stephen, but I think constituents across
Speaker 1: the country we often refer to our elected officials as leaders,
Speaker 1: and that just comes with the misunderstanding of how our
Speaker 1: government is actually supposed to work. We are not electing
Speaker 1: people to necessarily lead us as we are to be
Speaker 1: a representative of our intent, our wants, to our desires,
Speaker 1: and our need to have our social contract upheld. I
Speaker 1: think what we've seen in the United States is that
Speaker 1: our democracy is definitely being challenged. Those principles are being challenged.
Speaker 1: Will they fall, will they be upheld? I think it
Speaker 1: remains to be seen. And so on that note, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to turn to Tracy and say, do we
Speaker 1: as Americans have the ability to govern? I mean, are
Speaker 1: are we capable of self governance? At this point?
Speaker 2: Well, I just need to ask you, Jimmy, have you
Speaker 2: left your house recently? And when you did, did you survive?
Speaker 1: You?
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, well that's good, that's good. Then that's
Speaker 2: a resounding case for self governance. Because there wasn't a
Speaker 2: police officer on every step. There wasn't a soldier on
Speaker 2: every door, was there?
Speaker 1: Of course not? Of course not, of course not there.
Speaker 2: What you're talking about the desigre tire to have the
Speaker 2: social contract upheld, That is innate in a person. Nobody
Speaker 2: wants their neighborhood to start burning down and murders to
Speaker 2: happen left, right, and center. We are, of course able
Speaker 2: to self govern. We've been doing it for thousands of years.
Speaker 2: We're gonna keep doing it for thousands of years unless
Speaker 2: you know, the current administration, or the incoming administration, or
Speaker 2: any of the whack jobs around the world decide to
Speaker 2: do something about it. I'm not at all concerned with
Speaker 2: people's ability to self regulate and to self govern. What
Speaker 2: I'm concerned with is a runaway population that is small
Speaker 2: but loud, just making everybody think, oh, well, this is
Speaker 2: the loudest voice. And we all know that being popular
Speaker 2: is very is very dangerous because not everybody understands that
Speaker 2: the most popular thing is not necessarily the correct thing.
Speaker 2: Many people will just fall in with the most popular thing.
Speaker 2: And if the most popular thing is dangerous, then what
Speaker 2: are we going to do? So I do think we're
Speaker 2: able to self govern. I think we do still need
Speaker 2: to work on it.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, So the fear I think I have is
Speaker 1: that when you have cabinets of each branch of government,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't say cabinets. That was the wrong terminology. But
Speaker 1: when you have each branch of government dominated by the
Speaker 1: same party and then able to acquiesce into a way
Speaker 1: that is not helpful, we're not beneficial to the entire society.
Speaker 1: You know, do we run the risk of dismantling? And Helen,
Speaker 1: I want to get your take on that. Are we
Speaker 1: at risk of our government being dismantled by policies that
Speaker 1: the electorate can no longer affect?
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, we know that Probaty twenty twenty five is
Speaker 3: going to beathing. They said that this was going to
Speaker 3: be added a part of the new administration, and we
Speaker 3: have these corporate oligarchs that are going to be influencing policy.
Speaker 3: We are going to see a dismantling of our democracy.
Speaker 3: It will have the features you know of a democracy,
Speaker 3: but it's going to be designed that only I hate
Speaker 3: to see it.
Speaker 4: You know that it's.
Speaker 3: Going to be harder to get people to register and
Speaker 3: be able to vote. It's going to affect people's mobility
Speaker 3: and ability mobility and also to get proper to political education.
Speaker 3: We have such a problem with it before and now
Speaker 3: it's going to get worse. Because if you don't know
Speaker 3: how to like this is one thing we keep, you know,
Speaker 3: yelling at the at the ether about on these shows
Speaker 3: is that there's a lack of education and critical thinking.
Speaker 3: And when a good portion of the American populace sees
Speaker 3: people like Jarvin and they see people like Elon Musk
Speaker 3: and like, yeah, people are getting in channel with Elon,
Speaker 3: that's fine. But there are people that think that, oh,
Speaker 3: this person is rich, that means they're a good person,
Speaker 3: you know, because rich, she goes good. And it's like no,
Speaker 3: because you don't get that rich without screwing a lot
Speaker 3: of fucking people over. And that's what's going to happen.
Speaker 3: The oligarchs are going to have that mindset and bring
Speaker 3: it down into the American populace. And I know, in
Speaker 3: four years we might have a reelection and we might
Speaker 3: we might get somebody else in office that I don't
Speaker 3: want to scream into my pillow and cry. But that
Speaker 3: being said, that means but this is going to take
Speaker 3: a decade or two and as going in a more
Speaker 3: progressive direction to fix it will not suddenly disappear in
Speaker 3: four years when we have a new election.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, And that's the thing I'm more scared.
Speaker 1: Of lot a lot to unpack there. You know, you
Speaker 1: talk about the lack of education, you talk about the
Speaker 1: system needing to be rebuilt, and you know, Stephen, on
Speaker 1: that note, I want to kind of relay or repeat
Speaker 1: some of the quotes that were in this article. So
Speaker 1: one Jarvin says, we need to eliminate the freedom of
Speaker 1: the press. Incredibly dangerous. Uh, you know, not being able
Speaker 1: to spread spread, spread the message right, not being able
Speaker 1: to get a message out or to for for uneducated
Speaker 1: or for the people that need to be informed to
Speaker 1: not be informed. And then our own Vice President elect
Speaker 1: jd Vance says, uh, the system will inevitably collapse and
Speaker 1: Conservatives must replace it with something better, a d bathification
Speaker 1: alluding to Saddam Hussein's party and a dewolcification program. We
Speaker 1: have to strike at the heart of the beast universities.
Speaker 1: Uh So, Steven, what is at risk right now?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 1: You know, how do we prevent the collapse? And what
Speaker 1: is the most vulnerable I think asset in our society
Speaker 1: that could be attacked and enable this collapse.
Speaker 5: Like within I know, like one piece of advice that
Speaker 5: I see echoed within minority groups and then especially in
Speaker 5: queer groups is just the idea of like find your
Speaker 5: home base, find your home group, find your home community.
Speaker 5: That's that's something that we are going to need. I think.
Speaker 5: I think those marginalized people, they have the most to lose. So,
Speaker 5: you know, so whether that's racially marginalized, or or gender
Speaker 5: or sexually, anything that puts you that takes away, that
Speaker 5: gives you less of a voice compared to these these
Speaker 5: loud voices of rich people who who yeah, that believe
Speaker 5: that that because of their empowerment and because of their entitlement,
Speaker 5: that they have the best idea, the right idea. I
Speaker 5: think those are the voices, that's what we have the
Speaker 5: those are the communities that we need to be looking
Speaker 5: out for the most. And and then yeah, like we've
Speaker 5: mentioned here, like education obviously is going to be it's
Speaker 5: going to be the one of the greatest blows that
Speaker 5: we can see as a society is to attack our education.
Speaker 5: I know for myself, like as a parent, like don't
Speaker 5: I don't have any hope for our generation seeing a turnaround.
Speaker 5: So that's why my kids are so important to me.
Speaker 5: And what can I be doing now in order to
Speaker 5: like lay that groundwork of healthy critical thinking so that
Speaker 5: when there's that hope for change that they can that
Speaker 5: their shoulders will be broad enough to help support that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, thank you. And it's we're at a really
Speaker 1: important time. We're at an important time in our history
Speaker 1: because we have a reintroduction of i think highly conservative,
Speaker 1: far right values that really haven't been a part of
Speaker 1: our society in the way that we see our current
Speaker 1: conservative party as firing to and so a pivotal time
Speaker 1: for our children, a pivotal time for probably our grandchildren,
Speaker 1: depending on how much damage is done. And you know,
Speaker 1: I want to kind of just wrap this segment up
Speaker 1: by tying this back to the thing that we're here for,
Speaker 1: and that's to discuss religion and its negative impacts. And
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not surprised at all, and I don't
Speaker 1: think any of us are that the hardlined Christians and
Speaker 1: Evangelicals are in line with this way of thinking, because
Speaker 1: these are the kind of people that are going to
Speaker 1: benefit most. And so they give a platform, they give
Speaker 1: a pathway, an apparatus to the conservative movement in this
Speaker 1: country and allow them to inflict the most damage, which
Speaker 1: if you ask them, of course, is not what they
Speaker 1: stand for, but in practice it certainly is. And On
Speaker 1: that note, I want to encourage everybody to continue tuning
Speaker 1: into the nonprofits to talk about and hear us talk
Speaker 1: about some of these issues as they unfold day to day.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us.