Speaker 1: We understand.
Speaker 2: The thinking atheist. It's not a person, it's a symbol,
an idea.
Speaker 3: The population of atheists this country is going through the.
Speaker 2: Rule, rejecting faith, pursuing knowledge, challenging the sacred. If I
tell the truth, it's because I tell the truth, not because.
Speaker 1: I put my hand on a book and made a.
Speaker 2: Wish and working together for a more rational world.
Speaker 3: Take the risk of thinking. Feel so much more happiness. Truth,
Usian wisdom will come to you that way.
Speaker 2: Assume nothing, question everything, and start thinking. This is the
Thinking Atheist podcast hosted by Seth Andrews.
Speaker 3: Just returned from a wonderful event in Orlando, the Florida
Freethought Conference, getting ready to get back on a plane
to go and officiate a wedding in San Antonio and
then travel coming up in the month of April for
the American Atheist Conference and some other ones on the horizon.
Details on all the major events that are coming up
are at the Thinkingatheist dot com slash events. My flight delayed,
big weather out East, tornadoes and the whole thing, so
everybody got delayed and I ended up sort of sitting
alone in forlorn in a holiday inn express wishing I
was home with Natalie and the dogs scrolling hotel television,
which is terrifying. By the way, when I was in Orlando,
I was scrolling and I am not kidding. Televangelist and
quote unquote faith healer Peter pop Off was on one
of the channels. Guys, gotta be freaking seventy five eighty
years old, and he is hawking these tiny little packets
of water. This is miracle spring water. Oh, send me
your your love offering, send me your support, and I
will mail you miracle springwater. Now, I don't know exactly
what it's supposed to do. Do you smear it on yourself?
Do you pour it into your shampoo? You know? What
is it? What are the natures of the miracles? I
do not know. He was debunked decades ago by the
great skeptic James Randy, Peter Popoff doing a healing service,
a whole series of these, making millions of dollars. James
Randy and like a radio expert, went and they took
equipment scanning frequencies, and Peter Popoff was using an ear
piece and his wife was off stage reading prayer cards,
and so he'd be like Susan's in the audience. Susan,
Susan has a injury. Susan, are you here? God is
telling me there's a Susan now with us, you know,
And Susan stands up. Yes, Peter Poppa, I don't and
he brings her on stage and you know, it's all theater,
and then he got busted. Well, somehow, even when these
people are busted, they still continue to make millions of dollars.
The sheep will line up and they send in their
Social Security checks and they go and attend the rallies.
This guy is still on TV decades later saying, Oh,
if you give me five hundred dollars right now, I
will send you a little packet of water. You know,
somebody's in the back room sitting at the tap filling
up little things of plastic seal shut you know, or
maybe he's got machines to do it in mass I
don't know how many people are mailing in their checks.
What about auto draft? Is he doing that shit? Put
us on auto so your monthly gift comes out, well,
you don't even have to think about it. And you
know there are people who have not a cent to
their name. We're giving money they don't have because they
are casting their bread upon the water, and they believe
that they will be blessed, if not in this life,
in the next. What a great scam that is. Well,
I guarantee God's blessing. You might be dead when it happens,
but all your mansion's going to be bigger, and your
crown's going to be swankier, and you'll have more diamonds
in it. And why the hell do we care about
diamonds and crowns and material mansions and shit in a
place when it's not supposed to matter at all. Someone
explain this to me. I'm sorry, God says, sell all
your shit, give it to the poor, and follow me.
And now my reward is a mansion and gold crown
and streets of gold and pearly gates. These are all
monetary things. It's just so bizarre. Anyway, I'm stuck in
the airport and they're bouncing us around from gate to gate.
This was Phoenix Secular Day. I was giving a speech
and I just released the presentation about Jefferson's Jesus. I
was in Phoenix, Arizona, and we had a delayed flight
concourse A on my Layo were in Dallas coming home,
and they were like, Okay, we've got a mechanical problem
and we need you if you want to go to
this other concourse to get an alternative flight. So we're
all rushing, and you've seen Dallas. They've got these trams
that connect concourses ABCD and E and you're waiting to
get on the tram and all of a sudden, the
announcer comes on. This train is arriving. Please do not
block the doors, allow people to exit. And you know
what people did. A horde of people crushed themselves in
front of the door like a brick wall. Explain this
to me. They just heard the voice clear as a
bell say please do not block the doors, and then
they just go in. And then there were tons of
people trying to get off, and they're bumping elbows and
shouldering into each other and excuse me, excuse me, excuse me.
Someone explained this to me. Is it that it's a
public that is in a state of constant distraction? Is
it self interest? I don't give a shit. Like they're
so shortsighted. They think I have to get on, so
I'm going to move forward, not I will actually get
on the tram faster if I allow others to exit first.
And I think this may be a little microcosm of
how people think in life, whether it's doze or anything
else that's going on. We tend to on the front
end think, well, if I do this, I will benefit
Screw everybody else. My interests come first, not realizing that
if we act in the interests of all and we
are all maneuvering, that everybody will actually get there faster
and be more comfortable. It's like when you and I
are on the highway and you're coming up to I
don't know, an exit ramp and on ramp some sort
of a traffic circle or something, and there are people
who are merging. Eighty eighty five percent of the people say, Okay,
we have people who are entering the highway at highway speeds.
I'm going to space myself out and everybody who wants
to slide in can do so easily. This to me
makes sense. Everybody wins. Nobody has to slam on the
brakes until somebody decides, hey, I'm going to game this system,
and they jack their car right down the side lane
or even on the shoulder and then try to nose
themselves in at the front of the line so they
can get to work twelve seconds sooner, and everybody else
has to slam on the brakes and now you've got
stop start to rush hour traffic. But if this person
had just merged alongside everybody else with a little bit
of foresight and some consideration, we all would win. We
all would win, you know what I'm saying. And I
wasn't trying to overthink it, you know, Seth Andrews, airport philosopher, Right,
I was trying to overthink it. But I'm just shocked
by how people don't understand that when they act in
the interest of all, they win. Right, when you act
in the interest of all, we all win. But that
doesn't seem to be the culture that we live in. Well,
let me back up. Let's say that we are divided.
We have a dividing line. There are people who are
more interested in the all, and there are then a
bunch of people who are interested in only themselves, and
there's a clash of cultures. I find it just hugely
ironic that we are named the United States of America.
It's time for a name change. Can you think of
a less United Country. Whenever we talk about the United States,
I'm like, who the hell are they talking about? We
are almost right down the middle, divided on all of
the major issues that come to bear. What are we
united about? I can't even name something. Well, we maybe
agree that we were born here. We've got a social
Security number for now, I don't know. I've been thinking
about human nature and our frustrations. George Darlin used to
talk a lot about humans working against their own interests.
You know, the humans working against their own interests. We
do it all the time. Anyway, if you want to
dial in and talk about something, the numbers are in
the show notes the description box of the broadcast. If
you do with super Chat, I would be honored to
get your supports. It does make a difference, especially knowing
that at any moment, the Trump administration is going to
declare war and the oligarchs are going to decide that
any anti Christian quote unquote bias will immediately be demonetized.
And I look forward to that day. Right, Seth Andrews
is an enemy of God, Let's demonetize everything he does.
What else was I? Oh, forgive me, but I got
to talk about Elon I know I've done a show recently.
We've talked a lot about Elon Musk, but he's unavoidable.
I was talking to and I have been attempting to
engage people who voted for Trump. I go back and
forth on one side. I've written them off, and then
occasionally I come back and I'm like, no, I am
going to plead my case. I'm going to make them
aware that there are pieces of information that are not
disinformation being disseminated by Fox News, Newsmax and right wing radio.
I want to expose them. You know, what was the
statistic that I wrote about in Fox News Christian that
of twenty sixteen to forty percent of Trump voters in
his first election got their news only from one source,
Fox News, forty percent. They were absolutely locked in a
disinformation silo. We do not share the same reality. And
so I thought, well, I feel a responsibility to introduce
people to things that they are not seeing, you know,
that are not being shared on Fox and Friends and
it it's exhausted eggxhausted. Then I kept trying to flip
the script and show a scenario where they would be
outraged if things were happening on the other side. Of
the aisle. So if Joe Biden had appointed another billionaire,
call it Bill Gates, Mark Cuban, somebody like that, right,
and said, Okay, I'm going to give you in a
handful of largely unknown college kids, many of whom have
racist posts, you know, who have a history of tremendously
problematic behavior. Some are still teenagers. I'm going to give
Mark Cuban and his teenagers complete nonfettered access to six
trillion dollars in US treasury, Medicaid, social Security, and AI,
which is not This is not like honed technology and
can tell that whenever we Google search something and it
gives us the AI synopsis, often the AI gets it wrong.
These are situations that are nuanced and require as much
as possible a human touch. But let's say that Biden
had put Mark Cuban and his college people into an
organization that was not a real organization, and they gave
them the power to cut Medicaid and potentially limit or
eliminate your social security. What if they were eliminating your job.
In fact, the person that was speaking to their parent
was a retiree from a government job. What if your
dad went in and all of a sudden they said, oh,
you failed your five bullet point email by after thirty
years observing the state by have a nice day, and
all of a sudden he was scrambling to try to
figure out how he's going to feed his family and
pay the mortgage and everything else. How would you feel
about that kind of unfettered, unchecked power? And I swear
to you it was just a fucking just blank Well,
what about what about? What about? What about a deflection?
How would you feel if Biden posted a photo of
him a portrait of himself in a crown and called
himself king? How would you feel about that? Well? Yeah,
how would you feel if Biden had done this or
this or this or this? We talked about Ukraine? Why
do you think Trump has not once, not once, admitted
that Russia is the aggressor? What's that about? Well, you know,
he wanted to make a deal. He's such a good
deal maker. All right, hang on, let's not talk about
the deal, all right, which is essentially, hey, what are
you going to do for me before I engage in
helping babies to not be bombed by an aggressor who
was invading a sovereign country? Okay, let's let's just go
back to why do you think Trump won't say the
words that Russia is the aggressor invading a sovereign country.
I swear to you it was maddening. By the end
of ninety minutes, I needed Gatorade and a long sleep.
I was exhausted. And then I had this conversation like,
do I continue I was talking about I was talking
about Elon musk As I finally bring it back to
the point I was making. I'm sorry, this is why
it's a tangent. Forgive me. I don't know if you
enjoyed the tangents or not, but I'm all over the place. Okay,
So I'm trying to think of another multi billion dollar company,
any multi billion dollar company where the CEO could disappear,
maybe just leave, go do other shit, do not c
salutes and then joke about them at the highest levels
of exposure, and devalue the stock of the company by half.
What CEO of any other company would be able to
do that and not immediately find emergency meetings of the
board and the stockholders to say, what the hell you're
out of here. Tesla is a company with one hundred
and twenty five thousand employees, by the way, and I
have to say this, and I should say this. I
think the protests against Tesla owners are grieved and they're pissed. Right.
It used to be fun to drive a Tesla. It
used to feel good to be able to have this.
Evs are fun. I think that the three in the
Y and even the s are well made cars. I
know people like to say they're not they're popular. People
enjoy driving them. The cyber trucks to hold another conversation.
But you know, if people are selling their Tesla's and
giving them the fingers they as the truck drives off
with it on the flatbed, wonderful that is. That's an
act of protest. That's a liberation exercise. If you protest
outside of a Tesla dealership, or if you're showing up
at a public forum and you are protesting Elon Musk,
if you are posting all of these things on social media,
if you are speaking out and you are outraged and
you are part of a resistance movement, this is not hey,
this is protected free speech. And I just honestly think
this is a free society working as it should. But
I do totally reject the folence against dealerships and against
Tesla vehicles with people come out and their swastik is painted.
I know that in the meme verse this is totally
a cheap shot. Everybody's like, yeah, men, look at that.
Nazis gets you asked y And I know that we
like to make We can make fun of cyber truck
and owners, knock yourself out, But once we get into
physical destruction, setting shit on fire, smashing glass, vandalism, this
is not the solution to the problem. It only gives
ammo to the opposition, and honestly, it's it's beneath us.
There were other ways. We have to be the adults
in the room, and I do not buy this. Well,
sometimes you got to break the omelet to make the egg.
I don't buy that. We are not at that point,
and vandalizing people's cars makes it. It honestly is one
of the worst things that we can do. There were
other ways to protest, and we should. And I think
that one hundred and twenty five thousand people who work
for Tesla, you know a massive percent of those people
are pissed, like what the what right? Maybe they loved
their jobs, Maybe they love their coworkers. Maybe they've enjoyed
being with test. You know, they were there when it
was the I mean, at some point recently it was
the most popular sedan. I think the three was the
most popular and most sold sedan, at least in the
United States. It was ranked the number one ev sedan
by I think was it Car and Driver.
Speaker 4: Or ED.
Speaker 3: It was one of the major car publications. And they're like, yeah,
it feels good, right And wait, did I say break
the omelet to make the egg? I'm sorry, break the
egg to make the omelet. Sorry, I had an inversion
in my brain. I short circuited. Sometimes you got to
break the egg to make the omelet. Thank you for
correcting me. This is what you get when you do
an impromptu live stream in front of skeptics. They will
find the flaws and they will come back and all right,
some oftimes break the egg, okay, But setting people's test list,
going and committing these acts of lawlessness, it's no, no,
that's not how we fix the world. Okay. But I
do know that people working for Tesla, I know the
shareholders have got that. I mean, can you imagine losing
fifty percent of the value of your shares in Tesla
because the CEO is doing Nazi shit and being generally
toxic and heading up an assault on democracy and decency.
Of course you would be horrified. So you've lost what
fifty percent of the value. Well, now's not the time
to sell. The shareholder meeting for Tesla, I believe is
coming up in June. But I'm sitting back thinking, Okay, okay.
Bord of Directors watches this guy and he's running around
in his Hollywood sunglasses wheeling a chainsaw. You know he's
he's bringing in college kids with nicknames like big Balls
to decide what happens to our financial future. He insults
an astronaut. I'm sorry, sorry, an astronaut. If there is
a more fireman and astronauts probably the most beloved American icons.
You're going after, an astronaut, You're going after scientists and
social service workers. And you piss off the world. And
you know you support the guy who wants to declare
financial war and maybe eventually physical war on fucking Canada.
I'm sorry Canada. You want to conquest of Canada? Yeah,
And then you watch the entire value of the company
that you've invested in, go board of directors. Where the
hell are they? The chairman of that board, I forget
her name off the top of my head. She is
worth five or six hundred million dollars. Oh, there's some
incentive to shut your hole, musk. Musk culture has been
pretty lucraid. But even then, I mean, where the why
are there not emergency board meetings happening right now? I
me you, I don't hear anything about him? Hello, danger,
damage control problem. There are finally calls by some people
to say he needs to get out of there, But
the shareholders meet in June. I would think, how about
an emergency shareholders conference. I think it's worth that. Hey,
you know what instead of June, I'm thinking early April,
damage control. Hello, and Donald Trump called EV's lunacy. This
was just last year. So before he's turning the White
House lawn into a Tesla showroom. You know, come get
your Tesla Sunday, Sunday Sunday. Anyone think Donald Trump knows
how to drive a freaking car let alone? I'm sorry,
So he said promoting electric vehicles was the idea of
the radical left, fascists, Marxists, and communists. I'm sorry. And
now all of a sudden, he just flips the script
and he's like, Tesla, Yay. Why aren't these people who
are in Tesla freaking out? Is it fear that they'll
be docked? I think someone said that somewhere someone published
the personal information including the addresses of was it Tesla
owners or Tesla shareholders? Jesus Christ, that's not the answer,
because many people who are involved with the company have
seen it as a company and they're scrambling to figure
out how to stop the bleeding and get this asshole
out of power to begin with. These people are not
your enemy, right. It just irritates me those people who
think that the Left doesn't have its share of extremists
to do unproductive things who can't be emotional bags of
you know, skeleton or meat covered skeletons. I think it's
what we let. We're all primate's emotional primates. Those people
who think the Left doesn't have a faction of people
that go from healthy reaction to overreaction have no idea
what they're talking about. This is human nature, and I
think we have to call out unproductive and untoward and
even illegal behavior whenever we see it. I know that's
a nuanced position. On the internet. The binary thinkers are
going to reject that wholesale take a number. I don't
give a shit it's wrong, but I do have to wonder,
you know, why aren't we seeing an active move in
the immediate by the board and the shareholders. I think
the shareholders are probably a little hamstrung. But at least
the Board of directors, right, I mean, they hold his
destiny in their hands. He's a majority shareholder, but what
does he have? Fifteen percent, seventeen percent shares and he's
still at the mercy, he's still on paper. At least
is accountable to the board. John Irving had this great
quote in Cider House Rules. He said, being afraid that
you will look like a coward is the worst reason
for doing anything, and I will include not doing anything
in that. You know, is that what leadership is? Is
that what leadership is? Get out of your chairs or
go down with the cyber trucks. Did you read that
there was a recall? Now like forty something thousand cyber
trucks are being recalled because one of the panels that
is glued on that shit's just flying off in traffic. Literally,
Oh look, flying guillotine just gave a speech at Florida
three thought about the deference to authority figures. It is
amazing how people will surren under all of their power,
all of their decision making away to someone who promises
them the moon. I'll fix it, i'll make it right,
i'll protect you, I'll make you rich. And they go yay,
and then they just wink out and say, here's everything.
Speaker 1: Take it.
Speaker 3: Take my voice, take my vote, take my social Security number,
take my future, Take all the decisions, take all the responsibility.
I totally trust you. Congratulations, you have now told the
story of every authoritarian in history. I will save you. You know,
we're a culture that loves save your figures. Someone else
just to handle it. I'm busy. I'm raising kids and
doing my job, and I got shit to take care
of and responsibilities. Who's got time for all this. I'm
going to find somebody who looks and sounds impressive to me,
and I'm just going to give them the keys to
the whole thing. Here you go, here, you go, knock
your stuff out, and then you come back, you know
a few months later, and you're like, hey, where's democracy.
I knew I put it around here, somewhere check under
the couch. Now I don't see democracy there. Maybe I
left it in the garage. Still to come. We have
you and your calls. Well, go to the phones right
after this. Thank you so much for being here. I
hope you are hanging in there. We are talking about
whatever it is that is on your mind today. As
we take our first call, Michael is calling in from
three one five. Michael, are you there?
Speaker 4: I am, How are you set?
Speaker 3: I'm well, thanks for calling. Let's chat. What's on your mind?
Speaker 4: Well, I saw some data over the weekend that, you know,
looking at all the social media channels and the podcasts
and the videos and the TV channels, and how much
of that just by volume is right leaning information. So
you know, I know you're on wacky scheduled and stuff.
But first I just wanted to say, you know, thank
you for trying to pop in when you can and
get your voice out there and that, oh you know,
that is important stuff. So thank you.
Speaker 3: That's appreciated. Forgive me here. I'm sniffling its allergy season.
And I was also just in a series of airplanes
which are Petrie dishes. In fact, you know what I
need to make a note put hang on put in
ninety five mask in carry on. I'm serious. I meant
to do that last time. I was on a when
I was going to Orlando. Half the plane was going
to Disney, and all it was was just kids coughing,
and I thought to myself, Oh my god, this is
a Petrie dish and ninety five mask. Okay, thanks for
the reminder, go ahead, what else was on your mind?
Speaker 4: I was on a zoom call with my representative recently
and there were about twenty thousand people that he said,
dialed in and everyone's very upset. And one of the
things he said was, hey, you know, we in Congress
said fully recognize that what this administration is doing is illegal,
he said, but unfortunately a lot of our constituents don't
see it that way. And that to me is a
real sticking point here. And I don't have the historical
context to look at how other big issues have been
handled in the history of our country. But I mean,
have we ever been this far? You were just talking
about this divide where we are literally looking at what is,
on its face, unlawful conduct, and so many people saying
it seems fine to me. I don't see an issue here.
Speaker 5: How do you navigate that.
Speaker 3: I follow the work of American historian Heather Conx Richardson,
and she talks about the cultural divide and the essentially
white slavers that were dominating the culture in the mid
eighteen hundreds. And you talk about a divide, you know,
we're talking pre Civil War and during the Civil War
United States, when we literally carried out violence on each
other to solve the conflict, you know, and it was
messy and it was awful, it was horrible, and it
was bloody and all those types of things. And her
take is, you know, we have in a few ways
been here before, but it was after the people rose
up and then Lincoln was elected and we began to
re establish a democracy and a government for the people,
by the people of the people, et cetera. And so
she's like, stay vigilant because if our history shows us anything,
it shows us that while there are times of great
division and the oligarchs and the authoritarians do come in
and screw things up, historically we do see uprisings and
we do see people come back and an often very
very difficult course correction. And so I do think we've
been divided. I think all you have to do is
go back to the Civil War time and the divide
on whether or not people of color were human beings.
And but what's happening is admittedly historic, and I think
we have to keep kicking for what it's worth. Okay, yeah, I.
Speaker 4: Completely agree with you.
Speaker 6: You know, I was similarly looking at some content about,
you know, how how dictators and fasciats typically lose power
and it's never that they go, Okay, I'm out to
see you guys later and they leave right. So, like, yes,
we have been here before, but track record is not
good for what happens next.
Speaker 3: I think I think, you know, they executed Mussolini. I
think about all the other ones that were, you know,
thrown out in disgrace. I mean, it's to storm. The
vast Deal was not exactly a pleasant moment in the
history of France, but it was it was a revolt
of the people who had had enough. I don't know
if that's coming, but I'll tell you this. If Trump
starts ignoring or continues to begin ignoring and blasting and
marginalizing judges and the judiciary, essentially the last check against
him since the Congress has compromised, then what other recourse
do you have if he's weaponized law enforcement, he supposedly
has the military at his disposal. I'm trying to think
if the military will actually follow in a moral order,
or if the general's will rebolt against him. But if
that's the case and then he ignores the courts, I
wonder if there's any other recourse, if there will have
to be some kind of nasty uprising, what will that
look like? So what is that line that Martin Luther
King Junior used, Riots are the language of the unheard,
I believe is what he said. It's something to watch, Michael,
good question.
Speaker 4: Ever the first step? Yeah, like, you know, I heard
what you're saying about. You know, we don't condone violence
against you know, or destruction of property.
Speaker 7: And thing like that.
Speaker 8: I think the the.
Speaker 4: Frustration is we've been very vocal through normal means for
a long time, and it doesn't seem like that is
making a dent. And so there's part of me that thinks, well,
you know, nobody wants this, but I don't know that
it's avoidable if the other methods aren't yielded with any improvements.
Speaker 5: Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: You and I are in the same boat. I feel
like part of me wants to take a lawn chair
to a high perch and just you know, get a
mye tie and some sunglasses to witness the end of
Western civilization. But I refuse to give up all hope
and I hope you feel the same. Michael, thanks for
calling my friend.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, thank you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, see you later. Diana at seven six zero, Hi,
are you there? Yes, Hello, welcome. What's on your mind?
Speaker 8: Yeah, real quick, I'm going to just get an opinion.
In my opinion, doose is creating an apart time in
the United States, the oligarts and the poor. It just
really bothers me. The dismantling of the government, the firing
of hard working people and the important work that they do,
is very disheartening. These organizations, regardless of people have heard
of them or not, have always been doing work for
the people.
Speaker 9: Whether it's USA ID or the Department of.
Speaker 8: Education or FEMA, all these organizations work for the people,
the consumer protection people.
Speaker 10: They're working for the.
Speaker 8: People, and by dismantling them takes away the power of
the people, every day ordinary citizens.
Speaker 3: That's about it, and that's plenty. Diana. Thanks for sharing
your voice. Appreciate you, thank you for your Timebye, Dear America.
An unelected South African who immigrated here illegally, he skipped
his student visa and just stayed is now essentially arguably
the most powerful person in the country, and he has
a stranglehold over your financial future. And they're like, yay, oh,
here's one of my favorites. Some of the people. There
are some who are Trump voters who are starting to
feel the pain and now they're reversing course. I'm mixed
on that. You know, part of me. If someone wakes
out of a cult legitimately, I definitely want to be
there for them. If somebody simply said, oh shit, I
never thought somebody would ruin my life. I have not
much sympathy for them. But you know, the idea that
a South African oligarch is holding their future hostage, they
seem okay with. And then there are some people who
when they lose their jobs and they up on the
bubble considering they consider it their patriotic duty. I lost
my job, but you know this is we're we have
to bite the bullet if we're going to fix America.
So I'm here to serve. What's that line from Starship
Troopers in all the propaganda commercials that they used to
I'm doing my part. Yeah, I'm doing my part. I
got fired for America. I'm doing my part. I have
a web call no name given? Wait is it? Selouf?
Celof helped me out.
Speaker 11: Yeah, hello, I'm Selouf.
Speaker 3: Welcome, I sure can. What's on your mind?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 11: Well, you know the world in flames, but also cats,
So take your pick. What do you want to talk about.
I'm glad to either give you someone to talk to
about with the politics, maybe an outside perspective because I
live in Sweden and so I'm part of like the
rest of the world that's just watching on in horror.
But I also have lovely cats, one of whom just
jumped up to greet me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, let me show everybody. You can see it. It's
it's healed up a little bit, but I have a
probably a three inch scar here from cat. Yesterday he
was sleeping on my chest and he was like, and
then there was we had super high winds and something
must have blown over outside and it freaked him out
from a dead sleep, and he jumped up and scrambled
away and just scratched the hell out of my arms.
I'm sitting here, you know, bleeding going, Thanks Kittie. So no,
all right in a nutshell, what's your perspective from overseas?
What do you think about what you see?
Speaker 11: Well, there's the watching on in horror as a bunch
of fascist neo Nazis takeover and just seeing you know,
Germany leading up to World War two happening all over again,
but in slightly different order. And the poem of you know,
first came for the insert group here, and I didn't
say anything because I'm not part of that group. Then
they came for et cetera. You know the poem. Yes,
I'm just it's running through my head almost every day.
But it's like different groups. Is so like it's it's
trans people and government officials and you know, and so
it's very much like first they came for the government officials,
and I said nothing because I wasn't the government official,
et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 3: Sure, well, I think one of the fallacies is that
people are saying government should be run like a business,
And businesses are pretty much for profit, right, But governments
are there to provide structure, safety, and service to societies.
And these are two different entities, and it's also front loaded.
If somebody goes through with the machety and says, yay,
we saved a few billion dollars by cutting all of
these service workers, they have not necessarily taken into account
how much it's going to cost us in terms of
dollars and human suffering when those services are gone, and
those costs are often so much greater. It's very myopic,
and I think it's the business model is the wrong
one to take when it comes to government. You agree
with that, I hear absolutely.
Speaker 11: I honestly, America, like generally around the world, but especially
in America, there's too much money in politics. I believe
it was in the UK when they're like doing their
campaigns or whatever, they have a cap on how much
they're allowed to spend on their campaigns, whereas in America
it's like you need at least above that cap to
even get off the ground.
Speaker 3: Well, any final thoughts before I move on? Anything else
you want to share?
Speaker 12: Oh?
Speaker 11: There was something? Well was that? It slipped my mind now,
But I'm sending you lots of well wishes and cat
purs kitten in my arms right now and purring her
little hair.
Speaker 3: What's your cat's name.
Speaker 11: Well, this one that I'm cuddling right now, her name
is Louis, which is a Germanic version of Lewis, but
I like it because it also has layers of meaning
to it in Swedish because she's very fluffy, like a lynx,
and the lynx in Swedish is called louy, so you
got the lou there, and wisdom to be wise in
Swedish is called v's doom or at mani vs. So
I like to think of her name as a bit
of a portmanteau of like a wise lynx. Her sister's
name is Comet because she's mostly black but has orange
flex on her, including one spray of orange going from
her nose up onto her forehead like a comet.
Speaker 3: What's your name?
Speaker 11: The third one's name is Flida, and she's like all
three colors.
Speaker 3: All right, all right, Well, thanks for Colin. I appreciate
you very much.
Speaker 11: Take it easy, mind your blood pressure, okay.
Speaker 3: Uh, Katie, I'm so frustrated because the Dams won't stand
up and fight. Biden was too busy looking like a
nice guy to be effective. Well, Katie and I agree
right now that the Democratic Party I mean, not get
hurting cats, I get your independent thinkers, but Jesus Christ.
Outside of a few frontline activists Jamie Raskin AOC, Elizabeth
Warren's been out there, some others, a few others, largely,
where the where are the Democrats? Why why are they
not having emergency meetings and putting together a unified, full
front effort to resist. Where are the public gatherings? Where
is the unified official statement?
Speaker 5: You know?
Speaker 3: Where? Where is the necessary reaction? I swear to you,
it's so freaking frustrating right now to get somebody who
is really sounding the alarm and getting his voice out there.
We got to go to Bernie Sanders, right, We got
well what's that about? And there's a lot about Bernie
I really like, I appreciate, I really think the guy is.
I think he cares and he's one of a great communicator, Yeah,
great communicator, and I think he speaks a lot of
truth about the stuff that's going on. But I'm frustrated
with the Democrats. Jesus get organized. They're having a conversation
in the chat about why we should have voted third
party and we wouldn't be in this mess or whatever,
and that's just bullshit. Breaking third party and non participants
are part of the reason we're in this mess right now,
Pie in the sky third party and they're like, well,
as long as we participate in the system, we're enabling
the system. So this is a protest vote. You know,
in a perfect world and great freaking house is on fire,
you know what I'm saying, The perfect is the enemy
of the good. I would take a flawed democracy in
a country in massive debt with a lot of you know,
I would take what we had over what we have.
I mean, it's no contest. I would take somebody who
was promoting egalitarian values, who wants to tax the billionaires,
who wants to give tax breaks to students, you know,
loan forgiveness, protecting LGBT people, gay marriage, trans people. You know,
who wants to somebody who runs on a platform like that.
It's not even close, okay. And other people are like, oh, well,
they're the same as the guy who wants to ignore
the entire judiciary enable the oligarchs, makes quillions of dollars
while selling five hundred dollars golden tennis shoes on his
own website, and declare war on Canada. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
What on what zana do do you live on? What
planet do you live where you look at this and
say it's remotely equal? Oh, San's just mart of the problem.
He's deluded. The Democrats are bandy, nimmy pumblica, and we
can do no no, no illusions. Was it Noah went
off on the the third party and the non participants.
I don't want to throw them out there unless but
I think it was Noah, And I was like, yeah,
if anyone can rant about this shit, it's no illusions
of the scathing atheist. He can throw down verbally better
than most. I'm just Shayan seven five seven Alan High,
thanks for Collin.
Speaker 5: Hey, how you doing today?
Speaker 3: I'm well, what's on your mind? Is it just me?
Speaker 9: Because I mean, it seems like every time I turn around,
it's like right there in front of us, every person
that speaks for Trump, especially, it seems like the females
just this big cross on their chest and it's like Halo,
and it just seems like we're just watching this Christian
nationalist movement just catch Greece and just movete What about
females and not necessarily the females. I just noticed it
with the two like the Press Secretary and hits the
Department of Justice person.
Speaker 13: It seems like.
Speaker 9: Every time they're on big old Cross, it's just standing
out there and it's just a big reminder that you know,
we're taking over.
Speaker 3: Well a type of I'm seeing it's across the board.
The sicko fans are across the board. I've actually seen
more males than females. I mean, whether it's Ruby or
you know, any of those cats, Mike Johnson, all the
Republican governors, my own governor Stitts. He's got his head
so far up Trump's ass he could probably see if
he has cavities. So yeah, I mean there are people
Linda McMahon and over at Education and the Press Secretary.
I get what you're saying. I don't think this is
a gender thing, but I understand the frustration that these people.
There are many people that are waving the Cross of
Christ while they are essentially doing the worst shit in
the universe. So you and I are both watching that
for sure.
Speaker 1: Okay, I guess I just you know, I meant when
I see because I guess the mom of males can't
necessarily post a big wear of the cross chain around
their necklace, you know, and show it like the female,
so you see it more predominant the females. And I
guess what I'm saying, but oh absolutely, I mean we're changing.
We have Mark Rubio who just can change what he
says about Ukraine. And it's a scary time. I mean,
you know, I actually caught flag the other day. I
have a flag in my front yard that's half the
United States flag and half the Ukraine flag, and I've
had it for a while, and you know, it's weird
how all of a sudden now it's a political view
and it's just where the hell have we gone to?
It's from one extreme to another. It's like they're still
mad about Obama or something. I have no idea what the.
Speaker 7: Hell is going on?
Speaker 3: Well, okay, it.
Speaker 9: Seems like everyone around me is.
Speaker 5: I know, I just went on.
Speaker 6: But.
Speaker 9: Pretty much explains how I feel about it.
Speaker 3: It's funny, as somebody posted that when I see somebody
waving an American flag or hanging an American flag off
of the house or a vehicle, I start to expect
the worst. And I hate that, you know, I hate
to think, oh, well, there's maga right, But that's kind
of they've weaponized the flag to the point where that's
the first assumption that you make. And so I definitely
have seen that, Alan, And thanks for venting, and you
hang in there out there.
Speaker 5: Okay, Oh, I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: All right, We'll see you later. I'd like to see
an adjustment and perception on that, the idea that women
are wearing the jewelry with crosses, and so we were
seeing it outwardly displayed more my females. It rings sexist
to me. That may not be how he meant it,
but I mean we are seeing cross emblems, cross tattoos,
cross shirts, language about the cross that is being literally
held forward as people across the spectrum are moving forward
for the interest of dictatorial power and or Christian nationalism
trump Ism Project twenty twenty five. It's not a gender thing,
and I don't think it's being broadcast as such. Let's
talk about Canada with a guy named Bill seven eight
zero high. Are you there?
Speaker 7: Hey?
Speaker 5: That's how things well.
Speaker 3: Democracy is on fire and I may need asylum when
I come to Canada. I'm going to Alberta in the summer.
But other than that, things are just peachy. What's on
your mind.
Speaker 5: First off, I'm glad you're coming down. I'm coming up
to Calgary. I'm up in Edmonton myself, just north of
so my perspective on this all that you can give
a quick history here in Canada. I grew up with
somebody whose parents were born during the war. My teachers
were people who fought during the war, one of whom
was a victim of interment. I spent my life as
a construction worker building the plants they provide the American oil.
I've worked with a lot of Americans. There is, unfortunately
a inborn arrogance that comes with America because it's America first.
America is great, America has done all these things. America
has saved everybody, YadA YadA. I understand where it comes from, etcetera,
et cetera. But my teachers it also taught me that
be ready, they're coming. They will come for us at
some point in time. And I'm watching this happen now.
In some ways, Trump was the greatest thing that happened to
Canada because he exposed the right wing for it was.
But it was the Nazis that I've betrayed you people
like they they're pointing out groups of people saying they're
the problem. They're the problem, and nobody wants to put
two and two together. Glad you guys are doing it
now yourself, you know, Aaron. It's good to see. But
up here in Canada, a lot of us has expected
this for a while, the anti American sentiments. It's not
that we don't like Americans as individuals. I love you, dude,
I've bought your books. I hope I can come down
to Calgary and see. I'll have to see all my
finances work. But we sit up here sometimes and we
listen to people who come up, especially in the oil industry.
They come up here and they tell us, oh, yeah,
we've come up here to help you because you don't
know what you're doing. I have a Journeyman ticket in
my pocket, this rank around the world. I have a
red seal, which means I can work anywhere in Canada
and it's a respected across the globe. But as far
as the whole situation gets bad up here for you guys,
I mean we have rallied. Now. There is stuff on
the shelves. You can buy Reese's pieces two for one.
You could buy all kinds of stuff made in America.
It is on sale. There is no lettuce at my
local grocery store because it was all American. It's wild
up here. You'll get a chance when you come up
to see some of it if you really want. But well,
if the Americans did invade, we're scared of it.
Speaker 3: Looks when I come up, I'm a little worried that
when I crossed the border, Canadians are going to kick
my ass because I'm American, like they're not. They understand
there is a resistance movement here right there. Canadians aren't
blanket blaming all of us, I.
Speaker 5: Hope not all of you. But the problem is that
that the versus the individual, you know what I mean? Yeah,
And I don't know what it is. We have a
group up here that thinks Trump, Olivier or Paul yev
are the greatest people going. And our premier is just
like your governor. She's holding his hand as far as
I'm concerned, and it just terrifies me. Yeah, anyway, brother,
you'd be safe when you get up here. Hopefully I
can get down there and perhaps we will have a
chance to have a beer.
Speaker 3: All right, Dave, take care. We'll see you later. American
exceptionalism is thankfully dead, Alexis says came about from US
patting themselves on the bank for entering World War Two
at the eleventh hour, fifty ninth minute. I don't know
if that was that late in the game, no, but
it certainly did take Pearl Harbor to activate US. American
exceptionalism is such an emotional thing. Number one is a
home team, sort of a cheerleader. I mean, it's so thoughtless.
We decided in this country that it's true by declaration,
mostly because we didn't understand. Like when I was growing
up in a Christian nationalist environment, one nation under God,
we always thought we were the best in the first
but we didn't know anything about the rest of the world.
Natalie got into a and it wasn't an argument, but
it was close with a maga in her relative circle,
and she was like, well, what about this, and what
about the EU? And what about our allies who are
now locking us out of human rights discussions? And what
about what about And he just set it out right,
I don't care about the rest of the world. I
only care about America. Well, that's bred into people, I mean,
beyond the fact that it's you know, tribalism, which is
something we often see throughout the animal kingdom. You will
see family and groups in grouping outgrouping, social tribes and
tribal favoritism, tribal bias.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 3: Some of that is evolutionary, but a lot of it
stems from just ignorance. We don't know anything about the
rest of the world, and we don't want to know.
We don't care. So another country has a better cost
of living, We're still number one. Another country is more peaceful,
less warlike. We're still number one. Another country has a
lower crime rate. We're still number one. It doesn't make
any difference what the metrics say. Somehow we freedom better
than other people freedom. Our freedom is more freedomy. It's
just sad. And then we become myopic.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 3: I opened up my world when I began to see
myself as a citizen of the planet, and I was
reminded that the borders in this world were drawn subjectively
by people with their own agendas. Somebody somewhere partitioned out
this piece of land, and somehow the person standing four
feet on the other the side of that dotted line,
they're less and they're less important. Maybe even they're less human.
You see it in that context, it really does, I
don't know, it really does open things up. Five one three.
I don't see a name. What do I call you?
Speaker 12: Yeah, my name is Jim, Hi, Jim.
Speaker 3: Appreciate you waiting on me. What's on your mind today?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 12: Well, first off, I just wanted to thank you personally
for giving those of us that don't have a platform
or voice, let's speak for us, and that we all
agree with or at least for the most part. I'm
LGBTQ in Cincinnati. I live My father lives with me.
He's like ninety three and hardcore Republicans ever since he
was born. I guess most of my family's very religious,
but I got one brother in particular, he's, you know,
a little thicker than the others. I think I'm just
mad at all of them for not taking my side
at all, for looking at it and thinking, you know,
I don't count enough to cast a vote in a
different directions. And another part of it is that I'm
angry at the ones that didn't even bother to vote,
who were registered. You know, I don't think anybody's talking
enough about that. There were people that didn't bother to
participate who are perfectly able to. And I just want
to pack my things and leave. And that's kind of
on my itineraries to get out of here as fast
as I can. But I'm waiting, you know, think for
better opportunities, and it's not always easy. You can't just
pack your bags and go.
Speaker 3: I just looked it up on US News and World Report.
More than one hundred and fifty million Americans did not
go and cast a vote in twenty twenty four. It
blows my mind.
Speaker 12: It's crazy.
Speaker 3: I understand how you feel invalidated if members of my
family vote for a dictator. I want to be king
aligned with Christian nationalists favoring a single religion in contrast
to the intent of the founding and propagating harm to
the causes and people I care about, and I know
they voted for that. I feel personally betrayed. That's how
you feel, right, yeah, yeah, And then like builds up, right,
you feel resentful. How dare you? How could you? Don't
you understand? And then you feel totally invalidated, and you
don't want to spend time in their company because they've
they're no longer on your side.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 12: Absolutely, it's it's if you're not with me, you're against
me at this point.
Speaker 3: So do you have a connection or have you distanced yourselves?
I know we and our family have distanced ourselves. We
just we just like you know how.
Speaker 9: I haven't to.
Speaker 12: It hasn't been too difficult to distance myself. But you know,
I'm taking care of my dad, which is you know,
there's no one else the wonderful Christians that they are here,
I am taking care of them.
Speaker 3: Well, left it up to the atheist to go in
and wow, yeah exactly.
Speaker 12: But that's really all I wanted to say. You know,
I just I know I'm not the only one, but
I just don't hear people talking about it, you know,
the ones that didn't even bother and it kills me.
Speaker 3: Okay, well, let me chew you on that for a second.
The problem is, you know, people say stuff and then
my little pea brain starts to you know, activate, and
then I say something that may be intelligent or really stupid.
Let's find out next. But I appreciate your call. Thanks
so much for being a Thanks so much for being.
Speaker 12: A part of this my call. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: All right, We'll see you later. So what countries have
mandated voting, where if you're a citizen, you were required
by law to cast to vote. And I've had this conversation,
should we mandate voting? If you're going to be a
citizen of this country, you have a responsibility. And I
become two people. One person says, damn skippy, if you
are a citizen, get your ass out and vote. And
then I flip and I say, the epidemic of disinformation, ignorance,
and bigotry in this country. Do I really want the
people who were opting out in the first place to
go in and lend their voice? Are they Are these
the votes that we really wish to count in a
culture where people doubt basic science. They might think the
Earth is flat or that we didn't land on the moon,
you know, the Joe Roganites, Do we really want them
to be like, yeah, man, I guess I gotta go vote. Now,
where's the polling place? Hopefully GPS will get me there. Yeah,
I don't know where I'm going. People who sit around
all day and get their information about the world from Newsmax,
dot Freedom, dot Egle, dot Trump, Dotmerica dot com. Do
I really want those people casting a vote. I mean,
I guess that's the dark side of the democratic process.
Everybody has a voice. The good side is everybody has
a voice. The bad side is everybody's got a voice.
It's terrifying. So I go back and forth. Mandated voting, Yes,
you have a responsibility, and then the other side is,
oh my god, do I really want these people participating?
Do they get to sit at the adult table or
should we put them out over there? There's the little
card table with the plastic kiddy chairs of multiple colors.
Will give you clay and crayons, will give you amusements.
And then whenever we are done having the adult discussion
and making adult decisions, then we'll everybody in the minivan
and will go someplace happy. I don't know. I don't know.
Do you think we should have mandatory voting? I don't know.
I'm two people, two people, much more conversation to be had,
and we will continue right after this. Thanks for your
support on Patreon, you get the show early and commercial free.
Most people just support because they want to support the show,
and you can as well Patreon dot com. Slash Seth
Andrews Ray is calling area code three oh one.
Speaker 5: You with me?
Speaker 3: Yes, that's how are you doing. I'm well, let's talk
what's on your mind.
Speaker 14: Earlier you were talking about the people who say government
should be run like a business.
Speaker 5: Talk about that, because.
Speaker 14: If we were to grant that Trump is running it
what he thinks a business is and Musk, they don't
have any value for goodwill, which is really essential for
a business. Even to say we're running it like a business.
They're running it like a terrible business, a business that
will fail. And I just wanted to kind of put
that out there. How these businessmen and these people who
support this idea don't value goodwill, which is like something
you learn in business school that it is important.
Speaker 3: Well, let me make sure I understand you. Ray, That's
all I do. Say a business serves its customer base,
and a happy customer means that customer benefits from the
product and they then return and become loyal customers. So,
if we were forced to use a business attitude about
the government, the government wants a well fulfilled, well served,
and happy customer. Is that kind of what you're saying. Yeah,
that's pretty close.
Speaker 14: Not only a happy customer, but a reliable vendor too.
If you're getting parts from somewhere. You want them to
know that you're going to pay them for those parts.
You need a reliability and stability in your relationships. That's
part of good will too.
Speaker 3: That's interesting, I guess if we had to, And again,
I know what angle you're taking. Again. You and I
don't think governments are businesses, but I like the angle,
oh hell, that a government certainly is serving a let's
call it a client base, even though we're taxpayers and
the government is supposed to serve us. But even if
you reverse that model, it's doing a piss poor job
of having happy customers, well served and earning client loyalty. Yeah,
all right, thanks for interjecting and taking a little time
out of your day. Take care of yourself, you too, Thanks,
see you later. White Ravens said, I think Trump is
actively trying to start World War three. Trump has the
weak man's perception of what's this. There's one thing to
use strength, to build, to create, to defend, to protect.
You use whatever strength you have to be a pro social, positive, constructive, laudable, admirable,
honorable force in this world. And then there's this sort
of perception of manhood where you got to go out
and conquer the week. And you know, Trump's always separating
people into the week and the strong, the winners, and
the losers. I mean, just count the number of times
he's called his enemies weak or small. And I think,
in his mind, conquerors conquer, and so oh yeah, gimme Greenland,
give me the Panama can Yeah, Canada, let's make that
the fifty first state, because in his mind, I think
he wants his legacy to be one of the conqueror
who expanded territory, no matter how laughable it is. You're like,
Jesus Christ is Canada. What are you thinking? But in
his mind, he's like, wow, look at all that anchorage.
When he's talking about taking Gaza essentially ethnically cleansing Gaza
and turning the whole place into Trump resort, you know,
saying this, he sees that conquerors must conquer, and so
he's looking around for shit that he can acquire and
then put his brand on. Robin at six oh five, Hi,
thanks for calling, Hey, sis, I can Robin, let's talk.
What's on your mind?
Speaker 13: Well, I just mention in chat where I go about
third party voting. I just cannot believe that people have
not realized that right now we've got you were either
going to be on this side or that side. You
cannot be voting for third parties. We've got to have
some kind of unification of resistance. And I know everyb
he's mad as Democrats, pursumer and everything. And I kind
of thought about this a little bit, and I listened
to a few podcasts on this, and maybe now it's
not the time for humor to make that stand, you know.
I mean, there may be a time later when this
resistance is stronger, that it's time to fight this Bending
bill is only good for six months, so you know
we're going to do this again in September. And so
I just I don't know that Timber necessarily made the
bad choice. Right this time in this country, we have
the chance of winning the two people. It's either a
Democrat or a reprebilent Goods going to win. It's not
our party candidate that's gonna win, not for not for
a major part in a major election. Ye, and we
have to either stand against the Republicans or for them
one or the other. You have to be on one
side or the other.
Speaker 3: You bring to the four the reality that more than
one thing can be true at the same time, where
right now the perfect is the enemy of the good,
or right now the goods the enemy of the evil.
But we can still be pissed at the Democrats. And
I'm a Democrat. I read this Democrat, I'm pissed. I'm
mad at my party. Where the hell's the backbone, where's
the organization, where's the mounted resistance? And that can be true.
And I can also say the only way this gets
courts corrected is if you support the only party that
has a shot defeating them in the future. And it
ain't Green Party, and it's not an independent, it's not
some pie in the sky protest to vote out there.
Speaker 13: I feel like that the third party vote, you know,
the protest voting didn't work, and I just can't believe
that anybody would think that it would. I mean, after
what we saw happened, you know in this last election,
we need all of the Democrats, We need all of
the people who care about America. We need all of
them to vote against the Republicans.
Speaker 3: I'm all right, preach and thank you and take care
and we'll see you later.
Speaker 10: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Sale all right, looks like I have another third party call.
It is Lucy at four eight zero high and Lucy,
what's up?
Speaker 7: I said, thank you so much for bringing up this topic. Yeah,
this real quickly, I can give you okay, real quick.
So my background is I was raised in a cult.
I was this fellowship from that cult. I have had
to lose three generations of family to religion. So I
also am an assault survivor and I will never vote
for a rapist. And unfortunately, the Democrats put up an
individual who had a credible assault charge against him. So
what are you going to do for people like me?
Speaker 3: Biden's assault charge was what.
Speaker 7: Credible?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 10: I know that he was accused.
Speaker 3: He was accused of what and when.
Speaker 7: He was accused of sexual harassment in the workplace by
terror Reid.
Speaker 3: I know that there were narratives about him being like
a creepy hair sniffing kind of dude. I saw all that,
and those were that was just mere propaganda. But forgive
me for not being more well versed in this accusation.
I would be interested, certainly to know if there was
a credible accusation. I want to know who the accuser is.
I want to know the context and who broadcast it.
But when Biden switched to Kamala when Biden switched then
and it became Kamala who was a strong, qualified black
female representing the party. Would that have been a more
palatable choice for you?
Speaker 7: Yes, However, the way that the DNC ran it and
just chose to appoint her instead of allowing the constituents
to make that choice in a primary seems a little
authoritarian to me.
Speaker 11: What do you think?
Speaker 3: Well, was your vote a protest vote about someone accused
of sexual misconduct or was it an authoritarian vote an
anti authoritarian vote?
Speaker 4: My?
Speaker 10: Oh, it was neither.
Speaker 7: My vote was for a candidate that I thought would
actually represented what I believe our country should be offering
its working class citizens.
Speaker 3: Well, then yours is a disagreement from the Democratic Party
on philosophy. But do you see the Democrats as equal
or as evil as what's happening now in the dismantling
of democracy and the assault on our allies, whether it's
non Christians, LGBT people, immigrants, the rest of the world.
I mean, do you see these as equal? Do you
feel like that this was worth a protest vote? Yeah?
Speaker 7: Absolutely I do, and thank you for the question. Because
Democrats continue to put up anti abortion candidates like Collier
in Texas, Democrats are not the answer for working class citizens.
And I have friends that live in Texas, and so
when Democrat leadership decides to support a candidate who does
not hold Democrat values, that is a problem in my book,
and I won't vote for them if they continue to
put up candidates who actually harm us.
Speaker 3: Okay, well, from what I can tell, and forgive me,
this is just a first blush, but apparently Tara Reid
has a history of making false statements about where she lived,
what she did, what her credibility was, what her credentials were,
and then she defected to Russia. So do you do
any of those give you concern?
Speaker 7: You know, not at all, not at all, because it
didn't My vote for Biden was irrelevant. Even if I
could have voted for Biden in the last election, the
DNC decided not to.
Speaker 13: And that.
Speaker 7: Screams authoritary. I don't know why you're not also upset
about that that they just deleted the primary and appointed
a queen.
Speaker 3: Well she wasn't though, I mean, if you think about
what Kamala would have done, and I'm going to finish
this sentence, did the.
Speaker 7: Democrats run a primary that I don't know about.
Speaker 3: They did not run a primary, but there was a
candidate in place who was not running on the dismantling
of democracy and becoming a king. Right, the platform is
what we're voting for, right, which is why I would
have voted for Biden, even though he was a terrible candidate,
because I'm voting for the platform. I'm voting for the
platform that wants to do student loan forgiveness, that sees
us as a citizen of the world, that wants to
protect LGBT rights and isn't vilifying trans people, and wants
to protect gay marriage and a woman's right to choose,
and the legalization of recreational drugs without vilifying people who
use them. Blah blah, blah blah blah. This is a platform.
This is an entire culture that I don't see as
remotely equivalent to what we are seeing now in Trump
is Stan. We are watching the wholesale, rapid fire, systematic
dismantling of everything that the United States is supposed to
represent under a king or a self appointed king and
his I guess co king who has given a bunch
of college kids access to yours and mind entire financial future,
the power to wreck everything. Right, this is not remotely equivalent. Agree,
So because third party gets us nowhere, per third party
only enables the Republican party.
Speaker 13: Right.
Speaker 3: The idea that we would not say, okay, well one
platform versus the other is one is better than the other.
That's the discussion that we have to have. I didn't
Kamala didn't run as a queen. Kamala ran as a
candidate and on a platform that is more egalitarian.
Speaker 7: Commercials, they were trying to make her a queen.
Speaker 3: No, I didn't see anything. I didn't see your posting
pictures of herself and a crown. I didn't see her
talking about her as much as she talked about all
of us.
Speaker 7: All Right, I just want to respond. You did bring
up quite a few different things, but I just want
respond on the one thing, which is you are voting
for a platform, but the voters when I go and vote,
I have to actually vote for a person who I
believe will go into government and do the things that
I want them to do. However, the Democrats do not
put up candidates who reflect working class needs, desires, want
whatever you want to name them. The individuals that they
put up won't actually do the things that even you
just stated. Biden had a chance to cancel student debt
a few years ago, and he didn't do it.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, that's an incomplete that's an incomplete claim.
He was He put it up on several occasions and
attempted to make it happen, and was the ward by
the Republican Party that a third party vote enables. Right,
his goal was to do it. He was on the
front lines for doing it. Let me ask you this.
Kamala Harris starts in a low to middle class family,
climbs up through the ranks, puts herself through law school,
and ends up being attorney general in one of the
largest states of the Union. Right, so tell me how
this makes her a queen. Tell me how her saying
that we are all in this together, we all are
Americans trying to She actually spoken very I say, conciliatory language,
trying to bring the parties together, whether or not strategically
that was smart or not. But when she spoke, it
wasn't me, me me. Donald Trump takes the stage and
he says, I alone can fix it. I'm the smartest
I know more, I'm the one I'm the King. None
of that language came out of Kamala Harris. So I'm
trying to understand where this perception of her as the
authoritarian queen comes from.
Speaker 10: Oh, she didn't have.
Speaker 7: To say it, because the DNC just refused to listen
to their voters. The DNC actually went to court in
twenty sixteen, Seth, and they said, we are a corporation.
We don't have to listen to our voters. Please look
it up, everybody, please look it up. The DNC not
listen to its voters. So why would I vote for
Democrats who don't listen to my vote?
Speaker 3: All right, well, I'll do my due diligence and look
for that quote that at the moment is unsourced and
see if someone in the Democratic Party said that. But again,
I mean, if you want to anecdote me, great. I'm
talking about the entire platform, which I see as one
that more represents us, that more supports in America, that
looks like all of us and not just one person,
and is not hero worship. And I think third party
voting enabled the authoritarian and the enemy of democracy that
is happening today. But I hear you, I appreciate you.
I promise you. I give you my word that I
will do. I will do my due diligence, and I
will explore the claims that you have made. And all
I ask is that perhaps you do the same.
Speaker 10: Okay, Yeah, absolutely, have a good one.
Speaker 3: Thank you appreciate it. Let's see zombie reushu who is
calling on the web? Zombie? I just like saying that
when I talk to Collers, welcome, what's going on?
Speaker 10: Good to hear from you again? Can you hear me? Fine?
Speaker 3: You called me good to hear from you? What's going on? Zombie?
Speaker 10: I wanted to Well, first of all, I disagree profoundly
with that lady. She does and know what she's talking about.
We did have a Democratic primary, Biden and Kamala Harris.
We were overwhelmingly and I do mean overwhelmingly one victories
in their in their primary. The only the only reason
that that we wound up with Kamala Harris as the
main candidate and she had to pick a pick a
VP after the fact was because the Democratic Party pushed
Biden out because he was too old.
Speaker 3: Well, I think, I mean it was a package deal.
I think when you voted for the for Biden, you
were voting.
Speaker 10: For the primary. Yeah, yes, I understand, and I voted
for Kamala Harris happily, proudly. I I I do not
regret my vote, my vote for one in one for
one moment, and I would vote for Kamala Harris again.
I don't think she'll run again. But still that's not
actually the main thing, the thing that I called it. Okay,
what did you grow up watching Babylon five.
Speaker 3: Oh, you're gonna get me in trouble. No, I was
a Star Trek next Gen, but not a Babylon five viewers.
So you're going to have to babysit me through whatever
you're about to say next.
Speaker 10: Okay, okay, this is unfortunate. Unfortunately, President Trump's coup very
strongly resembles that of President Clark's coup on Earth in
Babylon five extremely closely. I've heard Jake bro who is
a pro Unit Ukrainian YouTuber, and I apologize if what
I'm saying comes out as gibberish. It's part of my disability.
I have sirbral palsy, So bear with me.
Speaker 3: You're doing five. Start at the beginning. So there is
a character in Babylon five who came to power in
a way that you think is much like how Trump
has come to power.
Speaker 10: Exactly. It's it's almost it's almost beat for beat, with
the exception of in being trans people. It's it's actual
space aliens. And there actually is a trans kind of
metaphor in Babylon five because one of the primary female
cast members, because who is born of a member of
a purely alien species called the Mimbari, becomes a half
human Mimbari hybrid.
Speaker 3: Wow. So all right, to make sure I'm tracking, there
were there was a state of emergency declared against the other,
and the other had come to essentially ruin the party,
and so the authoritarian scared him, scared everybody into voting
him into power, and then he ruled with an iron fist.
Am I close?
Speaker 10: There are some yes, there there are some differences, okay,
But the President Clark rose to power. He was actually
elected vice President of Earth. His original the president above
him was was named Louis Santiago. Three years into Louis
Santiago's term, uh President Clark planned had mister Morden, who
was one of the who was one of the Shadows associates,
planned a bomb on Earth Force one and blew him
up on while he was visited, while he was scheduled
to take a trip to Io. He was then inaugurated
as president. He was only supposed to serve out one
year and then a new election was held. However, a
shadow vessel was discovered buried on Mars and as a
result of that, as a result of that, President Clark
issued a decree declaring he then convened it he can.
He then convened a session of the Senate in Geneva, Switzerland.
And when he did the and and and when he
did that, there was a When he did that, he
orchestrated a coup where he had the where he had
the capitol building attacked by his supporters wielding guns and
shot most of the senators. Some of them got away,
but a lot of them died.
Speaker 3: Okay, hm, that's that's fascinating.
Speaker 5: The go ahead, uh he uh.
Speaker 10: He took over his ultra conservative viewpoints, then took over
the media. He had, he had his storm. He actually
had kind of like we had Maga here. He had
an organization, a quasi non governmental organization called the night Watch,
which was very which was full of just racist and fascist,
although in this case, instead of being racist and fascist
against the brown brown people. They were racist and fascists
against space, against actual space aliens, as in people from
other planet who were living on Earth at the time.
Speaker 3: I may have to come back and watch reruns of
Babylon five. I was again, I was next gen, a
little bit of voyager.
Speaker 7: I understand.
Speaker 3: Don't crucify me.
Speaker 4: But.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I understand Babylon. This generation is very europe and
social democracy centric, where post co up is very post
capitalistic social social democracy, where there is Earth is ruled
by a prime minister and there's like there's proportional representation
and free elections, and there's both a prime minister and
a president. So it looks like France or the European Union.
That's the model of That's the model of Star Trekt.
The next generation Earth in Babylon five is very much
the US. It's there's just a president, only a Senate,
and but no House of representa natives and only a
and a and a judiciary branch.
Speaker 3: My Ron, Well, we could probably talk about that. You
can probably educate me on five seasons of Babylon how
many many seasons there were, But all I can say
is that's there were five. It's interesting to me, And
uh yeah, I'd like to see what other people in
the comments have to say about that link. And that's
fascinating stuff often sci fi. I think it provides great
commentary on society and history.
Speaker 10: It does, that's one of the things. Because one of
the things that frightens me about this is President Clark
didn't lose. He did manage to take over Earth and
and he started bombing Mars. Okay he I mean he
he didn't. His coup was a success. It took him
a long time to do it. It took him. But
here here's the thing. Earth lived under martial law for
three or four years before before he was finally toppled.
Speaker 3: Interesting, and I will look into maybe when I'm on
a plane, I will download some episodes and and give
it a shot. Zombie, So.
Speaker 10: I think that you could learn a lot from it.
Because here's the thing. I'm actually scared that we're pretty
much done for when it comes to Trump. And I
think that that lady who called earlier was completely delusional
because again I had absolutely no reservations voting for Kamala Harris.
My the thing is is that this is actually this,
this whole situation has broken up my family, my I
mean my if my if my father was still alive,
we would have already fled the country by now, my my,
I mean my father probably would have been purged in
the doge if you were again, if if if he
were still alive, he would have been purged in the
dose because he was a government employee. He was a
he was a doctor that worked for a that worked
for an army hospital. So I mean my dad would
have would have I mean, this would be a six
alarm if there is such a thing as a six
alarm fire, I don't have heard his place. We would
all my dad would have already you know, sold the houses,
moved to him and gotten us to Canada or something
like that. I'm trying to do so independently, to to
try to leave the country for the US, and I
have failed thus far. Okay, but my dad, my dad
would have my dad would have been absolutely livid had
he seen had he lived to see this future, I
mean he and because we sat there back in the
nineties and watched the Babylon five together, and to sit
there and watch what is really really similar to what
happened in Babylon five, happened in the US and I
and I want to keep in mind that I want
to hold up for hope that you know, eventually, against
all odds, democracy will prevail and we will somehow, we
will somehow get you know, have another election and elect
somebody else who isn't Donald Trump and push the Republicans
out of power. I don't think we're going to get that.
In fact, I think that there might be. I wouldn't
be surprised if before there are elections in twenty twenty
six for the House and Senate that we get a
martial law to decree from Trump and then elections will
simply be canceled.
Speaker 3: Anything's possible. Years ago, I would have thought there was
a bottom, and today I just think maybe there's not.
But I'm going to keep fighting and I go.
Speaker 10: I knew that I knew that this was this was
that that that this is the way that it would
eventually go, because I've seen this behavior. I had seen
mega like behavior during the George W. Bush years. Now,
George W. Bush didn't didn't didn't feed into it like this,
but all of the statements about making more babies and
stopping abortion, all of that was and impeaching judges, all
of that was coming from the pulpit during the Bush years,
during the early years of the war on terrorism.
Speaker 3: All right, I mean, I mean what we're seeing definitely
is half century effort zombie. And obviously you're very impassionate
about this subject, as many of us are. So thank
you very much for being a part of today's discussion.
You just take care, yeah, I We'll see you later. Oh, look,
super chats, let's see. I want to make sure Seth.
Could you talk about the possibility Dems aren't doing much
due to legit threats to self and family by the
oligarchs and such. Have I read this one? I don't
think so, LJ. Thank you for the super chat.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 3: I think many people are terrified what happens when a
guy worth four hundred billion dollars is your enemy and
we know they're capable of tremendous dirty tricks and ruining
lives and you know before if they activate even one
extremist to declare war on you, or they put your
kids in danger. I mean, I'm sure there's there are
threats that many of us haven't even envisioned. So I'm
sure fear and you know, people are having a cost
benefit as to how bad am I going to take
it in the teeth and how in danger do I
want to be? But I also think we need to
be on the right side of history. Paul said, what
disheartens me is the progressives attack on Schumer and on
anyone who thinks shutting the government right now would be
stopped Trump or Elon. I'm not a huge fan of
Shumer's move, but I'm not an expert in this. I
know shutting down the government harms it a lot of people,
But I'm back to wishing the Democrats would show solidarity against,
you know, the atrocities that are happening. A supersticker from
TMF J l J said, how acute or extreme might
the oligarch threats be to dem leaders to cause this
degree of inaction? I think we I think we covered that.
When they say Democrats they mean n words. Who's they
and which Democrats? I don't know. I'm not a fan
of blanket statements. DJ gifted a membership. Lovely Robin says
we must be united divided. We fall for the support
and for your words. I thank you so very much,
lovely time with you as we spend almost what two
hours talking about the stuff that was on our minds.
I hope it's been entertaining for you. I will see
you back here on a show. The next show, I
think is going to be a conversation between me and
Forrest Valci. You never have to do a lot of
prep with Forrest Valci. You sit in a chair and
you put a mic, you put a microphone on Forest Valci,
and then you just hang in. An hour goes like that,
And that's what's gonna happen, and it's going to be
a freaking roller coaster. You're gonna love it. And we've
got that and more coming up here as we approach,
slowly approach the month of April. Be good, take care,
I'll see you later.
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