0:10

Jesse, how's it going?

0:12

Good. I've got a little bit of a programming

0:14

conundrum for us. What's up? So

0:16

during the second half of this podcast, we're gonna

0:18

be taking some listeners questions.

0:21

We're gonna be giving them life advice, which is,

0:23

first of all, terrifying and

0:25

shouldn't be legal for us to give advice. But

0:28

we need name for the segment. You and

0:30

I together came up with the name savage

0:33

love, but it We

0:34

definitely did not do that.

0:35

We did. And it turns out some small

0:37

podcast and newspaper column I'd never

0:39

heard of had taken that. Uh-huh. A

0:41

couple other ideas. Single

0:43

and ready to mingle. Question mark.

0:45

Terrible. What about

0:48

broken hurts, sogs

0:51

club? Question for It's also bad. Those are the only

0:53

two I had.

0:53

Why don't we call it the Black Card Reported Advice

0:55

segment?

0:55

I like that. straight to the

0:57

point. The

0:57

one in only because this probably only gonna

1:00

happen once because people are gonna take our advice and then

1:02

we're gonna get sued and

1:02

the podcast is gonna get shut down. I think you

1:04

should bomb that police station. Yeah,

1:08

most of our most of our -- Right. Children's Hospital.

1:10

Questions were about far left and far right wing

1:12

violent politics. We'll get to that. But,

1:15

Katie, what is the name of this increasingly advice

1:17

giving podcast?

1:18

This is Black and reported, and I'm Katie Herzog.

1:19

And I'm Jesse Single. And before we get

1:22

into the guts, of today's podcast.

1:24

We have a couple programming notes and

1:26

corrections.

1:26

Right? Apparently so. just learning about

1:28

this.

1:29

Well,

1:30

The correction is only sort of a correction.

1:32

So last week, we talked

1:34

about my breasts.

1:35

huge

1:37

giant knockers.

1:38

My giant my giant womba

1:41

wombas. We had

1:43

a brief bantry segment where

1:45

I talked about how I'm worried. My

1:48

boobs are gonna grow because I eat a lot of

1:50

soy because I'm a literal soy boy. Yeah. And

1:52

as we were having that conversation, I, in

1:54

my brain, was not taken seriously scientifically.

1:57

I do not think, a, that anyone would be

1:59

taking

1:59

diet advice or maybe

2:02

It

2:02

was just this thing I heard that I found funny.

2:04

Oh, if you eat soy, you'll grow blue. I

2:06

did not. Anyway, we got a

2:08

very helpful and earnest email from a listener

2:10

pointing out there's no evidence

2:13

supporting this nutritionally. I cannot say

2:15

I've looked into it deeply, but I

2:17

I do not think there's actually a thing where

2:20

soy causes you to grow

2:22

brass. Of course, as I say this, we'll get an influx

2:24

of emails from our many our rights, men's

2:26

rights advocates listeners saying that no,

2:29

there's a conspiracy theory involving George Soros

2:31

and Soy Producer's Blah blah blah But, yeah, I don't

2:33

think that's a real thing.

2:34

Well, I think I know who we could actually check with,

2:36

and that is the Canadian job teacher.

2:38

I thought she

2:40

was in his her diet. I thought

2:42

you're gonna say Carol Hoffman. I keep whenever I

2:44

think you're gonna say something helpful, you're serious.

2:46

I quickly disappears

2:48

with that, I should Carol

2:49

Huven who we should say is also

2:51

going to be our at our

2:53

live show in Dartmouth on October twenty

2:55

second.

2:56

October twenty second, Dartmouth Venue

2:58

TBD. We are doing a public free

3:02

live podcast with Carol Huvan, who

3:04

is wonderful. Much better at this than

3:06

either of us, I think. So we'll be overshadowed

3:08

-- Absolutely. -- then two nights later, October

3:10

twenty fourth, last Boston, tickets still available

3:12

for that one. And then the night after that, October

3:14

twenty fifth, New York Village

3:17

Underground. Tickets are not available,

3:19

but there's apparently a system where if you get in

3:21

line they reserve some seats

3:23

for whoever shows up. don't know how many. I don't

3:25

think there's a way to know how many, so I don't know.

3:27

You

3:27

should definitely camp outside the village underground

3:30

in the before.

3:30

I'd say the week before. And

3:32

just hold up a sign that says, like, yeah, a week

3:34

before. Hold up sign that says, God bless,

3:37

veteran, just lots of children. put

3:39

out a little cup, maybe you'll get some change too.

3:41

I'm a

3:41

veteran. Can you get me blocked or reported

3:43

tickets?

3:43

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So

3:46

the links to tickets for these

3:48

shows will be in our show notes. And, yeah,

3:50

definitely come out and Well,

3:51

wait. We should also mention the other one, which What's

3:53

that? October twenty ninth. Arlington

3:56

early show is sold out at ten PM,

3:58

Arlington Cinemand Draft House, all those tickets

4:00

available. Yes. We'll put links to all these in the show

4:02

notes. Jesse, before we move on, can

4:04

we talk about cities a little bit more?

4:07

Oh, is it city talk time? TTT It's

4:09

yeah.

4:09

Now that is a good name for segment. So

4:11

as most of our listeners probably know

4:13

by now or many of them probably

4:15

know by now the online among you,

4:18

there's this story. This story has been going

4:20

on for, like, a month. about

4:22

this shop teacher in Canada

4:24

who wears giant prosthetic breasts

4:27

to school. And there's been some protests

4:29

about this either the

4:31

principal or someone administration was

4:33

interviewed and he said something about how we support

4:35

everyone's gender identity or whatever. basically

4:37

supporting this feature. Jesse, did you

4:39

see that screenshot that

4:41

has been floating around from Fortune?

4:44

Oh,

4:44

no. What is it?

4:45

Well, this is Fortune, so

4:47

this is not reliable at all, but someone

4:50

went on Fortune and said, apparently,

4:52

that this person was in this this high

4:54

school shop teacher's class and

4:56

that the person is actually like like

4:59

a men's write, like a red filled men men's

5:01

rights activist. got in trouble with

5:03

the school board for toxic masculinity.

5:05

And so now there's now this speculation that this

5:07

is not an actual trans person.

5:10

with some weird fetish, but this

5:12

is actually some sort of anti

5:14

look performance art, which I would find

5:16

very funny I also will find it very

5:18

funny if this happens to be true because what

5:20

we're gonna see is this influx of people

5:22

changing their minds about this case. So

5:24

people who were defending this as

5:26

a gender expression will be forced

5:28

to come out and say, oh, no. No. No. This is

5:30

inappropriate because this is actually making

5:32

fun of trans people and people who were

5:34

just aghast at this

5:36

these giant titties, giant fake titties in the

5:38

classroom, we'll we'll say that this person

5:40

is a hero. I cannot wait for that to

5:42

happen. And

5:42

your source on this is to reiterate. Fortune.

5:45

It's a

5:45

fortune. It's not even it's not even directly

5:48

fortune. It's a screenshot of a fortune

5:50

comment of someone saying that someone

5:52

else on Fortune said this the day

5:53

before. So let's review. Very reliable.

5:56

This is not the high quality evidence

5:58

that a link to a Fortune post would

6:00

be, nor Right. Is it a screenshot

6:02

of a four champos? It's like AA4

6:05

Well,

6:05

it is a screenshot of a four champos.

6:07

It's just that the author of the four champos

6:09

was not the person who was in the class.

6:11

the author of the Fortune Post says

6:13

someone was in here yesterday saying that this

6:15

person was in the class. So yes, that

6:17

that is the level of of reliability that

6:20

we have for this clip. But I do find it

6:22

possible that this is actually just some performance

6:24

art roll as much as it is. Someone's like

6:26

actual gender identity in Dysportia

6:28

is best treated with giant fake titties.

6:30

Yeah. I mean, right.

6:32

I guess according to Canadian law, a lot

6:34

of thinking on this, you don't you don't have to have gender

6:37

dysphoria. Like, there's no mention of that. just whatever

6:39

supports your gender identity and associated

6:41

gender expression. So some

6:43

of us have been pointing out that

6:46

that's maybe problematic or philosophically

6:48

friendly, but were bigots. So

6:50

why would you pay attention?

6:51

Yeah. And I think just for the sake

6:53

of consistency, I think if you find

6:55

it inappropriate for someone to

6:57

come to shop class with giant

7:00

fake titties, with nipples, the

7:02

size of what are they the size

7:04

of thumbs?

7:04

They're trying They haven't looked that closely. They're

7:06

very large. If you find that inappropriate when

7:09

someone is doing it for raisins

7:11

of gender dysphoria. It should also probably

7:13

be inappropriate if someone does it to troll

7:15

people with gender dysphoria. It is slightly

7:17

more funny though if it's actually a troll.

7:19

Yeah. That's interesting.

7:22

It'll come out one way or another because this

7:24

shop teacher's identity is not a secret. Someone

7:26

will figure out like who they were in the past. I'm curious,

7:28

like, what I if I had to put

7:30

money on one outcome or the other I

7:32

don't know. My money's on just everything's fucking

7:35

stupid right now. Yeah. This is, like, this

7:37

this new story is, like, if you fed

7:39

one of those, like, creepily accurate

7:41

emerging AIs, that

7:44

is, the next link in the chain to Skynet, just

7:46

like a bunch of social media posts from twenty

7:48

twenty two and was like, what do you think is the next

7:50

thing that will happen? They would spit this out.

7:51

Well, it's like the it's like the

7:54

South Park where I don't know who it is. I

7:56

don't know the names of these characters where someone

7:58

like starts wearing Fetish Gear to

8:00

school did this happen in South Park?

8:02

I barely remember it in order to get fired.

8:04

Oh, I remember

8:07

okay. So here's here's here's Canon for

8:09

South Park. mister Garrison slash missus

8:11

Garrison at one point dated mister SLAVE,

8:13

who did he came to school

8:16

in Fetish Gear and as part of in

8:18

class demonstration, they put a

8:21

gerbil, mister Lemie Winks, up

8:23

his ass, and then the rest of the episode is about

8:26

his adventures in mister

8:28

slaves, anal cavity, and intestine.

8:30

So let me just pull up the script. Did we connect it

8:32

out? Yeah. We'll just

8:33

connect it out. Did so did mister Garrison

8:35

get fired for this? help

8:36

think so. Mister slash missus Garrison's

8:39

employment is often in question. There was also a miss

8:41

chokes on Dick, the substitute teacher.

8:43

And they were What

8:44

year was where these, like, put out into the road?

8:46

It's I even for a comedy central, I have a

8:48

hard time imagining that this would make it

8:50

onto onto screen today? Well,

8:52

this is late nineties and odd. Miss

8:54

Trokes on Dick was a good character because, like, when

8:56

the kids heard her name, they started

8:58

laughing and that they're, like, more like

9:00

miss makes me sick. So he's like a

9:02

dumb joke. Anyway, that's South Park

9:04

Talk, which comes before Titty Talk. Okay.

9:06

Should we should we move

9:07

on? Yeah. Katie, you had

9:10

some more breaking JK Rowling

9:12

news.

9:13

I did. So I finally finished

9:15

the ink black cart, which the latest detective

9:17

novel, the latest comer and strike novel by

9:19

Robert Kalbrith, which is the pen

9:21

name of JK

9:22

Rowling. Rolling?

9:24

Rolling, bowling. So

9:26

we talked about this book previously on a

9:29

couple of prior episodes, but now I've actually

9:31

finished the book took me a long time, and

9:33

it's fifteen hundred words.

9:34

Fifteen hundred words? Yeah. That'd be challenging for

9:36

you. I'm

9:37

sorry. Fifteen hundred pages. fifteen

9:39

hundred pages. And now that I

9:41

have actually read from beginning to end,

9:43

I feel confident in saying that the

9:45

vast majority of media coverage

9:47

claiming that this book was transphobic or

9:49

it was about a woman who was canceled for

9:52

transphobia or murdered for transphobia? Was

9:54

correct. And as I say in the UK, in

9:56

the UK, this is utter bollocks.

9:58

Here are a few headlines. NPR

10:00

I'm making a very surprise face

10:02

right now. NPR,

10:03

JK Rowling's new book

10:05

about a character accused of transphobia raises

10:08

eyebrows, Rolling Stone, JK

10:10

Rowling's new book just so happens to feature a

10:12

character per cuted over Transphobia, paper

10:14

magazine. JK Rowling has written another

10:16

transphobic book, and possibly the

10:18

dumbest of all, MSNBC JK

10:21

Rowling's book frames herself as being

10:23

persecuted by bloodthirsty trans

10:25

supporters.

10:25

Katie, can I

10:28

can I can I ask you a question? And -- Yes. --

10:30

before I ask this question, remember, I'm

10:32

a fucking moron. Okay? Okay.

10:34

Surely, authors of all these pieces

10:37

read the book. So how, given that they

10:39

read the book, could they allow

10:41

their articles to have these claims

10:43

again, I'm moron who's

10:45

unfamiliar with journalism.

10:46

Jesse, Jesse, you didn't go to j school,

10:48

did you? Apparently not reading the

10:50

materials is the first rule of j school. So the

10:52

MSNBC one is probably the worst of these

10:54

headlines. Alright. JK Rowling's book

10:56

frames herself as being

10:58

persecuted by bloodthirsty trans she's

11:00

not in the book. She's not a character. That's

11:02

just

11:02

poorly written frames her skin. bad.

11:05

There's but but all of these are

11:07

wrong. There's maybe two

11:09

mentions of the word trans in the

11:11

entire book. At one point, the

11:13

main character, this detective Cormoran

11:15

strike, He reads a newspaper

11:17

article that mentions a woman,

11:19

like briefly mentions a woman who

11:21

committed suicide after misgendering

11:23

someone, but the woman isn't even character

11:26

in the book. Like, she's a character. Does that

11:28

make sense? It's sort of meta. She's a character in

11:30

this newspaper story, but she's

11:32

not like, really a character in the book.

11:34

Like, she's mentioned once.

11:36

It's completely tangential

11:38

to the storyline. The only other

11:40

mention of the word trans or

11:42

transphobia is like a two line

11:44

conversation in which someone says

11:46

like, hey, check out this hilarious blog

11:48

that's accuses of being transphobic

11:50

because she made a worm, a her mafordite,

11:52

which is funny because worms aren't literally

11:54

her mafordites. The whole thing is stupid.

11:56

and that's it. She's not canceled for transphobia. It's

11:58

barely mentioned in the story at all. It's

12:00

like saying that because a couple of the

12:02

victims are men. It's a book

12:04

about miss Andrey, which is also

12:07

not true at all. It's just it's so

12:09

tangential. Cat Rosenfield said that she thinks that what

12:11

happens is that people search for the word

12:13

trans in the book. I think she's probably

12:15

right about that. The victim of the story is

12:17

accused of ableism. So if the

12:19

headlines read like JK

12:21

Rowling's new book features a character

12:23

who is killed after being accused of

12:25

ableism, that would be more

12:27

accurate, but it would still be a distortion of

12:29

the story. And I'm I'm not gonna spoil it, but I

12:31

will say that if people who were mad about this book

12:33

actually read it, they might actually like

12:35

it because the villains in the story are

12:37

incels and white Supremacist and

12:39

Internet trolls. Like, it's

12:41

not an anti woke book

12:43

at all. It's not an anti trans book at

12:45

all. There's so little about

12:47

trans stuff at all. It's like, picking out this

12:49

one little detail and concocting

12:51

these narratives about it. It just I really

12:53

don't think these people have

12:55

read this book. And then one other thing

12:57

about this. So this is the sixth novel in

13:00

the series. And from what I can

13:02

tell, very few of the who actually

13:04

read the book and I think some of them did read

13:06

it have read the entire series and

13:08

you just miss a lot if

13:10

you familiar with the series. That's like if I

13:12

started reviewing, you know, the

13:14

latest Star Wars movie, but I

13:16

hadn't watched any of the previous

13:18

ones, you just miss a lot if you

13:20

don't understand the story lines and the canon

13:22

and and the characters and I think it makes these

13:24

reviews pretty just like they're

13:26

not informed enough Anyway,

13:29

there's one more thing about this.

13:31

JK

13:31

Rowling, she publishes

13:32

these books under the pseudonym Robert

13:35

Galbraith. This is sort of unfortunate

13:37

coincidence, but there's an there was an American

13:39

psychiatrist named Robert Galbraith, who in the

13:41

nineteen fifties did some weird experiments in

13:43

conversion therapy for homosexual. by

13:45

putting electrodes in the pleasure centers of their brains.

13:48

So this has been used by

13:50

Rowling's critics and detractors as further

13:52

evidence that she's a transobe. Right?

13:55

Here's the one thing they never mentioned. The

13:57

guy's name wasn't Robert

13:59

Galbraith. His name was Robert

14:01

Galbraith Galbraith Heath and he

14:03

went by Bob

14:05

Heath. The likelihood that she knew

14:07

about this guy in the first place is

14:09

basically minuscule, but the idea that she

14:11

chose the pseudonym as some sort

14:13

of anti transdog whistle is just

14:15

stupid, especially because he wasn't

14:17

working with Transpatients. He was

14:19

working with gay patients.

14:21

There's just no evidence of this at all,

14:23

but people have created these narratives.

14:25

They're just pulling strings out of nowhere

14:27

to create this narrative that she's this rampant

14:29

transverb, and she's just like,

14:31

the evidence just doesn't support that even

14:33

if you read her own words. Yeah.

14:35

The conspiracy theorizing is sort

14:37

of that she's just like, yes, I'll use that

14:39

name because they hated gay people.

14:41

No one will know. Yeah.

14:44

And something similar, I I we talked about

14:46

it forever ago, but I don't remember. But last time around,

14:48

there's something similar. Right? Where it wasn't quite

14:50

as blatant as this, but a lot of

14:52

outlets just jumped on the outrage bandwagon

14:54

for her last book and and misconstrued

14:56

it. Yeah. I don't

14:57

I did read the book. I don't remember all of the details.

14:59

But in the last book, there was a character

15:01

who, like, dressed as a woman

15:03

to It wasn't like a

15:05

trans person. This person was, like, was

15:07

dressing like a woman to disguise themselves.

15:09

You know, that's sort of a a

15:11

trope within murder fiction.

15:13

on this people jumped on this as further evidence

15:15

of transphobia

15:16

other than like eight disguise.

15:19

Right. People just wanna

15:21

hate her. They just wanna fucking hate her.

15:23

Yeah. Well, we should send

15:25

emails to these outlets and see if they'll correct this because that's

15:27

like really bad journalism. Yeah. We should

15:29

it's

15:29

really bad. It's on to NPR when I think is the

15:32

worst,

15:32

but whatever. They're always gonna

15:35

NPR gonna NPR. That they are.

15:37

Alright. Shall we shall we get in

15:39

the guts? Let's do it. Katie,

15:41

since

15:42

you're a woman, whatever

15:44

that is, no one knows. An AFAB?

15:46

You're you're an AFAB. What do you know about

15:48

the AFAB's march? also known

15:50

as the women's

15:51

march. Isn't it the WOMX in

15:53

March, or did they decide that x

15:54

is problematic? Last I heard it's

15:56

the women's march. That would not surprise

15:58

me. Okay. I know very little.

16:00

I have I I went to, I guess, the first

16:03

pussy hat march after the Trump election

16:05

in Seattle. but

16:07

that's it. I have not really been oh, and I know

16:09

there was some, like, some stuff

16:11

with Linda Sarsur, but pretty much this

16:13

is not a story that I followed

16:14

deeply. So, recently, the New York

16:16

Times had this big article called How

16:19

Russian Trolls helped keep the women's

16:21

march out of lockstep. It's by

16:23

reporter, Ellen Barry, and the sub headline

16:25

is as American feminists came together

16:27

in twenty seventeen to protest Donald

16:29

Trump, Russia's disinformation machines

16:31

said about deepening the divides among them.

16:34

So, this is a very weird article, and

16:36

I wanna talk about it because it is

16:38

There is this trope that

16:40

a significant reason why the left is

16:42

so divided or unsuccessful is

16:44

because of Russia. They're like this.

16:47

big villain. And they are a villain in many ways, put

16:49

in as a murderer, and he's awful. But this question

16:51

of whether and to what extent rush

16:53

controls really influence

16:55

American politics is often just it's treated

16:57

as, like, clearly true that they influence it a

16:59

lot. And this article was a great example of how

17:01

it's more fuzzy than that. So

17:04

There are all sorts of issues

17:06

with the women's march. It it's basically had a

17:08

bit of a meltdown which was vividly captured

17:11

in tablet. by Leah Mitswini and

17:13

Jacob Siegel in twenty eighteen. This is like

17:15

a very And Leah

17:15

is now a real housewife. Is

17:18

she? Yeah.

17:19

She's on real housewives of

17:20

New Jersey or Atlantic City or

17:22

Bennett Beach or something like that. Well, good

17:24

for her. There are

17:27

several points out that crazy shit went down

17:29

within the women's march. So

17:31

the very first time the seven people who had

17:33

found the women's march match it

17:35

was at a rooftop hotel bar. I'll just

17:38

read from here. According to several sources, it

17:40

was there in the first hours of the first meeting for

17:42

what would become the women's march, that something happened that was so

17:44

shameful to many of those who witnessed it,

17:46

they chose to bury it like a family

17:48

secret. Almost two years would pass before anyone

17:50

present would speak about it. It was

17:52

there that as the women were opening up up

17:54

about their backgrounds and personal investments

17:56

in creating a resistance movement to

17:58

Trump, Perez and Mallory, those are two of the

18:00

cofounders, allegedly first asserted

18:02

that Jewish people bore a special

18:04

collective responsibility as exploiters

18:07

of black and brown people. And even

18:09

according to a close second hand source, claimed that Jews were

18:11

proven to have been leaders of the

18:13

American slave trade. These are canards

18:15

popularized by the secret relationship between

18:17

blacks and Jews, a book published

18:19

by Lewis Farcons' Nation of

18:21

Islam, the bible of the new antisemitism,

18:23

according to Henry Lewis Gates, who

18:25

noted in nineteen ninety Among significant

18:27

sectors of the black community, this brief has become

18:29

a credo of a new philosophy of black

18:32

self affirmation. So

18:34

There is a segment of the black community

18:36

that unfortunately has these

18:38

very antisemitic beliefs and it

18:41

this centers on this false idea that Jews had a particularly

18:43

huge role in the slave trade.

18:46

So you can see how if at

18:48

the very first meeting setting up the

18:50

women's march there was this anti

18:52

submitted canard raise. That's probably not a good

18:54

sign for the organization's future.

18:56

Right? I think that's a

18:56

great sign. This means that everything is gonna go

18:59

exactly according to plan. There

19:01

were other issues too, quote, and many of

19:03

those involved, involved early on that is began

19:05

questioning why it was that among the many

19:07

women of various backgrounds interested in being

19:10

involved in the March's earliest days, Power

19:12

had consolidated in the hands of

19:14

leadership who all had previous ties to one

19:16

another, who were all roughly the

19:18

same age who would praise a man who has argued that it's women's

19:20

responsibility to dress modestly so

19:22

as to avoid tempehmed and at least in

19:24

one case who defended Bill Cosby

19:26

as the victim of a conspiracy. On

19:28

top of that, there were also funding issues.

19:30

There were chapters breaking off. Did all this

19:32

drama. There was other stuff, including the

19:35

fact that at some women's march

19:37

events, a nation of Islam members, apparently

19:39

served as the security detail for some of the

19:41

co chairs. On top of that, Mallory,

19:43

co president of the women's march, attended

19:45

a twenty eighteen nation of Islam

19:47

rally where Faracon spoke

19:50

and said like viciously and characteristically

19:52

anti Semitic things. Do you remember that controversy? No.

19:54

So when you think about like this sort of guilt

19:56

by association, you sometimes see like

19:59

oh, you liked the tweet by that person, and that

20:01

person has problematic views. Right.

20:03

This Jamaica Mallory was at

20:05

a rally where Farcom was spewing

20:08

anti Semitic bullshit. And

20:10

this was and she didn't really apologize. But

20:12

I wrote about it. I mean, they they kept defending

20:14

Farfetchon. Maybe she was crossing her fingers

20:16

during his talk, though. That

20:18

could be it. Think a bit. So the tabloid

20:20

article was long and complicated. And, you

20:22

know, at the time, it was controversial because

20:24

defenders of the women's march viewed as like a witch

20:26

hunt against him, but At the end of the it's impossible

20:28

to deny that this was a very troubled,

20:30

highly dysfunctional organization. That's

20:32

why a lot of the members of the satellite group

20:34

spoke out against it and broke off

20:37

There were these issues with, like, a trademark and

20:39

and, like, they sold a lot of merch, but then the

20:41

money just flowed to certain people. There were complicated

20:43

501C3C4 It

20:45

was just it was very thrifty,

20:47

frankly. So that it might back

20:49

to this time's article. It

20:51

doesn't entirely ignore that this was

20:53

a troubled and contraband social organization, but it puts a lot of

20:55

that stuff in the background in

20:57

favor of Liberals' favorite explanation whenever

21:00

they step on a rate for themselves.

21:02

Yes. they step out a rake, it's

21:04

because Vladimir Putin pushed me onto the rake,

21:06

even though we can't see or feel him.

21:08

So the article describes

21:11

the month after Linda Sartor first took the

21:13

stage as one of the co chairs of the women's march in

21:15

January twenty seventeen. Here's what

21:17

Derico says. Over

21:19

the eighteen months that followed, Russia's

21:21

troll factories and its military intelligence

21:23

service put a sustained effort into

21:25

discrediting the movement By circulating, damning,

21:27

often fabricated narratives around miss

21:29

Sartorius, whose activism made her a

21:31

lightning rod for mister Trump's face and also for

21:33

some of his most ardent opposition.

21:35

one hundred and fifty two different Russian accounts produced

21:37

material about her. Public archives of

21:39

Twitter accounts known to be Russian,

21:42

contain two thousand six hundred forty two tweets about

21:44

Missar Sohr, many of which found

21:46

large audiences. According to an analysis by

21:48

advanced democracy incorporated in

21:51

nonprofit partisan organization that conducts

21:53

public interest research and investigations.

21:56

So when I read that to you, are you able to get

21:58

a sense of, like, whether that's a lot of tweets or

22:00

a little or what does that have

22:02

context to you? I mean,

22:03

it has to be a lot. Right? It's hard

22:05

to fully understand what they're saying, but they talk about

22:07

an eighteen month timeline. So that would

22:09

appear to be two thousand six hundred forty two tweets

22:12

over eighteen months, which should be

22:14

about five tweets a day.

22:16

Katie, do you and I tweet more

22:18

than five times a day? You

22:21

do. You do too. You're more on Twitter than

22:23

everybody fighting with someone. I tweet if I'm

22:25

in a fight with someone, we have all of

22:27

a tweet eight thousand times. We

22:28

have gone through this. You tweet about

22:30

ten times more than I do and also

22:32

worse. I definitely tweet

22:33

worse. I can't deny it. I tweet worse than everyone.

22:35

So that's the kind of thing where it's like,

22:37

you read that number, you're like, oh, two thousand

22:39

six hundred forty tweets. That's not

22:41

a lot of tweets. and they're just like, yeah, some of them

22:43

caught on. They don't really provide much detail

22:46

about which one's caught on with one exception.

22:48

So this whole article, there's like a lot of

22:50

cherry picking they don't even they, like,

22:52

note that Mallory was involved in a

22:54

controversy involving this rally, but they don't

22:56

even state outright that anti

22:58

Semitic stuff was said there, which

23:00

I found insane. Because, like,

23:02

imagine if it had been a white nationalist

23:04

who went to a rally with a Hitler salute and you

23:06

just leave out the fact that there was a Hitler salute.

23:08

Right? That's I don't know why why would you

23:10

obscure that unless you're trying to,

23:12

like, obscure from readers the fact that there were

23:14

legitimate reasons for controversy here. because

23:16

they're trying to

23:16

to help scare the raters back when there's

23:19

legitimate controversy here. There's

23:20

another incident. So in twenty

23:23

seventeen, at a mostly Muslim gathering. Linda Tsarsur

23:25

used very poor choice of words. I'm reading from

23:27

the Washington Post here. In her speech,

23:29

Tsarsur told a story from Islamic

23:32

scripture about a man who once asked Mohammed, the founder of

23:34

Islam, what is the best form of Gihad

23:36

or struggle? And our beloved prophet said

23:39

to him, A word of truth in front of a tyrant ruler or leader,

23:41

that is the best form of Jehovah's SARSource

23:43

said, I hope that when we stand up to those who

23:45

press our communities, that that

23:47

Allah accepts from us that as a form

23:49

of jihad, that we are struggling against

23:51

tyrants and rulers, not only abroad in the Middle East

23:53

or on the other side of the world, but here in these

23:55

United States of America, where you have fascist and white

23:57

supremacists and Islamophobes reigning in the

23:59

White House.

23:59

So if you read that

24:00

in its full context, yes, it's

24:03

hectic true that Gihad has a different meaning in Arabic, and she's

24:05

not talking about, like, blowing up buses,

24:07

but anyone could have told Linasar

24:09

Sur, do not speech you

24:11

call for Jahad. Like, if you were you're

24:13

having to explain too much if if no. No. No.

24:15

Not that kind of Jahad.

24:18

Like so that's the kind of thing where do you think

24:20

you need Russian trolls to

24:22

explain why that caused outrage?

24:25

Obviously not. The article's genuine

24:27

examples of Russian troll influence

24:29

are fairly sparse. Like as they point out,

24:31

non troll accounts like prison planet.

24:33

Remember prison planet? And Milo you know, please?

24:35

Remember Milo? Did you ever interact with Milo? I

24:37

don't

24:37

remember prison planet. What was that? I mean, prison

24:39

planet's still around. It's just like a ganso

24:42

conspiracy theory. unfortunately popular

24:44

account. These accounts did a

24:46

huge amount of the legwork, spreading the idea

24:48

that SARSOR was like a legit, radical

24:50

Islamic fundamentalwares. And

24:52

what was interesting though in reading this article

24:54

was how, like, American

24:57

tweets about politics are

24:59

so stupid that it's super

25:01

easy for Russian trolls to imitate them.

25:03

So let me just read some of these examples.

25:06

White feminism seems to

25:08

be the most stupid two k sixteen

25:10

trend. Two k sixteen trend?

25:12

Yep. That part is not. That

25:14

part. Watch Muhammad Ali shut down

25:16

a white feminist criticizing his

25:18

arrogance. I think I read

25:18

that headline on Vox. Ain't got

25:20

time for your white feminist bullshit. These

25:23

are White black feminine. White

25:25

black feminist, don't owe Hillary Quitted

25:27

their support. Okay.

25:28

These are all headlines, if not, real quick.

25:30

Oh, this one's all caps. A little

25:32

louder for the white feminists in the back.

25:34

it's it's just it's funny how easy it is to imitate us,

25:36

like, hello fellow American. Yeah. Wait. How

25:38

do I do a Russian accent? Can do a Russian accent? And and

25:40

then at the it says, like, retweet

25:42

to tell white feminists it's occupy

25:45

occupy democrats. Have

25:45

you noticed that white feminism is

25:47

not like, you could just mooch around the jumble

25:49

of it's like Mad Libs. Yeah. Right.

25:52

So to be fair, the article

25:54

does include this, but it

25:56

is maddeningly difficult to say with

25:58

any certainty what effect Russian influence

26:00

operations have had on the United States because

26:03

when they took hold, they piggy backed on

26:05

real social divisions. Once

26:07

pumped into American discourse, the

26:09

Russian trace vanishes like water that has been added

26:11

to a swimming pool. This creates a

26:13

conundrum for disinformation specialists, many of

26:15

whom say the impact of Russian interventions

26:17

has been overblown. After

26:19

the twenty sixteen presidential election, blaming unwelcome

26:21

outcomes on Russia became the emotional

26:23

way out. Said Thomas Ridge, author

26:25

of active measures, the secret history of

26:28

disinformation political warfare. So, like, this comes

26:30

at the end of the article, but the whole article

26:33

exists to draw this link. Like, the Russian

26:35

trolls had something to do with this. I think the truth

26:37

is, like, they might have had

26:39

almost no effect. I mean, do

26:41

you think it's fair to say that this is just like an easy

26:43

out for people who suck at politics and like

26:45

running organizations? Yeah. I

26:46

mean, it's it's super convenient and this, of course,

26:48

also builds on all of the what was the

26:50

name of the during the election? The what

26:53

was the name of that company?

26:55

Oh, Cambridge Analytics. Yeah. This builds on

26:56

all of the Cambridge Analytics stuff, which

26:59

I don't think anybody ever

27:01

was, like, a major story, but I don't

27:03

think anybody has proved that Cambridge Analytics actually

27:05

had some or or the Russians had some,

27:07

you know, major impact on the election. Yeah.

27:10

So

27:10

I don't remember that story detail, but I remember there was

27:12

this weird thing going on where, like, banning

27:14

and them wanted to seem

27:16

like data geniuses and then, like, liberal

27:19

outlets just lapped up this idea that they had a

27:21

super sophisticated operation. So

27:23

I think a lot of journalists writing

27:26

about you know, both like campaign

27:28

analytics and the Russian trolling, just like

27:30

don't really know much about it and just

27:32

accept certain claims. at

27:34

face value. And none of this is to say that the Russians

27:37

didn't do some shit, but I remember seeing like these

27:39

bizarre Facebook memes and groups that usually

27:41

had very few members. Like, they're just we're

27:43

not In this Times article, you will not

27:45

see you will not see a lot

27:47

of examples of like super successful

27:49

viral Russian operations because I

27:51

don't know. It's just It's just

27:53

a weird story line, which people be more skeptical

27:55

of it.

27:56

Yeah. I do think that

27:59

do think that claims of antisemitism are

28:02

sometimes overblown. And

28:04

in some spaces, people really

28:06

do equate criticisms of of

28:09

Israel -- Sure. -- with anti absenteeism.

28:11

That's for sure. Like, did you

28:13

see that New York Times

28:16

did this big feature on aesthetic

28:18

schools in New York? Yeah.

28:19

And basically just showing that they don't

28:22

actually educate their kids at all.

28:23

Right. Right. Or they educate them and according

28:26

to their specific, you know, cultural

28:28

norms. So not in terms of, you know, things

28:30

that you would expect public schools to

28:32

be teaching. and the reporting was incredibly

28:34

thorough. And I did see

28:36

a number of people of Jewish critics on

28:38

Twitter claiming that this was just

28:40

purely anti Semitic. I don't think that was fair

28:42

at all. Yeah. But then you also

28:44

see like, you know, you see people like

28:47

Alice Walker are lauded

28:49

in the media, lauded in the media.

28:51

And then you you read about what Alice like

28:53

Alice Walker is an anti semite. Do you think

28:55

that's fair to say?

28:57

Yeah. And and Oregon

29:00

is obviously the android. Is that also their for the

29:02

size of the history? Oh, like Yeah.

29:05

it's hard because the the accusation is weaponized.

29:07

I've experienced a lot of like it's

29:10

it's honestly

29:12

I think it's gotten a little bit better, but

29:14

it's a little bit of the same sort of hysteria you

29:16

see where it's like, oh, you're skeptical of

29:18

you transition, you want trans people to die.

29:20

It's like, oh, you criticizing Israel. What do you

29:22

want another holocaust? It's like, no.

29:25

That's not a good way to have conversations.

29:26

Right. And I have found that some of

29:28

the same people who are

29:31

skeptical of claims of that racism is

29:33

everywhere. Do you see

29:35

anti Semitism everywhere? Oh, of

29:36

course. Yeah. It's in and,

29:39

you know, I can understand why people see

29:41

antisemitism everywhere. It's like one of the most

29:43

ancient and pervasive forms of hatred, but

29:45

that doesn't mean every disagreement.

29:48

can be boiled out to antisemitism. Makes up disagreements between

29:50

ours, which are mostly made by antisemitism.

29:52

I thought

29:52

they were homophobia. That too is

29:54

one or the other. Anything

29:56

else on this, Katie? Just

29:57

be scared. Do better.

29:59

Do better.

29:59

every time you see people just blaming Russia

30:02

blaming some foreign source or something like that,

30:04

just be

30:05

skeptical. I seeing people blaming

30:07

Russia for Ukraine being invaded. That's

30:09

like -- Yeah. -- come on, man. They keep coming.

30:11

You

30:11

know what that is? That's Russian misinformation.

30:14

Russophobia. Mhmm.

30:17

And I'm a Russafile. Okay. Housekeeping.

30:19

Let's

30:19

do it. We

30:20

are blocked and reported. We're in a

30:23

podcast. If you like us, go to block to reporter dot

30:25

org, where for five

30:27

dollars a month or more, you can get three

30:29

extra episodes of this very podcast a

30:31

month and join a growing community that's

30:33

now over around nine thousand

30:35

people, which is insane. Katie,

30:37

what's the story we're about to record

30:39

for premium subscribers?

30:41

This is a good one. This is about a UK food blogger

30:44

and a activist against poverty

30:46

named Jack Monroe, who

30:48

may not be all that chiefs

30:50

she is.

30:50

Oh, wait, Jack. Jack is a she? Yes.

30:53

Alright. It's kinda cool. It's

30:54

confusing though. It's con it you'll you'll

30:56

understand a little while. Maybe trans, maybe

30:58

non trans goes by maybe not

31:00

because by she, we'll get to it. Wow.

31:02

A mystery like that

31:04

lady who writes some mysteries.

31:07

we have a Reddit, a Reddit, blockchain portal dot red

31:09

dot com. We have those

31:11

tour we have that tour coming up. What

31:13

else do we have? Right. Maria Sanchez? Yes.

31:16

Alright, Katie. We have been

31:19

thrust into the role of

31:21

giving people advice. Yeah. We've

31:22

been thrust into it because you specifically asked

31:24

for questions. I don't know how it happened, but somehow we

31:26

kept getting these questions or -- Let's -- handful

31:28

of them. So we're gonna list them now and try to

31:30

answer. We'll see how this goes. We should emphasize

31:33

that Katie and I have

31:35

no genuine life skills or insights both of

31:37

our own lives are incomplete shambles. So

31:40

I I don't know why we're doing this, but let's see

31:42

how it goes.

31:43

Hey, I will say, I have had two advice columns.

31:45

One was a COVID advice

31:47

column for I forgot the magazine.

31:50

And the other one was years ago,

31:52

I did a column called

31:54

don't ask do tell. It was unsolicited

31:56

advice and because nobody asked

31:58

me for questions, I would go and

32:00

I would take questions to places like savage love or slate,

32:03

and I would give them better

32:05

answers. I like that.

32:05

That's a good format. But let's dive

32:08

into it. Hi, Jesse.

32:09

Hi, Katie. A long time listener

32:11

of the podcast. Y'all are great.

32:14

And I am looking for

32:16

some dating advice today.

32:19

So I am a twenty

32:21

five year old man living in Louisville,

32:23

Kentucky. My name is Jared.

32:25

And I am very

32:28

career driven, and I also care

32:30

a lot about my hobbies.

32:32

And trying to balance those

32:34

two things while also trying

32:37

to find a girlfriend is

32:39

basically impossible.

32:42

I work makes me travel a lot

32:44

so I'm just out, you know, and

32:47

my hobbies are kind of niche like I do a lot

32:49

of circus arts and I understand that not everyone

32:51

is interested in things like that.

32:54

So how do I balance that? What do

32:56

I do? And am I an

32:58

asshole for

33:01

wanting

33:01

a significant other that's interested in

33:04

the same

33:04

things and also understands

33:07

that I'm just very busy

33:09

in general. Thanks

33:10

to the advice once again. Y'all are

33:12

great. Bye. I guess,

33:14

taking the

33:14

last question first, like, I don't I

33:16

don't think you're asset. I think it's great you have so many interests

33:18

and so much going on in your life.

33:21

But Katie, like, one thing that jumped out at me

33:23

from this one was The

33:25

very different way your life is structured at twenty

33:27

five or thirty five because tell me if

33:29

this happened with you. But for me, as you

33:32

get in your thirties, you

33:34

sort of need to, like, very specifically set

33:36

aside time for specific interests

33:38

and people. And if you don't

33:40

maintain relationships, people you'll fall out of touch with

33:42

people. I feel like twenty five if things

33:44

are going well. You know, a lot of

33:46

stuff should just sort of go together. Like, there's probably so

33:48

you probably socialize and date the people you work or

33:51

hobby with. You have a lot of free time. You

33:53

have fewer obligations. What do you think? Jesse, I

33:54

can't answer that question because I'm too busy trying

33:56

to figure out what the fuck circus hearts are. That

33:59

seems to me the most important part of this. Are

34:01

we talking to an actual a

34:03

clown.

34:03

Like a trapeze guy. A sad cloud.

34:05

This is important. I'm gonna Google circus arts. Yeah.

34:07

It's what I thought it was. It's like, I guess, aerial

34:09

stuff and stunts. Wouldn't

34:11

that Wouldn't you think that there'd be lot of women doing that? Okay. That

34:13

actually sounds pretty cool. Yeah. But if

34:15

he's talking about being a clown, I can see why

34:17

he's having trouble finding woman or

34:19

a mom. Bad communication.

34:22

Yeah. I mean, this I I agree

34:24

with you. I think at twenty five -- Yep.

34:26

Twenty five twenty five is a time for having fun. Twenty five, I don't think

34:28

people should even really be, like, settling down

34:30

and trying to have long term relationships at twenty

34:32

five because the likelihood that they're

34:36

gonna be sort of the lasting one is I

34:38

think pretty small. So I don't think that

34:40

this is something that he should stress out about

34:43

too much if you're having trouble meeting people in person, get

34:45

on apps. Apps are a really convenient way to meet

34:47

people. And the good thing about apps is that you

34:49

also meet people who you

34:51

wouldn't otherwise meet in real life. You wouldn't meet

34:53

them through circus school or through work or

34:56

whatever. Howard Bauchner: Yeah,

34:56

I think I think you can also use

34:59

the you do something unusual and

35:01

something that based on the images I'm

35:03

seeing looks cool. Like, I do think

35:05

a lot of, like, dating stuff in

35:07

the age of apps is just setting up

35:09

as many first dates as possible as you can squeeze in

35:11

a number game. It's a numbers game. It really is.

35:14

And I people complain that sounds

35:16

heartless. You algorithm blah blah blah. But like back in the day, people would just go

35:18

to bars and they'd hit

35:20

on two hundred people. Now now the

35:22

hard part of, like, approaching someone to setting up

35:24

a date actually easier and

35:26

automated. I think it's better. So

35:28

why not, like, use this as one

35:30

of the use it to advertise yourself to

35:32

stand out from the other dudes

35:34

who don't hang from ring to dress up as a clown or whatever.

35:36

Like, I was with you about, like,

35:38

twenty five is too young. I do think people from

35:40

backgrounds are different than

35:42

ours. Like, Sure. Have very different pressures.

35:44

Like, I remember, I finished up

35:46

college at Michigan and, like, people whom, like, small

35:48

town, Ohio,

35:50

and Michigan It was really

35:52

expected they'd be married in the early twenties,

35:54

but that's just like, I don't know what to tell

35:56

you about that. One other

35:56

thing he said, I'm not sure it makes

35:59

him an asshole to expect his partner to have the same hobbies

36:01

as him, but it's gonna really narrow down the

36:03

number of people who who

36:05

he can date. and I don't think

36:07

it's necessary to have the same hobbies as your partner. Frankly, if my wife were

36:10

hyper online, I would find her --

36:12

Yes. -- terrible. I don't wanna be around somebody

36:14

who's online all the

36:16

time. It's sometimes it's really good

36:18

to have different interests in life. Yeah. Yeah. And,

36:19

realistically, I don't think a lot of people date who

36:21

have, like, hugely

36:24

overlapping like, you don't wanna,

36:26

like, date someone who hates all your music,

36:28

who hates all the movies you like. But,

36:30

like, that's, like, that's dating. It's

36:32

I don't know. It's a little bit not that he was suggesting this, but it's a

36:34

little bit immature to think you'll meet someone who's just, like, into all the same stuff as

36:37

you. Unless you're, like, doing the pull

36:39

up on the rings, school

36:42

and you look across and you see a woman doing the

36:44

same thing, and then you just marry her that day. Or

36:46

you're lacing up

36:46

your giant shoes and you see a woman who's

36:49

putting on her clothes. or

36:50

you're a mime on the street and you see another mime on

36:52

the street who's hot and you're like, hey, and you're

36:54

like, oh shit, I'm not supposed to talk. And I think it

36:57

might

36:57

be a competitive and there's only

36:59

so many mimes you can have on one This is my block

37:01

motherfucker. Yeah. But you can't say it. You

37:03

have

37:03

the mimement. Alright. Should we move

37:04

on to the next one? Yep.

37:07

Hey, guys.

37:08

I'm a twenty three year old

37:10

female, and I'm a my

37:12

final year of law school. I go

37:14

to law school in Southern Virginia. but

37:17

this past been semester. I

37:20

was taking classes in DC.

37:22

When I was there, I met someone and we've been

37:24

going out for the past. nine months,

37:26

but we're not official.

37:29

I cannot speak highly

37:31

enough of him. He's pretty

37:33

smart. He's funny. He's a really good person,

37:36

very empathetic. And

37:38

the only thing we've ever

37:40

disagreed on was, like, is real and

37:43

pal sign, but we were able to role

37:45

play to work out the case of

37:47

our differences. So pun intended,

37:50

The issue is is that around six months ago,

37:52

we had a conversation and

37:54

kind of agreed that this wasn't going

37:56

to be anything long term.

37:58

just because I was implanting on staying in the

37:59

DC area.

38:01

Since then,

38:03

my

38:03

plans have

38:06

changed I am in DC5 days a week

38:08

for an externship this semester and

38:10

then I'm applying to full time jobs.

38:14

in DC after I graduate. He knows all this. We

38:16

talk

38:17

almost every day, but

38:18

everyday ah flies

38:21

he hasn't re

38:22

broached the conversation, the

38:24

topic about us making things

38:27

more long term. And so my

38:30

question is, is this something that I

38:32

should bring up to him?

38:34

Or is this a

38:36

case of oh, if he wanted to, he would. And I should

38:38

just enjoy the friendship

38:40

for what it

38:42

is. And not push him. I don't

38:44

wanna push him or make him uncomfortable. I

38:46

don't think he deserves that. The

38:48

third option would be

38:50

just waiting this out until and

38:52

sustaining the situation shift so that I

38:54

could try to convince him to do

38:56

a couple's costume of

38:58

Abi and Ben Ship here out.

39:01

So those are my thoughts. Please let me know what you

39:03

think I could use the advice. I mean, the couples

39:05

cost them. Abi and Ben Shapiro, very hot couple.

39:07

I think that's the way to go. by the

39:09

way, for people who don't know their

39:11

siblings. I thought that I assumed that was his wife. I

39:14

didn't know that. I think that

39:15

wait. Let me check this out. I think

39:17

that's

39:17

his sister. Is she a fellow? I don't even know

39:19

what she does. Yeah. That's

39:21

that's a sister.

39:22

I was did she

39:24

say pun intended or no really

39:26

Palestinian? Oh, no. Fun intended.

39:29

Fun

39:29

intended. What what

39:30

what advice would you have

39:33

Okay. My advice if I were an actual advice

39:36

columnist, I think I would have one

39:38

blanket piece of advice, which is user

39:40

words. Just talk to

39:42

the guy. maybe he's not hasn't brought it up because you haven't brought it

39:44

up. It seems like a really easy solution, and it

39:46

doesn't sound like he would be

39:48

super wounded to find out that he's not

39:50

interested in

39:52

something long term. So just use your words. Yeah. Just use your words.

39:54

Or

39:54

or or play

39:54

in this podcast, and we

39:57

can

39:57

use our words. Use

39:59

our words. Yeah. I was gonna say something similar,

40:01

which is just, like, literally, just say, like, look,

40:03

I've enjoyed hanging out with you. Our situation

40:05

has changed. Now we are in the same

40:07

place. I'm curious, where you think this

40:09

is going if anywhere, and especially if you're as chill as you sound about it, and your your

40:11

main goal is to be Ben

40:14

and Avishopiro, Just

40:16

tell him that. I mean, the stereotypical guy would probably appreciate

40:18

that flexibility of, like, it can be what

40:20

you want to be. And if you

40:23

just continue hooking up while you're

40:25

in the same agree completely. I

40:27

think, like, God knows I should not be giving

40:29

advice in general. I've I've said that

40:31

repeatedly, but, like, for younger

40:33

people dealing with dating things just

40:36

say what you're thinking. There's we're

40:38

so trained from a young age to

40:40

be like, to play games and to not come on too strong. And there's

40:42

wisdom in that, because you're on a great date with someone.

40:44

You don't wanna immediately send them an email

40:46

and a text,

40:48

but, like, you have to wait exactly three days and then be

40:50

noncommittal, like, just just talk, which is

40:52

hard, but as you get older and as you talk more

40:54

gets

40:55

much easier. I think these two I think they could figure out the

40:57

Israel Palestinian conflict. Through

41:00

through role play?

41:00

Through role play. Yeah. I'm trying to think what that

41:02

would you could do like a a border

41:06

crossing? Can I see your pipe? Yeah. There's a lot of

41:08

possibilities there. Yeah. Yeah. We can skip

41:10

that. Anything else on

41:12

this one? There's always seems like fairly straightforward

41:14

as far as advice goes, possibly

41:16

because she presented herself as like not

41:18

being that invested in it? I

41:20

think

41:20

when they do the couple's costumes,

41:22

she should be and he should

41:23

be happy. That would be hilarious. Gender

41:25

is just a construct.

41:28

Mhmm. Alright. Should we do the nice

41:30

one? Yep. Hey,

41:30

Black to a reported advice thirty year old

41:32

female living in the Northeast United States.

41:36

I'm wondering

41:37

what advice you can give

41:39

me when it comes to befriending somebody that you previously milked as a law

41:42

cow. I cross

41:45

paths with someone through a dating

41:46

app a few years ago who works

41:49

in the same industry as me

41:51

only to realize that she has an

41:53

Internet presence that is very closely monitored by

41:54

obsessive people on the

41:57

Internet. She has an entire hate

41:59

blog devoted

41:59

to her. and

42:02

I can possibly have read this blog for

42:04

three

42:05

years now

42:07

knowing that

42:09

the painting of

42:11

her being painted is probably

42:13

very unrealistic. I just found the whole thing very

42:15

entertaining. It was like a

42:17

daily soap opera that I enjoyed watching. Also

42:20

because as someone in the same industry as me, it

42:22

helped me feel a lot more secure about

42:24

my abilities within that industry and in

42:26

my career,

42:28

Anyways, recently a friend of ours, a mutual friend of ours connected us

42:31

via social media, and we've

42:33

actually been following each other

42:35

on Instagram now. How do I come clean

42:37

to this person that I know almost

42:40

every detail

42:40

about their life from the past three

42:42

years because of this website?

42:45

I'm

42:45

really worried

42:46

that I will just

42:48

scare her, but she knows the deal.

42:50

She knows this vlog exists and I

42:53

have gained a lot of compassion and empathy for her situation.

42:55

And I also think it would be I'm

42:57

not I'm just trying to figure out if it

42:58

would be helpful for me for me to

43:02

explain the

43:03

situation or hurtful. And

43:06

then I'm also a little worried of my

43:07

my own

43:10

motivations like becoming friends with her

43:12

kinda

43:12

gives me special access to her life. And that's

43:14

something I've used for like sort of

43:16

a cringe entertainment for quite some time.

43:20

So I'm just trying to see if there's

43:22

life after cringe, you know, life after basically,

43:26

can can

43:26

the locale become your friend?

43:29

Wow. Life after cringe. What a concept? Well,

43:31

I'm qualified to answer this one because of

43:33

my own burgeoning close friendship

43:35

with scaffolds. So there's

43:38

no friendship with Kaffel's. I

43:40

I found this was in

43:43

addition to being our most online

43:45

question. It was it was tangled because my initial response was

43:48

Who the hell is it? Well, yeah, that.

43:50

But also, I was initially, like,

43:53

look just tell her. She'll appreciate that you don't fall for the

43:56

bullshit and the stalking and the obsession.

43:58

But then, I listen closer. It's like it

43:59

sounds like this person was themselves pretty

44:02

obsessed with this person. They're now in a position to

44:04

be real life friends with, which makes it complicated,

44:06

I think. Yeah. I

44:07

would not tell if you actually wanna be

44:09

friends with this person and

44:11

maybe that's the wrong thing to but I don't think like,

44:13

if somebody said this to me, I was

44:15

obsessively reading a hate blog about you

44:17

for three years. I would

44:19

not. I would run the other

44:21

fucking direction. I know. But I just think if

44:23

okay. Let's say they become friends and it starts

44:26

to blossom this is

44:28

not gonna go away as an issue for the per the

44:30

person who wrote in is just gonna be thinking about it

44:32

a lot. I just think it's the

44:34

kind of thing that could get sort of metastasize unless you

44:36

just dip it in the butt early. You could just

44:38

you don't need to, like, provide tell the truth in,

44:41

like, all the glory details, but you

44:43

could be, like, you know, I did come across this blog. I knew it

44:45

was bullshit, but some part of me was interested in. I hope

44:48

that's not weird. I'd still like to be friends with you, or do you

44:50

think that would not go

44:52

well? Yeah.

44:52

yeah I

44:53

think I think that would that's fair,

44:55

but it doesn't actually sound like the truth. It

44:58

sounds like this person was sort

45:00

of obsessive about it. This is a

45:02

fascinating question. Jesse, would you

45:04

be friends with a local with one

45:06

of your locales? You mean,

45:07

with someone

45:10

I've stocked obsessively online. The thousands of people have done that too.

45:12

Yeah. I

45:13

okay. I'm

45:14

trying to think of like an actual locale.

45:16

I mean, I know you've tried.

45:18

Oh, yeah. I'm constantly people. Yeah. I think

45:21

if I met someone in real life

45:23

and they seemed cool, And

45:25

then I out that they were being, like,

45:28

obsessively watched online. I'm guessing

45:30

in real life a lot of people are

45:32

pretty normal. The lowly is

45:33

Okay. But that's not the scenario. The scenario is that you knew this in

45:35

advance of meeting this person. No, man. That would

45:37

be so weird.

45:40

just as because you have this whole view of them in

45:42

your head based on their worst posts, and then you meet them in

45:45

real life. You know, it's probably

45:46

in, like, real

45:48

life, the the reality is probably you're the

45:51

local. How

45:51

so? I just think that you're more likely

45:53

to be the low you're

45:56

the person who someone is most is more likely to have read

45:58

about for years. Oh, you mean for you and

45:59

me specifically? Right. For not not for

46:02

me, for

46:04

you. Why

46:04

am I? because you're the local.

46:06

Jesus. Wait. If I love the

46:08

person she's talking about, this girl would

46:11

become friends with me, but She's

46:13

hesitant. I think it's Taylor. The

46:16

I'm

46:16

gonna I'm gonna write her and find out.

46:18

That's an interesting question. Yeah. I

46:21

I don't think you can be fully I'm in favor of honesty. I just we said that in the

46:23

last answer. Sometimes if you want to maintain

46:25

a relationship, you can't go

46:28

full honesty. Right? You have to -- Absolutely. -- appreciate the truth a little bit. not

46:30

be a time for full honesty. I disagree with

46:32

you, Katie, that you can just ignore this because it'll it'll be

46:34

bouncing around with the brain or the person who wrote

46:38

Okay. This maybe this this says something about me, but the idea

46:40

of, like, making friends with

46:42

somebody who I've been obsessed with

46:44

on the like, that's to me. Sounds

46:47

fucking fascinating. It sounds wonderful, but

46:50

I don't know that I could I could comment that

46:52

with like any genuine desire to be friends

46:54

with this person. It would just be

46:56

for more So

46:57

you think that she okay.

46:59

So this person I think she

47:00

should milk it. I think she should continue to milk the

47:02

local. I know. I think this person that's the

47:05

the risk, though, is that she feels like she's just

47:07

being a good friend, getting to know this

47:09

person, but subconsciously, she's feverishly

47:11

working those others. she's

47:13

squeezing on. Filling herself with more low count milk. Yeah.

47:16

Wow. That's that's such, man. That

47:18

was a good one. That is a good one.

47:19

We should ask an actual advice

47:21

columnist about this. I'll text Dan. We are.

47:23

Okay. Thanks. Hi, Jesse and

47:25

Katie. Long time listener,

47:28

first time

47:30

problem submits I got a

47:32

bit of a doozy of relationship issue on

47:34

my hands at the moment. I'm

47:36

English as you can probably tell. And a

47:38

couple years ago, I married a woman

47:40

from California. And,

47:42

yeah, we love each other very much.

47:44

We've got two kids, and

47:46

we now live in California, but

47:49

initially, there was a lot of fanfare

47:51

when we got married, my parents were really supportive,

47:53

my dad was really supportive, and

47:55

my stepmom. But

47:58

over time, things became really tense and really

47:59

difficult. And yeah, there was a

48:02

bit of a a bit of a rift

48:04

formed, and I didn't actually speak to my dad

48:06

for a very

48:08

long time. And now

48:10

just in the last

48:11

week, my grandma died.

48:14

And me and my wife have

48:16

come to the UK to be the

48:18

funeral and some of the yeah.

48:21

Just like see the family. And,

48:24

yeah, things are just really tense.

48:26

I've worried about my

48:29

wife. She's can be

48:31

a little bit of a diva. So,

48:33

yeah, things are just difficult and wide. There'll

48:35

be some kind of upset. Things are really

48:37

tense with my brother who's like got a position

48:39

of prominence within the

48:42

family. And I just worried about

48:44

how my dad's gonna deal with his new role now that my grandma's dead. And, yeah,

48:46

I just really like some advice

48:50

from Yeah. 2III

48:53

guess relationship experts. Thanks. Look forward

48:55

to hearing from

48:58

you. Bye.

48:58

Okay. So my my operating theory with this one was we were being

49:00

trolled, and this is from some like very famous

49:02

film or book, neither Russ

49:04

have read because we're uncultured. our

49:07

Jesse,

49:07

wait wait wait. Do you is that really what you think? Yeah. You know, I've

49:09

always thought that you were like a little bit

49:11

smarter than me. And right now

49:14

is when I completely

49:16

changed that opinion. He's talking about the fucking

49:18

British family.

49:19

Ugh. This

49:22

is friend Harry. Friends Harry. Listen to our vloggers. You

49:24

fucking want Well, I did not pick up on that

49:26

way. Did anyone when I tweeted it today, would

49:28

pick up on it. What did you

49:31

What did you tweet? Does a film novel have this

49:33

plot? Britt Mary's Californian woman and

49:36

settles there. His parents are supportive at first

49:38

and he becomes

49:40

strange straight from his dad. I didn't go back over the UK with

49:42

his wife for his grandpa's funeral, and things

49:44

are

49:44

fucking fucking idiot. So far

49:46

to dumb. Oh my god. you

49:50

are not qualified to give any funny advice, especially Prince Harry.

49:52

What would you what

49:53

advice would you give to Markle

49:55

and Harry? God.

49:56

Well, he didn't really ask

49:58

question. He just wanted some general advice. I guess my advice would

50:00

be, take the money and

50:02

run, baby. Take the money and run. That's

50:04

so funny. That

50:05

like, I was I

50:08

was smart enough to get that it wasn't legitimate

50:10

question, but too dumb to know that they

50:12

were just referring to one of the most famous planets

50:15

on planet. which happens

50:16

to be a very famous current event

50:18

happening right now. Well, that's the

50:19

quality of advice you'll get. If you write

50:22

in advice with an MP3

50:24

block reporter are we doing this again at

50:26

some point? I hope not. Block reporter podcast at gmail dot

50:28

com, advice in the subject line. Was it

50:31

MP3I got a couple

50:33

m four a's or whatever the fuck. I had to convert them

50:36

which was just horrible. So just

50:38

say, come

50:40

on. or a wave if

50:42

you're feeling

50:42

saucy. So what's your advice for prince Harry? If I were prince Harry, which

50:44

in certain

50:45

respects, I am, mhmm,

50:49

I would like find a really maybe

50:51

he's already done this. But find a really random hobby

50:54

like circus arts and just get

50:56

all my money to get to get really good at it

50:58

or whatever hobby you can pick up in your thirties and

51:00

get good at. What advice would you

51:02

give them? I think Prince Harry should

51:03

come out as a terf.

51:04

I thought you're gonna say come on our podcast. Well, not

51:06

too.

51:07

But I think he should come on as a terf. I think

51:09

that would change the narrative a little bit. Do

51:11

you have

51:11

information about him being a

51:13

terf? I don't have any inside information, but I think most people are

51:15

turf. So I think Pittsburgh probably is one

51:17

too. Yeah.

51:18

Yeah. I could see that happening.

51:20

That is very funny that I did not get that. There were also so many

51:22

clues. It wasn't he went on. Yeah. Ninety

51:24

six. Not subtle. It wasn't like Not

51:27

subtle at all. Well, I'm

51:29

done. I guess we've learned one thing, which is that

51:31

I'm an idiot. I guess we didn't do

51:33

it. Anyway, thank thank you everyone who

51:36

wrote in. We will yeah, send us more

51:38

questions if we get good ones, we'll do this again, but that

51:40

was a nice nice little change of pace

51:42

from all the fake prosthetic

51:44

boobs and so

51:44

and this advice is not legally binding. It is actually. I with

51:46

water. This has

51:48

been blocked and reported. As always, we are produced

51:50

with help from tracing wood grains. Thank you,

51:54

trace. I'm Jesse Single. And remember, in Soviet Russia,

51:56

you troll troll. And

51:58

I'm Katie Herzog, and

51:59

also remember, tofu will

52:02

not make your breast grow.

52:04

Tempe will.