0:00

DraftKings sportsbook, an official sports

0:02

betting partner, the NFL, is officially

0:04

live. Now you can legally bet on all

0:06

your favorite sports anytime and anywhere

0:09

right here in Ohio with DraftKings. For

0:11

a limited time, new customers who sign

0:13

up with promo code clock and bet five

0:15

dollars or more will receive two hundred

0:18

dollars in bonus bets instantly. DraftKings

0:20

has the best features including same game

0:23

parleys, player prompts, and more

0:25

with fast and easy payouts right at

0:27

your fingertips. Download the DraftKings

0:29

sportsbook app now. New customers can

0:31

use promo code clock to get two

0:33

hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly

0:35

when you place a five dollar bet on anything

0:38

only at DraftKings sportsbook with

0:40

code clock. Gambling problem called

0:42

one eight hundred gambler, twenty one and over and

0:44

physically present in Ohio. Valent one offer

0:47

per first time depositors who have not already

0:49

redeemed two hundred dollars and free bet to be a pre

0:51

launch offer. Minimum five dollar deposit in

0:53

wager, two hundred dollars issued as bonus bets,

0:55

eligibility restrictions apply, see DKNG

0:58

dot co slash o h per terms.

1:00

Fill her up. You're listening

1:03

to the Cash Digital Network.

1:08

We need to roll back the state. We

1:11

spy on all of our own citizens. Our prisons

1:13

are flooded with nonviolent

1:15

drug offenders. If you wanna know who America's

1:17

next enemy is. Look

1:20

at who we're funding right now. Everything on one

1:22

of these problems are result of government doing

1:24

way too big. What's

1:34

up everybody? Welcome to brand new part

1:36

of the problem. I am, of course, the libertarian

1:39

two pack Dave Smith. He is the king

1:41

of the cocks, Robbie, the fireburnstein. What's

1:43

up, brother? I'm at for Saint

1:45

Louis, dude. Hit in the road. That's

1:47

right. This this weekend, we are going to Saint

1:50

Louis. There are still some tickets available

1:52

Go grab them. Comic dave smith dot com has

1:54

all the ticket links up there. Saint

1:57

Louis funny bone. Here we come. The

1:59

next week after that, we're gonna be in one

2:01

night only in Perryville, Maryland.

2:03

Those tickets are selling very fast. If you wanna

2:05

come to the show, go grab them right now.

2:08

And then off to the races, a

2:10

bunch of stuff coming up in in next few

2:12

months. So, yeah, looking forward

2:14

to seeing some of you guys on the road and

2:16

adding a bunch more dates that'll all be

2:18

up on the website soon. So go check

2:20

it out, comic gave smith dot com for

2:22

all our live shows. Doing live stand

2:25

up shows and live podcasts as

2:27

well. So, come on come

2:29

on out. Have some fun. Alright.

2:31

So Let's

2:34

start off today's show right

2:36

with a nice little moment over

2:39

at CNN This was

2:42

something I know you had sent I saw Tom

2:44

Elliott had posted these

2:48

some some of the clips from this show. Tom Elliott,

2:50

by the way, I've I've mentioned them

2:52

several times on the show before, great Twitter

2:54

follow. One of the best Twitter followers

2:56

out there. He is essentially I mean,

2:58

he he adds he he's

3:00

kind of like the lips of TikTok

3:02

version of the corporate press. Where

3:05

his lived at TikTok, like, kind of focuses on,

3:07

you know, insane, like,

3:09

public school vokeness. He's

3:12

he's for the most part, like, he makes

3:14

some commentary sometimes, but for the

3:16

most part, he just shows you what

3:18

the corporate press is saying. I

3:20

think he makes these great like montages,

3:22

like supercuts, and it'll be like,

3:24

hey, throwback. this

3:26

is what they said about. The lockdowns.

3:29

This is what they said about the vaccines.

3:31

And it's almost like there's no comment

3:33

even needed. You know what I mean?

3:35

You're just like, mhmm. Here we go. Look,

3:37

this is what they were saying. Mhmm. This

3:39

is indefensible. So

3:41

anyway, I saw he posted

3:44

some clips of this. So

3:46

Dr. Lina Wen was

3:49

on CNN recently to discuss

3:51

an article that she wrote on

3:54

the on the Washington Post there. A

3:56

couple of things I wanna say before we start

3:59

this. Number one, just to

4:01

be clear, so no one is mistaken

4:03

here. Lena Wen is one

4:05

of the bad guys. She is, not one

4:07

of the good guys. However,

4:09

she has somewhat taken

4:11

a turn. And this is how a lot of these

4:14

things happen. I'm

4:16

not saying it's like a conspiracy

4:18

theory. Or that she's controlled

4:20

opposition or some something like that.

4:23

But usually, this is how these things happen.

4:26

Whether it's by design or

4:28

not, is that some of the bad guys who

4:30

are awful, they start kind of

4:32

playing the role of hey,

4:34

I think we've gone a little bit too far,

4:37

and then they try to kind of

4:39

draw some of the anti establishment

4:41

support behind them while never

4:43

actually going all the way, you know,

4:45

and taking the correct position. So

4:47

they kind of control the dissident

4:50

energy. If you guys don't remember,

4:52

Lena Winn, it was

4:54

famously, there's a video that we

4:56

we we played on

4:58

the show, that that this was back in two

5:00

thousand twenty one, right as the vaccines

5:02

were were coming out where she was

5:05

saying we really can't end all of

5:07

these restrictions right now because

5:09

then we won't have anything to incentivize

5:11

people to take the vaccine with.

5:13

So we can't give them their freedom. We have

5:16

to say we'll give you your freedom contingent on

5:18

you taking the vaccine. No exaggeration.

5:20

This is what this woman was arguing. So keep

5:22

in mind, She's one of the bad guys,

5:24

but she's starting to tell the truth a little

5:26

bit now. Okay.

5:29

0II should mention also before we

5:32

play the clip, that the the article

5:34

that they're talking about is that she she

5:36

wrote an article basically just saying that

5:38

we are over counting COVID deaths

5:40

and COVID hospitalizations. Okay,

5:43

let's play a little bit and then me and you can

5:45

discuss. Right?

5:46

Doctor, these are two separate things here. Overcounting

5:48

deaths and overcounting hospitalizations.

5:51

As you know, I covered this closely being

5:53

in the Trump White House when this happened, talked

5:56

to a lot of health officials about this who were actually kind

5:58

of skeptical of this claim that you're

6:00

making. And I think one big thing has been, what

6:02

is the evidence? That these COVID

6:04

deaths are actually being over counted.

6:08

Well, this is the reason why this kind of transparent

6:10

reporting is going to be so important. There

6:13

is a way for us to look at death

6:15

certificates and also to look at

6:17

the medical records of individuals prior

6:19

to the death. And I think that needs to be separated

6:21

into three categories. One is

6:24

the COVID as a direct

6:26

contributor, the primary cause of death.

6:28

The second is, could it be a secondary

6:30

contributing cause. So for example, somebody

6:32

with kidney disease, COVID then

6:34

pushes them over the edge to have kidney failure.

6:36

That's COVID as a contributing cause. And

6:39

then the third is COVID as an incidental

6:41

finding. So somebody come in with a gunshot wound

6:43

or a heart attack and they happen to test positive.

6:45

I think that we need to separate out

6:47

and look at the percentages of each, that

6:49

percentage would have shifted over time as

6:51

well. In the beginning, probably a lot

6:53

where people were dying with the primary cause of

6:55

COVID. That probably has shifted.

6:57

And I think, again, we need to understand this.

6:59

Another reason to understand this too is a lot

7:01

of people are wondering when they should get a booster

7:04

next when do we need a second booster or another

7:06

booster? And the only way we can

7:08

know for sure is to understand who is

7:10

getting severely ill and

7:11

when. But doesn't that change who

7:14

Okay. So that's the first clip. We're gonna play another

7:16

clip in a second. I just find it,

7:19

like, fascinating to see these

7:21

three uncomfortable CNN,

7:24

you know, talking heads.

7:26

Sitting there is she they go, well, what evidence

7:28

do we have for this? And it's like, well, no. We're saying

7:30

this is the way they're counting. The

7:32

deaths, and this is a crazy way to count

7:34

it. We should obviously be distinguished. I mean, this

7:36

is so obvious. Obviously, we

7:38

should we should separate at least into these

7:40

three categories that she mentions here. But

7:42

it really is something about that

7:44

time, the the effect that

7:46

time has on the

7:50

on the narrative and on

7:53

the the kind of controlled

7:55

discourse and the

7:58

outrage about these things, it's just something.

8:00

Right? For people who and

8:02

again, it's not like I'm saying like, oh, this

8:04

is the way things were in the nineteen twenties.

8:07

And now this is how things are today. I'm talking about

8:09

two thousand twenty and two thousand twenty one

8:11

to today. It's not that long ago.

8:13

There you go. They're just sitting there

8:15

almost as if, like, It's almost as if

8:17

this was her original idea

8:20

that no one had This is what

8:22

everyone who opposed the COVID

8:24

regime was screaming for

8:26

all of that time and was labeled

8:28

like this evil crazy conspiracy

8:31

theory would never view. And now

8:33

all three of those CNN hacks

8:36

just have to sit up there and take

8:38

it as their own, you know, like

8:40

person who was advocating all of their policies,

8:42

their own medical expert is going, oh,

8:44

yeah. No. This is all real. This is all

8:46

happening. It's been happening the whole time.

8:48

Interesting. Okay. Alright.

8:50

Like, it's just it's unbelievable how you can go

8:52

from having a position that makes you,

8:55

like, some some type of toxic

8:57

awful human being. And then they can go

8:59

So that position's correct. Interesting. I

9:02

don't know. What

9:02

are your thoughts about? It's really

9:05

infuriating because these people understand

9:08

science. They understand how the

9:10

data should be processed. And two

9:12

years ago, when we said, hey, shouldn't

9:14

we really take a look at the numbers

9:16

and know who's dying? And, no, You're

9:18

not supposed to look at that. That's irrelevant.

9:20

And now they're saying no, no, no,

9:22

that's highly relevant for who we would make. It

9:24

wasn't just a recommendation for the boosters.

9:26

That was relevant information to analyzes from

9:28

the outset. And if you

9:31

had said that people were dying with

9:33

COVID and not from COVID,

9:35

that was conspiracy. That

9:37

switched when Anthony Fauci admitted to

9:39

it, when people criticized the fact that

9:41

the death numbers were up in kids and

9:43

they're like, what's going on here? Your COVID

9:45

policy is not working. And he said, no, it's

9:47

working. You guys are miscalculating because

9:49

people are actually dying with

9:51

COVID, not from COVID. And all of a

9:53

sudden, would have been absolute conspiracy

9:55

was now just fat

9:57

because he needed to cover his own ads because it

9:59

was withheld policy.

10:00

Well, what happened was, is

10:03

after, you know, if you like, the

10:05

the booster campaign has

10:08

been largely a failure in America.

10:10

There's got a lot of the

10:12

the coercive pressure to

10:15

get it was taken off a lot of the same

10:17

jobs that we're requiring you get Vax initially

10:19

or not requiring that

10:21

that you get

10:22

boosted. And the and

10:24

people just you

10:26

know, for obvious reasons,

10:28

there are certain amount of people who are like, alright, I'll

10:30

take two shots and be done with that. Or not,

10:32

so like, no, I'm not taking a shot every

10:34

six months for the rest of my life. Like, I'm not doing

10:36

that. So they've had there's something

10:38

like I think it's less than

10:40

half of the people who got double

10:42

vaccinated originally got the boost

10:44

so they have not convinced nearly as many people.

10:46

But they did convince like something

10:48

like seventy percent of adults

10:50

to get vaccinated originally.

10:53

Convince slash coerced. Okay? But

10:55

so this was this

10:57

was right around the time

10:59

where we had hit those numbers. This

11:01

was before the

11:04

big booster push. And

11:06

so we had gotten up to the point where about seventy

11:08

percent of the population was

11:10

vaccinated, and then Omicron

11:12

came out. And was very

11:15

clearly at this point, I think

11:17

up to that point, very clearly we can

11:19

say now, was the most contagious

11:21

and least deadly strand of COVID.

11:23

So the numbers of people who

11:25

have it was like through the roof,

11:27

like everyone was getting Omicron. And

11:30

so all of a sudden, now you have these numbers

11:32

that by their world numbers like, oh

11:34

my god, hospitalization amongst

11:36

children is through the roof. But of

11:38

course, actually, what was going

11:40

on here was just like, yeah, it was like a very

11:42

contagious cold. And so a lot of

11:44

kids who were in the hospital for a broken

11:46

arm They swabbed them and they go, oh, look, they

11:48

have only crop. So all of a

11:50

sudden, up until that point,

11:52

every type of elevated number

11:55

of hospitalized people for COVID

11:57

was helping sell the

12:00

COVID

12:00

regime. If

12:01

there were a lot of people hospitalized with COVID

12:03

C. C. That's why we need lockdowns. To

12:05

spread. If there's a lot of people hospitalized with

12:07

COVID, C, that's why we need vaccines.

12:09

So there's not so many people hospitalized.

12:11

But now a huge portion of people

12:13

not the vaccines, and the numbers are higher than

12:16

ever. It was this point where

12:18

for the first time in this

12:20

march of COVID tyranny, that

12:22

number no longer helped the policy that

12:24

Fauci was trying to sell. So what was

12:26

his response to to finally

12:28

tell the truth? Oh, well, you see

12:30

it's the way they count hospitalizations. They're

12:33

wrong. And so it seems like it's

12:35

it's like, yes, this when

12:37

lady is kind of telling the truth at

12:39

least partially here. But yeah, it's just so

12:41

frustrating that you're like, dude, we've

12:43

all been saying this forever, and

12:45

then you come around to admit

12:47

it and act like it's not in

12:49

admission. Act like you're not even admitting that

12:51

you were, oh my god, we demonized all the people

12:53

who said this the whole time. But

12:55

it's interesting because you do see that they're uncomfortable

12:58

and they're uncomfortable because that's

13:00

there somewhere. Like, that

13:02

feeling that they know that, like, oh, but you're saying

13:04

the thing all decided you're not allowed to

13:06

say. And now you're allowed to say it, I

13:08

guess. It's really amazing.

13:10

It's it's like amazing to

13:11

watch. It's a it's it's

13:13

dark, but it's it's hilarious in a weird

13:15

way. Today's Lina Nguyen should have to

13:17

debate two years ago Lina Nguyen who said we have

13:19

to remove people's freedoms. Yeah. But

13:21

there's an incentive to get vaccinated

13:23

even if that means that we're

13:26

removing people's freedoms. Well, it's But

13:28

the word there's a weird, like,

13:30

game that all of them play. So, like,

13:32

the Lena Winn types. I mean, I don't actually know

13:34

that she'd say this herself, but I bet she

13:36

would. The people who occupy that space,

13:38

what the the way they'll defend

13:40

it is they wear it like a badge of honor where

13:42

they're like, look, I'm pissing off all the

13:44

people who are pro COVID,

13:46

regime and all the people who are anti COVID

13:48

regime. Because I always I just tell the

13:50

truth, you know, and like, I was, hey, when the evidence

13:52

was this way, I took this position when the evidence is

13:54

that

13:54

way? Yeah. But this is inconsistent with any earlier

13:57

evidence. Right. But this is insane. As if I I'm

13:59

not on either team. I'll just always tell

14:01

you what I'm thinking, but it's like, no. You were

14:03

just wrong before and now you're

14:05

trying to

14:05

backtrack. No. You weren't it's not that you

14:08

were wrong before. You were lying before.

14:10

And now enough of the market

14:12

has caught up with you order to

14:14

keep in this post, you're gonna pretend like the

14:16

information has changed, your style of

14:18

analysis has changed, and so now you're

14:20

gonna come forward and pretend like, oh, well, now

14:22

we're acknowledging these things we didn't know. You

14:24

knew this. That's what I'm saying. I'm actually

14:26

calling around as being a liar. If what she's

14:28

putting forward now is, yeah, this is the way that

14:30

science would work. The way science would

14:32

work is we look at the risk categories and

14:34

who is and who isn't and what's the rate whatever

14:36

the fuck she just said now. And also, hey, we gotta

14:38

keep in mind that we don't actually have good data

14:41

here. That was all true and relevant two years

14:42

ago, and she knew it. Yeah. Yeah.

14:45

No. Absolutely. Absolutely. I I

14:47

agree with you. And, of course,

14:49

she even says it, like, in a way that's there's

14:51

almost this weird omission where she goes, and

14:53

we need to know this data so we when people are

14:55

thinking about boosters, we can know who's at

14:57

the highest risk. It's like, right. And

14:59

we can know who's not at risk.

15:01

It's almost like and then the the thing

15:03

that she's kind of admitting is that and then there we

15:05

might say there's some people who maybe don't need to take

15:07

a

15:07

booster. Kinda

15:08

like the original vaccine. Yes.

15:11

Right. I don't

15:12

like kids. What was you adjusted for

15:14

the numbers of hospitalizations

15:16

in deaths with or from

15:18

COVID? Well, look, this is the thing. And it's such

15:20

a weird thing then when the other ones

15:23

like, there's this style. It's

15:25

really like something to watch, but

15:27

there's this style, this like

15:29

propaganda style that a lot of them

15:31

use where like so so it's

15:33

almost like you go So

15:35

you demonize the people who stand up

15:37

to the propaganda and are telling the truth as

15:39

the most evil people spreading misinformation they're

15:42

dangerous. They're these are just vile

15:44

nazis, you know? And

15:46

then, it

15:48

casually gets admitted that they were right. You

15:50

don't really it's like no big deal. It's like, oh, look

15:52

at this. Things changed. Oh, okay. Here's that. And

15:54

then when you keep going, that you never, like,

15:56

acknowledged the fact that you got it completely wrong and they

15:58

got it completely right. And then

16:00

when convenient, you'll still reflect

16:02

back on it as if you were right. You know, like,

16:04

they'll still they'll they'll still so it's like

16:06

the thing we were talking about with Neil Degrasse

16:08

Tyson It's still like it's

16:10

like, oh, all those people who said that the

16:12

vaccine would would

16:14

prevent transmission. They weren't

16:16

wrong. They were they were right at the

16:18

time. Later, things changed

16:20

and then they became wrong. And then so

16:22

so you kind of half admit that they

16:24

were at least in effect wrong

16:26

now, but then he'll also still later be like, you

16:28

know, you get the vaccines so you don't give it

16:30

to anyone else.

16:31

You know what I'm saying? Like, it's it's like and and

16:34

and Michael still kind of the way

16:36

that, like, people will still say

16:38

something about Trump and Russia.

16:40

Like, they'll almost just, like, they they still kind

16:42

of assert that, like, oh, yeah. Yeah. No. We weren't

16:44

completely wrong about that thing when convenient.

16:46

It's it's just it's it's

16:48

it's it's a bizarre way that

16:50

human beings act. It's it's a way that

16:53

propaganda, like, is defense. It's

16:55

really creepy. Alright, guys. Let's take a moment

16:57

and thank our sponsor for today's show,

16:59

which is bambi. Bambi

17:01

is an HR platform built

17:04

for small businesses like yours. So you can automate

17:06

the most important HR

17:08

practices and get your own dedicated

17:10

HR manager. First,

17:12

Bambi's HR auto pilot automates your

17:14

core policies, workplace training,

17:16

and employee feedback. Then,

17:18

Your dedicated HR manager will help

17:21

you navigate the more complex parts of

17:23

HR and guide you to

17:25

compliance available by phone, email,

17:27

or real time chat. An

17:29

in house HR manager can cost you

17:31

up to eighty thousand dollars a

17:33

year. But with Bambi, your

17:35

dedicated HR manager starts at just ninety

17:37

nine dollars a month no hidden fees,

17:39

cancel anytime. I know a lot of people

17:41

who run small businesses, I myself,

17:43

run a small business, h

17:45

HR is not what you got in the game, but

17:47

it is a real vulnerability if you

17:49

don't have it taken care of. Bambi

17:52

has received thousands of five star reviews on Trustpilot,

17:54

and their customers are four times

17:56

less likely to have a claim filed

17:58

against them. You run your

18:00

business let bambi run your

18:02

HR. Go to bambi dot com slash

18:04

P0TP right now for

18:06

a free HR audit. That's BAMBEE

18:10

dot com slash P0TP.

18:12

Bambi dot com slash P0TP.

18:14

Alright. Let's get back into the show. Okay.

18:17

Let's play the second clip from

18:18

this, which is also interesting. In

18:21

how at risk pregnant women

18:23

and their babies are from

18:25

COVID-nineteen. I'm sure you saw it. I mean, they

18:27

tracked thirteen thousand pregnant women. And

18:30

I just wonder if

18:32

you're concerned for people at risk that or other

18:34

vulnerable groups, that this

18:36

can give fodder

18:39

to conspiracy theorists those

18:41

who downplayed COVID to anti vaxers. I'm

18:45

sure you thought about

18:45

that, right? As you were writing

18:48

this, are you worried about that?

18:50

It's interesting that I have had

18:53

criticism on both sides. There are

18:55

people who have said, well, why are you saying

18:57

that we're over counting COVID deaths now? You should

18:59

have said two and a half years ago, there others

19:01

who have said, well, we're not overcounting them

19:03

and they give various reasons as to why. I

19:05

think at the end of the day, we just

19:08

need the truth. And part of that truth is what you

19:10

mentioned, Poppy, which is that vaccines

19:12

are highly protective. That

19:14

vaccines are very effective. They're very

19:15

safe. Yeah. I've just

19:17

I've never been so angry while

19:19

watching a segment. It's not

19:21

about whether or not I

19:22

lied. It's at this moment that we

19:24

need the truth.

19:25

IIIII

19:26

mean, you could say that about any mistake that's

19:28

ever been made ever. Hey,

19:30

it's not

19:30

about if our rape before. It's about that women

19:33

are safe now. Yeah.

19:37

It's it yeah. I

19:39

mean, look, if you wanna tell the truth,

19:41

the truth is that you

19:43

are a tyrant for

19:45

advocating that people not have their freedom until

19:47

they consume this pharmaceutical product

19:49

you should probably you should be ashamed of

19:52

yourself and no one should ever allow you to

19:54

have public you know, to comment on anything

19:56

publicly on television again. The thing that I

19:58

found that I think is so funny is

20:00

like, again, there's just the

20:02

question there from this

20:05

CNN anchor. Who's

20:07

you can just feel

20:09

how uncomfortable she is already

20:11

with this. So she brings up some new

20:13

Well, you know, they're saying now that there might be

20:15

a risk to pregnant women. Like,

20:18

we found something. We we we have

20:20

something to grasp too that COVID is a problem.

20:22

What does that have to do with her saying? Are over

20:24

counting the deaths and

20:26

hospitalizations, nothing. It just brings about, well,

20:28

I read something the other day about COVID being really

20:30

scary. So, aren't you worried

20:32

that you talking about this

20:34

stuff could, you know, give,

20:36

like, credibility to to conspiracy

20:39

theorists and all so she's basically

20:41

just going really, if you think about

20:43

what the question is here, she goes,

20:45

isn't this making us look

20:47

bad? And aside,

20:49

criticizing us look good? And

20:51

why is that? Because you're confirming that the

20:53

thing they were saying from the very beginning

20:55

was always correct. That

20:57

there is not none of those numbers.

21:00

You're right. CNN for a year and a

21:02

half ran a tally. On

21:04

every single show, there was a tally

21:06

at the bottom of screen telling you how many

21:08

people were hospitalized and how many people

21:10

died. Do you remember that? They only took it off

21:12

once Trump was out of office, I think. But

21:14

they were literally, when you used to

21:16

watch CNN, throughout the pandemic. It

21:18

would be like a big, you know, like,

21:20

graph around them with numbers

21:22

that that were constantly changing of the

21:24

hospitalized and the dead. And you

21:26

would always see those numbers up there.

21:28

And she's here telling you your you

21:30

were doing propaganda that whole time.

21:32

You were giving BS numbers the

21:35

whole time you were doing that. And they're

21:37

like, well, you know, this might make the

21:39

conspiracy theorists look

21:41

good. That's your concern when

21:43

someone comes to you and tells you that you

21:45

guys were full of shit for the entire time.

21:47

In the most important time,

21:50

the biggest crisis in modern

21:52

American history. And you guys were doing

21:54

nothing but running propaganda, and your

21:56

response is like, yeah, but that might

21:58

make the people who don't like us sound

22:00

right. Like, yeah. It might

22:02

maybe you should be concerned with what you were a

22:04

part of. It's just insane

22:07

insane. Alright. Let's finish this clip

22:10

off. If

22:12

and vulnerable groups, including pregnant

22:14

women, pregnant individuals, should be

22:16

getting vaccinated. At the same time, We

22:18

should also be honest about who was

22:21

dying from COVID during the early

22:23

parts of the pandemic versus who is dying from

22:25

COVID-nineteen now. I think that

22:27

type of honest, transparent

22:29

reporting is really important, including

22:31

for fostering trust in

22:33

public health.

22:34

Mhmm. I listened to be clear though, and

22:36

it says in in your in your

22:38

op ed, the COVID death count turns

22:40

out, if it turns out to be thirty percent of

22:42

what is currently reported, that is still unacceptably

22:45

high.

22:45

That's exactly right.

22:46

And there are still And and and there you go.

22:49

And there's done it's not even

22:51

a question. It's just like, let's

22:53

just say, even if we were off

22:55

by a magnitude of order, you

22:57

know, it's still bad. It's

23:00

still really bad. So really in the spirit

23:02

of things, it's still it's like, yeah. Well,

23:04

if the actual number is thirty percent

23:06

of the number, that CNN kept on their screen

23:08

every single day while the American

23:10

people were scared out of their minds where the

23:12

government was taking away all of their basic

23:15

rights. Also, you know, rubbing

23:17

them blind to give, you know, to give

23:19

trillion dollar giveaways to giant corporations.

23:21

If it turned out that you were running

23:23

a number, that was actually, you

23:26

know, seventy percent BS?

23:29

Yeah. That's actually pretty bad.

23:31

That's actually that's

23:32

propaganda. Of the worst

23:34

kind. It's like we're watching a internal

23:37

meeting where they're going. Hey, are we still

23:39

supposed to lie about this stuff to try and

23:41

scare everyone into just following what we

23:43

say. And she's going, no, we're

23:45

turning we're we're gonna be try and be

23:47

honest to rebuild credibility. And

23:50

and they're like, wait, are you sure we're gonna be honest about

23:52

this? And I guess at this point, it's like they

23:54

did what they needed to do. So they might as well be

23:56

honest that the next time they have to sell or something,

23:58

we might actually listen. That's really what

24:00

they're doing. It doesn't even matter. If they decide to start

24:02

being honest now, it's

24:03

like, yeah, you only did that because you had

24:05

to. You lied to us again. I don't buy it

24:07

for one second. And it's not as if

24:09

she's being completely honest here. I mean, she's still

24:12

like I said, she's one of the bad guys. She's

24:14

still recommending pregnant women get

24:17

vaccinated, like oh, okay. But,

24:19

you know, the the this

24:22

yeah. This idea that, like, Well,

24:24

we we have to have honest reporting so that

24:26

there's trust in these

24:28

institutions. It's like, well, yeah. I think

24:30

these institutions have proven that they're not

24:32

worthy of being trusted. But, yeah, it is

24:34

it is something to see, like, they

24:36

go, you know, like, I

24:38

guess, this is like the level they think they can get

24:40

away with. It's like, okay, well, we're still gonna recommend

24:42

the vaccine to everyone, but we're

24:44

gonna admit this much

24:47

Like, oh, yeah, that this number was tremendously inflated.

24:49

Oh, yeah. This number that you constantly are

24:51

running with is not an accurate number

24:54

at

24:54

all. Then and I'm sorry, but

24:56

there's just no,

24:57

like, there's just no

25:00

excuse. It's not

25:02

as if This was, I mean, amongst people who were

25:04

critics of the COVID

25:06

regime. This must have been

25:08

one of the most

25:10

brought up talking points.

25:12

Like, constantly brought up. That, like, yeah,

25:14

this is like it was like a running joke. Like, oh,

25:16

god, gets in a motorcycle

25:18

it and dies and it's a COVID death. Like, this was,

25:20

like, you know, people constantly die. And there's

25:22

just no excuse for why anyone

25:25

who's supposed to be in business

25:27

of, like, keeping this data wouldn't

25:29

have been able to see. Oh, yeah. This is,

25:31

like, this isn't telling me

25:33

anything.

25:34

You know, like, I can't count as a COVID death if it like,

25:36

you know what I mean? And and there's just no reason.

25:38

And same with the hospitalization numbers, and we've

25:40

we've talked a bunch about that. Like, this is

25:43

just ridiculous. So anyway,

25:45

there was never any excuse for them to be

25:47

putting those numbers out there except for

25:49

the obvious, which is that it helped

25:51

sell these tyrannical policies.

25:53

That's it. It was the

25:56

worst this thing sounded, the

25:58

more likely people were to give up everything they

26:00

had. And they made it sound really bad, and

26:02

people did. So there you

26:04

go. Alright. Speaking

26:06

of government propaganda,

26:09

let's move over to the

26:11

this summit that they had for the

26:13

WEF, the World Economic Forum.

26:15

There was a pretty

26:17

interesting panel discussion

26:20

there with some journalists. I

26:22

think Brian Stelter, our favorite

26:24

little pig. He's back. You

26:26

know? And he's doing great. I think he teaches

26:28

at Harvard now. Yeah. I mean, the the

26:31

brightest of minds need to know honest

26:33

journalism. And so he picked up

26:35

a staffing position over there to make sure

26:37

the next generation of geniuses

26:39

are proper informed on how to partake in

26:41

propaganda on the highest

26:42

levels. Yeah. Isn't it something where you go,

26:44

like, yes. Sure. You

26:47

were, like, ritualistically humiliated

26:50

by every honest

26:52

voice online. And

26:54

sure, your viewers were so

26:57

incredibly low. Your viewership was so

26:59

incredibly low that even

27:01

CNN who has used to low

27:03

viewership couldn't keep you around

27:05

anymore. But don't worry. Come there's a panel with the World Economic

27:07

Forum that you can come host and well, and

27:09

what's he talking about? The same thing he's

27:11

always wanted to talk

27:12

about. He's only He's gone

27:13

a little fatter. Which is great. I love

27:16

that. Yeah. That that that does make me

27:18

happy. But it really is funny how

27:20

much he's a one trick pony, like, all

27:22

he can ever talk about is how there's

27:25

misinformation out there. Like, that's just always the

27:27

topic. But anyway, this was a he

27:29

was not alone. He was joined by

27:31

some other hacked reporters. There's

27:33

one guys from the The New York

27:35

Times who had some interesting things to

27:36

say, let's take a look at that. I'm teaching.

27:39

Students and young people had to recognize

27:42

this information. So

27:44

they're clearly our models that

27:46

were I

27:46

also think it's useful for us not

27:48

to overthink the problem too much.

27:50

I mean, ultimately, what

27:53

teaching people in those moments as much as anything,

27:55

as much as as as you're teaching them to

27:57

recognize a lie. I suspect you're

27:59

teaching them to recognize trustworthy

28:03

sources. Whether that's, you

28:05

know, an institution like the Times

28:07

or the Post or the Journal, whether

28:10

that's scientists, whether

28:12

that's academia. But

28:14

there, you know, being

28:17

discerning about trust and

28:19

in in some ways finding institutional

28:21

proxies for trust

28:23

you know, where there are reliable,

28:26

transparent standards, you know, for

28:28

example, an institution like mine, when we

28:30

make mistakes, we acknowledge them in

28:32

public and we correct them. Right?

28:34

And I think that that's going to be a big part

28:36

of this. I also just think

28:38

that at some point

28:40

given the central

28:43

role of the platforms in

28:47

disseminating, you

28:49

know, bad information. I

28:53

I think they're gonna have to do an

28:55

unpopular and and brave thing

28:57

at some point. Which

28:59

is to differentiate and

29:01

elevate trustworthy sources

29:03

of information consistently. Consistently.

29:07

And until they

29:10

do, I think that we just

29:12

have to assume that those environments are

29:14

basically poisoned. But

29:16

doing so, I

29:19

think we all know, it may suppress

29:21

engagement, right, which is

29:23

a North Star metric for a lot these institutions --

29:25

Mhmm. -- and it almost certainly

29:27

will incur political backlash. At

29:29

a moment, when these institutions

29:31

are facing real regulatory pressure. So

29:34

that's a hard thing for them

29:36

to do, but I have a hard time seeing how

29:38

we solve it. You know, just on

29:40

the demand side without addressing some of

29:42

the supply

29:43

side. Supply

29:44

side, lastly, is

29:45

that against span of thought? It's just just

29:48

two sentences What's

29:48

the right?

29:49

Finland? Well, isn't that a

29:52

fancy way of just basically

29:54

saying the quiet part out loud?

29:56

Then I I what I love about this, I really wanna hear your your

29:58

take on this route. But the way I love about this is

30:00

just the way they speak. It's

30:02

as you said, you've you've made this point several

30:05

And it's just saying, hey, look, we are the ones who get to control

30:07

what people think. You're not. We

30:09

have to be like, that's it. That's we're the

30:11

elites. We set the agenda here.

30:13

Not you guys. Because they he constantly just refers themself

30:16

as the trustworthy institutions,

30:18

the ones who are good. But notice

30:20

like, if you just Just think

30:22

about the difference in the way that me

30:24

and you, like, will argue that we

30:26

got things right, that the the establishment

30:29

got wrong, is we'll go over our

30:31

track record. Be like, look, we told you

30:33

this. This turned out to be right. We told you this.

30:35

This turned out to be right. We told you this. Okay. Well,

30:37

now we're telling you this. And they told you x, y,

30:39

and z, and it all that to be we

30:41

just played a clip of

30:43

them admitting that the biggest

30:45

metric was completely wrong. Right? Their

30:47

own expert is saying it. But

30:49

he just asserts over and over again that we're the trustee

30:51

of the institutions. And so we we're gonna have

30:53

to crack down on them and then Rob, this will lead

30:55

to backlash, of course. He says, you

30:58

know, the the pledge may not like that we start

31:00

telling them they're not allowed to think for themselves,

31:02

but really fascinating. All

31:04

of socialism, black rock

31:07

ESG, Davos, the whole thing, it

31:09

boils down to one single argument

31:11

from these people. And what they're really

31:13

saying is we can't go into the

31:15

marketplace and compete with other

31:17

people in providing value. So in

31:19

in this case, what are they? Their news?

31:21

They're supposed to be giving people honest

31:23

information. And they're not capable of providing

31:25

honest information, and the market

31:27

acknowledges that. So they go, well, someone needs

31:29

to police the market. Hey,

31:32

I'm CNN. I'm supposed to be the credible one here. I can't have people just

31:34

being able to turn on Joe Rogen deciding

31:36

to watch him instead. I can't compete

31:39

with that. Right. That's really what they're calling for is that somebody needs

31:41

to police the markets and make sure that there's

31:43

limited competition so

31:45

that they are just granted

31:48

whatever the fuck their stature is. It should just

31:50

be handed to them. They shouldn't have to

31:52

compete. They shouldn't have to give us on and some information

31:54

that they shouldn't have to do good journalism. It's

31:56

not about that. It's about that they've been

31:58

credentialed. And so

32:00

everyone else, it, like, just needs

32:02

to be removed from the market place that everyone realize.

32:04

Like, they they should just it's an appeal to

32:06

authority. Hey, listen. I got the

32:08

credentials here. People don't seem to care

32:10

about my credentials enough. So

32:12

somebody needs to come in and

32:14

say, hey, you're only allowed to listen to the

32:16

people with credentials. We'll go

32:18

compete. Go go win people over. I don't know

32:20

if there was a doctor down, but you get rid of, like,

32:22

board licensing or whatever. If you had some doctor

32:24

down the street who was unlicensed, but

32:26

managed to heal everyone in the neighborhood.

32:28

God bless. Go fucking compete

32:30

with him.

32:30

Yeah. It's so it's it's so bizarre, especially

32:33

that it's the same people who who

32:35

constantly, you know, talk about threats to

32:37

our democracy, and things like this. It's

32:39

like, oh, yeah. We're and and, you know, the

32:41

worst thing ever is, like,

32:43

anyone who wants, like, voting

32:45

rights are under attack. Oh my god.

32:47

They're making you show an ID or they're verifying

32:49

your address. This is right, you know, your everyone

32:51

has to be able to cast their ballot You

32:53

can never question democracy. Although there's

32:56

constantly threats to democracy and

32:58

that this is somehow a goal everyone

33:00

gets to vote. These people get to

33:02

choose who their representatives

33:04

are. But at the same time, then they turn

33:06

around and go, do these rooms can't be

33:08

like, allowed to decide where they consume

33:11

information. I mean, because -- What? -- they're

33:13

so stupid that they won't even know the

33:15

difference between all this fake stuff

33:17

and us, the really smart news, And if we're

33:19

just competing fairly with them, they're all

33:21

gonna choose the conspiracy theories.

33:23

They're all gonna choose misinformation. And

33:25

yet, what so what are you saying? It's like, we

33:27

need to propogandize these people and

33:29

then they can

33:30

vote. Like, then then this is summer. It's

33:32

just it's so bizarre. None of it makes any

33:34

sense at all. Crappy products cannot compete without

33:37

force. That's why you can't have your

33:39

fucking green windmills over gas

33:41

unless the, you

33:43

know, or that's why Wolk is broke.

33:45

You know what I mean? Like all these companies,

33:47

they get forced into putting together

33:50

programming that nobody's interested in. It

33:52

doesn't work. As long as people can go to the Internet and create their

33:54

own shit, it's not gonna work. So in

33:56

this case, they're basically complaining, hey,

33:58

we're supposed to like, we

34:00

have to create propaganda. That's our job.

34:02

Our job is to create propaganda. And

34:04

if other people can create honest news, then we

34:06

don't have a business here

34:07

anymore. So somebody's gonna have to come in

34:09

and police it.

34:10

Yeah. It's a it's

34:13

it's funny because, you

34:15

know, like the American system

34:18

was always In

34:20

many ways, a more it's

34:24

it's a more sophisticated form

34:26

of corruption

34:28

than typical like,

34:30

dictatorships or typical, like, kind

34:32

of naked tyrannical regimes. Alright, guys.

34:34

Let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for

34:36

today's show, which is better help.

34:39

Betterhelp offers professional counseling

34:41

done securely online. So if you feel

34:43

like there's something interfering with your happiness

34:46

or preventing you from achieving

34:48

your goals, definitely go check out better help. I highly recommend

34:50

therapy. I I've benefited from it

34:52

myself. I know many other people who have I think

34:54

there's a misconception where a lot of

34:56

people think we're gonna be doing

34:58

is diving into my childhood and talking

35:00

about how my dad didn't hug me enough or

35:02

something like that when a lot of times what

35:04

therapy really helps is just you

35:06

dealing with issues that you have going on in

35:08

your life right now, recognizing when you're

35:10

getting in your own way and kinda trying to

35:12

straighten that out. So whatever you're

35:14

dealing with, Better Health has a wide range of counselors available for you.

35:16

Plus Better Health is more affordable than

35:18

traditional counseling. Financial aid is

35:20

available and it's easy

35:22

to get started. Once you sign up, Betterhelp will match you with your own

35:24

licensed professional therapist. You'll be able

35:26

to communicate with them in under forty eight

35:28

hours. This is not a crisis line. It's not

35:30

self help. This is

35:32

professional counseling done securely online.

35:34

Betterhelp is committed to facilitating

35:36

great therapeutic matches, so it's easy

35:38

and free to switch counselors

35:40

if needed. You can send a message to your counselor at any time and get

35:42

a timely and thoughtful response. Plus, you

35:44

can schedule a weekly video or phone

35:48

sessions So it's the perfect way to do therapy for people who are

35:50

busy. Go to betterhelp dot com

35:52

slash problem and you can join the over

35:54

one million people who have taken

35:56

charge of their

35:58

mental health with the help of an experienced professional. testimonials

36:00

from users are posted daily. In fact, so many

36:02

people have been using better help, but they are

36:04

recruiting additional counselors in all fifty

36:08

states. So go to betterhelp dot com slash problem. That's BETTERHELP

36:12

dot com slash problem to get

36:14

ten percent off your first month.

36:18

One more time better help dot com slash problem for

36:20

ten percent off your first month. Alright. Let's

36:22

get back into the show. It's III

36:25

was arguing with someone the

36:27

other day talking about

36:30

how corrupt countries

36:32

are. I think they were talking about, like, Ukraine and

36:34

Russia, some of these countries that are so

36:36

corrupt and I I was saying, this is like an off air

36:38

because this is like conversation. And I was like,

36:40

look, America is the most corrupt country. We're

36:42

more corrupt than any of them. And he he was like,

36:44

well, no. Look, I mean, in in Russia or something like

36:46

that or in some of these other countries, I mean,

36:49

you you're like bribing police

36:51

officers and stuff like

36:53

that, judges take bribes and stuff. And I was like, yeah, because

36:55

that's a very primitive form of

36:58

corruption. That's like the

37:00

very basic like low

37:02

level form of corruption.

37:04

America America's corruption, it's like, yeah,

37:06

look, you can't bribe police

37:08

officers typically. In America. There might be some exceptions to this.

37:10

But typically, if you get,

37:12

like, pulled over for a DUI or

37:14

something like that, you're not gonna be able

37:16

to, like, slip the

37:18

cop a couple hundred bucks and get off.

37:20

That's that's typically not gonna work in

37:22

America. In Mexico, that

37:24

might work. Like that is a so

37:26

yes, there is that low level of corruption

37:28

there. Now by the way, it's

37:30

not exactly clear to me that that

37:32

is You know, like, let's just say, you're probably in

37:35

a lot of situations in the United States of America

37:37

where you wish you could just bribe the

37:39

cop that actually might be better off

37:41

for everybody if you could. But that's

37:43

not the corruption in America. The corruption in America is

37:45

like the prison guard union, like

37:48

lobbies for for

37:50

mandatory minimums. That's where the

37:52

corruption is. The corruption is like the Federal

37:54

Reserve. The corruption is like the,

37:56

you know, think tanks funded by

37:58

weapons companies that put

38:00

out pieces advocating why we

38:02

need to fight the next war. That's

38:04

it's like sophisticated. Next

38:06

level corruption, which is actually far

38:08

more successful and far more corrupt.

38:10

So Anyway, the point I'm getting at is, like,

38:12

in a lot of other countries, they would have

38:15

the more primitive form of of this

38:17

media control, which is just state run

38:19

media. State runs it. You know, if

38:21

you go to North Korea, it's like the news

38:23

is gonna be put out

38:25

by the government. This

38:27

is the news. In America, they had a more

38:30

sophisticated form of state

38:32

propaganda, which is like, oh, no.

38:34

No. No. State doesn't run the meeting. We have

38:37

a free honest press that is a

38:39

check on state power. Right?

38:41

The state just licenses out TV stations and

38:43

we picked three. You know? And so, yeah,

38:46

there's three. You have three. Look, you can

38:48

choose anyone you

38:50

want to. They'll all be

38:52

saying the same thing, but whatever you can choose. Which one

38:54

you wanna watch? And then you

38:56

would have, you know, papers like say, you

38:58

know, whoever the New York Times or something

39:00

like that, who basically they get in they

39:02

get access

39:04

to the deep state and to

39:06

to the intelligence world and to politicians

39:10

then they'll give them little bits of information as long as they publish

39:12

things that are what they want them to publish,

39:14

and then they continue to get that

39:17

access. So it's a more sophisticated version

39:19

of state media. But

39:21

this has all been

39:24

broken now. That's really

39:26

what's been going on for the

39:28

last, you know, few years in

39:30

America, is

39:32

that the The

39:34

Internet and the way it's exploded and

39:37

grown has now been like, oh, you

39:39

don't have any of that system in

39:42

place. And so what you hear these guys arguing this stuff is like, well, we

39:44

got to camp clamp down and

39:46

get back to that system somehow.

39:49

Where we're the ones that people are forced to

39:51

trust. What's interesting is you might just, as

39:53

a thought experiment ask yourself,

39:56

from this guy's point of view, Wouldn't it

39:58

almost make sense to just start advocating

40:00

for the old, more primitive

40:02

system? Wouldn't it just make sense to just

40:04

advocate for state run media? I

40:05

mean, he's basically he's he's advocating for what

40:08

government regulation to come in and

40:10

make sure that they can only

40:12

see us and

40:13

not them. Well, here's the solution.

40:16

It's only the state the state chooses what the

40:18

people are allowed to say and what

40:20

they're not. That's mister

40:22

this and they'll be doing this on a

40:24

a summit about, like, you know, the

40:26

journalism and misinformation and

40:28

all this. So, yeah. That's quite

40:31

a

40:31

side. Yeah. Let's play one more of the there were a bunch of clips in that thread, Brian. You could

40:33

just pick another one. Let's let's play it. We talked

40:35

from the newsroom and the the

40:37

news publishing perspective. And

40:40

then we'll work our way toward some

40:42

of the political parts of the conversation. How

40:45

does this discussion of

40:48

disinformation Relate to everything

40:50

else happening here today in Davos.

40:55

Well, first, thanks for having me as part of this conversation. As you

40:57

can imagine, this is something I really care deeply

41:00

about. So I think if you

41:02

look at this question

41:04

of disinformation, I

41:06

think it maps basically to every other

41:08

major challenge that we are grappling

41:10

with this society and particularly the most

41:12

existential among them. So Disinformation

41:16

in in the broader

41:18

set of misinformation conspiracy,

41:22

propaganda, clickbait, you

41:24

know, that the the broader mix of bad

41:26

information that's corrupting information

41:30

ecosystem. What do the

41:32

taxes trust? And once

41:34

you see trust decline, what

41:36

you then see is societies

41:40

start to fracture. And so you see people fracture along tribal

41:44

lines. And you

41:47

know, that immediately undermines

41:50

pluralism. Mhmm. And, you

41:52

know, the undermining of

41:54

pluralism is probably the most dangerous

41:56

thing that can happen to a democracy. So I

41:58

really I think if if, you know, if you're

42:00

spending this week thinking about the

42:02

health of democracies and

42:04

democratic

42:04

erosion, I think it's really important to work your way back up to where

42:06

this starts. Howard Bauchner: So, this

42:08

is basically the way they they view

42:10

the world and and, you know, you

42:13

kind of have to when you listen to someone like

42:15

this, you have to understand that although I

42:17

think he means this,

42:20

because I think they believe

42:22

their own nonsense. When they talk

42:24

about pluralism,

42:26

what they really mean is

42:29

the opposite. What they really mean is

42:31

them having control of the narrative. And when

42:33

he talks about misinformation, what he

42:36

really means

42:38

is voices that oppose the regime.

42:40

Because none of this is really about what's

42:42

accurate information and what's inaccurate

42:46

information No one's arguing, you know, again, this is why something

42:48

like COVID, the vaccine will

42:50

stop the spread is never even something they

42:52

could think about

42:54

as misinformation. No. That was just that

42:56

was the narrative. That was the regime.

42:58

Weapons of mass destruction was not misinformation,

43:01

even though these you know, piece of misinformation

43:04

had catastrophic effects

43:06

beyond anything that you

43:10

could argue that some conspiracy theory, even really

43:12

nutty false conspiracy theories

43:14

online have. But it is to say, this

43:16

is the this is the biggest problem,

43:18

Rob. This is

43:20

the biggest problem with everything. And

43:22

the point I'm making

43:24

is that I think if you if

43:26

you can

43:28

kind of flip his

43:30

words into what they really mean. And

43:32

listen to what this guy's really saying, I

43:34

think he's right. He's

43:36

essentially right. This is

43:38

their biggest threat. This is their

43:40

their Achilles heel. And I

43:42

think there's something for people on

43:44

our side should be really encouraged by this he is

43:46

right. This is a threat because

43:48

it undermines trust and

43:50

so they

43:52

cannot get their agenda through is if

43:54

if the vast majority of the population

43:56

believes that they are a bunch of

43:58

liars, Well,

44:00

then they're not gonna trust them, and they're not gonna go along with what they

44:02

believe. So in

44:03

other words, we need to keep the

44:06

misinformation going. That's our

44:08

best bet. Alright, guys. Let's

44:10

take a moment and thank our sponsor for

44:12

today's show. This is going out to

44:14

responsible adults over the age of

44:16

twenty one. Living in states where Delta eight is

44:18

legal, go get yourself from Delta

44:20

eight from yodopa

44:22

dot com, got

44:24

vapes and gummies. Delta eight is

44:26

naturally found in hemp, kind

44:28

of like CBD. But

44:30

unlike CBD, Delta eight

44:32

gets you high. So keep that in mind and

44:34

use it responsibly. Delta eight

44:36

is what people are raving about. I

44:38

know all of the stoners at

44:40

gas digital Love this stuff. Go check them out, yo, delta dot

44:42

com, the official Delta eight

44:44

sponsor of the gas digital network. Use the

44:46

promo code gas. It'll get you

44:48

twenty five percent off your

44:50

entire order. That's yo delta dot

44:52

com promo code gas for twenty

44:54

five percent off your entire

44:55

order. Alright. Let's get back into

44:58

the show. I

44:58

I don't know. How would you define pluralism? I don't even know that word.

45:01

I I just many different

45:03

groups existing kind of not

45:06

having one group. So I think here I'll look

45:08

up a a technical definition. But I I believe

45:10

and I'm wrong about this. But I believe it's like

45:12

the idea that you have, like, say,

45:14

multiple religions or multiple,

45:17

you know, different ethnicities,

45:19

races, things like a condition

45:21

or system in which two or more states

45:24

groups, principles, or sources of

45:26

authority exist. So I

45:28

I took it to just mean that

45:30

there's like maybe I'm getting that wrong a little bit. But I

45:32

took it to just mean where it's like, well, we have,

45:34

like, all these different tribes that kind of all

45:36

exist together.

45:38

We have a democracy and we come together and we're all kind of on the same

45:40

page and all trust the same institutions or

45:42

something like that. But regardless,

45:46

his his point is that

45:48

the biggest threat that they face with everything

45:50

can be boiled down to this

45:53

disinformation and misinformation. Out there online. I kind of

45:55

feel like, you know, products and services die because the

45:57

market no longer needs or

46:00

likes them. Like, even take I

46:02

used to love mad magazine. I mean,

46:04

I used to dude, mad magazine was

46:06

my jam. Also, respect to mad

46:08

magazine, because some of the things that they made fun of when

46:10

I was a kid, really brought

46:12

into focus, you know,

46:14

the the tyranny of government. Like I

46:16

still have on my wall, there's a poster there that says,

46:19

I hear you thanks to unwarranted wiretapping

46:22

or they did

46:24

a spoof of Iraq War

46:26

two, which was like revenge of the clones.

46:29

They did AAA goofy

46:31

on a Obama for soldier

46:34

suicides. I mean, you were a kid and they were making fun

46:36

of dark shit where government fought up in Anyways,

46:38

I love mad magazine. Print media

46:40

is not what it used to be. I also think

46:42

they're kinda they lost their edge a

46:45

little

46:45

bit.

46:45

They lost their advertising dollars and then humor,

46:47

it exists daily on the Internet that I think

46:49

being a monthly publication like that, where

46:52

half of the humor was, like, memes. It's just not

46:54

as relevant as it was.

46:56

Right. They kinda died with their dignity. They

46:58

didn't go, hey, the Internet shouldn't

47:00

exist because we're supposed to be the only source

47:02

for humor. We're supposed to we're

47:04

mad magazine. We're a cultural icon. We get to decide how humor works.

47:06

I mean, it's just as stupid in the world

47:10

of information. Encyclopedia, Botanica.

47:12

You know what I mean? Like, things

47:14

evolved and your product becomes bad

47:16

because you stop being honest and you

47:18

stop being trustworthy, that's all problems with you guys and

47:20

the value that you provide to the marketplace to

47:23

go, like III don't

47:25

know. God did not give you guys the

47:27

royal authority of being the world's

47:29

only news source. There was a point in

47:32

time where you guys probably did good

47:34

journalism. You actually had really good profits. You're able

47:36

to outspend all

47:38

the competition. To be best in the game, and you squandered all

47:40

those resources by not doing honest

47:42

journalism. So now when people wanna be

47:44

informed, they're not reading your

47:45

newspaper. That's on you.

47:47

remember talking about this when

47:50

I was it was

47:52

when I was on Rogen

47:54

right when he was like,

47:57

in the week where he was the most, like, under fire, and it was the week

47:59

where Brian Stelter was really relentlessly going

48:01

after him. And

48:04

we we this

48:06

wasn't the last time I was on. I think it was the time before that.

48:08

And we we played a Brian Stelter

48:10

clip, and we were we were breaking him

48:12

down and and talking about him a bunch. But

48:15

it it was really amazing to

48:18

me that they would

48:20

go, like,

48:22

The fact that Brian stealthier, not only that he would have no

48:25

self reflection, but that he wouldn't

48:27

even feel like he had

48:30

to pretend to have a little

48:32

self reflection. You know what I mean? Like, if

48:34

you were talking about like, if I was

48:36

whatever it is, if I

48:38

was just publicly talking about how I keep

48:40

losing to you, but I'm so much better than you.

48:43

There wouldn't be some point where I'd have

48:45

to go like, well, I mean, And

48:47

obviously, I could have done this better. So you know what I mean? Like, you

48:50

wouldn't just just to save

48:52

face, like, just to not look so bad. So

48:54

here he is he's talking about,

48:56

you know, Joe Rogen spreads this misinformation, but here at

48:58

CNN, we have a newsroom, and

49:00

we have all of this stuff, and we have fact

49:02

checkers, and all this. Then you're

49:04

like, okay, so even by

49:06

your own standard.

49:09

You're losing. And this is just

49:11

a basic rule of law in life,

49:13

like, Okay. You have a newsroom, you have fact checkers, you

49:15

have all this stuff, and Joe Rogen can just go

49:17

say whatever he wants

49:18

to. And yet

49:21

and yet Schimmel

49:21

Rogen has twenty five times the

49:24

audience that you

49:25

have. Let's think

49:28

about that. So I'd be like, well,

49:30

what have you done? What with all your fact checkers in your newsroom, what have you gotten wrong? You

49:32

know? And then,

49:32

oh, man, you don't wanna open that door

49:35

because the answer is everything. Everything.

49:39

The market for honest information hasn't gone

49:41

away. So if CNN has an annual

49:43

budget, which I'm sure it's

49:46

worse what, do you think

49:48

CNN's annual budget is, if you had to

49:50

guess? I'm talking, like, the entire

49:52

network

49:52

budget. I don't

49:52

know. But

49:53

it's not gonna be a couple hundred million

49:55

dollars at least if I think higher. I think Yeah.

49:57

I would think I would think the range if I had to guess was between five hundred

49:59

and a and a billion in

50:02

terms of the total budget for

50:04

the network. I maybe five hundred

50:06

million, I don't know. Let's go with five hundred million

50:08

dollars. So you've got five hundred million dollars

50:10

and you're in charge of the network. You've got a

50:12

lot of resources to get how many shows do you

50:14

even need? What what's your prime time that you're talking

50:16

eight PM to twelve AM or something like

50:18

that? So you need five people. You

50:20

need five people who are

50:22

entertaining as Rogen with the back staff to

50:24

put together I mean, you and I, we do a

50:26

news program three times a week. And we've

50:28

managed to put together an audience. It's not a there's

50:30

a market for honest information. You

50:32

guys are just losing because that's not

50:34

what you wanna do. Or or or you're

50:36

just not good at it. You're not good at

50:38

hiring people who are entertaining, and then having people who are

50:40

able to put together the stories. The like, you you

50:43

sort of said, the market for information has

50:45

not gone away. People have

50:47

not decided, hey, I wanna be uninformed.

50:50

And now we need the government to step

50:52

in and go,

50:52

Nope. You guys will be informed. Nope.

50:55

Yeah. I need to have there's something that's going

50:57

on in our culture. And there's

51:00

is it

51:02

a big

51:03

change through the generations. And I probably,

51:06

you know, I probably won't be able to express

51:08

this.

51:08

You know, I won't

51:10

be able to articulate this quite Right.

51:13

But there's something where what

51:16

people are craving right now

51:20

And the reason

51:21

why, like, we're able to put this together is is that people

51:23

are kind of craving this,

51:26

like, kind of

51:28

this absence of the bullshit and

51:30

the gimmicky stuff, and they like hearing

51:32

people just really talk to them. And

51:34

really speak from the heart. I think it's as our our society has

51:37

gotten faker and faker and

51:39

faker, people like that. They

51:41

crave kind of like like

51:44

realness. And the

51:46

the the media apparatus

51:49

is built off the opposite of

51:51

that. It's built off the like

51:53

Good evening, and welcome to tonight's news

51:55

and news and the story. We throw it

51:57

over to you, Sean. You know, and like, no no one

51:59

really talks like this. It's like, you're putting

52:01

on a voice of how you think the

52:04

official person is supposed to our our

52:06

generation's like a little bit too

52:08

cynical. III don't know if it's it's a result

52:10

of, like, I

52:12

think it's a result

52:14

of the fact that our

52:16

generation didn't really believe in

52:20

things the way previous generations did, they didn't really believe in, like,

52:23

god, country, loyalty, chivalry,

52:25

like these things. They were just kind of,

52:27

like, brought up under a lot

52:29

of, like, It grew up with a lot

52:31

of nihilism and cynicism and all

52:33

of these things. I also think

52:35

there was, like, there was kind of

52:37

this big effect that if you remember there was like

52:40

the reality TV era where

52:42

that just became what everyone wanted to watch.

52:44

And then we almost, like, moved

52:46

into the post reality

52:48

TV world, but people didn't

52:50

need a show as much. They

52:52

wanted more someone to just be straight

52:55

with them. And all of these things, you know, also at the

52:57

same time, I think generations

53:00

ago, you know, people weren't

53:02

as they didn't grow

53:04

up on television and on the movies as much

53:06

as as like our generation

53:07

did, and then everyone kind of

53:10

became like

53:12

It's almost like everyone's doing an impression of what

53:15

they've seen, other people who were

53:17

being phony by definition, and

53:20

we're acting, what they do. And people there's almost like

53:22

a response to that. But

53:25

that's what people are craving

53:27

right now. And people

53:30

can just sniff it out. That it's like, it's

53:32

not that, say, like, Joe

53:34

Hogan or someone like that. It's not that he's

53:36

right about everything.

53:38

It's that he's honest

53:40

about everything. He might

53:42

be wrong here and there, but

53:44

he's like, he's not lying to

53:46

you, and people can

53:48

tell that and they can tell that Brian Stelter is lying to

53:50

them. I think you just like, people are

53:52

better at just sniffing that out on

53:54

some level now. You know, if you

53:56

think about if you look at

53:58

some of the government propaganda from

54:00

the past, that if

54:02

go watch like World

54:04

War two government propaganda. It's

54:08

it's bananas. Go Brian, here,

54:10

if you could just pull up real quick, try

54:12

to find look

54:14

up daffy duck

54:16

income tax propaganda. I

54:18

I want you to find

54:20

this. My point is just that there's

54:23

stuff that would never work

54:25

today. You could you just could

54:27

not imagine it ever working today. You'd go you'd look

54:29

at it right away and go, No. No.

54:31

No. Our our culture is just way too

54:34

cynical for

54:36

this to possibly work. No.

54:39

No. No. I'm sorry. By the way, it's not not

54:41

Daffy

54:41

Duck. What's the Duck? Donald Duck? Yes.

54:43

That's right.

54:43

Donald Duck.

54:46

Mickey's boy. So I'll look here.

54:48

Watch

54:48

this, Rob. Hey,

54:51

Brian. Let me get what's the date

54:53

on this? Just

54:56

look in

54:56

the in the description. Oh,

54:58

it does not show oh, I

55:00

might show in the thing how it

55:02

was planned.

55:03

Yes, there

55:07

is

55:09

a new spirit

55:12

in America. The spirit of a free people united

55:14

again in a common cause to

55:16

stamp tyranny from the earth.

55:18

Wow. Wow. Our

55:19

very shores have been attacked. Wait.

55:21

Wait. Wait. Your whole

55:23

country is mobilizing for

55:26

total war. Your

55:28

country needs

55:29

you. Are you

55:32

a patriotic American? What's

55:33

that? He's

55:34

good to do your part. What's

55:36

that? Then there's something

55:38

important you can do. You

55:40

won't get a medal

55:42

for doing it. Oh,

55:45

that's alright. It may

55:45

mean a sacrifice on your

55:48

part. But it will be

55:50

vital help to your country in

55:52

this all need. Can

55:53

I tell you what it

55:56

is? Hello?

56:00

Your income tax.

56:04

Income tax? Yes.

56:07

Your income tax. It

56:09

may not seem important

56:12

to

56:13

you, but it is

56:15

important.

56:15

Oh, wow. Yes, and it's your privilege. Not just your

56:18

duty, but your privilege

56:20

to help your government by paying

56:22

your tax and paying it

56:24

prompt. What's

56:26

the big hurry? What's

56:28

the big hurry? Your country

56:30

is at war. Your country

56:32

needs taxes or

56:34

guns. Taxes, or ships.

56:36

As

56:36

soon as you get your taxes in,

56:38

as soon as they'll get the

56:40

work. For your taxes, my

56:42

taxes, already worked. Our tax that

56:45

run the factories. This is n forty

56:47

two. They're

56:48

they'd be filling out for forty one.

56:52

American doctors working day and

56:56

night. That

57:04

he is making guns, machine

57:06

guns, anti tank guns, long

57:09

range guns, guns, guns, all kinds

57:11

of guns. Exes,

57:19

for American factories, working Okay.

57:22

Let's we we could stop it here. I

57:24

just I think you you guys get the point

57:26

that I'm going after go watch the rest of it.

57:28

By the way, there's a bunch of old propaganda like that. It's

57:30

really, really fascinating to go watch.

57:32

But the point I'm making here though is

57:33

that, like, this was not

57:36

for children.

57:36

And we're not trying to convince children to pay their income tax.

57:38

This was targeted to adults. Now,

57:40

I'm just saying, we there's a

57:42

level of cynicism in our generation now.

57:45

Where you could never possibly think

57:48

that would work. Now, they're they'll

57:50

still try different propaganda campaigns

57:52

or they have to make them more

57:54

sophisticated. But you think about how

57:56

many of them, like, fall apart so

57:58

quickly. And there's just

58:00

there's something about that that you're like,

58:02

yeah. So okay. Yeah. If that could work,

58:04

Of course, everyone would trust Edward Murrow as

58:06

like, he's the straight news guy

58:09

who gives everyone news. But people aren't

58:11

falling for that anymore. By

58:14

the way, little other bit bit of, like, kinda interesting history. Right? So

58:16

the withholding tax didn't come until

58:18

after World War two. So

58:20

back then, they had to

58:22

really rely on

58:24

the fact that people would send in their taxes, pay their taxes,

58:26

and they didn't have, like, electronic records and

58:28

shit like that that they have today. So

58:31

there's tons, like, vast majority of people just didn't pay them.

58:33

So, like, just didn't pay them. Come get me. You know what

58:35

I mean? And say, they never were going

58:38

to anyway. But so it's this

58:40

was the the thing of guilting

58:42

Americans into paying your taxes because

58:44

we got this big mass murder campaign we

58:46

gotta go

58:47

on. So make sure you pay your taxes. And, oh,

58:49

I know I know who will pull out

58:51

to do it.

58:53

Donald Duck he'll get it done. It's the cartoon character you know and

58:56

trust. Just fascinating to see

58:58

I don't know to me like how things

59:00

have changed over the years.

59:03

And the voice over

59:05

guy.

59:06

Oh, voice over guy was on point.

59:08

It's a

59:09

good voice.

59:10

Do you wanna help your country Well

59:12

then unload your

59:13

wallet. Really pretty incredible.

59:16

Alright. We're gonna wrap there. That's what show

59:18

for today. Come out and see us

59:20

in Saint Louis guys. Still some tickets

59:22

available. Come join us. Come

59:24

out for that Friday

59:26

late show. That's the one I'd recommend. That's the hot show,

59:28

everyone. I

59:28

like Friday night shows. Those are fun. Get dirty.

59:30

Me too. Hell yeah. Alright,

59:31

guys. Yeah.

59:34

Friday and Saturday this weekend me and Rob both be there doing a live part of the

59:36

problem podcast as well. So if you're not in the area,

59:38

don't worry. You'll you'll get to

59:41

to see one of the shows. Alright. Catch you

59:43

next time, peace.