A Geek History of Time - Episode 297 - The Fall of the Hitman and the Rise of the Rattlesnake Part VIII

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

We were saying that we were going to get into the movies. Yeah, and I'm only going to get into a few of them because there were way too goddamn many for me to really be interested in telling you this clone version or this clone version in the early studio system. It's a good metric to know in a story arc. Where should I be? Oh, there's Beast. I should step over here.

At some point, I'm going to have to sit down with you and force you, like pump you full of coffee and be like, no, okay, look. And are swiftly and brutally put down by the Minutemen who use bayonets to get their point across. Well done there. I'm good, Damian, and I'm also glad that I got your name right this time. I apologize for that one TikTok video.

Men of this generation. Wound up serving the whole lot of them as a percentage of the population because of the war, because of a whole lot of other stuff. Oh, yeah. And actually, in his case, it was pre-war, but, but you know, I was joking. Did he seriously join the American Navy? He did. I'm going to go to the bathroom. This is a Geek History of Time. Where we connect nerdery to the real world. My name is Ed Blaylock. I'm a world history teacher here in Northern California and I have been spending a lot of my free time over the course of last week

in a nostalgia infused euphoric haze. Because last weekend, I managed to get a copy of the new release the 2024 edition of the fifth edition player's handbook, which is like edition 5.2. If you want to call it that, like lots of lots of different people online are trying to figure out what to call it. But anyway, I got ahold of the new player's handbook. And what I have done ever since second edition AD&D came out is I have taken one or two of my old characters from previous editions and I've recreated them. I've ported them over to whatever the new edition is in order to try to kind of get a feel for, okay, this is how this is going to feel on the table, but on the tabletop. And this is, this is how this character is going to work now.

And this is kind of how I make this happen. And, um, everything I have done doing that so far makes me really, really excited for, for this version of the game. It has really strong Dave, a Varneson energy. If, if that makes sense, like, like, somewhere, Dave Arneson is looking at the people who are responsible for figuring out the sedition of the game going, yeah, yeah, like that. And yeah, I am I'm here for it. And the changes that are built around the idea of making the hobby inclusive to everyone are amazing and I am here for them. And yeah, so I'm, I'm

very, very, I'm very happy and I continue to be like looking through this book going, Oh my God, I'm so excited for this. Yeah, so that's that's kind of where I am in the headspace I'm in as a gamer right now. How about you? Well, I'm Damian Harmony. I'm a US history teacher up here at the high school level in northern California. And I helped some friends recently. I don't own a truck. I no longer own a van. But I'm still the friend that a lot of people go to to move heavy shit. And I've never been so weak in my life.

But I had friends who asked for my help, so no problem, putting together a ping pong table and moving some couches and stuff like that. Cool. Couches, I was like, all right, let's move it this way, this way, this way, unless you have a better idea. No, no, that's fine. Cool. Couches, I was like, all right, let's move it this way, this way, this way, unless you have a better idea. No, no, that's fine, cool.

Picked up my end, they picked up their end, and I asked them midway through, do you need to set it down and rest? No, no, let's power through. Okay, cool. Next one, do you wanna take about a five minute break before we get the next one? Yeah, that'd be a good idea.

Cool, no problem. Then it comes to the ping pong table, and they said, well said well okay if we get this corner and then like try to get this corner are you able to and I just like went over to it and picked it up and I was like oh I got this and I just walked it out and I came back in and they're like still like a gog and I grabbed the other one and they're like how how and how? And I told them, like, I'm having a phasic moment. I don't even exercise.

So that's awesome. Yeah, but I like that. You know, also for anybody who hasn't ever seen us either, you know, photographically or in person, Damien is actually not a small dude. No, like this, this should be pointed out. Um, you know, I forget it all the time because I know you do. And as a short man, I find that a little frustrating and mostly hysterically funny. Yeah.

I'm like, I don't know my size. Like, I remember years and years ago, I grabbed a friend and shook her by the shoulders, like, what's wrong with you? Just teasing. And she was ragdolling. And I'm like, okay, very funny. And she's like, no, dude, Jesus Christ. Like, what?

So I grabbed her boyfriend, I did the same thing, and I ragdolled him without realizing it. And I was like, they used to be good. I was like, what is this power in my hands? Well, because- I think I'm the same size as whoever I'm talking to. Like that's legit what I think. Yeah. Yeah. You are.

I just, I find that funny because like there's such, such a, you know, Goliath as a, as a species kind of vibe going on there. Like you're part giant and you don't, as you said, phasic. Like speaking as the guy who, talking to friend of the show and my brother from another mother, Sean, back in college, I found it hysterical that one afternoon talking with him I said well, you know as a short guy of I've always had this issue da da da and he looked to me right in the Face looked down at her right in the face and said what are you talking about?

I said dude Siri like now you're fucking with me No, we're you know, and he literally went from his forehead to my forehead, we're the same height. I went, wow. Yeah. Um, do that again slowly. Right. And he, and he just like, oh shit, you are a short guy.

You, you, really? Yeah. I hadn't fucking noticed. But yeah, it's the same. Yeah. And same kind of thing, you know, but the world never lets me forget it. See?

Right. So. Yeah, no, it's, what is it? The axe cuts, or the axe forgets, but the tree remembers. The tree remembers, like, yeah, you know. Like short people always know the exact height that they are, and I'm like, nah, I'm like six feet.

Yeah, like, yeah. You know? Yeah yeah my friends who are all taller than me. They're like, you know six three six four Whatever, you know, whatever. Yeah So yeah, so when last we left it bread heart Had canceled welfare No, no, no, he didn't cancel welfare he canceled Christmas. Yes is what he did yeah he left Steve Austin a bloody heap and And then attacked him afterwards and frankly give him gave him everything he deserved But it didn't matter because it was after the bell and he was unconscious

So even though he had it coming the audience felt he didn't deserve it Well, yeah, because that was that was the whole point of the arc at that point was no no I'm I'm I'm going to go full heel You were going to witness the the power of this fully operational heel turn. Yes, you know Where is my where is my? Yes. Where is my science fiction samurai helmet and my black cape? Right. You know, yeah.

And then he did the ultimate thing. He backed down from a fight afterwards. And the thing is, he backed down from a fight from a guy who was fresh, and Brett had just been through a 30 minute war. Yeah. Like there's so many good reasons. Truly.

Yeah. Yeah. There's so many good reasons not to take that fight, but it did not matter. So the next night, Bret Hart gave an incredible promo, making sure to let everyone know in every possible way that he was now a heel since everyone was in favor of Stone Cold Steve Austin now. And Stone Cold Steve Austin gave another promo about a month later that really capped the whole thing off.

They then had a few more matches on TV and I'm gonna skip ahead briefly to highlight the one, the following month's pay-per-view that saw Bret and Austin wrestle a very different match from the Mania match. It was a confirmation of everything that the audience had been led to decide about both Brett and Steve Austin. Brett wrestled a total heel style and even pretended to care about the referee after smashing Austin's leg the whole time that the ref was out with the steel chair. Oh, wow, okay.

Now when Brett ended up in the sharpshooter, which was being applied by Steve Austin. Nice. Owen and Davey came out to interfere, and at first Austin fought them off, but then Davey smashed Austin with the chair and Brett lost by DQ. After the match, Steve Austin got the upper hand

and appeared to have injured Brett's knee, punishing. After the match, Steve Austin got the upper hand and appeared to have injured Brett's knee, punishing him after the match. Okay. Now, Bear's pointing out here, Austin was getting cheered the whole time for doing the very thing that Brett Hart had done the prior month and had turned heel in doing. Austin never really changed what he did

in terms of his overall style. He stopped targeting body parts so viciously, but he still absolutely attacked anytime he wanted, didn't give a shit about winning and losing as much as hurting Brett, and jaw-jacked any and everyone he came into contact with. But he was a face and Brett was a heel. Oh, and then afterwards, so he's beaten the shit out of Brett tearing up his leg after the match is over

Right getting cheered the whole time and afterwards Brett gets helped out by his faction without attacking any of the officials who tried to help him Okay, and he gets booed. Austin had walked out up the entranceway without acknowledging anyone. Right. Because that's that's his that's part of his shtick. Yeah, but again they literally did the exact same things that their counterpart had done at WrestleMania. Yeah.

And this time the results were completely different. So okay, that brings me to a question about a fabe in general. Okay. So how much of that is as, as you've masterfully established up to this point, the shifting zit geist of there really are no faces and there are no heels anymore. And how much of that is at the end of WrestleMania, And how much of that is at the end of WrestleMania? The message had been sent and the context had been set

in the audience's mind that this guy through purgation by pain has now become your Your face because he never quit. He never, he never gave up. Right. He has, he has shown virtue in, in this way. And so now he is the standard bearer for facehood. And this guy, you know, uh, he, he was entirely correct the entire time about everything he said but the way he handled it was in the end excessive and You know he he has stared into the abyss too long and now right now he is the heel

like there is there is establishment of a context there and When they as you say they they're now doing the same thing that each other did previously right how much of the audiences perception the audience's interpretation of that is driven by the ritual of the recognition that this one is now wearing this mask in the play and this one is now wearing this mask in the play. You get what I'm saying? I think so. Like like the go ahead, the the archetype of face and the archetype of heel being applied to them, having a role in... Rather than the behavior defining the role, the role has been bestowed. And so the behavior is not the deciding factor.

I think you're onto something there. So I think what's happening here is Austin became a face because of his toughness, not because he acted in a virtuous way. Brett became a heel because he ceased to act in a virtuous way. And he did not show toughness. He cowered. Okay. All right. All right. At the end, right?

Right. Because the audience was like, yeah. So in this match, kind of backs that up, is that the actions don't matter because their personalities are now established. So it used to be heels did heel shit faces did face shit. Right now, everybody does heel shit. And because Brett didn't get beat up after a lengthy, grueling match that established his toughness.

There's no reason to boo Austin for attacking him after the fact. OK, OK. So so maybe one one way of saying it is the the virtue is no longer anything, anything that would have been considered virtue, fair play, honor, whatever. Virtue now is strictly toughness and and stubbornness and not backing down. Seems to be. Okay. Yeah. All right.

Yeah. Okay. That answers my question. Because Brett is helped out by his faction. Brett did not attack any innocent referees. And when Austin attacked innocent referees, they cheered him Because he had been tough. Yeah, well and because the system is fucked Yeah, but remember that referee that referee wasn't a representative of the state

He was an outside agent brought in to legitimize it more. That was Ken Shamrock. He didn't stun Ken Shamrock He stunned all the referees who were trying to help him to the back He didn't stun Ken Shamrock. He stunned all the referees who were trying to help him to the back. Okay. With his bum knee. Right. But this time, Brett gets helped out by his friends. That's not individualism. It's weak.

Yes. Friendship is magic, magic is heresy. Now the Raw at the end of April featured, so I'm fast forwarding a little bit, the Raw at the end of April featured a street fight between the two of them which ended in a no contest and after that Bret's anti-American gimmick was in full swing and it was no longer about respect or Steve Austin or anything. It was just about him and his faction getting all the championships. They were faces in Canada and the rest of the world but they were heels in the US, the primary market for the WWF.

It stayed focused largely on Austin, but really he became the avatar for what Bret really hated, the American fans. And so Bret went to war not with Austin, but with the American fans. And it was actually really something, but it's not what I'm going to focus on here. So before I get to the final connection to the history that I'm aiming you at, I'm going

to have you listen to these three promos. The first one is from Brett the night after Mania addressing his fan. The second one is from Stone Cold the following week. And then the third is from about a month later between Austin and Brett. So you see the verbal aspect of the bloodletting. week and then the third is from about a month later between Austin and Brett so you see the verbal aspect of the bloodletting okay all right so Brett comes down in a new mostly black outfit a new black leather jacket and he cuts a promo now I had you listen to the first minute and a half of it. Yeah. Tell me tonally what's going on there.

Well, he opens by I want to apologize. And immediately the moment he says that, I think it's. Shit, I've forgotten his name. Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, Vince McMahon, man, just what? You know, right. And that amazing. Wait a minute. Vince McMahon Jim Ross Vince McMahon man just what you know That amazing like wait a minute and then he he he apologizes to all of his global fans and Then and then he says and then all my fans here across the United States of America. I apologize for nothing right and

and there's this this Really remarkable level of sarcasm in the whole thing. Mm-hmm. And it's all bitterness and it's all aggrievement no matter how much I beat. There it is. Yes. He uses the phrase, beat Austin to a bloody pulp. Yeah. Like two or three times in a row.

Yeah. I'm going to read the whole whole promo but you nailed it. It's there's a bitterness and there's an agreement right? And and the other thing I want to note is you know you said you've used it like towards the beginning of this whole series you said that you know he was never really good at cutting promos until he went full heel. Right. And I really think that as a performer, he is discovered at this point that being the bad guys a lot of fun is really liberating to just get to get to dig in all of those nasty

emotional impulses. Yeah, you can also fuck up if you're a bad guy. You have to be a paragon if you're a good guy. That was one thing that Austin always said was that he preferred to be a bad guy because if you slip on the way to the ring, you can make it a bad guy thing. Right. But if you do it on the way to the ring,

if you slip on the way to the ring as a face, it fucks you up. Yeah. So yeah. So, okay, so Brett, he's in his mostly black outfit a new black leather jacket He cuts this promo he says quote first of all, I want to apologize and and again, like you said like the announcers were incredulous I'd like to apologize to all my fans over in Germany I'd like to apologize to all my great fans over in Great Britain

Actually, I'd like to apologize to all my fans all over Europe, all over Japan and the Far East. I'd like to apologize to my fans in the Middle East, all the way as far down as South Africa. And I'd especially like to apologize to all my great fans in Canada. And to you, my fans right here across the United States of America, I apologize for nothing." So he just put over by the way that throughout the world, he's over. Yeah. He was a world champion. Not just in name. And then he says, you know, it seems really strange to me that no matter how much I try that when I beat stone cold Steve Austin to a bloody pulp, you know, I find myself no matter how much I win, when I walk back to the dressing room, the way you American fans treat me across the United States of America, I feel like I lost. And you take a gutless creep like Stone Cold Steve Austin

and you beat him to a bloody pulp, even though he knows and you all know that he lost, you cheer him on the way back to the dressing room like he won. You know, it didn't just start right here. Let's go back to WrestleMania last year when I was the world wrestling Federation champion, when that belt was around my waist where it belongs, you cheered on a pretty boy like Sean Michaels and you allowed him to screw me out of the world wrestling Federation championship belt. Now I'm going to break in right here. Remember he didn't blame Sean when he'd first lost. Right.

He basically said like, no, this is kind of fucked up, but man, that's part of the job. Right. He, right. And now, yes, now it's being really recast. And back to him. I found myself sitting at home watching WWF on TV in Canada. I say to myself, the World Wrestling Federation needs a hero. They need a role model.

They need somebody that can look up to, not somebody that's got earrings all over himself and tattoos, not somebody that poses for girly magazines. By the way, I don't think it was a girly magazine, I think it was a gay magazine. Just gonna break in here real quick. He has since apologized for doing the homophobic shit that he does

from now through about June or July. But he, you know, it was very much he was attacking the masculinity of Shawn Michaels. Back then that was a currency. That was the way to do it. Yeah. Yeah. Now, so I found this calling for myself to come back and set the record straight and clean up the World Wrestling Federation So I came back in the Survivor Series and I beat Stone Cold Steve Austin there And I think I garnered a little respect Then I found myself stepping into the ring with psycho Sid and your hero your pride and joy Sean Michaels cost me the World Wrestling Federation Championship belt nobody cared Nobody did anything about it.

You people didn't do anything about it. And they say, oh, don't worry about that. You can get in line with 29 other guys and you can go to the Royal Rumble. But being the man that I am, I got no problem with fighting 29 other guys. So I went in the Royal Rumble and I won. I was the last legal man standing in the Royal Rumble. But again, everybody just turns their back on it. You somehow justify in your mind that Stone Cold Steve Austin won.

A better man would have quit and maybe I should have quit gone home. The audience, who was largely booing him, started chanting, Go home, Brett, go home, Brett, go home, Brett. And then he says, I got Gorilla Monsoon and Vince McMahon on their hands and knees begging me to come back. Don't quit. Don't quit. Think of your fans.

Now I thought of my fans and I came back. So they come up with this idea for the Final Four. The winner of the Final Four will get a World Wrestling Federation title fight at WrestleMania 13. That sounds good to me. I accept. I come back and all of a sudden your champion, your hero, Shawn Michaels, comes up with this life-ending, career-ending injury. And he forfeits the title so he can go home and find his smile. That's okay. You people think that's just fine. I see everybody crying in

the audience for that. He talks about me crying. So I go in the Final Four with the outcome now being whoever wins the Final Four will be the World Wrestling Federation Champion. And who won the final four? I did. Right in the middle of the ring. I defeated three other guys in one night. I defeated Vader. I defeated Stone Cold Steve Austin. And I defeated The Undertaker and became the World Wrestling Federation Champion for a fourth time. Then they come up to me and they go, well, wait a minute, you don't get to rest. Even though you fought three other guys, even though you got beat up and sore, you gotta go in and fight six foot nine psycho Sid

and defend the title. Do you think I ran and hid? Do you think he went and found me forfeiting any titles? No. I put the title on the line and I took psycho Sid and I tied him in a big knot right in the middle of the ring. There he was in the sharpshooter. After being booed all the way through the match by my American wrestling fans, you somehow justify

only in America you could do this. Stone cold Steve Austin climbs right up on the ring and whacks me over the back of the head with a chair. And somehow you justify that. That's okay. That's acceptable in America. So I asked whereas you see it I cried to Gorilla Monsoon and I asked and I begged and I pleaded and I said give me stone-cold Steve Austin. Give me a match with this guy. That's With this guy that seems to be making my life miserable hell So I got stone-cold Steve Austin and they agree to a match a submission match and then then they go wait We even got some better news for you we will give you psycho sit in a 15 foot high steel cage match and

Nobody will be able to interfere in that and you'll have your shot at the World Wrestling Federation Championship belt because we respect you Well in that match outside interference played a big factor again And somehow for some reason the undertaker is out there and he finds himself slamming my head in the door. So at this, the crowd is like, he has got them in the palm of his hand. He then says, he costs me and he's just basically giving a chronicle of what happened. That's the best part. He is telling the truth about what happened. It's

not even from a certain point of view. These are all facts. Yeah. So and yet he's the heel for this. So quote, he cost me the World Wrestling Federation champion belt for a fifth time. So I got one thing on my mind after being screwed over by everybody in the World Wrestling Federation and after being abandoned by all you good fans right here in the United States of America, I decided that I'm going to go into the submission match with Stone Cold Steve Austin. I give him just a little bit of what he deserves, just a good old fashioned ass whipping. And so when I do it, when I actually take that lousy, stinking hyena Stone Cold Steve Austin and beat him to a bloody pulp, you somehow find it in your hearts to abandon

me and cheer for him. You know, I've proven myself so many times here in the World Wrestling Federation, and I've tried to be everything that you want me and it wanted me to be. But it seems to me that you don't understand. You don't understand what it means to have dignity, to have poise, to bring prestige

to the World Wrestling Federation, to be a man that brings a little class, because you'd rather cheer for heroes like Charles Manson and And oj simpson and nobody glorifies criminal conduct like the Americans do Wow Yeah like it's he's just All in like just jabbing the fuck out of him and the thing is

The rest of the world saw him as a face for this. Oh wow. Okay. He's only a heel in America. Because let's be real, he's just holding up a mirror. Not wrong. So quote, in all the countries that I go to around the world, they still respect what's right and what's wrong. Respect. Now that we've made everything really clear with ourselves here tonight, it's obvious to me that all you American wrestling fans coast to coast, you don't respect me. Well the fact is, I don't respect you.

Brett, you don't deserve it. So from here on in the American wrestling fans coast to coast kiss my ass Wow Yeah, all right. And again, he is a face in the entire rest of the world The problem is the WWF spends like 90% of its time in America so spends like 90% of its time in America. So now at that, Shawn Michaels showed up and shouted, yo, Hitman, and then walked to the ring. He was going baby face, but then again, Stone Cold Steve Austin was gonna be the top face,

so Shawn Michaels was turning semi baby face while against Brett. Shawn says, quote, let me put one thing perfectly straight. You can come out here and say whatever you want about me. Everyone does. And you don't have to explain to me or the World Wrestling Federation that you would never give up the WWF title

because no one knows better than me or the WWF that it takes a handwritten note from the Lord Almighty to get that belt from you. But Brett, what you don't understand is just because I come out here and choose to live my life openly and freely instead of putting on a facade like you does not make you a better man. Brett, I am well aware of my faults.

I can admit them up and down the line. And as far as Steve Austin is concerned, Brett, I was there last night. He didn't give up, all right? Now I'm no fan of Steve Austin, but he passed out. And even you have to admit somewhere in there, there's got to be some of the old hit man left. Even you've got to admit that he is one tough SOB. Now, Brett, I have tried and tried and tried to take the high road. Now I am in no shape to wrestle and I know you're tougher than me, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, whole thing. I admit that, that's fine.

I don't have to be number one, Brett. I don't obsess like you do. I do this because I like it. You do it because in your mind, Mark Man, you really think all of this is yours. Now, what you need to do, what you need to understand is that every time they reach into their pocket and pay money to watch you me or anyone else

They have the right to cheer or boo anyone they want Big pop there now How American eating is he being there right? Oh very yeah? Yeah, this is all about freedom and also he calls him a mark The mark is somebody who is us. We're Marks. We pay attention to it to an extreme degree and think that we're really smart because of it. We buy into the hype. And the wrestlers are there to make money.

And that's kind of his point is that Brett is his own biggest Mark. And then so it's a big pop. And then Sean says, now, hey, you don't have to tell me that they're sharing me now, but they booed me before. But didn't you you didn't see me get all bent out of shape about it. You want to know why, Brett? It's because in this country, we have something that's called the First Amendment. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. Go ahead. It it it bugs me. Mm hmm. That they're they're playing that angle quite that hard. Oh yeah. Because that's that's not actually a First Amendment thing. Right. Oh, yeah, cuz that's that's not actually a First Amendment thing, right?

You okay fine. This is commedia del arte. It's all heightened drama This is all melodrama with with you know tights and spangles, but absolutely plays on a misunderstanding of what? Very brights are what the structure what the rules. It's playing on a misunderstanding of the rules. Yeah, very much. So he continues, and that amendment allows us to live our lives the way we see fit as long as it's causing harm to no one. Which, that's not what the first amendment is.

If that guy there, he points, if that guy there wants to stick a belly button piercing through his navel, he can do it whether you like it or not. If that girl over there chooses to go out with someone that you don't approve of, tough titty, said the kitty, and she's gonna do it. Now, I want to get on my high and mighty roller coaster here, Brett, but you, my friend, have got to look at this. I'm in no shape to go, but if you want to go, what the hell? Let's go right now."

So, of course, he's coming out looking tougher. He's saying things that are not tied to reality, but popular. And they square up a bit. And then Sean said, you know something? We've got a saying in the United States of America And it's called America love it or leave it Yeah, fuck you but Context of this I understand the so Brett called out the American fans told the truth about everything that had happened

Did not misrepresent the facts at all. No. Gets booed. Sean comes out, says things that are disconnected from reality and puffs up America as though he's like Bob fucking Backlund. And he's getting massively cheered and he says America, love it or leave it.

Right. Brett responded with quote Shawn Michaels boy toy. I think you should go back to that dressing room Just get the hell out of my face Well, of course that meant Shawn would step forward to get in his face and then said, you know me Brett I'm not real good with authority by the way. How'd you know? I was in a girly magazine Big pop to that You just couldn't help. You couldn't help yourself, could you? You had to flip through the pages just a little bit.

Wow. So Sean then starts to leave and Brett immediately attacks his bad knee specifically, drags him around, puts him in the figure four around the post. Here's what he said about it in his memoir actually that night. He said, as realistic as both of our interviews were, we were both still working. He protected me by holding my foot so I could ease myself to the floor without whacking my head, which was the only dangerous part about putting that hold on. All right.

These guys fucking hate each other in real life at this point. Yeah, well, but again, like you've pointed out, in the ring, Sean is a professional. Yeah. It's outside the ring that, like, they fuck you. He's not, yeah. Like, you know

and and of course you know Brett is is the consummate professional and is the the Avatar of the art right you know and and yeah, so I mean obviously they're they're working and they're looking out for each other, but yeah Now Sid then came out and chased off Brett now the next week Brett put together his anti-american pro-canadian at omni's faction the new iteration of the heart foundation he reconciled Davey and Owen to himself and The three of them would then be joined by

Jim Neidhart shortly thereafter, as well as Brian Pillman as an ally member. At that Raw on March 31, 1997, Steve Austin was interviewed for the first time since WrestleMania. Austin said, Let me clear the air here because I never, ever said I quit. Ken Shamrock could have went out there with 10 hearing aids taped to his fat little head and he never would have heard it because I never said it. Bret Hart says he beat me to a bloody pulp. That's the biggest bunch of BS I ever heard because I knocked the hell out of my head on a guard rail.

Bret Hart, you didn't do a damn thing thing on your best day, which wasn't at WrestleMania You never got the job done. You hooked your little sharpshooter I'll give you that the only reason Stone Cold went out was because my head was pumping My my head was pumping out more blood than my heart was given. You're the biggest piece of trash I ever met in my life huge Bob Okay You're the biggest piece of trash I ever met in my life. Huge Bob. You talk about coming to the WWF, making a big comeback because the people needed a hero. You talk about being who the people wanted you to be. That's the biggest bunch of BS I ever heard again.

And then he turned to McMahon. You can look at Steve Austin and you can think whatever you want. You can think I'm a class act or think I'm the biggest jackass you ever met. But the bottom line is I ain't changing for nobody. You put me in this ring and when the bell goes off, whether you got me against a good guy and the people boo the hell out of me or you got me against a bad guy and they cheer me, it doesn't make a damn. I am the 1996 king of the ring.

All I set out to do when that bell rings is whip somebody's ass and you ain't gotta like how I do it, but I damn sure I'll get the job done. I'll say something to Bret Hart right now. If you ain't in the back crying, if you ain't quit the Federation yet, put on a clean pair of panties and get your ass out here because I'll beat the hell out of you right now. All right, that's a definite challenge. Yeah. So notice Brett listed everything that happened and told the truth.

Sean came out and plugged the individuality thing. The next week, Austin came out and lied. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, yeah, I what I was gonna say was, I mean, you can quibble and say that he, you know, makes claims on on, you know, sketchy technicalities, you know, you didn't beat me to a bloody pulp that was you know hit my head on a guardrail Like right, you know, I mean if we're being charitable, maybe we can give you credit But you know you you you got the shit beat out of you. Yeah, you got beat Yeah, like yeah, and you can make hay on the I never gave up. You had to knock me out before I gave up. Yeah, that would have worked. It reminds me actually of around the same time. I think it's Oh Lordy, I don't remember the

exact month. I want to say it was like October, November or something. There was a baseball bat on a pole match or some shit like that in WCW and it was Roddy Piper and the giant against Hulk Hogan and I think in Kevin Nash and Hogan and Nash won. They got the bat. They beat the shit out of Piper and the giant, et cetera. Next night Piper comes out and he goes, you know, you asked me about the, the, the bash at the beach or whatever the fuck it was, you know, and I got to tell you, I had a ball. Unfortunately, Hogan had the bat.

Like there are ways to put over the, you got your ass kicked. And, and you got, I mean, oh my God, how can you not love Roddy Piper like He is he was one of a kind he was amazing. I love that I had a ball unfortunately, okay had a bad But so Austin didn't go that way he just lied So then Brett shouted out to Austin on the Titans Sean He said, stone cold, Steve Austin, you got a lot of nerve even showing up here tonight. Cause you know, and I know that I plan and simply not kicked your ass at WrestleMania 13 and

you may not like it and you know, like a good hyena, you think you're going to come back with your tail between your legs. But the fact is you ain't got a tail, but for a hyena, you don't look like you're laughing very much because you just got your butt kicked by the real king of the jungle and you and you can talk about how your head got busted open well your head got busted open because I threw you into that railing and I threw you from pillar to post and I beat your Ass from one end of that ring and you don't like it, but I beat you once and I'll beat you again and again and again It's kind of an all-over-the-place promo again Anytime break goes one-on-one verbally with Austin Austin gets a better hand

Yeah, Austin even tries to say let me say this and then heart cuts him off He says but you know what I'm through with you. I am I'm finished with you I don't want to see you again, and then Austin goes the fuck off. He says, No, you're not. You'll have to kill me. You'll have to kill me to be finished with me. You go get the Bulldog. You go get Owen Hart. You tell him to go get some crowbars to pry me off your ass. You will never be finished with me. Wow. And Hart says, I don't need anybody. I didn't need anybody at WrestleMania 13, and I don't need anybody at the Survivor Series and I don't need anybody to beat You to prove it and I've proven it time in and time out

So Again, there's a huge hyper focus on individualism that people wanted so desperately to believe in That I don't know help that no good guy needs help And then Austin says the next time when we get in this ring if you thought I you thought like I looked like a bloody mess At WrestleMania 13. I will swear on my life. You will look ten times worse than that and hear this one of these days I'm gonna look down at your grave and it's gonna say here lies bread How the hitman heart the biggest piece of crap that ever walked the face of the earth. And the reason he's laying here is because Stone Cold Steve Austin whipped his pink and black ass. And that's the bottom line, because Stone Cold said so.

So again, Austin didn't even need to win. He just needed to keep fighting and making it awful for the guy that beat him. And it was deeply personal. and it wasn't about winning it was about making sure that the other person suffered for Austin's frustrations. Now that night the Rock defended his Intercontinental title against Brett who'd ambushed him after Rocky's match last week. Brett lost by DQ. Brett and I think it's like the only time those two ever met in the ring. Brett and Austin would then go on to have two more matches together on TV. The first one at the April pay-per-view that I'd mentioned, where Brett finally lost due to DQ.

The right time he lost to Austin. And then they fought again on the April 21st 1997 Raw in a street fight match and it ended without a winner. But it also ended without a ton of development of their respective positions. Brett had Austin ambushed for the street fight after hiding in his dressing room from Austin for a while. Then he beat the hell out of Austin and nearly pulmonized Austin.

Then Austin, you remember putting the ankle in the chair. And then Austin took Brett out with huge chair shots, and Brett tried to escape. So he'll stuff. Austin focused on Brett's knee, and locked the sharpshooter in on Brett. And Brett was left beaten in the ring. This is what I was talking about.

Now Austin got kicked off the show, but his damage was done. And as Brett was being loaded into the ambulance, it was revealed that Austin was the driver, and then he beat the shit out of Brett even further into the ambulance, it was revealed that Austin was the driver and then he beat the shit out of Brett even further inside the ambulance. Wow. Yeah.

Nowhere is safe. Everywhere is a battleground. So then Austin came out to the ring to cut a promo and he called out the audience for cheering him on and then he called out, so he's like, no, you don't get to fucking cheer me on. And then he called up the called out the audience for cheering him on and then he called out So he's like, you know, no, you don't get to fucking cheer me on and then he called out Vince for recently complimenting him Up the yin-yang he said and then he pointed out Austin pointed out that nobody helped him beat Bret Hart he did it himself and eventually he cut a promo on the Undertaker saying that he was gonna take the takers belt and That then he was attacked by Davey and Owen

for what he had done earlier to Brett. Sean Michaels showed up with steel chair and chased them off. Of course, Austin was still in the ring and still down. And this was when Brian Pillman showed up and ambushed Steve Austin, knocking Austin down and setting up for a Pillmanizing of his own. Sean barely stopped it though. Now, after that, Brett was all in on his faction stuff and doing the anti-american thing

although he and Austin would orbit each other a little bit like at the the June 6 stampede at Calgary Which had an unreal fucking prop for the Heart Foundation This was in Calgary right Brett's hometown. And Stampede was the wrestling federation that his dad had run. And it was a world famous rodeo as well. So Brett led the Heart Foundation in a five man elimination match

against Austin and the Road Warriors and Ahmed Johnson and I think one other person, I forget who. The Hart Foundation were 100% faces at that pay-per-view because it was held outside of the U.S. Now, that's June of 97. Right. Now, Shawn cut a promo on Brett in April 7th, 1997, further cementing their rivalry and Brett's heelness. He said, quote, But what I will tell you is this, Brett Hart has come

out here time and time again telling the fans of the World Wrestling Federation that he wants to get stuff off his chest. And now I want to get something off my chest. Everyone is asking, why is Bret Hart all of a sudden a bad guy? Well, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I'm not going to lie to you. Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels loathe one another, whether it be out here or back there. Make no mistake about it, Bret Hart hates my guts. And to be perfectly honest, I hate his. Now, just real quick, this is all true. I think by this point they'd actually gotten

into a backstage fight. Like for real, for real. For real, for real. Oh wow, okay. So quote, now we're gonna take the gloves off here. Bret Hart has not just recently turned into a bad guy. He has always been a bad guy. He comes out here and he talks about how there are no family values in America.

How the World Wrestling Federation exploited his family. Well, I've got news for you, ladies and gentlemen. Bret Hart is the one that asked his mother and his father to be on TV. Bret Hart is the one that drags his sister here and his children out on TV. The World Wrestling Federation exploits Bret Hart's family because he allows it. And the reason, and now the reason he allows it is very simple, for Bret Hart's own financial gain.

If Bret can make a buck, he'd sell his mother. That's the truth. Now, Bret Hart also has an obsession with Shawn Michaels and the World Wrestling Federation Championship. Last year, I won the World Wrestling Federation Championship. Last year, I won the World Wrestling Federation Championship fair and square. But I want to digress to six years ago when Shawn Michaels first started his singles career and became the Intercontinental Champion.

That's when Bret Hart also became the World Wrestling Federation Champion. I ran support to him. I told everybody, including himself and his family, that I to him. I told everybody including himself and his family that I supported him I was second fiddle to Bret Hart for years here and I did it with a smile on my face because that's what a man Does when it comes to business, but then when it came to Bret Hart to return the favor Oh, yeah, he did but he did it kicking and screaming every inch of the way and Then and then bracket Hartet Hart takes his time off. He takes time off because he says he needs to rest.

What he did was take time off to see if Shawn Michaels and the World Wrestling Federation would fall flat on their face without him. Well guess what? We didn't fall face flat anywhere. As a matter of fact, the World Wrestling Federation did the best business it has done in six years. You're the boss. Am I right or wrong? He turns to Vince. McMahon says you're right. Now interestingly, what's actually true, since about two months after Shawn won the title, WCW had started its streak of beating the WWF in ratings that would last for 83 weeks straight. Yeah, you'd mentioned that.

rate. Yeah, you'd mentioned that. And also, have you noticed that he is accusing Brett of not doing business? He's accusing Brett of quitting. He's accusing. He's projecting. It's a confession by accusation. Now, Shawn Michaels continues, quote, thank you very much. Now, but Bret Hart, he sat in Calgary and passed judgment on Shawn Michaels and he told everybody about my faults. And believe me, folks, I have got a truckload of faults. But I've never, ever lied about that to any one of you. He talked about my dancing.

How can the fans of the World Wrestling Federation cheer a wrestler who dances, who has long hair, who pierces his navel, who has tattoos? How can the fans of the World Wrestling Federation support something like that? Well, it's real simple. They liked it, you idiot. So again, Brett is doing the, you American fans are garbage. Sean is doing the, everybody has a right to choose. Let the market decide. Austin is doing the, I'm never gonna stop fighting you. Sid doesn't know shit. I don't know shit, Craig, baby.

And Taker has the belt. Now, back to Sean. Now, but the whole time I don't say anything. I go on doing my job and Bret Hart, while he's at home, he talks about his loyalty to his WWF fans and that's ultimately made him return to the World Wrestling Federation. Well that's a load of horse shit. Like he's saying this on TV. The reason Bret Hart returned to the World Wrestling Federation after using a rival organization

against this man, points to Vince, and the company that made him what he was, he stabbed the World Wrestling Federation in the back. Why? For his financial gain. Bret Hart did not come back to the World Wrestling Federation for his fans. He came back for the almighty dollar. Now we're all wondering, why are you upset? Why are you so obsessed with the World Wrestling Federation Championship? I'll tell you. I wanted to be the World Wrestling Federation Champion since I was a little kid. It was a dream. Bret Hart is so obsessed with the World Wrestling Federation Championship because he was born into it.

If Bret Hart wasn't World Wrestling Federation Champion, he would have felt like he'd fallen short. When he goes home to Calgary, he is still Bret the Hitman Hart, former World Wrestling Federation Champion. Shawn Michaels, when he goes home, he's not the heartbreak kid. He's not Shawn Michaels. He's just plain old Shawn Brett you're the hitman 24 hours a day and the reason for that is Brett Hart cannot separate all of this from his real life That's why he brings his family into it and that's why he brings all his friends in it Brett Hart is obsessed with being in the limelight more than I could ever possibly imagine

So just real quick, again, confession by accusation. But also, this guy who is like the pinnacle of the Federation takes himself too seriously. He takes everything personally. He makes his position a personal thing. Doesn't that sound like how people talked about Clinton in 97 Yeah, I think the White House is his he's selling tickets to it he thinks that he just belongs there like it's that kind of shit

Yeah So then Sean continues Well Bret Hart your obsession with the W with the World Wrestling Federation title. And by the way, there are various people over here yelling this for Brett yelling that for Brett. And my point is this at one time to hear all that it used to upset me. It bothered me to hear that we're here the people boo me or say we want Brett. But then I finally realized the fans of the World Wrestling Federation are allowed to express their First Amendment right whenever they want

Dude The fuck on Read a civics textbook for the love of Christ man So if you want to yell for Brett you yell for Brett if you want to yell for Sid you yell for Sid if You want to yell for me you yell yell for Brett. If you want to yell for Sid, you yell for Sid. If you want to yell for me, you yell for me. I'm telling you people this. I am simply telling you people this. Do not under any circumstance let some wrestler, some superstar come out here and tell you

what to do. In our country, we can do it the hell we want. I do it, so you might as well do it too. A lot of World Wrestling Federation superstars have placed themselves as a role model or a superhero. Well, you know what? Everyone that I have seen has fallen short, has fallen way short. Moms and dads, I'm not a role model.

I'm not telling you you have your children grow up to be like me, but what I'm telling you is this. If you're going to plop your money down for your children to enjoy the World Wrestling Federation, rest assured there's one guy that knows how much you're spending. And every time you put it down, whether you scream, yell or boo, I am coming out here and working my ass off whether anybody likes it or not. And as for you, Bret Hart, your obsession with me and the World Wrestling Federation champion will ultimately be, and I want you to read my lips, it will ultimately be your destruction.

Now I know he doesn't like this, but Bret, this is from the Heartbreak Kid to you. I'm gonna do a little dance, pull my clothes off, especially for you. Somebody hit my music. All right. And at that, Owen and Davey Boy came down to stop Sean from taking off his clothes. Sean then ran and grabbed a chair to even the odds.

So Brett is firmly endorsed as a heel by the guy who was a heel who's now not a heel by virtue of the fact that he's talking about it's the First Amendment and the right to choose that people have. And the championship is just so far away from any of them now. And again, Brett is, they're setting up for Brett and Sean. That's what they're doing. They're transitioning him off of Austin and setting him up for Brett and Sean. But as you can see, there's clear division there. He's setting him up as he is, Sean on some level is representing Americanism.

He's not a perfect hero, but damn it, he's our hero. He's not a perfect hero, but damn it, he's our hero. Yeah, he's kind of a fuck up, but he's our fuck up. Yeah, and at least he's honest about it. Yeah. So then on April 14th, 1997, Steve Austin cut a promo on Bret Hart, and Vince started with, well, you've got what you wanted, you got your match with Bret the Hitman Hart in reference to his match against Bret the next Sunday. Austin said, well, it's about damn time I got what I wanted out of this federation because

you and Gorilla have seen fit to hold me down as long as you can. But the bottom line is you can't hold me down no more, son. Nobody can. And Vince responded by saying that nobody can hold down talent So this is April of 97 so yeah You can't hold good talent down right nobody can hold down talent So culture war folks

Want so badly to get what they want and they're so frustrated that they can't get it because they lost the election. But you can't hold us down. Right. Doesn't matter that we lost, we were right. Yeah. The proof is that he won. See?

It's personal to him Yeah, okay. It's not personal to us. Yeah. Well. Yeah, we're just right and you can't hold us down confession by accusation yeah like Got it. Yeah, and you know clearly he's shown how much he's willing to cheat to do this So the next time we're gonna cheat even more Because he's shown how important victory is to him he's made yeah, yeah, he cheated by getting more votes That's that's literally the game That's not that's not cheating. I don't I

think you need to reread the rule book cuz No Okay, so you're gonna boo me for doing the same thing that he did Like you see how they're blurring everything, right? Yeah, well, yeah. And it's not the same thing he did. You're not, when you're talking about cheating, you're not like- He won, didn't he? There you go. Like, it's like- Wait, no!

No, same thing. Same thing. I tried to win he tried to win So I'm gonna have to cheat next time then No, yeah Yeah, that's the narrative that's being nurse that's culture war shit that's like this is too important to let our integrity get in the way Because we need to get that man out of office this next time we're gonna beat Bill Clinton Next time you won't be running against Bill Clinton because there's a constitutional amendment that says he can't run again So my favorite parts about the 2016 election before it turned into what it turned into What it the clown car, they're like, and we're all gonna make sure that we kick Obama out of office.

And it's like, bro, his term ends no matter what. He's done. Yeah. He's done. You can't kick him out of office because he's leaving. Do you remember when he was talking to Congress and he's like, you know, he said he's like, folks, I have no more elections to win. And then they cheered. Yeah, which was that was funny, too. That was funny that they cheered. That was a good moment. But then he topped them. He's like, I know, because I won both of mine. Oh, mother. Yeah.

Yeah. Like, and the thing is, and the thing is, there are, there are people in conservative land that would have you believe that in order to be a liberal, you have to be humorless and you can't do comedy and all of this. Except that conservative comedyies not fucking funny Yeah, and it's great gutfeld. Yeah, he's not funny. It's not goddamn funny and and and You you have you you look at let's look at Barack Obama Guys timing is and and like if he was not a politician he could be a stand-up comic

Because he has a lethal sense of timing right and and an amazing ability to self deprecate and win Mm-hmm, you know and and like be so smart well. Yeah, yeah That's funny. We went from self deprecating to self-defecating yeah Well played I like that, you know And then you look at at the guy that took office after him and you're like This man has never laughed at a joke that wasn't Punching down. Yeah. Oh hundred percent

wasn't hunching down. Yeah, oh, 100%. 100%. And this guy doesn't smile. Yeah. This guy doesn't have any. He does that smarmy, no-lip, like, bullfrog smile. Yeah, and he doesn't have a sense of joy. He doesn't have.

His joy comes from pulling the wings off of flies. Yeah. Yeah. It flies. Yeah. Yeah. It's... It's... Yeah. And like, to get current for a moment, one of the most refreshing things about, you know, the last several weeks of the hellish campaign that we're having to live through. By the way, by the time this drops, yeah, they will have decided our presidency. No, Jesus. So, but yeah, um, I, I have to say, um, seeing major candidates again, who are,

who are actually smiling, like genuinely happy, right. right is is so nice Yeah, yeah, so anyway So fuck so yeah Austin then said you can cheer me or you can boo me But you can't deny that I'm the baddest sob when the bell goes off huge pop Yeah, right. It's you know, he's he's he's an asshole, but he's our asshole, you know, that kind of thing. Well, he's an iconoclast. He doesn't care whether you think he's an asshole. Right. And you and really, you like that he doesn't care because you didn't. Yeah. You know, again, he's an asshole, but he's our asshole. Yeah. So anyway, then he says, quote, Hey, Bret Hart comes out here and says, I've

been screwed by the WWF. He comes out here and says, I've been screwed by Vince McMahon. Well, you ain't been screwed yet Brett, because you ain't been screwed by stone cold Steve Austin. And you can bet your ass that that's what will happen. Just a straight up match. You ain't gotta have no kind of stipulations other than the fact that when the bell rings, I will get my revenge on Brett, the hitman. Win, lose or draw, it doesn't matter because I will beat the living hell out of Brett Hart and there can't nobody stop me." Vince then carried the promo forward and Austin hit the nail on the head, the crux of what I've been trying to prove. So just real quick, notice he's talking about he needs to get his revenge on Brett.

He never says for what, and he has a legitimate grievance in that, I've been beaten by you. That's a good enough thing in wrestling to get revenge for, but he doesn't actually claim that. It's just a joke. Well, because that would be admitting that he lost, and that's anathema to the character he's created. Right. And then he, this is the crystal needle that gets dropped between the stones and causes it all to light up and be the strongest arch possible.

You know, Bret Hart's come out here and all he's done is copied every single thing I've done. He tries to walk like me. He tries to talk like me. He tries to create a new design so he can look like me. But when his ass is laying in a bloody heap in the middle of the ring, that's what the finished result is going to be. Because Bret Hart can imitate me and he can say he is the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be. But his time has come and gone. And I by that I live that that every day of my life And you can bet the bottom dollar is I will whoop his ass Yeah, okay Brett and Austin were the same

Because of Austin's frustration taking over everyone and driving the whole narrative frustration taking over everyone and driving the whole narrative. They weren't the same, but they were now made the same by Austin controlling the narrative, regardless of the fact that Brett beat him every single time except for a disqualification, regardless of the fact that Brett had been a face, regardless of all these other facts. Because Austin stuck to his narrative and did not change it, the whole time he got everybody to see Brett as different and then Brett rejected everyone else.

Okay. Now by the April 21st, 1997, at the very beginning of RAW, after the April pay-per-view, Austin challenged Brett to a street fight, saying it wasn't over. Now from here on out, Brett's feud was about being anti-American and chastising them for their love of violence. And that's kind of where I'm going to leave the wrestling. Now let's talk about what was going on in the world We're gonna fast forward to the election of 2000

Okay So it's three years later, but this this feud showed culturally what was being set as groundwork George W. Bush from Texas wasn't set to win it the straight talk Express of John McCain was chugging along quite well. Bush had won the Iowa caucus, but then McCain won the New Hampshire primary. Now, back then, if you won two out of the three, the third being the South Carolina primary, it was a really strong indicator that you would win the primary and get the nomination at the convention. Yeah. Bush's chief strategist, Karl Rove, knew that Bush could win if Rove could excite his base and shrink or discourage McCain's base.

To that end, he employed, he, Karl Rove, employed every possible tactic here to forethought indecent and undignified including most importantly an effort in South Carolina to get McCain supporters to stay home and not bother. So it's not about being more popular, it's not about getting more votes, it's not about exciting the people with your policy, it's about discouraging the other guys people so that they stay home. This was the famed phone call poll that asked, quote, would you be more or less likely to vote for John McCain if you knew that he had fathered an illegitimate black child? Yeah, Karl Rove, there's a there's a special place in hell reserved for Karl Rove. And I want to point out in the context of this that Karl Rove's true political awakening

happened when he was a kid. And he was riding his bike with a Nixon banner on it and a girl from the neighborhood pushed his bike over and beat the shit out of him and From that day forward he was a a rabid Nixonian Republican because he got his ass beat by a girl. Oh, yeah.

Just, I need to get that out. Mm-hmm. Because, yeah, it says so much. Now, McCain had had his adopted daughter Bridget with him on the campaign trail. Bridget was dark-skinned and from Bangladesh. There was a Nation article that was published in January of 2008. Quote, owing largely to the Rove orchestrated whispering campaign, Bush prevailed in South Carolina and secured the Republican nomination.

The rest is history, specifically the tragic and blighted history of our young century. It worked in another way as well. Too shaken to defend himself, McCain emerged from the bruising episode, less maverick reformer and more manchurian candidate. The former crusader against the Republican establishment had since turned into a bush-hugging, business-as-usual politician who has backed down from many positions that set him apart from conventional conservatives. Now, I would also point out that in 2010 he got primaried and had to run even further to the right and like really damaged the contrived as fuck legacy that he had created for himself.

But two years later in 2010 he said, McCain said in his memoir, quote, there wasn't a damn thing I could do about the subterranean assaults on my reputation except to act in a way that contradicted their libel. Now for his part, George W. Bush swore to fire anyone on his staff that if he found out they had anything to do with this, nobody was found to have done this. Now this was not unknown to McCain's campaign as his deputy campaign manager, Roy Fletcher, said, quote, we had all kinds of stuff coming into the Washington headquarters. They were already spreading all this crap about McCain. We knew right then we had a problem.

These guys are going to go nuts. It was pretty obvious that they'd laid a plan for South Carolina to start immediately. Just boom, go at him as hard and as vicious as you can. And that was not the only tactic, as I've said. Richard Hand, the professor of the Bible at Greenville, South Carolina's Bob Jones University, had sent out an email alleging that McCain had chosen to sire children without marriage. Do you know what George W. Bush's first stop in South Carolina was? Bob Jones university. Yes, sir.

Which at the time still had an anti interracial dating policy in 2000. Well, I mean, because of course it did. It's a, it's an evangelical university in South fucking Carolina. Yeah. So it's Confederate fucking central. Yeah. So Bush knew. It's Confederate fucking central. Like, come on. Bush knew where his base was. And Rove knew where Bush's base was.

And fundamentalists had hitched their wagon to Bush's horses almost as swiftly as all the power brokers who grew at the feet of the engineer of the Southern Strategy. And George H.W. Bush's campaign manager, Lee Atwater. Lee Atwater taught Karl Rove that, quote, "'You could play the hardest of hardball and get away with it,' end quote,

so long as you won." Fuck all those guys. Atwater had also secretly- With a sleeper sofa, fuck all of them. Atwater had also secretly... With a sleeper sofa. Fuck all of them. Atwater had also secretly financed the Willie Horton ads against Dukakis. Because of course he had. Yeah.

Like, I mean, you know. Atwater had also helped Strom Thurmond in 1978 during a particularly hard campaign that Thurmond had. We were this close to actually getting rid that Thurmond had, we were this close to actually getting rid of Thurmond in 78. And Atwater had also learned from Thurmond how to use highly emotional wedge issues, the most readily deployed of that kind being abortion in the 1980s as well as crime. Those two would help Republicans win over disaffected working-class voters to a largely pro-business agenda, despite the fact that they were largely union people. Someone

had been paying attention to Nixon's use of the hardhat riots and how voters, working class and middle class, who felt left out because they weren't fully centered, could be used to aid the party. The thing just jumped. Could be used to aid... Eh, fuck me. That's what I've been saying through all of this. Yeah. Could be used to aid the party of capital.

At Water Intimate, Tucker Eskew once said quite accurately, quote, resentment became the future of the Republican Party, end quote. Yeah. It was certainly obvious. Not wrong. Yeah. Starting especially after Clinton won in 92.

George W. Bush had actually leaned into this tactic, further honed by Roe because in 2000 2000 the only thing that really mattered was who wins. Principles were for losers. Literally. Anyway, back to Bob Jones. Quote, this whole thing, it was orchestrated by Rove. It was all Bush's deal. It was pretty rank, said Fletcher. Quote, and they had an institution that was peddling all that shit, and it was a university, Bob Jones University. I'm telling you, if there was a campaign headquarters in South Carolina, there it was.

Hand was part of it, but Hand wasn't the only one. There were flyers that were underneath windshield wipers that mentioned McCain having, a negro child and quote Special places in hell. Yeah special places in hell kids were getting like $50 to do this Stick stick the flyers under windshield wipers. Uh-huh to do this stick stick the flyers under windshield wipers. Uh huh. Rumors that Cindy Mc...

Yeah. See, you wouldn't have that fucking problem if we had enough AFDC in TANF. Liberalism will kill itself. It always does. It just takes everyone else down with them. Yeah. Um, there were rumors that Cindy McCain was a drug addict that got specifically circulated in South Carolina. So did rumors that McCain gave his wife VD, that he'd turned traitor in Hanoi and

that he was brainwashed by the Vietnamese and that he was secretly gay. No, no, that's Graham. That's not him, right? That's Lindsey Graham. Yeah From South Carolina, isn't it? Yeah Yeah, that's not no. No speaking of of confession by accusation. No and And you know, I just want to point out that Wouldn't be even an issue in the case of Lindsey Graham if it weren't for the fact that Lindsey Graham is such a fucking hypocrite. Yeah, there's there's a rule in the queer community is you don't out anybody unless

they're actually harming the community. Yeah. Then it's fair game. Yeah, like, so, yeah, anyway, yeah, the Roe strategy had been described as flinging enough mud at something so that something would stick. Yeah. The problem was that if McCain addressed the rumors to dispute them, he'd actually risk giving them oxygen in front of folks who had not heard of them.

So his quote about not doing anything, according to Tighe Watts, a pollster himself, said, they'd ask you who you're voting for. If you said Bush, they'd say, that's great. Be sure to vote. You'd hang up thinking it was just normal, get out the vote. It's called GeoTV Call. But if you said McCain, they'd ask a litany of questions. Would you vote for McCain if you knew this?

Would you vote for McCain if you knew that? Would you vote for McCain if you knew that? Basically, they just threw the book at him, end quote. So as a result of all this effort, George W. Bush got about half of the veteran vote. How I could rant about that by itself. How I could rant About about that by itself like even even discounting That his opponent was John

Hanoi Hilton McCain The Like let's let's talk about somebody having some skeletons in their closet How about the fact that like you didn't show up for more than half of your time in the fucking air national guard? Well, like, like, okay, you, you didn't technically pull a Trump and dodge the draft with a fake medical diagnosis. Okay, fine. But instead of like taking the risk of getting drafted, you signed up for the Texas Air National

Guard. Okay, yeah, fine. But then you didn't fucking show up. Now as it was, but yeah, but you then want to go and go, oh, yeah, no, I served. I was, I was a pilot. I know. Fucker. No.

Hmm. Anyway, sorry. He also got a ton of the evangelical vote. Well, I'll be now McCain didn't get his base to turn out either. And he was perpetually on the bewildered defensive. It'd be like in the beginning round of a fight, one guy slugged the other guy in the nuts. And even with like a few minutes to recover, it's still like long ranging and debilitating impact and it can hinder a fair fight, which Bush wasn't interested in having in the first

place. Yeah. Go figure. A Texan doing whatever he could to win. Yeah. Hmm. Yeah. Now, Loris Ergel, the head of the Horry County Christian Coalition, or the who later resigned after the primary, said she did so because of all the distortion campaigns that they had done in South Carolina. Pity that she hadn't resigned earlier. Roberta Combs, the Christian Coalition's national president who replaced Pat Robertson in 2001 said, quote, I make a

lot of things happen behind the scenes and under the radar. It doesn't matter who gets the credit. The main thing is just winning. But yeah, we had some fun during that primary and we did play a major role in South Carolina But then she denied she did anything regarding Cindy McCain Fuck you. Yeah Fuck you, but she's a place wants us to do this No, no, no ends just by the means because no I need you ma'am this former president ma'am I need you to go back

and read the New Testament the new not not the first half of the book. No, no. The part where the radical socialist brown skinned guy told us all repeatedly that worldly not the goal that that you need to you need to you know care about the poor and orphans and widows um that guy that guy i need you to pay attention to that dude not the um literally whitewashed um uh you know photo you have hanging on your wall to whom you attribute all of your fascist bullshit. Like please. Now according to Democrat Kevin Gettings from South Carolina, quote, the message to the hardcore Republican precinct captains and county chairman who had an investment in the Bush campaign in terms of their own political

power was, quote, you'll have whatever resources you need and you do whatever is necessary. If we don't stop McCain here, Bush loses. Scott Howell, who went on to work with Roeve the 2004 re-election had been McCain's ad man in 2000. See this just shows that these people don't work on principle, they work on paycheck, which is fine. I understand needing to pay your mortgage. But he said that Atwater's influence was keenly felt in South Carolina and that Atwater, quote, didn't mind a firefight. He had this line where his goal was you create chaos and then you swim through it. Now, does that sound an awful lot like Stone Cold's tactics from about November

forward with Bret Hart? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now, and who is this in reference to quote the meanest son of a bitch in the world. Oh man, there's nothing he wouldn't do to win now i'm going to finish that quote a campaign winning is all that matters so yeah sounded like somebody describing steve austin but actually it's carl rove though the blossom yeah though the person that the nation quoted in 2004 who said that refused to be

identified for fear of reprisal. Now finally in South Carolina John McCain did try to fire back. He ran an ad but then he quickly dumped it because it backfired. It said that Bush quote, twists the truth like Clinton. The problem was that everyone in South Carolina thought that was going too far. It actually helped Bush in South Carolina because McCain did something so indecent. So you remember booing the guy who finally took on the tactics? Yeah, yeah. And that muddied the waters enough

that there is no clean politician in this fight now. See, both sides are equally bad. Oh, oh, fuck all of you. Bush had all his push polls, he had all that underhanded tactics, and McCain had that one ad that he pulled. So clearly, two guys are just fighting for victory. Same tactics, same same.

So you know, this belt brings out the worst in everybody. Everybody. Everybody thinks they're justified. No, you know, Michael's fuck off. Yeah. Just just lazy fucking way off. Oh, you don't like what he's saying, you know, Ed There's a thing called the First Amendment

So that doesn't have anything fucking do with this No, the First Amendment says that I can do whatever I want with no my body. That's what I know. No No read a goddamn civics textbook. Just read the 55 words in the First Amendment. Jesus Christ. I mean, yeah.

So actually, I don't know how many words there are. I hope it's 55. It's somewhere in that neighborhood. Like, come on now. So Bush won the primary, right? And then McCain dropped out after March 9th, 2000. The 2000 campaign between Al Gore and George W. Bush was set. On the one hand, you had a guy who was from

the South, the son of a lifetime politician from Harvard. And the other hand, you had a guy who is from the South, the son of a lifetime politician and also from Harvard. Well, wait, hold on. Yeah. Bush the Lesser attended Yale. No, no, no. Bush the Lesser attended Harvard Business School too. Oh, OK.

He was cheerleader at Yale, but. OK. All right. I was thinking undergrad. Never mind. Now, that's about where the similarities ended, by the way. Al Gore was from Tennessee. He joined the army after graduating

college as an enlisted man because his dad was anti-Vietnam War and facing a re-election campaign in 1970. And he said flatly that he didn't want to have his getting a deferment, which he easily could have gotten, to give his dad's opponent a victory. And also, according to his later on housemate, Al Gore didn't like the idea that, quote, if he found a fancy way of not going, someone else would have to go in his place. You know who his housemate was? I know. I knew this at one point. I've probably Lee Jones. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now Gore was trained at Fort Dix and he was all set to go to Vietnam, but he found that his orders were held up.

He was delayed in his deployment and many people suspect that it was because Nixon didn't want Gore's dad to gain sympathy votes in a re-election for Senate if something would have happened to Gore over in Vietnam. for Senate if something would have happened to Gore over in Vietnam. After Al Gore's dad lost the campaign, he was vastly outspent and it was later proven that Nixon's operatives gave illegal monies to the senior Gore's opponent. Anyway, after he lost that campaign, then Al Gore was deployed after that campaign was over and his dad lost Huh so When when I tell you that the Republican Party has always been this way Republican Party To bring back a catchphrase. Yes. Another wrestling related episode. Yes.

Then when Al Gore came back and he eventually ran for House of Reps from Tennessee, he asked his dad specifically to stay out of his campaign so that he could run on his own win, lose or draw. Al Gore had a ton of legislative and then executive experience leading up to the 2000 campaign and he was the vice president under a very economically successful President who had promised who who had promised to also become a more fervent fighter for people's civil rights, right? George W. Bush was from Texas, but he was born in Connecticut and he was the eldest son of the former president Representative and vice president George HW Bush former president, representative and vice president, George H.W. Bush. Yeah. He actually did first go to Yale, like you said,

then he went to Harvard. He did not go to Vietnam, but he was commissioned into the Texas National Air Force, or Air Guard as a lieutenant. And like his father before him, he got into Texas oil and energy exploration. And then he led a group of investors to help him buy the Texas Rangers.

He himself invested 800,000 into buying them, and then he sold them in 1998 for over 15 million. He was elected governor of Texas while his brother unsuccessfully sought the governorship of Florida once. He then, his brother would come back to win later. He drubbed his opponent, George W. Bush, drugged his opponent by more than 10 points, largely on the promise to allow concealed carry permits in Texas. And because his campaign attacked Ann Richards, the incumbent Democrat governor of Texas at

the time, because it, quote, featured a rumor that she was a lesbian, along with a rare instance of such a tactics making it into the public record when a regional chairman of the Bush campaign allowed himself perhaps inadvertently to be quoted criticizing Richards for Appointing a vowed homosexual activists to state jobs. This was according to the liberal rag the Atlantic She many fucking Christmas guess who was accused but but never proven to have been connected to this tactic? Roeve? Yup. Anyway, Bush won the governorship and thus had a fair amount of large body executive leadership experience.

He won re-election in 98 and at this point his brother won the governorship of Florida. Additionally, the Green Party ran a strong ticket with Ralph Nader at the top along with Winona LaDuke from Minnesota as his VP pick. So far she's the only Green Party candidate to ever receive an electoral vote when she got in 2016 from a faithless elector from Washington State. Yeah. The election was a long and drawn-out exhausting affair with Bill Washington State. The election was a long and drawn out exhausting affair, with Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton effectively removed from being able to campaign vigorously due to the affair scandals, and Bush being able to draw on the fundamentalist fervor that had been growing since the 1980s,

as well as eight years of culture war frustrations. Gore's incumbent advantage was vanishing as time wore on and Bush ran pro-Nator ads to split the liberal vote and Gore tried hard to ignore him. Now the votes were neck and neck. Gore actually won the popular vote but because we live in the country we live in, the land gets a say too, evidently.

And the South, which previously had been split open by the Clinton efforts of 92 and 96, went solidly south. Gore didn't even win his home state of Tennessee. Such was the success of the Bush campaign and the culture wars of the last eight years. It all came down to Florida. Now because the news media, specifically voter news service, had relied a lot on exit polling, they called the state for Gore. But then about 10 minutes before polls closed, they switched to calling it as too close to call and then switching it to Bush and then retracting that and then returning to too

close to call. It was very confusing. When it appears that Bush had won, Gore called to concede, but then he heard how close too close to call actually was, and he retracted his concession. It was about 1,784 votes. This then triggered an automatic statewide recount because of Florida state law. After the first day, the results were down to about 900 or so in difference. After they completed a machine-based count, Bush was only up by 327 votes statewide.

That was around November 10th. However, 18 counties didn't carry out the recount, which was legally mandated. But Gore's people didn't seek to ask if everybody had followed the fucking law because they just assumed That people are gonna follow the fucking law Bush's campaign hired James Baker the former Secretary of State under George HW Bush and Roger goddamn stone for their team Coors campaign hired former Secretary of State under Clinton, Warren Christopher. Now, once the machine recount was done, Gore's campaign then requested a manual recount in four counties. Now, there's a bunch of if-then statements to go into these laws, but they were well within

their rights to request these recounts, which were in counties that had high black populations. However, there was another state law that required all counties certify and report their recounts by 5pm on November 14th, and unfortunately one of those counties didn't start their manual recounts until November 12th. And that shit takes forever. The Gore campaign filed suit on November 13th asking for an extension, as did at least two of the counties that had been ordered to recount because fucking democracy would count for something. Yeah.

However, because fucking democracy, the Bush campaign filed suit on November 11th to stop all manual recounts of Florida. In the state where his brother was governor. Yeah, I remember this is this is stretching up traumatic memories. Yeah. Now their grounds for this requested injunction were that only four counties were recounting, and that such selectiveness violated the 14th Amendment rights of those who

had punched their ballots differently than others in other counties. Essentially, since there was no uniform way to determine poorly punched voter cards, it was an uneven standard being employed depending on who was counting it. However, the federal court in Florida ruled against that injunction on November 13th. And then on November 14th, some counties finished their counts after all, and Bush still held a 300 vote lead. Which is cool, that's how it goes, but some didn't actually finish. And then the Secretary of State of Florida, Katherine Harris at the time, and who was also the co-chair of Bush's election campaign in Florida, told the counties that they would

have until 2 p.m. and November 15 to explain why they needed longer to count. The Florida Supreme Court then let Palm Beach and Broward counties, two of the counties with the very large black populations, continue their vote counting, but also said that it would be up to a state judge to tell Katherine Harris whether or not to include those votes in the final count.

So you can count them, but we may not include them in the thing that you're counting them for. Now, Miami-Dade County also chose to conduct a recount starting on November 17th, which is well after the deadline because the Democratic party chairman of that county suspected that the voting machines were glitching and that such a glitch for that many ballots would affect the outcome of the election. It probably would have, presumably in favor of Al Gore. But then they stopped counting on November 22nd. Gore's campaign filed suit to let them continue, but the Florida Supreme Court refused. And all of that to say, shit takes time. Democracy is messy, but it's based on a very simple rule. time. Democracy is messy, but it's based on a very simple rule, arithmetic. If you get 50% plus one vote, you beat me. Plain and simple. And if it's hella close, several states have mechanisms

in place to protect that arithmetic approach. However, those who stood to gain from recounts not taking place busted their ass to make sure it didn't happen. Hundreds of people from out of state came into Florida to protest outside the polling places in several of the counties that were recounting. This includes a whole bunch of Republican staffers specifically. That's gonna slow the voting and so they moved the ballots into a different room and allowed the media no closer than 25 feet. John E. Sweeney, who was a Republican from New York who'd been down in Florida on Bush's behalf, told an aide to, quote, stop them and to, quote, shut it down.

This is victory at all costs. This incited violence as a mob rushed the doors of the office of the supervisor of elections in Miami-Dade County. Deputies stopped the violence, but only once several people had been trampled, punched hours later, the canvassing board, the people in charge of the recount, voted to stop the process completely because they looked at the reaction as an indication that the perceived lack of transparency, because they had to move into another room because people were banging on the windows and fucking with them, would then be seen as unfair and no longer open elections. Because, you know, they did it.

So we did it. It's the same thing. Exactly. Exactly. Now, there is some acknowledgement that they also didn't adhere to the deadline. But what wasn't said was that the reason for them not adhering to the deadline was because of the fucking riot. Yeah. Sweeney then said a few days later, quote, what I essentially told my people is you've

got to stop them. Whether I said you've got to shut it down or stop them, I frankly don't quite recall. How about you don't say you you gotta stop something that's as important as recounting votes? Several reporters urged their listeners and watchers to come down and disrupt the process to stop the recount because Bush was ahead. Quote, we were trying to stop the recount. Bush had already won. When I say that professional wrestling has all... Sorry.

Wrong episode. Yeah. Anyhow, a ton of the people that were there that night to disrupt everything and stop the arithmetic ended up with jobs in the Bush administration. The spoiler alerts, it was determined that he'd won. The deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council was Gary Malfras. Joel Kaplan, policy advisor and later on VP of some fucking department in Facebook. Roger Goddamn Stone. Tom Pyle, who's connected to the Republican Tom DeLay and the Koch brothers. And after all of this, after all of this,

Katherine Harris halted, Secretary of State, and the chair of the Elect Bush campaign. She halted all recounts because the laws were confusing, because the Florida popular votes were, at the time of the stoppage, in favor of Bush. So she certified the Bush electors then and there. In the State Circuit Court, the decision was upheld. Then it was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court. Bush then appealed to the Supreme Court.

They convened on December 1, and on December 9, the Supreme Court suspended Florida's manual recounts that were still ongoing because it could constitute irreparable harm to Bush. Scalia said, quote, if petitioner is correct that the counting in this fashion is unlawful, permitting the count to proceed on that erroneous basis will prevent an accurate recount from being conducted on a proper basis later, since it is generally agreed that each manual recount produces a degradation of the ballots, which renders its subsequent recounts inaccurate. The counting of votes that are of questionable legality does, in my view, threaten irreparable

harm to the petitioner Bush and to the county by casting a cloud upon which he claims to be the legitimacy of his election. Count first and rule upon legality afterwards is not a recipe for producing election results that have the public acceptance democratic stability requires. requires. Justice Stevens dissented, quote, by halting the manual recount and thus ensuring that the uncounted legal votes will not be counted under any standard, this court crafts a remedy out of proportion to the to the asserted harm. Counting every legally cast vote cannot constitute irreparable harm. On

the other hand, there is a danger that a stay may cause irreparable harm to respondents, and more importantly, to the public at large. Preventing the recount from being completed will inevitably cast a cloud on the legitimacy of the election. Which it did. Yeah. The final decision was rendered on December 12, 2000. Because remember, what matters here is not how you did it. What matters is that you won. Right?

Yeah. So, quote, In the circumstance of this case, any manual recount of votes seeking to meet the December 12th safe harbor deadline would be unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Florida Supreme Court reversed and remanded. What later came out was that in later media recounts, there was significant number of such valid overvotes found amongst rejected ballots in optical

scanned counties, which largely favored Gore. found amongst rejected ballots in optical scan counties, which largely favored Gore. So, as we know, Bush became president due to the five to four decision of the Supreme Court in 2000. At that time, William Rehnquist had multiple times expressed waiting until a Republican before a Republican was president before retiring.

Sandra Day O'Connor also wanted to retire under a Republican. Both got their wish. Ginny Thomas, wife to Clarence Thomas, was so intertwined in the Bush campaign and efforts that she'd drawn up a list of appointees that she wanted Bush to implement at that very time. Oh, and Scalia's son was actually working for the firm

that argued before the Supreme Court in Bush v Gore. And the head of that firm became the Solicitor General. Fuck. Later, the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago conducted an extensive review of the votes and the voting machines that the voting machines had fucked up. It took them 10 months and they found that the recounts had been done with, that had the recounts been done with this level of detail, Gore would have won by somewhere between 60 to 171 votes. With other limits placed on what you choose to recount, Bush could have won by anywhere

from 225 $493 because pregnant Chad, hanging Chad, etc. All of that shit. Yeah. Yeah. It also found that, quote, for minorities, the ballot survey found a recount would not have redressed the inequities because most ballots were beyond retrieving. But a recount could have restored the votes of thousands of older voters whose dimpled and double voted ballots were indecipherable to machines, but would have been clear in a ballot by ballot review Al Gore conceded on December 13th for the good of the country. There was no four-way elimination match after that. Yeah, I would have liked to have seen him and Bush and Nader

yeah three-way deathmatch yeah yeah in that election oh go on I also feel like that was the last time a Green Party candidate for president wasn't a Russian plant. Yeah, because they saw what the potential was. Yeah, yeah. Like they went, oh, you know, Ivan, we need to get on this. Yeah. Yeah. Now the aggrieved didn't quit. The one who followed the rules quit.

The aggrieved didn't let the rules or patience or arithmetic or custom get in their way, and they'd been working at it since Clinton won his second terms fair and square. Victory became the only thing that mattered, not how the process was carried out. Righteousness or even the pretense of it in an election, the hallowed halls of democracy, blah blah blah, all were irrelevant in the face of the championship belt, the executive branch. I'm not saying that Stone Cold's rise and Hitman's fall and Shawn Michaels' whatever the fuck that was caused the South Carolina primary or the Brooks Brothers riots.

Karl Rove already existed and so did Roger Stone. But as I've often said, professional wrestling is more often than not an atlas. Nothing about it is wholly original. It's self cannibalizing by nature and it's a funhouse mirror to hold up to society. You can absolutely use it to see where you are and where you've been and you could reasonably probably guess where you're going. Yeah all of that sounds about right. The Hitman, our hero who is righteous in his methods and in his attitude, had been beaten down so badly

by the efforts of those who had targeted him, that he had to adapt their methods and attitudes to win. He had fallen and in his place rose a rattlesnake. What both did was to pave the way for us to have no principle but success. But more plainly, nobody remembers how you won after you've won. And that's the bottom line, because Stone Cold said so. And that's the bottom line, because Stone Cold said so. Yeah. Yeah. I really wish I had another beer right now.

Because I need one. Well, you know, Stone Cold, he's always celebrating with the Steve Weiser's. And that's true. I remember he was a good guy Yeah, and after after Vince screwed Brett here's the thing Stone Cold's career From from like the most important parts of elevation had to do with Bret Hart Brett elevated him during their their Survivor Series match during that whole feud. Yeah. In Mania he made him. Yeah. And then when McMahon screwed Brett at the Montreal Screwdrop, that gave Stone Cold the ultimate foil to go against Vince McMahon. That made Vince a bad guy. Yeah. And that gave Austin the person to go against and so in 98

It was the working man against his boss doing what everybody else wished they could do which is punch their boss in the fucking mush Yeah, so yeah, yeah makes sense So, what have you gleaned um wow um i have gleaned that i would like to go back and have a very serious conversation with 25 year old me about, I need you to really pay attention to the underlying narrative here after November 7th, whatever day it was. Like I really need you to look hard at this because spoiler alert, um, the, the Overton window is already shifting out from under you and you're not noticing it yet.

And I think we will both be happier with ourselves if you pay attention to it now. Yeah. Um, You know, I remember that election, I remember all of the chaos that was involved in it and all of having a partisan our team attitude about it. Because that's all that mattered. You had to get one back because Clinton had won twice. You got it. You can't let anybody but your guy win this next time because then yeah, and and between December of 2000 and I'm gonna say sometime in 2003 I I did

Recognize the shift in the Overton window and I did finally get to a point where I was just so fed up with with Bush the lesser that I was like you know what I did like it opened my eyes to all of the bullshit that had that had come before. What do you was there a catalyzing moment or was it a series of things what happened it was well it was a series of things but the the bit that really like hit home was mission accomplished okay and Okay. And, and George W. Bush, Mr. didn't show up to do his time in the Texas Air National Guard. Stepping off of a helicopter onto an aircraft carrier. wearing a Navy style leather aviators jacket and, and trying to look like, you know, some kind of graduate of Top Gun and, and the, the mission accomplished banner, you know,

that was, that was clearly like, this is all a photo op that's this is you know 110% this is a show and like just looking my father and my father's service made it so that I looked at that and I, I saw through the bullshit of it. If that makes sense. And I was so incredibly angry. Now it helped that by that point, I was living in Seattle, which was a much more liberal kind of area. And the friends that I had made that I was hanging out with were more liberal than I had been. And there had been all kinds of conversations,

you know, in the game store that we had had about what was going on in Iraq and all of that. And like that was helping kind of nudge my perception You know, but it was that that was the moment that was like, okay, you know what? Everything they've been saying is right. You're full of shit. You're a shithead and And fuck you and Rove and everybody to put you in power because this is just disgusting and Yeah, that was, and, and like, I'm much happier where I am now, but I look back and I'm like, you know what? It shouldn't have taken that.

Sure. You know, and so I kind of want to go back to 25 year old me in 2000 and go, 25 year old me in 2000 and go, okay, no, let's, let's sit down because you're, you're, you're still even at 25, you're still interested enough and you still value intellectual honesty enough that let's analyze your biases and let's look at this like, like no shit, let's look at this like, like no shit, let's look at this. So yeah, that's this whole coda at the end of this episode talking about that election is, is that's, that's my, my emotional takeaway is having all of that now, you know, pointed out so starkly and, and going back and remembering it, I'm

like, I was a fucking moron. Oh God. I was a man. I was insufferable. So yeah, snarky prick. I was just like, Oh, see, that's one guy from a political family who went to Harvard versus another guy and it's like, Oh, Oh, those are stark choices. Actually. I don't think he went. Yeah. The bunting is the same, but you know, those are stark choices. Actually, I think you were. Yeah. The bunting is the same, but you know what's inside the cake? One of them's got maggots. The other one's like, you know, very bland cake.

But goodness gracious. Like, yeah, yeah. I was. Get your head out of your ass. You you, uh, self self, uh, what's word I'm looking for smug. Yeah. Oh, grandizing. Yeah. Like, yeah, there, there I'm talking for? Smug. Yeah. Agrandizing. Yeah, like.

Yeah. There was nothing redeemable about that attitude. That was some lazy, you know what that was? That was lazy, cynical thinking. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And, and yeah. So I mean, hearing you say that makes me feel a little bit better about what a, what a dipshit I was. Sure. You know, but yeah Oh, yeah too much too much of my adult life was spent servicing my own ego and like justifying

like my my Unearned view of myself as the smartest guy in the room Like it was yeah way too much way. Like it was way too much. Way, way too long and way too much. And it included that election and did not stop for quite some time. Yeah.

So, yeah. Yeah, no, I can, I have the advantage of being able to point to, no, no, it was 03 or 04. Like right there, right there. That headline in the newspaper that was it Yeah, yeah So all right anything you want to recommend to people Yeah, there is actually

By Josephine Crowley Quinn I know I've recommended it once before but I'm'm recommending it again. How the world made the West is a really great response to the idea that permeates our culture, I think especially here in the United States, but in Western Europe, in the West. This idea that, hey, we owe all of these ideas and all of these concepts that we recognize as Western. We owe all of this to the Greeks and we owe all of this to, you know, the Roman Empire and all of this. And it's a really good kind of explanation that, well, yes, but also really no. Right. You know, there's, there's actually a whole lot going on there and there's a lot of selective editing

of the narrative. And I am all in favor of historians now going back and examining all of that, kind of in the same way that I wish I could go back and tell myself to re-examine my biases in you know, 2000 And so yeah highly highly recommend it how the world made the West a 4,000 year history by Josephine Quinn How about you? I'm gonna recommend a book by Dana bash and David Fisher. Dana Bash you might recognize from being CNN's, I think she's like really high up as far as one

of their political correspondents. But it's called America's Deadliest Election, The Cautionary Tale of the Most Violent Election in American History. It's about the election in 1872. OK. Nice. OK, so nice. Yeah, so that would be just so you know that as you likely remember, that's Grant's second election.

Right. So, OK, yeah, cool. But yeah, it just seemed like, you know, the Brooks Brothers won. It was a very, very, very, very close election. But I have not found a good enough book on the Brooks Brothers riot yet I really want to find a good one. So everybody has any recommendations. They should absolutely email it to us Um, yeah, well, I mean to be fair. We're still inside a quarter century from it Yeah, true and that can that can make it difficult. Sure

But the the 1872 one very very violent election, definitely one worth looking at. So, okay, cool. Yeah. Let's see, where can we be found? We can be found on our website at wubba wubba wubba dot geek history time dot com. While you're there, take a look at our archive. It's pushing 300 episodes, certainly by the time this one actually gets put out there. And we have covered a wide range of topics. So find something that sparks your interest and get into it while you're there, or while you're anywhere where you're listening to this. Please take a moment to subscribe and give us a five-star review

Because you know, we we deserve it the other places we can be found of course are on Spotify on the Apple podcast app on the Amazon podcast app and Where can you be found sir on your own? Well, I'm gonna direct people to the Comedy Spot at 9 p.m. on Friday, January 3rd, February 7th, and March 7th. All of those are Friday nights at 9 p.m. You should probably go to comedyspot.com and click on the calendars link and find tickets there because we tend to sell out.

So yeah, definitely you wanna find us there. If you can't get to it locally, then definitely get to it streaming. You know, it's a great show, I'm very proud of it. It is eight plus years old, and we just keep on getting better. So that's where you can find me. I've never asked this before.

Is there any kind of a like window when tickets become available for a given date? You can usually buy tickets about two months in advance. OK. Yeah. And we've had people do that. Like they they came to a sold out show and they were really bummed. So they bought tickets for the next two months worth. Nice. So that they're guaranteed a spot. Very cool. Pretty cool.

Yeah. All right. Well, for a Geek History of Time, oh, I did tell you that that was capital punishment, right? Yeah, you did. Okay, good. I think so. Well, for a Geek History of Time, I am the best there is, the best there was, and the

best there ever will be. And I'm Ed Blaylock, and that's the Bottom Line.