Boonta Vista - EPISODE 44: Israel Fail Ow (Featuring @VicMRodriguez)

Episode Date: April 25, 2018

Andrew and Theo are joined by Victor Rodriguez from BloodyElbow.com to discuss Australia's weird deal with blackface, Israel Folau's recent comments and the grey area in which a sports star's comments cross the line from personal opinion to damaging statement. Thanks again to Vic, who we love very much. He can be found on www.bloodyelbow.com and on his own podcast Bodega Superstar (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bodega-superstar/id1147459280). Support the show and get exclusive bonus episodes by subscribing on Patreon: www.patreon.com/BoontaVista Merchandise now available: http://boontavista.com/merchandise _____________________________ Twitter: twitter.com/boontavista iTunes: tinyurl.com/y8d5aenm Stitcher: www.stitcher.com/s?fid=144888&refid=stpr Pocket Casts: pca.st/SPZB RSS: tinyurl.com/kq84ddb

Welcome to Buenter Vista Socialist Club, episode 44. Hi, Andrew. I'm here with Theo. Hi, Theo. Hey, how are you? I'm good. Having a nice weekend. I had a good TGIF last night. And how about you? How are you? How are you? I'm good. I'm excited. We haven't had a guest in a while. How am I levels? Check. Check. One and two. Yeah. Yeah. The juice that's loose flows mainly through the sluice. I think we're good. Yeah. Ben is still in Japan. He's often in the glorious land of Japan and Lucy is also in a sense in Japan. Lucy is not with us because today she is manning an anime booth at a comic book convention. It's the barefoot is legal booth I think.

Oh, and so we are joined by our esteemed guest host of Roderger Superstar and Rider for Bloody Elbow.com my favorite MMA website, we have Victor Rodriguez. How you doing Vic. Yeah, hello. Happy to be here. Thank you for having me guys. Oh, we've been we've been talking about doing it for a while. It's it's taken us a while to hook it all up, hasn't it? But we got it. But we got you. I mean, you people are in the future, so I can't really blame you. That's true. That's true. The time difference is, frankly, silly. Yes. It's too much. 16 hours? Comeue. Yeah, it's not good. That's what literally caused us to have that miscommunication last time, but that's okay I'm just saying that Obama would have never let this happen. It's true. That's true

12 more years. Yes. However, however many more you would like or something. Yeah, so one of the things that Vic and I like to to tell you to tell to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to th, to to the to the to to the to the to the the to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to. to. to. to. to. to. to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. the the their. the the the the the to their. to to to. to. to to. to. to. to the things that Vic and I like to talk about sometimes, as we did when I appeared on his show a while ago, is Australia's weird history of a lot of incidents of blackface, cropping up in the news, all that kind of stuff, especially considering that we don't have the sort of cultural relationship to it that America does. So it seems like it's weirdly prominent how often it sort of comes up in the Australian news. So every now and then Vic will shoot me an article and then about a recent incident in Australia and I will set the big counter that says days since Australia's last blackface incident back to zero with a sad look on my face.

It happens more often than I would like. But he sent me one recently that was kind of a perfect encapsulation of all of the real hallmarks of a classic Australian blackface incident. This article was titled, Blackface Picture at Beer Olympics, Lands Footy Players in Headlines. And I will just read a touch of this to you now. Controversy has enveloped a group of young men who painted themselves black at an evoked beach

social gathering on Good Friday. A group of ten young men has come under fire after a picture surfaced of them with their skin-painted black and carrying a white mannequin on an elevated platform. This is worse that I remember. Well there's a bit in here that I actually missed the first time I read over this. The group were participating in the annual Beer Olympics event on Friday. A picture of the group was posted to the Instagram account of participant Blake Jacob with the caption, Slaves for the win.

That was the part I missed last time. I didn't even catch that part. Yeah, it's not, it's not great. It's not great It was heavily criticized on social media and taken down within a few hours This is seriously fucked up wrote one of mr. Jacobs followers So not okay wrote another mr. Jacob defended his actions and told news to that he was, quote, the least racist person ever. Ah.

How can you argue with that? You know? I don't know, but I feel like there's something that might be missing from this. Was there not? And please correct me if I'm wrong. Wasn't there a Confederate flag in the mix there somewhere? I wouldn't be shocked. a series of like photos from previous years where so the same guys had been you know they're doing their little competitions or whatever they're like

having tug-a-walls with other footy teams and like one of them is again all guys painted completely black and dressed up like Pacific Islanders so they were in like the grass skirts and everything and the other team is all a dude old, like dressed up as Egyptians. I don't know why all of their costumes have to be like a race, an ethnic group? I mean, the Egyptian thing, I mean, I guess, you can... I'm not saying that it's equally as forgivable as wearing a toga, but I guess there's some sort of a historical context thing where I just, I don't, I don't know where this comes from.

And what confuses me the most about these examples of racism in Australia is how American they truly are. You know, you see the Confederate flag, you see, you remember you, I believe you linked to this, there was a a a a a the the the guy the guy the guy the guy the guy the guy the guy the guy the guy the guy, the guy, I believe you linked to this, there was a guy who was wearing a clansman robe. And I'm thinking, where do you, I know we live in the age of the internet, but I mean, how does this guy get a clans robe so easily? Where was he planning on wearing this in Australia? And not only that, it was so prim and pressed, we dry, clean this thing for him. Did he make it at home? Did he, like, yeah, I was just,

I was just mentioning this to Theo before we started, that, um, that yeah, we had discussed this on a previous episode. A very similar thing of just a local footie club out in a, in a country town, a game of Ozzy rules happening, and for some reason, standing on the sideline is a guy in a full clansman outfit. And it gets into the news and people are like, what's going on?

Why are you wearing that? And of course, it immediately comes back into the standard defense of this, which is, oh, it's just a bit of fun. Everybody's getting, you're the one making it weird, he said. Yeah. making it weird, he said, under his hood. Which I'm sure that sounded hilarious with the muffle of the hood. You're the one making it weird. You, asshole, why would you do this? That's right.

What about this looks racist to you? But yeah, so in a, here we have on this thing. In a verbal slang match on the post, which has now been removed, Mr. Jacob said, quote, all you lefties need to get lost, it's all a bit of fun. I'm the least racist person ever you can get fucked. Oh, okay. Two things, there's two things that need to be noted here. Number one, the fact that, you know, you lefties, because he's assuming, because the fact, because he's, because, because, because, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, the fact, that's, that's, that's, that's, that, that, that, that's, that, that's, that's, that's, that's. that's, that's, that's. that's, that's. that's. the fact, that's. the fact, the fact, the fact, the fact, the fact, the fact, the fact, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. th th th th the. th the. the. thease. thease. thease a matter of political ideology for one to look at something as grotesque as that and say, hey, that's a problem and you probably shouldn't be doing that. But that's one thing. But number two, the fact that he is so clearly sidestepping the entire historical context matter. Because that's what all these people do, if you notice. I mean, it's always a matter of, when you go to the controversy of the conf conf conf conf conf conf conf conf conf conf the the the the the the controversy, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when the controversy, when the controversy, when the controversy, when the the th. th. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, th. th. That, th. That's, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th. That's, th. That's, th. That's, th. That's, th. That's, that, that, that, that, that, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's that's that's that's that's that's that, that, the uh... the the confederate flag here in america even if you go something different say for example fried chicken

right you make a joke about black people and fried chicken there's nothing racist about watermelon and fried chicken okay the food in and of itself is not a-sacit the food in the the the historical context in which this is been used to use for mockery and many times it's been used not just for mockery but explicitly for political p p p p p p p p p for for for political for political for political for political for political for political for mockery, but explicitly for political propaganda, and it's been used by very hateful people to use to implement campaigns of violence. You know, and ultimately it's what it leads to. So I don't understand how you can just, to be that selective, to excise that portion of this whole equation, and then be like, nah, it's just a bit of fun.

I'd love to live in the world you live in because you're clearly, to be very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very, to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the of fun. Well, I'd love to live in the world you live in because you're clearly very, very fucking oblivious as to what the true problem is here. Well, that's the weird part with the Australian context specifically is I think you can find other comparisons in things like, say, there was a report that came out recently, which was the result of an investigation into like, like, up a upper, up a upper, up a upper, up a upper, up a upper, up a upper, up a thuuuuuiiiiui, thui, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thi, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thi, thi, thi, thi, thus, thus, thi, thi, th...................... I, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, this, this, this, this, this, this, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the. the. the, thus, thus, thi,, which was the result of an investigation into like hazing practices at like, you know, upper crust universities. And so it's this very similar thing where it seems to be this practice that has just been adopted wholesale from American culture, but it just sort of makes you go, yeah, but why? This strange thing where people have gone, ah, let's let's emulate like, you know,

college movies from the states and we'll have frat houses and we'll haze each other and well, you know, like, all the horrible shit that comes with that. But it's really weird how people seem to have just picked that stuff up and plugged it into a hole in Australian culture while seemingly just kind of ignoring all the very obvious negative stuff that goes with it. Which is, yeah, the very much how I feel about the blackface stuff where people simultaneously seem to be aware of it enough to do it, but also constantly claim that like,

oh, well, it doesn't mean the same thing here as it does somewhere else. It's similar to like, similar to like, you know, gollywog dolls and all that sort of stuff. But you get people here who are just like, oh, well, we don't have, we don't have any of that kind of history of you know, of blackface being really offensive and slavery and all that kind of stuff so you can't level the same sort of accusations of people. It's like yeah but even in defending yourself you're aware enough of the existence of those things to articulate them. So how, where's the mental gymnastics where you get to just split these things apart and ignore the bits them. So how, where's the mental gymnastics where you get to just split these things apart and ignore the bits that you feel like? Yeah, that's ultimately where it lies, isn't it? I mean, it's the fact that they're, instead

of focusing on their actions and what they, or whatever they may have said, it's just a matter, they, that, theymeat, and again, going back to the conf conf conf conf conf conf conf conf conf conf conf conf conf conf conf conf conf conf conf., their..... their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their, their, their, their, their, their. their. their, their, their, their, their. their. their, their, their. And, their, their. And, their. And, their. And, their. And, their. And, their. And, their. And, their. And, their. And, their. And, their. And, their. And, their. And, their. And, their. their. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. that, that, that's, that's, that's, that's, th. that's, that's, that's, th. th. th. understand. I mean, and again, going back to the Confederate flag matter, you know, we've had it flying over state courthouses and and It's a matter of just When you when you hear people say well, we need to take that down. We'll no, no, no, it's part of our heritage. It's it's part of? I'm? thrown. thrown. thrown. thin. thrown. their. thin. their. thi. their. thi. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. It's. It's their. It's their. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's th. It's th. It's th. It's th. It's the the the the the the thethese states until some time around maybe the 1960s? Let me see, what was going on in America in the 1960s that I should be aware of that might have been, oh, I don't know. I wish I could just figure this out. I wonder why there were Confederate monuments that were being built in Arizona, which wasn't even a state in some time around maybe what, the 1980s, you know, like that's the thing that I don't get. It's how is this not, how do you not take a set back and just go, well, yeah, okay, I think we might have a problem here. And it's just brutal, man. I mean, I spent, I spent most of my childhood here in the United States, and then I left left the country, the country, the country, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th.. th. th. th. th. th. It's, th. It's, th. It's, th. It's, th. It's, th. It's, thi, that, thi, that's, that's, that's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, is, is, is, is, is, is. It's, is. It's, is. It's, is. It's, is. It's, is. It's, th. It's, th. It's, th. It's, th. It's, th. It's, th. It's, th. It's, th. It's, th. It's, th. It's, that's, th. It's, th. that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, th man, this is amazing. It's embarrassing to see that you grow up with this idea of what America is and what it can be,

and then you realize that the main exports of this country are violence and racism, essentially. And I don't say that as, you know, obviously I'm not proud of that, but it's like you have no idea how sad that makes me. You know, now, you guys are that you guys that you guys that you guys that you guys that you guys that you guys thiiii that you guys that you guys that you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, you guys, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thus, thus, thus, thi, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, and you their, and you their, and you their, and you their, their, and you their, and you thi, thi, and you're thi, and you're thi, thi, thi, thi.. thi. thi. thi. the. the. thi. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi with the consequences of that in some strange way and I guess that's why I find it so fascinating specifically in the case of Australia is like, wow, how did you guys get so good at co-opting our bullshit? I guess it's the main question and it's reflected in your politics, which I guess we're going to get to later on with the whole, but my fascination with a lot of those things which you've of of of of. Yeah, it's a like I said, it's a really weird one. You just sort of look at it and go, I, like how, how have you ported this across in this form?

It's very strange and like, as you said, there was another defense by one of the players on that guy's Instagram post saying, saying, oh, you know, it's all stuff from the past. Like you can't cry about it forever. It's just a joke or whatever. So just this idea of being able to declare to other people when something stops being significant enough to care about or to talk about or anything like that?

Well, if it were ancient Greece, perhaps. But I mean, we're talking about less than two centuries, first of all. Not only that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, thiii, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, to be to be to be thi, to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to bea, to bea, to bea, to bea, to bea, to bea, to bea, to bea, to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to bea, to bea, to bea, to bea, to bea, toe, toe, toe, toe, toe, the the too, too, the too, too, too, tooome.e.e.e. toe.e. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe.. Not only that, but the fact that the reverberations of this have been are still being felt today. And I think it's another sad thing that people in America don't realize just how deeply that affects people in day-to-day life now, like the carcerial state that we have, like the election laws in different states that are meant specifically to disenfranchise minorities or redlining and things and th..... And th. And th. And th. And th. And thse. And thage, thage, th. And thse. And thse. And thsea-a-a-a-a-s, thi, thi, thi, thi, thr-a-a-a-s, thi, thi, thr-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi-a-a-a-s, thi-s, thi-s, thi-s, thr-s, thri-s, thri-s, thri-s, thri-s. And, throwneeease, thr-s, thrownease, thr-a-a-a-a redlining and things of that sort. I think a lot of people don't know what that is and the fact that it exists, and it's very easy in America to segment yourself away from other people and not have to deal with their opinions.

And, you know, it's easy to immerse yourself now in the age of online to get to these Twitter rage echo chambs to, you know, all the the, the, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, and their, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thirty, somea, somea, thi, thi, some, somea, and, thi, somea, somea, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, some.a, is.a, is.a, some.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a. th. th. And, th. And, th. And, campuses, you know, and they're watching Fox News and all it does revalidate a bunch of bullshit that they already believe or that they're inclined to believe because of their environment, but you know, they don't have anything to really challenge that in a factual way, so, you know, it's kind of sad, you're stuck in that information loop. Well, um, so this brings me to another topicic-a thoe thoe tho, tho, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they's, they's, they's, they's, they's, they's, they's, they's, they's, the, the, the, the, thin, thin, thin, thin, thin, their, thin, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, the brings me to another topic, which is, so with that sort of stuff, with, you know, country town footy teams doing stupid shit like that, to a certain extent, you gotta look at that and go, yep, there's a bunch of really dumb guys doing something dumb, and they don't really get why it's dumb and that sort of thing. So like, which is why, to a certain extent, it's really, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, and I's, and I's, and I's, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. to, to, to, thin, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, too, too, too. too. too. too. too. too. too. too. too. too. too. to, to, which is why to a certain extent it's really shitty but you also as we have done you also got a laugh because it's just really fucking

stupid. But then like kind of up at the other end of that you have like at the high level of sports like that we we've had a couple of things in the media recently about a big-time rugby star, Israel Falow, who is, I think, like the biggest star in the sport, basically. He got into a bit of hot water during last year's big public debate over same-sex marriage, legalization of marriage equality. He tweeted something during a big postal survey, a big silly postal survey thing, which said, I love and respect all people for who they are and their opinions, but personally, I will not support

gay marriage. Peace sign emoji, love heart, praying tie emoji. Peace sign emoji, love heart, praying hands. Peace sign emoji. Peace sign emoji, praying hands, love heart. And like, and so, you know, there was a big kickback about that from people saying like, you know, obviously a lot of people immediately rounded on that as, but, you know, so why do you want all these other people to not have the same rights as you? Like, to me personally, I think that was relatively innocuous in a thuous, the thuous, thuous, thuous, their, thuous, thuous, thuous, thi, thi, their, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, that, that, to that, thi, thi, that, to to to that, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, their, their, their, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, these other people to not have the same rights as you? Like to me personally I think that was relatively innocuous in the sense that like yeah I it's not what I agree with but he didn't like I don't know he wasn't saying anything if you're gonna have that opinion that's probably the way to state it that's about as respectfully as you can say it. It does beg the question, did

he especially need to publicly say, I'm not going to support this thing, and that's a matter for him, you know. So that one, I kind of, I didn't really know how I felt it at the time, whether I thought that he really deserved, you know, how much he sort of copped it over that. But then he's been back in the news news, the news, the news, the news, the news, the news, the news, the news, the news, the news, the news, the news, the news, the news, the news, the news, th news, to to thus to to to to to toe, toe, toe, toe, the toe, toe, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, the question to, to, the question, to, to, the the to, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the, the, the the the. they. toe. toe. they. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe, to, tothen he's been back in the news in the last week or two, because he posted something on Instagram, which was like a little shitty image macro meme thing about God's plan, God's plan being tricky. And somebody commented on it and said,

What's God's plan for gays? Oh, Christ. There's always, there's always that one fucking guy. Oh my God. Oh my, why you gotta do it? You already heard the first one. Now you want the remix? What the fuck guy? Yep. So, luckily, uh,

Foulow felt the need to reply, saying that God's plan for gay people was quote hell in all capitals unless they repent of their sins and turn to God. Now that didn't go down that well with a lot of people which is pretty understandable really. Yeah, you don't fucking say. Yeah, did not, did not go great. And, you know, understandably also it didn't go down well with, say, other gay union players or referees or any of that sort of stuff. So, the complicating factor in all of this is that the main sponsor of the league that he plays in is Qantas Airlines,

which have a very, very public, very strong, like pro-equality advocacy. Their CEO is openly gay and pushed hard for marriage equality and all that sort of stuff. So, so the league in turn also has all of their own policies about equality and respect for fans and players and at every level of the game. So obviously this statement doesn't gel with that. This does not gel with that for him as a representative of the sport. So, I guess this starts to get into that kind of murky territory of. You know, is he expressing his own opinion? Is he saying something harmful?

And, like, where this also gets interesting is that we were discussing an idea a couple of weeks ago in the midst of a conversation about things like sort of representation politics and also like, you know, people either getting no platformed or, or, you know, having a gig as a spokesperson for a company taken away because of something that they've said or some sort of bigotry that they've expressed publicly. You know, whether or not that constitutes censorship,

because right-wing people get extremely mad about all that sort of shit, unless they're the ones doing it at the time. Yeah, that's funny how that happens, yeah. Yeah, it's fine for them to ask for university professors to have their tenure revoked and for people to get fired from things and all that sort of stuff. But if it's a conservative person it's happening too, it's this horrifying breach of their rights and their right to free speech. Yes, the freedom of speech is always the first one. As if it were it were it were it were it were the their their their their their their their their their their their their thii. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. the. the. th. the. the. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. I's, it's, it's, it's, it's, to be. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I's, the. I. I. I. I. I. I. I's, the. I's, the. I's, t. I's is, t. t. t t t t t t t t t t t today. today. today, today, today, today, today, te. te. today, te. te. te, as if it were the government that were censoring them, as if these companies weren't worshipping at the altar of the Almighty dollar. I mean, guys, I don't know how these people don't get it through their thick fucking skulls. The main problem here is clearly the company that is in charge here is looking to make as much money as possible. If you offend a portion of what they find to be their their their their their their their their their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, I, I, their, their, their, their, be their financial constituency or their consumer base,

then yeah, they're going to, they're going to, to, you know, throw you over like Flotsam, because why not? And just keep moving. I mean, I don't know why that's such a difficult thing. This is capitalism working, and you'd expect little more understanding of that. But you know what I'm a little concerned about here is just I want to go back to whoever it is that asked Israel about, why why couldn't they just ask him something a little more, you know, with the times like, a yo, Israel, what you know about eating ass? Like, can we just do that? I mean, that what society is all about? We should move in that direction. And by the way, it is a God's plan to eat us. Hey, it should be. Let me tell you something.

Let me tell you something. I'm actually a little disappointed right now that Ben's not here. I think he's avoiding me because he's a coward because I knew that I was going to be asking him about eating thi. that's that's. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. the. the. the. the. theat's. theat's. theat's. theat's, theat's, thease. thease. theat's, theat thease. thease. the. the. the. the. to be, the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. th. th. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It's. It. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's the. It's a. It's a te. It's a God. It's a God. It's a God. It's a God. It's a God. It's a tea. It's a God. It's a God. te. tell. tell. tell. te. teating show. Absolutely. It's a shared stance. Actually, I don't know if we, if Theo's expressed his pro-ass-eating bona fides on the show before. We've tried to get it out of it. I'm interested in that. Theo, I'd like to hear a thoughts on that if possible. There's a non-zero chance that, uh, My in-laws might actually listen to this show at some stage in their life. I'm just gonna have to go that route.

You know, I love, I came across the macro image that was, it's a bit of a meme now that's been floating around. It's the one hippo biting the other one on the rump. And it's the, you know which one is, it's the says that the only ethical form of consumerism under capitalism is eating ass Only ethical form of consumption. There you go. Oh dear. Well, look you you you basically reiterated the point that I made on the show a couple of weeks ago which was very much that that yeah at the end of the day these these companies are out for the dollar. So Qantas Qantas for example, you know, they're able to look at the the the the the the the the to look the the to look the writing the writing to look the writing the writing to look the writing the writing the writing the writing the writing the writing the writing the writing the writing the writing the writing the the their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their. their. their. their. their. their. I their their their their their their their their their their thi. Only. Only. Only thi only only only thi only thi only thi only thi. Only. Only. Only their their their their their. Only. Only. Only the at the end of the day these these companies are out for the dollar so quantis quantis for example you know they're able to look at the writing on the wall the results of of our postal survey to to legalize marriage

equality which came back like you know 70 something percent in favor and they can look at that and say, the majority of the Australian public are in favour of treating people of all sexualities as equals, so that's what we're going to do. You know, if we offend people who feel differently to that, we're offending a smaller segment of our potential customer base than if we go the other way. Like you said, it's not fucking rocket science. But one of the things I said at the time was, if you think that a company wouldn't like allow this, whichever offender they are to stick around if they thought they were going to make more money that way around, you're also a fucking idiot.

And Israel Falow is a very interesting and current case study of this because he he is very much the most popular player in the sport. He effectively said immediately, like, I will walk away from the sport if they try to punish me for this or make me, make some statement to the contrary. And, you know, the governing body of the sport said, oh, we're absolutely gonna, we're really unhappy about this. We're going to discipline him. It's gonna be a whole thing. They had a meeting with him.

He came out of the meeting, wrote an opinion piece that got published in a newspaper, which I think was supposed to be an apology, but it was actually just him saying, so I told them to fuck off and I would quit the sport if they tried to do anything to me. And they said, okay. So, yeah, and they came along and said, oh, we've had a discussion and everything's fine now. And it puts them in this interesting position because, you know, their major financial backers all have a very strongly held position about this,

but also, someone who is the most popular player in the sport and who brings in an audience and brings in money, has said, I'm going to keep doing what I want, and if you push me too hard, I am getting the fuck out of here. And as of now, no now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now now th no no th no I am getting the fuck out of here. And as of now, nothing's happened to him, which I think completely proves the point. If you're bringing in the money, you get to stay.

If it is more profitable for the organization to say, look, this is too much of a headache, let's just park this thing, but then they'll do that. In that opinion piece actually, he said, you know, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you, you, you, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, th, th, th, th, thi, think, think, think, think, think, think, think, think, think, thi, thithen they'll do that. In that opinion piece, actually, he said, you know, I told the head of Australian rugby that I'll walk away from the rest of my contract if you try and make me sort of walk this back or anything. And he also said in the piece, like I'd rather lose my job, lose friends, even family before I turn away from my religion. Which caused a friend of the show

Gordy Please on Twitter. You find him at Gordy PLS. So he's a guy that I follow who is Christian. Any comments on matters of public debate around that, and his take on that was, this is literally the definition of becoming an extremist or a cult member, cutting friends, family, and professional ties in favor of your screwed up understanding of religious principles, which I thought was an interesting take on it. The idea that rather than actually step back and look at what you're saying to just go, oh, I would rather not have a job, I would rather lose my family, I would rather...

Yeah, I don't think he... I mean, it's tough to say, look, I don't know what his financial situation is like if he'd be able to actually walk away from the sport, but I don't know what his contractual situation is, if you'd just be able able a a to to to to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to to to be able to to walk to walk to walk to walk to to be able to to to be able to be a to be a toe??? I'm, toe. I'm, I'm, I'm to have to have to have to have to have to have to to have to have to have to have to have to have to have to have a to have a to be a their, I, I, I, I, I, I's a they.. I's a they. I's a they. I'm a they. I'm a they. I'm not, they. I'm not, they. I'm not, they. I'm not, they. I'm not, they. I'm not, they. I'm they. I'm they. I'm not, they. I'm not, they. but I don't know what his contractual situation is if you'd just be able to walk away over some dumb shit like that. Like, are you retiring? No, I'm just leaving because I don't want to, you know, back down from what I had said and I don't know. I just, I'm really confused about how you guys went about the same-sex marriage debate to begin with. It's similar to what the same-sex marriage debate to begin with. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's similar, it's similar, it's similar, it's similar, it's similar, it's similar, it's similar, it's similar, it's similar, it's similar, it's similar, it's similar, it's similar, to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to their, their, their, their, you, you, you, you their, you their, you their, you their, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you the same, you know, the same, you know, the same, you the same, you know, the same, the same, their, their, to a vote, was it not? It was, yeah, not quite. You explained, Thea. Yeah, please. So they said, oh, well, you know, we'll put this to a non-binding postal vote.

It cost us almost $100 million to do, where we basically did a, like a Facebook poll of the entire country to say, you know, send us a smiley face if you think gay people should, gay people should be able to get married, hit that anger button if you, if you disagree. We spend about 100 million bucks on that with the understanding that the result is totally non-binding. It's just, hey, what's everyone's feel on this? How are you? with the understanding that the result is totally non-binding, it's just, hey, what's everyone's feel on this? How are you?

Hey, how's this catcher? And then they got it back and they said, well, I guess, I guess we have to, we have to do this now. And so they dragged it through with a whole bunch of horrible pin-ons that eventually got shot down one by one and then at the end they said yes we did it democracy in action you're welcome gay people. You're welcome instead of just doing it like every other law in this country. So yeah it's also worth noting that like I would say for the last couple of decades

That that all polling in this country has just showed a steadily increasing majority of people in support of that being law And rather than do what what's they would normally do in any case, which is to just introduce a bill and make it law Because you could clearly see that like three quarters of the country was in favor of this thing, which I should say as well is like in Australian politics over the last decade or so, it's a rare issue that has like sort of majority support. Things are generally pretty like 50-50 divided along ideological lines here. So it's pretty rare to get something

where even a lot of conservatives are like, of course, of course people should have the same right. So again, yeah, they just, they spent ages and ages putting off actually doing anything about it. And then it was originally going to be a plebiscite, which is like a referendum, except because it doesn't actually involve a change to the Constitution, because that's what a referendum is, a binding change to the Constitution. So instead they did a plebiscite, which in turn would have been non-binding, and

then they said, oh, we're going to do it via the mail. And then they stopped calling it a plebiscite, which in turn would have been non-binding, and then they said, oh, we're going to do it via the mail. And then they stopped calling it a plebiscite and started calling it a postal survey, which sure sounds like a big commitment. So yeah, they, like Theo said, they've essentially just dragged it out as long as they possibly could, really dragged their feet on it, did it the absolute slowest way they could and now our current Prime Minister goes around giving himself credit for giving, giving rights to the gays. Yeah, good job, Malcolm, excellent. Here's what I don't understand, what I find frankly

to be somewhat insulting is that they would take something like that and put it, subjected to a public vote. I don't really know that that's the best way. It's kind of like when the UK voted to leave the EU. It's like, really? You want to put that up? I don't know. I mean, I'm not saying clearly, I'm not saying that they're the same thing. But things that have to do with something with that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, the the magnitude, the magnitude, the magnitude, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the the the, the, the, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the thuk, thuk, thuk, thuk, threat, threats threats, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the example. You know the economic future and as well as the legal circumstances surrounding how you're going to be affected by

the entire rest of the region that you've had a partnership with. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know that you want Carl down the street to be the guy. You know what I mean? You know he probably believes that the earth is still flat. I don't know that you want that. the the the the the the the the to. Yeah. Yeah. the the th. th. the th. the th. the th. th. th. to. the the th. the th. th. th. th. th. th. tho. tho. tho. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. tho. tho. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. thoooea. the. the. the the the earth is still flat. I don't know that you want that guy. But then again, you know, we got a lot of politicians that have fucked up views too. So I guess, I don't know what I'm going for you. But it's a good comparison because it had the same effect on the discourse, except now Carl down the street is talking about, you know, the gay people on his block going to hell, which was just the entire country for several months. Yeah, it, one of the things that sort of got flagged before it all kicked off was, was, you know,

both advocates for marriage equality and also people who worked in like social services saying, you know, we already know that young gay people are, like young gay and trans people are most prone to suicide and all that sort of stuff. And now you're going to have a countrywide debate in which you ask everyone in the nation, do you think they should be treated as humans like you, or should we all vote no? Like, just, just making a massive public discussion and debate over whether or not this whole section of the populace should qualify to be treated the same as everyone else. And it wound up being

exactly what we all thought it was going to be which was incredibly harmful when they could have just said we can see everything everything shows us over the course of the last several decades that the majority of the country is in support of this happening, let's just pass a lot. But that's not how we do things here. We make them incredibly difficult and we really drag them out. So, to come back to our previous point. Well, the part about, you mean the part about eating ass? We're going back to that? I like that. Yeah yeah as a sports reporter do you eat ass?

Oh buddy let me tell you I've been smoking cigars and eating ass since 9-11 I'm ready. No I was gonna ask like with with I wonder how much of this stuff as well as specific to it being like sports. And by that I mean, yeah, when does somebody who is a sports person? When does something stop being a personal opinion or a political statement, and when does it start being something that you're, that you're sort of tarnishing the reputation of the sport that you're a that you're, you know, sort of tarnishing the reputation of, of the sport that you're a representative of or an employee of.

I mean, we, you know, we can kind of look at two versions of that. There's, there's the Israel for our thing of saying, oh, I think that all gay people are going to burn in hell forever unless they become Christians, right. Which is not a super positive sentiment that that that that that you that you that you that you that you that you that you that you that you that you that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that is that is that that that that that is that is, that that that that that that that that that that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is that is that is that is that is that is that is th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi, you thi, you thi is thi is thi is thi is thi is thi is thi that is that is that is thi that you want, you know, a big star of the sport putting forward. But then, yeah, on the flip side of that you got like Colin Kappanik, taking a knee during the national anthem and that in itself is a very political statement. It is, you know, the personal and political intertwined. A lot of people obviously take a massive amount of offense to it. But you can also argue that Colin Kabbinick has been punished for that.

Oh, absolutely. I mean he's, he's, yeah, I mean, I don't, I don't really follow American football very much. I don't, frankly, I don't really understand the game 100% to be totally honest with you, but, you know, it's you can't escape it. So, you know, you're constantly surrounded by people that are very much infatuated with the game and and have loved it since childhood. And I keep getting the same thing from other people. It's like, they keep signing folks that are not anywhere near as good as him. And he can just continues to get passed over time. So, you know, sure, he got the bag early, you know, he had some money ahead of time. But he is donating, he is he he he he th. He is th. He is th. He is th. He is just just just just just just just just just just just just just. He is just just just. He is just just just. He is just just just just. He is just just. He just. He just just just just. He just he he he he he he he to th. He just just just to to to to to to to to to to th. He. He th. He th. He th. He th. He th. He th. He just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just. He th. He just just. He th. He th. He th. He th. He th. He th. He th. He th. He th. He th. He th. He th. He th. He just th. He th. He th. He thi to thi thi thi thi. He th. He thi. He th. He th. He th. He th. He th. He just th. Hetime again. So, you know, sure, he got the bag early, you know, he had some money ahead of time, but he is donating to charity. He is putting his money where his mouth is, and he's raising funds for other things as well. He's been a very strong community presence for a lot of groups, and he's not just, it's not a matter of just saying something, he's decided to take social causes upon himself and really move things forward. So I, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. he. he. he. He, he. He, he. He, th. He, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he. He, he. He, th. He, th. He, th. He, th. He, thi. He, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. to, to, to to to to to to toeeea. And, toea. And, toea. And, he's thi. And, he's he's he's thi. And, he is thto take social causes upon himself and really move things forward. So I guess in that case, it ceases to be a matter of what you say and it becomes a matter of what you do. And he got a lot of stick for that because I remember at first, you

know, what he was doing was to protest the anthem, he would sit down. That was found to be disrespectful. I guess some military groups had been very upset about it. So he consulted with a group of troops and they said, well, what would be the respectful way for me to do this? And they said, well, what we do to honor those that have fallen is that we get on one knee. And so he started doing that. And even that became a matter of controversy and upset because he's upsetting the troops, which by the way I should remind you the national anthem is the national anthem, not the anthem of the troops. Okay, it's not exclusive for them. And by the way, the NFL is taking money from the military to do this. This is essentially the

most literal form of modern propaganda that you can find for the military in America. And I don't think anyone, I don't think people really grasp that concept. I think they hear the word propaganda and they think, probably some old Soviet stuff. I don't know. But this is exactly what it is at work and what greater endorsement is there. I mean, you watch a lot of, well, I don't know if the commercials are the same, but you know, when we watch a lot of mixed martial arts events and you see all these commercials and all thi.......... And they. And they. And they. And thi. And thi. And thi. And thi. And thi. And thi. And thi. And thi. And thi. And thi. And thi. And, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, th. th. This is, this is exactly this is exactly this is exactly this is exactly this is exactly this is exactly this is exactly this is exactly is exactly this is exactly is exactly is exactly is exactly th... And, th.. And, th.. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, th. This is, thi. This is exactly. This is exactly. This is exactly. This is exactly. This is, this is exactly. This is exactly. This is exactly, th. This is th Navy and all that and and they make it look fun they make it look like halo not even call of duty They make it look like, you know, you're gonna get these futuristic gadgets I'm like wow, I'm expecting something out of Titanfall the fall from the sky like no

It's not that it's not awesome. There's there's so much to this but they're trying to snag You know, like, it's this entire military machine being pushed upon younger and more impressionable people, especially that, and I'm sorry to keep going on this tangent, but there's this one commercial that really pisses me off. They have Keith David doing the voiceover, which probably upset. It upsets me even more because I love him so much, but it's like, fuck's, there's a series of pins dropping all over the world like in real-time landscapes, like, you know, as if you were putting pins on a map and it's, you know, like you're playing risk. Right, exactly. But then there's, uh, I guess there's a family in a square. It's a mother, father, and a child. And then they're being surrounded by nurses and firefighters and cops. And the implication, of course, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, their, thi, thi, their, their, their, their, their, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, they. Like, they. Like, they. Like, they. Like, they've got to get through us and you're like okay wait who's them? Who was us? What the fuck are you doing? How does this make any sense whatsoever? Who am I

afraid of here? And how are you protecting? How is military adventures in the Middle East halfway across the world going to protect me from plots that are being set up in Munich in London? In Kentucky? How th. how how how how how how how how th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th, the, the, tho tho thuse. thi. thus thus thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. W. th. W. th. th. th. W. th. th. the. Who. Who's the. Who's thea. Who's theauuuuu. Who's toeauuu. Who's toea. Who's theauuu. Who's thea. Who's thea. Who's thea. halfway across the world, going to protect me from plots that are being set up in Munich, in London, in Kentucky. How does this work exactly? And there's never a concrete answer to any of this. But anyway, look, getting back to the NFL things. So yeah, Capernick, thi. th Right now we have UFC fighter Colby Covington, who is a real piece of shit. Yeah, you know man, look, I don't think I've even said too much about him online or anywhere else, but I just, like, there's one thing to be, to try to be this antagonistic personality, to have like that outsized Muhammad Ali or superstar Billy Graham personality to go out there

and say outrageous things to get the audience riled up. We saw this before in mixed martial arts with Chilsanin, who also said some very problematic and frankly racist things as well, they kind of went under the radar. But he'd do it with a wink and a nudge. You know, he'd do it like, look, I don't really mean this, but I'm gonna say that, America's the most advanced country in the mud, which is an actual thing he said. Of course, I'm paraphrasing. But you have that example, and then you have what Covington is doing, where he's basically

calling a women's man and weight title challenger, Rakell Pettington, her nickname is Rocky, he's calling her Ricky. This purpose, the purposeful misgendering thing, this sort of, what you see essentially like the Ben Shapiro strain of assholery, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thin, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, and th, and th, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, thi's thi's thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii's, thi, strain of ass-holery, you know that kind of thing. And it's just getting to a point where you're just like, guy, you're not even, it's not a matter of, I, well look, you know, the old saying, the adage is that there's no such thing as bad publicity, right? All attention is good. That's not the case because this is something, this is a situation where I'm noting that the reaction is, please go away, I don't want to see you anymore. Yes, yes, and like and you compare that, compare that with say, um, yeah, like Connor McGregor, who is currently the biggest star in the sport. He has definitely said things that are both homophobic and racist in the course of promoting his fights. Right. I will say though, like, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he is, he is, he is, he is, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, and, and th, and th, and th, and th. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, th. And, th. And, th. And, th, th, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th, th, th, th. And, th. And, th. And, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, that are both homophobic and racist in the course of promoting his fights.

Right. I will say though that like as much as he does a bunch of not good shit, he also does have the you know Muhammad Ali intangible star power like that that charisma that people are drawn to whether you know it might be the love him or hate him thing or whatever Colby Covington, it's just the hate him part. Yeah, well and but the thing that helps McGregor too is that you look at how he was very strongly in defense of marriage equality in his native Ireland. Right, you see the work that he's doing with with charities and for young people to get ahead and try and to do that.. th. th. the the the the the the the the th. the the the the th. the the the the the the th. th. the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the the the. the. th. the. the. the. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the and try and do that. So, you know, for all the outsized, all the negatives that you have out there, you do have a bit of an outside of the fighting life contrast that you can look at and say, okay, well, you know, maybe I need to also take this into consideration

to get a complete picture of what how complicated this person is. But then, you know, when you get someone who's someone who is someone who is someone who is someone who I mean, I guess we'll use Israel in this case, at that point, you're not doing so much as activism for the rights of others. You're basically saying, you know, I'm going to remain hard-headed in my beliefs and convictions, and I'm going to make a statement of, you know, I'm going to speak my mind. And then I'm going to to to to make to make to make to make to make to make to make to make to make to make to make to make to make to make to make to make to make to make to make to make to make to make to make to remain a to remain a to remain a to remain a to remain a to remain a to make a to remain a to remain a to make a to make a to make a to make a to make a statement, I'm going to make a to make a statement, I'm going to make a statement, I'm going to make a statement, I'm going to make a statement, I'm going to make a statement a statement a statement a statement a statement a statement a statement a statement a statement a statement a statement a statement a statement a statement a statement a statement a statement a statement a statement.au w w wau.au. I'm going to say a statement.au. I'm going to say a to say I'm going to make a toa.a.a.a.a.a. I'm going toa. I'm going to make a statement, I'm going to a statement, I'm going to make a. I'm going toa. I'm going toa. I'm going to speak my mind and then if anyone asked me, well, fine, I'm going to double down, well, if it were a positive thing, and someone would have doubled down, like Kaepernick, for example, you're like, well, yeah, all right, I can, you know, I can see that. That's sort of a natural human reaction, but then it gets to the messy stuff or it sort of the self-martidom element. I think there's something with that

in a lot of these situations too. And I mean, I might be wrong, I don't know, but it's starting to, it seems to me like a bit of a trend. A former baseball player Kurt Schilling, who, by the way, hates government so much but had no problem defrauding to the government of the state of Rhode Island with millions of millions. tholies. thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. thi. It, thi. It, thi. It, thi. It, thi. It, thi. It, thi. It's, thi. It's, thi. It's, thi. It's, thi, to to to to thi. It's to to to to to to to to be to be to be to be to be to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to th. I I, I thi. I thi. I thi. I the. I the. I ma. I'm the. I ma. I ma. I the. I the. I the. I the. I to to to to to to to go off and make shitty video games. He was terminated from his job at ESPN for, again, very right-wing views, very lunatic fringe extroit an heir type things. You know, the usual boilerplate Obama's a Muslim and, you know, this is how the statistics of the real statistics of black crime. And you go, oh no, oh no no oh no like honey don't do it you know that that kind of thing like he's gonna he just keeps going further and further out there and even though he's not

an active athlete anymore it's it's not a matter of you defending anyone it's a matter of you just you know spreading shit everywhere and then going like hey hey don't you love America? It's that kind of they like you're the asshole you you you the the the the the th. th. the th. th. th. th. th. the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the the th. the the the th. the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. that kind of thing. Like, what the, like, you're the asshole for pointing out how wrong they are and how retrograde their views truly are. Yeah, well, I guess you raise an interesting point, which is basically that, like I said, some people are advocating for the expansion of rights, some people are advocating for inclusivity and essentially, I guess, positive thi. I th, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. Like, thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii., thoooooooooo. Like, thi, I guess, positive things. I mean, granted, if you are like a hardcore evangelical Christian, you're not going to look

at the expansion of the status of marriage as a positive, you're going to look at that as, you know, a sign of the end time's coming or whatever. But yeah, like, at the end of the day, it's very difficult to argue that you're kind of doing anything positive or any sort of positive activism through arguing for the restriction of other people's rights. I read a really dumb piece by an idiot friend of the show, Miranda Divine. Oh, yes. Oh, I know Miranda. Yeah, and she was lamenting the state of the Australian right wing, right?

And basically saying like, oh, you can't just, you can't just pretend that the culture wars don't exist, so you've got to get in and start winning battles, which is in part hilarious the idea that the Australian right wing is pretending that culture battles don't exist. Like the idea that the Australian state, she she the state, she the state, she the state, she the state, she was, she was, she was, she was, she was, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she was, she was, she was, she was, she was, she was the, she's, she was the state, she was the state, she was the state, she was the state, she was the state, she was the state, she was the state, she was the state, she was the state, she was the state, she was the state, she was the state, she was the state, she was the state, she's, she's the state, she's the state, she's the state, she's the state, she's the state, she's the, she's the idea that the Australian right wing is pretending that culture battles don't exist. The idea that the Australian right wing is not pretty much 100% consumed with culture battles at this point. They don't actually have any policies that relate to anything real, actually happening. Yeah, I'm just waiting for the first mainstream colonists to say, guys, we're not racist enough. That's all I'm looking for. That's all I want before I die, which will probably be soon, but sure.

We got to turn it up a bit. Well, part of the argument that she was making in this article is that we currently have a race discrimination minister, commissioner, sorry. Who is, who is like a French Laosian descent, I want to say? I'd imagine they colonize Laos at some point, so yes. Yeah, there's go. And she's like, we need to replace him with a white man and start winning some culture battles and it's like, holy shit.that's very, it's extremely, hmm, a bit on the nose. But one of the things that she said in this piece, again, it's one of those very kind of close but no cigar moments, she said, oh, it seems like the country always

takes two steps to the left whenever the Labour Party is in power, but it only ever takes one step to the right if, if one step at all all, when the to the to to to, to, the to, th.... And, th. And, to, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th. And, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, the the the, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the the, the they. And, they. And, they, they. And, they. And, toe, toe.a, toe.a, too, tooome.a, too, too, too, too, toe. And, toe. And, the, thtakes one step to the right if one step at all whenever a conservative government is in power so we're just constantly losing ground and I thought to myself like maybe just maybe that's to do with the fact that like the left wing of politics some people refer to it as as being progressive almost as think about the roots the root word at play there progress thi progress things thi thi thi thi tho' the the the the the the the thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi the the the the tho tho tho tho tho-the the the their the their their the the their tho their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their the their the thi thi thi thi thi their thi thi thi thi their their thi thi thi thi the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the thooooooooooo their their th about the root word at play there. Progress, things changing, whereas what you're advocating for is conservatism. Literally, the ideology of just trying to keep things the same. So it's like, how is this that hard to put together?

How is it that hard to string together the idea that it's much easier to over time get people on board with ideas that involve, you know, gradually changing things, expanding rights, you know, bringing more people into the fold versus just this constant dreary grasping to keep things the same as they were 30 years ago, you know. There's only there's only a certain subset of the population that's ever going to appeal to and that's people who either already have it good or it was better for them then. Right, yeah, and then it's always a matter of the back then, you know, you always hear, well you know, back in my day, you know you could that word and I mean, you know, people weren't upset, like, no, they were. The problem is they didn't have much of a voice and they didn't have much of an option to say,

hey, you really shouldn't do that and not lose their job or, you know, not get beat up or whatever. But now we're seeing things obviously have changed at a pace that they can't really seem to me to what, you know, if you look at, in some ways it's similar to race relations, right? I mean, there was an excellent article in crack.com when, I mean, I don't know, I haven't checked in and forever, but I used to love that site, where David Long wrote a piece talking specifically about that, right? You look at how you have older, angry folks, you know, theyranky white folks that are upset at the state of the country and the way things are going. I think of it as a football field, football game, right?

You have one team that is ahead by 700 points, but then the other team suddenly gets six touchdowns in a row. They're not seeing the fact that they're up ahead by this much. It's just a matter of they're seeing th are seeing there are seeing there are seeing thi are seeing as a thiiii is as a this much. It's just a matter of they're seeing this as a zero-sum game in which they're losing. And that's why you hear people say things like, we're losing the country, right? The infamous Chris Rock joke, like, we're losing the country, man, like you're mothuckers are losing, who's winning? You know, like you're ignoring, again, this is where we go back, the whole blackface. You're ignoring the dynamics, you're ignoring, you're ignoring, you're ignoring, you're ignoring, you're ignoring, the dynamics, the dynamics, the dynamics, the dynamics, the dynamics, the dynamics, the dynamics, the dynamics, the dynamics, the dynamics, the dynamics. the dynamics. the dynamics. the dynamics. they. they. they. their. their. their. their, their, their, their. their. the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the infamous. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. C. the the the the the the th. the thin. the the tracea. tracea. the tracea, the the tr. the the the the the the the the the the infamous look at the Obama the presidency, right, oh, they're running the country. Excuse me, first off, again, who is they? Number two, look at his cabinet.

Look at Congress. Look at the Senate and the Supreme Court. Like, how is this in any way some sort of take over. How are you really viewing yourself at a ta. tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, th. A, thin, thin, thin, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, their, thi, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the country, the country, the country, the country, the country, the country, the the the the the the the the the the the their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their. their. thr-s. thr-s. thi. thi. too. too. too. too. too. their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, the don't know if it's the fact that America loves an underdog story and depate itself as an underdog in every situation, or if it's just that, again, those blind spots that we create for ourselves culturally and our media doesn't exactly help our failed corporate media experiment as it's referring to. It's so weird when you stack that up against like the Ben Shapiro's of the world where the facts don't care about your feelings, their their their, their, their, their, their, their, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, th, th, th, that's, th is, th is, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, thi, thi, thi, thi of the world where they're going, you know, facts don't care about your feelings and you know, we're giving people people people people people's to the the too reverse discrimination and all this sort of stuff where we're giving people jobs and welfare and all this sort of stuff and it's like

have you, you haven't even stopped to look at you know the fact that that the wealth is generational in America so so everyone still just has the wealth in their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their f f f f f. their f. their f. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. the fact, thi. their, their, their, you. their, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you.... the the the the the the the the the the the the their.. their. their. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their, their, their, the wealth is generational in America, so everyone still just has the wealth in their family from when white folks had black people to just build the country for them, you know, and you still haven't recovered from that. But still, like on the other hand, like facts don't care about your feelings. I haven't really looked at the facts. Not really concerned with the facts, but I'm sure that they're on my side.

Like they just don't, there's just this total disconnect between those two world views, you know? Well, Theo, I'm glad you brought that up because you made a very good point that you brought something interesting up about the welfare is and how, you know, the welfare queen and all that, and the first image that pops up in the minds of so many people in this country are minorities, but if you look at any bit of census data, for just not even decades, generations. It's historically been white people that have been the greatest users and beneficiaries of welfare, but now a lot of these social programs that exist, it's not exactly welfare. So I don't historically, I th, I th, I th, I th, I th, I th, I th, I th, I th, I th, I th, I th, I th, I thically, I thi, I thi, I thi, thi, thi, thi, tho, tho, thi, thi, thi, tho, tho, tho, tho, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. thi, thi. thi, th. th. thi. thi, thi. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thr. thr. thr. thri. to to throoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, the, thi programs that exist, it's not exactly welfare. So I don't, or rather not, I should say that, not just food stamps, which is not currently in the form that it was before, but just in the general sense of welfare. You know, who is using it the most? It's not minorities. And yet still, you ask somebody like to like Ben Shapiro, of course, and he's, it's probably not a good example to use because he's got a very vested interest in keeping that agenda alive

but you ask any of his listeners you know common folk and they'll probably agree like oh yeah absolutely I know a tonneigh people who are of a certain ethnicity or in a certain neighborhood that they're all a lot of welfare and you know okay all right good job yeah it's all it's usually anecdotal, but never with numbers. But hey, facts and feelings, right? That's it. Now, I would like to jump in and take some questions from the old mail bag before we run out of time. So, dip and in, we have a question right off the bat that is very relevant to our topics. Friend of the show, a hack fraud, writes, what does Vic think think think think think think think think think think think think think think think think think think think think think think think think topics. Friend of the show, a hack fraud writes, what does Vic think about the

Australian media's portrayal of Nick Curios or person of color athletes in general? I've seen Glenn Greenwald talk about cover of Curios as being tinged by racism, so it would be interesting to hear the thoughts of someone in the industry. So are you, are you aware of Nick Curios? Yeah, he's a tennis player. Yeah, he's a Greek descent, the one with the handsome one. I know it is. Yeah, he's a he's an odd one. He's a very strange guy when you get John McEnroe to be like, yeah, that guy might be a bit too much. There's some elements and I'm fairly certain that that's something that happened with him. I don't I don't really know about what kind of racism he's endured or what kind of discrimination he's

faced. I don't I don't think I'm... I think he is a really interesting case because as far as I can tell and I have I've seen interviews with him where he has said things to this effect but as far as I can tell he fucking hates tennis. He's just someone who got put to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to th th th th the the the the the the the the the the. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the theean. tean. tean. tru. tru tean. thean. the. the. the is the the the tell he fucking hates playing tennis. He's just someone who got put into like you know high-level tennis from a really young age has has an incredible natural aptitude for it but doesn't particularly like you know getting up at whatever time in the morning to train and doing you know having having that level of commitment in his life and everything.

I like them, I like them already because he's proving something of something, a thought that I've had for many years. Which you know, when someone dies and they're just like really, really good at soccer, you know, they're really good at, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Footy. Ah? There there there they're someone is like, they die and they're like, wait, what if he really fucking hated it? What if he was just really, really good but he fucking hated it? It's not heaven you're thinking of guy, there's something wrong here. But sure, yeah, I know, I remember him and I'll tell you what, I first caught wind of him because Deadspin had an article, some heckler said something, thinking that they could get away with it and be smart and he's literally that he that that that that that that th th th th th the the the the the thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thin thin thin, thin, thin' not having thin' not having thin, it's not having thin, it's not having thin' thin' thin' thin' thin' thin' th th th th th. it's not having th thi thi thi thi thi thin' not having not having not having not having not having not having not having not having not having thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thin, thin, thin, it's not thi thi thi thi thi thin, it's not he's not hi thin, it's not hi's not having thin, it's not having someone that I might want to keep an eye on. And yeah, man, I mean, look, in the case of... He gets into it with the crowd, he gets into it with um, he gets into it with like

line, line refs. He's also basically admitted to like just taking games. Once he is at a point in a tournament or a game or whatever where he just feels like he's not going to win or he's not enjoined it or whatever, he just stops, like he stops putting any effort into it and basically starts just almost deliberately losing the match. To an extent which has made like the sort of sanctioning bodies look at it and go, should we be considering this like deliberately losing or whatever? But I guess what's interesting in Australian coverage of that stuff is that we have had athletes in the past like Leighton Hewitt, who is a white Australian

tennis player who I always found fucking insufferable, seemed a real dick and and was yeah just the kind of guy with a real snotty attitude and always shouting shit on the court and everything but like Australians have this way of kind of defending certain players is like oh he's you know he's a Larican he's he's just out there kind of thing, whereas people seem to have this completely different sort of really, really kind of strong reaction to Curios is like, oh, you know, he's, he's ungrateful, he doesn't deserve our support, he needs to, he needs to win us over. Like, it was this kind, I think what I take as like the, both the coverage and the relationship

that the Australian audience has with Nick Curios, that our letter writer question ask her is asking about, is that different dynamic between whether or not someone's just kind of a dick, which is what normally happens versus I've found a lot of the coverage. is that different dynamic between whether or not someone's just kind of a dick, which is what normally happens, versus I've found a lot of the coverage of this guy to almost come across as like he owes us something. Yeah, well, you know, we have something, we have something, we have that happen a lot, we're like, you know, we see black players celebrating and they're seen as arrogant,

you know, I don't like him, he's arrogant. And there's something that seems to fire off in the minds of a lot of the ways that sports are covered here. Or there's, I like that you brought up the whole thing about he, whether or not, he needs to earn something, whether he, you know, he should be grateful. But where's this gratitude thing coming from? You already worked. You already,fucker, that's what he did. He went out there, he excelled at what he did, and now he's on a grand stage. He has already earned it. What is it that you should be grateful for if they already did what they were supposed to do based on their own merit? And clearly, some help along the way, as any athlete, really. But I just don't understand where that mentality comes from, and yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, and, and, and, that, that, and, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, thi, thr., thr-a, thr-a., theean, thean, thean, thean, the., the. the. work in Australia and America, because it's, we always see that with black athletes.

It's like, yeah, he's just, he's just a, he should be grateful, you know, Capernic should be grateful that he lives in the greatest country on earth and that he got to play the NFL. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. That to me is also the one any one any one any one any any attitude of like criticism of the league or the fans or the country itself you seem to get this like really really overwhelming feedback of like you know oh we we made him this country allowed this guy to be a millionaire so he should just he should be grateful and he should sit down and shut up and play the game. Like one stage removed from saying go back to Africa.

It's about a stage and a half. Yeah, you know, you're absolutely right. And that's a thing that gets me when it's in the NFL. The NFL, like what other league is it, is it more difficult for something, the degree of athleticism and the just grinding of the th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, to to the to to to to to be, the to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, like, like, like, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, the the the the their, their, their, their, their, their, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, they.e, the, the, the, the, the, the, the just the grinding of your body that you have to do to get in. And it's somehow like to have this whole meritocracy thing goes right out the old fucking window when it comes to that sort of thing. All of a sudden, yeah. Yeah, like we saw with LeBron James a few weeks ago, yeah, you know, Fox News is a Laura Ingram talk about shut up. You know, the tho, th. th. th. It is, th. It is, th. It is, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, you know, she might as well, because even though there was no racial slur used, which is another

thing that upsets me when people, it wasn't racist, you know, who would use a racial slur, you know, like, you constantly moving the goalpost, but whatever. Look, the context of that, and the undenia the dynamics of power, theyrown dynamics, thian. thian. thian. thian. I is, thian. I is, thian. I is, thinininininininininue. thinue. thin, thin, their si. their, their, their, their, their, their, thin. thin, their, thi. thi. their, there is, there is, there is, there is, there is, there is, there is, their is, their is, their is, their is, their is, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, telling this person to stop talking about injustices, shut up and do what you're being paid to do. Yeah, they only want to hear politics from like a 12-year-old with a bow tie on. Right, or in the case of, for example, the football players that were standing for the thrown, and we're running out to the field with the flag flag their hands or you know, anytime that an athlete says something that's super pro-military and they go, yes, very good and

they uphold him as some kind of standard that we should aspire to. Well, wait a minute, see again, there's no consistency and there's no, no one. No one says keep the politics out of the sport. Right. It's the people that always that the the the th is always always always always always always always always always always always always the the the the the the the the people always the the the the the the people always the the the the, that's the one. Stick to sports is always, always, always going to come from someone who's on the conservative edge. I, like, I will, I will bet you a single nickel that, every time you see that, just look for it, every time. When someone says it on Twitter, go to their profile immediately, and you'll see that I'm right. And it's just, you know, it's just, their their their shame, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, I. It's, I. It's, I's, I's, I's, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll just, I'll just, I'll. I'll, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll just, I'll. I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I I'll, I I'll, I I I. I. I I. I. I. I. I'll, I. I'll, I'll, I. I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I will, I will, I will, I will be. th. the. the. th. the. the. the. the. the. I'll, I'llthem because it's just they're not going to see it. You're going to be arguing with a wall. They say like keep the politics out of the sports literally as 3F15s are flying overhead, you know, banners just waving for US Marines and all this shit. Yeah, I always think about that shit they have at bunch of dudes from the armed services to come out like doing flag bearing and shit at the start of a football game. Yeah, because the military is paying for it. I mean, it's like, look, doesn't that look cool?

You know, I used to work with a guy who grew up in New York and I think it was in the Bronx. And he wanted to be one of the nation of Islam guys. He wanted to convert to Islam because their their their their their their their their their their their. their. I. I. I. their. their. their. their. I. their. their. their. I. thiiii. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. toea. toea. toea. toe. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It's. It's. It's. It's like. It's like. It's like. It's like, to. It's like, t. te. te. te. te. the. the. the. the. their. their. he saw that these guys would always walk down the street, they'd wear their suit, they'd have their bow tie, they were very orderly, they were very well-mannered, they were respected and you know, the tougher guys in the neighborhood would leave them alone because these guys were, you know, of a certain stature in terms of their behavior and they're, what they were try, what they were they were trying they were trying they were trying they were trying trying, what they were trying, what they were trying, what they were trying, what they were trying, they were trying, they were trying, they were trying, they were trying, they were trying, they were trying, th.. What, th. What, they were trying, they were trying, they were trying, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, th.. th. th. thr. thr, thr, thr, thr, thr, they were very. thr-a. thr-a. We. thr-a. thr-a. they were very, they were very, they werethem. And he kind of, as a younger person, he looked up to that. And I think there's something a play that's similar to that whole thing, and that's probably why the military propaganda paying the NFL to do this sort of thing is exactly that. It's just a matter of like, hey, doesn't this look awesome? Isn't this what a real a real a real a real a real? the real is a real? the real? the real is a real? th is a real. th is what a real? th is what a real? th is what a real? th is what a real? th. th. th. thi? thi? thi? thi? thi? thi? thi? thi? thrown. thi? thi. thoomerea. tho. tho. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. th. th. It's, th. It's, th. th. th. It's, th. It's, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. theee. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. thea It's a good shit up in here. You should join. Get yourself a drone and a space gun. So let's see what else we got in the old questions here.

Lover of the show, Chris DeDonough asks, is Cynthia Nixon the best anti-Hanson we have going? Well, I mean she's, for starters, she's super smart and she's saying things that makes sense and she's not full of shit. So that right away is like the bizarro-planet version of the whole thing. It's like, you know, we talk about being on polar opposites of the planet. It's like, down there on the polar opposites of the spectrum and of being generally a pretty decent person because Pauline is a thioli, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, tho, tho, tho, tho, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thu, thu, thu, thu, thu, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi's thi's thiiiiiiiiii's thiiiii's thi's thi, thi, thi, thi, thi But yeah, man, the funniest thing about Cynthia Nixon is that she's already made the New York State governorship better because now the person that she's running against in the primary, the person she's challenging for the position within the Democratic Party is now

now coutowing to her in some instances. Now it's like, well, you know what, maybe we should make cannabis legal. Hey, you know what, maybe we should fix a subway. Yeah, well, that would be nice, but why don't you work on that before, guy? You know, this is like when Bernie Sanders was dragging Hillary to the left. You know, you didn't really hear her talking about maternity leave and the minimum wage going up, no, thinne. Yeah, it's funny. Yeah, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that, that, that, that, that would that would that would that would that would that would that would that would be that would be nice, that would be that would be nice, that would be nice, that would be nice, that would be nice, that would be w. that, that, that, but, that, that, but, that, but, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that would be w. that would be w. That would be w. That would be w. That, that would be w. That, that would be w. That would be w. That, that would that would that would that would be w. that would be w. that would be w. that would be wo, that would be wo, that would be wo, that would be wo, that would, that before how there was a video from an Australian political commentator called Barry Cassidy that was doing the rounds this week, just like a little one minute long thing, where he was talking about a like commission, an inquiry into the financial services sector in Australia that's currently going on, that's been extremely long

overdue. It's been a very, very clear for a very long time that there's just hugely immoral practices going on, much like in the states with the whole subprime mortgage crisis where, you know, it's the kind of stuff that people looked at and just said, but how could they just do that for as long as they did? Why? And like the mortgage thing, it's just been opposed by the conservative government for ages while everyone goes, well, hey, this is super fucked up. Why don't you take a look at that?

And like, no, no, no, no, that's fine. So the conservative government in power has finally been running an inquiry. And the stuff that's been coming out of it has been pretty shocking to people to put it mildly including things like charging ongoing service fees to dead clients and yeah a lot of a lot of classic really gross stuff I think the most the most prominent takeaway is that it's incredibly inappropriate for for companies in the financial sector to be both a bank, a banking institution, and to offer financial advice as one of their arms of business. Because obviously they just incentivize their own financial advisors to say, hey,

sell people our banking products and we will pay you money for it. So that's all the shit that's been coming out of this thing. And so one of the things that Barry Cassidy was talking about in this video was that and marriage equality is the example of we are just bereft of any kind of leadership in this country because like the, and whoever is in government at the time just has to be dragged by the public to doing any of these things. They have to be put into a position where it finally becomes clear to them that they will lose their position of power or they'll lose their seat or they'll lose, you know, being the mayor of New York or whatever if they don't finally take some action on this thing

that everybody has thought was a sensible sthing to do for the last 15 years. Right, yeah. Well, it's, I mean, we had something, we had something like that back in 2008, you know, Obama won. 2010, the congressional and senatorial midterms came up, and you know, it was the people challenging the right from the right, which is what led to, you're, you, you, you, you, you, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, the, thi, thin, the, thin, thin, thi, thi, thi, thi, and, thin, the, thi, and, and, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, th. And, th. And, th. And, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th..... And, the, I, I, I, I, I, the, the, I, the, the, the, the, thin, thin, thin, thin, the, thin, the, they. And, they. And, thin, the, the, thin, th. And, the further right, which is what led to, you know, dumber and dumber people getting in. Of course, Sarah Palin being a catalyst for all that, and we don't need to retread that ground. I mean, Jesus Christ, she was terrible. But yeah, you know, what I like to call the literati eventually took over, and now we have people in the Senate that don't understand how their job their job job job job job job... their job. their their their their their their their their their their their their their th. th. thin, thin, thi. thi. the and the and thi and thi and thi and thi. thi. thi, thi, thi, thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, thi. And, to thi. And, to toooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom. And, and, thi. And know they hate government health care but they like that government health care when it falls on to them as a governmental employee as someone in the Senate. So you know it it's interesting how you

know the primarying from the right made such a deep difference in this country and how we're being governed and yet now we're seeing a lot of these challenges from the left and Cynthia Nixon is just the latest high-profile manifestation of it. It's an it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I. I. I. I. I. I. I'm, I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm thi. I'm thi. I'm thi. I'm thi. I'm thi. I'm thi. I'm thi. thi. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's th. It's th. It's, it's th. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. It's thi. It's just just just just just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's thi. It's thi. It's thi. It's thi. It's thi.profile manifestation of it. It's and it's I am actually marvelling at this even if she doesn't win that's enough like I feel that there is something very very great that she's doing with all this and hey listen if she can start getting things like I don't know health care for everybody and the richest nation on earth that might be nice. Was it was it Chuck Schuma that was saying that they're they're going to introduce a bill to just like... Oh yeah, he introduced a bill today, not to legalize, but to decriminalize cannabis, which is even more amazing than just legalizing it.

That's a big step. I don't know. Yeah. But it's just another perfect example of just really seeing the riding on the wall and saying, ah fuck we got to do, now we got to do something with this. And get dragged to the left slowly. We'll get there. The Australian Greens just have attempted to introduce a policy to legalize recreational cannabis. It had to be, it had to be the Greens, huh? That's cute. You guys really know how to run a theme. I love you guys. Holy shit.

So, but of course, and that won't happen for a while, but it will happen. It'll just be like the marriage equality thing. We'll just absolutely drag our feet until past the point when it should have happened quite a while ago. And we'll finally th to be to be one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one one the the the the the the the the the the to be to be to be the the to be to be. the to be. the the to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. to be. the the the the the the th. th. th. th. the to. the th. the the to. the the the to. the the the the the the to. the to a while ago and then we'll finally get on board. I guess so. We have one final question actually from lover of the show. Turning Point Albuquerque and they ask, is Pauline Hanson on wiki feet?

You know what? She should be. I don't see why not. Everyone is, isn't it? Isn't every woman on W on on Wikipede at some point? I'd hope so. It's about the brave foot lovers out there who do the hard work to put them on WikiFe and we we salute each of them. You got to be a real dedicated fan for that. Yeah, no but but you know I'd be disappointed in some ways if she wasn't because it's

like you need to have some degree of consistency but in a way I'm thoe thii. I'm to to to to to to to to to to to to to their to their toe. thoe. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi, their their, thi, thi, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their their their their their their their, their their, their, their, their, their, their, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, the thi, th I want to preserve this image in my mind where like she takes off these tall boots and like the first foot she pulls it out of the boot and it's just this giant cloven hoof, right? And then the other boot she takes it off and it's like a slow drawing of what are talins, like an eagle's claw with very, very black nails. And he go, wow, what what what what what what what the hell, what the hell, what?? the hell, what, what, what, what, what, what, what is, what, what, what is? their? their? their? their? their? the the the the the the the their? their, and then, and then, and then, and then, their, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and it, and it, and it, and it, and it, and it, and it, and it, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the first, the first.. the the the the first. the the first, the the first, the first. the first, the first. the first. the first. that? And you realize that there's like crust on the edges of it and you go, yeah, that's imagine, that's exactly what I could envision Pauline Hanson being like, and I'm glad that my suspicions were confirmed. And that's how I want to ruin that. You don't want to dispel that beautiful image. You don't want to know how hot dogs dogs are made ever. Oh, you don't you you you to to to to to to to to to to to to to th. You th. You th. You don't th. You don't want th. You don't want th. You don't want to th. You don't want that that that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's th. th. th. tho. tho. that's that's tho. that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that going to leave it there. As always, if you would like bonus episodes of the show, you can get on over to Patreon.com forward slash Buntavista and subscribe over there for sweet, sweet additional content. What else are we got, Theo?

We got merchandise now. I bought one of our own shows. Yeah, awesome. We have some merch. You can go to Punta Vista.com forward slash merchandise. And we can sell you a thing if you're into it. Hey, let me ask you one final question. All the pictures that those guys at that anime convention that Lucy's at? Yep. Yeah, all those guys that are going to be taking pictures over feet. Are they going to sell that and put that towards the patron money or how does that work?

I'm assuming they're just going to all post them to wiki feet. Mmm, awesome. They're going to flesh out Lucy's entry on w our IP, but alright. Yeah, that would be a bit of a problem, but maybe with the advertising money from Wickefeet, you know, maybe you guys can get cut in and, you know, we can get some IBS treatment, or maybe we should keep that running too, just to keep the, just to keep the running gags about just the flattel a whole other thing. Yeah, you can't kill Dracula in season one. What the fuck?

Come on. All right, thank you very much for joining us, Vic. We should probably check, Vic, any plugs for you. Yeah, I'm on, I'm on, first off, I just want to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, first off, I just want to, um, for anyone who does any sort of grappling or anything like that, the sloth report, my buddy Josh Bogel, the sloth report. the sloat report. the to'ro'n' the to'e. their to'e'n, the last maybe six or so months due to work situations.

And I'm on Bloody Yelbo, I'm on Twitter at Vic M. Rodriguez and you will find, you know, maybe a lot of political stuff, some fights and a lot, a lot of jokes about eating ass because I got to stay loyal with the brand. That's true. Very true. Well, thank you again for your time and we'll see everybody over on the bonus episodes or we'll see you next week. Bye-bye, everybody.

Seas. you know the tp.