Chapo Trap House - 304 - Moby Dick Energy (4/8/19)

Episode Date: April 9, 2019

From time to time we deign to open our doors to you, dear listeners, to ply us with your burning questions. About the show, about the politics, about life and the future and I don't know about what ever other bullshit. This is one of those times. It's a Q&A episode folks, we love it!

I Hey, hey, it's chappo me and Matt here Ember will be joining us in a second, but we're doing another Listener Q&A episode. We have solicited questions from you the listener. We want to hear what's on your mind That involves me Activating my the curious cat which I haven't used in probably three years. So Let's dive into some of those questions First one here on curious cat. Hi. Did you know about this site for looking fuck on your area? No No, take it fuck now at fuck me sir calm and fuck today

I'm looking fuck every day on this site My name is Monica and looking me by ID three nine two zero Thank You Monica fuck me sir I'm only familiar with fuck you sir edu really more of a comment than a question just going on here Hi, sweatly sign up here. Fuck me now and go fuck today. I'm Jessica spelled with a Y Have your have a just at fuck now dot fuck me sir. No, where's the Y in Jessica instead of the I? Have perfect fuck today and don't say THX for this site and then finally I happened to start reading Foucault's pendulum just before you said you were and finished it

What did you think? It's one of your two echoes of best novels It sure is a book the name of the rose a book for our times if ever there was one. Oh, yeah now that if you want to understand Q That's basically what happens in Foucault's pendulum our next question Matt I think this is for you. Hi. Can you fuck me today sign up and send message here? Okay, so obviously curious cat. I'm not not the most productive Avenue of these questions. However, I do see that there's a daily question asked to everyone on curious cat Not just generally us or me

Uh, which do you like better rain or snow snow? Obviously, really rain sucks. No, I like rain Rain's terrible. I like rain. I like having better than having a like a window slowly open Feel the wind coming in and just hearing the rain pattern as you're inside See, that's I think that's a good example of just coming at something because I'm just thinking of being in it Oh being in it. Yeah, I'm I don't care if I'm indoors. I don't really give a shit. They both look pretty I'm on the porch. I'm outside though. I don't want to get rock and chair. Just watching the rain fall down No, no rain. Well snow is a you know, it's associated with you know, the cold, you know, cold's fine I'm not wrong with cold. Yeah. Oh

Yeah, curious cat not coming up with the most intelligent questions Although a lot of a lot of offers to fuck me now, sir in your your area. I'll be looking into those later But um, here's a question from reddit from a tiniest wizard And this is a this is going for map if you can add an amendment to the Constitution. What would it be? It would be to abolish the Constitution Start from scratch. Yeah, just like it sucks the nega the Thanos amendment Yeah, like erase the Constitution from history. It's ass. Yeah Terrible at the time. It's worse every passing here. It needs to be done away with absolutely

Well, so you can only try to Jerry rig this piece of shit for so long before the it's gonna fall apart But like going off that question because I think what they're going for is like, let's say, you know You were able to Thanos glove the Constitution you pass an amendment to ban the Constitution. Oh, yeah So like you're writing a new Constitution. Where do you start? What's the most important? You know, what do you get like right off the bat? for legalized we For amendment 420 every day first amendment is legal weed for everyone

I think you'd want to go with some sort of you know, Democratic and Federalists notion Parliamentary system, obviously proportional representation things like that Abolish private property, obviously You know, what what what rights would you guarantee as a as part of this document the right to party? I Think I actually think that the the like classical liberal human rights stuff that came out of that era is Not incompatible with socialism is a necessary component of it So I'd keep a lot of the the the bill right stuff. There's a lot of good stuff in the pillow rights but it would also include things like you know the

Abolition of private ownership of you know concentrated wealth and certainly of of the commanding heights of the economy as they call them Any kind of industry and certainly finance and stuff like that any other Any other amendments or just like, you know wild things that uh, you know, you're making your you're designing your perfect government You got the character select screen. Let's you know what what stats you maxing out on here What sliders do you pull it all the way? I mean, this is not realistic, but I just would like to get rid of cars as a concept Yeah and I'll replace them with just hella

public Transportation infrastructure that that would be what I do and certainly cars if they do exist not in cities Because they the point of a city is Like the car defeats the purpose of having a lot of people together in one area because that the whole point of that is that it Makes access to different stuff relatively convenient and throwing cars and it actually hinders that What about like a commercial trucking and things like that? I mean, that'd be hard to sort of phase out immediately So sort of private automobile Well, yeah, and ownership certainly in you know concentrated urban environments

It just ends up defeating the whole point of having a city. Here's a question that I'm itching to answer usually I hate getting questions like these, but funny that I can answer it once and for all this is from Hatchie and Brie some he has a pepe with an ak-47 as Very cool dude. Yeah, so it's like already looking good and it just here it says here Why is the pod always late? Why can't you do the metadata on the file, right? Oh boy chief? I'm gonna stop you right there. Don't know what metadata is so not even gonna bother with that the first half Why is the pod always late? Well, here's the thing. I don't know at what point it was ever established that there was like a Set

Schedule for the release of these episodes like ever since we started doing the show and started doing the patreon We have done two shows a week without a single pause or break We have never failed to provide two episodes a week one free one behind the paywall. Usually the free episode comes Either on like Saturday Sunday or Monday and the midweek paywalled patreon episode usually comes out Tuesday Wednesday Thursday sometimes Friday. That's I actually Highlighted this as well because I do think you're right There is a very very set schedule for Chapo trap house. There is a free episode sometime between Sunday and Wednesday. Yeah, where did the idea came that there Was ever a day that this fucking shit comes out

Like there was never we never told anyone that this comes out this day. This comes at this day They came out over time and people like like the fucking monkeys in 2001 They just like see a pattern established and they're like, oh, well, it's always gonna come out now I was like, we never set that and I can answer the metadata question would it surprise any listener learn? There was not a set style guide for Chapo trap house when I was on boarded in one episode in 2017 So I did my best and now I'm not changing it out of spite. I want to say Yeah, do you do you have any questions? Did you find a good one Chris? Let me go back to the top I mean, I do want Amber's take on most of these

This is from regular size Nate. Hey guys, I want to jump higher any tips on how I might increase my vertical leap Just practice. I think that's right practice every day like just like you set up one of those sort of like stools and try to jump on the top of it from like a Like a not a running jet, you know, yeah starting position Here's my advice get a whole bunch of playing cards and start by putting one playing card on the ground and jump over that and Then every day add another playing card to the stack I'm here now. Our last question was about how to jump higher You recommended adding what a single playing card to a deck and then just stack and just keep trying to keep going

Keep trying to jump over it. It's all about achievable goals. Yeah This next question though I am Brian. I know you have a take on it and I'm sure people will be interested in this This is from unequivocal lemon. Is the handsy Biden narrative productive or should we be focusing on his god-awful policy record? No, it won't work. You say so it's not productive. It's not productive the vast majority of people in America don't find what Joe Biden does to be horrifying enough and it's a losing game and Also, like why would you focus on that stuff? He's awful. Oh, is it as you know, is it funny though as

Like Biden's on talking about is one of the all-time greatest political means of all time But we should be talking about his war record the crime bill bankruptcy things like that. That is every single Biden, you know creeping on anime girls Like photo possible, but those are wonderful. Yeah, those are hilarious But what about just all the photos of like of the unedited versions? Like is it is it is a productive in the sense that I like I like I think I agree with you in that I Don't think like as far as the like Twitter narrative is like goes that like oh, he's done Like I don't I think it's a mistake to assume

No, you're not going to cancel Joe Biden and his political hopes or presidency However, is it like I said, I think it's a He's weird. He's a weird like it's weird to keep doing that to people and I think he's just old There's something like every every woman. I know personally is like yeah, he's old and every man I know is like whoa because I think this is the first time they ever encountered the fact that there's an entire generation of men That just do that. There's something a little a little off with with Biden But no like so the your answer is that it is dead end. It's a dead end politically to make Joe Biden's hands enice and photo ops a political issue. Yeah, at least as contrasted with his

Generally wretched voting record on everything. Yeah, absolutely I mean it and people just like don't care like no one is as invested in this stuff as kind of like the online discourse I mean like what did we do when we found out Bernie wrote a weird Thing on women's sexuality where he was like women want to be gangbanged. We're like, yeah Is that weird? Yes, that's a weird old man thing to do and I don't care But I think one of the reasons people want to talk about it is just because they get a chance to do what everyone's favorite thing to do Which is point out hypocrisy because you immediately have a bunch of Democrats who spent 2016 talking about sexism and

Bernie's Misogynist finger wagging and are now saying that you know, Uncle Gropie's that's fine Well, I'm going out. Hi. You got it. I'm politically consistent in that I would let Bernie grab my boob. Is that how it works? I think that's how that's how the math works, right? But people are gonna have a very very hard time not a Very hard time resisting the pull of gotching people and pointing out hypocrisy. We've talked about this before But like that's the that's the big thing that Democrats have been trying to rely on for the past like during Obama Like Tai Ebi talked about it. Like he's like, here's the thing

I'm gonna I'm gonna own them by voting for a Republican piece of legislation and when they shoot it down We'll show that they're hypocrites. It's like they still haven't figured out that like the pointing out that they're hypocrites They still haven't figured out that politics isn't a debate like is in a high school debate I think the assumption is is yes, even if they would they might even stipulate. Yeah hypocrisy, you know general doesn't work But if there's anybody in America who does care about accusations of hypocrisy It's Democrats and if they're the ones who are actually gonna be deciding a nominee that maybe it would work against them I don't know. I think that's I don't think so I think the vast majority the other thing is that like Joe Biden has like a legitimate base

I think the thinking is that they can like fake out the kind of like elite PMC like Democrats But Joe Biden, this is still something largely decided on by votes And I think they like are sick of running losers and they know that people do like Joe Biden I mean, they they really like Joe Biden Joe Biden has a well. He's associated with like Yes, we haven't had like a strong man Democrat for a while He threatened to punch Trump like that's cool. Well, I mean some guy did just say like he will have a physical presence That will stand up to Trump. I'm not so convinced about that because I think no, but he does have like drunk uncle energy Which right now I think people are really you know people responding to so in answer the question

What a resounding no to the idea that Biden giving smelling women's hair and giving them you know neck massages Is going to be work a productive line of political attack on Joe Biden in the primary or even a general election No stick with bankruptcy crime bill Iraq war. Yeah, I've got one that's kind of a follow-up to that. Yeah, sure This is from Nebraska weed owner Why do you think hashtag resistance libs are so focused on Bernie's tax returns? Because Trump isn't gonna really isn't releasing his tax returns even though it's the law and the fact that Bernie isn't doing it Makes it look like he's also has something to hide and they're mad and because like at a time when they're trying to make You know subpoena Trump or Fort compel him through you know law or Congress or whatever to release those tax returns

That Bernie's running and hasn't released his tax returns like makes them look bad or it's just like it goes back to the hypocrisy thing Right like that's what it opens you up to like a charge of hypocrisy that because I did that he might be hiding something too Yeah, because they're nerds. Well, they think and also I think there's I think there's something of that He's he's crooked that he's got like a horde of gold or something, you know from his from his scheming merchant relatives It's his wife is the bad one. She's the one that stole the college She did steal a college and you know to finance their their lake house. Yeah, and the jackets that he wears I don't know though. I think Bernie probably just should release his tax returns. I mean, don't see what the big deal is Unless of course he is hiding something and then he should definitely keep it hidden. That's my opinion

If he's if he's covering up crimes, definitely Bernie don't release him right. Well, we already know about the college Yeah, right here's one from tiniest wizard. Is it okay to be a passive socialist like no praxis no protesting just holding membership and socialist organizations I'll answer this firstly. I certainly hope so because you're describing me. I'm a very passive socialist I'm like a card carrying member I guess you could say but whenever says whenever I just anyone says the word praxis to me My brain just shuts off. Yeah, I just think like we Allen Iverson. We talking about praxis You talking about praxis? Historically speaking most socialists have kind of been a passive socialist. Yeah. Yeah, I get paper members paper members is usually what we say You're always going to need more active people and usually once every couple of years you'll be asked to do something small but yeah, no It's like we're not going to have a million super people are busy. Yeah

I don't think people should be too neurotic about like, you know, how real of it or not of a socialist they are or like, you know what Yeah, I think it's like, you know, like a basic set of political values and yeah, I mean, there's no such thing as like, you know, an isolated socialist So like you probably should if at all possible like affiliate and you know, at least paid dues or something But like, you know, the idea that you're going to, you know, I think it was Oscar Wilde said the problem with socialism and takes up too many weekends The idea is that every everyone is going to be like an activist is like, that's ridiculous Like the whole idea of forming something like a labor party or any of these institutions of the working class is supposed to be that you're not constantly having to work It's that we create democratic workers machinery so that things can kind of, you know, operate without constant, you know, horizontalist participation Like we're trying to get to the point where we can spend less time on socialism and not go to meetings beware of any socialist that loves meetings

Okay, this is from get me a radio is the popularity of AOC among centrist libs a sign of strength or weakness and if she doesn't endorse Bernie, will you send her to the gulag? Okay, like the second half of the question is easier to answer first. If she doesn't endorse Bernie. Yes. Yeah, I will throw my shoe at her. It is. Yes. Yeah, here's the shoe. Here is a gift from the Brooklyn people you dog. Um, yeah, no, AOC has got to endorse Bernie. Absolutely. Absolutely. Otherwise, I mean, I know you're extremely online, but don't let it go to your head. But okay, the first the first half of the question is the fact that a lot of sort of centrist libs and like, you know, MSNBC types are certainly pretending to like her, or, you know, support her. Is that a sign of weakness or strength? Would it be better if she was universally loathed and feared like the way she is among like right wing politicians and media figures? Or is it a sign that there is some purchase there that people feel the need to talk about? Oh, like how much they admire her or how good she is? I don't really think it means either one. I think like AOC is like, you know, too soon to call. But it she has been very good for, you know, bringing certain issues to the fore and actually like, at least introducing legislation that will likely have many

young carnations and get shot down and fail before it makes any headway. But I mean, you try not to pay too much attention to what the chattering glasses says unless they're on a podcast because we are the foremost intellectuals of our time. Obviously. I mean, it's hard not to think that the reason that they like her is because they've gotten so invested in the notion of, you know, representation mattering that they are disarmed literally like they have no way to criticize her without going against everything they've said about what they value in a politician. So it'll be interesting to see where if like there's a fracture, which is one of the big reasons it'll be interesting to see if she does endorse Bernie, what kind of reaction that gets from the people who until now have sort of, you know, decided that she is good and Bernie is bad. I think it's two things. I think it's the identity thing. And I think it's the fact that they don't actually believe that she is committed to these things and will eventually kind of realign into. Oh, yeah, I think they do, which is by the way entirely possible. Yeah. But her endorsing endorsing Bernie won't make them like Bernie, it will make them either like rationalize away her political commitments or or turn on her.

Yeah, I mean, it'll be interesting to see. But that's where the second part of that question is more interesting that that's where the second the second part of that question like the first half like depends on the second. Yeah, you know, like that's why it's interesting to see what will happen with that. All right, here's one from a wretched life 12. As for a more serious question, how do you guys personally deal with the quote, Well, socialism has done terrible things and killed so many people question when asked by genuinely ill informed people asking in good faith. It surprised me that a lot of people I've run into lately are a lot more susceptible to the idea that social to the idea of socialism with how things are going these days, but still resisted because of Stalin killed millions of people thing. And that that wasn't the real socialism argument can only go so far. So how does one deal with because, you know, like in, I think this is actually like a pretty, pretty basic question that a lot of people get hit with from people who aren't necessarily totally arguing in bad faith.

The, you know, the death count for Stalin and Mao usually gets trotted out quite a bit. And it's hefty. I would say, but for me personally, I first of all, I wouldn't do the thing of trying to deny that Stalin and Mao killed a ton of people. Yeah, I don't think that's productive. We joke about being kind of tanky here because I do think the fall of the Soviet Union was a world historic tragedy and that has nothing to do with like Stalin's record. But like, yeah, don't go full tank, like, don't be fucking weird. Or just like, yeah, be like, or try to say that, like, actually, like all those people who were killed in the Cultural Revolution deserved it. They were they were revisionists.

Yeah. But honestly, like, I think the easiest way to answer this question is to be like, you know, what do you think the fucking body count of like democratic capitalism in the last century looks like? Yeah. I mean, that's pretty easy. Yeah. And for me, I kind of would stretch it out a little bit further to just say, if you want to talk like real body counts, you're not talking about real stacked up fucking bodies in the last 300 or 400 years. It is the process of colonialism, imperialism, and industrial that then led to the capital accumulation of industrialization. And that is it's basically impossible to take a peasant agricultural society and wrench enough surplus value out of it to turn it into an industrial society without killing a ton of people.

And the vast majority of the people who died in the Soviet Union, they died the same way for the same reason that people in colonial India did and in the Americas, during periods of imperialism and colonialism, they died in the pursuit of rapid industrial growth. And the difference is the time scale because they imperialism and capitalism because they were carried out by these disparate states in Europe in competition with one another over a long time frame without a central organization. It took hundreds of years to kill all those people. And because of the peculiar historical situation of the Soviet seizure of power or the Chinese Communist one, they were forced to by the need to compete with the capitalist West to industrialize on a much more compressed time frame. And there's really only one way that happens, and that is with a lot of death. Also, I think who actually beat the Nazis is a good one to throw in there. Yeah, the Soviet Union did defeat the Third Reich in World War Two and they lost a lot of people, 20 million people doing it. I think it's fair to concede that like, you know, no state project ever invented has ever been worthy of the people or whatever.

But some are better than others and some have a more virtuous record than others. And I don't think capitalism comes out on top of that. Yeah, no, so yeah, like the easiest one is like, again, because they're like you are able to identify like Stalin and Mao and their regimes and all the people they killed. Whereas like, you know, capitalism, because it's vaguer and more diffuse gets away without like any, you know, official, you know, like death counter body count. But like, yeah, just look into like what the British Empire did, you know, not even not even even in the same contemporaneous period. Yeah, or in World War Two, there's a fangolin, Bengal, the killer of three million people. And when they largely is the result of British policies that, you know, under the argument that, well, we have to re, you know, distribute things towards the war effort. That was the argument anyway, killed three million people. And when somebody told Churchill about it, he goes, well, if it's so bad, how come Gandhi isn't dead?

Yeah, and the other thing is like, you know, the cold war that was led by America against communism in the latter half of the 20th century involved. As we've discussed many times on this show, explicit genocides and the explicit collaboration with literal former Nazis to do it and carry it out. So again, like it's just the easiest answer is, yes, even if you take that all is as true and written about Stalin and how evil he was, you're getting you're being a little too confident about the people arguing against it on their side, and how benevolent and, you know, freedom loving it's been to the human history. Yeah, but at the same time, don't be weird. And however tanky you are, you're having conversations with people who have spent their whole lives, you know, understanding the world as this very specific narrative. Just dial down the tanky by like 10 degrees and don't be weird. This is a sort of a, we get a lot of these questions. I'm sort of like condensing a lot of them together. This one is just straight up book recommendations outside our book, of course, paperback out in October. What are y'all reading lately? And people are asking for literature specifically.

I just finished Moby Dick, which is amazing. Really? Yeah. It's a good book. It's such a good book. Oh my God. It's also one of those things that I thought it wasn't actually a good book, and I thought it was just like, you know, about men on the sea. It's about basically everything. It is about everything. It's about America. And I thought it was going to be, you know, gay. But it's like gay.

Yes, it is. So I was delighted by it's just like homoerotic and toothsome and the whole thing is really good. It's a book that really contains everything. And as you said, it really is about America, like the Piquad, the ship is a kind of condensed like version of America in the world. The thing is, like the pitfall that people get with Moby Dick is like the first hundred pages or so is what everyone thinks about. Right. And it's like, you know, call me Ishmael and there's amazing opening chapters where, you know, the, he, he meets Quiqueg and they sleep in this hotel room together. Oh my God. They told me, oh my God, he clutched me in his bridegroom clasp.

Like if someone had told me how homoerotic this book was, I would have read it so much longer ago. And, you know, they sign up with the ship and then they go whaling. Like they don't, first of all, you don't even meet Ahab until about like 150 pages into the book. Yeah. You don't even like meet Ahwell, let alone Moby Dick until a long way into it. There's random shit that happens. There's like a weird mutiny that like, it's great. It's, it's a really hard book to, I would highly recommend it. It is a really hard book to read because basically the entire middle two thirds of the book until about the last 50 pages is just like descriptions of like different kinds of knots. Okay.

Everyone stops at the same, at the same part. They stop at the part where he gives, he tries to make a little mini. Satology. And he tries to go through all the whales. And the great thing about, everyone hates that part. I actually loved it because the great thing about it is that there are two types of whale facts. One, which is just completely inaccurate, where he's like a whale's a fish. And then two, where he's like, there's this one whale. We don't know anything about it. So moving on, those are like the two kinds of whale facts in this etology. It's like, I only know two things about whales. One, whales are definitely fish. And two, no one knows anything about whales anyway. Like that's the entire thing. I found it really charming. I loved all the pros.

The main thing is, is just like, I think, don't assume you're going to read it in a weekend and just because they're really short chapters and you can break it up. It's completely fine. Like just read the extremely short chapters, read like two or three a day and kind of like let them marinate in your brain. If Pete Buttigieg can say Ulysses is his favorite book, then you can definitely say Moby Dick is your favorite book because it's worth it. And you know what? I'm going to be like Pete Buttigieg and I'm going to be pretentious. And I'm going to read now on the show my favorite section from Moby Dick and maybe my favorite thing ever written in the English language. This is the last two paragraphs of chapter 58, Brit. All this and then turn to this green, gentle and most docile earth. Consider them both, the sea and the land. And do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular tahiti, full of peace and joy,

but encompassed by all the horrors of the half-known life. God keep thee, push off not from that isle. Thou's can never return. How about that Herman Melville, folks? Can we call this episode Moby Dick energy? Back to the question of butt. Oh, here we go. Back to literature. What Game of Thrones house do you most closely align with? We've had this discussion before. I've seen three episodes of Game of Thrones in my life every single time it's been on Fire Island. I don't know. Also known as the Iron Islands. I don't get that reference. I do, however, know more about it than I'd like to, just because it's colonized the entire Internet. And Felix is brand. Oh, completely, yeah. But you can't read the news without accidentally learning about Game of Thrones, which is really infuriating to me. I think it's like you can take this question two ways. One is the house that you would most like to be associated with, and the one based upon yourself that you know that you'd probably end up in, sort it into. And for me, obviously, if I could choose, I would want to be down with House Martell. Everyone wants to come out.

Because they're poly. They're Mediterranean. They're poly. They have good food, good wine. They're lovers and fighters, but they're cool with it. They're nice with it. They're like the Mediterranean's of Westeros. In actuality, I would probably be someone who gets killed by the Greyjoys. Just like some peasant who just gets his head stovin with an axe because the white trash of Westeros decided to show up and steal our rock supply. I mean, I guess just from being from Wisconsin makes me think that I would be a Northman. But those guys seem really tough. I'm not. There's no Oath Belt. Well, no, they're all Oaths, but they're like, they're like strong Oaths. They're terrifying. Hardy Oaths. They're very hardy. I'm a bookish Oath. I'm like a Samuel Tarly.

I'll let you guys pick one for me. I'm a Samuel Tarly. I think you're House Baratheon. Ours is the fury. Yeah. That's their words. That's their house words. Okay. I'm going to combine a bunch of questions because people have been asking a lot about this and I think this will be productive to answer. People keep asking us about what do you guys think about Mike Gravel 2020? Are you going to have Mike Gravel on? Are you going to have the Mike Gravel kids on? Okay. I think I can speak for all of us. I say I'm really glad that the Mike Gravel kids are doing their thing and that they're fans of the show and they're inspired by us and everything. I got to say I don't have very many thoughts about Mike Gravel running for president in 2020. It seems like kind of a literal weekend at Bernie's situation to me.

And I don't quite know what these kids are doing, but more power to them. But I hope you won't be offended if I say I don't have very much interest in pursuing this. Matt described it as elder abuse. Yeah. I wonder if I should be calling like social services because he's like 90 years old. Does he know what's happening? I don't really know. I don't feel like I can comfortably say that this is not some sort of situation. Like a bunch of rowdy teens breaking into old man Wilson's house and forcing him to run for president. I mean, they say like, you know, according to Mike Gravel, according to him himself, you know, he's only doing it because he wants to, you know, get more of a kind of anti-militarist, anti-imperialism message out there, like in the Democratic debates or to push that issue. That would be nice. I don't know if he's going to really make headway with them, given his whole. I want him to do it though. I certainly, I appreciate, I certainly prefer the gravel edge to the yang gang. What's good about psychos?

The thing is, is I think a lot of people who are banking on getting on the debate stage, first of all, there's no guarantee that they're not going to just change the rules that they had at the last minute to prevent getting people they don't want on there. But the really important one is that they also said, even when they set up the rules about 65,000 donors or whatever, is that if there's more than 20 people, then they're just going to pick the top 20. And there's no require. There's nothing beyond that. And right now there are exactly 350 people. There's going to be 20 fucking. Well, fucking Tim Ryan declared the other day. Tim failed in his attempt to defeat Nancy Pelosi for the speakership and then just decided to fuck it. I'm running for president now. He had an amazing announcement in front of that's what Beto did.

He's like, I lost. So I'm just going to shoot higher. He's he's the guy that said, like, you know, like my problem is that I'm too strong to make the free throw and I should have been trying for a three pointer. But, but Buttigieg is just the same thing. He had a failed attempt to be DNC chair. You got like three votes in the DNC chair race. And I think what happened is the version I were talking about this because he was skeptical that they were going to hit 20. And until recently it said, Donald Trump has taught people that there is no downside to running for president. There's no lingering stink. You can't embarrass yourself really. That's impossible now.

There was there's always a benefit to running for president. But there was the negative part was you do a bad job. It's going to hurt you in the long run. There's no long run. Nobody remembers anything. Just get out there. Maybe you get a gig out of it. You get to sell a book. Maybe you get a, you know, a signature somewhere. There is no downside to running for president, especially if you're a relatively little known member of Congress and then when you see something like Buttigieg get like two weeks of just insane over-the-top press coverage for somebody with his credentials.

Why the hell wouldn't you want to just like roll the dice and see if you're going to be one of those guys? It was actually that easy. By now, we would have figured out a way to get Matt on the debate stage. Well, we talked about that, but like I said, I just don't think you can have any hope that these are gonna that these parameters are going to be honored in the breach when it comes time to the deck is stacked. Like, you know, connected to the the gravel and said did bring it up briefly, though,

but generally, we just establish are the correct party line on Yang gang. And I'm saying speaking for myself, I'd love to hear from you guys. If I if I see people when I see Andrew Yang support out there and I assume at least some of it is sincere. But if I see like the Yang gang avatars or anything to do with Andrew Yang, what I'm hearing from is I'm a dumb baby that doesn't care about anything. And I've just like essentially a nihilist. No, it's fundamentally, you know what

it actually is. And we don't really use this word very much because I think it's overly deterministic. But he is the candidate of the lumpen. He is the favorite candidate of the lumpen. Yeah, a needs. Yes, absolutely. We say needs now. But he used to just call them the lumpen. And these are people who are downwardly mobile, no prospects, maybe enough education to, you know, know that this is not necessarily true. But you know, just sort of beaten down by alienated

atomization. But they're like, but what if I had $1,000? That's as big as they can think. Well, yeah, because they have made the conclusion and it's hard to argue with them in some sense that the things aren't going to get better. So you might as well get $1,000 out of it. I've been thinking about this because like I have some people who are like, Yeah, but UBI has to be talked about or it has to be considered. And whatever you want to talk about UBI, when you

hear coming from a Silicon Valley guy, that should be your real worry because all of those big Silicon Valley companies right now, the ones that people are dumping all of their extra money into like like Uber and Netflix. Part of that is just because there's all this money floating around and there's more money than there are good investments. So people are going to take flyers. But the premise of those bet, the premise of those companies, their their business model in the long term

is that they're monopoly plays, right? The idea is, well, yeah, we're going to lose $70 billion, but then we're going to be the only way people can get around. And then we're going to set prices, or we're going to be the only entertainment company. It feels like Yang coming for Silicon Valley. His UBI feels like a political monopoly play, like get the whole space out. I actually think Andrew Yang is a nice person. I mean, yeah, it's just he's got so they all have the brain. But what happens

is once you have that space clear, the political space cleared by okay, everybody's got there's $1000. And everyone has also given up their leverage over the economy and a political system, then this then they get to dictate the terms the way that Uber or Netflix would if they ever did get to the space where they control the whole market. I also like that 12 grand a year is called the the freedom dividend. Yeah, as I said before, it doesn't seem to me like leading a particularly free

existence in America in 2019. But again, if like you were just living at home, life changing. And if you have a hard dot, if you have like, if you're a minimum wage worker or something, it could be life changing amount of money. That's the thing. There's so many people who are incredibly precarious who the best critics of this tend to be is like someone like, like Alex Gerovich, who used to study welfare before welfare reform, you know, basically was, you

know, it exacted upon people in a vengeful and vicious and cruel way. And he was like, it was actually really difficult, because obviously welfare, like specifically that the family checks back when you got like an actual welfare check, they really were a lifeline for people. He's like, but you couldn't find a single person willing to really defend it. He's like, I would go into, you know, specifically talking to like, you know, single moms, and they were like, yeah, I need

it, but it's not anything people were excited about. And I think the idea that you're going to avoid, you know, poverty by eliminating people's participation in the economy is just so short-sighted. And I think people who have been on welfare know that they're like, they would be perfectly fine keeping you on like a shitty little stipend at, you know, just like living on the razor's edge for the rest of your life. And of course, there's the issue of things like rents going up

and things like that. Yeah, the market would immediately adjust. I remember someone saying like, well, it's possible. And it's like, oh, yeah, it's possible. We have no way of knowing whether or not the capitalists would adjust the market to this sudden influx of caps. How could we possibly predict how capitalists might behave under these conditions? It's like, be rational, don't be naive. And, you know, outside of the UBI issue, which I guess is, you

know, signature issue, as far as I'm concerned, he's already cooked on the most important issue, which is ending male circumcision. Yeah. And he's already, quote, softened his stance on that. Sorry. Sorry, Andrew. That's, I want to real a guy who's going to fight for what he believes. Yeah, exactly. All right. I've got one for Will. Yeah, sure. As the as the resident, like, you know, op-ed writer, whisperer, I don't know if you clip this one. I don't write op-eds. I just read

them. Yeah, you consume and process them. This is from King Cult. You guys read a lot of shitty, centrist, right wing op-eds since the 2016 election. Have you noticed a change in the overall tone subject of these op-eds from 2016 to now? Any takeaways on how the media lead have changed their time? I'm just wondering if, yeah, to expand. Yeah, they lost their mind. Big takeaways in the shift of the trajectory. Yeah. I'm telling like, overall, like, that I would say the story that I

notice is like the dominance, the rise of and dominance of the never Trump conservative in the op-ed economy, despite representing virtually no one in like as an actual political block or voting group, you know, and like the rise of the never Trump conservative who are essentially trying to hold on to all the things Trump believes in while separating themselves personally from Trump, and also like the liberal corollary that is like the rise of the idea like this sort of

anti-populist thing, this idea that like Trump is a populist and like populism is always dangerous. And this idea that like any left wing populism or even Bernie specifically is like just a reflection of Donald Trump. I mean, I fear the unwashed masses. Like Dana Milbank did a column into that regard. And I think it's like what we're seeing post 2016. After like, you know, the election of Trump was something that the op-ed writing class, you know, thought could never

happen. You know, and again, we I was among those, I didn't think Donald Trump was going to be president either. But to them, as people who actually care about, you know, America is being a great and good country, like they imagine it, it's obviously a lot more traumatic to them. So I think post 2016, like the op in the take economy, if you're an op-ed writer for the Washington Post, or the New York Times, I think the name of the game is essentially preserving what you were already

writing about before Donald Trump's election, but trying to stake out a way in which you yourself are not responsible for any of the things that led to Donald Trump. And then like if you're a conservative, separating yourself from Donald Trump personally, even though you basically support every single thing he does, like rescuing conservatism from Donald Trump, like holding out for some future date. And if you're a liberal, just being like, hey, you know, Trump is the

worst thing in the world. But like, we have to be very careful about not going too far to the left, because that's actually Donald Trump. Yeah, it seems a lot like the from at least from what I've noticed that it has become this kind of weird inverted process of taking all the things that you were holding up before 2016 as the stop to Donald Trump and trying to wash it as the antidote for him, but being like, here's a new idea, all the

same stuff that I was doing. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Like it like and Trump is like always the object. But yeah, like they'd be like, you know, you know, Medicare for all is not the answer to Donald Trump. I think we like new brave thinking like a tax advantage savings account. Have you ever seen who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? Sure. I think they're Elizabeth Taylor. And who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? Who's Richard Burton? Oh, maybe the never Trump. Yeah. Yeah, the Libs are

are our Liz. And we're all just watching them while we're George Siegel. Yeah, yeah, we're all just watching them uncomfortably thought we did not know the night was going to take this turn. We really like to leave. But we're kind of being held hostage. You got Liz there and she's losing her mind trying very hard to deal with the tragedy of something that actually turns out to be a delusion at the end. I think that's I think that's the metaphor that works. I'm sticking

to it. Alright, here's a question I saw and we got a couple of ones like this. This is an interesting one. I don't think we've basically ever really talked about this. But the question from what's what's the chopper stance on gun ownership? What do we feel about guns in general in American society or the Second Amendment or anything? I'll kick this up. My stance on gun ownership is that I don't own any guns and

I'm not really interested in owning guns. And overall, I would prefer not to live in the gun country. However, like there's so many fucking guns in America, like we're not like that's probably not going to change. But however, with the gun issue, like if you're like an anti gun live, I think they've stitched themselves up by like refusing to admit that guns are actually really fun and cool. Yeah, like guns are they're fun and cool. They're fun to shoot. I've done it even though I'm not

like a big gun person. However, they are. It's deeply insane that, you know, there are more guns than people in America. I had guns before I moved to New York. And literally, it was so we could shoot pumpkins off of the side of fences. It's extremely fun. We also live in like one of the most successful, like gun control cities in America. I think there are definitely like policies that we could do. Like, you know, there's buybacks. I think it's also very important that we disarm the police.

There's no reason. That's it. That's a good, a good way in. We were thinking like, there's a lot of subtle control things that we could do that aren't like we said about the police is a really important one because like, like, honestly, like I really the argument for why police should have guns is that like everybody else does in our society. But the thing is, like honestly, that would probably do like the most good in terms of any like one gun policy that like could theoretically be

passed. I don't yeah, I don't think any police officer in America should have a fucking gun. They've they've already proven they fucking can't use them responsibly. And I don't even well. Yeah. And like, the thing is, like, the idea is like, oh, well, what if like some guy is like doing a gun crime and like, can you stop them with the gun? It's like, at that point, I would just say, let just like let them get away like, you know how fucking hard it is to get away with doing a

crime like even if you get away from the scene of the fucking crime. What they do in like standoffs in I think Ireland and a few other countries where they have like a disarmed police is they're like, they have a special unit that keeps the gun in the trunk, but no one's walking around strapped because having a gun attached to you literally changes your relationship to the community you're policing. Like you have a death machine attached to you,

it's going to change. It's it's you're going to look at the world differently. And you know, like, because obviously everyone's looking at you thinking, I want to grab his gun. Yeah, always thinking of reaching for the officer service. Don't grab his gun. Don't grab his gun. That's mainly the reasons I want to disarm the cops. I just

want to have stop having those thoughts when I see them in public. But I remember the Christchurch massacre episode, like, I made a comment on the show that like the you know, Prime Minister of that country, they immediately passed like, you know, restrictions on assault rifles or whatever. And I said, oh, like, you know, here's an example of a country where like, you know, politics works, it wouldn't be nice if we lived in the same country, a country like that work

theoretically, politics could respond to some something terrible like that and propose a remedy and move on with it. Obviously, with guns in this country, like, that's just like not going to fucking happen at least right now. But I did get a lot of like angry people being like, Oh, so this is like lib shit to talk about gun control. Like this is really like, it's genuinely distracting every time there's a mass shooting. It's what's what's, yeah, what's cuck shit is

like, I'm sorry, like, I don't care like how lefty you are. Like if you want, if you want to own guns personally, for some sort of like self defense, or you like political reason, shooting pumpkins, very fun, they blow ahead. Like I don't I don't care. But like what's fucking cuck shit to me is pretending that you're going to lead some fucking armed resistance against the American state. This is why I love to see on this stuff. Because even in his very mumbly

old age, they're like, Well, what about because I think I think Chomsky has mentioned things about kind of moderate gun, you know, gun law reform or whatever. And people are like, Well, what about if we need to like, you know, storm the White House or something? And he's like, they're just going to kill you. Like it is like Chomsky voice, which is like, yes, obviously, like, we live in New York, where the police literally have helicopters with machine guns on

them. What are you going to fuck it? What weapon are you going to keep? That's going to never mind the military, just the NYPD, which is why disarming police officers is a good component of any way in because like, I honestly think that that is a good rejoinder when people say you should disarm. It's like what's the only cops can have guns because that's a terrifying thought. No, they should not have fucking guns either. Jesus Christ.

So yeah, start start with the police. And then maybe we can like, you know, work backwards toward like, you know, we can get to a gunifying, we can get to a manageable, more manageable number of guns. But here's the interesting thing, we've talked about this before, the way gun control has become like such a red line issue for for Libs. And of course, they use it against Bernie all the time that like, oh, he's, you know, he only he only has an D minus rating from the NRA because of like a couple

things, you know, the Vermont legislature or whatever. These are the same people that talk about, you know, how universal health, like Medicare for all just isn't going to happen, because people aren't ready for it. There's too much backlash. Oh, like, you know, people will lose their privacy. Yeah, we're like, yeah, we're good. Yeah, the guns, we're going to do that. Like that's gonna that's gonna happen. I would, however, also caution against like, the, I don't

know, with the beatification of the rubes and their guns thing, which I hear this a lot, which is like deeply insulting because I have a house like, they're like, you don't understand, like, you know, these people like hunt for food, and it's like, yeah, well, and they should have grocery stores, like fuck that. Also, like, that's completely stupid. The idea that we have some sort of like, deeply romantic attachment to our guns, like, I know those guys, and we consider them weird gun guys.

They're gun nerds. Like those are like, like how there's a car nerd. Most of the time, it's like, some people might hunt. It's mostly like a sporting thing. And also guns are fun. It's not like this incredibly integral part of every rural culture. It's just kind of guns are around. They're kind of quotidian. And the interesting thing about like guns is that like gun ownership in America, like sales of guns are going to the fucking roof. But gun ownership has dropped dramatically

since the 1970s. Yeah, it's almost like three. Like, it's almost like a few people are hoarding. Yeah, exactly. Like the gun people are like, they're the ones who are just it's not like they're buying like, you know, every gun they can fucking get. But like the vast majority, like nobody really owned like the gun culture in this country. And then also the crime overall and like murders and everything. And it's also dropping dramatically.

The big issue with guns is that I would say like suicide is a very big yes. And you could prevent a lot of suicide with a little bit of common sense gun control. Plus, obviously, like serious, you know, do something about poverty and things like that. But also, like, we have to be honest, that like mass shootings are really dispiriting. And it's not just like, well, only seven people died. You hear this, only seven people died. Yeah, people died. And, you know, car accidents,

like, yeah, but I'm not all but we don't interpret violence as body counts. Like it's there's a reason why like Sandy Hook parents are still committing suicide. It Yeah, there's a unique way of horrifying about it violence. And yeah, like it's this weird like thing where like, overall, it's like never actually been like safer to be an American. But yet like our society continues to be defined by these spectacular and unspeakable acts of violence, which are socially

and politically corrosive of which of which guns are like the the factor there. Yeah, you know, and I guess just overall, I would really prefer not to live in the gun country. There are there are things that we can do to make us less of the gun country. And it's a slow road. And you have to approach it from like a policing standpoint too. But like, the idea that you're going to be one of these like anti gun violence, like, like, if if you're really invested in that, either you were hurt

by it personally, and I understand because that's very traumatizing, or you just picked what you perceive as like a a culture war issue, where you want to differentiate yourself from people who you think of as being like more barbaric than you or something. There is there is some pretty gross lib shit related to gun control narrative, but also like guns are dangerous and kill people. OK, I forget who asked this, but someone asked like, we all

know about, you know, Matt doing acid at CPAC. But they were asking, what are our what are a few of our bad drug stories? Oh, God, drug experience stories. Matt, would you count doing acid at CPAC as a bad drug experience or just like? No, I mean, I when I was walking on the hall and I literally thought that they were going to eat me. That didn't feel great. But an hour later, I was bathed in batific sunlight and weeping with joy at Jacob Wall's press conference. So I felt like I

earned it. And you know, I did it kind of with the idea that I wanted to live. I wanted to step into a rough step in painting. And I felt like I did. So even though in the moment I was filled with genuine fear, capital F, looking back on it, I'm glad I did it. So I guess it doesn't really count as a bad one then. So I don't have a lot of really bad. Actually, I got to say, like, you know, I've had a little bit of the the Yale homing bird heart thing. But like, I'm mostly like, oh, I just need a

drink of water to sit down and tell everyone how they should write their own play. But I'm pretty good about that. I just become extremely supportive of my friends. And their efforts to open restaurants. I'm like, you should do that. You're like the smartest person I know. You should definitely do that. And I pretty good on hallucinogens. I never had a horrible trip with that. My worst experiences have always been with alcohol. Yeah, it's true, actually. Yeah, all the things that like our

feel felt bad both physically and then like I was you know, ashamed of, you know, the next getting the fear the next morning, or when you're like, Oh, my God, what did I do? Did I embarrass myself? I don't know. You guys are talking. I've never had that experience. I'll say I'll say I love when I'm not there and I just open the chat and I get it. Like, I wasn't there the night before and I just see Matt saying I just want to apologize for last night. Well, this is like again, not like a

particularly like terrifying bad drug experience, but like a fairly funny one that was wildly unpleasant. I in high school, I accidentally smoked angel dust at a Wu Tang Clan concert. But then again, it's just like, if I'm going to smoke like an angel dust laced blunt at any event, yeah, like a Wu Tang concert is like kind of the perfect venue for that. I like the idea of you ripping a car door off the side. No, it's just like someone like, you know, passed us a blunt and I was

like, Oh boy. And I was like, and I'm like funny, that doesn't taste like weed. And then like, you know, five, 10 minutes later, I like literally almost passed out in the middle of this giant standing room only crowd. My friends had to like, sort of walk me the back, got some water, I came out of it. And then like Wu Tang came on and I was just like, Oh, this is fun. It was worth it. But yeah, a little scary there. For instance, in fact, yeah, basically, the vast majority of people I know who've

done angel dust have only done it by accident. Yeah, it's a whoop. Yeah, that's a, that was a whoops moment. No, I think I've had largely positive experiences with drugs. It's always like me underestimating alcohol on an empty stomach that it really does me in. Yeah, that's bad. Those Yeah, those are the negative. Those are not fun. Yeah. Whereas like, even if like a drug experience can be like weird or crazy and retrospect or scary, like it's fun. It's a fun story to talk

about. Yeah, it gives you a cool story to tell. Whereas like with alcohol, it's just like, let's never speak of that again. Yeah. Yeah, cosine. Chris, you got any more questions coming? That's another good one. Yeah, sure. Somebody asks, are you planning on getting involved with means TV? Oh, yeah. Um, I don't know, we're sort of like we've I remember I when Nick first started this, I had a phone conversation with you and Chris

and Nick from means TV. I don't know what that is. Oh, it's like, here we go. Nick Hayes, a friend of Street Fight. He's in a lot of videos for them. He also shot the viral shot and edited the put together the viral AOC campaign video from, I guess, last summer. He is starting a YouTube worker owned video producer owned video collective to create explicitly anti capitalist videos online on YouTube. Yeah, and he's just sort of premiered last week, but Brett and Brian did one. Yeah,

like a like a bunch of people have done like and Brett and Brian's one was very good if you haven't seen it already. Yeah. I mean, I'm just like a video guy. I'm very supportive of what he does. I think that it's extremely important to continue colonizing YouTube. And I mean, I don't want to speak for everybody, but I'm very excited to hopefully work with him in the future. And I think that now that the rest of the show can kind of see what the shape of what they're doing is that we'll

be looking for. I mean, there's no concrete plans, but like I could definitely imagine doing a short video for them. I don't really have an idea yet. When I will say Nick is a very cool guy. Last time a street fight was in the city. They crashed at my house and we watched Halloween three together. Oh, yeah. One of my favorite movies of all time we watched Halloween three together, and they had to like get up and leave. So they were gone, like when I got up the next morning. And I will say this

of Nick, he folded the quilts I gave him very nicely and left it over the edge of the couch. I was like, I was like, this young man seems to know what he's doing and has his shit together. You've got to set on rest. Yeah, I like the cut of this guy's jib. So yeah, I mean, again, no concrete plans as of yet, but I think Mean Stevie is a very cool project and I could definitely see doing a video or a collaboration with them sometime in the future. Yeah, for sure. How about this from Duncan

Dorknuts? Thank you, Duncan. This is a pretty broad, but maybe I'd like to hear what your initial thoughts on it are. What's the best outcome for 2020? And what's the worst outcome? Oh, I mean, this is sort of interesting. I mean, obviously, like the easy, the easy answer is Bernie Sanders wins the presidency and becomes president, right? That would be a positive thing. That would be positive. Yeah, like the worst outcome would be the worst outcome, Trump re-election or

like some milk toast, Democrat gets in there and then something. I think actually what depends on when when the collapse is going to come because there's going to be a recession. Yeah, Biden winning might be, I think, possibly worse than Trump. Biden winning because it's Biden winning and then there's a recession after he wins. That would be pretty bad. Or even honestly, if it was like a mini version, or maybe even some of the little Obama boom of like

Obama all over again, because you know, it's all about using the crisis, which I think Bernie would be willing and able to do. And of course, Biden, like Obama would not. But yeah, if it's another Democrat who's just holding the bag when another cyclical downturn happens, then yeah, Tom Cotton's president in four years, and then it's all over. I mean, Matt, are you saying that you think that I mean, obviously, economic downturn is not a good thing to happen. But are you saying that

it might if it has to happen under Bernie would be the best outcome for that? Well, I mean, the thing is, it's going to happen regardless. Next couple of years, something is going to happen built into the system. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's going to happen. And I mean, it honestly bought Bernie being president well when happening could be bad too, because it could end up just getting the stink all over him. And it's like, Oh, yeah, look, this guy got in and immediately the

economy collapsed. Also, specifically, he had, you know, like, if any of his, you know, attempts to like alleviate the suffering of that economic downturn was just like, you know, blocked at every turn, that would also be horrifying. I don't know. It literally anything happening could be very bad. But I still want Bernie to win. All things happen. Our best chances, I think, are Bernie winning. And then nothing happens bad at all. And we all get ice cream. Well, let me to, you

know, problematize this scenario here. Let's say, you know, a terrible outcome would, of course, be we get what we want. Bernie gets to be president. And it's a huge disappointment. And he sucks. Yeah. Or like, I don't really see that happening. I think if you're really disappointed by Bernie, like, you're a child and we're paying attention, like, the shortcomings of Bernie have been obvious from the get go, the strengths of Bernie have been obvious from the get go. I

doubt he's going to get a head injury and Phineas gauge his way into an entirely different platform. Well, yeah, but his platform is going to matter less than the ability to pass it. Yeah, it'd be almost nil. And if the Democratic Party decides that they would rather hamstring their president, then pass what he wants to do, which they might, they are less. I mean, they are deeply incompetent. And then well, not even know there. I mean, I don't even think

that's it. They would they'd be like happy. Fine, we'll lose. That's fine. It's be me maintaining control of the party. And that matters more than whether or not we get another term as in in charge of the presidency. What matters more is that we can't maintain control of the party. And I mean, I don't know if Bernie's really has a plan when that happens. I mean, today he said that he doesn't want to get rid of the filibuster, which to me is a real red flag. It's like, do you

really know the degree to which you're going to be opposed if you were to take power? He's also filibustered. Of course, and all these guys in the Senate, they all have a thing about it. But like, it cannot coexist with meaningful reform. And if he could end up in a situation where he's calling for broad reform, broad change, it dies in the House and Senate. And because we have this bifurcated system where like responsibility for things is hidden by the sex separations

of powers. And there's just one, you know, figurehead, and people tend to blame them or credit them depending on how things go. And if the economy is bad, and it's not getting fixed, and he's president, then his entire project gets totally discredited. Yeah, Bernie should still win. I mean, it's the only way forward, but it's just yeah, that there's no I mean, like, it really is like we're trying to thread the needle five times in a row here. Yeah. And like a sort of I see

another question, you know, this sort of like a corollary to this that asks, this one just states when Trump wins in 2020, will you finally dismiss American electoralism entirely? And it's just like, I see, I see, I see this come up a lot like, oh, like, you guys like, that's so nuke the whales. Well, like, oh, but it comes back to like, you know, oh, like, what are you gonna give up on electoralism? Or like, I see, you know, Virgil seems to be the most wedded to electoralism. And like

the thing is, well, first of all, he loves rules. And like rules and games. But yeah, it's rules and games. Like the thing is like, obviously, like, I'm not like, you know, unaware, I think we're very aware of the shortcomings of voting and the American political process of the Democratic Party, and pessimistic about those things, or at least speaking for myself solely. But like, okay, what I'm more pessimistic about is like, what the what these people who are like, definitively like,

yeah, electoralism is a dead end, like their alternative here, I'd like I'd very much like to hear what that is. Yeah, because yeah, sure, let's just at least electorate, let's just assume electoralism and voting is just a game. But at least it's a game where like, I can see who the participants are and comment on it. You know what I mean? Like it's, I don't know how electoralism functions is an indictment of electoralism. Like I still believe in democracy. And like my long term goal is to

see like the beginnings at least of a labor party in my lifetime, which is a party system. It's there's voting involved. It's so frustrating. Because yeah, I mean, it does seem like at least people think we don't know what the problems are with the system. But one, the nature of our show is such that we're commenting every week on elect political events. Yeah, and those are in the context in which most people process them in

which they are discussed in the media, because we have to be coming from like a political life of America. Yeah, a common like, it was store of events and those events happen in a political or an electoral realm. So those are the ones we're going to talk about. But I mean, the alternatives that I've heard mooted to electoralism, if you say forget electoralism, we're going to do build like whatever dual power or whatever the hell are like, you know, union drives, like, those are all

important. And I support them. But the number of the problem with the left in America to me is still just that there aren't enough people who are actively left, you know, who think of in terms of, of politics as, you know, in class terms, and an opposing a capitalist class, and you need institutions to do that. It's not just going to be some big consciousness raising project. Yeah. And it's going to have to be engaging people where they're

most likely to observe political content. And like more people like, I mean, fuck, how many people vote in the presidential election? It's like 100 million people. I mean, how many people are in every combined cadre, Oregon, and union in America? It's like, it's not that many. And most of them are unfuckable. Well, I'm, I've had is the opinions of Amber Frost, not the events just chapeau trapeaus. But yeah, it sucks. I mean, I

just talked about how it's all probably going to all end in absolute ruin, no matter what happens. But I literally don't know what the fucking alternative is. Yeah, sometimes you just suck it up, and you look at bad odds, and then you do it anyway, and you don't complain about it, and your rewards will be in heaven. So shut up. Well, here's a here's a follow up question to that. And like, I've seen a number of questions like this, and I'm certainly

like, you know, combine them. But like the general question line of questioning is like, how do you stay sane and have joined life while being aware of the various existential threats to life on earth? I've seen variations of this questions about like, how do you feel about, you know, having kids knowing what we know about, you know, the state of the environment, and are generally, you know, doom, ridden life. And I've always, I don't quite know how to answer these

questions. But like, I feel is kind of important to say, like, I feel like I have joy all the time in my life. And I don't like to like say that like as a brag. And sorry, you depressed losers, I'm fucking I'm loving it. Or the question about like, you know, having kids, well, first of all, not even my parents give me shit about not having grandkids. So you anonymous Reddit user, chill out. Okay. But like that, you know, if you're considering

having kids and wondering like, you know, the question that is asked, for instance, in the beginning of first reformed, right? Genuinely, every single human being that's ever existed on this planet has lived their lives and had kids in circumstances, so much worse, way more dire than what you find yourself in right now at this moment, even knowing what we do know about global warming and the you know, cold climate apocalypse, have some perspective, not just humans

history, but the entire history of the planet itself is an ongoing series of apocalypses. Right? Yeah. So like, I think like this, I don't think you should let yourself be psyched out by too much about like this being realistic about things like climate change and our dire political situation, these are all real. But these are not essentially things that are new to the human experience, or that are yes, like in our the world now, we have more potential than ever to like, end human

civilization is like a livable thing, truly living in the future, like maybe ever before, but like, again, like you could have been born, I don't know, in the dark ages, or in a lot of places now on earth, that are still in the dark ages, where the fucking maternal and infant mortality rate is like still insane. It's not that great here either. It's better in Cuba, by the way. But no, I mean, like, have some perspective, like don't be a historical about this stuff, you know, don't use the

the don't use like an ex don't make excuses. Yeah. And like, and like the thing about like, you know, like, like having kids or having joy in your life, like that's a that's a personal decision for you. But I would be very remiss if like, you know, you listen to the show and our kind of comedic pessimism about the world, and use that as an excuse to, I don't know, like opt out of one of the most foundational human experiences that does indeed bring, you know, joy and meaning to the lives

of most people. And just to be like, Well, I heard a podcast, and they talked about how global warming is going to like, you know, kill us all or whatever. And the answer is, you know, you know, there's a lot of pain and struggle in life for for everyone. But you're you're like, if you're listening to our show, I don't think you should be too worried about fucking like the miserable state. Also, I have a bit like I would echo the happiness stuff. I wouldn't say like the state of the world is

what's making you unhappy. I would say maybe your constant exposure to the state of the world, which is the new thing. Like misery is nothing new. Being able to look at misery constantly is new and is probably not very good for you. So like, maybe look at your intake of like visceral online, human misery, maybe read fewer articles about the polar bears a week, because there's a point of diminishing returns, you're not getting smarter, you're not getting more aware, you're just

getting sad. And I would just highly recommend watching the film first reformed, which I think very much deals with this question and not to spoil anything because it happens basically in the first 20 minutes of the movie. But the Ethan Hawke character is sort of like ministering to this disturbed young man who is, you know, his wife is pregnant. And he is asking this very question, like, given what we know about the climate and

environmental collapse, like how, you know, how can I bring a life into this world? And at some point, like Ethan Hawke tells him that like his adult child died. And he is like, no matter the agony you feel about bringing a child's life into this world, I assure you, it's nothing compared to what having one leave this world feels like. So just like, literally deranged. Do you think that like that is such a way to, you could not possibly sound more like a PMC

nerd, when you're like, Oh, no, what about climate change? Do you think that's how most people in the world have kids people with much tougher lives than you? No, they're just like, Oh, finally, at least something good will happen, a fat little baby. So this is a chapeau child hour here. But yeah, no, but generally, I mean, we all just collect cats, but we were very pro baby in theory.

Any further questions? This is from be be well be wall. Hey, gang, what's your favorite album of the late one? I honestly, I genuinely love the Lil Nas X, old town. Yeah, I'm very involved in like the politicization of that too. I'm like, put it put him on the charts. And as far as other music, I'm listening to Brendan Brantley and NBA, collaboration spring break summer, both both very

one of my favorite, yeah, the country, yeah, collaboration. I'm very interested in God, I'm listening to Wagner. We always knew you were fashion. Yeah, fashion, fashion, fashion, fashion. This is like, I've been writing a lot and I can't hear a language that I can understand and write at the same time. So I have to do either orchestral music or like opera and a language that I don't understand.

I was listening to the B 52 is a lot last week, largely because nobody got the love shack reference on the Glenn Beck episode. So one of the, you know, just get back into the B 52. They're great. Yeah. Someone also asked me, what's your favorite Elvis Costello album? And it's like, you know, Armed Forces is like the easy pick there, but also get happy. Armed Forces in this year's model, untouchable, but, you know,

get happy. Also fantastic. I mean, you can't you can't go wrong with Elvis Costello. Basically, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. G.H.D.A ankle breaker says, what's your skin care routine? Oh, OK, here we go. Let's go. I have, I don't have like a very established one, but you can, you know, there's some sort of the exfoliating gel you use in the shower to open up your pores.

And then when you get out of the shower, I use like, it's like, sort of an oil that's in one of the droppers, you know what I'm saying? We'll do a serum. Yeah, serum. And then I just sort of lightly pat that over my head. And, you know, before you get like, oh, it's a will skin care. Oh, little Lord Fauntler. Oh, look, I have splotchy bad skin and you can get it can get dry. We're both we're both rashy.

Exactly. It gets dry and then it looks weird. I look like Freddie Krueger. So like, yeah, keeping my skin moisturized, very important, I use a serum to tap that on, you know, after I get out of the shower, when your pores are nice and open, credit to Catherine, who of course has, you know, schooled me in the ways of proper skin care. And, you know, sometimes if I really want to, you know,

fuck around, or I'm like, you know, hung over sheet mask. Do it. Yeah, we love them folks. We love to see them. They feel great. You need a little extra moisture. They feel great. They really do work. Wonderful. Yeah. I, I'm a big, big exfoliation gal. I definitely do serums over, over, over moisturizer traditional. And yeah, never ever, ever skip skincare. I want to be as

pale as possible. I want to look like the moon emoji. I'm trying to look, I'm trying to like, look, you know, good. We're all trying to look good. We're all just trying to look good. People don't want to see us glow up. Matt, I don't know. Matt actually does have really good skin. I just, yeah, you do. That's the thing is I don't, it's just, I'm just lucky.

Yeah. Just lucky. I don't do anything. You're always suffused with a healthy glove. Yeah. You know, whereas I can be either very like, pallid or have like, you know, face dandruff or, you know, red. Well, I literally am one of those people that has a very

physical response to stress that will get hives if I'm, if I'm stressed out enough, like that's how cool my body is. I'm just naturally dewy. Yeah. Yeah. Easily, he's just got perfect skin. Cedarville Daily Facial Cleanser. It's the, it should be an essential. Yeah.

Matt, are the brewers going to take out the Dodgers this year? Yes. Yes? Yes. All right. Yeah, why, yeah, why not? Well, you're going to say no, you know, you're a fan. Yeah, why not?

Let's do one more. That's maybe a discussion. The Noid is an advertising character for Domino's Pizza created in the 1980s, a physical manifestation of the challenges inherent of getting a pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less. Yeah. What other things can and should be manifested as of a

character of this sort? What would you, and what would the mannerisms of a character be? What kind of, what kind of daily societal annoyance would you manifest into a character so we could target it with hate? Well, how about a happy merchant type character who presides over all of the foibles of your financial life, the exploitations that happen?

Well, kind of like rubbing his hands together and cackling, a kind of a figure like that. I think, I think we need that. We need that, we need that to be memed. Yeah, get on that, folks. I would, I would like to figure a societal problem that bedevils me that I would like to see sort of characterized as sort of some impish creature is I do not like amplified noise

in public settings or apartments or things like that. People who play music too loud, people on the subway who listen for some insane reason, listen to music through their phones, speakers, you know, cars that have music that, you know, rattle your windows and they go by. I think noise pollution and too much noise is something I would like to see, maybe more public awareness to be raised about, I would like it to be quieter in the middle of New

York City. So what is the, what is the, what does he look like? Like the, the noise monster. Like the, the, the noisel, the noisel, maybe he's like that sounds like he would also be a happy merchant. I'm imagining sort of like an anthropomorphic sound wave. Yeah. Like a speaker.

It's sort of like a little bit like the, the DNA in Jurassic Park where he's like, that's a dino DNA, but it's like a, like a sound wave. Yeah. That'd be good. Well, um, by the way, my next door neighbor was listening to again, Sunday, Sunday, when I went like quiet, when I'm hung over listening to maroon five, I could hear that through the

wall. That ain't right, um, I would say because it's the first warm day of the year and I'm wearing a skirt. My mind immediately went to my panic over summer, which is my least favorite season. So I think there should be like a chub rub monster, uh, the thigh friction, some kind of, some kind of thigh friction monster.

Um, uh, just beat red and yeah, yeah, just one of the, the, the mucinex or Tony's, the right focus, but like ruddy and irritable just looking Irish as all shit. Yeah. Uh, I've got one, uh, mine would be, uh, the sheet and it represents my annoyance for any time I have to use, do anything with physical paper in the world instead of having any electronics.

So like printing off a ticket that has to be presented physically, like doing any money transaction that requires an actual check instead of electronically transferring anything. Any kind of this thing that, like sending a paperless, sending letters, cause 99% of my life is paperless and then every like once a month, I have to do one thing with a sheet of paper. Oh wait, no, no, it should be specifically is the moment when

you realize this is the one of three times a year when I need a printer and don't have it, which I actually bought a printer and it's the most glorious thing in the world, but like there's no reason why I should have one. It's completely stupid. I mean, three times a year you panic. May I suggest clippy? Like a demon clippy.

Yeah. Like an evil clippy with a horn. Who bedevils you with a sheet of paper. With a goatee. Yeah. Exactly. Yes. Dark dimension clippy.

That's mine. I have to get going guys. All right. All right. All right. Well, we hope you, we hope we've, we've tried to answer a lot of your questions. I hope you.

I'm part of our wisdom. Thank you. Thank you, the listener for asking these questions and checking in with us and hope you enjoyed our replies. And if you did not, please keep it to yourself. We don't care. Tell Virgil. He wasn't even on it, but let him know.

Okay. See you later. Bye. Bye.