Club Random with Bill Maher - Piers Morgan | Club Random w/Bill Maher

Episode Date: April 18, 2022

Bill Maher and Piers Morgan randomly riff on the Meghan Markle controversy, how the Brits are becoming as sensitive as Americans, why Yoko did not break up The Beatles, successful civilizations becoming weak, and how athletes like Naomi Osaka are celebrated more for quitting than winning. 

I am so glad you're here. I have been wanting to fucking take your hand since you storm off your show. Yeah. I feel like there is not enough storming. I completely agree with you. I think this should be an award show called The Stormies, just for people who have the balls to storm off.

Yeah. So what is that show? Well, that was like their today show. Yeah, it was the morning show, Good Morning Britain. Oh, I love a Brit. All over Britain. London to London, Derek. Everywhere.

Scotland. Yes, Scotland. Wales, Ireland, everywhere. And it was, yeah, I mean, the blowup came because I was hired specifically to give fourth-right opinions. That's why I got the job. And when I gave a very fourth-right opinion, I didn't believe a word,

Megan Markle was saying in her Oprah Winathom, or hell broke loose, and the won't brigade try to cancel me. And I thought, well, I'm not gonna cancel me, because my opinions are my opinions, but of course it turned out, you're not a lot of opinion. Yeah, it's so interesting,

England, you know, it just becomes more and more Americanized, don't you think? Yeah, completely, yeah. Like the hypersensitivity thing, which, you know, I used to think of the British as step-up or lip. Yeah. But I remember going to England the first time, I think it was 1984, the Dez-O-Conner show. Yeah.

You must have grown up on that. Dez-O-Conner, right. But it was like, TV was like two channels, like a documentary on fucking lawns. Yeah. And what was their prime time, right? Yes. I grew up when I grew up.

That's where you were. They were three channels when I grew up. Now there's obviously hundreds and hundreds. Well, we only had a few channels when I was a good either, but at least they put entertainment on it. At least it was McCale's Navy. It wasn't like a show about granite or some shit, right? Oh, yeah.

And then over the years, I would go back to London, I'd turn on the TV, and then it'd be like, oh, there's the American version of this stupid fucking thing we do, whatever it was, you know, a game show, or, you know, it just got more gossipy. And I thought this was the crown to that, the, the Meghan Markle thing because there was just so much bullshit about it, right? Well, I can't even remember. Now, what it was, you know, I was Sharon Osborne come on your show after, after she, she then got fired for standing up for, oh, right, because she was accused of supporting

a racist and actually rightly said, said, what do we actually say that was racist? You know, the truth was, I hadn't said anything remotely racist. What I had done was say I didn't believe that Markle, who by the way was lying through her back teeth. And that's right. That's what I mean about, like, why England has become American.

I said, you can't, because she's half black, she couldn't possibly lie. Right. That's not racist. Well, at all times, I've made a point that there were lots of people on the show that day who vehemently believed every word she said. I said, well, why are they allowed to believe her?

Why can they exercise their right to a belief when I can't exercise a right to disbelieve? I don't care if you disagree with me or if you like or if you like it or if you agree with it But I am surely entitled in what used to be a democracy to say I don't believe you of course I spent and Let me prep this by saying The sad thing is the way our country is now. We will, just by having this conversation, we will be perceived and they will try to

characterize this right wingers. Right. I'm not a right-winger. No, just because I don't bend the knee to the one true opinion. I call it the O.T.L. Yeah. That's the one. Especially since when I can see with my eyes, this is full of shit.

You know what I could see with my eyes? Oprah's all coming back to me. This wasn't that long ago. Probably smoked too much pot. But, okay, she's Megan and Harry. They go on Oprah, which itself, you know, why do you need to do that? Okay, so the royal family is accused of racism.

I'm sure the old bag's gotta be a hundred. I mean, she grew up in it. Can you not call her Majesty the old bag? Really? I gotta have some limits for my company. You know, Sharon, I've been- I don't mind you trashing our television, that's fair enough, because you're right about a lot of that.

Well, this is definitely not television. The Queen has been on that throne 70 years. Okay, but, and actually, I would say, of all leaders of any kind of the world, probably, despite everything, remains the most respected leader of all in the world. Okay, fuck me, for a like, okay. The cell interest, you can't call that.

I have some names in my presence, But that'd be calling that on it. I find, but what's so interesting to me is that Sharon Osborne said the same thing. Yeah. Like you British people, it's like, it's like once a Catholic, you know, like which I once was, you walk into a church and you still get a little, not that I want to rejoin or anything,

but there's a little spilcus because you're just in this place that was drilled into your head as a child and it'll never, you can't make it go away. Is this a good time to say I'm a Catholic? Are you? Are you? Okay, but this isn't the same kind of thing.

The queen, even though your rational mind must know this is just an incredible bunch of bullshit. There's the idea of royalty is offensive to me. I did a whole thing once. Of course. The premise that some human being calls another human being your highness, I find to be incredibly illiberal. But you call the leader of your country

every four years Mr. President, right? I mean, that's his job. What's the name of your highness? You don't see a deficit in your, your Highness and Mr. President. But you're missing the point of what the Queen's job has purely been to be a figurehead of stability. And as a calming influence through difficult times, she's actually been very affected. Okay, but I'm just saying that name, your Highness, should be offensive to you. I actually don't call her your Majesty.

You talked to her? I've talked to her many times. Yeah. You talked to that exalted, wonderful woman. She's actually very... She calls you like Trump calls Hannity? Yes, exactly. I don't quite like that, but...

Yes, very funny. Well, she's very funny. It was one moment I remember when we were at Windsor Castle and she's had a media party. It wasn't you, name dropping castles, I love it. In this magnificent castle, we were looking out over the lawns. I don't know if you're aware, they have these garden parties where 12,000 people, completely random people turn up

and the Queen just walks among them and they held a few times. Yeah, yeah, and they called the Royal Garden Party. I feel so shy. I said to her, I said, you're Majesty, I said, can I ask you something? If you look out of your lovely, beautifully manicured laws, I said, do you actually enjoy the garden parties that you have here? So she looked at me, she said, well, Mr. Morgan,

let me put it to you like this. How would you like 12,000 complete strangers translate on your garden? So she has a sense of humor. Completely, and she's very, she's whipsmart. When I look at America, particularly now with the fractured nature of America, the sort of slightly chaotic out of control

nature of America and the rampant division, which is arguably worth, and it's probably ever been, we have the same thing politically. We had Brexit, you had Trump. These are extremely toxic, tribal, political environments, if you like, where it wasn't enough to take a side, you had to implacably take a side. And I wrote a book about this last year called Wake Up, and it was really going back to the genesis of liberalism.

What it was actually founded or what it was supposed to be about, because I identify more as liberal than not, and how it's been completely bastardized over time, particularly in the last 10 years, not only is it preposterous for liberals to want to cancel everything, because it's the antithesis of what liberalism should be about. Not only is it completely antithetical to democracy,

I mean, democracy is supposed to be the ability to sit down with people whose opinions you don't share, and to have democracy. I mean, democracy is supposed to be the ability to sit down with people whose opinions you don't share and to have a vigorous debate at the end of it going to have a drink and my friends, which I know you do. And I said, yes. That's gone as well now. So these modern day you've broken to. In Britain too. So the modern day won't liberal. They don't want debate. They just want you to have their narrow prism of life. And if you don't sign up to it, you're not just wrong. And they don't understand you're wrong. You have to be destroyed. Everything that you stand for, you have to have your job removed,

you have to have your life destroyed. And that is not liberalism. That's fascism. It's a new form of factor. So would you have gotten, would you have gotten canned if you hadn't walked off? Well, I was put in a position where they said to me, my employees, look, if you apologize, you can keep your job. I said, what am I apologizing for? They were just believing Meghan Marker. I said, but I'm believer.

No, I know. But can you just apologize to a piece, people? I went, well, why would I do that? Yeah, good for you. Who am I appeasing? Right. Oh, and, okay. So let why would I do that? Yeah, good for you. Who am I appeasing, why? Right, and, okay, so let's go. Just to be clear, none of the viewers, none of the viewers at the show had any problem

with what I said. Here's what I thought was, where am I in, turn it, what up? I understand exactly who she is. If I was just looking at her, I would never guess she was anything but a straight-up white girl. That's just, I I was just looking at her, I would never guess she was anything but a straight up white girl. That's just, I mean, just looks.

She said they showed a clip of her in Africa dancing with African girls. And she's like, you know, we've done so much because when I go here, the girls look at me and say, someone who looks like me could marry, you know, be where I am. Well, first of all, they don't look like you. An interesting question would be, would Harry have married someone who looked like those African girls they were dancing with? I mean, that's an interesting question. Maybe he would have

maybe maybe they're that, maybe they're not racist at all either, but if you're accusing the royal family of being racist, ask that question of yourself. And then also, you know, just like, I don't think those girls had a chance to marry the principal England or whatever she was saying, like they see me and they realize I could be where she is. I mean, there's no doubt that there was not a trace of racism in the British media towards Meghan Markle. Really? No. Oh, come on.

No, no. There wasn't. And in fact, quite the reverse. In fact, I remember when they got married. The outpour. Had you ever drank? I've got a soda. You don't want a drink? Well, I mean, you can.

Where's my fucking liquor? It's your bar. I know. I don't want to be in permanent. Nice. Just like, yeah, we've don't want to be in pertinent. Nice. Just like, yeah, we'll go with lines. Perfect. Yeah, I'm telling you, you know, the British can drink. I mean, I remember when I first went to England every time I went,

one of the great things about England is pubs, because I'm like here in America where we segregate the generations. You would never see someone my age in a club or even in the same bar. But in England it's a neighborhood thing. I grew up in a pub. My parents ran a pub. Is that right? I grew up in one in the South Coast of England. Wow.

Five miles in land. My parents ran a pub, the Griffin Inn, little village called Fletching. And actually, I think the whole, my whole love of journalism and debating and all that kind of stuff came from just observing people and the pub because in a pub, it's like, certainly in Britain, a pub is the pillar of democracy. It's people from all walks of life.

You'd have millionaires next to sheep herdsman. Right. And they would be debating the issues of the day. It didn't matter what class they came from. It didn't matter how much money they had. If one of those you could stand your round for a pint, you would vigorously animatedly debate stuff. Right.

And then you'd clink glasses, you'd have another pint. I would see people in pubs like passed out, sitting on the barstool, you don't see that in America. You just do not. And they would just, and it was not a thing. It was not a thing that bothered the other patrons, the bartender. He would literally be wrecking.

Rucking caucus was perfectly normal Friday night. Just like you made yourself out of it on the stool, like a nodding heroin ad. Oh yeah. I'm like, and the British actors, the amount of liquor, all those, you know, Michael Cain, Richard Burton. Peter O'Toole. Peter O'Toole.

Like they bring a bottle before lunch and then have like wine at lunch. And then, and still do their wine. It's in a Churchill used to. I mean, they have Churchill famously through the war. He would get up. He'd have champagne, polroge, champagne for breakfast.

He'd have a long lunch with lots of wine. He'd then have a 15 minute crucially power nap. He'd then carry on drinking and running the war. and then at night, he'd write voraciously, he'd write these enormous speeches, which galvanized the nation, but he would basically drink all day, Churchill. And yet he's the greatest Britain in all the polls we've ever had.

I mean, I'm not saying kids do drugs or anything, but the amount of creative output that was lubricated and burst really midwifed by whatever, like a LSD marijuana. I mean, it's just... The people of Sargent Pepper. What would that have been like? Not just that one.

No, but I'm just saying, as an example of an album written on psychedelic drugs. If you took the drugs away, what would they have done to Beatles in that period? Well, Brand and this supported by SignalWire, if you've been on a video conference recently, you know how it goes, laggy, choppy video and audio. It sucks, but still not as bad as having to put on pants for an in-person meeting. But this experience doesn't have to be so bad. This experience can be amazing. That's where SignalWire kicks ass and takes names. SignalWire's tech arsenal allows developers to create better real-time

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And Timothy Lary, I don't know if the kids even know who that is. Oh, it's just legend. My age group. Yeah, but he's the kind of icon you'd hope that they would know. But man. The don't. Kids don't know anything like that.

Or any... I've got four kids. Three in the 20s, one in your old girl. You've got four kids? Yeah, four boys. The don't. Kids don't know anything like that. Or any. I've got four kids. Three in the 20s, one. Ten-year-old girls. Yeah, four kids. Three boys in the 20s. Same mom. No two moms.

The boys are the same mom. And then I re-married and had a daughter's 10. But what's interesting is their knowledge of the kind of cultural stuff that meant so much to me is very limited. If I try and get them animated about Paul McCartney or the Rolling Stones or any of this kind of thing, their eye just blaze over. Well, I mean, I feel like the Beatles must have some resonance

just because they're level of success, their pervasiveness and the... But if you try and talk to people in their 20s about the Beatles, it's not the same. And it's oddly... Of course, it's not the same because they didn't live through. But they don't get the scale of it. They don't understand the form of it.

Right, no. No, they... All the musicianship, you know, I watch the Peter Jackson get back. Oh, me too. It's unbelievable the musicianship. When you watch McCartney sit there and just start composing long and winding road. And you think, well, who's doing that?

No, I mean, people are obviously there are brilliant musicians, but the brilliance of the musicianship. And also, I thought it was interesting, the dynamic between McCartney and Lenin, which I'd always been led to believe when I grew up. McCartney was the kind of sweet guy. Lenin was the tough one. He was the one calling all the shots, running the show.

You watch get back. And actually, it's the complete reverse, which may be down to Lenin's dead of mind at the time and other stuff. Of course. No, wasn't that was the case early on. But we knew that. I didn't know that. Of course. Can you watch what's happening? Well, then you're not as much of a beetle. We knew he was definitely running the show from well, well before that. I mean, Sergeant Pepper was his idea. Everything they were doing. John was more lazy at that point and also more on drugs than he met Yoko. He was other directed. He once said, Paul calls me up and he says, I've written 10 new songs and now God damn it now,

I've got to go write 10 new songs. I didn't think conversation was shawling them, because I just know a bit and we were messaging each other about it. So what did you think of it? Well, everyone else is watching it and obviously enjoying it. But I'm watching my dad in a way that I've never seen footage of my father,

which I thought was really interesting. He's never seen so much footage of his father. The ultimate takeaway from that Peter Jackson thing. And of course, if you're not of that era and you don't love that group, don't bother, it'll be like watching paint dry. Because, you know, it's so verite. It's eight hours or something. But we couldn't even watch more of it.

I'm totally. I could have watched double. Well, just the idea that, you know, it's the way he's set it up with drama like they have a month, which is the truth. They have a month from scratch to get together at the beginning of the year and by the end of the month to have a whole no album of 14 songs and perform them. And at first, it's so desalter and you think, how is this ever going to happen in a month and they keep asking the the things off on the calendar and it's like, of course they fucking pull it off like really. But to me the ultimate takeaway and I am backed up on this by Martin Lewis, you know him

probably the ultimate Beatles expert. He asked me what I thought of it. I said this. He said, you're spot on. It was always Lenin and McCartney. It's not anything else. I'm sorry, the other two Beatles, they're Beatles and we love them, but you could see the love of Fairies between Lenin and McCartney, all the interplay. He totally ignores Yoko. This any Yoko broke up the Beatles. It's like she's not even there. There's always relating to Paul McCartney. That was the original. But don't you think the simmering tension with George Harrison's interest in?

Yes. Because Harrison actually did do probably arguably the best solo stuff afterwards. So he was clearly breaking out, wasn't he? He did great stuff for, yes, I think through the 70s and then he had a good album in the 80s. You can feel that. I'm a big George Harrison fan.

And see, Ringo, Ringo doesn't get enough credit for that, because you barely notice him, but it all is chaotic around them. Well. You get these guys who just did the rhythm of the heartbeat of the band. You know what I'm saying? Also, yeah, I love Ringo. I mean, it's also the case that it's good to have a guy in the band who no one's funny. Well, yeah, I would join you, but it's illegal for me to do that here.

You know that? It's good to have a guy in the band who no one's fighting. I would join you, but it's illegal for me to do that here. You know that? You have to be an American citizen to do what you're doing in California. You can't be a non-citizen. So who would do what to you? So it's interesting that the legalization of cannabis in how many states is in America now. If you're an American citizen, it's fine. It's legal.

But if you're not a citizen, you're governed by federal law, which remains that marijuana is illegal. So who would arrest you? I don't know. But Americans are English, you say? It would probably be a big issue with like immigration and everything else because you still live in England? I live there a lot of the time.

I've got a house in Beverly Hills, so I've got my hair a lot, yeah. But you're still a British citizen. Yes. I've got a house in Beverly Hills, so I've come here a lot, yeah. Yeah. But you're still a British citizen. Yes. Yeah. And you have a whole place in London. Yeah. Oh, and that's where your family's based? Yeah.

Well, I've got family all over England, but. Yeah. I think you're just like a trucker. I got two families. I got one here. I like one out of the either end of the round. Well, my late great grandmother, it was the main truck of the family.

When she was 90, we got together. Everybody was the major hour of the family when she was 90. We got together, everybody just on her side of the family into one marquee, 104 people. This is a big family that I'm from and there's a lot of us. But you weren't poor growing up, were you? No, but I wasn't doing any money. My parents were in a country pub. They worked seven days a week without much help. They had four kids to bring up. We all went to the local state schools.

And we had no privilege. We had no wealth or privilege. We never felt like we missed out on anything. And of course life was very different there, wasn't it? I think it could be better. Yeah, that sounds like Maya bringing. I mean, the house I grew up in, my father paid, I believe, $24,000 for it.

You couldn't get a fucking car. Yeah. At 4% or something, whatever the GI Bill was, but we lived out in Jersey. That's what people did. But it was, leave it to be for time. Yeah. You know, there was no issues in that town. No drugs.

No. No racial issues, because it was completely white. The difference. When I go to the pubs in my county where I came from, when I was young, and my parents, I won, then I grew up and went to pubs myself. You never saw drugs in the pubs. Kids would drink beer and whatever and fall over and, like you said, be dragged out.

But the amount of drug taking now in the pubs and clubs in England is, I would say, 100 times. And anything, anything. X to C cocaine, marijuana. You know, not, I don't think it's necessary. You're not against drugs, are you? No, no, I'm just, I'm like you. I'm a pretty liberal guy, whatever gets you through the night, kind of view of all this stuff.

What I've been struck by is just the amount compared to what was around when I was young. But you're just a drinker. Yeah, I just prefer having a drink, yeah. First. I mean, marijuana is not meant for everyone. Yeah. It's only really agrees with about a third of the people.

I believe I'm not completely pulling this out of my ass, but I'm partly just, this is from my experience and I've got a lot with it. But like some people get logi and sleepy, some people get paranoid. Yeah. And some people get creative and it makes them high, literally high. That's the good, but that's not everybody. And if it's not you, if this, if not your thing, you shouldn't do it. But I always think, I mean, the idea that people can drink

tequila until they literally tequila over. Yeah. And yet they take some sort of high moral position about cannabis. To me, it's always struck me, of course. Well, of course, ludicrous. It's like, do you not understand the inconsistency of this? Well, in this country, I don't know if England is the same.

Really, all the drug prohibitions were racially motivated. It was a way, it was a, it was a sly way they used to target. I mean, like, when it was the Chinese, it was opium marijuana, crack cocaine versus powder. Right. It has always been a, you know, subterfuge weapon of racist policies. I mean, I don't know, England. Is the three strikes thing still active? Oh, that's a good question.

I think somebody asked me about that. I think they're trying to, I mean, yeah. It's such an think somebody asked me a bit about it. I think they're a bit of a mess. I think they're a bit of a mess. I mean, yeah. It's such an insane law, isn't it? Yes. Well, it's so typical of the American Fred election for zero tolerance, meaning zero thinking.

Let's just like do something where we don't have to fucking think about it. You know, where we could just... That's three. Come on. Hit you three and you're out. But yes, there are people who've been gone. The third can be like a tiny fragment of whatever, right? It's like anything.

Right, you people have gone right away because they stole a slice of pizza or something. I mean, there are stories like that. So, you know, but, I mean, don't get me started on all the fucking things about this country, then. You know. We are supported by masterworks. I'm fighting an ape, and he's got a baseball cap

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at a film or series in the HBO documentary film's catalog that you can watch on HBO Max. They'll get updates on the stories, talk with the filmmakers, plus experts to help us make sense of each film's topic. You can listen to HBO Docs Club on HBO Max wherever you get your podcasts. You're British through and through, right? Morgan and... I'm actually Irish.

Really? Yeah, my father... Oh. My father was Irish. He died when I was very young. Oh. I was one. Because that's my heritage. Right, so I'm actually from Galway, originally taken out of there. Oh.

That's my heritage on my, so I'm actually from Galway, which is an arm of the... That's my heritage on my... Because... 1922, when Ireland got its independence. I don't think people understand how much Ireland is a conquered country by the British. They did not speak the same language, right? They were clothed, but geographically clothed, they looked the same, but the Irish was a completely

different culture with a different language, and they were subjugated brutally. I mean, there was a lot of... And the northern part is a British colony. That's part of the UK. That's one of the four parts of the UK. It's England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. And of course, there's a lot of British people there who want to stay. It's been a long time since centuries, since they've been part of Britain, but it's kind

of like Hong Kong and China. Shouldn't it be reunited? That's what the Chinese would say. Come on, look at the map. It looks like it should be part of us, and Ireland wants it, and I don't blame them, and it really isn't. At some point, it will be. It might be. It might be.

It might be, and Scotland may go independent, of course. It also might have. Scotland has voted on its independence and said, no, we do not trust ourselves. It has, but then, as time has gone on, more, there's been more popularity now, coming back for independence, who knows, my friends. The Scots, there are people who are outsize

of their numbers to their influence. They have great influence. I think many of the great thinkers, philosophers, rises, like a higher percentage of many in the canon are Scottish. And also very influential here in the American South. Scott Irish, I don't wanna say that that's a big part of the problem down there, but it's a big part

of the problem down there. There's this warlike clannish that they brought over from fucking the old, really, but the American South, I'm telling you, has a warlike and mean quality to it that that is where they get it from. And if you don't believe me and gone with the wind, her name is Scarlett O'Hara, her father, famously in the scene season, I can't remember the actor,

but he speaks with a thick Irish brogue. Land, land, Casey Scout at land. He's the only thing worth fission for, worth dying for. And then Scarlett vows that you will never be hungry again. By the way, that movie I gotta say entertaining is fuck. And the people who need a disclaimer, this is the problem, you fucking babies. It's 19, 309. Can't you just see by the film stock

that things were very different? Humans are like history in general. We evolve, just celebrate, we're not racist anymore. So if you have to be a grown up, you're a grown up. You have to have a warning. It's a warning about a comedy film. Well, it's not a comedy. No, no, I'm not talking about the win.

I'm talking about just generally, you know, warnings on comedy films where a joke is said, which is clearly a joke, not intended to be remotely offensive to anybody. Right. And even that now needs a warning at the front. In case anybody's offended, what do the things gonna happen with you?

Watch it. What happens to people? I mean, the fact that they're shaking, I mean, the fact that this generation needs a trigger warning at a con-apende, to get through an episode of this. Bill, it's pathetic. It's pathetic. We've become a world, and I've talked about this a lot,

a world where it is now a premium to be a victim. It is celebrated to be weak. You see that great sporting athletes are now making more money and becoming more acclaimed if they quit than if they win. We're becoming essentially. If you're talking about the one who got the twisties, that's not right. Well, I'm actually, is that who you're talking about? Well, I can't remember her name, but you're talking about the one who got the twisties, that's not right.

Well, I'm actually... Is that who you're talking about? Well, I can't remember her name, but... I'm actually not talking about... I was actually talking about she... She did not quit. Well, they drove this... They...

Olympics, that sickness of taking someone as a child and training them like... I mean, you just would know humanity, really. It's just you are this vessel for America winning a medal. And they drove that poor girl to the... To my bile, to my bile. To my bile. Yeah, okay.

So, she, they, I have no doubt that she maxed out to what she was possibly as a human capable of taking. She didn't give up. I wasn't that she you about her on this. Oh, I was actually talking about... Who was queer? Are you talking about as a queer? I was actually talking about Naomi Osaka, the tennis player. I'm telling you. I know less about that.

Naomi Osaka, I know that name. This is the thing for me, where she just quit... She quit in the middle of a tournament. And why? She quit. She came up with a lot of reasons why it was all her mental health and this and the other. She then managed to make a miraculous recovery to do the Olympic flame at the Olympics about two months later.

I watched all this go down. Or just carrying the flame. Yeah. But that doesn't take guts. No, but my point is, if she quit because she couldn't play a match, that's more than the best carrying flame. I don't really agree with you about it. And I'm not sure I completely agree about Simone Bars, because she managed to recover five days later

and take part in a individual competition, having let her teammates compete without her and lose to the Russians. So I don't entirely agree. But my general point about it is this, I think that in both cases and many others at the moment, there is a weird cultural phenomenon going on where it's almost frowned upon to want to be a winner.

Where if you express yourself... They're in a presser. Yes. In some way, if you want to dominate your sport and be a champion and a winner, and do what it takes to win, well, let me finish. We still love winners. Come on, we just had the Super Bowl. We do. We like the winners. They go to Disneyland.

The other losers get to weeping the world. That's true. Okay. But let me, but if you now quit, if you now give up and you just embrace this new phenomenon of, well, I've got mental health issues, whatever the real reason may be, and I'm not doubting sometimes the rest of that, but you get celebrated more than if you win. And I have a problem with that. I think you're all placed in this. And then everybody wants to be a victim after that. Right. No, it is. If you want to know, says, I have a little sniffle

and they go on social media. I want you to feel sorry for me. And I want to be celebrated for my little sniffle. Which means I can't now do my job. And if by the way, if you make me do my job, you're an oppressor who is forcing me to do something against my will. And so this thing starts to spew out. Right, eventually weakness becomes celebrating all the strength.

Right, which is not to say that there aren't real oppressors in the world. Not at all, right. All of the real people suffering from serious mental problems. Right, right, but you are correct. It is a victim culture. It is exalted. And there's something pathetic about it. It is, it's very pathetic.

Well, it's the end of the empire. I'm told that I can't. For example, you talked about a stiff upper lip earlier with the British. Yes. I've always prided myself on having a stiff upper lip. I think it's a thing to actually, to want to aspire to have to be.

And why about your penis? What about your penis? What about how much pride you have? You can't have a stiff lower lip, a bit lighter. But yeah. Come to our part of the podcast. There's some people in the middle. Some people in dropboard. But I feel it's generic to what we're talking about.

I'm extremely relaxed if you want to talk about my lower genitalia, but I'd rather get back if you don't mind in the short term. Yeah. No, I agree with you. No, I just think that we are entering a perilous period of society where weakness is celebrated and the stiff upper lip, which used to be something the Brits were admired for around the world. Sonana miswift.

Right. And we were like, that's a good thing. You know, in times of trouble, the British ability to rise above this, not get over-emotional, not get too down about it. But this is what... But it's just self-down and take on. That's gone now. Now the stiff upper lip is now to be condemned. I am to be condemned for saluting a stiff upper lip.

How dare I be resilient? Well, see, this is not to be Arnold, toying beyond you, but this is what happens to successful civilizations. You become so successful, you become weak. It's happened to wrong. It happens to everybody. You become a feat. You become soft. You become soft.

Soft. You know what you are? You're a Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now, when he kept and well it in the hotel room. And he's like, I've been in this hotel room. Charlie's in the jungle. He's getting stronger every day. And I'm fucking karate chopping this mirror and cutting my hand.

That's us. We're in the hotel room in the mirror and Charlie, but you know, you don't wanna be Charlie in the jungle. You can't blame us for wanting our cushy life, but it just can't seem to stop us from getting so cushy in the moment. We used to admire mental strength and resilience, and now we seem to be moving to a place where to even say that you should want to have that is wrong.

I mean, that is somehow insulting to those who might be mentally weak or who might be, you know, more inclined to be a bit oversensitive or whatever. And then this, you're emoting 24, seven on social media. You know, I have a problem, for example, with the kind of the global social media days where you're told you have to do a certain thing on Twitter or Instagram. And if you don't, virtue signal in that way, then somehow you're identifying yourself, you're a racist, you're this, you're that. If you don't go along with the herd, let's decide that that's what you have to do to prove

that you're not a racist. The one true opinion. And I'm like, this is absolute nonsense. Why should I do that? That's not how I prove. And they all move on a day later, straight back to the way they were before. This is like a momentary, right? I'm not a racist, looking at me, I've done my blanks,

where I'm going to do it. It's kind of like when an actress, every when she does like a part where they have to ugly her up, and that it was like, she was so brave. I'm like, it would be brave if she stayed ugly. But, you know, she's going to be Nicole Kidman again on Monday. They're going to take the big ugly nose off. The fat suit will go out in the dress.

Yes. You know, it, not that acting should be something that's really brave. Anyway, Marines are brave. People, you know, but it's kind of like that, you know? It's just, you're going to go back to being exactly who you are. We're just, I just find myself constantly feeling, what is going on with the world?

Like I just saw in the UK today, there was a thing about the fire service or something that being ordered now to use him, then they're pro-NAS, whatever. I said, okay, we'll find, let's take this to his logical extension because pro-NAS, whatever you want him to be, right? So, if I decided what I'd identify myself as a dickhead, which many people watching this might think, is entirely... You decided what I wanted to find myself as a dickhead,

which many people watching this might think, is entirely... You know why they're gonna think you're a dickhead? Because of the way you said those pronouns. You dismissed it like, and look, I, it's not my generation's thinking that, but I get it that people, you know, so I just feel like I'm not sometimes you don't,

and people, you know, they just, whatever it is, they wanna be that, and it's no skin off my nose. So, don't. And people, you know, they just, whatever it is, they want to be that. And it's no skin off my nose. So don't say it like, they, them, that, because they were just... Let me explain why I feel that way. So I had a debate on the morning show before I left. And it was about the BBC, which is the British Broadcasting Corporation, paid for by taxpayers. You pay a license fee to watch the BBC, $250 a year. Every UK citizen pays $200 a year. They take it lolly out of your paycheck? No, you have to pay it as a license fee.

How many quid? It's $150 a year. Now we're in the pub. What do you think of my pub? Right. So you're a pretty great pub. It's a pub pub. It's a pub, right? It's a bit imagine here, if you paid $155 pounds a year, $200 dollars to watch the British broadcasting company, and they were sending out educational videos in which they said there were 100-plus genders. One of the genders they said existed was astrogender. Astrogender is an affinity with the stars and the moon. I'm very happy if you identify as Agenda. If you bill, walk out today and have an affinity

with the stars and the moon, good luck to you, my friend. However, when I said, okay, so what, so I, I'm a couple of people there. Let me just get this straight, is I my logical thinking person, I think. Does that mean then, that I can basically identify as anything I want? And then he said, absolutely. And I said, and it should be respected. Yes, I said, great. In that case, I'd like to

identify right now as a two-spirit penguin. And there was a long silence. And then the inevitable response was, that's completely offensive. How dare you. I said, your city here just means a hundred genders. I can go out and say I am an affinity as a gender to the stars of the celestial galaxy. But the moment I say I'm a penguin, that apparently is the bar you can't call. Right, I mean, I had a similar feeling. No, it's all bullshit.

Well, here's the thing, in America, weight watchers changed its name to avoid saying the word weight. Which is bullshit. I mean, like KFC, I remember it did it years ago, Kentucky Fried Chicken, because it didn't remind people that our chicken is really probably nuclear waste or something. I'm sure it's not. I don't mean to offend the Kentucky Fried Chicken people.

I'm sure it's wonderful, pure, wonderful food I was just getting. You try to head off the lawsuits where you can. But on weight, for example, right? I'm quite happy to look at myself in the mirror and go, you should lose a bit of timber, as we say in the UK, right? There's a bit of timber. I've had long COVID for eight months, I've been a workout, like I'd like to eat.

Really? Yeah, yeah. Wow, bad, yeah. Wow, when I'm burying the lead here, you had long coverage of eight months. So I got the Delta variant last July. And for eight months, I've got zero smell still. I have probably 20% taste. And I have constant fatigue, which most people

have had long COVID will identify with. It's not like being tired. You're just flat-lined. Any overexertion, any of that. Same time today. Right, yeah, I'm fine now. And yet by potentially overexerting a mid-interview, tomorrow I might be completely whacked.

And it's a fuck about tomorrow. Well, exactly, exactly. Exactly. And it's a very strange thing to have experienced. Just give me another 10 minutes. And then you can fucking die. LAUGHTER LAUGHTER

Give me a minute, no, I just think I did. OK. But it's a weird thing. I know lots of people who've been through the same thing. Not from Omicron, which is a very different variant, and Lachezia and changes all the game. Were you vaccinated before you got it? Yeah, I was double vaccinated, yeah.

And I got my Delta variant. And you still got this sick? Yes, and it's not, it's a weird thing, because you, you know, you appear perfectly normal, but actually anyone who's had it knows what I'm talking about. The assault on your senses and the assault on your body. And he, not to be under a sprain. I mean, Western medicine loves to like divide everything up

into a million different categories and then give everything a name, so long COVID, okay, I'm sure that's a thing, you know, like they'd up to name new diseases, but really it's the same old thing, which is viruses are opportunistic. If your metabolic state is sound, terrain versus germ theory. This is a fundamental argument in science, but even Louis Pasteur, the father of germ theory on his deathbed said, you know, of course, we're not denying that there are germs. He's saying it is the terrain that the germ is in, the analogy being swamps and mosquitoes. Right.

Mosquitos can't breed unless it's in a swamp, right? If you're a swamp, anything can take you down and will. America, the main reason America is such a bad time with this is because we were not in good health to begin with. But if you say that, people like attack you. They attack the... Well, also, you've only got 50-odd percent vaccination that you can't... No, higher than 50 here.

What is it now? It's way higher than 50. In America? Yes, but you know what? We were told it in the end. So higher? I think what it ever it is, I think it's very close to where they said if we had that, we'd be at herd immunity.

And when you combine it with the number of people of Actlee had it, I mean, I think we must have passed herd immunity by now. So there's a saying that certainly would be after a poll of someone with the old stiff upper lip in his background, which is a fate worse than death. That was a concept forever. I mean, it's a meme, or it would have been that they had memes back in the day,

but a fate worse than death. Just the idea that as bad as death is, that we're not for it. There are some things that are even worse. That's completely gone. That, to me, is what this, first of all, it's so scary that they could foment this amount of hysteria, not that COVID wasn't real and couldn't take down anybody.

We don't know everything about it. But, you know, I did a thing recently, I just said, why didn't we focus on what we know? It 75% are people over 65. It kills older people. Well, that's sad, but older people, they're gonna die at some point. I don't want anybody to die ever.

But Earth is a timeshare. We can't all be here at the same time. So I don't want anybody to die ever, but the flu kills people think and then people are in vaccinated, like 99%. All you got to do is get vaccinated and you're not going to die. It's not that hard. And then of course obese is 78% of the deaths and hospitalizations. We know where the areas we should address helping those people. That's not how we do it. Because we are stuck in tribal mindset.

And it's the same in my country as it is here. And the tribal mindset means you cannot change your position dependent on facts. And this is the key problem with what is going wrong with democracies in the UK, the US, many other places too, is that if you start to abandon the ability to change your opinion on things as facts change, what are you left with?

You're left with going back 2,000 years to when we had genuine tribes. You lived in a tribe. Right. And you never came out of your tribe. So everybody in your tribe looked the same, dressed the same, spoke the same, had the same attitudes because they shared it amongst themselves. And then slowly but surely, the tribes began to move out of their own environment and then counted other tribes. And the other tribes, dressed differently, thought differently, had different attitudes. And both tribes, when confronted with this extraordinary moment,

decided the only solution was to kill each other. And we have come now, we're 2,000 years on, we're actually we're 2,000 years back. Oh, yeah. Whether it's Trump or Brexit or coronavirus or vaccines or whatever it is, you feel obliged, not many people feel obliged, to get into their tribe and then they cannot leave it with a darkness of facts.

There's a writer for the Times, which has done so many ridiculous things about COVID, but this David Lee and Hardee's so smart. And he, I think, is much more on our page. And he wrote a great line recently that he studies it. And he said something like, being for a maximum safety has become a core part of what progressives feel is their identity. It's like, I'm a better person than you.

This is my point about... Superior about what I was saying about death. There are things worse than death. If you believe, no, there is nothing worse. And of course, we could stop more deaths if we didn't drive, if we just stayed home, if we just stared at our enables. If you and I never left this ball. And all we do was do this, we'd have about on labels. You and I never left this ball. And all we do is do this.

We'd have about a week or a week. You're in the pub. But it's like, I'm a better person than you, because I am for the maximum safety. And that's a reasonable debate. But I would take this side. I'm not a worse person. I just think life is for the living. You know, to your point about people

or, you know, just post-ease these days, like, yes, there are risks all around. When I see kids, like when I'm kids, 20-somethings, walking alone outside with a mask, I want to punch them. I'm like, you fucking, first of all, moron. You're not going to get it outside, walking alone outside. People in the back, they're like, you fucking first of all moron, you're not gonna get it outside, walking alone outside.

People in cars and the right. Pussy, play the odds. You got the good immune system. By the way, I say this whole thing of following the science. I'm like, go back and watch all the top scientists in the world were saying in March 2020. Fauci was on television saying masks are no good against COVID. But can I just give what I think is the reasonable view on masks.

Some are better than others, one for one. They do stop some and in some instances, like very vulnerable people indoors during a surge, make sense. But the general idea that is in people's minds, that they put there, and this is what they bother me so much about, that the way to fight something like a virus is only externally as opposed to your immune system. You cannot avoid, and you should not even want to avoid, all the germs and the virus. Even if virus is there are in the atmosphere, it's like 10 to the 31.

They're everywhere. It's part of our ecosystem. It actually makes you more unhealthy. To avoid them completely. It's where humans are. Well, look at what's happened with flu globally. But the flu is a massive killer globally every year. And since COVID came along,

very few people have been dying of flu. And that may well change because of the immunity issues that you've talked about as we go forward, and it might be a big problem in years to come. However, you get to a position of not catching flu when you stop touching each other and you stop socializing with each other and you wear masked and you have lockdowns. But who wants to live in that life? Not me. Right? I don't want to.

You don't want to. Now, there was a bunch of doing this with fucking masks. They're doing it ridiculous. Yeah. But I think, but I've evolved. In other words, at the start of all this, where no one knew what the hell we were being hit with and placed it like Italy with the second best health

system in the world were being run over. I was like, OK, well, lockdown to be worked out, what the hell's going on? Before vaccines. That seemed to be a sensible position. Now, that's not a sensible position. Now, you have to, as they say, live with a virus, right? We have to get on with it.

We're not filming that drink. Okay, we're done. And when we're not filming, the drinks are not free. Not made of money at all. Okay. The drinks are not free. Not made of money at all. Okay. That was really a joy, man.

That was nice. Me too. Me too.