Cognitive Dissonance - Episode 483 - Dave Warnock: Dying Out Loud

Episode Date: August 19, 2019

     

This episode of Cognitive Dissonance is brought to you by our patrons. You fucking rock. Be advised that this show is not for children, the faint of heart, or the easily offended. The explicit tag is there for a reason. recording live from glory hole studios in chicago this is cognitive dissonance every episode we blast anyone who gets in our way. We bring critical thinking, skepticism, and irreverence to any topic that makes the news, makes it big, or makes us mad. It's skeptical, it's political, and there is no welcome mat. This is episode 483. Cecil, we are back in the clubhouse, buddy.

Took a couple of weeks off. You guys didn't notice because we're not lazy. Back in the clubhouse. And later today on this show, we are going to have Dave Warnock. He is an ex-evangelical pastor who's turned atheist. And he has a very interesting story to tell. We had a great conversation with him.

We're going to be playing a little later for you. Really interesting guy. Yeah. Like really interesting guy. Especially for being charismatic evangelical. Unlike most our guests. You know, I just hope. You know who you're, it's you.

Yeah. Listen, that's you. Thomas Smith. Yeah. I'm telling you, man, that's the funny thing about Hitler. Just let me finish. Let me work my way through this idea. All right.

So let's go ahead and start with the New York Times story, buddy. Here we go. Can we, first off, I just want to say, does Steve King look like an Oompa Loompa or do Oompa Loompas look like Steve King? Which is, it's a chicken and egg question I have for you

that I can't answer. The only way to know for sure is to give him an opportunity to train squirrels and see how successful he is. If he can corral somebody who has blown up like a balloon,

then yeah, I guess so. I want to hear his sing song singing. That's what I want to hear. I would love to hear a racist Oompa Loompa Steve King song. I bet you he does

a sing song when he makes fun of Japanese people. Like that fucking lady in the trap, like, we are Saiyans. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Just like, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's just so racist. Oh, it's super racist. You watch those old Disney movies? All of them, yeah. And you're just like, how the fuck

did you get away with this? You're not allowed to say that, though, because everybody gets super butthurt when you look back with this? You're not allowed to say that though because everybody gets super butthurt when you look back, when you look back with your modern eye at anything that is even from the 80s

sometimes, you look back on stuff like that and you're like, whoa, date rape. That's crazy. But people get upset. They're like, oh, that's the fucking most gushy, stupid shit I've ever heard. I'm like, no, it's fucking date rape. Like, we don't condone that anymore. And they chuckled about it. I know. It's like, when you it's fucking date rape. Like we don't condone that anymore and they chuckled about it in the 80s.

Like when you watch like old kids cartoons, they're incredibly racist. Oh my God, yeah. They're like jaw-droppingly racist. Tom and Jerry, whenever he- I know, Mammy. The Mammy thing, whenever he gets like, whenever he gets like,

like he'll get blackfaced all the time. Yeah, all the time. And then like that like that that that uh mexican uh mouse that comes out yeah speedy gonzalez or yeah oh my god oh my god what the fuck it's one of those things where like when you watch it now you're looking over your shoulder like you want to hit like close down no i was just watching i was just watching human sedative people that's better that's better than watching a racist cartoon. It is astonishing.

But it's still, for as bad as Dumbo, it's not as bad as Steve King. How is this guy still a representative? I don't get it. I figure at one point, they're just going to make him, they're going to say, he's going to travel back to Iowa eventually.

They're going to strip him down to his underwear, and then they're just going to force him to walk into the cornfield forever. Like he's going to have to walk into the endless cornfield, like the end of an apocalyptic movie where they have to like walk off. The corn like folds around him and he's just gone. That's what I think is going to have to happen to him. I think that's how he leaves office, is that he just,

they force him into an apocalyptic walk into the corn. Malachi comes out and takes his hand to guide him along. Like, come be our leader.

All those little corn goblins are bouncing around. Next, I'm like, hey, hey, hey, hey.

So, holy shit. This is, this is a New York Times headline and I'm going to read what he actually said, right? Steve King asked if there would be any population left without rape and incest.

Okay. Okay. You know what, buddy? He's just asking questions. He sure is. He sure is, Tom. Holy shit. All right.

So let's make sure that we get his words right. So let's find the quote. He says, and this is a video published in the Des Moines Register, which hilariously, by the way, you have to pay for as if you're going to go back to the Des Moines Register more than once in your over fucking life. To be like, I'm glad I subscribed to the Des Moines Register. Now I can follow the bake sale news. Now I subscribed to the Des Moines Register. Now I can follow the

bake sale news. Now I know where the farmer's market is. Oh, the Johnsons are having an estate sale. I thought it still looked a little willowy. What the fuck? Get over your fucking self, Des Moines Register. Oh, Jesus.

Here's what Steve King said out loud and not just in his head. This is amazing. What if we went back through all the family? This is him, by the way. This is him. I don't want this to be attributed. Quote.

All right. Quote. Quote. What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled those people out that were products of rape or incest? Okay. Okay. You know his staffer is like leaning in his ear like, Ixnay on the ape race, Steve.

No rape. We don't use rape. You're looking at the wrong incest porn. Okay. All right, creepo. All right, creepo. All right. Continue.

Quote. Quote, this is not tough. Would there be any population of the world left if we did that? Considering all the wars and all the rapes and pillages that's taken place. I like that rape and pillage in his mind must be the same thing. And whatever happened to culture after society. I don't know what that means. Whatever happened to culture after society.

I know that I can't certify that I'm not a product of that. I would like to say, Steve King, I'm almost certain that you are a product of incest. There's no... First of all, you're from Iowa. Sure. Let's list the facts. Yeah, okay. I'm from Iowa.

From Iowa. That's at least a 30, 35% chance right there. We're going to get so many fan messages. What, from people from Iowa? Six people. What are you going to get us? Two, I'm going to say incest because you don't achieve that kind of color

without mutation. Yeah, that's not a natural color. Absolutely not. He's weirdly corn colored. Yeah, he is. He's like the tassel on the top of the corn. He's like Indian corn, but now it's Native American corn.

Yeah, right. That's racist. Not as racist as Steve King. Nothing's as racist as Steve King. Nothing's as racist as Steve King. You could be dressed like, you could be dressed like as an Asian and screaming, I'm an Oriental right now.

It would be less racist. Do you really rename that theater in Chicago? It's now the Nederlander Theater. Oh, okay. So now instead of the big, like racist, racist gleaming lights that just said Oriental. On the front of it.

It's not Oriental anymore. No, it's the Niederlander Theater. So Steve is saying, what he's saying is he's trying to, in every way, justify taking away a woman's right to choose. Yeah. By stepping over as far as he can

into where I think even most sane people who are very pro-life stand, which is rape and incest. Yeah. There's a general, not perfect, but there's a general like, maybe we should have exceptions for like, if you're like 11 and your dad rapes you right like

maybe that's not a baby that should be born into the world by you you shouldn't have to bear that burden he is not even willing to go there and his justification is like well okay but when there was a war and then war crimes happen yeah and so that was a good thing right yeah he has to be saying that like sure that inherently that's an okay thing, right? He has to be saying that like, sure, that inherently that's an okay thing that happened or that's the thing that yielded a positive result. And as a result of that yield,

it's like, yeah, well, all right, well, we don't want to compound that tragedy with more tragedy. I don't know how this works in his mind. Yeah, I don't either. But I do know that like when you're looking around the world and being like, well, I i mean a lot of people were raped maybe it was your mom you know anyway this is like the most elaborate mom joke i've ever heard in my entire life you're gonna have a fucking problem what are you gonna

do about it i'll fucking ruin you i'll fucking throw you down these stairs like a fucking punk. So you can fucking sue? So you can fucking sue? Take a fucking swing. Watch your fucking hands. Watch your fucking hands. Take a swing. Come on, boy. You want to call me shit?

Call me shit. All right, this is, well, I guess we're just doing this out loud now. There's a comfort to this story. This is from Newsweek. And the comfort is that like, there's no more dog whistling. No.

Now what we're doing, now we're going outside and we're just like, hey, doggy, doggy, doggy, doggy, doggy, doggy, doggy. Yeah, we have a bullhorn now and we're just telling you, by the way, I'm racist. Yeah. So this is unreal.

This is hashtag Cuccinelli resign. It trends on Twitter. Hashtag, huh? Yeah. Trends on Twitter after controversial Statue of Liberty immigration comments. What did he say though, Tom? Like what was it that he said? Oh, you know, we're just such fucking snowflakes.

So here's... During an interview on NPR. So, okay, real quick, in case you don't know who Cuccinelli is and why maybe he's- He's an Italian immigrant, right? Why his thoughts on immigration might have some value is that he's in charge of immigration.

Oh, okay. So he's important. He's important. Yeah, he's a senior cabinet administration official. Does he work his way up from immigrant? Yeah. I wonder, like, do you work your way up from immigrant? Are you like, it's like they only hire from within?

Like, how does this- They actually only hire from without. Yeah, I guess, like, do you work your way up from immigrants? Are you like, it's like you, they only hire from within? Like, how does this? They actually only hire from without. Yeah. I guess that's true. Right. We always hire outside of the company. Okay. So the immigration director, and we're going to outsource that. Don't talk about the irony of it. All right. So during an interview on NPR, he suggested that those lines, the lines, by the way, the poem from the Statue of Liberty say, give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. I want to emphasize the second piece of that, your poor. And I want you to think, pause. And your is not Y-O-U apostrophe. You are poor. He said, he says those lines should be rewritten to say, give me your tired and your poor

who can stand on their own two feet and it will not become a public charge. Fucking welfare queens. Oh my God. You fucking welfare queens. Get out of here.

He seriously is just saying, he's saying that that refers, and in other articles he said, that refers specifically to people of European descent descent you know he said out loud he said out loud like okay first those were white people that we were welcoming and the poor white people that we were welcoming were definitely poor but they were the kind of poor that will um shut the fuck up and take it yeah and pull themselves up by the bootstraps without

causing people who aren't poor to have to kick a little extra into the kitty so they don't die. Even though that's just not true. It's just false. Not that half. Blatantly false. It's so funny because if you just look at the history of European immigration in this country and you look at the history of

how the Irish were treated and how poorly the Irish were treated. The Italians too. Italians were treated. Yeah. And how poorly the Irish were treated. Yeah, the Italians too. Italians were treated. Like, it's an atrocity the way that those people were treated. And it's not like poor Irish and poor Italian people, you know,

and poor people from all over the world that came to us. Suddenly they showed up and they're like, well, here I am, governor. And anyway, I don't need a thing from you. Ha ha ha. Yeah. Like, they came here because they wanted to benefit

from the infrastructure. Yeah, that's exactly it. Economic, educational, and social that America has. Otherwise there'd be no reason to come here. Why go anywhere? Why go anywhere? If it's a hundred percent perfect where you're at, you don't leave.

There's no reason to leave. If you're living your best life in somewhere else. The king of Prussia is not immigrating here, right? If you're living your best life in somewhere else. The king of Prussia is not immigrating here, right? If you're living your best life, you're not coming here. But if you are in dire straits, you may think it's better than here. It's going to be better than here, so I need to go somewhere

else. I need to try it somewhere else. And that's what they did. That's what they did back then, and that's what they're still doing today. And they would choose America in order to leverage the things that America has to offer to immigrants, right? And for the longest time, America was welcoming to immigrants because we understood out loud and everything. We understood that a certain amount of immigrant culture coming in provided us with cheap fucking labor. We. Like we knew that we needed it.

It still does. It still does. Still does. But we're less honest about it. Right. We've said this in the show like a hundred times, but it just bears repeating. Like we are a country that has always built itself on the backs of free or

cheap, but generally exploited immigrant labor, right? Whether we brought that labor in against their will in the forms of African slaves, whether we brought that, that, that immigrant labor in of their own in the forms of African slaves, whether we brought that immigrant labor in of their own free will and then took advantage of them. Read here the Chinese, the Irish, the Italian, the Hispanics, which we've always done. We've never had a functioning

economy that didn't require cheap, exploited immigrant labor. And if you think we have that now, if you think that all we could do is wave a fucking magic wand and send back all the illegal immigrants and all the cheap labor that illegal immigrants provide and that our economy would not collapse and that the cost of all of your goods and your services wouldn't skyrocket to the fucking moon, you're lying to yourself and you don't know how numbers work and you should be embarrassed to wake up. Now, you know, for example, this last week, ICE did raids on a bunch of like a factory farms. I think it was where they went after. And they got 600 people, 300 of which were released. So they got 600 people and they just grabbed everybody. Brown doesn't matter.

Then they had to prove that they weren't, right? So they grabbed everybody and then you have to prove that you are a citizen, right? And so then they let several of these people go. But you know who wasn't walked away in handcuffs? The owners of those corporations, right? We didn't care about those people. We only cared about the people

who were being fucked by those corporations. I guarantee you, I guarantee. So they're getting paid under the table. They're getting paid less than minimum wage. They're getting paid, you know, they're forced to live in shitty conditions in, you know, trailers with dozens of other people. They have to work long, shitty hours

in horrible, horrible, horrible conditions. I mean, like conditions that nobody will work in. And it's proven because they started posting those jobs and no one's taking them. Yeah, well, and look, these people pay taxes. Don't pretend that they don't pay taxes, right? Because they're using their money. They're spending their money.

They're paying sales tax. They earn less, they spend more. It's, what the fuck? Yeah. What the fuck? They can't, not only are they not paying taxes and they are providing money and moving money into the economy.

And yes, they do send some money home, but they still have to pay for food and housing and shit to live. But they can't leverage most of the welfare services. They can't get social security. They can't go get food stamps. Right.

People who think that they can are fucking nuts. You people are fucking nuts. It's not a thing that happens. That's not how it works. There are so many studies about the net benefit to our economy that illegal immigrants provide. Not legal immigrants, illegal immigrants. They provide a strong net benefit to the economy of the United States, we need them. Yeah. We need them. What we should be doing is having porous borders that allow for people to come here, work, and then go home. Right. The reason that we have, part of the reason that we have the massive immigration problem we have is that we close the borders. It means people have to sneak over here to earn money, and then they're afraid to move back to where they fucking wanted to live in the first place. Because they're migratory. Yeah. Right. Instead of, yeah. Instead of immigrants.

Right. Right. It's fucking bullshit, but we're saying out loud, our administration is saying out loud, it's for white people. It's for white people. It's white people,

white people only. The fuck? Yeah. The fuck? This is from newshub.co.nz. This is all over too. This was in a couple of different places. Russian priest suspended for violently baptizing baby blames mother for not being religious enough.

It's your fault. I'll tell you what, this baby, he's got to be a relative of James Bond because he was shaking ants. He's just like... This baby was getting fucking baptized today. This is like trying to fucking bathe a cat. I'll tell you what,

he shook the shit out of this kid and he's dunking this kid and this kid does not want to be in there and he keeps on moving and the guys keep shaking him and spinning him around and the mom jumps in to try to save this kid. It's like,

there's got to be this primalness when somebody's fucking with your kid, right? I don't know what that feels like, but I'll tell you what, like, I can empathize in some way. She's jumping in to try to save her child from this fucking beast who is literally trying to manipulate hurt. Like, you know, you could just see, like, it's one of those people who just, like, they're the type of person who, when you're not looking, will dig their fingernails into a kid just to make it cry. That's what it feels like. They feel like a sadistic fucker. And that's what they are.

They're just a sadistic, shitty person. It's unbelievable. Like the mom, they want baptism. She's like, I want to save this kid. And then she has to save this kid from the saving. Exactly. It's a fucking inception. Like, we don't know if the top is spinning,

if the baby's still crying. It's a whole thing. If you let go of that baby, it would spin like a dreidel. That baby was spinning and flipping around. She did not want to go in that water. This guy was like, I am, you fucking paid me $11.95

to baptize this fucking baby. And I'm going to dunk this. That little kid was fighting like a marlin. I admired the kid. I was like, get it. Yeah. Fucking get it yeah fucking get it absolutely

fucking get it yeah that kid was jumping around and trying to wiggle worm its way out of there as much as it could and the priest was you could just see him

getting he's getting madder and madder and madder and it's like that's not your profession dude if that's if you're like a guy who has to deal with kids

and you can't deal with a fucking one ornery kid that ain't your job you shouldn't be doing that job. We've watched videos of like these Russian Orthodox baptisms before. And they have this like weird need to like juggle a baby. Like this whole like flip up in the air, like bring it up overhead,

like fucking Spuds McKenzie or whatever. Absolutely, yeah. And like kaproo. Like, is that a slam dunking thing? Spuds McKenzie? Yeah. Spuds McKenzie was whatever. Yeah. And like, kaproo, like, is that a slam dunking thing? Spuds McKenzie? Yeah. No, that was a dog.

Spuds McKenzie was a dog. Who was the- Spuds Webb. Spuds Webb. Oh, that's all. They're all the same guy. And he was a little guy.

Yeah. But he dunked the basketball, He did dunk, but he was like 5'4", or something like that. Was he really? He was a little guy. Now I got to look up

how tall Spuds Webb was because I'm going to be, I'm now going to- I knew it was a Spud of some kind and not a potato. 5'7". 5'7".

5'7", he could dunk. I wonder, though, if these Russian Orthodox, I wonder if, like, they're just so used to the hardest life ever. That's true, right? That they're just like, this baby has to learn hardship. Look, it's not good to have a weak baby. This baby has not even made fights yet. Baby must be strong.

Might meet bear. Who knows? Look, I am using radioactive water for to make baby strong. You should be thanked. You baptize in Chernobyl. The following is an advertisement for Citation Needed Live in NYC.

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No! Please go to citationpod.com for more information. Thank you. And now back to our regularly scheduled program. I forgot about Rick Wiles. You know, like, we haven't had him on in a while, and I forgot how much he hates the Jews. He hates the Jews so much.

Every time he comes on, I want to do a Adobe After Effects on every video that puts a little mustache on him that just masks and follows him around because Jesus Christ this guy hates the Jews. He hates the Jews. He hates the Jews so much.

He could win six million prizes. That's how much he hates the Jews. He's like the so much. Like, he could win six million prizes. That's how much he is. He's like the six million Jew man. So this is Rick Wiles goes on anti-Semitic rant over The Hunt, which is a movie. And this is amazing. You would think he would hate Jumanji more. Jumanji? It's time to shut down Jewish Hollywood.

They're talking about... There we go. shut down Jewish Hollywood. They're talking about... There we go. Wait, Jewish Hollywood? What is Jewish Hollywood? Just Hollywood. The rest of us just call it Hollywood. Yeah, the rest of us just call it Hollywood. Is this guy going to get a bad bagel at some point in his life?

Like, what happened to him? He just must have got, you know, he's like, he asked for the schmear and he didn't get it. And now he's super mad. He got like food poisoning from bad locks or something. I don't know what happened to him. He, and it's funny too

because there's another video we won't get to this week where he's like, like clearly sympathetic to the Palestinians. Right? So there's, or he's clear,

which again seems really out of character because don't these people. For the evangelicals? Yeah. Yeah. Seems like they hate Muslims more than anything.

But he hates Jews more than anything. They're like, yeah. So he's a weird, like evangelical supervillain. Maybe he got like secret, like circumcised. Like he just wasn't expecting it. Yeah, okay.

Like a surprise circumcision. What the fuck? Surprise circumcision, that's not a good. Like a fucking ninja Jew circumcision. That ain't good. They're talking about murdering conservative Christian rural citizens. good they're talking about murdering conservative christian rural okay how are they in this country that's no joke the jews of hollywood spent tens of millions of dollars to produce that movie

okay he's talking about the movie the hunt did you watch a trailer for this i've not seen i read about it so i watched the trailer is it? Because it's not going to be released. I heard it's not getting released. Really? Yeah, they suspended the release of the movie because of all the controversy around it.

Wait, really? Yeah, you can't see it. It's not coming out. You're kidding. No. It doesn't seem like it's very controversial at all. Yeah, as I understood it,

it's a movie about liberal elites rounding up right-wingers and then hunting them for sport. Yeah. Okay. Am I mistaken? That's them for sport. Yeah. Okay. Am I mistaken? That's what I read.

Yeah, I mean, they look like, they're all from the far south. Okay. So it's rounding them up. But here's what I saw when I saw it. When I saw the,

first off, it seems like a Seagal movie with a little more gore. That's what it feels like to me. Let an ex get broken? It feels, well, the main character is, they let it play out in the trailer. The main character is a woman,

and the woman is like, they fucked with the wrong girl. And she's like an ex-military. Like every time Seagal was like a chef on a ship, he was like, he happened to be like a top CIA agent for 20 years. I was in SEAL Team Six and now I peel potatoes. Now I'm on a chef on a cruise line,

but that's okay because I could take care of every single, you know what I mean? Like that's what it feels like. It feels like they fuck with the wrong person now. And it's a woman. The woman is the main character. And I watched it and I didn't get liberal elites from it. When I saw the trailer,

liberal elites didn't pop. It just seemed like they were rich people, right? Okay. Ultra rich people who owned an island like a Jeffrey Epstein type thing. And instead of raping people on it, which is what a normal person would do,

you... You... It's gonna be like that one listener who's got an island and he's just like hey fuck you oh no okay oh no yeah hold on i gotta stop ranting before i finish this email but they're they're murdering people on it so like it's like their own country so they're

allowed to do whatever they want and then they they drop these or drop these people in and they they kill them they hunt them for sport like the most dangerous game right so it's like the most dangerous game and so from what I saw from it, it didn't feel like liberal elites. But the other thing that comes out in this is that like the people hunting people for sport, they're not the heroes of this movie. When you see this movie,

you're like, that's not a person you're going to like be like, oh man, I wish I was on that other side that was sadistically killing people and hunting them. Nobody has that thought. Hold on, because I would rather be on that side than the side getting thought. Hold on. Because I would rather be on that side than the side getting hunted. Admittedly, I'd rather be on that side, but I wouldn't choose

to be on that side. If I had to choose... I would choose to be on the side of the hunter versus the hunter. If I had to choose, I would. Right. But I wouldn't choose it out of all the other things to do in the world. That's true. If it was like go to an ice cream social or hunt MAGA hat people. Don't. You pause so long. I would to an ice cream social or hunt MAGA hat people. Don't.

You pause so long. I would get the ice cream first. You're just eating ice cream watching people get explodinated. Here's the thing. It doesn't feel like it's not like they're playing it off to be like, oh man, this is good shit.

We should do that. Instead, he's like, he's freaking out about it. Like the purge is real. Yeah. I actually heard like the story is a right wing propaganda piece, right? Because it paints left wing liberal elites as murderers. I love it. It's like, we're the ones who want to get rid of the guns. Right.

I know. It doesn't even make any sense. I love that too because it's like, oh, the dystopian world of the liberals. And you're know. It doesn't make any sense. I love that too because it's like, oh, the dystopian world of the liberals. You're just like, these people have health care. There's no more guns.

Okay, well, maybe what we could do instead is they hunt us in the woods for fun. I think it would be amazing to do a spoof of this movie where all the liberal elites are like,

they're looking at a gun and being like, how does this work, Jeeves? They don't actually know how to shoot it because they never shot a gun before. elites are like, they're looking at a gun and being like, how does this work, Chiefs? They don't actually know how to shoot it because they never shot a gun before. They're like,

every time it explodes, like, you fire it. You fire it, Chiefs. Yeah, I just think it'd be hilarious. Where's the manual? I haven't read the whole manual.

It'd be hilarious to spoof this movie. This is not a joke. This isn't satire. It is a jokeire it's literally satirical get ready to kill conservatives oh my god i don't know what to say to you but they but the conservatives win in the end like you can like the the trailer clearly shows that the conservatives are going to win like the trailer just the trailer i didn't see the movie you can't see the movie whatever you're never going to see the movie but like in the trailer itself i watched the trailer was like

yeah no you know who's gonna win it's gonna be the hillbilly girl well fucking of course it is if you take hillbillies and put them in the woods and you take like good people and put them in the woods but like there's like there's like a phd in anthropology chasing people around. Some guy's like, oh my God, my tweed. You know, I'm like that guy versus somebody who like lives without central heating all dear. Could you imagine? They're like screaming for a barista in the middle of the woods. You made me spill my macchiato, you son of a bitch.

They're trying to get an Uber Black to pick them up in the middle of the... Where's my Uber Black at? I need to get out of these woods. They're like, I'm going to set it to cold, no conversation because I am very upset.

Okay, wait. My camouflage isn't here and I shipped this Amazon one day. It's supposed to be here and it's not... They're looking for the drone to drop it off for them. Jesus, they got like one of those,

like they're like carrying around like a box fan with a solar generator, just holding it up to their face. Meanwhile, the hillbilly's like, I done shopped in the stitch. There's a hillbilly fucking a gator in the fucking bush. You people anymore. I've been trying to warn the people what's coming i've been

trying for years and i'm i'm being as open as i can the jews are plotting a jacobin revolution a jacobin revolution oh my god oh man a jackalope revolution that's amazing i love what a tiny tiny minority of people is somehow going to like, a violent uprising of the Jews. You'd be like, okay, like, I was in my 30s when I met my first Jewish person. I know.

Like, my buddy Rob was the first Jewish person I ever met. Like, I live in the suburbs. Like, they're just like, Jews? Well, I'm not in the North Shore. What the fuck?

I know like five Jews. Yeah, I know. Like, as like a more grown up, grown up, it's like a handful. I know like five or six. No, you know, I know a few from the show too. I know a couple that have

contacted us through the show. So I've met them at ReasonCon and things like that. So I know a couple of Jews. Like on a percentage basis, the group of people I'm most worried about is not the Jews.

I know, right? Like I think if like you lined up all the Jews I know versus me, I'd be okay. I wasn't thinking like, I could fight all those Jews at the same time. That's what I was just saying.

Like you line them up. It's like, it's like Eli Bosnick, Rob, and I'm just like, I'll fuck those two guys up. Like, I'll fuck them up. In this country, if that hasn't convinced you, what it take next year when they're shooting

you are you going to say oh you know like the white supremacists are now currently yeah right like when like recently i went on vacation and two mass shootings happened while i was gone okay well maybe that's on you and one of them was like clearly linked to white supremacy where a guy was like talking about he was another 8chan dude. Yep. Where they had to shut, they wound up cutting, did they ever turn 8chan back on?

Do you know? I don't know. Because I know they cut it off because they couldn't get, like their security went down. Yeah, one of their technology support, infrastructure, they decided not to play with them anymore.

And I listened to an interview with a guy who co-created it. Yeah. And he was like, this shit needs to go. It needs to get shut down. It's just getting too nuts. He's like, this shit is toxic. This is not what I was trying. Yeah. There's no more, we can't have a place where people have unlimited freedom of speech like this because what happens is, is people fucking post their manifestos and go murder people. When it amplifies those, those kinds of places amplify the worst voices. Yeah.

In artificial ways. And then you get people who go there and then they just get indoctrinated into it and then they go buy a gun and then they shoot a bunch of people up. Well, I mean, how do they buy a gun with all the restrictions

on gun purchasing we have? They told us. They told us they were going to do this. This is a Jacobin revolution. Is everything that we make a movie about a declaration of what we're going to do? Because I'm excited for when we build giant robots to fight sea creatures.

I'm just looking forward to fucking Nicole Kidman. I'm just talking about you. In front of Tom Cruise. Hard eye contact, Tom. Hard eye contact. This one's for you. It is the french revolution which is coming to america very very soon and it'll be the american revolution no we had that then it'll be a different it'll be the juvolution when it comes to america it'll be addy murphy

and rich powerful jews are telling you to your face we're going to hunt you down oh my god are you kidding me we said doc yeah and and and i i mean like every single thing though is a declaration like you say like every movie is a declaration every single one so like once thanos does collect the infinity stones and snaps his fingers we're fucked. I love too the idea that like, you're just going to broadcast your horror. Hey guys, what I'm going to do, I'm going to break into your house on Thursday at about 4.30.

Just want you to know, 4.30 Thursday, I'm breaking into your house. I'll send you a calendar invite. What the fuck are you talking about? And afterwards, I'll send you a thank you. They'll make sure that the Trump voters

never do it again. Right. Never do what again? Vote for Trump, I guess. Go hang out in the woods? I don't know what. I've been mocked for years for warning that this revolution is coming. I didn't make that movie.

The Jews in Hollywood made that movie. What is this guy? What is this guy? What is this guy? Who is listening? Oh, wait. Other anti-Semites. Could you imagine? Rampant anti-Semites.

You're sitting there. You're just like this evangelical. You're just like suddenly getting more and more uncomfortable as he's talking about the Jews. Right. You're just like, I don't know. I don't know about any of that stuff. I was with you with the God stuff, but the Jew stuff is kind of making me a little worried. I can't remember if we're supposed to hate them or support

Israel. I don't know. Very confused. Anyway, Rick, what? It wasn't made by Presbyterians. It wasn't made by Roman Catholics. Okay, to be fair, Presbyterians have never made anything worth watching. Yeah, and Roman Catholics make the Jesus

Chainsaw Massacre. And that's not worth watching either. And they make little boys weep. It was made by Methodists. It was made by elite rich Jews who hate Christians. And that's what all those hillbillies were in that they were all Christians. You could tell. I love how like he hates them for hating him. Yeah.

Right? He does. He hates me so much. He does. That I hate them. That I hate them back. I hate them for hating him. Yeah. Right? He does. They hate me so much. He does. That I hate them. That I hate them back. I hate them back double hard. You ever get like mad at somebody

just because they're mad at you? Like it's like, that's like my fucking stupid body go-to. Like somebody gets mad at me and my body's like, well, we're mad too. And it's like, okay, body,

calm down and let's think this through. My body's like, no, someone's mad at us. We're madder than them. That's the same thing. This is your stupid adrenal gland response. It is exactly that.

It is exactly that. It's just like, fight or flight. We should fight now. And then you wake up in the morning the next day and you're like, God, I was such an idiot. What is wrong with me? Exactly. You're never like, that went well.

The moment you think about it, you're like, gosh, I don't really hate the Jews. So we are joined by Dave Warnock, a very humble guy, by the way. He's just a humble guy. Just a humble guy. The humblest. The humblest guy, as he just said right now. You know, the only thing he couldn't decide was whether his humility or his extra humility was the most important part of who he was. It was tough.

My biggest fault is that I'm so humble. It's a huge hurdle for you, Dave. Dave, welcome to Cognitive Dissonance. We wanted to talk to you tonight. And, you know, some people might not know who you are. So let's just start. Tell us about yourself, Dave. Okay.

I am a former evangelical, charismatic Christian for over 35 years. All right, I got a question. Oh, shit. Were you a huge Mike Huckabee fan during that time? You know what? I grew up in Arkansas, and he was the governor of Arkansas at the time. And even when I was a Christian, I thought he was full of shit.

Okay, all right. You seem friendly. I don't know about charismatic yet Well, charismatic Charismatic just simply means I spoke in tongues Wait, is that what that Because I was actually going to poke at that I don't know the difference between evangelical and charismatic That's where you hoobadooba-do

Charismatic means you're a spiritual Christian Religious scatting is the best Yeah, I can speak in tongues Can you scat for me? You want me is the best. Yeah. I can still speak in tongues. Can you scat for me? You want me to really? Yeah, I really, I want to hear it. I've never.

Will this be the first time anyone has spoken in tongues on your show? I'm so excited. My pants are already on. Got a little witty there, guys. Oh my God. All right.

Yeah. Oh my God. That's the best thing I've ever heard. That's the most tongue-in-cheek at the glory hole. You need to take the mic off of that thing and drop it right now. Oh my God. That's amazing. The Holy Spirit just entered the room. Oh my God. The Holy Spirit just entered my mouth. That was fucking amazing. We're off to a good start, aren't we?

How did you learn to do that? I know we have important things to talk about. Well, you know what? Back in the day, I thought it was the power of the Holy Spirit. But I look back now and I realize I just trained my brain and my mind to speak gibberish. You know, the brain can do anything. You know that. You can teach your brain to do anything.

We're nothing but trained monkeys. So you heard, there had to be a point where you didn't speak in gibberish. And then you had to go do it. You had to do it for the first time. Were you nervous to gibberize? No, I got saved. That's the nomenclature for evangelical Christianity. You're born again, you're saved.

And I got saved and baptized with the Holy Spirit the same night on December 26, 1973. So I spoke in tongues right out of the gate. Wow. So I was full of the power of the Holy Spirit. I believed that Jesus could heal and do miracles and we could prophesy and have words of knowledge, all this stuff. So you were, how long? So 73 until when?

Until about, let's say, 2011 is about when I let go of everything. Oh my gosh. So that whole time you thought the Himani Hamana, Humana Hamana was doing something? It was a spiritual language. We were taught that the gift of tongues was a spiritual language, which you prayed. It was like a prayer language, we called it. And we spoke to God in a heavenly language.

And he understood us and no one else did. And we had this secret pipeline to God. Did you think you understood what it meant? No, no, no, no. I love that. You're like, maybe I asked for a smaller dick. I have no idea. No, no.

The Holy Spirit would never have played that trick on me. He would have only had me ask for a smaller dick. I have no idea. No, no. The Holy Spirit would never have done, would have played that trick on me. He would have only had me ask for a bigger dick. I mean, at some point, it's only bigger. You know what I mean? Well, I had a big one to begin with, so I wouldn't have asked for that. That would have been too much.

You are a humble guy. So tell us what it's like to grow up as a charismatic evangelical. Yeah, I'm real quick. Well, actually, I grew up in a non-religious home. Wait, what? I got saved at the age of 18 during the height of what's known as the Jesus movement, which followed the hippie movement. And it was basically hippies getting saved.

And it was kind of a movement into the churches. getting saved. And it was kind of a movement into the churches. The charismatic movement, if you look back, was just people in mainland churches and off the street getting baptized in the Holy Spirit and getting saved and radically saved where you go from one day being lost and maybe on drugs or whatever.

And the next day you're in tune with God and you're preaching. I did street preaching and coffee house ministry, all this stuff. How the fuck does that happen? Are one it's, it's, it's,

it's a miracle. Yeah. It's a miracle. Come on, man. It's just a miracle. How does it really happen though? Like one day you're,

you're not saved and you're not speaking in gibberish and, and then it's the next morning. You're just, you're just like, Oh man, I bet all that stuff's true. I did. I really did. I went from darkness to light. How did that work? Well, you know, it's just that back in that world, you were told that you were lost and that you needed a savior. And so, you know, without him, you don't have any hope for life, much less eternity. And you just give your life over to Him. And that's what I did. It was, I was all in. I didn't tiptoe

into the pool. I jumped in. But you didn't grow up that way. That's what I'm trying to understand is you didn't grow up that way. So how did, who sold you that idea? My older brother got saved before I did. And so he influenced me and I've, you know, he convinced me I was lost and needed a savior. And here's the deal. I was a very, uh, right out of high school and I had, I didn't have good, good, um, direction in life. I was vulnerable, uncertain. There was a lot of fear about what my future would be. And, you know, when people come along and tell you, here's the answer, just follow this book and follow this guy and you'll be okay. That sounded pretty appealing to me. Yeah, sure. Was there a war going on then? Was it, or was it the end? It was the

tail end of the Vietnam War. Tail end of Vietnam. Yeah. Tail end of Vietnam. Yeah. There was a lot of unrest in the country back then. You guys are much younger, so you don't know, but, you know, I grew up in the sixties and seventies and I remember the unrest in this country, assassinations in Vietnam and civil... Yeah, things are a lot calmer now. Yeah, we have a guy in office right now who's, you know, pretty much the best. Make America great again, by God, yes. No, you know, these days are really the craziest and most, there's more unrest today than any time since that time.

It's kind of, we've kind of regressed back to that so all right so you're you're it's 1973 your your brother kind of showed you the way and the truth and the light and all that and all that you're speaking in snakes or however that works and now 30 years goes by and you become a you become a preacher right like a full bread like like doing all kinds of like, and the charismatics, are they big groups? Are you doing like mega church stuff? Or is it like smaller?

There weren't mega churches back then. Back when in that day and time, there were only what we called mainline churches and there weren't charismatic churches or mega churches. They were just churches. And so as the movement spread and more of us became that, then the churches grew. And yeah, I became a pastor and I did youth ministry,

music ministry. I did preaching, teaching, marrying, burying, all this stuff. Wow. So you do that for a lot of years. You do that for- Yeah, about 35, 36 years. And then... Was that your paying job?

At times it was. I was on staff at a church. Other times I was doing it as a lay minister and had business of my own. So I had kind of a hodgepodge career. And so then take us to 2011. Yeah, I'm real curious. Did your brother knock on your door?

It's all bullshit! Dave, I'm really sorry, man. No, he's really upset with where I am now, actually. Oh, I'm sorry. He's concerned that I'm being influenced by demonic activity and that I'm being deceived by the devil and that I'm running from God. And he's tried several times to persuade me to come back to the faith. And so, no, most of my family is still evangelical Christians.

And so about 2009, I started to really, for the first time, really investigate the claims of faith and investigate the origins of the Bible, the origins of Christianity. And did a really thorough examination where I asked all the questions and read books that I wasn't supposed to read. And I, you know, over a course of about two years of study and thought and reflection, I really came to the very painful conclusion that it was all bullshit and that I'd been fooled. And I was pissed and I was sad and I was disoriented. And I did not know a single person on the planet that had been through that. I felt very alone. And so it took me another couple of years

to begin to find community and find people that were like-minded that had been through similar things. Now I'm surrounded by a huge community of people, both locally and internationally, who I'm in constant contact with. And we've all been through the same thing. It's quite a movement going on now with people leaving the faith and some really high

profile Christians have come out saying that they no longer are Christians. And so there's kind of a sweep, you know, kind of back then it was a sweeping into the faith and now it's a sweeping out. A sweep, you know, kind of back then it was a sweeping into the faith and now it's a sweeping out. So I want to ask you about the 2009 moment. So I really am curious, what pushed you to begin that investigation? Like what prompted that part of your life? Because I'm curious what that transition was like. Well, it's really a longer period of time than that. Over the years, as a Christian,

there are always things that don't make sense and questions that don't have answers and doubts that arise and you shove them down and you push them aside and you go on about your business and it's kind of like a whack-a-mole. You shove that one down, another one pops up and after a while, it becomes exhausting

trying to keep shoving those things down. And that's what most people that have experienced this will tell you is that it's just a series of small cuts. And it's an accumulation of things where in 2009, I was on staff at a church. I was preaching in a congregation. I was preaching every day and it was a mega church and I was pastoring a satellite congregation

and I got sideways with the pastor. He was a real megalomaniac and narcissistic and manipulative and controlling. Okay, you say those things like they're bad things. And also, so a pastor then, right? Yeah. Wait, the mega church pastor had what traits exactly? Yeah, all those things.

How many people in a bathroom did he tap feet with? Like, that's my... Well, you know, I'm still waiting for that to come out, where he's caught in a bathroom with some dick in his mouth, but that hasn't happened yet. But no, he and I got sideways, and he fired me for the sin of independence. What?

What? No? Yeah, because I wasn't towing the line and being submissive enough, kissing his ass enough, basically. Okay, all right. And so I, at that point- It would have been really ironic if he fired you on July 4th. That would have been very ironic. It was, at that time-

You're supposed to bite the pillow and take it. I've got three adult children, and my two daughters are married to men who, at that in the church I was in were like student interns. They were being groomed for pastoral roles. And this guy really turned them against me, essentially, where they, when I was fired from the church, they essentially shunned me. Your kids did? My daughters did, yeah. My son didn't. And so that began a process in me of really crying out to God, saying, God, where are you? I need help here. I've been doing your will and serving you, and here I've lost my kids, and I don't know what to do.

And where are you, and how come you're not helping me? And, you know, I know people will say that, yeah, wah, wah, you just didn't get what you wanted from God, and that's why you left. It wasn't that. I still believed in God for another two years after that, and I went to another church and did all the things I've always done. But in the course of time, I started really questioning, why aren't you showing up, God? And the realization I came to is He's not showing up because He's not there, and He's not answering me because he can't, because he's not there. And that was this dark realization of he's not there and he's never been there. And it was very disorienting. It was sad. I didn't like, I was trying to hang on to my faith. And it's not like I woke up one day and said, fuck you, God, I'm out of here. It was like, come on, man. And it just,

he wasn't there. And so that was a very disorienting time for me. And like I said, over the next year or two, I started finding other Christians, other pastors who'd been through that. I found a thing called the Clergy Project, which is an online forum for professional clergy who have no longer, they no longer believe in God. And so I started connecting with people from that group and started talking to them and realizing I wasn't crazy. I'm not alone here. There's other people that have experienced this. And so I started forming the community that I lacked, that I missed. And that's the thing about ex-Christians is that they don't miss the dogma and the judgment.

They miss the community. Yeah, yeah. That's a big thing. Hey, I have a couple of questions for you. So I was thinking about your deconversion and how painful it sounds. It sounds terrible. I didn't have to have a deconversion

because I wasn't religious. Right, right. But every time it's described, especially if you've dedicated so many lives, so many years of your life to mentoring and pastoring. And I have to imagine that throughout the course of all those 35 years, at certain moments of your life, you understood those moments through a lens of faith. Absolutely. And then you have to look back after your faith is gone and reinterpret those same moments, those same

memories. And I guess I'd just like to ask you about like, what moments of your life have you had to reinterpret now looking back and thinking, that's not how that happened? Or how did that, can you expound on that? It's like speaking in tongues or prayer. That's one example where you look back and you think, all these years I was praying and it was a one-way conversation. It'd be like you and I talking on the phone and I talk to you and then I just have to wait. And I imagine what you're saying back to me, but I don't really hear it. And so that's kind of the way prayer was. We imagine that God's speaking back to us or answering the prayers,

but we don't really see that happen. And we just kind of have to make it up on our own. When people say they're praying for you, what they're really meaning is that they're thinking of you. Because God doesn't talk back. That's the reality. But in the midst of that, you think he is. And you think that you're hearing this. And so the thoughts that you have, you think, oh, they're from God.

Okay, thank you, Lord. And you go on down the road, and you realize, looking back, I realize that was a one-way conversation. He never spoke back because he can't because he's not there. So what was the most difficult thing to let go of? The sense of knowing, the sense of feeling like you've got the answers. And that's what evangelicalism is. It's the certainty that you have the right viewpoint in life. You have the answers about everything from eternity to who should marry who. And so all of the things in life are interpreted through that lens. And I you know, I'm on kind of a tour

of late doing podcasts and speaking and doing all kinds of things. And I'm really speaking out against the harmful parts of evangelical Christianity. I don't, I'm not against all Christianity because a lot of people who claim to be Christians, they just kind of have a live and let live mentality. You know, I believe a certain thing and I don't really care what you believe, but evangelicals aren't satisfied with that. They believe a certain thing and they want everyone to agree with them and they will judge them and shame them and try to persuade them to think that way. And I'm against that because it's us against- Well, sure, but they're right. I mean, they'll tell you all about it. That's the thing. See, I'm against that certainty. I'm against that dogma. And on the other hand,

I'm also not in favor of certainty from this side saying, well, there's no God and I'm certain of that. No, that's just as bad. It's more helpful to say, I don't think there is. I don't believe in one. I don't see enough evidence to convince me that there is. So I'm essentially an atheist. But if you bring me the evidence, then I'll look at it. So it's 2011 and you realize, holy shit, it was, the call was coming from inside the house. Yeah. And did you, did you eventually,

cause you said you started looking for community. Did you eventually find one? Yeah, we, Cass, who was just on the phone And did you eventually, because you said you started looking for community, did you eventually find one? Yeah. Cass, who was just on the phone, was one of the first guys I connected with through the clergy project. And we realized we lived 30 minutes away from each other. Now I live here in their home with them since the diagnosis. But I started finding people who'd been through similar things, and they became my people. people who'd been through similar things. And they became my people. They became my family,

my community, because we had this commonality that we could rally around and understand each other. And the reality is that atheists who've never been Christians really can't relate to the kind of things that we dealt with. There's a lot of trauma involved. There's a lot of family discord. There's a lot of broken marriages, mine included, that are caused by the disconnect between different worldviews that people have. I know people personally who are not out. We use the same terminology that LGBTs do, is that they're secret atheists.

Their family doesn't know that they no longer believe because they don't want to deal with the fallout, which can be extreme, as in my own case. So they just go to church. No, they don't. You know, here's the deal. There's a lot of Christians out there now who claim the Christian faith, but they don't go to church anymore. Oh my God, I'm so tired of that, they say, but I still believe, you know, so that they hang on to this, this notion of Christianity, but they don't live any differently than you and I do. That's the funny part of this. It's like Donald Trump claiming to be a Christian. What? Oh, you don't believe that either? What else don't you believe, Dave? Oh, Dave, I doubt everything. I'm a skeptic. Yes, I am. Oh my God. So Dave, you mentioned it earlier,

diagnosis, take us there. Yeah, so I'm living my life, 2011, the next four or five years, I'm living with my wife and she still is a believer and doubled down and kind of gotten, she kind of doubled down on her faith and our disconnect got greater and greater.

And it became intolerable for me in the sense of living in a home with someone who continued to believe things that I found to be harmful and dangerous and hurtful to people. And so eventually I said, okay, I'm going to reboot my life. And this was about three years ago. three years ago. And I left the marriage and went and started over and literally began to live for the first time in my life as an authentic, honest person who was open about who I am and lived as an atheist and didn't apologize to anyone for that. And my position on that is anyone in my life, family or friends who can accept me for who I am, then I'll continue to be your friend. And I still have Christian friends who don't care what I don't believe and don't care how I live my life. They just value me as a person.

And I think that's fine because that's what we should be, I'll be doing. I don't, you know, we're all humans. And so that was the last few years. And then the early part of this year, in the midst of living my best life ever, I found out I had ALS. And that was a diagnosis I got in February of this year, February 26th, to be exact. Okay, so obviously that was punishment from Jesus. Yeah, you'd think, right? See, so you're uncomfortable right now. Jesus Christ.

This is obviously Jesus-related punishment for not believing so well. For those people at home, Dave, who don't know what ALS is, can you describe what ALS is? Yeah, a lot of people don't realize. I still want to go down my path. Yeah, no, I think we're done with Tom's path.

We're moving on from Tom's path. Cecil, are you uncomfortable with what Tom's saying, Cecil? I just agree, that's all. Okay. No, ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, it's a motor neuron disease that where essentially your muscles quit working. You lose strength in your muscles and eventually you die.

And the prognosis from diagnosis is on average three to five years. So it's a terminal illness that doesn't have any cure. It's very mysterious. They don't know who gets it and why. It's hard to predict how long it's going to take for your muscles to quit working. It's hard to predict where they'll go, where it'll go next. My symptoms began in my fingers and hands and arms. And so that's where I have the problem is I have trouble with strengthening my hands and arms and lifting things and opening things. And so eventually it will travel to either my mouth and I can't talk anymore or my legs and I can't walk anymore. And then it goes to your diaphragm, which you can't breathe anymore and then you die. Jesus. Wow. Yeah. It's not pretty.

Yeah. And they gave you everybody's prognosis once they find it is three to five years. That's the ballpark they give. Obviously, it varies greatly. Ballpark Lou Gehrig. I see what you did there. Yeah. You like that? Because he plays football, right? Yeah. There's something like that.

It varies greatly. Some live a lot longer. Some go quicker. Again, it's very unpredictable. And so, right now, mine is moving slowly. I'm, I'm still pretty functional. I'm fairly independent. Um, but that said, uh, I I'm getting to where I need to make sure that, you know, traveling, I make sure someone goes with me as much as possible. Um, I made the decision. Well, that way you can drink. I mean, that's just good.

Well, yeah. That's just good manners really. Yeah. And, and I made sure not to Well, that way you can drink. I mean, that's just good. Well, yeah. That's just good manners, really. Yeah. And I made sure not to live alone anymore because it's just little things that become hard to do. So it's just wise for me to have people around that can help me if I get stuck. This had to be, I mean, I can only imagine. I can only empathize. I'm not there. Were you at all tempted back toward faith?

Yeah, a lot of people have asked me that. Not for a second. Not for a nanosecond did I consider. That's because the devil has firm hold of you now. That's the key. He's got me in his death grip. Okay, I got it. That snake is wrapped around my neck. Just scream

like gibberish at it. Well, that's why your arms don't work is because of the snake. All right. Scream gibberish at it. Slit Slytherin. That's a parcel tongue thing. No, I never did. I never did consider that.

When I left, when I let go of my faith, it was final and it was complete and I didn't waver a bit in it and I haven't wavered a bit in it. And you know what? It makes it easier in some way because back in the day when I was a Christian, what you had to do with anything that happened in life, you had to figure out where God was in it. You know, what's God

saying? What's God doing? And with this, as a secular person and a person of non-faith, I just accept things as they are. So, when stuff happens, you don't have to try to figure out where God is in it. And it just makes life so much more simple. Dave, this had to fundamentally redefine your relationship to mortality and to the finality of mortality. Can you talk to me a little bit about that? I'm curious how that changed and how like the reality of this diagnosis kind of... Well, it's a sobering moment. You know, it's a moment I'll never forget. When I got the diagnosis and I walked, I was living downtown Nashville and I literally was across the street from the hospital where I got

the diagnosis. And I walked home and it was very heavy. You know, I had people in my life that knew I was getting checked out and I knew that ALS was on the table because I'd, you know, Googled symptoms and figured out it could be that. And it could be other things, but it also could be that. And so people in my life that knew I was getting all these tests, I started texting them. I mean, sometimes I would just send a text to someone and say, it's ALS. And calling my son and other people I'd call. But immediately, I just kind of embraced it. And I realized, okay, I've got to decide how I want to live whatever is left of my life.

And so, I quickly made decisions to change the way I was living. Like moving out of my apartment. And when the lease was up, it was a few months later, retired from the work I was doing. I was working in the insurance business and started selling stuff and making decisions to just travel and do as much as I could. So what I did is I just kind of, like I said, before the diagnosis, I was living my best life and doing the things I wanted to do. I had a saying, I had a pillow. I've still got the pillow and it's stitched on it. It says, carpe the fucking diem. And that was the phrase I was living by. And, and which means seize the day, grab the moments in life. And I'd also

had an epiphany when I rebooted my life. And it was captured on a plaque I had on my liquor cabinet, which says, we do not remember, excuse me, we do not remember days. We remember moments. And I had had an epiphany that was this. Life is nothing more than a collection of moments. There's no big plan that's all tied together. There's no big scheme that you have to figure out how all this works together. Singular moments that we remember that make life special are not connected to one another

and they can stand alone. Now, some are connected, you know, relationship with people or whatever. But I was just living that way for those couple of years. And then when I got the diagnosis, I just kind of mashed the accelerator down and started living it faster. And so I made a decision that I was just going to live as much life as I could, as hard as I could and do the things I wanted to do as long as I could do them. And then I started doing what I'm now calling Dying Out Loud, which is podcasts like this and speaking engagements. I just came back from Austin this week, down there doing a YouTube show. And I've been speaking at Unitarian churches and humanist communities and all the things that I can do to talk about what I think is important,

which is embracing our mortality, not being afraid of it, not being in denial of it, but just realizing that death is nothing more than the end of life. It's what happens. And it's natural. It's normal. It's nothing to be afraid of. And then also the flip side of that is dying out loud is also about living out loud, which is capturing the moments, making the most of life, not letting it pass you by and living your best life with intentionality and with purpose. Can I interrupt? Should we wait until we also get a diagnosis to do this living thing or should we?

You can. I wouldn't advise it no no because it sounds like generally good advice without the a without the yeah like i'm gonna try it without the als that's my well that's what i'm that's what i'm talking about what you're going for and the people that are hearing my message are are saying the same thing that they're realizing that and and i'm finding it it's very rewarding to see that it's making an impact. And for instance, y'all remember the WWJD bracelets that were a thing back in the day? What would Jesus do?

It was Joseph. Yeah, well, there's different interpretations, different translations of the Bible. Jeremy. But so we were having one of our local ex-Christian meetups that we have here, our local community. And it was the week after I'd gotten the diagnosis and everybody was very emotional. It was very hard, hard time. People were sharing about how they were feeling about it. A lot of tears, a lot of emotion.

And one of the women in the group had said she had been that week earlier, had been out doing something and was all frustrated and anxious about something. And she stopped and said, wait a minute, Dave would not be upset about this. He would not get all worked up about something that doesn't really matter. You know, he's got a bigger fish to fry. And then someone across the room said, yeah, what would Dave do? And then someone else said, WWDD. And so she's an artist and makes bracelets. So we now have WWDD bracelets that people are wearing and what it does, it's, it's making people stop and think about what's important

in life and, and saying, okay, no, I'm going to carpe the fucking D and I'm not going to let life pass me by. And I'm getting feedback like that. And it's very gratifying at this stage in life. I, uh, I want to ask you a question. How do you think you would be handling this if you were still religious? What do you think your thought process would be if you were still religious? Yeah, that's the thing. I would be trying to figure out where God is in it and what God is saying. I'd be praying for healing.

I'd be praying for, you know, and that's what other people do. Do you think you would be dying out loud though? Do you think you would be car paying the fucking DM? Do you think you would be doing that? No, because the reality is Christians have a fetish for the afterlife. Evangelical Christians, because everything's about eternity. And what that does when they're so preoccupied with eternity, heaven and hell, then they're missing the life that's in front of them.

The one life we do know we have. And so as Christians, you minimize this life because you're all focused on the next life. This is nothing but a dress rehearsal in their minds. This is a preseason football game. It doesn't really matter. And so what I- Well, ironically, it matters if you get hurt. Yeah. Only if you get hurt. Yeah. Would you be more or less scared to die if you were still Christian?

You know, what's been interesting to me is that my observation is this. Christians are more afraid of death than non-Christians are, which is crazy to me. But you know, I'm thinking this like, like I'm afraid to die because I'm just a chicken shit.

And I'm afraid to die because like the world of me has always had me in it. And so I find it literally impossible to imagine not being and that inability to imagine a state I won't experience fills me with just an inability to, I'm just consumed by it. So I just panic and I put in a box called no, and I never think about it. Well, that's the thing. But I would be more afraid, I think, if I thought, oh my God, what if I die and then I go to hell? Yeah. That sounds way worse than, yeah.

So I think that Christians are afraid of it because in their gut, they don't really believe this shit. And they're afraid they're going to get to God and stand before God and he's going to say, well, you came close, buddy, but not quite. Yeah, well, that'd be terrifying. And I'm just not. So the reality is you say you're afraid of dying, but you're really not. Because dying is just going to dark, fade to black. And you go to sleep and you don't wake up. However it happens, it could be a car wreck or it could be you just fade out.

And so you don't really know, you're not even conscious then. So when people say, are you afraid of dying? My honest answer is no, I'm not. What I'm afraid of is not living. What I'm afraid of is wasting what I have. And that afraid is not really the right word. I just don't want to leave the party early.

I want to get all I can out of it. And so the idea of going to sleep and not waking up is not that terrifying. It kind of sounds nice, you know, in that I like sleep. So- Socrates said the same thing right before he drank the poison. Yeah. Yeah. Socrates said the same thing, the exact same thing. It will be like a dreamless sleep. The reality is that our death is harder on the ones around us. And I'm aware of that. I have close people that are very close to me in my life that are really torn up about this. So should you then alienate the people that you're close to?

Oh, I do that all the time. As a kindness to other people. I'm a massive asshole. No, I'm aware that the people who love me are going to, they're going to suffer more when I die than I am. That's the reality. Yeah, that's what I hope for everyone else too.

I hope everyone suffers after I die. I recognize I'm going to have to have paid mourners. I'm okay with that. I mean, so I got to pay them in advance. Otherwise it's going to be that funeral of that guy. There's like three people standing around the lake. And two of them are obligated.

They're wearing jeans. They didn't even put on dress pants for this. I got a little pee stain. That's true, though. It's the ones that are left behind that have to deal with the loss and the sadness. So I'm aware of that and that's what hurts

my heart more is to see the pain in the people around me. From what you've described, you've been really heavily a part of two very different communities. Big time. You've been heavily a part of the evangelical Christian community and now here you are in this much more ad hoc kind of loose leaf community of the atheists.

Can you talk to me a little bit about the difference between those two communities experientially? Well, the main difference is that the atheist community doesn't have any money. We're all broke. We're all broke. We're all broke. And the reason for that is, first of all, we don't have a tax deduction for contributions. And we don't have 10% of everybody else's fucking money.

Exactly. And, and we don't, we don't manipulate people into giving through fear and guilt. I'm going to write that down. Hang on. Fear and guilt. I'm going to write that down. Hang on. Fear and guilt. But the biggest difference is that the atheist community is very genuine because there's

no agenda. There's nobody judging you for what you do or don't do. There's nobody trying to dictate how you live your life. And the Christian community is filled with that, where everyone has to be exactly the same. And the non-Christian community, the secular community, we all live our own lives and no one's telling you this is right or this is wrong. It's just, are you kind? Are you being decent with other people? Are you practicing consent with people? Are you not forcing your way on them? Are you not being judgmental?

And it's a very authentic, genuine community that just people are together because they enjoy each other's company, not because they feel compelled to gather with the tribe and try to make sure everybody's behaving. So do you feel more genuine love and acceptance from the from from this loose leaf ad hoc community this oh absolutely yeah i think that's really interesting because that's something people really miss when they walk out of religion and and it's something that they can still find it's something that is here yeah you know whatever your need for it is you can find that we just don't have the organizing feature to put us all together most of the time. That sort of church is what puts everybody in front of everyone else.

And we don't really have a lot of that. Yeah, yeah. Like if you move to another city, you just find the kind of church you went to in the other city and you've got ready-made community. You just walk right in and there it is. Whereas if you're an atheist,

you kind of got to dig around a little bit more. So you got to build from the ground up every time. So it's a little harder to come by and it's harder to find. I find people all the time. I had a guy reach out to me after hearing a podcast a couple of weeks ago. And, uh, he, he just sent me a message and said, uh, you, you know, your story inspired me and I'd love to know if anything I can do for you, blah, blah, blah. And, and I said, cool, man, thank you. Where do you live? I found out he lives 15 minutes from here and we're getting coffee tomorrow. Nice. So that, and he was an evangelical Christian for 40 years. So we have a lot in common, but we didn't, we didn't know

that we lived down the road from each other. So it happens a little more randomly than the other, but it happens. So Dave, if people were going to find you on the internet, where would they look? Well, if you're on Facebook, which most people are, if you, I mean, you can't be alive if you're not on Facebook, can you? So my page is simply Dave Warnock dying out loud. And if you go there, you can find out my, it's got all the links to the podcast and the speaking gigs and my schedule. And there's a way to support me on Patreon. Because the reality, I mean, I'm trying to get around and spread this message as much as I can quickly because I'm running out of time.

And there'll be a time when I can't travel and I can't go speak. And I'm finding that the message is resonating with people in a real way, in a tangible way that is really moving to me. But the problem is people want me to come speak, but they don't have any money. We're atheists. We don't have any money. You already said that. I know. We're all broke. But I don't want that to limit me from getting around. So I'm getting people that are wanting to support. And on the page, there's a Patreon and a PayPal and all the ways that you can give. And it's just a way of spreading the cost out in a greater way so that I don't have to say no to a group

that wants to bring me in because they don't have the budget for it. And it's just travel expenses. I'm not looking for a bunch of money out of this thing. I don't really care about that. I mean, the Ritz-Carlton is not cheap. I know. And I'm not staying anywhere but that, right?

No Airbnb for damn sure. Yeah, Tim, right. Dave, we're going to put a link on this week's show notes to that Facebook page. This is episode 483, so people can find it and find out where you're speaking and also connect with you. It was a really insightful conversation. When you do finish your book, we'd love to have you back on to chat about it that'd be great so we want to thank our patrons of course we want to thank all our patrons we want to thank specifically our newest patrons for the past three weeks of course ryan nils i use satan's pubes to turn Jim Baker's mom lesbian.

What? That is absolutely an erotic story on its own right there, I think. Okay, we should talk later. Jared, Jonas, Ftoys, Chris, Sarah, Donald Trump's neglected taint, and Mikoronix. Thanks so much for your generous donations. We really do truly appreciate it. We will be doing a live stream on August 25th. And if you want to make Gary the Unicorn fart glitter,

you can come and be a patron that day. We're going to be trying to get a bunch of people to watch us on our live stream. We're going to be doing a full show live for you in studio. You'll get a chance to talk to us, hang out with us for a couple hours, not two hours, but maybe an hour and a half or so while we cover several stories. It's going to be a blast. So put it on your calendars for August 25th, about midday.

Got a bunch of email while we were gone, Tom. Just a ton of it. A lot of people responded to us talking about their experience in their countries working. We got a ton of messages from a ton of different people, people from the UK, people from Finland, people from Denmark, Norway, Australia, a ton of people sent us messages. And they mostly said, there's existential dread all over the place, except for like one or two places.

And there seems to be a little bit of a safety net in some places, and it's a little harder to fire people in other places but for the most part people are really experiencing all the same stuff

in all the places yeah I think the only exceptions were some of the Scandinavian countries where they're living in a snow-filled fucking utopia or whatever

which just makes me mad all the time but they have the population of like Michigan that lives there I just want to make a plea. Can someone over there adopt me, please? Can someone just adopt us and we'll just move the studio

over there? Kind of for real. Like it just sounds great all the time. Like we got an email from somebody's like, yeah, you know, like some bad shit happened and I was out of work you know, for an extended period of time like months and they were just like, yeah but I wasn't ever worried because there was this,

there was this safety net. And I thought like, fucking, I haven't been out of work since I was 14. Yeah. Like I have not, not had a job.

I've had a job. I've had a job all the whole time. I've been since like 16. I've, I've, was it, was your, my longest stretch of unemployment

was no days since I was 14. I lost my job. I got a job the next day. I would be so afraid to be without work. Yeah. Even when I lost my job. I got a job the next day. I would be so afraid to be without work. Yeah. Even when I lost my job or did I quit jobs, I still had other jobs that I did the very same day or the next day. Right. Because there's a sentiment that you don't quit a job until you have another job lined up, no matter how bad that job is. Yeah. You know, you got to have something else to rely on because there's nobody to help you but you.

I delivered pizzas until I went away to college. And when I went away to college, I had a job lined up the day I moved to Chicago. So I had a job, you know, I had weekends off and things like that, but I've never had a job that's not been lined up right away. Yeah.

And the thing is like, you can't live on unemployment. The amount that you get for unemployment... It's a pittance. It's not a livable wage. But we got a lot of great messages from that. People really did seem to like that show, so we might do some things like that again in the future.

We got a message from Kevin, and Kevin sent us an image, and it is an image of an old timey image of circumcision that we're going to post. It's crazy. We're going to post on this week's show notes. It says 483. Got Dennis was also talking about circumcision. He says, Hey guys, in episode 481, you mentioned God's currency, tip coin. I couldn't help but think that's like Bitcoin is based on blockchain technology. Tipcoin must be based on, you guessed it,

cock chain technology. I liked it. Very good. This is an interesting message, Tom. This is from Eric about abortion. He says, Physician fan in Southern Kentucky that just ran across a study published in JAMA today that suggests women who are coerced to continue their pregnancies have worse physical health.

The study demonstrates worse arthritis and headaches over the five years post-pregnancy. No difference in other health categories, but it combats the narrative that abortion is dangerous to your health. So at worst, abortion is no different than pregnancy for your long-term health for the specific symptoms asked in the study.

And at best, it's much safer to your long-term physical health. And I thought like, yeah, because being pregnant and having babies is really a risky thing to do. Absolutely. We pretend it's not. Yeah. It's super fucking risky to be pregnant. I know several women who have been fucked up by their pregnancy in really, really bad ways. I know several women that I've had bad pregnancies that have really fucked them up. We got a message from Kenneth and Kenneth sent in a Reddit called a boring dystopia. That's all one word, a boring dystopia.

And I also peruse another one called late stage capitalism, which I think is a great term. I've heard it many times, but late stage capitalism is awesome. And that's where they will show you a lot of those, like little kid raises 50 cents for mom's fucking tumor or whatever. Yeah. There's all those stories in there

and stuff. If I read that stuff too, I'll be that guy buying land and building bunkers and like I'm only three inches away from that at any given time. We got a message from Danica who said that we should check out The Family if we liked Wild Wild Country. Tom and I may check this out. We may

do a patron episode on it. We're going to look at it. Got a message from Jacob who said that his great grandfather died and he said his family built their casket, bathed the body, took the body to the funeral home, dug the grave and made the grave marker,

lowered him into the grave completely by themselves and the state of Nebraska still charged them $1,000 to keep the body in a fridge for three days. Did it get up after three days? The thing is, they actually didn't charge you $1,000 for the freezer. It's just the cost, that enormous fucking Tupperware container. Got a lot of message about apples. This one is from

Woof. And Woof says, as an old fart, I can remember when Red Delicious apples were crisp, tart, and sweet. Good times, now they suck. Have you tried the Honeycrisp? That's one apple that we did miss, and that is a solid apple. It's a great apple. Honeycrisp is a solid apple. I will say that.

I like the way they break when you bite them. Yeah. Like they don't like- Yeah, you're right. They just kind of break into like these chunks. It's extraordinarily satisfying. And I found out that there are dozens of apples I've never tried. When I posted, when this got posted,

people were posting constantly these, oh, have you tried this one? Have you tried this one? And there's dozens I've never tried. One of my favorite things to do is go to the grocery store and like look at all the varieties. And then like you can Google

and they have like a rich history of like who found them and how they were made. And like, there's like a whole apple community. Yeah, I try different ones like all the time. It's kind of amazing. I, you know, it's normally,

it's funny because I normally stick to the ones I, I, I like, but what I probably will do from now on is get the, get a bag full of the ones I like. And two of the ones I've never tried just to try it out and be like, Oh, that's a good one.

Keep that sticker, put it on the fridge. So we got, like we said, we got a bunch of these messages. We said from all over the place, France, Canada,

the UK. But I do we got a bunch of these messages. We said from all over the place, France, Canada, the UK. But I do want to read one of these. We got so many of them there. We just can't. Thanks for sharing your stories. We read every single one of these messages that came in. We want to thank everybody who sent in messages about their own struggles with their work and their country. But we do want to read Ian's.

Ian said that he started out in the UK, in Manchester. He didn't go to university. And then he started working in a sheet metal factory doing a welding apprenticeship. And then at the end of that, the company basically made his job redundant. And then at 21 years old, he didn't know what to do. And so he eventually, after about 10 years, he has moved to Iceland. And now he's making prosthetic feet in Iceland. And the company pays the employees. Well, I've been to Iceland.

Iceland is beautiful. And from what I hear, the people there are very happy. Like it's one of the places in the world where people are very, very happy. It says the biggest difference in work is the unions though. Pretty much every field of work here has its own union and they are all extremely powerful and the benefits they offer are easily accessible and they are very quick to resolve any workplace issues. And that's something

in the United States that we do not have as strong unions anymore. When I was growing up, unions were very strong, but unions have really lost their grip in the United States in a huge way. And it's funny because unions are the reason that we have most of the things we value as workers, like a 40-hour work week as a standard, weekends off, holidays. Everything you like about working, which mostly, let's be honest, includes not working. Yes, mostly not working. Right? Yeah.

All of that exclusively came from unions. Yeah. And we still have this weird fucking hate on for unions. Yeah. As if they're doing us some terrible disservice. And I think that it's in part because they are deeply imperfect organizations. Yeah, sure. And as a result of their imperfection,

we don't want them to be good anymore. We're unwilling to see them as an overwhelmingly good thing because they're not a completely perfect thing. It's the enemy is the perfect of the good, right? It's fucking madness. We want all that shit. Good of the perfect. I don't know.

I fucked that up. I don't know how that works. Anyway, something's good and something's perfect. Something's its enemy. Don't let the perfect be the Good or the perfect. I don't know. I fucked that up. I don't know. I don't know how that works. Anyway, something's good and something's perfect. Something's its enemy. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I think if you set them all up and they battle perfect, good, and...

Like we said, we read every single one of these messages that we got and we... But we just can't spend the whole hour talking about everything that we learned. But we did find out there's a lot of this, you know, a few stories like this, where it's like, oh, I really like where I'm at

and I like what I'm doing. But he's telling a story beforehand about the UK where they just basically fucking got rid of his job. So that's like, it's not that that's not everywhere. Yeah, that seems to be the case in most of the world. Yeah. We want to thank Dave Warnock for joining us today. He was a wonderful guest.

We learned quite a bit about his disease and also about what it's like to be an evangelical. And he was able to speak in tongues for us and that has changed our life. It was the greatest moment of this podcast. I think this podcast has peaked. Everything else now is jumping the shark. We want to thank Dave for coming on. We're going to put a link

to his Facebook on this week's show notes if you want to check it out. It's episode 483. That's going to wrap it up. Be sure to mark your calendars. August 25th, you're going to want to join us. It's this upcoming Sunday. Yes, indeed. And you're going to want to join us. It's going to be great. But we're

going to leave you like we always do with the Skeptic's Creed. Credulity is not a virtue. It's fortune cookie cutter, mommy issue, hypno-Babylon bullshit. Couched in scientician, double bubble, toil and trouble, pseudo-quasi-alternative, acupunctuating, pressurized, stereogram, pyramidal, free energy, healing, acupunctuating, pressurized, stereogram, pyramidal, free energy, healing, water, downward spiral,

brain dead, pan, sales pitch, late night info docutainment. Leo, Pisces, cancer cures, detox, reflex, foot massage, death in towers, tarot cards, psychic healing, crystal balls, Bigfoot, Yeti, aliens, churches, mosques, and synagogues, temples, dragons,

giant worms, Atlantis, dolphins, truthers, Yeti, aliens, churches, mosques and synagogues, temples, dragons, giant worms, Atlantis, dolphins, truthers, birthers, witches, wizards, vaccine nuts, shaman healers, evangelists, conspiracy, doublespeak, stigmata, nonsense. Expose your sides. Thrust your hands. Bloody. Evidential. Conclusive.

Doubt even this. The opinions and information provided on this podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. All opinions are solely that of Glory Hole Studios, LLC. opinions and information provided on this podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. All opinions are solely that of Glory Hole Studios LLC. Cognitive dissonance makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information and will not be liable for any errors, damages, or butthurt arising from consumption. All information is provided on an as-is basis. No refunds. Produced in association with the local dairy council and viewers like you. you