Cognitive Dissonance - Episode 686: Mailer Daemon

Episode Date: May 1, 2023

Show Notes  

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 and beyond 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. And today is April 27th. That's the new intro. We're recording it on April 27th. You're hearing it not on April 27th.

Guys, the numbering system will be done by Ian in perpetuity. Here we go. Ian. He doesn't know this yet. What number is it? Six, eight, nine. Thank you, Ian. Thank you, Ian.

And that's because we're trying to record ahead these days, and this shit just gets confusing. It's weird. But, you know, it's also kind of useful, I think, to tell people when we're recording. Right, right. Because we've done this so many times. We record on Thursday night.

We always record on Thursday night. It's our thing. It's our date. Yeah. And then the show comes out not on Thursday night. No, no. And the world happens between Thursday and Monday. And it changes so differently. Yeah.

Because when we come back on Monday, Tucker Carlson could be at OAN. He could. Yeah. Nobody would fucking know because nobody watches OAN. I love the firing of Tucker Carlson. He's all tuckered out.

I just want to say, Tom, that they had a mutual parting of ways. Thank you very much. He got fired. Motherfucker got canned. He did get fired. He did get fired. I know.

I love that because his last broadcast was like, Hey, folks, see you Monday. And then they were still running promos for his show. And then it was just like, We here at Fox want to thank Tucker Carlson for all of his years of service. They were promoing shit like an interview

that he was going to have on. Like they were, they were doing a whole bunch of promo stuff that was like, that's not going to happen now. And it was like middle of the day.

There was some promo. And then by two, he's walking out, getting escorted out by fucking security with his box. He's got his box with his fucking plant in it and his fucking racist emblems and his fucking misogynist shit. Nazi flag or whatever.

Help me carry my swastika to the car, guys. Oh, God. Here's my Adolf Hitler vintage tie I've got to put on. What a bag of shit. Vintage tie I've got to put on. What a bag of shit. I've listened to like three podcasts, listened to like read articles,

like, and all of them are just delicious because at the end of all of them and at the beginning of all of them, Tucker Carlson got fired. Yeah, yeah. And I love that so much. Yeah. I love everything about the fact that that horrible fucking person

won't have that massive 3.2 million person platform. It's a money decision though. Yeah, of course it is. Like it's a money decision. It's a business. I fired him for a business. So like all of us will celebrate and be like, man, it's fucking great that Tucker Carlson isn't there anymore. But in reality, it's not because he was going too far right.

Oh, no, no, no. It was because he lied about the election and his tweets and, not his tweets, his private messages and things would have been really fucking damning for the company. Yeah. And they had to settle. And then they recouped a little bit of that money by letting him go.

Yeah, oh, this is not a principled decision, right? Not at all. So I don't, I don't confuse it with it, but as a, as a person who enjoys the consequences as much, if not more than the principle, I'm like, good, good. Because that guy was a cancer. Sure. And like, part of me is like, yeah, like what I like it if he was excised from the system, because like the system had a self-correcting mechanism that sorted out the good from the bad? I would love that. But, like, Fox has never had that. Yeah. What Fox has, like, Fox got rid of Bill O'Reilly, not because Bill O'Reilly was a horrible person.

He always was. But because Bill O'Reilly cost him a bunch of money in sexual harassment. You got caught. You got caught. But you bring up Bill O'Reilly, and this is a good point, Bill O'Reilly to Tucker, right? So that's what happened was a Bill O'Reilly to Tucker shift. Is it, I don't think it's

against any kind of any kind of their morals at all to go even farther right. Oh, no, no. I know what I mean. And so he could be replaced by someone. Right now, it's like a shifting group of people like Tulsi Gabbard's going to be on there and other people, etc. But there's

going to be a shifting sort of group of people who are going to take over for Tucker in the interim. Yeah. But it could be the fucking Nick Fuentes show next week. Yeah, man. This could absolutely give rise to a worse

version of Tucker Carlson, right? Yeah. And that's a super true possibility. But maybe they learn a lesson that like these guys are costing us a lot of money. It's possible. Right, maybe. Because again, like,

I think you're right not to look at it from a principal standpoint. Like never look at Fox from a principal standpoint. But they just lost $787.5 million, and Tucker Carlson was a big part of that loss. Then when they fired Tucker Carlson, their market cap dropped by a billion dollars. So this has cost them almost $2 billion. And I would think that just from a dollars and cents standpoint, they might say, all right, we need to be a little more judicious about who we put on the air. Not necessarily less right wing. Judicious doesn't get you watches though. You know what I mean?

Yeah, a lot of, I know, man. I feel like they got to push that envelope every day. It's got to go farther and farther right. It's got to go farther and farther. They've got to be the ones who are on that battleground, right? That cultural, that's what they create, that cultural battleground. And they've got to be in it every single day and they got to be pushing those boundaries every single day.

Because if they don't, their audience will go find someone who will. Yeah, and I did read something and it was real interesting. This isn't like an original Tom thought. I don't remember where I read this. But it basically said like, you know, for the longest time, people, myself included, were worried that Fox was pushing America to the right.

That Fox was sort of like this leading edge wedge driving America further and further right and enforcing and reinforcing these narratives. But what seems to be more fundamentally the case, and I think I agree with the analysis, is like Fox, what Fox does is not bring people right. What Fox does is reflect the right back to itself. So like, oh, I see. So the right changes organically and then it just says, these are your values because that's what you told me. And it just produces content to match the audience. So like for a long time, I thought that Fox helped to create that audience. That's what you told me. And it just produces content to match the audience. So like for a long time, I thought that Fox helped to create that audience. That's what I believe from the 90s forward, really.

And I read this thing and it really, like it really struck me that what I think at least is happening now, maybe that was true in the 90s, but I think what's happening now is that Fox is saying, all right, who is the audience and what do they want to hear? And the Trump scenario is, I think, the best example of that because they looked out at the audience and they said, what do they want to hear?

And none of us believe that that's true. So we're not organically pushing our message at Fox. What we're doing is reflecting back to the audience what the audience wants to hear in order for them to continue tuning in. And so I do worry that like, they've got their finger on a very rabid, dangerous pulse of America. But I also know that like, guys like Tucker Carlson,

for whatever grotesque reason, there's only some guys who can stir shit that effectively. Sure. You know? So I don't know how long it'll take to find a replacement that can stir shit.

Yeah, right. And has that charisma, which he has none. Like this is a guy who's like, everybody should like shine their asshole at the sun in order to get more testosterone. Like what? Yeah. I don't know how he captured the fucking imagination of the right, but he did for some reason. What do you think of that idea? I don't know that I agree with it. I don't know that I agree with it. I feel like there are forces in the party that do push it that way. But I also recognize that Tucker Carlson embraced all the worst qualities of that.

There's other qualities in there that they could embrace as well that they don't and they don't talk about. And they really embrace the worst parts. Tucker did. The worst parts of what Trump brought. The worst parts of toxic masculinity. The worst parts of, I mean,

the very worst takes on the war in Ukraine. The worst. The worst takes, right? And so, like, there's a, if you look at the Republican Party, on the war in Ukraine. The worst. The worst takes, right? And so like there's a, if you look at the Republican Party, there's a big wide gulf about how people think about the war in Ukraine. Yeah.

Look at how Lindsey Graham thinks about it versus how, look at how Trump thinks about it. And those are two totally different takes. And Lindsey Graham is just as far right as anybody else. And he represents a large part of that party who also are pro-Ukraine. And so, but they took the worst, they took the Nazi takes, right?

So they took the Nazi takes. And that's what Tucker was showing constantly. And so while I agree that they are sort of reflecting some of that back to him, I think that they're reflecting the worst aspects of it back. That's interesting. I think that they're reflecting the worst aspects of it back. That's interesting. I think that they're being selective in what they choose.

And I'm wondering if part of this isn't like, I don't know what the right term is, so I'm going to invent one, like the social mediafication of punditry. So they're looking at what gets the biggest reaction. How does my algorithm work? Right. Because we know from social media that if people are mad,

they stay tuned. Sure. And so I wonder if you're Fox and you hear that lesson, you internalize it, and you say, what if my punditry doesn't aim toward

the middle of the right, but aims only at the things that the right is going to get angry about? Because if I know that anger and vitriol and like big emotional reactions are the things that keep people online

on Facebook or Instagram or whatever, why wouldn't they be the same things that keep people tuned into Fox? That seems like a lesson any media analyst would learn fairly swiftly. And I don't know what the term for that is. There must be a term for that. But I do wonder if that's why they choose to reflect

if the reflection idea holds merit, if they chose to reflect those worst pieces back. Yeah, it could be. It could be. I mean, everybody, I mean, look back to that movie Network. Remember the movie Network where they're all sitting around wondering what's going to sell? Yeah. Like, how can we sell this crazy guy to the public? You know what I mean? Like, they know what their numbers are and they knew what their numbers were back then. I mean, hell, one of the guys who was in podcasting worked for Nielsen. Do you remember?

Like one of those guys that was in podcasting that we hung out with worked for Nielsen. He worked for Nielsen. So like those people, like they figure out how many people are tuning into certain, you know, programs based on surveys. And so-

Actually, I did read, that actually brings up, I listened to maybe the journal or the daily about this. I don't remember which one it was, but they said that Fox executives, they watch, they don't even have to wait for Nielsen, but they get real time in the middle of the show analysis of what people are- No shit.

So when Tucker Carlson, this is actually interesting. So when Tucker Carlson is talking and he's talking about a subject, they're able to see how his talk about Ukraine plays in real time versus like how many people tune it off and go to. So the data we're getting is real time. And I bet that that's a big part of what influences that too. Sure. Because they're not waiting like, oh, how many people watch Tucker Carlson? Instead, they can be like, how many people watch Tucker Carlson when he was talking about immigration? You know, it's interesting because like YouTube,

I'm starting to get into YouTube because I'm doing the cooking show, right? Yeah. And so I'm able to see the back end of my cooking stuff and what's going on there. But then I'm also able to like, see where people in my video, like fast forward to and go to and spend the most time.

And so- Think about what Fox can see. And so if I can see that on YouTube, right. What can other people see? Right. So, yeah.

So it's fucking fascinating. Yeah. And I am worried like you are that like a worse version of Tucker will come out. There is one. I mean, there is one. Nick Fuentes is a worse version.

There you go. Yeah. Oh God. Alex Jones is a worse version. I mean like there's, there are people who have been covering for a long time who are worse versions of Tucker Carlson. Yeah. They just didn't have a voice before.

But I have no confidence that they're not going to elevate one of these crazy voices. Oh, I— Why wouldn't they? I mean— I don't think that's far-fetched at all. I don't think that's far-fetched at all. I don't think that's far-fetched at all. It's not far-fetched at all for me to think that the next host could be an incel.

Yeah, man. Yeah. That could happen. Yeah. I mean, Fox is extremely, I don't know their demographics, but it feels crazy male-centric and patriarchal. Very much so.

And very toxic. Very much so. And that was actually part of, too, some of the some of the um speculation as to why tucker might have gotten fired is that he had a lot of like really misogynist sexually like sexual harassment style stuff that was revealed in his text messages so like it might have cost him he's a fucking dirt he's a complete he's everything you expected him to be he's a fucking dirt bag and you're a complete, he's everything you expected him to be. He's a fucking dirtbag. And you're like, good.

I'm glad he's fucking unemployed. Num, num, num, num, num. You know, I hope, I think I texted this to you. I hope that after that happened, I hope after he got fired, I hope he went home and I hope he cried

and I hope there was no one there to comfort him. And I hope that that is the story for the rest of his life. I hope that he tried to go home, but when he got there, his house was burnt down. These guys are mostly European, judging by the clothing labels. This story comes from Vice.

This is fucked. Texas agency threatens to fire people who don't dress consistent with their biological gender. So, ladies, I guess if you wear them pants to work. No, I think they allow for pants. They do. I know, but it's like, come on, don't be crazy.

Forgive me. There was a time where, and it wasn't that long ago at all, where women wearing pants in a professional environment was fucking scandalous. Yeah. Where they would get kicked out of courtrooms. They would get held in contempt of court for wearing pants. Yeah.

And this was not a hundred years ago. This was like in our lifetimes, depending on where you were at. The idea that some clothes that you can wear, how fucking regressive is this? Like, I wear some clothes. I show up to work. I want to do my job and I'm wearing clothes

that are, I mean, granted, like, I think people should dress for the job they have, right? Like, if you have a professional job, you should have professional dress. That's it. You can't show up in a fucking mankini to my work.

I can't be a speedo. I'm not allowed to walk in. I actually have a dress code where I work I'm not allowed to wear shorts I'm not allowed to wear sleeveless shirts I have to wear sleeved on shirts but I can wear a t-shirt I can wear a comfortable

and that's the thing to enforce a dress code is one thing, but then to reach in and be like, by the way, I'm going to make sure that you dress how I think you should dress. It's not, it's not how you want to dress, right? Here's all the list of all the things that, that are, you know, appropriate for the workplace, right? Here's a list of things that are appropriate for the workplace, right? Here's a list of things that are appropriate

for the workplace. You have to, but in this case, they're saying you can't pick from all the things. You have to pick from the things that I let you pick from. So essentially it's even worse than just like have, it's way worse than just having like a dress code, right? And it's so fucking insulting. Like, it's just like, and I just, I can't, I can't say this enough and I say it every time, but it's like all these people

that look themselves in the face and say, we're the party of small government. And you're like, are you fucking kidding me, man? You're policing what people are wearing. You're in everybody's bed. You're in everybody's pants. You're in everybody's,

Jesus, just look at yourself for two seconds. You're a monster. You're a everybody's pants. You're in everybody's, Jesus, just look at yourself for two seconds. You're a monster. You're 100%. And all of this is so that somebody else doesn't feel uncomfortable looking. It's like, if I see somebody and I don't like the way they dress, who fucking cares? You know what I mean? Like, I sometimes will see somebody and like everybody has preferences. It's like, I'm a person.

I have preferences. I might see somebody like, oh, I don't like that color. That's not a color combination that I find visually pleasing. I get to take that and put it in a pocket of my brain called, well, shut the fuck up about it.

That's got nothing to do with anyone but you. That's something that I have to get. And it's not a big deal either, right? I look at that. I'm like, I don't like that color combination. Anyway, what's for lunch? Because it's nothing. None of that is anything. If I have like, if my like sense of self and sense of identity is so easily fucking uprooted that I see somebody and I'm like, whoa, that makes me feel weird. And rather than, whoa, that makes me feel weird. And rather than think about why that makes me feel weird and deal with that myself, I'm just going to be like, you just, I'm going to change the actual fucking rules so you don't make me feel fucking weird. I don't know what goes on in their heads, right?

Right. When I was conservative myself, I don't remember thinking like this i don't ever remember thinking like this i think the party of the type of conservatism that i experienced when i was younger didn't include any of this stuff so i don't have any kind of background in conservatism and this right but it sure as hell feels like they look at everyone like a sexual object. Yeah, man. Because the only way

you could be offended by someone who is, like the words that they say, in a manner consistent with their biological gender, right? Dressing in a different way than is consistent with their biological gender

is because it confuses and makes you like a little uncomfortable because you see everyone in a sexual way. You got to work, like, think of how often people talk about transgender people. And then there's that next question being like, okay, so, so what's going on down there? Right. yeah. What's happening below? There's a weird fixation. Yeah, what's going on? And you're just like,

it's none of your fucking business, man. It's none of your business whatsoever. Shut the fuck up. Nobody comes up to me and is like, how is your dick, Cecil? How are your balls, Cecil? Nobody says that. Nobody asks those questions.

I feel like- You know, the guy from Manscaped asked. And the guy from Manscaped did ask. He did ask how my balls were. By the way, Manscaped, recent sponsor of the show.

Go to manscaped.com, cog diss, buy yourself some trimmer trains. But, but, but, you know, like,

like that's not a question that's up for, for anyone who is already in their, they're already consistent with their biological gender. I keep using the same language, but, but like if for anybody like that, no one has a question, right? Nobody's bringing anything up. Nobody's asking these weird things. Nobody's, nobody's feeling weird about it. It's only when they, when it, when it, they finally have to confront it, that they get all fucking weird about it. And it's only when they finally have to confront it that they get all fucking weird about it and it's because I think they have some weird sexual objectification

of people that they're doing because I don't do that I'm just like oh cool you're trans the end that's the end of that it doesn't mean anything to me it's not any different than any other person. It's just a person.

Yeah. Right. It doesn't have any like significant emotional resonance. Right. And it like, it shouldn't. Seeing people dress, because the thing is like, you're exactly right. I was thinking about like my stepkids. My stepkids, they dress, both of them, right now they're in this like emo phase, right? So they dress in

like, you know, wearing the like collars and shit and like the spiky stuff and this whole emo look, right? And like, I look at it and in my head, I'm like, you guys kind of look ridiculous. But they don't look ridiculous. I'm just an old person who doesn't like this particular style personally, right? And so then I chuckle back to myself, but because these are my kids, like it doesn't mean anything. Right. And that should be how it is. Anytime we see somebody who presents in a way that we might be like, yeah, it's not my thing. You'd be like, you should be like, that's not my thing. And you chuckle at yourself. Yeah. We should be chuckling at ourselves and be like, no, I guess I'm old. I don't get it. Not my thing.

I'm not my style, you style. And then we should chuckle at ourselves and be like, well, guess I'm the one out of the loop. And then that's an opportunity to either grow or just to move on and have a silly moment where you're like, yeah, I guess I'm the fucking weirdo here because that's the truth. Because that's honest. That's the truth. And so that's what I do. I'm like, nah, you look dumb. No, I'm old. And then I laugh and I'm like, I'm the one that's wrong. And then I move on. Yeah. But these guys can't do that.

Yeah, there's no self-reflection. They can't fucking do it. There's no self-reflection there. None whatsoever. And instead of, you know, like saying something like, oh God, you guys look dumb. They will be like, you look dumb

and I never want to see you in those clothes again. Yeah. I don't like, because you made me feel a way. Yeah. I'm going to police you. I don't want you to wear that. Land of the free made me feel a way. Yeah. I'm going to police you. I don't want you to wear that. Land of the free. Yeah.

Land of the free. I'm a black man. There's no justice for me here in America. I should be at the front of the line. Yeah, well, I'm gay and subject to ridicule and discrimination wherever I go. Women are oppressed throughout the world. Give it a rest. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, Tom, speaking of land of the free. Man, how fucked is this? This story is from Pink News. Florida bill gives doctors the right to refuse treatment to LGBTQ plus people, women, and minorities. Not an emergency, though.

No. I guess that's a good thing. Yeah, if you can prove that they have to treat you, then they will begrudgingly treat you. I wouldn't want to, I mean, if you had any choices. Do you want begrudging medical treatment? If you had any choices, you wouldn't want begrudging medical treatment. Holy shit. Jesus. Holy shit. So this is like one of those fucking garbage conscience bills. So you go to Florida, the fucking worst state in the country. I swear to God, Florida right now is the worst state. It very much is. It's the worst state in the union.

And it was already a bad state, right? It was not a good state to start with. Let's stop for a second and talk about DeSantis' policies, because this is really just a reflection around DeSantis. Do you think that there is political hay to be made by making every single culture war point an absolute destructive win by the Republicans down there. I don't.

I don't think so. I think he's shitting right in his own mouth. I think it's a bad call. I think he is shitting in his own mouth every day. I don't know that I'll be proven right because the last time there, they had a, you know, an overwhelming victory for DeSantis. Yeah. I think it works in Florida because Florida is, you know, like people who

aren't from this country may not understand, but like there's an intense cultural regionality to America. So like America is not one thing. Right. You know, Ohio is very different, like culture shock different than Miami, which is culture shock different than San Diego. Yeah. Right. Which is culture shock different from Portland. Right. Yeah.

So I think this plays well enough in Florida because of a very, very unique demographic that Florida has. Florida has this weird space that is different than the entire rest of the country. It's full of, I don't know what the right term is, but like people who have migrated into Florida as much or more than people who were born into Florida. So Florida attracts a lot of outside citizenry. They attract a lot of retirees, which who come in more conservative. It's a big place for people to retire. So it's got a real, and there's a lot of other demographics. There's too many lists, but it's got this really interesting and very unique demographic makeup

that is unique to Florida. So I think this trash plays fine in Florida. I think this nonsense would fail in so many other places. Yeah. It's too aggressive. It's too much. The six-week abortion ban, nobody wants that. That is deeply unpopular. If you poll America, America doesn't want that. Look at Wisconsin. Wisconsin was a swing state. They had their Supreme Court election

just a few weeks ago, and it was like a 12-point curb stomping. It was based entirely on abortion. It was ridiculous. I mean, the guy lost so bad, he like cried on stage. He did. He's like, I won't even concede.

I won't. I'm so sad right now. It was the best. It was the best, saddest speech I've ever seen. The most fucking spoiled grapes or whatever it was like fucking. Oh my God, it was. Oh, it was so good.

It was so good. It was fucking delicious. And I hope every one of these fucking trashy fucks has to get one of those shitty. I have to eat a big bowl of shit and I hate it and I'm mad. And I hope that every one of them has to give one of those, but, uh, but you're right. I think that it might play, but I think that there's a time limit on it. Even in Florida. I think even in Florida, there's a time limit on it. Because like you said, there's a lot of older people in Florida. But, you know,

what happens when you're old? There's a time limit. You know what I mean? There's a time limit. Your freshness date is running out. You know what I mean? Absolutely. And so there's going to be some There's a lot of spoiled milk walking around down there. Some serious changes in the next 15 years, I think. 10 or 15 years.

Demographically, all across the country, you know, the boomers are, are they're aging out. They are. They're aging out. They're absolutely aging out. And so you're in a position now where, you know, we've, we talked about a couple of weeks ago where the, the Gen Z can really come in and take up a ton of that vote. They can. And not just in, And not just in like blue places, like all over the country it can happen. And so it could be that we will see a blue Texas. We will see a, you know. I think we could see a blue North Carolina soon.

I think we could see a consistently blue Georgia. Yeah. Like I think Florida's lost for a while, but I don't think forever. I don't think you're wrong. No. I don't think forever. I don't think you're wrong. No, I don't think forever. It's yeah.

I, I think, I think DeSantis has his, he's fighting too many battles at the same time on too many fronts. And he doesn't give he's fighting Disney. Yeah. That's a stupid fucking thing to do. Yeah.

Like his battle with Disney is just, nobody likes it. Like it doesn't play well for the right either everybody's like like with some exceptions you know what i mean but like sure like kid rock would shoot the epcot center right gone or whatever but you're gonna fight disney that's an that's like as american as shit gets a dumb fucking thing to do it's a stupid thing to talk quickly about this though you know ethically i really feel like there should be a test when you're a doctor and someone who provides medical care that the question they ask you should be,

will you treat everyone? Will you treat every single person, period? And if you say no, they'll just be like, great, you're going to be a research scientist. You're not going to be a doctor. Yeah, I don't think you should get your MD. You're not going to be a nurse. You have to, I think,

say, I'm going to like, there should be like an oath of office. I know they do the Hippocratic oath, but I don't know if in that oath, they say, I will treat anyone. I will treat everyone. Yeah. And not just treat them, but treat them to the best standard of care available. Because like, you know, we've covered too many stories and I just saw this like heartbreaking testimony of a woman who was refused. She lived in Florida. I don't know.

She lived in Texas. Was this the one Lindsey Graham slept through? Did he sleep through this? Was it congressional? Yeah. Did he sleep through it? I don't know.

Someone might have caught him perfectly with his eyes closed in a camera shot, but he sure as hell looked like he was asleep. There was this woman who was giving her experience of living in Texas and her water broke at 18 weeks. And at 18 weeks, if your water breaks, that is not a viable- We talked about something very similar. Similar thing happened to someone else. This was not going to be viable. This poor lady was refused care.

You know, she was not, she was not given an abortion. That would be the standard of treatment prior to these new bills. So she basically just had to go home and wait. She went home and wait. She became septic. Jesus fuck. She very, very nearly died. She may never be able to have kids like it, like the damage that it has done to her body is tremendous. The trauma that she experienced was tremendous. And, like, that lady very nearly died from it.

And other people will die from that. Other people will become septic and die. So, it's not enough that, like, once you're in an emergency situation, you might not,

that's the nature of an emergency, is you might not have time to fix the emergency. That's the problem, yeah. And, like, treating somebody has to include that the best standard of medical care, not your personal moral standard. Right. Fuck your personal morals. I think you should be denied your MD. Yeah. I really do. I think that if you

can't sign off on a statement like that, you should not be given your MD. No, man. And if you violate that, it should be taken away because like, because you're right. And, and things can turn so quickly, right? We talked about a couple of weeks ago, a woman who, who had this, this exact same thing happened. And then she went to the emergency room and they're like, sorry, we can't treat you. Here's some aspirin and a prayer. Do you remember this? Yeah. Yeah. That was an emergency. Yes. Right? But they didn't treat her. Right? And that's the problem is like, you know, you could be anybody and if you're an LGBTQ plus person

and you come in and you're like, yeah, I'm, it's not an emergency right now, but it will be if I leave. Yeah, right. And they're like,

well, it's not now. It's not now. And I don't like you. I hope you die. The end. Right. Yes.

And that's really what it's saying. It's saying, it's saying, I'm a doctor and I hope you die. Yes.. Right, yes. Because that's really what it's saying. It's saying, I'm a doctor and I hope you die. Yes. It's saying, I'm a doctor and my weird, moralistic,

almost certainly religious belief. 100% religious. Right. I hope you die. Right. Is greater in principle than the fact and actuality of your life. Yep.

That is awful. Now, you get a free demon possession with every exorcism. So this story comes from the Friendly Atheist Substack. free demon possession with every exorcism. So this story comes from the Friendly Atheist Substack. How the beliefs of an exorcism-obsessed Australian church led to a deadly crash. This story is fucking nuts.

I've just got to read parts of this story. Mohinder Singh never should have been driving a truck on April 22nd, 2020. That is an understatement. Yeah. The Australian driver for Connect Logistics was high on drugs, had not slept much, and claimed he was under the curse of a witch. Okay.

And then this next line, I think, is also like another, like one of those understatements of the year. A decent boss would have prevented Singh from getting behind the wheel. All right, listen. I'll give it to you if it's one out of the three. If you show up to work and you think you're just cursed by witches, I'll still let you drive the semi.

I'll still get to drive the semi, and I will drink out of my world's best boss. If you show up for work and you're high on drugs, we might share the drugs. I'll drink out of my world's okay-est boss. If you show up for work and you haven't slept very much, I might be a little leery,. I'll drink out of my world okay-est boss. Right, right. Yeah. If you show up for work and you haven't slept very much,

I might be a little leery, but I'll go ahead and give you the keys. Give the keys. I'll go ahead and give you the keys. But you can't combine. This is not a peanut butter,

chocolate, and chocolate moment. You can't have two out of three and three out of three is right out. Three out of three? Three out of three is right out. Can you imagine you show up for work?

How do you even report this to your boss? That's three bombs or whatever. I don't know. What's the bad? Is there a bad one? I don't even know. When you're playing the slots? I have no idea. It's not cherry, cherry, cherry. It's not 777.

I think this is lemon. This is all lemons all the way across. How do you tell your boss? All right. Hey, man. I got to tell you, it's been a rough weekend. I'm here to work. Don't worry. I'm here. I'm here to work. Been a rough weekend, though. Not a lot of sleep. I know I got to tell you, it's been a rough weekend. I'm here to work. Don't worry. I'm here. I'm here to work. Been a rough weekend,

though. Not a lot of sleep. I know I got to drive this truck. Really big truck. A lot of it, but I really have not slept a lot. Good news, though. I've taken a lot of drugs.

I've taken a lot of drugs. I feel like you lead off with the drugs. So, well, I think the sleep kind of tells you why I took the drugs, you know? So I've taken a lot of drugs,

so I feel like that took the edge off, the lack of sleep. Further complication, though. A witch is cursed. I really feel like you should have done bad news, bad news, good news. I really feel like you should have said, hey, boss, I have bad news, bad news, good news. Which would you like first? And then I could then decide, why don't you give me a bad news and you're like, cursed by a witch? Oh, let's play it.

Let's play it. All right. So bad news, bad news and you're like, Chris, oh, let's play it. Okay. Let's play it. All right. So, bad news, bad news, good news. Which ones, give me the good news.

Good news is, I am at work. I thought you were going to turn one of those three into good news somehow. I was like, I want to hear this.

Like, good news is, the drugs were really good this weekend. Bad news. My shirt's on backwards. And I'm not sure how to fix it. I don't even know. I have no idea how to fix it.

But I am here to drive a giant truck. A giant. You know what? But the boss had a good solution. He did. So the thing is like, you know, bosses these days get a bad rap. They do. They get a bad rap. There do. They get a bad rap.

There's a lot of bad bosses. That anti-work Reddit. Right. Man, those people, they get run through the, just through the ringer. We've seen, we've all seen horrible bosses

and horrible bosses too. Not as good, but I've seen it. Sometimes you got to respect bosses. So this is, you know, respect. Singh's boss gave him the go ahead

and 46 minutes later, he veered off the highway, plowed into police officers who pulled someone over for speeding and killed four people. Okay, that's a complication. So that's, you know, that's an oopsie.

It's bad. That is definitely, it's not going to be good. That is an oopsie. It's a tough day. A lot of paperwork. Sure, that is an oopsie. And so here's the thing.

In short, what the public already knew before the investigation was that Simon believed magical Christian incantations could overcome his driver's medical problems. Okay. He placed his hands on Singh's head that night and prayed for the witches to go away. Quote, while we were doing this, Simon talked to me about witches and curses and how they worked, Singh said. And after we did the search of the car and didn't find anything,

he placed his hand on my head and prayed. I don't remember the exact words of the prayer. Yeah. He tried to get the witch out. The problem is he was sleepy and high.

And so he thought there was a witch in his car and so they looked in the car to search for a witch? Or maybe they were looking for cursed objects? Oh. I don't know. Oh, I see. Maybe they were looking for cursed objects? Oh, I see. Maybe they were looking for like those little Blair Witch rocks

that are stacked up just so and like, you know. A little fucking hair doll with a pin in it or something underneath. Sure, yeah. No, I get it. So, you know, it didn't work. I don't remember the exact words of the prayer, but I do remember at the end of it, he said, in Jesus name, I cast the spell out of you.

Yeah. Holy shit, man. They treated this like it was fucking Harry Potter. Could you lay your hands on me again and maybe make me sober? Right. Possibly. Yeah.

If I can, if you could lay your hands on me and I piss clean, then I'm sold. Can you lay your hands on me and make me feel like I got four extra hours of sleep? Right. Holy shit. I wouldn't, if that, if that was a real thing, I would be like, you are touching me forever. I'll be like, that's it. I believe in you. I believe in you. I believe. If I woke up like

fucking refreshed just once, I'd be like, yes, I will take it. I want to say though, this fucking, there's a, there's a, a, I don't know, like it's it's like an image, but I did watch some of this. I watched some of this. Actually, let's play like a tiny little clip of this if I can find it. What even is this? So this is the church. This is that church. And here's that 60 minutes that's down here.

Let me see if I can find the clip of this church and these guys on stage. This is? Because I'm not even kidding when I say this is fucking crazy. You guys, if you're a listener and not a watcher of this show, if you're just listening to this show, this is one of those moments where I'm going to tell you,

you should take the time and watch this clip. I almost never tell you that. Take the time and watch this clip because as crazy as you think this might look, and we will try to describe it to you, you're wrong.

It's crazier. All right, so here it is. It's somewhere around here. Demons and Satan are used by the Potter's House Church to instill fear and control. But he is mine! In this

Melbourne stage show, put on by the church and attended by young children, a demon drags a man away, complete with mock blood and terrifying costumes. We'll come for all your souls. Sounds like the Dread Pirate Roberts is like, I will come for all your souls.

I will say, I will say, it reminds me of pro wrestling. It very much reminds me of pro wrestling. Like that spectacle that pro wrestling brings, which is like, you know, light show with somebody who's sort of like in pain and he's getting held up by the other guy and the other guy's kind of gloating. This person that we just saw with that had that voice. I don't even know how well that's going to come through in pain and he's getting held up by the other guy and the other guy's kind of gloating this person

that we just saw with that had that voice i don't even know how well that's going to come through on on on the audio but that person who was a voc affecting their voice they had on like a like a a purge mask like one of those purge mask type things and then there was somebody else who had kind of like a purgish mask on that that were they're supposed to be like satanic he's pointing to the crowd as he walks through. And the crowd is going nuts. And the crowd is eating it up. The crowd's eating it up.

And this very much reminds me of the sort of, when I think about the end of days stuff that I heard when I was a kid and the churches that were pushing sort of those left behind movies and stuff, this all feels like it fits all right in there. This feels like Hell House meets WWE Raw. Yeah, exactly.

Very much. Very much. It's got that like exactly theatrical, but Halloween-y kind of feel to it. Where you're just like, it's all crazy bullshit. And I always used to sort of look at that stuff and kind of laugh it off, you know, like, oh, well, you know, they just want some of the sense of drama and excitement. And this is a way for them to have some of that drama and excitement in a way that's still like culturally acceptable for their religious practice. But man, this guy really thought he could cast out a witch

and he gave a guy keys to a giant truck. And I watched part of this segment, not all of it, but I watched part of this segment on this expose of this church. And these people are shown these horrific movies too of what hell's gonna be like. They are doing their best to try to scare people and then try to convince people that the world is supernatural, right?

And so they're doing this over and over and over, this indoctrination week after week after week. And then you, like, how can we be mad if someone is indoctrinated week after week that the world is, that they're saying the world is supernatural and then they look for a supernatural solution to a problem.

Yeah, you're not wrong. And, you know, the other piece of that too is that, and they mentioned it in this clip, they start people young with this shit. They show this shit to kids. Yeah, you're a little kid. If your whole life you've been fed the idea that there are supernatural problems that require supernatural solutions and that supernatural solutions can affect the natural world, then, yeah, it absolutely makes sense that like, oh, shit, I got a problem. I got to get these packages from point A to point B.

I got a problem. I got to get these packages from point A to point B. My driver's got the curse of the amphetamines or whatever. And I got to get the fucking ice witch out of him. Like, all right, then I got, I have a solution. I've been taught my whole life. I have a solution to this problem. You know? And then it's like, but the problem is like, your problem was imaginary. Your solution is imaginary. You don't understand what's actually happening. Yeah. Your whole worldview is a fucking, yeah, it's like fucked. It's watching never ending story. Yeah. I mean, and that's, and that's, I think a really scary thing about these really deep religions is they don't prepare you for real life in any way. Right. So, so when something happens in your life and, and you said you used to work with a woman who thought everything was demons. Everything was demons.

So she would say anything that was bad was a demon. There were all these micro demons, sugar demons and like caffeine demons. There was a demon for everything that like made her feel sad or whatever. Exactly, but she never had any solution for that. No. What she had was a spiritual or a supernatural solution

and it never solved her problem. All she did was blame things on evil, and that's also a way for people to reject any kind of fix for anything. Right? Because no matter how many times I put my hand on this guy and pray these dumbass words, nothing is going to happen. Nothing.

Nothing's going to happen, so you're never fixing your problem. Yeah, because nothing supernatural has ever happened ever. Nothing supernatural happened. So there's no supernatural solution. So everything you do is essentially useless. Right.

Yeah, you've done nothing. Yeah. You've done nothing. You're walking through the world, not fixing any of your issues. Right. No problems are fixed. And so it's a terrible thing.

This lady, by the way, I just remembered, she also believed that computer spam, email spam, was demons. That there were demons that gave you, spammed you.

Was she thinking the mailer daemon? D-A-N? What? Thusly, I've made the determination that if need be, if faced with starvation, we will cook and eat chukka. This story comes from DW.com, but this is also just a Reuters story.

You can find this at AP. You can find it at Reuters. You can find it anywhere. In Kenya, body count rises to 47 in starvation cult case. They're actually thinking that the total body count might be in the couple of hundreds. Oh, my God. On this. total body count might be in the couple of hundreds.

Oh my God. On this. So this is a Christian cult in Kenya that they're looking at people having starved themselves to death and they don't know how many. They're just uncovering these shallow graves. And that's where we're at. The first article I read about this

was that this starvation massacre, which is basically what it is, is a starvation massacre, which is basically what it is, is a starvation massacre, has like elements and remnants and like ghosts of Jonestown. Oh my God. Kind of elements to it. Yeah, it sounds like it too

because he basically says that they have to starve themselves in order to meet Jesus. And then they did. It would work. Like they did, like everybody did. And it's so crazy to me that someone could go through that

much agony. Like, I mean, there's a part of me that I don't, I don't get it and would never do it, but there's a part of me that, you know, understands the very quick, somebody drank some flavor aid and then they died afterwards because they were in the moment of a religious ceremony, right. Or something like, I don't get it. I can't get there, but there's a part of me that at least understands like maybe somehow that can happen or something. Right. There's a difference between like a moment and a prolonged time.

I mean, I can't imagine just being like, I mean, there's a primalness to hunger. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like where, you know,

at a certain point you just like be like, I mean, look at the people in stories that we've covered on Citation Needed they've been like they're not neat Bill's not using that body because he's dead right yeah and then they'll just eat humans they'll suck on rocks they'll eat dirt

they'll make grass whatever there's a sort of a primalness to it that I keep feeling like you know I don't know how it works with one person, let alone, like you're saying, hundreds of people. Yeah. If you ever question the depth of that programming, that religious programming, and what it can make you overcome emotionally and how powerful that force is, like, I don't skip lunch. I don't skip, like,

that force is. Like, I don't skip lunch. I don't skip, it's easy. If somebody was like, hey man, you can meet Jesus or have lunch.

I'd be like, neat. Call me later, Jesus. I'm getting tacos. Like, I'm not missing meals, man.

I don't get it. Like, I'm not doing, like, if I miss, back before COVID, I have told this story on the show before. Back before COVID,, like when, back when I went back before COVID, I have told this story on the show before, back before COVID at my office, people would want to have meetings with

me. They'd want to like ask me stuff. So like the boss of the office. So there was like a big office is 80, 90 people or whatever. And the other managers that worked for me that worked there, they would bring me food before asking me to have a meeting or before asking me like, hey, I want to do this new thing or they would, they'd be like, hey,

you want to go get some lunch? You're not yourself if you don't have a Snickers. They'd be like, I know that. It got to the point, Cecil, where like I would know

they were going to ask me for something and I would kind of get a sense of how big the ask was based on how good the food was. Tom's sitting at his desk. He just sees a fucking hero sandwich on a fishing pole. And he's following it through the cubicles.

It wasn't not like that. He's going through the cubicles. He's leaned over like Homer. Oh, I'm going to get the sandwich. I'm going to get the sandwich. That's fucking amazing, dude. They would be like, a cup of coffee? That's a small ask, right?

A cup of coffee with a Danish? Now I know you're asking a little more from me. Wow, that's a lot. You're buying me. Oh, I'm sorry. We're going out for sushi? Someone wants a raise. Someone brings you portillos?

Here we go. Here we go. Okay, you know my job. You get the corner office. That's yours now. So it's like, you're exactly right like hunger is so big it's so fucking primal and it is amazing to me that that there can be a force that is just an intellectual force right just a force that exists only in your mind

we guess we guess because i don't know they could have like locked some of these people up i don't know to that extent right yeah but it doesn't appear it doesn't sound like that from the articles that i read it sounds like it was a ball that extent. Right. Yeah. But it doesn't appear that that's, it doesn't appear like that. It sounds like it was a ball. It was like they were indoctrinated. It doesn't appear like that. I don't know. Yeah.

So I'm just going to say, it's a possibility, but I don't know. So like, but it just, we've seen so many times that people can believe something. Yeah. Supernatural and demonstrably untrue.

And they can believe it so hard that they'll just be like, I just don't eat food anymore. Yeah, man. Fuck. Fuck, dude. That's fucked up. This story is fucked up. I read this earlier.

There's sometimes when I'll read stories and I'll walk away from the computer. I'll be like, I got to walk away for a second. And lots of times it has to do with kids. Like when little kids, because they don't fucking know. They're just kids, man.

They didn't play this out. They didn just kids, man. They didn't fucking, they didn't, they didn't play this out. They didn't think about this. You know, like if they didn't make any choices, they didn't even have any choices. And this has like some kids that died and you're just like,

fuck man. Like what the fuck is wrong with you? And you know, this, this, there are some people out there that talk about it like a virus. Like they're like the God virus or whatever. And like,

sometimes there's a couple of stories that'll come across I'll be like, man, I don't disagree today. I don't disagree today. I don't disagree in general. Like, because something you said too, like it strikes me, there's something like terribly new in this statement, I guess. But you know, if I saw, if I want to suffer, that's one thing. Yeah. But to watch somebody else suffer is something different, right? So I get to choose my suffering, right? And I get to say like, I'm okay with that level of suffering, but if I were to see my loved ones in pain, if that doesn't change the way I feel about something, like, wow. Like again, that level of like reach like reach that religion has to stir and to, and not just to stir you inside,

but also to cover up the best, most important parts of your humanity. Right. Right. Yeah. And to like make that. The compassion. And it's funny too,

because that's the thing they sell. Right. Right. The compassion is what they sell you. And then to like watch somebody like have no compassion for somebody else in the face of that. Yeah. And you're just like, fuck, dude. That's a hard story to read.

You a big Dr. Peppuccino eating motherfucker. Yeah. This is just goofball shit. This is from LGBTQ Nation. Is this that same church? Because it might not be because this looks like a different backdrop. I'm going to put this on the big screen. I don't know this guy.

This is some Tommy McMurphy. Yeah. this on the big screen. I don't know this guy. This is some Tommy McMurphy. Yeah, it's hard to know. I don't know. Because like, the problem is, I'm not going to bother with that. The problem is that, oh God,

please don't send me notifications. I hate that so much. The problem is that, do you remember that other hate preacher? Yeah. Who's- Greg Locke? No, the other one who does it from the fucking basement.

You know what I'm talking about, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He hates all women or whatever. Right, right, right. So this looks like a different basement. It does. Right? It looks like another...

Like someone else's rec room. I think this is a different guy. This is a different... Who's also renting out some shitty, shitty basement. All right. So, but his spiel here, he says, hate preacher says if he finds out that Dr. Pepper is a woman, then he will stop drinking it.

Okay. All right, here we go. Let's just do it. Now do we, let's just watch the, there's a minute of him saying it. All right. So this is dipshit talking about Dr. Pepper. It's a minute long. It's 2023 and this stuff is everywhere and it's absolutely revolting. And let me just say this to make me feel good. I've always hated the Bud Light company. To make me feel good. Let me say this to make me feel good. Let me say this to make me feel good. Cause that's why you guys are here. You're here to listen to me say things to make me feel good. What? What?

It's felt pretty good this week watching them lose billions of dollars. I hope they die financially. In Minecraft. Hope in one hand and shit in the other and see which one gets filled up first. In that we'll be fine. Oh my gosh. It's so funny too because like,

did you see all the images and memes this week when they're talking about, they kept on showing this one picture of someone who's trying to drink. It was a picture of Will Smith when he's drinking something and he's got this weird face on. He's like, oh, he's drinking something

he really doesn't like. And the caption was, me drinking Bud Light to piss off the right wingers. His face is all contorted and he looks, he looks like he's really not enjoying whatever he's drinking. Which makes sense if it's Bud Light. It makes sense if it's Bud Light. It does make sense.

But it's so funny. Cause like I saw a ton of people who were like, yeah, man, Bud Light's awesome. I am in the camp of like, I don't care either way. But, but I did see a ton of people who were, who I think either bought it or would buy. And the Anheuser-Busch owns so much of the beer market. They own so much of the beer.

They own most of it. They own so much of the beer market. They own what you think might even be micro brews they own. They buy major, like if, if a micro brew gets to a certain level of success, they're like, nom, nom, nom. And they buy it. And then they sell it. And so you could be drinking a ton of different Anheuser-Busch if you drink different types of beers and they don't even know.

Huge, huge hold on the industry. I do. Man, I hope they do. I can't imagine a straight man drinking Bud Light right now. I mean, there is not a drink out there. You all know how much I like Ghost. They put a tranny on their can. I'll be cured. Done. I don't care. Dr. Pepper, you know, whatever. If Dr. Pepper turns out this

whole time was a woman, I always thought it was a guy. I'll quit drinking it. All right. Just right, right there. So does he think Dr. Pepper's a doctor? Does he think that Dr. Pepper, Cecil. Calling Dr. Pepper. Calling Dr. Pepper. Paging Dr. Pepper. Dr. Pepper. We need you. Carbonated prune juice stat. Seriously.

He thought Dr. Pepper was a dude. There's no Dr. Pepper. There's no actual doctor. Dr. Pepper. It's a can of soda, my guy. That's it. There's not even a mascot for Dr. Pepper. Is there a mascot

for Dr. Pepper I don't know about? There is a mascot for Diet Dr. Pepper. Let's watch that. So this is the mascot for Diet Dr. Pepper. So yeah, there's a mascot for Diet Dr. Pepper, but I don't know that there's a mascot for Dr. Pepper. So, yeah, there's a mascot for Diet Dr. Pepper, but I don't know that there's a mascot for Dr. Pepper.

I hope that the only care he receives when he's sick is from Dr. Pepper. This is a line of Dr. Peppers and they're all euthanasia doctors. He's a man of Dr. Pepper turns out to be a chick

what I it's like the thing is is like all he wants to do is try to make some terrible

unfunny jokes yes because he doesn't like trans people right that's it that's the extent of the entire bit

and it's not funny and it's not clever it's a terrible bit and it's not interesting and here's the thing like like here's a guy who didn't tell you anything

except for that he doesn't like stuff. Right. Right? He never had any kind of moral point. No. All it was was, I don't like that stuff. Yep. He didn't hear any kind of,

he never mentioned a single Bible verse. No. He didn't talk about a single point of morality. No, no. There wasn't any deep conversation. It was like, I like energy drinks. I like Dr. Pepper. I wouldn't like it if a woman was Dr. Pepper.

And straight guys don't drink Bud Light anymore. And straight guys shouldn't drink a beer of some kind that I don't like. And he says things to make himself feel good. It's all like stuff. Might as well just tell me which car I should buy. Seriously, his sermon is these are the things that grind my gears.

These various things I enjoy. Right. These other things, not so much. Who wakes up on a Sunday? You wake up on a, Oh my God, this is the worst, Tom. You wake up on a Sunday. Oh my God.

You could have alternately not woken up that Sunday. Oh man. But you do anyway. And you get showered. Not in the suburbs, because every fucking buddy in the world has a fucking lawnmower going that Sunday. Oh, man. But you do anyway. And you get showered. Not in the suburbs because every fucking buddy in the world has a fucking lawnmower going on Sunday. Oh, you can't sleep

through. It's fucking, it's 7 in the morning, 7, 7.15 in the morning on a fucking Saturday or Sunday and there's just a fucking lawnmower and you're like, no, no. See, that is why I don't love this body for much of anything. But when this piece of shit falls asleep,

you could put the lawnmower on my fucking head. You could be like, I'm cutting Tom's hair with the lawnmower. I'd be like, I don't give a fuck. I'm sleeping. I will wake up and be like, that was loud. And I'll just go right back to sleep. I don't give a shit. Other night, I had a dream that I woke up from. I won't tell, I won't bore you with it, but I had a dream and I woke up startled out of it. Um, and it was because I heard something in my house and it was just something. And then I woke up and I was like, oh shit. And I know that I know I heard it because the cats sleep on the same bed with us. Right. And one of the, the, the young boy was sitting up like,

what's up, like what's going on. And so I sat there for a minute to be like okay was that anything i mean i'm right it's not gonna be a burglar but is there like an animal in the house or something and so i'm like what is it and then i couldn't get back to sleep for the rest of the night i got up at two in the morning and i stayed up all until 10 o'clock the next day yeah i couldn't go back to sleep like my body was just like nope you're done that is the end of that sleep so a lawnmower tom a lawnmower, Tom, a lawnmower. Oh, Cecil. I will tell you right now. I would kill.

I'm 100% up after a lawnmower goes by. Oh my God. 100% up. My God. See, I have the same problem in a hotel. So if I'm in a hotel, especially if I'm in a hotel alone, like if I'm in a hotel alone, the first night or two that I'm in that hotel,

I wake up everything. Me too, yeah. But then I'll fall back asleep fairly swiftly, but I'll always get the worst night or two that I'm in that hotel, I wake up everything. Me too, yeah. But then I'll fall back asleep fairly swiftly, but I'll always get the worst night's sleep. So my most hated business trips are like two night business trips. Three nights, at least I'll get sleep the third night. But like two night business trips,

like by day three, I'm like, God, four hours in three days. Yeah. So tired. And everyone's like, let's go drinking and playing golf and doing business. And I'm just like, I'd rather go to sleep in my bed.

Please let me go home. I can't, I'm exhausted. I'm just exhausted. People, the maid or whatever went by. And now I feel like someone burgled my house. I, I,

I haven't been a light sleeper my whole life. And so like, I'm just a light sleeper. And so like little stuff will wake me up. And then if I don't like immediately get back to sleep like pretty quickly, then I'm just up. And I'll be up for hours, hours at a time. Like it's not like I'm up for 15 minutes.

I'm laying there nothing. Oh dude, that's brutal. I've gotten good at like listening to books in bed. So I don't like wake my wife up, you know, with stuff. So I've gotten good at listening to books in bed so I don't wake my wife up with stuff. So I'll listen to a book or something and just wait to try to fall asleep. And then sometimes it doesn't work. I get through a lot of books.

I'll tell you, I read a lot of books. Stupid to ban books that tell you the truth about life. This story comes from The Guardian. Calls to ban books hit highest level ever recorded in the United States. Demands to censor, most often for gender themes or sexual detail rose 38% on year in 2022 with genderqueer by Maya Kobabe, I probably mispronounced that, being last year's most challenged title. You know, there was a time when banned books

was a sort of chest thump. Libraries had banned books week. The idea of a banned book. It was anti-American. Right. It was very anti-American. Yeah. And libraries and places of learning. My young days growing up when the Soviet Union was still a thing,

it was anti-American to ban a book. To ban a book. It doesn anti-American to ban a book. To ban a book. It doesn't matter what that book says. We used to think of banning books as like concomitant with all of these fascist principles that were out of alignment, like you say, with American ideals. And now they are reintroduced as a new American ideal,

as you said earlier in the show, by the party that purports to be small government. Yeah, right. I really don't think, and I did, somebody said it. I don't know who said it when I read this week. But they said something like, this is not your father's republicanism anymore. It was somebody on the right. And they were basically alluding to the fact that we're no longer the party that we were. We're not the Tea Party. We're not the neoconservatives. We're not the Reagan conservatives. We're a new thing.

And this new thing isn't pretending anymore to be small government. If you were a small government guy, you got to bail on the Republican Party. Because now it's what you can wear. It's what medicine you can take, how doctors are can wear. It's what medicine you can take, what doctors, how doctors are allowed to treat you, what books you're allowed to read. And it used to be like those, we considered those social issues, right? There was this idea that there was a split between fiscal and social, right? And so like when I first started getting into politics, people would say, well, you're a libertarian. That's what they would tell me because I would, I was, I thought I was very fiscally conservative. And I think when I first started out thinking

about politics, I was fiscally conservative. I didn't want the government to take the very little bit of money that I already was getting. I mean, I was like, fuck, I'm not getting anything and you're taking money from me and I don't see anything because I'm young, right? And so you don't have any foresight, you don't understand the services you're getting. You just think, well, what has the government done for me lately except for take my money, right? And so that's the mindset you have as a young man. At least I did for, I don't want to say you, as I had when I was a young man.

And so, but then I also had this very strong freedom streak that came through me that was like, let people be who they want to be. Don't tell people what they can't read. Don't tell people what they can't wear. Don't tell people who they can't marry. Don't tell people that they can't have a different sexual orientation than other people. That's none of your business, right? Stay out of my business. And it really felt like that I fit that sort of mold, but I don't think that person exists anymore. I really don't. Politically, I don't think that person can exist anymore.

No. I really don't. I mean, the Republican Party does want to be fiscally conservative, but only on little tiny things that have to do with

cutting out and hurting people that they don't like. Yeah. Right? So when they're fiscally conservative, they're fiscally conservative against the arts

or they're fiscally conservative against the arts or they're fiscally conservative against, you know, school programs, like a kid getting a food, a school lunch program, let's say they're fiscally conservative when it comes to those things, but they're not fiscally conservative with your money, right? Like, and we're talking about the conservatives too, all of their money as well, right? They all have to pitch into the kitty and they don't get tax breaks and they wind up having to pay more year after year after year. And then they don't see anything from it, right? They don't get anything from it. They don't get to reap any benefits from any of that money going into a big kitty, right? They're stuck in

this sort of, you know, they're stuck in this world where they're like, okay, we don't want to see any improvements. And I still want you to take all, it's the worst of everything. It's like eating the biggest shit sandwich you could possibly imagine. But they hurt the people who they don't like, right? I don't like those people and they're hurt and that makes me feel okay.

I don't know of like, I mean, I feel like this is a new thing. It feels new. And that's why I guess I agree with that person who's saying that's a new party. It's a brand new thing. Yeah, we're in a new thing. It feels new. And that's why I guess I agree with that person who's saying that's a new party. It's a brand new thing. Yeah, we're in a new space. And if you look historically, the Republicans are the party that drives up our debt.

Yeah. They always talk this game about how they're the fiscal conservatives, but they're not. You want to talk about who's really driving up the debt in America. You know, not all spending is the same kind of spending. We've talked about this in the show. Like if, if I invest, if I just as a regular person, if I have money and I take that money and I invest that money and it yields a return for me, I did have to spend that money in an investment. But if I get a return, then at the end of it, I have more than what I started with. That's democratic ideals of investing in education, for example. Every dollar spent invested in education returns more than a dollar. So yeah, we spend more money, but the return is

higher. Republicans spend money just giving money back to their rich friends in the form of massive tax cuts. They spend massive amounts of money waging illegal wars overseas time and time and time again. Like they spend money that we don't ever get anything back from. What do we get back from that money? You yield no returns. There's no investment.

They're the worst money managers ever. And we know it because the debt always goes up under their watch. Yeah, man, every single time. Every time it goes up under their watch. The worst part. Every single time. Every time it goes up under their watch. And the worst part is that it's kind of on this four-year pendulum. So it makes it feel like, you know, they get away with it for a while. Because you can, just like if it's you, you can get away with it for a while by putting a lot of things on credit.

Yeah. Right? You can get away with it for a while and still have a lavish lifestyle but make no money. Right. You can still do that. Yep. And and still have a lavish lifestyle, but make no money. Right. You can still do that. Yep. And that's sort of what it feels like. It feels like they get, you know, they get to spend all the money.

And then when it gets cut back, then things start to go badly or whatever because of their policies. Their policies. That were in effect. And then the Democrats are the ones who get the blame for it because they're the ones in the office at the time. And then they go right back to the Republicans. The transition from W to Obama is a great example of that. W tanked the fucking economy. Tanked it, tanked it.

Absolutely, for fucking eight years, fucking devastated the goddamn economy. And then in 2008, handed an economic crisis, an absolute economic crisis, to Obama at the beginning of his administration. But Obama presided over the 2008-2009 housing recession and the global recession that followed. So in one sense, Obama presided over the greatest recession in American history,

but that recession was absolutely the result. It was going to happen even if we didn't elect anybody. If we'd elect an air bud to sit in that chair, that fucking housing recession was going to happen. It happened literally within weeks, within weeks. Wow. Before he was in office, I remember they called him in because they like Bush was like, yeah, I want to give the banks a bunch of money. Yeah. They had to collaborate on the bailout in the middle of the presidential transition. So it's like, yeah, I want to give the banks a bunch of money. Yeah. They had to collaborate on the bailout in the middle of the presidential transition. So it's like the idea that the Republicans are this like small government fiscal, that's like, that's my dad's Republicans. That's not ours anymore.

Yeah, I know, man. Now we've got the book branding people. Now we got the people who are like, don't wear fucking the wrong clothes to work or you're fired. Women aren't people anymore. You can't get medical care anymore because you're, you know, you're LGBT. So it's a fucking crazy world.

A ton of really depressing stories. Really sad stories. Hey, everybody. A sad day today. Might've had a sad week this week, but that's okay because come back on Thursday. We're going to have a funny show for you. We're going to hang out, chill. So come hang out and do that.

And then the following week, we'll have a long form. So come on the following Thursday for that, but check your feeds on Thursday for the first two weeks of the month because there's extra shows for everybody. All right. That's going to wrap it up for this week. 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, pseudoseudo quasi alternative. Accu punctuating. 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, birthers, witches, wizards, vaccine nuts, shaman healers, evangelists, conspiracy, doublespeak, stigmata, nonsense. Expose your sides. Thrust your hands. Bloody. Evidential. Conclusive. expose your sides thrust your hands bloody evidential conclusive doubt even this

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