Cognitive Dissonance - Episode 797: To Understand JD Vance, You Need to Meet the “TheoBros”

Episode Date: October 10, 2024

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Starting point is 00:00:00 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 Distanance. 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.
Starting point is 00:00:59 It's skeptical, it's political, and there is no welcome. Today is deep dive. It's law a long form, long form day. And this is indeed a long form articles article. We're going to be talking about is from mother Jones. Really? I gotta say like if you are careful about which articles you consume on mother Jones,
Starting point is 00:01:24 they have some genuinely outstanding reporting. Like sometimes I think like, I'm like, eh, it's not kind of my wheelhouse, right? Just topically. But when they do deep dive long form articles on, they do a genuinely excellent job. There's some of these institutions that had really good names in the past that have fallen. So like Rolling Stone was one of those for a long time.
Starting point is 00:01:48 Oh my God, what a mess. It was amazing. So good before. Amazing. And now it's really just a clickbait site. Yeah. So that sort of like happened to several different institutions. Mother Jones is sort of was that I think too.
Starting point is 00:02:00 And so now, you know, once in a while you'll come across something like this that is long form in depth. They really did a good job of, you know, just doing good journalism. Yeah, it's really well done. Terrific. So this article is to understand JD Vance, you need to meet the Theo bros. This is an article by Keira Butler. Reminder for our $2 and up patrons. There is audio of me reading this article. So you can listen to the article for our $2 and up patrons. You know, this article for me really, I mean, just to kind of start off,
Starting point is 00:02:37 what it does is it helps me to contextualize to a degree that I had not understood before. The appeal of JD Vance across a segment of America that genuinely I didn't really know existed. Not in the, not in the sort of broad categorical sense that I'm coming to understand that it existed. I think like what's interesting about this segment is that it touches on some things that we've touched on before about this sort of Christian nationalism.
Starting point is 00:03:12 The most important piece of that is the nationalism part. It's not really the Christian part. The Christian part is what you dress it up as, but the nationalism part is the big piece. And what you're seeing in this stuff is a lot of white nationalism, a lot of, a lot of really patriarchal backward thinking. And that stuff is all, it's, it's all manifest in all these different subsets of all these other religions because JD Vance is a Catholic. His wife is a Hindu. Right. other religions because J.D. Vance is a Catholic. His wife is a Hindu. He comes from a background
Starting point is 00:03:46 that's not this sort of Presbyterian or whatever it is, this evangelical base that many of these people sort of come from. He's not from a reform tradition. He's from a Catholic tradition. He's from a Catholic tradition, but he fits in and melds in so well because the Catholic part, it might be the quality in which we all get together on sort of that Christian part, but the nationalism is what really brings us all together. And the nationalism brings with it all kinds of problems. Yeah, and well like and it's it's it seems it feels like Christianity right now by these guys is being used not in any like Theoretically honest or earnest even sense but as a sort of like
Starting point is 00:04:39 stealth cloaking device for them to bring in a deep level of misogyny and patriarchy, like a deep level, like a crazy level that really like, I'm not saying that the Bible is not full of this. The Bible is absolutely full of deep misogynistic patriarchal shit, but those ideas have long since sort of been, I don't know, like sidelined in mainstream theological traditions for the most part. They've been, again, like speaking broadly, I know that in every case.
Starting point is 00:05:12 But like there is a group of white dudes who are using Christianity as the cloak to be like, all right, how can we get all these horrible things that we want? And then we can just like kind of paint them with this brush of the cross. And we can, you know, cloak them under this like disguise of this new brand of ultra Christian nationalism and ultra nationalism. And it's like, and then their poster child is it on the, on the, the face of it seems so incredibly unlikely. Like it's got biracial kids, you know, he's got, like you said, he's got a, an Indian wife who's a Hindu.
Starting point is 00:05:56 He, as you mentioned, is not from a reformed tradition, but what JD Vance is, is absolutely willing to sell himself for power. Oh my God. Yeah. In a way that like no other politician is as blatantly, obviously so willing to sell himself for power. And you don't have to look any further than his about face on Trump. Yeah. Like his about face on Trump, which is just a couple of, just a couple of years ago. It's not like he was, this is, this is a guy who ran for office after Trump was,
Starting point is 00:06:30 was put in office. So like we're talking to guy who's, who's political career is only two years old. He's a baby. He's a newborn political baby. And he is very obviously willing to sell himself out to anyone that will bid him properly and the currency he wants his power. He is an installation candidate from Peter Teal. This article talks about that. Peter Teal is the billionaire conservative nut job who's obsessed with birth rates in this country. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:07:05 He is absolutely installed, just straight up bought and paid for and installed. That guy dropped $10 million into a local Ohio Senate race. I mean, how fucking insane is that? $10 million from one funding source. That by the way should be illegal. That should be 100%. Right. We shouldn't actually have funding for political candidates.
Starting point is 00:07:22 That's what we should just, everybody, that should just be a government thing. You get $100,000, do the best you can. Yeah, political candidates. That's what we should just everybody. That should just be a government thing You get a hundred thousand dollars do the best you can. Yeah. Thank you. That's it. That's it. Everybody gets the same amount Do the best you can fight it out. Yeah, go out there and shake hands kiss babies I don't know what you're gonna do a lot more local than it is right? Yeah, stop with these super PACs. Let's quit it Let's quit it man. There's a good you pull that money out Think how many people could be helped if you just pulled that money out. We just raised $90,000 for Kamala Harris. I would have much rather handed that money over to somebody else who's doing real boots
Starting point is 00:07:54 on the ground work with people and have the government handle who gets money based on ... For real. When you and I first started, I know this isn't a side, but when you and I talk about charity, and we've been talking about this since we started this podcast, even before there was Patreon. When we've been working on charity, the thing that we always wanted was like spoons and mouths
Starting point is 00:08:13 or needles and arms. Like I'm not interested in supporting exclusively ideological causes. When we'd go do fundraising, I want to like, here's a money, make a tangible. What physically does this do? Right? Like, yeah. And that's always been our ethos on that. Like I'm not, you know, like there's a lot of people doing great work that's important. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, for example, we've raised a little money from them, but they're not like the primary charitable driver that I get
Starting point is 00:08:39 excited about. I want to put a rice in someone's bowl. I want to put a needle in someone's arm. Like these are the things that motivate me personally. But like you look at the dollars at $90,000. I wish that, I wish that bought rice for somebody in a bowl, you know, I wish that put a vaccine in somebody's arm, but we have to do this because money has invaded politics ever since citizens United in a way that you can't escape from until we decide actually this is bribery. Because it's just bribery. And the biggest swing of dick that walks in the room is Peter Thiel when he's got 10 million dollars. Think of how much voice he has versus you or I. We have to band together tens of thousands of listeners to try to gather up just $90,000.
Starting point is 00:09:27 Right. And I'm not shitting on that amount of money. Don't take that as a shitting. But I am saying like, consider that that's the voice of tens of thousands of listeners. Now you look at it and you say, okay, well, now we're looking at one guy who's got $10 million. He has dwarfed the tens of thousands of voices because he can do it because he's just so powerful that 100 times more money. And this is, and this is exactly what, uh, what JD Vance is looking for that kind of
Starting point is 00:09:59 power, right? He's looking for that transfer of power. Uh, I want, you know, one of the things that I think is really interesting is that there is kind of a shorthand for morality in our country. When you say someone is Christian, there is a shorthand that sort of everyone seems to understand that that person is a good person.
Starting point is 00:10:23 If they say, if anybody uses Christian as an adjective on somebody, what is it supposed to mean other than they're trustworthy or they're good or anything like that? Like that's, I think what's that shorthand for that. I don't know, I don't agree with it. What is it? Can I pause real quick?
Starting point is 00:10:37 Cause I actually want, this is an interesting idea. Cause I agree with you completely, right? You hear it all the time. I wonder like, what are the synonyms that occur to you that have been sort of like culturally embedded in that? Because as soon as you say that, I know exactly what you're talking about. And what I'm, the synonyms that I'm supposed to like have pop up in my mind would be things like kind, generous, charitable, community-oriented. I was going to say family- oriented, but yeah, yeah. But basically all those, yeah, exactly.
Starting point is 00:11:07 Those are exactly what, and that's the shorthand that we use for Christianity. It's not fair because we've seen time and time again, especially many popular Christian figures do not live up to any of those standards that you mentioned, right? But we use it as a shorthand in this country and many people do.
Starting point is 00:11:24 Whether or not you or I use it, I mean, we as a nation use it as a shorthand in this country and many people do. Whether or not you or I use it, I mean, we as a nation use it all the time. To be clear to the listeners, I don't believe that. That's what we're sort of, that's what we're culturally sold is synonymous. Yeah. So, what I'm saying though is that like, these guys are using this sort of suit, this Christian suit, to say I'm a Christian. So I'm automatically a good person. I'm automatically in your good, good column. You've already set me over here and said that person is, they're nice, they're charitable, they're this,
Starting point is 00:11:56 they're that, whatever. And then I get a chance to now spout my really shitty backwards views. Let me read just a tiny little piece that you were talking about about misogyny here. This is a really important piece of this article. A 2021 vice expose, former members of Christ Church, alleged that ministers had encouraged them to stay in abusive relationships. That tracks with Wilson's 1999 book, Fidelity, How to Be a One Woman Man,
Starting point is 00:12:28 in which he wrote, quote, The sexual act cannot be made into an egalitarian pleasure party. A man penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants. A woman receives, surrenders, accepts, end quote. a woman receives, surrenders, accepts." For that reason, Wilson wrote, the dynamic of a dominant man and a submissive woman is an, quote, an erotic necessity, end quote. Now he later alleged that that was categorically false, those that they forced people to stay in abusive relationships.
Starting point is 00:13:03 He said that was categorically false, but members of the church said that that's what they did. So you choose who you want to believe here, right? Do you want to believe the guy who wrote this crazy misogynist book that talks about like weird ass, like ovipositor alien shit? Or do you want to believe the people who probably were forced to be in abusive relation? I don't know. Maybe, you know, make a choice.
Starting point is 00:13:24 Yeah. I tough't know. Maybe, you know, make a choice. Yeah. I, hmm, tough, tough call conquers. Yeah. Do I like fucking that? Like this is exactly the kind of language that you would expect from, from a, I guess, like, I would expect this language from a small cadre of lunatics, but what I'm understanding is that this is not a small cadre. That this is an increasingly vocal, increasingly powerful, increasingly savvy, increasingly online, increasingly message heavy group of people.
Starting point is 00:13:58 There are a ton of studies which are continuing to show that Gen Z men are trending vastly more conservative than their female counterparts than women in Gen Z. They are far more conservative. They are far more patriarchal. They are much less egalitarian. They are being radicalized by this insane material. If this same religious radicalization were taking place and the cloak that were being used were an Islamic cloak rather than a Christian cloak, there would be an uproar in every corner of the world. We would be like, oh my God, won't somebody think of the children?
Starting point is 00:14:42 And to be fair, that would be right. We should be worried about that because that is a set of regressive, violent, misogynistic ideas, right? We cannot allow those to propagate. Christianity doesn't get a pass when it is violent and misogynistic and those ideas should not be allowed to propagate.
Starting point is 00:15:03 There's this like idea that the politicians keep floating, which is antithetical to what the podcasters and the video streamers and the YouTubers that are the Theo bros are talking about. The politicians, the JD Vances are out there talking about how this is about making choices within your family. But then the proposals out there are not family choice proposals. It's not about how you wanna run your household. It's not about who you wanna choose as your partner in your life.
Starting point is 00:15:34 It's about structural political changes. It's about, in some cases, giving people extra votes if they have kids and assigning those votes to the parents. To the dad. Which automatically goes assigning those votes to the parents, which automatically goes to the head of the household, the father within these patriarchal deals. Right? So now all of a sudden these men have more political power by multitudes, by magnifiers and multipliers.
Starting point is 00:15:59 They're talking about like repealing the 19th amendment and reversing women's suffrage. They're talking about institutional, political, legal changes to disenfranchise most of the people in the country. Most. And this is a backlash, I think. There's no real link here, right? So they don't link it up in the article. The article talks about these guys.
Starting point is 00:16:25 The article talks about very specifically talks about their ideals and what they're pushing. It talks about the links between Vance and those ideas and how he's on podcasts with people who talk about cat ladies and he's on podcasts with people who talk about the use of the post-mentoral woman. And he's on podcasts where a lot of these ideals are all being spouted. And he's also sort of involved with many of the money makers
Starting point is 00:16:53 in this big movement. But it doesn't really link the two things together. And the two things are, like you say, this sort of young group of people who are the audience to this group, right? They go out of their way to say, these people aren't boomers. These people are millennials. These people are millennials talking to Zennials, right?
Starting point is 00:17:11 Talking to Gen Z, talking to these people who are younger than them and who they can influence. So it's a group of older dudes who, because millennials are older dudes now, right? They're not like young people, they're older dudes now. And so those older dudes are going to these younger guys and they're imparting on them this sort of manly wisdom of, you know, you need to be the head of the household. And they're doing it because what has happened
Starting point is 00:17:39 in our society is men for so long have felt entitled to women. Yes. They felt entitled to be loved and be respected. And that's an entitlement that they've had for so long because there wasn't a path for a woman to be independent in our country for so, so long. Exactly right. We're talking about the 1970s is when things start to open up for women.
Starting point is 00:18:07 Look it up. I mean, shit, they couldn't own it. They couldn't have a line of credit in their name until that point in time. They couldn't have a house. They couldn't have a bank account in their name. So look, you know, I mean, like there's, they just couldn't be independent. So once they started being able to be independent, then they suddenly demanded that they, that the person who's with them is
Starting point is 00:18:25 worth being with. Not just being a man. Just being a man isn't enough, right? That's not enough. Be a good person. Be a worthwhile human being and someone will love you. That is true. And so what we're running into is a bunch of people, a bunch of entitled young dudes, who saw an entire
Starting point is 00:18:45 generation ahead of them, you know, in these shitty relationships where they were, you know, the fucking guy from fucking married with children telling their wife to get them a beer or whatever. And they see that and they're entitled to it. And these guys are singing a siren song they want to hear. Exactly right. So they come and they sit in their YouTube and they listen to them. And then they bring those ideas on to other guys and they spread this around. That is 100% the case.
Starting point is 00:19:15 Let me just end that. You know, men are, young men are being seduced into an idea or by an idea of themselves as this sort of new cultural underdog. Because what's happening is women are saying, I don't need you. And need is the operative word to go back to what you were saying. We had a whole system of structural imperatives, which required men to have any kind of safety, autonomy, economic health. Like men were the only thing.
Starting point is 00:19:52 Men were the cornerstone and keystone, not because men were good or better at these things, but because men put a series of rules in place to disenfranchise women. So women, so women... or mom, Jess and Marcy are staying over or an impromptu sleepover. You can keep it easy, breezy and budget friendly with Papa Murphy's summer selects large thin crust pizzas for only 10 99 Papa Murphy's change the way you pizza. You know, like a man who provided at all was going to have a whole lot of utility, not because providing is some kind of gender role that men perform better than women, but because women were obstructed from their own ability to do that.
Starting point is 00:20:49 It wasn't until the 1990s that women could get business loans to start their own businesses. That fucking 1990s. When I was in high school and in college, women without men could not buy law. They were not allowed. Like some people would still give those loans, but they were not protected by law. So they still could be denied a loan. So you can just walk out and be like, you're a woman. Right. And that would be a valid reason to deny a business loan application in the nineties. These are not like old law. This
Starting point is 00:21:24 is not like, oh my God, back in the ye old. These are not like old law. This is not like, Oh my God, back in the ye olde times that it's been so long. No, none of this is long. So now you're exactly, I think you're exactly right. Women are saying, Hey dudes, either step up in these relationships, be worth my time, pull your fucking weight, change a fucking diaper, you know, do the same things I've had to do because women still do most of the household work and they work full time. So that's not, they're tired of that shit. And it's like, well, for a lot of women, it's like, I am better off without you.
Starting point is 00:21:55 My life is simpler. I have more money. I have less work if I don't have you. Men hate hearing that. So they've been seduced into believing that they are underdogs when, because all they're doing is looking back and being like, Oh man, my dad didn't have to do that. So they've been seduced into believing that they are underdogs. When, because all they're doing is looking back and being like, Oh man, my dad didn't have to do that. My grandpa didn't have to do that. It's like, yeah, because like women require them to be safe and have a home. They were, that's chattel. That's not love. That's not love.
Starting point is 00:22:20 That's a form of economic slavery and coercion. Those people weren't, they were not in those relationships exclusively because they love somebody. They were required to be in a relationship. Women are no longer required to be in a relationship at all. It's a really big deal. And men are pushing back on this because they are insecure and they're afraid and they don't understand how to create value personally. And they don't want to do that work. They want to re-institutionalize the disenfranchisement of women. That's the goal.
Starting point is 00:22:52 They'll paint it with whatever brush they need to paint it with, whether it's nationalism, whether it's Christianity, whether it's anything. It doesn't really matter. Get me in the door. But whatever they can do to re, re disenfranchise women. Yeah. You know, and that, because otherwise they're going to have to do more fucking work.
Starting point is 00:23:08 Yeah. No one do it. And there's, and there's a, there's a darker side to this too, because like at one point in this article, they say this guy, this, this pastor who most of this is based on this Wilson guy, Wilson tackled culpability in rape, the dark side of empathy and the virtues of something called the patriarchy. So you know, like, I mean, these are things that, that the dark side of, you know, this
Starting point is 00:23:34 is a guy who's talking about culpability and rape. I mean, like, these are people who like you were asking for it type people. Yeah, 100%. These are awful, awful people. Yeah. I mean, you know, like I was saying earlier, you could, people use that as a, a shorthand, right? They say that Christian, you're a shorthand for being good. 100% somebody says that that's a shorthand for me being like, you're a worthless person. You're the worst. You're the worthless, you're a worthless, awful human being. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:23:59 Do you know what I think is, is, is an interesting sort of aside, but I think it's tangentially important? I keep seeing. So I'm exposed to a lot of really hyper masculine, male centered reels. So I don't know if you are, but like, I like workout shit. I know you like workout shit. You know, I like, you know, I've watched UFC stuff. So occasionally I'll watch like a fight video.
Starting point is 00:24:24 So like the algorithm, because I don't click on anything or like anything or comment on anything, the algorithm sees that I'm a 46 year old white guy who likes workout stuff. And so I get a lot of like really hyper masculine reels and stuff. And you know, what I've started seeing a lot of is Mike Tyson videos. A ton of Mike. He's being sort of re-insconced into the sort of like public sphere as this like figure to uphold. That dude's a fucking rapist. He literally went to prison after being convicted of rape. And that's not disqualifying for him as a status of national hero. He's being sort of re-insconced and rediscovered.
Starting point is 00:25:08 I'm seeing in the comments, I always click on him. Because I always comment on it. This man is a rapist. And that's my comment every time I see Mike Tyson video. But like the comments are glowing and they're from like young dudes who are rediscovering this person as a sort of new cultural icon. I don't think that that's by accident. I don't think that I think that that's entirely by design.
Starting point is 00:25:26 And I actually think conspiratorially, I recognize, I actually think that. Like the tech overlords that are in charge of this shit are not doing that by accident either, because they are tech bros emphasis on bros and they have ideas and they have values and like the Peter Teals of this world are not like agnostic to the promotion of those values. JD Vance, I thought this is, this is interesting too, because I, I was thinking before I read this article, like what a nut job he is talking about like what women are for. He talks about what women are for all the time.
Starting point is 00:26:05 And I'm like, shut the fuck up, man. You're shooting yourself in the foot. This is so politically stupid. What I didn't understand is that he's, by referring as a man to the utility of women, he is now dog whistling to an entire culture of people that I really didn't know existed that are online, that are sort of like in these echo chambers of patriarchal hate. So when he has these
Starting point is 00:26:33 conversations about, you know, like, hey, you know, like, grandmothers or whatever, are really for this purpose, women are for that purpose. For the record, that was someone else saying it and he agreed. Okay. For the record. I want to make sure. No, no, that's good. Thank you for that correction. I don't want anybody to send a message. That was a podcaster said that and he said yes after that. And when he talks about, thank you for that because that's important. And when he talks about the biological utility of women, which he talks about by, by mocking childless cat ladies, right? There's absolutely an ex. That is something we see. Yeah. That is there. That is an explicit
Starting point is 00:27:12 admission that women have a biological utility in the world. And that is to, to give birth and to be, to be mothers. When men talk about what women are for, they do that for a reason. And I didn't realize, I thought like, this is just stupid. You're shooting yourself in the foot. 51% of the country is fucking female. What the hell is this? He's talking to a group of people who are backed by a bunch of billionaires and a bunch of fucking religious conservative nuts who want to handmaids tail the world.
Starting point is 00:27:42 And this is a great gaslight, right, to women. It's not directed at women, but it is a good gaslight to women. Because one of the things I notice as a child-free person is the amount of, it's not gaslighting, but there is definitely some parts of my life where I interact with people who have had comments about my future almost inevitable regret
Starting point is 00:28:08 about not having children. I've had conversations with people who say that sort of thing. Sure. I'm a guy. Right. Right? But I know women hear that all the time. And one of the things that's said in this article,
Starting point is 00:28:21 in three of his podcasts, and this is a different person, this person, Suave, regularly states that women's primary function is to bear children. In July, after Vance's comments about childless cat ladies who are miserable began widely circulating, he posted on Twitter, said, quote, it is desperately sad to think of all the intentionally
Starting point is 00:28:44 barren women who will find themselves totally alone in their fifties, realizing their irreversible mistake. They will wish they could trade it all money, vacations, independence, all of it for children they can now never have. End quote. I mean, that like totally misses the idea that there's adoption, which is fucking crazy. But in any case, listen to that. That is directed at guys to make them feel good about,
Starting point is 00:29:10 you know, the way that they feel about women, but it's also directed at women to ping at a bit of hormone regret that pops into people's bodies. Guys have it, girls have it. That's activated by people saying, you're missing out on this thing. Look at what you're doing. And then they can look back to a couple generations
Starting point is 00:29:28 where they do see the family unit is women staying at home, women birthed in a bunch of kids. And they can see that and think, are these guys right? Are these guys correct? Is that what I should be doing instead of what I do? Will I regret it? Clearly this person thinks that. Are there more people who think that?
Starting point is 00:29:47 Are there people who are older than me who are now telling me, a young person, what I will and won't regret? Because that is something that happens in society all the time. And so these guys are gaslighting the women too. And what's very loud to me too, in these conversations from these bros is what is being omitted.
Starting point is 00:30:10 And what's being omitted in this screaming hailstrom, maelstrom rather, of regret that women will feel and the biological utility of women and the problem of declining birth rates. What is constantly loud to me is the omission of any kind of reform around child care, any kind of reform around, you know, paid maternity leave, any kind of social services supports. And that's not accidental. That's extremely intentional. The omission of that stuff, and then the very fact that like women biologically are going to be the ones who give birth, right? That's just a true fact that is going to pull women out of the workforce.
Starting point is 00:30:55 That is going to require that somebody very often stay home. The cost of childcare being as exorbitant and unsustainable as it is when you look at the median household income in this country means that so many families have to make choices about whether or not women are going to return into the workforce. Because almost exclusively, even though that should be, hey, maybe I'll do it. Maybe you'll do it. That's not how it works. You know, it works that way very infrequently statistically, right? I don't wanna say it never works that way,
Starting point is 00:31:28 but that's not the cultural norm. So they're trying to drive a cultural norm that encourages more women to get pregnant, to reduce social safety nets, to reduce access to contraception and abortion, to encourage women to be fearful and afraid so that they are more willing to accept lower quality partners
Starting point is 00:31:48 so that they're more economically in thrall to those partners as they are required to stay in relationships through economic coercion. It pulls them out of the workforce and men no longer have to compete with them. And they're afraid of all that in part because women are surging in college, they're going to school more often,
Starting point is 00:32:07 they're graduating at higher rates. As soon as you like take the fucking shackles off of women, they've done extraordinarily well. They've looked at the society and they've said, okay, well, now that I can fucking get a loan, now that I can actually support myself physically in the world and that there's been a generation that's passed that's allowed me to sort of like have some time and some social room and some economic and educational mobility. Women are surpassing
Starting point is 00:32:35 men and all these important pieces and these dudes are freaking out. They're absolutely freaking out. And the solution to this is to purposefully make more women be pregnant and make sure that there are less social safety nets. And that is very loud, what's being omitted. Another piece of this that is evident once you hear JD Vance talk is the racism. Oh my God. So when JD Vance talks and says horrible racist shit and keeps repeating horrible racist rumors about Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, he keeps doing the same thing and saying the same thing. This is the great replacement theory that these guys preach. Right?
Starting point is 00:33:15 So these guys preach a lot of stuff. But one thing that they preach is assimilation. Right? So I don't think they care so much who you are, but don't you dare speak another language and don't you dare be another culture. One of the things that they say in here, this guy says, he's talking about, I guess on his podcast he said, or no, it was a recent conference. So at a recent conference, he registered dismay over immigrants in his community.
Starting point is 00:33:47 Quote, it's like full straight up Hindu garb at our neighborhood swimming pool that my daughter is asking about and I'm trying to explain. End quote. What the fuck? How fucking hard is it to be like, some people are different cultures and they dress a little differently than we do. We should find out about their culture and ask them about their culture and be inclusive. Like, how fucking hard, like literally, I just solved your problem, man.
Starting point is 00:34:13 I just solved your problem for you. You got to explain it to your, what do you got to explain other human beings exist to your daughter? Yep. It's, it's, it's the same bullshit non-argument of like, well, what if I saw two guys kiss it? Or what if two women got married? You'd be like, well, you would say that happens. And that's get some cookies. Like, it's not really the end of the conversation. There's nothing complex here unless you are the one that can't wrap your fucking brain around it.
Starting point is 00:34:40 And the reason these guys can't wrap their brain around it is they're afraid of being dethroned. around it. And the reason these guys can't wrap their brain around it is they're afraid of being dethroned. What assimilation means, it assumes that there is a primacy to an existing white culture. Absolutely right. Absolutely right. If I'm going to say you have to assimilate, I have to say assimilate into what? And then we have to answer that question. And they do. Oh yeah. They say, well, you got to be a Wasp, right? And if you can't pull off the white part, you at least need to pull off the Anglo-Saxon Protestant part. You better pull the rest of it off. And we'll take you if you're an Asp, right? Like we'll take you if you're an Asp. You can't be a Wasp. Fine,
Starting point is 00:35:14 we'll take you if you're just an Asp. But you damn well better assimilate into Wasp culture. You better be as close as you can in every way. And this is, and that's, that makes it seem like it's sort of, you know, that's racist, but it's also, you know, dog whistly and, you know, not out in the open. I want to read some out in the open stuff. 1996 book. Now this is from the same guy, this Wilson guy. Southern slavery as it was, Wilson and his co-author argued the master slave dynamic was quote, a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence and quote, and quote, there has never been a multiracial society which has existed with such mutual intimacy and harmony in the re in the history
Starting point is 00:36:00 of the world as the antebellum South. Fucking hell. This is worse than the Lost Cause shit. Like the Lost Cause shit, which really sought- You're right. You're absolutely right. Go ahead. The Lost Cause stuff really sought to reinvent the reasons behind the Civil War
Starting point is 00:36:23 to create a new and false and by the way, non-contemporaneous narrative about what caused the Civil War to say, oh, this was really always about states' rights and, you know, it was not about slavery. This is worse because they're just saying, you know what, slavery was awesome for the slaves. Slavery was awesome for everybody. Everybody was enriched by it. Who, yeah, who the fuck, there was a politician who recently came out with the same sentence. There was a, there was a major politics, God damn it. We covered it when it happened. I can't remember who it was. Someone will tell us. Yeah. Like this has actually made its way. This idea has made its way into mainstream right-wing politics. So this is not like relegated to the fringes. And I think that's like really important part of our conversation today for people to understand.
Starting point is 00:37:09 To Santa Florida. That's right! Florida was doing shit where they were saying, no, I mean, like it was beneficial. They were using PragerU shit. Dude, that's right. And it's worse than that because it wasn't just some shit a politician said it was indoctrinating materials that were going to be put into education. That's fucking right, man. It's worse than that because it wasn't just some shit a politician said it was indoctrinating materials that were going to be put into education. It's a policy. That's fucking right, man. It's worse than I thought.
Starting point is 00:37:30 It's worse than I fucking remembered, man. Also that's just one piece, but there's other people too. Later on, the same guy who's talking about the Hindu garb says in August, he remarked on his show that quote, a lot of people are going to be surprised when you're spending eternity Worshipping Christ next to Stonewall Jackson and Robert E Lee and you know, George Whitefield and Martin Luther King jr Are in hell Jesus Christ So let me tell you man. This is the fucking racist shit out loud Like this is this is a guy who's like, no, man, those fucking, those racist fucking Confederate traitor generals,
Starting point is 00:38:08 those guys are balling. Those guys you're gonna be worshiping with in heaven. Well, let me tell you, out talk rights, that dude, fuck heaven then, bro. Like fuck those people forever. Fuck your face. Let's go hang out with MLK. Yeah, eat my ass.
Starting point is 00:38:23 Fuck you, man. Hey, this is the leader of a civil rights movement, a nonviolent civil rights movement that simply sought an entire, for a race of people to be treated as human beings. He's like, that guy will go to hell. If you believed in heaven and hell, first of all, you're a hit. I don't believe in your fairy tale, but fuck your fairy tale. The idea that like we're dividing a line between the good and the bad, and we're putting fucking General Lee on one side, the good side of the cone?
Starting point is 00:38:54 What is fucking happening? Let me read this other piece too, because this is the cringiest shit I've ever read in my entire life. So this is that Wilson guy as a YouTube. He was sort of goaded into getting a YouTube channel by his family. And they have him set seated at a Thanksgiving table and he starts talking. This is a video they're describing. If you think of my blog as a shotgun, he says, this is the month when I saw off my typical
Starting point is 00:39:22 careful qualifications and blast away with this double barreled shorty. His wife, clad in an apron, brings out a turkey and places it in front of him. A tranquil scene is interrupted by a blaring horn and a glowing red perimeter breach sign. Wilson excuses himself and heads to the garage and straps on a flame thrower. After using it to light a cigar,
Starting point is 00:39:45 he aims the fire at a cardboard cutouts of Disney Princess Elsa and Ariel and the logos of Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Netflix. Netflix? Holy shit dude. Do you not like to chill? I just died of like fucking secondhand cringe. Are you kidding me right now?
Starting point is 00:40:03 Doesn't this feel like that one-eyed fucking pirate senator who made that action video? Pirate Senator. I remember that guy. Oh, they're, they're voting. I better go. He cuts like this. Yeah. Texas pirate Senator. Like one eye Willie. He cuts like this super lame... Yeah, Texas Pirate Center or whatever his name is. Yeah, I forgot what his fucking name is. Like One Eye Willie or whatever.
Starting point is 00:40:27 That's an inconsequential guy. It does not matter. It doesn't matter. They also in the same thing, they're like, yeah, and fucking also Taylor Swift. And you're just like, she writes songs that are just love songs for kids, man. You just hate her because she's rich. Yeah. Fuck.
Starting point is 00:40:44 This shit makes me laugh so loud. It makes me laugh so loud. It's like also Taylor Swift. Yeah, it was a guy. Did you see the guy this week who broke her guitar? No, what some fucking Trumpster a Guy and all I have to say this guy in a button-up American flag shirt, of course. Yeah bought a Taylor Swift up American flag shirt, bought a Taylor Swift guitar that was signed by her for $4,000 and he walked up with a hammer and then he smashed the guitar that he had paid $4,000 for. Now, come to find out it wasn't actually signed by Taylor Swift, he paid $4,000. Here's what I was going to say. So Haley recently was like, we were just talking, she's like, you know, I was going to surprise you with concert tickets in Indianapolis. Cause
Starting point is 00:41:28 I liked Hillsborough. She was like, I'm going to, I was going to buy us tickets. I was going to, she's going to be in Indianapolis. The worst seats are two grand a ticket. So I was like, there's no way a guitar, if I can't even go see her for under two, and we're not going, I'm going to spend $2,000 for nosebleeds. So like, if you can't even go see her for two grand. A guitar signed by her? It would be worth who knows how much. I love that. Oh God, I love that he got scammed.
Starting point is 00:41:56 He got scammed that, so you spent your money and you broke your rage guitar. It wasn't even for her. That's like burning your money twice. That's like burning the money and then burning the ashes. I hope it went to a great cause. I'm sure it didn't. I think that this article is totally worth reading. I think people should go out, go out of your way to read this article.
Starting point is 00:42:11 If not, just listen to Tom. If you're a patron, you can listen to Tom read it. But genuinely, really, really scary shit showing you the backdrop of what JD Vance is. The sort of Marionette strings that are pulling JD Vance and where you're seeing, you know, we talked about it in this, where you're seeing some of these ideas pop up in mainstream Republican culture. You're seeing these ideas start to pop up. These are shitty, awful, backward ideas that we thought we progressed well past since like the 90eties, I think. And now they have come full circle. They are back in the mainstream. These are a bunch of dudes that are, that are getting more and more audience every
Starting point is 00:42:53 single day, and they're using that toxic masculinity and that, that awful worldview of entitlement to just warp a ton of young minds. entitlement to just warp a ton of young minds. All right, that's gonna wrap it up for this week. We'll be back on Monday, but we're gonna leave you like we always do with the skeptic scream. 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
Starting point is 00:43:31 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 C Cards, Psychic Healing, Crystal Balls, Bigfoot, Yeti, Aliens, Churches, Mosques, and Synagogues, Temples, Dragons, Giant Worms, Atlantis, Dolphins, Truthers, Birthers, evangelists, conspiracy, double-speak stigmata, nonsense. Expose your sides. Thrust your hands.
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