Cognitive Dissonance - Episode 800: With Knowledge Fight

Episode Date: October 28, 2024

 

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 at. Today is Monday, October the 30th, no, October the 21st.

We're recording a little earlier than we normally would see. So kind of putting one in the bag. We've got a special guest coming up. A special guest, yeah. Knowledge fight. Knowledge fight tonight. Knowledge fight, Dan and Jordan. Stay tuned, it's gonna be great.

But Cecil, it's an anniversary for us today. It is. It's 800, 800 episodes. 800 episodes. When we first started out, did you think we'd make it? I just, it just never occurred to me. Because when we first, we did another show, and we had only made it to like 70 or something like that.

I've never committed to anything like this. And that felt like- And I mean that. And that felt like a like, even the 70, cause it was a couple of years, felt like a long time. It felt like we were like, wow, this is, cause we were skipping weeks and things like that. But this has been not only 800 episodes,

the first few we skipped here and there, but not only 800 episodes, I would say maybe from like 20 on, we haven't skipped a week. Yeah, this podcast has outlived, I've never worked a job longer than this. Yeah, we've been doing this now. 800 episodes. We've been doing podcasting now for 17 plus years.

Yeah, I've never done anything for 17 years. So cheers, buddy. We did it. This is 800. This is amazing. And next week, not this week, because we thought it was going to come out the day before voting, but we're going to have one more show. 800. This is amazing. And next week, not this week, cause we thought it was gonna come out the day before voting,

but we're gonna have one more show before we vote on, before most of you, I already voted, but most people vote in November. But this is the show before that. And so right beforehand, we of course wanna urge everybody to go out and vote. And I've been seeing a lot on my feed lately, Facebook feed, a lot of Democrats and Republicans are the same.

They're the same thing. And a lot of refusal to vote, a lot of I'm not going to vote because I don't feel like either of these parties has my interest. And I've fought this fight a bunch. I think like, at this point, I'm kind of at my wits end. I think you should vote. I think there is definitely a lesser of two evils in this election. We've said it multiple times. I think a lot of people, you know, I think we should be disgusted by what's happening in Gaza. I don't disagree. I think that Gaza is a horror. I don't think that there is,

I think that there's one side that you might be able to change their mind and one you can't. I think that there is one side that you might be able to change their mind and one you can't. And that I think might, should at least push you to vote. The other thing I think too, is a lot of people are forgetting about Ukraine. Many people are suggesting that, you know, that Gaza is the biggest piece, but you have to understand that if Trump gets in, we could pull all funding from Ukraine and all help from Ukraine. And that could really be a very volatile situation over there that could even eclipse what's happening in Gaza.

So like, I think there's a lot of reasons to vote this election. But to the people who just 100% are like, no, I will not, I cannot morally do it. I can't convince you. I can't, I can't convince you. I've said it many times. I can't convince you. But I do want to say, if you're it many times, I can't convince you, but I do wanna say, if you're that person, please don't just do nothing.

My suggestion to you is do something. There are things you can do. You don't think anybody recognizes you and anybody represents you, and I understand that, I get it. But there are ways to help change our government that would help you and help many other people. The first thing I would suggest is rank choice voting. Rank choice voting can change how we represent people in the state.

And it can be done on a state level, not a national level. So it's easier to implement. The other thing is grassroots. Another party grassroots organizing can help change many local elections. And that across the nation can help build grassroots for many different parties. And that won't just be the two main parties in our government, the Democrat and Republican,

it can help build other parties with more values that are more closely related to the values that you identify with. Those two things can really help. What I see a lot of is I tried nothing and I'm all out of ideas. So I'm just going to complain about it. My suggestion is please, if this really does mean that much to you, that you would, you would not choose to vote. I think you're leaving a lot on the table and possibly harming people, but you know, you gotta do something. And I think I would urge you to try to do something like that instead.

Yeah, I wanna add to that. Same thing, I will say, I've made my case over the years, over the last year, as clearly as I can make it. Obviously not everybody agrees with me. I think this is a trolley problem. I think you have no, there is no option for the trolley not to run over people. You've got to pull the lever.

You've got to make a choice. If you decide not to make a choice, couple of things to add to that Cecil, like social media is not activism. Complaining about stuff is not activism. That's nothing, right? What matters, let's raise money. Run for local office. Canvas for causes.

Volunteer for an organization that you believe in and show up. You've got to put time, energy, and your body into it. If what you bring to the table is vitriol in a comment section, a strongly worded email to somebody who doesn't have power to make change, you have not done anything. And I would suggest that if that's your,

if that is your level of engagement, you don not done anything. And I would suggest that if that's your, if that is your level of engagement, you don't care. You don't care. If you care and you can't bring yourself to vote, again, I've made my case, I still think that that's not a good case for you to make, we would have to disagree on that. All of those things matter.

Raise money, money makes a difference. Canvas, that makes a difference. Volunteer for organizations that represent your values and show up and do things on an outreach level. What you can't do is just be somebody who's mad on the internet. That's nothing. Take it a step further.

If you're not going to engage with your civil, I don't know, I want to say civil responsibility, but people will push back at the idea that that's a responsibility. Yeah, you're shaming people if that's the case. I'm not trying to say it. I just didn't, can't come up with the right word. If you're not going to engage with your sort of- Yeah, you're not going to engage civically.

The civic process. Yes, the civic process. Right, yeah. Then that's if I get that. But there are things you can do. What you can't do is set out. Like you can't sit out because you're mad. That's not going to accomplish anything.

I totally agree with you. I also want to mention too on this upcoming week, so last week this will have released on Friday. So you can download this right now. On the other show I do, this Lawful Assembly show, Craig and I interviewed a Georgia State professor who is an expert on pernicious polarization. And we talked to her for about an hour.

The final podcast is I think about 40, 45 minutes long. But this woman has a really interesting take on why we live in a country that is so diametrically opposed politically. And she has a, you know, too long didn't listen. I hope you listen because I think it's a really great interview that opens up a lot of the things and explains a lot of the reasons why we're in this position in a lot of nuance that I can't do in a minute. But the, you know, the long, the, the, the sort of short of it is that we live in a time now where the politics used to be that there was a cross-party humanitarian thing that was for both parties.

So it would be, there was people in the Republican side and on the Democrat side, both thought that civil rights was a good idea. And then there were people who opposed it on either side we have become a And I think wedge issues helped this become a place where that isn't accepted Where people in one party really only have values about certain things and then the other party has values about other things And those two parties have two hard edges

to make it so that we can actually do anything. We're frozen because of this. And one of her solutions is, rank choice voting changes everything. It changes everything because you suddenly get a myriad of people who can come in, and there's people that are at different levels of agreement with certain population centers.

And so what happens is candidates have to throw a much broader net in order to get more people. So they have to be more understanding. And it changes, you can see it completely change in all these places all across the globe that don't have these two party systems that fight each other all the time. So I encourage you to listen to that. But like I said, I encourage you to go out too, all across the globe that don't have these two party systems that fight each other all the time.

So I encourage you to listen to that. But like I said, I encourage you to go out to if this is something that you're so upset about the two party system is what's causing a lot of this damage and it can be fixed. There's ways to fix it, but we've got to motivate to do it. And lastly, I want to touch on and see some I've talked about this on the show. We've certainly talked about it off air amongst ourselves. For those who think that we've not taken a position on Gaza, we have Gaza is a genocide. What is occurring in Gaza is a fucking genocide.

We've said it on the show multiple times, many times. We've said it on the show. Yeah, like it is a genocide. I strongly believe that only gets worse under a Trump presidency. Yeah, it will not. There is no world where there's a Trump presidency. Yeah. It will not, there is no world where there's a red line for Trump. There's no world where a guy who moved,

I've said it before, moved the fucking embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as a show of support and defiance. Absolutely. Right-wing Republican leaders have signed bombs. Signed their names to bombs. If you think that both sides are the same, you're objectively wrong.

You're not subjectively wrong. You're objectively wrong. They're not the same. They are not the same. There is no hope. There is no hope that anything that a Republican administration will do will do anything other than further exacerbate

the problem over there. It's just, that's problem over there. It's just that's just the case. It's a fucking nightmare as it is. I don't want to pretend it's not a fucking absolute hellscape humanitarian disaster genocidal nightmare. It is. It gets worse under a Trump administration. All right. So this story comes from New York times as Trump served up McDonald's fries, vitriol boiled outside. Let me read the subheading because this is so fucking crazy. I'm going to put the thing on the big screen too, if we can.

In Pennsylvania, a critical swing state, supporters of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, some in weird costumes gathered along a roadside and screamed at one another. This is where we're at. You've got the former president, a 34 count felon, who's running for the third time for public office, playing fucking kitchen. Yeah. Cosplay. Yeah. Cosplaying at a McDonald's while the two sides dressing costumes outside and screaming at each other. This is American democracy. I want off the ride. I want off the ride. You know, when I saw this though, when I saw Trump in this outfit, doing this, they closed

the restaurant down. They, they made it so that, you know, the people who came in were already planned to come in. He's, you know, basically someone had said that he, he had like multiple health code violations while he was doing the work. I didn't watch him do the work. So I can't make those, I can't make those calls. Also, I don't know what the health code is, where he's at either.

Sure. Yeah. You know, it's pretty universal, but there are changes in certain places. So I don't know. He's scooping the fries with wraps from New York. I can't, I can't make that call, but I will say this, pay attention. This is a guy who, in order to try to prove Kamala Harris wrong,

that she didn't work at it in McDonald's, a man who has never once ever had to do this for more than 15 minutes than he did, did this as a show. This is a show, this is cosplaying as the working class, just like he likes to cosplay with the military. He does the exact same thing. He was never part of the military in any way,

but he loves to make it seem like he would have been if he were. Same thing here, I would have been a great McDonald's employee if I was an actual, but he never had to cause he had a gift of millions of dollars, hundreds of millions of dollars from his father in order to start a business. So none of this is true.

This is all just him cosplaying as an, as a real person. Do this, do this for one, you and I both worked in fast food. That's a hard, hard job, Yeah. That's a hard fucking job. It's a hard job, dude. It's a hard fucking job. You're busting your ass the entire time you're back there. There is no waiting, there is no standing. You are constantly being hounded to continue to work

and to work faster. It is, it's stressful, it's difficult. You're on your feet all day, it's exhausting. It's all those things. It's dirty, it's sweaty. He didn't experience feet all day. It's exhausting. It's all those things dirty. It's sweaty He didn't experience any of that minute What he did was he came in to show people who are too stupid to understand That he's not like that and he never will have to be like that

We can he can exist off his own wealth, you know, like a couple of things like here he is Dressed in a fucking suit like a shirt and a tie and a nice pair of pants, doing his fucking man of the people poverty play acting. And this is a kind of like middle class stolen valor bullshit that he really likes to do, like to your point about the military. Like this feels the same thing,

like a middle class stolen valor, right? Like where he never earned a minute of this. He's not really working in the restaurant. There are no stakes. The customers are fake. The restaurants closed for the day. And I see this and I'm like, who is this for? Who is this for?

And I don't understand the answer. I don't know who's gobbling this up like these fucking hamburgers that he's so in love with. Who is gobbling this up? I think who sees this and is like, that's my guy. That fucking 76 year old man in a fucking crisp white shirt and a red tie with an apron briefly playing at work one day to be like, isn't it cute what you people have to do to earn money? Isn't that nice? Think about the 76 year old people that have to work there during what they would consider their retirement. Yeah, man. Because they can't make ends meet.

When I'm doing that, I'm not gonna be impressed by this. I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna. Tom will take them out back and throw them in the dumpster. Accidentally light it on fire. I've done it before. No, but I, you know, who is it for? And I think it's clearly for his diehards.

But it's also for them as a way in which to try to poke at Kamala Harris because they think she's a liar. So what they'll do is they'll make a bunch of memes out of these photos, which is clearly a photo op. They're gonna make a bunch of memes about it to say like, the exact things that you're saying, the cosplaying as a regular person, cosplaying as a working Joe,

the stolen valor of the middle class, they'll make all those same comments, but they'll mean it, right? They'll make all those same comments, be like, this is what a real man, a real man of the people looks like. And I guarantee they're gonna post something like that. The only people that are going to believe that I think are the real true believers, but it does carry a weight to it for them and it engages them in the process

of sharing him and that's a win for him. Yeah, like, you know, I look at this and it's like, one of the messages behind this is that what he finds unbelievable about Kamala Harris is that she's worked hard and he finds that unbelievable and he's pushing back on that. Like it's such a nothing thing for her to be like, yeah, I worked at McDonald's. Like, yeah, a lot of people worked at McDonald's. Like something like 20% of Americans. So a lot of them because they're everywhere.

Yeah. So like when she's like, yeah, I worked at a McDonald's. Because they're everywhere. Yeah, so like when she's like, yeah, I worked at a McDonald's, he seizes on that and he finds it so egregious and unbelievable because he can't conceive of the idea of having done hard work, right? It's like embedded in the messages like, why would anyone believe that somebody successful has had to work their way up from the ground.

That's the American dream we're all supposed to buy. We're all supposed to believe in the bootstraps, right? We're all supposed to believe in the idea that like this is the possibility of the American dream. I don't think, I think we're a lot of jaded on that concept now. I think we should be jaded on that concept. I think the economic realities of the America we live in

now make that less and less likely for people to sort of move up the economic and social ladder, right? But that's what we've been sold. That's what we've been like told her. That's our cultural myth and mythology. So it's really telling on himself when he's like, I don't believe it. That is unbelievable.

That is something that like none of us was as laughable how silly it would be that somebody could work their way up. My, you know, it's an interesting take and I don't disagree with it. It might be true. My thought is it almost feels like he's upset that she's horning in on a demographic that he thinks he has sewn up. The working class. The working class. I think he thinks he has it sewn up and that the only, the working class should only adore him. And so her saying things like, I grew up middle class, I was working class,

I worked at McDonald's, that upsets him. That makes him mad because she's coming after his audience. This is my, I worked to get that, even though this audience has not, I mean, like you said, nothing whatsoever. In fact, he probably has contempt for those people. Absolutely he does. But it's an attack on her to try to show

that she's not genuine. It's an attack on her to maybe show that, you know, like it's unbelievable that she got to this. She actually did that work, et cetera. She's lying. But really what it is, I think, is that he doesn't like to be shown up by a woman. I think that's exactly it.

I think it's also, it's, I think, is that he doesn't like to be shown up by a woman in a... I think that's exactly it. I think it's also, it's really telling about like the state of American politics now and the way the political gamesmanship has devolved that we are no longer even making pretenses toward talking about substance. And instead we're doing this. Could you imagine any of the previous presidential candidates doing this? No, no, this is insane. This is a level of low and pandering that I never thought I would ever see in my entire,

I mean, this pretty, I mean, I'm willing to have my eyes open if somebody has an example out there that's very similar to this, but I've seen these people come into these places, right? Like Bill Clinton comes in and gets a shake from the shake machine that only works once a day. He comes in and gets a shake and then they make a big deal because he came in and got a shake at McDonald's. That's a different story. That's a different thing. That's a different thing. That somebody serving up fries. Yeah. I never thought

I'd see this level of. I never thought I'd see somebody serve up fries as a fuck you to somebody who's like, yeah, I served up fries 25 or 30 years ago. You're like, like if I, I guess like I'm just like, I am, am I crazy? None of this matters. None of this, how does this solve any of my problems? Yeah. Like as a citizen of this country, as a citizen of the world, how does this address any of my fucking worries or concerns or anxieties or fears for my children?

Like, how is this anything? I look at this and I'm like, the fuck? I mean, like, this is a guy who spent the first 12 minutes of a rally in Pennsylvania talking about Arnold Palmer's dick. Yeah. But these people sit in this crowd and it's, you know, Kamala Harris has said it multiple times. He will talk about himself and the crowd will adore it.

They'll love it. She will try to talk about problems that you're having. That's a very different, it's a very different approach. It's a different approach because what he's figured out is like all charismatic autocrats, if he can get people to buy into his cult of personality, he doesn't need to. He's gonna win.

That's why he's like, no tax for overtime. I mean, he'll like come up with like, he'll just parrot left-wing ideas because like, what do you want to hear? None of it matters. I'm not doing any of it. Like, I'll just come up with a great medical plan. I don't know, whatever sounds you want my face to make,

it doesn't matter. Adore me. It's a concept of a plan. It's a concept of a plan. It's a concept of a plan. So, a little issue with the video for this guest section. It did get corrupted. So unfortunately, there is no video available. So don't go looking for it. If you're just listening to the audio. But you can listen to these beautiful men talk at you rather than see them. But you know what, it's better for your imagination to envision what you think they look like rather than seeing live photos of all four of them. So have at it. Thank

you so much. On with the show with Knowledge Fight. Thank you. We are joined by Dan and Jordan from knowledge fight guys. It's been too long. How have you been? Wait too long. It has been too long. We have been exactly the same Almost exactly the same except now I have a mustache and Jordan has a headband. Cosmetic differences. That's what we're going for. Okay, so guys, this is like the big thing that has come up recently and we've got to start with it.

I saw that all of Alex Jones' shit is going to be auctioned off. I saw a link getting passed around. There's an ass around the link for all Alex Jones' shit. And I got to ask, let's say somebody comes in and acquires 51% of it. Do you have to make fun of them now? Oh, yeah. Are you contractually oblig have to make fun of them now? Um... Yeah!

Are you contractually obligated to make fun of the person who has his equipment once he quits? I mean, not contractually, but like, if you are someone who's gonna do that, I'll make fun of you. If you're gonna buy his shit, yeah, I'll make fun of you. That's a bad choice. Yeah, I'll own another bill. Are you talking more of like a idle hand scenario where anybody who has the equipment has it infused with the evil spirit of Infowars, and thus no matter what they produce,

it will become evil eventually? I think so. It's like a Stephen King thing. Yeah, it's like a monkey paw under every. You need a Van Helsing for that. We are not Van Helsing for that we are not After after episode a thousand we're Van Helsing You just gotta let me know in advance otherwise I sound like an asshole

How excited are you guys for that for that auction you guys got, you clearly are bidding on the desk, right? Well, see, I felt like there was an elephant in the room and that was a bit of a feud we have over the desk. Yeah, all right. As much as I want to lay claim to the knowledge fight or to the Infowars desk. Same way. I am not an Infowars. I feel like when they do an Alex Jones like fucking TKO behind him, like when Knowledge Fight has actually knocked him out, like it's you guys, like you got to get the desk.

Like I'll take second fiddle to the desk at this point. Yeah. This is an amazing change of tune. You just got to let us use it once in a while. We'll just come over once in a while. I just want to fuck on it. I just don't feel like you are the best. I just don't feel like you are the best. I just don't feel like you are the best. I just don't feel like you are the best. I just don't feel like you are the best. I just don't just gotta let us use it once in a while. We'll just come over once

in a while. I just want to fuck on it. I just don't feel like you understand our oppositional defiance to literally basically anything. And now I want to burn that desk to the ground. No one will have the desk. Do you understand? I show up, I wake up in the morning and the just part of the desk is sitting next to me in bed It'll be flotsam that shows up for Tom Hanks Where the last time we talked it was almost like we were gonna come to fisticuffs about the bus I think I was but I've done a lot of soul search Yeah on the on the issue of the desk and I feel like maybe I don't earn the desk.

Maybe I could just, like I said, I do want to fuck on it though. I do want to fuck on the desk at least twice. I think we can agree to some of these terms. Cause I'll be so excited. The first time we'll be over very quick. What if we like rented it out as a porn filming location, every, every like casting couch was just the casting info wars desk. Now from here on out, I don't actually want, I feel like I don't want to talk about casting videos. Now they're very awful. I wish I didn't know what's wrong

with me. I feel like, like as about them. What's wrong with me? I feel like as much as I want the Infowars desk, and I did want that, but again, I see it to my betters, I understand that. What I really want now, I've thought about this, what I really want is the printer that printed out all of his internet news articles that he passed around on the desk. I don't want his bullshit printer.

I want a printer that is like it's 3d prints, actual bullshit to be on its last legs with. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. The burn through printers. That's some, I was right there. Imagine if you've got that printer, everything's going fine. You're printing stuff out and then one day three or four sheets of paper just started coming out with things that you didn't want. You didn't ask for those. Or you're printing an article and it comes out wrong. Like you're just like information gets screwed up by the printer. This is the whole problem. The screen, the page, the screen, the page. I don't fucking know how can they not match? How is Washington Post mentioning lizard aliens?

Shit, you know, what's interesting is that you've had a switch of position on the desk and I kind of have to because like When when the breakdown of all of his his property and stuff came out It was like that desk is worth like forty thousand dollars or something Other than a joke and obviously a platform for fucking what does somebody else need an Infowars desk for? Right, right. I was like, I don't want to have a $40,000 desk in my home. Like, I don't want a $40,000 anything in my home.

Yeah, that's a nice car plus $15,000. Exactly. What the fuck are we talking about right now? This is too much. Holy shit. So what I wonder about valuations like that though, about right now. This is too much. Holy shit. What I wonder about valuations like that though, is like, yeah, like the desk probably costs a lot of money to make,

but the next guy's gotta want it $40,000 worth of want it. You know what I mean? It's like there's somebody out there that has a real expensive beanie baby, and it's not expensive anymore, and they're like, but I paid four grand for this fucking little duck or whatever it's like yeah but the next guy's not doing that so you have a twelve dollar duck stupid.

You regret purchasing the desk. You'll pity more my friend. Post-nut clarity on the desk. It's like you're like popping you looked up you're like okay. I made a huge mistake. Clarity on the desk is like you like pop and you look up you're like, okay Dollars What you've touched on to those the the sort of irony of all of Alex's possessions is that like they're either worth nothing or a lot Like yes depend if they're just like a beanie baby. It's like, if someone wants that desk, the fact that Alex owned it makes it worth $50,000 instead of 40. Uh, but for

everyone else, it's, it's just a fucking desk. It's not like Hitler's jockstrap or whatever. You know, it's like, you're like, all right, that's not really worth anything objectively, but some weirdo out there is like, I want to put my balls where it's going to hop that thing. So what, when is the auction happening? Did it already happen? Is it, is it going on now? It's November 13th is when the official, I just imagine a gavel or a hammer. I hope there's a guy doing the double the da ba da da ba da da ba da da. That would be amazing. An auctioneer.

I hope it's a reverse auctioneer where they start high and go low, you know, and you just, cause that's the thing. You just like listen to them kind of talk themselves down slowly. You don't want this. Pay less for this. What are you going to do with this? What are you going to do with this? What are you going to do with this?

What are you going to do with this? This is shit. This shit. You don't want to know what it wants. Okay. It's trash. It's a, I think I I'm mystified by this whole process and I don't really know how it all works but I think there's like people bidding even as we speak right now, like there is

the behind the scenes of all that stuff but then it's going to come to a head on the 13th. I wish it was, I wish it was a quick talking guy though. I do wish that. Amazing. I know that that's very rare for actual auctions and I also don't care at all. And in my mind, that's the only way they're ever done. It does not matter at all to me that that is in direct opposition to the truth that I actually have knowledge of. Don't care. They're all cattle auctions. You need a paddle. Yeah. So what, what is next for Alex Jones though? Cause like they're going to sell all his shit.

What is he going to be able to, for lack of a better term, broadcast again? Like, will he just, will he just do the talk show like guest circuit? Cause I was thinking about this. Like if you sell all my shit, but I'm still the personality, wouldn't I just do like guest spots, like paid guest spots on like crazy pants radio and everything and like continue my, my organization that way?

Well, uh, tomorrow Alex is going to own crazy pants dot radio just in case. Yeah, of course. I mean, he's going to do all that stuff, but he's also going to be able to keep broadcasting. Like he's not going to lose everything, everything in the way that we imagine. And he's already set up his whole structure to like land. All of his supplements are through his dad's company. Now, like the Dr. Jones naturals and all of his, like all this merch and shirts and hats and stuff goes through the Alex Jones store dot com that's run by somebody else. And he just wants Alex Jones dot network, which is the website where his show will be once he loses Infowars. And he's been he's been really explicit about this on the show. He said we're doing all this stuff. He said, uh, we're doing all this stuff. And then if we end up winning and somebody who we like buys info wars, uh, it'll all just get folded back into info wars.

It's been very clear about this. I feel like I don't know anything about the law and I don't want to pretend that I do, but I feel like this is not how it's supposed to work. When you lose everything, you're supposed to lose something. Isn't that how that's supposed to work? It's not like it feels like it feels like what's crazy is that so far everyone to a man or person has rejected my solution, which is turn him into a quasi moto, put him up in a bell tower bell tower. I'm not trying to I'm not trying to take a man's money. I understand where he's coming from. But now he has to live in a bell tower. Problem solved for everybody.

Yeah, man. The acoustics are good. Exactly. I think that what he should do is be forced to be like Desmond on Lost. You know, like he has to be in that in the down in the hole. Pressing that button every, eight minutes to save the world. You wanted to be important. You wanted to be chosen by God. There you go. Yeah. You are saving the world by pressing this button every 108 minutes,

but that's all we need from you. Just do that. That's the whole thing. That's the whole job. Asshole live in that bunker, live in that hole. Stop bothering everybody. Okay. So there's no, he's not going off the air. He's not going to stop broadcasting. He's just pivoting to a different website. Basically his cronies or buddies are going to buy the desk and give it back to him. Probably.

Nothing. Nothing's really going to happen. Like the haunted printer will continue to spit out. Something will happen. The money from that, the proceeds from that will go to the victims. So that's something. Yeah. Yeah. There's definitely some little things that have been accomplished along the way. And I don't mean little things. There has been things that have been accomplished. But in terms of if people have been anticipating like a grand explosion, the odds of that are pretty low.

You know, and then, and then let's be honest, like in a certain sense, you know, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna, you're gonna cut his tongue out? You know, you don't want to set that precedent. So, okay. So it's a certain amount of like, Hey, I get it. But we are where we are as a society. You know, this, it kind of makes sense. I don't know

I don't know. What is ever what does everybody want out of this? The dunce cap It's not even money really it's like something ephemeral some sort of like the man deserves a dunce cap the man deserves something Every 108 minutes, somebody walks in and slaps him in the face and then walks off. See, everybody has their own kind of idea of what should be happening. And what is happening is maybe the best

that can be done realistically. See, slapping him in the face is physical assault. Okay, that's right. And I might be opposed to that, but. Shoot him with silly string. That would work. Or every 108 minutes, someone comes on set and tricks him with a squirting flower and he has to fall for it every time.

Like on his lapel. So he looks like an idiot. Or they trick him with the shit on your shirt. You got something on your shirt and then they hit him. Whoop his nose. Whoop his nose. Something like that. So it doesn't make him look stupid every 100 days.

Like I know I'm an American I'm supposed to blah blah blah about civil rights and free speech but like a something like before you civil rights is never the beginning of a good thing to say. He fucking flipped a gasket so fast. No, uh-uh, uh-uh. Why finish it? Why finish the sentence when the beginning of the sentence is already bad? Amazing.

Listen, black people should vote, but nope, you can stop. You can stop. You don't have to keep going. Yeah, man. Everyone can say whatever they want, but Alex, we can get him to shut up about stuff. You can have the power of the state shut him up. Yeah, with a shock collar.

So then I, so now here's my question for you guys. Obviously you've studied, studied, that's a strong word for Alex. You guys have spent a lot of time with Alex Jones and thinking about Alex Jones. Does he do this again and find himself in similar trouble down the road? In other words, is it, will this be a, a perpetuating cycle? Or do you think he learned a lesson here about where that limit is with respect to like culpability

and repercussions. No, he's gotten a little bit better about not identifying people. Uh, I have to be very qualified about that cause he still kind of does sometimes, but like he tries not to identify mass shooters and stuff like that. Uh, until there's confirmation. Like he's gotten a little bit burned by the stovetop, but he's also definitely done the exact same thing that he did to the Sandy Hook families to other people, even just like in the last six months, like he has targeted people unnecessarily. Roger Stone's been on pretty regularly misidentifying

the shooter in Butler, Pennsylvania, saying that it's a, another guy is probably involved. And so like they're, they're doing very similar behaviors. They're going to hurt a whole, like a whole lot more people. It's, it's not going to stop. And so do you think he's gonna end up like just constantly selling the same desk back to himself over and over again? It's just like that Chase thing where you're writing yourself a check in there, right?

The way that Jordan has like bleakly put it is like, well, why would he ever think that there's consequences if like after all of this, he's able to just like move these supplement companies over to this other company outside of his company. Unless he reckons with why people are mad about what he did. I don't, I can't imagine a scenario where he would change. So I'm curious. Well, I was thinking about this with respect to Alex Jones on my drive

up to the studio today. So I was wondering if what you think of this idea for most of us, let's say I got sued into fucking oblivion tomorrow, I would find that terribly damaging. It would have huge long stream consequences on my life that I may never recover from. But I think like for influencers of a certain sort of size, they are just genuinely immune because they have so much pull into the audience and into the world that they have an

unlimited money bank. They have an unlimited bank account that they can just return back into. So I'm wondering like what you think of that idea that at a certain amount of influence with the general public, you essentially become immune to consequence. Okay. Okay. Right. However, counterpoint, counterpoint, the nexium cult, they're doing worse, right? Are they though?

I don't know. I don't know either. But the point is, it feels like that's a good response. But like, I feel like if you're like a Kardashian or something, right, just to use like a very like pop example, I think like genuinely somebody like as big as that at this point, like barring like a scandal that's just going to throw them in jail, that's going to like threaten their actual Liberty. They kind of had an unlimited number of trips to the well, so to speak. So if they go bankrupt on Wednesday by Thursday morning, they're fucking rich again, cause they'll just like exactly like

Alex is grifter under a new, you know, fucking LLC or whatever. Yeah. And I don't think it's unlimited and Alex is no Kardashian, but like, you know, fucking LLC or whatever. Yeah, and I don't think it's unlimited and Alex is no Kardashian, but like, you know, I think everybody's- I mean, that ass though. That ass. That ass. It is precisely the same thickness and length and curvature as the neck.

Dat neck. Alex Jones is 100% clapping those cheeks on that desk every night. Every night. No one was happy that OJ Simpson had money after he lost the civil cases. You know? And I think that Alex can be rich in the same way that maybe he did. But he's just...

There's diminishing. There's diminishing of how rich he can be based on these consequences. And there, that is something that kind of sucks. Like he can't run this business himself. His dad has to run it. I guess that's why I was asking is he still, did he learn a lesson maybe? Cause what I was hoping is like, maybe it'll just be talking about like space alien lizard people in mono atomic gold and you know, this sort of like, I don't even want to say call it harmless because most of it's deeply anti-Semitic, but like this sort of tropy shit that's been like passed around forever. That probably kind of stays contained among the

moon people or whatever. But now it sounds like he's still just, you know, same old trick. So same old damn, are we assuming that the moon people are real in this scenario? You don't understand. I'm fine. If we are, I just need to know for sure. Otherwise I'm going to feel like the idiot when I'm like, you don't even know the moon people. I think, I think the difficult position we're in right now is that like the election is coming up and that auction and either of those has a potential to branch the path that Alex is

on and maybe he will just get into lizard shit and stuff like if things go a certain direction but you know depending on if Trump wins or doesn't the narrative will be different. Like it's Trump will have one, but it's either he's one and now he's in power or he's one, uh, one and Kamala stole it. Let's presume Trump gets in office. What would be the thing that would change? What would Alex Jones say about something like that? Well, he'd need to, you know, the enemy needs to shift a little bit, you know, just the same way that when Trump, I see when Trump won the first time, the deep state is like it becomes this

war inside the agencies and all this. Right. And so he'd need to do that again to make an excuse for why Trump isn't doing all the utopian shit he claimed he was going to do. Whereas if Kamala wins, then it's just a simple game of Trump secretly won and they stole the election. I see. I see. I mean, I wonder if the real here's maybe what the deeper question you're asking is.

And I think it applies to all of us is when was the last time anybody ever said was just like, Hey man, I think we fucked up. I think we just fucked up. Like is Alex going to be like, Hey, you know what Trump lost. I think we boned it. All of the stuff that I've said, all of the whole thing. I think I really failed you guys on this one. And I'm going to be better. I think I checked it. I think I really failed you guys on this one and I'm gonna be better. I think tomorrow I'm gonna do it. Spirit of Christmas comes back with his desk with a bow on it there. Totally.

You learned something. I mean his heart grew three sizes. Yes. When was the last time you saw that in the political game? I wanna come to you all and give you a very sincere apology. My printer has been haunted for the last 30 years We saged it we say printer a lot better through water at it What is what is Alex Jones's

Is he talking a lot about the election as of late? Is he spending a lot of time on politics? Because I know for a while he was very Trump gung ho, but he goes hot and cold sometimes. So I'm just curious where he's at now. He's very, I mean, he's hot. He's hot. It's a matter of survival and Harris works for the devil. So, okay.

Oh yeah, okay. It's definitely implied that if you want to live, you got to vote for Trump, but he's also so bored by the actual election that like there's no substance to anything. He'll just cover various shit he saw on Twitter and then yell about it. So like, I think he's checked out of the actual

election, but he still cares a lot about the idea of Trump winning. What's the over under on five years before he has a fucking heart attack? Cause that guy, that guy's walking around with just like an enormous, even if it's fake, an enormous amount of like acted stress all the time. He looks like he is an aneurysm with fucking legs on it. Yeah. I see that guy and I'm like, that's not going in. This is not a 20 year long.

He's not making it. It's complicated because I went to Pennsylvania to see his show with Tucker. Um, I, and, oh my God, oh my God. I was kind of shocked by, he came out on stage and he was moving okay, like better than I thought he would be walking. And. Jordan is dying right now.

Because the, because the bar is he walked onto the stage with relatively little difficulty. I don't know how to respond to, he's moving okay without. Without laughter. It feels like when Trump showed everybody he could drink a glass of water, victorious. Yes, it is that I've seen him duck off his ass on all these podcasts and like taking his shirt off and he looks like shit. He can like hobble around. And I feel like even when I was, uh, did that deposition in Texas a few years back, like

I felt like he, he felt like he was moving a little bit better than he did then. Um, and he looked somewhat healthy. Uh, but also if you watch that show, he, he is like what you're saying, he looks like he's gonna, his heart's gonna give out. He's screaming and he looks like shit. Like in terms of like the energy that he has. It's heart attack energy. But he's been looking better. I hate to say it, but you know, if we're gonna talk about him looking sloppy at times,

you know, he could move. He could walk. When you went to go see Tucker and Alex Jones, did you two go together? Did one of you get, like, did you do two guys in a trench coat to get in and somebody wore like Did you two go together? Did one of you get like, did you do two, two guys in a trench coat to get in and somebody wore like a fake nose and mustache? Is that Jordan was on my shoulders. I'm not allowed in public. Let's put it, let's start there.

I'm not allowed in public because if I, if I get outside bad trouble, trouble is just like a bird that sits on my shoulder. So Dan is the intrepid explorer in this scenario. Intrepid is an interesting word because I did, the reason I have a mustache is because I wanted to go in disguise slightly. Intrepid includes a mustache. But yet I went, uh, Jordan, uh, I, I feel like you would have probably had a miserable time, um, in this room full of people chanting like, you say, I just feel like Jordan would have no fucking chill at all in that situation and a thousand percent tell on himself. Like

there's no, I don't think you'd get through 10 minutes. Can I, can I tell you, I'll tell you this about myself. Uh, and, and not to agree with you, but to more emphatically agree with you than you could ever possibly understand. I love baseball. I love going to Cubs games. And at the beginning of every Cubs game, there will be, or, you know, somewhere in the early stages, there will be like, uh, here's somebody who is in the military service. And everybody will stand up and they will applaud.

And I will sit there and I will look at everyone and go like, are we still at war? I don't think so. And just remain seated in fury as 30,000 people applaud someone who probably had nothing to do with an actual war. Jordan fights 26,000 Cub fans. Just get in a fucking line. Let's go, one on one.

Wrapped around the whole thing. So I'm not allowed outside. That's what it would have been at the Tucker show, except I'm off on the side getting a pretzel. Well, Jordan gets the shit kicked out of a bunch of racists. So tell me who is more concerning to you, Tucker or Alex Jones? I think Tucker for sure. Um, cause I think that, um, Alex, they're already starting to use him as if he's dead. You know, they're starting to use him as like, look at this profit type who he saw it all coming. He knew everything in advance. He's so ahead of his

time and that does not work if you're wrong constantly. Um, and so the less he does have a show in the future, the more use he is to people like Tucker, but listening to Tucker, I felt like he has a different thing. Like there's a lot of emotion to he's a whiny little baby and for some reason that's not a problem for the audience that likes him. And that scares me a bit because it's, it's, it connects very emotionally to, to the folks. And I don't know, you can't really argue with that. Can't argue with emotion. There's like a weird confluence with like the tuckers and the Jordan Peterson's and like, there's a whole crew of those guys who like do this weird espousing

of this hyper-masculinity virtue, and then they cry and weep about it as if to be like, I guess they seem to be like at odds with their own, you know, like presentation of what masculinity means in a way that somehow they're crying lends credibility back to it. Like, it's like, well, this is the foil. This is my emotional vulnerability of how hard it is to be Tucker Carlson. I can no longer wear a bow tie in public because of the trials

and tribulations that I've endured. And you're like, all right, man, settle down. It's, it, this is nothing. All of this is nothing. Okay. All right. Let's fucking do this. OK. How long how long have we really had the Internet? Like 30 years. OK. Human beings are fucking apes. They're like 300000 years old. So for like 99 percent of the time, 15 dudes getting together,

hanging out and hitting people was all you needed! Alright? That was society! That was the whole thing! You can't blame monkeys for still, you know, living the way we're gonna live. That's who we are in the inside! You're way too accepting of these people. I'm sorry. I'm not accepting. I'm not.

You just did it. You just did it. Have I gone on naked and afraid? Not one time. Not one time. I stay inside my little hole. Everybody else is out here saying, no, the hunger games is bad. This is, this is all insane.

There are compromises between what we're doing. So the next question that I have, and I was wondering about this, and I'm curious where you're at with this. So with Alex Jones, I feel like years ago, I at least felt like, and maybe you'll think I'm wrong, but I always felt like that the audience mostly saw him as entertainment for the most part.

And they did not see him as, generally speaking, credible. It was this sort of like weird mix where people kind of understood that maybe there was something that they thought was true or maybe, oh, it is interesting. It's like the weekly world news kind of? Yeah, but most of it felt like it was entertainment first, even for the audience.

I am really curious if you feel like that's true and if you feel like that's true and if you feel like that's changed because I'm constant. I'm actually more Concerned about the audience right the audience of Tucker Carlson the audience of Alex Jones because they feel More like like a different kind of true believer rather than somebody who's like. Hey, I'll watch the fucking chemtrails guy that guy's a hoot No, I would I would disagree with that premise. Okay. I think that the people who didn't like him all that much or were casual observers were like what you're talking about. They're checking in for entertainment. They want to see this guy talk about some crazy stuff. You know, like you tune into coast to

coast AM and hear, you know, back in the day, at least that was a portion of the population, but the people who liked him back then, they liked him as sincere. Like this is real news. This is real reporting. Um, you know, like there, the people who were pulling for Ron Paul back then were not like, it wasn't a goof. You know, they believed all that stuff about the federal reserve and, you know, quote unquote states rights and shit. Um,

I think the people have taken him seriously then. And now the issue is that now what he, like what he's brought them along to taking seriously is like these demons running around biting you As opposed to like oh we got to get rid of the centralized banking Alright, I guess there's a conversation to have there There's not a conversation to have about whether or not we need to rid the earth of demons You know, I wonder in like I wonder if it's even possible to have a sustained

resistance to it. So imagine you are somebody who is checking in for entertainment purposes. You know, can you always be in a mental state where you can separate reality from fiction? You know, or or does it happen one day where you've had a long ass day at work or or, you know, you're a little bit drunk and you're you're having a late night smoking weed with your buddy over there and

you got an Alex Jones video and then somehow all of a sudden you're like, you know what? He's right. And then and then the next day you're like, I know it's a joke, but sometimes he's right. And like the curve happens, you know, so maybe that's just a fictional thing. And some people are just fucking into it, you know, like you don't know for

sure what's behind what people are interacting with, maybe I guess. Well, it feels like and I like just I mean, looking at like the guess. Well, it feels like, and I like just, I mean, looking at like the election coming up, it feels like America has become much less good. Maybe we were never very good at this. I don't know. But like, it seems like we're much more openly accepting of more and more outlandish ideas, like crazier and more wild, insane bullshit than I remember ever being in the case before. Like maybe somebody held one crackpot belief,

but it seemed like back in the day and I'm talking like not even that long ago, people didn't have an entire like like foundational philosophy of crackpot bullshit that they sort of cobbled together. So it feels like the audience has broadened in a way that is really upsetting. OK, this is a thing that I do want to legitimately push back against, you know, because I agree with you as far as outlandish ideas are concerned that it does feel like there are more of them propagating around. But I ask you this question. Is it a more outlandish idea to believe some crazy bullshit now or for an entire country

to be fine with manifest destiny? Do you know what I mean? Like, do you really think an entire country believing that God gave them the whole fucking West is not as outlandish an idea as fucking demons showing up. So maybe things are better. I don't know. Fewer people believe in the God thing. So we're in a different place.

Oh God. Yeah. It's how do you guys so so you Jordan you brought up like people sit around and maybe they've had like one too many beers or Alex Jones. What do you mean? He's nuts and I got a mustache. You shouldn't ask us. I feel like we've been, we've been having like the occasional chat now for several years and I'm, I'm beginning to worry about you gentlemen and your wellbeing. There's a precipitous slide that is only so much you can consume.

Does it weigh on you though? Like genuinely as people, like as human beings, like, do you watch this like over and over an hour after hour and is it starting to have an impact at all? Like I think that the, um, the way that everything has, uh, gone down is demotivating a little bit, but it's not just Alex. I do, I think it's, you know, like the fact that we're doing, uh, this election with Trump again, 2016 seems to be echoing through the entire country again. And so a lot of that is kind of, you know, it'll, it'll tug on, tug on your, your hope. And then it's easy to get down about the fact that, you know, Alex faced the most real consequences that he's seen in the course of his career.

consequences that he's seen in the course of his career and somehow he's still able to move all of these businesses to like my dad's business and stuff. You see this very public effort to subvert this bankruptcy and it's like, well, I guess you can just get away with that. And you know, that wears on you a little more than I think the like listening to him see you just you know it's just a angry liar Alex Jones angry liar yeah that's great you know it's he was an angry liar before and he's an angry liar yeah and he's an angrier liar. Yeah. Society's lies have gotten a little stranger. You know, certainly the weather weapons causing the hurricanes in order to like ruin GOP voting.

Like that's a little, that's a little silly that that was bigger than, than, you know, it should have been much smaller, the amount of people believing that. Yeah, man. But like, yeah, Congress people said it though. Mm hmm. Like, yeah. And now there's like fucking flat earthers that are like, that's a real like this is second grade stuff. Like, there's like stuff like I guess that's what I was meaning before is like

some of this stuff is like, like genuinely a not very precocious second grader is like earth round dumb dumb. Like that's like simple, easy shit. Like everything is sort of up for grabs again. Even like the most insanely like basic principles and philosophies of like how physical matter is presented in the world. That feels that feels like, look, I get the manifest destiny argument in sincerity. I do, but I'm just like, God damn.

I make that up on the spot. I actually kind of think you had a point. I do though. I actually think I get what you're saying, but like it feels different, crazy now. It does feel different, crazy. It feels like, like genuinely the claims are not even interesting. They're so stupid. You know, did we have a Marjorie Taylor green like in the nineties that we've just forgotten about?

I don't know. I don't know. It doesn't feel like we did, but it doesn't. I think they would have been kicked out. There was like the satanic panic stuff. True. True. You know, you know, we had those type of people who were, who were willing to focus on the family. If you, yeah, well even with your, you're saying like things are crazier and these are like second grade things. Also everything moves so fast. Like because of what, you know, what is it the internet or whatever, I'm not sure what the cause of it is, but like, you know, Jordan and I were remarking

that there was a presidential assassination attempt. And then like a week later, we've moved on to something else. Yeah. Nothing sticks around at all. We don't have time to talk about any of the things that are happening because we just move on to the next thing that people get angry about on Twitter. What are you guys?

Are you guys going to be counting down the days to this auction? Are you going to do a live stream or something? When about what? The auction. I don't know. I thought you guys would fire that shit up and like that would be smoke a blunt and hang out and like it around about what's getting sold. If there's a stream of it, then I would consider it, but I don't know if there is.

I don't know if there's going to be like an actual event of it, but yeah, if there is like up to the minute news or something, that might be fun. Yeah, totally. It would be a hoop. It was like if they were like videoing it, like some dude has a stream and they're streaming that shit. Oh, and they're like hauling stuff up like it's a Christie's or something. And next up for auction, we have the haunted printer. Yeah. I'm going to put, I'm going to put this out into the universe. I would like a victory procession. So after every item is sold, they have to be like, and the Victor is, and then the person

has to walk up the red carpet, grab it, get a picture with it, and then go home. Like a pro wrestling style intro. Everyone has the music. 100% everything you buy from Alex Jones auction should come with a certificate of inauthenticity. That's all I just, the problem is like, thank you, Jordan. Thank you. Terrible. This auction is bundles. So it's like a info wars as a whole. And if no one buys them, if they're not successful, then it becomes like the itemized auction. That'll be like the next step. I hope something interesting happens. You know, like, I don't know if anything,

like, I think most people want there to be, someone buys Infowars and then it's destroyed or whatever. And I don't know if people are gonna get that. You know, they're gonna be disappointed if they want that. But I just hope something interesting happens because she it's been a little bit boring with him. And so something spicing it up, throwing a curve ball could be a little fun. Hey guys, if people are going to find you on the internet, where would they look? Knowledge faint.com is our website. I think, Oh no, actually, do you know what? Do you know what we have? I don't know if we have it for sure still, but we did at one point have fill your

hand.com. So you should go to fill your hand.com to get all your knowledge, fight information. When Alex was drunkenly trying to, uh, uh, physically fight with Adam Schiff, you told him, Oh my God. Yeah. Oh my God. Amazing. Amazing. Guys. It's awesome. Always awesome to have you come out. Thanks so much for joining us. We appreciate it. I love you guys. Spend a treat. Thanks for having us. Wow. So thank you so much for joining us today for our 800th episode of really feel pretty accomplished. We want to thank knowledge fight of course for coming by and being a guest

on our 800th episode. You can check them out at knowledgefight.com. Great show, great guys, Chicago guys. So check out their show if you haven't already. All right. That's going to wrap it up for this week. Remember we're only one week away from voting. Come back on next week on Monday. We'll have a show for you right before the election. And then on election night, don't forget, we're going to be doing live coverage during election night. So come back during the election, you know, turn off ABC, come turn us on. We'll be looking at, you know, the same, pretty much the same real time stats they will be, but we'll be having fun and talking to Chad and they don't even know you exist.

Hey, maybe we'll stream some Alex Jones. Come on by. It'll be a blast. All right. That's going to wrap it up for our 800th episode. We're going to leave you like we always do with the Skeptics Creed. Credulity is not a virtue. It's fortune cookie cutter mommy issue hypno Babylon bullshit. Couched in scientician double bubble toil and trouble pseudo quasi alternative acupunctuating pressurized stereogram pyramidal free energy healing 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, nuts, shaman nuts into oblivion and and then and then you deliberately hurt my feelings shaman healers evangelists conspiracy double-speak stigmata nonsense Expose your sides thrust your hands bloody evidential conclusive doubt even this

Credential conclusive. Doubt even this. Thanks for tuning in. If you enjoyed the show, consider supporting us on Patreon at patreon.com forward slash dissonance pod. Help us spread the word by sharing our content. Find us on TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Pretz, all under the handle at dissonance pod. on TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Pretz, all under the handle at DissonancePod. This show is CAN credentialed,

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