Decoding the Gurus - Supplementary Material 34: Giants, Grifters, and Google Eyed Loons

Episode Date: August 6, 2025

We drown in waves of ideological fluidity as the gurusphere continues to crash all around us.Supplementary Material 3400:00 Introduction01:26 Irish Stew and Dog Exercise Report03:45 A new 276 IQ Geniu...s11:47 Fresh and Fit Antisemitism16:51 Are things getting dumber?21:22 Asmongold on the Epstein Files24:53 Epstein Conspiratorial Discourse helps Ghislaine Maxwell29:00 Vinay Prasad resigns from his MAGA position31:17 Eric Weinstein is the Architect of the Great Reset!32:37 Google Eyed Loons vs. Willing Apparatchik36:40 The Young Turks are joined by... Scott Adams38:51 Ana Kasparian sits down with Tucker Carlson44:46 Jimmy the Giant enters the arena46:11 Jimmy the Giant meets Konstantin Kisin57:12 Debating the Middle Class YouTube Grifters01:06:15 The Gurusphere Grift01:08:16 Jimmy the Giant reflects on his performance01:11:16 Discourse standards for Research01:15:05 Jimmy defends his criticisms01:22:27 Jimmy the Giant deletes his videos and apologises to Konstantin01:28:04 The Call to Action to support the Grand Mission01:32:32 Separating Issues from Support of Influencers01:37:13 Jimmy the Giant explains how the Elites created Wokeness01:47:16 Woke Wars and Psyops01:49:33 The Right Wing Media Outrage Ecosystem01:55:26 False Consciousness and the Billionaires02:02:47 AI limitations and Hallucinations02:07:08 Post Hoc-Reasoning in AI and People02:14:22 OutroThe full episode is available for Patreon subscribers (2hrs 16 mins).Join us at: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingTheGurusSourcesYounghoon Kim: World’s Highest IQ Score (276) Scientifically Documented in New Academic PreprintFresh and Fit idiots being giggly anti-semitic and praising HitlerJoanne Freeman: The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil WarGhislaine Maxwell moved to Federal prison camp in TexasComment on the move from Prison ConsultantPoor Vinay Prasad – The Disgraceful Campaign Against a Top FDA OfficialEric responds to accusations that he is the mastermind behind the Great ReplacementTYT’s The Conversation: Scott Adams Reflects on Life after his Terminal Cancer DiagnosisAna Kasparian on the Tucker Carlson showClips from now deleted Triggernometry video: He Called me a Grifter… it didn’t go so well

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello and welcome to Decoding the Guru's Sublopening the Guru's Supply, elementary material with me, the cognitive anthropologist, Christopher Kavana. With him, the psychologist, Matthew Brown. Good day, Matt. How are you doing? Good day, good day. Good day. I'm okay.
Starting point is 00:00:45 It's the afternoon for both of us. I gave my presentation, gave a talk to the Ministry of Health in New Zealand by the internet earlier of my report. Well, well received. So happy with that. Did you get a standing ovation? No, but they all smiled and nodded a lot. Did they stand up and wave their hands like shit their hands?
Starting point is 00:01:06 That's a thing some people do. They didn't do jazz hands. No, no. But there was consensus in the room. I feel like, you know, just out there, I'm being the change in the world I want to see. That's what I'm doing, I think. A lot of murmuring. Oh, but a good presentation now.
Starting point is 00:01:23 Thank you. Good job. Damn. He's good. I like the image of like, a Victorian parlor where all the people were puffing on their pipes. It's like, Virgil, is that right? No, no, no, it was a very typical Zoom call or teams call.
Starting point is 00:01:40 Half of them are at home, working from home, like me, cash, other people are in their cubicles. That's all it was. Not an old gentleman's club, I'm afraid. Well, I saw on the Patreon, Matt, in your footy corner that you had Irish Drew at the weekend in the home. homage to me and my ancestry. And I was very touched.
Starting point is 00:02:04 It's nice that once a week to celebrate your Irish connection. Our ancestry, Chris. Our ancestry. Our ancestry. Oh, yeah, that's right. Stolen Valor. I forgot about that. Notice I never claimed to be Australian.
Starting point is 00:02:21 You see, you slipped up by using the word ancestry. You're born in Ireland. True. true but my ancestry my Irish ancestry is just as real as zeros I'll get the goddamn birth certificates you'll see
Starting point is 00:02:37 they can be forged Matt they can be forced we know how it goes you know we haven't done in a while Matt as well our middle age men exercising up yet is that because you haven't
Starting point is 00:02:51 been exercising I've been exercising in my own way In my own way. Yeah, well, you know, we've got the dogs. We've got the new dogs. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, they're elderly dogs. But one of them, she's still got, she's still spry.
Starting point is 00:03:08 She's vivacious. So the male dog, Bobo, he just likes a very short walk. He goes to the beach. He does a poo. We pick up the poo, puts in the doggy bit and poop, you know, the bag and all that. And then he's ready to go home. Yeah, that's it. But me and jazz, we, we.
Starting point is 00:03:26 walk all the way down to Mondra Poe along the beach. And it's like a five kilometers, six-formal walk. And I'll do it every day. I'm now addicted to it. So that's my exercise, old people's exercise, just going for a long walk. And I listen to a book with my earpots. I'm happy. Jazz is happy.
Starting point is 00:03:44 And that's exactly what we're going to do the minute I've finished speaking to you. I'm going to be gone. Wow. Well, I hope you're listening to the book that we are supposed to listen to for supplementary material, the genius meant by hell list. But if not, Matt, that's all right, because I know you will get there. I know it's there. I know you're in tough of these things.
Starting point is 00:04:02 Don't worry. Like, it's about intelligence and the social perception of intelligence. I already know about all that stuff, Chris. I'm a psychologist. You're already a genius. I know. Yeah. Actually, you know what came across.
Starting point is 00:04:13 Speaking of geniuses, came across just someone has written an article. And they've basically on why they personally have an IQ of 200. 173. Uh-huh. Now, 276, I tell a lie, 276, it's really good.
Starting point is 00:04:33 So it's a, it's an absolute crank. Someone, Junghoun Kim, United Sigma Intelligence Association. So you know this guy. I mean, I know of him because people were posting him around. He's basically like Chris Langan. He's another one of those,
Starting point is 00:04:52 but he's a South Korean version. But again, Maga. So there's these high IQ individuals, they're all somehow, you know, supporters of Donald Trump, the super high IQ, self-declared super high IQ individuals. No, it's a good idea. So you're right. I immediately thought of Chris Lang and, and I actually read the article. And it really is. It's called the psychometric validation of an extreme IQ score, the case of Junghin Kim's IQ 276.
Starting point is 00:05:24 But, and obviously, as it published really, where this is been uploaded to some pre-print server or whatever. So I read it. And he actually does a better job of pseudo-profile bullshit than Chris. Yeah, because he mentions genuine psychometric terms and, you know, like at a sentence level, it at least makes sense. There's not of his crazy, crazy shit. But obviously, the substance of it is absolutely meaningless. One of the things he does, so 273, that is 12 standard deviations above 100. So, you know, standard IQ, it's a normed score, right?
Starting point is 00:06:02 So the population means 100, standard deviation is 15. So 12 standard deviations above 100. The probability of that is 2.3 times 10 to the power of minus 32. I calculated it. And so apart from anything else, just apart from anything else, the probability of anyone on earth in a population of 8 billion, having an IQ of 273 is effectively zero. Now, Kim, in his defense, he defies IQ to have a standard deviation of 24 for some reason. So his IQ is based on a standard deviation of 24. So, you know, this is just one of the many things he's rolled into it.
Starting point is 00:06:48 But of course, that obviously contradicts the entire point of an IQ score, which is meant to be comparable to other IQ scores. Like if you make up like a calculation method that is completely unique to yourself, then obviously you can't compare the number that you get at the other end. So that's a couple of pretty elementary mistakes from someone with an IQ. I think his IQ of 273 has been conclusively disproved, just purely from those two mistakes. well that's you know maybe him and chris langen could get together and try and work this one out they could have a psychometric dick measuring contest with each other i mean he's more ambitious than chris lang because chris langen doesn't claim 273 you got you got to respect got to respect the game 273 that's a big number yeah i do i do think the rule typically holds
Starting point is 00:07:38 that anybody mentioning their IQ online and uh you know a positive light and not just me to in a joke or something is almost invariably somebody with questionable intelligence. Regardless of their IQ scores, it's almost always a concerning sign when people are talking about their IQ and putting it into their profile or whatever. So be careful out there. Like Matt just now, he might be a IQ individual, but he muted his microphone. And has it put the unmute button. Look, lots of small people do that accidentally.
Starting point is 00:08:21 Yeah, I'd say that's very diagnostic. It's very diagnostic. Any time you mention your own IQ or other people's IQ, it's not a good sign. It's not a good indicator of a high IQ. There's not a good indicator of them being a decent person. It's a bad indicator all around. It is.
Starting point is 00:08:40 It's not good all round. Well, I think these people have got it all right. Well, I think these people have got it all wrong. Like, there are, you know, people that brag about having high IQ, like whatever it is they've accomplished in life, like wherever it is they are and everything. It doesn't do them a service because this Kim guy, you know, unless he's like discovered a new kind of science
Starting point is 00:09:02 and is kind of really accomplishing Einsteinian things on the regular, then it's kind of embarrassing that he's got an IQ of 273 because he's clearly not doing anything with it. I think it's better to have, you know, whatever it is you've accomplished, however, whatever it is you've got to brag about. You should be bragged to say, look, I did all of this.
Starting point is 00:09:24 I did it with an IQ of 93. How about that? You know, doing with a little. Yeah, self-deprecating. That's the way to go. But that is not the guru playbook mart there. They haven't worked out. The only time I've seen this is like, you know,
Starting point is 00:09:41 Eric claiming that he is, that good at the guitar. Well, but no, that's not the claim. The claim is that he hasn't learned the guitar, he hasn't spent time learning, and he's just picked it up by himself. But yeah, it's about to say he's downplaying his ability, but it's not really.
Starting point is 00:09:58 He just wants to downplay the amount of practice that is put in. Well, you know, like psychologists like me and also my mate who I work with, we have to do them, we have to learn how to give them, we have to learn how to, And we get them administered to us just for other students, basically, or master students who are in training. And sometimes they tell us what we get.
Starting point is 00:10:19 And we actually prepared us to cringe, but actually not really. We did compare what we got because the interesting, they get it all wrong. They don't understand what these things are for. First of all, they're to diagnose problems mainly. And the other more arguable use for them is that they're multidimensional. And they can be useful for diagnosing, you know, what your deficiencies. are. And, you know, I compared, like, I think both of have scored in the subnormal range on a couple of subscales. And you won't be surprised at all to know what they are, Chris.
Starting point is 00:10:52 There were ones involving, like, short-term memory and manipulating things in short-term memory, which, and I was like, oh, yeah, that totally makes sense. And I've got a bunch of coping strategies. They sometimes work, and they often don't, as you know. But, you know, it's helpful. It's helpful. Yeah, I get that, you know, we all kind of. compensate for our deficiencies in different ways. And that's it. You learn your coping strategies and you know, you persevere, right?
Starting point is 00:11:21 That's the way to do it. But if you have a 273 IQ, maybe you've got too many things spinning at once that like that's a problem. You can't focus down on things. You've got too many big ideas. That's why in general, these high IQ people are so impressive in what they achieve. well high IQ or not Matt there are other people in the internet doing things we can't stop them
Starting point is 00:11:48 you know they they will not be stopped they'll continue to do things and boy do I have some people doing and saying some things for you that's very general that could you should record that you could use that as an introductory clip for anything that's going to be my lead-in from just any time I'm off sick I'll just for that but um okay ma do you know fresh and fit have ever heard of fresh and fit no this this could go in a segment called streamers being wankers right it would be an eternal segment which we would have content for endlessly but i this one did hit me as a clip on social media and i was like god damn this is this is pretty bad right so fresh and fit there's a popular red pill monosphere podcast right it's
Starting point is 00:12:40 one of these ones of the format, men sit around with young women and they talk about dating and these kind of things. They also talk about other topics. So you're going to hear Myron Gaines, who's one of the hosts, and then you're going to hear a female participant offer some support on pressing issues of our time. So let's have a listen to this. What do you guys think about Hitler? What did the Jewish did something to the journey? that made them at a certain way, but nobody wants to talk about it. Like, the Jews don't want to take accountability. Oh!
Starting point is 00:13:18 Yes. I'm with you on that one. Okay. That's why, that's why, like, that was up to something, so the Germans wanted to take them out. Like, it had to be something, like, Germans wanted to take them out, all of them out. They started it. They started it. Yeah, talk shit about them.
Starting point is 00:13:39 Yeah. The Holocaust was the only way he can take out a huge population, like a huge amount of Jews all in one setting. But I already know what's going on. Like, I'm not dumb. Like, I know, like, the Jews did something. That's why they sent up here. They're trying to take back. Like, they're trying to take back and get repercussions, especially from America, like, from Americans.
Starting point is 00:14:02 So they're taking over the government and stuff like that. I'm telling me, how do we take them down? How do we take them down? Yeah. I mean, I killed the motherfuckers. I had to say it. My bad, y'all. Hitler, he had the plan, but his plan was just too, like, very, like, gruesome, if you can say.
Starting point is 00:14:25 Listen, he has to do what he had to do. But he had to do. Listen, he was trying to save the world? I agree. He didn't work out. I mean, Jews are the reason why this, the health care system and everything around us and the government is collapsing, because they're sent up here. stealing away from American people. Okay. Who is this streamer? Who is it?
Starting point is 00:14:45 So the woman you heard talking there is just a guest on Fresh and Fit. That's just like one of their audience members who is taking part in the discussion. But it's fresh and fit is the name of the show that she's on. And that guy that is the host is a raging anti-Semite, right? Like yes, he's critical of Israel in this war. But it's as you hear, right? It's also a little bit beyond that. Yeah, and Matt, like, I know these are, like, this is kind of stupid anti-Semitism, right? But the fact is that this is just going out, you don't like an audience of people, like this level of anti-Semitism, it used to be something that you see in like these internet corners that people didn't admit to watching or, you know, it was kind of shameful. And now this is pretty mean.
Starting point is 00:15:37 And also all the people talking there, they're all African-Americans, right? So that's also a feature of that. It's not white, old, white supremacist type people. It's kind of a newer demographic, shall we say. Yeah, well, I don't like that. I don't know what else. So this fresh and fit, like it's, it's just popular, it's a popular streamer? Yeah, yeah, it's popular amongst like, you know, monosphere, red pill type people.
Starting point is 00:16:06 but it would be one of the big ones and like Marien Gaines would be invited on shows like Pierce Morgan and stuff to talk about things even with those views. Huh. Yeah. Yeah, like Matt, I know.
Starting point is 00:16:23 I know this is a rather horrific thing to listen to, but it's just a level of like open anti-Semitism that people are freely expressing. You know, those Jews, Hitler had to do something. about them. And like, I've been to Auschwitz, I took a bunch of students over there on a school trip and just, you know, looking at the all the shoes from the kids that were killed in the
Starting point is 00:16:48 gas chambers, you know, like all of the little things around. I mean, you know, adults being killed as well. I'm not saying that's fine, but just the amount of children that were like systematically slaughtered in that and these absolute fucking doughheads are just giggling away about it and say, I'm not uneducated right there saying repercussions when they mean reparations as well. Like, I, I, whatever. I just. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I know. Is it, it's just everything getting dumber? Is that it? Like, I don't know. Like, I don't know. I've seen a bunch of content like that, you know, not, not necessarily that extreme. But, you know, there's a theme to it. And it's one of the things that's just super clear is that no one in
Starting point is 00:17:35 has ever read a book, you know, like, like, I don't know. I'm going to become one of those old men that just, it's like still go to hell and hand passing it. People don't read enough books, but it's, I don't know. But maybe it's not that. It's more like the internet, like standards have slipped, right? Standards have slipped. You're trying to not be an old bum by the state subjects have slipped?
Starting point is 00:17:59 Like, like the tenor of discourse, you know, political discourse in the United States, thanks to Trump, yeah. Standards have slipped. The White House account tweets things that we've never tweeted before. And, you know, you have, I guess, mainstream somewhat respectable people doing insane things which are on this spectrum of just really dumb and bad and stupid and coarse and I don't know. It seems like the internet has had an effect in terms of making this kind of stuff more
Starting point is 00:18:34 accessible because it's ironic, it's edgy, it's whatever, it gets clicks, you know, do they really mean it? I don't know, they're just talking. You know what I mean? Like, internet culture is contributing to this. Yeah, I agree. Though I do always, whenever we're talking about standards slipping and stuff, I always want to make a shout out to there's a book by Joanne Freeman that I read a historian who wrote about the field of blood, violence in Congress and wrote to civil war. And it's like, you know, if you thought bad standards are bad now, When you hear what was going on in the U.S. Congress prior to the Civil War? I know.
Starting point is 00:19:09 I know. Someone got hit on their head with a cane. Oh, no. I mean, it's way worse than that. Someone else got shot. Someone shot, you know. Yeah. It's just, it's.
Starting point is 00:19:19 No, I'm not. On the level of rhetoric then was also like there was, you know, overt racism and it was perfectly normal. So I take the point, I agree with it, that there's now this being pumped out to millions of people and it's easily accessible. but I just mean like there's plenty of times in history, including like the 1940s where the discourse was held up just as probably, if not worse, I don't know. But I'm not saying quite that.
Starting point is 00:19:46 Like I don't think, you know, society is more violent today that it was, and it definitely isn't. I don't think that, you know, people have got worse opinions today than the olden days because that's not true either, right? You know, they had slavery in the United States, for instance. So racism was, sexism was totally normal. So that's not the case either. No, it's more just like the dumbing down of everything. Public discourse feels like it's dumbed down in my lifetime.
Starting point is 00:20:13 Mind you. Okay, I'll undercut myself here. I will harken back to when I was much younger. I haven't watched free to air television for decades, I don't think. But when I did watch free to air television. I don't even know what that is. Or television. Free to air?
Starting point is 00:20:26 Free to air? Oh, just like non-cable, just broadcast. TV. That's a term you're... I just called that TV, not. Okay, it's a non-cable, non-cable news, right? I didn't even know what cable was. That was an American thing. We had Sky.
Starting point is 00:20:44 You didn't have cable. You didn't have cable. We had cold. String. Your little pieces of string. I, they're obvious. And I remember, like, the normal news. So not the ABC, not the, not SP.
Starting point is 00:21:01 So those are the government channels, and they tended to be of a higher standard. But nobody watched them. Everybody watched Channel 7, Channel 9, Channel 10. And my God, even as a kid, I knew it was stupid. Like, reporters talking with deadly earnestness about someone who's baked a cake and it was in the shape of a Jesus or something. What? Wow. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:21:26 I got to see if you from old modernizers. Don't you be watching all media and say it was all backer you know what I like this do is sit down
Starting point is 00:21:35 with a glass of whiskey and have an open a good dusty tone that is that is like that is
Starting point is 00:21:42 you might laugh but this is my life Chris well the next tip I have I feel is going undercut my point that's support
Starting point is 00:21:53 yours about the level of discourse so we've never covered this guy before But a streamer, I believe that there's the most popular in the world at the minute on terms of like politics streaming.
Starting point is 00:22:05 So you haven't heard his takes. And this is about him talking about the Epstein trials and possible revelations, right? And, you know, maybe this will restore your faith in modern society. My dream scenario. Trump makes mandatory attendance every member of the Senate and Congress. he has her testify in front of all of them and before she starts he locks the doors and as she reads out the names the police come in and they escort every person out of the room as she reads their names totally like saddam hussein style yep the saddam strapped that's right
Starting point is 00:22:50 that would be fucking insane and hey that would be crazy content right insane content that that really does support my my point chris so the person he's talking about there is gisly and maxwell like if she gillian if she give her testimony right and that's asman gold matt that's asmond gold the roach king there so he's imagining this fantasy world where Donald trump right is kind of revealing all the secrets of the elite Pedophiles are all being called out and they're being immediately, Saddam Hussein style, Matt, you know, Saddam Hussein's style, that would be, that would be keynote,
Starting point is 00:23:36 that would be so fire. And what content? Imagine streaming reactions to that, like, oh, yeah, yeah. Well, that does go to my point. Most popular streamer in the world, hey, most popular political streamer. Yeah, well, well, look, though, the thing is, the issue here for me, apart from how stupid the opinion there is though, but like in recent weeks, what's been coming out, and to be fair, Asmund Gold
Starting point is 00:24:02 has like mentioned this and this coverage of the topic and whatnot, but like, it isn't that other people are all going to be, you know, find out to have connections with Epstein. What keeps coming out is that Trump himself has various connections, right? So it'll be his name that is read read out. So what do you do with the man locking the doors is the one? Actually, Chris, Chris. No, that would be great content because let's imagine it was all staged like the way he describes it. Trump is presiding over it. Ghislane, what's the name? Gillian. Gillian is up there. She's on the stage. Gillian. Gillian. Gillian. Okay, whatever. People should just have names that are spelled the way they sound. That's what I strongly believe. Like Kavanagh. Everything else is
Starting point is 00:24:52 Kavanaugh. Everything else is pretentious. okay now so everyone's there all of the representatives are they're sweating you know because their connections they're going to be find out they're going to be found out trump's presiding over at gloating and she reads out trump's name and the police come in and drag him away he's like we're not no no well sadly great content chris great content well sadly for the content kings what i predicted to come the past Matt was that Gillian Maxwell, we'd use this new round of attention that the Epstein controversy is ginning up to try and get herself some sort of deal, right, to lessen her
Starting point is 00:25:39 sentence. So what's happened? Well, it's unclear. She went and talked to Trump administrative officials behind closed doors for two days. And then she was transferred to minimum security prison, something which is not supposed to happen for sex offenders. Now, to be clear, though, Matt, there hasn't been like reasons directly explained, but it is possible, as some people have described, that by her testifying that she was going to provide all these names and whatnot, and she's already a sex offender for underage girls right in a prison, that this likely isn't going to endear yourself to the other people in the prison. So there may have been credible threats to her life or whatever right at her current circumstance.
Starting point is 00:26:27 But my concern about a lot of all this attention was that what seems likely to me to happen is that she will provide some indemnifying information that lets Trump and and co appear like, oh, we weren't really involved. But actually, it's Bill Clinton and all the liberal donors. Like it doesn't have to be anything definite. It could just be a bit vague. but it would still work. Yeah, no, that's the first thought that occurred to me.
Starting point is 00:26:56 Like, let's assume the default, the default reality is true, right? That it was mainly just the guy. Her and Jeffrey Epstein. Yeah, Jebstein. Well, it was her as well. Yeah, that's her as well. But maybe no other important and powerful people are implicated, right? Let's assume that's the case.
Starting point is 00:27:11 Well, no, but there are other. The BSLang case is that there are other people involved that, but they've also, like, you know, Prince Andrew and so on. So there's a couple other people that are. I know. I know there's a couple of other people. That's right. The French guy, I know. All right. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Other people that we don't know about, that all the theories are swirling around about. Okay.
Starting point is 00:27:30 If you were her, it's like you've suddenly been handed a gift because you've suddenly got a huge amount of bargaining power to cut a deal. Yes. Like you say, you know, you can cut a deal, make a statement and it'll put some things to rest, maybe put attention in another direction. It doesn't have to be anything specific. It could just, but it could work very well. well and you know trump has pardoned heaps of people you know him or someone else would very happily make that deal i think so yeah and again this is another example of like you know i've seen commentary around it as well ma'am where there are people that are highlighting her as a guilty party but you know one of the talking points of what's going around is like who she imprisoned for trafficking the girls too she's convicted for trafficking to no one like
Starting point is 00:28:21 But she was convicted for trafficking to Jeffrey Epstein, right? That's the person. But so there are many people in the conspiracy web who are kind of like, you know, she's not important because who is she beyond the madame for Jeffrey? What's really important is this network behind it, right? The connections to intelligence. That's the more important conspiracy. So some of them will care if she gets, you know, pardoned or some sort of deal to reduce her sentence
Starting point is 00:28:50 or whatever the case would be, but most of them could be easily bought off. And this is what I also said, that people talking as if this will absolutely take Trump down, it's very easy for conspiracy theorists to be co-opted into narratives as long as you give them the right targets. Like Alex Jones is a conspiracy theorist, right? But he's not interested in Russian connections to the Trump administration or anything like that. It's only a specific type of conspiracy that he's interested in because he's a extreme.
Starting point is 00:29:20 dream right-wing figure, right? So, yeah, yeah. That's all true. Joy, joy. Speaking of stuff swirling around the White House, did you see about how Vinay Prasad? Oh, yes, I did want to mention that. They couldn't happen to be a nicer guy.
Starting point is 00:29:37 Vinay Prasad got, well, he resigned, but I believe it was due to like a pressure campaign launched against them. And basically, he was claimed by the Maga, conspiratorial wing to be like a left-wing anti-Trump insider that was going to work against the, you know, reforms necessary. And given the Benai's whole essence, his whole being throughout the pandemic was to promote himself to get into that reactionary anti-vaccine, Barry Weiss, you know, space. And he finally, after months, you know, he got a position in the regime. And for him to be undone, like conspiracy theorists.
Starting point is 00:30:22 Yeah. I know. Conspiracy Brits, I'd hit them too. No, they're awful. It was Laura Luma. Was it her? She took him down. I know.
Starting point is 00:30:32 That's what makes it just so amazing. Because I think in many ways, Venetra's doing what a character like Eric Weinstein sort of always intended to do. Yes. Which is to basically be the very reasonable sounding guy who says and does exactly what the powerful people want. And he gets a seat at the table.
Starting point is 00:30:53 He gets to come in and he gets the positions and the rewards. And Vinay Prasad is like, you know, these people are like apparatchiks, ambitious apparatchiks, right? Who will absolutely say and do anything in order to advance themselves. That's how I personally viewed Vinay Prasad and his anti-vax stuff. Like Eric Weinstein, he would talk in double talk. Like he's not a true believer like Brett Wan. or RFK. He's, he's someone who, who was ambitious, right? Yeah, yeah. I think it's mostly about like him promoting himself and I think he got sold on his own narratives in general, right? So like,
Starting point is 00:31:33 you know, it's that eternal paradox of how much are they a true believer versus how much are they pandering and. Yeah, they come to believe it. He cares. Yeah. It's in both, but, but but speaking, Uri is the specter of old Eric. They just have to say today, in fact, He's currently also facing this, that, you know, Eric wrote an article, a good long time ago, migration for the benefit of all, towards a new paradigm for economic immigration. This was in, I think, 2002 was when it was published, or anyway, you know, like 20 years ago or whatever, but the conspiratorial rights have come across it. And even though Eric, as he's, at pains the point out now on Twitter,
Starting point is 00:32:18 has been accused of being xenophobic, right? Because, like, you know, he was opposed to H-1B visas and all this kind of thing. So I believe Eric describes himself as like a xenophilic anti-immigration, something or other. Like, he has a very bespoke position on it, right? You wouldn't understand that. But anyway, he was facing somebody saying, Eric Weinstein is the mastermind of mass migration on behalf of the U.M. They're flagging him as responsible for the grave reset.
Starting point is 00:32:54 And he's currently on Twitter battling it out saying, you're falling for the Wall Street Journal's trope. But it couldn't happen to a nicer guy by the who's... No, he could not. And, Chris, you might think this is a long bow to draw. But that dynamic where in a movement like Maga, It is this, like, crazy, ideologically driven thing. And you have this mixture of ambitious apparatchiks like Fenei Prasad,
Starting point is 00:33:23 Nerec Weinstein. And then you have the absolute goggle-wide fanatic loons, right? Yes. However radical the movement is, they are beyond the pale. So Marjorie Taylor Green and Laura Luma are in that category, right? Yeah, but even they can be nice. pure enough for some other like meeniac. Sure, sure. There's a long tail on that spectrum. But it does remind me of what happens in authoritarian regimes, right? Because you have similar
Starting point is 00:33:54 types of dynamics. You have a similar mix of what's the word, very mercenary, very cynical, five people who sort of don't believe in anything and are on board with it. Apparachics, basically. And then you have this sort of revolutionary fervor and completely. And completely, maniacs, right? And because of the internal logic of the movement is so mental, they can sometimes take each other down. It reminds me of the cultural revolution in China, actually. I mean, again, long ago to draw. I know, but I just, I think the general theme is that, yeah, you have, you have that conflict. Isn't that a bit like Ann Applebaum's topic where she's talked about the intellectuals, who, you know, they actually can be opposed to the regime, right?
Starting point is 00:34:41 and like the kind of people that would be potential targets for the regime or who have written stuff critically, but they all come to be co-opted. And those people can in some cases become the most stalwart defenders, right? So she's talking about, you know, other dynamics, but I think that speaks to that fluid thing where you have the true believers, you have the people that are like mercenary, but then they themselves might end up like actually being, you know,
Starting point is 00:35:08 the most severe ideologues. Well, I see it more as like you have these cynical opportunists like Applebaum talks about, right, that insinuate themselves into these ratios because they're just attracted to self-advancement and power, right? Yes. Being at the top and they have no principles and will happily go along with stuff. But the problem is the thing that they're insinuating themselves into is a fundamentally pretty insane movement. And there are conspiratorial or just demented, ultra-ideological. fanatics who are continually like they're on the lookout for people that are don't smell right
Starting point is 00:35:47 don't seem to be fully committed and a fifth column yeah fifth column that kind of stuff so that can be their undoing so yeah it's just it's just a pattern i mean i think the phenomena differs from time to time and situation to situation but i guess the takeaway is if you have so little principles and you're willing to inject yourself into a movement that is fundamental broken in terms of its internal logic and coherence and ethical kind of principles, then anything goes. So you're playing with fire all the time. Even, you know, Donald Trump at times has fallen a foul of his own movement, right? Yeah, yeah. I mean, he currently is with the Epstein. Yeah, that's a good example. Yeah. And he fell into it too with not hitting the right
Starting point is 00:36:35 note on vaccines because it failed. Initially. Yeah, just because at the time, he'd failed to judge how far gone the fire that he'd set had burned, you know? So, yeah, this is what happens when you play with crazy. So the theme of the supplementary materials might be the inanity of the online discourse sphere and the fluidity of the various commentators and pundits that, you know, orbit around power centers, especially political power centers. But speaking of that, you know the Young Turks, right? A kind of progressive leftist outlet, also notably the outlet that provided us with Dave Rubin originally, right? They do have this problem, but the people tend to splinter off and end up to nights in them, right?
Starting point is 00:37:25 As well, there's more than Dave Rubin. And sometimes they splinter into like the Farler left and sometimes to the Dave Rubin right. Now, they also, both of them, Chen Cougar and Anna Kasparian, have been on something of a right-wing arc, or at the very least, you could say it, that they are making efforts to appeal to the MAGA right, to say, you know, we understand your frustration with the Democrats,
Starting point is 00:37:53 we share them, blah, blah, blah. But I saw two signals of this recently, how bad it's gotten out there. And one was just, two days ago the Young Turks the conversation Scott Adams
Starting point is 00:38:09 reflects on life after his terminal cancer diagnosis and this is the Young Turks hosting Scott Adams for friendly chats and a lot of the comments
Starting point is 00:38:19 under it are you know absolutely love Scott Adams and his intellect love is showing glad he'll be with us for a bit longer hopefully here comes through
Starting point is 00:38:28 thank you for the interview Scott Adams was 100% right with his earlier statement there's no point in trying to help people who you're absolutely loving the young Turks that's reaching out to the opposite side much more. It really shows we are all human, but with different life experiences and in turn different thoughts and beliefs. So I just want to say here, Matt, that, you know, if you were reaching out, you don't have to reach out to Scott Adams as a representative
Starting point is 00:38:53 of the right. Like, yeah, oh, I'm sorry Scott Adams's got cancer as well. It doesn't make him any less of an appalling person and like an absolute snake politically, right? He's been continuing on this. So the fact that the young Turks are like, let's reach out to Scott Adams. Let's have a nice chap with him and sit down. It speaks to their trajectory. And I'm just going to play a clip of Anna Kasparian who recently appeared with Tucker Carlson. So here's her talking with Tucker. Your producers had been reaching out trying to get me to talk to you for at least a year and a and my feelings toward coming on your show went from I would never in a million years to kind of giving myself the opportunity to listen to your podcast to figure out who you really are because of course I had very strong thoughts about who you are really yeah but I realized that it was based on clips that I would watch of you that had gone viral and they had gone viral because they were offensive or you had said something that was viral like syphilis is fine I mean pretty much. I mean, you should think of it that way because it was mostly painting you in a very negative light. And to be sure, you and I have some pretty deep disagreements. But I think that some of what you've been talking about lately, like hits at the heart of what I care most about. And that's the importance of this country representing the American people. The importance of the United States being a sovereign country.
Starting point is 00:40:29 that has politicians and a government that prioritizes the American people as opposed to a foreign government. And speaking out, the way you've been speaking out about some of these issues, takes a lot of courage because it goes against the grain and it goes against, I mean, decades of propaganda and conditioning in American media. It's the Jews again, Matt. It's the fucking Jews. Like, I swear to God. So, yeah, I mean, like I've been saying a lot,
Starting point is 00:41:02 but I don't think people appreciate how the horseshoe is real and the distance between populist supposedly left-wing stuff and populist supposedly right-week stuff is, you know, it's just not a big jump for them, not a big jump at all. And, yeah, young Turks haven't been good for a long time, I don't think. And I guess I've never really liked that brand of commentary, but they're just going all in, really. Now, aren't they, reaching out to Tucker Carlson, and we've got so much in common. So basically nationalism, right? Popular nationalism. Sovereignty.
Starting point is 00:41:39 Well, yeah, populism. That's it. And, you know, in this case, it links to condemnation of Israel, right, for the way that they're raging the war. But, like, Matt, I'm perfectly happy to condemn like Israel's destructive, anti-humanitarian behavior in Gaza, the very well-documented abuses that are occurring there and that a lot of people are commenting on, it's never made me be like, well, actually, Tucker Carson, he's been a great voice on this, and he's definitely somebody that we need to listen to.
Starting point is 00:42:15 You know, what people want to highlight there is, like him going at Ted Cruz and saying, you know, you get money, right, senator, like, why are you cozying up to Israel? But that's the anti-Semitic right. Like, the reason he's doing that is because of that longstanding thing on the right towards, like, the Jews controlling everything. Saka Kaleson does not have a concern for human rights abuses in other countries, international sorts of things. No. That's not his motivation here. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:42:50 So, like we say, just, you know, it looks like these young Turks is a very good engine for producing like Dunderheads. Dunderheads have eventually come out to find that, you know, the populist right, they're actually not that bad after all. Maybe they misjudged them from just clips. So like the final part of that whole show evolution for the current host will be when Anna Kasparian goes on Dave Rubin and they come together and recognize. that actually, you know, they largely agree and Anna was wrong about Dave. And I think that will happen. And of course, they'll do the usual thing
Starting point is 00:43:27 that our gurus always do, which is they avoid the topics that are tricky. And like the crazy nonsense, really foul right nonsense that Tucker Carlson constantly spews. I bet that wasn't brought up in that interview with Anna, was it? Rather, it was a focus on the stuff that brings them together.
Starting point is 00:43:47 Yeah. What was the list of things that she really admired about him, there was a concern for national sovereignty. Yeah, his willingness to speak guide against the mainstream narratives. Yeah, that's right, the conspiratorial stuff, right? Because we've all been mind controlled by the mainstream media. Yeah, you know, like, yeah, and the Jews. But, you know, it's kind of vague, gestural stuff.
Starting point is 00:44:09 But that's the stuff that's so easily, like you and I get a lot of stick for criticizing we mainly criticize figures on the right, but we occasionally criticize figures on the left. when they are obviously doing lazy, dunderheaded populism. And one reason why is exactly this. It's because this is such a small step from a fictitious claim that the billionaire fat cats are eating our children to the Jews are eating our children. Or they're making it and rigging society.
Starting point is 00:44:39 It's a big conspiracy. And that's why we can't get a job to. Immigrants are taking their jobs and they're rigging society to replace us. Like, you know, one of them might be left-coded. the other one might be right coded, but they're fundamentally, the most important characteristic is that they're stupid and they're not true. And it's very easy once they get peeled into that kind of thinking. Like if you think that horseshoe is so different, you think it's okay to be
Starting point is 00:45:02 on the far left end of it and you think it's terrible to be on the far right end part of it, then be aware that it's a very short jump for people to hop over from one to the other. Yeah, yeah. Well, actually, that's a nice segue, Matt, through some of the last clips I have for you this week. It concerns a fellow called Jimmy the Giant. Okay. This is a another YouTuber. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's another person and it's a person making currently kind of YouTube essays on various topics. I think he probably came to attention in the culture war space mostly when about nine months ago he did a video called How I Escape the Alt right pipeline. The thumbnail is him with Nigel Farage and Jordan Peterson behind him laughing and
Starting point is 00:45:56 he's looking confused at the front. So he did a video talking about how he basically accepted a lot of the populist right wing conspiratorial stuff that was going around. But then he'd come to question it. And now he's doing things like appearing on Gary's economics channel. You might heard of that, talking about immigration, the outright, the left and young men, Gary meets Jimmy the Giant, and actually being accused in some respects of
Starting point is 00:46:25 now completely switching to the opposite side, leaning into far-or-left political online stuff, kind of bred-through type analysis, right? So this is Jimmy the Giant. Now, one of the things that happened with Jimmy the Giant recently
Starting point is 00:46:41 is that he went on trigonometry to have a debate with Constantine Kissin and this is because he made a video called The Rise of the Middle Class Grifter which had Constantine prominently placed in the thumbneal. Yeah, featured in the thumbnail.
Starting point is 00:46:58 I approve so far. Yes, so do I. He was right. But however, he went on trigonometry to debate it with Constantine. It didn't go that well for him. And so maybe the first thing to do, is just let you hear the context of that discussion
Starting point is 00:47:16 because I think it shows like, you know, stuff about Constantine and also some of the way that Jimmy, the giant approached it. By the real name, not Jimmy. Kieran Owen is his real name. So this is Constantine. What I would describe as setting the trap in this discussion.
Starting point is 00:47:36 So this is at the beginning of that podcast, okay? I was going to say, welcome to Trigonometry, but it's just me this time. And the reason it's just me is, is you made a video called The Rise of the Middle Class Grifton, which I feature quite prominently. Yeah, I can't remember which face you were. You weren't the front.
Starting point is 00:47:51 I was my face. No, Douglas was the front. Right, and then I was, I think, to the left. I'm to the left of Douglas, which is accurate. So I wanted to have you on to talk about it because you said some things on that that I wanted to explore. But first, most people watching this from our audience, what won't be familiar with you?
Starting point is 00:48:07 So tell me a little bit about you. You're on YouTube. You're called Jimmy the Giant. you've got, you're approaching 700,000 subscribers, which is great. So tell me about how that channel came about what you've been doing. Yeah, it was kind of like, firstly thank you about me on. I appreciate it. It was kind of like originally I made parkour videos.
Starting point is 00:48:28 If you'd like to continue listening to this conversation, you'll need to subscribe at patreon.com slash decoding the gurus. Once you do, you'll get access to full-length episodes of the Decoding the Gurus podcast, including bonus shows, garrometer episodes, and decoding academia.

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