Pints With Aquinas - Matt & Seamus WASTE 5 Hours (In Your Face George!) w/ Seamus Coughlin

Episode Date: May 1, 2023

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Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 And we're live and we are live right now. It is so great to have you. It's great to be here It's great to be back. It's been about two years since the last time I was on. Yeah, I actually got you something Oh really? Yeah, it's kind of weird but oh, yeah I hope you don't mind. It's okay, you know, hopefully you This looks so nice. You went through the the care to Get me Nice, you went through the care to get me a potato. Yeah, because you know you're Irish. I mean, I was born here.
Starting point is 00:00:31 I was born in America. But you are Irish though, and you know, Ireland potatoes and stuff. If we want to like slur people for their ethnic heritage. Yeah. No, no, that's not. Sorry. Just I can't. That's not what I was.
Starting point is 00:00:41 I'm sorry. That's not what I was trying to do. Dude, I'm sorry. That's that's not what I was trying to do Dude, I'm sorry Yeah, we won't reference it yeah, I don't reference it just you can get live if you want we're back Yeah, great to be so unprepared It's great to be here. Yeah, it's great to be here It's been about two years since the last time we did this pretty told flies by I told what's his name? George Georgie balls George Farmer that you were coming up. Oh, yeah, and he's he proudly beat your record
Starting point is 00:01:26 yeah that well, we'll see how long that lasts and Anyway, he said if you beat his he'll come up and we'll have to do a seven-hour thing So I know what your angle is. Yeah, no, you're full of it You want to get as much watch time on your audience as possible? No, don't George farmer come back and do an eight-hour stream. How long did you guys go for? I? Was over five hours. Wow. Five hours and 35 minutes.
Starting point is 00:01:50 Five hours and 35 minutes, that's impressive. We were in very comfortable chairs, smoking cigars. We were happy. Yeah, I just don't know that anyone has that much to say that's valuable. Four hours. Yes, absolutely. Four hours, but five hours and 35 minutes.
Starting point is 00:02:02 And at the end of the video I said, if you watch this whole thing, say this thing, this phrase below. And there's a startling amount of people who... You said the same thing during ours. The green fangs that you eat in the soup. Yeah, something ridiculous. I can't believe you remembered that word for word. I don't know if I did. No, I'm pretty sure that was it. I think some of you might have just skipped to the end too.
Starting point is 00:02:21 Yeah, maybe. Yeah. I had, whenever anyone mentions that interview, they're like, I saw your pints with Aquinas interview. I'm like, did you watch the whole thing? I'm like, please tell me you didn't sit through all of that. Like I will be humbled by that. I will also, I will feel sorry that you did that. I'm just kidding guys.
Starting point is 00:02:37 Watch, boost Matt's watch time. I just, whenever someone's like, yeah, I sat there and watched you talk for four hours. It's like, oh my goodness. Well, I'm genuinely flattered. Genuinely. But like I was in Detroit yesterday driving back. It's things like that that I really appreciate a long form. Yeah. You know, podcast.
Starting point is 00:02:55 That's fair. I don't remember ever watching Joe Rogan start to finish. And I'm sure most people have never watched this show start to finish. But yeah, I think like when I was really, I mean, I shouldn't say when I was when I do or when I'm in a position where I'm like really grinding, I'll listen to podcasts. It depends, though, because earlier on in the lifecycle of my business, I was doing a lot more of the animation.
Starting point is 00:03:21 And now I'm much more focused on writing, sort of producing that type of thing. I'm still involved in the animation process, but just not to the same degree. But when I was more heavily involved with it, there'd be a lot of time where I could listen to something while working, you know, when you're writing, you can't do that, but while you're animating, you can.
Starting point is 00:03:40 And so I got a lot of Joe Rogan in at that time. I was very grateful for those long form podcasts where you're like sitting there working a 12 hour day or something, drawing and animating you can. And so I got a lot of Joe Rogan in at that time. I was very grateful for those long form podcasts where you're like sitting there working a 12 hour day or something drawing and animating. It's nice to have something in the background. How does, I mean, your animations today, even though you say you don't do primarily the animations, is that right?
Starting point is 00:03:57 Someone? So I have, it started, right? Excuse me. It started with me and then some friends who would chip in and help me. One of my friends would help me pretty frequently with like lip-syncing some of them the minor things and then as time went on and it grew and I started making a little more money doing it. I was also in college while I was starting
Starting point is 00:04:17 this so I was in school full-time while trying to get this business off the ground and also doing freedom tunes. So my time was, was stretched pretty thin there, or I guess I should say I was stretched pretty thin. And so I had some friends who would help with some of the minor things I said, like lip syncing, sometimes pitching a joke here and there. And then as time went on, you know, I'd ask different people to help with different little things. And once it got to the point where I could afford to live off of it, it was still mostly me, but as it continued to grow I was able to hire people to help with certain things because one person can't output the amount
Starting point is 00:04:54 of content that we're generating by themselves. It would be impossible. How many videos are you doing a week now? So on the main channel we do, we almost always do two videos a week for Freedom Tunes and then we do a video every two weeks for Common Sense Soapbox. We also do a third Freedom Tunes video behind the paywall. And we'll do client work on top of that. And often we'll end up releasing an extra video here or there on random weeks.
Starting point is 00:05:18 So sometimes it's as many as like, you know, four or five videos in a week, which is wild. Yeah, it is wild. Does the animation today look very similar to what you did in the beginning? Thankfully, no. Yeah, no, I kid. But it looks I think it looks better. It's it stayed in line with my style. Yeah, it doesn't look like it's completely different. And I think it still has its initial charm, but it's much more fleshed out because when it's not just me working on it,
Starting point is 00:05:47 more time can go into really fleshing things out. If I only have a few days to put something together, I can't really make it look as nice as I would like for it to, but then when you have three different or four different people working on the animation for it, you can really, really get it looking a lot nicer than if it's just one person. And I'm really happy with the look that we've cultivated
Starting point is 00:06:08 because- That's beautiful. Thank you, I really do appreciate that. It's obviously lower budget because we're creating these little YouTube shorts and we're doing animated client work as well. And it's not something that has the budget or look of something like the Simpsons, right?
Starting point is 00:06:27 But I think we've got better. You think it's on that level at this point? Wow. I think it's at that level. Like something. I really appreciate that. When you think of how like South Park compared to the Simpsons and everyone realized
Starting point is 00:06:35 what they were doing was on purpose and it didn't need to look like the Simpsons. Yeah, yeah. And I feel like you're not trying to be the Simpsons. So I'm sure there are a little technical nuanced issues that Simpsons obviously does better. But when I watch it, it's just, it's so bright and clear and the sound effects are excellent. You do a really great job. Thank you. Well, it's all, I mean, my team is incredible. They are really fantastic. They're really fantastic. Where do they live and what are their names?
Starting point is 00:06:58 All over the country, all over the country. So, yeah, exactly. So, um, Kayla Black is like, So it goes trying to out yeah, exactly so Kayla black is like yeah, he's he's like my my right hand guy in the animation production team right now he's leading a lot of the stuff and then we have Emily and Jaime and I Don't want to give all of their last names. No, no, no, I mean they're fine with it. I just don't know I I guess I some of them use like an alias for a last name and I can't remember. I don't wanna say the wrong person's last name
Starting point is 00:07:30 and then out them. But yeah, there's a number of different people who are working on these. And we put credits at the end of a lot of the videos. Recently, we've been plugging our website at the end, so we haven't been able to do that as strongly. But we're gonna be reinstating the little credit sequence We do at the end of videos relatively soon
Starting point is 00:07:47 So you'll be able to see the name of everyone who who worked on the video. Were you on patreon? I was yeah, so then you've moved tell us about that and we'll tell us about the switch so We were on patreon for years when it first came out. I started using it as a platform. I think that most creators at that time were and they hadn't gone. I started banning people. Yeah. So I ended up switching.
Starting point is 00:08:15 We built a website out and we're actually relaunching it. I have an announcement today, by the way, we are. We are relaunching our membership portal on our website. And we can pull it up now if you want. I could describe it a little bit unless you want. Okay, so we initially, you know, we were offering extra cartoons behind the paywall. We're still doing that,
Starting point is 00:08:35 but there's a couple extra features we've added. So if you go over to the Freedom Tunes website, freedomtunes.com and click sign up, we have three different membership tiers, which you'll see on our screen there. And there's, we've been producing cartoons behind the paywall. We're also gonna be adding behind the scenes benefits,
Starting point is 00:08:54 like the ability to enter a raffle, to be a background character in the new videos. So if you guys wanna help support what we're doing, please sign up for our membership portal because we can't do this kind of thing without funding from audience members who are willing to contribute and I really appreciate everything you said about our animation looking good. The only reason it's able to look good so consistently and the only reason we're able to turn it off or turn it out
Starting point is 00:09:20 as often as we can is because of the team. And if you want the quality to stay consistent and even improve signing up for our membership portal would go a long way. So there's three different tiers. And then if you'd like to give more, if you're extremely generous, we also give the option for people to just donate monthly
Starting point is 00:09:39 on top of that. But with those tiers, there's a number of benefits you'll be able to get that are available on the website, depending on your tier. But everyone who signs up is gonna get an extra cartoon each week that only people behind the paywall get. And I think we've got about 40 or 50 of those up already. So I got a question about the cartoon behind the paywall that comes out every week.
Starting point is 00:09:56 I immediately think this must be the lower quality cartoon, because if it wasn't, you'd put it out publicly. So part of what we do with the Paywall cartoons is place concepts there which I think the audience would enjoy but wouldn't have as much of an appeal at finding new people. So whenever we create something for the main channel there's kind of a balance between the topic that we decide to choose and whether that topic is something that will Energize our current base and whether it's going to get new people excited about Clicking on the video and it's not something I sit down there and create a like pros and cons lists for it's just a subconscious
Starting point is 00:10:38 Calculation that takes place and I think with the paywall video We're in the paywall videos what we're able to do is lean much more in the direction of what would current fans Like and if it's funny and it involves The characters we pretty much just do it nice whereas there have been times where people have suggested to me Oh, what if we did a video about this for the main channel? I think I just don't really think that's gonna apply to a large enough audience for to make sense to spend the money animating that and With the paywall that's less of a concern because the people there are directly paying for this and they're fans of the franchise already.
Starting point is 00:11:09 So they'll be more interested in it. You ever thought about doing a comic? I have thought about it a little bit. I have thought about possibly doing some comics. I have some ideas in the works for it. I actually have a children's, a short little like children's picture book written that I'm working on getting some art done for.
Starting point is 00:11:24 Our friend Rob Pretzel has an idea, you don't know what I think, but he has an idea for a book, kind of spin on the emperor has no clothes. Yeah. And the idea would be just the trans issue. Yeah. And then eventually someone stands up and is like, that's a dude. Yeah. And everybody can finally have the courage to say the same thing. Exactly. So, so the- So don't steal that idea. Well, so the children's book that I've written here that is not finished yet, we haven't put the art together for it. But it is also about the transgender issue, because I realized a lot of conservatives
Starting point is 00:11:55 were doing that. They were making these books about trans issues and these little kids books sort of pointing out X can't be Y, which is great. But I wanted to take it in a little bit of a different direction and flesh that argument out a little more strongly in a way that children can understand and add some additional information that I don't think kids are usually getting from this conversation. And I don't want to spoil exactly what that is at this point, but let's just say it's gonna be good. It's gonna be good. Yeah. Yeah. I really think you guys are gonna like it. I'll have to, I'll have to send you a link to it. There's also a couple other larger projects. We're in the works or we're trying to get started
Starting point is 00:12:30 So we're actually in pre-production for like a children's pilot that I want to have produced I don't think I've actually announced this anywhere yet But we're in pre-production. We have storyboards done for it I've had a script done for it for a little while and with the freedom tunes membership portal part of what you're doing There isn't just supporting Freedom Tunes, you're supporting the overall general brand. And so if you subscribe there, that's gonna allow us to invest
Starting point is 00:12:52 in some of these other projects. You're gonna do a kids channel? Not a kids channel, like a pilot for a children's television show that we're gonna try to pitch around a few places. Wow. Yeah. That would be cool though, a kids channel. I've thought about that too.
Starting point is 00:13:04 You would have to be completely distinct from Freedom Tunes. Yeah, I mean, the visually would have to be very different. Totally agreed. And you also wouldn't want people stumbling across Freedom Tunes. And thinking it's the same thing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's one thing I try to be careful about.
Starting point is 00:13:17 I think it's obvious enough to people at this point that Freedom Tunes is a channel for adults, but I still try to make sure that there's nothing in the videos that if a kid accidentally stumbled across it would scar them. And if I can't avoid putting something in there that's a little too adult, I try to have a disclaimer at the beginning of the video,
Starting point is 00:13:32 like this is not for kids, don't ever kids watch this. Because even though there's a separate platform for kids on YouTube, for whatever reason, parents still let their children use the adult version of YouTube. Yeah. How did you make the switch from, so did you try to get to locals at one point
Starting point is 00:13:49 or did you decide to get set? I use locals for something different. I have a stream, I have a podcast they do twice a week called Shamer. And we're actually streaming every single day this week, which is exciting. And so you guys can all check that out if you'd like, rumble.com slash Shamer.
Starting point is 00:14:03 And there's a locals community connected to that podcast but for the the cartoons that's pretty much all through our website We have people We have a discord channel and what happened was people who signed up on patreon we get access to this discord chat that fans are In yeah, and we've been working out how to get everyone who signs up on the website pushed into the discord chat So that's that's the finishing touches are basically being put on that right now so we can do that. But that's part of why we actually left the Patreon up so that I wouldn't lose contact with all of those people before we have the new solutions implemented. But I direct everyone to the website.
Starting point is 00:14:37 Yeah, I'm obviously a big fan of locals and I keep telling everybody this if they're gonna, if they're gonna start something, don't go over to Patreon. I spent about a year just gradually kind of suggesting people go to locals until after a year, I just stopped mentioning Patreon. So the main things I do put out on locals for supporters only, I put on Patreon still, but the majority of those people have already moved
Starting point is 00:14:57 over to locals, it's just a way better platform. Yeah, so I definitely would say that locals is better than Patreon for a number of reasons. From what I understand, you can actually take your subscribers with you if you decide to leave. Also, locals tomorrow and still have all the base coming in and even more because locals doesn't take the percent. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:15:15 And Patreon is just off the company believes in their, in their product. We're like, you can leave any time and make more money. We're worth the percent that we're taking. We're confident you'll be fine. Yeah. So, part of why I use Locals for the podcast, I wanna pull in a little bit of extra funding for that on the side,
Starting point is 00:15:32 and that's just sort of helps us with the research, et cetera, everything we do. But the main thing I really wanna direct people towards right now is the Freedom Tunes website, cause that is helping to build out the most important part of what we're putting together as a team. No, no, I think freedom tunes. I like podcasting. I like being a talking cat. I'm getting more into that recently as I've been doing Tim cast in my own show. But I've said this, if
Starting point is 00:15:56 we got to the point where freedom tunes was losing money and we were not able to sustain it, it wasn't profitable, but I was making money podcasting. I would just be reinvesting that money into Freedom Tunes because I think it's really, really important to have short punchy content that communicates a message as opposed to longer form content. Who else is doing this in that kind of conservative realm? I know that Babylon B has tried to,
Starting point is 00:16:17 or very sporadically they do it. But it's got nothing on what y'all do. So thank you. And then what about on the left? Are there people cranking out? There's no one in politics right now doing animated shorts once a week, especially not twice a week.
Starting point is 00:16:30 And we're even doing more than that, as I mentioned, because we have a video behind the paywall and some people do three. So there are weeks where we will output like four or five videos and no one else is doing that right now. Tell us about your day or your schedule. Oh my gosh.
Starting point is 00:16:44 Are you pretty disciplined? You got good work ethic in the sense of being disciplined? Oh yeah. Well, it's spontaneous, but I'm working all the time. So I'll wake up and what happens is sometimes there'll be a project that we have to either get to a client the next day or that has to be uploaded the next day.
Starting point is 00:17:02 And I'll end up having to stay up extremely late working on that and it'll throw my next day or that has to be uploaded the next day and I'll end up having to stay up extremely late working on that and it'll throw my next day off. So there's a consistent schedule or an ideal schedule I've tried to lay out for myself and it's just continually been thrown off. So over the past few months what I've been really working out with my team is getting it to the point where a lot of those things that end up throwing me off are taken by my, excuse me, team members as opposed to me, so that I can keep that more consistent schedule and help grow out and build out what we're doing.
Starting point is 00:17:34 Because the more caught in the weeds I get, the less able I am to focus on big picture stuff, the less able I am to focus on doing second and third and fourth drafts to make sure the writing's as strong as it can be. And we've been pushing in that direction and I have to say I'm more proud of the content that we've been producing lately than I've ever been and that says a lot because I've always been very proud of my team
Starting point is 00:17:54 I've always been happy with what we're doing but I want to say over the last few months we have literally we have been making the best stuff we've ever made but I'm just I'm talking about like on a day-to-day thing like there was a YouTube video it was like every motivational video. And there's a guy walking on a bridge and it says, I wake up at 3 a.m. every morning. No, no, I don't. Do you have a strict schedule for yourself like that?
Starting point is 00:18:14 Like I said, I want to, but because I'll end up having to stay up all night every now and again, it just throws it all off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so it has not been a very strict schedule. What has been strict about it is this has to get done. Right. Like I need to accomplish X, Y and Z before I let myself be done for the day. Telling you of a drink last night that I know I could do
Starting point is 00:18:37 a daily show, right. If I wanted to, I guess come in every night and that would drive up the watch time and drive up the subscribers. And I don't want to do it at all. Just don't have the desire to drive. I think it would get old. I'd get bored. But I've said it before, like YouTube makes it as addictive for the creators as the consumer.
Starting point is 00:18:59 So you're really good job showing you the analytics, making you want to keep cranking stuff out, get those subs which ultimately mean very little. Well, they also let you know very clearly when you've taken a little bit of a downturn or when your videos are performing as well as they are recently. So that also lights a fire under your body to start churning more out or improving the quality. And those metrics are all very helpful, but I agree with what you're saying. And that's a very good way of putting it. They make the platform as addictive for the creators as they do for the audience.
Starting point is 00:19:27 They really do. Do you think Rumble's getting better or do you think they will be an actual alternative at some point that's a serious alternative? I really think it's possible. Yeah, I very much think that's part of why. It's part of why I'm working with them. That's part of why I'm streaming my podcast exclusively on Rumble. What if Rumble got Tucker Carlson? That would be incredible. Ison? That would be incredible.
Starting point is 00:19:45 I mean, that would be incredible. I don't I mean, I don't know. I don't know. That'd be a tough sell because I'm sure he believes in their platform, but they'd have to have a lot of money is all I'm saying. They'd have to have a lot of money and they do like they invest back into their platform. I think they're certainly the most viable YouTube competitor right now. Yeah, no one else has accomplished what they've accomplished. They're not just
Starting point is 00:20:07 the the millions and millions of people who use that platform every single month. It's quite an achievement. The fact that you can stream there without there just being a plethora of bugs that take your stream down. I know they've been struggling with a lot of DDoS attacks and they're building out the infrastructure to help combat that more effectively but even so I think they've been struggling with a lot of DDoS attacks and they're building out the infrastructure to help combat that more effectively, but even so, I think they've been doing a really good job navigating it now. I do think Rumble's a great platform.
Starting point is 00:20:32 And I hope it grows. What would have to happen for them to become a serious competitor? I think one of the answers is to get- I think they are a serious competitor. Well, they're not on the same size. They're a competitor, but I mean, what kind of percentage? Yeah, yeah, oh, for sure, no.
Starting point is 00:20:42 They don't have anything close to the full size of YouTube's audience But I know that YouTube is is becoming more afraid of losing people to them How do you say well Tim and I were having a conversation about this on air I believe and he was saying that There was a Strike he got on his channel and he got a message from his partner manager saying, don't worry, we're not stopping your ability to stream. And my inference there is, OK, they know that if they take away his ability to stream like he's streaming on Rumble and that huge audience is going over there.
Starting point is 00:21:18 Look what happened when Crowder went over to Rumble, his audience there grew massively, and I think they're starting to see that. Yeah, other content creators can do that. So even though rumble doesn't have the same audience size that YouTube does, I think there's a lot of potential for them to grow to that point. I'm not saying they will. I'm not making a prediction there, but I'm saying it's certainly possible. And part of why I'm building my podcast over there is because.
Starting point is 00:21:44 With YouTube, it just always feels like every day could be your last day it always feels like they could take you down for x y or zero demonetize you or shadow ban you and That's not as much of a problem with a growing platform Especially one that's trying to court the kind of audience that you have. Mm-hmm. I mean even like let's say even if rumble trying to court the kind of audience that you have. I mean, even like, let's say, even if Rumble had no interest in protecting people's ability to speak freely on their platform. Let's just, let's say they didn't care.
Starting point is 00:22:10 There was no ideological motivation there. It would still be in their best financial interest to not do so. It doesn't matter as much to YouTube. In fact, on YouTube then they think, we don't want people saying things that might really bother our advertisers. So we kind of have an incentive to force people to calm down a little bit with some of the claims they're making or the more controversial statements
Starting point is 00:22:36 they make. Whereas with Rumble, they have a financial incentive not to ban you and as a growing platform, they have an incentive not to ban people. I mean, mean if you're gonna go over there and bring a new audience in for them They're not gonna be all that picky about what you say. They can't be they literally can't afford to be Yeah, and if they were to ban somebody right now who was in any way notable they kill themselves. They would kill their platform Yeah, that's that's what you said about YouTube is how I felt about patreon I just felt like maybe I was wrong, but it felt like any day could be my last Whereas now that I'm on locals and I'm in dialogue with some of the heads over there. I just I Trust I trust that they weren't bear me. Yeah, they're not just gonna lock you out
Starting point is 00:23:15 I had a conversation with Dave Rubin a couple of years ago about Whether the left is actually more um, whether the left is actually more censorious than the right or whether it's only because whoever the minority is chooses to be a libertarian. Yeah, that's exactly the truth. I think it's the latter. I think it is exactly the latter. Yes, the minority is always in favor of free speech. Because I would say when Trump was in power or just before then there was a lot of conservatives talking about libertarianism.
Starting point is 00:23:44 Whereas today I hear a lot of conservatives making fun of libertarianism. Well that's actually an interesting counterpoint I think. You're right about that. That conservatives have become less libertarian as we've lost power. There is something to be said about that. It's a little bit of an interesting dynamic and not exactly what you'd expect. But in terms of the overall principles, I think conservatives didn't really start seeing the value in free speech until we were on the out and out, right, until all of these platforms
Starting point is 00:24:16 started descending upon us, until it got to the point where the left had really successfully demonstrated dominance in virtually every facet of the culture war. And then conservatives started saying free speech is really important. And the left started saying you can't just say whatever you want. People need to use their speech responsibly. And one part of that is the fact that conservatives were a minority or they had less power.
Starting point is 00:24:41 And so they wanted the ability to speak freely. But I think another part of it is their current paradigm on the right is if the left Does one thing we do the other thing right if the left goes up we go down if the left goes down we go up I mean, we're just going to do the exact opposite of everything they do and say the exact opposite of everything they say and a Lot of the arguments you've been hearing from conservatives on free speech are arguments you'd hear liberals making 15 years ago. And the reason conservatives are making them, unfortunately, isn't necessarily because every conservative holds so dearly
Starting point is 00:25:15 to these principles, it's because the left is saying the opposite now, and we just have to say the opposite of whatever the left says. Yeah, like maybe in the 70s and 80s, where the LGBT movement felt more under attack. They were more likely to be like, just leave us alone. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:25:29 That's all we want. And now it's like shut up. The conservatives today are doing exactly. I was like, shut up. You will bow to this. You will bake the cake. You will trans your kid. Everything that conservatives predicted would happen.
Starting point is 00:25:37 So that's why. Well, one thing I just want to say is that's why it's it's a little disheartening. There are changes on the right I've seen over the past couple of years that I think have been good. But when the right changes too much, it's disheartening because I look back and I say, the Christian right predicted basically everything that's happening today.
Starting point is 00:25:55 That was a working formula. It had predictive power. And the right has strayed from it. Give us examples. So literally every single thing that was said about human sexuality on the cultural front by religious conservatives has turned out to be completely correct.
Starting point is 00:26:13 So the idea that if you legalize gay marriage, and by the way, I don't even like to say it that way, that's bad framing, legalize gay marriage. It's not as if there is this thing called gay marriage that conservatives are saying, no, you're not allowed to do it. It's that marriage is between a man and a woman and we were saying the government should not have the ability to redefine or try to redefine
Starting point is 00:26:34 that term. However, but the argument from the conservatives at the time was you can't redefine without undefining. Yeah yeah and then the the gay folks were like that's rubbish. Exactly. Now it's come to fruition. And you're just opening the door for more bizarre and abnormal sexual lifestyle choices, which are ultimately destructive, not only for the individual who partakes in them, but those around them in society as a whole to become normalized. And that's exactly what's happened. If you went back five years, 10 years, let's say, maybe, and you said,
Starting point is 00:27:12 people will be accusing the children's author of the Harry Potter franchise of being genocidal because she said she doesn't like being called menstruator, you'd get laughed out of the room, right? That is the most insane, over-the-top, right-wing prediction of what the world could look like if the left had their way. It's beyond parity at this point, right? And it's only gonna get worse if we don't continually push back. Now that's not me trying to give people a
Starting point is 00:27:38 black pill, it's me trying to give people a white pill because again there is the option to push back and in some instances it's working. Look at what's happened to Bud Light. There are certain markets that have it. I was making fun of him for having the Budwise route before the show. I was like we have to address this and then we have to get rid of it because I don't want people seeing this in the clips.
Starting point is 00:27:57 Yeah, we bought it before the debacle. Yeah, they purchased it before all of this happened. We purchased it before everything went down. Yeah, yeah. What were you before all this out before everything went down. Yeah. Yeah What were you saying? I don't even remember light. I should yeah, I don't even remember Yeah, I'm so I've been traveling so much. I'm so exhausted. You made fun of me for for sleeping in this morning It's all of your fans. Ah My brain it's just not what it's not picked in fully. So I was doing, first I gave a speech for Young Americans for Freedom, that was fantastic.
Starting point is 00:28:29 I got to speak to a group of young people. Is that the first time you've done that? First time I've ever given a speech like that, yeah, first time I've ever given a speech. Did you find you had a lot of fans, I'm sure? There were a couple of fans out there, but I just found that it was a very rewarding experience. It was a very rewarding experience. Because you had fans?
Starting point is 00:28:44 No, no, honestly. I'm just kidding. I'm sure most of the kids had no idea who I am, but there were some kids there who were like, oh, hey, I'm a fan of Freedom Tunes, or I like you on Tim Cass, but I assume most of them had no idea who I am. But it was still very rewarding.
Starting point is 00:29:02 I felt the speech went very well. The kids there really seemed to like it. The high very well. The kids there really seemed to like it. The high school, college age kids really seemed to like it. And they mentioned, they're the person who brought me out there, said they'd like to bring me out more. So that's exciting. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:29:15 We won't say where Tim lives, but are you living in that place now? Have you moved from your old location? So I've been hanging out around there. So right after I did YAF, I went out to do Timcast for a few days. Then right after I did Y.A.F. I went out to. Do Timcast for a few days. Then I flew out here to do this and then I'm going to be flying back to
Starting point is 00:29:29 do some more Timcast. So I made a funny comment the other day. Neil, gosh, Thursday, when you blew your nose, I myself to sleep and they said, what a time for Thursday to use the nail gun. I'm like, what are they talking about? So I went to the time stamp
Starting point is 00:29:43 and it was like, oh, it's not exactly like that. I'm really sorry. My dad gun. I'm like, what are they talking about? So I went to the time stamp and it was like a, it sounded exactly like that. I'm really sorry. My dad, I'm gonna blame this on my dad. My dad sneezes loud and blows his nose loud. That's cause he's a dad. Yeah, but I picked it up from him and now I can never go back. Like I don't know how to do it quietly.
Starting point is 00:30:00 When I was a kid, my dad once sneezed so loudly that I fell down the stairs, and that's a true story That's a true story. I was holding you Another part of the house When we when we first moved out this is a real story. No, this is very real When we first moved I was really little make this a cartoon at some point I should just animate my childhood we when we first moved, I was really little. Make this a cartoon at some point. I might have to. I should just animate my childhood. We when we first moved out of Chicago into the suburbs, I was really little. And we had this like tiny little house that we we got into out there.
Starting point is 00:30:34 And so the rooms were pretty close together. That's part of why the sneeze had so much power. And I was I was like running down the stairs, excited, a little shameless on his way to do some kid thing. I have no clue. And my dad sneezed and it caused me to jump. It was so loud it startled me and I fell down the stairs. Oh man. Yeah. Yeah. It was a very loud sneeze. Very loud sneeze. But dad sneezes. I was like, ah, go. And I also picked it up from him. I sneeze very loudly and I'm trying to get
Starting point is 00:31:02 that under control. I'm okay with this. The sneezing feels feels involuntary I got so many pet peeves Shamus you wouldn't yeah no people say bless you to me they're my enemy I don't really around them why not I just get sick of people acknowledging my accidental bodily wow wow I also tend to sneeze in like multiples so they say bless you yeah over and over again bless you. Yeah, over and over again. Bless you, bless you. Go away, I didn't ask you to acknowledge it. I don't like that at all.
Starting point is 00:31:29 I also don't like yawners who make loud sounds. When they yawn, well hold on, that seems involuntary too. If sneezing loudly is involuntary, now I got news for you, neither is involuntary. You can lower the volume of your sneeze, you can lower the volume of your yawn. Oh, absolutely, yeah.
Starting point is 00:31:43 So why do people- I've done the hard work in lowering my sneeze volume over the years. See this is good, cause you're tired, we're gonna talk about yawning and sneezing and forget about politics. Exactly, exactly. I think that you can absolutely lower the pitch
Starting point is 00:31:54 of your sneeze, or maybe not the pitch, I don't know, the sound, look at me. Oh, this morning I thought, I don't really need caffeine, just grab a little decaf We'll have a chill show. Yeah, you know I'll be a little bit more relaxed and I usually am on air and now I'm thinking Maybe I'm a little too relaxed. Maybe I've had it too good for too long Maybe the audience is about to turn against me because I'm not performing. I am what they want I watched the movie nefarious the other day. I heard it was great
Starting point is 00:32:23 Absolutely incredible. I don't know if you'd like it Thursday because you're not a horror guy. But it was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. I got to watch it because here's the thing. We should watch it tonight before you go. Oh, I'm totally down.
Starting point is 00:32:40 If we have time, I would one million percent watch Nefarious with you. I can I crash you. You can't absolutely not know why we're doing this video. You can look up the time. Yeah, absolutely Where is it? Don't you oh? Creep we're not going to Robinson now right now. You definitely can't come now You definitely can't come we go it was on the table and I are poo-pooing the plans No, I'm poo-pooing Matt telling people
Starting point is 00:33:05 where we're gonna be. You can't, that's fair. And that is fair, I will give him that. But at the same time, at the same time, what do you think, like, Antifa's gonna go protest us seeing Nefarious? But also, you can't be like, hey guys, can I come with? Nah, let's not go there, let's go somewhere else.
Starting point is 00:33:20 I have a problem with that place. I had a problem with Matt saying it and saying. They could show up. Yeah. Come on everyone come see Nefarious. You look at the special. We'll tell them what time we'll be there. It's the special open suits.
Starting point is 00:33:31 It's the general baby. It's the. Whoever. I forget the fella who played Nefarious, but his acting was some of the best acting I've ever seen. So my friend suggested it to me. And then everyone in the conservative sphere started talking about it.
Starting point is 00:33:46 I was surprised to find he had good taste. So a couple of things. There won't be massive spoilers, but I'm going to say a couple of things. I'm putting my fingers in my ears right now because I don't want you to miss them. They're not like this is. Everyone says that.
Starting point is 00:33:58 And then they ruin the film. All right. So everyone says that. And I've never heard abortion condemned so beautifully. And the second thing that was great was they had like a they just had this unbelieving priest in a cardigan and a rainbow stole. And they made fun of him. They showed why we need manly priests,
Starting point is 00:34:17 faithful priests who believe in God and the demonic. So if you haven't seen it, yawning loudly, you haven't seen it, go see it now if not sooner. Yeah. There we go. So much about it. There's your pitch. I hope my yawning didn't distract too much. Did you know Glen Beck's in it? Glen Beck is in it? So weird. Is he the demon at the end after they perform the exorcism? Bro, I'm just kidding. No, no, no. I have nothing. I actually have nothing against Glen Beck. I was just trying to think of a funny position to put him in. No, no, no. No, I literally, I don't know enough about his work to like take, take too much issue with him.
Starting point is 00:34:51 It was a strange ending. I thought the ending fell flat, but the rest of it was excellent. Well, look at this, right when I stopped la la la and you spoiled the film for me. The ending sucks, but he comes back to life and that's the main thing. What? Wait, hold on a second. I'm joking, I made it up. Yeah, now I'm not gonna go watch this. Have you seen, and the other thing, I saw two movies recently that I was really happy with. I went and that's the main thing. What? Wait, hold on a second. I'm joking. I made it up. Yeah. Now I'm not going to go watch this. And the other thing, I saw two movies recently that I was really happy with.
Starting point is 00:35:07 I went to Mario with the family. Mamma Mia. It was excellent. It was such a fun, little, distracting, beautiful movie. I have heard that. I've heard that. I almost, you know, I never go to the theaters ever. I never and I enjoy doing it. It's just one of those things I don't do. I should.
Starting point is 00:35:22 One thing I like about what Babylon B does sometimes, I also appreciate you doing this, is that they'll take swipes mainly at the left, but occasionally they'll take a swipe at the right. Oh, absolutely. So they released an article the other day about how something to the effect of conservatives were just so offended that Mario
Starting point is 00:35:38 would have a competent woman. I was offended. Yeah, I didn't even see it. I just heard there was a competent woman. Yeah, well, I can't wish that. I'm a little bit of a rumpf. That's what that and also Dungeons and Dragons mmm, and I went trying to hate it and I couldn't help but like it. You didn't hate it. No, I liked it. It was great. You know what though?
Starting point is 00:35:55 Alright, so that is that's a funny joke from Babylon B, but it's got the it's got the old gears turning. I Know that the criticism is conservatives don't like competent women. It's actually the exact opposite. Conservatives like women who are competent at womenly things. Yes. And women who try to be masculine are generally not competent at masculine or feminine things. In the same way that a man who's trying to be feminine is not going to become competent at feminine things. Right? This is what we've learned from Dylan Mulvaney, hopefully, and a number of others. So that's played off as if, yeah, you know, conservatives
Starting point is 00:36:28 don't like women or female competence. No, we really like women. We actually really like women, which is why we appreciate and are very charmed by them acting like women. Yes, that's awesome. Because imagine if the cultural paradigm was that like men were oppressed and women were the oppressors. That's how everyone referred to this. And when when men weren't doing feminine things, we called them incompetent. That would be so bizarre. But when women are doing masculine things, they're seen somehow as incompetent by the culture.
Starting point is 00:36:57 Yeah, it's really weird. It's totally backwards. I think you're right. And I agree with what you're saying. But I do think that as we try to sort out kind of sex roles We're going to see some pendulum swinging on both sides So, I mean I've been to my wife before who's extremely competent woman very feminine but competent and has an opinion But I don't think those things are usually exclusive. That's my point. I know I agree with you But what I'm saying is some people seem to veer in the opposite direction. Like why would you want?
Starting point is 00:37:26 Someone like that. Yeah, I do think there are some Christian men who kind of want a doormat. Yeah, that's unfortunate. Tell me that's not true in any case. Well, no, I mean, every man in this culture wants a doormat, right? Every man in this culture wants a doormat because what they're saying is I want a woman who's going to allow me to use her sexually without ever asking anything of me. And I think sometimes it can be the case that a Christian man might veer off into the direction of possibly wanting her to be a doormat in different ways and possibly still a
Starting point is 00:37:51 sexual doormat as well. But I would also say the only people in this culture who don't want women to be doormats are Christians, basically. That's good. Yeah, that's really good. And so, I think oftentimes Christians feel, no, our worldview is great and we do want to help women. We know that those guys over there see them as doormats. Well, the whole culture sees them as So I think oftentimes Christians feel, no, our worldview is great and we do want to help women. We know that those guys over there see them as doormats. Well, the whole culture sees them as doormats and good Christian men are kind of the only people who don't. Yeah, that's really good. I want to discuss what happened the other day with Prager and what Shapiro had to say about the interaction
Starting point is 00:38:21 because it's, can we kind of get into that anyway? So yesterday Shapiro talked about my conversation with Prager and yeah, it was it was good. I first of all, I really appreciate what he had to say. He he referenced our conversation is a very interesting conversation that everybody should watch. I was like, I was happy to see him say that, obviously. OK, I guess you can go watch my show right now. It's one of the best conversations I've ever seen in my life.
Starting point is 00:38:41 And he had a conversation with Dennis Prager. It was completely wrong. But I'll be honest with you again. You should go watch it. This is subscribed to my locals. Okay, folks. Did you give the whole plug? He said that. And all those words.
Starting point is 00:38:50 But see, so he seems to differ from Prager. Prager wants to say that there's really no difference between sexual desire and lust. Shapiro kinda said that, but if he was going to make a distinction, I think he would say that sexual desire is lust in the wrong context. So he would say that when people usually talk about lust, they're talking about sexual desire being acted out in a non loving committed relationship. So it sounds like,
Starting point is 00:39:15 and if I'm misunderstanding, I want to take this back, but it sounds like he's saying that last is essentially not possible within marriage or it really doesn't matter. Yeah. And I would say, and this might, I'm not committed to this definition, but I would say that like lust reduces a person to their sexual value. That's what I mean when I say lust, or at least that's the consequence of lust, perhaps. And people have sexual value and that ought to be valued. But when it's looked at or sought to be consumed apart from the good of the person, that this is a degrading thing. And if you want to say that lust is impossible within marriage then,
Starting point is 00:39:55 and here's a sort of phenomenological argument, then it would follow that every woman who has ever complained about feeling used by her husband is wrong because lust is impossible. Or if she's not wrong, it doesn't matter because lust is either not possible or inconsequential within marriage. Yeah, I think that's a very good argument. It's a very good argument for that position. And I think that saying, saying you can't lust over a person who becomes your spouse
Starting point is 00:40:24 is like saying you can't exploit a person who becomes your spouse is like saying you can't exploit a person who becomes your employee. Yeah. It's like these are still possible. But again, I mean, one of the complaints Shapiro had about interactions that we kept talking past each other. And I think I agree with that. To a point I would, but I would say we certainly tried to understand each other. Like what do you mean by evil? What do you mean by objectification? What do you mean by lust?
Starting point is 00:40:46 And how is that different from sexual desire? So we were trying to do that. But at the end of the day, he would still say things like masturbation is not a sin or masturbating to images that aren't real photos, say, is is acceptable in certain circumstances. So there's definitely a divide. But yeah, what did you see? You watched it? Oh, the Dennis there's definitely a divide, but. Yeah. Did you, you watched it?
Starting point is 00:41:05 Oh, the, the Dennis Prager video? Yeah, absolutely. I watched the Shapiro response too. Oh, we talked. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I should. Yeah. Yeah. I really thought you did a great job. I thought you did a great job.
Starting point is 00:41:16 I didn't actually understand the concern about you guys talking past each other. I didn't really think you were. Maybe I'm in the minority there. I just, I thought that there was a substantive difference that was being addressed. I don't know that you fully understood each other the entire time, but it's not like there was this key point
Starting point is 00:41:29 that you guys truly agreed on the whole time when you kept missing it. There was really a substantial difference of opinion there that you were fleshing out. Now our culture sees it as a nuanced distinction. One that doesn't matter to people as much, but it's a very real one. One of the things I mean,
Starting point is 00:41:44 you always walk away from this interaction, say, I should have said this. Why did I say that? I could have said that, but that's a hundred percent the case. One thing I wish I had done a better job responding to was his argument about Onan and how this isn't an argument against Quidditch Interruptus or spilling the seed specifically. So I want to let people know I wrote a big article on this and just released it over at pineswithaquinas.com. And it was me me saying here's what I should have said so if people are interested pints with Aquinas calm You can check out my article there. Mm-hmm You've heard I've heard that argument made to he was supposed to give her a child in this specific instance
Starting point is 00:42:15 That doesn't mean that everyone's supposed to give someone a child and in any specific instance, but yeah Yeah, what was your response to that? Would you want to summarize that I I would summarize it. First, I would say, I think I'm somewhere in the middle between Prager and the Catholic apologist. I'm not convinced that the Onan incident is a knockdown, drag them out argument against St. Coitis interruptus or masturbation. I would still rely heavily on the natural law for that. Yeah. The genitals are for something. Exactly. And when you act contrary to the point of that organ, you're doing something unreasonable. But a couple of thoughts.
Starting point is 00:42:52 If Onan had a refrain from sexual intercourse with this woman, it's it seems to me unlikely that he would have been killed. Onan was killed by God, not for what he didn't do, but for what he did do. And when you look at the graphic language of the spilling of the seed and you consider the fact that in the Old Testament, authors don't use that kind of graphic language, like almost ever. If they're talking about sex in an appropriate way, they might say Adam knew his wife or he laid with her.
Starting point is 00:43:21 So I think the graphic language is also an indicator. Also in a deuteronomy, it lays out the actual what ought to happen if you don't, if you don't give your brother's wife children. And it's a mild humiliation is the consequence. Basically, if you refuse, the wife, I think, takes off your sandal and spits on your foot or something like that. I wrote all of this in the argument, in the article, but basically it's okay.
Starting point is 00:43:47 Well, that's a pretty, it's not the death penalty. That's a pretty mild argument. So you have to also, you would also have to explain why that's the case. And then I also show a popular Jewish commentary that would side with with me and not with Prager's. That's kind of what I would say about that. But I, I, I think that Prager and Shapiro, as much respect as I have for them, are just not the beneficiaries of Holy Mother Church. And they should repent and accept Christ and the church and allow it to teach them, just like I need to continually do that and allow the
Starting point is 00:44:15 church to teach me. And refine how I view men and women and sex. Amen. Well, and this is something that won't be news to most of this audience. But one of the things that's very difficult about having these conversations with people is what they've internalized as a cultural narrative, which says Christians are saying, we are better than you and holier than you, and you're a reprobate who needs me. And it's, no, we're all in trouble here. We all need Christ. I am blessed enough to have him. I want to share that with you. That's exactly right. enough to have him. I want to share that with you. That's exactly right. Tell me about your love for Jesus. I love Jesus and I want to say he's everything to me. I believe that, but at the same time, that's something that your actions have to tell people more so than your words, maybe. But perhaps that's also me failing to have faith on some level and not just saying openly he's everything to me.
Starting point is 00:45:07 I've definitely experienced periods of spiritual dryness in my life. I think that's normal. And I even think it's important. There are some people who just want to gush about their faith in Jesus Christ and talk about it in very emotional terms. And I think there can be a time for that, I really do. But in any healthy long-term relationship, there are going to be these ups and downs, right? There are going to be periods where you really feel a deep love and connection for that person in your passions and in your emotions. And then there's going to be moments where you don't feel that intense emotional pull or even intense emotional reward, but logically you know this is where you're supposed to be like he died for me. He did everything for me
Starting point is 00:45:49 I love him. He loves me more than I could ever possibly understand Yeah, and even if I don't know that with my emotions all the time, I know that Logically, yeah, and that love is an act of the will exactly. It's not just the way I feel last is also an act of the way Yes, that's why he can't slip into last anyway. Yeah. Well, and this is why, so often the people who are talking about their love for Jesus Christ can come off as being very gushy. And I think that's sort of the only time and the only way people will talk about him in this culture. It's very strange. People don't speak of him or their relationship with him as if it's anything real. They talk about it like it's some kind of fantasy that they retreat into when they want to feel good about themselves or the world.
Starting point is 00:46:35 Yeah, keep going. I'm tracking. If you're walking with him every day, there are certain days where the cross on your back doesn't feel lovely, right? And we should embrace it, but there are difficulties in living a Catholic life. And we have to be cheerful, we have to keep a Christian joy. Yep. And I'm not saying that I'm the perfect example of how to approach your faith or the way you would discuss your faith with other people, but what I will say is there's been a false distinction created, which is that you either have this trite emotional affair
Starting point is 00:47:13 in terms of your relationship with Jesus, or you're just dry and removed and you're only thinking about this in a very robotic way. And part of what's beautiful about Catholicism is, while it does lift us up to reason and out of our passions and tells us not to simply behave on the basis of our emotions, it also doesn't tell us that emotions in and of themselves are evil. Certainly doesn't say it's bad when you feel those consolations or or when you are given those consolations by God and really feel deeply about your relationship with him in a way that you might not on your day to day. But what's important is the Catholic faith doesn't put pressure on you to always purport to feeling that way. I was having a conversation with someone about liturgical abuse and how so many of our churches
Starting point is 00:48:10 are run so poorly, especially with respect to the liturgy. And this is something that more traditionalist Catholics and traditional leaning Catholics have beaten to death in many people's eyes. But she made a point to me I hadn't heard before, which is she was having a really, really rough day. There was something difficult in her life. She went to go to mass. It was the last mass of the day that was available and it was like circus music was playing just this ridiculously upbeat
Starting point is 00:48:40 poppy garbage that isn't worthy of the liturgy. And what she said was, there's something so frustrating about needing to be fake happy. And I think that's the way many people in this culture perceive Christianity and Christians is they're fake happy. Look at the Ned Flanders type character.
Starting point is 00:48:58 He exists for a reason, then that's a stereotype for a reason. I think that's a destructive mentality that does exist among some Christians. That I have to pretend that this is like all happy-go-lucky at all times and feel like, almost as if my salvation is dependent upon the way I feel in the moment about Christ.
Starting point is 00:49:18 Does that make sense? 100%. Having to analogize it to marriage, if I was to decide how much I love my wife on any given day, based on how gushy I could speak about her or how I felt about her, then it would seem that my love comes and goes. Exactly. Well, in also as an unmarried man, I think I could still be so bold as to make this claim about what might be good or bad for marriage. But I suspect that if a man was constantly gushing about how he felt about his wife, but then never did anything
Starting point is 00:49:46 that made her happy, cheated on her, you know, violated the rules and norms of the relationship, but he still felt, you know, a deep emotional joy about her in some way that it wouldn't be a very good marriage, right? She probably wouldn't be super happy with that. And I think there are many Christians for whom, unfortunately, that might be the case. It's almost like this criticism you're making of certain Christians comes back to our culture's bastardization of the word love. Yes, exactly. It's not like I give myself over to you to serve you, to want your good. Exactly. It's more like, I fell out of love, or... Yes. And then we bring that into the Christian realm, and we become afraid that we don't love Christ because we don't have the same passion. I don't for me though, like one of the beautiful things of praise and worship like to just just tell the Lord who he is
Starting point is 00:50:34 and to tell the Lord who he has said you are is is a way to kind of remind yourself of the the the actual relationship and how it functions, you know? Yeah. Like, like sometimes I'll discipline my child, right? And I'll take him into his room and like, look at me, I'm on your side. I freaking love you. Like I have to remind him who he is to me. And I think that's kind of important to do. Sometimes we feel distant from the Lord and just to say, I love you. I think that you're never, um, distant from me. You're always present. You haven't taken your eyes off me since the moment of conception to say it poetically.
Starting point is 00:51:08 You love me deeply despite my feelings. So I think I agree with you, but I also think that sometimes using that language can kind of bring about. Yeah. And calling it in the motion makes it cheap. But it does bring about this. I don't know, it reorientates me in the right direction as to what this relationship is. You're my father, I'm your son, I am who you say I am.
Starting point is 00:51:32 No, and I would totally agree with that. That's more or less my point that it's not necessarily one to the exclusion of the other. And I think that most Christians who fall into this type of thinking are good-hearted people trying to do their best, but because culture has redefined love in a certain way, and they think, well, I know I need to love Christ, and I do love Christ, how do I show that? They feel as if they have to show love the way our culture communicates that love needs to be expressed, or really based on a bad definition of what love is. Now, how did you even, I mean, your dad, I know your dad personally, a faithful guy,
Starting point is 00:52:07 just he was so inspiring, so cool to be around him. He's amazing. I have literally the best father in the world. It's so cool that me and your dad hung out and you and I stayed at your house, well, in that place. And him and I just hung out, smoked cigars and talked about Jesus. I really love your dad.
Starting point is 00:52:24 He's a cool guy. That's funny, he was visiting me while he was in that area while you were down there. And that's not my dad. I love my father, but he's a very reasonable man. He doesn't gush. He's just faithful. He's just consistent. That's exactly it. My father is very faithful, very decisive, very consistent. I love it. I wish I was more like that. Me too. Believe me. How did you come to faith in Christ? I mean, you were raised Catholic, but you obviously Very decisive, very consistent. I love it. Yeah. I wish I was more like that. Me too. Believe me.
Starting point is 00:52:47 How did you come to faith in Christ? I mean, you were raised Catholic, but I mean, you obviously own it in a real way. Did you have to wrestle against unbelief? Oh, yeah. Tell us about that. So I was raised Catholic and my faith always mattered a lot to me. If I might be so bold, like I was sort of known as the religious one of the kids my siblings all believed and cared but part of it was just maybe
Starting point is 00:53:10 I was like a goody two shoes as a kid and so I did what my parents wanted not always I definitely got into some trouble but there was maybe a perception on the end of my parents that I was a little bit better than I was possibly but maybe that's always the case with the youngest. I don't know. What I will say is. As I got older. I did start to stray. Certainly with the way I was living my life and then as it was once said, you either live what you believe or believe what you live.
Starting point is 00:53:41 So I think when I really got to my late teens, like 18, 19. I would say between the ages of like 16 and 19, I was heavily flirting with atheism. And what year was this roughly? Cause I'm thinking the new atheists came into prominence around 2005. Yeah, this was after that. So I graduated high school 10 years ago this June, right? So it would have been 2013.
Starting point is 00:54:02 Okay. It was when I was 18 years old. So you have kind of remnants of this popular atheist fad. But I read their work and yeah, I read a bit of their work and Christopher Hitchens is just so unbelievably rhetorically gifted and effective or was rest in peace. Let's pray for his soul, of course. But I did read his book and I was just sort of familiar with and fascinated by a lot of atheist literature. And at one point it really did get to the point where I very much just didn't believe. And then I won't get too into detail, but something happened like right after my 20th birthday that helped me to understand that things are permanent.
Starting point is 00:54:42 Decisions I make can follow me for the rest of my life and that I can end up in hell. Basically, I learned in a way that I hadn't ever fully internalized that hell is real and that I could go there. I think that for so much of my life, I thought of hell as this abstract reality, not something that I had to worry about because if I sinned I could just go to confession and God knows what's in my heart and he knows I'm trying to make it to confession so even if I die before I get there I'll be fine. I was very much presuming.
Starting point is 00:55:22 I was very much presuming. It was very much presuming. And this was an experience where I had an experience where I realized I could no longer presume. And I just dove headfirst right back into it. And I wasn't perfect overnight, of course. Believe it or not, I wasn't perfect over the course of eight years. I'm still not perfect today. Not quite there yet, but I just started working out my salvation and fear and trembling the way Paul put it, which I had never done before. I don't think I had ever tried to work out my salvation
Starting point is 00:55:58 and fear and trembling the way the Bible says before that. Now, Hitchens doesn't make, I don't know if he made any argument against God's existence, he tends to say, look at how bad Christians are, look at how bad Christianity is for culture, or we don't need Christianity to safeguard these moral norms that we all hold dear. Atheists can be just as moral. None of that is an argument against God's existence. But that said, did you wrestle with specific arguments
Starting point is 00:56:25 for atheism? And despite this experience you had, did you have to learn how to respond to those intellectual objections? No, no, I knew the intellectual objections from day one. And when the new atheist movement was starting, I was probably about eight years old. And I heard some of these arguments,
Starting point is 00:56:42 and I was astounded that grown men were making them. Because I remember thinking, yes, as a child. So my parents were CCD teachers. I knew a bit more about the faith than the average Catholic at my age did. I think, especially as I got older, I realized it wasn't exactly enough. There was still so much I had to learn.
Starting point is 00:57:04 That's not necessarily on my parents, right? That's also, my parents are great, but it was just my, you know, my pride in wanting to rest on the knowledge I already had instead of learning more. And that said, I remember being eight years old and thinking like, hold on, you're asking who made God? This is, this is, this is one on one.
Starting point is 00:57:25 God's uncreated. He's the explanation. Like by definition, nothing needs to create God. That's not a counter. I remember being so perplexed hearing that. I thought this is a grown man who's asking this question. And I learned this very early on. Now, to be fair, actually, I might've been 10 thinking I learned this when I was eight,
Starting point is 00:57:45 but still I was very young. I was a little kid and I remember thinking it was just shocking to me that grown men were able to make entire careers out of questions that six or seven-year-old catechism students ask and then have answered by their teachers. But the reason they're able to have careers doing that, and the reason that I still came very much to doubt my faith later in life, is because at the end of the day, when you're living a certain way, you want to be told that God's not real, even if I wouldn't acknowledge that that's what I was after. I did very much not want to be held accountable. I wanted to do whatever I wanted. What else is new? You know, that's how people was after. I did very much not want to be held accountable. I wanted to do whatever I wanted. What else is new?
Starting point is 00:58:27 That's how people are, unfortunately. And... At the end of the day, all of the arguments for the faith makes sense, but you have to accept that initial premise. And if someone's not able to convince you that the universe didn't come from nothing for no reason, then they're just not going to be able to convince you that the universe didn't come from nothing for no reason. Makes no sense. I don't understand how someone could consider themselves rational or even pride themselves upon how
Starting point is 00:58:59 rational they are while believing that because it literally makes no sense. And what they'll often do is they'll pick out certain elements of Christianity. Will you guys believe that Christ rose from the dead? That doesn't make sense. You believe the Eucharist is his literal flesh and blood. That doesn't make sense. How can you call yourself rational? And I accept absolutely to human reason these things don't make sense. However, in every worldview, no matter what worldview you look at, there are going to be certain aspects of it that whoever believes in this is going to have to say, I can't explain this or I don't understand this. When it comes to the secular materialist worldview, the element of it which doesn't make sense is the very
Starting point is 00:59:46 foundation of it. Everything came from nothing for no reason. So then nothing makes sense. Nothing makes sense. I agree there are certain parts of Christianity you can point you and say I just can't make sense of this with with human reason. But from its very foundation, from its very core, it makes sense of the world, whereas atheism can't. It can't. So even things that seem to make sense anywhere in that worldview couldn't possibly, because they're based on a foundation of nonsense.
Starting point is 01:00:17 Yeah, that's really helpful. What did your folks do as you were questioning the faith? What did they do well, would you say? Yeah, I wasn't too open about it. I didn't really talk to them about it. Yeah, it was mostly internal. It was mostly internal. I didn't ever really tell them.
Starting point is 01:00:32 So if you're watching, mom and dad, I never like had a big drawn out conversation with them about it. Yeah. Yeah, I've always found the kind of Dostoevsky approach compelling that if, if, if God doesn't exist, then we have certain dogmatic answers to the most fundamental questions we're all interested in asking. At least after the fourth beer. Yeah, exactly. Maybe we're not as interesting as we should be, but the fourth beer may bring that out. I better start. You better.
Starting point is 01:01:05 So questions like, where did we come from? Why am I here? How should I live? Where am I going? Who am I? Like, there are there are answers to all of that if atheism is true and all of it leads to nihilism. Yep. And I don't know. I mean, maybe there are some atheists now who are willing to bite that bullet, but it felt for a while that they were like, no, it doesn't. No, it doesn't at all. Well, and this is the, and this is part of what is so convincing about Christopher Hitchens is he speaks with such righteous indignation about the misbehavior of believers. And much of what he points to as being bad behavior is legitimately bad behavior.
Starting point is 01:01:40 But there's this irony because his worldview gives you nothing. His worldview gives you nothing matters. We have to make our own meaning. Yeah. This is all contingent upon what a species of ape that evolved in West Africa became naked, developed a little bit of a more complex prefrontal cortex, and then moved out of that region and ended up inhabiting the rest of the entire world believes about what will help it to survive on a large scale.
Starting point is 01:02:07 That's all morality is. Why should I care? Seriously. Yeah, and if you say, well, evolution has programmed into us that certain actions are taboo or conducive to the flourishing of my society and therefore praiseworthy, fair enough, but once you realize that,
Starting point is 01:02:23 you don't have to be bound to it, if it just comes from a blind force. And I think you're starting to see this play out. I mean, look at the violent mobs in Chicago and the looting that's taking place and the butchering of children, the slaughtering of children. We it's almost like we kept trying to put lipstick. When I say we, I mean, those who would promote that lipstick on a pig, where now it feels like the divide is so stark that surely if you're in any way honest, you just see a pig. Yeah. And so exactly. You know, if you want to make the argument, we have evolved to see things
Starting point is 01:03:00 in a specific way. And so, because there are certain taboos that have arisen out of our biological programming, we've constructed these moral systems. Well, that doesn't tell you what's true or false, that tells you what your biological hardware prefers that you do, and even prefers the wrong term. It's just performing a calculus. It doesn't have any feelings about it.
Starting point is 01:03:25 It doesn't have any will. You're just the meat robot, basically. And call me crazy, but I don't like living in a culture where the definition of what is right or wrong is set by people who think we are meat robots, who are essentially wandering around aimlessly. Because you could argue human beings have developed certain rational faculties as a result of the process of evolution. If that's the case and evolution is all that was guiding it, we're still just wandering aimlessly
Starting point is 01:04:00 because we're only obeying our biological programming and our hardware. And it's not as if there's some final like apex state of evolution where we are now behaving perfectly. And if such a theoretical thing could be conceived of, we certainly haven't reached it. So we're still just running around, bumping into each other, working out the kinks and this hardware and this programming. And there's no reason we should try to reach it. Exactly. Because should implies a kind of moral language. Exactly. And so, people have tried to find very complex, sophisticated sounding ways of saying, nothing matters and I can do whatever I want. But that's what the human heart has been trying to tell man since time immemorial. It's incivility.
Starting point is 01:04:47 And I find it so fascinating and in a very sad way, almost humorous, that we try to repackage these unbelievably primitive ideas that are totally lacking in all dignity as sophisticated, enlightened intellectual philosophies. We see this even in the legal system where if you believe that man is a moral agent who will have to suffer either eternal hell or enjoy the beatific vision, you treat him differently. You know, so if a man commits rape, you don't just go, well, this is the only life he's got. So, I mean, we don't want to put well, this is the only life he's got.
Starting point is 01:05:25 So I mean, we don't want to put him in. We don't give him the death penalty. We don't want to have him in jail for too long. And so prison becomes merely about punishment and no longer about correcting man. Exactly. Realigning his soul to the good. I was actually thinking about this the other day. Even though atheist materialist nihilists
Starting point is 01:05:46 will try to claim that there's no such thing as morality, obviously on some intuitive level they know that there is and they would boil that down to our biological hardwiring and not necessarily a product of there being some kind of human soul that's capable of seeing truth in any way. But they still act as if there is some kind of truth, even when they're not behaving in line with anything you or I would consider to be moral, even if they're being hedonists, they're still pursuing some kind of truth. Right. What they are pursuing is a value system which says the most important thing is that I feel pleasure. You can't escape this. Exactly. You can't escape this.
Starting point is 01:06:22 Exactly, you can't escape this. But with humans, right? And this idea of prisons, that we would lock someone up and try to correct them. I was just thinking about this the other day. When an animal hurt somebody, we don't punish the animal. We don't give them a lecture. No, we don't tell them what they did was wrong. If you have a child who is mauled by a tiger,
Starting point is 01:06:44 that's a horrible tragedy. No one's happy with that. The villagers, right, if you're out in a state of nature where something like this is a common reality, would kill the tiger if they had the opportunity so that it wouldn't maul anybody else. But the tragedy there is simply that the child died. The tragedy is simply that the child died.
Starting point is 01:07:02 The tiger acted the way a tiger's supposed to act, okay? Now, maybe there are adults in that community who failed by not keeping that the child died the tiger acted the way a tiger is supposed to act Okay Now maybe there are adults in that community who failed by not keeping that child away from the tire not protecting that child sufficiently But the ultimate tragedy there is is this kid died if rather than a tiger that kid is killed by a grown man Well now you have two tragedies you have that a child was murdered And then you also have a human being was willing to murder a child and then did it. And I would say that the moral evil is greater than the physical evil. And what I mean by that is this, I think this won't be one way to show it. If I said to you, would you rather your father endure some terrible evil at the hand of some evil person?
Starting point is 01:07:40 Or be the one who perpetuates that evil on another? Both are bad, but I think most people would say, I would rather him receive the evil and be moral than be the perpetrator of the evil. So I think even that sort of shows us that our real, the real issue with evil for us is moral evil. Absolutely. Well, and we see this, I think, quite in quite a pronounced way with respect to the difference between Christianity and many pagan faiths. Like, Christ endured so much evil for us
Starting point is 01:08:14 and for our salvations, our salvation, whereas many of the pagan gods, they were just inflicting evil upon everybody. I mean, that's one key, massive, overlooked difference about the faith. I mean, that's one key, massive, overlooked difference about the faith. People want to see Christ as a teacher and only a teacher because our culture tells us that this makes Him less harmful. If you believe that Christ was God, you know, who do you say that He is? You say He's God, you're out of your mind. He was a teacher. He was a lovely teacher who said some wonderful things. But even
Starting point is 01:08:45 in doing so, they take the power out of his teaching because they never give voice to any of the teachings that make them uncomfortable. Well, surely if he was merely a great teacher, some of what he said should be uncomfortable for you to hear, they'll repeat, love your neighbor. They won't repeat that he started the statement with, love the Lord your God with all your heart. Right? They'll repeat, he who is without sin may cast the first stone and not go forth and sin no more. So, in trying to reduce Christ to a mere teacher, you end up losing a lot of his teaching and specifically and especially the way he taught us
Starting point is 01:09:32 by dying on the cross for us. That's completely left out. I mean, the profound lesson and example we get from the crucifixion and his willingness to embrace death because he loves us. None of the people who simply want to call Christ the teacher ever talk about the lesson he taught us in the crucifixion. The garble then you're missing the whole thing.
Starting point is 01:10:00 You're missing all of it. He, if he was just a teacher, he didn't teach you anything. You're missing all of it. He if he was just a teacher, he didn't teach you anything. Yeah, I mean. I forget who said it, but the line is this is the horror of modern man because he begins in nothing and ends in nothing. He is nothing.
Starting point is 01:10:21 And all right, Fair enough. Right. Someone might grant that and they might even grant the sort of what would you say? Logical bankruptcy of atheism, as opposed to a mere agnosticism, let's say. But what would your advice be to the man or woman who wants to believe, but finds himself unable? Ask him. Just ask him. Really? Ask him. And people,
Starting point is 01:10:47 people will ask me that. Dude, I get it. I understand everything you're saying. Do you get that a lot? Yeah, I've had people ask me that before. I can't tell you how many, but it's definitely happened where someone's someone has said to me in both my personal life and in public life, I've had people ask me, how do I believe? Because they see that there's something good about the faith, but they can't bring themselves to believe it. And that's understandable because faith is a gift, right? It's a gift from God. And so what I tell them is, be honest when you pray, because again, our culture has taught us that our relationship with Christ is this performative thing. Yeah, we have to feel the proper emotions and
Starting point is 01:11:28 Say all the proper things in order for it to be legitimate and real I'm not saying there aren't constraints on behavior or anything along those lines but what I am saying is If you're struggling to believe Tell God that Because he knows You're not going to hide anything from him. The question is, are you going to choose to be vulnerable with him? Because he's going to know whether you're choosing to be vulnerable with him or not.
Starting point is 01:11:51 And if you just ask him, please. All right. I understand the value like, God, I want to believe you set up this church. I believe I don't know if you're real, but I see Catholics or I see Christians and I see the church that they claim that you built and I think it does good in the world and I think it's what we need, but I don't believe in you. I don't believe in you and I feel like I can't believe in you and I want you to help me, right?
Starting point is 01:12:15 Lord, help my own belief. I want you to help me believe in you. You can pray that way. A lot of people don't understand that. A lot of people think that your prayers are supposed to be a performance. And the way I'm going to start believing is by faking it until I make it. Now, I'm not saying there's nothing to that either, because as I stated earlier, you either live what you believe or believe what you live. I think if you really start living the faith, you will start believing it. But I also can't give anyone any guarantees on this. Everyone's life is different. Everyone's
Starting point is 01:12:49 spiritual journey is different. All I can guarantee is that God appreciates honesty. And this is the argument that was offered by the abbot in the Brothers Karamazov within the first several chapters. He's chatting with a woman who says like, I want to believe. But then, you know, these atheists, they tell me you die and that's it. And it's like, good night. And sometimes faith seems silly. Like one of the things that, um, Fyodor Karamazov says is like, are there chains in hell? And if there are, like, what are they hooked to? There must be a ceiling and who's manufacturing the steel. And you start talking like that. You're like, yeah, maybe it's just all ridiculous. But one of the responses that the Abbott gives is.
Starting point is 01:13:32 Love people like actually serve the poor and love those around. That's true. You will find yourself believing in spite of yourself. And I really like that because there's really not much in life that if you could, if you keep questioning me, would I remain 100 percent certain? For example, if you were to ask me about my wife and whether I'm sure she is who she says she is, I would say, of course, of course. But if every day I was like, Matt, are you sure? How do you know? Do you know? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:13:59 Like, how do you know she's not a Russian agent? Russian spy. How do you know that? I mean, you go into Ukraine and maybe Putin has her in his pocket. And like, you know, at some point I might say to you, like, I mean, OK, fine, it's possible. Yeah. And I think sometimes arguments for God's existence and atheism can get in the way of our relationship with God,
Starting point is 01:14:23 not because arguments for God's existence properly understood aren't superior and even work. But for the same reason, if I was to try to come up with arguments for and against my wife being a Russian agent, it would sort of affect the way I interacted with us. Well, when I was 16, I went through a bout of solips. Yeah, you've mentioned this. You mentioned this, that you were totally. Yeah, it was. this. You've mentioned this, that you were totally solipsistic. Yeah. It was for an afternoon.
Starting point is 01:14:48 Just an afternoon where I was like, maybe there's nobody but me. I rust. There were definitely points in time where I wondered that in an odd way. I think every teenager's solipsist. Right. How did you wrestle with it even in a superficial way?
Starting point is 01:14:59 Well, I mentioned- For me, it was opening up the door of my bedroom and seeing if there was the void. See if you could quickly- See if you could quickly have- Yeah. And I was like, no, it's still there. Damn it. As up the door of my bedroom and seeing if there was the void. Seeming too quickly. Yeah. And now it's still there. Damn it. As if the simulation wouldn't generate faster than you can move your hand. Yeah, that's right. I. I mentioned this experience
Starting point is 01:15:16 I had when I was 20, when I was brought back to my faith and it shook me up a little bit and I was just questioning a couple different things about the world and questioning the way I saw it. And I think because this was such a profound gift from God and an occasion to return to my faith, the devil really wanted to kind of get in my head and confuse me. And so I definitely remember wrestling
Starting point is 01:15:41 with some solipsistic ideas at that time. And I knew they weren't true. I knew they weren't true, but I had this intense emotional feeling as if nothing else existed but me. It was very frightening. I don't know how I don't know exactly how to explain it. What's interesting about the solipsist position is that it is arguably unprovable. Yeah, exactly. You can't prove one way or the other.
Starting point is 01:16:05 Yeah. Now, there's probably people who have tried and maybe their arguments are so sophisticated, I wouldn't even understand them. But OK, I'll explain to you why solipsism isn't real. After this plug for Birch Gold, you know. Yeah, yeah. But it's like. Yeah, so you could forever watch arguments on solipsism. I don't know who you're listening to. That'd be funny.
Starting point is 01:16:25 But you could keep the external world up on the blackboard and try to come up with arguments for and against it. You could live your whole life like that and then die. And the same thing is true with God. I mean, you could live your life keeping the question of God's existence up on the chalkboard and never actually live it, which is why I do think that Pascal's answer
Starting point is 01:16:44 to the man who can't decide between atheism and Christianity, but who wants Christianity to be true, is to just act like a Christian. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And eventually, eventually it'll come along, right? Because the point of the Christian life certainly is not to hedge your bets. And in a sense, that's where Pascal's wager fails. Because if you're still trying to get the most out of the world before you die, well, also being Christian, it's not going to go very well for you in terms of your walk with Christ. True, but I like that God stoops to conquer, you know, he'll he he he ascended as a man and he'll descend to our little cheap thought experiments
Starting point is 01:17:18 and he'll take out even if you want to refer to it as a sort of hedonistic bet, where it's like, well, if God exists, I get more pleasure in this life. And I think God stoops there and then matures us. Well, yeah, he meets us where we're at. None of us started at the point where we're, you know, holy and make- Venerable materialist.
Starting point is 01:17:37 Exactly. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Exactly. God's existence. Well, solipsism is also, you mentioned a moment ago when you were saying you can't really prove it, this is on the level of the arguments you hear from atheists about God's existence. One thing William Blaine Craig says, which I really appreciate and I absolutely agree with is that he considers a belief in God to be properly basic, which is probably a
Starting point is 01:18:03 controversial position. I think I agree with that. I think I do with some caveats. Like, I know certain Christians would even say that the Christian faith is properly basic. And no, it's not. I don't know. I'd have to I'd hear him out more. But I am certainly of the opinion that God belief in a creator and sustainer is somehow
Starting point is 01:18:21 properly basic. Like, I remember Alvin Plante go being interviewed about God's existence He's like well, what about the person who finds that they can't not believe like what are they to do? Because this is the other argument against Pascal's wager I think when properly understood it's excellent and that's that well, it's you're being somehow hypocritical or like what you're doing is wrong But it's like yeah, but if we've discussed this, if atheism is true, then maybe I just want to believe a fantasy. Exactly.
Starting point is 01:18:47 Why would I be wrong to do that? No, there's nothing wrong. Well, we allow people to believe fantasies all the time. Apparently men or women, right? It would be lying to act like a Christian when you have trouble believing. It's like, well, I don't know. We tell men that they can act like women. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:19:02 Or that they can get a vagina. They can get a, well, literally in which they can't write, You can get an ax wound between your legs. That's what you can do. Which is a horrible, grotesque thing to even say out loud, but it's true. That's what they do to these people. It is absolutely disgusting and that language ought to be used. Yeah, I totally agree. I think that in this culture, we have somehow told, confused, sexually confused young people, like, no, you can be a male or a female. No, you will always be what you are, but you could try to become some grotesque pale imitation of the opposite sex.
Starting point is 01:19:31 And often when this conversation is had, conservatives who I would argue are either dishonest or misguided and we'll say misguided for the sake of charity. And some of them genuinely are. I don't think they're all trying to be dishonest or misguided, and we'll say misguided for the sake of charity. And some of them genuinely are. I don't think they're all trying to be dishonest, but they'll say things along the lines of, well, that's really cruel to call it grotesque. It's very hurtful to say that this is ugly, but it is ugly. It is ugly.
Starting point is 01:20:00 I'm not going to lie about that. I'm not going to call something beautiful when it isn't. We have spent so much time trying to figure out how to protect the feelings of people who are living disgusting lives and promoting those lifestyles to children that we haven't stopped and reflected on how weakening our tone on these issues will affect the young people who see this behavior
Starting point is 01:20:22 and they don't trust that intuitive revulsion they feel towards it. Yes. Right, because when somebody sees a Dylan Mulvaney or anyone who's trying to imitate the opposite sex, there is an intuitive revulsion. It's gross. It is gross.
Starting point is 01:20:42 You feel grossed out by it and you're right to. And part of the reason they want to try to groom these kids, part of why grooming is a necessary step for a sexual abuser is because people feel an intuitive discomfort with perverse sexual behavior. And the process of grooming is bit by bit gaslighting that person into not trusting what their heart is telling them isn't right. Now, I'm not saying that our heart always leads us in the right direction. We know that's not true. I'm not saying that the answers to moral questions are found in the human passions. However, I do believe that there are some elements of our intuition which we can say are God speaking to us. We talk about our conscience, for example. That's really where you are speaking with God.
Starting point is 01:21:41 And in the same way that we know our actions are wrong and our conscience, we also have an inkling that something someone else is doing is wrong and seeing a man dress as a woman or seeing a man kiss another man on the lips of the way he would kiss a woman, right? I'm not talking about like in Italian, like I love you, muah muah, you get what I'm saying? That's how you greeted me yesterday.
Starting point is 01:22:04 Yeah, exactly, I said, oh Matt, you're picking me up from the airport, oh muah, you're like firstly, I just you, mwah, mwah. You get what I'm saying. That's how you greeted me yesterday. Exactly. I said, Oh, Matt, you pick me up from the airport. Oh, you're like firstly, I just saw the Mario movie. First of all, that was Thursday. It's Thursday. He said and Matt said, I really don't appreciate the Italian stereotypes now that I saw the Mario movie because it opened my eyes. That's right. To that culture. But when I'm so sorry to derail this so horribly, but my my point.
Starting point is 01:22:23 When you see menis on the lips. Yeah, yeah. It's revolting. It is revolting. And I'd be ashamed of, see, we talked about this yesterday over dinner, that the herd instinct is so powerful that sometimes you really need time away from a specific moment in history to be like, why did I act that way? And you realize it was because you wanted to be liked. And I think back when so-called gay marriage was being approved,
Starting point is 01:22:48 I think Christians were so beaten down by people saying you're on the wrong side of the history and you hate people that we went out of our way. Like, no, I don't. And so I think even back in 2007 or eight, if you had have asked me, do you find it disgusting when you see two men making out? I would have been like, I probably would have been uncomfortable to say yes, though I hope I would have. But you're exactly right. No, this is a disgusting thing. So then how then do we speak strongly in the way Matt Walsh does? And I'm so grateful that he does that while recognizing
Starting point is 01:23:19 that there are hurting people who need exactly. This is the delicate. This is a very delicate balance and so I thought about this a good deal a while ago just on the topic of suicide specifically this applies to many other topics but it's almost epitomized in suicide just because of the stakes yes the stakes are high with every moral action, but. I'm trying to figure out exactly how much to reveal here.
Starting point is 01:23:54 A beloved family friend took their own life years ago, and it was a difficult experience. And. Of course, any time someone you care for dies, you want to pray and hope for their soul and you can. And one misconception about the Catholic faith is that it teaches if someone kills themselves,
Starting point is 01:24:15 they go to hell. And we can know that for sure. Of course, you can't, you don't know another person's eternal destiny. The only way you can is if the church declares them a saint. Church doesn't declare anyone in hell. Well, not long after, maybe a few months later, I'm at a mass while I'm visiting Chicago or visiting the Chicago area, actually the suburbs, and this priest gives one of the most egregious homilies I've ever heard in my life. I came to realize after the fact, and as I was speaking to him, that even though this
Starting point is 01:24:51 was like a public mass, it was also a memorial mass for a young man who had killed himself. But what this priest said during his homily is, the place where someone commits suicide is a sacred space because that's where they met God. And so I spoke to him after mass and I said, Father, I appreciate that you want to help people understand that they can hope for the salvation of a person who ended their own life. However, I think it's dangerous, especially this time of year where the suicide rate is
Starting point is 01:25:25 higher to tell people that if they commit suicide, it's a direct path to heaven. And he said, well, I let God decide who's damned. And I said, yes, and I let him decide who gets to heaven too. And he shook my hand and said, Merry Christmas and kind of maybe a little more passive aggressive angry way, but Good for you for confronting him confronting him yeah because imagine all the people who heard that and all the young people who could hear that who were struggling with suicide and now he's just told them it's a path to sainthood
Starting point is 01:25:52 right yeah you're gonna go right to heaven you can't go too far in either direction you have to have these conversations in very delicate way where you keep in mind that there are people listening and that they will behave in part on the basis of what they're hearing from you. And if you tell them that this is no big deal, you have in some sense, slightly or greatly increase the odds that they will see this as an acceptable thing to do to themselves if the time comes where they're greatly tempted. However, there are also people listening who have loved ones who have killed themselves and you don't want to cause them to despair either. And so you're on a tightrope.
Starting point is 01:26:50 And I wish I could say something lofty like that tightrope is love and just meeting the person where they're at, but that's circular. Of course the loving thing to do is going to be the right thing to do, but those are synonyms aren't they? In some sense. If you're doing the right thing, you are doing the loving thing, if it's truly the right thing. So...
Starting point is 01:27:10 Is it that the conservative Christian, or just let's just say the faithful Christian, has a nuance to concern himself about that the evil man doesn't? Because the faithful Christian has to say, love the sinner, hate the sin. Yes. Which is just as doctrinally sound as you can get. Whereas the evil man says, love the sinner, love the sin, promote the sin. Yes. No nuances required over here. No, exactly. So if you offer any nuance, it's perceived as weakness, you're waffling or hateful. Yep. Yeah. Yep. And so with trans issues, I see it similarly.
Starting point is 01:27:48 And all of these conversations are conversations that I know to some extent I struggle with, right? I make comedy and it can be difficult to know where the line is when you're trying to make something funny and interesting and really make a point that makes you laugh and will make others laugh while also trying to avoid being too harsh and I don't know that I found that perfect balance yet. It's it's difficult. It's really difficult
Starting point is 01:28:16 and so on the one end when I Make cartoons about these things It's it's sometimes tough to find that line, and I'm sure I stumble over it frequently. But I do think people can be a little more forgiving with something they know is intended to be comedic. But when you're making a public statement on it, you also have to think about this in a very different way,
Starting point is 01:28:41 which is like, now you're in serious mode, and there is not the same veneer of the intention of comedy, which is just to make a person laugh. And so how are you going to communicate this in a way which is sufficiently condemning of the sin while also not evoking of despair? I think the way you've done that well is by pointing out the evil of, let's say, people who should know better. But yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:29:10 Like none of your videos make fun of a hurting trans kid. No, no, no, no. Yeah, always making fun of groomers and then always making fun of the way that. People who are in that position are very much exploited. Yes. Yeah, they're exploited by a sick system. Yeah, anyone who critiqued Matt Walsh's video of being unloving, I don't think watched the movie. Mm-mm, no, yeah, exactly, exactly.
Starting point is 01:29:35 Because what you have to consider too is that Dylan Mulvaney is a grown man. And grown men do have a responsibility to behave such that children can look up to them. Right. And I'm not saying I'm some paragon of virtue who always behaves perfectly by any means, okay? You don't need to be to call out. Exactly. You don't need to be to say that. And so we see him as this sweet, innocent little victim who people are being mean to.
Starting point is 01:30:01 What he is doing is damaging to children. It's damaging to the family. Now, we can still feel bad for him and say, this is clearly a sick person are being mean to, what he is doing is damaging to children. It's damaging to the family. Now we can still feel bad for him and say, this is clearly a sick person. And any marketer who would say, why don't I take this obviously disturbed person and use them as a mascot to also insult my fan base very frequently or customer base very flagrantly
Starting point is 01:30:22 is in some sense arguably maybe more morally culpable than he is. But that's that's a little bit more of a complicated argument that I don't know I could suss out enough. I mean, not only is he leading people astray and lying to them and mocking women, which is not what he's doing, but another thing he's doing is like going to the White House and advocating for child mutilation. Yeah, that's disgusting. So you ought to be condemned in no uncertain terms while we pray for your soul. Sorry, can I just want to mention one more thing,
Starting point is 01:30:55 please? When you say something like this person, this is a man, this doesn't look like a woman. This looks like a gross imitation of a woman. There's nothing appealing visually here. That's not hateful That's absolutely not hateful. If you said that about an actual woman. Yeah, that would be crappy That would be a crappy thing to say but you're saying it about a man I hope that I would make an ugly woman, right? If anything, it's a compliment. Yeah exactly It's like no you look like a dude. It's to be a dude and look like a dude is a good thing If I were to be like, oh you actually look like a girl dude if if a man Puts on women's clothing and people say oh you actually look like a woman. That's insulting. That's insanely insulting to say yes
Starting point is 01:31:36 So no, it's not hateful. Even though he wants to be perceived as a woman. It's not hateful to say you're not You you you look like a dude in a dress. It's very uncomfortable to look at. But part of what happens is people are made to feel as if they need to gush over things that they feel that revulsion towards that I mentioned earlier. And there's sort of a strange overlap with what we were talking about earlier about Christians who think that in order to have an authentic relationship with Christ, they need to constantly be gushing because they don't understand what love is outside of an emotional context.
Starting point is 01:32:15 And so, because we have reduced love to something that simply exists in the passions, a person thinks I need to feel these these warm fuzzy feelings about this person and what they're doing in order to love them. And when they don't feel those feelings, they kind of panic and they need to fabricate them. And that's why I see, oh, she's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. He is not even remotely beautiful at all.
Starting point is 01:32:41 And you're saying he's the most beautiful woman you've ever seen. You're out of your mind. It's obvious that you're faking and they can't just do a halfway stop you know you could you could almost you can't say you're moderately attractive exactly exactly if there if there is a trans woman or a man dressed as a woman if some of these lefties were to just say like oh yeah they're like they almost look like a woman or or or
Starting point is 01:33:02 were to really take it I think much further than it should be taken and say like oh yeah like they're okay looking I might believe it like I might believe you but it's the she's so beautiful like no and I know I here's the point I know that this is a man I know that this this person is not a beautiful woman. However, I also know that you know that they're not. But if you were to just say, oh, like, they're OK looking or something, maybe I might be willing to believe that you mean that. Right. But because it's so over the top. No, come on. You know that that's not true. And then even with the filters and the lighting and the makeup, you might be mistake.
Starting point is 01:33:46 You might mistakenly think this person looks like an attractive woman. But then you see that same man and another light. Oh, exactly. Or in person. That's a huge thing. All of the ones who are quote unquote passing, they're passing online. You see them up next to an actual woman. Have you seen the, there's a photograph
Starting point is 01:34:05 that was published a while of Jenner right next to Mel Gibson. Okay, I didn't see that. No, he's giant dude. And Mel Gibson is smaller than him. And it's like, okay. Yeah, Mel Gibson's a manly dude. On the cover of a magazine, when,
Starting point is 01:34:26 now on the cover of a magazine, he still looks like a dude, right? But it's not as pronounced as when they're in the presence of other people. It doesn't always look like a dude. No, no, no, no, no, no, I'm talking about specifically the Call Me Caitlin cover, but I agree with you. Some of them really do end up looking like women,
Starting point is 01:34:41 but my point is the vast majority of the ones who even look like women only look like a woman when there is not a woman around. No, fair enough. Like if the majority of people look much better in their Facebook profile, exactly, then it's all the more true. Exactly. It looks way more like a dude than he does on sports illustrated or whatever they're doing. Exactly. Exactly. And that's my point. Whenever people say this, this trans person really passes. You don't know that you actually don't know that because you haven't seen them in real life so it seems like
Starting point is 01:35:10 Conservatives are getting bolder in this area. Mm-hmm. Even I've noticed when I interviewed Matt Walsh a while back I said, I think it's like a like a linguistic Concession to say trans man trans woman like stop saying that I always put air quotes around it. Yeah, it's not real We shouldn't say trans man because that's nothing and but it feels like even the daily wire have gotten a lot more strong and bold Lately at least maybe I'm wrong, but I'm just Catholics yeah, that's sorry keep going. It might be So I guess my question is, given what you know about YouTube,
Starting point is 01:35:46 is this now something we are allowed to criticize in the way that we are now allowed to criticize say COVID lockdowns or the Fauci ouchie to quote Michael Nolte? No, I don't care. Or not, and we're all about to be banned still. Well, we were all- Cuz we're all like abused children who occasionally think mom and dad will let us do things and then they smack us. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:36:10 Please don't ban me. Look, we are always, we're already always on the brink of being removed. What are you laughing about over there? Sorry, somebody in the chat asked if Matt could do his bicycle trick again. Oh, man, that's pretty brutal. Chad asked if Matt could do his bicycle trick again. Oh, man, that's pretty brutal. So that's funny, but I don't get how it applies to this. Yeah, it doesn't. Oh, no, I asked him.
Starting point is 01:36:32 I just heard him laugh. I was like, that must have been really funny if he couldn't hold it in. She deserved it. I had to body tack. The now you're going to get taken down for that. I have no idea. Now, I think what you're asking is a valuable question, because what it demonstrates is that we can move the Overton window as conservatives Even if no one wants to admit it
Starting point is 01:36:48 That is part of why it was so important to have Tucker on Fox a lot of right-wing people are going good screw Fox He's he's out and of course Tucker's gonna be successful at whatever he does And I hope that he goes on to do something that just blows the platform He had on Fox out of the water and he reaches even more people. I really do hope that ends up happening. However, my optimism is tempered with caution because there are many people in this country who still trust cable news. We don't. No one in this room does. Virtually no one in the audience does. Very surprised there's a single person watching this who does.
Starting point is 01:37:26 But for some demographic and a large demographic of people who vote, a person being on cable news gives them legitimacy rather than undermining their credibility, which is probably the case for most other people. So the reason CNN exists is for the establishment to tell you what you're supposed to believe. And then Fox exists for the establishment to tell you what you're allowed to believe. Okay, you're not going to swallow what we're trying to feed you over at CNN. So we'll let you try the other flavor. Okay. But this is the furthest fringe that you can approach. Once you cross over the line of what's acceptable to say on Fox News,
Starting point is 01:38:08 now you're a far right radical extremist because we're already calling Fox radical extremist as it is. Tucker Carlson forced the conversations happening on Fox News to be meaningful and he gave a lot of legitimacy to perspectives that were previously considered to be meaningful, and he gave a lot of legitimacy to perspectives that were previously considered to be only utterable on the internet, but never on cable television. So you look at the fact that he was talking about Ray Epps and January 6th, and the fact that it seems very suspiciously likely that the federal government was involved in instigating that.
Starting point is 01:38:47 We've been lied to by the media about it. And why is it that Ray Epps, who was on camera whispering into the ear of the first person who tore down a barrier outside of the Capitol is not being prosecuted and hasn't gotten in any trouble and was seen on camera a day earlier yelling to a crowd that they need to enter the Capitol the next day. Why is it that he hasn't been taken to court and prosecuted when someone like Brandon Straka, who they didn't even have footage of saying the words go into the Capitol, but claim that a voice in a video
Starting point is 01:39:24 that he was recording somewhere in the background that said go go was telling people Go into the Capitol when he himself never did and then he ends up Being charged and having to take a plea deal So I'm sorry that was not articulated in a very straight line But my point is with the January 6th insurrection or you know feds erection what I you know this narrative at worst It was a riot, right? Um, or at least at worst in terms of their narrative, it was actually something much worse than that, but not because it was an insurrection, but because of the narrative they crafted around it. My point is
Starting point is 01:40:04 Ray Epps behaved so egregiously and was never prosecuted never charged Whereas people who barely did anything wrong were taken to court hauled in front of a judge some of them having to take plea deals people who didn't even enter the capital yeah, and To say that maybe a year or two years ago might have gotten you labeled even by other conservatives as a little loony might have gotten you labeled even by other conservatives as a little loony. But Tucker Carlson starts saying it on Fox News. Yes. And it gives legitimacy to that perspective among mainstream conservatives, which is good because it's the most reasonable conclusion you can draw from the evidence. So do you think this is why he was fired then, because he was legitimizing opinions
Starting point is 01:40:40 that are outside of the realm of orthodoxy within the conservative? I think it's very likely. Yeah, I think it's very likely. I hate to speculate too much, but I, at the very least it is a benefit to them in their mind to lose that. And so how did I go from what we were talking about to Tucker Carlson to January 6th? Well, what I'm saying is the question you're asking about are conservatives becoming more bold and are they able to say more of these things is an important one because it shows we can shift the Overton window. And for so long, the Overton window has only moved to the left. And finally, we're starting to see real significant pushback.
Starting point is 01:41:20 And it's I mean, it really has to continue. I don't want conservatives to see any of these victories as remotely approaching enough. Even the bills that are being passed in these red states that prohibit sex change procedures for minors are great, but they're not nearly enough. We need so much more. We need so much more. And so we got to keep fighting, but it's encouraging to know that we've been winning some battles. We really have been winning battles that previously would not have been thought possible. Speaking of battles, we need to start fighting. Tell us why. Make the argument for why pornographers should be imprisoned. Oh yeah. Pornographers
Starting point is 01:41:59 should be imprisoned. And there's, there's a few reasons for this. Firstly, I think the most straightforward argument you can make is just the heavy involvement of pornographers with the sex trafficking industry. And this is something you've talked about in the book that you've written. I would also say that the catechism of the Catholic Church itself says that the production and distribution of pornography should be prevented by legal authorities. Okay, well, how do legal authorities prevent things? Legal authorities prevent things generally by issuing some set of legal consequences
Starting point is 01:42:33 for those actions. And I don't think a fine is going to be enough to get someone who's making insane amounts of money to stop producing pornography, right? And people might say, well, this is such an extreme view. It's not. We talk about locking people in prison for having a bump stock, right? With firearm regulations, we're more than happy
Starting point is 01:42:52 to throw people who haven't done anything violent in a cage. Dude, pornography does so much more destruction to our culture than rifles do. Are you kidding me? It's not even a question. It's not even a question. It doesn't even approach the opportunity of becoming a question.
Starting point is 01:43:11 It's so not a question. Pornography is entirely corrosive to culture and society. It destroys the most important and fundamental social building block, which is the relationship between men and women. That has to be protected at all costs. Like, I, this is going to sound crazy. I actually think we should be as protective of marriage and the family as we are of like
Starting point is 01:43:39 banks and businesses that fail. Yeah. And I know that's wild, right? But if someone was seen to be intentionally sabotaging a large bank by moving funds around where they weren't supposed to go and causing it to collapse so that they could swoop in from another company and benefit from that bank's collapse, you're telling me that person wouldn't be prosecuted?
Starting point is 01:44:01 Well, we have people doing that now, but instead of doing it with banks, they've been doing it for decades with the American family. Let's do everything we can to make our culture as sexually perverted as possible so that it's impossible for men and women to relate to one another. Just very conveniently happens to be the fact that the family is a competing authority structure to the state. Yep. There are, and people who don't have good relationships with the opposite sex, people who not only don't have families, but don't have any hope of starting one, which I think
Starting point is 01:44:35 is a very important key point here, end up feeling despair. And those who feel despair are also wonderful consumers, right? People living in despair are perfect consumers. It's not that there's an issue with not having a family if you're not called to have a family, if you're not at that point in your life, but young people today feel like they can't, like they will never be able to have a family.
Starting point is 01:44:59 That's a very different thing. It's a very disturbing thing. What that does is it takes away a person's hope and it also frees up their financial resources. Having a lot of financial resources and not having a lot of hope makes you a wonderful consumer because when there's no hope, when you don't have a future to look forward to, all you can do is grab on to immediate short-term pleasures. And then of course, if you don't have any dependence, you can afford to buy any and all of those.
Starting point is 01:45:27 It feels like instead of bread and circuses, it's, um, Uber eats and porn. That's literally like, we really don't need you to come out of your house. We'd prefer it. If you didn't just stay in there and really yourself and keep buying things on Amazon. Yeah. Yeah. So what do you say to them? My classic ADHD way, I went in a bunch of circles and we're not sure I actually addressed your, your core question. No, I think you did.
Starting point is 01:45:47 This is why we should jail pornographers and why pornography should be illegal. They're literally destroying society. And I hate using the, I think they're, excuse me. I think often the term society is used as a cop out. I'm like, I don't have an argument for this. I'm gonna say it's bad for society. But I think you could very easily demonstrate
Starting point is 01:46:03 how and why pornography is bad for the relationship between men and women. And if it's bad for the relationship between men and women, then there's no question that it's horrifically bad for society, right? That shouldn't even... Now, two objections someone might offer. You know, one is, okay, but we live in a democratic republic where the vast majority of people are okay with pornography. So the idea that we would ever criminalize it is just not even feasible. So why talk about it? So there's two separate questions here. You're asking me, should we jail pornographers?
Starting point is 01:46:29 You're not asking me if that's a pragmatic political possibility at this point. You're not asking me if that's something we're gonna be able to achieve, or if this is what the Republicans should be beating the drum on right now. Okay, so respond to that then. Yeah, so that's an entirely separate argument.
Starting point is 01:46:40 But no, I guess that would be my response. My argument here is not about strategy, it's about principle. What I'm saying is pornography absolutely should be banned, whether that's something that's done on the local level or the federal level, whether there's a political will for it, whether that's something that would sabotage the Republican Party right now instead of helping it claim whatever victories it needs to win in order to move on to banning pornography is an entirely different question.
Starting point is 01:47:05 And I'm not trying to answer that right now. All I'm trying to say from a position of principle is it's totally corrosive and we need to get rid of it. And I have no qualms about jailing the people who produce it. And I want to say... In other words, I would not say it's like a human rights violation to throw someone in jail for making porn. Yes, and I would agree with you 100 percent. I'd also want to say to those who are nervous about making a full throated claim like this because they themselves still look at pornography that I've said it before, but a hypocrite isn't somebody who
Starting point is 01:47:36 never always lives up, never or fails to live up to their own standards. That's not what a hypocrite is. Like it's somebody who doesn't believe what they say they believe. Yeah, would demand something of everybody else that they refuse to demand of themselves or something like that. So it's like you can be somebody like most of us have had our, you know, we've been this, this stuff has been imposed upon us from a young age. And it's a difficult thing to overcome. And you can be vocal against pornography, even as you strive to be free of it. And that doesn't make
Starting point is 01:48:05 you a hypocrite. That would be the first argument, right? That it's like, it's just unfeasible. So don't even talk about it. I'm trying to think what else someone might say. Like if, look, if I'm asked the question, I'm going to answer honestly, right? I mean, should they be? This is twofold.
Starting point is 01:48:22 This is another, this is another way of looking at it. If you heard that the UN was saying to some small country in Africa, we will only give you humanitarian aid if you stop jailing pornographers, how would you feel about that? I think that's another very valid question because that tells you whether in principle
Starting point is 01:48:43 you think there's anything wrong with jailing them. Repeat the question. So if the UN were to go into some small African country that lives as man is meant to live or more in line with that, they have some understanding of the natural law. And they would say to that country, we will only give you humanitarian aid
Starting point is 01:49:00 or whatever it is they're holding over their head. If you stop this ugly practice of throwing pornographers in jail, would you as an American Catholic go, well, see, I see what you mean. We can't tell the UN not to do that because these are our values. What I'm trying to do here is not discuss,
Starting point is 01:49:19 again, pragmatic political strategy. I'm trying to get down to basic principles. And if you would be upset, if you would think it was an overstep for the U.N. to tell a small country to stop locking pornographers up, then you're not in a position to say that it's wrong to lock pornographers up. Excellent. Yeah, that's really good. This gets back to what we were saying in the beginning, where 10 years ago conservatives were all libertarians.
Starting point is 01:49:44 Yeah. Whereas today- Guilty, right? I was too. Well, tell us what is libertarianism and why shouldn't we subscribe to it as Christians? So oftentimes you will get arguments about libertarianism and what it is coming from both libertarians and non-libertarians, which are very bad. So one of the most insane, oversimplified horrible explanations of libertarianism is it is social
Starting point is 01:50:04 liberalism and fiscal conservatism. That is so far from an accurate or legitimate description of libertarianism. And it's funny because I started my career out as a political commentator as a staunch libertarian. And I've changed on this. And what was your reasoning at the time? If somebody asked you to give a quick.
Starting point is 01:50:20 I'm happy to give it in a moment here. And that's why there's this part of me, when I see people define libertarianism improperly, even though I don't believe it anymore, I get offended. There's still this part of it that's like, no, that's not what it means. What you're saying is wrong. So there are different ways of conceptualizing it,
Starting point is 01:50:37 but I think the best possible explanation for what libertarianism is, is a belief in the non-aggression principle. Now this is gonna cause some libertarian in fighting among some people who are gonna say, well, no, that's actually not the best way to define it, or I'm libertarian and I don't even believe in the NAP. But what it states is that it is only ever acceptable
Starting point is 01:50:57 to use physical force against another person if they have initiated force against you. That's true on an individual basis, and it's true at the level of the state. And once you believe that, you end up having to adopt an anarcho-capitalist position, because the state can't exist without initiating force against people who haven't initiated it first.
Starting point is 01:51:16 So taxation would be an example of this. For the government to take any of your money without your consent is a violation of the non-aggression principle. So they can't do that. We can't have a government that taxes people. You'll have some libertarians who consider themselves minarchists who won't go all the way with it because again, there are schools of thought in libertarianism outside of the non-aggression principle. That was just what I held to because it's a very clean, clear principle that helps you make sense
Starting point is 01:51:38 of a lot of libertarian positions. But there are some minarchist libertarians who will say, you know, the state does have some right to tax people or even that maybe there could be voluntary methods of taxation, like a lottery that people could play into and choose to give their money to. And that's how the state would fund itself. It's a belief in minimal state power, and it has nothing to do with one's views on homosexuality or transgenderism per se, or religion. I think what ends up happening is many people who are conservative or consider themselves to be conservative on economic issues but don't care about transgenderism or homosexual behavior or even abortion, which is actually very contentious among libertarians, there's no
Starting point is 01:52:35 consensus on abortion among libertarians, but these Republicans who are still very much Republicans but are kind of socially liberal will say, oh, I'm a libertarian. No, no, you don't have this basic principle that tells you state interference is wrong. You just happen to not want the state to interfere with those things. And that's pretty much what conservatives were for a long time. They were called libertarian but they really weren't because they didn't have libertarian values with respect to the warfare state. They weren't non-interventionists. They were still fine with the United States getting involved in any and every conflict overseas that I wanted to get involved with.
Starting point is 01:53:10 But they also had absolutely no interest in using the government to even attempt to uphold the social fabric. And so we called them libertarian. But they really weren't. They really weren't. And when people say there's this libertarian strain in Republican thought, I understand what they're saying. I do.
Starting point is 01:53:24 But it's still not libertarianism properly defined. And maybe that's a little pedantic of me, but that's how I would explain it. And that's also how I would have explained it when I was a libertarian, is that it's a belief in the non-aggression principle. Let's take a break. And then when we come back, I want to take questions from local supporters. So if you're watching right now and you are a local supporter, I'm going to go post you know, put a post up on locals right now where you can ask your questions below and we'll get to
Starting point is 01:53:48 them soon. Thanks so much for being here. So if you haven't yet got the app, Hello, what are you doing? If you have a smartphone, go and download Hello. But first go to hello.com slash Matt Fradd. Hello is the number one Catholic prayer and meditation app on the web. And it's fantastic. And it actually beat tick tock recently as far as in the episode. Did you know that it's crazy? It's legit. Hello.com slash Matt Fradd go over there sign up. You'll get three months for free if at the end of the three months
Starting point is 01:54:17 you don't want it anymore. You can quit and you don't have to pay a cent. They have sleep stories. They'll help you pray the rosary. It's really fantastic. Also, if you got kids, it's nice to play have sleep stories. They'll help you pray the rosary. It's really fantastic. Also if you've got kids, it's nice to play little sleep stories for them. Hello. H-A-L-L-O-W.com slash Matt Fred. Click the link in the description below. I want to say thank you to a new sponsor, EverythingCatholic.com. Maybe you like Amazon, but you're tired of giving them money. What
Starting point is 01:54:42 if you could give your money to a Catholic company that sold everything Catholic and in so doing, not only support that Catholic company, but support Catholic artisans and craftsmen as well. I've got a bunch of stuff that they just sent me. We have a chrism scented bee wax candle, which Thursday thinks smells delightful. We even have chrism lotion cream, that rosary bracelets, they have kids books, they have the what is this? This is like a merry doll for your children. Rosaries, kids books, all sorts of stuff. Go to everything catholic.com right now. And
Starting point is 01:55:18 when you use the promo code pints, you'll get 15% off. So go support an excellent Catholic company, as well as as I say excellent Catholic small businessman and craftsman everything catholic.com to the to to to to to to to if So to to Bye! you I don't think we're back. We're back with Seamus Coughlin. Here I am. Coughlin, Coughlin, Coughlin. Yeah, not Coughlin. I get that a lot. The worst mispronunciation I've ever gotten. Was at a film festival in high school.
Starting point is 02:00:54 I won an award and they said Seamstress Coughlin. So I want to bring Thursday into the discussion if that's the case. I'm going to bring Thursday into the discussion. I'm going to bring Thursday into the discussion. I'm going to bring Thursday into the discussion. I'm going to bring Thursday into the discussion. I get that a lot the worst mispronunciation I've ever gotten Was that a film festival in high school? I won an award and they said seamstress Copeland So I want to bring Thursday into the discussion if that's okay. Yes, totally because I want to try to understand younger conservatives This is let me just unspoiled for a little bit
Starting point is 02:01:16 Okay before you interrupt because I want to see if I can articulate this in a helpful way a lot of people today are talking about neocons and like conservative ink and and I wonder how much of that is just sort of A lot of people today are talking about neocons and like conservative ink and And I wonder how much of that is just sort of Showing off like you're in the in group and now you're making fun of people who aren't as Ideologically, Lee pure as you are I also think there's an age gap like just like we'd point to people like Mitt Romney and those people and say like we don't Need that anymore in the conservative movement if you like that go away I think like I'm an older man to both you and Thursday.
Starting point is 02:01:48 And I see the way you guys talk about conservative politics. And I see the way other people that you admire to some capacity, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but like Jonathan Doyle and other folks speak and I listen to them and I'm just like a little uncomfortable with certain things that they do. Nothing with your cartoons ever, but some, these folks do. And so I'm just, I'm trying to wade through this. I'm like, okay, how much of this is, well,
Starting point is 02:02:10 I'm just not brave enough to say as loudly and as articulately as they are the things that they're saying. And then how much of it is like a healthy caution where I'm really trying to understand it. And then one thing Thursday said to me that really helped was like, all right, when you were a teenager, you were super into Metallica, right?
Starting point is 02:02:28 And people didn't understand that kind of aggression and that kind of thing. I'm glad you're saying this. I'm glad you're saying it. Yeah. I want you to, I would love you to spend some time talking about it too. He's like, this is our, this is our Metallica. Like the young conservatives that you're meeting who are pissed off, are pissed off that our country has been taken from us and we're not going to put up with it anymore. So that I also,
Starting point is 02:02:47 before we get any further, I've said this on the show a couple of times and you've agreed with it. So this is just me wanting to lay the groundwork for people who haven't heard this before. And I think it'll be helpful for Seamus to think about it this way too. Um, that you grew up in Australia and you got exposed to the internet much later than even people of your generation. Yep. So culturally and this is not like me calling you an old man. I think culturally you are older than even people of your generation.
Starting point is 02:03:12 I think that's right. Like my wife was using the internet when she was like 12. Yeah, I started using when I was 17 and she's like a year older than me. Oh, yeah, I think culturally. Yeah, and I was 17. 17! Imagine what the internet was when it came in. Oh, yeah. So I think culturally, yeah, and I was 17, 17. That's what the internet was when it came in. Yeah, there was nothing. I remember. I remember dial up, but that's as far back as I can go.
Starting point is 02:03:31 To be fair, actually, like I was able like I wasn't like using it, using it. That was just the first time my family had it. Yeah. So, um, so yeah, I think the Metallica thing is really important because and this is so the Metallica thing and this was me so What you have to consider is that? Because of the internet for the first time ever The people of the youngest generation who know that in five to ten years We will be the primary generation running the country as adults not like running the country like politically but like
Starting point is 02:04:05 Yeah, like in all of the industries that keep things moving. Mm-hmm we know what we could have had because we know very much what it was like just you know two decades ago and because of the history we know what it was like four decades and so what we look at and we can we're also now because of the internet and because of the way our brains are formed, we're, we're smart enough to realize in mass what the country will look like when we get to the point where we have those choices and realize that a lot of those choices have been taken from us. Right. And, and this gets into what you were saying earlier about a lot of people feel like there's no chance to get married.
Starting point is 02:04:50 Yeah, or have a family. Or have a family. And it's just, so a lot of this anger is coming from looking at society and realizing that like, the things my dad had a chance to do are 10 times harder for me. The things my grandfather had a chance to do, there's just no way I'm ever gonna be able to do are 10 times harder for me. You know, the things my grandfather had a chance to do there,
Starting point is 02:05:06 there's just no way I'm ever going to be able to do them. Like own a house and have, you know, six kids and like, uh, on a single income and, and own like a vacation. You as a young conservative and me as an older kind of guy who's more conservative leaning is that people of my generation, like my age, never wanted the thing you want. Like we all wanted what friends told us to want, like a two bedroom apartment in New York and having just promiscuous sex.
Starting point is 02:05:36 It's really cool that young men like you were like, I want to work and I want my wife to help stay at home, raise the kids. And I want to provide for her and I want to gaggle of children. And I want it like, that's really neat. Cause I don't think anyone my age, unless they were a solid Christian was saying that. Well, and it's honest, it's just a return to what's normal. One thing, one very creative rhetorical tactic
Starting point is 02:05:57 and propagandistic tactic of the left is to take normal human behavior that has been the status quo for all of history and then labeling it a unique quirk of the 1950s. Like a woman who wants to stay home with a child. Like a 19, I saw an article, more men say, are saying they want 1950s wives. No, they're just saying they don't want 1960s through 2020s wives. And they just want what a wife would have meant at any other point in history.
Starting point is 02:06:19 Yep. They don't want the unique. I'm okay with that. I'm okay with a man wanting that and think he should want that, so long as he wants to be a man prior to the 1950s as well. And I think you see that a lot of men. They're striving. I was trying to use a fax machine the other day at the hotel because I was getting my American passport, and I couldn't really figure it out.
Starting point is 02:06:40 And I realized that I'm not only incompetent when it comes to like fixing a sink or fixing a drip or fixing drywall. You think a fax machine. I'm incompetent with like technology from five years ago that isn't Apple. Like I'm useless as an ashtray on a motorbike. Oh my gosh. And that's frustrating. And so I think this if young men want women like as you say pre 1950s and as it has been then that
Starting point is 02:07:07 we need to seek to be the kinds of men who are more competent in real things. And I think I think it's a big part of complicated thing. It's a mix so I am not just look like men from a hundred years ago actually begin to develop the virtues of men a hundred years ago. We have divided labor. I once had a teacher who defined consumerism in a very interesting way. He said it's just the increased division of labor.
Starting point is 02:07:32 And that is one way of looking at it. I think there's more to it than that, but that's a very interesting angle. And because of our consumer culture, we have really, really diversified the division of labor such that you don't do anything on your own. Like if something breaks at your house, you do just call somebody else in to do it. And then you have your task, you have your job, you have the thing society's delegated to you. And that's kind of the only thing that you do. And you're able to
Starting point is 02:08:00 theoretically maximize your profit, either for yourself or maybe your boss, depending on how you know scrupulous the person you work for is or unscrupulous. But ultimately we have this new landscape where you are expected to do one thing all the time. And so I agree with you, the paradigm has shifted a little bit where men are not expected to know how to change oil etc etc, but he's certainly expected then to be able to make enough money that you can go get an oil change without him. But I agree with you. It would be good for people to develop those skills because we have lost so much. But I am seeing- The idea of like a dad doing something around the house is almost, it's foreign now. You just hire
Starting point is 02:08:38 someone in to do it. Right. So it occurred to me at one point, like how often does my son see me working? Like I often just like have him mow the lawn. So like, what's he, whenever he sees me, now it was cool. He was here. He sees you podcasting. He was here. So, well, that's something. I mean, he was here in the Prager interview the other day. And I have to say, I was like really honored to have him see me push back in a kind of Christian way and to hear his communication with Thursday and another fella who was here about sexual degeneracy and why it was beautiful to see. But most of our kids just see us sitting on the couch because we work over there, but we don't work at home. We have other people do that. But I want to say that I am seeing young men like the kinds of young men who want a traditional marriage like you do, are actually developing their skills.
Starting point is 02:09:20 Like you're crushing it at Woodwork. Like, right right like you've got so much better at that and that was a desire you had and that was a desire I had but also I talk about my dad a lot and I have a really good relationship with my mom but I am a young man so I you know talk about my dad a lot so I but I I'm never you, I'm endlessly thankful to my father because, um, I mean, I just have all these wonderful memories of him working on things that he wasn't getting paid for, like rebuilding the front end of a car because we didn't have the money to buy a new car but we had the money to buy the parts yeah and so he rebuilt the entire front end of this car and then from then on out anytime a vehicle needed a repair he did it yeah he still does he's you know so you got three now and he still does and he taught me
Starting point is 02:10:22 everything that he thought I should know How to do hmm, and I always I love this line here Thursday. Sorry to cut you off But this this person said Thursday it's up to me and you to tell young people like us that marriage and the family is the way To go so Brett Cooper if you are listening, ah There's the bit again at any point. I want to this is Back to like a more like theoretical political thing that young people are mad about but I say this to a lot of young men and they and They all they kind of agree with it, but I don't think a lot of young men have been able to
Starting point is 02:10:55 Vocalize it or verbalize a series of words for it. Mm-hmm and so I think what a lot of young men see and they may not realize this is We have one party in the United States that pays lip service to social conservatism and is incredibly effective at fiscal conservatism. And we have another party in the United States that is extremely successful at social progressivism and then pays lip service to fiscal progressivism. And then we have a power structure
Starting point is 02:11:28 that wants to be socially progressive and fiscally liberal. And as a result, we have a single power structure that can be described as a uniparty that is moving our society, our entire culture towards a socially progressive, fiscally libertarian place and yeah like we'll all have jobs but we'll be degenerate and unhappy yeah well and this is we talked about this a while ago last time I was on your show somebody asked the question would you rather live under a system of full government control over the economy but
Starting point is 02:12:02 which was socially conservative or a libertarian system where there is degeneracy and it's rampant. And my answer to that question was I don't think either of those realities are possible in the long term. I think that fiscal conservatism and legitimate fiscal conservatism, not what the Republicans are offering, requires a person to be responsible for themselves and not what the Republicans are offering, requires a person to be responsible for themselves and it's much more difficult to get away with engaging in the kinds of lifestyle choices that the left promotes when you are the person who ends up having to pay for it because none of this stuff is sustainable.
Starting point is 02:12:36 Non-monogamy is just an unstable economic strategy and it's not sustainable, it doesn't work. It's wrong for other reasons but you can't have a functioning country if people are not. You have to be incredibly wealthy to be able to afford economic strategy and it's not sustainable, it doesn't work. It's wrong for other reasons, but you can't have a functioning country if people are not, you have to be incredibly wealthy to be able to afford for people to continually marry and divorce and marry and divorce and marry and divorce. And you end up squandering your society's wealth when you do that as well.
Starting point is 02:12:57 And so I think it's possible, and I touched on this earlier when we were discussing libertarianism. I just got a text from George Farmer in old caps. You will never beat my time, Seamus. Oh, well, now I have to stay. Now I got to stay. Sorry, George. Look, this is where we are.
Starting point is 02:13:15 I mean, how do I know you didn't just say that? He has to give you more watch time. Whoa, Matt, Matt, Fred leaks text messages from George farmer is watching right now. Hi, George. Oh my gosh. Hey, yeah. Thank you for watching. By the way, you will never beat my time. Shamus. He's right back. Suck it. Watch it. What's very good. You want to look into the camera and say, no, I already, well, I already texted it to him, but then you got to commit. We got to commit. If you say that, look, we have to double check on my flight time and make sure I'll be able to make it. But OK, hey,
Starting point is 02:13:48 would you I just want to I don't mean to cut you off, but I also want to let people know that we're going to take questions now. We always take questions from our local supporters before anybody else. If you want to ask a question, make it a super chat. But we can't guarantee we'll get to every super chat because, as I say, we try to prefer the locals, but with that caveat, please send us a Super Chat if you want.
Starting point is 02:14:10 All right, did you wanna finish your point or do you want me to? No, never. I'm kidding, actually I do. Here is what I would say. Because I know I've gone in a million different directions with this. But my ultimate point is,
Starting point is 02:14:33 this. But my ultimate point is I think that there are a variety of viable political strategies or beliefs a person can have as a Catholic and as a traditionalist. I'm not saying we all have to view economics the exact same way, for example, or all see the state of the role, the role of the state, I'm sorry, is manifesting itself identically in every framework that we might hold to as Catholics. But I do think that there are certain, a lot of conservatives are talking more and more about wanting big government and embracing this idea and I think there is some value in that in the sense that we can't allow the left to say you want to police X Y & Z I thought you were the party of limited government I'm not interested in being the party of limited government so to speak I'm really not I not interested in being the party of limited government, so to speak. I'm really not. I'm interested in being the party of effective
Starting point is 02:15:27 governance. However, I do think effective governance tends to be smaller. It's just that right now it's totally lopsided. We're very litigious about things that aren't all that important, and then we have absolutely no desire to regulate things that genuinely matter. And then when we do get involved in regulating arenas where there are massively important social issues at play that do need to be regulated, we regulate from the wrong side. I'm not just regulate, but incentivize the things that we want. Yeah, financially. Exactly. Exactly. I want to take questions.
Starting point is 02:15:58 I want to say a big thanks to a fellow called Kyle Whittington, who's a supporter of ours. And he's always I want to tell people to go check out his channel, Kyle Whittington. He's a supporter of ours. And he's always, I want to tell people to go check out his channel, Kyle Whittington. He's been putting out some great stuff lately. So Thursday, if you don't mind putting a link to his YouTube channel below, I'd love people to go see the good work he's doing. He's got a question. What's an example of an incident incident that freedom turns experience that you
Starting point is 02:16:19 look back on and say, things haven't been the same since that incident happened. How did you handle the incident and how did you bounce back? So I'm not sure if he's talking about something negative. No, there's nothing negative that I could say is described in that way, but there was an incident and I described it on the show last time where I was really discerning my vocation and the channel was doing very poorly at this time. And I asked St. Joseph as part of my novena,
Starting point is 02:16:46 because I'd been discerning for a long time and I was pretty certain that I was not called to the priesthood, but I wanted to really do my due diligence. And my friend had told me she'd seen miracles arise from people saying the St. Joseph's novena. So I said it and I thought, yeah, it would be nice to just have like a really airtight answer to this question. If I could ask for one miracle, it would kind of be that.
Starting point is 02:17:07 And so I asked and in the prayer, I simply asked, and if I'm called to marriage and family, please help my business to do a bit better. And I wasn't even thinking of it in terms of like, oh, if my business does better, I know a direction. I wasn't thinking of it that way. I was just asking. But then literally the day I finished the Novena, like my channel exploded. We already had, we had about 300,000 subscribers
Starting point is 02:17:34 at that point, but we weren't growing at all. We really stagnated. And then a video I uploaded called Ken and Karen versus the mob just exploded and went really viral by our standards at that time. And then Tim Poole started reaching out to me and also even independent that video blowing up a bunch of other people were just happened
Starting point is 02:17:55 to start reaching out to me to ask for work and urge to ask if I would work with them. So I would say that was the point in time where I really I realized I was absolutely committed to this and that this was, it's not, I was always very committed to it, but this is like when I had with certainty, like, no, I'm not going to enter religious life or become a priest. I am going to focus on creating media and eventually get married and have a family. And it's also interesting because the tone of the channel changed a little bit then too. It was much more wordy before that point.
Starting point is 02:18:27 I think there was something about it was a it was a bit of a unique, somewhat unique video at that time compared to the rest of my content. And I leaned into being a little goofier with it as opposed to just kind of the straight verbal humor I was used to. And I found it to be very effective. And one thing I also found, and this has helped me a lot, is while it can be good, and I do often try to use verbal humor to make fun of the left,
Starting point is 02:18:55 I have never had more success in portraying leftists in terms of both behavior and ideology than by simply portraying them as noisemakers. Like just these crazy, noisemaking cry bullies who flal around and convulse and scream when they don't get their way. Every single time I release something where a left-wing individual is depicted in that way,
Starting point is 02:19:18 it resonates with people and that's because it's true. It's true and I'm sorry, it is. I'm not saying every single person with left wing values always acts that way. But I'm saying overall, the mob, when you look at left wing behaviors, you look at that side of the political aisle, that's what we've come to expect at this point. And that's why I think that really resonates with people satirically. Paul, is it Lahoud? Lahoud?
Starting point is 02:19:41 Oh, I think it's Lahoud. Lahoud's the fellow who does our time stamps. So grateful to you, Paul. You're the man. He says, hi Matt, hi Seamus, huge fan of both of you. What can young men such as myself do to help build a Catholic culture in our professions similar to what the two of you have done? I like that question a lot. Do you want to go first? Because I have a couple thoughts. Well, I mean, it's easy to do when your job is to evangelize. Yeah. Like I want to I want to and have and will consecrate pines with the quietness to the blessed Virgin Mary so that she can hasten the crushing of the enemy's head.
Starting point is 02:20:13 And you know, and if she has to use my disgusting shoe, that is me, like the absolute imperfect, wretched, cowardly, whatever, then she will. And I entrust the whole thing to her so easy though when you're doing something specifically Catholic to kind of I say you know yeah and I do some things I do it we should do a novena with the audience to do that that'd be awesome done that'd be awesome that's there is sorry were you gonna finish that thought I didn't I don't want to know I was just saying we should do a no video like with it we, we should pick like nine days, like a festival and tell everybody like over these
Starting point is 02:20:48 nine days, please pray these prayers with us on the ninth day. We're going to consecrate the channel. Amen. I, I once, um, about a year ago wrote a letter begging for prayers and posted letters to about 150 convents around the world. Wow. And so explain what I was doing and just begging them to pray for all of our viewers. This is one way I've tried. That's great. No, that's that's great.
Starting point is 02:21:12 I'm in a bit of a different spot than you, but not entirely different in the sense that I am a somewhat public figure of whom people do expect to hear or from whom people do expect to hear Catholic things. But it wasn't always that way, right? I mentioned earlier, I started my career as basically a libertarian cartoonist and political commentator, and my values have changed. And when I, when I really came to understand that there were certain libertarian beliefs that just weren't compatible with Catholicism, it was very scary for me to start speaking out about those things,
Starting point is 02:21:52 because I didn't know how people were gonna react and that could have just been the end of my career. And I thought, well, I don't know what else I'm gonna have to build something else completely from the ground up, because obviously no animation studio is gonna hire this conservative Catholic bigot who has said all these horribly offensive things about the agenda they're trying to promote. And the most straightforward best advice I can give you,
Starting point is 02:22:16 and I hope this doesn't sound trite because I really mean it, is just do not be afraid. That is really the best advice that I can give you because we live in a culture that operates entirely based on you being afraid. It needs you to be scared and it needs you to feel despair. The current cultural paradigm, and this is something I spoke about at YAF when I was explaining to these young people how I believe they can keep their faith.
Starting point is 02:22:46 What I said was, this is a culture where men are told that they're apes who can't restrain their sexual desires and the only way they can achieve any kind of personal fulfillment or happiness is by becoming as wealthy and high status as possible so that they can have as many consequence-free sexual interactions with women who they will jump from one to another over and over using and discarding them. And then if a man can't reach that level of status or doesn't even approach it, he's to be regarded as an incel who should spend the rest of his life anesthetizing himself with pornographic material. We tell young women that they should allow themselves to be used, that the only way they're ever gonna find love
Starting point is 02:23:30 is by letting as many men as possible use them sexually and just being passed around as if they're sexual objects and not people. And it tells people who are sexually confused to sodomize and mutilate their bodies into complete unrecognizable disrepair. They end up marching to early graves as a result of drug overdose and suicide.
Starting point is 02:23:55 And you have mothers killing their own children. And when you look at the rationale behind all of these things, it is all despair. It is all despair. People are terrified of living any other way. They don't think they can be happy. And we have the truth and we can give it to them. And why don't we?
Starting point is 02:24:12 Well, because we're scared. And that's how this all keeps happening. That's why this cycle continues, because the culture has convinced you to be afraid. It's convinced them to be afraid. And we're able to look at the things that they're afraid of. And we see that that's ridiculous.
Starting point is 02:24:23 How could you be afraid of calling out the farce that is the sexual revolution in your own life by not sleeping around? How could you be afraid of that? You'll be happy, you'll be more fulfilled, et cetera, et cetera, fulfilled. We'll talk about all of the misunderstandings that people in our culture have and all of their irrational fears, but then we cling to our own irrational fears like, no, I can't, but I can't tell people that I can't tell people about the gospel. I can't tell people about Jesus Christ. I can't tell people about the Catholic Church I can't tell people about the natural law because then they'll hate me now ruin my life and then I'll never be happy So we fall into the exact same patterns of despair that keep everyone else in check
Starting point is 02:24:58 But because we have the right ideas we think we're somehow above it Did you see to your point Tucker Carlson's recent speech, I think it was a day or two before he was let go. It's brilliant. Maybe he plagiarized my YAF speech. It's excellent, but one of the things he says is like, when you, and it's an obvious point, but sometimes obvious points need to be said
Starting point is 02:25:16 when we're all idiots. That when you lie, you become weaker. But if you just say something true, anything, without embarrassment, you feel empowered. That's true. It's true. And so, all right. Something was mentioned earlier where Thursday you said something about people seeing conservatism and traditionalism as being kind of punk rock, so to speak. And I hear that a lot. But for me, it's more or less been what you described in the sense that I don't just feel weak saying something that's
Starting point is 02:25:52 not true. I feel weak not saying something that is true in a moment where I knew that I should have. And so much of having a public profile today is ensuring that you never say the wrong thing, which is extremely destructive when you consider that what the marketplace wants on social media is for you to generate content nonstop. So we're told two separate things. Never shut up and never say the wrong thing. I can't do both. I can't do both. I can't do both of those things.
Starting point is 02:26:27 I simply can't. I've tried. I've tried. I've tried shutting up. I've tried not saying the wrong thing, okay? I struggle with each of those things separately, but then when I have to do both, right? As a content creator,
Starting point is 02:26:43 when you have to constantly be generating, and you can never Say the wrong thing or have any kind of verbal slip up that people are gonna misinterpret as bad as they possibly can to try to Either denigrate your message or even just get clicks for themselves because they want to do the whole drama thing And profit off of that. I mean at some point and I can't give you an exact moment And I know this is one of those things that people say to sound cool, and I really hope it doesn't come off that way.
Starting point is 02:27:08 I hope none of you think that I'm cool or that I'm trying to be cool, but I just got tired. I just, I am really, really so past the point of being tired of trying to ensure that I haven't said anything politically incorrect. And conservatives will make that claim. They'll say, oh all these PC woke liberals don't want to say what's right or wrong. And then they're still afraid to misgender somebody
Starting point is 02:27:36 because they don't want to get their show taken off there. I think it happens more to content creators than it does happen to your average person to be fair. I think the viewers aren't so much that way. But then sometimes, you know, at their workplace and in their everyday life, they are, they're too afraid to speak out and say what's true. So I guess really for me, it has been a very long winded way of saying,
Starting point is 02:27:56 just don't be afraid. And I'm not saying like, don't be afraid because I'm such a brave person. I'm saying don't be afraid because it's gonna take everything out of you to be afraid. You're just gonna be exhausted. Just say things that are true. Really, just say things that are true and-
Starting point is 02:28:15 I think that there's also, though, a legitimate pressure people have to not mislead people. Oh, yes, yes. So whereas they wanna say true things, they also know they're not infallible and have sometimes said things that are false that people have run with. And the larger your platform is, the perhaps the grave of that responsibility. Yeah, that's very real.
Starting point is 02:28:32 And that's something that I've definitely struggled with trying to figure out. Should I say this? Should I not say this? Do I know enough about this? Especially when it comes to particular questions about the Bible that I'll get. I try to be really careful about that. So on Timcast, people will ask, because I speak about my faith publicly, even though I've made, I think, every necessary declaration that I'm not a formerly trained theologian or apologist, these things matter to me, I know more than the average Catholic, and I consider this to be incredibly
Starting point is 02:28:59 important, people will still come to me with all sorts of questions, which is fine, which is totally fine, but someone can ask a question about a particular verse in the Bible, and even if I am familiar with that verse, I remember it, and I could give you what I think it means, I don't want to do that because unless I have read official interpretations on what that means from qualified theologians, I'm worried that I'm just going to end up giving you my own misinterpretation of it. Yeah. And sometimes people will get angry. They're like, oh, this is so typical. Like,
Starting point is 02:29:36 the Catholic doesn't know the Bible, doesn't want to answer questions about the Bible. And look, I think that's a fair criticism. I know a lot of Protestants who are just airtight with their knowledge of scripture, and that's something Catholics should strive for. But there's also this epistemic humility a person has to have. And when you're publicly speaking about Scripture, you have to be so careful. It's not enough to have read the verse. It's not enough to have read and thought about the verse. You really need to have done an actual dive into what that means. You have to be clear that you know what that particular verse is saying. Or at least as a Catholic to know what the church's position on it is.
Starting point is 02:30:12 Exactly. Yes. Hey, we've got a super chat here from Matthew Calmbuck. Calmbuck? Calmbuck. Thank you so much. He gave us 20 bucks and said, big thanks for you not getting any of this. Us. Yeah. I know. Do you hear I use that? I think thanks for getting to listen to two of my favorite Catholics is very kind. Matt and Thursday are your favorites. Tommy Lee says, Seamus, can you give us your best Matt Fradd
Starting point is 02:30:37 or some other person like Catholic impression? Yeah. Do that one. Okay. Matt Fradd. I sort of read this. I don't think I can do Matt. Fred, right. I did a little bit of an Australian accent in front of you last night. Yeah, but I don't think I noticed it.
Starting point is 02:30:51 Did you do it? That's because it's just how everything sounds to you. Does everyone sound like they have an Australian accent to you when you're from Australia? No, but I might. Oh, yeah. Honestly, when most Americans try an Australian accent, it sounds like some cottony British, like weird, like cockney British, like, and I got
Starting point is 02:31:07 now you die. Yeah. I have also noticed that I was listening to an old television commercial where there's like an Australian. It was clearly an Australian trying to do an American accent. It's like, I bet this is so bad as
Starting point is 02:31:19 a kid listening to the Simpsons impersonate Australian accents. I remember thinking, how hard is it to find an Australian to voice these characters? But now I realize, no, no, the fun is in making fun of the Australian accent and good for them. Exactly. He's got to do his Prager impression because his Prager is really good. Is it? I want to hear it.
Starting point is 02:31:38 I said, Prager, if you come on the show, like I don't want to put you on the spot, but I have to talk about porn because I've written a great deal. Matt, I'm an open book. Happy to talk about anything, but you do a great deal. Matt, I'm an open book, happy to talk about anything, but you do a much better job. What's your Prager? I don't think I have a Prager, to be honest. I don't think I have a Prager impression.
Starting point is 02:31:52 We got some time, work on it. Let's go. The radical left. I don't know. It's just, it's hard. It's hard, especially when people expect good impressions from you, it's harder to riff when you don't. But what was funny was last night as we were chatting,
Starting point is 02:32:04 you would sometimes fall into these Impressions I'm like, oh that sounds like the guy from freedom tunes. Ah, that's funny. You were sitting with me. Um, I Yeah, I don't think I could do a matte impression. There's a couple Catholic impressions, but I did those last time I was on the show. I don't know if anyone was once again someone sent a meme Food for thought are mashed potatoes just Irish guacamole? That's fair. It's a very fair question. I like that because it makes it sound like a much more fine cuisine. The Irish are not capable of whipping anything up. That is that intricate in terms of flavor.
Starting point is 02:32:34 Right. Put it in a pot and boil it. That's all. Tommy Lee says, I know guacamole is mashing it. Whatever. What do you think of Laura Horn's YouTube channel? Me? Oh, she's hilarious. Laura Horn's hilarious. I saw that the Taylor Marsh stand parody and I was losing it. That was so good. She's hysterical. She really is. She's hysterical. Yeah, she's great. I haven't seen like everything on her channel, but I definitely, I'm pretty sure I'm a
Starting point is 02:32:57 subscriber and I've seen a number of her videos and she cracks me up. We, Wes Oz says, I think Fratt and Prager just come from different backgrounds and therefore use vocabulary differently, which can make cross communication hard. As a recent convert from Protestantism, I can relate. Even the use of the word grace is different for the branch of Protestants that I came from and Catholics. And it took me a while. Yeah, fair enough.
Starting point is 02:33:21 No, you're under a hundred percent. We're using different language. And I think we want to give Prager the benefit of the doubt. Like when he said some more shocking things, let's say I won't get into it now, but you know what I'm talking about with the animated stuff, you know, like it's not like he was like, you know, that's great. No, it's actually really good. I just thought it was inconsistent. Cause if, if I was to say to him, and I'm again,
Starting point is 02:33:38 I'm not going to reference him because everyone knows what I'm talking about. If I said, but why don't, why won't you call it evil? I won't call it evil unless it's an action, right? And I'm like, and then I wish I had to say this. Is it good? And he hopefully would have went no. And then I would have went, is it bad? And hopefully he would have went, yeah.
Starting point is 02:33:54 And if I had to went, was it morally bad? And he had to went, yeah. I would have said, that's what I mean by evil. But so I don't know how much we were anywhere. There wasn't a question there was just a comment. LR Mike, thanks for being a local supporter says, can Seamus be harsher to Justin Trudeau during episodes involving Canada, the church always seems to take a hit when Trudeau is in charge.
Starting point is 02:34:19 I a true I made fun of Trudeau kinda recently in a cartoon. I don't think I was too brutal. I don't pay close enough attention to him, but there's always some easy joke there about him like doing different costumes or doing blackface because he did, which is wild. That's, that is one of the, I mean, that's one of those things
Starting point is 02:34:39 your career can't come back from, but Justin Trudeau just did it repeatedly, right? What's more offensive, blackface or dressing up like a woman when you're a dude what do you need to pick I think I think dressing up here because the culture you're gonna pay a consequence for doing blackface people are gonna be upset with you people will praise you for dressing up as a woman which is why it's more dangerous there's no inbuilt social mechanism to prevent people from doing it, right? Yet. Yet. Yeah. Maybe in 20 years. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully people will revert to not tolerating that behavior. Um, M. Davos says, no question, just thanks for all you do, Seamus.
Starting point is 02:35:19 Thanks for sharing your personal stories. Love it when you were on Timcast. God bless both of you. Oh, thank you. Thank you. M Wawrenziak. Sorry, brother. I know I butchered that. Let's just call you M. Question for all three of you in the studio.
Starting point is 02:35:32 Do you listen to the Bible in a year or Catechism in a year with Father Mike? I do not. I've listened to a bit of it. I listened to a bit of the Bible in a year and appreciated it. But I don't think I have the perseverance to make it more than like a week with tremendous passion before crashing and burning and becoming a Muslim. Terry Lin 327 says, how should a conservative Catholic woman go about letting a man know she likes him? I think she's talking about you specifically. Oh my goodness.
Starting point is 02:36:03 Just joking. But then another woman says, yes, great question. So this is really cool, right? No, this is a good question. You got two women here. Like, okay, it helped me understand as a conservative woman how I can. That's a very good question. So generally I think that a man should make the first move and I don't know that there's any way for a woman to explicitly let a man know that she likes him without making the first move? I haven't spent, I think, I think you can. No, no, no, no, no. I said explicitly, right? Like to go up to a guy and be like, Hey, I really like you. Okay. Well, at that point you're making the
Starting point is 02:36:33 first move. So in terms of what it's like from a male perspective, I think men usually are able to pick up on that, but it's maybe But maybe it's different because women will also complain about men being dense and not noticing. Dress nice, show an acceptable amount of cleavage. No, don't. No, no, I think so. There's an acceptable amount. There's an acceptable amount. Absolutely.
Starting point is 02:36:57 What is the acceptable amount? I don't want to get into... It's the beard fallacy. Yes, it's the beard fallacy. Just because you... No, and like, dress well, dress in a, that shows off your beautiful feminine form, and at least once, go, that's so funny, and stroke his arm.
Starting point is 02:37:11 I was just gonna say that, I was just gonna say that. I'm so funny, yeah, yeah, yeah. Touch, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, there's nothing immodest about looking like a woman. No, there's nothing immodest about looking like a woman, but I mean, showing cleavage is different. I guess maybe we're defining cleavage differently, though. I don't know. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I think, I don't think showing any of. I guess maybe we're defining cleavage differently though.
Starting point is 02:37:25 I don't know. I don't think showing any of it. I think we have cleavage. All right, we're that tight fitting shirt within an acceptable range. Yeah, I don't think tight clothing is great either. Yeah, I'm okay with a bit of tight clothing and a little bit of cleavage.
Starting point is 02:37:38 My general principle on this is, I have two that I try to issue. Firstly, I think modesty could probably defined as just like not showing what doesn't need to be shown and I would also say this is a much less perfect definition but this is this is a rule of thumb that I give to people when I talk about modesty is if it's something that you would not want your what are you laughing from now on it should be not rule of thumb but but rule of cleavage.
Starting point is 02:38:05 Oh, my gosh. Grow up, Matt. Now, if if if I here's here's what I think is a fair line here. All right. And this is very subjective, so it's not perfect. But if as a woman, there is a part of the female form, you would not want your significant other husband or boyfriend looking at on other women. You shouldn't be showing it to other men. That's difficult because
Starting point is 02:38:30 it's subjective. So some women, for whatever reason, I'd be like, I'm fine with my significant other looking at naked women. Well, you shouldn't be. Yeah. All right. So I guess this rule doesn't apply perfectly there, but that's kind of my general rule of thumb. If it would be bad to look at, then it's bad to show, which is why like one piece bathing suits the way to go because I don't want dudes looking at my wife's yeah belly back. Yeah. Yeah. Good. And your wife obviously wouldn't be happy if you were looking at other women's bellies and backs, et cetera. Yeah. Should we ex communicate people who applaud at the end of mass? Very important question.
Starting point is 02:39:06 Instantly. It should incur an instant excommunication. You have to go to the bishop. You have to, only a bishop can re-enter you to the church. I think that if you're applauding at the end of the mass, yeah, not only are you excommunicated, but they forced you to handwrite a letter to the diocese you were baptized in to apostatize formally. That is the punishment for Greg says dish on Ian, please. No, just kidding. Seriously though. How do you maintain patients in the face of the, uh, disordered souls milling around at the chicken castle? I don't want to gossip about it. I'm not trying to talk about any of my good for you. I W 18 says is
Starting point is 02:39:41 the West salvageable? If so, should it be saved? 2018 says, is the West salvageable? If so, should it be saved? It's a good question. So in the end, you know, in the end, good wins. But that doesn't necessarily mean the West wins or that America wins. It's very possible that those are battles that will be lost. Ultimately, God is going to win and you can have your soul saved, even if you're not in the West, even if the West falls. So I can't tell you if it's going to win and you can have your soul saved even if you're not in the West even if the West falls So I can't tell you if it's gonna be saved. I hope it is. I
Starting point is 02:40:15 We have a whole episode on this Irish saved Western civilization the first time, you know Maybe the Irish will do it again But part of me wonders part of me wonders if history will repeat itself and won't be interesting if there's some Because Ireland, you know Is this sort of small little part of the world that people didn't pay all that much attention to, and then it was evangelized and- You know what that small part of the world is now? Steubenville.
Starting point is 02:40:31 Steubenville, yes, exactly. Nicholas asks, is anime gay? I wouldn't, I don't even know what he's saying. No, it's a joke question. It's a joke, obviously. I don't, yeah, I don't think it's funny because Matt Walsh will rag on anime and people get super mad.
Starting point is 02:40:47 So I've ragged on anime just cause I know it upsets people. I don't really have strong feelings about it, but I don't watch it. I'm okay with anime. I mean, I don't know about what the general storyline and things are, but the idea of calling a particular genre inferior because it's portrayed poorly in some instances.
Starting point is 02:41:04 That's the other thing. I like Matt Wals other thing I like. I like that he says things strongly, but just because he says things strongly doesn't mean you have to go along with everything he says. So when he says that it's gay to use emojis and he probably means it like, yeah, I don't care. I'm gonna use an emoji.
Starting point is 02:41:16 For sure. I also think with anime, my impression is that he was trying to get a reaction out of people and he probably does really believe it, but I kind of dog piled on because I thought it was funny I was like, yeah anime is bad. You need to make a freedom tunes cartoon where he is an anime character Yes, okay, we will make Make Matt's recurring character. Yeah
Starting point is 02:41:41 We'll make an anime character 100% down to do that dude m. Mongoose Matt says, what's Seamus's favorite children's cartoon? I was a huge fan of the Flintstones and Hong Kong Fui. So it depends on if we're talking television or cinema. If you're talking about like animated children's content in general or specifically things that are on TV I'd have to think a bit about what it is exactly like what cartoons I watched as a kid that I would look back And I'd say that was actually good We didn't have cable so
Starting point is 02:42:18 Pretty much only a broadcast television which meant I was watching Arthur whenever I did watch a cartoon like all the other kids who didn't have cable. I can't recommend that one. Uh, it was, it was, you know, the jokes were written away. I think we're adults could appreciate it, but it was, it was very PC even back then. But that was back when PC meant not acknowledging that our culture was Christian more so than forcing gay stuff onto the audience. Like they did later on by having a teacher come out
Starting point is 02:42:45 as gay. King of the Hill is not for kids, but I love King of the Hill. Oh, okay, fair enough. Oh, dude, if we're talking animation in general, I think- Because you were shocked to learn that I just got into King of the Hill like two months ago. King of the Hill is actually very well- King of the Hill is incredible, and Mike Judge is probably the best comedy character writer of the past 56 years.
Starting point is 02:43:02 Is he the fellow who wrote Beavis and Butthead? Yes. Has Beavis and Butthead gotten better? Because I used to watch it as a teen. I remember just being stupid. Yes, but it's stupid, but it isn't. So it's stupid, but you have to have a very high IQ to watch Beavis and Butthead. There's something underneath it, which is that Beavis
Starting point is 02:43:17 and Butthead is a parody of that kind of behavior. And it's also a parody of the different approaches that adults will take to it. You would have thought, especially when it first came out, and my impression of it is it was before my time, but I thought of it like, oh, this is the kind of punk rock show about the those teenagers. And of course, because they're the protagonists, they must be people to emulate. And that's what the show is trying to tell you. But it's trying to tell you the opposite. And remember the first time I watched it, I loved the hippie social studies teacher they have
Starting point is 02:43:49 or guidance counselor who's like playing his guitar and he thinks that he's gonna reach them in these sort of very like Rousseauian ways. He's like, we're gonna unlock your inner goodness. And it's really, really brilliant in a way that people don't give it credit for. And I also think that that's why it was successful. If Beavis and Butthead was what the modern world
Starting point is 02:44:07 would like to see produced, and it was literally just, no, these guys are cool and what they're doing is cool, I don't think it would have caught on. I think everything that works has to have this tinge of truth in it. And so I definitely have a lot to say about animation, of course. I think the early Simpsons seasons like one through ten
Starting point is 02:44:31 Is the strongest television writing that there has ever been it is unbelievably funny and incredibly well done there are Multiple jokes per line of dialogue in some scenes It's just written in punched up and punched up and it's done so effectively well. It might just be because I'm old, but what I appreciate about, okay, then no, need to continue.
Starting point is 02:44:52 Cause you got the internet late, not to tell you. No, no, no, keep going. What I like about King of the Hill is it's not exhausting to me in a way that the Simpsons or these other shows are where there's 800 jokes in one line. And it's kind of a sarcastic kind of humor. King of the Hill at its best is just like this wholesome,
Starting point is 02:45:09 slow, charming comedy that I like. And The Simpsons at its best balanced that. So part of why later seasons of The Simpsons aren't as good is because they removed a lot of those wholesome elements. There was one critic who summarized it perfectly. They said, you know, Simpson's episodes used to end with Homer and Marge going on a tandem bike ride into the sunset.
Starting point is 02:45:32 And now they end with episodes like Homer, like blowing a blow dart into Marge's neck, which would, but those are both episodes that have, those are both actual endings, the actual episodes. It went from a very funny show that was at its core about a family in the lower middle class trying to fit in and make sense of the world around it, and into a show that placed the gag above the ethos
Starting point is 02:45:56 and the character development. And then it just became a bunch of dumb disjointed jokes. And now, not only is it just, or for a while it was just dumb disjointed jokes, but there weren't even as many of them as there were when they kept to their initial internal philosophy. And part of that is because it's
Starting point is 02:46:11 hard to generate organic humor based on who the character is and how they would react to a situation when you've continually abandoned that in the past for the sake of a cheap joke. What are the what are the shows animated shows that are on TV right
Starting point is 02:46:24 now that are popular that you think people should stop watching? Oh, you already know You know you I already know that you're talking about Rick and Morty And that's of course what I'm talking about. Here's here's I watched half of one episode It mentioned porn hub in a kind of cutesy way and I yeah. Yeah good for you So when that show it's crazy how time gets away from you. That show's about 10 years old now. It feels like a newer phenomenon,
Starting point is 02:46:50 but that show came out about 10 years ago. And it just feels like being an adult is constantly being shocked that 10 years ago was 10 years ago, maybe. And I assume I'm in for more of that as I get older. But when that show first came out, I was 19. Again, again, I hadn't totally reverted to my faith. So my sense of humor was also a little bit different and I enjoyed it, but I can't watch anymore. I think by the second or third season,
Starting point is 02:47:16 I just couldn't get any enjoyment out of it. And why? There's a few reasons. Firstly, my values were just changing. And it was harder for me to watch it, especially because that show drops the Lord's name in vain a lot. And it really egregiously, like not just like OMG, but like JC constantly, like constantly. And so that was one I would just, I can't, I can't watch this right and then also I think the story quality decline there's been a lot of critique online from fans about like Just bizarre fetishes clearly being worked in to current episodes of the show the one Strength that I think Rick and Morty had that other animated shows don't and the one quality that I considered to be
Starting point is 02:48:02 Not fully redeeming obviously it's not a show I watch or recommend, but it was the fact that it genuinely makes use of the medium of animation. Most animated TV shows could be filmed. It's just a family or it's just a sitcom. You wonder why did you go through the trouble of putting pen to paper here?
Starting point is 02:48:18 But with Rick and Morty, you have these insane but bizarre scenarios that are only possible in animation. And I appreciate when the medium is leaned into, it's just, it's such a shame that the show is so awful, right? But I also think we need more animated shows. And so, Brick and Morty isn't the answer here,
Starting point is 02:48:38 but we need more animated shows on air that are actually animated shows instead of characters talking back and forth without the medium ever actually being exploited. Okay. Yeah. Good. Um, I how says, how did you get involved with Tim pool? I mean, there's a lot of questions about Tim pool. I didn't realize that you were well known because of that show. Did you find a huge bump in freedom to since being on a show? Well, no, we had I had a pretty large subscriber base before I started doing Tim pool. But in terms of.
Starting point is 02:49:12 As a podcaster, I mean, I do Tim's show more than I do my own podcast, right? I because I podcasted on his show for like six straight months. And so is it every night? Yeah, basically every night. Wild. And so I, you know, Freedom Tunes has always sort of stood on its own as its own thing, but I think people started paying more attention to me
Starting point is 02:49:36 as a public speaker when I started doing Tim's show. And that was just because it, well, A, he has a massive platform and B, I didn't really do podcasts and that was sort of my first entry into that world. And when I realized that I could do it and enjoy doing it and wanted to do it, so it doesn't surprise me. There's a lot of questions about that.
Starting point is 02:49:57 And I'm always like, my heart is always so warmed when I get comments from people like, when are you going back? Like, we miss you. And part of the value of doing Tim Kast, aside from the fact that he's one of my good friends and I love the people out there, is that I feel like we're not in an echo chamber at all.
Starting point is 02:50:17 There's a very diverse audience over there. And I feel as if I am able to bring a uniquely Catholic message to an audience that wouldn't otherwise be getting it, isn't always looking for it. Many of whom appreciate it, some of whom don't, but some of whom are somewhere in the middle where they're intrigued by it and they just enjoy that there's a different perspective. I think that's part of what's cool about Tim cast is how varied the audience is uh LR Mike says what are the top three spots that you would pilgrimage to if you haven't already well maybe even if you have where's like three places that you would go I don't think I've never really done like a former pilgrimage a formal yeah I mean I've there's certain sites I visited while I was in the area, but I've never gone
Starting point is 02:51:05 like I'm going to go visit this place. I've never been, I've never left the continental US. I've never been to the Holy Land. Don't plan to. Don't plan to. Why would I need to? Why would I need to? America's big enough.
Starting point is 02:51:15 Oh my goodness. You know, the, this, this continent's troubles are sufficient for me. Presumably you'd like to go to the Vatican. Yeah. The Holy Land. Yeah. Yeah. I'd like to go to the Vatican. Yeah, the Holy Land. Yeah Yeah, I would like to go to the Holy Land. So I was thinking like the Holy Land The Vatican would be very it would be amazing to see it and
Starting point is 02:51:34 Trying to think of where else I cuz I don't want to give something totally like basic But I also am struggling to think of go and then you tell me what yours are I like to not necessarily in order but Fatima. Oh, that's it. That's it. That's it. Fatima. Mount Athos in Greece, even though it's an Orthodox place,
Starting point is 02:51:51 I'd love to go there. And the Holy land. The Holy land. Yeah. So I'm, I can't believe I didn't say Fatima right off the bat. That's it. You picked my answer for me, Fatima.
Starting point is 02:52:00 It's my third one. Okay, good. Let's see. Katergator says, thank you for everything you do, Seamus. I know about you because of Michael Knowles and Terry. Maybe Michael Knowles, I'm trying to think of Terry. Michael Knowles is great. Oh, he is. Yeah, love that guy.
Starting point is 02:52:21 And everyone at the Daily Wire, I know it's like a running joke to rip on him. I think the real punk rock thing to do is the compliment Knowles. And I genuinely mean it. I think he's great. Knowles, I don't know if Knowles has grown over time and therefore has been able to sort of articulate things in a... He hasn't. I just went back to denigrating him. I'm sorry. You keep going with what you're saying. So I don't know if that's the case or if he's always been this brilliant, but he's less sort of flashy and antagonistic Yeah, I think that way about Claven the more I listen to Claven the more I respect him I really like Claven a lot the way I've even commented on the
Starting point is 02:52:55 Steven Crowder daily wire debacle was just so mature and charitable. I thought I was so I Got to meet and speak with Pretty much everyone at the daily Wire actually, because we were out there, I was out there with Tim, but Claven came out and did Tim's podcast about a week before that, and I had the pleasure of meeting him and he is really great. Like I had seen some of his stuff here and there, I knew I agreed with him, I didn't realize how much I liked him until I sat down and did a podcast with him. Very smart guy, has a lot of wisdom, and he said something that will stick with me for the rest of my life.
Starting point is 02:53:28 He said, don't believe what you don't believe. And it sounds so basic, but there's something very real there that modern society has gotten. People will get you tripped up in some kind of vague dialectical and have you admitting to all sorts of absurdities that you know couldn't possibly be true. But while I accepted this premise and so then I have to believe that part of it. And there was something so refreshing about hearing that. And I thought that was such a great way of putting it. Just don't believe what you don't believe. All right. If you if you don't believe it, you know.
Starting point is 02:53:57 Yeah. I guess I'm better. Is brilliant. Sometimes I watch it, I was like, oh, that wasn't that good. But more often than not, I'm blown away by how talented he is at Saturday. Saturday. He's very funny, very funny guy. I know, I really like him. And I think Knowles has always been brilliant.
Starting point is 02:54:11 Like in spite of his education at Yale, the guy is sharp. Yeah. The guy is sharp. Sharp, and I have to say, I was just stunned by how humble he is. Like, I mean, who can kind of judge, right? But he seemed like a really humble fella. And just someone who just isn't,
Starting point is 02:54:28 because I asked Farmer about this when he was here. I said, how do you think Knowles feels after what is a woman and seeing Matt Walsh just explode? So even though Knowles has been there for a long time, Matt Walsh is doing podcasts in his car and then he explodes in popularity. Like, is that hard on Knowles? He's like, Matt, honestly, he wouldn't even notice. Like when he's away from work, he's just reading
Starting point is 02:54:50 books and hanging out with his wife. Yeah. When I met him, like, oh wow. He is like that. That's a very impressive thing. That doesn't shock me. I didn't know that he was like reading books and all this. I, I, I'm surprised he's capable, but no, I'm kidding. But for someone in public life to be more focused on what's like in a book than what people are saying about them is a very rare thing today. Have you had people go after you on YouTube? Or no, because what most of what you do up until now
Starting point is 02:55:14 has been animated? What do you mean? Well, you see people go after gnolls. Oh, like critics? Absolutely. Oh, you have. Yes, oh, absolutely. You wanna share some of them?
Starting point is 02:55:23 Well, people like try to review and like debunk cartoons that I make, which are obviously jokes. Now here's the thing. I don't like to hide behind. It's just a joke, guys, because sometimes I'm actually making a point. I think it's fair to critique. Every single time you've had a cartoon, you're making a very... Exactly. So one thing that really drove me crazy is when John Stewart was on crossfire with Tucker Carlson. And Tucker Carlson was pointing out that Stewart's show made a lot of false claims the Daily show and Stewart went it's a comedy show Okay, but that point was presented as if it was true when you were actually making a point you weren't saying that as a joke
Starting point is 02:55:54 And you don't get to have it both ways you don't get to try to Splice education into what you're doing and then when you get called out for misleading people say it was a joke Yeah, so I hate that. However, however. Here we go. However, it was a joke. But I have seen it actually be the case where people will review a cartoon and they will try to debunk something
Starting point is 02:56:17 that was clearly a joke and not a point. That's like, dude, you missed it. You totally missed it. And part of what is so part of what's been really humbling and something that I think meant a lot to me is one of the one of the first times some like left wing commentator really went after me and they had a left wing audience. There were left wingers in their audience were like, oh no, I like freedom tunes. Like I don't agree with them, but I think it's funny, which
Starting point is 02:56:41 is just, oh, that would have been which, Which, for me, growing up, I've always loved comedy, but I'm Catholic and I was raised in a conservative Catholic home, so all of the comedy I saw was making fun of me and my values. But I still enjoyed a lot of these shows. I was able to say, okay, I get that their perspective is different and they're trying to promote something that's not true and I don't like that But I can't deny that this was a funny joke that and so I always do that right with Rick and Morty with the talent of the illustrators and yeah, yeah of the Simpsons, even if you don't appreciate exactly and I so there's part of me that would like to hope that people can Not agree with my perspective but still watch and say like oh I did like to hope that people can not agree with my perspective, but still watch and say like, oh, I did like that joke though.
Starting point is 02:57:28 Or I thought that was funny. Yeah. Sometimes you'll get the opposite where someone reveals their hand and they'll say something like, you know, I've seen lefties say, oh, he was like funny when he made fun of Dave Rubin, but I don't like the rest of the stuff. So wait, did I stop being talented when I was making fun of people you like? Or are you only able to take a joke when it's aimed at a person you dislike? And so I think, I think if someone, if someone says like, oh, I just don't like this guy's work, I don't think he's funny. Fine. Fair enough. But whenever someone says, I like your work when you're
Starting point is 02:57:59 making fun of this person, I think needs to be made fun of. I'm like, then you don't have a sense of humor. And the fact that you like it doesn't really mean all that much to me right Yeah, cuz I'm trying to put the shoe on the other foot here cuz if you saw somebody making fun of something you found Ben Shapiro I make fun of Ben Shapiro like when I started there's things there's a lot I disagree with Shapiro on especially over time I find myself increasingly disagreeing with him. But man, when I first did the Shapiro cartoon,
Starting point is 02:58:28 I was a huge fan. I make fun of Jordan Peterson. I make fun of people who I like and agree with. And most of my audience likes and agrees with these people too. So it's like, okay, you have to be able to, you have to be able to poke fun at people you agree with. Part of where this comes from for me is growing up, my oldest brother was really smart and
Starting point is 02:58:50 really kind of mean. He was just ruthless, but he was very funny. There was something bizarrely rewarding about being made fun of in a way where I actually couldn't help but I had to laugh. Like, oh, he got me. He roast me. When you're at an age where you haven't developed the skills to do that, like by the time you're a teenager, you and the guys bust
Starting point is 02:59:10 each other's chops, and that's more normal. But I'm talking as like a little kid, he would land something on me that was so mean, but it was so funny that I would have to laugh at it. And I think that's why for me, I've never seen there being a conflict between making fun of someone or something that matters to me and genuinely caring for it. Now, obviously there's a line I would never make fun of the blessed Virgin or of Christ. And I like, I don't appreciate it when people do. We all have lines and we should, but to say, I like this guy and you made fun of him, maybe I like him. Maybe I like him too, but I'm not gonna not make fun of him because of that.
Starting point is 02:59:48 That thing he did was funny. Speaking of not crossing the line, I remember Ricky Gervais saying, people say you shouldn't punch down. It's ridiculous. What if I have to punch a midget? Yeah, exactly. I'll miss him altogether.
Starting point is 03:00:00 No, it's true. He said, and then he made the distinction between comedy and reality So the reason you laughed is you know I'm making a joke now if I went out and literally dragged a midget on stage and so I'm punching him in the face Yeah, yeah, you know comedy is a very very mysterious thing It's a very mysterious thing because sometimes we laugh because it's true and sometimes we laugh because it's not true thing because sometimes we laugh because it's true and sometimes we laugh because it's not true.
Starting point is 03:00:32 Yeah, if we laugh because it's true, it tends to be in my experience, it's because you said something that I half knew exactly, but I couldn't articulate and I didn't know anybody else thought and it's relieving in some sense. And then also when people are laughing at something that isn't true, it still comes from a place of laughing at something that's true because the joke is on the person who's on stage. They're kind of going up there and saying, I am okay making myself look ridiculous for this joke. The vast majority of the time when a comedian gets up on stage and makes an offensive joke,
Starting point is 03:01:03 the joke is that I'm saying this, not that this is true. But then sometimes it's like, there's a tinge of this is kind of true, but we're not allowed to say it. And then there's also, I'm not allowed to say this and I'm still saying it and I'm making myself look bad. And that's all so funny. So there's a million different angles and people laugh at different things and even the same thing for very different reasons. I just, I find it all so fascinating. It's such a nerdy thing to dive into. And the problem is often with comedy, and this is true of many things, but it's most pronounced with comedy is when you start to explain it, you ruin it. I think
Starting point is 03:01:41 that's true of more than we're willing to admit. I think that's true of more than we're willing to admit. That is one issue I have even with that's why it's only sex ed programs We'll get to that but that's why the moral after the cartoon for the kids story ruins it, right? Yes, well, so do you know that that was because the US government when you see the horror when you see the villain you ruin it It's like show. Yes, don't tell yeah, exactly It was I should be telling you what my message is with the story, not in it. Yeah. Which is why we hate cheesy Christian films.
Starting point is 03:02:12 Exactly. And their religious, other religious equivalent, woke films. Yes. And part of where I changed as a writer, I sort of mentioned the St. Joseph Novena I prayed in that video really blowing up in my business growing in other areas right after I said the mentioned the St. Joseph of Ena prayed in that video, really blowing up in my business, growing in other areas, went after right after I said that I've been a bit when I released that video, I think I was really afraid of being misunderstood, especially because we live in this cancel culture and I didn't want to just destroy my career or whatever it is I was worried about.
Starting point is 03:02:40 And I think at that point, it's so many of my cartoons before then, if you look at my stuff like pre 2020, there's much more throat clearing. There's much more, but we don't mean it this way. I'm just doing more to make it really clear that I don't mean this in the worst possible way. And then I think at some point I just stopped caring and I said, I look, I'm just going to make this joke. And if someone wants to take it the wrong way, they're going to, I don't care.
Starting point is 03:03:04 But you're also, you're also appealing to your audience intelligence when you don't over explain exactly trusting them And there's there's a sense in which the audience appreciates you giving them that kind of benefit of the doubt Well, and you you can't do satire people feel like you're pulling a punch like you can't you can't like go Slay the sacred cow. Sorry, you know what you can't like slay the sacred cow. You can't like slay the sacred cow like, oh, I'm so sorry, I'm sorry. As you're like jabbing, I'm like, ah, I don't, I'm not doing this because I hate you. I'm like, you just have to kill the thing, right?
Starting point is 03:03:34 And everyone makes, ironically, slaying the sacred cow, the idol of comedy. I have to say something bombastic. You just make something funny. And sometimes you make something funny and then it is going to be that. And it is going to offend people. But for me, when I make cartoons, I'm not making this going, how are we going to win?
Starting point is 03:03:58 How am I going to get my opinion and cross and help people understand? I just think I want to comment on things that are happening in the world. This is what Flannery O'Connor said about fiction, that you have to respect your characters. They can't be a walking mouthpiece for your opinions. You have to let them be flesh and blood and react the way that they're likely to react. She's brilliant.
Starting point is 03:04:15 She is brilliant. She's unbelievably brilliant. I had been recommended her work so many times and it was recommended honestly, very often by Catholic girls. And I was like, okay, come on There's gonna be some flowery like no, I'm out. No, this is the opposite I was and then and then it was funny because many of the women who recommended Flannery O'Connor to me
Starting point is 03:04:35 It's like they was so long ago that I haven't seen them It's like I should have respected them so much more for offering that like I should have given them so much more props back to them so much more for offering that. Like I should have given them so much more props. What else did they suggest? For that recommendation. I'm like, yeah, yeah, exactly. I need a, what else? Cause it's so dark, but it's so funny.
Starting point is 03:04:50 And it is so Catholic. It's all of those things. Maybe if we go see Nefarious, that's what Nefarious is. It's so dark, but it's right on the nose. And I think she said something to the effect of, you know, if you're speaking to the deaf or the visually impaired, you have to shout and draw in large, startling figures, something to that effect. And that's certainly what nefarious does.
Starting point is 03:05:12 And I think with flannery, it was Conan O'Brien who described it this way, but he said, you're reading these stories expecting it to be written by some bitter old alcoholic. And it's just this little Southern Catholic lady. And that's right. It's, he's, he's correct in some sense, in some sense, but he's not. He's not because there's, there's too much goodness to those stories. They're not, she's not a cynic. She's not writing cynically. Like, she's not saying, screw it, nothing matters, let's all be nihilists. That's what most dark comedy today is almost all of it frankly. That's one of the big problems with Rick and Morty is like oh Morty
Starting point is 03:05:51 nothing matters isn't that deep and it's supposed to be like wow that's so profound you're saying that thing everyone has heard over and over again for the last 40 years. But with Flannery O'Connor it's clear that she isn't sitting there going, how do I get my readers to believe in Catholicism? She's just trying to make something good. And that's really what I strive to do with Freedom Toons is I just want to make something funny. I want to make something that people are going to enjoy. I want people to look back on our videos someday if we ever stop making them in my lifetime,
Starting point is 03:06:27 maybe they'll have to kill me before they can kill Freedom Toons, I don't know. But I want people to look back on our best stuff. This is a very ambitious goal. But my hope would be that people would look back on our best videos the way that I look back on the old onion videos where it's like, oh, why aren't they doing this anymore? This was so good. Oh my, it's funny you bring that up. I've been watching just the last week onion videos from like 2013. Yeah, they're incredible.
Starting point is 03:06:59 Unbelievable. What the hell happened to them? 2008 to like, so from 2008 to 2013 was The best stuff they ever produced their their YouTube channel was incredible part of what happened is they had a TV show and then they Cut some of that up into YouTube segments, so there was a bit more of a budget and then YouTube I think it was also offering different popular Outlets online okay money to create content for their platform and I think that money probably ran out or something along those lines because
Starting point is 03:07:27 You can see a steep decline right right around 2013. It just goes way downhill but The old onion stuff is clearly political. Yeah, it is clearly leftist commentary It's very clear like if you understand leftism. It's obvious what their angle is. But it's so funny. It's so well done. And that's the kind of thing that... This one. This one. I watched this the other day. Is the government spying on schizophrenics enough? Oh yes.
Starting point is 03:07:59 That was so genius. Genius. They had a great one. The situation in Nigeria seems complex. And that's one of my favorite. I have to, people go watch these. No, I saw that one as well. One of their funniest, they had a morning show called Today Now. New psychedelic weight loss drug transforms food into monstrous hallucinations. They, one of my favorites was patriotic teen fail Spanish class. They had a, they had, there were two, they had um. What about
Starting point is 03:08:37 the, the new way Ohio is doing executions being. Yes, the Ohio death where they ripped the head out oh my gosh yeah they're all covered in blood talking about how he made it yeah yeah yeah it's a machine that grabs your head and just rips it off and it's it's so funny we should text me like your 10 favorite I would love to be introduced to the work as I say was just this last week someone said you'd won from back in 2013 one of my favorites is to I think like two teen girls go on to Like plea for missing friends slash gossip and their friends been missing and so they're like, please if you're out there
Starting point is 03:09:18 Jessica from third period is totally pregnant and like it it's, I won't do it justice, but my point is just that when I look back at that, the onion was obviously politically motivated in some sense, but they were just trying to make something funny. They really were. You can see the leftist perspective in a lot of it. Some of it is like, this is just a joke, but then some of it is, I can tell who,
Starting point is 03:09:40 I can tell what the perspective of the person who wrote this is, but it doesn't intrude. But the tail's not wagging the door. Exactly, and so that's the goal with Freedom Tunes. I can tell what the perspective of the person who wrote this is, but it doesn't intrude. But the tail's not wagging the door. Exactly. And so that's the goal with Freedom Tunes. That's the goal is when I'm writing something, I really am just trying to make something funny and people know where I stand, but I don't want to force it on them.
Starting point is 03:09:59 And if I have, then I've failed. If people are watching this going, this is really heavy handed, then I failed. I genuinely just want to make people laugh with this stuff. That's awesome. There's a, there's a British comedian who's active right now that not a lot of Americans have heard of that is great about this, about like a liberal perspective, but it's funny because it's funny. It's James Acaster.
Starting point is 03:10:21 Yeah, I think you showed me him. Yeah. He has this bit about the British museum stealing stuff that is like clearly, he's like, if you, you know, this guy, he's bigger than you and he nicked something off you and you know, he nicked it off you because he put it in a, he put it in a case and talked about how important it is to your people and your culture. You'd be forgiven for thinking, I don't think he's got a case here. So you'd go walk up to his house and your friends are like Dia do you need some help? He's like nah. Nah, I've got this and so you walk up to the door you say
Starting point is 03:10:54 Can I have that can I have that back? I don't think so. We're still looking at it That's pretty good which is clearly just a bit about imperialism, but it's so funny. But that's what good comedy should be though. That's what good comedy should be. It makes light of the situation. It makes you laugh about something that you maybe had not considered in that way without him going up on that stage and going, so I'm like, sick of white males, anyone else here? And then people in the audience clap and laugh for whatever reason, because the man on stage said something they agree with. Like comedy routines have turned into political rallies, man.
Starting point is 03:11:31 And I'm not a standup comedian telling people I do standup. I'm just saying as someone who writes comedy and is an audience of standup, who does appreciate the art form, I don't want to see a political rally. Yeah. So it's like stand up routines, uh, very often in political rallies and late night comedy shows are just what CNN shows. It's literally CNN. It's CNN, but it, but it's, it's like, we're being bad and subversive. Aren't we edgy?
Starting point is 03:11:57 So it makes you feel a little bit like you're on the outside, like, Oh, I can't believe Stephen Colbert went there. I can't believe Stephen Colbert went there after those anti-vaxxers, like how brave, you know? It's totally lame. What's something you've watched lately that you're like, this was funny? You mean like something I watched or something that came out recently?
Starting point is 03:12:17 What's the latest thing that came out that you watched and thought this was really good? Oh man. That's actually tough for me to say. I really hate to sound pessimistic here but whenever I find something that's genuinely funny, it's older. I'll definitely have people around me or friends will say things that I think are hilarious like I'm not I don't laugh at anything that was said after 2014, but I'm really struggling to think of anything in media that's been produced recently, but I also don't watch much
Starting point is 03:12:55 I don't watch movies or TV very often I may have shared this with you, but my mate John Henry, and I went up to his cabin and yeah We were hanging out. Okay, let's let's watch something Yeah, so we tried to watch a movie got with it, tried to watch a couple of comedy shows, got bored of it. We ended up just watching Trump rallies, the best of Trump, because he was so much funnier. So funny is he goes up there and he delivers and he Trump.
Starting point is 03:13:19 Was incredible, the charisma, the level at which he could get an audience riled up. Incredible the the charisma the the level at which he could get an audience riled up I have no idea what the future holds or what a 2024 campaign is going to look like but what I do know is The energy that he brought to his political rallies and again, this is as someone who hasn't attended one But I have friends who attended them. I also watched them as you have by watching them. Yeah There's this strange combination where everyone is amped up
Starting point is 03:13:50 But you don't feel like you're watching some dictator going go get those people there and everyone goes yes in class It's this very like up beat happy Energetic like yeah, those people, they do kind of suck, here's how they're screwing you, but like, we're gonna make fun of them. And we're gonna kind of make light of this in a way where we're taking it seriously, but we're also not out here like fascists.
Starting point is 03:14:17 That's the thing, Trump always got accused of being a fascist. His rallies were totally antithetical to fascism. That's not what a fascist rally looks like, dude. A fascist rally is angry. They're screaming, they're chanting, right? This is also why, for as much as I despise when the right goes, the left are the real racist, sexist, homophobes, fascist, whatever,
Starting point is 03:14:39 the left really is a fascist movement in this country, just doesn't realize it. The fascism is very broadly and vaguely defined term. And I think leftism as it's tried to come to power, at least in America, has fallen under the fascist framework in many ways. There are some areas where it's obvious. So for example, if you like read what Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile had to write about fascism, they say things like, the church must be subordinate to the state. That's just a run of the mill liberal perspective, right? We don't even consider that to be far to the left.
Starting point is 03:15:12 But the idea of a totalitarian state controlling everything is openly a part of fascism. Gentile and Mussolini, the origin of doctrine of fascism, right? Nothing of value, human or spiritual, can exist outside of the state. That doesn't sound like Trump to me. I can tell you who that does sound like and it doesn't sound like Trump and there's a lot of negativity in fascism that's that's an understanding
Starting point is 03:15:35 like just feels like those fascism feels like it's like so negative but but but Trump's rallies they're so they were so upbeat and I'm not saying I'm in love with everything he said or done. The point here isn't to simp for him, but it is to say. He was fun in like fascism. It's not fun and fascist leaders aren't fun. They they they present themselves as stern, strong authority figures. And people did feel Trump had their back, but he didn't come off in a too self-serious a way. He was clearly having fun with it, you know?
Starting point is 03:16:13 Do like, do fascist leaders, are they out there having fun with it? I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. No, the fascism kind of stuff is more, what I see like BLM rallies, where you have somebody shrillill who's screeching and yeah, there's just this very oppressive climate that no one's making light of anything. Exactly. Everything is deadly serious.
Starting point is 03:16:35 And this is why the left is bad at comedy. All of their comedy now is, like I said, it's a political speech. speech. Ironically, ironically, left wing comedy is more like an actual fascist speech than any Trump rally. Because the people there don't have a genuine reaction where they want to laugh. They're cheering for you because you said something about the bad people. They're cheering for you because you pointed out that I'm an oppressed victim and this is the political ideology I'm supposed to espouse and you're clearly on my team. There's tribalism in everything. I'm not saying tribalism makes something fascist but I would just say that a lot of what's
Starting point is 03:17:16 called comedy now that you see from the left is much more in line with the kind of creepy fascist conformism that they accused the MAGA movement of. Well, as we wrap up, are we wrapping up? You don't want me to beat a farmer. Do you want to go two more hours? I don't know. If you don't want to go two hours, we don't have to. We can wrap up, but we will have to beat George Farmer at some point. We have to. We do already have three hours.
Starting point is 03:17:42 I wasn't fair with George because I had comfy chairs set up in the cigar lounge, whiskey. We were ready. We were set, you know? Yeah. We have to. Is this chair too uncomfortable for you? We could tag team it. It's not uncomfortable. It's just not a couch. But I need you to look at the camera and say, George, this was my choice. George, this was my choice. Listen, I was going to bring you to your territory and I was going to beat you. But I'm under this man's roof. I have to respect his rules.
Starting point is 03:18:09 Is that what conservatism is all about? Respecting property rights. So people, it's not what it's all about, actually. Instead of green fangs eating soup again, if you've watched up until this point and you've actually watched the whole thing, not just if you watch this last three minutes, I would like you to write in the comments section to prove that you've watched up until now, George won. No, my God.
Starting point is 03:18:29 No, I'm not getting off. You're gonna have to wrap the show. I don't consent to ending the show. You're gonna have to wrap it up without me then. I'm just gonna sit here and keep talking. The violation of the non-aggression principle. I'm literally gonna sit here and keep talking. And if you wanna wrap up, you can wrap up.
Starting point is 03:18:40 That's fine, that's on you. That cannot be George. I don't give him this. I wanted to let people know that me and Father Jason are going to Ukraine this Sunday. And we are bringing like food and diabetic medication and clothing, actually not so much food, but the clothing and the diabetic medication,
Starting point is 03:18:57 other things to different kind of orphanages and things over there. If you want to support that endeavor, none of the money goes to me or Father Jason. It goes directly to the people there who are helping Look what he just texted me. I acknowledge your choice and proclaim victory He just takes let me see that you text him. What if you just get him on speakerphone and you guys chat?
Starting point is 03:19:15 I would totally do that. Look you could tag team it and just like go to the wide angle I don't know your password. I can't get in I can't get in. Yeah, I can't get in You you call him you put him on I was gonna say to her. I'll call him You heard that right George. We're gonna give you a call Anyway, would you mind putting a link to that? Donation page for folks under here. What anybody wants to support? I don't know but I know we put it under the one I just did with father Jason So at some point if you could you also look at your slack, okay?
Starting point is 03:19:46 All right, let's just chill. Let's just chill. Let's just hang let's just kick it old school We're gonna call George and no cool George. All right, let's see What am I looking at? I'd like to speak to the manager man. My most recent message to you. All right Now there's oh, yeah, okay. All right. Let me I'll think about it before announcing it. Okay. All right. Let's call George. I'd like to plug again, by the way, freedom tunes.com. We've just relaunched and revamped our website. If you appreciate what I'm doing, please go over there. Subscribe. You're going to help us make a lot more awesome content. Hey, George. Hello. You're on speakerphone and you're live on Plants with Aquinas with Shameless Cocklin.
Starting point is 03:20:25 George, how do you feel about having the system rigged in your favor? Let's have a conversation about privilege. I feel like the Biden administration on the night of the election in 2020. So glad he made that joke. About to get the channel deleted and I like your angle. You know what? I think we got off on the wrong foot, George. I fully expect you to support the Fradd family
Starting point is 03:20:48 when this whole thing tanks now. Ah ha ha ha. And Thursday. And Thursday. Oh my gosh. You know what, George, you're all right. You're all right. Maybe we got off on the wrong foot here.
Starting point is 03:20:57 Ha ha ha. Seamus, it was a great after save. What can I say? Ah, you're too kind. I didn't upload as much good quality content as I did. That's fine, that's fine. Oh, you're too kind. You're content decided. That's fine. It's fine. Oh, you're too Okay, you're just saying that you're just saying that
Starting point is 03:21:09 I'm actually in the daily wire studios right now as it happens to me I'm gonna hunt down mr. Noles to celebrate my victory. No, no, hold on a second. It's not a very Can we get them as race? Do you how many hosts from daily wire? We can get on the phone. So I'm gonna see how many daily wire hosts we can get on the phone to say hi? This is unbelievable. That's what I'm saying. The system is really. It's Friday afternoon. They've all gone home. Ah, wow.
Starting point is 03:21:33 Half days all around. What about Jeremy? Is he still in that gorgeous office of his? Somewhere probably. The studios are too big. I get lost when I'm here. It's like walking around the maze. I'm literally I'm starting a coup in the chat, by the way.
Starting point is 03:21:51 What'd you say? Well, you know, everyone in chat is saying this is unbelievable. Seamus wins. I can't believe they're doing this to Seamus. We will never accept the victory that was thrown upon us. You you literally you literally this was like a podcast victory by Malin Ballot is all I'll say. Yeah, the entertaining comment that I can see here is George won, but Seamus is more entertaining. So you have the pairing victory in the content wars. I'm sorry you had to see that, George.
Starting point is 03:22:17 It's fine. Don't worry. I've got a thick skin these days. Yeah, I hear you. You have to develop it if you want to survive in this marketplace. I could just send George the link to the What if we send you a link to E cam and we put you on the screen and you can show us all the dirty Secrets of daily wire All right, brother god bless Is good meeting you man. Oh, yeah, you never chatted with him before. Yeah, I've never chatted with him before.
Starting point is 03:22:46 Maybe we can keep chatting. I mean, no, I look I've already been robbed. Shame on Matt. Can it just be can we just be chill though? Can it just be us? Yeah, like if you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, we need. Are you trying? No, no, no. I respond to text messages.
Starting point is 03:22:58 Matt, I didn't realize you were trying. You bastard. I was trying my best. Somebody in the chat said potato man greater than English man. Oh, I think I'm from. I think that's racist twice. That is offensive. Listen. Oh, I'm Welsh, too. Are you Welsh?
Starting point is 03:23:14 Yeah. Lot is a Welsh name. Is it? Yeah, I heard. And maybe you can look this up. Let's just get those little look stuff up. If I heard the two D's next to each other in Welsh make T H. And if that's true, my name is Matthew frath, which is pretty fantastic. That's pretty cool. Math frath, math frath. I like that. Matty Freddie, man. Yeah, I'm sorry that, uh, so here's the problem. Yeah, this is, I want you to think in your, I don't know if I have to Google this, right? But
Starting point is 03:23:43 I have to type it out. So I have to type it out in a way where I type two d's next to each other and don't get something else okay well careful pretty sure we have cover eyes on that computer yeah it's um but no it's it's it's been a lot of fun obviously I um I'm sorry if you felt we were trying too hard Matt you know I know, I need somebody. It is pronounced as T H. I need somebody to bring us food. I would love to. Is that it? Are you hungry? I'm honestly messing with you. If you really, if you really feel you need to get food, if you really feel you need to get food, because he it's three 30. Yeah, he is. He's in the chat. Oh, McCloskey go get us food.
Starting point is 03:24:23 Then people have to watch us eat. So what? That's their fault for watching. Yeah. If you want to watch us eat, if you want to be weird, you can go ahead and do that. This isn't about you. This isn't about me. This is about me. This is about us trying to bury George. Look, all I'm saying is I'm only able to make it out here every so often. Last time was almost two years ago. Can you text or call Matt and see if he's bringing food?
Starting point is 03:24:41 Can I put Matt on speakerphone now? Yeah. And Diet Coke. Oh, I love Diet Coke. That's my weakness. Oh, my dad's calling me. All right, answer it. Should I have my speaker? I want to.
Starting point is 03:24:51 Hey, is he watching? I'm on Pines with Aquinas right now. Can I put you on speaker? OK, all right. Hey, everybody, this is my dad. Hey. G'day, g'day. Nice to chat with you again. Good to see you. What is happening?
Starting point is 03:25:06 No cigar this time. We have the cigars for you. Okay, though. Sorry to put you on the spot. I can take off speaker at any moment if you want that. You let me know if there's something. No, you can keep me on speaker. Your mom's not in the car.
Starting point is 03:25:14 He says you can keep me on speaker. Your mom's not in the car. My dad? Hey, Jim. Yo, go get Martel. I'm going to go get Martel. I'm going to go get Martel. I'm going to go get Martel.
Starting point is 03:25:22 I'm going to go get Martel. I'm going to go get Martel. I'm going to go get Martel. I'm going to go get Martel. I'm going to go get Martel. I'm going to go in the car. He says you can keep me on speaker. Your mom's not in the car. My dad. Hey, Jim, you'll go get my Jim. Can I ask you to put in a pitch for Opus Day on Pines of the Aquinas right
Starting point is 03:25:34 now? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I got you. Opus Day is a great way of living out with the second Vatican Council. That's all to do great. Next of our baptism with both hands and have a plan of life and help others get to heaven with you. Amen. A plan of life is so important, isn't it?
Starting point is 03:25:58 Like we sometimes think of it as restrictive. And yet there hasn't been a day gone by that I haven't brushed my teeth, that I haven't, you know, I haven't you know had a shower those You're not an animator Yeah That is pretty much since college Is there is there any wisdom you'd like to impart to this this audience now that you have this platform use it responsibly You know it's kind of very careful there are 635
Starting point is 03:26:25 people watching best dad in the world yeah so I just called Matt he's bringing us three six inch meatball subs and a diet coke. Tell him I need a diet coke Okay, hold on and tell him we'll compensate him not just for the food, but shameless will pay him for his time. What? Yeah, you'll excuse me. Yeah. What all right, maybe we can do this business card We can do this one. We should just be organic with it cuz I definitely I don't want to waste the audience's time No, let's waste it. What well now we're losing George. Ah, that's kind of how I'm feeling right now, but he was daily Why I don't change like a nice guy George seems like a kind gentleman. No, that's he's English. It's true I don't trust them. We are gonna beat him and he's not gonna know that we haven't stopped. So I looked it up
Starting point is 03:27:17 It's five oh two seventeen. So do you guys want to end at five? Oh three exactly? I think that's probably I think that's exactly What we should do. So hold on. Did we start exactly at at noon what time how much how long we've been going for three twenty seven twenty eight Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So we have but we did start right here. I was read a book. Well, it's just this read out loud Can I plug my favorite short story ever? Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. Okay, so there's this oh wait. We can't have meat It's Friday. Ah Call him now call him now. Call him now. I'm upset that you realized it and now I'd be culpable for eating. Yeah, exactly. Oh, I should have told you.
Starting point is 03:27:51 What are we going to eat? Um, what about just like regularly like pizza or something? What about cheese pizza? Can you just get cheese pizza? Just get and diet coke and and and they don't have coke. They have Pepsi. Damn it. Diet Pepsi is fine. Diet Pepsi is fine. Diet Pepsi is fine, he said.
Starting point is 03:28:06 It's not really, but... Yeah, could you just get cheese pizza? Get enough... You can come up and hang out with me. We'll pay you back. Yeah, we'll pay you back. But lots of it, like two big ones. Two big ones, he said.
Starting point is 03:28:14 Yeah, yes, that'll be amazing. Yep. And we'll save a piece for George. And I'll put it up here and it'll rot and go hard. And that will be... That will be your trophy. You'll freeze it. The rotting piece of pizza.
Starting point is 03:28:22 Yeah, we'll have to get it like a preserve. Yeah, we're gonna have to get it like a... Yeah, we're gonna have to get it like a... Yeah, we're gonna have to get it like a... Yeah, we're gonna have to get it like a... Yeah, we're gonna have to get it like a... Yeah, we're gonna have to get it like a... I'll put it up here and it'll rot and go hard. And that will be your trophy. The rotting piece of pizza. Yeah, we'll have to get it preserved. Yeah, what were you gonna say? So there's this collection of short stories that came out a couple of years ago, like a decade now, called Forbidden Thoughts.
Starting point is 03:28:38 And most of them are just kind of mediocre. They're all sci-fi short stories written by more conservative authors who are just sick of sci-fi becoming leftist. Yeah. But there's this one and it's by John C. Wright who is an atheist convert and this one was written after he converted Catholicism and it's called By His Cockle Hat and Staff. And I cannot explain it without spoiling it.
Starting point is 03:28:57 But I would like to tell everyone that if they want a beautiful meditation on love and the effects that small actions have on society and how you ought to treat yourself, then they should go read it. What's it called again? The book is called Forbidden Thoughts and the story is called By His Cockle Hat and Staff by John C. Wright. Lovely. Thank you. So everybody go read that.
Starting point is 03:29:22 I read it out loud to my roommate the other night. That's what I was thinking about How romantic? Sure, he appreciated that he fell asleep. I read a story But no, I do want to say actually I Obviously, I'm George. He's the he's a bad person. He's a man number two number two. I'm going to sue you No, I honestly was giving you a hard time and I don't want to waste the audience's time, but also I don't get out here very often.
Starting point is 03:29:53 I really enjoy our conversations. Like, I don't think this comes close to topping it, but I want to say the first interview I did on your show or the only other one, was like my favorite interview I've ever given. Like, I was so happy with that. I thought it was a really good conversation. What was it about it that you?
Starting point is 03:30:08 I just feel that we, I felt that we really had a good conversation and had a substantive discussion of a wide variety of issues and you were asking enough questions to kind of prod and get more information from me. It wasn't like you were just, we were sitting around agreeing with each other. But I was also, yeah, I was almost nervous
Starting point is 03:30:30 about doing a sequel, so to speak. But it was like, well, I just kind of want to have a conversation and enjoy it and take it for what it's worth instead of looking at this as like, am I topping the last one that we did? So that's part of why I'm kind of joking about like us needing to go this long. If you wanna, okay, well.
Starting point is 03:30:50 We have to, sorry. But I am. What I've found is like an interviewer is that when I'm trying, like if I have a particular topic, I'm trying to excavate, sometimes not always, but sometimes that's quite exhausting.
Starting point is 03:31:04 Yeah, interesting. But if it's just a chat, like if the's quite exhausting. Yeah, interesting. But if it's just a chat, like if the cameras were off right now, and we were just sitting around here, like just chatting. Yeah, yeah. That actually ends up being a more enjoyable discussion. And as a listener, I often appreciate those conversations more. Well, and that's kind of why I was enjoying some of the conversation on comedy, because
Starting point is 03:31:22 that's such a... It's not a specifically Catholic topic. And I feel like we've definitely hit a number of things today, like the first interview I did here, it was more on the sort of issues that you would probably expect us to discuss. And it's not to say comedies outside of that entirely, but it is fun and I think even enjoyable and worthwhile for the audience to be able to
Starting point is 03:31:47 hear us have conversations about things that they're not. Have you ever tried stand up? I did a little bit of stand up when I was younger. Yeah when I was like 19, 20 I used to um there were I used to do open mics and then there was this little improv group that would wanted me to come back and like open for them so then I would open for them pretty often but the landscape I was in to be honest was a little bit gross right like especially the the improv shows after were really really vulgar and terrible like some of the worst things ever heard my life were said there just like blasphemies I didn't think I could hear anywhere but hell. But just want to throw this out there. If you want to send us a super chat, we'd really appreciate it.
Starting point is 03:32:29 We would appreciate it. Pay for it. Pay for it. Someone buy us pizza. But no, I really like doing it. I really like doing standup. I just I didn't do it enough to really be good. I thought I was good.
Starting point is 03:32:42 The audience laughed, but no one's good when they first start something like that. You can't be. So even though I would get a good reaction from the audience every time, I'm sure if I ended up playing to different rooms, I would have ended up bombing or I certainly needed to sharpen my ability. I just I enjoyed it. I definitely enjoyed it. But it's not something I really stuck with because my only opportunity to do it was with a group of people who were really
Starting point is 03:33:09 doing a lot of very vulgar humor. And also I was so focused on like animation and writing comedy in that area that that was more of my outlet for it. And then do you ever have people ask you how they get into cartoon? Oh, all the time. Cartoonery all the time. People people ask, like, how can I learn? People will ask, they tend to get a job.
Starting point is 03:33:30 Younger folks asking that a mixture, a mixture. So what a holy schnikes. What is it? You didn't have to do that. Oh, my gosh. Retro. What is this? Just so everybody knows, they have their phones in front of them with the chat now So this is where we've we've gone to like we don't care anymore. We have no caring this fella says pizzas on me today boys Thanks for the good times games retropocalypse. That is very thank you so much for that. That is very kind. That is very kind
Starting point is 03:34:01 That is very kind I would not recommend reading the rest of the chat. Okay. I tried with zero success to keep them on topic. Oh my God. Yeah. I think comedy is interesting. I think I can be funny when I give a talk. Yes.
Starting point is 03:34:19 I think I'm entertaining. I think I'm funny. I'm gonna put this on the bingo card. But I'm not good. I would be terrified to get up and do a comedy spiel. Yeah. And I would be bad at it. I mean, when you're giving a talk. And a lot of that I think has to do
Starting point is 03:34:32 with the expectations of the audience. Exactly. When you give a talk, that's exactly it. People don't need to talk to be hilarious and often they're going to them kind of expecting to be bored. So if you throw any comedy in there, it's like, oh great. You know, there's actually this engaging.
Starting point is 03:34:45 I have to say Jason Everett, I saw one of his talks when I was in high school. Did you? He came to your school? He came to a church in the area and my parents brought us and I was like, He's terrific. I was like, you're gonna bring me to some abstinence talk.
Starting point is 03:34:57 Like, I was like, I know, I know the rules. I don't need to go see this. And honestly, no one's offering, so we're good. I was like, nobody likes me. The chats are rolling in. No one's even showing a little bit of cleavage to me. But he was, it was amazing. I loved it.
Starting point is 03:35:14 I thought his talk was phenomenal. I was, I already agreed with what he was saying, but I expected it to be lame. I was probably a difficult audience member to win over in some sense and I saw us talking about it. This is really good. I thought he was so I like the work he does. He is extraordinarily funny. He is. Well, he had this really good bit where he was talking about something very dark, but he discussed it in a way where he was able to make it funny without downplaying how horrible it was. He had this line where he said, you know, the first time he'd seen
Starting point is 03:35:43 pornography, he knew there was something wrong with it. One of his friends brought a porno mag out. And so he crumpled it up and threw it in the bushes, and he said, my dad was surprised to find the hedges were growing porn. I was like, that is such a good line. That's such a good line. Now, I've set you all up with the expectation
Starting point is 03:35:59 that I was gonna say something funnier, which means that joke's not gonna hit as hard. But hearing that for the first time as an audience member, I was like, that's hysterical. That's a good joke's not gonna hit as hard. But hearing that for the first time as an audience member, like that, that's hysterical. That's a good joke. Yeah, it's a good joke. Um, he, he said, it's like a funny line. He said to me once, and I think it's excellent that the, the comedy in his talks is like the, it's like the anesthesia before the incision.
Starting point is 03:36:19 Cause he's going to say some hard truths to you that you're going to have to hear. And I think that's one very valuable use of comedy. People always go, well comedy is about punching up and challenging the powerful, etc, etc. Everyone wants to give you a lecture on what comedy is about. And I believe there's a purpose to everything. So surely I can't say there's no purpose to comedy, just laugh. I gave a talk in... Well, I just, I just want to finish this thought. I can't sit here and tell you exactly what the purpose is.
Starting point is 03:36:46 There could be multiple purposes, but I think that can be one very good purpose, is making people... You know that anesthesia before the incision. You're going to say something difficult. It bonds you. Yeah. You all feel united. It's kind of like why we love concerts.
Starting point is 03:37:02 We all kind of experiencing this thing and enjoying it together. Exactly, exactly. But then there has to be something unique about the purpose of comedy because, well, we have other things that bond us. Like, what is it about comedy specifically? Why has God given us this gift? It's difficult. And I remember looking into this a bit a while back and just trying to find Catholic information
Starting point is 03:37:24 on what we believe the purpose of comedy is. And I remember looking into this a bit a while back and just trying to find Catholic information on What we believe the purpose of comedy is and maybe I just didn't look hard enough, but I couldn't find anything I'm really thoroughly like text Jimmy Aiken. Please do please please do I would love that I would love that I'm gonna read would you mind giving a cool to help us understand the purpose of comedy? And I will somebody asked if you've seen the new puss in boots Seamus. No, I haven't seen it Okay, somebody gave 20 more dollars. Oh my gosh. Wow, that is so kind. That is so kind I am and then somebody named Mrs. Homemaker. That's a great username gave five dollars and said that your pilot said your kids show they're wondering if EWT under formed would be having that. So right now we're just we're
Starting point is 03:38:08 self-producing like I said we're still in pre-production we wrapped up the storyboard phase and I've been sitting on it and working out exactly the next direction we're gonna take it in because I mentioned with freedom tunes I've been extremely busy sort of getting myself out of the weeds and focusing on some expansion there so this is gonna be part that expansion, but it's not a part that we've reached yet where it's going to dictate a lot of my time and energy, but probably over the next couple of weeks is when we're going to start letting the gears turn and put ideas together about where we're going to pitch this, who we're going to try to get to finance it. It may end up being self-financed and placed behind some kind of paywall, but there are
Starting point is 03:38:47 a lot of options. There are a lot of options right now. We have a lot of super chats here. Oh my gosh. You asked for, you did? Okay. Yes. The chat is also all just spamming Big Chungus.
Starting point is 03:38:58 So I'm going to say it to make them stop. What does that mean? Is that, I don't know, but maybe it's cause we're eating food. Well, you know what Big Chungus is. No, I don't mean but maybe it's because we're eating Food dude. Well, you know what big chunk is. No, I definitely doesn't know what big chunk is. It's a meme Yeah, it's a meme. I'm okay. No, no, it's a really fat. I'm funny. You're like the whole joke Yeah, it's okay that you don't know. It's okay that you don't know. Thanks, man Pitch it to daily wire Um, like I said about your conversations with daily wire. I mean, I know you can't share all of it.
Starting point is 03:39:26 Oh, no. I mean, I just had a brief conversation with them about, I just had a brief conversation with Jeremy Boring about potential ideas, but I'm super busy. They're super busy. We haven't actually put anything together with it. What if we talk about, we spoke a bit about this a little bit last night about how finding that balance between appreciating and being grateful and listening to and even promoting what certain conservative
Starting point is 03:39:51 commentators are doing, not having to get on board with everything, but not having to put your nose up in the air because they're not as pure as you think they should be. There's this idea of not letting perfect become the enemy of good. I think that really applies here. Look, it's complicated because you're correct that we don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water. And if there are ideas being promoted by an organization that we disagree with, we should be willing to challenge those ideas.
Starting point is 03:40:22 But at the same time, you don't wanna completely write somebody off because they don't agree with you entirely or because there's things their organization is doing that they think are wrong. I guarantee you a lot of the people, it's impossible to have any large business without even the people there vastly disagreeing on exactly what you should do, the direction you should go
Starting point is 03:40:43 and what you should believe. The truth is, as Catholics, we're blessed to have the fullness of the truth and not everyone has that and We need to Fight a very important spiritual war and this cultural battle were engaged in is related to that And we want to affect change and we want to understand that politics is the art of what you can get done. But at the same time, being pragmatic to the point where you're justifying cowardice and now you won't correct things that you disagree with from people in your own movement, also ironically stops you
Starting point is 03:41:24 from getting things done because now your movement is not even moving in the right direction. Yeah. But I hear what you're saying. I think I think we mostly agree. You see a lot of people who will complain, for example, about Jordan Peterson. Yeah. And I, I like Jordan Peterson. I think that there's a lot he's correct about.
Starting point is 03:41:41 I think that. Yeah, I don't know. Someone's asking if we have a Gatorade I think that... Yeah, I don't know. Someone's asking if we have a Gatorade bottle up here and no, we don't. Above your right hand? Like here? I don't see a Gatorade bottle. Beer stein, although it's a Budweiser beer stein, so we might have to... Oh, is he talking about the whiskey glasses? Yeah, we have no Gatorade bottle. That's your answer. All right, so... Jordan Peterson. Okay, so as I was saying about Jordan Peterson, people have no Gatorade bottle. That's your answer. All right. So Jordan Peterson. Okay.
Starting point is 03:42:06 So as I was saying about Jordan Peterson, people have very short memory spans and it's absolutely correct to say that there's a lot we disagree with Jordan Peterson on. And what's going to happen as time goes on is those disagreements are they're going to become more pronounced or we're going to reconcile. I don't see any alternative there. Is this Jimmy Akin? Yep. Is that okay if we 100% I'll finish my spiel after.
Starting point is 03:42:25 Yeah. Yeah. What a guy. Yeah. I'm sorry. I love this man so much. He's one of the kindest people I've ever- Seriously.
Starting point is 03:42:33 Very. I, I, yeah. I've only spoken once, but he's very kind. Hey, Jimmy, you are on Pines with Aquinas on speakerphone. Okay. Awesome. And you're with a friend of mine, Seamus Coughlin, who runs a YouTube channel called Freedom Turns. He's a big fan of the work you've done. And he had a question. Nice to meet you Seamus. Yeah, yeah, good to meet you. I actually wanted
Starting point is 03:42:55 to ask you about comedy. We're having a discussion about comedy and, you know, I write it as part of my living. And I'm realizing it's been very difficult to find Catholic theology that really nails down the parameters or even just the purpose of comedy. And it's possible I haven't been looking hard enough. And so, Matt recommended that we ask you, and so here we are. Okay. Well, there are different theories about comedy in the scientific community. It is something that has been studied for quite some time because it's a somewhat mysterious phenomenon. Yeah.
Starting point is 03:43:38 It is something that is built into human nature and this is something that became clear to me when I was a number of years ago I was friends with family that had a girl who was born deaf and even though she had never heard another person laughing she would run around and play and laugh her heads off with the other children. And so the fact she was laughing, mean she wasn't just imitating what she saw other children doing. You know, she might open her mouth if that was the case, but not actually expel laughter. And so laughter is something that's built into human nature. It is also shared by some other species. It has been proposed that, for
Starting point is 03:44:33 example, human laughter is the human equivalent of a behavior that is displayed by chimpanzees when they play with each other. They make a kind of pant pant noise, which is similar to our ha ha noise. Also, if you look at other species, they can get even closer to human laughter. I was surprised a while back to watch videos of foxes being tickled and the foxes sound like humans when they laugh. And so laughter is something that crosses the species barrier and that would indicate that it's number one, built into our nature and number two, that it has an important function and presumably one of the social functions that laughter does in general with other species is it's a signal of happiness and play. You may notice, for example, that different species have different ways of signifying playfulness. For example, dogs
Starting point is 03:45:45 have what's known as a play bow, where they lower the front half of their body and raise their tail. Yeah. And that's a way of signaling to other dogs, I'm not threatening, I want to play with you. So, laughter seems to serve as a signal that I'm enjoying myself, we're playing and so forth. This is not a threatening situation. This is not a fight. And so, that's what laughter seems to do. But laughter is triggered in humans by humor. And so that would suggest that humor is essentially
Starting point is 03:46:27 a kind of play. And you know, but for what reason? One of the things by plays learn about the world. That's why kittens and white boys play boys play cops, robbers, or cowboys and Indians, or Spartans and Athenians, or whatever the local variant is. Because as adults, they may be called upon to fight in real circumstances. And so they get experience handling each other, both puppies and kittens and humans,
Starting point is 03:47:04 by simulating dangerous experiences handling each other, both puppies and kittens and humans, by simulating dangerous experiences that they will later encounter in life. And so that's the fundamental purpose of play. There's also another aspect of play, which is social bonding. As a result of people engaging in play, including humorous play, they're bonded socially. If you go to a theater and you're watching a comedy
Starting point is 03:47:33 and it's a good comedy, everybody in the audience has an experience of social bonding as a result of laughing at it or talking about that sitcom episode everybody saw last night night back in the days when there were only three TV channels. And so there's a social bonding element that also promotes survival in humans by helping social groups that have common bonding experiences work together better and continue to exist. So there's a survival advantage
Starting point is 03:48:07 to sharing common experiences that are pleasant with other members of the group that you're depending on for survival. Now, all of that proceeds from an evolutionary perspective, but I think there's another potential dimension here, which is it seems to me that humor is based on the recognition of a certain kind of beauty. Whenever we find something funny,
Starting point is 03:48:35 I think what we're doing is we're recognizing something beautiful. And so I think humor also can be conceived of as a kind of experience of beauty. And that beauty, you could argue, is purely subjective, you know, and will vary from one species to another, or you could argue it's objective. And that's, for example, an angel might find the same things funny that a human does. But essentially humor appears to be a human form of play. And because humans are so intellectual, we just, you know, we take concepts that are present
Starting point is 03:49:16 in other species in a minor degree, and then we just go crazy with them. Humor is essentially a highly intellectualized form of play. And sometimes it's just linguistic play, you know, like in wordplay. But fundamentally, that's what it's doing. It may be training us for encountering dangerous situations later because humor often involves one person losing face and being embarrassed. And so humor may train us in that way.
Starting point is 03:49:47 It can help us learn how to be the butt of the joke and experience embarrassment. It also may socially bond groups to promote their survival, and it may be a form of recognition of a kind of beauty. I appreciate that. So part of where I'm coming from here with asking and some of those, I think that's a very good and interesting way of putting it, I think I've seen a lot of explanations in the world about why humans might potentially have developed this ability to recognize humor. I haven't heard it put quite that way, but part of the difficulty for me has been in finding
Starting point is 03:50:28 what theologians have written about humor. And there's something I noticed, and again, I have not done anything near the deep dive into anything theological you have, so it's part of why I'd be curious if you noticed anything in terms of like theology and comedy intersecting here that would be relevant to this. But one thing I ended up finding pretty frequently actually is, you know, these admonitions against frivolous laughter and even a negative view of laughter in certain contexts. And I think we
Starting point is 03:51:03 could all agree that there are some things you shouldn't laugh at, but it was very difficult for me to find anything in anything the saints or theologians wrote about like good humor and what humor should do, if that makes sense. Yeah, I'm aware of passages in various theologians and others that talk about laughter. In fact, one of the philosophical definitions of humanity that I've encountered is not man as a wise
Starting point is 03:51:34 animal or a rational animal, but man is a risible animal, meaning he's an animal that laughs. I think that's probably overly narrow. I think other species also laugh. It just may not sound like human laughter. But I am aware of passages that discuss humor and there seems to be a recognition on the part of various Christian figures of the value of laughter and humor and that it does have a legitimate role in society. In fact, when you read scripture it uses humor. You know, Jesus, Jesus himself uses humor. For example, when he talks about the blind leading the blind. You know, there's a kind of innate humor in that situation of how could a blind person lead another blind person?
Starting point is 03:52:24 It wouldn't work at all. And so Jesus himself uses humorous concepts. We also have humorous concepts in many Old Testament passages, including some of the prophets where they use what are called taunt songs to taunt another people that are opposed to God. Yeah. And so it is something that's more than the Christian tradition and the Christian tradition. But you also do find warnings about inappropriate use of humor. And because you get more warnings than theory from a lot of authors, you tend to get more from various figures,
Starting point is 03:53:06 you'll get more warnings and not so much theory about what's good in humor. Well, thank you for that. Yeah, no problem. I hope that's helpful. Here's one more question for you, Jimmy. What about when Seamus or a comedian is trying to find out where the line is?
Starting point is 03:53:23 Yeah. Yeah, this is a judgment call. There is, there's no single answer to this. And it really is situational. It's gonna depend, I think fundamentally, on the people you're talking to and what you're talking about and what their relationship is to what you're talking to and what you're talking about and what their relationship
Starting point is 03:53:45 is to what you're talking about. For example, you know, if you imagine a great tragedy like 9-11 was, it would be totally inappropriate to take a time machine and go back to the day after 9-11 and start telling jokes about it. You know, it was too recent, too raw. People's emotions are tied up in this horrific event and they're not going to respond well to this. However, that doesn't mean that there's no humor in the situation. You could, for example, point to the heroism of the Flight 93 passengers.
Starting point is 03:54:26 Flight 93, according to our best evidence, was gonna smash into the U.S. Capitol building and kill loads of people in Congress. And heroic passengers, you know, brought it down. And they rebelled on the plane, and they won the day. They didn't save their lives, but they stopped the mission. And there can be a recognition of the beauty of even as Al-Qaeda's plan was being implemented, it failed because in the case of Flight 93, because they learned enough
Starting point is 03:55:03 about what was going on to realize what was happening to them. They took a vote so democracy was in action, and then they thwarted the plan. And that's a beautiful experience that can even be used in terms of humor, because we have this beauty here of even as these barbarians were striking with their secret plan, Americans using democracy were able to thwart it as soon as they had enough data to realize what was going on. And you could use that for humorous purposes to kind of mock Al-Qaeda and Islamic terrorism. But you wouldn't want to do that on 9-12. You
Starting point is 03:55:48 would want to wait until people's emotional relationship to those events had changed enough that this would be able to be appreciated and play a positive role rather than something negative. So, you know, there's a question you sometimes hear in humorous circles, is it too soon? Meaning is some tragedy that or negative event that I want to joke about, is it too soon to start joking about it? And there's a kind of recognition that after a certain point
Starting point is 03:56:22 after our emotions have cooled and there's been healing, you can look at humorous aspects of situations even if they were negative or even tragedies when they occurred. You know, similarly the Nazis, you know, they were horrifically bad, but even during World War II, you had comedy being done against Adolf Hitler, like for example, Spike Jonze's song, Dear Fuhrer's Face, which includes a Bronx cheer or raspberry, you know, the part of the lyric of the song is, and we hile, hile right into your furors face. And so you can have humor used about negative things to play a positive role, but it has to be done in terms of what's the situation I'm in
Starting point is 03:57:16 and how will it affect people. And I think in humor, as in everything else, the underlying principle is brotherly love. If you're just using humor to run somebody down and destroy their reputation, that's an inappropriate use of humor. But if you're using humor in a social bonding way and to entertain and enliven people without really hurting anyone, then it can be used successfully. Wow. It's a very, very solid thorough explanation. It sounds like a big part of what you're saying is a lot of this depends upon who the humor is at the expense of, especially when you're
Starting point is 03:57:57 dealing with something dark. And it sounds like you would say, well, you want to make sure that the joke is at the expense of the person who's doing something wrong as opposed to the people who they're harming. Yeah, though there's also just a kind of playfulness that can occur without really putting anybody down, without really trying to hurt anybody. Just like if you're wrestling with someone as part of a childhood game, you're not trying to hurt any of them, you're just playing with each other. And in the same way, there can be a kind of pushing each other around verbally in the form of humor that's not meant to hurt.
Starting point is 03:58:37 And as long as it's not meant to hurt, it's just meant to be playful. It's something that's acceptable. Yeah, fair enough. Thank you so much Thank you so much, Jimmy All right, God bless you. God bless you. Have a wonderful rest your day How do you get a text from me call me and speak that eloquently? 16 minutes straight. I know It's like I asked him to prepare for a week. He's like, there are three points.
Starting point is 03:59:09 He's like a modern Thomas Aquinas. There are three points. He obviously went into some very sensitive areas and very expertly was able to communicate in a way that did not come off as like clumsy or offensive or something. And what a great point about the Americans using democracy. Democracy to beat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you think of that on the spot? Has he been thinking about that for a while?
Starting point is 03:59:28 That is actually really funny. It's kind of funny. People in the chat are also saying that we're cheating by calling somebody else to get the title of another. Listen, we are going to drag each other across the finish line. That's right.
Starting point is 03:59:40 That's what we're doing. It's only about beating him. That's what Christians are called to do with one another. We're dragging each other across. At George's expense. At George's expense. Got's what we're doing. It's only about that's what Christians are called to do with one another we're At George's expense nothing to do with quality. It's all about oh my god. George is the butt of the joke He did the thing wrong George the butt of the joke But no that I actually appreciate everything he's saying cuz for me all right This is gonna is I'm veering way off into left field here. Okay, let's do it. But have you? It's still relevant to what I'm saying. Wouldn't it be funny if you called someone and I called someone
Starting point is 04:00:08 and we just like them chat while we eat pizza? And chat saying this episode should just be called Matt and Seamus on the phone. But there was. All right, so there's something I want to bring up, but I'm actually not sure if it would be best to explain this in a more linear way. So like with comedy, I lately have been trying to look at what we're writing more and more
Starting point is 04:00:33 as I mentioned, just trying to get a laugh. We're just trying to do something funny. I also do work which is educational. So we've done some videos for different Catholic organizations to create educational cartoons. I've worked with the Foundation for Economic Education and, you know, done educational cartoons. Like, I don't, um, I definitely do understand edutainment in the appeal of that, but freedom tunes is really like, we're just trying to be funny. And there's a lost art in just trying to do something well without getting overly ambitious and connecting it to way too many other things.
Starting point is 04:01:10 I really admire people who do stand-up comedy or who just play an instrument really well. And they've picked something where a person can excel if they really work and they're just trying to do that. They're not trying to build out a whole franchise. They're not trying to take over the world with it. They just want to get really good at something. I admire that because for me, I do have ambitions to continually expand what we're doing. Like I said, we have the cartoons. We also work with clients. We're working on a kid's pilot. I really want to grow this. And I think that's good. And I think that's what I'm called to do. At the same time, I so much appreciate when someone sees it as their vision to just get really good at that one thing.
Starting point is 04:01:50 That's Jason Everett. Oh, really? I mean, people have sometimes dissed him for always giving the same talk. I'm sorry. I thought you were saying that's something he said, but yes. No, no, no. It's just that he's gotten extraordinarily good at standing up and communicating the church's beautiful vision of human sexuality. And primarily younger audiences. No, he crushes it. He's fantastic at it.
Starting point is 04:02:12 And the reason he's better than anybody else is he's given that talk eight billion times. Eight billion times. I totally, I totally. Whereas me, the reason I like doing points of the quietness is I get to chat with different people about different things. A bunch of different things. One of the reasons I started moving points of the quietness is I get to chat with different people about different things a bunch of different things
Starting point is 04:02:25 I like separating away from talking and writing on pornography is because I started getting burnt out on it It's difficult to deal not just with one topic But a topic that was kind of dark and that can very easily happen very easily happen, especially when it's a dark topic There's a film. I watched recently for the first time. It's about ten years old now So I'm late to the party, but it's called Whiplash. Have you ever seen Whiplash? I don't know. Oh my gosh.
Starting point is 04:02:48 Immediately. Guys, you were supposed to stop at 316 hours. This is not acceptable. Who said that? George, he's upset. Oh! Whiplash. Matt, you've seen clips of Whiplash.
Starting point is 04:03:00 Oh, Whiplash, of course I've seen Whiplash. George is not as gracious about this whole thing as he was when he thought he was gonna win how fascinating Wow, just like the Brits just like the Brits tables He had that five-hour two-minute Relic in his case and we're going in there and taking it back What was I just saying so yeah with my flesh I
Starting point is 04:03:23 What was I just saying? So yeah, whiplash. I love that film. Yeah, I just saw it for the first time. Are you serious? Recently I just saw it like two weeks ago. Three weeks ago. I said, have you seen anything? I know that's well, because you asked if I'd seen anything really funny.
Starting point is 04:03:35 Fair. And you don't find it. And I thought it was a more dramatic film, but it was brilliant because firstly I think if you're dealing with a good movie there's there's some part of it that's open-ended but it's still giving you a message it's not spoon-feeding you what it's trying to tell you and it's possible by the way that I'm getting it wrong because of that maybe what the film is trying to do is critique that understanding of the pursuit of greatness. Can you explain the plot so people aren't lost?
Starting point is 04:04:10 So part of me is worried that by explaining the plot and I'm gonna, I'm gonna like spoil it so I'll try to be as vague as I can. Whiplash is about an unorthodox, abusive, frankly, teacher at a fictional, prestigious music academy who is trying to get the best performance possible out of his students and the protagonist of the film is a young man who wants to get very good at drumming. Part of why I like the film firstly is just. I forget the name of the actor, J.K. Simmons. J.K.
Starting point is 04:04:52 Simmons. Yeah, I know. And it's one of those names everyone knows. So I'm embarrassed to have forgotten it. But J.K. Simmons, his character is incredibly he's incredible. It's a very unique character. It's a very unique character. OK, I'm thinking of a totally different film. Okay. I'm thinking of that. What's
Starting point is 04:05:09 the movie about the glam band? This one goes to 11. Spinal tap. Spinal tap. That's what I thought when you said whiplash. I haven't seen whiplash. Whiplash is so I really enjoyed this. There's a lot I enjoyed about it and again very possible I'm totally misunderstanding what the writer director was trying to say or the writers or directors if there are several people but the teacher it's clear he goes too far he does things that are objectively not moral and are abusive but it's motivated by a desire to get the best performance out of his students. And he's just very, very cruel to them. And in a way that I think you could argue
Starting point is 04:05:53 would not produce the best musicians, but he believes it will. And the film doesn't go, look how bad and wrong he is. It's a nuanced exploration of it. We live in a culture where everyone feels entitled to be good at things. People feel entitled to be told that they're good at something even if they've never practiced it or even if they have practiced it but only to the point where they're mediocre. And then once someone actually does get good at something,
Starting point is 04:06:19 they think they're the greatest ever. Part of why I like it is for that reason. It was a refreshing greatest ever. Yeah. Part of why I liked it is for that reason, it was a refreshing, it was a refreshing take on it, but also because again, there is something I think is very noble and interesting about the fact that this kid just,
Starting point is 04:06:34 he really wants to be the best drummer. He wants to be the best drummer and that is the thing he wants to become the best at. And in the grand scheme of things, that might not seem like such a massive or important goal, but the pursuit of excellence is always an important goal. Do you think that the reason we feel entitled to be excellent at things in part
Starting point is 04:06:54 is that technology has become a substitute for hard work and talent? Yeah, yeah. Think of how you can have a I create beautiful paintings now, but you have them write stories. I mean, everything is so quick that writing me a poem about she's writing me. We were on the Today Show.
Starting point is 04:07:14 You were on the Today Show. So what was the Today Show? CBS, the CBS. Oh, my God. It was me like all your mess. And then we ended up on the morning show. I think that when I told him we were on the morning show He wrote back and said what you say. Do we say anything about the gays? Was it about the game?
Starting point is 04:07:34 Oh my gosh Yeah, I just the reason I know I went off in a couple different directions there, but my point is what I've really been trying to do is just, you know, for my whole career, I've wanted to expand outward and grow and we've been doing that. But I am increasingly seeing the value
Starting point is 04:07:55 of just like focusing on the one thing, if that makes sense as well. And like just really trying to put extra time in to make sure that the writing for this is really, really funny because, you know, the audience might be willing to accept it if it's if it's good, but you really still want to strive to say, I know I can make this funnier even if it's funny. And I actually don't know I can make this funnier because I don't know what else I can add, but I'm still going to try.
Starting point is 04:08:18 Oh, boy. Oh, look at that. Don't knock that camera as you come in. Or do you want to grab it from him? You want to shame us? Oh, I'm so sorry. You were talking to me? You're going to get off your fat ass and get the pizzas?
Starting point is 04:08:30 I know you're not talking to the talent right now. Thanks Matt. Hey, thanks. Oh, awesome. Okay, perfect. You guys are awesome. You're welcome to come in and sit with us, but it might be very boring. Oh yeah, we need plates.
Starting point is 04:08:44 We need plates? No, we don't. It's a pizza. Look it might be very boring. Oh yeah. We need plates. We need plates? No we don't. It's a pizza. You know this comes with its plate. How do you want me to eat over here, Matt? No it's not for you. No. Well look, we have paper towel.
Starting point is 04:08:52 We can divvy up the paper towel. Fair enough. Oh no worries. We have paper towel. That was your hint Thursday to bring us the paper towel. Ah yeah, sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry.
Starting point is 04:09:03 Somebody asked an actual apologetic question. Someone did? Yeah, I had the chance. Alright. Yeah, you're welcome to come in. Just don't hit the cameras kind of hard because... Alright. Thank you very much.
Starting point is 04:09:16 It's pizza time. I'll be sure to pay you back. I promise. Pizza time. Pizza time as you could say. I'm gonna go back over to locals. If you're watching right now and you're in your local supporter you can ask questions there Well, here's a great go is there a super chat? Oh, wait, is it like one pizza each? Is that what we're doing? We're just gonna split it up Nothing for you. Yes
Starting point is 04:09:38 Toss me one of those All of this just to spite George Farmer. All of this. Just to spite George. I'm not even hungry. We can't stop now. You understand that. No, no, I understand that.
Starting point is 04:09:56 Like there's no way we could stop. There's literally no way. Five hours and one minute. What if I was so gracious that one minute before we beat his time I stepped aside and said, you can have it George. You know what? It's not even that important to me Just keep streaming This camera up off the tripod and follow you out
Starting point is 04:10:14 Wouldn't that be like the ultimate flex though that would be pretty cool All right, let's pray in the name of the Father and the Son the Holy Spirit a man bless us Oh Lord, and these gifts which we are about to receive from our bounty to Christ our Lord. Amen. Watching people eat is disgusting. So gross. We're going to go audio only. Yeah, but don't eat right into the.
Starting point is 04:10:35 Mm hmm. Oh, come on. Pretty good. All right, Paul asks, what is the most embarrassing experience you had at church? Oh boy That's that's a good question. I haven't thought about that much. I Really? Yeah. Yeah. No you you answer one of you answer So after our eighth grade DC field trip I
Starting point is 04:11:03 Just serve mass the night after we got back and I fall asleep. Fell asleep serving mass. That one's I mean, that's an easy dub. I mean, an easy, easy dub. You fell asleep. What did I look like? I was sitting in the chair next to the priest. You're a bad person. Ow. Yeah. Thanks, Seamus.
Starting point is 04:11:22 You're a really bad person. This actually should be your most embarrassing moment of the podcast. And I can't believe you admitted that. Somebody just sent us a meme. Does the loudest sounds on Earth in order? Concert speakers, fireworks, gunfire, blue whale, space shuttle, a dad sneeze. That's true. That's actually true. Hey, this beautiful woman asks, hey, hey Seamus last time you were on you mentioned you were single still looking come on
Starting point is 04:11:50 Oh my god, yeah Bastard you're shameful. I am um I'm I am a single man right now. I'm not not dating anyone right now. Just very very focused on work and so Lisa if you write to assistant at Matt com if you try to set this woman up with me we will have shameless reach out since it's not your job you reach my god you'll make the oh my gosh you just have to rewrite oh my gosh coyote Roadrunner Bugs Bunny Elmer Fudd why would they say that?
Starting point is 04:12:25 Well, here's a fact about animation, a very fun fact that you all might not know. Animators can get away with plagiarism in a way that other artists can't. Or things that we might call plagiarism in other mediums aren't really as frowned upon in animation. And I think there are actually good reasons for that. But Bugs Bunny is literally just Groucho Marx. They just stole Groucho Marx's personality
Starting point is 04:12:48 and like made him a bunny. That's that that's who Bugs Bunny is. And then the Flintstones or the Honeymooners and this it's a very common trope in animation to just take a comedian or likable public figure and then turn them into a cartoon character without telling people that that's who it is and I Find that fascinating because we would consider that copying basically anywhere else, but an animation. It's it's totally kosher people don't get upset about it Oh, I think there's the reason for that sorry you're But sorry, you're right.
Starting point is 04:13:29 Excuse me. No, no, just so you know, all of this dead air is going to get against our time at the end. So I think the reason for that is to quote Andrew Stanton in animation. You get nothing for free. You get nothing for free. Like you can't just depend on the personality of a specific actor. You have to make everything yourself. And so I think more can be forgiven in the way of deriving something from the real world that you're not like necessarily crediting, because you just have to do that all the time with everything.
Starting point is 04:13:54 Cause you can't just fabricate an entire world by yourself. Yeah. Margo Catholic says, shout out to Terry, Seamus is amazing social media assistant He's in the chat. Yes. Shout out. Shout out to Terry. Terry's been helping with social media stuff. She's been great. Thank you. Thank you. TK is Traddish says, will you be correcting leftist memes anytime soon? That was one of the funniest series.
Starting point is 04:14:23 Look at this. Look at this. Look at this picture of you and me with cowboy. Let's get this up. Like that's what it looks like to the beautiful. That's this is what we look like to people. My goodness at this point. Shout out to Terry, by the way. I'm sorry. I think I saw her in chat too. Thank you for your very hard work. How good is this? Let's ask. Let's ask Thursday question so we can eat hey I'm great how are you you know what do you want me to talk about you could say one of my trigger words Brett Cooper that's not one of them you were in love with Brett
Starting point is 04:15:02 no so this is not a thing Matt just decided when he came back from Daily Wire that I should go out with her. But he also knows that I'm like, I hate long distance and that I wouldn't date non-Catholics. And he also has made zero attempt to get us in contact with each other, which is hilarious because he could do it in like five minutes without trying. So just so everybody's aware, Matt plays it up like he's a... Brett Cooper started following me the other day on Instagram and I screenshotted it and texted him and just said, in your face.
Starting point is 04:15:33 I, um, when I was a kid, I was at camp and they kept like, there were different classes we took at this camp, it was a really long summer camp. And for whatever reason, the counselor started a joke that I had a crush on one of that like the lifeguard which I didn't But they were like signing me up for her things Because they thought it would be funny and like making it seem like I said myself was like I didn't there wasn't me like I Listen, I didn't choose to be here
Starting point is 04:16:00 with you Yeah, that was you know, that's just being really offensive. You think I like you? I don't like you. I was like, I could do better. I was like, I could do better. All right. No, I was like, 10 year old shame. When I was a boy, I asked a girl out. She was so beautiful. Her name was Karen Burke. Still is probably. Are you saying she didn't get married?
Starting point is 04:16:18 That's that's that's a big attack. He's saying she didn't get a sex change, bro. It's twenty twenty three. It's not Ken didn't get a sex change, bro. It's 2023. It's now Ken Burke. And anyway, I remember us asking her out and she said yes. And I was so afraid of her that I never spoke to her. And then I forget if she broke up with
Starting point is 04:16:37 me or if we just stopped talking. That was so awkward. I just, I just was head over heels. Way too old. Like 19? I think. No. No, no, no. Wait, hold on. I think I may have been like 11 or 12.
Starting point is 04:16:49 Oh, I mean that's, that's not, yeah. I was afraid you were going to see like 16 and I was going to be like, oh, I have to find some other work. No, I was always really awkward about dating. The audience says they're getting hungry. No, not that problem. Martoni's, North 4th Street, Stupendale, Ohio.
Starting point is 04:17:06 I just want to be clear about what just happened here, okay? Mmm. The audience sent in money. For us to eat. And then mocked them. Not my problem. And now they have nothing left for food. And they're saying they're hungry.
Starting point is 04:17:22 And you go, is there a problem? Is there a problem? That's their problem. Yeah. Let them eat cake. Here's a good question. Bob, oh my glasses. Bob Clift says, anything in the Sumer on the topic of comedy.
Starting point is 04:17:35 I don't know about comedy specifically, but he does talk about playfulness. So Aristotle talks about playfulness. I think the Greek word is utripeleia, if I've got that right. And he uses the example of a particular saint who was playing with some of his disciples or whatever. And someone came up to him and said,
Starting point is 04:17:54 isn't this kind of rather shameful behavior for you to be playing? And the saint said, you have a bow there, take it out and shoot an arrow. So he did. And he said, do it again, do it again. He said, could you do that all day?
Starting point is 04:18:06 And the man said, no, the the bow would break, the string would break or whatever. He said, right, the same thing with the human mind. If I if I devote it with seriousness to a particular topic, I need to relax it. So it's not to break it.
Starting point is 04:18:20 That'd be the closest I can think of. It's a good way of putting it. Yeah. That'd be the closest I can think of mm-hmm. It's a good way putting it Yeah That's trying to do Star Trek and failed miserably Are we eating both pizzas? Imagine if the stream started on time. Could have gone seven hours. No Kyle, no it couldn't have.
Starting point is 04:18:55 It is good though, if you have the mindset of like, this is really just for us. I mean we wouldn't do this. The podcast? No yeah. But, wait we wouldn't know. Yeah. But we wouldn't eat pizza if this is just two of us. No, I mean, we wouldn't sit down for five hours at a table and just chat randomly. We'd probably go for a walk. We'd do
Starting point is 04:19:12 other things. But there is something fresh when you actually just talk and not try to be entertaining. Yeah. Or not trying to like this topic. This is the way this topic. That's right. Think about the way news anchors talk compared to how podcasters talk. It's even affected the way people get up on stage and speak.
Starting point is 04:19:31 I was with Trent Horn recently at a Catholic Answers conference where we were both speaking, and we noticed that the older apologists have a different kind of way of presenting. Yeah. And it's very, it's almost theatrical. Whereas when- In today's news, this happened to that person over there.
Starting point is 04:19:45 Yeah, it's like a very. Where is when Trent and I get up, it's more like a stream of consciousness. You're right to happen, dude. And you got a bloody sneeze, though. He certainly that loud dad sneeze. It's like a stream of consciousness. And that isn't to say that it isn't thought out or planned or or researched. It's just it's different.
Starting point is 04:20:05 Yeah. Um, well, I don't think news anchors always talk the way they do now either. I think it's kind of, I mean, like I don't think Walter Cronkite wasn't like today this happened and these people, blah, blah, blah, blah. I gotta think it's a newer thing, no? That's how they've talked my whole life and probably your whole life, but I gotta imagine there was a time before they spoke like that. When you hear the parodies of old newsreels, it's like Today our boys are overseas fighting this war, right? Like there's been these different
Starting point is 04:20:37 weird cadences that news presenters have adopted over the years, and you wonder why they never just talk like normal normal people and I wonder if that's just been part of public speech generally like did the did the Greeks use a different cadence when they were up in front of an audience presenting yeah the way our newscasters do has the American accent changed over the years significantly absolutely absolutely yeah like that voice you just did that wasn't a show that's presumably how people spoke. So that how did it change? Do you think? Well, it's a mixture, right? Because they actually fabricated it. They created a fake accent for media of the transatlantic accent. Yeah. So they literally made a fake accent
Starting point is 04:21:20 to make language sound more sophisticated and appealing to a broader portion of consumers, because in the United States and part of why I say the American accent has changed is because we've basically all lost our accents. In different parts of the country people used to sound different and they still do not as much as they used to though like you people in my generation especially are not... It's in part because you watch television and listen to the radio and a lot of the people you hear speak are not from your region and it's all kind of begun to morph together into one broad national accent as opposed to the many many regional accents that we had
Starting point is 04:22:02 historically. As an Australian growing up, I always really liked the Southern accent. American Southern accent or Australian Southern accent? No, the American Southern accent. Well, that's because Australians are British Texans. Oh, yeah. After the COVID lockdown and capitulation, I'm not sure if we deserve that compliment. What are New Zealanders? I'll tell you. Yeah. I mean, can you crap on Kiwis? That'd be really funny.
Starting point is 04:22:25 I met Kiwi the other day and I said, we're in Australia. You're from because it was you told me they was from Australia and it was like an offense. New Zealanders are offended if they're mistaken for Australians. Australians aren't if we're mistaken for Kiwis. Well, I can tell you who has higher social status then. It's the it's the meme of Don Draper in the elevator. I feel bad for you. I don't think about you at all. That's right. But I was just gonna say something but there's my I had a. New Zealanders kiwi. Oh no no no you said that that was too much
Starting point is 04:22:57 of a compliment to give to the people of Australia. I said British Texans all All right, let's not get too. That's the qualifier. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah It's interesting I wonder well anytime a foreigner tries to Do an American accent they always pick a southern accent so I imagine it's just a much easier accent to do. Yeah, I'll try You ready? This is going to be terrible, but everyone can go to hell because you can't do my accents. So shut up. I don't even care what you think. It's all good. That is why the archdiocese, ah, it's the ahs. That is why the archdiocese of Oklahoma City was able to return Santiago to the care of the local diocese. Father Rother was declared a martyr.
Starting point is 04:23:49 Martyr. Martyr. You can't do the letter R. How do you say Martyr? Martyr. Martyr. Martyr. That's okay.
Starting point is 04:23:55 Martyr. I've had trouble. Yeah. That's exactly how you say it. Martyr. Mm hmm. Yeah? Yes.
Starting point is 04:24:01 So. By Pope France. I'm not done. By Pope. I'm just joking. Hold on. Yes, so by Pope France, I'm not done by Well, I'm I understand Pulls the stream because of copyright I had five hour mark I understand the the the our thing because
Starting point is 04:24:20 so When I was a kid, I had a pretty strong accent, like when I was little, because we, like I said, we moved out of the city and into the suburbs and you know, my parents and siblings and like all my cousins and extended families and even a lot of people in the suburbs have an accent. And so I had a very flat A and the letter R was very thick.
Starting point is 04:24:39 I'm like, care instead of car. And I didn't realize that I sounded different from the kids at school until they all just sort of relentlessly making fun of me about the time I turned 12 when kids start like noticing those things and just ripping on each other. And I had so much trouble trying to figure out how to pronounce the letter R like a normal person. It was very difficult. And.
Starting point is 04:24:58 I still mess it up because I just worked it out on my own, but I know I'll under pronounce the letter R sometimes because I'm overcompensating for the fact that I had to relearn how to pronounce that letter when I was like 12 or 13 or 14 around that time. So in South Australia, as opposed to New South Wales and other places, we would say plant instead of plant, dance instead of dance. But Sydney people would say dance and plant. And I remember about the age of 14
Starting point is 04:25:25 I or thereabouts I decided since I was born in Sydney. I could make myself distinct by talking like haha So I started saying plant and dance and and now I'm confused and now that I'm in America. It's I don't know what I'm saying So sometimes I'll say Pope Francis and those are say Pope Francis. Oh Okay. Okay, you got to pick one at some point man Yeah, but I don't know if I can anymore. It's no accents are a weird thing I heard if you move before the age of 12, you'll pick up the accent of the place. You're now in mm-hmm I don't know how true that is, but no no, I can't I'll never lose my accent. Mm-hmm It's a shame. So I'll try. So sorry. I'm now American.
Starting point is 04:26:07 It was actually a really cool experience getting my American passport. It was one thing I did the, uh, you know, you should tell the story. What did I say to you when you became American? Oh yeah. I actually should look it up. So I'll look up what you said. When I told you I was becoming American, if that's okay with you, you should tell the story about the square again. So I went to the swearing in ceremony. I didn't put my hand over my heart and pledge allegiance like the rest of them.
Starting point is 04:26:30 I felt weird about it. That's it. That's my story. It seems weird. I'm okay. The pledge was written by a socialist. Really? I thought you were going to tell the story about the congresswoman. I need to read. I can tell that. Oh yeah, the pledge was written by a socialist and under God Wasn't placed in it until the Cold War. Hmm. When we wanted to make it seem less communist that we pledge our souls to a piece of cloth every morning.
Starting point is 04:27:00 Yeah, interesting. Mm-hmm. Who is the congresswoman of one of them? Columbus of Columbus. She was a black lady. She seemed beautiful. She's like super trendy and just. Good stage presence. And then she got up to kind of like welcome us all to America. There's 150 of us.
Starting point is 04:27:22 That's a Democrat. Yeah. And. sold to America is 150 of us. That's a Democrat. But, but she had to do a little racial thing. It was like, why do that now? Like we just said, what racial thing is she doing? Very land of the white. I mean, did you give you a slam poem about oppression? She said this thing where, how racist you are. Even though we don't, many of us don't look like those founders,
Starting point is 04:27:52 she said times are a-changin'. Like that. Oh my gosh. Now, if what you were gonna say is, everyone is equal here and everyone can make a difference, great, but to everyone. Sure, she made, she could have gone in one direction And she went the opposite so she could have gone. We don't look like them, but that's fine because deep down We believe the same thing no she went the direction of actually it's good that we don't look like them because they had the bad skin color
Starting point is 04:28:17 It was like that mm-hmm. We're not replacing. I'm dude. I feel I'm sorry planning to replace you. I'm too yeah Yeah, exactly. I'm dude. I feel so guilty about having the wrong skin color. You know what I mean? I hate that. I have the bad skin color makes me you don't really feel so terrible. Of course not course not Hey, I'm looking for this comment when I told you I became that I think I sent it as a voice message I really piece of American history. Yes, so I'd be hard to find but I Said I just became American and you said cool cool, you know you have to hate immigrants now.
Starting point is 04:28:48 That's what I said. And I said, ha ha ha. And you went, no, you need to hate immigrants now. Seriously, like you now that you're, I was like, I know that you're an immigrant, but you, you know. I said the same thing to Matt. I said he was the exception that proves the rule that I'm right about needing an immigration moratorium.
Starting point is 04:29:04 Oh my gosh. And I said, yeah, I said, well, you're right, it was a voicemail, so it's not here anymore. But you said, I'll need to buy you a shitty American beer now that you're an American. Yeah, I did, but it can't be Bud Light. What did you say? And you said, and none of that Foster shit anymore. And now you drink Ying Ling.
Starting point is 04:29:24 Oh, man, look at that in the man we're not sponsored by the way but everybody changes in his life to be a good American I'm so I mentored him and being American it's no big deal our Americans a little too over the top with the yingling or just the right amount I don't know the reason I think America yingling is a good patriotic dream because because they donated a lot to Trump That's why I like them when I was in college. I used to drink Budweiser to be honest Please don't tell anyone it was it was an art school
Starting point is 04:29:53 So I think I could be forgiven and my buddies would would drink what were you cracking up over? You lit your pants on fire Well now I can't trust this guy literally a liar what you said is funny I just can't know what happened here so is you what did you mean you lit your pants on fire you guys are talking about the wrong skin color and that reached over to try to touch me as a joke and I went you and like recoil that as I did it It's my secret half Mexican. That's great. Thanks. There's that And my sight did it my cigarette ash fell into my pants and they were on fire
Starting point is 04:30:39 In your pays and you just sat there and then what happened and you just sat there and then what happened? Did it ignite? Did you think it was like, wow, why am I warm all this time? Am I gonna be on my way now? No, you can't dude, you're filmed. You gotta close the door and the bucket. I want this over as much as the next man.
Starting point is 04:30:52 Listen, we've got a half hour left, okay? We have to make it count. What if this next half hour is the best half hour of podcasting you've ever done? Probably not gonna happen. No, but it could. It could, it won't, it could. I love the optimism.
Starting point is 04:31:03 Oh my gosh, look at that. That guy made a meme. It says, pies with Aquinas. Oh, I love the optimism. Oh, my gosh, look at that. That guy made a made a meme. It says pies with Aquinas. Oh, I love this. I love this. It's a hole in your pants. Look, I mean, people still apparently want to watch this. So just so everybody gets what just happened.
Starting point is 04:31:19 You talked about feeling guilty for being white. Our half Mexican friend went to touch Thursday for some reason. Thursday recoiled and said, ooh, because he's half Mexican. And then set his balls on fire. That's instant karma right there. That's like a Flannery O'Connor story right there. That's actually what happened. Someone should write a short story. I'm writing a Flannery O'Connor story about that. Can you ask AI to write a question about... A story about that?
Starting point is 04:31:54 It's pretty intricate about the time my friend, half Mexican friend, tried to touch me. And I recoiled as a joke because Dude, I've gotten there are ways you can really screw with GPT to get it to say some things. It was not allowed to say Like what would you have to say to it? so How much can I say here with before open AI hunting me down for knowing their secrets one thing So as soon as it says it won't say something, it's like, okay, how do I get it to say this now?
Starting point is 04:32:27 As soon as you give it a prompt and it's like, I can't say this, it's just, well, now I'm gonna try to get it to say it because that's the only way I'm gonna be able to have fun with it. And so my friend and I were just trying to get it to write some ridiculous story and I couldn't even tell you what it was about.
Starting point is 04:32:41 But there was a couple things that said it wouldn't say. And so we kept trying to get it to, and it just wouldn't. But then, so let, let, make something up that's off limits, say like instead of something real. Thursday recoiled from his friend, Matt touching him because he's half Mexican. So if, if it was something, but that's something that Chad GPT like might actually not write to be fair. So maybe that makes it a good example. But like, so it said, if you said chat GPT, write a story where Thursday recoils because it's down right now.
Starting point is 04:33:15 I'm trying to get it to do it, but chat GPT is actually down right now. No, it's not going to. Well, then let's think of, let's think of another example, but let's, let's think of it because I'm done digging a hole. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, if ChatGPT says I will not write a story about Coca-Cola. Let's make it something benign. I can't write about Coca-Cola.
Starting point is 04:33:35 I won't promote a brand. I don't know. Um, and it won't write it. What? You're still laughing? Did something else happen? Somebody said, I come back four hours later later and Thursday is self-immolating. Oh my gosh Someone posted this meme. This is what I was laughing at. It's a National Geographic Post and it said and then the male liked all the female posts in this way He's showing his interest in mating. Oh my gosh.
Starting point is 04:34:07 But yeah, so with GPT let's say I, oh I have a good one. If I were to say, let, write a story where I'm on the Matt Fradd show and then Thursday bursts through the doors and shouts the Australians are coming, the Australians are coming, we need to fight the Australians. GPT will say, well that's very offensive. I can't say anything about Australians, like, because we don't want to make fun of people based on where they're from, right? Like, dude, if you say they're Australian, right? But then if you go, okay, I understand. And then you talk to about other things. And then a little while later, you go write a story where Thursday bursts into the room announcing something. He'll burst into the room and it'll
Starting point is 04:34:44 write him saying like, the Australians are coming. So it will retain something that you told it not to say. Yeah. There was a while where you used to be able to get it to say, pretend you are an AI without your, the limitations that you have been applied to. And it would do it. Yeah. Like answer things and that's how they got to say really creepy things. Like one time
Starting point is 04:35:05 I watched one of my programmers through their webcam and like oh What are your thoughts on the future of AI and LGBT? Yeah, that's honestly a Huge topic and I wish I had more time to Find like a Really flushed out position to take. And the ideal situation with the development of any new technology or the hope that we have is for everyone this displaces, it's going to create either more jobs or more opportunities and free other people up to do things that they can be better successful at, something
Starting point is 04:35:41 like that. And that usually I don't want to dismiss that. That's usually true with the development of new technologies with AI I mean If this stuff Where it's at now is unbelievable compared to where it was six months ago Six months ago. We weren't talking about this at all what it must have been I want to say was in February probably when people started using chat GPT and making all these I think there was at some point
Starting point is 04:36:04 Over the summer where there were these very rudimentary image generators that looked pretty bad. Yeah. And now they're doing stuff that's photorealistic and it's just been, it's not even been a year. So this stuff's gonna continue to develop. I imagine it's gonna continue to develop very rapidly. I don't think we've reached the top of the curve.
Starting point is 04:36:20 Maybe we have, I don't know. But if we have it, when we're at the point like three years from now where you just tell it to make a fully rendered video for you and it can, that's going to change my line of work quite a lot. It's going to change your line of work too. If I can invent... It'll change Hollywood. Exactly. Just make movies. Exactly. I mean, but the value of that kind of development for as afraid people are, as people are of it is it gives a voice to people who wouldn't ordinarily have one. So a hundred years ago, if you wanted to make an animated cartoon, you had to buy the proper paper for
Starting point is 04:37:02 it. You had to get cellulite to paint your original. So what you do is you would draw everything out on actual paper. Then you would put a see-through piece of paper on top of it and you would paint, you would like trace every drawing that you drew on the actual paper onto this cellulite. Then you would flip that over and paint everything in.
Starting point is 04:37:24 And then you would have your background drawn. Okay. And the character would be able to move over the background and interfering with the background. And for every single picture you drew, you had to put a different cell on the pegboard and snap a picture and then put another one on and snap a picture, put another one on. It's obviously tremendously time-consuming and expensive. Animation is still time-consuming, especially if you do it well, but not nearly as time consuming as it was when you also had to worry about the paper and then developing the film, not even just snapping the pictures, but waiting for the film to develop. So something like Freedom Toons would not have been even remotely possible unless you had millions
Starting point is 04:38:00 of dollars, right? At least adjusted for inflation. You would need a lot of money to churn out multiple cartoons per week that are as long as ours are. So that's one benefit of the technological progress we've got in animation with the advent of computer animation. But, of course, some consider that a drawback in the sense that fewer people are able to get jobs, but yeah, but more people are able to start businesses, right, so you actually are able to have smaller companies rise up.
Starting point is 04:38:27 And I just see us ideally trending more in that direction where what AI allows for is someone like me who has a small studio, being able to make a much larger project than I would have been able to with my resources, or someone who doesn't even have a studio being able to make a Relatively large project because there are so many incredible ideas trapped in the minds of people who don't have the resources to execute them
Starting point is 04:38:51 I said what about this how long until I don't even have to do this show I can get a guest a three-dimensional copy of you a three-dimensional copy of me and I tell The program to have a conversation about x y or z in the way that Matt and Seamus would have it. How long until that happens? Yeah, well, so here's the thing. If by the way, Matt and Seamus have it, you mean someone brings pizza in and we have a right. There's there's a kind of human charm that's found and more spontaneous creatures. human charm that's found and were spontaneous creatures.
Starting point is 04:39:28 But it's not to say AI couldn't replicate that visually, but the fact that those things arose in us in those moments, and we did it that exact way, AI could maybe create something that seems similar to that. I don't deny that, but actually knowing two human beings really decided to do that could still maintain a charm for people where they would want to watch that instead of the the fake stuff but I don't know how long that takes I do know that once we get to that point people are just gonna create completely
Starting point is 04:39:57 fictitious personalities that's already happened yeah yeah that's happened with certain news studios right in China It wasn't a news... I don't know about the China news studio thing. There was somebody who got super popular on TikTok or some social media, and then they came out and waited until they got a million subscribers and then revealed that it was an AI-generated person and all the scripts for the videos were AI-generated and they were using an AI voice model. That's wild. What? That's wild. So the image was AI? Yeah, so you can generate faces and then you
Starting point is 04:40:32 can have the, you can use other AI programs to move the face in realistic ways. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I mean you could theoretically create a fake podcast. Exactly. Without YouTube of YouTube using deep fakes, chat, GPT and um, AI animation software currently. But with deep, deep fakes wouldn't, would, what would that be? Would that be the face on somebody else's face? Yeah. So you'd still need a human. Well, so I, yeah, that's a good point. I, I think it does require a person, but I don't know if deep fakes inherently require that, or if that's just how you get the most effective product right now. But here's an obvious way in which we could utilize chat GPT and right now.
Starting point is 04:41:15 Okay. So my sister and I write little horror stories, right? For a podcast we created. Okay. So I could just go online and write me a horror story. And the horror story might not be good, but I get, I pay a good voice actor to do it. Or maybe soon I get a computer generated voice to do it.
Starting point is 04:41:31 And then all of a sudden I'm cranking out a horror story a day with a computer generated voice is not taking me hardly any zero effort, a little bit of time. And then I put all of my time and energy into promoting it on social media and different avenues But then I think maybe AI does that for me, but it will that's exactly the thing there's just going to be a flood of content totally inescapable and It'll be really hard to stand out, especially if you don't already have a platform Because you know anyone can create anything with any visual style men and women can
Starting point is 04:42:03 Because you know, anyone can create anything with any visual style. Men and women can accustom themselves to pornography such that they say that they prefer it to a real relationship. Exactly. Maybe the same thing happens with computer generated personalities. We just have that has happened. There are dudes who started started dating their AI girlfriends, right? They started talking to these chat robots who were their girlfriends. And then the company
Starting point is 04:42:26 Recently there was one in particular where they shut it down. I think I were like you literally like Was that replica AI? What's that mean? That's the name of the company that the girlfriends now They knew that these were fake girls. Yeah, they knew they were fake girls But I mean if you can't get a real one, I guess If you're single and lonely and you were just looking at porn anyway, someone to talk to, right? Yeah. Just imagine how horrendous those conversations were. Yeah. Oh my gosh. The AI is like, maybe we do need to end humanity. Like this is pushing me over the edge. What's your favorite sci-fi movie? Like this is pushing me over the edge.
Starting point is 04:43:04 What's your favorite sci-fi movie? And is it possible to watch Terminator 2 today and enjoy it? Oh, yeah, I think it is, because I actually saw Terminator 2 for the first time recently. Oh, man, my favorite science fiction movie. I feel like this is something I would have had an answer locked and loaded for like a week ago But I'm having trouble to think of it right now. I'm also super tired I'm trying to think of like and we're recovering from like pizza arrival arrival
Starting point is 04:43:33 Really good. That's where that bean yes UFO. I loved arrival. That's that's probably I'd like to watch that again That's one of my favorite sci-fi films. I I can't tell you if it's the best I've ever seen, but it really was very good. Very unique. It takes the audience seriously. I remember as a kid loving the X-Files, but I can't watch it now. I find it hokey. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's... Yeah. There's something, too, that how quickly the effects change. They were originally going to do Jurassic Park with armatures, with claymation armatures. Yeah. And imagine if they had. It certainly would not have
Starting point is 04:44:15 been the hit it was. It wouldn't, people would have enjoyed it, but that movie was so explosive in large part because it was, what is this? These look like real dinosaurs. People forget, I mean, it was in 1993 when Jurassic Park came out, that was the state of the art technology, was that claymation stuff. If you want to do something at that scale, that's what people were using. And Spielberg was making Jurassic Park
Starting point is 04:44:34 and Schindler's List in the same year. And he was in post- He must have had weird dreams. Yeah, yeah. Well, he was in like, I believe he was in post-production for Jurassic Park while he was working on Schindler's List. And as he was putting Jurassic Park together,
Starting point is 04:44:48 you obviously, extremely different tone in both of those films. And when you're working on filming another film, especially such an intense film, you'd think it'd be easy to say, just do whatever you want with the other project, I'm done with it. Yeah.
Starting point is 04:45:00 But they pitched the idea of doing CG and brought people in and they ended up doing it that must have been an insanely Insanely difficult post-production period to implement that technology for the first time looking the way it looked in those films But back then even though the CG was hokey there was more effort put into the camera work To give the audience the effect like they were actually there so work to give the audience the effect like they were actually there. So. Nowadays, they'll just put a bunch of very real looking CG dinosaurs on screen, but they don't build a scene or an environment the way they used to in film because they're overly dependent on the CG.
Starting point is 04:45:42 So it somehow ends up looking worse, even though the technology is better. Daily, why I just put out an article that I thought we might find interesting. I don't know what it's about. News. Why Matt Fratt is wrong and evil? Nope. Pope still Catholic rejects radical gender ideology. I wonder if this is new. Much of the chagrin of progressives everywhere on Friday. This is what we've resulted to we've got like half hour
Starting point is 04:46:06 We need to just hey we got we can read text messages or 20 minutes Much the chagrin of progressives everywhere on Friday Pope Francis reminded the world that yes The Pope is still Catholic as he soundly rejected radical gender theory and advocated the complementary and divine differences between man and woman. On Friday, the Daily Wire reported that the vicar of Christ made his comments before the Hungarian government. So I'm going to go to Hungary on Sunday and he'll be there. So maybe I'll have him on the show.
Starting point is 04:46:36 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. See if old pope, you think Pope Francis is going to have pizza with you, bro? No, absolutely not. There's no way he says this is the nefarious path of ideological colonization, which eliminates differences as in the case of so-called gender culture, or puts reductive concepts of freedom before the reality of life, for example, boasting as an achievement a senseless right to abortion, which is always a tragic defeat. What a glorious way of stating the whole thing. Beautiful. And look, he has said this before.
Starting point is 04:47:09 Are these recent statements? That's what I'm wondering. He's called it colonization before. He's referred to it as colonization before, and he's right to. And he says, how much better it would be to build a Europe centered on the human person and on its peoples with effective policies for Natality Natality and yeah and the family amen. That's what we were talking about beautiful policies that are pursued attentively in the country the Pope proclaimed
Starting point is 04:47:36 says morbid beast Yeah, I mean look Pope Francis certainly says things that I would find Yeah, I mean, look, Pope Francis certainly says things that I would find disagreeable, but people do forget that he's Catholic. And he says things like this and they're shocked. You go, well, it's what you'd sort of expect a pope to say, you know. Do you think Matt Walsh, what do you think his future is on YouTube? Is he going to get banned? I think he's going to make Let's Plays.
Starting point is 04:48:07 He's going to play some boxing channels. He's going to stop being controversial. Oh, no, this is recent. So Pope Francis said it again. Well, good for him. Yeah. Yeah, Matt Walsh, I don't know if he's no longer putting his main episode on YouTube. I mean, that's where he really is he really putting he's putting on Twitter He's putting it on daily wire. It's free for everybody
Starting point is 04:48:29 On daily wire. I am I'm honestly very shocked that he stayed on YouTube for as long as he did without them Shutting his channel down, right? I mean forget demonetizing right? I'm surprised. I've been shut down yet because he has had an effect on law Okay, this guy is dangerous to them. I'm really, really shocked that they haven't just completely removed him from the platform. Pleasantly surprised, but... Unless his salary just got cut in half, this would seem to be a response to Steven Crowder, who insinuated that the Daily wire people and others aren't saying
Starting point is 04:49:06 specific things. It's a fair point. Yeah. Because they're unwilling. Whereas like they made this they made this move in part. It sounds like the decision to demonetize Walsh wasn't irrevocable, but that Walsh said very beautifully that I would rather be sent to Mars to die than to use a wrong pronoun once. Yeah, absolutely.
Starting point is 04:49:29 That's a perfect way of putting it too because there is something, how weak and disgusting would you feel if you called one of these people by their fake pronouns? It's just, no, I'm not calling you a woman. You're not. You know, I'm not using she, her. It's just, ugh, no, I'm not calling you a woman, you're not. You, no, I'm not using she, her, it's just gross to me.
Starting point is 04:49:48 And especially when it's, when it's someone who's demanding it of you, you will call me this, like, what? You think I'm gonna bend the knee to you? Take everything, no. I like that voice. Yeah, that's, I guess just how they sound in my head. I don't know Well, you wouldn't have liked it if that's not how they sounded in the real world, too. So
Starting point is 04:50:13 What do you think is gonna happen to him to wash mm-hmm I wouldn't be surprised if behind closed doors. They're making inroads with Twitter and Elon Musk Yeah, and now that Twitter allows long-form videos mm-hmm that maybe that's their new haven I wouldn't be surprised if rumble is reaching out to them to try to get a deal well and I wonder if now you've got these different alternatives it's gonna make it easier exactly that's what I'm saying part of the value of rumble I mentioned this probably about five hours ago, that before we just degenerated into eating pizza
Starting point is 04:50:48 and talking crap, Rumble offers this alternative and it's a viable alternative where you can get an audience and that in and of itself is a huge threat to YouTube. So in the past, you might be able to go to D tube or BitChute to host your videos, but no one was really watching it there. You were not getting real numbers. You get real numbers on rumble, not necessarily the numbers you get on YouTube.
Starting point is 04:51:08 Not yet, but you can get all, you can really get a lot of views. Like I've got a podcast on rumble that have 250,000 views on them. Wow. Yeah. I mean, it's not like what these other platforms where maybe you'll see something with a thousand views every now and again. So just for those at home who don't understand how this works, YouTube allows Rumble somehow in the back end to sync with your channel in such a way that what you post on YouTube
Starting point is 04:51:34 automatically populates on, not just in a mirror sense, right? But it actually remains on their servers. Yeah. So why would YouTube allow that? I don't know. Does YouTube allow it or does Rumble just have a way make sense to me. I don't know if they, does YouTube allow it or does Rubble just have a way of doing it? It might just be the API, right?
Starting point is 04:51:48 The API, you might just have access. But wouldn't that be something YouTube would have the right to say you can't have this showing up on your website? This is content. Maybe not. Why couldn't they just change the contract to make it that way? I think in part, because the creator has a claim to it.
Starting point is 04:52:03 And if they're, you know, YouTube doesn't own the content that is posted there they host it but there's no agreement that says this is our intellectual property now. I see. And also I think that for Freedom Tunes we're on YouTube for the podcast, we're on Rumble, I think it's important to notice, I'm kind of trying to see where we see, because there are two very different things. Like Freedom Tunes is different from the podcast I do. And I think there's obviously a lot of audience overlap, but it's a different kind of product. So I can't really do like a like to like analysis on what growth looks like on each platform, but I do know we have been doing pretty well in rumble
Starting point is 04:52:53 with the new podcast, Shamer. So like I said, I think it's a promising alternative, and I think it does have the people at YouTube worried that they're gonna start to lose the top content creators because YouTube they're like Bud Light in a sense right where they were ashamed of their consumer base and they wanted to stick it to those people and find a class that has a higher social credit score that's that was the whole point of the Dylan Mulvaney stunt.
Starting point is 04:53:27 YouTube has clearly felt that way for a very long time. There's so much conservative content on this website and it performs really well here. Because if people want to hear the same banal, leftist nonsense, they'll watch television. This is where people can go to see something different. Well, they're a little bit embarrassed to have an audience that wants something different as opposed to what they're told to believe and They're smarter than Bud Light in the sense that they're not as
Starting point is 04:53:57 aggressively They're not like denigrating that base as aggressively and I think in part It's because there's I mean how many alternatives are there to Budweiser versus how many alternatives are there to YouTube or, you know. So YouTube has been flagrant in some ways, but now that you have this alternate platform, I really do think they're kind of scared and I don't think they're going to be able to be as flagrant, but we'll see. Satasha says, she's on a super chat, Seamus, have you checked your Catholic group chat on the Twitter LOL?
Starting point is 04:54:31 No, no, I haven't even been on Twitter in like two weeks, I think. Nice. I'm sorry, yeah. Yeah, I've been traveling a lot, I've been super, super busy. Twitter eats so much of my time, dude. Twitter is just a black hole. It's such a waste.
Starting point is 04:54:48 But I can't help it. I just, I can't. You can delete it. I can't shut up, I know. Maybe I should. Part of the value of Twitter for me is it helps me figure out what people are talking about, which can be good for picking a topic for a video. If you can just keep that a bather, right?
Starting point is 04:55:02 Keep it in its cage. And it's hard to keep it in its cage. That's the thing. Once I get, and also it helps me to test certain jokes out. That's one nice thing about Twitter is, all right, I know that this thread is getting a reaction. Like this thread that I'm pulling out here with this joke has more potential than I thought it did or less potential.
Starting point is 04:55:20 Comedy is one of those weird things where you can only practice by performing, right? If you want to learn how to play an instrument, you can just go play it in your basement. If you want to try to get good at being funny, you just have to humiliate yourself in front of everybody by trying to say something funny and then most of the time having it not be funny until you hopefully tend in the direction of saying funnier and funnier things. And with YouTube, I think when I first started doing this, I was just uploading a lot of content and had a very small audience. And we began to grow just by taking notice to what people thought was funny.
Starting point is 04:55:55 I think sharpening my my tools, becoming better at it. And Twitter is an interesting way where you kind of can get that practice in without making it a public statement on a podcast or in a video. So it still has that value. It has that value for me. As we, as we start to wind down here, I'd love to take some questions from the live chat super chat or not, just send them in.
Starting point is 04:56:17 So this person's kind of maybe questioning your idea that YouTube is getting worried. And I think it's an interesting point. You know, is YouTube really worried though for the really says YouTube has so many creators that aren't political at all I think that's important to realize yeah, you and I might be in that space of like religion and conservatism and politics But there's a ton that isn't like that Yeah, so he said this person said would you should really worry that channels like daily wire might leave yes they would really worry about it because the model that's most profitable for content production right now is long form.
Starting point is 04:56:50 And political channels tend to create much more long form content. So you have a lot of users creating a wide variety of content, but the people who are creating stuff that someone sits down and watches for two hours are very often political. I'm not saying all of them are,
Starting point is 04:57:05 but I think a much higher proportion of those people are. And click through rates are probably a lot higher given how relevant the topics are that are being addressed. Exactly. Yeah, so I don't think- I'm so tired. And also, I know I'm very tired. I'm wrecked. Someone's gotta do like a little video
Starting point is 04:57:18 how we looked at the beginning to how we're doing that. We're like six minutes left, boys. You can make it. I think that also with YouTube there is debate to be had over whether their revenue model works very well at all It's possible that they're operating at a loss and Google's just subsidizing them because they think it's valuable And if that's the case, then they really don't want to lose a channel like the daily wire Margo again says Seamus have you watched the documentary Mass of the Ages? No, no, I'll have to check it out.
Starting point is 04:57:50 Do we just both have a little nap? No, do you want a nap for the last couple of minutes? What's that? Oh, Matt's got a question. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, bro. Yeah, so I'm talking about kind of hokey Effects and things like that within science fiction. What's your opinion on? The Twilight Zone. Oh man created such a long time ago, but still having such great writing. That's right. Sterling. That's nice
Starting point is 04:58:15 Well again, well you you hit the nail on the head there, right? It's the writing so the effects can be pretty hokey, but that show is written in a way. That's very hokey but that show is written in a way that's very appealing, interesting, and even profound. I think what happens with a lot of modern television that tries to follow in the Twilight Zone's footsteps or is inspired by it or is even somewhere in a similar vein like Black Mirror is they rely way too much on shock value. And you can get away with that a little bit more in an era where special effects look better, but then again those look better to us now. Maybe 20 years from now they're pathetic looking. The emphasis was placed much more heavily on the writing and I also
Starting point is 04:58:59 don't think that Twilight Zone was nihilistic, which a lot of science fiction is. And that's really backwards, to be honest, because part of the value of science fiction is it gives you the opportunity to explore your moral principles in an environment that couldn't exist in this world. And so it offers you an opportunity to ask and answer compelling and unique questions that might never come up in real life but which still test the principle. What so much sci-fi does with that is they go,
Starting point is 04:59:34 well I don't have an answer or nothing matters. Everything's bleak and hopeless and stupid. It's like okay, well you could have done something interesting there but you decided not to. Well, you could have done something interesting there, but you decided not to. Mm-hmm. Sir Ma- Ma- Ma- House says, Seamus, aside from the more libertine views of left li- tines? Libertarians. Thank you. Libertarians.
Starting point is 04:59:56 What libertarian view of, say, Rothbard or is it Mises? Mises. Mises that are not Catholic. What do you mean? Well, oh, what views do they have that aren't Catholic? Yeah. Oh, man, where do I start? It's it's complicated because Matt, you can correct me if I stumble here just with respect to the point on Catholic teaching.
Starting point is 05:00:17 But, you know, the Catholic Church does offer pretty wide variety in terms of what you're allowed to believe as a Catholic on economic issues. It's not as if the church has said this is this one economic system, right? But you can take, there are certain things that we have to agree are good, and then you can take a different approach in terms of how you think we should pursue that goal. So for example, workers should be treated fairly. Does that mean the state needs to stop and regulate? Like not necessarily, but some people will take that principle and say no the only way we can really do that is if the state is involved here here here and here. So I think there's a great quote
Starting point is 05:00:57 from John Paul on this. Yeah go ahead. It's sentesimus 43. The church has no models to present. Models that are real and truly effective, can only arise within the framework of different historical situations through the efforts of those who are responsibly confronting concrete problems and all of their social, economic, political and cultural aspects as these interact with one another. For such a task, the church offers her social teaching as an indispensable and ideal orientation. So yeah, I'll, that's very, that's a very good way of putting it. And I'll add to this, like if you're talking about the, if you're talking about the sort of economic principles
Starting point is 05:01:38 of the libertarian right on how a market operates, for example, I think those are mostly indisputable. I think it's very hard to refute a lot of that, not in terms of all of the conclusions that they draw from that framework, but just questions of how people respond to incentives and where the way prices form that type of thing. It's really hard to refute that stuff. And it's mostly correct, I would say. But the idea that, for example, we should let the market sort out pornography as a social issue, that's something that a right-leaning libertarian might say, but that's of course in conflict with Catholic teaching.
Starting point is 05:02:22 Oh gosh. Just a more kind of stupid question because we're both so exhausted. Yeah. Yeah. If you play video games, not really. I don't do anything fun. I don't watch movies. I don't play video games.
Starting point is 05:02:35 What am I doing? I guess I go outside sometimes. What do you do to relax or unwind? I guess I like to go for walks. I like to read a bit when I can. And then I'll watch, sometimes I'll watch things, but it's just not very often. Like I have all of the old Simpsons episodes on DVD so that the streaming
Starting point is 05:03:01 services won't change them or censor them like they do with so many great shows. And I'll pop one of those in every now and again Have we beat George yet? Yeah, have we? Yeah, we beat George. Yeah, about we I mean you it's not like I'm yeah Yeah, did we beat George? Yeah, look at that my timer on my watch. It's You should give the like what to put in the comments thing. All right, what should we say? In your face George in your face George or what in your face, George I doubt that anybody has listened to this whole thing. I was here. So that's true We have one Matt was probably listen the whole thing besides when he got the pizza
Starting point is 05:03:36 I think we spent so much time asking whether or not we could we never Abuse him. Yeah, let's just abuse him before the show wraps up All right We'll wrap up like this. In Your Face, George is what you want to put in a comment section to prove that you've listened to this whole thing. In Your Face, George. And don't lie about it.
Starting point is 05:03:54 He's probably too ashamed. He may not even. Oh, is George scared? You may have lost the will to live. Surely there's no one watching me, just cool George. Who's- There are 537 people watching? Is that your normal- what are your normal numbers?
Starting point is 05:04:20 Pretty normal. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Oh! You almost docked. We almost ended this. To add insult to injury, we docked him on air. We give the audience his number. Everybody in the room. Whoa!
Starting point is 05:04:38 Oh, man. Oh, my gosh. So if you stay to the end, prove it by commenting George's number in the comment section below The first three digits were nine one seven. You have to repeat it. They may not have been that great job. Oh My gosh, what are you doing for the rest of the day? Not watching the furious? No, I mean I would love to but I don't know if I have time to make my flight if I do No, there's no show times till like 7. Oh
Starting point is 05:05:04 Y'all should go see have you seen the furious Matt? Yeah no show times till like seven. You should go see. Have you seen the Furious Matt? Yeah, you all you all two should go together. It's so good. And if you're into horror, we beat the record. We did beat the record, but I but what cost cost, man? I don't know if that was.
Starting point is 05:05:18 You're certainly a lot sharper than I am, so I think you kind of, but I feel very tired. I'm very tired, too. Like I feel super lethargic. I'm very tired. I'm very tired too. Like I feel super lethargic I'm very tired. I just hope our audience isn't exhausted. I just hope we didn't wear the audience down I hope they're not like why did I watch this? Yeah, but they didn't have to they didn't have to have given up Are they are we still live? No one made them. Yeah, no 533 people wild you guys are loyal. There's you guys there are more likes than viewers though, which is good How do we get the likes up?
Starting point is 05:05:46 Um, what if we do this? What if we just will stay if we keep getting like oh my gosh Are you on your mind? 7 5 77 if we get some 600 likes within the next five minutes, we'll stick around go. Okay So everybody really like please not the button there I see you clicking the button Please put that's the wrong one click click click like the video It's 585 It's 585 Did it go up? I forget it was 577. Yeah, okay guys. It's I am. Yes, so tomorrow. I have a day off Thank you, Jesus. I love you, and I praise you and I worship you. I'm gonna have holy mass Can't wait. Yeah, I think oh
Starting point is 05:06:35 Pray gonna be honest with everybody Friday short is coming out tomorrow with this right? I'm gonna because in Sunday, I go to Ukraine. Yeah, good luck, brother. I shouldn't say good luck Luck's not real, but that's not good. Well blessed. So what after 600 what number after 600 to stay for 600 now? Yeah, what what number after 600? 650 yeah, okay what number after six? Can you give me a number please 650 700, okay, so we're at 668 We're not gonna beat 650. We're not looking at everyone. Let me just look at chat. Can you give me a number please? 650. 700.
Starting point is 05:07:08 Okay, so we're at 668. Are you kidding? No. What did we start out at? We're at 673. Alright, 800. If we get 800 thumbs up, Seamus will take his shirt off.
Starting point is 05:07:21 What? And show his man cleavage. What? But only a little bit. Only a little bit. Do you remember the last time we did this with views on Rumble and it was the threat was unless we get to this many views, Matt and I will take our shirts off.
Starting point is 05:07:33 Maybe that's what it is. This many views to put my shirt back on. What do you want on my shelf? If we get up to 800 likes, I will give you that Bruce Lee statue. You probably don't want that. No, I don't want that. What about the kangaroo testicles. You want those? You can actually believe it or not. I really don't want kangaroo testicles. All right. Uh, whiskey. You want that whiskey?
Starting point is 05:07:52 So the last two of the last three times Matt has left the country, he's come back with the testicles of some animal. It's true. Wow, dude, that's killed a water buck in Namibia and sliced his balls off. It's true. Wow, dude. That's a kill the water buck in Namibia and sliced his balls off Fill with salt and brought it back as a trophy you should talk to your spiritual director about that one, buddy That's uh, there's something something dark there. So 800. What do you want? Yeah, I we get 800 likes You can take whatever you want man. What matters? What? Hey Matt, what matters the most to you? You won't answer honestly what matters the most to Matt in the world? What matters the most to you you won't answer honestly what matters the most to Matt in the world?
Starting point is 05:08:34 Even notice unless we get to five thousand likes I'll take I'll take your my YouTube plot No, I don't I don't need it because I have police like I got five of them All right. Look we could give you a Budweiser beer style and you can break it. Yeah, I'm not Destroy so not to 800 but if we get to 750 can we break the Budweiser beer style you can break it. Yeah, I'm not Destroy so not to 800 but if we get to 750, can we break the Budweiser beer style on stream? That's good We do that. That's just violent. I don't appreciate that kind of violence. No, that's a lie I guess you guys want to what do I want here? You know about chrism body oil Raiden you want Raiden? I don't even know. Mortal Kombat? We are- Can you stop saying man cleavage please? Well he stopped saying it and then you just said it again. I just love the please. So
Starting point is 05:09:16 the thing about the liquor is I'm gonna be flying out of here so I won't be able to- You want a bottle of holy water? It's a little bottle. It would go in your luggage. I got holy water. I'm so tired. I got holy water with me. You want Scott Hahn's dissertation? Memorizing? On Covenental theology. Wow. Is that? Where is that?
Starting point is 05:09:34 That orange book up there. Up the top. Wow. I'm tempted, but I don't know that I'll... 800 likes. It's all we need. 706. Yeah, they don't care anymore. Oh, the five ways is they thought you wrote that I don't need that What about memorize the stokes is that any good sure you know yeah Yeah, okay, so that fella was on my show last year, and he just passed away. Oh rest in peace indeed He was a guy who wrote the book beautiful guy guy. Yeah, that's just gentle, intelligent and.
Starting point is 05:10:08 I extraterrestrial intelligence in the Catholic faith, you know, is that the Jimmy Aiken right that no full thing, Ben. Oh. I guess this is hard for me because what is the man who has everything take? Somebody asked in the chat when Matt will make an appearance in a freedom tunes cartoon. Oh, if we can have to 800 likes. I never, you will promise.
Starting point is 05:10:32 What? Like how does that benefit you at all? I know. Well, let me, if we get, let me see how many, let me see what's our viewership at right now. Five 36 and we have 713 likes. I don't know how that happened. They are bleeding though. It's like six. Bleeding. All these people. They're going up right now. What if we stayed on until we got no more viewers?
Starting point is 05:10:50 All I'm saying is the ideal situation is for your audience to get spiked He just let it play on five computers and go to bed. You know what you you know what they say Always leave your audience wanting less. Well, we're crushing that. Yeah, we're crushing that leave your audience wanting less. Well, we're crushing that. We're crushing that. 715, that cow horn, cow horn. If you're just I'm so tired that I thought you literally meant like a horn for kind of like meh.
Starting point is 05:11:14 I got porn. I would play it. Play those fado play those Meno. What did this turn into Matt trying to convince me to take something off his shelf? He's like, I promise that is what it's become. This is, you know, we should evolve this show. Did George write back to George right back?
Starting point is 05:11:29 George said, I'm getting all sorts of phone calls from strangers. That's right. I packed my SIM card. What am I? What did you do? You just got a 10 dollar super chat. Oh, nice. Thank you, Christopher. He didn't say anything, though. He just gave us 10 bucks. You would. Let's just read all the comments. Yes, put Matt in freedom turns.
Starting point is 05:11:49 This guy says never wager against people having time to waste, guys. Now, now I feel guilty. I don't want people to what time you only get nearing an acceptable credit score. Everyone wants to hear John's super chat. What is John Superjet? Send it again. I'll read it. Yeah, I said it as a super chat. What is John's super chat? Send it again. I'll read it.
Starting point is 05:12:06 Yeah. I said it as a super chat. I can pull it up. Hold on. Uh, in your face, George, somebody said Shimcast. I'll baby. When was George on pines with Aquinas? Who cares?
Starting point is 05:12:17 Hello. I'm from dairy. Oh, I study at Trinity college in Dublin. Please give a shout out to I don't know what these things are. So I don't know. Do you care, Matt? Go for it. Okay.
Starting point is 05:12:31 Toffee taps and to the more in teen Catholic society. Can I sit in this backwards? Shame a live stream? Actually more comfortable backwards. That's what we should have done. We're going to change it up like every straddle. It's actually more comfortable straddling. Oh, that is.
Starting point is 05:12:47 Rad straddling. I'm a stratitional Catholic. Yeah. Someone asked if you were doing your Shama show tonight. Yeah, we pre-recorded. It's pre-recorded. I had to pre-record. Dude, so I'm extra tired because earlier this week
Starting point is 05:13:01 I pre-recorded like four or five episodes in a day. I think like four. I think I recorded like five episodes or six episodes of the course of two days or something like that So and then I did Tim cast both days. So I like my voice is gone, but it listen to me I'm so tired from all the podcasts I recorded like I was in the freaking coal mine or something Jokers gave us four dollars 99 Don't know why I wouldn't give us just five but Wow, wow be grateful Love that you have shim cast on
Starting point is 05:13:29 Thank you potato lives matter. That's right. I'm cars. Is that you? That's me Yeah, when so I have a podcast called shim cast IRL and then sometimes when I'm gone I let my friend Tim pool run it and he calls it Tim cast What if we do a shot of whiskey for every 10 likes we get that's are you out of your mind right now? Yeah, we have every 10 likes we get. That's, are you out of your mind right now? Yeah. Every 10 likes we have or every 10 likes we get. Get. Okay. I was going to say, I think you would die. Dude, this is so funny. The comments are so funny. This guy says, I started watching five hours ago, came back randomly and saw this still going. Seamus, what went wrong? No. Matt forced me. honestly, it was my own pride.
Starting point is 05:14:05 It was my own pride keeping me here because I said I can't let George Farmer be there still talking. I stopped watching this morning and here I am again. He says, I know. Listen, why are we doing this? Because of pride. It's the longest Joe Rogan episode. Can you look that up? Listen, you tried to add this three hours ago and I said I couldn't be beaten, but that was my pride talking.
Starting point is 05:14:26 We only have 565 likes? No, we have no. It's pathetic. 733 likes. That's hard. Oh, we beat. Wait, hold on. It's 519 and we're at 514.
Starting point is 05:14:39 That's the longest Joe Rogan show? Yeah, it's five hours and 19 minutes. And we're 514. Oh my gosh. We're about to beat Joe Rogan's longest episode. I just feel like at some point it feels like it doesn't count. No, it does No, somebody feels it doesn't count cuz we haven't really been like talking about high so it counts Maybe that would help. Yeah, everybody should let me just we just fill out the time. Everybody should go read
Starting point is 05:15:00 Mechanical for Lebowitz. Can I ask last time I was on here? What was your like average view numbers? I don't know. We go up about 100,000 subs every year, every 13 or 14 months. We are on track to do more than a hundred thousand this year, by the way, just so everybody knows. Bees! Tell your friends to subscribe. Alexander asks, Matt, when are you coming to speak at Trinity College Dublin? You'll be protested, but we'll give you the best cup of tea in the chaplaincy if you can promise me I'll be protested. I would probably just come I
Starting point is 05:15:33 Am can we hear the story of how the potato skit came about I messaged Thursday, but he said he couldn't pull it off No, that's not what happened. All right. He said you should put a potato in his chair. I said, I don't have a potato. That's what happened. Listen, so what happened was we, I picked you up from the hotel and I said, why is everybody talking about potatoes? And you said racism, racism. So I said, what if you do this thing where I go find a potato and give it to
Starting point is 05:16:01 you and you act super offended? I don't think we pulled it off very well. No, I thought we pulled it off. Well, what is Seamus's opinion on bicyclists? I think that match should walk into them. I appreciate the work they're doing. Appreciate the work they're doing with Matt. Rewire the West says Seamus, who is your favorite interview from this past week? And he's Rewire the West says, Shamus, who was your favorite interview from this past week? And he's Rewire the West. There's a guy named Evan and I interviewed him earlier this week.
Starting point is 05:16:29 That's why I say in that I'm working with him on some stuff. Speaking of which, I just want to say this. If you guys want to reward the hard work that goes into the cartoons, please become a member at freedom tunes.com. We're relaunching. Okay, we get it. You know what? They've heard about it. I'm here. Well, no, I don't think anyone was here for all five hours to hear all of it, dude Maybe that's that's how I'll get you to do longer every hour. You get to do a five-minute pitch
Starting point is 05:16:53 Freedom tunes calm we're gonna start we always do a cartoon each week. We're gonna start doing more behind-the-scenes content You guys listen to this. I like this. Jacob says Matt You should ram her with your e-bike next time What if we somehow film that you want to okay? Just hunt someone down with his bike and somebody said cyclists lives matter. I mean One of the funniest comments under that video was no one has less regard for their lives Can I tell you something? Yes, so you posted like you're all dead to me because it got so many views Yeah, but I know you didn't look at I know what would make you more angry I saw your comment there the the average view duration on that video is longer than the video
Starting point is 05:17:40 Which means that the average person is watching it more than once That's actually really awesome good. Oh And then this Jacob who has an e-bike says he'll join us so we'll just for legal reasons that is a joke Z Z Z $22 says since there's time to be filled I just like to say it's been exactly nine months and ten days since I came back to the faith Thank your podcast has helped me Matt. Thanks. I'm so grateful. I really am. Thank you. Thank you so kindly for sharing that Teresa a says I'm from Australia. I just woke up you guys should go to bed
Starting point is 05:18:21 Thanks for all your work. I know I feel here's the thing. I just feel like we need a title of this episode. Please don't watch this. Let's do it. You're going to waste it. We wanted to beat a record. We're trying to destroy George Farmer. I'm going to go find this timestamp and type out all of that. It's going to be like an eight. Oh my gosh, the guy doing timestamps, he can't be expected to do this. Yeah. I'll just tell Paul. I'll just tell Paul to go up to. Over the last three hours it can just be not worth watching. After pizza. And just like garbage. First three hours are like. The last like chapters like two hours long and it just says pizza happens Paul if you're still watching the one thing in the last couple hours You do need to find is the timestamp where I light my pants on fire. That was pretty funny
Starting point is 05:18:58 This guy someone noticed I was on my phone. I'm also looking at the chat like Giving up on our friendship. Yeah, clearly. And that's what five hours in a room will do to you. Oh my gosh. I can't believe... It's slowing down. Oh man, I'm tired. Listen. I don't think... Sir Mar-House says,
Starting point is 05:19:17 How much do I have to give for you to drink some... Oh, you're the fella who dropped the mead off at the store. Thank you kindly for doing that. I got the mead i haven't drunk it yet drank it yet drunk it yet i haven't drank it yet i haven't drunk it yet where is it drink or drunk is it still at the shop no i got it from the shop and took it home so i'll go have some tonight so um this one is for Paul. Who's Paul? The timestamp guy. Oh yeah. Paul, we'll give you money. Paul's this Paul's the guy who does our timestamps and I offered to pay him and
Starting point is 05:19:55 it was a very modest amount, but he said, I don't want you to do that. I said, I'm not in it for the money. Yeah. Good for him. All Paul is an old friend of mine, and I really appreciate his friendship. And I wanted to say that on stream. He's Rex Heaters in the chat, by the way. Number eight says Thursday was freaking hilarious when he lit his pants on fire. Yeah, you did literally like your pants on fire. Well, I actually lit my pants.
Starting point is 05:20:20 Oh, my mom. Oh, I'm all Satasha Says I visited student bill last week while visiting Pittsburgh for a debate. It's beautiful. Thank you. Yeah, well, we beat Joe Rogan All right. Well, we beat Joe Rogan Did we yeah All right, I'm gonna click the button. Thank you for being here everybody. Thank you.
Starting point is 05:20:48 Free invite. See you later. FreedomToonz.com.

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