Pirate Wires - Trump Is Causing Everyone To Lose Their Minds, Liberals Leaving X, Democrat Aftermath, DOGE

Episode Date: November 15, 2024

EPISODE #77: Welcome back to the pod! After Trump's Election, we thought things we're kinda, normal? But the crazy discourse kicked up this week. Eerything from the 4B movement, to liberals on threads, to celebrities leaving X. Should Elon be concerned about what X is becoming? Pirate Idol returns! We have two semifinalists ready to compete for the next round. And finally, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is here. What should we expect from Elon & Vivek. Featuring Mike Solana, Brandon Gorrell, Riley Nork,  We have partnered with Polymarket! https://polymarket.com/ - Disclaimer: Not Financial Advice, For Entertainment Purposes Only. Sign Up For The Pirate Wires Daily!  https://get.piratewires.com/pw/daily https://piratewires.co/free_newsletter Topics Discussed: https://www.piratewires.com/p/anti-trump-feminists-declare-sex-strike-what-is-4b?f=home Pirate Wires Twitter: https://twitter.com/PirateWires Mike Twitter: https://twitter.com/micsolana Brandon Twitter: https://twitter.com/brandongorrell Riley Twitter: https://x.com/rylzdigital TIMESTAMPS:

I'm not going to listen to transphobia at this table. When you use a word that's a slur, you've got to interrupt. Everything that seemed like it was not actually that big of a deal has just weirdly gotten louder. No sex with men, no giving birth, no dating men, and no marriage with men. There's this sense that whiteness is under threat. I would never, ever disown anybody that I loved because of their political opinions and I think it's shameful to suggest that. We're gonna dress up and put glitter on when we order Grubhub and it's like that's what it leads to. You're alone dressing up for

door dash. That's so sad. The adaptation of society. What's up, guys? Welcome back to the pod. It has been... I mean, listen, I thought that things were going to be reasonable after the Trump election. I thought things were pretty muted. They've gotten completely off the rails. We have coming up for you today, our Polymarket segment. Don't forget it. We're going to be talking about social media and the question of whether or not Trump, Truth Social and X are going to merge. We have our Pirate Idol segment is back. We're in the semifinals now, which means we've got Molly and Cardick joining us for the entire second half of this episode. But before all of that, we have to get into this reaction, which I feel stupid, genuinely, not stupid, naive, for thinking like, this wasn't that bad. Things are fine. People are not that crazy. It's not

going to be 2016 to 2020 all over again. There are a few crazies, but overall it's sort of a muted reaction. No, no, no, no. Everything that we sort of referenced last week with Bridget, we were getting it. We were touching on it. We're sort of laughing about, for example, the 4B movement.

Everything that seemed like it was not actually that big of a deal has just weirdly gotten louder. And my sense now is just it's going to get a lot louder and let's just take it piece by piece riley tell me about the national sex strike of course so in the wake of trump's victory last week we began to see online the most normal and well-adjusted reaction to an election in history frankly that being women doing their best impression of a monk

and shaving themselves completely bald and pledging abstinence. We all do this after election day, right? I totally do. So the 4B movement, which Ethan Holmes just did a piece on for us and everyone should go read, started in Korea and stands for four sort of like no-nos, those being no sex with men, no giving birth, no dating men, and no marriage with men. And lefty people online here in America have sort of adopted this movement and are posting about it on TikTok and threads and wherever else they migrate. Many people are pointing out though, that if you really wanted to stick it to the pro-life Christian right, is swearing off premarital sex the best way to do that?

A lot of questions there. Um, at the same time though, you have an equally deranged response on the complete other side of the political spectrum. Uh, one certain individual who was actually public about not supporting Trump, uh, for reasons we don't need to get into. Clearly trying to troll these clearly agitated 4B people sent out the now viral tweet, your body, my choice forever, which the 4B people of course construed to be representative of all Trump supporters everywhere. And the result has been a total shit storm on both sides that have made social media even more of a toxic hellhole than it usually is.

Yes. I think, I mean, right off the bat, the 4B movement, it blows my... First of all, it's very clearly lesbian psyop. There's this whole piece of it that people are leaving out. I'm not even kidding. It's straight up. It's rad femme stuff. It's, it's a gender, it's part of the gender critical movement. It is popularized by radical feminists, radical feminists. So we know that maybe if you're super into the online

lore, uh, you maybe know a little bit about the TERFs, the trans exclusionary radical feminists. Okay. This is a highly, um, I wouldn't say not all TERFs are lesbians, probably not even most are, but it's heavily a lesbian environment. This is very clearly, I mean, they didn't say no sex. They said no sex with men, no dating men. I mean, lesbianism on the table. So one, that's funny to me that these sensitive threads girlies are getting psyoped by TERFs, basically. There is something happening here is it is it is it a performance um is it real i don't i don't know how to i don't know how to weigh

it brandon where are you at on this um i think these are some very smart women basically um i think that that they're they have it's a very good strategy for picking up men. I think this is actually a mating strategy. What they're doing is they're setting up a challenge for the right man to overcome. This is a normal thing that women do trying to find men. It's called the barrier strategy or the challenge strategy. And what it does is it weeds out men who would otherwise just wouldn't be committed, would want to one

night stand just to have sex right so what they're doing is they're setting up a barrier and they're saying any man that can that can overcome this challenge of mine um then you're worthy you know of of of shacking up and so i think this is just a really sophisticated way to get to get married and have kids with with men frankly seriously well how does one overcome the challenge you just got to be like uh you got to be an ally to be a trans ally but non-binary ally all the all the allies uh dye your hair blue you know i don't know it just reminds me though there are there are these like reddits that are popping off about women who want to, liberal women who fantasize about having sex with maggot people basically. And there seems to be a lot of this and like a lot of funny when I get onto Instagrams where women are talking about politics, there's like a knowing, laughing sort of but right-wing guys are hotter thing that happens.

So is the way that you win really by being an ally or is it by saying, this is stupid? There's different ways to skin the cat here. I think generally though, every humans need companionship and they need love and they need sex. And, um, you know, I've, I've seen like when I was not married and was dating people that like principles tend to not be worth very much when you are dating and you want to have sex with somebody, like it just happens. There's, there's, it's, it's transcends, happens. There's, there's, it's, it's transcends, you know, values. And so, and so, yeah, I think truthfully, like, I don't believe if you take the 4B thing seriously, I don't, it's hard for me to believe that the first guy that a girl that does 4B likes comes around and really is really attracted

to, I don't see how they don't just like be like, well, I'm not doing for B anymore. Right. Cause that's just how attraction and love and dating works. And so I think they're doing it for the likes and their history on it can probably have mental disorders too, frankly. I mean, I also think you're right. So on that, it's a lot of like lesbians. I've even seen like a lot of like explicit lesbians, like advocating this

like like they're doing something like noteworthy by swearing off sex with men like you were doing this before what are you you're not doing anything worthwhile you were already doing this i wonder if they can if they can have sex with trans women because you know there's a little no the gender crit people would be that's a hard that's like one of their, they're famously not into that. It's real, but like many things we're going to talk about today, it's not because I have a good reason not to think it's real. It's because I can't imagine it being real. But what if it is? What if these people are more unwell than I realized? You've already seen this stuff on dating apps, little pieces of this, people demanding political purity tests and

things like this. People do seem to be really upset. I think more upset maybe than we even realize because it seems so funny and childish, but it's growing, not diminishing. And as Trump starts actually being, he's not even in power yet. I think that we're entering a period of greater and greater craziness, not only among the left, but also among the right because of what happened on X. Now that you have Elon's ownership over it, you have broad free speech. That means there are a lot of other crazy people involved. For example, Fuentes, who I don't feel like dealing with the Groypers right now. And that is... Riley's suddenly shaking his head no. He like no don't get in there um you have this group of i don't want to insult them but it's like they're literally i think they're like openly

white nationalists no is this not there it's like the white identity white everything so certainly don't like jews certainly don't like is. Critically, I think, did not endorse Trump. Actually campaigned against him. Nick's been relentlessly anti-Trump for months and months and months. The moment he wins, he releases this statement, Riley, what was it again? Exactly, your body, my choice, or whatever. Almost designed to infuriate and polarize and to do it in the name of Trump. And you're going to see stuff like this. I think it's going to keep happening. So that group is not silenced anymore.

And I think there's a principled reason why no one should be silenced. So whatever, as long as you're not advocating violence, it's still pretty grisly stuff that they're saying. The numbers are growing. Everything they say is going to be amplified by people on threads. We're looking for a reason or looking for evidence that there is this really horrific, terrifying thing on the rise, on the right. They're going to credit it to Trump. And you're just going to see this spiraling, this spiraling crazy loop is my maybe concern right now. It's like the 4B thing is funny.

It's funny that these people who maybe you don't even want to have sex with are saying they're not going to have sex with you. And then the Nick nick fuentes trolling thing it's like maybe there's something funny about it like he's just a troll he knows he's going to get this crazy reaction but at the end of the day people are responding to that i see both sides responding to each other seriously and it seems to be this the opposite of it what is it a virtuous cycle it's the opposite of that um it's just a it's a doom loop, but for all of culture is what it seems like. You don't think that was a troll that Nick Fuentes,

what he said? You think he honestly believes? It was totally, I mean... Is he religious? Is he like a some kind of hardcore Christian? He is. I don't even know. What sect of Christianity is like? Yeah, but Catholicism doesn't

teach that the that the the wife should obey her husband for example like Islam does you know like i think where is this belief coming what is this ideology i don't even totally understand it what's like this meme it's like this right wing because it's like it's not white national white nationalists don't inherently believe your your body my choice do they is that a i mean i can see how it's an adjacent ideal ideology but i don't no no it's not yeah you don't see why it derives it's not the same thing but i think that what we're picking up on is just this new emergent right-wing ideology that is acutely 21st century, acutely memetic, acutely of the internet. And it's sort of like the intersection of, I don't know, like, what's that dude? The woman,

Andrew Tate. It's sort of like Andrew Tate is in there. It's like Richard Spencer is in there. And it's like, just people who are genuinely trolling online are in there. It's like Richard Spencer is in there. And it's like, just people who are genuinely trolling online are in there. It's like, there's some sort of emerging political ideology in the middle of all of those things. Yeah, but we've had this toxic, I mean, I would compare that to the progressive left ideology, which tells us that we should be castrating chemically, you know, 10 year old boys, and other really horrific things that I think are just as bad as saying your body, my choice, quite frankly. Oh, yeah. I agree. No, yeah. I agree that they are... Yeah, I do agree with that. I think that just we've never seen these people have

so much of a platform before. And because of that, you're really going to... I'm able to see in real time the way that it activates people on a far more left-wing platform, which is threads. So these things are said by just one or two people. They are picked up on a highly left-wing place by thousands and thousands of people who are freaking out about it. And then in return, they're calling for really sort of crazy things. I think even if the your body, my choice stuff is just a troll, like it does run the risk of like totally amplifying the 4B movement into something that's just like something you kind of laugh at into something that like does become like, you know, more widespread. And if that's the case, like this originated in South Korea that currently has what the lowest birth rates on the planet. So like there actually could be like real, you know, consequences for this, if this becomes less of a social media thing to laugh at and more of like a real. I don't think people are principled enough. Like it's, you're going against your basic instincts,

not to dunk on you Riley or anything, but I just think it's, I think in two weeks, there's a really, there's an over 50% chance that we're not going to be talking about this. We'll have forgotten about it. Um, I think this is a, this is a social media trend. Um, people need to, um, they need, they need a release right now. They need, they need some place to perform their outrage. And some people are saying some things that are getting a lot of likes. And that's what's going on, I think. I want to move on slightly, sort of just to the adjacent left.

All of these topics are kind of connected today because the meltdown has been so significant. Brandon, what are you seeing on the media side of things? Yeah, I'm seeing a mix, but I think there's definitely a story to tell about the Democrats not necessarily having learned their lesson from the resounding Trump victory. Obviously, we all know that Trump took the House, the Senate, the popular vote, and the electoral vote. And so you would expect them to do a little bit of soul searching. Just some anecdotes, though, showing that some in the Democratic Party are not doing any soul searching whatsoever. On a CNN panel that was sort of like a postmortem, there's a viral clip of this, of how, you know, why did Trump win? of how, you know, why did Trump win, a, you know, one of the panelists is like sort of gently,

you know, sort of almost fearfully trying to suggest that it might be one of these things where parents just like might not be comfortable with boys in their little girls' locker rooms, right? And this white guy panelist like like explodes and i'm not exaggerating um there's another clip that's going around where, again, an MSNBC panelist is trying to gently suggest that maybe Trump got elected because grocery prices were inflated. Another wild eyed guest on this show goes on this huge diatribe about how essentially it was white supremacy that got Trump elected. There's this sense that whiteness is under threat. The demographic shifts, the country isn't what all of these racially ambiguous children on Cheerios commercials are confusing the hell out of me.

A lot of people voted because their life's too damn expensive. And it was here and they voted. You're telling me, Stephanie, that all of these people who believe that their lives, that bread is too high and eggs are too high, that they voted for a convicted fella, a guy who said we can grab the piece. I think that a lot. They voted for this guy i'm not defending it but i think there are tons of people that don't pay attention to and i'm not defending it don't pay attention to politics at all and then like on the other side of things like the fbi yesterday just raided shane copland's the the founder of poly house, which is fucking crazy. I saw today that Chuck Schumer tweeted a picture of like some of the newly elected democratic senators.

And his caption was this class of democratic senators is the most diverse slate ever. And then he goes through their races one by one. He's like Senator blunt Rochester and also Brooks mark. The first time two black women have served together in the Senate. Senator Kim is the first Korean American to serve. Senator Gallego expands the number of Hispanic senators. So, I mean, there were three issues, actually, that I looked up polling that essentially made voters not vote for Kamala. made voters not vote for Kamala. The economy, the border, and the cultural issues like the trans stuff, right? And the diversity stuff. Had they just dropped those cultural issues and just

been normal on that, I don't think they would have lost the election, frankly. I mean, obviously, that's an opinion. But it doesn't seem to me like Democrats are internalizing that or would agree with me on that. On the other side, there are some moderate voices on the left that appear to be being pretty reasonable. As has been going around on Twitter today, AOC removed the pronouns in her bio. Presumably they were in her bio before. I've seen a side-by-side screenshot. That seems to be the case. There's a viral clip of Pete Buttigieg basically calling the progressive left a wacky ideological project. There's a really, really kind of cathartic clip of Ezra Klein saying, I mean, I'll just read what he said. He said, the thing that surprised me least in this election was the sharp red shift in big cities,

because if you just talk to anyone who lives in them, they are furious. This idea that crime is actually down, that it's misinformation from Fox News, just shut the fuck up with that. This is Ezra Klein. Comcast is mulling an MSNBC sale. The president of Comcast confirmed this last week. New York Times reported that primetime viewership of MSNBC has fallen 53% since October. And on the other side, viewership has jumped 21% on Fox News. So I don't know. I mean, like, I think that the question is obviously, are the Dems going to eat the progressive left from their party? Or is like the movement over the past eight years toward the hard left kind of like a ratchet? Like, can not can they not can they not go back you

know and that's uh i think we'll see i posted it in response to some of this stuff as it was happening and i said it was specifically i think it might have been um the one that you mentioned the first one that you mentioned of of that like crazy white dude who is about transphobia to the other panelist who was another democrat who was like, hey, I think that people care about this. And the reason he was saying that was because it was poll. The polling data suggests this. And the most successful Republican ad, I think it might have been the most successful Republican ad, had to do with genderqueer stuff.

And this came up again and again and again in the elections, especially among parents. You had movement in that Virginia town that everyone was, was it Loudoun County? Where you had, there was like a trans issue in one of the schools that drove tons of Democrats to the right. And so that's why the guy's bringing it up. And then he couldn't even bring it up for purposes of strategy on a panel about how to improve Democrats' odds because he's getting screamed at by the other guy on panel who's like, I'm not going to sit here and listen to transphobia. And it's like, okay,

well, we're literally talking about how to win an election. And if you're not going to sit here for that, then you're just going to keep losing, I think. And I'm hopeful that it's just some wishful thinking or that it's not wishful thinking on my part that actually there has to be some movement on some of this crazier stuff for the Democrats, because it would be cool to just get to a place where both parties were not that insane. I will say that there was one more note for you, Brandon, on your long list of things that are happening. I read that the ABC is looking to diversify The View a little bit, the show The View with a pro-Trump voice, which is funny because they were another one. The View gets so much... Listen, I've been a View guy since I was 10 years old,

homesick. I've seen every twist and turn of that show. I'm a huge fan of it. I've been a fan forever, even when it's terrible, which is almost always. I'm a fan of that slop. Give it to me. I did like Barbara Walters for real, though. I felt like she was a great woman. I also love Whoopi for real and Joy, to a certain extent. Just their political opinions are really deranged. But more recently, they have been getting into just drama after drama after drama, and especially post-Trump, because sort of refusing to learn the lessons, especially Sonny Hostin, who I would argue is the worst one on there. She recently caught fire over an opinion that's been coursing all of these different shows. There was a panelist on CNN, I believe, that was then echoed by Sonny the other day.

It was this question of like, should we be going over our family's house if they voted for Trump? And she came out as a hard no. That's a shameful opinion to propagate, but go ahead. I really do feel that this candidate, uh, you know, President-elect Trump, is just a different type of candidate. Um, from the things he said and the things he's done and the things he will do, it's more of a moral issue for me.

Um, and I think it's more of a moral issue for other people. We're just, you know, I would say it was different when let's say Bush got elected. You know, you may not have agreed with his policies, but you didn't feel like he was a deeply flawed person, deeply flawed by character, deeply flawed in morality. I think people did at the time. I think a lot of devs called him deeply flawed and humanized him. But it's, but it's, but you got to admit, they're very different figures. I mean, you know, you, along with Millie,

and along with John Kelly, warned us about how deeply flawed he was as a candidate. And so I think when people feel that someone voted not only against their families, but against them and against people that they loved I think it's okay to take it yeah I appreciate the voters it's bad well I do want to ask your both of your opinion on this I mean we got Thanksgiving coming up next week we're going to talk about how to deal with your uh obnoxious uncle who talks about politics who is me I am the obnoxious uncle so

I'm going to be giving you guys like some practical advice on how to manage it but yeah the view is obviously diversifying i think they have to they're hemorrhaging i'm assuming there's a viewership problem there when megan was on it was awesome it was like combat i was going to say that what didn't they already did they tried this before though with megan mccain it worked megan being on the show was like it was zeitgeist okay they talked That's when the views started being talked about constantly on every single news network. Someone had an opinion. That's carried on because they've become such a good insight into how the left is thinking about

things and how they're positioning themselves. But clearly it failed. And now there's this question of, okay, well, how do we make a better, more compelling, more honest show? So that's what they're doing just to cap your long piece there, Brandon. But now I do want to know what you think about that position, because that has been coming up again and again. And I see that all over threads as well. What do you do with your brother, father, mother who voted for Trump? Do you go over Thanksgiving still? Well, I mean, personally, I would never, ever disown anybody that I loved because of their political opinions. And I think it's shameful to suggest that.

But I do think that as opposed to 4B, this is actually a real thing probably that people are willing to do because of how actually divided the country is. So I don't like it at all. I hope it never happens to me or anybody in my orbit because I think that's the worst thing that could ever happen is you lose a family member um but yeah I I I frankly I I hate I hate that I think it's um it's a horrible trend and I I wish it wasn't a thing I don't know it is interesting to me how this seems to be a a political divide there's much more and this transcends, by the way, years and years, no matter who's in office, it seems to be a left-wing thing where you're more open to cutting people out of your life if they're too right-wing. Whereas I don't think right-wing people really do that as much. I think about my own family. And my mom and dad are very...

They're going to roll their eyes at you for your stupid opinions and make fun of them, both to your face and behind your back. But you're always going to be invited over for Thanksgiving dinner. I saw a clip of a girl on TikTok and she was younger, probably 20 years old, 21, 22. And she was bawling. This was after the Trump, immediately post-election. And she said something like, she's bawling because she's like, I'm going to lose my parents because they voted for Trump. And because I, therefore I will need to disown them kind of. Yeah. And I was like, you are so close to understanding what's wrong with the left. You are so fucking close, you know? And I think maybe she does get there though, because like, okay, you're, you disown your

parents for a year. How long can you disown your parents for? Right. If you have a normal, if you had like a relatively normal relationship with them, you have to go back. And I think one thing you might realize if you disowned your parents because a fucking crazy cult told you to is that you are in a cult and maybe you should leave that cult. It's so important to bring up the cult thing too,

because this is literally how cults operate. It is separating you from everyone that you love, making yourself the only safe place for this person. Now, I want to steal maybe a little bit. And this is what Sonny said, oh, it's a moral thing for this person um now I want to steal me into maybe a little bit what and this what somebody said oh it's a moral thing for me you know how could you this is different kind of president if you're voting for him that's telling me who you are and I don't want people like that in my life um you know are there and I guess that there are there probably are political opinions certainly there are that if someone had them I wouldn't want them in my life you know you can get really really heinous and crazy um

you know let's push it all the way to the most insane things you can think of and yeah that would alter things so are we really yeah are we really having a problem i don't know that we're really having a problem with the concept of saying, sometimes people's opinions are beyond the pale and they're worth cutting out because of them. It's more like we disagree on the bounds of acceptable speech and opinion. And theirs is just much narrower than ours. Yeah. There's an element of, I believe that the progressive left has been misinformed on a lot of things related to Trump and what a Republican-led government will look like. For example, the whole thing went around that women were going to have their rights taken away, but it wasn't totally clear what they were referring to at all, given that Trump had repeatedly said that he is going to be against a federal abortion ban because he thinks it's a state's rights issue. And so, just to go back to what

you were saying, I think, yes, it is a highly moral decision. And, you know, I always think about this anecdote from the Ken Burns documentary where he had brothers fighting each other in the Civil War, right? So, I understand that that can happen. But I think the issues are also, people are very misinformed about some of the issues as well. And I think that's obviously problematic in creating some of those too. One thing that would help them being misinformed is actually having a dialogue. And that's one thing you can't have if you're banishing your family members

over their political opinions. That's insane. And that's why, like, I questioned the practicality of this. Like, if their goal is presumably getting rid of like political hostility in this country, is separating yourself from your family the way to go about that? It seems like you'll just like revert to your own echo chambers to go back to our social media conversation. Like, this isn't even going to work. echo chambers to go back to our social media conversation like this isn't even going to work it's all it's all part of the same family of ideas that atomize you i think um we were talking about the um the neely what's the other neely penny thing and how um on a few podcasts ago and i was saying that like the fact that we have rejected like sort of traditional gender norms

completely makes it so that every person is for themselves in these social situations where, you know, like men might step up and protect women. I think that like, these are all part of the progressive left family of ideas and all of them like lead to like rejection of family, rejection of community and, and replacing it with some sort of state ideology or something like that. Maybe communism is the word I'm looking for, but I don't know. Which is theoretically interesting, but then that alternative doesn't even exist. It's an abstract concept. So you're left with nothing. Yeah. You're left with what you're ordering. What is that? Did you guys see that post that

was going around where it was like for the next four years we're going to hug each other tighter we are going to we're going to dress up and put glitter on uh when we order grubhub right like literally that's one of the lines and it's like that's what it leads to you're alone dressing up for fucking doordash that's so sad the adversarial society yeah you're you're a drag queen and not even scrolling fucking instagram yeah you're describing a world of drag that's not even exciting like in a club or something yeah yeah worst possible reality uh yeah i i don't know man i i have uh like i said i i kind of see it's a tough one for me because I actually do see where they're coming from in a sense.

I do see the idea of thinking, well, I just... If you really believe this, then we don't have enough in common. But I don't know. My sister could kill someone and I would still want to see her all the time. I love her. She's my sister. So it would be very, very, very hard. I don't know what she would have to believe for me to really even... So maybe what I said earlier was wrong. I think it's like, that for me is love. That for me is what a family is. It just comes before everything else. And that's probably the problem

that we're looking at. Maybe that's it. Maybe that's really the crux of're looking at maybe that's it maybe that's maybe that's really the crux of the issue here is that we i believe riley you as well from what i'm getting from your perspective here have a valuing of family that is above even country and and politics It's like our families is the thing that comes first. And that is not the case, uh, among leftists. It seems maybe, maybe some Democrats. Yes. But, but not the really hardcore leftists. It seems that like, there's a, a placement of values on or a value placement that, that, that, that rises maybe, um, ideology and, uh, I don't know, a vision for the world over, over family. I mean, certainly it's obvious the proof is in the pudding. If you're talking about not seeing your family over this, and that is clearly a judgment that you're making on values. And I do think that's it for me. I think it's like family for me comes first,

then country, but I don't think that they would even value country. I think it's like family for me comes first, then country. But I don't think that they would even value country. I think it's more like ideology, which is so crazy because it's so abstract. It seems not possible unless you frame it like religion. And then it starts to make more sense because there are people who would place God over all of these things. Most many people, I would say. People on the right would probably place... There are people on the right, I think, who would place God over family. And so maybe that's what we're seeing on the left. This really is sort of like a faith construct here.

It really is like a cult. It goes back to that theory that I've heard a lot of, like the consequences of a secular society is that void that people have for religion gets filled with Instagram you know, Instagram and, you know, your social media, like, like leftism, you know, the woke-ism fills the void of religion that, that a lot of people find in religion. I think there's like this, this feels very millennial coded to me too. I think you had a lot of kids growing up that, um, they were told that they were special and they wanted to be unique in some way. And I think that led to adults who have had to carry that delusion forward. They have to say that they're queer or that they are an ally of some sort. And I think that sort of sets the foundation for being like, well,

I don't need my real family. I need my queer family, right? And I hope this doesn't sound too out there, but I actually think that this feels like a millennial thing that's happening. Because I don't think, have we seen, are the Zoomers doing this, Riley? Like, I don't, I think the Zoomers are based and probably, and then the generation previous to us, Gen X, certainly Boomers don't have this opinion. I think Sonny's a Gen Xer. Who, Sonny? Sonny Hostin with The View, the one who we're talking about, I think.

But in general, I agree with you. Yeah, it's like very, it's like, let me define myself in terms of these other things that are internal rather than actual facts of my reality, like my mother and my father and my sister and my brother. Well, sad for them, not for me, because I will see my family for Thanksgiving. Don't even care if they are socialists. In fact, some of my family members are, we just don't talk about politics because um, because I always win on the next segment. And we are back to the greatest show on earth. It's Pirate Idol, but we're in the semifinals now.

So we're switching it up. Welcome back to Molly and Cardick. First of all, just like murdering people in their path to claw their way to the front. Cardick coming through with like a special guest interview at the last moment just securing his spot um i we should do some quick rules for this moving forward because now we're switching things up uh we're gonna have for the next four weeks two of you guys a week you're just gonna be co-hosts each one of you is gonna lead a story the way that riley or brandon myself. And then we're going to talk about it as if we're all on the

show together because we are actually, in fact, all on the show together right now. Great to see you guys again. Let's just carry on with the show. We've been talking about just the total depravity, the growing insanity that we are seeing across the internet and media sphere in reaction to the Donald Trump presidency, which in fact feels like it weirdly feels crazier than it was like the night after even. One of the big stories that's blowing up now that I really want to talk about is the exodus. Again, somehow we're doing it again. Molly, why don't you break it down for us? All right. So this is a fun topic. So interestingly enough, X has been facing a

pretty big exodus since the election. Not too dramatic. Only 115,000 users have left X. Since then, we've seen a shift towards blue sky. And so blue sky has reached an all-time high on their user base. They're now at 15 million users. They've doubled in the last 90 days. In the last week or so, they've actually increased by a million users. We've been seeing a lot of high profile individuals on X actually shift over. Mark Cuban, he left and he deleted every tweet about Kamala. Guardian made a bold statement and left. There's actually some really interesting points on that. I'll get to it when we discuss it. Don Lemon left. He stationed an actual goodbye letter and signed it in ink. Very weird.

And so we're just seeing more and more bifurcation between these social platforms. platforms. In terms of where they're spreading out, it's gotten kind of interesting. And Solana, you actually tweeted every social media platform is now its own specific form of mental illness, showing the kind of direct personalities that congregate and the communities that come together on each of them. But it's kind of an interesting moment because X has been the dominant player. Elon went on and he was talking about how we're the media now. And after the election, it seems like most of the world and community in America is really continuing to double down on their own social natures and go into their different channels. We've seen, obviously, since Elon took over Twitter, you have had wave after wave of Twitter

is dead discourse, followed by I'm leaving Twitter, followed by we're doing Blue Sky now, or we're doing Threads now. When Threads came when threads came up threads was actually one that i thought and actually still do you think was the most significant threat to x it kind of faded away and then recently i've thought no no there's still something there at threads i don't know why people are talking about blue sky it feels like just a far inferior place um in terms of just even threads is built really well and it's run by a massive, massive company with tons of people. And Zuck is pushing threads on your Instagram feed every single day. It makes sense that that's the threat. But it's weird to see it back again after this conversation.

It's back again, and people again seem to believe it. I guess maybe I'm starting to believe it too. You know, things do feel increasingly balkanized. It's unclear to me how much, I mean, who are some of the people that left in the dust up? It's like, you said it was like earlier, you were saying it was like Mark Cuban. Mark Cuban left, Don Lemon left. The Guardian left. The Guardian. I mean, so let's talk about The Guardian really quick. So there was a dude on X who very helpfully in response to this news, just kind of in honor, I'll just read it, man. In honor of The Guardian announcing it was leaving X, I thought it was the right time to look back on some of their classic headlines. And so this is what we're what we're losing in the Guardian um is it okay

for scientists to weep over climate change the budget should be less macho how about it boys stop calling women girls it's either patronizing or sexually suggestive barbecue is an American tradition Dash of enslaved Africans and Native Americans um there's no reason to bake guacamole it's already gentrified beyond good taste. My toddler is vegan. What's the problem? Question mark. Um, can vegan stomach be on palatable truth about quinoa? These are real headlines. There's okay. Um, wasn't I the one who said the guardian was a trash magazine, like in the first pirate idols? Was that, I don't think people realize.

Because the Guardian 20 years ago... I remember the Guardian coming up when I was in college. It was like, this is one of the respectable newspapers you should be sourcing in pieces and things like this. But now it's just how gay is anal play really? That's again, real headline. Here's my favorite. Here's my absolute favorite. Oh, no.

I created the ISIS dildo flag at London Pride to start a dialogue, not to get a laugh. It just goes on and on and on. So there is like Joanne Reid, hadn't posted in a while. I guess Mark Cuban is- Who? She left. Joanne Reed hadn't posted in a while. I guess Mark Cuban is- She left. Who? She left, Joanne. She left, I know, but she hadn't posted it for a while before she left. Mark Cuban is another one where, well, not another one.

Mark Cuban, I think actually gave a lot to the platform. He gave us someone who was willing to get out there and fight and whatnot. But there's a question of, does it really matter for X? Is that where most of the energy is coming from? I don't think it's coming from The Guardian, no matter how stupid their headlines are. And we can still screenshot their headlines and make fun of them on X. So it's not clear what we're really missing from that. I do think the balkanization is real, however. And I do think it's sort of like either those threads or blue sky take off or those people simply stop posting because they really

don't want to post on X anymore. Despite Joy Reid being terrible, I saw her video that she recorded. It was a quick little friendly kind of, here's why I left. And I thought that it was honestly understandable. I got it where she was coming from. It was just, she uses it only... She doesn't like Elon. Okay, whatever. That's her right. She doesn't want to support him. Also her right. Doesn't want to contribute content in that way. I get it. But then she said, scrolling through it for news or whatever, even while not posting, she was constantly inundated with just sludge. And I think that that's definitely true. I mean, I think that there's a lot of that. So one of the reasons that blue skies become

attractive for people is that you can create your algorithm. They're more customized. And so you can choose the topics that you want to get and get fed that information. I don't know how much of it is true. I really haven't played with it too much, but that's one of the drawing factors and the point that it's like a middle ground. I hear that. It's pretty complicated to use, but if you're using it correctly, maybe it's more powerful. Certainly, I think that we should have control of our algorithms. The truth about X is I think that what Elon did was important for the world, genuinely. I think that you had to free up at least one platform to create something like free speech. However, the experience is better on speech, but degraded in almost every other way, including

how I get my information about the world. I'm logging on to the New York Times, Washington Post, Drudge Report. Every single day, I'm checking those sites out now and I never used to. And it's not because I'm looking for some kind of alternative viewpoint. I really don't care. It's because I need news. I'm actually looking for the news and I can't find it on X anymore. All I see is a viewpoint, which feels unique to me. I don't know. What do you guys, what do you guys make of your experience on X or the balkanization of it? Is it, is it, is it real or not? And do you think it's good or bad? I mean, one thing I noticed is after, like after the election, like obviously everyone was saying like, oh, X is right wing now,

X is right wing now. And I don't think that was true before, but now I'm worried, like, is that what's going to happen? Because right after the election, I got tons of evidence to the contrary, you know, Everybody crying about what happened, everyone complaining, making legitimate claims, making ridiculous claims. But either way, I was like, no, we're all here, clearly. But so the thing that I pay attention to is just the left influencers that are leaving, because I think that would be fine. We'll survive, just less funny headlines. But if the actual left and base leaves,

X will be worse and it will actually become just a bunch of right-wing trash. So my first thought when they all announced they were leaving was this is like the millionth X departure, like, and somehow they all end up coming back to the platform that they claim to hate. But I have recently been seeing a lot more left-leaning stuff on my X timeline. And so I wonder if that's sort of like Elon and XHQ sort of seeing the warning signs of like all the liberal people are leaving and they need to like pump the algorithm in the other direction. So people don't get the impression that X is sort of becoming a conservative echo chamber, because I agree if it does become that, then Twitter and X does sort of lose a lot of its appeal. We have to just be honest about what's happening on the platform, though. then Twitter and X does sort of lose a lot of its appeal. We have to just be honest about what's happening on the platform though. And it is a bit of a right-wing place now. I mean, Elon is the most popular influencer on the platform.

I have a couple of alt accounts that I don't use. I'm not interacting with tech stuff on those accounts. I don't even follow people on those accounts. And I get Elon and political content delivered to me at the top of every single feed, every single time. And then you look at the trending topics, you look at the AI generated topics and things like this. And to me, it seems pretty clearly... I don't think it's been done on purpose. I think it's just been by virtue of what's getting the most engagement before the election or through the election. And then by virtue of who are the most popular accounts on the platform, it has started to lean right. And I know what it's like existing on a platform that I totally disagree with because I lived on Twitter during the

mostly peaceful summer of 2020. And it's not pleasant, but also I didn't leave because I didn't have an alternative. Now there are these alternatives. And so do people just want to be in their echo chambers? And I think that's human nature. I didn't think it was possible. Do you have to get hit critical mass for any of these platforms to work? I think it's human nature. I didn't think it was possible. You have to get hit critical mass for any of these platforms to work. I think it's an open question. I think we'll see. And I don't know why we're talking about blue sky more than threads though. I guess that's the thing that's confusing to me. Threads is hilarious. Every time I check it, I just get inundated with the same topics over and over again.

What are your topics on here? Okay, let me open it right now. I get like dating tips and stuff and I don't even use this, but like I'm a girl, so I think I get fed this information. So it's like, one is flirt with girls effortlessly, a thread. Tired of small talk, let's go on a road trip.

Like after two years of a manager, like here's how I got a new boyfriend like it's just like all this random stuff and then uh well you just popped up so that's cool mike what did i say on there you're responding to harry potter i've been responding to people non-stop on thread wait what did I say? Yeah, it was about J.K. Rowling involved in a new Harry Potter series. You go, wait, the creator of Harry Potter is also involved in a Harry Potter TV show?

Yeah, because they were going after her. They're like, get her. She's an anti-trans person and she's involved in this TV show. It's like, yeah, no shit. She created Harry Potter. I will say, in Thread's credit, there's a lot of pushback

under every one of the deranged posts. Here was one of my favorites recently. Now, since Trump won the election, it's been nonstop 4B stuff, which we were talking about a little bit earlier in the episode, all the sex protesting and things like this. And here's what I'm going to say

the next time I see a man. But this was, while in line at Costco, a man pushing a basket approached mine. This is a woman saying this. He automatically expected me to move for him to pass. I looked in his eyes and waited. He stared blankly at me and nudged forward. I stared, blinked my eyes and stood a little bit taller, waiting patiently for him to ask. He paused, obviously confused, and finally asked after a minute of staring, could you excuse me? Keeping my eye contact, I smirked, slowly making space. Let's just say I'm subverting the patriarchy one step at a time. That had 631 likes, way more now.

Why? I mean, is that... Molly, how do you think about the patriarchy? And if you were at Costco and someone had a cart, would you get out of his way? I don't really think about it. I mean, I've worked in a male-dominated industry my whole life. So you just kind of have to deal with meritocracy and go that way. I think the whole online debate and kind of battle between the sexes is so dumb

uh i think if you're you're battling about that online you clearly haven't had like a like male relationships in a while or like ones that might be more equal i just i don't understand the whole radical radicalization between the sexes and like trying to prove a point about it like just be a normal person like i just don't understand why there there has to be like you know a battle between people or like that men are evil or women are evil or everyone's evil it's just like you know if if something bad happened you guys would probably come together and like work on it. But you're subconsciously thinking that every guy is out to get you in Costco.

What? Am I just overthinking threads? Maybe also, maybe I'm... Am I part of the problem? I think a lot of people left X and went to threads because it felt safe to them. And it felt like more pop culture and it was just, you know, an easy place to hang, but you're, you're just naturally with more influencers and that kind of thing. And sharing, um, like, like sharing how you're empowered and you're like

taking over the world and all of the great things that you've done or like do, uh, is, is more in like the self-help category, I guess that's like on, uh, on threads. I feel like, I feel like Twitter though is like very much so social, uh, hierarchy. Cause you're, you're directly talking with and engaging with really high profile people and it's really strange. It's a strange environment to do that. Threads, though, it's very dramatized. I don't know how to say that. It's a very dramatic culture based off of influencers and popularity. I don't know, I really don't go on it. I think it's interesting from your perspective, because I think you're probably the most online person

that any of us probably know. And so you've experienced it all, and then you started a media company. So like you're really online all the time. And I'm curious from your perspective, like given that one, like how do you manage a healthy relationship with it? And two, in your mind, do you connect with how people are thinking when they're posting on these platforms? I don't think there is a healthy relationship.

I was talking about this with my friend the other day. He was texting me about the question of, and it's an important question of, how many of the posters online are agents or assets of a foreign country trying to sow discontent and discord in the country? And I think it's probably a small percentage over time that's had a huge impact. And I don't know if we'll ever really know the full answer there. But it got me thinking in... Or just it got me to say what I've been thinking for a while, which is that it's definitely a net negative. I can't think of the net positive other than disruption of the media. And I don't know.

It's been good for me personally and good for our business, obviously, but probably not great for the world. I don't think that you can be really good at Twitter and also have a healthy relationship with it. I think you have to be posting a lot to get a feel for how it works and for how to connect with people. And then it's like the Palantir in Lord of the Rings. It gives you access to the world. You can see the world, but the world comes into you as well. And that's very, very dangerous. You're ingesting these dark memes all the time that you have to process very quickly and get out of there.

you're sort of ingesting these dark means all the time that you have to process very quickly and get out of there. Yeah. I don't know. It's not very good. And then what were you asking in terms of what are people earnest when they post or what was that piece? I guess, do you have any sort of sense of the... I tried to touch upon it, but do you have any sort of sense of the type of reason or impetus for people to post on each? What is the social satisfaction that they get out of it? If they're posting on X, is it because of superiority intellectually on threads? X is battle and friends and status. It was those things.

And they're all kind of related and threads feels very much like Instagram, which is posting a picture of yourself and wanting likes. It's the sort of intellectual version of that. There is the question of what the folks are saying on Polymarket. so it is time for our polymarket segment thank you polymarket for supporting pirate wires and all the great work we do here let's get into it this one is about social media so following donald trump's election as the 47th president polymarket now shows a 20 chance of truth Truth Social and X merging, or of a Truth Social and X merger announcement before August 2025. Meanwhile, celebrities and organizations like The Guardian

and Joy Reid have left X for liberal-leading platforms like Blue Sky and Threads, as discussed. In a write-up on their departure, The Guardian said the U.S. presidential election campaign served only to underline what we have considered for a long time, that X is a toxic media platform, and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse. There's a 20% chance right now that X and Truth Social, this is Donald Trump's social media thing, merge. And I guess I had two thoughts. The first was, why is this question being asked? And why are people voting on it? It's because there's an intuitive sense that people have that these two things are related and the others aren't. And then 20% is pretty high. And I thought,

Elon and Trump are pretty close. Maybe there is a chance. Wait a minute. There is a chance. There is a chance that something this crazy could happen. And I think it further points to this notion of values associating with places where we post. People have wanted this for a long time. They have not wanted to be together. And I think the left really wants it even more than the right. The right's used to being in places where they're not wanted to be together. And I think the left really wants it even more than the right. The right's kind of used to being in places where they're not wanted and being silent because of it. The left is really not. And so this is really, I think maybe we're even underestimating how disorienting this is for someone who's very, very far left wing to sort of lose

cultural control of a place like Twitter. That says to them that everything they thought about the world is wrong. And they're going to freak out and become crazier and crazier until this is taken care of. So I don't know. I do think that the polarization will continue. I would have thought that attacks on Elon Musk would continue. But now under Trump, I don't know that that's possible. I mean, maybe this is flippant. But I think now that Trump has to post on X again and has to like EVs because he's friends with Musk now. I think it's just like maybe he's too lazy to post on both. I mean, that's why I use threads for all of 48 hours.

It's like I'm not going to post text in two places. It's already wasting half my day. I only have another half of the day left. So I think maybe he's just like, look, if these merge, I can just hit send once. And that would be the best reason to do it. Maybe that sounds stupid. But I actually think that would be the driving factor of just not needing truth anymore. What would a merger even look like? They just take their users and they put them all over to Twitter? Yes. I mean, are they already on Twitter? I assumed everybody on Truth Social was on Twitter

and just went to Truth Social because Donald Trump was a platform from Twitter. I assumed everybody on Truth Social was on Twitter and just went to Truth Social because Donald Trump was the platform from Twitter. No, I think it's a lot of people, at least that I know, if they're on Truth, not as a joke, like seriously on Truth because they want to be there, is because they're just subscribing to the Trump newsletter. Remember, Trump wasn't on X. There was nowhere else to hear from him. So if you were a big MAGA supporter, you want to hear from Trump. So you just got on truth so you could get his feed. Like he could have done a newsletter and I think it would have been the same effect to the readers. It would definitely give a lot of credibility to true social to merge with, you know, something as established as X. But I think at the same time, like the opposite is true with X. Like if you're trying to beat the conservative

echo chamber allegations, merging with true social and literally having millions of people onto your platform is not not helping so the guardian like they said the number one reason they left x was because of uh it was because of far-right conspiracy theories and racism and the toxic culture um i actually do like like, I have friends who have, like, members of the Ku Klux Klan, like, coming after them in some capacity on X. Like, I think probably one of the most powerful things that they could do instead of doubling down on Trump

is probably, like, now that they've reached a really good number of users is actually, like, make a concerted effort to clean out. Okay, they cleaned out the bots. Actually make a concerted effort to clean out some of the racism and racist people. And that might actually draw people into that to make it feel more safe rather than other things. They're trying not to fall into the pit that Twitter was in before Elon took over, which was like, yes, we don't want white nationalists using ethnic slurs on the platform and certainly not targeted harassment and things like this. However, what is racism is the question

and it tends to be applied to things that we just don't like and then you're becoming the Arbiter of truth and inevitably it that that picks up whole whole political conversations a really good one for example would be immigration the immigration debate was stifled online for years because it was so closely tethered to the question of race because you're talking about in the context of America at least uh you're talking about largely South or you were talking about largely now it's all over the place but it used to be largely south american immigration so naturally you could have people bring race into the conversation and now you can shut down that entire conversation on grounds that you know it is a racist conversation you still see this in europe actually where people have a hard time discussing uh legally have a hard time discussing immigration because of this, like legal speech ordinances that prohibit you from attacking certain ethnic minorities and things like this.

It's just a hard line to draw. Yes, I've seen the armies of swamp creatures as well armies of swamp creatures as well and wish that they weren't there. I don't know if I feel comfortable being that person, just choosing who stays and who goes. It's hard. I mean, what do you do? I think a lot of the safetyists would be laughing at this conversation right now. They predicted this would happen. They predicted, and I knew they would be right. I just think that it's still a better world. But they said, you're going to get rid of all the moderation and people are not going to want to be there because you're going to have assholes ruining it for everybody. We have to move on.

Just a couple of days ago, Donald Trump made an announcement. Elon Musk and Vivek are heading up the Department of Government Efficiency. Kardec, take it away. Well, it's pretty simple. The only thing I have to say about this is, can you believe they got two people to do the job of one? That was Elizabeth Warren. That is the Elizabeth Warren and kind of DNC line on this, making fun of it, which I do think is hilarious. So I'll give them that. Funny. I don't know what it's meant to be, but it is. Anyways. Yeah. And I think this is a pretty exciting one. I think government efficiency

is something that everybody's excited about. You saw the Box founder, Aaron Levy, be like, okay, let's fucking go. This is really excited. After doing a year of Kamala posting, I think even within my friend group, all the friends who were on the fence and ended up voting for Kamala or the other way, it's like, this is the uniting issue that I think any business person, working person, capitalist is excited about. Of course, to temper expectations, this was also Trump's number one thing last time. He called it drain the swamp and he did not do that. So I'm definitely cautiously optimistic here. Of course, he has a quad factor this time. He got the popular electoral Senate and House, so he's got it all. So he has the things to do it.

And this is what I'm telling all my friends like this is the one to watch. If he does it, he'll go down as one of the greatest presidents. And if not, okay, it'll just be as boring as every other time. It's pretty exciting. I mean, they're talking about $6.5 trillion of annual spending that we're at, which is out of control. I mean, for reference, that is parabolic spending. And there's actually only one time ever we have slowed or stabilized spending, but we have never, ever, ever lowered it, which is interesting. And it's funnily enough, the time that we did stabilize it was actually Al Gore's doing. So Clinton had this initiative with him called the National Partnership for Reinventing Government, where basically they said, hey, we're going to make government work for you.

government, where basically they said, hey, we're going to make government work for you, which echoes this statement where Trump says, we're going to make the government accountable to we the people in all caps. So different styles with the exact same message. And so basically what they did back then, it took them five years to do this. They weren't too successful in lowering programs. They only lower them by about 4%. But they did reduce the number of federal jobs by 12%. So that's from 2.2 million to around 1.9 million.

And that is the only time since the 1950s that federal employee headcount has gone down. And not starkly or not starkly, it is the only time it has really gone down. And so I think what's exciting there is that it feels like this is definitely possible. That's just table stakes. There's no way Elon and Vivek together are not going to be able to do the same reduction. But I think the problem is, they've set up the goal of this as erasing 30% of that spending. But that has never been done in history. So while I do think they have one half of it down where they're going to be able to massively reduce headcount and stop

the bleeding, I'm not so confident this bill enough, like this bill on its own or like this department on its own is going to actually be able to reverse the trend in spending. Well, look, I think it's exciting, as you said. It's exciting. This is why it's exciting to me. I don't, it's not just about, I'm not this person anymore who really cares about government spending money. I used to be when I was younger and like way more anarcho-capitalist. It just bothered me on principle that money was being spent. I no longer care. I'm actually happy for it to be spent. I want it to be spent on cool shit. But what really bothers me is when people get in the way of other people in the private sector creating cool shit and or important shit or vital shit.

Vital shit. So housing, for example. Why are there regulators getting in the way of building new housing, which we need a lot of? Why are you getting in the way of rocket launches on the California coast? Why are you getting in the way of if we want to build a new train rail or something like this? We could then talk about regulations when it comes to not just building, but labor regulations and things like this and labor regulators. All of those people are the ones who I really want gone. And my sense of what happens inside of a bureaucracy is you have a lot of people who don't actually have a job and they're looking for

something to do and they just get in the way. And so it's not just the cost of them, but it's the opportunity cost. It's what can't we do? I guess the opportunity cost would be, what could we have done with this money that would have been awesome? But then there's another opportunity cost, which is like, what can't we do because they're just in the way? I think it's exciting to see. I also think it's probably the one real thing about Project 2025. I think that was correct. I think it's exciting to see. I also think it's probably the one real thing about Project 2025. I think that was correct. I think Trump really is interested in reducing the power of the bureaucratic state. And I think that's actually what these people are really, really upset about. I think that's actually... He's over the target there. And that's the real beast that

we got to get rid of. I think it's cool. I think Elon can definitely do it. I mean, we just saw it with Twitter. What is Twitter? 20% of what it was before he started. It is breaking though. Twitter search has never been the same. So maybe you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet. I don't know. So I guess I'm just confused about what their jurisdiction is. It's not an official department of the government, right? It's a partnership, it sounds like. So I guess I'm just confused, like what what like say they actually have in things. And I do think they also kind of run the risk of like making too many big promises that they can't deliver on.

We posted a video on social kind of recently of Vivek talking about his dream scenario of getting rid of government employees. And he's like, if you have an odd number on your Social Security number or something like you're gone. And it's like, yes, that would be great. I would love that. But when those are the promises you make, you really do run the risk of can you deliver the results to match that? So I'm a little bit worried about that. If they just get rid of... Trump said he's going to get rid of the Department of Education. That is a fraction of the government workers,

but still really, really interesting. And they have a lot of... They spent a lot of money. I wonder how many things like that are going to happen. I also just wonder if that's going to happen. That seems... We're still operating in this... At least I am. I'm operating in this realm of, I don't think that's possible. I'm operating in this realm of, I don't think that's possible. I'm operating in the realm of, that sounds cool, but I don't think you're going to do it. I don't think you're going to build the wall. I don't think you're going to reduce the government by 50% or something. I don't think you're going to buy Greenland. I'm interested in all of these newsletters. I'm subscribing and I'm waiting for you now to write a piece that I'm excited about.

It will be crazy if he's able to do this. Again, I think if anyone's able to do it, it's going to be Elon. I don't know how Vivek got in there though. And do you think Elon was happy about that? That it's now the Vivek and Elon show? I mean, I think that like Riley mentioned, Vivek has been talking about this. That's kind of like a lot of right wing people's fever dream is Vive vague mind to to be honest, they goes in there and like hatchet man and just fires a bunch of people and he's said he'll do it arbitrarily. So I think it's just been a desire of his and he's pretty close to Trump. I do think it is weird, though, to be honest, that it is two people, maybe it will be a real department and Vivek will lead

it up because like Elon would have to divest from all his businesses to be in a real department and Vivek will lead it up because Elon would have to divest from all his businesses to be in a real department of government. So maybe that's why Vivek is involved, but you can't be sure. I hope it doesn't lead us into a recession, I guess. I mean, if you're going to... So we have 2015, which is a long time ago. It's the most recent data I could find just on this podcast. There's 10 million about government employees, and that includes contractors. I don't know if you reduce that by 30%. You're talking about 3 to 4 million people at this point without a job. Seems problematic, right? So I don't know.

I think there's also interesting economic headwinds that they have to deal with right now which is um i don't think inflation is beat um i think we're still in an environment of relatively high interest rates compared to um zerk obviously um and so i think it's going to be a they're going to have to be really smart about how they balance um essentially cutting government spending, which is a big portion of our GDP interest rates. And, and like, you know, making sure that by year four, when they come up for reelection, that, you know, like the economy's humming still, or, you know, there, there aren't people out of work because of all the,

all the, because of Doge's cuts, you know, seems pretty complicated and highly theoretical right now. And I'm curious about how it all ends up, you know, actually looking practically. And if it won't just create massive, like, you know, people, a lot of people being upset about the economy not being good as a result. I do want them to create some sort of like public leaderboard or like auditing system of like, what have we done this week? And like break it down of how they plan to do it. And if they do it, and like the percentage of what has been done. Because I do think that there are obviously very sensitive implications for changing any of the numbers on these. I mean, we don't know what

any of that would look like. I don't think anything will actually change for a while, like most of you. I think this would take a really long time. It's not like you can just really walk in. Maybe you can with a kitchen sink and just fire people. But I think for a sensitive government... I think you do it by targeting departments rather than people. You get rid of the Department of Education. That's the smart way to do it. You don't need it. We've never needed it. We didn't need it before Jimmy Carter created it. It didn't start until 1980 was when it went... I think it was formed in 1979, but 1980 is when it started juicing. And you didn't be... America did everything good before that. Truly. Everything amazing that you consider to be America

happened before the Department of Education. So we just know that we don't need it. Goodbye. Cut. I had someone attack me for this the other day. It's like, this idiot says they do nothing, but actually they give out all these Pell Grants. Okay. We don't need that. Sorry. I don't know what to tell you. One, that's not what people think of when they think of the Department of Education. They think that the Department of Education is responsible for our primary education. The only thing that people really consider to be a really important institution that we maintain. No one's talking about fucking Pell Grants or CARES.

And also, if the Pell Grants are disproportionately being given to minorities and things like that, is that even still legal? I don't think that it is. So that's another conversation. But I think it'll be departments. And I also think, Brandon, I want to push back a little bit. Well, maybe not push back. I think you might be right. That's a justifiable... That's a good concern. It's a reasonable concern, I think, on the recession thing. But it's a fucked up question of, do we have to keep paying a bunch of people who don't do anything

for their fake job that they also get a pension for? I don't have a pension. No one in the private sector has a pension. Why do we have to keep paying you to do nothing just to fend off a recession? You should go and you should do something valuable for the world. And if you can't do that, you should certainly not be in my way. You should certainly not be able to create bureaucratic red tape and prevent me from doing things. There are all these things that I want the government to spend money on too. I wish that we could just rework everything. All of those people working in the Department of Education should just get axes and hammers and we can start putting them on new rail lines

and new giant bridges and new giant monuments. Maybe we just, we do, we just keep them in labor somehow, but we force them to do cool things. We force them to do cool things. I mean, I support cool things. I think the sphere has created more economic opportunity in Vegas than anything else. There needs to be more of that. Yeah, we should build more spheres.

That's a good idea. But also, imagine if... Okay, so we're not going to reduce any spending, but here's what we're going to do. We're going to take everybody in a dumb bureaucratic job that achieves nothing and produces nothing. And we're just going to make them gardeners. And you're going to go and beautify our cities and our fields. And you're going to be planning orchards and things every day. And America will never have been so beautiful. And you will not be in my way when I'm trying to build a company.

It would be cool if their first task was to reinvent the tenderloin. I really want to see the tenderloin as a new Brooklyn. That would be great. It would be great. I'm having a hard time picturing it. Maybe I'm too jaded by San Francisco politics. But I mean, jaded by San Francisco politics, but I mean, that would, yeah, I mean, that would be the greatest outcome of all time. They're going to be gardeners or police officers and you just have to pick one and that's it. And then we flood the country with them. I would not trust a bureaucrat police officer. Sorry. I do not want them guarding the streets. It will have to be department wide. I mean, not to give you too much history, but like

the last time we cut these jobs, when they shot back up again to current levels, at least a third of those jobs were the TSA. And obviously, the gut check reaction makes sense. I mean, we can all agree with that. But afterwards and having them around, it's kind of like, this seems useless. Can we get a robot or something and call it a day? And you could shrink it by 99%. I agree with you that it seemed reasonable at the time. I was very opposed to TSA at the time. I mean, I just remember thinking we did not have the TSA for the entire 20th century. There's not a better way to do this without creating an entire new bureaucratic apparatus that's going to be harassing my

grandma with a naked body scanner and tries to go into the airport. That doesn't make any sense to me at all. It never made sense. I was way more hostile to it actually at the time as I was very libertarian at the time. But yeah, no, I had a big problem with the TSA. Yeah. I guess not on a technical level, like an emotional level, like the excuse was justified, I guess is more what I meant. Well, that's the one that I would put in my crosshairs. We have a lot more to go. Guys, I would love you to comment in the comments with what department you would like to see cut. Which bureaucrat specifically?

Do you have a name? Drop them in there. Let me know who you want fired in the government. I am waiting with bated breath. Thank you, Molly and Cardick, for joining. If you guys want to see more of Molly and Cardick, you better vote. Put that in the comments. Rate, subscribe, review. If you're not checking out the Pirate Wires daily, you're missing out. According to my mom, who loves it,

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