The Blindboy Podcast - Big Manky American Christian Fascists

Episode Date: September 17, 2025

The explicit relationship between the American Christian right and the rise of Neoliberal economics  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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That's BOMBAS.ca. And use code music to start doing good and feeling even better. Be useless in Jerusalem, you crow cut on us. Welcome to the Blind By podcast. If this is your first episode, consider going back to an earlier episode to familiarize yourself with the Lord of this podcast. Before I begin, I have some exciting news. I'm going to be doing a new tour of Wales, Scotland and England in a year's time in October 2026. Because I've already done a fucking tour. And that was a lot. So I need a year before I do

another one. However, there's a huge amount of cracking tens that listen to this podcast. So I'm going to come back and do some gigs. So I'd like to announce my new tour of Wales, Scotland and in England. I like that order. I like that order. Wales, Scotland and England in fucking autumn 2016 I'm going to be in Brighton, the Brighton Dome Cardiff in the new theatre, Coventry

in Warwick Arts Centre, Bristol at the Bristol Beacon the Barbican Hall in London can't wait to do the Barbican Pavilion Theatre Glasgow The Glass House in Gateshead Fuck me, where the fuck is Gateshead? The theatre

Royal Good old Nottingham Maybe I'll see the Viking Museum this I missed it the last time. Good old Nottingham. Can't wait to get back to Nottingham. Gateshead. I haven't a fucking clue where Gateshead or what it is. I don't know but I'm gigging there. That means there must be there must be some 10 foot decklins in Gateshead if there's a gig

booked. I don't book these fucking gigs. Clearly if I'm just hearing that a place called Gateshead exists but by fucking next year I'm going to be dripping in Gateshead. I'm going to know everything about Gateshead. Just like when I went to Bex Hill I'd never heard of Bex Hill before

but I gigged That was a strange fucking place that was When I gigged in Bex Hill I don't regret it I don't regret it It felt very pargatoryish Actually I fucking love Bex Hill

What a weird place I stood on the beach Where William the Conqueror came Where William the Conqueror came And did a bit of 1066 I stood on that beach I stayed in a very strange an odd little hotel

a strange hotel where everyone who worked there was like 16 and everyone who stayed there was either me or an 80 year old and then I nearly drowned I went out to the beach the William the Conqueror beach in fucking Bexhill

and misjudged the tide and the tide came in and I nearly died but fuck it Bexhill was great I'm not doing any gigs in Bexhill but I'm glad I went there Gateshead I've got my eye on you I don't know what you are

I don't have a fucking clue where you are but I'm gigging in Gateshead right on the 29th of October 2026 oh and I'm gigging in Guildford

Guildford on the 24th of October 2026 Again I'd have a fucking clue where Guilford is but Guilford Gilford's actually quite special to me because

and the only reason I know the name Gilford is when I was a child, a teenager, about 13. I used to read a magazine called Viz. My brothers had it a very funny comic. And in Viz magazine, this is the 90s, they used to sell equipment for growing cannabis and cannabis seeds. And one of the shops you could order this stuff from was a place called Esoteric Hydro.

panics in Guilford and I saved up by about 13, 14 years of age listening to Cypress Hill fucking obsessed with Cyprus Hill pure fucking autism I'm sure I've mentioned this on a podcast before there's a full podcast in this

I was obsessed with Cyprus Hill I was obsessed with the fact that they had cannabis leaves on everything you couldn't get you could get hash in Ireland but you couldn't get weed. Weed was not a thing. Not in the 90s. Weed was a post-9-11 thing. When I was grown up in the

90s, there was hash. There was five spots. There was 10 spots. That was it. No one had weed. Weed was something that I had to hear about on Cypress Hill rap songs. And I had to look at weed leaves and I became obsessed with cannabis. Fucking obsessed. So, without incriminating myself, I saved up all my money I'd say for a year and a half 14 years of age a year and a half and I ordered from

esoteric hydroponics in Guildford I ordered a mercury vapour light for growing certain plants and probably seeds as well and a book I ordered a book called The Marijuana Growers Guide by Mel Rosenthal which had photograph of cannabis plants on the inside, this is the 90s, there was no fucking internet, there was

nothing. But this, here's the thing, this wasn't like, just some bald teenager growing cannabis, like it wasn't that. This was, this was undiagnosed autism. It wasn't even about the cannabis. It was obsession. Fuck, I'm talking consistent, continual obsession about cannabis, cannabis plants, how to grow them. And that book that I got, the marijuana growers guide. It wasn't just a book about growing cannabis. I still have it. I still read it. It's one of my prized possessions. It's not even a book about growing cannabis. It was a very, very rigorous book about horticulture, about plants, about nutrients. And I fucking ate this book up. I would read it every single day. I would retreat to my safe fucking space at home and I would read this book

and drink tea and listen to Cypress Hill and it's one of those things when I think back to being an undiagnosed autistic child so I was in junior search so that means I was 1314 and I was not paying attention in school and I was highly disruptive

and I was missing a lot of school and I was failing everything and then when it came to sitting our actual junior search on the day of the exam I requested a paper and it was a paper of it it was a subject that was not being taught at my school

the subject was agricultural science I asked for the fucking agricultural science paper and the teachers it probably wasn't the day of the exam it might have been like a week beforehand or something but the teachers were like we don't study agricultural science at this fucking school you don't even take the class

this is highly unorthodox and I'm like I want to sit agricultural science for my junior cert so they couldn't refuse me so on the day of the exam I fucking sat the agricultural science paper and I loved it

I fucking loved it not only like the questions were about I remember one question specifically was about mulch you know how to create a mulch using bark and stuff and another question was about

about legumes which are plants that can take nitrogen from the air and put them into the soil like clover and veg and I answered every question on this agricultural science paper and not only did I answer every fucking question I wrote out sheets and sheets and sheets A4 sheets I wrote voraciously and stuff that wasn't even included in the exam

and I got the results came back I got 100% I got 100% in this agricultural science exam and I failed everything else not failed, they're probably past English I'd have gotten an A in art but I'd had a shit junior cert I would have failed or barely passed

the vast majority of my other subjects in this exam so when my results came back of here's this highly disruptive student they've failed everything and then there's this agricultural science exam and they're after getting 100 100% and we don't even teach this exam? Like, do you think I was praised?

No fucking way. I was dragged up to the principal's office. I was dragged up to the principal's office and quizzed. How did you cheat? Why is this happening? What type of trick is this? What joke is this? Why did you get 100% in an exam that we don't even sit in this school?

In a subject we don't even teach? And I couldn't answer it. I couldn't answer it. The answer to the question was, I have spent the past year and a half thinking about nothing other than how to grow cannabis and may be doing it.

I can't say that. But I have been thinking about nothing other than how to grow cannabis, how to... What photosynthesis is? How phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium, how to make these things out of banana peels, how to make your own.

I was obsessed with absolutely everything about growing plants, about horticulture, about growing cannabis, about cannabis itself. I couldn't say that. I couldn't tell the principal. I couldn't say it. I couldn't say, well, I've actually haven't been paying attention in school. All I've been doing is listening to this band, Cypress Hill, who I'm fucking obsessed with and can't stop thinking about all the time, and reading about how to grow cannabis. That's all I've been doing for the past year. I don't think I'm able to do anything else other than that. When I do it, that I'm really happy and I've been doing most of it autodidactically at home and this is how I just got 100% in a fucking exam in a subject that

we don't even teach in this school that's how this has happened I couldn't say it I couldn't say it so I just got in trouble I got in trouble and they couldn't outright accuse me of cheating in the agricultural science exam but

they kind of did because they They certainly didn't shake my hand. Like, if a student got 100% in any exam in the junior search, you'd get a little pat on the back. You might even get mentioned by the principal over the intercom. I got 100% in one exam and they all just went, he's after doing something mad, sneaky and wrong. We don't know what it is and we can't prove it.

So just, let's just forget it. And that story is very important for me, knowing now as an adult that I am on. autistic. That period, that incident in my junior cert, that's the one time in secondary school where my needs were met as an autistic person. And I excelled. I got 100% in an exam. Why? Because I was pursuing a special interest. At that time in my life, my special interest was growing hash. It was growing cannabis. I understand that that's illegal. I know it is. But I was obsessed. I couldn't stop talking about light bulbs. There was like I was mercury vapor, um,

fluorescent. I used to walk into light shops in Limerick asking questions about different types of fluorescent whites, the light spectrum, cool white, warm light, warm white. I'd ask, I'd, until they'd eventually figure out what I was coming in for. They would eventually, why is this fella wanting the exact mix of cool white and warm white fluorescence to replicate? the full spectrum of sunlight. Oh, I know what you're doing. I only want it to fit into a wardrobe is that I know what you're doing and I'd get kicked out

and it's like, sorry for making you on a competence of a crime here but it's, this wasn't about I want to grow hash or I want to sell weed or breaking the law. It was obsession. It was fucking legitimate

obsession with growing cannabis. I wasn't trying to be a drug dealer. wasn't trying to break the law. Anything like that. It was curiosity, fascination and obsession that I could not control and it just happened to be illegal. And it probably, it was probably just tied in with that teenage rebellion thing and adoring and loving Cyprus Hill. Cyprus Hill were this amazing rap group and all they all they rapped about was smoking weed and growing weed. But I thought myself autodidactically. I was reading that book, that book,

which I still have, The Marijuana Growers Guide by Mel Rosenthal, that's college level. That's a college level book about horticulture. It's not easy to read. It is not easy to understand. It's a very serious book about botany and horticulture and gorilla gardening. And when I was 14 and I was failing everything in school and I was in a class which was the dunce class they would have called it the dunce class

I don't think they do this in school anymore but I was in the worst class there was only like 15 kids in my class and everyone who was in this class were children who basically weren't allowed into other classes and in this class there was when I look back

kids who were either nor neurodivergent are experiencing the trauma of poverty, and that's who was in this class. And it was tough going because being noradivurgent, being autistic, that meant that it was very easy to bully you. And my way of not being bullied was to be insane, to be fucking mad, to be the most disruptive, fearless, rebellious, anti-authoritarian. class clown capable of absolutely anything smoking fags at the back of class

telling teachers to fuck off literally everything in order to survive to not be bullied if you don't want to get bullied in school especially if you're in the class with other kids that are troubled in some way the way to survive

is you're either able to fight or able to make everybody laugh because you're so crazy so I went with make everyone laugh because I'm so fucking crazy but we're also teenage boys so I had to pretend that I wasn't

I had to hide that I might have been smart I had to pretend that I was dumb I had no interest that I didn't care about learning that I wasn't curious about things but I couldn't turn that switch off so instead what happened is my curiosity had to intersect with rebelliousness

my love of science became taking fireworks apart, getting illegal fireworks, taking them apart and making bigger fireworks, or reading copies of a book called the Anarchist Cookbook and learning how to make explosives from bleach, which was really a curiosity, a love of science, a fascination with chemicals and how you can actually make bombs from fireworks, just get enough fireworks and put them together and you've got a fucking bomb,

you can blow up a bin. You see, you're not a nerd. you're not you won't be picked on and called a nerd or called weird or strange when your interests become destructive and troublemaking and get your label as a mad bastard, a crazy fucker

and then the other thing was growing hash I knew how to grow hash I knew there's the starlings the starlings have not left they're outside the window what time is it here 26 minutes past seven in the evening the starlings have just marmaraded past the window it's raining outside and growing hash I was obsessed obsessed with growing cannabis

I wasn't even that I wasn't even a stoner it wasn't about weed it was a it was about horticulture I was fascinated by horticulture I was fascinated by botany but growing this plant and knowing everything about this plant that cypress hill talk about that's illegal the fucking guards are getting involved if they find out that's That fellow over there, you know, he's grazing mad, Cunt him, ask him anything, he grows hash, he does, he's got lights and everything in his wardrobe. See, that makes you a legend.

That brings you social approval, approval from your peers. And my peers were, like I said, kids with dyslexia, dyspraxia, are other kids who just grew up very, very tough and their family might have been criminals, and they themselves went on to become criminals. So I channeled all my, my curiosity and my voracious

the worst thing you could be called was a nerd a SWAT or a nerd was one of the worst things that you could be called because we were in the class was called 3B2 I think I spoke about it on a podcast years ago we were in the class for kids

who are unteachable the kids who are very very bold you get labelled by the teachers we were seen as very bad this was junior cert the principal used to come in the vice principal used to come in and

they couldn't they couldn't kick us out of school because we were too young but they would encourage us to not come back to school next year when you were like 15 16 just leave school after your junior cert don't worry about this leaving sir shit that's not for ye

that was the career guidance we used to get we were 13 14 it hurts to know that you're in that class it hurts to be separated from all the other students. Like, why is that class only 15, 16 people? Why is everyone in that class a fucking lunatic? Like, we knew what that meant.

And it hurt deep down. But when you're at that age, you flip the heart around and you turn it into a badge of honour. And the badge of honour, you become fucking Bart Simpson. I'm a rebel. You can't tell me to do anything. Fuck teachers Fuck the system

Fuck everything I'm so bad I can't even be let into a normal class They have to put me over here With that fella and that fella And we smoke fags in front of teachers That's what we do You're over there

We smoke fags in front of teachers And if the teacher tells us to put the fag out We tell the teacher to fuck off And the teacher leaves us alone Because they've given up And we sniff glue We sniff glue through our school jumpers And we set

fired to cans of deodorant in class. And sometimes teachers don't even fucking show up. We've got free classes all day because teachers don't even show up because they know there's no fucking point. And that's what I had in second year and third year in school. I know it's fucking years ago and it doesn't matter now. But I'm just saying that's that's the experience I had in school in my junior cert years because I was autistic and no one knew. But the wonderful happy memories that I have from that time in my life

it's not being in school it's being at home listening to Cypress Hill drinking tea and reading about how to grow cannabis and reading about this little shop in Guildford

off the back of a fucking magazine called esoteric hydroponics and ordering from him a mercury vapour light who was 90 pounds and ordering I won't say whether I ordered seeds off him and ordering that book the marijuana growers guide

so I'm so happy to be doing a gig in Guildford I can't just for that just I didn't know I was going to be gigging in Guildford I saw it on the list and I went holy fuck I'm going to visit I can't wait to go to that shop I never ever I'd forgotten about it and when I saw the name Gilford on the list of fucking gigs I went esoteric hydroponics

esoteric hydroponics and I'm going to go into that shop that shop that sold cannabis growing material to a 14 year old in the 90s in limerick

and how did I even pay for it I used to go to the bank with cash and get a money order because I couldn't go to my parents and like can I have a check please da here's some money da

can you can I if I give you this money will you write me a check what's it for I just want to buy these lights for growing plants over in England is that like that's not going to happen

so yeah I've got a tour of England Scotland and Wales alright go to Fane dot co dot you Fain F-A-N-E Fane dot co dot UK forward slash blindbuy and

you know if you are going to come to those gigs get your tickets now because they will sell out even though the gigs it's not for another fucking year, right? This is, it's a year away. But go and get your tickets now, especially if I'm in your area. I'm wondering if you can hear the sound of that rain. It's raining quite heavily on the roof of my office and we're just going to have to welcome the sound in. It's not the worst sound in the

world, the gentle pitter patter of rain. But I just thought I'd name it in case you're wondering what the fuck that sound is. It's rain, rain on a tin roof. But yeah, back the back. that's what you had to do back then you had to order things off the backs of magazines I mean before the internet but the internet was there but you'd have had to go into an internet cafe and pay money in a cafe to use the internet

that was the reality of the situation so to order anything strange such as what used they sell they used to sell cannabis seeds cannabis growing lights legal highs I think sex ties Aphrodisiacs

this shit called Spanish fly stuff that you'd be embarrassed to walk into a shop to buy but also they're not selling it in any shops that you know like today now in Limerick Jesus Christ they're selling dildos and duns like they've got those Jurex sex ties

beside the baby's nappies in every supermarket now. But even fucking hell, there's about five shops in Limerick selling lights for growing cannabis and selling cannabis seeds. Very, very easy to come by now. But what got me thinking about

buying shit off the back of magazines is the Charlie Cark situation this week. I'd like an uninterrupted hot take on this Charlie Cork situation so what I'm going to do is I'll do an ocarina pause now so that I'd have a feeling

it's going to be a bit of a long one. so I'll do an ocarina pause now I don't have an ocarina some people are getting upset that I no longer have an ocarina are trying to offer me ocarinas let's just sit with the anxiety of it I quite enjoy having an ocarina pause every weekend

there's no ocarina I'm actually alright with that this week I think I'm going to crinkle I'm going to crinkle this bag of antiseptic wipes and then you're going to hear an advert for something so here's the antiseptic thick white crinkle.

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Service fees exclusions and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Time to check on the skies. It's another sunny day in Calgary. Forecast calls for high levels of economic activity. Late afternoon, we've got a burst of potential in a place-ranked North America's most livable city. Tomorrow, blue-sky thinking in the blue-sky city should hold steady, and the outlook remains optimistic throughout the week.

So come grab your dreams and enjoy watching them take hold. It's possible in Calgary. the Blue Sky City. For the full economic forecast, visit calgary economic development.com. Did you know that socks are one of the most requested clothing items by organizations addressing homelessness? It's true. And it's also why we start a bombus. Every time you buy, well, anything from Bombas, an essential item is donated to someone facing homelessness. That's Bombas is one purchased, one donated promise. Bombas makes socks, underwear, slippers, slides, and t-shirts, all designed to feel good and do good. Since we're new in Canada, all new customers

enjoy 20% off your first purchase just visit bombas.ca That's b-O-M-B-A-S.C-A and use code music to start doing good and feeling even better. Lovely, and if you can only smell it. Beautiful, kind of a piney

antiseptic wipe smell. Gorgeous crinkling. That was the antiseptic. white pause. Support for this podcast comes from you, the listener, via the Patreon page, patreon.com forward slash the blind by podcast. If this podcast brings you mirth, merriment, entertainment, distraction, whatever the fuck has you listening to this podcast, please consider supporting it directly via Patreon. All I'm looking for is the price of a pint or a cup of coffee once a month, that's it. And if you can't afford it, don't worry about it. You can listen for free.

person who is paying is paying for you to listen for free. Everybody gets a podcast. I get to earn a living. This is my full-time job. It's how I rent out my office. It's how I pay all my bills. This podcast is only possible because of listener support, direct funding. I've just told you about that new tour. England, Scotland and Wales. Got to Fane.com. UK forward slash blind buy. If I listed out any dates. Then what have I got? Ricker Street is sold out that's next week that's sold out a few tickets left for Derry

on the 27th of September and then after that Halloween night up in Meath at the Puka Festival also I meant to say this if you can access BBC Radio 6 right I don't think you can hear this

in Ireland right but BBC Radio 6 it's a music station they They asked me to make a music show about being autistic. It's a radio, it's a radio series, music radio series and BBC Radio 6. It's called grounding. And it's presented by noradivurgent artists. And we're talking about our experience of being noradivurgent and also playing music.

And the other artists are Emigine Thackeray, Afroditeite, and fucking gals. Gary Newman. Like Gary Newman, cars Gary Newman, the pioneer of electronic music. He's autistic. So I'm very proud to be in that company. But anyway, look, as you know, I'm a fucking music nerd. I'm an absolute music nerd. Some of my earlier podcasts were about music. I had to stop doing music podcasts because I can't do a music podcast without playing you examples of the music. And if I play examples of the music, the podcast would get taken down. So I had to stop making music podcast. But anyway, this fucking radio show, grounding BBC Radio 6, they gave me six hours, right? It's three episodes, two hours each of me playing music, speaking about music, speaking about the importance of music to me and speaking about being noradivurgent. There was very little interference.

I got to make the radio show that I wanted to fucking make. I've never been asked to do a radio show in Ireland ever RTE no one even with my podcast I don't know what the story is I think they're scared of me Radio 6 came to me and said look do whatever you want be as nerdy as you like with the music

speak about being autistic so this radio show is called grounding I'm incredibly proud of it I'm so proud of this piece of work all I want what I want from this more than anything. Obviously, I want autistic people to listen to it and to feel a bit more normal, but what I really want is the Gorilla podcast hug. I'm aware that this is going out on BBC Radio 6.

I know that there's going to be people tuning in who've never heard of me, who are having a fucking clue what's going on, and I want like a taxi driver in Bristol. I want someone working work in a night shift to just have the radio on and then I lulled them into a relaxed stage with some of the music that I'm choosing and then hit him with a few strange weird hot takes and then make that person think that their radio is broken that there's what the fuck am I listening to what the fuck is this and I really think I managed to do that with these episodes because they gave me free rain they basically said look don't libel anybody and don't curse, but other than that, be as weird as you want. This is two hours of being autistic.

Just go nuts. So I said, fuck it, I will. So look up BBC, Radio 6, grounding to get the full programming of all the artists. And my episodes, my first episode is going to start next Wednesday, next Wednesday the 24th, right? At 11 o'clock at night, my first episode, it's two hours of me speaking about creativity and playing music that I feel inspires creativity. So next Wednesday is the first episode, 11 o'clock at night, BBC Radio 6, grounding. Then the second episode is going to be Thursday, the 25th of September. And then the third episode is Monday the 29th of September. And again, if you're living in Tanland, then you should have no problem accessing this

and listening to it on the fucking player or whatever you do over there. I don't think anyone can hear it here in Ireland there might be a way with VPNs and I'm not promoting the use of cannabis even though I just if I was living in a country or it was legal

I would listen to these shows with a little gentle joint because the combination of the way that I'm speaking what I'm speaking about and the music it just works perfectly with that not promoting anything illegal

just in case someone in Canada maybe wants to listen to it The rain is no joke out there tonight lads It's battering off the window It's battering off the roof I haven't been able to put a limiter On my voice tonight We just have to go

Look, it's fucking raining The continual sound of rain on the tin roof As part of the podcast this week We're just going to have to deal with it And as background noises go it's not the worst. There's a peacefulness to it. Okay, let's talk Charlie Kirk.

So Charlie Kirk was murdered this week. Charlie Kirk, if you're listening to this in the future, was a right-wing, an American right-wing Christian nationalist with far-right views. And he was given a talk on behalf of his organization Turning Point USA in Utah

and he was shot dead he was shot dead we don't know as if someone arrested we don't know why he was shot dead can't say for sure why it was either it could have been

one theory is that it was grippers which are that this is right wing infighting that a right winger shot Charlie Kirk because he wasn't right wing enough. Other theories is that it could have been someone on the left

a leftist, someone who disagreed strongly with Charlie Kirk's very right wing views. Or it could just simply be another American school shooting. And there is no great ideological motive behind the shooting of Charlie Kirk. It's just another

American school shooting because the one thing we know based on what we're told is the person who shot him with one shot left behind three bullet casings but on these bullet casings I can't even remember what was written into them the messages are incredibly obscure

and hard to decipher so one message I remember is like I think it says catch this fascist which on the surface you'd think oh okay this person is an anti-fascist but then you look deeper and you realise that no, that's a quote

from a video game called Hell Divers 2 so it might have nothing to do with fascism at all it's very confusing but one thing's for sure is that Charlie Kirk is being turned into a martyr by the Trump administration

and by the American right and that's quite frightening because the fear is that his murder will be used to justify further authoritarianism. The White House deputy of staff, Stephen Miller, is a very frightening individual because he's quite overtly right-wing and would appear to be a fascist with a, just that troubling record of racist opinions. So this fella Stephen Miller, he's the fucking deputy chief of staff. This man has power. Today he has vowed vengeance.

for anyone online who appeared to celebrate the murder of Charlie Kirk he is referring vaguely to terrorists he's saying the terrorist organizations he said this so JD Vance who's the fucking vice president of America right J.D. Vance he hosted an episode of Charlie Kirk's podcast

because Charlie Kirk had died Vance on this episode, this was yesterday, basically said that liberals, people identifying as liberals are largely to blame for the political violence. Then he brings on Stephen Miller, who's a scary fucker, and then he says Stephen Miller starts saying that this is a vast domestic terror movement. And it appears that who he's talking about, he's talking about liberals. He's talking about anti-fascists. He's referring to these people as domestic terrorists. And this man who's in a position of actual power says, With God is my witness, we're going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy those networks

and make America safe again for the American people. It will happen and we will do it in Charlie's name. And now what's disturbing there is the use of the word terrorist network. What's disturbing is the word terrorist network. use of the weaponization of a moment of grief and shock, right, the weaponization of a moment of grief and shock to potentially remove people's rights. Miller's statement reminds me there of when fucking 9-11 happened. When 9-11 happened, big shock, big public mourning, and then the US brings in this thing called the Patriot Act or the Bush administration because 9-11

it just happened because people were afraid of al-Qaeda, the Bush administration came in and said, look, we got to keep everybody safe, all right? We got to keep everyone safe. So because of this, we're going to bring in the Patriot Act. This is an act of patriotism. But in practice, really what it was is it removed a lot of people's rights. It expanded surveillance of American citizens in a way that would have been unthinkable before. It broke down walls that between intelligence agents, and law enforcement agencies, the police and the FBI, the police and the CIA. It ushered in the normalization of the, the militarization of the police. So now you look at police in America and they just look like fucking soldiers and they're going

around in tanks. That was unthinkable before 9-11. Fucking unthinkable. That would have been seen as totalitarian and strange and frightening. Now it's normal. All the fucking, all the police look like the military now. Now that was 25 fucking years ago and I'm just getting the vibe that

the Trump administration is now looking for its Patriot Act except this time it's a lot more fucked up The FBI are searching online and compiling a database of anybody who appears to approve of Charlie Kirk's murder or anyone who's making jokes about it or anything like that and they're just being very vague about labelling people as domestic terrorists because I have a feeling who they're referring to is people who protest, people who protest

in favour of Palestine, people who criticise the Trump administration, people who hold views that are in any way left of right, that these people now can be labelled as domestic terrorists and the murder of Charlie Kirk would be used as justification to strip away people's rights. That's what fascist states do. That's literally, that is what they do. That's how fascism gets worse and worse. That's what happens. I'm seeing the weaponization of grief.

9-11, that the grief of 9-11 was absolutely weaponized by America. And that doesn't mean that, no, that's a disrespect to that grief. That is an absolute disrespect to anyone who died in 9-11 for that to be cynically used to remove people's rights and then to engage in an illegal war. And I'm concerned that that's what they're trying to do now if there's not pushback against it. It reminds me of

there was a fucker called Horst Vessel. He was a Nazi in Germany. This was before Hitler took power. And he was in a group called the Starmabite along the S.A. They were just little fucking Nazi shitheads. Nazi youth

kind of street gangs that supported Hitler a militaristic unit so anyway he was shot dead by communists this is before Hitler took power 1930 he was shot dead by communists I think he was young

maybe 1920 horse vessel but the Nazis weaponised his killing and turned him into a martyr what's my opinion on the Charlie Kirk thing I mean I witnessed his murder I saw a bullet slit his throat basically and

I watched blood pour over his perfect white t-shirt that had the word freedom on it to remind myself that that was real and not something in a movie

it's like someone wrote that in a script I fucking disagree with everything Charlie Kirk was standing for everything he was saying I think that he was a person who consistently pushed

viewpoints that were really really fucking harmful and just furthered the interest of billionaires and then at the same time when I saw him being shot I'm just thinking about his little kids I'm thinking about

he's got a three year old and a fucking one year old and I'm thinking about little gorgeous three year olds who having a clue about politics and three-year-olds don't know what hatred is. A three-year-old's worldview and experience of the world is so

removed from right-wing hatred. Three-year-olds like ice cream and butterflies and tickles and they love cuddles from their mammy's and daddies. So when I saw Charlie Kirk getting shot, I thought about his little three-year-old. I thought about his little three-year-old who can't even under.

stand where Dadda's gone and what happened to Dada and why Dadda's gone. And I thought about that three-year-old getting older and becoming a teenager. And I thought about him being bullied, bullied with images of his father's assassination. That's what I thought about. And I thought about all of these things because I am an adult. I am an adult who is capable of holding conflicting opinions at the exact same time. I'm capable of engaging with issues with the full space. spectrum of emotions and thoughts and critical thinking and empathy.

And I bet you when you're listening to me now, you're thinking, yeah, that's fair enough, blind boy. You really disagreed with everything that Charlie Kirk stood for. Yeah, absolutely disagree with it. But then at the same time, you were also sad for his three-year-old. Yeah, I can see that. I can understand that, blind boy. It's absolutely fine when you're listening to me.

I did not express any of this on the fucking internet, though, on social media. I didn't express any of this on social media If I said on social media Charlie Kirk Jesus Christ I hated everything that he believed in But I feel sad for his children You say that on social media Instagram, Twitter, blue sky, whatever the fuck

You say that on social media And then what happens is other people say What about the children in Gaza What about the toddlers in Gaza? I saw that. I saw that happen multiple times online. I'm online and I see a person go, oh my God, Jesus, Charlie Kirk was shot that was awful, his poor kids.

And then I'm thinking, are you a homopop? Do you agree with Charlie Kirk? Why are you expressing sympathy? And then I have to go, hold on a second. Like imagine being in a kitchen, a kitchen with your family. And one of your family or a friend comes in and says, Jesus, that Charlie Kirk thing, his poor kids. and then in a kitchen in real life

you turn to that person and say what about the kids in Gaza you wouldn't do that would you you wouldn't because that'd be fucking mad that would be anti-social strange odd

you might think it you wouldn't say it instead you'd kind of sit with that person's reaction you'd look at their body language you'd listen to the tone of their voice and you'd go yeah that person

just saw Charlie Kirk getting shot and then they heard that he had tiny kids and they're feeling sorry for that, yeah. I don't infer from their reaction that they now support things that Charlie Kirk said, this very right-wing reactionary nationalist Christian. But it's perfectly normal on social media. Perfectly normal.

You feel sorry for Charlie Kirk's kids? What about the kids in Gaza? Perfectly normal position on social media. On social media, I witnessed much. Multiple people performatively laughing about his death, saying that he deserved to die. I saw people saying fuck his children. These are educated people with otherwise balanced opinions. But they're performing.

They're performing that reaction to very clearly let social media land know. No, no, no. I'm on one side over here and I disagree with everything Charlie Kirk has said. So therefore, fuck everything. take in one position over here. Again, not something you're really going to hear in the pub. You're not going to hear that one out in public. You're not going to hear a person in public say,

Did you see Charlie Kirk getting shot? I did you? Fuck his kids. What? Do you really believe that? No, but I really need you to know that I definitely don't agree with anything Charlie Kirk stood for. That would be insane. That would be an absolutely bizarre, strange, out of the ordinary thing to happen in the real world.

because here's what I know and I've said this a lot of times but here's what I know social media is a space that's designed by billionaires which forces all discourse into turn and response combat. The very normal human reaction

of Jesus Charlie Kirk said a lot of very fucking nasty things but I also feel sorry for his three year old child you can't have an opinion like that on social media it's not possible because social media is not designed to accommodate nuance. Social media only accommodates turn and response combat and polarization,

especially around any issue where there's heightened emotion. That's its business model. Social media doesn't work if we can all agree with each other and understand each other, because then you'd log off. Social media needs to keep you arguing to hold you. heightened that emotion to earn money from your data. This isn't conspiracy. It's design. It's on purpose. It's why Twitter and Facebook or X and Meta have their corporate headquarters in Dublin where they can not pay tax on the billions that they earn from all of our polarized

arguments. They earn money from the utterly bizarre position that if one person is thinking about Charlie Kirk's three-year-old, then that must mean they are not thinking about the three-year-olds in Gaza. And Charlie Kirk's murder appears to be. It's when that online polarisation, that video game, that turn-in-response combat, bleeds into fucking real life and now someone shot dead. And my fear is how that then becomes weaponised, how he gets turned into a martyr by the Trump administration to remove people's rights.

So the Charlie Kirk discourse made me get off so. media this week. I didn't post about it and I avoided other people's posts about it. And now again if I was to say that on social media people would say so you're burying your head in the sand. No I'm not. There's just very there's very little of value being discussed on social media and then the news sites, news sites which have to survive in the environment of social media, there's very little adult discourse around the Charlie Kirk situation. They're just trying to exist in the algorithm, repeating lines that are coming out of the White House and trying themselves to provoke turn and response combat. Because if you're on, if you're

in the comments section on Instagram or TikTok of the New York Times or Sky News and you're having a scrap with someone and the thread is 50 comments long, the news site benefits from that. That means you're engaging with their post. Multiple people are and now more people see their post in the algorithm. So our news sites, our journalism is now incentivised to polarise. So, but I went to my safe space online. Now, I could just not look at any screens at all, just go for a walk, ignore all screens. I don't want to do that. Because I remember, I remember before social media when the internet was a wonderful, wonderful place, full of information and fun. And I remember before that, when I remember before that, when I was a wonderful,

had magazines when I'd read magazines and my safe space on the internet is the internet archive. Internetarchive.org, specifically the magazine section. You can go on to internetarchive.org and they have hundreds and thousands of magazines. Anything you can think of from the 20th century scanned as PDFs and you can just read magazines and that's what I do. If I want a safe space online, for it's not stressful, for I'm not seeing polarised opinions or arguments, I'll just look at random magazines on archive.org. You can look at an Argos catalogue from 1982. From the late 70s, you can go online and find a scanned PDF and flick through an Argos catalogue from 1977. You can look at hair dryers from 1977.

And what I'm most fascinated with old magazines is it's not the content of the magazines, it's the adverts that are in the magazines. Like I said, when I was a kid, I used to buy Viz. And in the adverts, they were selling like, you know, how to grow cannabis or cannabis growing lights. You learn so much about society from the adverts that are in old magazines.

the adverts in old magazines are a bit like there's this thing called marginalia right in old Irish medieval manuscripts okay the books where our mythology is written down I'm talking 5th century 6th century

7th century some of the most important information that's derived from old Irish manuscripts isn't necessarily in the text that the monks are writing down. You know, they could be translating bits of the gospel, they could be telling Irish myth. Some of the most important information that we've gotten

isn't from those texts, but from the marginalia. In the borders of these old manuscripts, the monks would write little notes. They'd write little notes, or sometimes they'd even have little arguments with each other. Like, there's a book called the Annals of Ulster. This was written in the 9th century. And in the margins, there's just one sentence and the sentence says,

there's a great wind coming tonight. It will not carry off the Viking ships. Like that one little sentence, that one little piece of a poem in the margins of these annals, this tiny little personal opinion of a monk who wrote this in the 9th century told us so much about the behaviour of the Vikings in Ireland, the fear that the monks would have had. this monk is basically saying, look, I'm here in this monastery writing this manuscript, translating these gospels. But the wind outside is very strong.

Good. It means that tonight, at least, the Vikings won't raid. And that's the margins. So that told us so much about society at the time. Another huge one is a little poem called Unpangar Bonn. Now, this was found in Germany, in a manuscript in Germany. From the 9th century again, probably a book of Gospels. And then just in the corner written is this little poem called on Pangerborn. And it's a monk, it's a monk writing a tiny poem about his white cat catching mice. But because this poem is written in Old Irish,

that one tiny little poem that we have on Pangar Barn, because it was written in Old Irish, its grammatical structure was used to, to help us understand other old Irish texts that we couldn't read. So that poem was like the Rosetta Stone that unlocked a lost old version of the Irish language. And then you go to this piece of text that has some piece of Irish mythology written in Old Irish from the 6th century and now he can understand it and stories are unlocked. The point I'm trying to make is I go online to Archive.org and read old magazines from the 60s 70s. Not necessarily to read the magazines, but to look at the adverts and the pages of the magazines.

These are the marginalia, which tell us about society at the time. People's desires, people's fears. Like, you know, when I was a kid, if you wanted to buy sex ties aphrodisiacs or equipment for growing cannabis, it had to be done from the back of a magazine. Now I can just get these things in limerick. Just walk into it very easy to find any of this stuff in any shop

and like I said sex ties are in done stores now sex ties are in the supermarket it's you can buy a vibrating cock ring around the corner from the tomatoes

in done stores in Ireland now perfectly normal in the 90s that was hidden away and had to be ordered in the backs of magazines through mail order

clandestine it was taboo it was secret so that tells us a little bit about society in fucking the UK and Ireland in the 90s. So I'm on Archive.org

getting away from social media flicking through old magazines picking them at random and I see one I go, fuck it. I'm going to read a bodybuilding magazine from 1977. An American magazine. So I look through it.

It's what you'd expect. Photographs of bodybuilders, exercises, advice on diets. And then the adverts mostly fake steroids supplements with weird ingredients

purporting to be better than steroids but legal and alongside all these photographs of you know men with muscles looking super masculine and these ads for supplements that make you more masculine

then there's this other ad that just it stands out because it's just it's a very good ad it's well designed there's an excellent drawing in the middle as a drawing of a very angry man in the middle and is holding a batten and the advert says you don't need a gun when your worst nightmare becomes real and suddenly you are face to face with a mugger. It's an advert for a self-defense baton. This extendable self-defense baton known as a Keoga steel cobra. This is a very dramatic advert and it markets itself for men

as this batten you carry around for defence against I quote muggers and maniacs and there's so much fear in this advert it's such a dramatic ad for this extendable batten

it's like what are you afraid of what are you scared of and then I look at the magazine and it's men and muscles and then more ads for self-defense and this picture like the marginalia reveals to me oh this is a magazine about

fear. Whoever's reading this magazine is terrified. They're afraid. This is a magazine for men. And what they're afraid of is that they're not manly enough. These men are not manly enough. And not only are they frightened of not being big enough and muscular enough. They're clearly frightened of being attacked. And that's why in the pages of this magazine they're selling a weapon, this Keoga steel batten. And I love reading. this because it just feels like such a different space, it's so different to social media. You know, I'm hearing a magazine from 1977 and then I start thinking, you know, fuck it, I'm going to Google. I'm going to see if I can find this exact steel batten that they were

selling to frightened men in this bodybuilding magazine in 1977. I wonder if any of them still exist, this Keoga steel batten. And I go looking and looking and I can't find any online. I was just curious as to, you know, where are these things popular, did they work? And then I, as I get deeper and deeper to the company who was making these steel batons and putting the adverts in the magazines, I arrive at this fella called Harold Van Braunhut.

So he, this Harold van Braunhut, he was this mad American fucker who pioneered. mail order stuff from the backs of magazines he invented x-ray specs he invented live sea monkeys I don't know if you remember sea monkeys they were like they're little shrimp and you could hatch them

they were toys but he invented sea monkeys but also I think I might have mentioned this val on a podcast before that fucking steel batten right that I saw on this bodybuilding magazine from

97 that I just came across all of the money for that went to the Klu Klux Klan

this Van Braunhot fella even though he was Jewish was a notorious

racist and this fucking batten that was being sold in these magazines

of fear men who were afraid that they weren't masculine enough who were

afraid that they didn't have muscles and needed to own this baton

all of the prophets from that went to a fella by the name of Richard Butler This fella was In last week's podcast I mentioned British Israelism This crazy offshoot of Christianity That believes that Eve fuck the devil In the Garden of Eden

And she had two kids And everyone who's born of Eve's kids Everyone who was born of the spawn of Eve and the devil Is a defective human being basically And this was used to justify racism British Israelism Then this went to America and became Christian Identitarianism. Well, this fucking Richard Butler fucker, he's the one who started all of that.

He was an American Nazi. He started the Aryan Nations. He was associated with the KKK. Right-wing racist. American Christianity that aligns with right-wing white supremacy. And it was so covert. There you are in 1977. You're a man, you're not worried,

you don't think you're masculine enough, you don't think you're strong enough, you get your bodybuilder magazine maybe to grow some muscles. You don't feel good enough. You're anxious, you're frightened. You're the type of person who buys self-defense weapons

because your entire outlook on life is based on fear. And here you are being preyed upon by Christian Nazis. You'd have had no way of knowing this in 1977 before the internet existed. but if you bought this baton from this fucking magazine

all your money goes to the Aryans and the KKK, you're on their mailing list, they send you the baton now they have your address and next thing you know a couple of weeks pass and you're getting

right-wing racist literature in the post and you don't know why you're getting this but it's like yeah you just bought the baton from the muscle magazine, but you didn't know that was to fund the KKK, but now they have your address and now they're targeting you. They're now sending you literature that plays upon your fears, because they know you're reading the muscle magazine, you think you're weak, you think

you're pathetic, you think you need to defend yourself. So now they're sending you their magazines and this Richard Butler fella, he pioneered. And this Richard Butler fella, he pioneered. And this Richard butler fella, he pioneered mail order Nazi magazines basically in the 70s and 80s in America. So you buy this batten and now they're sending you fucking literature which is like you need to be proud

to be white. You need to stand up for America. You need patriotism. All these immigrants are coming in. The Jews the blacks, the communists, gay people. This is why you're weak. This is why you feel weak. You need to stand up and be strong against this. This is the threat.

This is the actual threat. I came here to a magazine from 1977 to get away from Charlie Kirk and the fucking social media algorithm and then I realized this is the algorithm. This is what this is. This is targeted algorithm. It's just in 1977. Racists and right-wing Christians were able to identify men who felt weak and they could target them with their racism. it was an algorithm it was just analogue and it might have taken

years to radicalise a person years of snail mail sending your Nazi literature getting slowly but surely getting a little bit more extreme with each magazine could have taken years to radicalise a person that mightn't have worked now the same thing takes

a week via social media and it all took me back to Charlie Kirk and what annoyed me was I'm not seeing enough serious adult interrogation by journalists around who the fuck was Charlie Kirk? Where did he come from what did he represent? And I certainly haven't seen enough interrogation around his organisation, Turning Point USA. Charlie Kirk was just a giant

pile of money. He was a personification of a gigantic pile of cash that was not his. So first half, I want to tell you about a report that came out today. This report, it's from the UK. It's from the UK. Now, I know I'm talking about American Christians here, but it's all connected. Bear with me. So a report came out today, and it's said that since 2010, which is 15 years ago, the UK public, the UK taxpayer since 2010, has paid $200 billion in taxes,

200 billion to private companies. Public services, water services, rail, the bus service, energy, mail services have all been privatised and since 2010 the UK public has paid 200 billion to these private companies that now own all the public services. Let me put it a different way. Private companies have stolen $200 billion from the British public since 2010. They have stolen $200 billion in taxes that's supposed to be used for public services like water, rail, bus, energy, mail. Instead, these taxes that people pay

that they think they are paying for the public good are going to private interests and creating billionaires. This is fact, this report came out the day. Now, I'm speaking about the fucking UK, this report came out today and it's relevant right now. This same thing is happening in America, it's happening in Europe, it's happening in fucking in Ireland. This is the reason where there's loads of billionaires.

This is the reason why you don't have the standard of living that your parents had. This is the reason that people can't afford houses. This is why everything's so expensive. This is why it's so hard to exist. This is why everything feels hopeless. This is why you can't put trust in politicians. This is why there's a rise of fascism in the global far right. This is why there's more racism.

This here is a massive problem. It's neoliberalism. That's what this is. It's an economic system where public services are privatized. Government oversight is stripped away so you get deregulation. You get deregulation. What happens is safety standards go down. Workers' rights disappear.

Unions disappear. Industries that are supposed to be for the public good housing, rail fucking mail service electricity, water everything that's for the public good that you pay for with taxes has now been handed over to private

interests, private companies we're still paying taxes and now a rich person has put themselves in the middle and set up a little tall booth that's what this is. Public services handed to private interests. It's been like this for

45 years. It started in the early 80s, what the fuck does this have to do with Charlie Kirk? Well, this started in America. This is neoliberal economics. It's Reagan, Ronald Reagan. Reaganomics. In Britain, it was Thatcher. Christianity used to not be a part of American politics. In America, for most of the 20th century, religion and politics, church and state, very separate. Presidential candidates did not speak about being religious.

This was taboo. This was unprofessional. The first American president to actually come out and speak about Christianity and faith was bizarrely it was Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter was no saint because at the end of the day still president of America and empire. But as American presidents go, Jimmy Carter is the closest that you could get to, a good person. I'll put it this way.

We would not have the climate crisis today at the scale that it is if people listen to Jimmy Carter. I've done podcasts on this fucker before years ago. I can't remember the name. Jimmy Carter, right? He became president in 1976, President of America. Jimmy Carter put solar panels

on the roof of the White House in 1976. Okay? He knew about climate change. He knew. what was going to happen. He was prepared to regulate industry to prevent the climate collapse that we are now living through right now. Jimmy Carter recognized the state of Palestine. Jimmy Carter believed in racial equality, civil rights. Jimmy Carter believed in the government providing people with social housing, health care, with compassionate state help. Jimmy Carter

basically believed that people shouldn't be poor, people shouldn't be sick and not have a house just because they're poor, that there should be some compassionate, a compassionate system that helps people just because, for the common good. I wouldn't call Jimmy Carter a socialist, but as American presidents go, he's the closest they got. He was no saint. He did some dodgy shit in fucking Cambodia. But here's the thing. Jimmy Carter, he was quite open about Christianity. This was very shocking to the American public. What the fuck do you mean this president is talking about being a Christian? Presidents don't talk about their religion. That's private church and state are separate. But Jimmy Carter would speak about his faith. But he would speak about his faith

compassionately. Jimmy Carter would use the fact that he was a Baptist and he was a Christian. as this is why I believe in the common good. This is why I don't want to destroy the planet. This is why I'm actually trying to be kind as a leader because I'm a follower of Christ and Christ was fairly sound, wasn't he? And this really, really pissed off the Republican Party who were conservative.

This really pissed off very, very, very wealthy people in America. This pissed off people who owned industries, people who, this pissed off oil companies. This pissed off all of the people who were very, very wealthy and who profited from destroying the planet, who profited from privatisation. This pissed off wealthy people who didn't want to pay taxes. No, I'm not paying fucking taxes. You want me to pay taxes to put a poor person into a house? Fuck you, Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter pissed off a lot of wealthy people. Jimmy Carter pissed off wealthy Christians.

So you started to see a backlash. The backlash came from like Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan started running against Jimmy Carter. And Reagan's thing was neoliberalism. Something that hadn't really been tried out yet. They tried it out down in fucking... oh fuck where was it down in central it was it chilly after they'd gotten rid of viande that's a separate podcast but reaganomics reaganomics is neoliberalism trickle down economics privatize everything no regulation right get the government

out of business let wealthy rich people do whatever the fuck they want create a perfect environment for business and what will happen is the wealth will trickle down fuck this social welfare thing. The state shouldn't be involved. No taxes, no interference, privatize everything. Let the wealthy business people take control. They know what they're doing. That's Reaganomics. That's neoliberal economics. American right-wing Christians helped to bring that into power. Jimmy Carter opened Pandora's box. He was the first president to go, do you know what? I'm a Baptist. I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. Don't worry. I know that freaks you out. But Christ was all about kindness and love. He was, Jimmy Carter was Ned Flanders. He was fucking Ned Flanders. That's what

Jimmy Carter was. I'm all about love and Christ and I want kindness and social responsibility. That's how I was raised as a Baptist. That's what we do. That really pissed off greedy people. It pissed off greedy Christians. It's like, shut the fuck up, Jimmy. Shut up Jimmy, because I'm wealthy and I'm fucking greedy, but I also go to church. So you're making me look bad. I don't want to taxes. I don't want to give money to needy people. Fuck them, but I still want to be a Christian. Shut the fuck up, Jimmy. So what happens is this fucker called Jerry, Jerry Falwell emerges. Jerry Falwell was, this is late 70s, Jerry Falwell was a televangelist. Okay, American right-wing Christian, televangelist. And what Jerry Falwell starts going after is

morality, morality, right? So if Jimmy Carter's like, I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. peace and love, kindness, generosity, okay? But then Jerry Falwell comes in and goes, fuck this. What about all these gays? What about the homosexuals? Feminists, communists, abortion. This is sin. So Jerry Falwell, who's this Christian right televangelist minister,

he then found this organization called the Moral Majority. So now this becomes about morals. How can Jimmy Carter be a Christian when he's granting freedoms to homosexuals, to abortionists? This is disgusting. Where are the family values? Where is the morality? Where's the morality in this Jimmy? So this televangelist Jerry Falwell, who has a massive audience,

because he's on fucking TV preaching all the time. So this is huge. He's got this huge massive following. For the first time like the Christian right decide, let's team up with the Republicans and then they find Ronald Reagan. Now the thing with Reagan, Reagan was a TV star. Reagan had been divorced. Reagan wasn't a fucking Christian, but Reagan was a neoliberal. Reagan wanted privatization, no government involved in business, he didn't want unions. unions, no taxes for the rich people, fuck social welfare. If you're poor, you're poor.

But then what you also start to see too is the rise of what you'd call prosperity theology. Or the prosperity gospel, it's a very unique strand of American Christianity. It's basically it's the neoliberalism of Christianity. prosperity theology they're all over Trump at the moment it's this really weird type of American Christianity that basically believes that if you're wealthy if you are multi multi-millionaire in America

then that means that that money has been blessed God has given it to you but if you're really really poor that means that you have a lack of faith so wealth is proof of God's blessing and poverty means that you're morally corrupt basically and all you've got to do see this praise on poor people

if you just give money to your pastor then that will trickle down to you God's blessing will come to you this is the prosperity gospel and prosperity theology it's fucking trickle down economics it's neoliberal trickle down economics give money to your pastor

make your pastor rich and then that will come to you via God's blessing. Don't tax rich people. Let billionaires be billionaires because the jobs and the money that they will create will trickle down to you, poor person. So prosperity theology and neoliberalism, they're fucking hand in hand.

So anyway, long story short, Jerry Falwell and the moral majority, that's what gets Reagan elected to the President of America. It was a reaction against Jimmy Kempelwell. character's use of Christianity as kindness. That was dangerous. Jerry Falwell rallied all the right-wing American Christians and said, you're part of politics now. You're now part of politics because America is at stake. The moral soul of America is at stake. They'd just seen the 60s and the 70s, you see. They're going to look at all these hippies. What's with all these, there's African-American

people who appear to be human now. They have jobs, they have rights. What's this about? Gay people are out in public holding hands. I want America to be white, straight. Christian again, that's what I want. And it worked. It worked.

Morality, fear, Christianity was used as the story, the emotional story to basically push neoliberal economics, to push neoliberal economics. Because neoliberal economics is boring. That's boring. But I'm uncomfortable with these gay people.

I don't like abortions. I love Christ. I need to feel better than black and brown people. Those people are actually a threat. They're dangerous. We need greater law enforcement and gun rights to keep ourselves safe because I'm in a perpetual state of fear. That's brilliant storytelling.

That's great fucking storytelling. So what Jerry fucking Falwell and the moral majority figured out was we can now attach this very simple Christian fear-based narrative in with the Republican Party and a neoliberal, neoliberal economics, which is boring as fuck, but we can actually attach this lovely story to it and get the masses, the moral majority, to vote in economic policies that are actually going to crush them and their fucking children for generations. but we can get these people to vote this in because the wealth is going to trickle down just like the prosperity gospel says so that's that's the 1980s Reagan gets into power one of the first things Reagan does

he takes the solder panels off takes the solder panels off the fucking White House roof says the climate change is bullshit privatizes industry globalization I've done the neoliberal podcast leads fast forward to Charlie Kirk so Charlie Kirk like I said he was the face of a giant pile of money and the giant pile of money

was an organization called Turning Point USA so what was turning point you what is turning point USA so it's they call themselves grassroots but what it is it's astroturfing a grassroots organization is a movement that begins with common people on the ground this sense that the people on the ground regular Joe soaps get together and this is what we care about. Like the moral majority, this is what we care about when we want our politicians to listen. Astro-Turfing is when wealthy interests go into a community and then create issues. We're seeing this in Ireland at the moment with anti-immigrant stuff in Ireland is being stoked up.

Small groups of far-right organisers go into communities in Ireland. The same people like 12-13 people and they go in and start. things up and then create an issue. That's called astroturfing. So Tarnan Point USA was an astroturfing organisation specifically targeting young people at colleges and schools and Charlie Kirk was the face of this because Charlie Kirk was really good communicator, very smart, well able to talk. What are the goals of Tarnan Point? Like this isn't even conspiracy. So Ternan Point's goals, literally, according to themselves, is it's a grassroots organization. It's not. It's astroturfing. To organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets and

limited government. That's Reaganomics. Straight up, right, that is neoliberalism. Charlie fucking Kirk was, he grew up in Chicago. His dad was, he grew up a multimillionaire. He'd have grown up in In the part of Chicago, where home alone was, you know, he grew up in those suburbs, so he grew up in a home alone house. American upper middle class millionaire, his dad was an architect of luxury houses. His dad got badly fucked over in the 2008 financial crisis. Charlie Kirk, when he was like 18, he was a Reagan. Reagan was his fucking hero.

Wasn't even into religion when he was younger. Reaganomics. Ronald Reagan was just this. this fella is the best. So explicitly Turning Point USA is it's an organization to promote the benefits of neoliberalism

to students as a reactionary Charlie Kirk and Turnipoint identified that college campuses in particular were a hotbed for what they saw as anti-capitalist ideas. Socialism whatever the fuck you have. Fairness and bloody compassion.

So how does a youngflav with an interest in Reagan in 2010 when he was only 18? How does he end up becoming the face of this giant astroturfing organization? Well, because of the wealthy backers. So who's the money behind turning point? Well, the biggest donors and the co-founder were the Bradley Foundation. So the Bradley Foundation is American, conservative, Christian family foundation. they pumped millions in the turning point. What are the Bad Bradley Foundation into?

Privatization of education. Deregulation. Anti-union. Tax breaks for businesses. And privatising schools, that's the big one. School public education should not exist. All public schools should actually be owned by a company. Not paid for by tax.

Well, paid for by tax, but organized by a private company who then received that tax money for profit. So that's the co-founder of Turning Point USA, pumping millions in. So if you're pumping that fucking money in, you want something in return. Then you've got the Ouline Family Foundation. They're, again, Republican family, loads of money. What's their thing? Anti-regulation, deeply Christian conservative, culture war stuff.

Another huge contributor, the donor's trust. What is the donors' trust? it's a it's a way for it's a way for people to give money to like far right organizations

organizations that are like anti-tax anti-regulation climate denial groups far right groups the donors trust allows wealthy people to put money into this fund to fund things but for it not to go back to them so I don't know if you're a very wealthy

American and you appear liberal on the surface or you appear to have respect for your workers, you can use the Donors Trust to then fund an organization that might be involved in union busting. So, Turn and Point used to receive a lot of money from Donors Trust, still does. Turn and Point received massive donations from the Koch Network, the Cock Brothers, K-O-C-H. They're into fossil fuels, fucking chemicals, oils, oil pipelines. I mean, what are the Cockbrothers into? They've got their fingers and a load of fucking poise.

But what they fund is groups that are climate change denial, dismantling the welfare state, union busting. You get the point. That's just the Tarnan Point USA, which was the, Charlie Kirk was the face of this organisation, right? And he used to go to campuses all over America as part of Tarning Point USA. when he was shot last week the turning point branding was everywhere and it's like there's a turning point now on canvas on campuses we're going to fight back against the liberals a bit against the communist against the transgender people against the gay people against the black people we're going to fight back and make america great again what's really happening here it's just a it's a giant pile of money to perpetuate neoliberalism right neoliberalism liberalism only benefits billionaires it does not benefit the middle class is

disappearing because of neoliberalism so Tarnan point is it's trickery it's it's it's trickery so just like the fucking moral majority people right in the 80s who were using Christianity morality that's simple narrative that's that simple lovely story turning point we're using the culture war, this online polarization, whatever it is. Trans people, Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, the earth is flat, coronavirus, conspiracy theories, whatever is causing huge fights online, turning point in organizations like it, they take that, Charlie Kirk would take the contrarian.

position. Whatever the Liberals were against, Charlie Kirk was against. But really what's happening here is it's just neoliberalism being pushed. Neoliberalism is being pushed. Free markets. You don't want the government involved. The government is bad. Taxes are bad. The welfare state is bad. It's an astroturfing organization. It goes to college campuses and Charlie Kirk fights with feminists or fights with people who are anti-school shooting and it's astroturfing for

neoliberal policies and turning point was huge for, you know, tied with Donald Trump for getting Trump elected not just getting Trump elected but specifically turning younger voters, younger college age voters who might feel the pressure

to be liberal. If you know, if you're contrarian and reactionary come over here and then Charlie Kirk so at the start he wasn't even that Christian but then he became very Christian and shit hot at quoting the Bible very good at quoting the Bible so just to show you like so that Jerry Falwell that I mentioned from the 1980s who got Reagan into power so his son Jerry Falwell Jr. right? In 2019, who does he team up with? Charlie Kirk.

And Jerry Falwell Jr. and Charlie Kirk started a think-tank organization to get her called Falcark. So Jerry Falwell Jr., like Christian, the same as his dad, right-wing fucking evangelical Christians. It might not be evangelical, I'm not sure. Right-wing American Christians, same as his dad.

So Falcirk, and again, this is out in the open. this is what the organisation said. So in 2019, Jerry Falwell Jr. and Charlie Kirk start this think tank together. And the point of it, Falkirk, is to put effort into proving that Jesus Christ was not a socialist. Kark said when Falkirk was founded in 2019,

we're in a culture battle right now where you have to fight and play offence. And part of this effort is to try and play offence against the secular left. The goal of Falkirk really is how can I convince people that you can be a Christian and also be greedy?

That's it. It was clear that the this online argument of Jesus was a socialist. He fucking was by the way. I mean Jesus went into the temple, the money lenders and threw up the tables. Christ hung around with fucking poor people

and thieves and prostitutes and like Christ was, I mean it's their like a very compassionate individual and he most definitely would have been Christ would have been in favour of social housing and very wealthy people giving up some of their wealth

for people who have less. So Charlie Kirk and Jerry Falwell Jr. started the Falkirk organisation to quite literally figure out a way to push neoliberal economics in the benefit of Donald Trump while still being Christian and to dispel this idea

that Jesus might be socialist and that's what Falkirk was now why did Falkirk stop existing? Because Jerry Falwell Jr. He he in 2020

he was what'd be called a cookhold um his what Jerry Fatt he's a fucking Christian his dad was the bloody moral majority Ronald Reagan fell in the 80s so Jerry Fannwell

Junior in 20-20. He was in his 50s, so was his wife. They met a 20-year-old pole boy and basically he used to ride Jerry Falwell's wife while Jerry Falwell sat in the corner watching. So he used to like to watch 20-year-old men have sex with his wife

and she used to like it too. And this got out and became came a huge scandal because he's a fucking evangelical Christian, obviously. Talking about morality and the family and it's like, well, you like sitting in the corner of hotel rooms while a young fella fuck's your wife.

Here's the thing. Like, there's nothing wrong with that. It's like, oh, right, you're an adult, do you? Oh, and your wife is also an adult. Oh, and that man there is an adult too. And what are you into? All right, your wife likes to have sex with him.

Okay. Are you consenting? you are? Are you consenting? Great. And Jerry, what about you? Well, I quite like to watch this. Great, so you also consent, Jerry. Fucking fantastic. Three adults, having a bit of group sex, whatever. None of my business.

Fucking none of my business. Work away. You might get hit by a car tomorrow. No one did anything wrong. Three consenting adults did a bunch of sex stuff. No one was abused. No one was victimized. But because, and you know, maybe he was possibly bisexual?

I don't know. He's in a room. There's another man with his balls out. Maybe I don't know. I don't want to say that people who are into cookholding are necessary bisexual. I don't know. But it's not great if your whole thing is fucking sexual morality. And sex is between a man and a wife and this is a covenant with God.

It's not great. So Falcark fell apart and had to change its name after that. The point I'm trying to make is, I haven't seen any fucking decent. Why is this not the thing that's been spoken about? Whatever about the culture war stuff. The circus. Charlie Kirk ran a fucking circus. A circus that was entertainment.

That's the thing with this shit. This is actually a form of entertainment. The culture war is actually a form of entertainment even though it's really dangerous it's really harmful it hurts trans people gay people women fucking black people

brown people are victimised but this is actually a circus of entertainment and media plays into it and figures like Charlie Kirk or Ben Shapiro or fucking Donald Trump they're entertainers their storytellers in the circus but it is all a huge

huge, huge distraction from neoliberal policies that are destroying the life of everybody who isn't a fucking billionaire. Charlie Kirk was the face of that. He was the face of a giant pile of cash. A giant pile of cash explicitly out there in the open, a pile of cash that's there to push neoliberal policies into fucking government using the culture war as the vehicle. It's not conspiracy they say it themselves it's out anyone can see this the vast majority of journalism i've seen the past week has focused instead on the circus it hasn't focused on the ticket sales behind the circus it hasn't focused on the people that are building the tents and this is happening the world over that's what all this shit is about and it's it's being driven by social media networks is being

driven by like i said who's who's inventing the town square the town square where these things are happening fucking social media companies. The billionaires that are benefiting from all of this are also creating the platform where most of the discourse occurs where they have set the rules for what the discourse is, turn and response combat. Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg. Their companies are here in Ireland, not paying tax.

There's many quotes that Charlie Kirk said that I could be speaking about, but the one that really grinds my gears is in 2024, Charlie Kirk, and it was on his fucking podcast. he said, I can't stand the word empathy, actually.

I think empathy is a made-up new age term. It does a lot of damage. Sympathy is saying, I'm sorry you're going through that, but empathy is, I'm going to feel what you feel, and that's a terrible idea for a leader. And that there, the thing is, empathy isn't just, I feel what, another person is feeling. Empathy is the effort of thinking about what it's like to be another

person or thinking about what that other person is going through. Okay? And sympathy. See, you can be a good Christian and still have sympathy. What the Christian right would like is for the supporters to have sympathy but not empathy. You see, with sympathy, sympathy you get to see a poor person on the side of the road. Oh, that's terrible. Oh, that poor person. Isn't that so sad? Look at them. They're dirty. They don't have clothes. They can't eat food. They're begging. Look at that person. That's so sad. And then you move on. You can then label that person. You can label them as poor. You can say something like, well, you know, they're poor probably because they deserve it. It's awful that they're poor, but that person could lift themselves out of that poverty, I'm sure. Like, I could do

that. But you see, if you go with empathy, it's different. Look at that person who's poor. Wow. I wonder what they went through that they're in that situation. I wonder have they experienced trauma. I wonder has that person experienced maybe classism, racism. I wonder that that person have a mental illness that I don't know about or a physical illness that I can't see. I wonder what What must it be like for that person? I wonder what their childhood was like. What circumstances led to this? You see, that's empathy.

And once you start using empathy, you have to start thinking systematically. And once you start using empathy, you can't blame someone for poverty when you're using empathy. Sympathy alone. You get to think that you're a good person because it's like, I feel sad for them, but you haven't gone that step further

and you can still label them. Empathy, empathy is critical thinking. That's what empathy is. And empathy isn't just feeling. You are sad, so I feel your sadness. Empathy is also the fact that you want to think about why the other person might be sad. It's critical thinking.

It's affording someone else. Your cognitive fucking time to have a think about what they're going through and what it's like for them. imagination, creativity and empathy is the road to compassion it's the road to compassion

and the road to self-reflection and the road to thinking oh fuck it that person has less than me I wonder can I help him and that's the Charlie Carr quote that really grinded my gears it revealed a lot it's like a course you don't like empathy

because then it might push critical thinking and then that might make people go all on a second who's funding you and why so taking it back to neoliberalism it's the transfer of public wealth into private interests it's been happening

for the past 45 years it hasn't really stopped it's still continuing and this is driving a lot of the problems in the world today and fueling the flames of conspiracy theories

and culture wars and hatred and it's happening everywhere like there was flag protest there in fucking Ireland and also over in England there the past month. Who's paying for the flags and why? Like there was a very

blatant attempt in Ireland. Just all these Irish flags started showing up and they were being put up on flagpoles. And someone was trying to re-contextualise the Irish flag so that it became anti-immigrant because they were

hoping that the government would take down Irish flags and that's astroturfing. Get them to take down the Irish flag so that we can say you're not allowed to be Irish in Ireland again, make Ireland great again. Who's funding it and why? Is it about flags? Is it about flags or is it are very wealthy interests just wanting to push more neoliberalism?

And to take it back to empathy. I can strongly disagree with some of the things that Charlie Carr did and say it when he was alive and at the same time be heartbroken for his little kids who are growing up without a dad and don't even understand what's happened and a part of me to be heartbroken for him that he doesn't get to be there for his kids and hug his kids and that there is that's the complexity of human emotions right there that's I love being able to think that way

but also because because the spectacle of Charlie Kirk's death was so so fucking traumatising and it did hurt a lot of people people who'd never even heard of Charlie Kirk it was so frightening and there's people out there who are quite compassionate with big hearts

and they saw a brutal thing happening and they're thinking about his kids some of those people are now vulnerable to the martyrdom you see the Trump administration is going to turn him into a martyr and use the way that he died to associate

his viewpoints with righteousness and goodness and I can already see them they're trying to make There's narratives emerging that this is trans violence, that this is that trans people did this. This is about trans people. I can see that emerging already where they're trying to associate trans people with violence. Because again, there's an unfounded rumor.

We don't know that possibly the shooter or the person who's been arrested may have had a partner who was trans. But this is, again, unfounded rumor we don't know. So that's my take on the matter. that was a very long podcast I'd imagine there now fucking hell how long was that Jesus Christ

All right I'll catch ye next week Dog bless Wink at a swan Genia fleck to a wren Blow kisses at a robin Redbreast

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