Tomorrow - 204: RNC Yourself Out

Episode Date: August 29, 2020

Josh is still away on vacation, so this week Ryan is joined by Input editor Craig Wilson to discuss the many horrifying facets of the RNC. There's also some talk about Apple's new over-the-top retail location, the Nintendo Switch Pro, the Microsoft Surface Do, and what narcissist say when they pray. The hearts and minds of the collective Input staff stand in solidarity with the Black community during this unbelievably taxing time. Black Lives Matter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to tomorrow. I'm not your host, Joshua Tupulski. Today on the show, we discussed Disney World, Narcissists, and Apple's Floating Store. I don't want to waste one minute, let's get ready to do it. Well, we're back. Another week without our fearless, dear leader, Joshua Wittepolsky, who is on vacation, but we'll be returning very shortly. He will be back in the virtual office slack on Monday,

and then he'll be back on the show the end of next week. But in his stead, we have Craig Wilson, an editor at Input, who does not disappoint whenever he comes on the show. So don't feel too put out with the absence of Josh. Hi, Craig. Hi, Ryan, you're too kind. And as ever, I will gladly take it.

So how are you feeling this the end of this week? Wow. Wow. I mean, watching the democratic process in the greatest country on earth unfold has been something of a spectacle. I feel a little shell-shocked really, like I'm gonna need the weekend to recover and like the whole thing is just absolutely gobsmackingly unbelievable.

Last night was the last night of the RNC and I was so, I wish that I was being dramatic. I was so psychologically and emotionally drained. I was just sort of laying there moaning through the entire thing and it was over and John was like, it's over. Like we can do anything now. Like you don't have to watch it anymore. And I was just like, I don't want to do anything now. I don't care that it's over. The pain will linger with me. It was so torturous and so long and so completely dumb. It's just so stupid. You know it made it bearable. What made it bearable was Twitter. I mostly I laughed and I laughed and I laughed. My wife was upstairs working doing her own thing and she

eventually came down because she was like what is is so funny? It was just, I was like, I can't believe the back-to-back bald face lines that it's just like, we're going to have 25 million flags on stage and then we're going to, then we're going to trot out person after person to say things like, Trump's, you know, Trump's already warm character, you know? He, he stops to help old ladies cross the street. Um, it's just like, the whole thing was just so preposterous, but my favorite parts, my absolute favorite parts were the montage, advert style things in between. So you also got a bear in mind that as a, as a foreigner, competitive advertising generally to me is very foreign. I have never before been anywhere where you are allowed to say, you know, our product is the best and this rivals product is shit and here is why. And of course when you translate this

into a political arena, like I have just, I mean, people will hint at things, but to have someone just go like, I mean, the fact that the leader of the free world could get away with calling his opponent, sleepy Joe, and frankly, I mean, the fact that someone, the leader of the free world could get away with calling his opponent, sleepy Joe and frankly, I mean, they're basically the same. I mean, you, you, you should count your blessings. You were not around for the Hillary stuff because she, by the way, was a demon who smelled like sulfur was on drugs, had dementia and MS like the like level of conspiracy theories about her as a person.

We're so fucking on hand. And then this is over and like obviously nothing comes of that. And people are like, oh, it's because of the adrenochrome that she sucks out of shill, and you're like, how did it get crazier? I don't know. But it's also, I mean, I also hear from people who haven't been through this process yet,

that it is also very unsettling to hear the level of religious fervor that our politics is infused with. Like we're always praising Jesus and saying that God has chosen our country and it's like, guys, like, oh, like get the hook. What I'm positioning the opposition as the other end of that. Yeah, I think that's like a bunch of Lucifer's that this notion exactly,

that like if you don't, if you don't vote for them, what you're really doing is tacitly voting for Satan. Do you want to vote for Satan? Because I don't know about you, but on my money it says in God we trust. Not in Lucifer. Yeah, it's incredible. I mean, the day's events had some very funny things. I mean Kimberly Gilfoyle and Don Jr. being obviously co-oked up was hilarious. Like I have seen many people on cocaine Tony. If you've never seen someone on cocaine, that is exactly what it looks

like. Textbook. Like I the glassy eyes, the the bloating the like weird speaking voice the sniffles the like like it was if he wasn't on Pope something is wrong like he is coven or something it was really really funny, but then there there was the rest of it that it was just sad and hard to watch because it alternated between people who have very obvious. And again, I wish I was exaggerating and like being, I understand that they say this stuff about us, but it does seem more obvious that there was a lot of people with like deep mental illness. Like there was a lot of mental illness on stage. And it was very sad to watch someone with like a vacant stare

talk about how traumatized they are, and then they found Jesus who told them that like, to illness on stage. And it was very sad to watch someone with like a vacant stare, talk about how traumatized they are, and then they found Jesus who told them that like capitalism was amazing. And now they, you know, work with their church. And it's like, that all sounds like your journey. But I don't like, there was a lot of personal anecdotes from like very extreme examples, which I understand why they're doing that. Like, I'm not dumb, but it is like, I'm always shocked that people are tricked by this. Do you know what I mean? I'm always shocked that people are unable to identify someone who is dangerous. And maybe it's because I spend time on the subway that I know which people to look out for

and not sit next to. But it's not like a judgment like mental health. It's a real thing. And like mental illness is an real epidemic in this country. So like I'm not judging people. It just seems very craven and manipulative or maybe birds of a feather that everyone on stage seemed to be of that category

or like Rudy Giuliani who it's got to be a combination of that and just like pure, venomous evil. Like he's just evil. Like how do you look at this man who has lived his life in power and money and used it to like commit the worst crimes possible and undermine like poor people at every turn and not think like this is a bad person. Like this is a person who does crimes and lies.

Like, it's just, it's astonishing to me the stuff that works. And I went into this, my whole thing this week, I watched the entire thing end to end, were there moments that I walked in the other room and lead in my bed and listened instead of watching? Yes, we all needed breaks. But I can't decide whether you were a saint or a sucker for punishment.

But I went into it thinking, I want to understand their points. Like I really want to understand the case that they're trying to make if only to be able to respond to it effectively. And I did my best to clear my mind, to try to approach things from their like mind set, to go in completely blank and understand that the people I'm seeing I probably won't like but are they make is there value there? Is there a philosophy there that I can like walk away with and the stuff that they said that Resonated with me the most and of course it did because it's been their argument for decades was they were I understand why people get tricked into the like You don't want a big government, right? Like we were gonna slash regulations. But Trump obviously isn't something that's done anything

on that, like he's made the government larger and spent more money on frivolous insane things, but like he has not made the government smaller and he's not gonna willingly reduce his own power. And the kind of like government they're trying to shrink is the one that we like, the one that does like Medicare and Social Security, the like part of government that like the people who would want to smaller,

the people who would want a smaller government to stay out of their lives would actually invite. Like it's like libraries in schools, like it's very, and then there's this stuff like school choice quote unquote, which it's like very obviously a trick, right? Like they're saying like, Oh, we'll give you vouchers and then you can take them to a private or a charter school. And like those schools will compete to be better and

they'll try to earn your money. But like what they're not saying to you there is that like then there are those schools have no regulations. And they can do whatever they want and the ways that they cheap out are to hire worse staff and to do whatever they can to make you feel like you're getting better grades to make you feel like you're getting is to make you feel like you're getting the special experience. But you don't want a business to be the you don't want that to be the incentives for your child's like education or or daily care even you are the reason that you want to abolish like the voucher program, let alone in my opinion, obviously this is not what

Joe Biden is calling for, but in my opinion, should make private schooling illegal, is that with everyone's invested in that same system, and you remove the profit incentive, we are then incentivized to make it the best system we can, and the rich people are incentivized to fund our schools and get the best teachers in there and make sure that it works.

Because if you look at the roads, they're all nice and they work because rich people have to use them, right? Like, if rich people had to go to public school, they would make it better. And so that's just like very obviously a trick, but it's a short term trick. So I do understand how people fall for it. Or the stuff where they're like,

you know, look at the violence in Democrat run cities, which I don't even know like Democrat party, they keep saying Democrat and said Democratic. And I don't know if that's like a conscious manipulation of language or if they're just like bad at grammar, but they keep saying that, but like it's like, okay, but the cities with Democrats, the Democrat was chosen to run that city because that city was

populated by more minorities. And those people feel that even those politicians aren't able to address their needs or are unwilling to address their needs. So when you see rioting and protesting, it's because these are places where minority populations live and people who are empathetic to their concerns, who vote in progressive candidates with the hope for change, and when change doesn't come, they then proceed to riot.

You're not going to see that in a white suburb who doesn't need the change or want it or prefers the racist policies. So it's not that their cities are run by Democrats. That's like a correlation doesn't equal causation. The causation is the like policies that make people so desperate that they feel the need to riot and protest. Not like the pop. Sure, but you can't put that on the podium, right?

Because that is not going to secure your votes. What you need to do when you have an administration that has failed repeatedly and all the things that it claimed it had done really well, When the bottom fell out of the economy and COVID came a ravaging, now the problem has got to be, well now the argument has to be, Trump is going to be the law and order president. This is the fear mongering that works in 2016. Now the problem is the fact stone aligns. We've just got to encourage you in this mass delusion that somehow, you know, rolling in the National Guard is going to keep the piece

as opposed to identifying and tackling the actual underlying issues. The other problem with, I mean, with this is old presidents, and old presidents are getting reelected. Don't really need to care too much about the long-term prospects because they're not going to be around to see them.

Yeah, and it's also once he's off the chain and technically doesn't really need to or can't, but would obviously try to seek reelection. You know, he's no longer invested in like, where everything goes. Like he just needs to ride out and get as much as he can. If he gets the next term, it's all about like, what can I, what, it's like when you know you have two weeks

left at your job, you're like, hmm, can I get away with taking the stapler? Hmm, should I, like, should I take myself out to lunch on the company card every day this week? Like he's not gonna be incentivized to like see where that ends up going. But they keep showing footage of like riots that are happening underneath his presidency and being the only person who can save you from Trump's America is Donald Trump, which is

just like, that's an insane troll logic. Sure, sure. I mean, the terrifying thing though is the willingness of so many people, so many people to buy into it. And look, I get that this is the message, because well, we've got to be selective now, right? If you're going to get reelected, and you're like, well, we kind of screwed up COVID, that response, not great.

Well, the economy was running along and doing gangbusters great numbers, but bottom kind of falls out of that when you have a pandemic and it turns out that tying things like healthcare to employment is really, really bad for the basic underlying fabric of society. You get on this list of, you know, the 2016 promises about things that we're going to change and, you know, pulling out of the endless wars, never mind, you know, killing generals that perhaps further destabilize the region as opposed to improving the situation. But you go on this list of the previous promises and then you're like, well, all right.

So how do we win at this time? And part of it as well, I guess we paint the opposition as the literal devil. And we suggest that if they get in, if they get power, the way of life that you're clinging to as we progressively watch the Chinese rise and the Chinese century get going, that the scam hungry. It's just like, well, what we're going to do is paint this as if the alternative is too horrible to consider. Even if you're like, well, have you seen the present folks? Because that's a bit of a mess too.

And it's just, I think it's also notable to say that like, all of this, I can find frustrating and I can point out like, you know, that he talked about how record job growth. And it's like, well, only because you've states forced people to go back to work after they had all been fired or furloughed. So that's not really job growth. Or him talking about like,

Well, you can just pick numbers out of the ether. You can just make promises, which is the standard political way, I guess. But you can just make promises that you never necessarily going to have to deliver on. One of the numbers that jumped out of me last night was 10 million new jobs in 10 months. I mean, that's lovely. It's like a really nice ring to it.

But this is a campaign promise that if you fail to deliver on it, sure, someone's gonna write an op-ed somewhere calling you to task, but the calling to task for the truth doesn't matter. This has been the staggering thing to watch too, is that the truth no longer means anything. You can just try out numbers. There's no need to turn them into reality. And if you don't, it doesn't matter because there's a fresh falsehood this week to distract from the previous one that failed to materialize last week.

That was the mind blowing thing for me is the scale of the just the absolute lunacy of some of the messaging. But that is just demonstrably false. Like painting it as a, oh, we shut borders fast. So we saved thousands of lives by stopping flights from China. And you're like, what? No, you didn't. Yeah, it just seems incredible in the time of such unprecedented access to information. It is still possible to spend these complex and obviously, so obviously false narratives. And, you know, I am not optimistic about the democratic ticket, frankly, much to lots of people's chargrin and my spouses in particular. I'm like,

when we first came to the US nine months ago, I was like, well, you know what, we just got to ride out a second Trump presidency because he's being incumbent, incumbents tend to get reelected, the economy is thriving, and it just seemed improbable then. I'm very cautiously optimistic that the odds are slightly better now. I do wish that the Democratic one too was a little stronger, but I was just not convinced that they're going to be able to spin Kamala Harris as the pro-police candidate in a sufficiently strong way to undermine this argument that law and order is being eroded and only a second Trump term can restore law and

order. Because I think if I was living in Wisconsin or if I was living in one of the Portland say in Oregon and I am a maybe a 50 or a 60 something home owner, you know, I am sort of nearing retirement, I am probably white and I am watching, you know, because I'm not at the protest in many instances, maybe I'm, you know, a little rural and I'm watching this unfolded on television. The law and order argument is a really strong one, regardless of what the truth behind it is. Those sorts of things and that protection of property, this notion, the reason that I guess one person's protest is in other person's riots, you know, one person's protest is another person's riot. It is this notion and attachment to the sense of protecting property and that that being such a fundamental American thing.

And I worry about the, I worry about the democratic ability to undermine that law and order argument successfully. Yeah, I think, you know, they have to lean on that because, I mean, even like you just said, the economy was thriving. It's like, that is sort of a thing that's true. Like the stock market was doing well, but it was doing well under Obama and like the job growth slowed when Trump took over.

And the stock market is not an indication of like wealth inequality or like living standards. Like the stock market's doing better now, but does everybody feel like things are going great for them? Like it's, you know, so the economy was like doing okay. It was holding up under the pressure of Trump and like the Wall Street was definitely like on Crystal Math, which is not a sustainable place to be, but it's like. Yeah, if you were rich, you would definitely richer.

Yeah, but like it's like, and you're certainly were rich, you would definitely richer. Yeah, but like it, it's, it's like, and you, you're certainly richer now. Jeff Bezos is richer than ever because of COVID. So it's, um, yeah, he's worth two Elon Musk and Elon Musk is twice as wealthy as he used to be. So it's like, you know, you, you look at that and it's like, okay, so obviously if they talk, focus on the economy, then people, then, then it means the Democrats can focus on job loss, on, uh, living standards, on the economy, then it means the Democrats can focus on job loss, on living standards, on the amount of people going hungry about the fact that there is no unemployment money,

and that's entirely on their Republicans' feet. So they're not going to focus on that. They're going to focus on the law and order thing. But that is also an insane thing to say, just because not every city is going to go red in the next election. So if he is unable to restore law and order quote unquote to quote unquote Democrat run cities, now it's not going to change after he gets reelected. So what do you think he's just then going to go like full military kill American citizens like roll the army out to moa's down, because like, is that what you want?

And if that is what you want, like then I don't understand, then I don't understand you. And then you are just mentally ill. Like then we're not having a discussion anymore about politics, we're having an existential discussion about like my ability to not die. And you like being anti that, that.

So like, I don't know. And then, you know, then you wait after the RNC every night and I would turn to the cable channels just to see what they were saying. Because I'm not necessarily like someone who gets their news from CNN, but it is good to know like what Fox's take is, what MSNBC's take is because that's a lot of people,

like they literally just get whatever opinion from there and then parrot it. So it was surreal, all of it was surreal, obviously. But the, and you know, Foxes, of course, in Looney, Kuku, Banana Grams land. But MSNBC really upset me because they basically only interview people from the Lincoln project and like, fucking John Hylamin,

who if you listen to the show, you'll know that I don't like. And fucking, like, like hedge fund managers, like those are the people they're talking to because they want to be like, look all these people who you think would vote for Trump are saying that even they won't.

Even these people who would vote for another horrible person and want horrible things, and like all these people who would vote for another horrible person and want horrible things and like all these people who espouse ideals of capitalism that even they don't want Trump and it's like that argument I understand what the argument you're trying to make is but that's not that doesn't sell people on Joe Biden right like it rather than having people who are like well I'll pick him because the alternative is so insane why not have on some guests who are like, well, I'll pick him because the alternative is so insane. Why not have on some guests who are like,

I actually, I don't want Trump, yes, but I actually do want Joe Biden. Look at all the things you could get. Look at what things could be. Why not have on some positivity in a sense? Or even, I mean, just the idea that, since there's no win on stage saying, there's no one on stage saying anything that's too progressive, right?

Or like that radical as much as like Trump kept calling Democrats radicals. In fact, there are, there's a lot of like moving towards the center. There's a lot of like listen, we don't want Medicare for all, that's crazy. What we want is like a robust public option or whatever bullshit and starting to feel like the Republicans are just colonizing this party as well. You know what I mean? Like now there's gonna be, I mean there was before but now it's even clearer that what there's gonna be is an insane extremist party and then the Republican party from 2012 and then nowhere for people who actually have solutions or progressive ideas or actually like have actually exist in the middle.

Like exist even yeah or exist in the middle or like like I honestly think Bernie and Liz Warren are or centrist. There's no there's no room for rationality at that point. At that point you're just picking between kinds of Republicans. And so the more that the Democrats embrace stuff like the Lincoln project and Mitt Romney, the less that they're Democrats. Do you know what I mean?

And so that was just the thing that I think, for all of the really upsetting stuff from the week, and obviously lots of things were very upsetting, and not least of which was Ivanka's like piss yellow hair. Oh, no, sorry, I'm not a feminist. The most upsetting thing was the lie about the Lego White House, personally, that was good too. And the grandson built a Lego and someone did a sort of fact check today. It was like, I'm terribly sorry, there is no Lego White House on the mantel piece in the old office. And best, there was a previous live the same sort.

She said something like, I can't remember what the previous milestone was, but how she or someone else had built a Lego replica of Trump towers. And that has also been debunked. Like, is it just, you just have to lie about everything? Is it just that after a while it becomes a sport? They cling to like these stories. And I think it comes out of Trump's whole like 80s, like, amphetamine, fuels myths making.

Like he would tell these tall tales as his like, like John Barron, quote unquote, his alter ego. You sure? Yeah. He would tell these tall tales of all the models he fucked and like all the places he went, everybody wants his money. And like, you know, I always private jet is made of gold and like all that myth making went, everybody wants his money and like, you know, I always, private jet is made of gold

and like all that myth making and marketing stuff that they do, I think that they're in a habit as a family of taking those little things that work and just continually hammering on them and they get more exaggerated and more, like it's sort of like how my grandpa used to always say, never let the truth get in the way of a good story. But they're half-wits also. You know what I mean? Like they're half-its

should be like that on the Trump. They should put that on the like family crest, but you know in Latin to make it fancy. Never let the truth get in the way of a good thing. A fake Latin craft is exactly what the Trump family needs. It's very on brand, right? But all of it was unsettling. Obviously, I found the Lincoln Project stuff unsettling because I feel like not only, even if Biden wins, this is a huge blow to progressives. Obviously, that would also be a lifeline, but it just means we have to basically start over

and it's very frustrating. The other stuff that I found really upsetting was obviously the use of the White House for a campaign production was- Right, and the Hatch Act. And this is just literally against the rules, guys. Literally not allowed. Watching the Trump banners hang from the White House

with all those American flags and him doing a campaign speech. It was truly like when you see the villains take over Disney World and they're like, paints in derellas, castle black, and instead of space mountain, it's like underground mountain.

You know what I mean? Like they take everything and they turn it upside down. And like, it's not the jungle cruise. It's the like spooky desert cruise because everything's dead and like there's vultures or whatever. Like it was like seeing Bizarro White House, and it was so upsetting.

I'm sure a lot of people are immune to this kind of stuff now, just because he's eroded away at this feeling that we had this reverency that we had for the White House, for our history, for the process, obviously. For the institution of the presidency. Yeah, but not only is the obvious, what if Obama had done that? Like, obviously, that's, it would have been like the end of the world if Obama had done that.

But also, I could never picture that. Like, I just felt differently about the White House. I had a different imagination of like what it was and what could happen there. And to watch Melania Trump rip out Jackie O's trees and bulldoze the Rose Garden so that it matched her outfit for a campaign speech, it's like how is everybody watching when I'm watching? Like what is happening?

I honestly, I'm doing a double take and then I'm sitting there thinking like, well who's letting them do this? And it's like they don't need anyone to let them. They're the people who let people do things. And so at that point, I was like, this isn't a campaign speech. This is a celebration of their, in what is in their mind, a monarchy. Like this, like Ivanka speaking was completely nonsensical unless you think of her as like the heir apparent to the throne. And that is how they think of themselves now. They believe they are a

royal family. They, and, and when you think about it that way, it all makes sense. You know what I mean? Like the pomp and circumstance, the fake ceremonies, the outfits, like it all adds up. We watched the DNC, we watched Joe Biden do a political campaign. Like he was campaigning for public office. This was a celebration of power and the middle finger being like, I'm here and you're not. And also the divine right of King's stuff, which was just like, I got anointed him and we got this none out here. It's like, where the fuck is Katy Perry? Like, come kill this none. What was this? The Biden was like applying for a job through LinkedIn. like the Abidon was like, Abidon was like applying for a job through LinkedIn and like the Trump campaign was doing TikTok.

Totally. It was like, my TikTok resume. Please just like and love on the side. I did have a feel vaguely comfort to that there were so many people with such a small space between their chairs and so few masks. Oh yeah. I would think it was a super spreader event. They're definitely losing voters at this event, like because they'll die.

So like, yeah, say, maybe not now, but in a fortnight. In a fortnight. I mean, it's terror. And this is also, this is sort of play a get to it, you know? I feel absolutely like disgusted that I look at this and because the world is so mad and because this election is so crazy,

that for a moment, I am genuinely thinking that I hope people get sick. I know. I know. What have we gone to where it's like,. That for a moment, I am genuinely thinking that I have a people get sick. I know. What have we gone to where it's like that is considered a legitimate, like, you know, I have to catch myself having these thoughts. Yeah, the only thing that keeps me from saying

some really dangerous stuff is that I know that like an alphabet soup of government agencies would come to my door. But I used to be a person who was like, too wrong, so make a right when they go low, we go high, like Hillary Clinton might not be the perfect candidate, but like, you know, she's competent and like we need to believe in her and believe in the future, the arc of history, blah, blah, blah, blah. And now I'm just fully like, if I had a clear

shot, you know what I mean? We've all been dragged into the mud. This is it. We've all, the problem is so much, so much mud has been flung that it's impossible not to get some of it on you And you know once you get dirty enough to keep this Painful metaphor going you may as well you may as well you roll a net, you know and yeah, it's very difficult Yeah, it's very difficult to see what I mean extra frustrating is of course that I can't vote Yeah, I'm watching this unfold and I can can't actually like, I can encourage other people to vote. I can be involved in a lot of ways, but I can't personally do anything about it in that sense.

And, you know, I mean, it doesn't matter in New York for extra points, for extra bazaarness about how the college electoral system works, which is also, it's like, I realized that this is the long project of, you know, various hits and misses and that the American electoral process is considered kind of a sacred as the right to bear arms. Yeah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, until really, you really screwed this up. Like, so let me get this straight. When you win a, when you win a state, you get all the votes, including the ones you didn't get. And there's only actually a handful of states that matter.

Bravo. Bravo. That's not what we meant by democracy. In order to preserve slavery for a couple more decades, we have just completely baked into our system. We have basically not democracy. Also like, and you've only got two parties you could ever actually would. And the people who have control over the levers of power are the people who are also running in those campaigns, right? So like Trump can hire Postmaster General to rip out voting sorting machines, like mail sorting machines,

and undermine the entire system of elections and basically rig this anyway. He wants and in only specific cities and also things like Jerry Mandarin are baked into our system. So it's like It's just all so nonsensical and it's so absurd and like obviously the majority of the country agrees with us Obviously the majority of the country despite all us. Obviously, the majority of the country, despite all of the collapsing education system and propaganda and misinformation, majority of people do know the difference between right and wrong. The majority of people still have humanity.

The upsetting thing is that it needs to be such a cataclysmic win, such a landslide for Biden in order to even get him in office because of the number of tricks and rigging and legal loopholes that they're going to try to use to maintain power. If he does have another four years, you bet your ass, he will find a way to stay in that office beyond the two-term limit. He will find a way to cancel the next elections.

He will find a way to cancel the next elections, he will find a way to undermine what's left of democracy. So like I'm at the courts will continue to get stacked, you know, corporate taxes will continue to fall and the odds will continue to be stacked in the favor of, well, probably wealthy Republicans. And all of which to say it's like, obviously I want everyone listening to get involved to care, to like actually get over the fucking two seconds of awkwardness of texting people in your phone. Are you registered to vote?

Are you gonna vote? Like, if you could just please get past that, I understand it feels weird, but like it's gonna feel a lot weirder if we live in hell for another like century. So please, please, please do something. I'm begging you, but also alternatively feel free to try and convince the family members on the other side of the divide that what voting's not worth it and they're not going

to be. Yeah. Or just cut them off entirely has been my policy. I'm just cutting people out. Oh, I just cut them off. Because like, honestly, I'm not going to change your mind. In fact, if anything, someone like me is going to make you double down. Um, I'm not good at this. So I know where I'm needed and where I'm not needed. Um, but I will say last

week, I talked to Evan about how much we hated the DNC. Obviously, it looks miles better in comparison to like the fucking Gore porn snuff film I just watched for four days. But I will say I really like Joe Biden's speech. I thought it was moving, well written, well performed. I didn't agree with everything in it, but I thought it was a great speech. I think if he wins this election, that is the most important speech in American history since Lincoln. It is truly, it was so reassuring

and I think he struck exactly the right tone both because he didn't have a crowd, but also for what the nation needs right now, which is empathy, kindness, stability, intelligence, patience. Well, exactly, the opposite, the opposite of what we saw last night. And also the sense, I mean, I found that the whole DNC generally just had a much better sense of the format. Yeah, the suggestion that there isn't a room full of people, there isn't a stadium full of people, that this, you know,

is not a normal year, it's, these are not normal conventions, the normal rules do not apply. And I just felt that that was tackled so much better. You know, some of the sort of flaws that I saw in the R&C were the ludicrous arguments just don't land as well when there isn't a cheer in between, you know, and when you can see that people pausing because the speech writers have said, you know, pause for applause. And there's this pause. And then the gap is kind of long. And there's this, you know, anticipation of something that never comes.

It was just like, it just made this sort of hollowness of so much of it, so much staker. And I just thought, yeah, I thought the DNC handled that just a whole lot better. And that kind of felt like, in other ways, this translated to a better understanding of where we are. Well, it's like the like JFK Nixon thing of like JFK knew to put makeup on because he was on television.

And Nixon was like, yeah, that's for girls. Nobody wants to watch an open mic with no audience. Much like most people don't want to watch an open mic. Let alone there's no audience or anything. They're like, it was, I don't know what they're thinking there was. I will say the Democrat packaging was a little slick. I thought it was a little too slick until Joe came on screen and then I thought the authenticity, his authenticity, I came away from it with a slightly different opinion of him myself, and I thought his authenticity was paramount, and that is really, I mean, I will tell you from having watched a ton of

reality television, and which is what, unfortunately, I'm sorry to say, I don't relish it. That is what politics is now. The most important thing you can do is be vulnerable and empathetic. The most important thing you can do is show weakness, but also courage, and have the courage of your convictions, and get your point across, but not in a way that's malicious or that's cloying or that feels like a performance. The worst thing you can do on Real Housewives or Drag Race is come up with catch phrases beforehand and find ways to work them in.

That's the worst thing you can do. The best thing you can do is just be yourself completely. And if yourself is anxious and shy, talk about that. Like just in your confessionals, be like, I'm an anxious and shy person. This whole process is overwhelming. And I thought Joe Biden going up there and saying like even he was saying like Trump's faults, but he was also saying like, saying even, he was saying like Trump's faults, but he was also saying like, I can't, when I saw X happening, I couldn't take it anywhere. And that was the point at which I knew I had to run.

And I get upset when I hear these things and this is what I hope for. And this is what my son meant to me and why I'm doing this. And that stuff comes across so authentic. And I think the Republicans went for that with like their open mic format, because it was just like people talking as opposed to being like slickly edited. Yeah, but even though just as much money and like, you know, whatever went into them.

But I think it ended up falling flat because those people don't really believe the things they're saying. And I do think that that comes across. I think Trump's entire speech, obviously he doesn't believe half the things they're saying. And I do think that that comes across, I think Trump's entire speech. Obviously he doesn't believe half the stuff he's saying. Obviously he doesn't care about the farmers in Wisconsin. And he's not like spending his time thinking, I don't like listening to the media.

I do what the people tell me. It's like you watch Fox News all day long. Like your constantly tweeting about reporters aren't nice to you and they don't like you and like K-pop teens aren't, don't think you you're cool so like you obviously do care about that stuff so like you know so I hope that that came across I hope that that ended up working but there's really no way to say because it's not like we have rallies or like oh it's not like the polls can even be trusted at this point because like you know who do they call on polls it's people with landlines it's not like the polls can even be trusted at this point because like, you know, who do they call on polls?

It's people with landlines. It's people who decide they have the time to have that discussion. Certainly not people who are working all day long in addition to educating their kids and like doing child care themselves and all of this outside inside their home on less money. Like those aren't the people who answer polar questions in the middle of the day.

So I don't really trust the stuff we're seeing where it's like, see six points ahead. You know, he's three points ahead. I think that it was obviously not perfectly accurate last time. I think it's wildly inaccurate this time. So there, I don't know what to think going out of that. And it's hard to take a step back from this president because I've never seen the appeal, right? So I can't tell you, but what I can say

is that this isn't what he ran on last time. This isn't like the Trump show is really wearing thin. The charisma of being mean to people and like, ah, just fucking troll, like on the lips, like that monster energy drink energy. Isn't there that this time, right? Like there's no alt, right? There's no like Pepe.

There's no like it's less fun and fantastical. Like we're gonna build a wall and Mexico's gonna pay for it. Lock her up. Ah, like grab that pussy. Like all that shit isn't happening. It's more of a like ominous, like we must bring the like minorities to heal sort of stuff. And I, I don't know how that's playing. Like I, I don't see the appeal.

I didn't see the appeal last time and I don't see the appeal now, but I don't know if people are. And if it's like working. So I don't really know. I don't, I mean, how do you feel about it before we change topics? I mean, in November, but also just like, what the temperature is at the moment? Like your fingers stick it in the air.

Sure. Well, I mean, I feel super insulated from a lot of it really because I, you know, I'm obviously mostly surrounded by LaRou Noflakes. I am appreciative of my substantial echo chamber. I have some extended family who have some other, some opposing views. And even some of them are clearly spooked by the repeated inadequacies.

And I hope that that is enough to change things. I'm obviously extremely cautiously optimistic. I feel better because there does seem to be a chance now of things going the other way that they didn't seem to be six or nine months ago. Hell, I mean, I guess right up until February. Right up until February, I was convinced that a second term was a foregone conclusion. And I am less convinced of that now. I'm choosing to still believe the worst only because then I at least I'll be pleasantly surprised or I won't be surprised at all, you know,

but it'll be less of a letdown. I find it really hard to get to to excited about it because the prospect of it being wrong and another four years is just so actually horrific. You know, every time you think that the things can't get worse, everything they can't be like, it can't get more ridiculous than this. It does, and I think that the sense of what is fair and decent and reasonable has just been eroded to such a crazy extent.

and reasonable has just been eroded to such a crazy extent, the fact that we have to talk about, what the truth looks like, or like what CDC figures look like, or whether Fauci ought to be believed. I mean, these things just, the facts and rationality don't matter anymore, and have no bearing on what politics looks like. It's just too much, I really struggled to like wrap my brain around it, especially in conjunction with the ongoing pressures of just like existing from day to day, you know, I think it doesn't matter which side of the aisle you're on. This year has been intense. And we're now at a point where it's like parts of the rest of the world are doing something that approaches normal, but that is still, you know, that still feels like

so far off. Like we've got to go into another winter and just see what happens. They're all kind of like holding our breath, you know? And meanwhile, there's things like testing being pulled back and guidelines we've shifted that, oh, if you don't show symptoms, you shouldn't be tested. But that's just incorrect, right? You're just trying to massage the numbers. And the day-to-day stress of just trying to like stay grateful to be employed and like show up and work hard and get things done and like, you know, maintain your general life on top of all of this. Like, I think 2021, whatever happens, is going to roll around. And even if the worst happens, I think some people are just going to check out for a while.

I think you're just going to be like, you know happens, I think some people are just gonna check out for a while. I think you're just gonna be like, you know what, I can't. I know Josh has said this here before in various places, but I would just love to have the option to not think about the president for a few days. Oh my God, I would give anything. Just not to be literally to have it be acceptable to put some brain power into something else.

I just want to talk about something else. I miss having conversations that weren't about death or fascism. Like, I wanted to talk about something else. I used to gossip. We're in an all-time gossip crisis. There is no gossip left because none of it is more interesting than the rise of the American Hitler. Like, oh god, I just missed before times.

I miss like, I miss fighting about hot cars. What I wouldn't give for a mundane Monday. Yeah. I know, I just want, I just want a couple of, I just want a mundane week. I know. Yeah, I just want to roll it to the weekend and be like, oh, well, that week was kind of forgettable.

I mean, remember when we were, I mean, we were passionate about like iPhone versus Android or like PlayStation versus Xbox, like who could give a fuck now? Who cares like I But sometimes I think that maybe that sense of exhaustion Breeds also a sense of urgency to end this and so our side will turn out to vote because they just can't fucking take it anymore So they they're gonna do it like fucking. I'm just gonna go vote I this has to end. Oh god. I hope that that's true

Because the only thing that I think really moves the needle here is There may be a Trump people who don't Hate him. They don't think he's an evil sociopath villain But they're not excited about him anymore. And they're just like, eh, am I gonna leave work to go vote for that guy? And last time I think they were like, let me leave work,

cause like fuck Hillary Clinton, fuck that bitch. I'm gonna vote for Trump. How you don't want me to? Well, I'm gonna fucking do it. Like I think that was a thrill last time that isn't here this time. So that is good. Hope. But then my them being like lukewarm about him wanting the job. What astounds me is that

I consistently get the impression that he doesn't even know he didn't want this job. He wanted to go work at Fox News or OAN or something. He wanted, I mean, he likes being, he likes, he wants to be, he wants to be the boss and calling the shots, but I've never seen anyone who seems so uninterested in the actual, what the actual position and power because it's like pathological, right? Like he can't say no to more power or fame or money. He just, he, it's not in his, he's never learned what he could get from that. And he only wants things, he wants to get things. Um, but I don't think he's happy or that he even really wanted this because it's way better to be a bad guy in a good world because there's more you can do, right? Like nobody, yeah, you can't

more fun. It's like spike on Buffy. He didn't ever really want the world to end. And when people were like, Rick really trying for the apocalypse, he was like, ooh, there's less people to eat if we destroy the world. Like, you know what I mean? And so it's like, I think he, and that's why I think like the air has gone out

of Richard Spencer, right, or like Milo, because they don't have any, when you don't have anybody to punch down on, you end up, you have to like find new people. So it's like the American public, or like a shadowy organization of Jews, or whatever stuff you have to make up, because once you have all the levers of power,

like you're the man, you're the guy. Like, and so it's not as fun to be like, the whole government is a conspiracy, because you are the government, right? Like you can't, like the whole like trend is sponsored. People are actually blaming you for things. It's like you, people are actually holding you responsible

for stuff for a change as opposed to you being like, well, you know, I would do it differently. And now you're like, well, well, you're the person. The buck stops with you, buddy. Yeah, it's like, you don't like how things are. You, you, you, you, like, because if you're only good at being negative and then you're suddenly responsible for the perception of everything, anyway, whatever, um, all of which to say, fucking, we talked about this for an hour,

I fucking can't stand, I can't fucking stand it anymore. I'm sure Tony is sick of it. Let's move on to something else, something happy and cool and like, oh, wait, no, the police are shooting on our black people. And we're doing that again. So I'm sure everyone listening is familiar with what's happening in Kenosha and then the Jacob Blake case.

And I just wanted to take a second to say, like full solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement as always. And what's happening is unconscionable and unimaginable. And to see like a young white nationalist terrorist, be defended by basically 40% of this country is I'll never un-node that was possible. And I can't imagine how the black community feels.

So I just wanted to take a second and acknowledge that all of that is happening and that. I would point you to many, the many intelligent and verbose black voices talking about the subject, because I will not be able to do it the level of justice that they can. And all of this seems obvious to me.

So there's not a lot to discuss, because I don't think black people are animals. And I think that we live in a racist society and that we have to completely overhaul the wave that we have been living for hundreds of years because it's unacceptable. And it is bad for everyone, but it's also just like bad for our souls to like continue with the way the things are.

And so obviously we can move on to other stuff, but I did want to take a second. Well, I was just thinking, I was just thinking imagine being the an extended family member at Tucker Carlson's Thanksgiving this year. Oh my God. Being like, so what someone had to do some defending and it was a 17 year old kid and oh because they previously cleaned some graffiti, they're um they're absolved of literally murdering people. Sure. I don't even skate, but I've got to tell you I want a skateboard that says this what is this machine kills. I don't even skate, but I gotta tell you, I want a skateboard that says this, what is it, this machine kills me?

I actually can't imagine being an extended family member at Tucker Carlson's Thanksgiving, not because I have Republican family members, but because I have taken a handful of pills before. And so I know exactly what I would be doing in that situation. Well, in a later, of course, we've got Facebook it's a, I say it's involvement. The problem consistently with Facebook is not as it's involvement, it's incessant hand-ringing and throwing up a chance at defense going, well, you know, that's not really our job, which continues to appall and discuss. And this week, I have had a non-active,

like a fairly passive Facebook account for a long time. And I still have an Instagram account, and I still have WhatsApp. And I began exporting my data this week from all of them, and I'm getting my mother to use signal. And I'm just going to delete them. Just, you know, the problem is, I'm confronted with this all day every day. And there was a time, I actually, I deleted my Facebook account back in 2011, 2012, which conveniently was after college. And so all of those misdeeds disappeared.

And then I recreated an account because I started working in tech media. And I literally worked for someone who was like, you have to be on these services. I'm sorry, that's just the way it is. Which was fair at the time. But increasingly, you know, even with the constant coverage that we obviously are obliged to do of Facebook, there is no need to be on Facebook for that to happen. I get no valuable information from it.

I get no leads from it. No one ever contacts me via Facebook with some juicy bit of information. It just cease to be a conduit for things that add value, right? All it does is add sadness and tell me about the lives of people that I don't care about or haven't thought about in forever. And so, you know, in a system where you've got a company where you can't, you just can't be voted out there and it's been designed that way. Literally the only thing that regular people can do is to walk away. And we're spot for choice. It's a, there isn't an abundance of other means. It's just

hard and it's just difficult. And it is a little tricky. I had this moment of like, oh, but you know, what about, what about all DMs on the service? And they're like, well, firstly, they'll be exported. But secondly, when do I ever go and look at a DM from 2012? People lived for hundreds of years by throwing out letters and like having a conversation and walking away from it. I actually think it's very unhealthy to be able to cite some very specific wording

someone used 12 years ago when you were both drinking four logos. Do you know what I mean? Absolutely. Absolutely. That's really unhealthy that we want to do that. The only thing, the only thing that these like regular loose platforms, like Instagram is it seems the least evil of the lot, but you know what?

Fuck them too, because I just don't want to have anything to do with this company at all. The only thing is I think about the comparator value I get from Twitter. Now Twitter is its own cesspool of hatred and disgustingness, but it does feel a little more sort of controllable. And at least one of the saving graces in the RNC last night was sitting on Twitter watching people turn Melania's dress into a green screen covered in COVID numbers. And as deep and dark as that is, I genuinely, I genuinely laughed. Yeah, Twitter is just an agent of chaos. It isn't like intentionally and organizationally evil.

Like it is just full chaos all the time. And so like, I, as much as I do think maybe all social media is bad and we should go to the time before it and unplug the internet I do think Twitter. It's like you sometimes it's great Sometimes it's like you know Nazis are like showing you pictures of your mom that they're taking it your child's in a home But like you never really know whereas Facebook it's like always definitely really bad and I you know I want let's always just increasing. It's just vat the two. Yeah, it's either it's either Whereas Facebook, it's like always, definitely really bad. And you know, it's always just, increasing is just vapoured too. It's either really bad and it's like, oh, these people have absolutely no moral compass

and no desire to like, control the most horrific stuff on them. Or just for your day to day, you're just like, wow, I've just lost 20 minutes of my life, I will never get back. It's like, when I discovered that there were tears of tears of Hulu that had advertisements first. I was like, but wait, what do you mean? I pay so much. Oh yeah, God, how? And I still get adverts. And then the sheer laziness of it that you play the same six adverts in a row every five minutes or whatever. I was like, I literally feel like someone stealing my life. Someone is stealing my life in five minute segments or three minute segments, six, what,

six, thirty second ads. You are stealing three minutes in my life every point. I just couldn't deal. I literally like, I rage upgraded and then rage canceled my subscription because I was so put out by the existence of efforts. And that is what Facebook feels like to me every time I go on, I'm like, you were just, you were just stealing my life. And that is what Facebook feels like to me every time I go on and I'm like, you were just stealing my life. And on my deathbed, one of the things I'm gonna regret is ever have expaned any time on you. I mean, I spent a year hearing about Goose Island IPA

via who lived before I like broke down and was like, here's money, dad or whatever. But you know, there's a piece I want to write. And so, like, I guess, be on the lookout for this. But I've been thinking about how much I don't like Facebook obviously for years now. It is escalated in recent days. But last night, I think it was a breaking point

where I just don't think Facebook, the idea of it, the good parts, the bad parts. I don't think it's compatible with like human society. I don't think it's compatible with like mental health or happiness or even just democracy itself. Like the idea that this company exists to track everything that everyone does and use that data to influence the way that they think towards consumer purchases on the minimum end of it. And like, and who devote for only maximum, their views on like race and humanity and empathy and the purpose of life on earth on the other end of it. And I just don't think it's, I think it's incompatible with the human race to have a built-in network of manipulating

minds, like mass mind control. Absolutely. And one that has no spine of its own, one that refuses to have any sense of with this power, we have an obligation to try to shape it. The sense that the only obligation is to the highest bidder and that if you need us to help people on the fence who are considering becoming neo-nazis, if you need us to push them over the border, over that divide, we will take your money and do that. It's that the cleat lack of anything except being a conduit for having influence.

I mean, Facebook, like, let's politicians pay to post lies. They didn't take down the violence being organized in Kenosha, where people were shot and killed. They didn't take down those pages or groups until after it happened, because they didn't know that they, they quote unquote, didn't think that they were actually violent or like, didn't want the right wing to say that they're silencing people. And it's like, you can silence people that are threatening murder. It's okay. Like, I just think.

Well, you should be able to. You should consider this actually a part of the duty. There should be written into the terms of the things that you're allowed to do. But they'll never do it because they're the core idea of that company is that that kind of stuff is okay. That everyone should be communicating more, and that the way to support that business is to allow some people to control the conversation

if they pay. And so if I was to tell you objectively, if we were out of time at the moment, or if it was 1992, and I told you someone had built a machine that could subtly and secretly do mass mind control and they would give people turns depending on how much they could pay worldwide with no government oversight. You would tell me that would be the end of the world that it would break humanity and it would it would lead to chaos, destruction, death, pain, that it's too much power, it's too unnatural, it's the singularity but for the end. But for the end time.

For the end time. For the end time. Yeah. And it does exist. And we all pretend that it's a totally necessary thing. Like, we can't live in a world without Facebook. It's like, we did. And it was fine.

Like, there is nothing on Facebook that is mission critical. It's pictures of people's babies. That's the best thing you can find on there. And I can live with seeing last pictures of people I went to high school with babies. That's fine. Or you can see the ones that the people you actually care. Yeah. I have, I think I forget what the,

I can't even tell you what the service is called because I only check in once a month. But, you know, it's three or four of my besties post their children's photos to this private network because it's also substantially less creepy than doing it on public Facebook. And once every month or two, I go in and I look at pictures of the children,

the babies I actually care about. And you know what, it's great. There are no adverts. There is no one trying to like get me to like sway my vote. The only other way that I've made some of these services tolerable is that I went and looked at an advert for things that I either already own and like or things that I aspire to and I did it on Facebook and Instagram and similar. And so now those are the only adverts I get served. And it's made it a little better.

But the thing is, there's not seeing the stuff. I think Tony, there may be a Tony at home thinking, well, advertising doesn't work on me. And well, I actually don't, I think it's a waste of money. I don't think people are really that influenced by it. And I want to impress upon you. Like Donald Trump is president. Like people can be tricked into anything.

And the idea that it doesn't work on you is exactly why it works on you, because like you think you're smarter than it. Yes, but you are in fact not, because even just knowing that a product exists, even if you have contempt for it, it has changed you. And it has changed the way you think. And my husband is a social media purchaser. He takes money from clients and he hyper targets their ads to them. Now he has his own ethical standards. He has things he will not do. He has clients products. He has pulled. He obviously does not want to be a bad actor. I don't think what he does should

be legal, but that's his career and that's his choice. And he has his own moral standards with it. But I will tell you that it fucking works and it works better than any other kind of advertising. It finding the right audience to tell about things and they're not necessarily always advertising it just so you'll click through and give them money for a product. There are hyper, hyper targeted campaigns that Amazon does just to shift your mindset about how you purchase or what you purchase. And they don't really care if you click through on that one ad.

It's to set up knowing that that kind of product is cheaper and there's more variety online and that the easiest place to get it would be Amazon. And you can't tell me that you've never used Amazon. Like clearly advertising has worked. So I think the one is when people say, oh, my phone must be listening to me because, you know, I was talking to a friend about buying a mountain bike. And then the next day I got a mountain bike ad. And all I can think is, nope, that's just what tracking on the internet looks like. Yeah, my husband says that tracking is so

good. He'll say things like it figures it good. He'll say things like, it figures it out. He'll say things like, we just talked about that TV show and it showed off on my Instagram, like, ha ha, like maybe it's listening. And I'm like, no, you do this for a living. You know that like I, the amount of it, they know more about you than you. They're a million other markers that suggest

that you wanna see the new season of New Goal. Yes, they know more about you than you possibly could than the human brain could fit. There are facts about yourself that you that you can't fit into the organ that is in your head, but that they can fit into a data algorithm and they can use that information and they weaponize it in any way they want to whoever will pay them. So like, I'm just I'm at the point now with Facebook where I just everything they do infuriates me because

nothing will ever really be enough and yet they continue to make the worst possible case scenario decisions. And similarly, let's talk about this. Apple is building a floating store in Singapore, a floating orb in which you can purchase AirPods. I would like to note that the worldwide 350 million people live in extreme poverty and that we're living through the greatest economic downturn and loss of human life. That has ever been experienced in history outside of maybe the Holocaust. So anyway, nice floating store. Well, you know, I mean, oh, careful, Ryan, you're going to sound an American. This is some capitalism right here. Um, yeah, floating store, hey, kind of remarkable. I also loved apples painting itself this week as the defenders of privacy. Oh, my God, and in iOS 14, Facebook's not going to have access to

the ad identifier, giving gonna have access to the ad identifier. Giving Apple a monopoly on the ad identifier. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And that, oh, sorry, we didn't mention that to opt out of the Apple zone ads, you have to scroll right down to the bottom and go to a menu that didn't previously exist and that you probably would never have noticed otherwise. But no, no, we don't do dark patents here at Apple. We are all about privacy. Now,

buy another thousand dollar iPhone, please. Yeah, we're using our credit card. We're here with the company of moral clarity. Have you heard about our latest innovation? It's called debt collecting. They backed by Morgan Stanley. They're marketing department. People think their marketing has gotten worse, called debt collecting. They, they, they backed by Morgan Stanley. They're marketing department. People think their marketing has gotten worse, but in fact, it has gotten so much better because instead of talking about how like the newest

iPod looks cool and the ad was funny and I like that song, that was effective marketing. You know what's even better marketing to have people on Reddit fighting constantly over the idea that Android is somehow more cravin' or that Facebook is more evil than Apple, that Apple has put itself in this moral high-horse position that is entirely unearned, right? Like they are a monopoly who manipulates the developer market.

They are a company who wants to end to end own the production of their product so that nobody can compete in this space. Like, so let me get this straight. Yeah, yeah, suddenly in the smartphone market we only have two, I mean we may as well call them two parties. We've got two parties to choose from. You might even call it a bipartisan arrangement. It does seem very familiar.

Also, of course, I would like to correct myself. I remember that I realized that the Apple card is backed by Goldman Sachs, not Morgan Stanley. But again, much like the big cellphone players, it gets hard to tell these things apart. All the masters of the universe look and smell of the same rich cologne to me, I'm afraid. Yeah, you reach into your cupboard,

you're pulling out Nestle Kraft or Monsanto. It doesn't really matter. Yeah, astonishing. Estonishing to build a floating store made of chrome in a pandemic. Just great work, guys. Be our department's killing it. In other news, we got to look at the Surface Duo from Microsoft. Ray got his hands on it, speaking of monopolies. In other news, we got a look at the Surface Duo from Microsoft. Ray got his hands on it, speaking of monopolies.

It is so cool looking. It's great. I thought it was very interesting. I'm excited. It made me nostalgic for my DS and actually consider it to get a two-screen device in a way that these foldables have certainly not sealed the deal. It made me super excited for just how excited it made Ray. You know, as a Ray Ray that we're talking of course about Raymond Wong, our reviews

editor. Yeah, I did not specify. You know, if anyone is going to get jaded about phones or similar, it's going to be, you know, the people who literally deal with all of them all the time and to see like Ray got so excited he turned video on on one of our daily Zoom videos. Yeah, and I can't, is an unusual thing these days. I can't emphasize enough how much we hate having to do a video crop. Yeah, we most of us is like a video has been off since April, you know, but anyway, he put on video to show us this device because I mean, it looks incredibly slick like folded shirts, we're talking about something that is

roughly the same thickness as a galaxy note, which is a big phone in terms of screen dimensions, but it's not really a thick phone. I mean, thick phones just aren't a thing anymore. The hardware looks incredibly, incredibly slick. And you've got also admire that like, well, folding is one thing. But what if we just, what if we put two screens really near each other? And then you've got things like LG, LG who put a cover on a phone that had a secondary display. And shame, as with so many things where LG tries something new, like the wide angle camera on the G5, it was the first company to really put a wide angle in a phone where LG tries something new, like the wide angle camera on the G5, it was the first company to really put a wide angle in a phone.

It tries these things, but it just never seems to nail them and get them right. And then you look at the Microsoft Duo and you're like, wow, this looks like a first gen thing that I could actually, if I was at the stage where I thought it was acceptable to spend $1400 on a phone, I could buy and not be sad about, which I think is also a rarity with first-gen stuff. You know, like the first Galaxy Fold looked great, but man, there was absolutely no way I was ever going to buy one. Now, I mean, and the duo doesn't feel like that.

Yeah, I don't know that I'm going to buy one just because like I have so many fucking things in my phones and gadgets and gizmos of plenty, but like I I do want one very badly and I'm very interested in where it goes and if the version 2 like Evolves in the way that I hope that it evolves. I think it will be something that perhaps I Consider letting into the family and into my home And I think it's also very exciting that it turns out that Microsoft, who, you know, I'm reminded that all sorts of things are possible, and this gives me great optimism that we've reached the point where Microsoft

no longer feels like the most monotheistic company, and Microsoft feels like a company really, really innovative stuff with hardware. No, no, no, I didn't. No, I just like it's doing innovative hardware and it seems in some senses like if we do a if we do a roster, like a list of evil, you know, it may it may have just slipped off the podium like it's still in the top five, but it's just remarkable to me that suddenly like Microsoft seems cool and is making cool hardware from a company that for so long was so incredibly deeply uncool. So you know what, Ryan, anything's possible if Microsoft can do this, who knows, who knows, maybe next year the whole world would be different.

maybe next year, the whole world would be different. Yeah, well, speaking of gadgets that I covet, so this week on the site, we had a piece from Ray Wong, our reviews editor, about the rumor that the Nintendo Switch will get a new model in 2021 that will be a 4K device. The name being thrown around is Switch Pro. And Ray, in similar to myself, skeptical that it even makes sense for the company at this exact moment. Did you see this piece?

Yeah, absolutely. And I think the key thing is the Nintendo for so long has done, has bucked the trends by going, we're not going to use the most potent hardware. We're not going to use the highest raise hardware, we're not going to use the highest res displays. That's not what they sell. They sell unique, cutesy game experiences that don't require that sort of hardware. And those sort of trade-offs have kind of been part of its DNA for so long that it seems

like an interesting proposition. I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. I think there's definitely hardware problems with the Switch and they could do a hardware revision, right? Like Nintendo is very, very happy to re-release the DS, for example, in six different forms. There were so many Game Boys, but I don't think it would necessarily need to be a pro device.

If they were to refresh the Switch and call it the Switch XX or something, they could add Bluetooth, headphones support, they could fix the Joy-Con drift, which is like when the joysticks start getting misaligned after a certain period of time. They could make it a 1080p screen with 4K upscaling when you hook it up to your TV, but it doesn't make sense for them to go like all out with a $500 device, because at that point, they're competing with Microsoft and Sony in the console market

and the wonderful thing about Nintendo, the thing people love is that it's affordable, it's approachable, it's fun, you can give one to your kids and it's not so complex and high tech that they're going to necessarily break it immediately. I mean, I'm the perfect example of this. And the perfect, I have a first-gen switch.

And so there are things I would like to see fixed, like the battery life, for instance, isn't great. But I don't own any other consoles. I own the owner switch because precisely that approachability, I am an incredibly casual gamer, I like to dip in and out of things. Zelda was the first sandbox open-world game that I'd ever sunk hours into, let alone, 100 of them. Yeah, is that here?

That seems to be the talk about, whereas you make it a $500 device and focus perhaps on the 4K dock for the television. And immediately, I mean, I for one, I'm just a lot less interested. And I think that's got to be a huge part of the market that Sony and Microsoft don't even bother to fight over. Well, for the first time in our lives, we're advocating for a gadget to have less features. And I for one think that's fantastic.

Similarly, there was another piece on the site I wrote this in fact about a man named Elliott Cole out of the UK who runs a YouTube channel called The Retro Future where he mods, gameboys, and other handheld devices into these incredible works of absurdist art. Right, Ryan, I love the story. Absolutely, I absolutely love the story.

Now, I think this had been percolating for a while. We'd all kind of been watching the stuff coming out of Cole's channel. I love them. I think it's just, I see some of the comments from people who are like, but why would you make a long game boy, or why would you make a left-handed gameboy and I just loved his sense of well Why not you know that there there is no like overarching

Rhyme or reason to this these are just projects that he's clearly so Passionate about and he loves the build. He loves the like challenge of remaking them to these Seemless things that kind of look, you know, they look so slick and so tidy that for a moment, when you first see them, you're like, is this a legitimate Nintendo product? I absolutely, I absolutely adore that story and shared it around with people because it's just, it's also like a bomb of like,

feel goodness in the midst of all the other madness going on. That someone is like, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna buy a bunch of old Gameboys, hack them up or DS's, hack them up, and build new, fantastical ones that should never exist. I mean, he made a Gameboy Advance SP that had two screens for no reason. Like there's nothing to put on the other screen

except a clone of what's on the original screen. And then it doesn't fit in your pocket. There's truly no reason to do that. And he made it based off of a meme he saw. The long Game Boy that you just mentioned is about as long as a baseball bat and looks like a real Game Boy that just happened to be very long. He made the Gintendo Bame-Noi, which is just like a Game Boy if it was, if you just hit shuffle on like the colors and design. Um, he made, I mean, these, you have to see them. You have to go see it. He made a Nintendo DS with one screen so that you can't use

the other screen. I mean, it's just some astonishing work. Um, and he, on his channel, he also reviews some of the most absurd hardware accessories. So, for example, he found a TV tuner that allowed him to play Nintendo Switch on a crappy old Game Boy screen, which just makes it worse. Why would you pursue that? But it's phenomenal, and it's delightful. And it does speak to how through the looking glass we are with technology at this point.

through how, through the looking glass we are with technology at this point. And if you need something to affirm that the universe is a completely meaningless place, but that you can have a sense of humor about that. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's the worst thing. Sometimes it means that it's delightfully weird. Yeah, it's wonderful that there's this sort of fun to be had. And particularly from this old, these sort of older gadgets, and as though it like, it won't be hard to do it. And we could use a bit of it at these days. Yeah, so you can go to inputmag.com,

see the whole interview I did with him. It was super fun. And I, you know, thanks to Elliot for being willing to be involved in the piece. Well, you know, at least we got to nicer topics before we kind of have to get out of here because we have a staff meeting in 15 minutes. But I did wanna check in with you about nice things

as they do every week with Josh. Do you have anything nice from your week? My nice thing this week was I got reminded of the mysteries and amazingness of intercontinental shipping. So my stuff arrived from Johannesburg, South Africa. A year ago I put a bunch of things in a container, including my green velvet sofa and like all my art and all the things that you know as an adult I've collected over the years and that used to furnish my old apartment and it got put in a container and then it got stuck on a ship and couldn't leave the country because they closed the borders for months.

So this week my possessions arrived and I no longer feel like I'm camping in my own apartment because for the last 11 months I've had two spoons, two forks, two knives, two plates because the rest of it was illicitated. So everything arrived and even better, everything arrived in one piece, which seemed absolutely remarkable. Like when you think about the logistics of this halfting to go on a truck down to the coast onto a ship across the Atlantic Ocean, or for ship in New Jersey onto another truck and eventually turn up at my door in one piece. It was pretty exciting. It was a little bit like Christmas morning, because it's been so long that I kind of forgot what was in

the packages, but it was Christmas morning where someone has bought presents and they know exactly what you're into. So you unwrapped and nothing's a disappointment. So that was that was absolutely the nicest thing that happens to me this week. Well, congratulations. It's unbelievable that it all should happen on piece. So honestly, play a lot or something. Only for one of them, my largest picture to promptly fall over and then the glass.

I saw that. I couldn could get that reframe. And cracked on your stairs going down so you couldn't even get around it. And it was barefoot so eventually you had to like walk down the stairs on a towel to then like clean up all the broken glass. But you know what, a small price to pay for otherwise feeling like an adult again. What's your nice, Greg Ryan? a small price to pay for otherwise feeling like an adult again. What's your nice, Greg Ryan? Well, I have two nice things this week. One of which is, you know, it's going to seem negative, but it in fact was a nice moment for me. I came across, I definitely had seen this in the past,

but it didn't mean as much to me years ago that it obviously does now. Have you ever heard the Narcissist's prayer? No. So the Narcissist prayer is a short poem that attempts to sum up a Narcissistic personality and it was so clarifying for me to just see it written out in this age of Trump that I like if I owned a printer I would have printed it out and put it on my fridge. So the Rnarsis's prayer goes, that didn't happen. And if it did, it wasn't that bad. And if it was, that's not a big deal. And if it is, that's not my fault.

And if it was, I didn't mean it. And if I did, you deserved it. And that really clarifies for me like the exact pattern we've been going through. And so that was nice. It was cathartic. And then my truly actual nice thing that everyone can enjoy is I've got a game which came out yesterday for the switch called hypno space outlaw.

And it is so trippy and weird and delightful. It is basically it's like if you logged on to the internet in 1999 on acid and you like, how to scavenger hunt to do, it's just this weird journey into alternate history if like, you know, if the internet had gone a different way, if web 2 hadn't happened, and you need to like engage with

all of these different characters through their web pages and you're solving puzzles to do detective work. It's just super strange. I can't necessarily put into words what it's like, but I would heavily recommend you go check it out. The art style is fantastic. It's the nerdyest, weirdest thing, but it's totally delightful. It just came out on the Switch. I know it's been out for like a year for like PC, but I think it's on Xbox. I think Xbox is, as well. Yeah. But it's from the creator of Dropsea, which was that like clown Messiah point and click adventure. That was so bizarre and good from a few years ago. So I highly recommend that I would go check that out. And then everything else this week wasn't nice. So that's that. Thank you for filling in for Josh. It's always a delight to do a podcast

with you Craig. Brian, it is always such a delight to be here. It feels, you know, like getting to hang out and that is such a treat because it's been so long since that happened. So thank you so much for having me back again. Just so everybody knows, Josh will be back next week, so never fear. But I guess that's it. Bye! Well, that is our show for this week. We'll be back next week with more tomorrow and the return of Josh. And as always, we wish your family the very best. Though I did hear that your family had all of their belongings shipped,

and none of them arrived safely. you