Tomorrow - 205: Melting Pot

Episode Date: September 7, 2020

Josh has finally returned from vacation and he has now become a Bike Guy. This week him and Ryan also discuss Facebook's latest nefarious dealings, Mario Kart, and Samsung's bizarre naming scheme for their phones. Kick back, relax, throw on some Fall Guys. There's a slim chance things are gonna be okay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey and welcome to tomorrow I'm your host Josh Wattipolki. Today on the podcast we discuss winners, losers, and fall guys. I don't want to waste one more minute. Let's get right into it. Well, we're back, Ryan. You're back. I'm back. You're still here, but I'm back. How is your little vacation? Well, I'll tell you, my vacation was great. It was extremely relaxing. I, although I, I, I, I guess if I had to do, I had to do over again, I would not have taken a vacation during both the DNC and the RNC. Yeah. Because it meant that like after Zelda was to bed, we were like,

well, let's just see what's going on with the DNC for a minute and then I was like, oh boy, okay, now we, it was a, this is us inspired political commitment. Very, very this is us, very this is us. Just a rich tapestry of Americans. But I had a grification. It was very relaxing. I got to hang out with a lot when in the ocean, you know, slept in a little bit. It was great.

It was wonderful. And I recommend, it's hard to go on vacation right now because one, obviously, I mean, we went to a very small town where we rented a house. So we basically were just like isolating somewhere else, closer to a beach. You know, and I, but I do recommend if you have an opportunity to take a vacation.

It may seem like it's impossible to do so. But I think if you're careful and you take precautions and you probably travel by car, at least that I would not willing, like if I didn't have to get on an airplane, I certainly wouldn't right now. But I think it's probably mostly safe. But it's take a vacation if you can. That's my recommendation to all humans of planet Earth. Try to take some time off,

because it really lets you reconnect with yourself and nature and your family. Well, in the time you work on, obviously quite a bit happened. Yeah. DNC and RNC aside, America's Postal Service no longer exists Well, in the time we were gone, obviously quite a bit happened. Yeah. DNC and RNC aside, America's Postal Service no longer exists. And it's gone now, right? It's exciting.

Yep, we're over it. And Facebook has just openly declared war on the public. So. Yeah. No, I think that's the way it should be. You know, I don't know. I don't even know what to make of it anymore. Like, what is Facebook doing now?

What is the latest? What did I miss? So Facebook is, I mean, the latest us of today is that Facebook has announced that it will sell misleading political ads. Continues, going to continue to do that. Um, but it'll stop the week of the election. How about that? Just the week of the election, though, pull back.

They're not going to like do any new ad sales. And they think this is a strong moral stand the week of the election, they'll pull back, they're not going to do any new ad sales, and they think this is a strong moral stand on behalf of the country. Also, Mark Zuckerberg is donating $300 million to like, quote unquote, secure elections. He is worth several billion dollars from ruining elections. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. I just saw a tweet show up that shows they labeled a Trump post Where he's talking about the massive number of unsolicited and solicited ballots and

You know how you need to make sure I mean this post is insane based on the massive number of unsolicited and solicited ballots That will be sent to potential voters for the upcoming 2020 election in order to make, in order for you to make sure your vote counts and is counted sign in mailing your ballot as early as possible. On election day or early voting, go to your polling place to see whether or not your mail-in vote has been tabulated. If it has, you will not be able to vote and the mail-in system worked properly. I'm just like, what is this about?

Anyhow, it has a tag on it from, it has a notification on it from Facebook. It says voting by mail has a long history of trustworthiness in the US and the same is predicted this year. It's like cool. Thanks, guys. It's cool.

I'm sure a lot of people are reading that. A little adjunct at the bottom. And I'm sure people believe that over there in saying cult like leader. I'm sure a lot of people are reading that. And I'm sure people believe that over there insane cult like leader. I'm sure. People, you know what? You just got to put a label on some of those Scientology books and people are just not even going to do it anymore. I don't, yeah, I just don't get the whole thing like, I mean, first off, I know there's this big conversation going on about Facebook about the amount of what is traffic on Facebook,

what stories do well on Facebook and how it's amount of what is traffic on Facebook, what stories do well on Facebook, and how it's like this like, you know, this alternate media universe where it's all Republican, you know, conspiracy theory, which I totally understand. But like, you know, I do think that I do really firmly believe that the Republicans are not radicalizing a lot of new people. Like, I think that there are a lot of old scared people who are like already brainwashed by Trump, and I think there are a lot of like middle-aged people who are brainwashed by the right-wing rhetoric,

but I don't really believe that there are, there's a new generation of like, Trumpers that is like blossoming around the globe, you know, or at least in America. So like I kind of like I would do obviously worry about Facebook's influence on the election, but I think that, you know, if the Democrats do their job, we should be getting out of we should be getting votes in places, we should be getting younger voters, we should be getting older voters who are,

you know, staunchly Democrat. Like, to me, I'd be, what I'll be very surprised about and where I will get very suspicious about this election is if somehow, I'm not saying that Trump can't win. He definitely can win. But if Trump were to win in some like overwhelming way,

you know, if like 55% of the voter, 60% of the vote went to Trump, I would say there's like unquestionably, unquestionably there has been like voter tampering, you know? But like we should be able to get more people voting this year than we did in 2016. Like, no, but again, the voter suppression and I mean, even the idea that disabled people

really won't have a way to vote if the mail-in system is fucked with like enough. Like the idea that older people will have to put their lives on the line in order to go vote and the VRA has been gutted and the absurd amount of gerrymandering like I very much do worry that even if we were to win the popular vote again that there's enough legal ways to like gum up the system. And I think the problem with Facebook is not necessarily that they're radicalizing people, is that they're being used as a tool to slowly normalize this idea to enough Americans that it is suddenly a quote unquote controversy.

Suddenly it's like, I don't know if global warming is real, but instead it's, I don't know if the election is real. And if he can disseminate the idea thoroughly enough and mainstream it enough, then when it comes time in November and to say, you know, there's whatever technicality, but butterfly ballots, bullshit, he wants to pull, then, you know, no one's going to come out in the streets because they're going to be like, used to the idea. And I think like we've been, we've been slowly being boiled like fucking frogs. And I don't know. I'm very aware of the boil doesn't feel that slow to me. I mean, I'm the, the question is, I mean, if there there's if there's large scale. I mean we have to figure out like what is the voter tampering?

You know what is vote tampering look like It with the postal service. How is it executed? I mean I understand the sorting machine stuff and moving mailboxes or taking them away And that's all very shady the question is like what's the mechanism who's doing it? How is there where is there a paper trailer, is there no paper trail? Like I do think you need a lot of people in a lot of places to either ignore or participate in that to make it work. I'm not saying it can't be done,

but I'm saying it, you know, I expect and believe that the Republicans would love to use the Postal Service to steal the, to steal a victory, but I don't know that they actually can. You know, but it's like, if I do think there needs to be an overwhelming show of support for people who want Trump gone. And like, I think if we don't see that, then that's a bigger, I mean, if that doesn't exist, like if we don't have, if the 2018 midterms aren't a reflection of what we can expect in 2020,

then we have a bigger problem in this country than voter fraud. I mean, I think we definitely do. We have people who are pro race riot and murdering Black lives matter protesters in the street and it's being defended by roughly 40% of this country. We have some deep shit to deal with whether or not he wins. It's certainly, Trump has certainly gotten the worst out of people. He's had people turn into the,

I mean, at least on the Republican Party. I mean, Republicans have never been good. But now they really just wanna say like, we wanna hurt people who are already, at the poverty line or below, because we think there's two classes of people in this country. And that's largely a lot of that is driven.

So driven by a lot of different things, but they clearly think there's the winners and the losers in America. If Trump's presidency can be defined by any concept and is very in keeping, I think, with, I mean, he's obviously like a racist, but that's one thing. But he's also obsessed with this idea that there's two sides of this country, that there's the winners and the people that are the top, the best people, and then there's the losers who don't deserve

to have a second thought. And to him, of course, the losers are immigrants or black people or Jewish people or people who live in blue states or whatever you can get. There's all this criteria, but his whole governing model and now the governing model of the Republicans, and this has been true for a long time, but it's now so out in the open. It's like they just believe that there's like the people who are going to survive and the people who are going to be used to create Soil and Green.

So I'm reading Mary Trump's book. Oh. And it's very interesting. I mean, it's a horrifying read. It's obviously a page-stroner because it's juicy as hell. But it's really interesting because, I mean, that's basically what Trump's entire life was built around. This is a whole philosophy based on his horrifying father

who was like easily, easily the most identifiable sociopath I've ever encountered through text. He encouraged him in this belief that like there's always a winner and a loser and in order to win everyone else has to lose and that like nothing life matters, but winning, nothing in life matters, but like money or power or theme, like that is the pursuit of everything. And like, and it's like this prosperity gospel mixed with sociopathy that he, I mean, Trump was kicked out of his school in Queens and like his primary school

because he was bullying kids who were younger than him or disabled or little girls, and they couldn't get him to stop physically and emotionally bullying kids. So they sent him to a military school where essentially it was just super abusive. And so his entire life has been in this like feedback cycle of like he acts out in public and and defies quote unquote like rules. Nothing applies to him. And then whatever happens negatively because of that, he is bailed out by enablers, for example, like his father, investors who were like heavily invested in him being a success. And then once you're already pretty in, you have that sunk cost fallacy of like, well, let's fix it for him because we need him to be a success or whatever.

And you see this pattern through his life and that clearly, he's also a person who's really scared of being humiliated. And that comes through really clearly in the book is that most of the stories that his family tells about him, like his brothers and sisters and his cousins that most of the stories that his family tells about him, his brothers and sisters and his cousins and all the people that Mary spoke to in the book,

they always tell stories where he was embarrassed or humiliated in some way, because it upsets him so much. And clearly those are the only levers of power that they have over him as a family member at this point and they all clearly resent him and his behavior. And so they tell these stories about like the little embarrassing things that like people wouldn't even remember like shit that you just like as a kid that just happens and nobody cares It doesn't like define you but like they're obsessed with these stories of like humiliation and he like the ultimate thing

He like hates is to be humiliated in that way. And, like, I feel like the last four years has been, I mean, he obviously only ran for president because he felt like Obama humiliated him in public. Right. And now, the last four years have just been him stubbornly refusing to, like, quote, unquote, be humiliated and resenting anyone who has proof of that. And, like, you see that in, like, his, like,

people wearing masks are doing it because they hate me. Like when he said that, that kind of logic. And so I look at all of that and I'm just like, even if he loses, we have this person has been in a bad feedback cycle with all of his supporters. And he's made tons of little trumps around the country. And tons of people have been enabled into growing into sociopathic behavior,

even if they're not clinically sociopaths. They've been encouraged and they've been strined this. And the thing that I guess, all of which to say, I don't know, the whole generation of kids is looking at this like it's a normal perspective to have. This behavior is normal and acceptable. And if anything, it's venerated to have. Like this behavior is normal and acceptable. And like, if anything, it's like venerated

by half of the country. And like, it's frustrating because like, I don't know how you like pull back from the, like we're at a level of like mental illness at a massive scale. Like rooting for people to be shot for protesting. Like rooting for fellow Americans for violence against them are rooting to like rip our country apart

in a second civil war. That's mental illness. Racism is mental illness to begin with, but that is a level of, I don't know how you treat people on that scale. I don't know how we reform any of this. It's very strange to watch and to hear. And at the same time, you have social networks

like Facebook are reshaping people's even feedback loop of like, what's good and what's bad and like, what's for public consumption and like, what gets, quote unquote, engagement. You know what I mean? Like the worst parts of people are being encouraged by the government, by corporations. Like we, an America, and frankly, white Americans have basically no culture. They have nothing to fall back on. It's all consumerism.

It's all attention driven. And fall back on. It's all consumerism. It's all attention driven. And true. It's true. I mean, I've actually been thinking about this a lot about the culture gap where it's like, I was raised Jewish. I don't believe in God, but I was raised Jewish. And I have a culturally, right? There's this whole culture and social structure that it comes along with that with like kind of Easter in European Jew from the coast. There's this whole, it's very like sign-failed

and Woody Allen and curb your enthusiasm. And you know, like a Portonoi's complaint, there's this whole, this is all like Jewish culture that's like, has nothing to do with the religion itself, it's just like this, like, sort of social structure, which like, I, you know, and obviously, like, I know the history of, you know, to some degree, the history of my family and the music

and the history of the Jews, and there's like a lot of culture attached to that, that even though I'm not like a practicing Jew, I identify as Jewish and there's like, there is a culture there. I think a lot about the, you know, these people who would, these white supremacists and people like Donald Trump

who come from places like Germany or other areas in, you know, Eastern Europe. And, and, you know, I think about what their contributions to culture have been. Now, obviously you can go back and there's great thinkers and philosophers and blah, blah, blah, politicians and all this shit. Great musicians and, and, and, you you know there's no shortage of art great artists and that sort

of thing. It's certain periods of time you know but it's not like it's if you look at like America as it is today what is rep and this is perhaps what is so troubling to these people when you look at the culture of America and its most vibrant places it is like this to these people. When you look at the culture of American, it's most vibrant places. It is like this mixture of people from many, many different places, often, more often than not, not like white countries or predominantly white European countries where you have this like, you know, incredible like if it's music or it's food or it's art

or it's philosophy, like, you know, and it's just a just where America is most incredible, is when you see all those things brought together in this fucking melting pot that people talk about, but it really is true. And you see it in New York, I've been privileged to, I'm from Pittsburgh, which is not diverse, it's pretty diverse, but it's not like New York, you know?

And I've had the experience of being able to come and live in New York and see all this stuff. In real time and see how people, how it changes the way people are with each other. It changes like, it changes what you know about people, changes how you feel about people. I tweeted earlier today actually about this. So I've been thinking a lot about the fact that like,

what would the culture be without all of those people coming and intermingling? And it would suck. It would be so fucking boring and stupid and lame and like not just would just be so, it's like what is the culture of like these people who are white supremacists? What is their music?

What is their food? What is their philosophy? It's all like, it's all shit from like, you know, it's basically dark ages, you know, it's basically like It is those people that you're calling like white like obviously Jews are only recently Italians Irish people less recently, but still only recently only considered white because You only get that medal, that number one sticker, that like free pass to do a bunch of shit. And of course, you're incentivized to want to be white passing. Of course, people have been forever. But you only achieve that if you strip out all community and identity.

And so when you look at people who are like, I'm from Germany, they came here just like my ancestors came here and fucking ditched that shit as fast as they fucking could because they wanted to succeed in a consumerist capitalist country that prioritized white identity and what is white identity? It's like nothing. It is a vacuum.

It is power and nothing else. It is the pursuit of power, the pursuit of homogeneity, the pursuit of success and acceptance, but only through the subjugation of other people. And so you pursue that, right? Then the people around you, either they can imitate that and be a pale imitation of whiteness, which is what you encourage,

or they can force their own identity and find success in that way, and then white people resent them for having culture, or resent them for having history that isn't about whiteness and venerating it, and like holding whiteness up as this like western Judeo-Christian values. And so, places like New York, which are these beautiful cultural tapestries of mixing of all different places people and places from around the world. And it is the most resented place in the country because of that. And it's because these people have like, I mean, if you have no identity to cling to, I mean, that's kind of what American history acts is about.

You don't have an identity. And so you, I mean, hate is such a, the best way to unite a group of people is to hate someone else. The best way to get everybody on the same team and to feel like you're in a group is to be against something else or something at all. And so these white supremacists, I think they just don't have anything. They don't have a community. They don't have a culture.

They don't have a philosophy. They don't have, they have a desperation to succeed and to survive. Right. And they're, well, the only outlet and their only way to like form a cohesive group unit is to say slurs. And that, I don't want to slip or re-slope it, but it is a slip or re-slope from saying the end word to be the way Trump says it. Well, I mean, well, I think, I tweeted about this earlier today and I think that it's true, which is I think that like Donald Trump

gives a certain subset of the population in America a freedom and cover to hate and feel hatred and fear about things that they don't have experience with, right? And I think that fear and hatred are safety blankets to people in a lot of ways. Like, it is very easy to hate. It is very easy to other people. And it is very, it's like, it doesn't require any work, right? It basically just requires your own mind, your mind going, I've decided that this person is this way or this group of people is this way.

You don't have to learn, you don't have to know, you can just feel it, right? You go with your gut. And like I think that for a lot of people in this country, people have been raised in places where they don't interact with or have very limited interactions with people from other cultures or other races.

It's very, it feels very safe for them to feel that they are, that there is an enemy that somebody they should worry about and that they have to like be stand against. I mean, to your point, that idea of like there's a winner and a loser and that you can only do one winner and one loser or whatever, I think it's like, and Trump really lets them have that. He's like, here it is, it's okay for you to feel that way. It's like, you're worst instincts, everybody's been telling you, you're worst instincts are wrong, but I'm here to tell you that they're right.

And it's like, it's like kind of like, you know, like wouldn't it be great? Like, have you ever been eating ice cream and you're like, I was just thinking this. And you're like, you're like, you're like, I don't, I could eat this whole fucking tub of ice cream. It tastes so fucking good. And it makes you so mad that you know

that the ice cream is ultimately pretty bad for you. And then if you keep eating tubs of ice cream, you will become overweight. And it will make you unhealthy. But it's like, imagine if somebody came and was like, you know what, everybody's been telling you that tub of ice cream will make you fat.

But guess what? Not only will it not make you fat, you'll actually be in better shape if you eat the tub of ice cream. You know what would be more of you. You'll be like, fuck, yes. Like, I enjoy this, it feels good. And I want more of it.

And now somebody's telling me I can have it, you know? And like, it is like very, it is very, you know, I've talked about this before, but like, you know, living with a child, a six year old, watching a kid grow up, you can see those feelings, those like, un, un-evolved, but those feelings, those like un- not un-evolved, but those feelings that are like, you know, you don't know what you don't know, right?

And you don't know what's really bad for you. Kids don't know what's bad for them. Like you have to tell them, you know? You have to say like, you can't do this thing because it could be dangerous or you can't eat this thing too much because that could make you sick or whatever. And like, it is like a lack of information,

a lack of understanding. I think the reason why places that have diverse, urban populations tend to go blues is like, there is something that happens when you get exposed to other people that aren't like you. And often what happens is you begin to feel, you understand them and you sympathize with them and empathize. And then it becomes much harder to hate them. And we have this huge gap in this country where so many people, you look at the

red states, the hardcore red states. And yes, of course, there's some with huge histories of like real racism and slavery, but there's a lot that are like, they're just people are so far apart and so it's lacking in education about what the rest of the world is like and what other people are like, that it's just the easy default to go. Like I need to focus on what I have and what I am

and make sure nobody else gets any of that. And like Trump just gives people permission. And it's just so fucking depressing because if the world were made in the shape of what Trump talks about and what the people who love him agree with, it would be the most boring, most uninteresting world that you could possibly

fucking imagine. And like, you know, it's bad, it's retrograde, it's fucking moving in the wrong direction. And so, you know, it's bad, it's retrograde, it's fucking moving in the wrong direction. And so, you know, these are people who like would love to band gay marriage. They're people who would love to go back to saying, you know, Roe v Wade should be reversed. You know, people who are like,

we should segregate on buses. And we should segregate in schools. And people should be with their own kind. That's the fucking thinking. That's the line of thinking. And it is like a fucking safety blanket to some of these people. And Donald Trump is putting the fucking blanket on them.

Anyhow, if this country doesn't soundly reject it in November, if we don't see, you know, I was just looking, and this is something I like to look at every now and again, as I look at the 2018 midterms. You know, and it's a historic, historic turnout for voters. We flipped 41 seats in the House.

We didn't flip weirdly, we lost two seats in the Senate. But we have to do something like what we did in the House with the rest of these elections in November. I mean, if people can't come together and see, look, I don't even care if we agree. If you like Bernie and I like fucking Biden and we can't agree on their politics, totally get it. I totally understand that. But if we can't agree that Trumpism and what it's doing to this country needs to be taken care of, needs to be eradicated, then then, like I said, then we do have bigger problems.

I think the people are there, and I think people feel this. I think this is an election about electing Joe Biden. Fuck Joe Biden, who cares about Joe Biden? This is an election about getting rid of Donald Trump. And I think if the people who really, truly despise Trump is come together, we can get rid of Donald Trump. And that's all that needs to happen right now,

in my opinion, and I hope that it does. And now we gotta talk about technology or something, because I'm getting really depressed. Well, I don't even know how we got on this topic. We're gonna be on Facebook. Well, I mean, it's kind of a smooth transition of there are groups right now that are lobbying the Biden campaign

and eventually, hopefully, the Biden administration not to hire anyone who works as a higher level executive at Facebook at the moment. Yeah. Because. So this, for example, this letter says like from spreading dangerous COVID-19 health insururacies to supercharging election misinformation to promoting racist content about Black Lives Matter protesters, enabling white supremacist movements and serving as tools of authoritarian regimes. Facebook is proving itself unwilling to protect public health, stop the spread of racism and hate, and prevent violence. Despite the rise in intolerance for disinformation, numerous data-related scandals and elevated surveillance, Facebook continues to re-enlibe simply due to its lack of competition. And I think it's important to say that if this group

is a monopoly and is clearly ill intentions toward government or social movements that maybe like the one like left-wing organized political party shouldn't like embrace them. And, you know, like I agree with, I strongly agree with it. an organized political party shouldn't embrace them. I strongly agree with this. People are like this isn't unfair to these people who are employees. Well, you don't have to work there.

You really don't. A higher level executive has some choices in life. I agree with that. There are a lot of companies. Of course, there agree with that. I mean, also, there are a lot of companies. I mean, of course, there's an argument. Somebody would say, well, it's good if they, you know, tap somebody from Facebook, and he said then they can become influential to other people at Facebook,

which like honestly is an argument that I'd be willing to hear outgiven how fucked up everything is. But I do think- I don't know. I think the White House has enough power that Facebook is gonna have to listen to them, whether or not they bring in any of their cronies. Even better than bringing in their cronies would be

to bring in really fucking smart regulators who can look at these companies and start going, wait a second, what you're doing here is fucking wrong. It's bad for humanity, it's bad for people, we need to deal with it. Like, I agree with you. I also think there are plenty, so many brilliant thinkers and doers in the world of technology

that aren't that are either working on solutions to make information, to get better information to people in a clear way or working on systems that are more ethical or are thinking about the ways that we design social networks and social systems online to actually serve. Everybody and not just one weird algorithmic line of people, one weird algorithmically identified line of people.

I think there are many choices there and to go to somebody from Facebook is, should not be at the top of the list. I think there are better people to put on that list. And I think that I would hope that, I mean, what I'm hoping with, I mean, let's hope we get to the point at all, but to be clear, if Biden becomes president, that he is, I would hope,

and that people like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are surrounding him and pushing him to fill these roles with a different set of people than Joe Biden and his typical group of associates might staff them with. Like, there needs to be some, there needs to be some force. I mean, it's funny because Trump talks about, Joe Biden is a puppet of the radical left. And it's like, I fucking wish, you know,

like I wish Joe Biden was a puppet of the radical left. Like, yeah, and it's incredible. I mean, it's an incredible story that he tells because we're like, everybody who's like got really like strong left, very left leaning ideas is like, God, Joe Biden is so fucking middle of the road and is not going to do any of the stuff we need him to do to really affect change. And is so disappointed by him as the candidate. Meanwhile, the Republicans are like, this guy is a terrorist.

He is sent from, he's just like a Venezuelan dictator, leftist dictator. It's like, yeah, he's gonna say, he's gonna about socialize everything. You know, Joe Biden, great king of socializing. It's fucking insane. Anyhow, but yeah, I mean, I think, I mean, I agree, like we shouldn't, yeah, don't, don't staff up with Facebook people. Let's think it's Zuckerberg. Definitely get Zuckerberg on the team. So in other news, but also similar, a federal appeals court found this week, they confirmed that the NSA snooping on American citizens was illegal. So good.

You know, a really nice moment in a sea of absolutely awful shit to know that like someone somewhere has some ethical standards at all. I'm so excited. I mean, I had no idea. I didn't know for sure, you know, if that was illegal to spy on citizens for no reason. But now we found out that those, which is, I think, is really refreshing and exciting. I mean, in the ruling, they like thank Edward Snowden

for bringing this to public attention. And it's like, well, he still isn't really allowed in our country. So if we can handle that as well, that would be nice. I mean, isn't there like a warrant? Does he have a warrant? I mean, isn't there like, he can't come into the country because he'll be arrested?

Yep. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it seems like, I mean, think about prism. Think about the whole fucking Snowden thing, it seems like, I mean, think about prism. Think about the whole fucking Snowden thing, which seems like, I mean, it's like another lifetime to me. It still does boggle my mind though. I understand it's another lifetime.

I remember where I was when I heard the story broke. I was on vacation in Pennsylvania, going to Hershey Park, editing a podcast. And I like I was sitting in the hotel room waiting to leave because I had to finish editing the podcast first. And I saw that on the news. And it really was like pretty mind blowing that during the Obama administration, what was essentially a conspiracy theory of like dark web like Reddit nonsense was confirmed to be absolutely true. Like that, it's still pretty shocking.

I mean, it wasn't an Obama thing though, was it? I mean, this was like something that was attached to like an extension of like the Patriot Act, right? Totally, but it was happening under the Obama administration's nose. And they were happy to use the data. I mean, you know, it's so crazy's, it's, but it's, it's so crazy because I mean, I remember it's funny because I, at the time when that was happening, I was shooting a pilot for

a TV show that never happened for, for FX. And it was like, you know, like a talk show thing and we did a segment where we went out on the street and we talked to people about prism. And, and I was just like, I was like in Times Square and I was like, do you know what prism is? People are like, I think that's the new Katy Perry record. Like nobody, like no regular person. Like one guy was like, oh, yeah, that's the spying program that the NSA has been using. Like, but like so many people, it's like, think about it.

But this one time about the information gap is like so crazy in this country. Like the information that people have is, it's like we're done such a bad job of informing the population about things they should be concerned about. And we've done such a good job of putting things in front of them that are like, you know, we literally, I know it's like a cliche, but we really do live in like the, if it bleeds, it leads, you know, we literally, I know it's like a cliche, but we really do live in like the,

if it bleeds, it leads, you know, reality, where the stuff that we wanna show people, I mean, you look at CNN and these like networks and they're like hammering on these stories that are, you know, it's funny, Brian Steltzer, who's on CNN, had this piece the other, you know, like a while we could go about, about citizen, sort of like citizen driven journalism,

not citizen journalism, but doing journalism about stories that have an actual impact on like the population, you know, like if voters in America are like, I don't have a job right now, I can't paint my rent, I'm getting evicted, I have all these bills piling up and the government is not doing anything to help me. Like that should be the story. The stories that we tell should be stories that are directly impacting most Americans are worried about and need to know about right now. First is creating this narrative about rioters in cities across America.

But I guarantee you the percentage of time They spend we know there's a few cities in America right now where protests have turned Violence not the right word but protests have gone from like peaceful protests to like Setting shut on fire and like breaking some windows right which is like really bad and people shouldn't do it, but also like When when people are getting shot and broad daylight for no reason, you lose your cool after a while and I totally fucking understand it. And I don't, I don't, I don't,

I don't draw an equivalence between a human being's life and a fucking shop getting set on fire. They just are not compatible in terms of those aren't parallel acts. shop getting set on fire like they just are not compatible in terms of like the the the Those are not those aren't parallel acts, you know murder is like on a whole different level like But like the but the point is so we know that there's some protest that have gotten you know violent Let's say for the lack of a better way to describe it We know that Trump has purposefully inflamed those

protests where he sent either, you know, secret police or has gotten his like fucking proud boys, crews fired up enough to go and antagonize peaceful protest actually peaceful protesters. So there's a story there, right? Trump wants the story to be, America's cities are in ruins thanks to the radical left and the only person who can stop them is me, Donald Trump. And like that story is not what most people in America are worried about right now. That story is a lie, that story is bullshit, that story is an invention, right? There are a lot of people peacefully protesting

all over the country with no issue. There are some protests that get violent or more heated. Those do that does happen. It happens all the time, but they are typically like pretty controllable. It's not like all of Portland has been raised. It's not like if you go to Portland, like there's no more city. Like it's like some shick outside on fire,

a few things got broken, it's static, it got pulled down. It's like a pretty under control for the most part. But his narrative is like, we're under attack from radical and Tifa and they have to be stopped. But, and so, you know, it's funny because Stelter was like on CNN talking about, I'm gonna bring this back to the Stelter point, about the things that I think that he's right about

where it's like people are really worried about their like Families and I don't mean they're not worried about and Tifa. They're worried about like feeding their families They're worried about why they stop getting fucking stimulus checks when we're in the middle of a pandemic that Trump has like thrown gasoline on to like what was a a horrible fire Trump has just been dumping gasoline on. You know, they're worried about public health. They're worried about healthcare, like shit that's real to people here. But like CNN and fucking MSNBC don't spend a lot of time on those topics.

They spend most of their time talking about Trump talking about fucking rioters. You know? And so like when you think about this this this unbelievable gap in information we have in this country where it's like not only are we do we have things like Facebook and Twitter that are just like an unmitigated pollution of information for the most part. But then you've got like major networks in this country that want to tell a narrative that is the President's narrative, which is the wrong narrative about the country. And I mean, because it fucking excites people and gets people to watch and gets people to click.

And then you have like this huge other problem where local media has been wiped out over the last 10 years, of 20 years. And like, you don't even have anything you can go to and say, like, what's happening in my, in my world? And so, like, to me, like, the pollution of information is the biggest story of this era, of this, of this, last couple of decades, and the fact that we are not solving that problem, that we are only making it worse to me, that there is no concerted effort at the highest levels of industry and of government to figure this out, to get people information, is, you know, that's the issue of our day.

To me, and that is why you have such polarized viewpoints about what is going on in the world. I don't think, I don't think we have to ignore something that's like so obviously a terrible problem and idea that is growing by day by day. And then it blows up in our fucking faces. Like how many times do we have to do this? Not just as a globe, but like specifically as our country.

Like how? No, I know. Climate change is gonna happen now. Whether or not, and we could have done anything about it. And we would have all been better off. It's like fucking crazy. I mean, there is, there is, I mean, there is, again, I'm not gonna say there's like a silver lining

because of coronavirus, but there is, I do think coronavirus, the coronavirus, has snapped us out, some out of somewhat of, a stupor. Yeah, I mean, I think it's woken up a lot of people, I hope, to realize that like, that this shit is all connected and it isn't just about, like, it isn't just about the small things that you perceive or that

you think, well, my vote doesn't matter, they're all the same or whatever. You think there's no difference, like there's no difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump? There's a big fucking difference. Your vote actually does matter. Like the way the world is right now is a direct result of your vote.

A direct result. It's not inevitable. It's very comforting the number of times I see posted on Reddit on news stories big and small Multiple people saying I really used to think my vote didn't matter and now I'm so horrified Yes, yes, it is just like for him to see the number of people saying that I'm telling you It's like my father-in-law I bring I bring up this point all the time. He's a guy who's never been interested in politics I've talked about this a lot. He is really fired up to vote

He's really fired up to go and cast a vote against Donald Trump. He is scared about Donald Trump. He's scared about what Donald Trump is doing to the country. This guy is a guy who did not give a shit. And like that to me is, now that was, that's just Donald Trump being Donald Trump.

I like to think that on top of Donald Trump being Donald Trump, that COVID-19 has made everybody really aware of the fact that like you put a dumbass in charge who's gonna shake things up. The way he may shake things up is like he eliminates the pandemic response team that would have been able to see this shit coming and would have been able to get us prepared

in a much better way for an actual pandemic. You know, and like that means you're fucked right now, directly, you know, like that is on Donald Trump and it is on the vote that we cast. Whatever direction it was, if you voted for Donald Trump, not whatever direction, I mean, if you cast of over Donald Trump, there is a direct line from that vote to the reduction in pandemic readiness that we have to, you know, the way coronavirus is spread in this country, I tweeted a great thread today from a guy named Arthur Chu,

who is, I don't know, he's an actor, he's a comedian, he's interesting dude, but he basically is talking about Taiwan and how they handle coronavirus and that he has relatives there, you know? And he basically is like, don't say that we couldn't get this under control. We could have. It would have sucked and it would have been hard. But there was a there's a way to do it by having a plan. And if we had leadership that that committed to that plan and committed to science and said to the said to our population,

this is going to be tough. But it's going to work. We would not be where we are right now. You know, we wouldn't. The world you live in today in America wouldn't look like this. We'd be in the office. We'd be seeing our family members, we'd be going on vacations. I mean, we'd be living our lives. I mean, and you know, in addition to that, within the president's power is the power to make sure that people have the supplies they need, the health care they need, the equipment they need. And this president has not done that, you know. We could have, I mean, we could have a situation, had we done this right, where we really hunkered down. There was a federal nationwide mandate

that we were just shutting the country down for a couple of months. This said, we're talking like two months, okay? We're in like month seven of this now or whatever. You know, and the truth is they're not gonna have a vaccine. I mean, the thought right now is like the reality of getting a vaccine that works is probably more like the end of next year.

I know, and they're cooking up some like, back alley fucking lemonade to people. Well, yeah, I mean, I mean, you know, and I guarantee you, there's gonna be people who take that shit and get very sick or die. Because like, you can't, we've been trying to fight any vaxers for how long? You can't snap your fingers and make a vaccine.

It just doesn't work that way. And no matter how much you fucking call an operation warp drive, anyhow, but what I'm saying is there is a way to change it if the leadership. We, I mean, do you know how much we've lost in this country? Besides the 180, 190,000 dead now and continuing to rise, we have lost so much. I mean, have it be a fucking parent for a second and see what it's done to kids to the way like I have a little kid. Do you know how much it's fucked up her life, how weird this has been for her and how hard, how she hasn't been able to see people or do things that she was doing that were helping her grow as a person, like it's insane. And that's just one tiny little piece of it.

There has been so much loss that we can't even begin to calculate. And the reality is, and what nobody seems to really want to say or understand is that you didn't have to be this way. And it is this way because of the person who is leading the country and the way that they're making decisions for the country. Make no mistake about it. This is 100%, not 100%.

Not 100%. It's like 80% on Donald Trump, the way things have happened, okay? Because like he didn't control, he didn't create the virus. He didn't, you know, personally go and spray it on people in this country. But he could have acted in many ways and he didn't. And it's like, that's fucking real, you know? Like, it didn't have to be this way.

And I hope that people feel like, when the next shot they have at this to get leadership in this country, that they are like a lot more thoughtful or a lot more scary. I mean, it's heartbreaking because there's so many tragedies that we can't even focus on anymore. I mean, like Puerto Rico is ravaged and nobody can even begin to give a shit because the rest of us are fucking ravaged too. Yeah, it's fucking.

We do have good things to talk about. We should actually talk about some good stuff. Let's do it. So Nintendo just announced a whole bunch of new Mario games going into the fall and a new take on their original handheld game console, the Game and Watch, to come out all around Mario's 35th anniversary. It's a wild day, it's a wild release.

It's very exciting. Now look, I'll be honest with you, I have a lot of game systems. And I don't know if I need another one that just plays a version of Super Mario Brothers, but I have a feeling also I'm going to purchase this, which is problematic. What do we know about this handheld game and watch system? Do we think there will be, I mean, it's obviously like an emulator, basically, right? Yeah, it's basically modeled on the original game and watch from Nintendo. So the original Mario Super Mario brother version, which was a black and white sort of like it looks like a watch face screen.

It was like this LCD little one game. And so they they took a copy of like a full release copy of Super Mario Brothers and they put it on the model that was sort of based on the design of that original one. Right. And in addition, they're also releasing three of the Super Mario 3D games, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy as a package. They're releasing Super Mario 3D World and it's DLC as a package.

And this is the kind of the coolest thing. They're releasing Super Mario Kart Live Home Circuit, which it's this toy, like Mario in a cart that you can control like a like an RC car, but it uses a camera within the toy to put a video of where the cart is going on the Nintendo switch screen, but it overlays it with like other racers and items. So you can play Mario Kart with like a physical car around your living or like kids are gonna freak out Yeah, this is this is not so it's like I Mean this to me is like

Really cool. It's essentially like there's a real car right? That drives around your real house and then it like you can do a setup essentially in which but I mean like Zelda would love this Because she loves like doing setups. But like the setup becomes like the track where you race like in a Mario Kart race, like on the switch. It gets like virtual. You see it, it's cool.

Yeah, against like virtual like players. It's nuts. I mean, you gotta watch the video. You gotta go to inputmag.com and watch the video. It is so rad looking. It's like, if you showed this something like 20 years ago, their head would have exploded. This is the kind of stuff that I would have dreamed up

as a kid like, and play pretend with like, a roll of toilet paper or whatever. Like this is so crazy. It's so crazy. It's so crazy. It's so crazy. It's so crazy. It's so awesome. I mean, I'm looking at it.

I'm just watching the video right now and it's just like, it's just such a rad idea. I mean, I don't know what it'll be like in execution. I assume, I mean, Nintendo's pretty fucking good at executing, so I assume that they, that this works really well. Oh, you can play with multiple cars. Oh my God, that is so good.

That is so wild. As it's so good. We'll be able to pick all of this up in the fall. And then you can go to inputmag.com and see our coverage of it, including the video and the release dates for all of these. But certainly makes for a very fun 35th anniversary. It's legitimately genius level what they've decided to do. I mean, their idea that they're like, put the camera in the car car and then it's like the same perspective as you have in the game is just like I don't know what

genius Nintendo came up with it but I want to give them a huge smooch. And a raise. Yes. Also on the site we have some coverage of the Galaxy Z Fold 2 which Ray got his hands on to play with, and to compare with Microsoft's Surface Duo phone. Both of these are those foldable-style cell phones that are in Vogue at the moment. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely like the trend, the folding trend is clearly not going anywhere anytime soon. And honestly, I have to say, both the Surface Duo and the new Fold, which is the name

is, I mean, this name, Galaxy Z Fold 2, it's just, can you pick one, pick one name, call it like, just call it the Fold like, and then we could be like, you know, V2. Like the Fold V2 is pretty good. Okay, anyhow, I have to say they've improved like the outward facing screen, so it's like regular phone size. Actually they've improved like the outward facing screen, so it's like regular phone size, actually it's like a long skinny phone, which looks kind of cool. I do want one.

I don't, I mean, you know, Evan did this piece about how he turned his galaxy full the original one into like a perfect like four by three screen for retro gaming with a controller. And I think that is, that has kind of infected my brain into thinking like I should do this and like this will be like an alternative to my switch. Like I can play all of like the retro games

that I wanna play on this in like their full screen beauty. But it's $2,000, it's a lot of money and I really don't need another phone. And then the duo is like, the duo is cool because I feel like they have some software ideas that we talked about this before. The that Microsoft has really good software shops, especially as of late, and that they have some ideas about how to use a dual screen device that really fixes a lot of the stuff that doesn't work on other dual screen or folding

devices. But like, I haven't used it and raised working on his review, and so we're going to find out if it if it lives up to the potential, but I do feel like I kind of like trust Microsoft software chops more than Samsung. And so I feel like if anybody's going to get that part right, it could be it will be Microsoft. But like I don't know, I do I'm like this is I thought I was for sure not interested in having a folding phone or a folding device. And both these devices have made me rethink my position. Well, it was a hard sell with the original Galaxy Fold because it was very, very delicate and it broke very easily.

The outside screen of the folding like the Surface was very small. You really couldn't use it as a phone. When you opened it up, it was a big beautiful screen, but again, a very delicate screen. This is like a little bit more solid. The hinge is a little bit more solid. The outside actually looks like a real phone.

Like I could see myself actually using this. The first device was sort of a proof of concept, but this, I mean, $2,000 is a steep price. Some of the sting of that is taken out if your carrier does like those monthly installments or whatever, but $2,000 is $2,000 and that's a lot of money for a phone. But what you are getting is a phone and kind of a mini tablet in one. So if you're someone who is in the market for both of those things and you like using Android as your main operating system, it doesn't seem like the worst

idea. Whether or not this catches on with the public mainstream consumer, I don't know if it was worth all of Samsung's R&D. I don't know that this is actually going to find its way into the hands of a million teenagers just yet. Well, they have a lot of other devices, but I mean this obviously I think that Samsung is going like, okay, this is for a very specific kind of customer. We're really just showing off how crazy we can get and our weird ideas and we don't think this is going to be a runaway you know success in terms of like number of sales, right? Like I think this think this firmly falls in their experimentation category, but it's like high-end experiment.

That makes any sense? Totally. It's like an experiment for rich people. It's a look. It's very iron man. Yeah. All right. Well, I guess that's it for a look. It's very Iron Man. Yeah. All right, well, I guess that's it for the week. We can go to Nightmares.

Oh my God. So is that it? Yeah, I mean, I got a couple, I got some stuff to talk about that's in the realm of nice things. And that's what we should do that. You want me to go, I never go first. I'm Mr. positivity as you know.

It's a known fact about me. So I, so as you know, I was go first. I'm Mr. positivity, as you know, it's a known fact about me. So I, so as you know, I was on vacation the last two weeks and during the vacation we rented a house and at the house there were bikes that you could use if you wanted to bike around the town that we were in. And I started biking on a bike and I was like, okay, so you know I had an injury. I don't know if I've talked about this

but I had a knee injury. We went to CES. Let me say. I don't know if I've talked about this, but I had a knee injury. We went to CES. Let me say, I don't know if I've ever told this story. Oh my God. We went to CES where we all got coronavirus. And so years ago I bought a peloton. We bought a peloton and I wrote it like one time. As you know, I'm not like a health nut.

I wrote it one time and I'm like, I've always been like, man, I should get back on the peloton and like, you should use that on a regular basis. Like, I really like it. I really love it. I think it's a great idea. It's just like, I'm not motivated. So I went to, we went to a CES and Nicole Delasandro

was there who was a part of our team and she also has a peloton. She's like, you gotta get on your peloton. We should be peloton buddies and I'm like, okay. She had me, I bought the peloton at the table because we were drinking a lot. And she was like, she was like, you got to get the peloton and you were like, I'm all about my peloton.

And I was like, I'll get the peloton. Did you get a peloton? Yeah. Do you use it? No. It was, this is the worst. It's the worst. Peloton? Yeah. Oh, do you use it? No. It was this is the worst. It's the worst. It's the we you and I. Okay. So, okay. So, so, so I'm like, you know what? You're fucking right. I'm gonna when I get home from CS, I felt you know, when you're at CS, you eat like shit, you drink a lot. It's just like a bad scene, you know? And I'm like, yeah, you're right. It's also January. So it's like you prime time for like

getting your shit together. You're like, oh, yeah. Well, I really like went crazy at the end of the year. I'm going to like, you do New Year's resolution. 2020 is going to be my year. I'm like, 2020 is going to kill. It's going to be so good. So anyway, I should have known something was up. So I go home, I get home. I'm like, all right, I'm like, I'm going to be friends with Nicole,

because you can be half friends. I'm like, now this is going to be like great peer pressure. Like, let me go for a ride. I went for one ride and I did something heinous to my knee. Like something popped in my knee and it hurt really bad and I'm like, oh my God, what is going on? I go to the doctor and they're like, oh yeah, you have a torn meniscus in your knee and like you either need surgery or physical therapy.

I'm like, oh, this is fucking incredible. Like, after years of not using the fucking thing, I get on it one time and ride and I messed up my knee. By the way, this is fucking incredible. Like, after years of not using the fucking thing, I get on at one time and ride and I messed up my knee. By the way, this is right before I was literally supposed to get begin my physical therapy, like the day that like the country shut down, or like a week before it or something. I mean, it's really like close.

Anyhow, so I have this messed up knee and it's been, it has been hurting like the whole time. But I went out on one of these bikes at this house and my knee wasn't hurting. And I was like, and I went riding around this town and it was super fun and I felt really good and I was like, holy shit, I love this, this is great. And my knee isn't hurting, I'm gonna get a bike.

So I spent a good portion of my vacation in the evenings looking and like reading up on different bikes, right? There are a million fucking bikes. There are so many fucking bikes and so many varieties from so many companies, but here's the interesting thing. You can't buy any of them right now. Every bike is sold out everywhere.

Like bikes are not available. It turns out everybody during COVID, the COVID-19 lockdowns has gotten into biking. And we all have the same idea. And it's biking everywhere. So I'm like, I went to a store, when we got home, I'm like, I'm just gonna go to one of these bike shops

and you're buying, I'm gonna get a bike there. I went to a store, the person who worked at the store was like, yeah, we're not gonna have new bikes until the spring. I'm like, next spring? They're like, yeah, I'm like, okay. Anyhow, so I finally found a bike. I bought a bike online,

and it is, I got it yesterday. I had to put like the wheels on and the handlebars and stuff. And then like the seat post is too high for me. So I had to take it to a bike shop to get the seat post cut. Anyhow, but the point is I'm going to start riding a real bike which hopefully will allow me to get back on the peloton at some point. And so my nice thing is, I'm, as you know, I've got a lot of new hobbies,

and now one of my new hobbies is riding a bike. And I mean, at least I want it to be, and I believe after today, I will know if it is one of my new hobbies. And yeah, that's my nice thing. That sounds lovely. Yeah. We bought a bike and a peloton,

we never used either. We used our electric scale. I'm not gonna be like that. I'm we bought a bike and a peloton we never use either. We use our I'm not gonna I'm not gonna be like that. I'm gonna be a bike guy Well, okay, so my nice thing this week is fall guys fall guys is the best I mean it's the best it's the greatest thing that's happened to multiplayer gaming on the internet since multiplayer gaming was invented. Like, it really is exactly what we need right now. It's so bad and so far. It is silly.

I mean, I find it to be very fucking stressful and I do get very frustrated while playing it, but it is generally just so lighthearted and low stakes and like honestly does require you to think really creatively and to think just like to think very differently about like accomplishing goals and is just takes away all of the stuff that I hate about online gaming like it takes away names and it takes away like I mean, I don't know, maybe some people are like got headsets

and they're like talking to each other while playing it but like there's none of that. There's no like kids like fracking you. It's just like, you know, you're just, it's just like you're involved in this weird cartoon game show and it is so fun. I have one complaint about it, which is like, they need to make an auto respawn situation

where like, as soon as you die, it just like exits you into another match. So like, because like, anyhow, this is very specific concern if you've played Fall Guys, it's just like, when you lose, it's like, oh, you lost, you can watch, and then it's like, no, you don't want to watch, okay, then you can quit to the like this other screen where you get some bonus points or whatever, and it's like, whatever, you just want to get back to another game. They should have a mode where you just auto-spawn into a new game, but that said, You should have a mode where you just auto spawn into a new game. But that said, it's an incredibly fun game.

It requires almost no barrier to entry, except it's like 20 bucks. I don't know. I bought it on my PC. I don't know how much it costs for PS4. And for the last month. Oh, really? Well, there you go. And it's just like a wonderful experience that I think it will have.

It's definitely from the like Mario Kart smash brother's school of like this adorable game will ruin your relationship and you'll break the controller. Oh, yeah, but oh my God, you know, I've wanted to throw my controller multiple times. But it's so fun and when you put it down or pick it up, there's no like, I don't need to like sit with the story like the last of us or like, I don't need to like, you know, I really feel guilty I got to get back to fall guys it was a free game with PlayStation Plus it is fun mindless cool weird it's just great it's what

American news yeah yeah it really is it's what American needs to heal right now all right well I guess that's it that's it all right well time to get back to the uh content minds and minds and beautiful content. Get content long as they call it. Oh, that's the best. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Well that is our show for this week, we'll be back next week with more tomorrow and as always I wish you and your family the very best, though I've just been informed that your entire family was pushed off of a large seesaw and has been eliminated from the match. you