wellRED podcast - Evening Skews - 1/26/21 - ALL THINGS Q

Episode Date: January 31, 2021

From Trae: Well first off, there was only one episode last week because AT&T sucked and couldn't get my internet fixed in what was a MORE than reasonable timeframe, leaving me scrambling at this last second and ultimately derailing our episode for Thursday. I hate it and I'm sorry, but hey, Tuesday's ep was a good un! We dove in on one of Smart Mark's favorite (and most hated, which is why it's a favorite for him) subjects: QAnon! In doing so we were joined by Marley Clements and Bayan Joonam, the makers of the new ViceTV documentary on the subject, QAnon: The Search for Q. Check it out, enjoy the episode, and we'll get er back on track next week. Thanks, love y'all.  

And we thank them for sponsoring the show. Well, no, I'll just go ahead. I mean, look, I'm money dumb. Y'all know that. I've been money dumb ever, since ever, my whole life. And the modern world makes it even harder to not be money dumb, in my opinion. Because used to, you, like, had to write down everything you spent or you wouldn't know nothing. But now you got apps and stuff on your phone.

It's just like you can just, it makes it easier to lose count of, well, your count, the count every month, how much you're spending. A lot of people don't even know how much they spend on a per month basis. I'm not going to lie, I can be one of those people. Like, let me ask you right now. Skewers out, whatnot, sorry, well-read people. People across the ske universe, I should say. Do you even know how many subscriptions that you actively pay for every month or every year? Do you even know?

Do you know how much you spend on takeout or delivery? Getting a paid chauffeur for your chicken low main? Because that's a thing that we do in this society. You know how much you spend on that? It's probably more than you think. But now there's an app designed to help you manage your money better. and it's called Rocket Money. Rocket Money is a personal finance app

that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Rocket Money shows all your expenses in one place, including subscriptions you already forgot about. If you see a subscription, you don't want anymore, Rocket Money will help you cancel it. Their dashboard lays out your whole financial picture,

including the due dates for all your bills and the pay days. In a way that's easier for you to digest, you can even automatically create, custom budgets based on your past spending. Rocket Money's 5 million members have saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscription with members saving up to $740 a year when they use all of the apps. Premium features. I used Rocket Money and realized that I had apparently been paying for two different

language learning services that I just wasn't using. So I was probably like, I should know Spanish. I'll learn Spanish. and I've just been paying to learn Spanish without practicing any Spanish for, you know, pertinent two years now or something like that. Also, a fun one, I'd said it before, but I got an app,

lovely little app where you could, you know, put your friends' faces onto funny reaction gifts and stuff like that. So obviously I got it so I could put Corey's face on those two, those two like twins from the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland movies. You know, those weren't a little like the Q-ball-looking twin fellas. Yeah. So that was money.

What was that a reply gift for? Just when I did something stupid. Something fat, I think, and stupid. Something both fat and stupid. But anyway, that was money well spent at first. But then I quit using it and was still paying for it and forgotten. If it wasn't for Rocket Money, I never would have even figured it out. So shout out to them.

They help. If you're money dumb like me, Rocket Money can help. So cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney. dot com slash well read today that's rocket money.com slash well r e d rocketmoney.com slash well read and we thank them for sponsoring this episode of the podcast. They're the.

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back. Today is Tuesday, January 26th, 2021. I'm Trey Crowder. That's Mark Aegee. What's up, Mark? What's up, Trey, Sport Cove, man. Looking good.

Yeah, yeah. I just, I don't know. I like to gussy it up every now and then, you know, just when the mood strikes me right, makes me feel like less trash. I like knowing that I'm trash, but putting like a fancy coat of paint on the trashness. You know what I mean? I just like to do it every now and then. Makes me feel good.

Your jacket is way more rad than mine, though. Yeah, it's like a white trash and sport go. It's like, it's like getting chicken tenders at Adel Frisco's or something. It's like, it's just ticket tenders. But yeah, it's like, nice chicken tenders. Yeah, it's fancy chicken tenders. Yeah, but it's, we're both wearing jackets. It's just so everybody knows, I think, because.

you know, me and him both live in Southern California and guys, we're fucking freezing the death out here the last couple days. It's been like 54, 55 degrees, y'all. That's crazy. We're fucking, we're cold. It's like, yeah, in the morning. But yes, when I first, it is insane to me how quickly I lost any tolerance.

I didn't have very much tolerance for cold anyway because I grew up in the South my whole life. But still, we moved to California in January of 2017. When we first got here, it was like 50-something degrees at nighttime. And I remember when we first got here, I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt walking to the gas station and stuff. And I was laughing at all the people with their north faces on and stuff.

I was like, I was like, what? You just need an excuse to wear the north face. Like, you're never going to be able to wear it otherwise. But now, like, you know, four years later or whatever, it's like, oh, no, I'm fucking freezing too. Like, I never was good with the cold, being from Tennessee, but I can't handle it at all now. Yeah, man, I always love that about California.

Whatever you want to wear, it makes sense. Like, whatever you feel like wearing, it's all fine. You want to play shorts that's part of you want to wear a winter coat? That makes sense. It's roughly in the middle, whatever you want to wear. Yeah, if you're young people in California, if anybody out there's from Tennessee or has ever been to Bonneroo, but you've never really been to California,

there's kind of a Bonaroo aesthetic going on pretty much every day of the year with, like, young people in California. They dress the way like we do when we go to Bonnarue and want to let our freak flag fly. That's just how they look all the time. So let's get into the show here. We've got, I'm trying to turn my game down here. People are telling me my mic's a little hot. Sorry about that.

We got producer Matt with us, as always, behind the scenes, pulling the strings. This is Evening Skews. We've got a great show for you tonight. We're going to dive into the comical absurdity that is the U.S. stock market. and in the even more absurd subject, one of Mark's very favorites, all things Q&ONA a little later. And on that note, we will be having a conversation with Marley Clements and Bayon Junum,

who are the filmmakers behind Vice TV's forthcoming documentary, QAnon, the Search for Q, which actually premieres this very night at 10 p.m. Eastern. So we're really looking forward to that. But first, as always, we begin with the Daily Dole. dumbass. Matt, play the graphic. Please. Tonight's DD. He's gone, but not forgotten.

Donald J. Trump. Why is he our dumbass once again tonight? Well, because this was a man anointed by God, chosen to serve his kingdom, right? We all know that. No one argues that. But somewhere along the way, he made a critical error in judgment that cost him both the White House and the favor of the Lord.

And if you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll let noted right-wing lunatic, Scott lively, explain where Trump went wrong. Matt, play the clip, please. If Donald Trump was, as I believe, God's man in the White House for four years, why did God not preserve it? Because if God had given him favor, nothing that mankind could have done could have removed him from that office, could have prevented it. They tried for four years. They tried for four years. and yet the one thing that he did during that time that would virtually guarantee

God's favor from being removed was to put his own personal stamp of approval on behavior that God condemns in the harshest possible terms in the Bible, which is specifically male homosexuality. Ding, dang, dang, there it is. How many of y'all had wainers and butts on the bingo card, right? you knew it always comes down on the winners in the butts mark every time

ever since sodom and gomorrah man let's say a guy first god burned down a whole town and turned lots wife into uh assault and now he just took donald trump's job away he's got got got's toned it down the last a couple thousand years yeah also just noted friend of the lGBQIA plus community donald trump right like known worldwide for his support of the queer movement. All things queer. Donald Trump is for it and everybody knows it. Like, what the fuck is this dude talking about? But I mean, there's no doubt in my mind. He's paid a bunch of women to mess around with each other. It's like that. Yeah, peeing on each other and stuff. Yeah,

we all know it. I got to say, though, and we talked about this before on the show, they have this thing on the far right sometimes where it's like, it all sounds to me like they're going to actually make sense or land on the right thing. Do you know what I mean? Like they can sound at first like, holy shit, they're about to actually become self-aware, figure this out. And then at the end, they just veer off wildly into lunatic homophobia. And what I mean is like when he starts out saying, like, listen, if Donald Trump was truly chosen by the Lord, then nothing could have kept him from winning again.

And I'm sitting here listening like, yes, exactly. right? Like all you people that have called him God's chosen president for the past four years or whatever listen to that. Like if he was, then how did he lose, right? Like that part makes sense to me and then he gets to his

explanation for it and it's like, well there it is. God apparently has very, very specific superpowers. It's kind of like how the green lantern can't fight stuff as yellow or Aquaman can't come on land. It's good. So

God, so God can make Trump win, but he can't make Trump hate gay people more, right? That's outside of his will. That makes sense because he has free will. But if he has free will, do the voters not have free will to not choose him? Like, how exactly does this work? You know, like what are the mechanics? Buddy, you tell me and we'll both know. But a lot of these types, a lot of these right-wing religious types, they're reeling right now, okay?

because they've said, hey, God has declared it. He hath foretold. Donald Trump is the president from now into the future. He's going to win for sure because God said it was so. And then that didn't happen. How are they handling that? Not particularly well. Our first honorable mention, Matt, you could play the clip we got.

The next one we got lined up there. God hates what? He. He didn't say he hates discord. He hates he, he, he hates you that are being a troll. He hates you that are attacking your Christian brothers. God hates people that roasting on the internet. Yeah, but they're false.

They're wrong. Excuse me. How do you know? Because it hasn't come to pass. How do you know that it hasn't come to pass? First of all, the president was. reelected. Let's get that clear. Second of all, he was given

a second term based on re-election. Well, he's not serving it now because it was stolen by thieves. Again, how? Like you were just saying

about God and his powers, his superpowers, whatever, how could that ever possibly happen that it was stolen from him by us, you know, godless heathens on the left in this country you know it's like we say somebody like they call us fucking weak and ineffectual

pussies and that type of thing but then we can somehow you know subvert God and just we can steal from the Lord with that's the strength of our devilry you know what I mean how the hell does that work but also him going on that thing like no you know he really hates if you talk shit about me God hates you he hates you that said mean things to me on the internet just they're reeling mark what he's bad what he's mad about us he he he basically he uh he whipped it out and put it out there that he

the god had told him trump was going to get reelected so he he pointed himself as a prophet who had foretold the future and then was wrong so now he's saying that the people make it on the internet are actually the devil and he was right all along but it's like i mean we're going to get to it with the cue stuff later but this is what happens when prophecies don't come true is people move the goalposts and they're still right. They're still right, Tray. They can't be wrong. God controls all things except this specific election theft. He could not stop that. He controls everything else, but not Joe Biden's team. All right. Our next honor will mention they've got a plan for how to handle us on the left just so y'all know.

They're not caught unawares. They know how to handle our criticisms of them. And Matt, you can play the next clip whenever you got it. We're getting attacked because you love Trump and you're a cult for Trump. What happens is you cannot back away from engaging in the debate. This is where you run to the roar. And if they want to call me a homophobic, I say, oh, so you're a heterophobe, are you? Just turn it back in the other direction. So you've got this bias against heterosexual people.

You can't disengage from the debate just because they're being mean or just because they're saying things about you. deploying the classic i am rubber and you are glue uh approach out here just now i know you are but what am i turning around what can we possibly do against that yeah i mean i am a heterophobe tray my wife scares me um the i i guess they're flipping out over this this week because of biden overturned the the ban on trans people in the military um uh which is like so funny to me i mean the whole idea of ban. You're talking in all the military, I don't know, maybe

a couple dozen trans people, a couple hundred you know, maybe. But it's like, we're so scared to let them in bathrooms. They seem like the most, we should put them on the front lines of special forces if they're that dangerous, right? Right. I remember Chris Rock saying about don't ask, don't tell when that was still a thing

or he was just like, it's like, why would you want to stop any of them from fight? He's like, let anybody fight that wants to fight. He's like, I ain't fighting. Like, if they'll fight, instead of me having to fight, let them fight. I don't care how you feel about them. And that's sort of like, even if you are a bigot,

I don't know why you care about them putting their lives on the line for your freedom. Maybe it makes you feel like a dickhead at the end of the day or something. But yeah, it just doesn't make any sense. I mean, like, first of all, we shouldn't be sending anyone to Syria. But as a country, we've decided to send some people, I'm not going. So whoever else is to fucking sign up. Right, exactly. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. Anyone else doesn't make any sense, Mark. The word China, especially when it comes in front of the word virus. This is our next honorable mention. Maria Bartaromo. I butchered that. We'll explain what I mean. They're upset about this.

Matt, play a clip whenever you got it. Well, I can tell you right now, you know, President Biden did another executive order today. And in that order, he is banning the term China virus. Have you ever heard anything so ridiculous and extraordinary? Meanwhile, I mean, seriously, this is actually, this is happening. Yeah. I sympathize with Rand Paul there laughing, trying to figure out what the fuck she's talking about. I don't know who needs to hear this, but Joe Biden does not have the authority to keep you from saying the word China virus.

I just said it. There's no contact on my door. You get put a gulag, Mark, if you don't watch it. saying all that band words china virus also i felt like maybe it's just me but i felt like rand paul had a little bit of like a jimmy stewart thing going on at the end of that clip was like yeah yeah yeah yeah it is it is odd isn't it like it sound like that's how he was about to sound maybe that's maybe his neighbor points him so hard he talks funny now so all right the last arm will mention we have tonight anybody who thought the my pillow guy

could ever have a cool girlfriend he wants to make sure you know that that's not true who might put up the screen grab there. He's upset over the accusations that he could have dated someone as, you know, successful, funny, and cool as Jane Krakowski from 30 Rock. This is a weird thing, Mark. Like the Daily Mail reported that Jane Krakowski and the My Pillow guy had been together.

Yes, they took less than five days after the Daily Mail turned heads by reporting romance between My Pillow CEO, Mike Lindale and 30 Rock actress Jane Krakowski. He's filed a defamation. suit in New York federal court Lendell Lodge claims on Monday. I mean, what's he so upset about here? Like, hell, this makes him look good. But also, what even is this, Mark?

Like, where did this come from? A made-up tabloid story. Like, when I read the story for the first day, it was out, it was like, there was like, there was like one anonymous source who says she's Jane Krakowski's neighbor, right? And then both parties did not ever meeting each other. And that was the whole story. So then she Krakowski just reiterates yeah, I don't know what this is about and Michael Dill apparently

He followed the follow this suit because I'm not quite sure how it's defaming him to say he was cool enough to hang out with Jane Krakowski Right exactly yeah He's probably following him first before she did so we didn't humiliate him or her being like putting in court papers I would never go anywhere near this huge fucking loser This guy who's literally recovering crackhead who just tried to overthrow the government Yeah, I think that's what's happened there. I said that was our last honorable mention, but we actually have one more.

It's much more general. We're going to use this to send it over to you, Mark, as you take me and our viewers through one of our first subjects of the day. Our last honorable mention for Daily Dumbass is anybody who thinks the American economy actually makes sense. This shit is going crazy out here, and it all revolves around a mall video game store. and Reddit and chicken tenders

and all those things are bringing the American economy shaking it to its foundation mark. Please explain what the fuck is going on with this shit. In five years when we're all bo-hunting rats to cook over trash can fires and your kid asks you what happens to be like, okay, well, some kids on Reddit decided to fleece some billionaires using shares of GameStop stock. So basically what happened was a bunch of people on Reddit.

Okay, if you want to roll the other finance clip, Matt, that might actually make more sense to start with it. Let an expert news story explain it. I want to shift our focus back over to what we've been watching play out in one of the most epic short squeezes of all time. GameStop shares, once again, spiking as much as 85% in today's session as we continue to watch that play out

in what is an incredible story tying together, quite a few things, including some big bets on Wall Street with some big bets made in a Reddit forum. But when you look at the fundamentals, a lot of people pointing out this company is not expected to turn a profit for years. And right now, the valuation is beyond what you would describe as anything supported by fundamentals. So how crazy is GameStop's run here? I've been on Wall Street for over 20 years, and I cannot think of anything that I've seen that is nearly as insane as what's going on with the GameStop right now. I mean, you know, the stock price is going one way and the fundamentals are going the complete opposite. So this is truly insane, quite frankly.

I'm not really sure that anything that's going on right now, as far as I can tell, is illegal. I mean, there's no sort of, you know, non-public information as far as I can tell that's being traded. I mean, this is just speculation. If you want to gamble, go to the casino. I mean, this is just not, I mean, this is not what the markets are for. All right, so a couple of things you had to know. A short squeeze, my understanding, is a bunch of people have short sold GameStop. There's actually been a debate about how valuable GameStop is.

Gamestock, as you might imagine, isn't making a lot of money right now because they're a store in malls that sells video games. No one's going to malls in a pandemic and people can now buy the, download their video games online. So their whole business model was a tad fuck. Right. But they sell some valuable assets. So there's actually been a disagreement about like, like where game stops would be valued. But the funniest part to me of that clip was while,

like the 30 seconds that guy was talking on the screen, it should the stock price go from $91 to 102. That's how fast it went up. I think today it closed it $145 a share. And a bunch of, a big hedge fund especially, one big head fund, shorted the shit out of GameStop stop. So they're waiting for it to pay off the stock to go down. Every little bit it goes up, fucks this.

I think every $11 it goes up, fucks that company out of a billion dollars. which is hilarious. So a bunch of people on Reddit agreed with this investor by the name of Michael Burry, who was the autistic guy played by Christian Bail in the Big Short,

if you've seen that movie. Yeah. So this guy bought a bunch of GameStop stock betting against the short and a bunch of Redditors got on his side and decided to pull together and start buying stock. Once you do that,

it causes a chain reaction called a short squeeze where the people had shorteders short sold now to buy game stock to hedge against their own bets, which in turn drives the stock price up further. And it's sort of like a death spiral for these people, right? Does that make any sense? Yeah, I think so. But so, like the way I'm looking at it, there's been a lot of instances over the years of a group of internet trolls, like from 4chan or whatever, successfully brigading some kind of, you know, pretty harmless internet poll or contest where like, you know, Mountain Dew is like, and I'm trying to remember, I'm not saying this is literally what it was, but it was pretty close.

Mountain Dew left it up to the internet to choose the name of their next new flavor and the internet chose Hitler did nothing wrong or something like that. Or like Pitbull left it up to the internet to decide where his next show would be on tour and they picked a rural part of Alaska, which by the way, Pitbull went to rural Alaska and rocked the place, which I always respected. But yeah. I think the British Navy left the internet name of the ship a couple years ago. It was a boating McBoat face. That's what I was about to bring up. Yes. So like we're familiar with things like that happening.

And this I think is like it's like the Wall Street version of that, right? It's like the internet coalescing around this this ultimate troll move. But the difference is in this case, it's amounted to literally billions of dollars. that people have lost. And by the way, I could not give a fuck less because it's only been lost by like hedge fund guys and stuff like that who were just, you know, gambling on this Wall Street Harry Potter voodoo bullshit that is, you know, shorts and squeezes and all this stuff you're talking about. So I don't care at all that they've lost all this money. But it's like, it's billions and billions of dollars that these internet trolls have amounted to, right?

I mean, it's fucking crazy. There are two ways in which it's funny. One, this is the way the stock market works all the time. It's just the people who use the do to the fuck in, you're getting fucked, and they're really, really mad about it.

Because they're people they're getting fucked by. These people on, this group on the Wall Street Betts Forum is led by a dude whose poster name is Deep Fucking Value who goes by a roaring kitty on YouTube. You got a picture of this guy? Look at this guy.

He's amazing. This guy has made hundreds of thousands of thousands of dollars and cost a hedge fund by name of Melvin so far in the neighborhood of $10 billion. Look at him. Look at him with his chicken tender. They're all about tendies on this Wall Street Bet subreddit. This guy, this dude brought American markets to their knees.

That guy, like genuinely. The insane timeline we live in, man. Just to understand their slang, tendies is a shorthand they use for money because chicken tenders is the food of both paupers and kings. So after this bet paid it off and he won,

he made a seven hour YouTube video, seven hour YouTube video where he is eating a bragging, of course, on himself, because he's fucking awesome, and dipping chicken tenders in champagne. I think Matt has a clip with us. Here's welcome,

happy Friday. I hope y'all had a nice ass we what a crazy day a crazy week welcome everybody bumping tonight let's get after it on a Friday night you know let's go holy shit oh let me let me try to read this let me talk whoa what a day this guy people have lost billions of dollars man and this dude I love this guy. I'm a big fan of this guy. All these psycho, the guy from Michael Burry's made like a

1,500% return on his investment, too. Like, they're not, they're not mad about Michael Burry making his couple billion dollars. They're mad about these pleads on Reddit figuring out how to rig their game that they're supposed to rigged already. If these guys could figure out a way to move the market to make, to make their bet pay off, they absolutely would. Like, if they could, like, say, do some industrial

espionage to a report that there's like accounting fraud at GameStop. They'll make the stock go down to make their bet pay off. They would absolutely do it because these guys, all they had to do is figure out they could day trade and buy some op-call options for these shares. It brought a fucking hedge fund of the knees. Let's walk through this math real quick because this is, first of all, right now, GameStop shares are some of the most valuable commodities on planet Earth. And they're trading up there with General Electric and Draft Kings the week of the Super Bowl. So I can't even get over how fucking stupid this is.

But what drives me crazy about it all is like there are 72 million shares of GameStop being short sold. Only 69 million are in existence. Somehow they create it on paper three million extra shares to short. This is the legitimate market. This is not the Reddit thread, dude. This is what the market did on its own. So I don't give a shit about any of them. Short selling is stupid anyway.

I really don't understand what a benefit it has to the economy or society at large. So I am happy they're all getting fucked and losing their shirts. Yeah. yeah absolutely all right well let's move into another very dumb subject one that comes up a lot on here one that mark loves to talk about you know it you love it cue anon mark it continues to become even more more and more mainstream right uh this it's got more mainstream since the capital riot right this is uh this is noted fox news dipshit Tucker Carlson Given his thoughts on how people should feel about the Q&N theory,

Matt's like it, when you got it. Brett, is a forbidden idea. It's something called Q&ON. How many people in the country have been marinated in these conspiracy theories, Q&ONON craziness, and it is frightening. Oh, Mr. Tom Friedman thinks this is all pretty frightening. Government has every right to tell you what to do. Controlling the behavior of citizens is one of the basic prerogatives of

any organized societies. Why we have it. Government can try to prevent you from committing murder or rape or from speeding or jaywalking. That's all allowed. It's legitimate. But no democratic government can ever tell you what to think. Your mind belongs to you. It is yours and yours alone. Once politicians attempt to control what you believe, they are no longer politicians. They are by definition dictators. And if they succeed in controlling what you believe, you are no longer a citizen. You are not a free man. You are a slave. So yes, Tom Friedman, this is frightening. It's everywhere all of a sudden. No one is pushing back. And so they have all, almost every one of them, join the mob of censors, hysterics, and Jacobin destroyers,

all working on behalf of entrenched power to take total control of everything. Okay, so, all right, but to use a different example, if you meet someone who believes the earth is flat and you say to them, No, it isn't flat. You are a dictator now. You're like the thought police or whatever. Like, because what he's talking about, you, it's true that, yeah, the government can't dictate the opinions you hold and stuff like that.

But when it comes to things that, like, literally are not true, someone telling you, no, in the real world, this is not true. That's not fucking oppression. You're not being persecuted. There's nothing dictatorial about that. Yeah, I mean, the minute the government starts rounding people up just for watching cute YouTube videos, then I'll be like, okay, maybe Tucker has a point. That's not fucking happening.

But it's like, this comes on the heels of like, so the Texas GOP tweet out, We Are the Storm meme, Arizona Republican Party, the exact same thing. The Hawaiian Republican Party, which, to be fair, is probably like a couple dozen people mad about plastic bag bans. and Republicans don't burn a lot of shit in Hawaii. But they tweeted out a thread defending Q&N people saying that they're just patriots who really love America. Yeah, content warning. This guy, then to defend themselves, they tweeted out this guy who's an account handle is 6666 officials.

So you know it's going to be legit. Turned out he's a Holocaust denier. And so you got the screen guy what this guy looked like. This is the guy they posted to defend themselves. here he is with a Hitler mustache from a YouTube video he made called Girls Won't Date Me because of feminism it's part two of 19 Trey he made 19 videos by the women from being because of feminism and this is the guy the Republican Party of Hawaii is tried not to defend them from charges of you know being the same cue is correct or whatever they're

just well-meaning patriots these aren't well-meaning these are people who showed up to inauguration to watch people be beheaded for no cause. They are not, they're not just friendly neighborhood Americans. It's absolutely crazy, man. Yes. So with that in mind, let's get our guest out here in just a second. So we got two guests tonight day working together on a project that they're very excited about. We're excited to tell you about. But let's talk about them individually for a second. Marley Clements is a documentary filmmaker based in Washington, D.C. Marley spent nearly a decade working in various capacities at international think tanks and advocacy organizations. And following the 2016 election, Marley co-wrote and produced the 2018 hit documentary Active Measures,

which has to do with Russia's attack on the 2016 election. If you've never seen that, I highly recommend it. The shit is fucking crazy. Go on, who do? Yeah, please check that out. Active Measures. Joining Marley tonight is Bayon Junum, who's an award-winning filmmaker. who grew up in the Middle East after his bus stop was attacked by a suicide bomber at galvanized

byon's commitment to pursuing work that addresses ideological divides since then biom became the partner and head of production for sole pancake between 2011 and 2018 and led the development and programming of 50 original series with over a hundred or with over a billion views online won awards for television franchises and has continued on from there now the two together together Marley and Byron have a new project coming out tonight, a documentary that premieres on Vice TV this very evening at 10 p.m. Eastern on the subject we've just been talking about. It's called QAnon, the search for Q. And I believe producer Matt has the trailer for it. Right, Matt? Qanon. Satanic rituals? Drinking children's blood, adrenal chrome? Where did they come from? Qanon is the single greatest information operation in the history of humanity. How responsible are they for the attack on the Capitol. Should Q be classified as a domestic terrorism threat? And where are they headed next?

They will excuse and encourage any amount of violence against their political latencies. All right, everybody, please welcome to the show. Marley Clements and Byon June. Hey, guys, thanks for joining us. Hey, thanks so much for having us. Absolutely. We're excited you're here. So let's start by it with with a simple question. How can you most accurately describe Q and what it is? Is this a conspiracy theory? Is this a Is this a political movement? Is it all of the above? What even is Q? Yeah, I mean, the best way I could describe it is that it's gamified radicalization.

You know, I think we're gamified conspiracy theories where we've seen a lot of these ideas before. It's just the format that Q had delivered it was something that allowed the audience to kind of become involved, make their own interpretations, and become like an active part of putting the story together. And that's what made it, I think, interesting and just downright fun for a lot of people. It's like Pokemon Go, but for ruining democracy. Yeah. I like that analogy. It's like, because it is, it is a guy you, the first guy you talk to, the musician who's a buddy of Bayons, I believe. He brings up how it was a fun game to play, right?

He talked about that. Yeah, exactly. I think that for a very long time, you know, it was part of a culture on. the boards where people like to kind of do these online puzzles, right? Like Cicada 3301 was another really popular one that was, you know, better produced, but ultimately had the same kind of end game where people spent, man, like 17 hours at a time trying to decode these things. And so that's that culture that it came from. This just kind of was the mainstream application of that. So this is like, like there's been, like viral marketing campaigns and stuff for like movies like Cloverfield and things like that where they put the little bread crumbs out there on the internet for people to kind of decipher in the clues and stuff. You're saying that Q is just a more nefarious version of that.

It's the same thing that appeals to people about that appeals to people about this, you know, global political conspiracy. Absolutely. That is very much sort of the same thing. And there's actually a lot of people who are designers and the original people behind ARGs, the augmented reality games, which is what you're talking about there. And they've all come out. And a lot of people have come out and said, you know, this is really what this is. This is obviously the gamification.

This is the ARG. They're using our same exact plans. And we recognize this because, and we know what's going to do to people. It's designed to make people go, you know, crazy. Yeah, for people that don't know, like Q's actual posts are not like the core, they're usually pretty vague, except for the first one that said that Hillary was about to be arrested. A lot of it's sort of like refrigerator magnet poetry or like, you know, fortune cookie kind of stuff. And the people who do the work of trying to figure out what it means are called, the drops are called breadcrumb.

The people who try to figure out what it means are called bakers. That's right? Is it my understanding right? And then from there it filters out. everyone's sort of making choosing their own adventures about what q is or what it's not and the only thing they agree is that democrats are evil and we should all be murdered something like that yeah i mean like you're to describe it kind of like this question and answer format right or like an a m almost because there's a level of engagement that's happening with the bakers and the anans where it's like you know

cue will put out a cryptic post or a question all these bakers are competing to come up with the most you know, oftentimes outrageous interpretations. And then Q will be like, yo, like shout out to this baker right here. Nice decode on that one. And everyone's like, oh, my God, that's the guy. And they go and follow that guy. And so for a couple of weeks, he's like the Primo Baker, you know, the Q approved baker. And so that'll have like, you know, it's this constant competition, much like the chance to just make, you know, engaging content.

So, all right, I got a couple of questions that I definitely want to get to. First of all, if you guys are just joining us, we're talking with Marley Clements and Byron, June, the filmmakers of QAnon, The Search for Q, a documentary premiering on VICE TV this very evening. First thing, I know that you guys get into in the documentary somewhere, how this is not just a right-wing dalliance anymore, right? Like, it's not confined to just the right wing. And I know this is anecdotal, but I told the story on a previous episode. I met a lady through my wife who was a very, very, the only thing we talked about was politics

and she was extremely left-leaning when I met her like three years ago. Hated Donald Trump, hated all that, very much identified as a liberal. And now as of today, she is fully completely gone down the Q&ONR rabbit hole. She buys into all of it. So I think a lot of people have the tendency to look at this as just a right-wing thing, but that's not really the case, is it? It's really not anymore, especially. I think originally sort of out the gate they came in with mostly pro-Trump things.

And so that really brought in the MAGA crowd. But over the last year, we've seen this shift that's been just absolutely phenomenal. I mean, it's sort of horseshoe theory playing out in real life where the far left and far right ends meet politically. And we see it especially at the beginning of the pandemic. Everyone sort of locked in their houses, unsure of how to handle themselves, what to be. doing scared by this disease and you know out of a job and it just forced to stare at screens all day and so a bunch of documentaries came out that Q promoted that uh did a lot of like planemic uh a lot brought in a lot of the wellness community or anti-back stuff um and it really spread to the left there

um save our children marches that were all right okay i was about to ask i thought because just from the lady i'm talking about i met her through my wife and my wife have kids she has a kid that's how we miss like a you know a parent circle she's a mom and i was going to ask you how much of that because there's this huge element of q anonon that has to do with protecting and saving the children right and i think that is a huge factor for a lot of people that get sucked into it because it has to do with kids being harmed and so they're more susceptible to it did you find that to be the case is that a significant factor for people Yeah, exactly. I think like what you're alluding to is kind of what I call like the truism of Qaeda on because, you know, at around pandemic, you know, it became this thing about being like, well, we're just against child trafficking and against, you know, sacrificing children. And it's a really hard thing to sit across from somebody and, you know, not support that. Right. That is something that, you know, everybody with a conscience should support. So it became kind of the soft pill.

to bring people into Q&on ideology where you come in with the good intention of wanting to stop child trafficking, wanting to save children, but you leave thinking that now there's a global cabal of elites who are, you know, using these children for, you know, blood sacrifice rituals and that kind of thing. And so it kind of becomes a very, a way to prey on good intentions to then move into kind of a more radicalized form of thinking. Right. Do you, for the record, I think I speak for all of us. We are against child trafficking. Here I don't need an excuse. A lot of things should be done about it. I wish all the people who are out marching for Save Our Children were doing something about child trafficking in earnest. Yeah. I've seen like actual organizations that fight sex trafficking talk about how Q&ON is a problem for them because it sabotages real efforts to like chain stuff. my question is like because Q is like

Q is sort of peripheral to Q and I like I mean let me back up for a second the wild thing about Q to me and who he is is that there are a bunch of a non-posters on these forums who like LARP is like different sort of undercover agents in different various parts of the government for whatever reason Q is the one who became like a like a big meme right and it like it's like it's wild to me because he couldn't have had this whoever started it could not have had this kind of intent

foreseen this kind of impact. He was just some guy who was probably high on Adderall in Mountain Duke Code Red at 4 in the morning who made a post by Hillary's about to get arrested. And then logs back in four days later and he's created a call. The dream. Yeah.

It's fucking insane to me. It's so far out of the eye. I'd cite him anymore. Like I always wonder, I mean, I find myself wondering if it matters who Q is. Because would QAnon stop if he found out it was like some truck driver named Frank from Alberta? Like does it?

No, no, I don't think it's right. People have different the takes on this. In fact, we kind of have different takes on this. But for me, I think that it does matter who Q is because I think that whoever is behind this is specifically targeting people to put this disinformation in their heads and in the world and bring it into the streets. And so I think they know what they're doing. And it's certainly a threat to our democracy on January 6th. It's radicalized a large group of people. And so whoever's behind it, I think, should be held accountable for it.

But there are different takes on that. I mean, my personal conspiracy theory is that if it's not, if the CIA is not controlled of it by now, they're incompetent. It's a good point. I mean, it's a good point. It's kind of like one of those things where it was convenient to ignore it for a very long time. And now, like, how could you, right? Like, how can anybody ignore what a huge impact this a bunch of posts on a message board have

made, whether or not people were visiting the message board itself. And I think that's really interesting. And I think that, look, if you really look at what Q has done, which was, you know, prey on this type of disenfranchisement, you're right to point out that the CIA is probably, you know, in control of it at this point in some capacity, because this is right out of the U.S. government's playbook. When you look at like different countries around the world that we've caused insurgencies in and then, you know, just had the ability to piece out of, this isn't that much different. So, all right. And I know part of this is just like personal bias, you know, just the way that any one person perceives any one theory, I guess.

But what's so wild about Q to me is that like, you know, I remember when I was like a college-aged podhead, I saw loose change. And I was like, holy shit, 9-11 was an inside job for like, for like, you know, a day or two. I talked to some of my friends and they were like, no, it wasn't. And here's why. But I'm saying like that, what am I trying to say? When I first found out about Q, Mark explained Q to me. And then I looked it up. And like, dude, we're talking about like cannibals, blood drinking, fucking vampires.

It's just a global pedophilic cabal of people that prey on children and literally drink their blood and stuff. And it just like, to me, it just sounds right off the top. It just sounds, you know, clearly made up, right? Whereas other conspiracy theories that have floated around, I look at those. I'm like, you know, I can see how somebody could believe that. I know it's not true, but I can wrap my head around that. But this one seems to be just so far out there that it makes it wild to me that this is the one that has gained this kind of mainstream status.

Like, how do you, through all your, you know, making the film and talking to people, do you guys have anything to say about, about that, the sheer craziness and how it's worked, you know? I mean, I think that, you know, a lot of the, the craziest parts of it are what's, what's appealing to people. They really, it's, that is going to be promoted through the algorithms. And you're going to see that more on social media sites. So you're going to click that more, first of all.

But secondly, I mean, as also a college stoner who, you know, may have been into loose change for a day or two, right? Yeah. I will say that I can, I mean, I think that what the difference is here, I've thought about this a lot, that we didn't have, you know, Hillary Clinton wasn't in the Senate retweeting loose change things. She wasn't saying, yes, look further. There weren't validators in our own government that were talking. There weren't, I mean, anybody, you know, legitimate, really. There were a lot of celebs behind that. there was not a huge movement around that.

The validators around Q&ON have really brought it to an entire, really another level. Because you can see it everywhere, right? It's former CIA. People are on their shows and bakers and everywhere within this little ecosystem that they've created for themselves. Everyone's saying the same thing. So, you know, you would believe it, including the president, by the way. You know, Trump retweeting them. That's a big one.

Yeah. They got, I mean, like Mike Flynn, who was. Obama's chief of military intelligence took the Q&Oath on on the internet. Like it's like it's where a lot of people, I think the question really about Flynn is not a matter of if he's involved. It's a matter of when did he get involved. Hmm. So we address that a little bit. So definitely watch for episode two and three tomorrow night because we definitely get into that a little bit. One thing I learned from your documentary because like when I like it was like July when I explained what,

what Q was on this show to Trey. And he was laughing his ass off because when I explained what Adrenicro was, he was like, that sounds like Monsters Inc. And one thing I learned from your document, the first episode of y'all's documentary is that like they've adopted that, but so pop culture savvy,

they'd now say the government made Monsters Inc. As like propaganda for Q? Is that, what? I think it's that they made it, my understanding of that theory is that they made it, there's a lot of like hidden signals and that they think the deep state does quite a bit. I, you know, there's things like, I don't know.

I guess, like, one of the things is they find, like, a kernel of truth, something like Project Mockingbird that shows, like, the CIA has had influence in Hollywood. And what that theory did was extrapolate that to mean, oh, Monsters Inc. is actually showing us in cartoon form how Adrenachrome is exceptional. See, like, dude, I, what?

I'm sorry. I don't, I don't know how you hear that and don't just crack up laughing at it. Like, it's, I can't wrap my head around it, man. I know there's plenty of like,

that's the response, right? Like that has been the response for like the last two years. And I think that dynamic is super interesting, right? It's like kind of like our own immune system, our social immune system at play being like, this is outrageous.

This is so ridiculous. Let's laugh at it. And somehow that, kind of motivated a whole group of people to just dig their heels in further. Right. And I think that's part of the thing we have to think about it, and de-radicalization is that all of us have family and friends who have fallen down this, whether that's, you know, someone in the PTA with you or on Facebook, a high school

friend or whatever. But, you know, I think really learning to try and not laugh at people and focus on the things that we can all agree on. Like, yeah, the government is corrupt. Yes, we need to, there are things that need reform. we need to be more active in our in our civic duties things like that like those parts of Q

is really where you could dig in and sort of avoid the crazy town of the rest of it with Q followers right so I mean yeah no you're right like it's very hard for me but laughing in their face is certainly not going to help

the situation that's definitely true so kind of on that note you guys having done everything you've did and I want to talk specifically about the film a little bit too in a minute, but what can't, what can the rest of us do, you know, to fight Q or whatever? What should we do? What should be the approach? How can we do something about this? Yeah, one thing that we tried to show also in the one of the early segments with JT is, you know, engaging in a real, like genuine conversation and using critical thinking and the Socratic method,

which they're all you know primed to do and really just you know in a more compassionate way but just like kind of gently challenging those shut those ideas but but to be able to do that that's like earned you know that has to be someone who you actually know and you've built a relationship with and so my biggest piece of advice is like you know fight the instinct to like block and cancel people from yeah you know like even if you don't want to fucking hear about it anymore like like You've heard enough. Sometimes those folks are just in need of like a lifeline and a tether to reality, you know. And it might not happen like tomorrow or like in one conversation, but over time, you know, like build a friendship.

And when things are ridiculous and you think they're ridiculous, like be real, you know, like that sounds absurd to me. Like that's okay, you know, I don't think it's like you treat them like, oh my God, like these these special ones over. here, you're just like, use critical thinking and people will respond, you know. I thought it was a really sort of, like your buddy J.T., I think, was his name, the guy who plays the musician. You weren't, you didn't really, I mean, you weren't able to change his mind about Q, but you pretty easily changed his mind about the national anthem protest. He saw your point in that.

He was like, oh, you're just like connected with them. He's like, oh, yeah, see your point. It was like, it was a very touching little bit of outreach, I thought. And he seemed like a sweet guy, it means well. Yeah, and I'm glad we were able to start the series out that way because it was just like, look, everything we've seen on Q&N leads everybody to believe like there's one type of, you know, anon or like there's kind of this monolith and you find like the most outrageous grandma to say the JFK is alive, put that on the news and then have, you know, fucking Chuck Todd, sorry, but have Chuck Todd. No, look at these kooky people, you know. And so it's just like, we really wanted to, with this film, be like, no, no, like, let's just look at the more human approach as to why people get involved with this. And then also give people a little bit of a demonstration of being like, hey, like, here's how a dialogue could go, right?

With people who disagree, like me and JT disagree on a lot, but, you know, we're able to still listen to one another. Okay, so listen, let's talk about the actual film for a second. guys give us the low down on i know we've already mentioned some of it but just let everybody know what it's called where it's at where they can watch it when they can watch it just give us the details for people that want to check this out sure so it's cue and on the search for cue on vice tv comes out 10 p.m tonight uh on vice tv uh or on their app uh you can also the first episode is actually on youtube now so you can get a head start there uh it'll be tonight 10 p m tomorrow night 10 p.m. Thursday night what would be the final part at 10 p.m. and there's a sort of a

I would say the evolution of the show is you know we start out looking at the what and who who's involved in Q&on and then go into sort of the origin story and then who's running it now and and where it goes from here so a lot a lot to unpack over those three hours. Yeah that that feels like an understatement to me a lot to unpack I can't I'm very much looking forward to it personally I'm extremely interested. Mark, you got anything for them before we let our sting guests go? I just want to say I really enjoyed the first episode, which I did enjoy on YouTube.

And it's the internal politics of like the Watkins family. And it's bizarre that these weirdos who live, these weirdo expats who just don't want to be subject to American libel laws have somehow brought American democracy to the edge of crumbling. It's fun. World, too. Japan. Really pushing the fascism there now. Yeah.

Jesus Christ. I've been an internet kid for a while, you know, and I think like you guys were talking about the GameStop madness that's happening. So it's just like, look what happens, right, when a message board that nobody wants to pay attention to, like, message board just fucking took a wrecking ball to our political system. And now they're taking a wrecking ball to the economy because, like, there is a power to that kind of decentralized or democratized action that we're only now getting to understand through things like Q or a game set.

Yeah. It's a good point. I know. I didn't know that either made that connection, but you're right. All right. Well, listen, thank you guys so much for joining us. This has been also. We really appreciate it.

Looking forward to the doc, Q and on the search for Q. Marley Clements and bye on June. I'm everybody. Thank you all for being. I appreciate it. Thank you guys. So you guys. All right, well, so listen, I hate to overload y'all with documentary talk,

but that's not the only documentary coming out today. You guys have heard me talk at length before about the documentary that I produced and was in about Universal Basic Income called Inherent Good. Man, if you have the graphic for that, if you put it up, please. You guys have seen it before whenever he's got it. But Inherent Good just finally, I know I've been talking about it for months, but it just finally became widely available today on all the major digital platforms. So, you know, Amazon, Apple TV, Fandango, whatever, you can get inherent good on any of those now.

That's all I wanted to say. Matt Say is looking for the graphic. He'll put it up there at some point. But listen, hit us with some comments and questions about any Q&N stuff. You know, you want to pick Smart Mark's brain. You can ask me about that doc or Universal Basic Income or not. That's fine or just anything else. Hit us with it.

I do want to say, you were talking about to look for comments, I'm assuming, right? Yeah. You keep saying I like talking about it and I don't. But it's like it is terrible, but it's been like we talked about it before we came on the show that like I searched back through like my own social media posts to see the first time I talked about it. And it was like the middle of 2018. And the first post was like, someone should pay attention to this. it seems pretty bad. And two and a half years later,

people are finally starting to. And it's like, oh, fuck, I hate the fact that I was right. But this is ridiculous. Yeah, I mean, I guess you're right. Whenever I say it's one of your favorite subjects, it makes it sound like you take pleasure in its existence and making fun of it. And yeah, I know that's not the case.

But I just, you are, you're real up on it. You're real up on the Q stuff. So that's all I mean. But yeah, shit's wild, buddy. Shit's wild. It's the most important non-pendemic news story, man. It's like 20, 30% of America is going down this rabbit hole that you can't have that many people crazy in one country.

It doesn't work that way. Mark, you're a hip-hop head. You might know what this person's talking about. I apologize already. Your comment flew by. I missed the name, but I saw the comment. Somebody said, Q-Tip changed his name years ago. He saw this coming.

Well, you know about that, Mark. Anything? You know what they're talking about? about? I did not. I didn't know a Q-Tip changed his name. Was it before after Fife Dog died? Yeah, I didn't, I didn't know that. I do know that like Q-Tips Muslim, which not a lot of people know. There's a lot of ice cubes Muslims, a bunch of Muslim rappers that don't talk about it, which could have, they could have been social outreach years ago, stop prejudice. An enemy, an enemy says, just the Q-Tip. That's a dick joke, Mark, hitting us with the dick jokes there. Love it. Yeah. Let's see here. Tina Blake says Q is the real hoax.

Throw it up whenever, Mark, if you got it. Or Matt, sorry. Yeah, there it is. Inherent Good, like I said, available today on all the major streaming platforms and whatnot. So check it out. If you feel so inclined, we would appreciate it. A labor of love, that damn thing.

It was years in the making, so I hope you guys like it. Harry Zoodoo-Zub-B-that says Q-tip converted to Islam in the mid-90s So we're just on a Q-tip run here That's fun Hey Mitch Mitch Lipp Or Mish Lipp Maybe Michigan Lip I don't know says

What's your favorite 10 D's dipping sauce Mark? Now that's a good question, that's pertinent Barbecue man, love some barbecue Yeah, I mean, for sure, for sure But I would if I'm picking one And I'm picking ranch, me personally. That's how, you know, that's my white trashness. Jennifer D. Penley says, what would you like to see the intelligence community do to reassure us that they are actually taking this seriously?

Mark? I'm not very trustful of the American intelligence community in general. My joke earlier about if they're not in control of it, their response, they're incompetent. It's just to acknowledge me that, like, if you have this standing army of maniacs, you can send harassed anyone. It seems like something a nation state would want to grab a hold of. I would prefer them grab a hold of the account and delete it. But I don't think that's what they would do because I'm not, you know, I wasn't born yesterday. Well, how do you, I mean, not what?

All right. Well, it's Daniel Gaither says, what does Smart Mark think we could do to pull relatives from the Q pit? I was what? I was thinking about it while we're talking to them. Like there's a Q&ONC casualties Reddit thread that's just fucking heartbreaking. And like the funny part of it, we've been exchanging screen grabs of people being like, uh, yeah, I can't believe I lost relatives over this and nothing Q predicted came true. And like, okay, well, like we'll realize you're wrong and call up your mom and say you're sorry for ruining Thanksgiving. That's what I did. Like do that.

Family will forgive you. But the other side of it where you see people who are like, I lost my wife to Q and I love her, but I can't have her be around my kids because she's bringing them to the end of this world. And so people are getting divorced over it and losing brothers and sisters. And it's just, it's sad. I mean, I don't know.

I guess you do what you do with a relative has any problem. As you tell them, you love them and you care about them and whenever they want help, he'll give it to them. Yeah, I guess I'm lucky so far because that's nothing. It's related to what I was saying earlier to them. Like, I have a lot of really good friends. One of them is Corey Ryan Forrester, senior Georgia correspondent.

You guys know them. You love them. that are susceptible to conspiracy theories that will openly admit I can get into conspiracy theories, right? Corey's not the only one. I got a lot of really close buddies that are into conspiracy theories.

And so far, literally, that's what makes it so wild to me too is because even these guys who kind of like conspiracy theories or whatever, they all also are laughing at Q or talking about how ridiculous it is. But at the same time,

I see normal people who don't fuck with conspiracy theories at all. getting fully wrapped up into it. It's just a really, it's just a weird, weird thing, man. But I want to add, so Mandy in Seattle says, how come nobody ever mentions Q and Russia together? Russia's got to be fully on board with this Q shit, right? They have to be.

It would make so much sense for them. There's a being a free society, as it were, where America's susceptible to all kinds of asymmetrical attacks. Like, just like other people can comment. into our planes and fly into our buildings because we have freedom of travel and don't have a heavily at that point didn't have had heavily militarized airports and they don't have a corresponding target for us to bomb in Afghanistan. We're just open to that. That's just the price we pay for being wealthy and free, right? The same thing goes with like we can't do, we have voice of America and we drop literature in Russia

and we support like pro-democracy magazine and stuff there, but we can't really do stuff while on their internet because their internet's not free and it's closed. Like there's just, stuff they can do to us that we can't do to them. The solution to this is not war with Russia. It's better media literacy. Like, we are doing this to ourselves by being hateful and stupid. Now, it doesn't mean we should welcome Russia fucking around in our information ecosystem. Our government should be doing stuff to try to stop it or try to like put pressure on them to stop it.

But it's Russia didn't storm to capital, man. I was a bunch of paranoiacs. Yeah. All right. Well, listen, we're pretty much out of time. We got one last one here. Cassie Hicks says, what was the name of documentary about basic income, Trey? Thank you.

It's called Inherent Good. Inherent Good. There you go. There you see it. And yeah, you can find it on any of the platforms. I hope you check it out. Thank you all very much for joining us. We'll be back in 48 hours. See what the hell's going on on Thursday, right here on Evening Skews. I'm Trey. That's Mark.

Thank you all for joining us. Later. See you.