1 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:30,360 Speaker 1: Cold Zone Media. 2 00:00:09,119 --> 00:00:20,439 Speaker 2: Say it you mail. 3 00:00:24,200 --> 00:00:32,800 Speaker 3: Six sixteen. 4 00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:50,680 Speaker 4: Character. 5 00:00:56,200 --> 00:00:58,840 Speaker 3: Welcome back to sixteenth Minute, the podcast where we talk 6 00:00:58,880 --> 00:01:01,320 Speaker 3: to the main characters of the Internet see how their 7 00:01:01,400 --> 00:01:04,440 Speaker 3: moment in the spotlight affected them and what that says 8 00:01:04,560 --> 00:01:08,880 Speaker 3: about us and the Internet. And today we're continuing our 9 00:01:08,959 --> 00:01:13,160 Speaker 3: series with the one and only Tayzon Day of Chocolate 10 00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:15,880 Speaker 3: Rain fame. And if you've been living happily in the 11 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:19,479 Speaker 3: Wi Fi signal as woods up until yesterday, maybe you're 12 00:01:19,600 --> 00:01:22,800 Speaker 3: unfamiliar with Tay and his most famous work, which has 13 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:25,760 Speaker 3: been going viral every year or so since two thousand 14 00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:30,160 Speaker 3: goddamn seven, But you might not know the deep anti 15 00:01:30,240 --> 00:01:33,759 Speaker 3: racist roots of that same song, something that was pretty 16 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:37,200 Speaker 3: obscured for the first decade or so of Chocolate Rain's history. 17 00:01:37,959 --> 00:01:41,440 Speaker 3: And for all that, and for Tazon Day aka Adam 18 00:01:41,480 --> 00:01:45,759 Speaker 3: Bonner's origin story as a young autistic, mixed race guy 19 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:49,240 Speaker 3: who started posting on YouTube and unwittingly became an online 20 00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:52,880 Speaker 3: superstar just shy of the US recession and in conjunction 21 00:01:53,080 --> 00:01:57,120 Speaker 3: of vin Senator Barack Obama, becoming a national star. For 22 00:01:57,200 --> 00:01:59,240 Speaker 3: a full look at what Tay's rise to fame looked 23 00:01:59,280 --> 00:02:01,480 Speaker 3: like in the moment, head back to the first episode 24 00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:04,920 Speaker 3: of this series, where we cover it in detail and 25 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:08,000 Speaker 3: Tay himself gives us some insight into his early life. 26 00:02:08,760 --> 00:02:11,880 Speaker 3: But today, for this minisode, I'm going to hand the 27 00:02:11,919 --> 00:02:15,560 Speaker 3: mic off to the incomparable Tayson Day to tell you 28 00:02:15,639 --> 00:02:20,960 Speaker 3: about his political education specifically. Maybe this sounds a little weird, 29 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:23,560 Speaker 3: but go with me here. When we left off in 30 00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:27,120 Speaker 3: our first episode, Tay had just begun to be educated 31 00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:31,640 Speaker 3: on the consequences American systemic racism had well into the present, 32 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:34,840 Speaker 3: something his mixed race family hadn't talked to him about 33 00:02:34,880 --> 00:02:37,120 Speaker 3: as a kid as he grew up in the eighties 34 00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:40,880 Speaker 3: and nineties. And when he told his white dad about 35 00:02:40,919 --> 00:02:45,560 Speaker 3: beginning to learn this with some excitement and enthusiasm, his 36 00:02:45,639 --> 00:02:48,320 Speaker 3: dad began to cry. I guess I'll just add here 37 00:02:48,639 --> 00:02:51,799 Speaker 3: that this material, while the kind of conversations that I'm 38 00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:57,280 Speaker 3: really into, are not necessarily canon to the Tazon Day's story, 39 00:02:57,680 --> 00:03:01,520 Speaker 3: and it might not be for everybody. However, I was 40 00:03:01,560 --> 00:03:05,160 Speaker 3: really touched at how open Day was with sharing how 41 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:08,079 Speaker 3: he reached both the place he was in his political 42 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:12,160 Speaker 3: consciousness and how that formed Chocolate Rain, and how he's 43 00:03:12,160 --> 00:03:15,040 Speaker 3: grown since. So if you're into that sort of thing. 44 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:17,160 Speaker 4: I think you'll really like this episode. 45 00:03:17,320 --> 00:03:18,680 Speaker 3: If you just want to hear the rest of his 46 00:03:18,760 --> 00:03:23,440 Speaker 3: story in terms of his linear viral experience, definitely tune 47 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:28,840 Speaker 3: in to our concluding part on Tuesday. The following episode 48 00:03:28,919 --> 00:03:31,000 Speaker 3: is the process that Tay went through to try to 49 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:33,959 Speaker 3: get to the root of his father's behavior, and they're 50 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:36,840 Speaker 3: still close to this day, but getting to a satisfying 51 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:41,120 Speaker 3: conclusion required that Tay go through a thorough history of 52 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:45,720 Speaker 3: activism and academia that he was largely unfamiliar with. And 53 00:03:45,760 --> 00:03:48,200 Speaker 3: that's where we're picking up today. So if you're in 54 00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:52,960 Speaker 3: the mood to be radicalized or re radicalized, gather round. 55 00:03:53,640 --> 00:03:54,880 Speaker 3: Here's tay'son day. 56 00:03:55,720 --> 00:03:58,600 Speaker 2: I'm going to unpack this for almost thirty minutes, but 57 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:02,440 Speaker 2: it is a journey that should have familiar scenery for 58 00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:06,040 Speaker 2: a lot of people. I'll crudely defined critical race theory 59 00:04:06,080 --> 00:04:10,680 Speaker 2: is the idea that historical racial injustice manifests as present 60 00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:14,800 Speaker 2: day racial oppression, even if people in the present day 61 00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:20,200 Speaker 2: are not deliberately or consciously being racist. I'll crudely define 62 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:25,560 Speaker 2: sociological marginalization theory as the idea that race, class, gender, 63 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:30,640 Speaker 2: physical ability, religion. All of these are axes of oppression 64 00:04:30,760 --> 00:04:34,960 Speaker 2: that have favored and less favored groups. So critical race 65 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:38,839 Speaker 2: theory would argue that white supremacy creates unacceptable injustice in 66 00:04:38,920 --> 00:04:41,840 Speaker 2: a person's life the moment they are conceived, so it 67 00:04:41,920 --> 00:04:44,960 Speaker 2: says a baby born will die before the sin. Sorry, 68 00:04:44,960 --> 00:04:48,359 Speaker 2: that was low hanging fruit. Sociological marginalization theory would argue 69 00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:52,160 Speaker 2: that if your white, male, Christian, able bodied, heterosexual property class, 70 00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:55,159 Speaker 2: you are conferred advantages in society that you would not 71 00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:57,960 Speaker 2: be conferred if the playing field was level. Critical race 72 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:01,120 Speaker 2: theory and sociological marginalization theory are both what would be 73 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:05,520 Speaker 2: called structuralist theories. So what does structuralism mean, of which 74 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:10,040 Speaker 2: these structuralist theories are apart. I'll crudely define structuralism as 75 00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:14,160 Speaker 2: the idea that your theory of how the world operates 76 00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:20,080 Speaker 2: in terms of power or knowledge also determines the motivations, morals, 77 00:05:20,080 --> 00:05:24,560 Speaker 2: and identities of groups of human beings. Famous structuralists include 78 00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:28,000 Speaker 2: Charles Darwin, the evolution Guy, Karl Marx, the communism Guy, 79 00:05:28,200 --> 00:05:30,640 Speaker 2: Milton Friedman, and other economists, Betty free Dan, and a 80 00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:33,640 Speaker 2: lot of second wave feminist epistemology. There are many critiques 81 00:05:33,640 --> 00:05:37,359 Speaker 2: in schools of thought that point out the shortcomings of structuralism, 82 00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:40,920 Speaker 2: and we call those post structuralists. We're not done with theory, 83 00:05:40,960 --> 00:05:43,520 Speaker 2: but real quickly, let's check back on this moment with 84 00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:47,320 Speaker 2: my father where twenty one year old me just excitedly 85 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:52,240 Speaker 2: repeated structuralist terminology that Bell Hooks uses white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, 86 00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:55,560 Speaker 2: and my father started to cry. A post structuralist like 87 00:05:55,680 --> 00:05:59,480 Speaker 2: Dereda might say that my father was crying and thinking 88 00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:04,560 Speaker 2: nah to me and receiving my structural observation as a 89 00:06:04,680 --> 00:06:09,640 Speaker 2: very personal accusation, because my father believed, in the goodness 90 00:06:09,680 --> 00:06:13,160 Speaker 2: of his heart and the sacredness with which he had 91 00:06:13,200 --> 00:06:18,160 Speaker 2: lived his life, that the structuralist term white supremacist capitalist 92 00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:21,080 Speaker 2: patriarchy did not apply to him, and that he had 93 00:06:21,120 --> 00:06:24,880 Speaker 2: lived his life differently, or in the post structuralist critique 94 00:06:24,880 --> 00:06:28,240 Speaker 2: of Dereta, my father believed that he had repeated the 95 00:06:28,279 --> 00:06:32,960 Speaker 2: structure differently. A common criticism that post structuralism has of 96 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:38,960 Speaker 2: structuralism is that structuralism confiscates choice from individuals in order 97 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:42,640 Speaker 2: to render people as dominoes. And it's almost like just 98 00:06:42,680 --> 00:06:45,720 Speaker 2: the words of Belle Hooks without any other context, white 99 00:06:45,760 --> 00:06:49,960 Speaker 2: supremacist capitalist patriarchy made my father feel like a domino 100 00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:54,400 Speaker 2: that I had suddenly started to render in a certain way. 101 00:06:54,839 --> 00:06:56,640 Speaker 2: And some people are listening to this and thinking, yeah, 102 00:06:56,680 --> 00:06:59,520 Speaker 2: but Bell Hooks was not making a personal accusation against 103 00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:03,480 Speaker 2: your father in using structuralist terminologies, and many of you 104 00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:05,880 Speaker 2: thinking that way. We'll also say, well, the truth is 105 00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:07,600 Speaker 2: just the truth, and we've got to be able to 106 00:07:07,640 --> 00:07:10,160 Speaker 2: speak about the truth. And if that's traumatic for some people, 107 00:07:10,200 --> 00:07:12,760 Speaker 2: then that's work they have to do. That's not on 108 00:07:12,880 --> 00:07:16,080 Speaker 2: the person speaking the truth. What's interesting is that almost 109 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:19,880 Speaker 2: every person I encounter who advances that perspective and I 110 00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:22,760 Speaker 2: point four fingers back at me because it's a perspective 111 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:24,960 Speaker 2: I have held many waking days of my own life. 112 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:27,280 Speaker 2: As soon as I turn the tables and start listing 113 00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:32,320 Speaker 2: the myriad ways their life has been enabled by plunder, genocide, oligarchy, 114 00:07:32,440 --> 00:07:35,680 Speaker 2: et cetera, they react much as my father did. It's 115 00:07:35,800 --> 00:07:39,400 Speaker 2: hurtful and makes them defensive if I point out, hey, yeah, 116 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:42,120 Speaker 2: that iPhone that you posted all that fire and brimstone 117 00:07:42,200 --> 00:07:46,440 Speaker 2: ad hominem humanist outrage with online probably contains Mineral's mind 118 00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:48,920 Speaker 2: by child slaves and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and 119 00:07:49,080 --> 00:07:53,280 Speaker 2: was probably manufactured under very questionable human rights conditions in Asia, 120 00:07:53,320 --> 00:07:56,320 Speaker 2: and those things were both partly enabled by technocratic currency 121 00:07:56,320 --> 00:08:01,120 Speaker 2: manipulation that eugenically devalues African born in Asian bodies relative 122 00:08:01,160 --> 00:08:04,360 Speaker 2: to your body using the exact currency that you pay 123 00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:07,480 Speaker 2: your car note with and bought your lunch with. Nobody 124 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:10,040 Speaker 2: likes to be called up like that, even if the 125 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:14,840 Speaker 2: accusations are true. They like to think of themselves as 126 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:19,480 Speaker 2: Derridah thinks of the individual. They like to believe they 127 00:08:19,520 --> 00:08:22,680 Speaker 2: are the exception to the rule. They are repeating the 128 00:08:22,720 --> 00:08:26,680 Speaker 2: structure differently and it does not apply to them. So 129 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:30,360 Speaker 2: before anybody is too hard on my father, really think 130 00:08:30,480 --> 00:08:34,679 Speaker 2: about yourself, because, especially if your life is derived from 131 00:08:34,720 --> 00:08:40,199 Speaker 2: Western civilization, you have never experienced nor acted upon anything 132 00:08:40,720 --> 00:08:45,160 Speaker 2: from your cradle to your grave that is morally sacrosanct. 133 00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:49,480 Speaker 2: In a structuralist interrogation of power and plunder, and in 134 00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:55,280 Speaker 2: my experience, when policy discussion gets reduced to personal absolution olympics, 135 00:08:55,520 --> 00:09:00,120 Speaker 2: that's almost always mutual assured destruction, which, as a I'll 136 00:09:00,160 --> 00:09:01,480 Speaker 2: get into it a little bit, is kind of the 137 00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:04,160 Speaker 2: point of today's social media. By the way, I love 138 00:09:04,200 --> 00:09:06,679 Speaker 2: bell Hooks and I love my iPhone. But I can 139 00:09:06,760 --> 00:09:10,760 Speaker 2: love them and still acknowledge reality. I can love them 140 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:15,000 Speaker 2: and still powerfully win policy arguments and powerfully lead a 141 00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:20,280 Speaker 2: revolution with no invocation of my personal moral absolution. We're 142 00:09:20,320 --> 00:09:22,599 Speaker 2: still unpacking this moment with my father. I told you 143 00:09:22,640 --> 00:09:25,160 Speaker 2: would be here a while. Put another marshmallow on the fire. 144 00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:29,160 Speaker 2: I don't think my father's sadness and hurt in this 145 00:09:29,320 --> 00:09:33,200 Speaker 2: moment was simply him believing Belle Hooks had taught me 146 00:09:33,400 --> 00:09:37,880 Speaker 2: to accuse him of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. But also 147 00:09:38,040 --> 00:09:42,120 Speaker 2: he desired for me to feel as though I lived 148 00:09:42,400 --> 00:09:46,240 Speaker 2: freely in a world where I did not have to 149 00:09:46,280 --> 00:09:50,960 Speaker 2: be constrained by racial identity. I think another part of 150 00:09:51,320 --> 00:09:55,760 Speaker 2: that tearful reaction was part of his realization that I'm 151 00:09:55,800 --> 00:09:58,319 Speaker 2: not living in that world, that these things are very, 152 00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:01,760 Speaker 2: very salient concerns for me, and that the post racial 153 00:10:01,840 --> 00:10:06,000 Speaker 2: utopia family life that emerged from his and my mother's 154 00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:11,600 Speaker 2: dreams did not extend beyond our household, and that I 155 00:10:11,640 --> 00:10:15,560 Speaker 2: had somehow, almost like eve bit the Apple, I had 156 00:10:15,600 --> 00:10:18,240 Speaker 2: become corrupted by Oh wait, there's this whole other world 157 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:20,680 Speaker 2: out here, and is this is now adult son? And 158 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:24,160 Speaker 2: just like I'm exiting the matrix and realizing, wait, I 159 00:10:24,200 --> 00:10:27,040 Speaker 2: feel wet, I feel cold. Nobody told me about these things. 160 00:10:27,080 --> 00:10:29,320 Speaker 2: I don't feel placated anymore. And so that's how I 161 00:10:29,320 --> 00:10:30,920 Speaker 2: wrote Chocolate Rain to find a way to talk about 162 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:33,000 Speaker 2: race that didn't make my father cry. No, we're getting 163 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:34,800 Speaker 2: way ahead in the story, but recording this is the 164 00:10:34,840 --> 00:10:51,000 Speaker 2: first time I ever made that connection, I will say, 165 00:10:51,040 --> 00:10:52,679 Speaker 2: and this is the meat of why I did that. 166 00:10:52,720 --> 00:10:56,960 Speaker 2: Theoretical breakdown that we'll get back to revolutionary and resistance 167 00:10:57,040 --> 00:11:01,520 Speaker 2: dialogue has become a little bit too enamorous with structuralist 168 00:11:01,679 --> 00:11:04,680 Speaker 2: language in twenty twenty five. We're kind of in love 169 00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:08,120 Speaker 2: with structuralism being the path to revolution. I have at 170 00:11:08,120 --> 00:11:10,839 Speaker 2: times been guilty of that, and part of the reason 171 00:11:10,840 --> 00:11:13,680 Speaker 2: for that is just social media is very very structuralist 172 00:11:14,080 --> 00:11:18,560 Speaker 2: in how it organizes our public discourse. You could even 173 00:11:18,600 --> 00:11:20,560 Speaker 2: go so far as to say that Chocolate Rain was 174 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:25,240 Speaker 2: a post structuralist piece of content on a post structuralist 175 00:11:25,600 --> 00:11:29,840 Speaker 2: wild wild West Internet. So you had this perfect alignment 176 00:11:29,880 --> 00:11:34,240 Speaker 2: of stars. Today, the Internet is much more regimented. In 177 00:11:34,280 --> 00:11:37,959 Speaker 2: two thousand and seven, you did not have algorithmic feeds monitoring, 178 00:11:38,040 --> 00:11:43,400 Speaker 2: spying on thousands of pieces of user telemetry to try 179 00:11:43,440 --> 00:11:47,000 Speaker 2: to predict what would keep the user on the platform 180 00:11:47,520 --> 00:11:50,480 Speaker 2: as long as possible. YouTube was actually curated by human 181 00:11:50,600 --> 00:11:53,120 Speaker 2: editors at that time. So yeah, there's this whole viral 182 00:11:53,240 --> 00:11:56,360 Speaker 2: video era from around what i'd say, die Coca and 183 00:11:56,440 --> 00:11:58,000 Speaker 2: mentos in two thousand and six, all the way through 184 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:01,600 Speaker 2: maybe Gonggam style in twenty eleven, where these massively our 185 00:12:01,679 --> 00:12:05,240 Speaker 2: videos were possible on a post structuralist Internet, where eventually 186 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:08,199 Speaker 2: companies like Google and Facebook learned they would make more 187 00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:11,320 Speaker 2: money by imposing more structure. And that's where we get 188 00:12:11,360 --> 00:12:15,400 Speaker 2: recommendation engines and feeds and these ads and platforms that 189 00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:18,440 Speaker 2: spy on all of our behavior to try to predict 190 00:12:18,440 --> 00:12:21,640 Speaker 2: what will addict us. And so a phenomenon like chocolate 191 00:12:21,760 --> 00:12:25,840 Speaker 2: Rain that had vague and flexible meaning that could be 192 00:12:25,880 --> 00:12:29,959 Speaker 2: widely appropriated that's not allowed on today's Internet. That's profane. 193 00:12:30,280 --> 00:12:33,520 Speaker 2: Ads can't predict human behavior in that type of ecosystem. 194 00:12:33,720 --> 00:12:37,680 Speaker 2: Today's Internet needs content to be what capitalists would call 195 00:12:37,840 --> 00:12:42,080 Speaker 2: a fixed asset. That also means it must have a 196 00:12:42,520 --> 00:12:47,439 Speaker 2: fixed meaning and a fixed audience response. The viral video 197 00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:50,640 Speaker 2: era in which chocolate Rain went viral was completely different. 198 00:12:50,679 --> 00:12:56,079 Speaker 2: It was all about reframing, reappropriating, lampooning meaning the top 199 00:12:56,160 --> 00:13:00,000 Speaker 2: content creators like Venetian Princess or barely pull it out 200 00:13:00,880 --> 00:13:05,640 Speaker 2: on YouTube, they would parody the music videos of gigantic 201 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:10,040 Speaker 2: artists like Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber, and their parodies 202 00:13:10,080 --> 00:13:12,920 Speaker 2: would get tens of millions, in some cases hundreds of 203 00:13:12,960 --> 00:13:15,800 Speaker 2: millions of views. And if young people today take away 204 00:13:15,920 --> 00:13:19,000 Speaker 2: one thing about how the Internet used to be and 205 00:13:19,040 --> 00:13:22,440 Speaker 2: how it is different than what we have today, it's 206 00:13:22,480 --> 00:13:26,880 Speaker 2: that it used to be possible to completely reframe the 207 00:13:27,080 --> 00:13:32,040 Speaker 2: meaning of a mainstream content asset and have your reframe 208 00:13:32,520 --> 00:13:37,319 Speaker 2: reach a gigantic audience, not a pre vetted and partisan 209 00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:42,920 Speaker 2: audience whose confirmation biases are just validated by the way 210 00:13:42,960 --> 00:13:45,640 Speaker 2: that you reframe a piece of content. No, you could 211 00:13:45,640 --> 00:13:51,679 Speaker 2: reach an undecided, undifferentiated majority, completely outside of your thought 212 00:13:51,760 --> 00:13:55,360 Speaker 2: bubble or thought ecosystem, with the content you uploaded in 213 00:13:55,360 --> 00:13:58,160 Speaker 2: the past organically. And this all circles back to my 214 00:13:58,280 --> 00:14:03,240 Speaker 2: earlier statement that revolutionary Discourson you could maybe sometimes call 215 00:14:03,280 --> 00:14:05,480 Speaker 2: it leftism, bread tube, you could go by many names, 216 00:14:05,600 --> 00:14:08,719 Speaker 2: has fallen a bit too much in love with structuralism 217 00:14:08,920 --> 00:14:12,360 Speaker 2: because passionate young activists have grown up in this fake 218 00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:16,839 Speaker 2: oligarchic information regime, where it is impossible for layered meaning, 219 00:14:16,960 --> 00:14:23,000 Speaker 2: symbolic meaning, metaphorical meaning, liminal meaning to access undecided eyeballs 220 00:14:23,040 --> 00:14:26,680 Speaker 2: and grow an audience. They'll sometimes attack positions that introduce 221 00:14:26,800 --> 00:14:31,120 Speaker 2: complexity as though that complexity is motivated by malice and 222 00:14:31,280 --> 00:14:35,640 Speaker 2: a rejection of their through line narrative that they want 223 00:14:35,760 --> 00:14:38,440 Speaker 2: to reach an audience with the problem when a passionate 224 00:14:38,480 --> 00:14:41,320 Speaker 2: revolutionary responds that way is that it is conflating the 225 00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:45,680 Speaker 2: algorithm's active speech with the individual's active speech. The late 226 00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:48,200 Speaker 2: great Michael Brooks was right. We must be ruthless to 227 00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:51,960 Speaker 2: systems and kind to individuals. Audrey Lord was right, The 228 00:14:52,040 --> 00:14:55,760 Speaker 2: master's tools will not dismantle the master's house. World history 229 00:14:55,840 --> 00:14:59,880 Speaker 2: is filled with endless revolutionary actors who introduced complexity. Dota 230 00:15:00,440 --> 00:15:06,360 Speaker 2: introduced complexity as it lampooned and critiqued fascism, using the 231 00:15:06,400 --> 00:15:10,440 Speaker 2: optics that fascism put forth itself. Young people will watch 232 00:15:10,520 --> 00:15:13,120 Speaker 2: Chocolate Rain today and be like, I can't believe that 233 00:15:13,200 --> 00:15:15,280 Speaker 2: people missed with the meaning of this was in two 234 00:15:15,280 --> 00:15:17,720 Speaker 2: thousand and seven, and I'm like, oh, okay yet, Because 235 00:15:17,720 --> 00:15:21,360 Speaker 2: we operated in an information ecosystem that did not corral 236 00:15:21,480 --> 00:15:26,080 Speaker 2: us into self destructive literalism. Everybody was accustomed to regularly 237 00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:30,080 Speaker 2: encountering online content that had not been free sorted to 238 00:15:30,200 --> 00:15:34,000 Speaker 2: validate their most vulnerable biases and go to them into 239 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:40,160 Speaker 2: a codependent, voracious consumption experience around time, sucking content related 240 00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:42,440 Speaker 2: to each bias. Some people will ask, well, why didn't 241 00:15:42,440 --> 00:15:44,360 Speaker 2: you speak out more clearly at that time that you 242 00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:46,560 Speaker 2: had this vision of chocolate rain being a ballad about 243 00:15:46,560 --> 00:15:50,920 Speaker 2: institutional racism. And it's partly, not entirely, but partly because 244 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:54,240 Speaker 2: I knew it could be a trojan horse, and I 245 00:15:54,320 --> 00:15:57,160 Speaker 2: knew that people making comedic parodies and saying, oh gosh, 246 00:15:57,200 --> 00:15:58,800 Speaker 2: it's a fun silly song that I sing to my 247 00:15:58,880 --> 00:16:02,200 Speaker 2: kid at bedtime was part of the penetration phase for 248 00:16:02,280 --> 00:16:04,440 Speaker 2: that trojan horse, and it was not time for the 249 00:16:04,440 --> 00:16:06,720 Speaker 2: soldiers to jump out. And by the way, because we 250 00:16:06,800 --> 00:16:11,160 Speaker 2: live in extremely estranged and balkanized times now, that trojan 251 00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:14,000 Speaker 2: horse approach is one of the only ways to raise 252 00:16:14,080 --> 00:16:17,560 Speaker 2: the political consciousness of somebody who is a good person 253 00:16:17,640 --> 00:16:21,880 Speaker 2: but who is not personally nor spiritually prepared to understand 254 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:26,200 Speaker 2: your worldview. The fact that social algorithms banning metaphor and 255 00:16:26,280 --> 00:16:30,960 Speaker 2: nuance also serves to ban that slow crawl trojan horsing, 256 00:16:31,160 --> 00:16:37,080 Speaker 2: which is literally the anthropological process by which new coalitions 257 00:16:37,160 --> 00:16:41,840 Speaker 2: and new societies and new cultural meetings evolve. Needs that 258 00:16:41,880 --> 00:16:46,880 Speaker 2: today's private sectors, search and social network oligarchies are injurious 259 00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:49,600 Speaker 2: to humanity and how they operate. So if you are 260 00:16:49,680 --> 00:16:52,080 Speaker 2: young and your entire life has been lived with this 261 00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:56,920 Speaker 2: boot on your neck, this boot of engagement optimized algorithmic 262 00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:02,480 Speaker 2: information feeds driven by search engine optimism, metadata and telemetry, 263 00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:08,080 Speaker 2: you face an extra challenge in pursuing intellectual and creative liberation. 264 00:17:08,520 --> 00:17:11,159 Speaker 2: As Ralph Ellison puts it, live in New York, but 265 00:17:11,280 --> 00:17:14,120 Speaker 2: don't let New York live in you. As Henry Lewis 266 00:17:14,160 --> 00:17:18,520 Speaker 2: Gates Junior writes about sophisticated African literary criticism through the 267 00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:23,640 Speaker 2: signifying monkey and the Ruba trickster, signification is the performance 268 00:17:23,680 --> 00:17:29,399 Speaker 2: of metaphor and lampooning established meaning and established power, the 269 00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:33,040 Speaker 2: same way Noam Chomsky talks about how human beings themselves 270 00:17:33,119 --> 00:17:38,080 Speaker 2: are wired for generative grammar and creating a structure whose 271 00:17:38,119 --> 00:17:40,320 Speaker 2: meaning is not beholding to itself. 272 00:17:40,760 --> 00:17:49,200 Speaker 3: And we'll be back soon with more from Taizon Day 273 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:03,560 Speaker 3: become back to sixteenth minute. I love my listeners so much, 274 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:06,119 Speaker 3: and by that I mean I was able to find 275 00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:09,200 Speaker 3: someone to make an earn for my dad's ashes after 276 00:18:09,240 --> 00:18:12,560 Speaker 3: putting out a call two weeks ago. Really impressive stuff, 277 00:18:12,600 --> 00:18:16,520 Speaker 3: you guys. And here's more political theory from Tazon Day. 278 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:20,200 Speaker 2: You're just like that song. The revolution will not be televised. Well, 279 00:18:20,280 --> 00:18:24,480 Speaker 2: today's revolution will not be hashtagged. It will not be trending, 280 00:18:24,840 --> 00:18:29,359 Speaker 2: at least not uncentralized for profit engagement optimized search and 281 00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:32,360 Speaker 2: social media. And let's pause a little bit. Let's back off, 282 00:18:32,359 --> 00:18:36,159 Speaker 2: because I just made a bold claim. I said the 283 00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:43,560 Speaker 2: revolution is impossible using today's privatized, centralized, oligarthic search and 284 00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:47,560 Speaker 2: social media. The easiest counterpoint to that assertion is what 285 00:18:47,760 --> 00:18:52,399 Speaker 2: about Occupy Wall Street? What about Black Lives Matter? What 286 00:18:52,560 --> 00:18:55,960 Speaker 2: about me too? Those are fantastic counterpoints. And I want 287 00:18:55,960 --> 00:18:57,399 Speaker 2: to go on a bit of a detour, and we 288 00:18:57,440 --> 00:18:59,560 Speaker 2: are already in a detour, so it's kind of a 289 00:18:59,600 --> 00:19:03,399 Speaker 2: detour inside of the detour. But this topic of movements, 290 00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:08,280 Speaker 2: meanings and the structure of algorithmic social media sort of 291 00:19:08,280 --> 00:19:13,320 Speaker 2: being like a goalie who intercepts every scoring kick in 292 00:19:13,400 --> 00:19:17,160 Speaker 2: the effort to start revolution. It's worth exploring with real 293 00:19:17,200 --> 00:19:20,879 Speaker 2: world examples. It's important to acknowledge that people have lived 294 00:19:21,119 --> 00:19:26,119 Speaker 2: many different and oftentimes heroic stories, and that one perspective 295 00:19:26,200 --> 00:19:30,520 Speaker 2: does not seek to steal valor nor confiscate well deserved 296 00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:34,520 Speaker 2: praise for many different life arcs. I have to put 297 00:19:34,520 --> 00:19:37,320 Speaker 2: that asterisk out there now before I even suggest that 298 00:19:37,400 --> 00:19:41,320 Speaker 2: things might have an additional layer of meaning, because Internet 299 00:19:41,359 --> 00:19:45,679 Speaker 2: algorithms mutilate any assertion that is part of an interrogative 300 00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:52,199 Speaker 2: and misrepresents curiosity and exploration and dialectic as declarative and 301 00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:55,760 Speaker 2: gospel in order to gaslight and agitate. By the way, 302 00:19:55,760 --> 00:19:58,320 Speaker 2: a lot of y'all talk about representation as a social 303 00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:01,000 Speaker 2: justice concept, and rightly so, but I'll just put out 304 00:20:01,040 --> 00:20:06,120 Speaker 2: there as an aside that santactic misrepresentation might be the 305 00:20:06,160 --> 00:20:12,520 Speaker 2: most consequential type of misrepresentation determining your future, because santactic 306 00:20:12,640 --> 00:20:17,520 Speaker 2: misrepresentation by Internet algorithms acting on textual metadata is so 307 00:20:17,880 --> 00:20:22,119 Speaker 2: insidious and the only way you can inoculate yourself against 308 00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:25,680 Speaker 2: it is to be so educated that you can argue 309 00:20:25,840 --> 00:20:30,600 Speaker 2: every position you agree with and disagree with better than 310 00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:34,880 Speaker 2: its most passionate and educated and devoted acolyte. You got 311 00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:37,080 Speaker 2: to intellectually be like Yoda from Star Wars. That's a 312 00:20:37,080 --> 00:20:38,679 Speaker 2: part of Attack of the Clones that you missed if 313 00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:41,240 Speaker 2: you didn't read the novelization is that Douk who had 314 00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:44,679 Speaker 2: studied the dark side for ten years, and Yoda's like, surprise, motherfuck, 315 00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:47,840 Speaker 2: I know the dark side better than you do. So say, hypothetically, 316 00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:50,679 Speaker 2: you disagree with the libertarian, you disagree with the neoliberal, 317 00:20:50,720 --> 00:20:53,520 Speaker 2: you better know the dark side better. So when they 318 00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:56,560 Speaker 2: throw Hegel and John Locke and Adam Smith and John 319 00:20:56,600 --> 00:20:59,840 Speaker 2: Stuart Mill and Iron Rand and Milton Friedman and other 320 00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:02,960 Speaker 2: astrology in your face, you can say, hey, I have 321 00:21:03,119 --> 00:21:07,119 Speaker 2: that whole collection of tarot cards. I didn't realize we 322 00:21:07,119 --> 00:21:10,920 Speaker 2: were having a horoscope battle today. But you are going down. 323 00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:13,760 Speaker 2: That's the aside. I'm like Olive Garden. Sometimes the sides 324 00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:16,000 Speaker 2: fill you up more than the main course. So keeping 325 00:21:16,040 --> 00:21:18,120 Speaker 2: our eye on the ball, I said, the revolution will 326 00:21:18,119 --> 00:21:20,000 Speaker 2: not be hashtagged, It will not be trending. A lot 327 00:21:20,080 --> 00:21:22,520 Speaker 2: of these terms that trend on social media and become 328 00:21:22,520 --> 00:21:27,120 Speaker 2: the names of movements are sort of euphemistic. They are 329 00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:32,720 Speaker 2: integrationist euphemisms to describe revolutionary causes. To me, Integrationist means 330 00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:37,760 Speaker 2: that justice will be achieved by augmenting, remodeling established power, 331 00:21:38,040 --> 00:21:41,280 Speaker 2: usually without changing its stakeholders. Revolutionary means we've got to 332 00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:44,240 Speaker 2: re imagine established power in its stakeholders, which is often 333 00:21:44,359 --> 00:21:47,479 Speaker 2: state power, the power of government. Martin Luther King Junior 334 00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:52,520 Speaker 2: is a revolutionary who got backpedaled and celebrated as an integrationist. 335 00:21:52,880 --> 00:21:55,119 Speaker 2: He was condemned around the time of his death by 336 00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:57,840 Speaker 2: a lot of persisting media brands that you've engaged with. 337 00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:00,000 Speaker 2: They call them a trader and a communist in a while, 338 00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:03,600 Speaker 2: relic for talking about oligarchy and militarism. That's not what 339 00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:05,320 Speaker 2: you learned in grade school. You learned that he had 340 00:22:05,320 --> 00:22:08,240 Speaker 2: a dream and did the March on Washington where he 341 00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:12,240 Speaker 2: dreamed of integrating consumerism and public access, and then the 342 00:22:12,280 --> 00:22:15,240 Speaker 2: curriculaments until you go to college. That integrationist caricature of 343 00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:18,080 Speaker 2: Martin Luther King Junior has other lies that piggyback on it, 344 00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:20,960 Speaker 2: like the only black revolutionary discourse during the Civil Rights 345 00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:25,679 Speaker 2: movement was militants black panthers, sometimes the black nationalists. I 346 00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:28,479 Speaker 2: call attention to that false binary because it gets carried 347 00:22:28,520 --> 00:22:32,359 Speaker 2: forward into the overten window of acceptability of what is 348 00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:35,800 Speaker 2: allowed to trend on social media. Just replace Martin Luther 349 00:22:35,920 --> 00:22:39,000 Speaker 2: King and the Black Panthers with the term Occupy Wall 350 00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:42,240 Speaker 2: Street and the lyrics of Boots Riley, We've got the guillotine, 351 00:22:42,280 --> 00:22:44,800 Speaker 2: you better run. I love Occupy Wall Street, I love 352 00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:47,960 Speaker 2: Boots Riley. But in between them, are we questioning meritocracy? 353 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:51,200 Speaker 2: Are we questioning perpetual growth? Are we questioning corporate personhood? 354 00:22:51,359 --> 00:22:54,640 Speaker 2: Are we questioning fractional reserve banking? And I'm not discounting 355 00:22:54,680 --> 00:22:57,240 Speaker 2: that acolytes are, But I'm talking about what trends widely, 356 00:22:57,440 --> 00:22:59,920 Speaker 2: And many will point out that there's more specific critiques 357 00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:02,639 Speaker 2: concerns that are kind of implied by Occupy Wall Street 358 00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:05,600 Speaker 2: are not themselves trending more widely because they're more niche. 359 00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:07,679 Speaker 2: I would say, thank you, that's exactly my point. Do 360 00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:10,679 Speaker 2: you think Chris Crocker screaming and leave Brittany alone was 361 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:13,800 Speaker 2: not niche when it trended in the summer of two 362 00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:17,120 Speaker 2: thousand and seven. The knowledge ecosystem in which chocolate Rain 363 00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:21,440 Speaker 2: trended was one in which niche content and niche concepts 364 00:23:21,760 --> 00:23:27,000 Speaker 2: were allowed to reach a large, undifferentiated audience. But more 365 00:23:27,040 --> 00:23:30,560 Speaker 2: than that, Occupy Wall Street is also quite literal. Its 366 00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:34,560 Speaker 2: politics are not hidden. It's the santactic pineapples on pizza, 367 00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:36,280 Speaker 2: you know it when you see it, and you love 368 00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:39,320 Speaker 2: it or you hate it metaphor and having soldiers to 369 00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:42,960 Speaker 2: jump out of your conceptual trojan horse once it penetrates. 370 00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:47,800 Speaker 2: That requires figurative and widely discordant meaning, which is the 371 00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:51,880 Speaker 2: antithesis of literal meaning. So, in summary, between the literal 372 00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:57,160 Speaker 2: and broad trend of Occupy Wall Street and the militant 373 00:23:57,200 --> 00:24:01,639 Speaker 2: revolutionary literalism of Boots Riley, there is niche and figurative 374 00:24:01,680 --> 00:24:04,800 Speaker 2: meeting that is not as able to trend on algorithmic 375 00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:08,359 Speaker 2: social media. Black Lives Matter is a wonderful example of 376 00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:15,080 Speaker 2: literal meeting, as well as important heroic historic accomplishments in 377 00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:20,200 Speaker 2: public education, policy implementation, and policy discourse now zooming out. 378 00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:24,159 Speaker 2: Speaking about race is always this sort of awkward cohabitation 379 00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:30,199 Speaker 2: because you are speaking about socioeconomic reality that correlates with 380 00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:34,200 Speaker 2: biological fiction. I especially think that Black Lives Matter makes 381 00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:38,359 Speaker 2: a great juxtaposition with Chocolate Rain because they exist on 382 00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:43,920 Speaker 2: opposite sides of this divide where algorithmic social media took 383 00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:47,320 Speaker 2: over the world. Chocolate Rain could not have thrived in 384 00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:51,679 Speaker 2: the social media ecosystem six years later, and Black Lives 385 00:24:51,680 --> 00:24:55,160 Speaker 2: Matter could not have thrived in the social media ecosystem 386 00:24:55,280 --> 00:24:59,520 Speaker 2: six years before. Both Chocolate Rain and Black Lives Matter 387 00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:04,520 Speaker 2: are so of torch, bearing of a very established discourse 388 00:25:05,040 --> 00:25:10,439 Speaker 2: and even disagreement about black identity and black activism. I 389 00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:14,439 Speaker 2: mentioned Ralph Ellison earlier, and I think that conceptualizing Chocolate 390 00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:18,119 Speaker 2: Rain as a trojan horse, as something that was not 391 00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:22,840 Speaker 2: averse to reframing and appropriation as its spread its message, 392 00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:28,040 Speaker 2: is very in line with an Elisonian perspective on racial identity. 393 00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:32,080 Speaker 2: This perspective is captured in Ralph Ellison's best known novel 394 00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:35,200 Speaker 2: Invisible Man, and we'll come back to that in a minute. 395 00:25:35,359 --> 00:25:38,840 Speaker 2: In contrast to Chocolate Rain and Ralph Ellison, Black Lives 396 00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:42,320 Speaker 2: Matter makes me think of Richard Wright's Native Son, another 397 00:25:42,520 --> 00:25:46,720 Speaker 2: legendary essential work of American literature. One way that a 398 00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:50,480 Speaker 2: black life matters to Richard Wright, through his protagonist Bigger Thomas, 399 00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:53,879 Speaker 2: is to tell a racist society, you need to see 400 00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:59,160 Speaker 2: a rational actor who is responding intelligently and logically within 401 00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:02,960 Speaker 2: that you pathologize, because that is the only way to 402 00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:06,800 Speaker 2: complete the consciousness journey of seeing yourselves. Richard Wright might 403 00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:11,159 Speaker 2: even say that pathology satirizes the pathologizer. The way a 404 00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:14,280 Speaker 2: black life matters to Ralph Ellison is very different because 405 00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:17,800 Speaker 2: he believes being black gives you one side of an 406 00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:23,880 Speaker 2: important Hegelian dialectic that exposes the world to you through juxtaposition. 407 00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:27,720 Speaker 2: Crudely put, a dialectic is arriving at truth through an 408 00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:33,280 Speaker 2: argument between opposites. The outsiderness of blackness, being the opposite 409 00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:37,440 Speaker 2: of presumption, gets deployed by Ellison as a destoue feel 410 00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:41,879 Speaker 2: like ethnographic superpower. Ralph Ellison would say that all of 411 00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:48,640 Speaker 2: these identities that people ascribe to themselves, racial identity, political identity, 412 00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:53,040 Speaker 2: they're all like imaginary friends, and all of you people 413 00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:56,919 Speaker 2: who reduce your identity to a monolithic dogma, are like 414 00:26:57,080 --> 00:27:01,200 Speaker 2: children sucking on different flavors of as a fire. And 415 00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:06,760 Speaker 2: it is intellectually exhausting to be around you. And the 416 00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:11,240 Speaker 2: only liberation for an enlightened individual is to understand that 417 00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:16,520 Speaker 2: the human species is like an ongoing aluminum fire between 418 00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:23,320 Speaker 2: structuralist identities held by passionate, dogmatic, and misinformed individuals. You 419 00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:25,919 Speaker 2: can't put out an aluminum fire. All you can do 420 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:28,280 Speaker 2: is stay far enough away and maybe get a long 421 00:27:28,320 --> 00:27:31,480 Speaker 2: pole to make some s'mores. Now here's the takeaway. The 422 00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:33,960 Speaker 2: other thing, I'll notice that regardless of what one believes 423 00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:36,720 Speaker 2: on any topic, they are always going to be able 424 00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:41,639 Speaker 2: to find individual cases, individual stories that bolster their position 425 00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:44,520 Speaker 2: and discredit the opposition. That's the case with all three 426 00:27:44,560 --> 00:27:47,320 Speaker 2: of these. Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, Me too. 427 00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:51,159 Speaker 2: Everybody can build or find a feed that cherry picks 428 00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:56,040 Speaker 2: truthful content that confirms their biases, regardless of proportion. One 429 00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:59,960 Speaker 2: reason it is so important that revolutionary messaging that creates 430 00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:04,399 Speaker 2: Tiak's power is not gate kept from reaching a wide 431 00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:07,439 Speaker 2: audience is that the more characters you put in the 432 00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:11,879 Speaker 2: story of a critique, for example, Everybody, the harder facts 433 00:28:11,880 --> 00:28:15,320 Speaker 2: are to discredit. Okay, I'm done. That's the button, the 434 00:28:15,320 --> 00:28:18,840 Speaker 2: theoretical button on the interaction I had with my father 435 00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:21,479 Speaker 2: at age twenty one and my answer to the question 436 00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:24,600 Speaker 2: of why did the language of Belle Hooks white supremacist, 437 00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:28,840 Speaker 2: capitalist patriarchy make my father cry in that moment, I 438 00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:31,520 Speaker 2: think that groundwork helps contextualize a lot of the rest 439 00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:34,240 Speaker 2: of the story. Holy moly, I'm looking back, that's like 440 00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:36,840 Speaker 2: twenty nine minutes of groundwork for when I was twelve 441 00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:39,800 Speaker 2: minutes into this. This is why I cannot make friends, 442 00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:42,120 Speaker 2: because that's exactly who I am on dating apps, and 443 00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:43,480 Speaker 2: if you get to know me, I am the four 444 00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:45,600 Speaker 2: thousand word message. I just had a thought or two 445 00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:49,000 Speaker 2: with citations. They should add that to the matchmaking criteria. 446 00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:52,640 Speaker 2: Sperm banks. No he's not six feet tall. No he's 447 00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:56,240 Speaker 2: not a millionaire. Yeah, he sends really long text messages 448 00:28:56,280 --> 00:28:58,600 Speaker 2: that are widely cited, and he does it at the 449 00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:00,800 Speaker 2: least appropriate times, like during the middle of movies and 450 00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:03,600 Speaker 2: at birthday parties. I should totally put that in my 451 00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:06,320 Speaker 2: hinge bio. Now, my biggest problem with the dating apps 452 00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:09,520 Speaker 2: is that questioning is not a category. Asexually, romatic is 453 00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:11,640 Speaker 2: not a category, and this kind of goes along with 454 00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:13,880 Speaker 2: being questioning. I've been publicly questioning for all of my 455 00:29:13,920 --> 00:29:16,239 Speaker 2: public life, and I've had a partner too, though not 456 00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:19,480 Speaker 2: really any lasting relationships. I used to think that having 457 00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:23,040 Speaker 2: a high partner count was somehow this clarifying thing, but 458 00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:24,760 Speaker 2: I know people who are on the hundreds from all 459 00:29:24,800 --> 00:29:27,840 Speaker 2: over the human and situational buffet and they still have 460 00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:30,640 Speaker 2: no clue what they're into. I'm definitely sapey as sexual. 461 00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:33,280 Speaker 2: I'm attracted to intellect, although I'm also not like a 462 00:29:33,280 --> 00:29:36,480 Speaker 2: lot of career intellectuals. You know that term interdisciplinary. I'm 463 00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:39,240 Speaker 2: enter undisciplinary. I'm supposed to be getting back to the 464 00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:41,560 Speaker 2: story of my career, aren't I. You can tell when 465 00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:45,680 Speaker 2: my ADHD medication does like fuck. Therefore we left the bloodstream. 466 00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:46,880 Speaker 2: He's on his own. 467 00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:50,040 Speaker 3: Thank you so much again to Taizon Day, whose social 468 00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:52,440 Speaker 3: media you can find in the description. And now that 469 00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:56,200 Speaker 3: you're fully dialed in, now that you are well aware 470 00:29:56,480 --> 00:29:59,640 Speaker 3: that in the context of Tay Or Adam Bonner's life, 471 00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:03,120 Speaker 3: that Chocolate Rain was but a chapter in his larger 472 00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:07,560 Speaker 3: political education. Next week he's gonna share his story up 473 00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:11,120 Speaker 3: until today. And if you're a person on the internet, 474 00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:15,120 Speaker 3: which face it you are, you too could unwittingly become 475 00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:18,360 Speaker 3: a main character. And Tay's insight and wisdom on the 476 00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:23,040 Speaker 3: topic twenty years on is well worth hearing. That's next 477 00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:25,880 Speaker 3: week on. Sixteenth Minute. 478 00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:31,800 Speaker 4: Sixteenth Minute is a production of fool Zone Media and 479 00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:35,560 Speaker 4: iHeart Radios. It is written, posted, and produced by me 480 00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:39,840 Speaker 4: Jamie Lostus. Our executive producers are Sophie Lickderman and Robert Evans. 481 00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:44,200 Speaker 3: He amazing. Ian Johnson is our supervising producer and our editor. 482 00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:48,560 Speaker 3: Our theme song is by Sad thirteen. Voice acting is 483 00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:51,640 Speaker 3: from Brant Crater and Pet. Shout outs to our dog 484 00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:55,240 Speaker 3: producer Anderson, my Kats Flee and Casper and my pet Rockbird, 485 00:30:55,320 --> 00:30:58,120 Speaker 3: who will outlive us all Bye.