Speaker 1: Hello the Internet, and welcome to this episode of The
Speaker 1: Weekly Zeitgeist. These are some of our favorite segments from
Speaker 1: this week, all edited together into one NonStop infotainment laugh stravaganza. Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: without further ado, here is the Weekly Zeitgeist. Miles. We
Speaker 1: are thrilled to be joined in our third seat by
Speaker 1: today's special expert guests. He is the senior researcher of
Speaker 1: US hate and extremist Movements at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
Speaker 1: To quote Samuel L. Jackson, holt onto your butts because
Speaker 1: it's the return of ultimania. Welcome back to the show,
Speaker 1: Jared Hawk.
Speaker 2: Jared, Hey, thanks for having me, guys. I kind of
Speaker 2: feel like the janitor. I think, like when you go
Speaker 2: see a concert and all the lights come up and
Speaker 2: like after those musical renditions.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, all right, guys. Hey, hey, oh oh hey,
Speaker 3: ye sweeping up around here. I don't have to go home,
Speaker 3: but you really shouldn't stay here. Guys left a lot
Speaker 3: of little plastic bags on the ground here. Another one
Speaker 3: of those shows.
Speaker 4: I guess.
Speaker 2: How you doing, Jared, Hey, I'm doing right where you
Speaker 2: coming to. It's from Chicago. Moved here. A couple of
Speaker 2: years ago and it's getting a little cold here, but
Speaker 2: love this city.
Speaker 1: Yeah the old two one three three one two three
Speaker 1: one two damn it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's so close. Hey, it's okay, man, it's okay.
Speaker 1: We covered this yesterday. A yeah.
Speaker 4: Literally, So, Jared, what's like, because you know, when we
Speaker 4: first started the show, we had you on when you're
Speaker 4: working at like right Wing Watch. Yeah yeah, and now
Speaker 4: like you've there's like a whole lane to be somebody
Speaker 4: who is so well versed in like extremist semiotics and
Speaker 4: monitoring extremist movements that like, I just feel like you're
Speaker 4: always moving up and I'm like, this is this is fair.
Speaker 4: I love the glow up, but it's always on the
Speaker 4: back of having to have your head in some of
Speaker 4: the dark shit all the time. But you're doing well
Speaker 4: otherwise despite this career path. I just want to make
Speaker 4: sure because the work you do is fantastic. The work
Speaker 4: that your colleagues do is fantastic. I could never imagine
Speaker 4: being disengaged with it, even at the level we do.
Speaker 4: But shit, the level that like you guys do is
Speaker 4: completely it's like completely different.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'm doing well.
Speaker 1: I appreciate all that.
Speaker 2: It's It's really interesting because I started doing this kind
Speaker 2: of stuff full time something like eight years ago, right,
Speaker 2: and I felt like when I was doing it then,
Speaker 2: I was like the crazy guy on the town square,
Speaker 2: being like here, ye, here, he please pay attention to
Speaker 2: this shit, right, And now it's just like, I mean,
Speaker 2: I guess I'm glad it's recognized, but it is really
Speaker 2: unfortunate that you know, in the grand scheme of things
Speaker 2: that it's necessary.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but so long as I can help, you know,
Speaker 2: that's it's like a calling of mine, I guess, And
Speaker 2: I don't know. It's really dark, but then there's like
Speaker 2: a little bit of gallows humor that keeps me coming back.
Speaker 4: Sure. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Would you say, like just kind of having taking a
Speaker 1: step back, would January sixth be the thing that like
Speaker 1: made sort of the mainstream world take right wing extremism
Speaker 1: more seriously? Was it happening before that? Was it Charlottesville?
Speaker 1: What was the kind of overall pattern?
Speaker 2: I mean, I think Charlottesville was sort of the beginning
Speaker 2: of it. And then in twenty nineteen there were a
Speaker 2: few really really horrible extremist mass killings. That's when you
Speaker 2: had like the Pittsburgh Sennagogue shooting christ Church was that year,
Speaker 2: and then I think for you know, the normies of
Speaker 2: the world that still didn't get it somehow. It's kind
Speaker 2: of hard to think of a more powerful image than
Speaker 2: you know, QAnon ants and car dealership uncles rather flies
Speaker 2: by the internet, you know, smashing through the halls of Congress.
Speaker 2: I think that was pretty hard to you know, look
Speaker 2: away from or right off. It's like, oh, well, it's
Speaker 2: just some weird fringe, you know, yes, and you're like,
Speaker 2: it's right there in your face. That's my fucking uncle.
Speaker 4: Fuck.
Speaker 1: I remember how recently it was like such a fringe idea,
Speaker 1: Like even even after right wing extreme asm was responsible
Speaker 1: for the Oklahoma City bombing, it was just like there
Speaker 1: was nobody looking into it. Even after Trump got elected,
Speaker 1: like there was still like just people weren't taking it
Speaker 1: seriously as a threat.
Speaker 4: It's because we have such you know, white supremacist reflexes
Speaker 4: that were like them, no, no, they're nice kids. They
Speaker 4: have Jacky's on okay, and they're they're not. They don't
Speaker 4: look that imposing. Now, this group of people with these
Speaker 4: signs over here, I don't know what's going on. It
Speaker 4: may have to do with their complexion. I don't know,
Speaker 4: but yeah, like I feel like that always has that's
Speaker 4: always benefited, especially like right wing extremism is their whiteness
Speaker 4: or just not whether not being taken seriously or this
Speaker 4: idea of like, oh it's nothing, it's just don't worry
Speaker 4: about that over there kind of shit.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean it still does, right, I mean I
Speaker 2: think about like, even in the field I work in,
Speaker 2: which is weird to call it a field now, it's
Speaker 2: every once in a while you'll catch, you know, after
Speaker 2: some mass shooting or big event in extremism land, a
Speaker 2: bunch of people trying to offer up all these like
Speaker 2: different competing theories as to why it happened, whether it's
Speaker 2: you know, like economic hardship or whatever.
Speaker 4: It's like, right, we don't, you.
Speaker 2: Know, as a culture, we don't cut this slack or
Speaker 2: like try to you know, do armchair psychology over other stuff,
Speaker 2: you know, And it's always interesting to me like where
Speaker 2: that gets applied, because that's one of those I think
Speaker 2: kind of subtle ways that you know, living in a
Speaker 2: culture defined by white supremacy like comes out even in
Speaker 2: the field that you know is hoping to try to
Speaker 2: counteract some of that.
Speaker 4: Right, right, right exactly. But how did they grow up though?
Speaker 4: These skinhead kids.
Speaker 2: It's like, well, it doesn't matter because yeah, exactly, let's
Speaker 2: get to the point here, skinhead now, yeah, and that
Speaker 2: you know you.
Speaker 4: Hate to see it, don't you? You hate to see
Speaker 4: I feel like that's like what people would say, like
Speaker 4: in newsrooms, like, ah, you hate to see it. Just
Speaker 4: these nice kids going on a foul But yeah.
Speaker 1: Really, what is something from your search history?
Speaker 5: Oh god?
Speaker 6: Okay, So the one thing that really did pop up
Speaker 6: yesterday when I looked was is it okay for my
Speaker 6: two year old to want to stay home all the time?
Speaker 1: Right? Oh?
Speaker 4: Like a homebody two year old?
Speaker 6: Yeah, because we're currently like putting her into school and
Speaker 6: she freaking hates it.
Speaker 5: And so I just like, it's just so crazy because
Speaker 5: when I google.
Speaker 6: Something like that, it's not like I think there's going
Speaker 6: to be an answer, right I really, you know what
Speaker 6: I'm looking for, and this is so sad. I'm looking
Speaker 6: for like a message board where I can just connect
Speaker 6: to someone in a similar situation and then I just
Speaker 6: like quickly scan it and then I close the.
Speaker 5: Tab and move on with my life.
Speaker 1: Right Yeah, Yeah, it's sad of like No, that's not
Speaker 1: all bad.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think I should be just like texting a
Speaker 6: friend right.
Speaker 4: Well, that have I mean, but I guess it's sometimes
Speaker 4: like our questions are so specific to experience. Sometimes we
Speaker 4: don't have somebody who's been through that exact thing, so
Speaker 4: I can see what's.
Speaker 1: Cleaner to crowdsource friends, Miles, You don't a friend is
Speaker 1: going to want stuff from you. But this is crowdsource
Speaker 1: and see you you cast a wide net see other
Speaker 1: people's experience, and then you can just discard.
Speaker 5: Them and then you. Guys don't always get back to
Speaker 5: me right away.
Speaker 6: So that's why for this specific one, I didn't really
Speaker 6: want to text you.
Speaker 1: I don't interact with people unless it's on my podcast.
Speaker 4: You have to come here with a microphone in front
Speaker 4: of you. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I haven't spoken to my wife in seven years. What
Speaker 1: I say, it's gotta be on Mike. This is content, babe,
Speaker 1: This is content, babe. The I have a five year
Speaker 1: old I was fighting this exact battle this very morning,
Speaker 1: was trying to get him to go to school, and
Speaker 1: he unbuckled himself as the car started moving, Oh tried
Speaker 1: to climb into the front seat and be like, I'm
Speaker 1: not going I'm not no, like I don't think you understand.
Speaker 1: I'm not. Wow, like it's happening.
Speaker 4: Trump on January sixth, like trying to turn the suburban around, Like, yo,
Speaker 4: get back, stay back there, sir, Yeah, you're doing.
Speaker 1: It's very transitory though.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 1: We were over it within five minutes.
Speaker 5: Okay, that's good.
Speaker 6: See my girl, she's new to this whole thing, so
Speaker 6: she's got endurance.
Speaker 1: Like I was.
Speaker 6: They have a little gate on the side of the school,
Speaker 6: and for like twenty minutes, I was like peeking through the.
Speaker 5: Gate, yeah, and like yeah, she's still going yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. No,
Speaker 5: she's got a really dirty mouth.
Speaker 4: Don't touch me.
Speaker 1: You fucking asshole.
Speaker 4: You're like, oh my.
Speaker 6: God, I'm like, sorry, honey, I gotta go do a podcast.
Speaker 1: Sorry, very important. You know what, you can totally just
Speaker 1: end this right now and go and go hang out
Speaker 1: with your daughter if you want. This is, by no
Speaker 1: means the best thing to be doing this.
Speaker 6: If I get a phone call from from the center,
Speaker 6: I'll have to take it. But otherwise, you guys, I
Speaker 6: got my priority stroke.
Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah, what is something, Brian that you think is overrated?
Speaker 7: I think eating healthy is overrated.
Speaker 4: M go on.
Speaker 7: I'm like, I'm like, I get it.
Speaker 8: Like, you know, it's like eating healthy probably makes you
Speaker 8: feel better, you know, it probably makes you live longer,
Speaker 8: but who cares.
Speaker 4: You're here for a good time, not a long time.
Speaker 8: Here for a good time, not a long time, yeah,
Speaker 8: or are you for a long time in a bad time?
Speaker 1: Like yeah? With them of enjoying junk food yeah.
Speaker 8: Or like not yeah junk food or just like stuff that,
Speaker 8: Like if you have two options in front of you,
Speaker 8: it's like, why let me have the bad one. Maybe
Speaker 8: the bad one is not even that bad?
Speaker 1: What are you okay?
Speaker 4: Maybe it's like, were you recently at at of crossroads
Speaker 4: with with food and you had to decide whether, like
Speaker 4: which which you're gonna give into the demon or the
Speaker 4: angel on your shoulder?
Speaker 7: No, I generally eat healthy, though.
Speaker 1: Oh but you seem very healthy, Like that's the thing
Speaker 1: is like, but there are certain people who just have
Speaker 1: good Like if I eat unhealthy unhealthily in the morning,
Speaker 1: like I'm fucked for like a couple hours at least,
Speaker 1: Like my energy is gonna be all messed up and stuff.
Speaker 1: But that's just because I'm old, you know, and like
Speaker 1: my body doesn't work that well. But there's like there
Speaker 1: was some one of like the greatest NFL players in
Speaker 1: the league was like talking about how he like wakes
Speaker 1: up and like works out for six hours and like
Speaker 1: the only thing he eats at that time is like
Speaker 1: candy or something. It's just like but his body is
Speaker 1: just obviously a far superior machine and it just like
Speaker 1: doesn't matter, you know for him, Like I have to
Speaker 1: monitor my shit. Like He's just like no, what wait,
Speaker 1: you have to like pay attention to what you put
Speaker 1: in your body? That sucks? Man.
Speaker 4: Just see a Costco sized tub of red vines while
Speaker 4: you work out? Exactly?
Speaker 1: Are you like, do you need to eat healthily to
Speaker 1: like feel good or you're just good either way?
Speaker 8: Yeah, to maintain my physique. I feel like I need
Speaker 8: to eat healthy yeah O kidding.
Speaker 4: My rip.
Speaker 8: I feel like I know, I just be healthy because
Speaker 8: I'm like, you know, trying to like maintain good habits
Speaker 8: or whatever. Right, I'm kind of like backtracking on everything
Speaker 8: I'm saying, but.
Speaker 1: Like, but I feel like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 8: I feel like when people are like, you know, I
Speaker 8: junk food last night, I shouldn't have or whatever, it's
Speaker 8: like you can't eat junk food and it's okay, you
Speaker 8: don't have to feel bad about it.
Speaker 7: I feel like there's like a built in chamb of it.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, how much is my how much of
Speaker 1: it is in my head versus like actually, like me
Speaker 1: eating junk food makes me makes my body work worse?
Speaker 1: Or is it just like a shame spiral where I'm
Speaker 1: right eating badly and feeling badly and therefore eating badly
Speaker 1: again and then it shows up on my hips.
Speaker 4: As long as you don't walk into a McDonald's and
Speaker 4: the first thing that the staff says.
Speaker 1: Is yo, he's back, he's back, then.
Speaker 4: I feel like you're probably okay, But what's your what's
Speaker 4: your If you're obviously you're healthy, but what's your guilty pleasure? Like,
Speaker 4: what are you eating when you go?
Speaker 8: Man?
Speaker 4: Fuck all this health eating?
Speaker 7: Healthy Taco Bell?
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, that's health.
Speaker 7: Taco Bell, Me and that bear have that in common.
Speaker 4: Yeah. If they have vegetarian options at the place, that's
Speaker 4: that's health food and you don't have you didn't have
Speaker 4: to get the vegetarian option. The fact that they offer
Speaker 4: it means they're thinking about you and.
Speaker 1: They Taco Bell is health food.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely they should have it at Arawe,
Speaker 4: but they don't because they're cowards.
Speaker 1: That's right. A is like a fruit juice cocktail. Basically
Speaker 1: it's mostly natural.
Speaker 4: Yeah, mostly except for the dies.
Speaker 1: What were you gonna say about Arawe?
Speaker 7: I forget aone's crazy.
Speaker 8: Aaron doing taco bell would be a game changer, though.
Speaker 8: I think, can you imagine, like it's good if it
Speaker 8: tastes like taco bell, but it was like, you know,
Speaker 8: top tier ingredients.
Speaker 4: Could they Is it possible that I'm always thinking like
Speaker 4: I think it's the chemicals and the lack of like
Speaker 4: nutrients that gives it that flavor. But I'm open, I'm
Speaker 4: open to somebody being like, no, this is actually I
Speaker 4: can give you the turned up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, beef culinary zeit gang. Let us know, like, is
Speaker 1: there is that possible? Is it possible to just because
Speaker 1: I know, I like there's high end like smash burgers
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, Right, that's like really great ingredients
Speaker 1: and that stuff works out pretty well. But like, can
Speaker 1: you get what we love about taco bell using like
Speaker 1: all natural, like locally sourced ingredients.
Speaker 7: Yeah, there is like a TikTok dedicated to that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm sure like yeah, like like health health junk,
Speaker 4: but like they have you know, you sell like the
Speaker 4: Taco Bell seasonings that you could put on ground beef.
Speaker 4: I gotta say when I use like store bock ground
Speaker 4: beef with that, I'm like, yo, this ship is this
Speaker 4: shost like yeah, because it's real, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: It's different than the vision to Taco Bell.
Speaker 1: It's two meeting. I'm like the you can like, it's
Speaker 1: not it's not so much. The meat is not so
Speaker 1: much a paste that just gets spread like a layer
Speaker 1: of paste that has the memory of like a time
Speaker 1: that I ate meat so less than actual pieces of
Speaker 1: meat in my mouth. Yeah, got talk about so good.
Speaker 1: I'm also I've been I've been craving. I've been craving
Speaker 1: fast food every time I drive by it. It's a
Speaker 1: and being reminded of like there was that study that
Speaker 1: people who live within like a couple of blocks of
Speaker 1: a fast food restaurant generally like have much worse health
Speaker 1: prospects and prognoses.
Speaker 8: And yeah, I live right by a Wendy's at four
Speaker 8: times a week, I would say, Yeah.
Speaker 1: That's a lot. That's a lot of nose that you
Speaker 1: have to get yourself to say, you know, on a
Speaker 1: daily basis, like I can't.
Speaker 4: Honestly, I live by a Taco Bell and a McDonald's,
Speaker 4: but I takes every fiber of my being to stay
Speaker 4: away from that Taco Bell. So then I end up
Speaker 4: doing this thing where I'm like, oh, I'll go to
Speaker 4: the other fast food place, Taco Bell. Yeah, yeah, I don't.
Speaker 4: It's just some stupid shit. But I'm not on that.
Speaker 4: I'm not on that life as much as I used
Speaker 4: to be, that's for sure.
Speaker 8: There needs to be like a somebody that like calls
Speaker 8: you when you're like about to drive by that place,
Speaker 8: Like there's a GPS that like knows you're driving by
Speaker 8: a fast food place. And then you get an emergency
Speaker 8: phone call from a loved one, but it's not real,
Speaker 8: like you got to get home right.
Speaker 1: Now, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, he's coughing exactly.
Speaker 7: Yeah, And so you go home and you you don't
Speaker 7: even think about it.
Speaker 1: What is what's something you think is underrated?
Speaker 9: Okay? I am in my thirties and I love staying
Speaker 9: with my friends in other cities, like when I travel
Speaker 9: for comedy, I like, but I'm learning, Like my boyfriend
Speaker 9: is like I'm almost forty I'm getting a hotel room,
Speaker 9: and I'm like, no, let's stay with friends. We get
Speaker 9: to like wake up and have breakfast with them and
Speaker 9: like hang out with their kids. And it's like a
Speaker 9: sleepover for adults. You know, Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1: I think we need to.
Speaker 9: It's community, it's.
Speaker 4: You know, I kind of I'm kind of on the
Speaker 4: side of your boyfriend, but also I like it's it
Speaker 4: is fun. It's always like it feels good to be
Speaker 4: like to wake up in like a friend's place and
Speaker 4: just kind of start there. But my whole thing is
Speaker 4: when I take a ship, I don't want to have
Speaker 4: people being like yo, is he still taking a ship
Speaker 4: or being like yo, bro, like the one bathroom in here.
Speaker 9: People got to accept you for your ship.
Speaker 4: It's not even me.
Speaker 1: It's like for me, like, I love I need my
Speaker 1: own bathroom, you know what I mean? You need friends
Speaker 1: who have a Starbucks house so they can go to
Speaker 1: the Starbucks exactly, you're gonna light that up.
Speaker 4: I need my bed day and you.
Speaker 1: Main your main bedroom, the bathroom off that if I
Speaker 1: could just borrow that for the afternoon, I just like,
Speaker 1: he you're sleeping, and I'm like, you can.
Speaker 9: Like listing all the ways your terrible house guests disgusting
Speaker 9: in your home.
Speaker 4: Yeah, sorry, man, I'm just gonna utterly fuck up this bathroom.
Speaker 4: And I'm sorry.
Speaker 9: I invited thirty of my closest friends to have a
Speaker 9: chili contest in your home.
Speaker 1: Mind, I borrowed your wife's bathroom for the bubble bath.
Speaker 4: And these guys there, they are real jokesters. We like
Speaker 4: to put vizin in each other's food and stuff, so
Speaker 4: we could, you know, get terrible stomach prices. Whatever, Look,
Speaker 4: we're gonna have a good time.
Speaker 1: We did have friends to stay with us when we
Speaker 1: were living in San Monica and our toilet completely like
Speaker 1: fucked up, and so we had to like keep going
Speaker 1: to the Starbucks like that was the only bathroom those
Speaker 1: like working.
Speaker 4: Oh I've done that.
Speaker 9: I've done that in someone's home before. I have to
Speaker 9: tell you this story. It's embarrassing as hell. But I
Speaker 9: was like a kid and my family was visiting their
Speaker 9: family friends that they had known in India that they
Speaker 9: hadn't seen in like decades, and we stayed with them,
Speaker 9: and like I clogged the toilet and it literally caused
Speaker 9: house damage, like it, Like my dad was trying to
Speaker 9: unclog it, and like the seal broke and it leaked
Speaker 9: and was making through the roof and it was so
Speaker 9: it was the worst thing in the world. And it
Speaker 9: all came from a small child, well at least I
Speaker 9: was like younger, Yeah, I was young.
Speaker 4: I just realized. I think your story just made me
Speaker 4: realize that I had like a formative experience at a
Speaker 4: Halloween party when I was in fourth grade.
Speaker 9: I saw your eyes go black for a second, and
Speaker 9: I was like, what is happening in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I war wore one of the dead people from
Speaker 1: the Crossroads video.
Speaker 4: I remember it was a Halloween party for this girl, Daniella,
Speaker 4: and we was like a costume party and this is
Speaker 4: I'm pretty yellow party. I'll give you Dane. I fucked
Speaker 4: her bathroom up so bad. The toilet was clogged. I
Speaker 4: could not unclog it. And then like the games were starting,
Speaker 4: so I had to abandon my post and go out there.
Speaker 4: And then like everyone was like something's wrong with the
Speaker 4: next like focal point of the party is like something's
Speaker 4: wrong with the toilet, like it's breaking, And I was like, oh, ship,
Speaker 4: that's me, that's me, that's me, that's me, right, so
Speaker 4: I think, God, thank you, just you just knocked a
Speaker 4: memory loose. You know what, I'm a caller. I'm a
Speaker 4: caller and work this out to make.
Speaker 9: A missing therapy. But for people whose toilets you, yeah.
Speaker 1: Exactly, like reach out to your expector to be like, Miles,
Speaker 1: what are you talking about? That's no problem. She's like, Miles,
Speaker 1: you can't unfunck up that toilet. Okay.
Speaker 4: She's like, you know, my my parents had to move
Speaker 4: from that house, right traumatic And she's like, also, why
Speaker 4: are you bringing this up? Like we've been friends since then.
Speaker 1: I'm like, sorry, amazing. Well, yeah, but to your point,
Speaker 1: adult sleepovers wonderful can be truly wonderful. You really, It's
Speaker 1: just like, I don't know, it's a UNI. Every hotel
Speaker 1: is like fairly similar, whereas you get a completely unique.
Speaker 1: It's like that part in the rehearsal the Nathan Fielder
Speaker 1: Show where he like goes to that house. He's like,
Speaker 1: everything here is like so perfect. You couldn't like recreate
Speaker 1: this with the greatest work of art. And he's just
Speaker 1: like looking at the way they like leave their shit around, right,
Speaker 1: and it's just like that's the most beautiful work of art.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's like particularly humane human.
Speaker 9: Thing seeing how people live or like raise their kids
Speaker 9: or play with their dogs. Like it's just like being
Speaker 9: in their life. I feel like is more like intimate
Speaker 9: than like going out to a restaurant and meeting up
Speaker 9: and all of the conversation winding down at the predicted
Speaker 9: amount of time.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, it's fun. It's well because on the other
Speaker 4: on the other side of the coin, I love having
Speaker 4: people stay with me. Yeah, Like I love it because
Speaker 4: then I get to, like, you know, my love languages
Speaker 4: come out, Like I'm all about acts of service and
Speaker 4: shit like that, So I start cooking and doing those
Speaker 4: kinds of things, and so like when you experience that
Speaker 4: on the other side too, that's also a nice way
Speaker 4: to like kind of remember like that you have a
Speaker 4: bond with people too, so and you're not going to
Speaker 4: get that at the hotel buffet.
Speaker 1: Right, And I do when I go to their house,
Speaker 1: I do order room service. And yeah, you're like, there's
Speaker 1: not even a menu.
Speaker 9: What do you mean dropping towels outside the bedroom door?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Sorry, where's the comment box?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Where where do I leave some feedback for?
Speaker 4: You have to post it note on your door. Last
Speaker 4: night before you went to sleep. That said two eggs,
Speaker 4: benedict and discresso. What was that? That's what I'll have
Speaker 4: in the morning.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and uh, we're going to be sleeping in, so
Speaker 1: if you could just like kind of bring it in
Speaker 1: quiet but.
Speaker 4: Hushed, hushed, hushed, but bring it in like I don't
Speaker 4: want it to be cold, so like, let me notes there,
Speaker 4: but don't fucking wake me up.
Speaker 9: They start getting into it. They're like, where's my tip?
Speaker 4: I'm like, yeah, they give me a bill. I'm like,
Speaker 4: damn fucking forty seven bucks. The fuck is this? They're like, well,
Speaker 4: there's a service fee.
Speaker 1: All right, let's take a quick break and we'll come
Speaker 1: back and talk about the GOP debate. And we're back.
Speaker 4: Oh, we're back.
Speaker 1: Oh we're back, so, Jared. Something that your institute has
Speaker 1: been talking about is sort of some of the opportunism
Speaker 1: happening from the extreme right. It feels like there are
Speaker 1: like avowed anti Semites that are using the current situation
Speaker 1: in Gaza to like kind of get their message in
Speaker 1: under the radar to people that are merely trying to
Speaker 1: learn more about what is happening on the ground. Are
Speaker 1: you are you seeing a lot of this kind of
Speaker 1: opportunityanistic rhetoric happening both on the side of anti Semitism
Speaker 1: and then kind of in other ways on the side
Speaker 1: of Islamophobia.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. I mean any kind of like major cultural
Speaker 2: flashpoint like this is going to be a big like
Speaker 2: source of opportunism from extremist groups and on the extreme right.
Speaker 2: We've seen you know, neo Nazis, white supremacists, you know,
Speaker 2: all kinds of folks that have these really sort of
Speaker 2: ingrained anti Semitic beliefs trying to insert themselves into the conversation.
Speaker 2: And you know, they sort of rehearse these talking points
Speaker 2: for so long they are absolutely obsessed with Israel and
Speaker 2: that sort of stuff. So now that that is in
Speaker 2: the news, you know, I think some of them have
Speaker 2: been able to, you know, get on platforms like Twitter
Speaker 2: or I guess it's XN and you know, kind of
Speaker 2: convey this false sense of authority, right, you know, and
Speaker 2: maybe the get people in by you know, just kind
Speaker 2: of sharing news about what's going on or speculation or whatever.
Speaker 2: And then you know, if they get people along for
Speaker 2: the ride, then you know, that's when the real shit
Speaker 2: comes out. You know, this is and these kind of opportunities.
Speaker 2: You know, I think back to when I started, and
Speaker 2: you know, I was hanging out on four Chan during
Speaker 2: the Trump movement and whatever, and you know, to this day,
Speaker 2: there's this obsession with like red pilling. Not a lot
Speaker 2: of people like call it that explicitly anymore, but just
Speaker 2: seeking these little opportunities to like plant these little seeds
Speaker 2: and try to take these social movements that have a
Speaker 2: lot of emotion, you know, that are maybe debated or
Speaker 2: less clear on facts in some cases, like in this one,
Speaker 2: where there's like both the time zone gap and also
Speaker 2: just a disparity between like the amount of reporters on
Speaker 2: the ground that are able to get good information and
Speaker 2: like have it bounce through and then wind up in
Speaker 2: a US audience. You know, in that gap, that's where
Speaker 2: they're trying to leverage things and get people. Even if
Speaker 2: you know they're not going to go to like a
Speaker 2: pro Palestine protest and walk away with a crowd of
Speaker 2: two thousand neo Nazis, you know, they want to at
Speaker 2: least get some of the some of their ideas even
Speaker 2: just slightly more popularized, because that has the effect of
Speaker 2: sanitizing them right when they come out and maybe they're
Speaker 2: a more extreme version of it. But if people are
Speaker 2: acclimated at the very least, even if they don't totally
Speaker 2: believe it, it still gives them an advantage in the discourse.
Speaker 2: And like being viewed as legitimate or being viewed as
Speaker 2: you know, being reflective of how people secretly really feel, right,
Speaker 2: is like the greatest gift in the world to extremists.
Speaker 4: Because I feel like, who's that was that one where
Speaker 4: Benny Johnson like a clown?
Speaker 2: Clown?
Speaker 4: Yeah, like I felt early on he was like tweeting
Speaker 4: things that seemingly like appeared objective about, like policies of
Speaker 4: the Israeli government, and then people were like, dude, this
Speaker 4: guy is fucking a trash racist, Like like, hold on
Speaker 4: the people that this do this is getting a ton
Speaker 4: of retweets right now. Know that this person has like
Speaker 4: does not have their head in this for the right reasons.
Speaker 4: He's purely here to like insert himself to get an
Speaker 4: audience that is eventually gonna switch a certain way. But
Speaker 4: like when you when you guys do an analysis, you
Speaker 4: were obviously you're saying like you're seeing like an uptick
Speaker 4: in both islamophobic posts and anti Semitic posts, But you're
Speaker 4: also very you're careful to do the thing, which because
Speaker 4: right now I feel like we're in this environment where
Speaker 4: people are conflating Israel with the entire religion of Judaism,
Speaker 4: or conflating a call for a ceasefire to be anti semitic.
Speaker 4: But how do you get like, so in that analysis,
Speaker 4: what were you guys even finding from from from like
Speaker 4: what's currently happening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so doing analysis over like several platforms on social media,
Speaker 2: there's no like totally perfect methodology. Sure, so these are
Speaker 2: like approximations based on like collections of keywords we put
Speaker 2: together and then sort of calling and refining, you know,
Speaker 2: getting the trash out of the data and that sort
Speaker 2: of stuff. But we're seeing increases to the tune of
Speaker 2: something like four hundred percent or like two and a
Speaker 2: half time fold when it comes to anti semitism. But yeah,
Speaker 2: we try to be really careful in doing exactly what
Speaker 2: you just said. You know, people criticizing the government of
Speaker 2: Israel is not like inherently anti semitic, right, so that
Speaker 2: should not qualify And again, like you said, calling for
Speaker 2: a ceasefire or you know, that sort of thing is
Speaker 2: not necessarily like pro Hamas, right, right. I think the
Speaker 2: powers that be, like these militaries and stuff, right, would
Speaker 2: like love for us to just be like at each
Speaker 2: other's throats, you know, failing to see this like middle
Speaker 2: humanitarian ground of being, like what if killing innocent people
Speaker 2: is bad?
Speaker 4: Right? Right?
Speaker 1: Period, We're against that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, what if like children didn't have to die discriminately?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: Like That's but you know in these situations that that
Speaker 2: sort of headbutt that's happening is just like producing these
Speaker 2: huge rises in online rhetoric that's like very specifically islamophobic,
Speaker 2: very specifically anti Semitic, and those trends are also reflected
Speaker 2: in some of the early like offline data overseeing you know,
Speaker 2: the leaders of synagogues getting targeted, people showing up to
Speaker 2: pro Palestine protests with weapons, Like just north of Chicago
Speaker 2: and Scochi, someone showed up with like a it's like
Speaker 2: a paintball gun type, it's like a less than lethal
Speaker 2: gun type thing, but it still managed to like terrorize
Speaker 2: the crowd and all that. Right, So it's you know,
Speaker 2: that conversation that's happening online is also reflecting itself in
Speaker 2: real life. And you know, if you remember either one
Speaker 2: of these communities, maybe rightfully, so you would feel a
Speaker 2: little bit on.
Speaker 4: Edge, right, Yeah, and I'm sure adding to that the
Speaker 4: utter lack of moderation on Twitter. It's just like it's
Speaker 4: just a free for all. And I know you guys
Speaker 4: were pointing out that there's a four hundred and twenty
Speaker 4: two percent rise in the use of anti Muslim language
Speaker 4: on x since the start of this, and yeah, like
Speaker 4: that's why, Like when I first reached out, I was like,
Speaker 4: I'm really curious to get your perspective on this, because
Speaker 4: I can I already was seeing like at the start
Speaker 4: of this that there were these like people I'm like,
Speaker 4: I'm pretty sure I know that handle but for bad reasons,
Speaker 4: Like I'm pretty sure this person is a scumbag like
Speaker 4: neo Nazi, and then they'll just like kind of sanitize
Speaker 4: their avatar to be like, no, I'm wearing a suit
Speaker 4: and I have this like I have an Israeli and
Speaker 4: American flag in it, but I'm also doing this like
Speaker 4: really like really opportunistic shit. And I can just see how,
Speaker 4: because of how charged the entire situation is, it must
Speaker 4: be like a very like the like extremists must be
Speaker 4: just like rubbing their hands together to be like, oh,
Speaker 4: we can really take advantage of this in either direction.
Speaker 2: Really, yeah, definitely. It's like if I mean, if you
Speaker 2: look at the you know, explosion of the hospital in Gaza,
Speaker 2: for example, that was that was like a really good
Speaker 2: example of the information gap that they're exploiting. In this
Speaker 2: situation where there's reports of this explosion, you know, some
Speaker 2: initial remarks both from you know, government over Gaza and Israel.
Speaker 2: Newsrooms in the US are trying to figure out what
Speaker 2: the hell is happening. A few of them fall like
Speaker 2: flat on their face. A lot of details still aren't clear.
Speaker 2: But in that gap, you know, which can be several hours,
Speaker 2: if not days, and you know, I mean we don't
Speaker 2: we still don't have like the most insane, like if
Speaker 2: you're taking this position of being like inherently skeptical of
Speaker 2: like government claims right like as far as hard concrete
Speaker 2: this is one, two three what happened, we still don't
Speaker 2: have that right. And that gap is where the opportunity
Speaker 2: lies for these folks, because they can come in and say,
Speaker 2: you know, you should listen to me because X y Z,
Speaker 2: and while you're here, I've got all this extra shit
Speaker 2: to say right, and then that's when they're getting sort
Speaker 2: of there. They're coming in this with ulterior motives, right,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, the conflating of anti Semitism and criticism of
Speaker 1: the Israeli state is where a lot of these extremists
Speaker 1: are thriving. And then on the side of Islamophobia, as
Speaker 1: Miles mentioned, your your organization found a four hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty two percent rise in the use of anti Muslim
Speaker 1: language on Twitter since the start of the conflict. But
Speaker 1: it's like it feels a little bit different there because
Speaker 1: so much of the US government and like mainstream media's
Speaker 1: official default position, like since two thousand and one, has
Speaker 1: had a lot of Islamophobia baked into it. So like,
Speaker 1: how are you guys, It seems like that this is
Speaker 1: metastasizing islamaf phobia is metastasizing in real time as this
Speaker 1: conflict is happening. How do you see how do you
Speaker 1: kind of track that and how are you seeing it
Speaker 1: change currently?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the numbers are you know, an analysis of
Speaker 2: data that we're pulling off platforms using you know, both
Speaker 2: third party tools tools. We have methodologies we have in
Speaker 2: house to do this kind of stuff, But when it
Speaker 2: comes to. I think what you're speaking to, Jack is
Speaker 2: like the mainstreaming effect of this stuff, and that's a
Speaker 2: lot harder to track. We are like actively at the
Speaker 2: drawing board on that, Like how can you quantify or
Speaker 2: like illustrate in an unobjectable way or undisputable way a
Speaker 2: mainstreaming effect. So that's kind of a work in progress.
Speaker 2: But I will say generally, to see this kind of
Speaker 2: stuff also reflected in institutions and from individuals that should
Speaker 2: know better and have a lot of power and sway
Speaker 2: in society is totally disappointing. And a lot of research
Speaker 2: shows that when people in those positions of authority in
Speaker 2: a society make positive statements, you know, condemning this sort
Speaker 2: of thing, discouraging people from engaging in violence and that
Speaker 2: sort of stuff, it actually does have an effect on people. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so it's to me when I see that kind of
Speaker 2: stuff reflected, I just think it's like a forfeiting of
Speaker 2: a certain moral responsibility than as a leader in a society,
Speaker 2: I think you should be compelled to right.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're seeing people resigning from The New York Times
Speaker 1: for expressing opposition to the killing of innocent palest Indian people.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's a crazy time. Your organization recently released
Speaker 1: a report about white supremacy three point zero, which got
Speaker 1: me excited because I thought there might be some crypto
Speaker 1: that I could purchase involved with this because web three
Speaker 1: point oh, you know, you got to strike while the
Speaker 1: iron's hot, those prices are low. You got to buy
Speaker 1: the dip.
Speaker 2: You know, you lost so many you know, you lost
Speaker 2: so much money on the apes.
Speaker 1: You know, you gotta find it. You got to figure
Speaker 1: out how to make that bad.
Speaker 4: I told him, I said, there's some racist imagery in
Speaker 4: that ship. To Jack, I don't know, I.
Speaker 1: Said, I'm blind right now, So how much we bro?
Speaker 4: But yeah, I mean like this is it is wild
Speaker 4: because yeah, like seeing this idea of white supremacy, white
Speaker 4: nationalism three point oh like was like, okay, wait, so
Speaker 4: we're doing we're talking about third wave racism basically, so
Speaker 4: one point oh being what like skinheads like that era,
Speaker 4: which was that what we call one point.
Speaker 2: Zero, so one is yeah, kind of the old school
Speaker 2: before people started doing point ohs. Right, yeah, yeah, beta,
Speaker 2: uh you know the one point oh or I guess
Speaker 2: like like all right, one point oh that would be
Speaker 2: like the counter Currents blog Vdair Richard Spencer's of the World,
Speaker 2: because that was like, you know, these kind of like
Speaker 2: older folks, a lot of them were writers and whatnot.
Speaker 2: Two point zero would be you know, sort of like
Speaker 2: Charlottesville and what happened after that, and a lot of
Speaker 2: one point zh types were like part of the two
Speaker 2: point zero. It's not like these are completely distinct groups
Speaker 2: or movements or whatever. And then like a three point
Speaker 2: oh now is you know, kind of its own mess.
Speaker 2: I think it maybe makes sense to think of it
Speaker 2: less in terms of like generations and maybe more in
Speaker 2: terms of tactics.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 2: Right, the version one was all about like propaganda, you know,
Speaker 2: small groups on local levels whatever two point zher was,
Speaker 2: you know, that big attempt to go mainstream, really soaking
Speaker 2: in the Internet, using that to full advantage. And this
Speaker 2: three point zero is almost like a little bit of
Speaker 2: return to form, going back to that local model, but
Speaker 2: with like a whole host of baggage that came from
Speaker 2: like the years before.
Speaker 4: Right, because like even the term right is coming from
Speaker 4: their movement. It's not something you guys like point yeah,
Speaker 4: it's not like we came up. We came it's like
Speaker 4: for their own internal purposes. Like we need a white
Speaker 4: nationalism three point zero for lack of a better word,
Speaker 4: and like for them, the aim is sort of to
Speaker 4: be able to make this their their ideology basically palatable
Speaker 4: to normal people. Is like kind of like a huge
Speaker 4: part of this three point oh push right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and you know you would think that, but
Speaker 2: actually it's you know, our it guy called us and
Speaker 2: was like, hey, we've we've got the leadst update for
Speaker 2: white nationalism. We have to refresh your computer. Yeah three
Speaker 2: point zh So.
Speaker 4: I need you to sign on to team Viewer now
Speaker 4: or zend k man. I'm gonna walk youthing. Is this
Speaker 4: a scam?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 4: But like yeah, like it feels like like to your point,
Speaker 4: like the tactic now is like okay, maybe that didn't work.
Speaker 4: What we really need is to be able to just
Speaker 4: kind of blend in and seem normal, so this becomes
Speaker 4: an acceptable kind of ideology to subscribe to. And they
Speaker 4: have very like their tactics are different now too, even
Speaker 4: for recruiting, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean so the report we're talking about
Speaker 2: is about something called active clubs, which we can talk
Speaker 2: about in a second, but more generally in the white
Speaker 2: supremacist movement and just far right movements overall. They've kind
Speaker 2: of realized something that the evangelical right has known for decades,
Speaker 2: that like any effective organizing in the last few decades,
Speaker 2: has understood very acutely, which is that winning a national
Speaker 2: office is hard. Running a candidate for president is hard.
Speaker 2: You know, even state government positions can be tricky, but
Speaker 2: school boards, city council, you know, like trying to get
Speaker 2: a sheriff in, right, Like, a lot of these are
Speaker 2: local elections that are won by you know, in a
Speaker 2: lot of places. You know, maybe not a Chicago in
Speaker 2: LA or whatever, but like a lot of places in
Speaker 2: the US can be one with like a matter of
Speaker 2: a few hundred votes, right, So there's more opportunities to
Speaker 2: take power there. And then you know, by harassing these
Speaker 2: low level governments and threatening people showing up at all
Speaker 2: these meetings, you know, going nuts, creating a hostile environment.
Speaker 2: A lot of these folks that ran for these local
Speaker 2: offices didn't sign up for that shit. They don't have
Speaker 2: resources to like be safe when that shit's happening, right,
Speaker 2: So a lot of them resign, Like a lot of
Speaker 2: election officials on the county level have resigned, you know,
Speaker 2: over the last few years.
Speaker 4: I just saw a report about that recently, about how
Speaker 4: there's a lot of election officials that are resigning. People
Speaker 4: like buckle up for twenty four then, because this is
Speaker 4: exactly the kind of situation like extremists want.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because there's a big opening, right, And if these
Speaker 2: offices are easier to win, if it's easier to get
Speaker 2: their policies through, like their dream vote policies or at
Speaker 2: the very least, smacking down policies they don't like. You
Speaker 2: know that, if that happens at scale, then the idea
Speaker 2: of national candidates of you know, big organizations starts to
Speaker 2: become more feasible.
Speaker 10: Right.
Speaker 2: It's it's like the most time tested way to gain
Speaker 2: political power, which is start at the bottom and work
Speaker 2: your way up.
Speaker 1: Right, all right, let let's take a quick break and
Speaker 1: we'll come back. We'll keep talking about this strategy and
Speaker 1: we'll get into active clubs. We'll be right back, and
Speaker 1: we're back. We're Commanda Lund. You have a new podcast
Speaker 1: we mentioned up Top Keys to the Kingdom, by the way,
Speaker 1: well named I don't I don't often say that about
Speaker 1: about podcasts, but just a perfect name. But you're you
Speaker 1: are using your background as a Disney Park cast member
Speaker 1: as well as a bunch of research and interviews to
Speaker 1: take people behind the scenes. And there's one story that
Speaker 1: popped onto our radar about people are apparently pooping all
Speaker 1: over the park in places they're not supposed to.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I it was wild, how I like when we
Speaker 4: were putting together stories for the episode, like this story
Speaker 4: like literally dropped like yesterday on sf Gate, highly regarded
Speaker 4: journalistic outlet, by the way. And so the story is
Speaker 4: sort of going on a lot of stories that are
Speaker 4: being shared on Reddit by former cast members and guests
Speaker 4: that seem to overlap. So one person posted in like
Speaker 4: a Disney Stubreddit quote, I am in the queue for
Speaker 4: Rise of the Resistance. Someone let their kid take a
Speaker 4: dump on the floor and then they just walked out
Speaker 4: and left it. WTF. Then someone replied for the skeptics,
Speaker 4: this actually happened. Fun fact, this was one of three
Speaker 4: shit related incidents at Rise today. Less fun fact I
Speaker 4: was here for all three of them. Wow, So it
Speaker 4: sounds like shit like this and the pun is intended.
Speaker 4: Has also happened on attractions like Flight of Passage at
Speaker 4: Disney World. Someone said, quote, let's just say that the
Speaker 4: attraction I work at has what the cast ended up
Speaker 4: dubbing quote the poop Hall because of the amount of
Speaker 4: times guests have gone in there and pooped. We even
Speaker 4: put up a camera and it didn't stop it. No,
Speaker 4: I don't know how hyperboling it might be.
Speaker 6: Courage is this must be because the lines are long
Speaker 6: and like perhaps, I mean, I'm not surprised. I've heard
Speaker 6: of one instance of this, but it was at Hong
Speaker 6: Kong Disneyland. Okay, then that was a friend told me
Speaker 6: a story. I think a guest maybe pooped in like
Speaker 6: a planter.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, at least that's a planter versus right there
Speaker 4: in the line for right planter.
Speaker 1: Good. Wait, are we not supposed to poop in the planters?
Speaker 5: Okay, so you've been pooping in the planters?
Speaker 8: Is that?
Speaker 1: I mean?
Speaker 4: I haven't.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to say like I did it frequently,
Speaker 1: but like I thought that, Yeah, like fertilizer, good for
Speaker 1: the plant.
Speaker 11: Let's just say his living room stinks, yeah, balancing on
Speaker 11: like the tiny little but at the custodial the custodial stuff.
Speaker 6: At Disneyland, they've got stories and we actually this isn't
Speaker 6: poop related, but we talked to a Wall Street journal
Speaker 6: journalist who had written a story about people spreading ashes. Yeah,
Speaker 6: and that is a super common occurrence in the Haunted
Speaker 6: Mansion specifically. And here's just like a little tidbit. We
Speaker 6: talked about this in the last episode of the podcast.
Speaker 6: But when the custodial notices someone has spread ashes, they
Speaker 6: call it in over their little walkies as code grandma.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 6: But then they got in trouble for doing that, so
Speaker 6: they had to call it like whatever, code clean up,
Speaker 6: yeah something or grand m.
Speaker 5: It's incredible that like that kind of stuff goes on.
Speaker 6: And I don't know, I mean, I personally have never
Speaker 6: even really seen or smelled poop at Disney.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, they want to keep the princesses insulated from
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. It needs you to just believe
Speaker 1: the magic.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and now that I say that, it's that's a
Speaker 6: lie because I did smell a lot of poop, poopy diapers,
Speaker 6: oh yeah, kids diapers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I'm like, is it it?
Speaker 4: I get that too, Like when you have thousands of
Speaker 4: little kids having to wait in long lines, shit happens.
Speaker 1: There, you know, exactly, Like the needs they should have
Speaker 1: more bathrooms along the path of the line, because it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, I was at Disney World less than a
Speaker 1: year ago, and you know you are waiting for hours
Speaker 1: if you don't remember to like get your kids, like,
Speaker 1: get your kid to the bathroom beforehand. Like's at some
Speaker 1: point your four year old's going to be like, look, man,
Speaker 1: it's not It's not a question of if or when
Speaker 1: it's happening. It's a it's a question of where it's right.
Speaker 1: You got you gotta bite the bullet and just be like, well,
Speaker 1: I just waited in a three hour line for nothing, right, right, right,
Speaker 1: which is fine, but then your kid's gonna be like
Speaker 1: upset about having to mess that.
Speaker 4: But yeah, And I was curious if it's like because
Speaker 4: there's a lot of stories about adults going to the bathroom.
Speaker 1: Two say you're like, hold on, what the fuck's going on?
Speaker 4: It's not just kids, And I don't know if it's
Speaker 4: like are people having some kind of like mdico Auki
Speaker 4: phenomenon kind of thing, you know, like were people who
Speaker 4: have to like go to a bookstore and got to
Speaker 4: take a dump suddenly? Like are people just overwhelmed by
Speaker 4: the Magic Kingdom and like their bowels go fantasmic on them,
Speaker 4: or like what I think.
Speaker 5: You might be Honestly, I think you might be onto something.
Speaker 6: I feel like people are just so excited it right right, yeah,
Speaker 6: and like maybe the clam chowder doesn't help.
Speaker 4: Not for me. That's what I do.
Speaker 1: Too, just walking around with a bread ball of clan
Speaker 1: housing it, just housing it and then no spoon, no spoon,
Speaker 1: like a.
Speaker 4: Fucking viking sipping out of my vanquished enemy's skull. And
Speaker 4: it's just as tough as that. Oh yeah, yeah, except
Speaker 4: it really gross and people are like, do you have
Speaker 4: to like slurp that like in line right in my ear?
Speaker 4: And like, look, it's I haven't been here in a while,
Speaker 4: but it sounds like the code system like is normal, right,
Speaker 4: because like you just said, there's code Grandma or whatever.
Speaker 4: They altered it for spreading ashes, and there's also a
Speaker 4: code for feces, which is code H for like horse manure,
Speaker 4: so the custodial staff you'll clean up any like horseshit
Speaker 4: like on main Street. And now they also have human
Speaker 4: code H for the human variety, which is.
Speaker 1: Human Code H is so foreboding. That's like that doesn't
Speaker 1: make me less curious what's going on. I'm following the
Speaker 1: employees who are like, we got a human coat h
Speaker 1: over here. We gotta like it sounds like it Tontown
Speaker 1: or something like it. Or there's like some sluent green
Speaker 1: thing happening.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's that's scary.
Speaker 6: I bet they clean it up like so efficient efficiently
Speaker 6: that you like wouldn't even notice. Like I I heard
Speaker 6: a story that one time at Disney during Christmas. You know,
Speaker 6: they had those big like Clydesdale horses. Okay, so one
Speaker 6: of the horses like drop dead, and they put like
Speaker 6: a little tarp over it. But they don't obviously want
Speaker 6: just like a dead horse in the middle of main Street,
Speaker 6: so they surrounded the horse with Christmas carollers, oh my god, oh.
Speaker 5: As a way to kind of like distract.
Speaker 4: From like yeah, shut the fuck up.
Speaker 5: Yeah exactly.
Speaker 6: So I wonder if they do the same thing with
Speaker 6: like a little turd on the ground, if they'd be
Speaker 6: like quick Pinocchio, like go over there, like do some animation.
Speaker 1: In front of the little turd and hat on it
Speaker 1: on top of it, just like it's nothing.
Speaker 6: Because anything is it can be made a magical moment,
Speaker 6: you know, and that is what Disney does best.
Speaker 4: Yeah, what's more whimsical than a pile of extremit with
Speaker 4: a Mickey hat. I can't think of anything else like
Speaker 4: that would that would probably right my day. I wonder like,
Speaker 4: do the people who run the show who are like,
Speaker 4: all right, get me twenty carollers over here and just
Speaker 4: have them circle the horse carcass and start like that's
Speaker 4: that's a sort of genius that I feel like, are
Speaker 4: are these people who like, what what is your background
Speaker 4: when you get to that position? Is your background like
Speaker 4: being a casino pit boss? Or are you are you coming.
Speaker 1: From like the world of Like you know, I've been
Speaker 1: involved in many kinetic situations in the Middle East, if
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: They're probably coming from the Pentagon. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the.
Speaker 1: Pentagon is a revolving door between the Pentagon and be
Speaker 1: like controlling, like being the eyes in the sky at
Speaker 1: Disneyland and Disney World.
Speaker 4: Think so.
Speaker 6: But I think the road to getting like that job
Speaker 6: is just being a Disney adult and believing so heavily
Speaker 6: in the magic that you will do whatever it takes
Speaker 6: to protect the magic.
Speaker 1: Including if a kid sees the dead horse, that kid
Speaker 1: needs to go because guys, he's going to get out
Speaker 1: into the world, start talking about it, and he's gonna
Speaker 1: just hit the magic a little bit.
Speaker 6: Or what you do is you indoctrinate that child and
Speaker 6: you make sure they have a lifelong career in the company, right,
Speaker 6: like keep your enemies closer, oh right, right.
Speaker 4: Right, absorb them. They're like, hey, kid, we got a
Speaker 4: lot of potential. Don't wait it out there in the
Speaker 4: real world. You should you should apply that here in
Speaker 4: the kingdom. What do you think if you ever get
Speaker 4: the sense that they're turning, you gotta you gotta take.
Speaker 1: Care of that really quick.
Speaker 5: Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, you're likely.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and they and they do a thing. They're like,
Speaker 4: you don't want a bunch of carollers singing around you, right,
Speaker 4: focus on getting right.
Speaker 1: End up spread around the hunted mansion and do Yeah,
Speaker 1: you take.
Speaker 5: Him over to Tom Sawyer's Island.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just take a little boat ride.
Speaker 5: Take a little boat ride with me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is the real grim.
Speaker 1: So like a mob hitch on the canoes. You know
Speaker 1: this canoe that no one goes on.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's like, hey, let's let's go on a canoe, right.
Speaker 1: To go fishing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's do that. It's
Speaker 4: interesting too, Like even how like even the design of
Speaker 4: I didn't realize there are certain parts of the park
Speaker 4: that are like sort of acknowledging rivers of excrement, which
Speaker 4: I did not know.
Speaker 1: This is alleged, alleged, I haven't.
Speaker 4: In Liberty Square, there's a there's an odd brown path
Speaker 4: that is meant to hearken the sixteenth century when indoor
Speaker 4: plumbing didn't exist and represent the river of excrement that
Speaker 4: would have been flowing when people emptied their chamber pots.
Speaker 4: So they're like, I don't know if like this is
Speaker 4: what they're trying to do, Like it's supposed to look
Speaker 4: like an odd path, but like people with a historic lens,
Speaker 4: like that kind of looks like uh back in the
Speaker 4: day when people just dump their pooh and p out
Speaker 4: the middle of the street and created a little sewage river. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the imagineers are really sick.
Speaker 1: Oh you sick fucks. But yeah, I think to your point,
Speaker 1: like one clinical psychologist explanation behind like public defication includes
Speaker 1: anxiety and I think you know, kids getting ready to
Speaker 1: go on a ride or even like adults. I saw
Speaker 1: some like pretty wild shit happened like as an adult
Speaker 1: got to the front of like the longest line I
Speaker 1: waited in when I was at disney World was like
Speaker 1: the ratitudey ride, and like there was an adult who
Speaker 1: like wanted their ride to go like exactly the way
Speaker 1: they had envisioned it, and so they didn't want to
Speaker 1: ride with anybody else next to them, and the people
Speaker 1: had to like kick them off the ride because they
Speaker 1: were like fighting with them. It was like very very sad. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's just like too much.
Speaker 6: People truly snapped, and you just also have to imagine
Speaker 6: like the the amount of people going through Disneyland, like
Speaker 6: on any given dal, Like their crowd control is so
Speaker 6: good that you don't even really can't even comprehend how
Speaker 6: many people are actually around you, and.
Speaker 5: So just statistically, like some of those people are going
Speaker 5: to have.
Speaker 1: A tummy ache, right, Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's also too it's kind of like,
Speaker 4: you know, I get the anxiety part because it's so
Speaker 4: fucking expensive to go to Disneyland disney World, and if
Speaker 4: you don't live in Florida or California, like that's an expense.
Speaker 4: People save a lot of fucking money to take their
Speaker 4: family to go have this experience, and I can just
Speaker 4: see how that can mount to a point where yeah,
Speaker 4: maybe you know, your stomach goes goes haywire a little
Speaker 4: bit id to take a shit. But I mean it's
Speaker 4: like I feel like it's the same way, like right,
Speaker 4: like we were talking like earlier, like when the show
Speaker 4: first started. We're talking about how there's so many fights
Speaker 4: with parents at Chuck E Cheese and yeah, yeah, that's
Speaker 4: also because they serve alcohol. But a lot of people
Speaker 4: also point to the fact that a child's birthday couple
Speaker 4: with like maybe stressed finances and things like that can
Speaker 4: create like a high anxiety environment that can just go
Speaker 4: off at any second. And I've seen recently like clips
Speaker 4: of like people fucking scrapping at Disneyland too, And you're like,
Speaker 4: I can see how like all of that can come
Speaker 4: together where it's coming out in like people getting aggressive
Speaker 4: with each other or maybe just vers.
Speaker 6: Left, taking just a little poop, just squatting in line
Speaker 6: Pirate to the Caribbean, just like letting a few drop
Speaker 6: and then moving on your way, saying, Hey, it's my
Speaker 6: numbers up, I'm going to get on this ride.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the money I'm paying I should be allowed to
Speaker 1: take a shit in this line.
Speaker 4: Right, exactly right, And I get why too, Like that
Speaker 4: the person you're talking about, Jack, who knows how much
Speaker 4: money they spent, and like in their mind they're like no, no, no,
Speaker 4: your motherfuckers, oh me this, I'm going ratitude this fucking way,
Speaker 4: And you're like, well, we have like thousands of people
Speaker 4: in line here, like we can't really guarantee that. Yeah,
Speaker 4: people want to fucking lose it, but hey, I don't know,
Speaker 4: you know, And.
Speaker 1: Like the Disney like business plan has been like I
Speaker 1: remember we were talking within the last year that like
Speaker 1: park attendance was down, and then it was revealed that
Speaker 1: was actually part of their plan because they just like
Speaker 1: charged so much money that people would actually stop coming
Speaker 1: in such high numbers to the park, and like it
Speaker 1: wouldn't the drop in attendance wouldn't offset the amount of
Speaker 1: money they were making, and it would make it like
Speaker 1: a better experience for the people there, except of course,
Speaker 1: for the people who can't afford it, and are like
Speaker 1: Jesus like having a breakdown because they're realizing like they're
Speaker 1: putting too much pressure on this moment because they've gone
Speaker 1: into debt to accomplish it.
Speaker 5: It's that's crazy.
Speaker 6: I mean I was a billionaire, Like I would just
Speaker 6: become a Club thirty three member and like pay whatever
Speaker 6: thirty thousand dollars a year just to have that kind
Speaker 6: of like no line experience.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, that's Club thirty three. That's real. That's a
Speaker 1: club at Disney that's like behind the scenes and it's
Speaker 1: invite only. Oh you get beat into it by Mickey
Speaker 1: Mouse and Pluto.
Speaker 4: You have to name a bunch of cereals. Why they No,
Speaker 4: that's the Proud Boys when they're doing Sorry I get
Speaker 4: it mixed up sometimes.
Speaker 1: But yeah.
Speaker 4: I remember, like I had a friend who was like
Speaker 4: whose family was fully Disney brained as kids, and I
Speaker 4: remember they through somebody at their church they went to
Speaker 4: got the chance to go and eat at the restaurant
Speaker 4: and shit, and like, I like, for them, it was
Speaker 4: like ascending to the next level of existence. They're like
Speaker 4: we're there, dude, Like, you'll never see it. It couldn't
Speaker 4: take pictures and like there are there are some pictures
Speaker 4: on the internet, but apparently those like totally unauthorized because
Speaker 4: they're not there's not supposed to have images of behoveted club.
Speaker 5: I've been in I've done a few special events.
Speaker 1: All right, Yeah, and worth it, worth of thirty grand
Speaker 1: I mean.
Speaker 5: Of course it's amazing. There's a full bar, there's a buffet.
Speaker 1: Ooh hey is it How close? Is how similar is
Speaker 1: the vibe to the Eyes Wide Shot party?
Speaker 5: Oh it's quite there's quite a bit of overlap.
Speaker 1: Yeah, single icy piano key the whole time you're walking in. Yes,
Speaker 1: like doctor mass All right, that's gonna do it for
Speaker 1: this week's weekly Zeitgeist. Please like and review the show
Speaker 1: if you like. The show means the world to Miles.
Speaker 1: He he needs your validation.
Speaker 6: Folks.
Speaker 1: I hope you're having a great weekend and I will
Speaker 1: talk to you Monday.
Speaker 10: Bye, suck sounding s