Speaker 1: Welcome to Worst Year Ever, A production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio Together Everything, So don't don't hello, Welcome back to
Speaker 1: Worst Year Ever? Is this the way I'm opening the show?
Speaker 1: I think it is. My name is Katie. You guys,
Speaker 1: don't go anywhere. It's gonna get better. Oh, it can't
Speaker 1: be better than this. The energy is at an all
Speaker 1: time high. Speaking of Hi, Hi, I'm Cody. H I'm
Speaker 1: also Cody, but better Cody. That's also true's leg and that.
Speaker 1: But this information contradicts what I already know about you,
Speaker 1: which is that you are Robert Evans. That doesn't sound
Speaker 1: right the Robert Evans, you know, Katie. In journalism, we
Speaker 1: require three sources to confirm a fact like that, and
Speaker 1: I don't believe you have that much confirmation I've got,
Speaker 1: and Cody confirming doesn't seem like Cody is confirming. I said, so,
Speaker 1: I think I think this This is The Washington Post
Speaker 1: would call this a disputed fact. We're at two and
Speaker 1: a half pinocchios. Right, It's impossible to the truth. I'm sure.
Speaker 1: I'm sure I could dig up a birth certificate, but
Speaker 1: who cares. We've got to cody that thing a long
Speaker 1: time ago to protect myself from the government. Can I
Speaker 1: just say, can we just say Cody Squared, Cody's Johnson.
Speaker 1: We're work shopping new bits that we can put on
Speaker 1: T shirts. Maybe that's one of them. I don't know.
Speaker 1: That's a good one too. Send us your fan art.
Speaker 1: We're work shopping new bits for T shirts. That's a
Speaker 1: new slogan. That's the today. We're just cataloging new slogans. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what we're talking about today, only that as these things.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the news. Yeah, um well, there's there's a
Speaker 1: bunch of stuff to get through today. We're gonna have
Speaker 1: a Hodgepodge wild Bride, good time vibes all around. Um,
Speaker 1: let's start with impeachment. Speaking of wild hodge Podge Wild,
Speaker 1: what was your guys experience. I've been trying my best
Speaker 1: to turn off the internet on the weekends at least
Speaker 1: a little bit more stay away. I'll check in the morning, um,
Speaker 1: you know, just to see what kind of likes I've
Speaker 1: been showered with. Um, I think you had this viral overnight.
Speaker 1: Um no, but then I I will maybe check in
Speaker 1: at the end of the day. Or I think you
Speaker 1: had the exact same thing as me on Saturday. Were
Speaker 1: you unplugged, like right when they said they were doing
Speaker 1: witnesses and then you went back and then he was acquitted. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's what I was building to. I had the exact
Speaker 1: I read your dream. I was like, say, yeah, so
Speaker 1: like up in the morning to the news that they
Speaker 1: will be calling witnesses. There was that. Uh was at
Speaker 1: the Washington Post that was reporting on Friday about the call.
Speaker 1: Uh was Kevin McCarthy, Uh the day of the insurrection
Speaker 1: on this phone with Donald Trump saying called him off,
Speaker 1: called him off. And then Donald Trump was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: those are a bunch of Antifa people, and he's like, nah, dude,
Speaker 1: their Trump supporters. And then Donald Trump says something to
Speaker 1: the lines of well, at least they care enough to
Speaker 1: do something about it. And we've got people willing to
Speaker 1: testify and talk about it, and we're all gung hope.
Speaker 1: But then by the end of the day he had
Speaker 1: indeed been acquitted. That was a wild ride for me, guys,
Speaker 1: you but um, we did it. We held him accountable,
Speaker 1: We held account got all the facts in front of everybody. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean they didn't even do that because they didn't
Speaker 1: call witnesses. Because I guess the Republicans threatened to drown
Speaker 1: them in a bunch of witnesses and keep it going,
Speaker 1: and everyone wanted to go home to get fucked or
Speaker 1: too fuck or to fuck to bone at the now
Speaker 1: open restaurants that were can have another. And it's like, God,
Speaker 1: I'm just so that was disgusting first of all, so
Speaker 1: black pilled right now because it's it's we couldn't do it,
Speaker 1: couldn't do a proper impeachment, couldn't call all the witnesses
Speaker 1: we need, couldn't impeach the guy, which I guess I
Speaker 1: can forgive, just because the realities of how that vote
Speaker 1: goes are what they are and the Republicans are monsters,
Speaker 1: but I can't forgive. Is like the Democrats have completely
Speaker 1: failed to get any kind of aid package out. They're
Speaker 1: taking another week long break, and while we have no
Speaker 1: aid package, people are not getting checks. A horrible winter
Speaker 1: storm is hitting, the President is getting ready to start
Speaker 1: touring again. Joe Biden decides that the next the next
Speaker 1: big priority is to start throwing out shit about gun control,
Speaker 1: when again, no one has a fucking aid package. Like,
Speaker 1: it's just this, We're gonna help people, We're gonna get
Speaker 1: into all of those different things today, I believe, But yeah,
Speaker 1: it is. It is unbelievably frustrating. Also, okay, so I
Speaker 1: want to wrap things up. They want to get things going,
Speaker 1: move things along, to focus on of these other very
Speaker 1: important things such a believe. Right, So you're not doing that.
Speaker 1: You spend these things up to not do that. But
Speaker 1: what what was the point thus far? If you're not
Speaker 1: to get the information out but then to get it
Speaker 1: all out? What are you doing? What is this half
Speaker 1: asked measure? Like it's largely political theater, right, Um, to
Speaker 1: give the illusion that they're doing something. Um, and uh,
Speaker 1: they I mean they knew, like, yeah, he's gonna get
Speaker 1: a quit it. Although seven votes and Republicans is more
Speaker 1: than I expected. So, I mean it is like historic
Speaker 1: and that more people voted to of the president in
Speaker 1: questions party voted to impeach and than has happened before. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was more. It was more bipartisan than one would expect.
Speaker 1: But also like, yeah, they did the thing. Also, they
Speaker 1: want to get back they you know, time to get
Speaker 1: back to the real stuff. Really helped the people. They're
Speaker 1: also doing what a nine eleven commission style thing about
Speaker 1: the January six, So like, that's so you're not actually
Speaker 1: gonna the trials? Really offensive to me, to be honest,
Speaker 1: it was not a trial because the jurors were also
Speaker 1: the victims and also co conspirators, and also met with
Speaker 1: the defense lawyers in the middle of the trial. And yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like if you were putting a serial killer on
Speaker 1: trial and the jury was an even mix of family
Speaker 1: members of the people he killed and the folks who
Speaker 1: sold him bone saws um. Also, one thing I'm very
Speaker 1: upset about actually is that they deprived us of the
Speaker 1: opportunity to see Donald Trump speak, yes at this trial. Yeah,
Speaker 1: why why couldn't you at least give us that what,
Speaker 1: watch him do his thing, give him to give him
Speaker 1: a few minutes? Lawyer? Could you have made him come?
Speaker 1: Because they were turned it down? Is there some protections
Speaker 1: as a former president that we're talking about the come
Speaker 1: of elected leaders? I think this is this is my wheelhouse,
Speaker 1: Katie So talking about Donald Trump semen I mean, I've
Speaker 1: got about forty six pages prepared. Should we just he
Speaker 1: prepares he produced a semen um. Yes, he's had a
Speaker 1: long held theory that he's never had sex. So I
Speaker 1: I don't know that he's had sex. You can produce
Speaker 1: semen without having sex um And have you have you
Speaker 1: ever bitten into a fast food hamburger and then had
Speaker 1: a glob of mayonnaise fall down so unhappened to the
Speaker 1: side of your hand and then it just sort of
Speaker 1: like oozes down onto the sleeve of your jacket. That's
Speaker 1: that believe it's called toothpasting. That's how he ejaculates. But
Speaker 1: I also imagine that it smells exactly like apple cider vinegar. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Also the drip, I don't know that it's inside, it goes,
Speaker 1: it drips down and back into his ure. Cider vinegar
Speaker 1: has a lot of health benefits just putting that out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is not that case. It is not only this
Speaker 1: is corrupted apple cider vinegar. Yeah, it's like apple cider
Speaker 1: vinegar that's been mixed with mayonnaise and left in a
Speaker 1: gym bag on a hot day, like an app an
Speaker 1: apple cider vinegar sauce that's been left in jim shoes
Speaker 1: in a gym bag in the back of a Ford
Speaker 1: Fiesta and a hundred and fifteen degree heat with nineties
Speaker 1: percent humidity, with dope of cottage cheese. Right before we
Speaker 1: started recording, he had a call to discuss T shirt designs,
Speaker 1: as I I hinted at earlier in the episode, and
Speaker 1: the only recurrent bit we could come up with was, um,
Speaker 1: you know our discussion of politicians come and here we
Speaker 1: are continuing that. Well, yeah, it's I don't enjoy it.
Speaker 1: Although to be serious for a moment, Okay, perhaps if
Speaker 1: we let Donald Trump speak, um, uh, he would have
Speaker 1: incited for violence. Honestly, there is absolutely something you've said
Speaker 1: about that. Let's give him back a platform, Let's put
Speaker 1: him in front of a camera again. Yeah, let's see that.
Speaker 1: I will say. I will say though I've already seen, um,
Speaker 1: a federal lawsuit being filed against him and Rudy Giuliani.
Speaker 1: Uh the end of a c p on behalf of Rep.
Speaker 1: Benny Thomps and who's a Democrat from Mississippi. Um and
Speaker 1: other other Democrats in Congress are going to be joining
Speaker 1: in as plaintiffs. So but then you know, the lawsuit
Speaker 1: basically argues that h well, I'll just read from the
Speaker 1: New York Times. The lawsuit contends that Mr Trump and
Speaker 1: Mr Giuliani violated the Ku Klux Klan Act in eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy one statute that includes Protections against violent conspiracies that
Speaker 1: interfered with Congress's constitutional duties. Suit also names the Proud
Speaker 1: Boys far right nationalist group, and the Oath Keepers militia group.
Speaker 1: So you know this continues. But um, I mean, I
Speaker 1: mean in in Mitch McConnell's own speech, the speech where
Speaker 1: he made a very well articulated case as to why
Speaker 1: the president is indeed responsible for January six and then
Speaker 1: goes on to acquit him but also says that he
Speaker 1: uh leaves the door opened for civil lawsuits. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was one last frustrating you know, cherry on and again
Speaker 1: expected like uh, you know, weak of the thing. They
Speaker 1: do the thing you expect, and then they laugh in
Speaker 1: your face about it, um, with no consequences because Ms
Speaker 1: McConnell can get away with anything. Um. Literally Like it's
Speaker 1: it's as if he wrote the speech based off of
Speaker 1: him voting to convict and then read the speech anyway. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean we've been talking about it for weeks. How
Speaker 1: do you reconcile these two different parties within the party,
Speaker 1: these factions, the pro Trumps and the never Trumps. Um,
Speaker 1: I guess you do exactly what he just did, which
Speaker 1: is condemned and still equit exactly. He can't he's he's
Speaker 1: not doing anything. Yeah, No, reconciliation is necessary because they're
Speaker 1: all the same. It's just some are more blatant about it.
Speaker 1: The Trump wing of the party, that's what you want
Speaker 1: to call it, is just an extension of the other
Speaker 1: part of the party. Uh. It grew from the same
Speaker 1: pot of soil. Uh. They're the same. Uh, just some
Speaker 1: are more willing to try to like, you know, talk
Speaker 1: outside of their mouths about it. Um. So you know,
Speaker 1: it's there they are. It's Trump's party and they did it,
Speaker 1: and congratulations. Also like one of the I forget which
Speaker 1: Republican senator voted to Uh, convict um. It was also
Speaker 1: like spreading this lie about the election being stolen like
Speaker 1: for weeks. Um, and now he's being like paraded out.
Speaker 1: Is this like oh wow, the this in a bipartisan move.
Speaker 1: He he comes out against Trump's like, no, he did
Speaker 1: he helped he did it, and now he's this like,
Speaker 1: you know, again the resistance sort of hero type, just
Speaker 1: like the responsible Republican who voted against Trump even though
Speaker 1: he helped him beforehand. So you know, it's all. Trump's
Speaker 1: lawyers were also like horrible. They were like far for
Speaker 1: the course. They were so embarrassing. The guy didn't even
Speaker 1: know if he was like, oh, I'm not sure if
Speaker 1: I'm under oath yours the lawyers aren't under oath do Yeah.
Speaker 1: My favorite part was when he called the impeachment constitutional
Speaker 1: cancel culture, which is so much about like they have nothing,
Speaker 1: it's just cancel culture, cancel culture, cure. I have so
Speaker 1: many thoughts about cancel culture political strategy, because what cancel
Speaker 1: culture actually is is the idea that like, doing bad
Speaker 1: things should have consequences, and they've turned that into if
Speaker 1: you get angry at us for hurting you, you're the problem. Yeah,
Speaker 1: facing its fucking wild like that is like the Bill
Speaker 1: of Rights is constitutional virtue signaling, Like no funk off.
Speaker 1: That's like you can't it's just melted all together. So
Speaker 1: U and cancel culture just become a catch all term
Speaker 1: for anybody coming under fire for anything at all. Uh,
Speaker 1: cancel culture police, this and that woke police. And this
Speaker 1: is a bit of a general general conversation that I
Speaker 1: just said, I want to keep having about different things,
Speaker 1: but like it frustrates me. I've seen people in my
Speaker 1: own life here in l A and Hollywood. You know,
Speaker 1: over the past couple of years becoming increasing this isn't
Speaker 1: about politics specifically, but increasingly worried about saying or doing
Speaker 1: the wrong thing and how that will come back to
Speaker 1: haunt them, and whether or not sharing information is worth
Speaker 1: ruing somebody's career. And I'm always like, how I think
Speaker 1: we we've inflated the impact because for the most part,
Speaker 1: people who get canceled aren't canceled. They've just been called
Speaker 1: out on something. They get to use that as an
Speaker 1: opportunity to address the problem, to rectify it. You we
Speaker 1: give them an opportunity if we want people to grow
Speaker 1: in general, that's what we see from this accountability leading
Speaker 1: to change with when people are are open to that anyway,
Speaker 1: it frustrates well and also more of that's different these days.
Speaker 1: Cancel culture is kind of uses just a career move right, like,
Speaker 1: oh no, I got canceled. Now I can do my
Speaker 1: cancel tour and go on all the canceled shows. It's
Speaker 1: time for this stage of my career exactly. It's just
Speaker 1: it's not it's not some career ruining thing. It's a
Speaker 1: moment where people get to say you fucked up? What
Speaker 1: are you going to do about it? Potentially, but also
Speaker 1: it's an opportunity for grifters and people that don't actually
Speaker 1: want to change to just weaponize it. And it's certainly
Speaker 1: not impeaching the president. That is also not canceled culture.
Speaker 1: I've just been thinking about it so much this year. Well,
Speaker 1: that's what because they're they're pushing it. That's like one
Speaker 1: of their main strategies going to is going to be
Speaker 1: like the cancel culture stuff because they're all they're all
Speaker 1: in for for Trump is um uh and and yeah,
Speaker 1: they can't not be They've given everything to it. Exact
Speaker 1: is it's the only thing left in the party. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's pure, pure Trump from pure and Mitt Romney
Speaker 1: in that photo where he's sitting with Trump and knows
Speaker 1: that it's going to be made into a meme. That's
Speaker 1: mean you mean that photograph taken by David Lynch Restaurants
Speaker 1: and it's incredible. No, it just looks like it's a
Speaker 1: lot of layers, bizarre, unsettling aura of a David Lynch film.
Speaker 1: Romney has the the unique skill of taking pictures where
Speaker 1: the expression on his face is genuinely and genuinely an
Speaker 1: expression no human being has ever worn before. It is
Speaker 1: It's amazing. Can I give up positive of the impeachment trial?
Speaker 1: It's my very, very small silver lining. I thought, so,
Speaker 1: are you going to talk about how sexy McConnell looked
Speaker 1: in those pants and not just horrified by the statement?
Speaker 1: And I'm going to go to hr about that comment.
Speaker 1: You can see the spider web stains on the n
Speaker 1: C like he looked like he was smuggling hot dog
Speaker 1: buns in a briefcase. That was he actually wearing Was
Speaker 1: he actually wearing interesting pants? Or you know, I just
Speaker 1: wanted to an inappropriately sexually. I was just gonna say
Speaker 1: some of the videos they showed that weren't previously shown
Speaker 1: and have been widely seen by more Americans that are horrified. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: getting to see how close Mitt Romney and Mike Pitts
Speaker 1: came to being torn apart by a mob was valuable
Speaker 1: historical insight for sure, for the record, for the record,
Speaker 1: for the historic to it. You do love No, I
Speaker 1: don't love to see it. I do love to see
Speaker 1: it because at least it means that history books in
Speaker 1: the future will know we have a video component terrible.
Speaker 1: These people were assuming it's legal to make history books
Speaker 1: in the future that are not just pictures of George
Speaker 1: Washington punching an Indigenous person to death and and Trump
Speaker 1: of hugging that flag. Yeah, and the two pages in
Speaker 1: our history books in the future, by which I mean
Speaker 1: Texas in a year. Well, I think it's time for
Speaker 1: us to take a little ad break, come back, talk
Speaker 1: about some other things that's not about right, we'll talk
Speaker 1: about speaking of cancel culture. Katie just canceled this podcast
Speaker 1: so that we can make money, but then she'll renew
Speaker 1: the podcasts, revitalized the reboot playing three Dimensional Chess, and
Speaker 1: you guys are ruining it by commenting on just like
Speaker 1: Louis c k no no together everything. Those were ads. Lord,
Speaker 1: they share word. Should we get into Yeah, let's talk
Speaker 1: about some Texas. So I'm in Texas right now because
Speaker 1: my mom has advanced pancreatic cancer. Um, I'll be here
Speaker 1: for the next couple of weeks. Um, and we are
Speaker 1: we rented a place an airbnb. Who we happen to
Speaker 1: know the person or a friend of the family. Anyway,
Speaker 1: we're in an airbnb. Um, and it's in Planoh, which
Speaker 1: is because it's a more affluent suburb and because it's
Speaker 1: a suburb so it's not in the middle of the
Speaker 1: city or whatever. UM still has power. UM, at least
Speaker 1: mostly we have not lost it yet. UH. In general,
Speaker 1: one of the things that people are pointing out, particularly
Speaker 1: within Dallas, is that the wealthiest neighborhoods in this city,
Speaker 1: Highland Park being a very noteworthy example, have not lost power,
Speaker 1: but a bunch of neighborhoods in a circle around Highland
Speaker 1: Park have lost power for significant periods of time. UM.
Speaker 1: One of the things that's, you know, noteworthy about this
Speaker 1: is that Highland Park is not just a wealthy part
Speaker 1: of Dallas. It's one of like, I don't know, the
Speaker 1: twenty or so richest neighborhoods in the entire country. Like
Speaker 1: it's real big money is Highland Park and they have
Speaker 1: not had not lost power for a minute, while a
Speaker 1: whole circle of neighborhoods around them have all lost power.
Speaker 1: And when a local Texas journalist kind of called this
Speaker 1: out and documented this, their answer was to open their
Speaker 1: their library from UH ten am to five pm as
Speaker 1: a warm one floor of the library, right whole library,
Speaker 1: the coldest parts of the day ten am to five pm.
Speaker 1: And you need that warming center shining in the library.
Speaker 1: So it's read, obviously, pack everybody pack into the library,
Speaker 1: uh during the pandemic to warm up briefly together for
Speaker 1: warmth inside. Please. It's fun that or interesting to me
Speaker 1: that the two cities in the United States that seem
Speaker 1: to have been like most disrupted by uh, the the
Speaker 1: ice storm have been Portland, where I left in Dallas,
Speaker 1: where I can say, and now I have to admit
Speaker 1: that I don't know the weather of these areas, but
Speaker 1: this is extreme, right, this isn't normal. Yes, Portland's normally
Speaker 1: gets snow every year, but not a lot, like a
Speaker 1: couple of inches. It got like eighteen so and there's differences.
Speaker 1: So the reason if you look at like maps of
Speaker 1: power like grid ship in the United States, Portland is purple,
Speaker 1: which is the bad color, and all of Texas is purple,
Speaker 1: and or the reason like kind of North Oregon is purple,
Speaker 1: I think has more to do with the fact that
Speaker 1: infrastructure was physically damaged by the weight of snow um
Speaker 1: power lines went. But it was also a demand thing.
Speaker 1: But like a lot of ship just got we had
Speaker 1: a safe way in in Portland collapse. Like the ceiling.
Speaker 1: The city just isn't built to take snow like this, right,
Speaker 1: So it's it was, it's it's the it's the increased
Speaker 1: drain on the grid shure that was a factor. But
Speaker 1: also just like the sheer mass of snow was not
Speaker 1: anything the city was built for, because Portland's really not
Speaker 1: is really not much better equipped to handle snow than Dallas.
Speaker 1: Oddly enough, um, we don't really have a fleet of ice.
Speaker 1: One of the ironic things about Portland is they don't
Speaker 1: like to use um salt on the roads because it's
Speaker 1: bad for the water. But none of the people who
Speaker 1: stopped that stopped the tear gas canisters from going into
Speaker 1: the rivers. It was very funny. Also, doesn't the salt
Speaker 1: in the isn't that good for No? No, I mean
Speaker 1: it's good for safety. Yeah, it's not good. It's not
Speaker 1: great for water, but it's you know, a trade off,
Speaker 1: And I would argue a better trade off than poisoning
Speaker 1: the water in order to tear gas children. I'd rather
Speaker 1: have salt in the water than gas. As with the fishes,
Speaker 1: I suspect we'll pull them. I know this is worst
Speaker 1: year ever, but can we just say the hotels that
Speaker 1: are hiking up their prices right now, guys are bastards.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, pieces of ship and technically illegal under Texas
Speaker 1: state law. Not that it will get penalized, because it's
Speaker 1: like hotels are are doing a thousand dollar a night things.
Speaker 1: And I've seen it in in Dallas and Austin. My
Speaker 1: brothers in Dallas, and he has friends that couldn't find
Speaker 1: a hotel and they just left because they have no power.
Speaker 1: It's just it's fucked up, and I think it's important.
Speaker 1: This isn't just hitting you know, Oregon in Texas. There
Speaker 1: are lots of states and lots of places that are
Speaker 1: experiencing extreme winter or weather conditions. And we're having fun
Speaker 1: here talking about this, but the reality is that a
Speaker 1: lot of people are in a terrible situation being in
Speaker 1: uh yeah, these condition is without heat, without power, uh,
Speaker 1: not to mention water, uh you know. Population. The particular
Speaker 1: problem is it's everyone's getting hit by this. Specific parts
Speaker 1: of the country are unable to cope with it realistically
Speaker 1: because they're not prepared for it. And at least one
Speaker 1: of the things that I will say for Oregon as
Speaker 1: opposed to Texas, people in Oregon are much better equipped
Speaker 1: for cold weather. It doesn't get that cold in North Texas,
Speaker 1: not often. Um. And so in addition to having the
Speaker 1: power out, not having access to heating, you know, in
Speaker 1: Oregon and in places that tend to get a lot
Speaker 1: of cold weather, you have a lot more wood burning
Speaker 1: stoves or at least like gas of it, you have
Speaker 1: like a lot more ability for people to heat. They're
Speaker 1: they're the place they live in. And also people own
Speaker 1: better jackets and more. They're just better ready for the
Speaker 1: weather and better ready to drive an icy condition. And
Speaker 1: it just is Texas is completely When I was a kid,
Speaker 1: when we would get an inch of snow or may
Speaker 1: or two, it would shut the entirety of North Texas
Speaker 1: down for days. Sometimes. Um, we're we're closing in. I look,
Speaker 1: I think we're just based on what I'm seeing outside,
Speaker 1: it looks like we're closing in on a foot. We're
Speaker 1: going to get more tonight, um, And it's just there's
Speaker 1: no capacity to handle. I think I'm the only fucking
Speaker 1: person in this town with snow tires on my car.
Speaker 1: And so it raises an interesting conversation online today, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of people talking about the hypocrisy of say,
Speaker 1: Senator Ted Cruz, who a few months ago was mocking
Speaker 1: California for rolling blockout blackouts during our our wildfire season,
Speaker 1: and and you know what, that's valid, You know what, yes, absolutely,
Speaker 1: and cringe Shaw for sure, peen all of it. I
Speaker 1: would like to just also point out that it is
Speaker 1: true that our leaders elected officials in general are not
Speaker 1: uh preparing for uh extreme weather patterns and changes the
Speaker 1: climate change uh the way they should. We are not
Speaker 1: prepared to handle any sort of emergency, as this past
Speaker 1: year has highlighted. So for me, there's a little bit
Speaker 1: of an element with the online conversation like yeah, of
Speaker 1: course that guy's an asshole, uh and and a hypocrite
Speaker 1: and and all sorts of things. But the real problem
Speaker 1: here is that we have a bunch of our our
Speaker 1: our government is reluctant to embrace and acknowledge that climate
Speaker 1: change is real and start proactively doing things in advance
Speaker 1: to prepare for worst case scenario outcomes. The reason we
Speaker 1: will read the reason we will not do this in
Speaker 1: most of the country is that properly preparing for these
Speaker 1: things requires a commitment to invest in public welfare, requires
Speaker 1: a a belief that is widespread, that the that public
Speaker 1: safety and health is valuable and that we all have
Speaker 1: an individual responsibility to contribute to it. And fully half
Speaker 1: of this country believes that is literally identical morally to
Speaker 1: the Holocaust. That that's conservatism, right, That the idea that
Speaker 1: we all contribute to each other's welfare is the same
Speaker 1: as being a Nazi. That's that's where the Hitler was
Speaker 1: a socialist. Stuff leads right. That is the essence of
Speaker 1: the American right is that And this is this is
Speaker 1: everyone has known this was coming. I was just one
Speaker 1: of my very favorite UM blogs on pathos. Um it was.
Speaker 1: It's by the same guy. Uh oh, jeez, I'm spacing
Speaker 1: on his name right now. Um. But he he wrote
Speaker 1: a very long series of views about the left behind
Speaker 1: books he analyzes like evangelical culture. He put together an
Speaker 1: article in like two thousand eleven pointing out that the
Speaker 1: US power grid everyone knows is heading towards collapse. And
Speaker 1: one of the points was that all of the infrastructure
Speaker 1: in our national power grid was made on like a
Speaker 1: thirty year cycle, and we're now past like fifty five
Speaker 1: years without replacing most of it and upgrading most of it. Um.
Speaker 1: It is unbelievably reckless, and everyone knew this was going
Speaker 1: to be a problem. The only power grid in the
Speaker 1: nation for all that people shipped on California that's not
Speaker 1: completely fucked right now is the West Coast power grid.
Speaker 1: Even the East Coast grid's doing better than Texas is grid.
Speaker 1: And we'll talk about why Texas has its own grid,
Speaker 1: but it has. It has been overstressed, and the only
Speaker 1: reason that it did not have a cascading failure the
Speaker 1: last day or two is because Montreal gave us power
Speaker 1: right um. And by the way, the only reason texas
Speaker 1: is power grid didn't collapse entirely during a series of
Speaker 1: storms in two thousand eleven is that Mexico contributed power.
Speaker 1: So we're the equivalent of a guy who keeps going
Speaker 1: into the doctor and the doctor says, hey, you're drinking
Speaker 1: nineteen coca cola is a day and you're pre diabetic.
Speaker 1: You have to cut down on the soda. It's the
Speaker 1: single part of your diet that is pushing your body
Speaker 1: towards calamity. And every year you go, well, fuck that guy, uh,
Speaker 1: and then you wind up with horrific health consequences. And
Speaker 1: it's it's it's not a surprise, and that is what
Speaker 1: we're doing. We have the ailment was diagnosed like twenty
Speaker 1: years ago. The solution is very very clear. It is
Speaker 1: not hard. It is not beyond our material capacity or
Speaker 1: our financial capacity to handle. We chose not to deal
Speaker 1: with this, and in part because we chose to invest
Speaker 1: in foreign wars, but in part because there's just an
Speaker 1: extreme distaste by many Americans and not just Republicans, because
Speaker 1: Democrats don't like to spend money on infrastructure either, not really,
Speaker 1: not in a way that's COMPREHENSI ever effective. Um, they're
Speaker 1: better at it, Which is part of why I think
Speaker 1: we'll talk about Texas is grid in the second it's
Speaker 1: part of why Texas is doing the worst out of everybody,
Speaker 1: because Texas has this commitment to right wing libertarian ideas
Speaker 1: of deregulation. Um. But this, this, none of this is
Speaker 1: a problem of This is not even really a climate
Speaker 1: change problem. Right. The more severe weather is an aspect
Speaker 1: of climate change. But the fact that we're dealing with
Speaker 1: power issues is not climate change is fault. It's our
Speaker 1: fault because we knew this was a problem and refused
Speaker 1: to take action. Climate change stresses this in such a
Speaker 1: way that shows the problem for what it is. But
Speaker 1: if not this something else, we could have horrible climate
Speaker 1: change related disaster and a functional power grid. Which is
Speaker 1: not to say that we should be horrible climate change disaster.
Speaker 1: If you're not going to take any action on climate change,
Speaker 1: might at least have a functioning power grid. But we
Speaker 1: we don't and we won't. I don't know. It's just
Speaker 1: it's so important. Like we can criticize the Ted cruise
Speaker 1: as we can criticize those dummies all we want, but
Speaker 1: we have to also understand that it's on both sides
Speaker 1: of people being ineffective, um, and that not we all
Speaker 1: come together. This is nonpartisan. But yeah, we need some
Speaker 1: people that are willing to be brave, be brave because
Speaker 1: it is not the most popular thing to talk about.
Speaker 1: And you know, but it's critical. It's just it is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's um, it's completely critical. And I guess now
Speaker 1: we should talk about why Texas is having a particular problem.
Speaker 1: So Texas wind, it's wind's fault. There are it's we'll
Speaker 1: talk about that too. There are three power grids in
Speaker 1: the continental United States. There's the East Coast Grid, which
Speaker 1: is not called the East Coast grid, but it's the
Speaker 1: eastern chunk of the country. There's the western chunk of
Speaker 1: the country grid, which is like from like Wyoming over
Speaker 1: to California and north to south. And then there's Texas UM,
Speaker 1: and all of Texas is not on the Texas grid.
Speaker 1: Part of the Panhandle, like around Lubbock believe or Leah
Speaker 1: around Lubbock is UM part of the West Coast grid,
Speaker 1: and a little bit of the eastern side of Texas
Speaker 1: is part of the East Coast grid. But about eight
Speaker 1: percent of Texas is on its own grid, and it
Speaker 1: is the only state that is like that UM. And
Speaker 1: there are a number of reasons to it. There's a
Speaker 1: great Texas Tribune article on it that basically says that
Speaker 1: you can sum it up as fuck the Feds, right,
Speaker 1: funk the federal government. UM. Texas did not want to
Speaker 1: be not just like they didn't want to be part
Speaker 1: of the federal government's grid. They didn't want to be
Speaker 1: subject to regulation by the Department of Energy. Right that.
Speaker 1: That's the key part of it UM. And as a result,
Speaker 1: it allows because the system so deregulated UM, a decent
Speaker 1: chunk of Texas functions under like energy monopolies. UM, and
Speaker 1: you've got and it's you know, it's it's more profitable
Speaker 1: and whatnot. There's there's most Most of the state is
Speaker 1: run by a nonprofit called air COT, which is the
Speaker 1: Electric Reliability Council of Texas UM, which is technically a nonprofit,
Speaker 1: and they're the ones who are supposed to be managing
Speaker 1: UM all of this ship. But it it because Texas
Speaker 1: has its own grid that is not subject to Department
Speaker 1: of Energy regulation. UM, they don't have to keep up
Speaker 1: to the same standards, and as a result, while the
Speaker 1: entire US power grid is in bad shape, Texas is
Speaker 1: in Texas is in particularly bad shape. So let's talk
Speaker 1: about wind power. People have been talking about how, oh
Speaker 1: the wind, Like, the reason Texas failed is because the
Speaker 1: wind power plants failed. That's literally the opposite of the truth. UM.
Speaker 1: What people are pointing out is that the total amount
Speaker 1: of wattage UH that that we're short by is slightly
Speaker 1: more than the capacity that wind power should provide in Texas.
Speaker 1: That's not accurate. We're out about thirty or four thousand
Speaker 1: megawatts something like that. UM, it's about thirty thousand is
Speaker 1: what UH Texas is. Windpower is potentially capable of generating UM,
Speaker 1: but that's not what it ever generates, right, It's not
Speaker 1: supposed to generate that much. It goes lower in the winter,
Speaker 1: and based on their expectations for this month, windpower has
Speaker 1: been punching about, has been over providing, it's been providing
Speaker 1: more power than they anticipated for it to provide. The
Speaker 1: reason that Texas had a shortfall is because natural gas
Speaker 1: funked up in the weather. Right, Our natural gas plants
Speaker 1: stopped functioning, and some of our nuclear our nuclear plant
Speaker 1: has like a nuclear plant has gone offline as well. UM.
Speaker 1: It is not wind energy that caused the shortfall that
Speaker 1: is currently a problem for Texas. UM. It's more than anything.
Speaker 1: Are outdated and and completely like predictable problem. And one
Speaker 1: of the things that could have helped is we that
Speaker 1: natural gas tends to have these kinds of failures in
Speaker 1: these temperatures. If we were connected more to the rest
Speaker 1: of the national grid, we could potentially be pulling power
Speaker 1: from the West coast or something. UM. There are ways
Speaker 1: they could have prepared for this. I found a good
Speaker 1: article in the Houston Chronicle, UM, and I'm going to
Speaker 1: quote from this now because it puts a lot of
Speaker 1: the problems in context, and more broadly speaking, it puts
Speaker 1: the issue that we are in the that are that
Speaker 1: the US electric grid is in right now, in the
Speaker 1: Texas electric grid is in right now in some context
Speaker 1: that I think is interesting, especially given conservatisms dimensions in
Speaker 1: this quote. Ed Hers, an energy fellow in the Department
Speaker 1: of Economics at the University of Houston, blamed the failures
Speaker 1: on the states deregulated power system, which doesn't provide power
Speaker 1: generators with the returns needed to invest in maintaining and
Speaker 1: improving power plants. The Aircot grid has collapsed in exactly
Speaker 1: the same manner as the old Soviet Union, said Hers.
Speaker 1: It limped along on under investment and neglect until it
Speaker 1: finally broke under addictable circumstances. For more than a decade,
Speaker 1: generators have not been able to charge what it costs
Speaker 1: them to produce electricity, said Hers. If you don't make
Speaker 1: your return on your money, how can you keep it up.
Speaker 1: It's like not taking care of your car. If you
Speaker 1: don't change the oil and tires, you can't expect your
Speaker 1: car to be ready to evacuate, let alone to get
Speaker 1: you to work. So again, all very predictable, all very reasonable,
Speaker 1: all based on deregulation and a refusal to invest in
Speaker 1: any sort of of community safety or welfare whatsoever. Um,
Speaker 1: it's cool ship. I love my home state, and I
Speaker 1: think that we can all expect to see some significant
Speaker 1: changes being made in the near future to address this. No.
Speaker 1: I think they're going to blame wind power and try
Speaker 1: to cut funding the Wind Pact, and they're going to deregulate. Yeah. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: are going to invest in the free market. Yeah. Have
Speaker 1: you guys seen any conversation or response about when they
Speaker 1: can expect to be putting people, turning people to electricity
Speaker 1: back on getting power back? Um geez. I think probably
Speaker 1: later in the week. But we're getting another ice storm
Speaker 1: and snowstorm tonight. Um. I don't genuinely worried about so
Speaker 1: many people right now. Yeah, I don't think there's really
Speaker 1: a good understanding of when things will get better or
Speaker 1: how likely it is that they will get better. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean this, this has the potential to be like
Speaker 1: a Katrina level problem. I'm hoping it won't get that bad.
Speaker 1: But four million Texans and change or have no power
Speaker 1: right now. Last I checked, more than a hundred thousand
Speaker 1: people in Dallas under a boil advisory because water treatment
Speaker 1: plants failed as a result of the oil advisory. A
Speaker 1: boil advisory means that the water treatment plants are not
Speaker 1: treated water. So you need to boil snow or whatever.
Speaker 1: You need to boil water that comes out of your
Speaker 1: faucet in order to make sure it's clean. Actually, you
Speaker 1: don't really thought it was a warning for people about
Speaker 1: some condition that will give them boils. Um, No, it's
Speaker 1: and and and now also Corpus Christie. I believe it
Speaker 1: is on the coast is under a boil advisory, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure it will have spread more by the time
Speaker 1: you hear this episode. Because just again, necessary basic infrastructure
Speaker 1: that is required in order to maintain what we consider
Speaker 1: to be the basics of modern life was not invested
Speaker 1: in because it's expensive kind of money. Where would we
Speaker 1: make that kind of money. Where would we get money
Speaker 1: to to pay for these things? We're tapped out, got
Speaker 1: these people asking for handouts. We've got to give the
Speaker 1: rich people tax breaks, We've got to spend money on
Speaker 1: the military, all of the money and the police. So
Speaker 1: I'm sorry everyone, you just can't have electricity. I don't
Speaker 1: think you're sorry, Hi, you're right. Yeah, it's rad It's
Speaker 1: very frustrating. Also physically the lies, like the blatant lies
Speaker 1: where it's like, well that's just not true. Um. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: There was a snort snow tornado in Texas that was
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree more, Katie snort. Um. On that note,
Speaker 1: I think it's time for a little a break, no
Speaker 1: day together everything, So don't don't We're bad. Oh I
Speaker 1: should say one other thing about infrastructure and collapse and
Speaker 1: ship um, because this is another another example of how
Speaker 1: climate change is a massive problem, but also a lot
Speaker 1: of the problems that we're having as a result of
Speaker 1: climate change are actually problems as a result of us
Speaker 1: to take very basic preparedness steps and preventative steps. Um.
Speaker 1: In Portland's right, one of the big reasons why their
Speaker 1: grid is so fucked and so many people are out
Speaker 1: of power is that Portlands has above ground power lines,
Speaker 1: which are not the best way to do power lines. Um.
Speaker 1: The fact that it makes them you know, they get
Speaker 1: they get shipped on them, they collapse. Uh. They Also
Speaker 1: the reason we had so many fires in Oregon last
Speaker 1: year is because power lines would go down in the
Speaker 1: wind and then spark and then catch hundreds of thousands
Speaker 1: of acres on fire, and people died as a result
Speaker 1: of this. And there was there was a great video
Speaker 1: at the time, because there are these all these myths
Speaker 1: that Antifa was outstarting the fires. There was a wonderful
Speaker 1: video of a group of wildlands a wildfire firefighters like
Speaker 1: on their way to fight a fire, and one of
Speaker 1: the guys was like, look, there's one thing starting all
Speaker 1: these fires. It's fucking power lines. You know how I
Speaker 1: know that because every year, for years, one thing has
Speaker 1: been starting all of the forest fires. It's fucking power
Speaker 1: lines getting blown down and then sparking. And we can
Speaker 1: fix this because the twenty one century and we can
Speaker 1: bury our fucking power lines. And it's again this like, yes,
Speaker 1: the dry conditions, the increased wind, the increased heat, uh in,
Speaker 1: the increased rain that leads more vegetation to burn, all
Speaker 1: climate change related problems, but a lot of the fires
Speaker 1: are just starting because we won't bury our goddamn power lines. Um.
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of that in California too. There's
Speaker 1: a ton of it in California. Modest investments in infrastructure
Speaker 1: could fix these things. We won't do it though also
Speaker 1: for forest fires, we could also look to that, especially
Speaker 1: here in California mentioned this at the time. You're the
Speaker 1: wildfire season here. We ignore the history of indigenous people
Speaker 1: that lived here before us, and we do not respect
Speaker 1: this earth that you know, And yeah, we just ignore
Speaker 1: the advice and the wisdom that other people have accumulated.
Speaker 1: Just do our own thing, and it's wrong and common
Speaker 1: knowledge and sense all of that. But I think that
Speaker 1: that's bears repeating, especially if we're talking about forest fires. Anyway,
Speaker 1: We've got more topics to discuss this week. Uh, Robert,
Speaker 1: you sent around that article, that VR article. Hell yeah,
Speaker 1: I did want to dig into that. What were the
Speaker 1: other things I want to talk about? Let's go with that.
Speaker 1: Let's let's let's yeah end on a really Uh, unless
Speaker 1: you'd rather talk about gun reform legislation, No, let's let's
Speaker 1: talk about let's talk about this VR thing into a
Speaker 1: few a full world where everything is fine, guys. You
Speaker 1: don't have to aspire to a better life. You don't
Speaker 1: need to have things that other people have. You can
Speaker 1: have it in virtual reality. Yeah, things like a house
Speaker 1: that isn't freezing, that heat, food that isn't spoiling you know, UM,
Speaker 1: a government that isn't run by kleptocrats who steal your
Speaker 1: money in order to give it to Jeff Bezos so
Speaker 1: that he can send a penis into space. We should
Speaker 1: we should describe this article first. We should describe this article. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we should talk about the article. Sorry you want you
Speaker 1: want to go, Katie? I just talked to bunch. Uh uh,
Speaker 1: well we should Uh we'll circle back to the space penis. UM.
Speaker 1: This So this is an article about UM. Basically we've
Speaker 1: been Here's the title Billionaire CVR is a Way to
Speaker 1: avoid Radical Social Change, O contell Yeah, it's about using
Speaker 1: the VR basically as as UM. You know, this tech
Speaker 1: gets uh less and less expensive, more and more of
Speaker 1: the poores can have it, which means that we can
Speaker 1: create worlds within worlds UM to basically give people a
Speaker 1: taste of what they do not have in order to
Speaker 1: placate them UM and not think that, um, the material
Speaker 1: world is changeable, that better things can happen in the
Speaker 1: real world because you have a virtual world to escape
Speaker 1: to the gist. It's it's one of those things, UM.
Speaker 1: And I see you see this a lot with a
Speaker 1: lot of these just fucking billionaire nerds um who have
Speaker 1: like uh read every single like sci fi dystopia and
Speaker 1: gone like I didn't learn anything from that. Let's do
Speaker 1: the things. Yeah, here's here's a good uh quote. Uh.
Speaker 1: This is from John Carmack, who is uh Doom co
Speaker 1: creator and former CDO of Oculus um and and he says,
Speaker 1: for this article, not everyone can have a mansion, not
Speaker 1: everyone kind of a home theater. These are things we
Speaker 1: can simulate to some degree in virtual virtual reality. Now
Speaker 1: the simulation is not as good as the real thing.
Speaker 1: If you're rich and you have your own home theater
Speaker 1: or a a mansion or private island, good for you. You're
Speaker 1: probably not the people that are going to benefit from this.
Speaker 1: Most of the people in the world lived in cramped
Speaker 1: requarters that are not what they would choose to be
Speaker 1: if they had unlimited resources. So yeah, station is to
Speaker 1: give them a very experience left to them. Meets a
Speaker 1: virtual kidfit who is still relevant. Also, it's right, the
Speaker 1: Doom guy. It's very Uh. It's an extra fascinating too
Speaker 1: because um like Zuckerberg isn't like heavily featured this article
Speaker 1: or anything like that. He's not one of the quota
Speaker 1: is slightly too smart to be interviewed for this, Yes, UM,
Speaker 1: but I would UM, I would highly doubt that he
Speaker 1: um is not you know, thinking the same kind of
Speaker 1: stuff UM about VR and it's usefulness. Um. I'm just
Speaker 1: as I was reading this, I was contrasting it with
Speaker 1: UM Zuckerberg going on a virtual tour of Puerto Rico
Speaker 1: that happened, but you're right, yeah, uh and talking about
Speaker 1: how like it was actually it was to show how
Speaker 1: useful virtual reality is to uh, to you know, give
Speaker 1: people empathy, um, and be able to empathize with places
Speaker 1: you're not. And it's just uh, it's so it's such
Speaker 1: a great contrast to the article because it's like literally like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, if you're rich in this other in this
Speaker 1: other society, uh, you can pop on the VR and
Speaker 1: see the devastation that you don't have to experience. And
Speaker 1: then if you are there, you get the worst VR
Speaker 1: where you can pretend that you're you know, having a nice,
Speaker 1: a nice cooked steak. There's there's another line in here,
Speaker 1: um from Carmack. That's how the world gets better by
Speaker 1: building technologies and distributing them to people so that they
Speaker 1: have something better than they would have had if that
Speaker 1: didn't exist. Okay, just the the image of you I
Speaker 1: mean with this article is illustrating. Is also like how
Speaker 1: these these tech companies um position themselves as you know,
Speaker 1: changing the world, liberating the world. But it's actually quite
Speaker 1: the opposite. And what are these virtual reality worlds that
Speaker 1: are being built? Are you actually addressing systemic issues or
Speaker 1: talking about stuff? No, you're you're I think the line
Speaker 1: in here is like you're giving a glamorized version of
Speaker 1: the world without the realities that we all face, you know,
Speaker 1: without just tiptoeing around the ugliness, uh, so that people
Speaker 1: can forget about it for a few minutes. Also, these
Speaker 1: things are very expensive. Rich people are the only people
Speaker 1: I can afford it. It's not even that I don't
Speaker 1: even think the expense is the big part of it is.
Speaker 1: What's so rational about this to me is the idea
Speaker 1: that if you're living in a cramped, squalid home without
Speaker 1: proper services, that is incredibly uncomfortable and bleak, putting on
Speaker 1: a VR helmet doesn't let you simulate living in a
Speaker 1: better home. It lets you look at a nicer home,
Speaker 1: right Like, You're not You're not gonna feel like your
Speaker 1: bed isn't a mattress you pulled out of the garbage
Speaker 1: fifteen years ago. You're not going to feel like you
Speaker 1: have hot water even though your hot water heater is broken.
Speaker 1: You're not going to feel like you have a couboard
Speaker 1: for full of food even though your check doesn't come
Speaker 1: for another nine days and you've got nothing but two
Speaker 1: packets of ramen in the house, Like, none of it.
Speaker 1: You just get to look at a nice house. So
Speaker 1: it's like, even within the concept of like what these
Speaker 1: guys are saying it could do, the only actual impact
Speaker 1: I imagine simulating wealth would have in virtual reality is
Speaker 1: it would increase people's desire to pick up a set
Speaker 1: of bolt cutters and break into the homes of the
Speaker 1: rich and then do things that we can't talk about
Speaker 1: in a podcast. He would hope, Yeah, I would hope it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's um, it's uh selling people a picture of a
Speaker 1: nice place, um and letting them look at it. It's
Speaker 1: just scary. Also, you're like, I mean the goals ultimately, yeah,
Speaker 1: make you feel happy with what you have content. Let's
Speaker 1: let's scratch that urge without actually having to do anything
Speaker 1: for you. But that's a dangerous dystopian novel to me
Speaker 1: of all this Yeah, just sorry, No, that was the
Speaker 1: end of every every just every day there's a new
Speaker 1: thing like this that is just like and it's it's
Speaker 1: such an easy go to but like, well that's a
Speaker 1: black mirror episode. Well that's this sci fi dystopia. That's
Speaker 1: that's that was warned about decades ago about what we
Speaker 1: shouldn't do. And much like good power grids, right, like
Speaker 1: just all this stuff. It's like, well, what do you
Speaker 1: get out of those things? Um? Do you learn from them? Uh? Anything? Nothing?
Speaker 1: You learned that Well, the people on top win, so
Speaker 1: I should be one of those people and then make
Speaker 1: life worse for everybody else. Um, it's just disgusting, uh
Speaker 1: and bizarre, and we get closer every day and phrase
Speaker 1: that he described peripheral, Yeah, God, I hate all of
Speaker 1: these fucking people so much. Um, it's it must be
Speaker 1: so frustrating to be one of the dudes who invented
Speaker 1: cyberpunk back in the day as like a warning, seeing
Speaker 1: instead everyone just be like, oh the aesthetics of this
Speaker 1: are neat let's make it happen. Yeah, it's the miss
Speaker 1: uh just misses the mark so much. Even his response
Speaker 1: to like things that we're saying about um, like you know, well,
Speaker 1: that's not really the real world. Then you're creating this
Speaker 1: sort of false image of of like like you like
Speaker 1: like you were saying, like you're you're showing them a
Speaker 1: picture of what other people have. UM, And he's not right.
Speaker 1: It's not a holidack. AND's not like I live in Dallas,
Speaker 1: it's a hundred degrees here. Well not anymore, it's a
Speaker 1: hundred degrees there. We change the world around us and
Speaker 1: all that we do. We live in air conditioning. People
Speaker 1: don't generally go, oh, you're not experiencing the world around
Speaker 1: you because of air conditioning. That is what human beings do.
Speaker 1: We bend the world to our world. That's not what
Speaker 1: you're doing virtual reality. That's actual reality. You're creating a
Speaker 1: condition that's habitable through air conditioning, so that it's not
Speaker 1: it's not all it's real. It's real cold that a
Speaker 1: person in air conditioning doesn't think like, oh, wow, this
Speaker 1: is a picture of somebody looking cooler than than the
Speaker 1: heat outside. No, it's literally you feel that way. I
Speaker 1: think it's also important to acknowledge something that is acknowledged
Speaker 1: in the article, which is that people keep saying virtual reality,
Speaker 1: well we'll take over and you know, really take hold,
Speaker 1: and we haven't seen that happen. Like, you know, there
Speaker 1: has been a bit of a modest increase in virtual
Speaker 1: reality headset sales during the pandemic UM, but not compared
Speaker 1: to video games in general. Part of that is the
Speaker 1: fact that it is cost prohibitive for most people. The
Speaker 1: article discusses how eventually it will become more affordable for
Speaker 1: the masses, and that's like the general goal, but it
Speaker 1: isn't taking root. You know. I'm sure that's a distraction,
Speaker 1: but it's not doing the thing that people want it
Speaker 1: to do. And that's kind of what this feels like.
Speaker 1: How do we make this drug more affordable and addicting
Speaker 1: to people, to the people that actually could benefit from
Speaker 1: virtual reality versus the people that are wealthy enough to
Speaker 1: spend a most disposable income on a toy like this.
Speaker 1: How do we subdue how we more efficiently subdue uh
Speaker 1: people in poor conditions um and keep them there without
Speaker 1: complaining too much? H put some soma in the water.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I take it too far. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it is it is all like it's all that
Speaker 1: stuff that I know, I just get weird quoting dystopian
Speaker 1: novels seeing how often the right does it to us
Speaker 1: about there in the wrong way, Like well that's the
Speaker 1: thing they don't Yeah, they don't. Um, they don't do
Speaker 1: it in the right way, even like they talk about
Speaker 1: whenever they talk about any movie, like well did you
Speaker 1: watch the movie? Did it? Yeah? Like what do you say?
Speaker 1: How did we get suit very different messages from this?
Speaker 1: How do you watch these things? Um? But it's like
Speaker 1: what the ending of Ready Player? One bad movie, terrible book?
Speaker 1: Why is this the future that people are serious towards,
Speaker 1: they're striving towards it. It's so bizarre because like, yeah,
Speaker 1: not only is it bad, it's a bad books, a
Speaker 1: bad movie. Um, it's also not desirable. That movie ends
Speaker 1: with the special boy winning the game and so he
Speaker 1: controls the company, and like the victory is that like
Speaker 1: he gets a nicer apartment. He does, and then people
Speaker 1: like need to log off every once in a while.
Speaker 1: They still have the terrible dystopian world in which they live,
Speaker 1: which they can escape from via VR. It's still shit.
Speaker 1: It's utter ship. It's so good, Cody. I think what
Speaker 1: you meant to say is things are heading in a
Speaker 1: good direction. We're on our way towards more free thing
Speaker 1: is so sal sal salid. It's solid, it's solid, it
Speaker 1: is fine, and no one's freezing today. We like the world.
Speaker 1: Now things are better every we like the world and
Speaker 1: all things are better and everyone's happy. I think that
Speaker 1: does it for us today. Yeah, we can talk about
Speaker 1: gun control another time. Yea, all the time in the world. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: Send us on vacation. Don't worry about it. Yeah, don't
Speaker 1: worry about it. Like like Congress, we're going on go
Speaker 1: cashing in early, not having done our full job, because
Speaker 1: what are you? What are you gonna do? What are
Speaker 1: you gonna do? Listen to listen to another podcast? You
Speaker 1: fucking you're gonna listen to another You gonna listen to
Speaker 1: the Chopos or the Cumtowns. No, you're not. You're addicted.
Speaker 1: You're gonna stay here Motherfucker's So if you can, we
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