WEBVTT - Chuck’s Commentary - U.S. Is Drifting Toward Competitive Authoritarianism + Social Media Has Fueled Extremism 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:02.840 It's sponsorship time. But you know what, it's really great 0:00:02.880 --> 0:00:05.720 when you get a sponsor that you already use. 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:06.560 And guess what. 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:09.639 Quint's is something that in the Todd household we already 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:11.320 go to. Why do we go to Quint's Because it's 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:13.480 a place you go where you can get some really 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:17.279 nice clothes without the really expensive prices. And one of 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:19.640 the things I've been going through is I've transitioned from 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:22.720 being mister cot and tie guy to wanting a little 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:25.640 more casual but to look nice doing it. 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So get your 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:26.600 wardrobe sorted and your gift list handled with Quints. 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:27.160 Don't wait. 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:30.440 Go to quints dot com slash chuck for free shipping 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:32.759 on your order and three hundred and sixty five day 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:36.800 returns now available in Canada as well. That's qui nce 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:41.320 dot com, slash chuck, free shipping and three hundred and 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:45.360 sixty five day returns quints dot com slash chuck. 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:49.640 Use that code. 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:53.600 Hello there, Happy Monday, and welcome to another episode of 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.720 the Chuck Podcast. We are ticking ever so closer to 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:03.120 the holiday break first night of Hanukkah, ten days to Christmas, 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:07.640 the New sixteen days to New Year's Eve, and of 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:13.760 course when I'm counting down five days until the University 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:17.440 of Miami's debut in the college football Playoff, I've got 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:23.000 a pretty good I've got a pretty sort of robust 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:26.480 show today that's going to hit a bunch of topics. 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:35.040 A fascinating and an incredibly important study by some from 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:37.680 some folks from the Council on Foreign Affairs about the 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:42.520 state of the United States and its democracy. It's extraordinarily 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:43.280 important read. 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:43.880 I'm going to. 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:47.080 Pass on the highlights in a minute, fascinating new poll 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:51.240 from the Searchlight Institute on corruption and more and portantly, 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:54.880 it's not about the concern about political corruption. It's about 0:02:54.880 --> 0:03:00.000 what voters believe is corrupt versus sometimes what lawmakers. 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:00.560 View as corrupt. 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:04.680 Here's a hint. Let's just say that they don't share 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:08.160 the same definition of what is political corruption these days. 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:10.760 It is Monday, which means we're going to hop into 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:14.880 the time machine, and I'm just going to give you 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:17.000 one hint at what I'm going to be talking about 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:17.320 in the. 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:21.680 Time machine monorail, mono rail, monorail. 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:25.400 How many of you will figure out what I'm going 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:28.040 to talk about based on that hint? Guess what I 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:31.280 won't actually find out the answer to that. But I 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:33.760 thought that would be a fun little clue. We'll do 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:36.200 some ask Chuck and I have a few thoughts on 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:40.080 the state of college athletics given what happened what we're 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:42.320 watching at the University of Michigan. 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:43.400 But I'm going to start. 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:49.440 With the news out of Australia. It's pretty painful first 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:54.800 night of Hanuka around the world, that this is what 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:57.280 all of us had to wake up to on Sunday 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:01.160 morning here in the United States and what the world 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:04.720 is grappling with, and that is just yet another reminder 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:14.400 of that anti Semitism is at an ugly level globally 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:19.600 right now. Look, this is anti Semitism is not new. 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:24.000 We've gone through fits and starts. Anybody who's Jewish knows 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:26.359 the history. We know the history of this quite well. 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:33.640 The rise and falls of attempts eradicating Jews, blaming Jews 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:38.640 for financial problems, blaming Jews for cultural problems. We are 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:41.680 the smallest of the major religions. We are the smallest 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:45.760 of groups that there are. It's amazing how much power 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:50.680 so many people try to attribute to us, and we're 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:55.600 not even three percent of the world's population. Obviously what 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:58.800 we've been You know, there's a lot of people that 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:02.040 are looking at this and and immediately trying to make 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:06.400 a political argument, to make the case that it's the 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:12.200 left that is supercharging antisemitism or the right that is 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:17.440 supercharging antisemitism. I will remind you all once again, I 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:20.040 have only experienced it in stereo. 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:21.159 All right. 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:25.159 Before twenty fifteen, I experienced very little anti semitism, if 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:27.080 any at all. I think I shared a story with 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:30.280 you an old friend of mine, we were talking about 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:34.839 this one time, and sort of right right when the 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:37.760 rise of sort of it was those of us in 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:39.719 the press that were starting to feel it first, and 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:43.000 then it sort of broke open out into the mainstream. 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:46.720 But in twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, you can say it 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:50.599 was coincidental with the timing of the rise of Donald Trump, 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:56.000 or if that is what sort of essentially lifted up 0:05:57.160 --> 0:05:59.440 the pretext on all of this. But essentially the rise 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:01.920 of the postopulous left with Bernie Sanders and the rise 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:04.800 of the populos right with Donald Trump has given a 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:10.160 permission slip to anti semits to either to either use 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:12.839 it to promote a left wing ideology or use it 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:14.400 to promote a right wing ideology. 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:15.880 Here's what I will say. 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:18.039 If you're using anti Semitism to try to promote the 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:21.920 left or the right, you're obviously doing it wrong. And 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:25.719 you're not very small d democratic, and you certainly don't 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:29.760 believe in freedom, that's for sure, freedom of anything, let 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:34.360 alone freedom of religion on that front. But I remember 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:36.680 talking with this old friend of mine and we were 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:41.400 talking about how our mothers would tell us these stories 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:48.480 about anti about their about their anti Semitic experiences in 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:53.840 grade school and high school. My mother's second generation in America. 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:57.919 I believe his parents were first generation, and you know, 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:00.240 they would tell us these stories, and my friend and 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:01.880 I would sit there and go, you know, my mother 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:03.880 would tell these stories about you know, kids in her 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:06.320 high school looking for her horns or asking about her tail. 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:10.560 And you know, he would say that, you know, his 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:12.640 mother would you share similar things? And we would just 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:15.880 look at them like they were strange beings. That's this 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:16.760 can't be the case. 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:19.119 What do you tell? You know? I didn't. 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:22.080 I didn't want to say I was dismissing mother, But 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:24.400 you know, you think, well, maybe our parents. 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:25.600 Are exaggerating a little bit. 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:28.880 You know maybe, and I'll tell you ten years later, 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:31.480 a right, eleven years now, we're almost we're getting close 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:34.640 to the eleventh year of sort of this what has 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:37.840 been a consistent uptick? Really really you can I do 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:41.560 believe the line of demarcation is June twenty fifteen, but 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:43.120 you can see this uptick. 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:43.840 And it is. 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:49.120 This is not something that either side if we're going 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:50.840 to try to make this always a two way fight 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:52.280 between whose fault is it? 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:56.120 Is it the left, isn't the right? This is collective. 0:07:57.280 --> 0:07:59.240 And there's a lot of there's a lot of blame 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:02.560 to go around, but I think the one that's sing singular, 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:07.200 singular for blame and most important is social media. In this, 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:09.960 we've always had to anti semis. We've always had hate 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:13.840 in the world, Okay, just it's just a fact. We've 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:17.160 always had small minded people who have wanted to blame 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:22.600 an ethnicity or a religious sect for their for their 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.920 own personal problems. That's in it, and that is that 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:31.560 is not new. Sometimes these sick people end up leaders 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:37.520 of countries see Hitler, Kama Adolph. Sometimes these sick leaders 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:42.199 end up leaders of political movements, and then there's always 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:45.880 this what about is that comes along with with folks 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:49.760 that are trying to defend their side from charges of 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:54.920 anti Semitism, and it'll be like, yeah, but you know, yeah, 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:58.880 but this disselected leader of Israel's bad about X, Y 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:03.600 and Z doesn't justify hate on little kids celebrating Hanukah 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:09.360 in Australia. There's nothing that justifies that. So I don't 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:11.440 want to hear the Abbots and I ignore. And I'll 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:14.280 tell you this, the beauty of social media and stories 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:16.520 like this is it becomes self selecting. You see the 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:20.040 people that immediately want to point fingers and say, aha, 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:23.920 it's the left, a hats the right, And I'm like, aha, 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:26.959 it's somebody that doesn't have a mirror in their own frickin' house. 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:32.040 But I want to put the emphasis on the distinguishing 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:37.760 characteristic here of this era of anti Semitism, and that 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:38.559 is social media. 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:40.880 I put my. 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:46.040 I want to align myself with some remarks that Spencer Cox, 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:49.520 the Governor of Utah, Republican governor of Utah said last week, 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:52.680 and it wasn't on a specific thing, wasn't specifically about 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:56.160 anti Semitism, but it was more about the toxicity, the 0:09:56.200 --> 0:10:01.480 toxic culture, the increase in violence that we've seen in politics. 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.440 And what's interesting is, my friend Jonathan Martin Wright wrote 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:09.680 in Politico this week the following comment received the loudest applause. 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:12.600 He did a joint form with Josh Shapiro on this issue, 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:15.240 Spencer Cox and Josh Shapiro in conversation with my friend 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:21.200 Sabana Guthrie, and the loudest applause at the form was 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:22.920 when he said the following. If you want to be 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:25.480 angry at someone, be angry at the social media companies. 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:29.560 These are the wealthiest and most powerful companies in the 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:31.760 history of the world, and they're profiting off of destroying 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:37.280 our kids and destroying our country. And the amplification the algorithms, 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:41.160 the fact that fellow crazy anti semites can find other 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:45.600 fellow crazy anti semites online and think, oh, I'm not 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:47.880 the only one that thinks this. And the minute you 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:50.079 think you're not the only one, that you're not alone, 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:54.560 it somehow rationalizes, It makes you feel better. It makes 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:56.839 you think, oh, and then when you set up an 0:10:56.840 --> 0:11:01.280 ecosystem and a bubble that sort of self reinforcing, you 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:06.079 think you're the mainstream. Everybody thinks their own media diet 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:10.000 is a mainstream diet, right. It is the inability of 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:13.440 so many people to put their feet in other people's 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:17.480 shoes and other people's media filters. In fact, I think 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:21.600 there's been some experiments. I really would like to see 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:26.079 people sort of spend a day in a media filter 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:29.960 of somebody else, and you do these various media filters 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:32.679 just you know, I look at it as an academic 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:36.480 exercise to try to understand the electorate. As you guys know, 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:40.720 I have been referring to myself as a political anthropologist, 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:45.760 meaning that I that is constantly what I'm ultimately always 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:48.720 trying to figure out is what is why are we 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:51.480 in this place? And if you're trying to figure out why, 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:54.480 you have to understand the various political tribes in America. 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:58.320 Some of these tribes overlap. People are members of multiple tribes, 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:01.880 sometimes a remember of only one. But ultimately that's why 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:03.960 I say I'm a political anthropologist. I'm trying to figure 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:07.240 out how do these tribes align? Hey, gress what I know, 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:10.120 I'm in my own tribe. I just try my best 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:13.199 to roll down the window in my bubble and see 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:15.800 what's going on outside of my bubble. But you have 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:18.120 to it is hard to do it. You have to 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:21.040 intentionally do it. You have to have the crazy ass 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:23.240 Twitter feed that I have. That I promise you most 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:26.560 people at America probably don't because I do try very 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:30.080 hard to get the normies and the extremes because I 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:34.000 want to understand what the conversation that is going on. 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:36.640 Trust me, I'm sure some of you go. Some of 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:39.480 you listening to me wouldn't even know who Candice Owens is. 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:42.079 And by the way, God bless you, I'd love not 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:46.400 to know who this woman is. But there are people, 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:49.880 there's an entire community on the right that is consumed 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:54.720 with trying to extricate this crazy woman from the mainstream 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:59.840 of the MAGA world because of her just outlandish conspiracy theories. 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:03.760 I can't tell if she's mentally ill or just simply 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:07.320 a shameless grifter, or perhaps the two of the two 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:11.120 go hand in hand. But there are plenty of people 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:13.520 in mainstream America. I'm sure if I said the words 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:16.000 Candice owned, my mother and my brother in law, my 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:18.520 sister in law, who all are pretty pretty smart about this. 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:19.480 Would be like, who the hell is that? 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:24.000 And I wouldn't blame them. But that's because this is 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:26.640 the world that we've all constructed, but it's the world 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:30.120 that social media has gone out of their way to construct. 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:32.520 And this is why, you know, I look at this 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:34.880 rise of anti Semitism, and I look the fact that 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:38.439 this was not a lone nut right, but there appears 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:44.120 to be some coordination down there in Australia. I do 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:48.480 I can't, you know, I know that ultimately individuals are 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.960 to blame, not a computer, not an algorithm, but these 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:57.400 tech platforms amplify, and you know, I you know they 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:02.079 I think they have a responsibility to make sure that 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:04.960 what they're doing is not putting more people in harm's way. 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:10.920 And their amplification, their algorithms, are doing just that, they 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:14.000 deserve no protection on Section two thirty, the part of 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:16.240 the law that supposedly says, hey, we're just you know, 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:18.960 we're not doing the minute they put an algorithm on 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:21.880 these things, the minute they amplify, the minute they allow 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:25.280 for the connection. Look, our First Amendment guarantees free speech. 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:30.800 It doesn't guarantee of bullhorn, it doesn't guarantee a right 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:32.840 to be the loudest voice in the room. It just 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:35.080 simply guarantees that you have a right to free speech. 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:39.120 So you have a right to be a hateful anti 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:43.920 semi okay, But you don't have the right to have 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:50.240 your extreme, hateful and hurtful political views be the dominant 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:55.400 piece of conversation and be mainstreamed into America. No, because, 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:57.920 by the way, we don't want it mainstreamed. And the 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:02.360 tech companies do not have to protect you and do 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:04.720 not have to amplify your speech. In fact, they can 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:07.440 dial it down. In fact, there's plenty of academic studies 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:10.800 that show if you dial down hateful content, you're not 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:14.160 getting rid of it, you're just prioritizing it less than 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:19.960 these algorithms. It's shocking how much turning that temperature down 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:28.680 actually helps the conversation. So it's troubling, but I really, 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:33.360 you know, you look at the situation we're in, and 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:35.960 there's no doubt we have bad leaders around the world 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:40.360 that are exploiting hate and anger to try to make 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:43.960 a political argument. You have people on both sides of 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:49.600 the aisle attempting to weaponize anger at Israel or anger 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:55.560 at the economy and trying to somehow connect that to 0:15:55.640 --> 0:16:00.200 Jewish folks. The left does it with bb at times. 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:03.320 The right does it with George Soros. I mean, George Soros. 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:07.320 There is no greater victim, there's no greater victim of 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:13.640 anti Semitic mythology, h and gross mischaracterizations than George Soros. 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:16.040 And I don't know where he gets to go to 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:19.400 get his reputation back considering the character assassinations that have 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:23.960 taken place through the prism of his faith. There's there's 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:26.760 no no, no doubt in my mind on that front. 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:32.240 But ultimately, why do we have more collective conversation about this? 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:35.080 Why is there more collective talk about this? Why is 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:41.040 there frankly more insecurity for many Jewish Jewish people around 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:43.560 the world. Why do we feel so less secure today 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:47.440 than we ever have before? I think we can thank 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:50.320 social media. I think the tech companies have not only 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:56.400 not gotten the focus of this, they've not taken responsibility, 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:59.560 but I think they need They need to be the 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:02.160 focal Which brings me to that column that my friend 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:05.120 Jonathan Martin wrote, which he says, you know, perhaps Spencer 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:09.200 Cox needs to be the anti tech candidate. Somebody needs 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:12.840 to take it to the tech community, right. The tech 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:16.400 community has brought us a lot of positives. Okay, there's 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:19.280 a ton of positives, and there's a ton of tools 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:21.959 that have been invented that have helped me create a 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:26.880 better communications system with you guys. Right, there's no doubt 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:30.400 there's plenty of upsides from the tech community, but what 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:33.080 they have done with social media, and this is why 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:36.640 I don't think the public is going to be supportive 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:40.679 at all of this light touch, non regulatory process that 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:45.760 the President's trying to do an artificial intelligence. The same industry, 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:49.160 the same industry that gave us social media without regulation, 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:55.159 now wants to give us artificial intelligence without regulation. Considering 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:58.879 how well social media went, how the hell are we 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:03.479 doing this, right, This is the most illogical thing you 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:07.159 could come up with. I can't believe the president is 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:09.400 doing this. I think this is you want to talk 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:13.920 about convincing more mainstream Americans to go get a pitch 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:18.560 for it and start sharpening up, sharpening that sucker up. 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:22.440 It is just crazy that we don't want to put 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:26.880 any guardrails on the growth and expansion of the AI industry. 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:34.520 It is absolute insanity. Okay, if you think social media 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:38.159 created more toxicity in our culture and more violence in 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:41.240 our culture thanks to the lack of regulation, what do 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:44.040 you think is going to happen with artificial intelligence if 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:47.879 we don't have some attempt at making sure there are 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:52.080 constant guardrails being erected as we build this super highway. 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:57.200 It is it is something that I think is I've 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:01.600 talked about this before. I think it is politically absolutely 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:06.919 going to be frankly an easy thing to exploit potentially, 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:10.480 And that's why the tech community is really making a 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:16.239 mistake here that they are not grasping just in what 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:18.560 kind of precarious position that they're in. And maybe they 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.600 think we don't need America and if America shuts us down, 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:24.600 we'll just go somewhere else where we will be treated 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:27.399 with lot. We can just buy our way into a 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:30.159 policy that we want. And obviously, right now we have 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:32.479 a situation where they can get whatever the hell they 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:35.000 want from this administration if they just write a check. 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:39.560 And that's disturbing, but that's why we still have a 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:43.439 competitive democracy, although I'm going to get to that in 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:48.679 a minute, where the voters can sort of have a 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:51.600 say in this, because right now we have zero say 0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:56.240 in what social media has done to us, and we 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:58.320 don't seem to have the collective will. 0:19:58.480 --> 0:19:59.040 It's growing. 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:02.320 I mean, look, I think it's a huge start that 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:05.160 you've got. I mean, look, Australia is trying to ban 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:09.080 social media for people under the age of sixteen. Spencer 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:12.640 Cock made this. Cox made this mention that we wait 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:14.680 to hand the keys to a car to a kid 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:18.960 until sixteen, yet we give them an algorithmic driven phone 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:21.879 at twelve. You know, perhaps we can give them a 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:23.800 phone at twelve with no social media on it. 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:25.120 Right, maybe it's. 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:29.119 Flip phones from twelve to sixteen, because plenty of parents 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:31.720 want to have some access to their kids and all that. 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:35.320 I think that that's a legitimate concern. But you know, 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:40.119 we can essentially say, you know, no, just you can't 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:41.960 have a you know, because I don't know how else 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:44.080 you're going to be able to monitor this. But if 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:50.040 you actually just make the device itself against the law 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:52.680 for somebody under the age of sixteen to have that, 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:55.760 that might be a start. It is the one area 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:59.280 where we're starting to see some bipartisan consensus, which is 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:04.800 about access to screens and social media for people under sixteen. 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:08.360 And we've decided this is a problem. Well, guess what 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:12.080 do you think that our minds are only fragile from 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:16.240 sixteen and younger, or that we've got these fragile minds 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:18.600 that are much older too, and that social media warps 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:22.520 those warps those over the age of sixteen almost as 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:25.480 badly as they could warp those under the age of twelve. 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:28.160 One other point in the social media front, Jonathan mentioned 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:34.159 an interesting new report that noted about. It was a 0:21:34.200 --> 0:21:37.920 pole about the manosphere, if you will, what do Men Want? 0:21:37.960 --> 0:21:40.480 And it revealed that a majority of males sampled in 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:43.400 that survey said social media feeds have gotten a lot 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:45.320 more extreme. I mean, most of this is thanks to 0:21:45.320 --> 0:21:47.800 Elon Musk and his insanity and what he's done to 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:51.159 acts and taking away all guardrails on acts, And of 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:54.240 course every other social media company followed because they didn't 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:57.440 want to get left behind. But what's interesting is that 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:01.280 men themselves revealed in this pole that most controversial content 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:05.119 reaches the men who are online the most, especially younger men, 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:09.159 white men, black men, Hispanic men across the board. And 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:14.960 we're seeing a more radical youth thanks to warped social 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:17.800 media algorithms. So when we see this rise of hate, 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:20.760 we see this rise of violence, and we're looking, you know, 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:23.440 the easy thing is to try to point left, point 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:26.480 right point at Israel point, Gad's a point, at Hama's 0:22:26.480 --> 0:22:28.560 point of protesters, people want to point at a whole 0:22:28.560 --> 0:22:32.080 bunch of figures except for the culprit that is in 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:36.360 charge of the information ecosystem that destroyed the information ecosystem. 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:39.080 And trust me, I'm aware of the irony that I 0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:42.719 am speaking to you in that ecosystem, and hopefully it 0:22:42.760 --> 0:22:45.240 gets to you. It doesn't get shut down by the 0:22:45.280 --> 0:22:48.400 algorithms of these big tech companies. But they're the culprits here. 0:22:48.720 --> 0:22:51.520 They've created this environment that has made it a lot 0:22:51.560 --> 0:22:56.560 easier for these hateful, awful, mentally ill people to find 0:22:56.680 --> 0:23:01.760 comfort in their bubbles because it looks like they're not 0:23:01.880 --> 0:23:10.520 alone and that they're somehow namestream. Having good life insurance 0:23:10.640 --> 0:23:14.240 is incredibly important. I know from personal experience. I was 0:23:14.280 --> 0:23:17.480 sixteen when my father passed away. We didn't have any money. 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:20.000 He didn't leave us in the best shape. My mother, 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:24.200 single mother, now widow, myself sixteen trying to figure out 0:23:24.240 --> 0:23:26.119 how am I going to pay for college and lo 0:23:26.280 --> 0:23:29.560 and behold, my dad had one life insurance policy that 0:23:29.600 --> 0:23:32.600 we found wasn't a lot, but it was important at 0:23:32.600 --> 0:23:35.600 the time, and it's why I was able to go 0:23:35.760 --> 0:23:38.880