WEBVTT - 080523 A Talk with Conservative Pundit Ami Horowitz (Part 1) 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:04.480 Broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. You are now 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:06.880 tuned into another episode of Civic Cipher. I'm your host, 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:07.680 Ramsey's job. 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:10.600 He is Ramsey's job. I am q Woard And you 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:15.920 are absolutely tuned in for another segment of City Psyche. 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:18.080 Indeed, you are so stick around. We got a lot 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:21.200 in store for you today. We've got a special guest. 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:24.400 Who's going to be having a couple of interesting conversations 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:26.480 with us. He goes by the name of Ammy Horowitz, 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:31.360 who is an American conservative documentary filmmaker and activist. He 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:34.600 is the writer, producer, and director of Amy on Mlouse, 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:37.760 a satirical short film series made for Fox News. And 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:40.600 I know what you're thinking, what is going on, But 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:44.640 the point of today's show is to start having some 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:49.559 constructive conversations across the political aisle. And I do believe 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:52.680 that Amy is the sort of person with the right 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:55.760 temperament to begin having these conversations for. 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:57.320 Us, because this is very new to us. 0:00:57.320 --> 0:00:58.639 Another thing that we're going to do a little later 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:01.320 on in the show is how a very similar conversation 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:07.080 with our special guest across the ethnic aisle, if you will. 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:10.280 For those who have been paying attention to the news. 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:13.880 Over the past let's call it year plus, there has 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:18.200 been a little bit of friction between Black people and 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:23.000 Jewish people, often stemming from black people's side of the equation, 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:26.000 and we felt the conversation would be in order to 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:30.720 attempt to establish a degree of understanding and really communication. 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:33.720 We definitely believe in communication on the show here, and 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:38.120 Ami has been kind enough to grant us an audience, 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:41.280 so a person who obviously sees the world a little 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:44.240 differently than we do. But we're hoping that this conversations 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:50.040 that we have today will be informative, constructive, and hopefully 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:55.480 lead to increased dialogue across several aisles. And again, this 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:58.000 is kind of what we're hoping for today. But first 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:00.280 and foremost, we are going to start to sh off 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:02.960 as we always do with some ebony excellence, shall we 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:06.280 we shall? So today's ABNY Excellence is sponsored by Hip 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:11.320 Hop Weekly Media and we are reading from the Black 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:17.120 Information Network. Today's ABNY Excellence is an acknowledgment of black 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:22.200 CEO's reaching a record breaking high on the Fortune five 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:22.880 hundred list. 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:24.480 We thought that was very special. 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:27.920 So allow me to read eight black CEOs lead companies 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:30.400 that have landed on the twenty twenty three Fortune five 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:34.080 hundred list, the most since the ranking's debut in nineteen 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:37.200 fifty five. Per the company's website, two of the eight 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:39.720 black executives joined the Fortune five hundred list for the 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:42.800 first time ever. Calvin Butler Junior jumped up the ranks 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:45.400 in December twenty twenty two as the CEO of energy 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:49.480 provider Excellent, which landed at number two hundred and eighteen 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:53.360 on the list. Christopher Womack, the CEO of Southern Company 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:56.160 in Atlanta based gas and utility company, was also in 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:58.360 your infant to the group of black CEOs after earning 0:02:58.360 --> 0:02:59.520 the top position in May. 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:01.840 A third back. A third black. 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:04.760 Executive, Renade Jones of New York, New York's M and 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:06.600 T Bank, returned to the ranking after the bank was 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:09.840 dropped off from last year's list due to a decrease 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:12.720 in revenue through the rank. 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:13.240 Sorry. 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:16.079 Though the ranking holds a record number of black executives, 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:18.160 they still only make up less than two percent of 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:22.400 all Fortune five hundred CEOs. Black CEOs faced higher expectations 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:25.760 to pursue that to prove their qualifications despite being more 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:28.280 educated than the white counterparts. According to a twenty twenty 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:32.560 two study published in the Strategic Management Journal. Quote, there 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:35.880 are a plethora of talented, qualified, extraordinary leaders who happen 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:38.520 to be black. It's never a surprise when they advanced 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:41.560 to the c suite or even to the CEO position, quote, 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:47.080 said Laura Morgan Roberts, an associate professor of Business administration 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:50.080 at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business. She 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:52.800 goes on to say, it says more about the companies 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:55.760 and the board of director's ability to develop an advance 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:58.840 talent from all backgrounds than it says about the representation 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:01.800 of the leaders themselves. So we want to shout out 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:09.840 any advancement, certainly in the corporate world that we feel 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:12.680 is a step in the right direction, and so shout 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:16.520 out to the CEOs who landed on the Fortune five 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:20.600 hundred list that are black. Moving on, it is time 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:24.200 to talk to our special guests. So Ami, welcome to 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:27.480 the show, of course, and for our listeners benefit, we 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:29.400 gave you a brief introduction, but talk a little bit 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:31.120 about yourself and what it is that you do and 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:33.120 how people might be familiar with your work. 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:35.800 Yeah, it's funny. I think you read it you wrote 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:39.680 off my Wikipedia page, which is not entirely accurate. 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:41.559 Okay, we'll educate us. 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:45.280 So, yeah, you know, look, people call me conservative filmmaker. 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:48.360 I'm not sure I would I would qualify myself as that. 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:50.679 Certainly I'm right of center on most things, but certainly 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:53.159 go center or left of center on a bunch of 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:58.080 things as well. Okay, and don't produce my work for 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:00.920 Fox News. I've been on Fox News, but some reason 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:06.440 that's on my Wikipedia page. My background actually was as 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:11.400 an investment banker. I did that for about well. My 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:13.760 career has kind of been doing things I had no 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:18.120 business doing. So my first job was I actually ran 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:22.360 out of college. I ran a campaign for State Controller 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:25.880 of Maryland. I had zero experience in running a campaign, 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:28.360 but for some reason I kind of fell into the job. 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:30.520 This was a Democratic candidate, right. 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:34.600 A Democratic candidate. All right, Look again, it's not about 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:37.120 the letter. It's more about what people think for me 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:39.279 and kind of what their perspective is, and do I 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:42.200 align myself with that. This guy was kind of run 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:45.040 up my alley on ninety eight percent of all the issues, 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:46.840 and I thought, this is a guy who I think 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:52.400 should be elected to this position, and afterwards I was 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:54.359 trying to figure out what I want to do next. 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:56.960 He said, well, why don't you go make some money 0:05:56.960 --> 0:05:59.679 first and then come back into politics. And I go, great, 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:03.200 how do you make money? He goes be an investment 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:06.080 banker like me, and I was like, I don't even 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:08.400 know what that is. Never took a business course in 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:11.599 my life. And I basically moved to New York without 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:15.880 knowing anybody. And I mean, this is back when when 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:18.160 payphones were around. You guys may not know what that is. 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:21.760 Oh things out there that you just put you plugged 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:25.200 in quarters and you could make phone calls. And got 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:27.000 the Wall Street Journal and got a list of the 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:30.080 investment banks and cold called investment banks until I and 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:32.599 I'm going on too long, stop me, please no, please 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:37.800 go ahead, And somehow got interviews and just kind of 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:41.760 my way into my first entry level job and did 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:46.840 that for about ten years. Wasn't never particularly good at it, 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:49.120 but just was able to kind of get along, just 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:52.000 move on. And then finally I decided, out of nowhere 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:55.320 to make a movie again. Zero film experience, no idea 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:57.280 what I was doing, but kind of fell had a 0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:01.040 knack for it. Made a my my first feature film 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:04.919 or my only feature film about the the United Nations, 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:09.000 kind of like a black satirical Michael Moore style documentary 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:13.120 about the dangers and the failures of the UN and 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:14.720 then never look back. This has kind of been my 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:15.480 career since then. 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:17.120 Sure, sure, sure. Now. 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:20.920 One of the things that I think that some people 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:22.840 might know you for is is kind of that sort 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.800 of satirical sort of like Man on the Street, just 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:31.400 kind of getting interviews from people that is in the 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:35.120 same vein of what our listeners might be familiar with 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:38.640 from the likes of like The Daily Show with people 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:41.680 like Jordan Klepper or Roy Wood Junior, just people just 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.680 kind of getting out there. But you know, my understanding 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:52.040 is that you've done these about topics that are well, 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:53.800 you know what, why don't why don't I let you 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:56.360 describe it a little bit more so, so talk to 0:07:56.480 --> 0:07:59.000 us about that facet of your career. 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:04.920 Yeah. So I kind of do several types of videos. 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:09.120 Some are short documentaries where I'll go to Venezuela or 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:13.440 I'll go to the Janine and I will you know, 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:17.800 uncover or or kind of dig into a particular issue 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:19.880 which I find interesting or I think that needs to 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:24.160 be explained or exposed. And then another set of a 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:27.640 video I do are kind of like stunt type videos 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:31.920 where all you know, I'll wave, I'll have hidden cameras 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:35.480 and I'll wave, give an ISIS flag on the Berkeley 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:38.440 campus and see what people's reactions are to it. The 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:41.280 next day I fly the US flag and see what 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:44.480 people and compare contrasts and different reactions. And then the 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:46.440 third type one you're referring to, a kind of man 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:50.600 the street where I interview people around the world and 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:53.520 try to get to the heart of kind of what 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:56.760 they're thinking is and and get a sense of really 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:59.319 what their and it's usually not me arguing with them. 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:02.079 It's very rare I do. Yeah, it's more really trying 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:06.280 to understand what they think and having them say the 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:08.560 quiet part out loud. That's kind of like my real 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:12.800 skill set. Oftentimes I will pretend to be a person 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:14.719 that thinks similar to them, which makes them feel a 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:16.960 little more comfortable. That's kind of where there might be 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:19.600 some controversy. I'm not I don't really understand the controversy. 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:22.040 People will say, well, you know you're leading the horse 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:24.400 to water. I go, well, that may be true, but 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:26.360 you can never force the horse to drink the water. 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:28.800 Either they drink it, they don't drink it. You could 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:30.920 lead me down any path you want, but I'm not 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:33.480 going to say something I don't believe. So that's kind 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:35.680 of been my style, kind of having them feel comfortable 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:38.240 by me pretending to kind of think like they do. 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:39.560 Sure so good. 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.680 So for our listeners who might not be familiar running 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:47.560 a campaign for a state controller into investment banking. For 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:49.800 people who are not familiar with the role of a controller, 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:52.840 I'm thinking that's fiscal or in some way a financial 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:54.480 role for the state. Could you tell people a little 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:56.839 bit more about what a state controller does, like a. 0:09:56.800 --> 0:09:59.120 Treasurer I think they call that, you know, in some 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:02.160 states they call it control or something to call it treasurer. Yeah, 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:04.200 the finance in the statement. 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:05.720 Okay, I just wanted you to give that little bit 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:08.559 of context for for listeners who weren't familiar with the 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:09.280 term controller. 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:14.400 So one of the things that I found interesting is 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:22.040 that obviously here we consume a lot of media in 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:31.680 order to get a well rounded view of events in 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:38.400 the news cycle, and we found it problematic and and 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:43.040 difficult to approach a lot of news from conservative sources, 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:48.800 mostly because we felt this is our perspective, and I'm 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:51.160 sure that a lot of people share this perspective. If 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:56.720 you look at the the distribution of the population and 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:00.560 by by ethnicity of who consumes what media sources, you 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:03.560 might see a little bit of a trend. But we 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:08.960 felt that a lot of news sources were anti black 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:14.680 in some instances, the people that were elevated to you know, 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:20.520 primetime positions were often the most hateful, the most divisive 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:24.400 sorts of individuals, and we could see, you know, people 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:31.000 profiting from allowing this divide to deepen and to protect 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:34.679 our own sort of mental health and to just recognize 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:36.920 that we kind of have a longer road here, we've 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:42.560 limited intake from media outlets that are not entirely based 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:46.280 In fact, you know, Fox News famously had to pay 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:52.440 Dominion voting systems almost a billion dollars. Yeah, it was 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:58.560 like seven hundred plus million dollars for basically elevating what 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:05.199 ultimately as an unfounded and utter lie about the previous administration. 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:07.360 And that is not their only sin. 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:08.440 We have. 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:13.240 Even objectively, they are very very biased in one direction. 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:14.840 And that's not to say that the true is not 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:17.400 or the same as not true of other media outlets, 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:23.840 but other media outlets, we don't feel their bias has 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:28.680 as profound or as direct of an implication on the 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:33.200 day to take lives of the most vulnerable people, at 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:37.120 least by race. And so the reason I wanted to 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:40.880 explain that is because where I'm going next is I've 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:44.960 always felt by watching programs like The Daily Show, where 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:46.640 they're kind of based in humor, they're a little bit 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:49.480 more approachable for most of the population, you know, we 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:50.959 just wouldn't want to have a laugh that we want 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:55.000 to be informed as well. That they do have people 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:56.800 like that. Those the sort of man on the street 0:12:56.880 --> 0:12:59.160 sort of people that go out and they, you know, 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:03.360 like you, they tend to be aligned politically with the 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:08.760 people they're interviewing, right, and they will ask questions to 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:12.680 really see why people believe what it is that they believe, right, 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:16.040 And obviously these people are seldom prepared to have these 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:19.959 conversations because they were either taught or you know, that's 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:23.760 just a reflection of their viewpoint, you know what I mean. 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:26.400 And I think what we end up seeing and what 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:29.400 we end up laughing at is that often enough these 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:34.120 people are politically aligned with what they themselves will identify 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:38.040 as being against their own interests in the moment in 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:39.640 that interview, right, And so this is why we can 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:42.319 all sit around and have a laugh. And so when 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:46.280 I looked at some of your earlier work and saw 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:49.400 something similar but from the opposite advantage point, I realized, 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:53.439 you know what, not only is that fear, but that 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:59.520 might be something that's missing. Because pure gold fears no fire, right, 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:02.440 wrong is wrong, right is right. And when we're wrong 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:04.640 on this side, or when we need to, you know, 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:09.600 strengthen our arguments or whatever the case is, there's programmings 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:13.359 like the ones that you put together that are necessary 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:17.880 for us to really ensure that what we're thinking is 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:22.560 based in a shared reality, and that our beliefs are 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:25.760 not simply beliefs because we've been given them, but because 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:27.640 they are indeed a reflection of who we are as 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:30.680 a people and what we value as a people. Now, 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:34.600 I know that my listeners would eat me up if 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:37.840 I didn't mention that there is a difference in power, 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:42.040 you know, depending on who you're talking to, and power 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:45.800 in terms of their capacity to influence their immediate here now, 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:49.240 either by voting or have some sort of fiscal impact 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:52.720 or effect on their reality by withholding dollars or spending 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:56.320 elsewhere or whatever. Those are who are the most vulnerable 0:14:56.320 --> 0:15:00.440 in the population typically don't have that same free them 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:04.360 to change there, here and now the way that, let's 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:10.800 be honest, our white male, often conservative, heterosexual Christian brothers 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:14.520 do the value of a vote is less than the 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:17.360 value of a vote from that specific type of individual, 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:19.400 et cetera. Forgive me for going on and on, but 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:25.120 I wanted to kind of get your thoughts on what 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:28.480 it is that you are trying to accomplish, or at 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:33.840 least we're trying to accomplish with your programs like Ami 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:35.960 on the LuSE and Amy on the Street. What what 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:38.760 did you think would come about as a result of 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:40.000 those endeavors? 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:44.840 Yeah? So so people often ask me, so why do 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:47.000 I do what I do? Right? Who am I trying 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:47.560 to speak to? 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:47.880 Who? 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:49.120 Now am I speaking to? Who am I trying to 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:49.440 speak to? 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:49.880 Sure? 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:52.280 If if you know, one of the things I'm very 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:57.560 proud of is I built a significant audience who are 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:01.760 non conservatives about it, pulling every once in a while 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:03.600 on my basic get a sense of where they are 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:07.080 politically roughly rather third are non conservatives. I mean they're 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:10.600 left of center or independent, some left wing, but a 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:14.240 few of those, but obviously the majority are conservatives. But 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:17.120 why do I do what I do? Is because I 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:23.720 feel that the center left and the center right have 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:26.760 far more in common than the center right has with 0:16:26.800 --> 0:16:28.560 the far right, and the center left has with the 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:33.280 far left. And it's unfortunate that most people on both 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:37.240 sides don't realize that. And so my goal personally is 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:40.280 to try to separate the center left from the hard left. 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:42.920 I don't think they have a lot in common. I 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:45.120 think the center left doesn't fully understand that, as the 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:46.880 center right doesn't fully understand that. They don't. They have 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:50.000 not that much in common with the hard right, and 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:53.520 so I'm trying to speak to them. I'm trying to say, look, 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:57.960 here is what the hard left believes, and I don't 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:02.360 think this aligns with your worldview. And if you tell them, hey, 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:08.560 the hard left believes in destruction of capitalism, open borders, 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:10.920 transiting nine year olds, the centate left will say that's 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:14.000 not true, that's right wing talking points. No one believes that, 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:16.639 And my point is no, no, there are people who 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:19.000 believe that here are those people, and I don't think 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:23.200 that aligns your viewpoint. That's why I'm always trying to 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:25.320 speak to and that's why I love to go on 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:29.360 shows that don't speak to the typical conservative audience, which 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:32.879 is just to me, he's preaching the choir, which has value, sure, 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:35.640 but it's not who I'm trying to engage with. It's 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:38.159 why I do a lot of videos on race. I 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:40.640 try to speak to the black community whenever I can. 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:45.840 I think I think black people and the right of 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:48.520 center have more in common than either side actually thinks 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:52.720 or nos. So that's an important audience for me. So yeah, 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:55.720 I'm always trying to speak to a different audience and 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:59.960 trying very hard not to alienate that audience for my content. 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:07.399 Yeah, okay, so here are some things, and please, you know, 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:08.800 correct me if I'm wrong. 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:11.159 Actually, you know what, before I ask, I want to 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:11.920 let you know that. 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:15.160 What I'm going to do is I'm going to read 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:17.280 some of the titles of some of the specials that 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:19.720 you've done, give a little bit of background, just really 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.360 briefly and sort of what you learned in doing them. 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:24.840 But this first one is going to be kind of heavy. 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:29.639 It's fair to let you know that on this show, 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:35.359 we remain critical of policing the way that it is 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:39.280 done in this country. We push back against the narrative 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:44.320 that police are always the good guys. We recognize that 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:49.840 we have been subjected to copaganda and that while there 0:18:49.880 --> 0:18:53.840 are I would assume a decent number of good human 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:57.040 beings who happen to function in the capacity of a 0:18:57.080 --> 0:19:06.200 police officer, that there is a system that incubates bullying behavior. 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:16.640 It insulates people from consequences of their biases, their hatred 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:22.200 manifested in the form of violence against black and brown bodies. 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:28.359 And we believe that our being critical of policing is 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:33.920 important to get the best version of public safety possible. 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:36.560 In other words, we just simply do not accept that 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:39.720 this is the best that is possible. We simply reject 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:44.720 the narrative that it's a few bad apples, because that 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:49.080 has been a narrative that has been People have tried 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:53.359 to establish that for decades, and people have tried to 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:57.160 say that training is something that is necessary for decades. 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:00.840 And I don't want to be born the whole life 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:04.160 and then die and still have that be a narrative 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:08.440 that is popular. A few bad apples, better training, et cetera. Right, 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:11.159 So I need you to understand who you're talking to 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:15.159 when I ask you these questions, because this title to 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:17.359 a person like me and indeed our listeners now I 0:20:17.400 --> 0:20:22.200 know better, but a person like me, the title would 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:26.320 seem like it flies in the face of an agenda 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:32.760 that my people are trying to push, which is that 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:37.879 our lives have worth. And that is really the beginning, middle, 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:41.000 and end of the conversation. And when other people inject 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:46.040 other elements into the conversation, we take it as noise 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:51.000 or a subtle way of pushing back against our affirmation 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:55.080 of our lives having value. And then obviously you know 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:57.800 the story about Q and I with the trademark White 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:01.639 White Lives Matter, and that whole pushback as well. So 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:05.199 with that in mind, I want to ask you the 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:09.840 intentionality behind and the result, in other words, what you 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:15.359 learned of the do Cops Lives Matter initiative? 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:22.480 So that was that video, the video where I had 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:23.240 hitting camera. 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:28.440 So I'm not entirely sure. I'm, like I said, I'm 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:29.400 reading these titles. 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:36.280 I believe that video was actually particularly interesting video. Okay, 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:40.080 that video was This was the I believe the first 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:41.720 iteration of black Lives matter. 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:44.879 Okay, so we're talking twenty twelve, Trayvon Martin. 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:47.840 Yeah, that sounds exactly right. Okay, all right, let's go 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:51.320 and was trust. So, the narrative that was of course 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:53.880 being pushed then and to a sort of extent now, 0:21:54.480 --> 0:21:58.080 was that there's a lot of hatred of police officers 0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:01.240 within the black community. In fact, the video began with 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:03.919 me and a lot of my videos begin with me 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:09.119 in leftist white neighborhoods and then end with me in 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:14.199 black neighborhoods, and that video, I believe, began with me 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:18.919 in a white neighborhood, I believe Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and I 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:22.560 was interviewing white leftists and I asked them, how do 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:26.560 how do you think black people view the NYPD? And 0:22:27.480 --> 0:22:30.240 to a man, every single person was rage on the street. 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:33.679 There's hatred of police officers. They find them all disgusting. 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:35.879 It was just over and over the same narrative, kind 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:37.960 of heard that, you know, it's just a hatred of 0:22:38.400 --> 0:22:41.639 police officers by black people around the country. Then the 0:22:41.680 --> 0:22:46.760 next shot was me in I believe West Harlem, I 0:22:46.840 --> 0:22:48.600 could have been East Harlem, and I had a T 0:22:48.760 --> 0:22:53.520 shirt that said, cops lives matter and hidden cameras, so 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:55.840 almoys knows I'm being on film. I was trying to 0:22:55.960 --> 0:22:58.000 enlist what was the reaction I was going to get. 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:01.680 So it seemed provocative, right, particularly among the black particularly 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:07.800 when Black Lives Matter was happening, and the I didn't 0:23:07.800 --> 0:23:10.040 know and with a lot with with some of my videos, 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:11.639 I kind of have a sense of what the response 0:23:11.720 --> 0:23:13.520