WEBVTT - Part Two: Behind the Bastards Q&A: 2026 Edition 0:00:01.639 --> 0:00:07.520 Also media welcome to buy the Bastards Q and a 0:00:07.600 --> 0:00:11.080 special Happy New Year. I am Sophie Litterman and I'm 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:13.200 here with my business partner, Robert Evans. 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:17.960 Robert, how are you a you know, bracing for the 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:22.919 new year, getting ready to really take twenty twenty six on? 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:24.520 You know? 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:29.600 Somebody asked the last time you ate inside in Arby's? 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:31.520 Is that their lord of that or is that just 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:32.080 somebody else? 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:34.720 I don't know. I don't have a history with arby 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:38.159 I don't know you. As a kid, I loved Hardy's. Why. 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:42.080 I think because Hardy's is Carls Junior, though, isn't it. 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:45.320 I know they're owned by the same people, I swear 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:47.800 to God. As a kid, I felt like the curly 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:50.600 fries were different. Like that's what I loved about Hardy's 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:52.839 as a kid, because I was born in Saint Louis 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:55.720 and I have a couple of memories from there before 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:58.760 we moved to the farm in Oklahoma, and one of 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:01.120 them is eating at Hardy's and them having the best 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:04.320 curly fries and then they're not being hearties around and 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:06.520 I felt like, as a kid, all of the other 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:10.240 curly fries were inferior to Hardy's Curly Fries. Now, this 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:12.720 is like a six or a seven year old me, 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:16.440 So I'm not speaking up for modern hearties. I'm not 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:18.760 even speaking up for the quality of Hardy's Curly fries 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:21.480 back then I was a child. But I don't have 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:24.240 any Arby's lore is I guess where I'm. 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:28.280 I have Arby's Anger because it was like one of 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:30.840 the last fast foods I ate before I stopped being 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:33.400 able to eat gluten, and it was terrible. 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:34.720 It was not good. 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:38.560 I would have liked, you know, any almost anything else. 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:41.720 So fuck you Arby's. Unless you want to sponsor us, 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:42.280 then I love you. 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:45.040 Yeah, if you want to sponsor us Arby's, I'll tell 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:47.520 people never to eat any other food. I'll tell them 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:49.720 that their lettuce is killing them. You know, I'll spread 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:53.480 whatever lies you want. There's lead in fucking Chick fil A. 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:55.160 You know, I don't care. 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:59.480 Of all the bastards you've covered, have any surprised you 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:02.560 by how awful they were? Uh? 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:07.280 Yeah, I mean that's definitely. I mean Georgia Tan would 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:10.880 be a great one where I wasn't aware of this person, 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:13.239 and then I read the summary that like, yeah, she 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:16.880 basically created modern adoption. But she was also really abusive 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:18.799 to kids. And I was like, okay, so this will 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:21.600 be pretty bad, and I was still shocked by how 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:22.280 bad it was. 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:27.120 Right, yeah, it is she. That story is fucked. 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:29.880 And then you know the one episodes we just did 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:34.400 on the slave owner in Jamaica whose name is escaping 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:36.520 me right now, but the guy who kept like a 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:39.800 diary of all of the times he raped enslaved women. 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:43.040 I knew rape was a massive part of slavery. I've 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:45.360 known that for a long time. You know, in the 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:48.560 United States and everywhere else the slave trade was pratt 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:51.960 the Atlantic trade was and obviously every time people have 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.400 been able to enslave other people, sexual violence has been 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:57.200 a part of that. I was aware as a particular 0:02:57.280 --> 0:02:59.960 aspect of the plantation system, all of all that stuff 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:03.840 like this was not But even so, the details and 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:07.239 the details of stuff like pickling, like rubbing pickle spices 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:10.360 into open wounds, making people shit in each other's mouths 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:13.720 as a form of punishment. The just what that said 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:18.720 about the mix of laziness and cruelty that was a 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:20.200 major driving force. 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:21.040 It was these. 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:25.000 People who were not respected elsewhere in society had in 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:27.359 a lot of cases kind of failed out of other 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:31.800 parts of society or just didn't weren't ever going to 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:36.160 fit in within like the high society back home. You 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:41.280 get this sense of both like frustration and this lazy 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:43.920 kind of cruelty where it's clearly like you were just 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:46.680 fucking around trying to like figure out what you can 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:47.400 get away with. 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:51.640 Like there's not even I don't know how. 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:54.480 To describe it, but like it's it was upsetting to 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:57.560 me in a way that I kind of was surprised by, 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:01.280 like the boredom parent to a lot of the cruelty 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:04.560 in the slave the slave trade and in the way 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:05.400 slavery worked. 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:08.960 That really did take me by surprise. 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:12.720 That and I think for me the episodes that you 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:15.480 You've done a variety different episodes about this, but you know, 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:18.640 like the Elon School and the wilderness camps and survival 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:24.360 schools and just like that nobody, uh, nobody said, hey, 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:25.799 maybe like don't abuse those kids. 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:30.919 Yeah, And just how common child abuse is, you know. 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:36.520 That. That's also like another thing that really wears on 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:43.000 me is how central abuse of children is in every 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:49.000 bad movement, bad political and cultural movement in certainly Western history, 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:51.520 and not to limit it just to the West, but 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:55.839 and and the fact that violence to the ability to 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:59.080 abuse children is the center of the conservative project today, 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:02.280 you know, it's a core pillar of fascism. Children are 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:06.440 the property of their parents. And so if kids become 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:10.599 aware of ideas that are uncomfortable to their parents, or 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:13.960 become inspired to be a kind of person that is 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:16.320 not in line with what their parents want them to be, 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:20.560 that's not an example of human beings being human beings. 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:25.080 That's a problem, right, That's like, that's an injustice that's 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:27.920 been done to that parent that they have to see 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:32.520 their child not become a carbon copy of them. And 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:35.200 the fact that so many people that that's like a 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:41.960 dominant political belief for a lot of the country, it's 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:45.400 upsetting and it's difficult because like, kids can't just be 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:49.040 independent people immediately, They can't just have the same rights 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:52.400 as an adult immediately because they don't understand the world. 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:55.400 We do, in fact, have to teach them things and 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:58.400 guide them. And that's going to mean sometimes saying no, 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:00.679 you can't do this thing you want because you can't 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:03.560 just have chocolate for every meal, you can't stay up 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:06.000 till two in the morning every night. You have school 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:08.440 to go, right, Like, there's there are things you have 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:13.440 to There's like discipline. Kids do need discipline. Kids need 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:15.680 to be punished. Sometimes you don't need to be hit, 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:18.960 but they need to like they That's the only way 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:21.560 I know of to make people understand the world they're 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:24.120 coming into. It's like you have to raise them, and 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:26.159 that means that you are going to be invested with 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:28.880 a degree of power over them. But I don't think 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:31.520 that that should translate to ownership, And I think the 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:34.680 fact that it so often does is like one of 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:40.520 the root evils of our society that makes fixing anything 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:45.360 major very difficult, because unless you fix the way children 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:49.160 are treated and educated and how we as a society 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:51.400 see like what we see the rights of a parent 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:54.440 as being, you can't fix a lot of the other problems. 0:06:56.880 --> 0:07:01.359 Somebody asked a question. They asked me, They said, what 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:03.680 are you up to during the recording of an episode? 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:06.680 And then they want to know, like why it looks 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:08.840 like I'm messing on my phone. I'm following the script, 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:14.040 you guys scripts on my phone, following the script. We 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:17.240 use the different platforms. Also, like the camera is like 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:20.240 above my head, so I'd be looking up like this, 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:24.480 which is not great. So I'm just doing my job 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:28.440 my friends, believe it or not. That question has come 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:33.840 up many times in my DMS. Doing my job anyways, Robert, 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:37.080 do you have any Australian Bastards planned for the future? 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:39.200 Uh, well, we did one. 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:43.480 Yeah, last year we did. We did do one late 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.080 in the year that I felt was a really strong 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:52.480 episode about the the island of Ghari and you know, 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:57.360 the bastardy inherent to that, and like the myth that 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:01.200 got spread about the brutality of the the natives that 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:04.320 was not really accurate or fair and how it led 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:11.080 to justified a lot of violence in days afterwards. And yeah, like, 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:16.200 there's definitely more Aussie's I want to cover. I am 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:19.640 not as knowledgeable about. There's two things that have pulled 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:21.280 me back from doing more in the past. Is number one, 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:23.600 I just don't know a lot about Australia, and number two, 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:26.600 the Dollop guys have done a lot of Australia episodes 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:30.000 and several times I found myself and obviously we have 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:33.440 overlap with the Dollop. There's some episodes I've covered first. 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:37.000 There's a number that they covered first. That's unavoidable. It 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:39.160 happens with lions led by donkeys. I don't It's not 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:41.280 a big deal, right, it's history. We're all allowed to 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:44.080 talk about history. But I try to avoid it happening 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:46.920 too much. And I have had several times where I'm like, oh, 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:49.720 this is an interesting Australian bastard and like, oh no, dollup, 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:52.880 guys just covered it. And a lot of times it's 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:54.360 recent enough that I'm like, well, I don't want to 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:58.280 just immediately, you know, hop onto the same thing, but like, yeah, 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:01.720 I do, I definitely will cover or Assy's please do 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:06.120 post on the subreddit. You know, I've been meaning for 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:08.480 a while to ask the moderators to have like a 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:12.640 stickied thread that's just episode suggestions. I do actually find 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:17.160 it really helpful when people suggest bastards, because like the 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:20.800 big effortful episodes, the bastards, I know, like Nixon. I 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:22.120 know I'm going to get to Nixon. I know it's 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:23.760 going to take a lot of time. I don't need 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:27.160 help with that, but it is really helpful when, like 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:30.240 periodically someone will just like, oh, here's an article that 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:32.719 leads me to like reading for ten hours about a 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:35.679 piece of shit, and then I can write an episode 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:37.440 about it, and it's something that happened to the news, 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:39.200 or it's something that like I don't need to do 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:42.040 as crazy an amount of research on I'm not reading 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:46.720 three books or whatever. I'm not spending four or five days, 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:49.360 you know, full time reading about this. I can do 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.160 my research in one or two work days and then 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:55.880 write the episode. It's really helpful when people suggest stuff 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:58.720 like that, so you know, if you've got some ausy 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:01.720 pieces of shit you want to hear about, so just them. 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:04.719 We got the same question about bastards from Mexico. I'm 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:06.080 assuming it's the same answer. 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:08.599 Yeah, I will add I've been wanting to do the 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:11.400 Pancho Villa episodes for a while. I'm not fully certain 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:13.800 if I'll come down on him more in the bastard 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:17.600 or freedom fighter category. I think he's probably he's some 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:19.960 A and some B. I'm not super knowledgeable about him 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:22.480 yet other than like the broad strokes, but I've always 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:26.200 found that period of time interesting and wanted to report. 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:29.760 And it's also really important for like the evolution of 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:35.440 modern counterinsurgency tactics and doctrine, and just. 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:36.600 Like armored doctrine. 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:41.520 Right, it's arguably like the first use of armored vehicles 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:43.520 in in combat, or at least one of it's on 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:46.960 the it's one of the one of the conflicts that's 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:50.640 sort of like you can make a case. So yeah, 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:54.480 I'm I'm interested in doing more Mexican bastards. 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:54.880 For sure. 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:58.040 We're gonna take a quick break. We'll be right back. 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:05.880 Sure, we're back. 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:10.160 Do you have a favorite bastard topic of twenty twenty five? 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:12.480 Was there somebody you covered or something you covered that 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:14.240 was your favorite? 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:17.440 I mean in terms of what I've felt was like 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:20.520 the best work I did and the most useful things. 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:24.720 Because there was a really good article about the Zizians 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:26.600 that was in depth, but it didn't really it was 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:29.040 more an in depth article about their crimes as opposed 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:32.440 to how they got from A to B. You know, 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:36.120 how the belief system started, how ziz really evolved into 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:41.040 a cult leader, and how they wound up being what 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:43.400 they became, right, like, how they wound up believing all 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.319 the things, because you get even in that I believe 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:49.160 it was a wired piece that was very good or 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:53.280 rolling stone. It's in the episode, you know, I quote 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:55.679 I cited the sources and whatnot, But there was a 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:58.199 really good long form piece, but it's still a lot 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:00.199 of it came out as like, and here's what's a 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:01.280 crazy thing they believed. 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:03.000 They believed you know this. 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:07.480 About AI, right, or they believe this about you know, 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:10.400 like you would just kind of get the broad strokes 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:14.560 of like the game theory shit that they they believed about, 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:16.800 Like here's why you have to murder people in all 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:20.760 of these instances because otherwise this like cascading chain of 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:24.440 logic will happen. But you didn't get like a, here's 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:27.800 the thought process that led them to that? And I 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:30.000 thought that was really interesting. I thought that was the 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:32.959 most interesting part of the zizzy And story is how 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:37.680 you end up You start from like some fairly basic 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:43.679 logical arguments that lead you to this completely unhinged and 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:48.000 murderous worldview in a fairly short span of time, just 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:54.040 by never looking back or really questioning where your previous 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:57.079 conclusions have taken you. I found that really interesting and 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:59.360 so I was definitely like most satisfied with how those 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:00.319 episodes came together. 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:04.280 Which bastard, do you wish you'd spend more time on 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:09.079 Slash would revisit if you could m I mean, we 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:11.160 didn't finish Shimmler. 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:14.240 Yeah, we didn't finish Himler. There's more Himler to do. 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:17.520 There's always more, you know. It struck me this year 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:21.280 that I still have never done just like Hitler Hitler episodes. Yeah, 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:23.199 we've done a lot of Hitler episodes, but they're all 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:25.480 because there's so much to say about him. We've done 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:28.480 likely here's two parter on his sex life. Right, here's 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:31.079 like some weird facts that you don't know about the man. 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:32.760 Here's like some you know, a. 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:36.240 Two parter on his history with like drugs and substances. Right, 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:39.839 and he shows up as like the b character and 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:41.840 a lot of other bastardy stories. But I haven't just 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:45.440 done a here was Hitler's childhood, right, Here's here's here's 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:48.640 where he came from. And I, yeah, I should do that. 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:52.240 I'll make sure that happens in twenty twenty six. I 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:55.400 wish I could do more LRH episodes. I think I've 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:58.280 just covered everything Hubbard really did. I don't know that 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:01.240 there's that anything else to say about him, but I 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:02.760 do miss talking about him. 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:05.120 Yeah, you just missed that guy. 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:06.240 Mm hmm. 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:10.199 He's your special boy, do you have a dream guest 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:12.520 on the podcast that we haven't had on yet. 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:16.400 I mean, Paul F. 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:18.720 Tompkins is a dream guest and we'd have had him on. 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:20.280 I'm hoping to get him on. He gave us a 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:23.960 very nice shout out as Santa Claus on a podcast recently, 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:27.240 and I would love to have him back your future. 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:30.280 I just I'm always with Paul. I'm always. I really 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:32.680 not that all of our guests are great. I appreciate 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:36.200 everybody who comes on the show. With someone like Paul. 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:38.320 I really want to make sure it's like the perfect 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:41.160 episode for him. Yeah right, And so I'm very like 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:43.400 discriminating as to like what I want to. 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:46.280 Pitch in that regard. 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:50.240 I there's some guys that like part of me thinks 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:52.920 would be a dream to have on that I know 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:55.360 it probably wouldn't be great. 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:57.000 Like to help me your heroes. 0:14:57.520 --> 0:14:59.920 I would just love to hang out with Werner Herzog 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:01.960 more than doing a podcast with him. If I had 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:04.080 the opportunity to do anything with Berner herzag would be 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:06.720 like cook an elaborate dinner together, try to like cook 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:08.520 with him, because I feel like that would be the 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:12.320 best way to like get to know that guy. He 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:15.600 could be a it could be a fun guest. I 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:17.720 don't know that that would actually is actually how that 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:18.520 would shake out. 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:24.000 I want you to I want you to read a crazy, 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:25.680 crazy script to Shaquille O'Neil. 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:29.160 I don't know much about shaq Shack. Why would Shack 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:29.920 be a good guest? 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:33.600 Because he would? He would, because he would one hundred 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:37.560 percent would he's a good time, he'd be up for it. 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:43.280 Which historical era would you say, couldad's the most bastards 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:43.880 per capita? 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:47.800 Hard to beat? 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:53.800 The early twentieth century, late nineteenth early twentieth century. That's 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:57.040 like the from like eighteen fifty to nineteen fifty, we 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:01.920 are in just prime bastard teary. And I don't know 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:05.840 entirely if it's I'm sure a big chunk of it is, 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:09.560 just that that was the first era in which modern 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:15.560 historiography and modern journalism were really firing on all cylinders, 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:18.200 and so you had a lot of detail about all 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:21.000 of these pieces of shit, and a lot was explored 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:25.120 and investigated, and guys who in an earlier era might 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:28.280 not have been covered because while they were doing terrible things, 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:30.760 they weren't one of the big names have we know 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:34.440 about guys like Iikman, right, Whereas if Eikman is helping 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:38.640 to orchestrate a genocide in the sixteen hundreds, maybe we 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:40.640 don't get nearly as much about him, right. Maybe we 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:42.360 get his name a couple of times, but there's not 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:45.400 even agreement about like what he did. Just because of 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:49.600 how the media worked, we had a lot more detail. 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:51.000 I know that's a big chunk of it. 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:54.440 But I also just think it was also opportunity, Like 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:58.880 the technology was moving so fast and there was so 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:01.880 much political disruption option that there was an incredible amount 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:06.280 of opportunity for a bunch of people to seize and 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:10.240 grab positions of power and influence that they wouldn't have 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:13.640 had access to earlier or later in more settled times. 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:17.440 And you know, those are like the poem said, it's 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:20.800 those are the times of monsters, right, like that, that's when, 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:24.800 And we're unfortunately in a similar time now where I 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:27.280 don't know, I don't think I would say that there's 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:31.240 a higher percentage of bastards now than at any other 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:34.720 time in history, But they've never been so visible. There's 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:37.520 so many of them that have and because they are 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:42.840 running the entire media, ecosystem, not just like news outlets 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:46.439 and television and whatnot, but like social media, Like all 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:48.520 of the big social media apps are run by some 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:51.920 of the monsters who have tailored their algorithms to support 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:55.000 other of the monsters. So it's never been it's I 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:57.000 don't know if i'd say there's more bastards now than ever, 0:17:57.200 --> 0:18:00.600 but it's never been so hard to avoid hearing from them. Right, 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:05.000 they have the biggest microphone that they've ever been given. 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:08.760 And also it's a time of you've had a bunch 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:11.399 of different governments over the last twenty years collapse or 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:16.000 reach you know, moments of near collapse. You have economic turmoil, 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:19.360 you have social turmoil, and a bunch of new technologies 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:22.040 that have given a lot of these assholes an opportunity 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:24.560 to get the one thing they want, which is power. 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:27.240 And they are all scrambling to position themselves as highly 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:33.320 as possible, and ideally they're trying to become a permanent overclass, right, 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:35.880 a permanent They're trying to make themselves into the new 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:43.600 aristocracy on a global scale. And that I think it's 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:46.720 had a tendency to activate a lot of people, including 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:48.520 a lot of people who maybe in a different era 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:51.760 wouldn't have been bastards like, not that they would have 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:55.040 been good people, but they wouldn't have had seen an 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:59.119 opportunity to reach out and grab in being a monster 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.720 to other people. Like I wonder in a different era, 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:06.960 if JK. Rowling, you know, has incredible success in the 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:11.480 early eighteen hundreds, right, she probably never gets known for 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:14.480 anything else it. You know, maybe people would have come 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:17.439 found her letters, you know, decades after her death and 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:20.520 been like, oh, she harbored some really bigoted views, you know, 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:22.840 but it would have been more like HP. Lovecraft right 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:26.679 where you've got this guy who people really like their writing, 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:29.600 they've become very popular, I mean Lovecraft was after his death. 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:31.800 But and then also, oh yeah, and they was like 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:35.160 super racist in like a lot of their private correspondence. 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:36.879 You can see some hints of it and some signs 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:40.040 of it in there in some of their stories, like 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:42.440 as opposed to what Rowling is, where this is not 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:45.320 just a person who wrote some books people liked and 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:49.160 also has some bigoted opinions that people became aware of later. 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:50.720 And oh you can kind of see bits of it 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:52.159 in her writing. No, this is a person who has 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:56.320 turned themselves into an activist and is dedicating their time 0:19:56.359 --> 0:19:59.400 and their money to hurting a specific group of people 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:01.640 as much a she possibly can. A group of people 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:06.080 who have no like organized systemic power or wealth to 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:10.480 even begin, you know, fighting on at the level she 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:14.760 is fighting on in like financial terms, it simply doesn't exist. 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:19.000 And you know, what she's doing is deeply cruel and unhinged. 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:22.160 And I don't think something someone in her, someone would 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:23.960 have been like her, would have been in a position to. 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:25.400 Do in an earlier era. 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:28.639 Right, Not that she would have been a better person, 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:32.240 She just wouldn't have made her bigotry everyone else's problem 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:34.600 to the extent that she can. And I think there's 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:36.080 a lot of that too. I think there's a lot 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:39.520 of guys and girls out there who are major figures 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:42.240 of shittiness to all of us that we know that 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:44.960 in a different era, they probably just would have kept 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:45.800 that shit to themselves. 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:48.520 Take a quick break. 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:57.080 We're back, sure, and we're back. 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:01.600 Robert, has doing the show changed your views on anything? 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:03.679 Hmmm? 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:09.919 How could it not? Though? Like knowledge is knowledge is power. 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:12.960 I guess like it depends on what you mean by 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:17.320 changed my views in like a fundamental sense. It hasn't 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:22.119 changed anything big in that. Coming into the show, I 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:25.520 thought it was probably a bad idea to give people power, uh, 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:28.480 And I felt like it's probably a bad idea to 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:31.680 give people huge amounts of money. And both of those 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:36.120