1 00:00:01,760 --> 00:00:02,920 Speaker 1: Alzo Media. 2 00:00:03,400 --> 00:00:05,800 Speaker 2: Hey everybody, Robert Evans here, and I wanted to let 3 00:00:05,880 --> 00:00:09,480 Speaker 2: you know this is a compilation episode. So every episode 4 00:00:09,640 --> 00:00:12,559 Speaker 2: of the week that just happened is here in one 5 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:16,400 Speaker 2: convenient and with somewhat less ads package for you to 6 00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:18,880 Speaker 2: listen to in a long stretch if you want. If 7 00:00:18,920 --> 00:00:20,840 Speaker 2: you've been listening to the episodes every day this week, 8 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:22,639 Speaker 2: there's got to be nothing new here for you, but 9 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:24,600 Speaker 2: you can make your own decisions. 10 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:32,600 Speaker 3: Hello everybody, and welcome to it could happen here. This 11 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:36,400 Speaker 3: is Sharene and I am so excited to be joined 12 00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:40,760 Speaker 3: by author and journalist Sim Kern. Their latest novel, The 13 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:43,360 Speaker 3: Free People's Village is available now, so go to your 14 00:00:43,400 --> 00:00:46,320 Speaker 3: local bookstore and order it and support a voice that 15 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:49,960 Speaker 3: I believe we all need in our zeitgeist right now. 16 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:53,000 Speaker 3: So welcome Sim. Thank you so much for being here, 17 00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:55,680 Speaker 3: Thanks for having me. For those of you who don't know, 18 00:00:55,920 --> 00:00:58,560 Speaker 3: Sim has been making videos recently about the genocide and 19 00:00:58,600 --> 00:01:02,600 Speaker 3: Gaza from a queer Jewish anti Zionist perspective, and this 20 00:01:02,680 --> 00:01:04,440 Speaker 3: is one that I think a lot of people need 21 00:01:04,480 --> 00:01:07,520 Speaker 3: to be exposed to and to listen to. I mentioned 22 00:01:07,520 --> 00:01:09,240 Speaker 3: this to you before the recording, but a Jewish friend 23 00:01:09,280 --> 00:01:11,720 Speaker 3: of mine told me how much she connected with your 24 00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:14,800 Speaker 3: voice and how much she's learned from you, and how 25 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:18,360 Speaker 3: your videos have been helping her approach really awkward and 26 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:21,840 Speaker 3: difficult conversations with her peers. So I appreciate you very much. 27 00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:24,520 Speaker 1: Happy to do whatever I can when. 28 00:01:24,319 --> 00:01:26,160 Speaker 3: You decided to start making like the first video that 29 00:01:26,160 --> 00:01:28,040 Speaker 3: got a lot of attention, like were you seeing something 30 00:01:28,080 --> 00:01:29,880 Speaker 3: that you wanted to like make sure you correct in 31 00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:32,360 Speaker 3: the zeitgeist, like what was your perspective as a Jewish person? 32 00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:35,480 Speaker 4: Well, this is the first video that I made, was 33 00:01:35,600 --> 00:01:40,200 Speaker 4: encouraging people to read books by Palestinian authors, just to 34 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:45,319 Speaker 4: learn about the Palestinian perspective which is so often censored 35 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:49,320 Speaker 4: and not really allowed in our media. And also is 36 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:52,480 Speaker 4: you really have to go seek out in publishing. And 37 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:55,240 Speaker 4: this isn't the first time I've done this since I 38 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:59,280 Speaker 4: think twenty seventeen or something was the first time I 39 00:01:59,320 --> 00:02:05,080 Speaker 4: created Read for Palestine challenge on YouTube. And just creating 40 00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:07,280 Speaker 4: this Read for Palestine challenge was enough to get me 41 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:10,480 Speaker 4: put on the Canary Mission website. 42 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:14,239 Speaker 1: I'm like outed as a. 43 00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:16,840 Speaker 4: Anti semi by this very zionist website that of course 44 00:02:16,919 --> 00:02:21,320 Speaker 4: is a blocklist of mostly students who organize with like 45 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:24,920 Speaker 4: Students for Justice in Palestine and really anyone who speaks 46 00:02:24,919 --> 00:02:31,320 Speaker 4: out publicly against Israeli apartheid. So simply like encouraging people 47 00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:33,400 Speaker 4: to read these books, I think is really powerful. And 48 00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:37,639 Speaker 4: I know for me, growing up Jewish in the United States, 49 00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:42,639 Speaker 4: I was just inundated with a lot of Zionist propaganda 50 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:46,360 Speaker 4: from my more conservative family. My more liberal family would 51 00:02:46,360 --> 00:02:50,040 Speaker 4: take the line of like, it's just very complicated, both 52 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:54,160 Speaker 4: sides hate each other, who can say who's right? And 53 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:57,400 Speaker 4: it was only by reading Palestinian voices that I really 54 00:02:57,560 --> 00:02:59,840 Speaker 4: developed an anti Zionist perspective. 55 00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:03,239 Speaker 3: That's awesome that you did the Read for Palestine challenge, 56 00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:06,840 Speaker 3: but also like not surprising about the Canary Mission thing, unfortunately, 57 00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:09,440 Speaker 3: but I'm glad that that didn't stop you or discourage 58 00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:12,639 Speaker 3: you when you start to learn more about Palestine. How 59 00:03:12,639 --> 00:03:15,440 Speaker 3: did you approach conversations with your friends and family? 60 00:03:16,240 --> 00:03:21,080 Speaker 4: Again, Like I guess initially it's different talking to friends 61 00:03:21,120 --> 00:03:23,280 Speaker 4: and family than it is talking to the internet. Honestly, 62 00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:25,440 Speaker 4: it's much easier, I think sometimes to connect with the 63 00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:29,080 Speaker 4: Internet because it is not that like personal connection. I 64 00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:32,880 Speaker 4: think I've made more headway and had a much greater 65 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:37,680 Speaker 4: impact online than I have with certain friends and family members. 66 00:03:38,600 --> 00:03:41,760 Speaker 4: But you know, I do think that everyone having those conversations, 67 00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:45,160 Speaker 4: putting your beliefs out there, whether it's one on one 68 00:03:45,200 --> 00:03:48,440 Speaker 4: in face to face conversations or whether it is doing 69 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:51,040 Speaker 4: it online, where like certainly your friends and family are 70 00:03:51,040 --> 00:03:54,400 Speaker 4: going to see the things that you're posting and the 71 00:03:54,440 --> 00:03:58,040 Speaker 4: things that you care about, it has a great impact. 72 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:01,680 Speaker 4: And like I've definitely noticed friends of mine over time 73 00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:07,080 Speaker 4: who maybe a few intense bombing campaigns ago, were very 74 00:04:07,160 --> 00:04:09,440 Speaker 4: checked out on this issue are now very. 75 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:13,640 Speaker 1: Active and are and are speaking out themselves. 76 00:04:14,160 --> 00:04:16,279 Speaker 4: And so that's I guess that would be my message 77 00:04:16,320 --> 00:04:19,880 Speaker 4: to other like anti Zionist Jews is even if the 78 00:04:19,960 --> 00:04:22,479 Speaker 4: first time you're putting stuff out there about Palestine it 79 00:04:22,480 --> 00:04:24,400 Speaker 4: feels like no one's listening, and it feels like, you know, 80 00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:28,200 Speaker 4: you're not making a difference over time, you're planting the 81 00:04:28,279 --> 00:04:34,720 Speaker 4: seeds of like questioning the Western media's you know, pro 82 00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:36,640 Speaker 4: Israeli perspective over time. 83 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:39,919 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a really really good point. But my friend 84 00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:42,320 Speaker 3: also mentioned she would never have been exposed to your 85 00:04:42,400 --> 00:04:44,520 Speaker 3: voice if I if I didn't share it, or people 86 00:04:44,560 --> 00:04:47,920 Speaker 3: were not sharing it. So I think people really underestimate 87 00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:51,760 Speaker 3: the value of social media sometimes or speaking up on 88 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:55,200 Speaker 3: social media, they're just like, oh, people are already talking 89 00:04:55,200 --> 00:04:57,800 Speaker 3: about it or whatever. But everyone has a community they 90 00:04:57,800 --> 00:05:00,040 Speaker 3: can reach that no one else can reach. So I 91 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:03,840 Speaker 3: think that's important to remember. You made some points in 92 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:05,520 Speaker 3: some videos that you made that I would love for 93 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:08,000 Speaker 3: you to not like regurgitate, but maybe just like cover 94 00:05:08,120 --> 00:05:10,800 Speaker 3: for people that haven't watched your videos or are just unaware. 95 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:14,479 Speaker 3: In general, I think a really important point you made 96 00:05:14,680 --> 00:05:20,320 Speaker 3: was how suffering is not monopolized or exclusive or any 97 00:05:20,680 --> 00:05:23,920 Speaker 3: worse or better than other people suffering if regardless of 98 00:05:23,960 --> 00:05:25,960 Speaker 3: what identity they are. Can you get into that a 99 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:26,400 Speaker 3: little bit? 100 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:30,280 Speaker 4: Yeah, So I made a video that was actually responding 101 00:05:30,279 --> 00:05:32,800 Speaker 4: to a comment by someone saying like, how dare you 102 00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:37,280 Speaker 4: compare the suffering of Palestinians to the suffering of Jews? 103 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:41,120 Speaker 4: How dare you compare genocides? That that's disgusting and that 104 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:45,880 Speaker 4: cheapens the Holocaust? And that was again I think responding 105 00:05:45,920 --> 00:05:48,120 Speaker 4: to a video or I was saying, like, read about 106 00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:52,240 Speaker 4: other genocides besides the Holocaust, because I think it again, 107 00:05:52,279 --> 00:05:56,800 Speaker 4: as a Jewish American, I grew up steeped in Holocaust literature. 108 00:05:56,839 --> 00:05:58,159 Speaker 1: I read every book I could about it. 109 00:05:58,200 --> 00:05:59,680 Speaker 4: You know, I think a lot of Jewish kids, by 110 00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:03,279 Speaker 4: the time more adolescents we have like this PhD level 111 00:06:03,400 --> 00:06:04,800 Speaker 4: knowledge of the Holocaust. 112 00:06:05,520 --> 00:06:06,560 Speaker 1: I think that our. 113 00:06:06,440 --> 00:06:09,240 Speaker 4: Peers who are non Jewish maybe don't have quite as 114 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:12,240 Speaker 4: much exposure and understanding of the Holocaust. But that is 115 00:06:12,279 --> 00:06:15,279 Speaker 4: often the only genocide that is taught in US schools, 116 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:20,760 Speaker 4: and so there's a narrative that the suffering of the 117 00:06:20,839 --> 00:06:24,680 Speaker 4: Jews and the persecution of Jews is uniquely specific, and 118 00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:27,480 Speaker 4: that it was all about the religion. It's something about 119 00:06:27,640 --> 00:06:29,520 Speaker 4: Judaism itself is why. 120 00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:30,400 Speaker 1: We've been persecuted. 121 00:06:31,160 --> 00:06:31,400 Speaker 5: Well. 122 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:33,719 Speaker 4: As an author, I currently I'm writing a book on 123 00:06:34,400 --> 00:06:36,560 Speaker 4: Jews in the seventeenth century, and I've just done a 124 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:40,200 Speaker 4: ton of research on medieval and early modern Jewish history. 125 00:06:40,720 --> 00:06:43,480 Speaker 4: And of course there was religious hate, but it was 126 00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:47,040 Speaker 4: motivated by and I contended in this video that all 127 00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:51,840 Speaker 4: genocides are motivated by land and wealth and power, and 128 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:57,960 Speaker 4: the hate is manufactured by people in power to justify 129 00:06:58,040 --> 00:07:02,240 Speaker 4: taking people's land and wealth to solidify their own power 130 00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:06,159 Speaker 4: as rulers and the Christian Church use this against. 131 00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:08,200 Speaker 1: Jews in the medieval and early. 132 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:11,760 Speaker 4: Modern period and in our times it's, uh, there there's 133 00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:16,000 Speaker 4: no one religion that has a monopoly. I'm committing genocide, 134 00:07:16,040 --> 00:07:19,600 Speaker 4: you know, there's no one state. And because really it's 135 00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:23,840 Speaker 4: states that are that are committing genocide that you know, 136 00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:26,360 Speaker 4: it's not directed to one people. So I've encouraged people 137 00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:29,600 Speaker 4: to read books about here in the United States, obviously 138 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:35,000 Speaker 4: the genocide of the Native peoples, the Congolese genocide. You know, 139 00:07:35,040 --> 00:07:37,840 Speaker 4: I just recommended a couple of different titles on the 140 00:07:37,880 --> 00:07:42,880 Speaker 4: Rwandan genocide for a more recent example. And uh it 141 00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:45,680 Speaker 4: is I reject the framework that you can't make comparisons 142 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:48,280 Speaker 4: between genocides. I think that keeps us ignorant. I think 143 00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:50,800 Speaker 4: that keeps us from being in solidarity with one another 144 00:07:51,480 --> 00:07:57,520 Speaker 4: and understanding the mechanisms of power and control and wealth 145 00:07:57,520 --> 00:08:01,520 Speaker 4: accumulation that underlie all these genocides. And I do believe 146 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:04,640 Speaker 4: what is happening in Palestine right now is a genocide 147 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:07,240 Speaker 4: being committed by the Israeli state. 148 00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:12,360 Speaker 3: Yeah, and also really good point about justifying it by 149 00:08:13,800 --> 00:08:17,080 Speaker 3: creating all of people in Palestine as barbarians or terrorists 150 00:08:17,200 --> 00:08:20,880 Speaker 3: or this rhetoric that becomes really dangerous and harmful and 151 00:08:20,920 --> 00:08:23,920 Speaker 3: as we've seen, like people can die, A sixty year 152 00:08:23,960 --> 00:08:26,040 Speaker 3: old can die from this rhetoric. 153 00:08:26,120 --> 00:08:29,120 Speaker 4: Right, and Yahoo just said this is a struggle between 154 00:08:29,200 --> 00:08:33,640 Speaker 4: children of light and children of darkness like that genocidal rhetoric. 155 00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:37,560 Speaker 3: I cannot believe that tweet. And I mean he deleted it, 156 00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:40,040 Speaker 3: but I mean the internet is forever. I just can't 157 00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:43,600 Speaker 3: believe that was that is so normal for him to 158 00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:47,520 Speaker 3: tweet just confidently at one point, just to say that 159 00:08:47,559 --> 00:08:49,960 Speaker 3: out loud. I think that's absurd. And also just like 160 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:52,640 Speaker 3: to see how Yov Galant has been saying like human 161 00:08:52,679 --> 00:08:57,720 Speaker 3: animals or referring to Palestinians in such a dehumanizing way. 162 00:08:58,800 --> 00:09:02,400 Speaker 3: You mentioned something really important that I think I appreciated 163 00:09:02,520 --> 00:09:07,160 Speaker 3: about how maintaining the dehumanization of the Palestinians is vital 164 00:09:07,320 --> 00:09:12,079 Speaker 3: to maintain the white supremacist, imperialistic thing that is Israel. 165 00:09:12,520 --> 00:09:13,839 Speaker 3: Can you get into that a little bit? 166 00:09:14,520 --> 00:09:17,559 Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, I think that was me trying. That came 167 00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:19,839 Speaker 4: out of me trying to understand why there was such 168 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:22,760 Speaker 4: backlash when I first when I first years ago started 169 00:09:22,760 --> 00:09:26,720 Speaker 4: recommending people read Palestinian books. Is because when you read 170 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:28,599 Speaker 4: a book by a Palestinian author, it is going to 171 00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:34,760 Speaker 4: humanize the Palestinian people for you, and that is incredibly threatening. 172 00:09:35,679 --> 00:09:39,839 Speaker 4: And Palestinian authors face a ton of discrimination within publishing. 173 00:09:39,880 --> 00:09:42,320 Speaker 1: I mean, look at what was it. 174 00:09:42,400 --> 00:09:48,960 Speaker 4: Earlier this week the Frankfurt Book Festival polled or canceled 175 00:09:48,960 --> 00:09:54,160 Speaker 4: a ceremony for a Palestinian author, Adania Shibley, and then 176 00:09:54,240 --> 00:09:58,960 Speaker 4: has made more time for Israeli voices and Israeli specific 177 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:05,080 Speaker 4: panels that book festival. And simply because she is a Palestinian. 178 00:10:05,160 --> 00:10:10,840 Speaker 4: She writes books dealing with real, factual Palestinian history, and 179 00:10:10,880 --> 00:10:15,160 Speaker 4: her books are critical of Israel. But the silencing of 180 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:19,840 Speaker 4: Palestinian voices is a global project. It is across all 181 00:10:19,920 --> 00:10:23,079 Speaker 4: media industries. You see it in you know, traditional book 182 00:10:23,120 --> 00:10:28,240 Speaker 4: publishing as well as journalism. Another an author friend of mine, 183 00:10:28,280 --> 00:10:31,560 Speaker 4: Hanin Ricott, has had the hardest time. She's been on 184 00:10:31,640 --> 00:10:34,080 Speaker 4: sub with her book and she's been told by multiple 185 00:10:34,200 --> 00:10:39,120 Speaker 4: editors to change the main character from a Palestinian character 186 00:10:39,280 --> 00:10:45,000 Speaker 4: to just a generic Arabic character because being Palestinian is 187 00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:48,000 Speaker 4: seen as inherently too controversial to publish. 188 00:10:48,760 --> 00:10:52,400 Speaker 3: Yeah, I read that. That's just I mean, again not 189 00:10:52,520 --> 00:10:55,600 Speaker 3: completely surprised, but just so shameful that that is something 190 00:10:55,640 --> 00:11:00,719 Speaker 3: that is still happening in these modern times. I think 191 00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:03,559 Speaker 3: another thing to remember is a lot of people get 192 00:11:03,600 --> 00:11:06,360 Speaker 3: confused between the differences between being non white and white 193 00:11:06,559 --> 00:11:09,560 Speaker 3: in the scope of like this world. I guess it 194 00:11:09,640 --> 00:11:13,079 Speaker 3: just seems so obvious that colorism and racism both exist 195 00:11:13,559 --> 00:11:15,840 Speaker 3: in today's world. And I really liked what you mentioned 196 00:11:15,880 --> 00:11:19,000 Speaker 3: about the difference between colorism and racism. Can you talk 197 00:11:19,040 --> 00:11:20,199 Speaker 3: about that for a little bit. 198 00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:23,640 Speaker 4: Yeah, So I was explaining that in the Western media, 199 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:27,640 Speaker 4: Israelis are treated as white and Palestinians are treated as 200 00:11:28,040 --> 00:11:31,240 Speaker 4: non white, and it really is regardless of the color 201 00:11:31,280 --> 00:11:33,280 Speaker 4: of your skin. So a lot of people giving me 202 00:11:33,360 --> 00:11:35,480 Speaker 4: pushback on that common say, oh, but there's black and 203 00:11:35,520 --> 00:11:39,960 Speaker 4: brown and white Israelis. Yes, and in the racist apartheid 204 00:11:40,040 --> 00:11:44,120 Speaker 4: state that is Israel, people of different skin tones are 205 00:11:44,160 --> 00:11:48,240 Speaker 4: treated very differently. Within Israel, there was four sterilization of 206 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:52,400 Speaker 4: African Jews immigrating to Israel. Well, when it comes to 207 00:11:52,440 --> 00:11:55,600 Speaker 4: the Western media, our view of the conflict is not 208 00:11:55,880 --> 00:12:00,960 Speaker 4: as nuanced as recognizing those differences. And so I was 209 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:04,240 Speaker 4: explaining that colorism is, you know, discrimination based on the 210 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:07,800 Speaker 4: color of your skin. Racism is a racial construct us 211 00:12:07,800 --> 00:12:12,720 Speaker 4: about social economic and legal discrimination. And while colorism is 212 00:12:12,760 --> 00:12:17,840 Speaker 4: often used to determine racism, that's not always one hundred 213 00:12:17,880 --> 00:12:20,480 Speaker 4: percent the case. And in the case of Israel, when 214 00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:22,679 Speaker 4: you're talking about the Western media looking at Israel, they 215 00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:27,200 Speaker 4: report on Israelis as people, as people who are to 216 00:12:27,280 --> 00:12:33,000 Speaker 4: be mourned, as people are whose deaths are important, as 217 00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:37,400 Speaker 4: people whose lives are valuable, And they report on people 218 00:12:37,400 --> 00:12:42,960 Speaker 4: in Gaza Palestinians as you know, human shields is the 219 00:12:42,960 --> 00:12:46,600 Speaker 4: most sympathetic way we hear them talked about. Their deaths 220 00:12:46,640 --> 00:12:50,120 Speaker 4: are not deemed important, They are not humanized within the media. 221 00:12:50,600 --> 00:12:53,520 Speaker 4: If they're killed, they're either combatants or they were a 222 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:56,160 Speaker 4: human shield. They were someone being used by combatants, and 223 00:12:56,160 --> 00:13:00,400 Speaker 4: their deaths are you know, maybe the lip services paid 224 00:13:00,400 --> 00:13:04,880 Speaker 4: to those debts being regrettable, but they're seen as necessary 225 00:13:05,040 --> 00:13:08,800 Speaker 4: and not not unconscionable in the way that deaths in 226 00:13:08,920 --> 00:13:10,080 Speaker 4: Israel are reported on. 227 00:13:10,760 --> 00:13:13,720 Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you bring a really good point about 228 00:13:13,960 --> 00:13:18,559 Speaker 3: the media and how important semantics are. I think something 229 00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:21,760 Speaker 3: that we've been seeing time and time again is how 230 00:13:21,960 --> 00:13:25,760 Speaker 3: deep the dehumanization goes. Like Israelis have been killed versus 231 00:13:25,800 --> 00:13:29,160 Speaker 3: Palestinians have died. The Gaza strip is being referred to. 232 00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:32,760 Speaker 4: I've seen it as an enclave, Oh my god, you know, 233 00:13:32,840 --> 00:13:37,199 Speaker 4: an enclave where terrorists lurk. So yeah, the words used 234 00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:40,440 Speaker 4: to describe the city of Gaza, the words used to 235 00:13:40,520 --> 00:13:46,800 Speaker 4: describe people as combatants, the words like, you know, Palestinians 236 00:13:46,880 --> 00:13:52,319 Speaker 4: die in a clash, when that clash was racist Jewish 237 00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:55,440 Speaker 4: settlers with machine guns coming after them, you know. 238 00:13:55,800 --> 00:13:59,760 Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, passive always. 239 00:13:59,520 --> 00:14:01,400 Speaker 6: Does a lot of work, it does. 240 00:14:01,480 --> 00:14:01,880 Speaker 7: It does. 241 00:14:01,960 --> 00:14:05,440 Speaker 3: I mean, we've seen it just recently with the hospital bombing. 242 00:14:05,559 --> 00:14:08,079 Speaker 3: How the New York Times changed their headline like three 243 00:14:08,200 --> 00:14:13,640 Speaker 3: times from strike and then to blast I believe was 244 00:14:13,679 --> 00:14:17,720 Speaker 3: what they landed on blast, which I just find honestly 245 00:14:17,760 --> 00:14:19,480 Speaker 3: comical when I really think about it too hard. 246 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:24,000 Speaker 4: Yeah, Elizabeth Warren came out and condemned blasts. 247 00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:25,160 Speaker 5: Like that is just so. 248 00:14:26,640 --> 00:14:29,240 Speaker 3: Just the passive voice is so dangerous because it really 249 00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:33,040 Speaker 3: it really off use case the truth, which is that 250 00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:36,560 Speaker 3: Palestine people are dying of genocide. Even calling it a 251 00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:40,960 Speaker 3: war or a conflict does not do what's happening justice 252 00:14:41,040 --> 00:14:44,320 Speaker 3: because it still implies there are two equal sides that 253 00:14:44,360 --> 00:14:48,000 Speaker 3: are fighting against each other, versus an occupier and oppressor 254 00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:51,680 Speaker 3: versus the occupied the oppressed. So I think semantics are 255 00:14:51,680 --> 00:14:53,520 Speaker 3: so important for us to keep in mind even when 256 00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:56,280 Speaker 3: we're talking about it with our peers, to make sure 257 00:14:56,280 --> 00:14:59,120 Speaker 3: that we talk about it in the correct way, because 258 00:14:59,720 --> 00:15:03,520 Speaker 3: I like, unconsciously becomes ingrained in us, even if we 259 00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:06,080 Speaker 3: don't realize it when we keep talking about certain things 260 00:15:07,800 --> 00:15:09,560 Speaker 3: the way the media wants us to talk about them 261 00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:12,480 Speaker 3: as a conflict or as a clash or whatever it is. 262 00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:17,000 Speaker 4: And something else that I've really tuned into is really 263 00:15:17,040 --> 00:15:20,560 Speaker 4: being careful not to pit this as a struggle between 264 00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:25,040 Speaker 4: Muslims and Jews. Any framing like that is both Islamophobic 265 00:15:25,120 --> 00:15:29,520 Speaker 4: and anti Semitic and incredibly inaccurate. This is about an 266 00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:32,960 Speaker 4: ethno state, a nation state, and apartheid state, which is 267 00:15:32,960 --> 00:15:40,920 Speaker 4: Israel targeting is captive population. And and there are Palestinians 268 00:15:40,960 --> 00:15:45,040 Speaker 4: who are of all different faiths who are discriminated against 269 00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:52,600 Speaker 4: because they are Palestinians within occupied Palestine. So like, for example, 270 00:15:52,840 --> 00:15:55,000 Speaker 4: it just came to my attention that there are some 271 00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:59,240 Speaker 4: in the I'm a book talker. My book talk channel, 272 00:15:59,280 --> 00:16:02,240 Speaker 4: it's in books Instagram is mostly what I do is 273 00:16:02,320 --> 00:16:05,040 Speaker 4: just you know, share about books for folks to read 274 00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:08,480 Speaker 4: and share about the books I'm working on, and some 275 00:16:08,600 --> 00:16:12,760 Speaker 4: of my fellow book talkers have been recommending people read 276 00:16:12,760 --> 00:16:18,280 Speaker 4: books by both Palestinian and Jewish authors so they can 277 00:16:18,360 --> 00:16:22,000 Speaker 4: show both sides. A Paladinian author, Hanna Mushback, just wrote 278 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:24,120 Speaker 4: a great letter to sort of call in our community 279 00:16:24,160 --> 00:16:28,840 Speaker 4: and explain this is this is very antisemitic to conflate 280 00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:33,840 Speaker 4: Judaism with Israel, the policies of Israel. You know, yesterday 281 00:16:33,920 --> 00:16:37,880 Speaker 4: we saw five hundred Jewish activists get arrested in the 282 00:16:37,920 --> 00:16:41,760 Speaker 4: Capitol building here in d C. In protests and demanding 283 00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:44,240 Speaker 4: an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. So there are many many 284 00:16:44,320 --> 00:16:49,560 Speaker 4: anti Zionist Jews. Judaism and Zionism are not the same thing, 285 00:16:49,760 --> 00:16:54,240 Speaker 4: but conflating them gives Israel more power and gives it 286 00:16:55,200 --> 00:16:59,240 Speaker 4: a stronger moral foothold to say, oh, we're representing all Jews, 287 00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:03,760 Speaker 4: not just this this state. So that's something also to 288 00:17:03,800 --> 00:17:07,560 Speaker 4: be really careful about, is to not pit this as 289 00:17:07,640 --> 00:17:14,040 Speaker 4: a Muslim versus Jewish fight, because it's not. It's about Israel, 290 00:17:14,160 --> 00:17:16,800 Speaker 4: the state versus Palestinian people. 291 00:17:17,520 --> 00:17:21,200 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's vital to remember. Let's take our first break 292 00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:24,280 Speaker 3: right here, and we will beat right back, and we 293 00:17:24,320 --> 00:17:27,600 Speaker 3: are back, you were just talking about how this is 294 00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:30,040 Speaker 3: just one hundred percent not a religious issue, and I 295 00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:33,960 Speaker 3: think talking about semantics again, I framing it as a 296 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:36,960 Speaker 3: religious issue is another way for people to stop talking 297 00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:41,240 Speaker 3: about it, to be too afraid to get into this complicated, 298 00:17:41,560 --> 00:17:44,600 Speaker 3: ancient battle of all times, archaic thing that we can't 299 00:17:44,600 --> 00:17:47,720 Speaker 3: even get into because we can't understand it. I think 300 00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:50,920 Speaker 3: the Zionist narrative wants us to believe it's about religion 301 00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:54,879 Speaker 3: so people can ignore what's actually going on and be 302 00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:57,880 Speaker 3: too scared to speak out. It's like time and time 303 00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:00,320 Speaker 3: again something that I want to remind people that it's 304 00:18:00,320 --> 00:18:03,359 Speaker 3: not Muslim versus Jewish, which is what it gets framed 305 00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:06,879 Speaker 3: by most of the time. But speaking of Zionism and 306 00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:09,480 Speaker 3: how it's not equated to the Jewish religion at all. 307 00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:12,520 Speaker 3: If anything, Zionism is anti Semitic in and of itself. 308 00:18:13,440 --> 00:18:17,160 Speaker 4: I believe that wholeheartedly. I believe Zionism makes all Jews 309 00:18:17,200 --> 00:18:18,360 Speaker 4: so much more unsafe. 310 00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:22,119 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's also rooted in a lot of anti Semitism. 311 00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:24,720 Speaker 3: Even the way it was even the way the state 312 00:18:24,720 --> 00:18:27,879 Speaker 3: of Israel was created, was Europeans being like, hey, Jews, 313 00:18:27,960 --> 00:18:30,560 Speaker 3: can you go here? It wasn't this gift to the 314 00:18:30,600 --> 00:18:33,200 Speaker 3: Jewish people. It was also about to be in Africa, 315 00:18:33,200 --> 00:18:35,800 Speaker 3: which I find fascinating. And also I think people always 316 00:18:35,800 --> 00:18:39,320 Speaker 3: forget the majority of Zionists in the United States are 317 00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:43,439 Speaker 3: Evangelical Christians. That is one percent accurate. That's why they 318 00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:47,159 Speaker 3: support Zionism, and it's because they want all the Jews 319 00:18:47,200 --> 00:18:49,959 Speaker 3: to go to Israel for the rapture to happen. It 320 00:18:50,040 --> 00:18:53,400 Speaker 3: is the most like comic book idea I've ever heard, 321 00:18:53,440 --> 00:18:57,119 Speaker 3: and everyone just goes along with it. Yeah, that brings 322 00:18:57,119 --> 00:18:59,160 Speaker 3: me to another thing he brought up in your videos 323 00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:04,200 Speaker 3: about a homeland. I think what you discussed is really 324 00:19:04,240 --> 00:19:07,200 Speaker 3: important because because of this narrative that a lot of 325 00:19:07,280 --> 00:19:10,920 Speaker 3: Zionists teach to Jewish people about how they're constantly being persecuted, 326 00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:14,440 Speaker 3: I think people are led to believe that Israel is 327 00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:17,359 Speaker 3: their safe haven, Like if all of us fails, I 328 00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:19,520 Speaker 3: have Israel to go back to that as my home, 329 00:19:19,600 --> 00:19:23,080 Speaker 3: even like American Jews that have no connection to Israel. Really, why, 330 00:19:23,240 --> 00:19:27,240 Speaker 3: in your opinion, do the Jewish people not necessarily need 331 00:19:27,359 --> 00:19:28,639 Speaker 3: a homeland? 332 00:19:29,560 --> 00:19:29,720 Speaker 5: Right? 333 00:19:29,760 --> 00:19:33,960 Speaker 1: Well, I made that video speaking to like other leftists. 334 00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:36,119 Speaker 4: I was addressing other leftists, so I think if you 335 00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:39,800 Speaker 4: agree with me on the premise that everyone should have 336 00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:44,439 Speaker 4: a safe place to live and everyone should have equal rights, 337 00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:47,480 Speaker 4: which I think are two pretty pretty basic tenets of 338 00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:54,280 Speaker 4: being a leftist, then you just can't have anybody having 339 00:19:54,320 --> 00:19:57,840 Speaker 4: a theocratic ethno state, which is what Israel is de 340 00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:00,080 Speaker 4: fact I mean, they say they're not, but that is 341 00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:02,439 Speaker 4: how they act and how that is how that country 342 00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:07,639 Speaker 4: is run. And so, you know, a lot of people 343 00:20:07,680 --> 00:20:10,840 Speaker 4: misinterpreted that videos is you know, which I kind of 344 00:20:10,840 --> 00:20:13,240 Speaker 4: try to argue with me saying, but there's other theocratic 345 00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:15,880 Speaker 4: ethno states. But I'm saying, yeah, if you're a leftist, 346 00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:19,200 Speaker 4: you should think that's bad everywhere, because a theocratic ethno 347 00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:23,840 Speaker 4: state is an inherently fascist construct. It's inherently saying one 348 00:20:24,040 --> 00:20:27,040 Speaker 4: religion and or one ethnicity, in the case of the 349 00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:32,960 Speaker 4: way Israel interprets Judaism, these people are more valuable and 350 00:20:33,040 --> 00:20:36,400 Speaker 4: are more citizens here and have more rights here than 351 00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:42,760 Speaker 4: everybody else, and that is just incompatible with leftist values, 352 00:20:42,800 --> 00:20:44,760 Speaker 4: I think. And so I the point of that video 353 00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:48,040 Speaker 4: is nobody should have a theocratic ethno state. And this 354 00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:51,120 Speaker 4: is a line that I've heard even some leftist Jews 355 00:20:51,119 --> 00:20:54,240 Speaker 4: saying well, oh, we you know this is a complicated 356 00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:57,320 Speaker 4: issue because Jews need a homeland. Well, I'm sorry, our 357 00:20:57,320 --> 00:21:02,480 Speaker 4: world is just two heterogenous too diverse. You know, migrations 358 00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:05,040 Speaker 4: have been going on for tens of thousands of years 359 00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:07,399 Speaker 4: all over the place. There's no one plot of land 360 00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:10,399 Speaker 4: on Earth anymore that you can carve out and say, Okay, 361 00:21:10,560 --> 00:21:14,720 Speaker 4: just this one type of people are going to get 362 00:21:14,760 --> 00:21:19,240 Speaker 4: to live here and be citizens here and have rights here. Now, 363 00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:22,439 Speaker 4: I'm an anarchist personally, so I when I say no 364 00:21:22,560 --> 00:21:25,720 Speaker 4: theocratic ethno states, I'm also like in a bigger picture 365 00:21:25,760 --> 00:21:30,240 Speaker 4: way saying like no states would be the ideal for me. 366 00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:36,359 Speaker 4: But certainly theocratic ethno states are even worse within that 367 00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:43,440 Speaker 4: framework compared to like liberal democracies or something. So yeah, 368 00:21:44,760 --> 00:21:47,119 Speaker 4: that was a video that was like intended to be 369 00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:52,000 Speaker 4: an in group conversation, and then it got a million 370 00:21:52,080 --> 00:21:56,000 Speaker 4: views and got because my following has like really exploded 371 00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:58,399 Speaker 4: over the last week. So I wasn't expecting it to 372 00:21:58,440 --> 00:22:04,400 Speaker 4: go so far. And so for people who idealize ethno states, 373 00:22:04,480 --> 00:22:08,320 Speaker 4: like Japan or Sweden, they were really having a hard 374 00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:10,600 Speaker 4: time with me, with me saying that and thinking it 375 00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:12,720 Speaker 4: was really anti Semitic for me to say, oh, I 376 00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:15,399 Speaker 4: don't think Jews should have theocratic ethno state, but no, 377 00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:19,119 Speaker 4: I think nobody should have a theocratic ethno state. 378 00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:22,080 Speaker 3: That's a really good point to make. It's I mean, 379 00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:25,720 Speaker 3: it goes back to the idea of Jewish suffering being 380 00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:28,800 Speaker 3: more valuable in some way than other suffering. I think 381 00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:32,920 Speaker 3: it continues this hierarchy of sorts and everything you described 382 00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:35,880 Speaker 3: about people not being treated the same and not having 383 00:22:36,040 --> 00:22:38,800 Speaker 3: enough rights, that's all apartheid. I think people forget like 384 00:22:39,359 --> 00:22:42,600 Speaker 3: Israel is committing the definition of apartheid and has been 385 00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:46,560 Speaker 3: against the Palestinian people. And I find it weird that. 386 00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:51,320 Speaker 3: I mean, Amy Schumer posted this crazy video proving in 387 00:22:51,359 --> 00:22:54,280 Speaker 3: her words, that it's not an apartheid state actually and 388 00:22:54,359 --> 00:22:56,640 Speaker 3: how people have all the rights in the world when 389 00:22:56,680 --> 00:22:59,960 Speaker 3: in reality it's shameful. 390 00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:03,920 Speaker 4: Yeah, it's like the UN, Amnesty, International, Human Rights Watch 391 00:23:04,119 --> 00:23:07,800 Speaker 4: are all saying this is an apartheid state. But okay, 392 00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:12,320 Speaker 4: Amy Schumer, Yeah, it's not actually that complicated. 393 00:23:12,520 --> 00:23:15,600 Speaker 3: It's really not. I've been really appreciating Amanda Seals. She 394 00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:19,080 Speaker 3: did like a reaction video to what Amy Schumer posted 395 00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:24,000 Speaker 3: and laid out all the racist reasons why Actually apartheid 396 00:23:24,119 --> 00:23:27,959 Speaker 3: is what you would call that. I think something that 397 00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:33,840 Speaker 3: has bothered me within the both sides thing is this 398 00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:35,919 Speaker 3: is not a term that I hear often anymore. But 399 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:41,080 Speaker 3: like the progressive except Palestine, I think that idea has 400 00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:43,760 Speaker 3: been really damaging because it makes it seem like you 401 00:23:43,800 --> 00:23:47,959 Speaker 3: can still be so liberal and progressive and still not 402 00:23:48,119 --> 00:23:53,480 Speaker 3: really recognize that Palestinians are being genocided for almost a century. 403 00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:57,520 Speaker 4: Yeah, and this is just so frustrating because again, what 404 00:23:57,560 --> 00:24:00,760 Speaker 4: you're seeing in Palestine, it's so stark, the violence is 405 00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:05,880 Speaker 4: so obvious, and it's so egregious. And there's all these 406 00:24:05,880 --> 00:24:09,959 Speaker 4: social justice you know, organizations and accounts that I followed. 407 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:16,400 Speaker 4: There's like queer Jewish liberation accounts who said nothing about Palestine. 408 00:24:16,440 --> 00:24:20,159 Speaker 4: There's also non jew it just queer you know, all 409 00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:24,119 Speaker 4: sorts of queer liberation queer activists out there, which is 410 00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:26,680 Speaker 4: like a whole other network that I'm tapped in into, 411 00:24:27,119 --> 00:24:30,000 Speaker 4: and many of them are staying silent on this genocide. 412 00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:34,120 Speaker 4: And it's like we are all fighting the same evils, 413 00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:37,320 Speaker 4: the same type of oppression. And if you want people 414 00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:40,600 Speaker 4: to stand with you when your rights are being taken away, 415 00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:42,200 Speaker 4: you got to stand with everybody else. 416 00:24:42,240 --> 00:24:43,000 Speaker 6: That's the only way. 417 00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:46,320 Speaker 4: Intersectionality is the only way that we can overcome these 418 00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:50,800 Speaker 4: enormous forces of oppression in the world. So, yeah, it's 419 00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:53,960 Speaker 4: it's been very frustrating to see just how many, you know, 420 00:24:54,720 --> 00:25:00,600 Speaker 4: anti racist organizations, queer liberation organizations are just staying completely 421 00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:02,000 Speaker 4: silent on Palestine. 422 00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:03,080 Speaker 5: Yeah. 423 00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:06,240 Speaker 3: I have been really frustrated about that as well, because 424 00:25:06,440 --> 00:25:11,119 Speaker 3: it encourages this sort of selective outrage that is reserved 425 00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:13,840 Speaker 3: for certain kind of people that are deemed as human 426 00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:17,760 Speaker 3: versus the people that are not. I really believe one 427 00:25:17,800 --> 00:25:20,160 Speaker 3: of the most powerful voices in the fight for Palastine 428 00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:24,720 Speaker 3: liberation are Jewish anti zionists because they can speak to 429 00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:28,680 Speaker 3: what people deem is the source of that problem from 430 00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:33,719 Speaker 3: a different place. But I hope you realize how important 431 00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:38,560 Speaker 3: your voice is just in general, especially now. And Yeah, 432 00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:40,800 Speaker 3: I just really thank you for what you've been doing, 433 00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:44,120 Speaker 3: because it's kind of scary too. I'm sure to suddenly 434 00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:47,520 Speaker 3: have a big platform and have all these people analyzing 435 00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:50,919 Speaker 3: everything you're saying and trying to find little holes in 436 00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:54,200 Speaker 3: your arguments. But I appreciate that you're not backing down. 437 00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:58,600 Speaker 4: Yeah, I went from six thousand to one hundred eighty 438 00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:01,560 Speaker 4: thousand followers on Instagram in like a week. 439 00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:04,040 Speaker 3: I didn't realize that you started a six thousand. I 440 00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:06,200 Speaker 3: was wondering about that. That is a crazy jump. 441 00:26:06,560 --> 00:26:08,600 Speaker 1: Yeah, it happened really really fast. 442 00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:11,080 Speaker 4: And on TikTok too, I had I had fifty thousand 443 00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:14,360 Speaker 4: on TikTok just from my book talk author talk account, 444 00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:16,639 Speaker 4: which I've been you know, growing over the course of 445 00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:19,400 Speaker 4: two years, and then it went Now it's like at one. 446 00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:21,800 Speaker 1: Hundred and fifty thousand, so like tripled on TikTok. 447 00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:27,879 Speaker 4: But yeah, it's definitely made me more careful about what 448 00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:30,600 Speaker 4: I say. Like again, I had that one video that 449 00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:33,560 Speaker 4: was sort of like an in group comment to leftist 450 00:26:33,600 --> 00:26:36,080 Speaker 4: because I'm used to being on like the leftist side 451 00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:38,639 Speaker 4: of TikTok, and then realized, like, oh crap, like everything 452 00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:41,520 Speaker 4: I say is going to go out to like absolutely 453 00:26:41,560 --> 00:26:43,600 Speaker 4: every single kind of audience, so I need to like 454 00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:47,440 Speaker 4: really think about the context of what I say and 455 00:26:48,160 --> 00:26:48,760 Speaker 4: that it. 456 00:26:48,800 --> 00:26:51,280 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a it's a lot, it's a lot. 457 00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:55,280 Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm I mean it sounds really overwhelming and even 458 00:26:55,359 --> 00:26:58,920 Speaker 3: navigating it well and I don't know, I really appreciate 459 00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:01,639 Speaker 3: you before where we wrap this up. I would love 460 00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:03,840 Speaker 3: for you to talk about your work a little bit, 461 00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:06,719 Speaker 3: maybe your book where people can find it, where they 462 00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:09,840 Speaker 3: can support you in your work. The platform is all yours. 463 00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:11,359 Speaker 8: Yeah. 464 00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:13,240 Speaker 4: So I actually had a book come out about a 465 00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:15,959 Speaker 4: month ago called The Free People's Village, and it is 466 00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:17,159 Speaker 4: relevant to this topic. 467 00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:19,040 Speaker 1: It's a very leftist book. 468 00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:23,000 Speaker 4: It's about a punk band organizing to save their warehouse 469 00:27:23,359 --> 00:27:27,359 Speaker 4: from demolition to make room for a new electromatagnetic hyperway 470 00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:30,440 Speaker 4: in an alternate timeline where al Gore won the two 471 00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:35,439 Speaker 4: thousand election and declared a war on climate change instead 472 00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:37,800 Speaker 4: of a war on terror. But it's a book that's 473 00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:41,800 Speaker 4: really critical of neoliberal politics. So this solar punk utopia 474 00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:45,240 Speaker 4: that's been created this world has really only impacted wealthy 475 00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:48,720 Speaker 4: white neighborhoods while leaving everybody else behind. So it's a 476 00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:53,280 Speaker 4: book about centering racial justice within climate organizing. And the 477 00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:55,960 Speaker 4: final scene of the book actually takes place at a 478 00:27:56,040 --> 00:28:01,320 Speaker 4: Free Palestine protest, and so that's definitely a presence throughout 479 00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:05,359 Speaker 4: the book. And based on experiences I've had organizing with 480 00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:10,880 Speaker 4: the incredible Students for Justice in Palestine and Palestini youth 481 00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:14,000 Speaker 4: movement organizers that we have here in Houston. 482 00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:15,520 Speaker 1: So for people who are. 483 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:18,919 Speaker 4: Listeners of this podcast, I do think they would enjoy 484 00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:22,919 Speaker 4: the Free People's Village and you can get it. The 485 00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:25,639 Speaker 4: best place to get it is always your local indie bookstore. 486 00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:29,120 Speaker 4: Of course, you can also support your local indie bookstore 487 00:28:29,160 --> 00:28:33,119 Speaker 4: by shopping at bookshop dot org, which allows you all 488 00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:35,760 Speaker 4: the convenience of ordering online, but you get to pick 489 00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:38,880 Speaker 4: your favorite indie bookstore to benefit. And then of course 490 00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:40,960 Speaker 4: you can get it also from all of the big 491 00:28:41,080 --> 00:28:48,640 Speaker 4: corporate retailers. And it's available in hardcover and ebook and audiobook. 492 00:28:49,040 --> 00:28:52,360 Speaker 4: And you can find me online at sim Kern on 493 00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:57,080 Speaker 4: TikTok and if you search simcr it's at sim Bookstagram's 494 00:28:57,120 --> 00:29:01,560 Speaker 4: badly on Instagram, but if you just search sim Kernel, 495 00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:03,760 Speaker 4: I'll pop up on Instagram. 496 00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:06,600 Speaker 3: And that is s I N k r N. 497 00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:09,560 Speaker 6: For people that don't know, Yes. 498 00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:12,440 Speaker 3: Just to leave us with something that we can take 499 00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:15,280 Speaker 3: away from this, do you have any advice for people 500 00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:17,640 Speaker 3: that are trying to open up these discussions with their 501 00:29:17,680 --> 00:29:22,200 Speaker 3: peers and how should they approach them? And I don't know. 502 00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:27,840 Speaker 3: I think these conversations are essential to humanizing Palestinians. Again, 503 00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:30,520 Speaker 3: so do you have any advice before we sign off. 504 00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:34,040 Speaker 4: You know, same advice which was the first piece I gave, 505 00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:36,120 Speaker 4: which was just to read a lot and learn a 506 00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:40,200 Speaker 4: lot and seek out those Palestinian voices. Also Jewish Voice 507 00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:43,200 Speaker 4: for Peace if you go to their JVP dot org website, 508 00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:46,560 Speaker 4: they have a ton of like great tools and kits 509 00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:49,480 Speaker 4: for learning how to talk about Palestine. 510 00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:50,920 Speaker 5: And so I. 511 00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:55,240 Speaker 4: Would say, you know, always be learning and reading if 512 00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:57,280 Speaker 4: you feel like you don't have the language yet to 513 00:29:57,320 --> 00:30:00,680 Speaker 4: have these conversations. Like you said, it's really powerful to 514 00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:07,440 Speaker 4: repost things by you know, commentators that you respect, journalists 515 00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:10,520 Speaker 4: on the ground in Gaza right now who are doing amazing. 516 00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:11,080 Speaker 6: Courageous work. 517 00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:14,280 Speaker 4: Just letting people know what is happening and putting something 518 00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:19,640 Speaker 4: out that disrupts an imperialist narrative can be really really powerful. 519 00:30:20,120 --> 00:30:23,600 Speaker 3: Thank you for saying all of that, because it's really needed. 520 00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:27,120 Speaker 3: And I will put in the description all the info 521 00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:30,000 Speaker 3: to where you can follow sim in their work and 522 00:30:30,040 --> 00:30:33,080 Speaker 3: maybe I can put some recommendations for Palestinian books as well. 523 00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:38,280 Speaker 3: And yeah, that's the episode. Thank you so much for being. 524 00:30:38,080 --> 00:31:08,040 Speaker 4: Here, Thanks for having me Free Palestine. 525 00:30:56,880 --> 00:31:00,600 Speaker 7: Greetings podcasts. Excuse the asset, it's me James A. Man 526 00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:05,920 Speaker 7: who has commenced his one man war against cutter airlines, 527 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:10,000 Speaker 7: who detained me against my will for most of the 528 00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:13,000 Speaker 7: last two days in a very small part of a 529 00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:14,600 Speaker 7: very big plane. 530 00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:19,720 Speaker 2: See there's a there's a you know. Airlines from Middle 531 00:31:19,760 --> 00:31:23,760 Speaker 2: Eastern countries are are usually like the best airlines are 532 00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:27,840 Speaker 2: like Royal Jordanian and Air Immirates. If it's if it's 533 00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:32,200 Speaker 2: owned by a king, it's usually a safe bet. But 534 00:31:32,200 --> 00:31:33,800 Speaker 2: but cutter airways. 535 00:31:33,360 --> 00:31:34,160 Speaker 7: That's what they say about. 536 00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:38,800 Speaker 2: England breaks that mold, proudly breaks that mold. Yeah, yeah, 537 00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:39,360 Speaker 2: fuck me. 538 00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:42,800 Speaker 7: One of the one of the less pleasant experiences available 539 00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:44,680 Speaker 7: to a human being that doesn't end in death is 540 00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:49,920 Speaker 7: a thirty six hour trip from Keston to southern California, 541 00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:51,520 Speaker 7: which see I've just enjoyed. 542 00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:55,560 Speaker 2: I always enjoyed those trips back from Air Emirates because 543 00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:58,200 Speaker 2: when you're on the Air Emirates flight, if you ask 544 00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:03,280 Speaker 2: the steward or whatever to if you tell him, hey, 545 00:32:03,680 --> 00:32:06,760 Speaker 2: I would like eight shots of vodka and four glasses 546 00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:09,600 Speaker 2: of orange juice, He'll just give it to you, like, 547 00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:12,520 Speaker 2: not even a question, not even a question. And so 548 00:32:13,600 --> 00:32:16,120 Speaker 2: have I vomited on a couple of eir Emirates flights. Yes, 549 00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:22,600 Speaker 2: is it always a good time? Probably you don't remember. No, No, yeah, 550 00:32:22,600 --> 00:32:23,040 Speaker 2: I see. 551 00:32:23,120 --> 00:32:25,400 Speaker 7: I was at the point of frustration where like and 552 00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:29,600 Speaker 7: I'm as an english Man, if if I've become frustrated 553 00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:33,240 Speaker 7: and drunk, then my instinct is to fight everyone or 554 00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:35,560 Speaker 7: throw bottles, and I thought that that would probably result 555 00:32:35,640 --> 00:32:40,960 Speaker 7: in further detention, so decided against decided against becoming bladdered. 556 00:32:41,520 --> 00:32:43,680 Speaker 7: Or I could have started singing. I guess that's the 557 00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:48,440 Speaker 7: other option available to me. That sure fits my culture. Yeah, 558 00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:50,960 Speaker 7: So we're not here to talk about things that I 559 00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:52,880 Speaker 7: like to do in my free time, as much as 560 00:32:52,880 --> 00:32:55,440 Speaker 7: I would love that, but we are here to talk 561 00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:59,680 Speaker 7: about things that I have been seeing in my worktime. 562 00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:05,120 Speaker 7: When I was traveling to Kurdistan a couple of weeks. Kurdistan, 563 00:33:05,320 --> 00:33:07,280 Speaker 7: for people who are not familiar, is a big area, 564 00:33:07,960 --> 00:33:12,240 Speaker 7: the area where Kurdish people live, and it spans several countries. 565 00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:15,760 Speaker 7: The areas I went, we're in a rock and in 566 00:33:15,800 --> 00:33:18,600 Speaker 7: Syria or in that it's not really in I guess 567 00:33:18,640 --> 00:33:20,920 Speaker 7: Syrian regime territory. But if you look on the. 568 00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:24,040 Speaker 2: Map, northeast Syria known as Rojava, the other two parts 569 00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:27,160 Speaker 2: that are generally considered part of Kurdistan. Are a chunk, 570 00:33:27,280 --> 00:33:29,560 Speaker 2: big chunk of southern Iran and also a big chunk 571 00:33:29,640 --> 00:33:31,080 Speaker 2: of southern Turkey. 572 00:33:31,640 --> 00:33:35,640 Speaker 7: Yeah, so Java just means west. I think Roja lat 573 00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:39,800 Speaker 7: is east eastern Kurdistan. So yeah, I've spent the last 574 00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:45,200 Speaker 7: several last week and change in that area. And while 575 00:33:45,200 --> 00:33:51,160 Speaker 7: I was there, the Turkish state began a massive drone 576 00:33:51,520 --> 00:33:54,800 Speaker 7: bombing campaign, which is what we are gathered here today 577 00:33:54,880 --> 00:33:59,280 Speaker 7: to discuss. So for people who are not familiar, it's 578 00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:03,560 Speaker 7: for years almost to This drone bombing campaign started almost 579 00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:06,239 Speaker 7: four years to the day since Turkey's invasion of what 580 00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:09,359 Speaker 7: they call the M four Strip. So that's the area 581 00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:13,319 Speaker 7: around Surakania and Tel Abiyad. We've talked about that before 582 00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:14,879 Speaker 7: on the Podka, so if you want to know more 583 00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:17,759 Speaker 7: about that, you can go back and listen to it. 584 00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:21,240 Speaker 7: It's the area along the border, one of the areas 585 00:34:21,239 --> 00:34:25,720 Speaker 7: on the border between Turkey and Syria. And as people 586 00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:29,480 Speaker 7: will know, Syria is a country that has had a 587 00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:32,360 Speaker 7: long and terrible civil war, which they've heard about in 588 00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:35,239 Speaker 7: lots of episodes, right, and we're not talking about that 589 00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:39,120 Speaker 7: today so much as we're talking about the Turkish state's 590 00:34:39,239 --> 00:34:42,799 Speaker 7: use of drones to bomb what people generally in this 591 00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:45,759 Speaker 7: country will know as for a Java, right, So just 592 00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:49,759 Speaker 7: to give them statistics off the top, this is the 593 00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:52,479 Speaker 7: fourth year in a row of aggression at this time 594 00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:56,719 Speaker 7: of year, right, So there have been two land attacks 595 00:34:57,560 --> 00:35:00,919 Speaker 7: I think Operation Olive Branch and Operation with someone called 596 00:35:00,960 --> 00:35:04,399 Speaker 7: peace Spring, and then two years the last two years 597 00:35:04,440 --> 00:35:06,839 Speaker 7: there have been drone strikes at this time of year. 598 00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:10,560 Speaker 7: This time of year, it seems very hard not to 599 00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:14,560 Speaker 7: conclude that these are attempts to destroy civilian infrastructure and 600 00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:17,240 Speaker 7: make it very hard for people in the cold months 601 00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:21,240 Speaker 7: of the year. So right now around two million people 602 00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:24,040 Speaker 7: in north East Syria are going to be without power 603 00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:26,839 Speaker 7: and without water. And I experienced some of that when 604 00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:29,680 Speaker 7: I was there, and the places I stayed will run 605 00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:33,360 Speaker 7: off generators, so you'd have like intermittent power. You'd have 606 00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:35,239 Speaker 7: power from it, and then they'd put some petru in 607 00:35:35,239 --> 00:35:37,160 Speaker 7: the generator and the power will go down, or the 608 00:35:37,200 --> 00:35:40,200 Speaker 7: generator would have a little tantrum and the power would 609 00:35:40,200 --> 00:35:43,440 Speaker 7: go down. But generally I had a lot better access 610 00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:45,520 Speaker 7: to power that some people had a lot better access 611 00:35:45,560 --> 00:35:48,080 Speaker 7: to water. So as I was traveling around, I noticed 612 00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:50,360 Speaker 7: some people didn't have access to like running water, right, 613 00:35:50,360 --> 00:35:52,960 Speaker 7: they can't turn on the tap and get water. Obviously 614 00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:56,160 Speaker 7: that's a massive problem. It's something I think. Look, as 615 00:35:56,160 --> 00:36:00,560 Speaker 7: people are listening to this, Israel is also bombing the 616 00:36:00,600 --> 00:36:05,040 Speaker 7: shit out of Gaza, the whole of the Gaza Strip, 617 00:36:05,360 --> 00:36:08,759 Speaker 7: and the US recently intervened to ensure that people there 618 00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:13,080 Speaker 7: had access to water, and they have done very little 619 00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:16,600 Speaker 7: in the case of protecting people in North and East Syria. 620 00:36:16,719 --> 00:36:16,919 Speaker 2: Right. 621 00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:21,600 Speaker 7: So across this drone campaign, forty eight people have died, 622 00:36:22,280 --> 00:36:25,640 Speaker 7: and in the worst I guess the highest casualty of 623 00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:28,960 Speaker 7: producing strike was one that happened while I was there, 624 00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:33,800 Speaker 7: twenty nine. Like internal security forces, sometimes you'll see it 625 00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:36,440 Speaker 7: translated as police, but I don't think that's quite accurate, 626 00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:39,120 Speaker 7: like that, they don't do cop shit, like they're not 627 00:36:39,160 --> 00:36:42,360 Speaker 7: there to you know, like arrescue for parking in the 628 00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:44,520 Speaker 7: wrong place, and they do the things that cops do. 629 00:36:45,080 --> 00:36:48,800 Speaker 7: They're there largely is like internal security due to the 630 00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:52,359 Speaker 7: various non state arm groups that are in the area 631 00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:54,360 Speaker 7: and state armed groups I guess that are operating in 632 00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:56,600 Speaker 7: the area that would make things dangerous for people living there. 633 00:36:57,120 --> 00:37:01,360 Speaker 7: So these particular essays were anti narcotic essay. And again 634 00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:03,959 Speaker 7: why I'm grounding this and what they do is because 635 00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:06,080 Speaker 7: they're not the people who like send you to jail 636 00:37:06,120 --> 00:37:08,000 Speaker 7: for the rest of your life for like having an 637 00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:11,160 Speaker 7: ounce of weed. They're the people whose job is to 638 00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:15,480 Speaker 7: prevent the trading cap to gone. Will people know what 639 00:37:15,520 --> 00:37:16,600 Speaker 7: people know what Captagon is? 640 00:37:17,160 --> 00:37:20,520 Speaker 2: Absolutely yeah, it's it's it's it's one of the drug 641 00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:21,960 Speaker 2: I mean, it's that when you when you hear about 642 00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:25,120 Speaker 2: drug in addiction forces, like like police in Rojava, they're 643 00:37:25,120 --> 00:37:28,479 Speaker 2: going after CAPTI Gone. It's a big chunk of both 644 00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:31,279 Speaker 2: what kept isis it's it's the it's the purveten, you know, 645 00:37:31,320 --> 00:37:34,839 Speaker 2: the meth that Nazis took that for isis right, and 646 00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:36,239 Speaker 2: it was also a big chunk of how they got 647 00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:38,560 Speaker 2: their funding was was moving and the a Sad regime 648 00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:41,640 Speaker 2: also gets a piece of a lot of the Captigon trade. 649 00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:45,719 Speaker 7: It continues to fund these largely like it's the mist 650 00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:48,440 Speaker 7: insurgent groups right in the area because it's small and 651 00:37:48,480 --> 00:37:51,319 Speaker 7: it's high value, and like Robert, they has to give 652 00:37:51,320 --> 00:37:53,600 Speaker 7: it to the fighters. It's this is very common like 653 00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:56,919 Speaker 7: around the world. We we discussed this in miandmar too, 654 00:37:57,000 --> 00:37:59,960 Speaker 7: right that the military there take something else called yaba, 655 00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:03,840 Speaker 7: But these kind of math derivatives are very common and 656 00:38:03,880 --> 00:38:06,120 Speaker 7: they're very commonly sold. That's how a lot of these 657 00:38:06,120 --> 00:38:08,719 Speaker 7: non state arm groups get money to buy stuff. Right, 658 00:38:09,160 --> 00:38:14,799 Speaker 7: So when we're talking about drug interdiction, it's not done 659 00:38:14,840 --> 00:38:17,600 Speaker 7: in a vacuum. It's not done because I could they 660 00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:20,759 Speaker 7: think that necessarily that drugs are bad or that you know, 661 00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:23,440 Speaker 7: there's some kind of moral failure that comes from the 662 00:38:23,560 --> 00:38:26,759 Speaker 7: use of these substances. It's because it allows funding for 663 00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:30,399 Speaker 7: groups that are trying to kill people on the ground. 664 00:38:30,440 --> 00:38:32,520 Speaker 7: So like interdicting the drugs is part of an anti 665 00:38:32,600 --> 00:38:35,880 Speaker 7: terrorism operation that allows people to live safely, which is 666 00:38:35,920 --> 00:38:38,560 Speaker 7: what they deserve after ten plus years of war in 667 00:38:38,600 --> 00:38:43,040 Speaker 7: that area. So twenty nine people is a lot of people, right, 668 00:38:43,160 --> 00:38:46,000 Speaker 7: twenty nine anti narcotics, I say issues is a lot 669 00:38:46,040 --> 00:38:47,920 Speaker 7: of the people who do that job. It's going to 670 00:38:47,920 --> 00:38:51,879 Speaker 7: make it significantly harder for them to continue doing that job, 671 00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:54,400 Speaker 7: which means it's going to make it significantly easier for 672 00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:58,080 Speaker 7: those arm groups to get funding. Right. It's also so 673 00:38:58,120 --> 00:39:00,359 Speaker 7: while I was there, there was a massive funeral for 674 00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:05,640 Speaker 7: these people. Right, every town, every settlement across where Java 675 00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:09,960 Speaker 7: has lost somebody in that strike. Right, So in Kamishlo, 676 00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:14,879 Speaker 7: in Kabani, in Alhasaka, like all these places had big 677 00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:17,760 Speaker 7: funerals because you know, three or four or ten people 678 00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:21,560 Speaker 7: came from that town and like that's I saw a 679 00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:24,600 Speaker 7: little girl like going to her dad's funeral, right, like 680 00:39:24,600 --> 00:39:26,439 Speaker 7: a little girl holding a picture of her dad. And 681 00:39:26,840 --> 00:39:28,719 Speaker 7: it's pretty fucked up. Like it's hard for that not 682 00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:33,480 Speaker 7: to affect you, especially as like these people weren't fighting anyone, 683 00:39:33,719 --> 00:39:36,960 Speaker 7: they weren't attacking anyone, right, they were just they were 684 00:39:36,960 --> 00:39:39,640 Speaker 7: taking a training. They were taking an anti narcotics training 685 00:39:39,760 --> 00:39:42,160 Speaker 7: at night, and sixty of them were gathering it's building. 686 00:39:42,239 --> 00:39:45,319 Speaker 7: Twenty nine were killed, twenty eight injured. It's in the 687 00:39:45,400 --> 00:39:50,239 Speaker 7: sort of furthest northeast part of North and Eastsyria, but 688 00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:53,200 Speaker 7: around a town called Derek, which is on the board 689 00:39:53,200 --> 00:39:56,880 Speaker 7: of it al Malkay Derek. Yeah, Bobody, my pronunciation is 690 00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:00,080 Speaker 7: asked al Malachaia might say on the map if if 691 00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:01,600 Speaker 7: you're looking at Google Maps, so you're trying to work 692 00:40:01,640 --> 00:40:04,520 Speaker 7: out what it is. Lots of these places. The reason 693 00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:07,359 Speaker 7: they will have two names is cored edition and Arabic. Right, 694 00:40:07,840 --> 00:40:11,960 Speaker 7: So like under the previous side regime, like Arabic was 695 00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:14,760 Speaker 7: the sort of language that people were enforced to speak 696 00:40:14,800 --> 00:40:19,080 Speaker 7: and use, and now under the self administration, people tend 697 00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:21,960 Speaker 7: to use Kurdish, and they tend to use a Latin 698 00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:24,520 Speaker 7: script as opposed to an Arabic script. Right, So that's 699 00:40:24,520 --> 00:40:26,880 Speaker 7: why you'll see two names very often you're looking on 700 00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:30,120 Speaker 7: a map, But like twenty nine is only you know, 701 00:40:30,200 --> 00:40:35,160 Speaker 7: there's nineteen other people, mostly civilians, right, who were killed. 702 00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:39,600 Speaker 7: Then two million people are now living without power, without water, 703 00:40:40,640 --> 00:40:44,440 Speaker 7: and without these basic services, which in turn will result 704 00:40:44,480 --> 00:40:48,719 Speaker 7: in more death. Right, More people will die because they 705 00:40:48,719 --> 00:40:51,000 Speaker 7: don't have access to those things which are life sustaining, right, 706 00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:55,560 Speaker 7: or people, young people, sick people. Both things are the 707 00:40:55,719 --> 00:41:00,280 Speaker 7: very basics of sustaining human life, and so without the 708 00:41:00,280 --> 00:41:03,399 Speaker 7: things are going to get a lot harder. I want 709 00:41:03,400 --> 00:41:05,600 Speaker 7: to talk a little bit about like where these drone 710 00:41:05,600 --> 00:41:10,399 Speaker 7: strikes happened, because largely aside from the one of their age, 711 00:41:10,480 --> 00:41:15,560 Speaker 7: they weren't at like large groups of people or buildings. Instead, 712 00:41:15,560 --> 00:41:20,760 Speaker 7: they were like deliberately targeting infrastructure. So of the ones 713 00:41:20,840 --> 00:41:22,760 Speaker 7: that I saw and the ones that I read about, 714 00:41:23,040 --> 00:41:26,560 Speaker 7: and they targeted like an electricity substation in one case, 715 00:41:27,280 --> 00:41:30,640 Speaker 7: they targeted a lot of water facilities, right, like like 716 00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:34,280 Speaker 7: water pumping stations, et cetera that allow people to get water, 717 00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:39,200 Speaker 7: a cooking gas plant, which it's pretty obvious what that does, right, 718 00:41:39,239 --> 00:41:41,000 Speaker 7: It allows people to get bottles of gas to cook 719 00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:45,120 Speaker 7: their food, and a lot of oil in destructures. So 720 00:41:45,120 --> 00:41:49,360 Speaker 7: I saw a few of those. Theyre called like donkeys, 721 00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:51,680 Speaker 7: you know, the things that go up and down. Yeah 722 00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:53,840 Speaker 7: my using the word, I don't. 723 00:41:53,640 --> 00:41:55,560 Speaker 3: Know the word, but the little crane. 724 00:41:55,239 --> 00:41:59,000 Speaker 7: Things yeah, yeah, yeah, the like the things you can 725 00:41:59,040 --> 00:42:00,600 Speaker 7: see if you drive through Bakersfield. 726 00:42:00,600 --> 00:42:01,480 Speaker 3: I'm sure there's a name. 727 00:42:02,200 --> 00:42:07,360 Speaker 7: Yeah, are they oiled derricks? Yeah? Someone someone googled the 728 00:42:07,440 --> 00:42:09,240 Speaker 7: name of the nodding dog. 729 00:42:09,080 --> 00:42:11,319 Speaker 3: That pumps jack? Is that no? 730 00:42:12,719 --> 00:42:17,399 Speaker 7: Yeah, that's that's the first sounds like like a dude 731 00:42:17,440 --> 00:42:19,320 Speaker 7: who goes to the gym a lot, Yeah, broke and 732 00:42:19,360 --> 00:42:19,879 Speaker 7: pump jacked. 733 00:42:20,120 --> 00:42:24,120 Speaker 3: I mean it is called the an oil donkey as well. 734 00:42:24,200 --> 00:42:27,680 Speaker 3: So you were, yeah, nodding donkey pumps. Yeah, that's what 735 00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:30,239 Speaker 3: I thought they were, noding donkeys. Okay, Yeah, that's that's 736 00:42:30,400 --> 00:42:33,640 Speaker 3: that's a phrase we're going with. So you could see 737 00:42:33,680 --> 00:42:35,120 Speaker 3: a lot of these that were like knocked over on 738 00:42:35,160 --> 00:42:38,120 Speaker 3: their side, right, that had been drone struck, and then 739 00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:40,360 Speaker 3: you could see others that were just knocked out because 740 00:42:40,360 --> 00:42:43,360 Speaker 3: the power to them had been knocked out. So obviously 741 00:42:43,400 --> 00:42:45,960 Speaker 3: that's not only a major revenue source, but also like 742 00:42:46,400 --> 00:42:48,839 Speaker 3: that is how people in the region get fuel, right, 743 00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:52,160 Speaker 3: so it's going to be harder for them to get diesels, 744 00:42:52,239 --> 00:42:54,120 Speaker 3: going to be harder for them to drive around. People 745 00:42:54,160 --> 00:42:57,880 Speaker 3: already don't drive around a lot because a lot of 746 00:42:57,920 --> 00:43:02,520 Speaker 3: the drone strikes on people in the yepegay Yepija, so 747 00:43:02,600 --> 00:43:06,680 Speaker 3: that the People's Defence Forces and Women's Defense Forces, lots 748 00:43:06,680 --> 00:43:08,800 Speaker 3: of drone strikes have happened when those people are driving 749 00:43:08,800 --> 00:43:13,160 Speaker 3: their cars, when they get in a car, so it 750 00:43:13,200 --> 00:43:16,680 Speaker 3: can be quite hairy driving and a lot of people 751 00:43:16,680 --> 00:43:19,839 Speaker 3: were driving too, like I drive around, but that's one 752 00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:21,840 Speaker 3: of the areas of risk for people. 753 00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:22,080 Speaker 9: Right. 754 00:43:22,760 --> 00:43:27,160 Speaker 7: Of the people killed thirty fives as eleven were civilians 755 00:43:27,160 --> 00:43:29,120 Speaker 7: and two s efs, so most of these were either 756 00:43:29,160 --> 00:43:33,680 Speaker 7: internal security or civilians. And I think Robert you were 757 00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:36,400 Speaker 7: Robert and I spoke while I was there, and Robert 758 00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:40,399 Speaker 7: made a good point about how this enables these non 759 00:43:40,440 --> 00:43:44,439 Speaker 7: state armed groups like either ISIS or like HD. 760 00:43:44,640 --> 00:43:47,520 Speaker 2: That my main concern for you while you were there 761 00:43:47,680 --> 00:43:49,960 Speaker 2: was not that you would get hit in an air strike, 762 00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:54,759 Speaker 2: but it was that because of the damage done to 763 00:43:54,800 --> 00:43:58,520 Speaker 2: the security forces as a result of the Turkish are strikes, 764 00:43:58,680 --> 00:44:02,160 Speaker 2: you would it would. There's there's always been is as 765 00:44:02,239 --> 00:44:05,480 Speaker 2: cells there right that they've never gotten rid of all 766 00:44:05,560 --> 00:44:08,600 Speaker 2: of them. And periods where the A and E. S 767 00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:11,319 Speaker 2: self administration is under attack are the periods in which 768 00:44:11,360 --> 00:44:16,000 Speaker 2: it's most dangerous because it provides there's less security forces, 769 00:44:16,160 --> 00:44:19,919 Speaker 2: you know, watching everything. People in general are outless, which 770 00:44:19,960 --> 00:44:22,680 Speaker 2: provides cover for some of these groups that may want 771 00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:23,680 Speaker 2: to do like a kidnapping. 772 00:44:24,239 --> 00:44:26,600 Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's not a place where a 773 00:44:26,600 --> 00:44:31,040 Speaker 7: lot of I guess folks who look like me. That 774 00:44:31,200 --> 00:44:33,040 Speaker 7: was a concern for us, and like it's a concern 775 00:44:33,120 --> 00:44:36,280 Speaker 7: for these people too. Write they still do car bombs 776 00:44:36,280 --> 00:44:40,120 Speaker 7: in de rezor not, you know that they things still 777 00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:44,200 Speaker 7: kill civilians. Yeah, they roll up Isis people on a 778 00:44:44,560 --> 00:44:48,240 Speaker 7: probably weekly basis. People are interested in getting more information 779 00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:50,440 Speaker 7: both about the drone strikes and about what they call 780 00:44:50,520 --> 00:44:54,360 Speaker 7: sleeper cells. There are Java Information Center, very nice people. 781 00:44:55,239 --> 00:44:58,480 Speaker 7: They have a good website. It's Jarva Information Center to org. 782 00:44:58,760 --> 00:45:02,080 Speaker 7: They produce monthly report on both things. So that will 783 00:45:02,080 --> 00:45:05,800 Speaker 7: give more information on those things. That would be a 784 00:45:05,840 --> 00:45:10,280 Speaker 7: good time to pivot to adverts. But I've got all 785 00:45:10,520 --> 00:45:10,840 Speaker 7: that is. 786 00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:14,279 Speaker 10: Do you know who else provides great services? 787 00:45:14,680 --> 00:45:17,879 Speaker 7: I don't think we can. I don't reasonably make that claim. 788 00:45:18,000 --> 00:45:20,320 Speaker 10: The products and services that support this podcast. 789 00:45:20,400 --> 00:45:24,920 Speaker 7: Here they are. We're back and we are discussing toerone 790 00:45:24,960 --> 00:45:28,200 Speaker 7: strikes on North Easyria. I guess not just from North Asyria, 791 00:45:28,239 --> 00:45:33,440 Speaker 7: like these also happen up around Sulimani SOLMANI if you're 792 00:45:33,480 --> 00:45:36,319 Speaker 7: looking on the map. Depends again on that language, right, 793 00:45:36,760 --> 00:45:42,319 Speaker 7: those have happened again against casey K, which is like 794 00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:47,120 Speaker 7: the Kurdistan Communities Council. So that would be the I 795 00:45:47,160 --> 00:45:54,640 Speaker 7: guess the if you look at like Syria, Iran, Turkey 796 00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:59,719 Speaker 7: and Iraq as different countries, all of which have some 797 00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:03,319 Speaker 7: administry to give control over the nation of Kurdish people, right, 798 00:46:03,400 --> 00:46:05,279 Speaker 7: Kurdish people live in all four countries, and they live 799 00:46:05,280 --> 00:46:08,279 Speaker 7: in other countries too. Of course, then the movements in 800 00:46:08,280 --> 00:46:11,760 Speaker 7: each of those countries are subsidiary to the k CK 801 00:46:13,000 --> 00:46:16,560 Speaker 7: and so some of those KKK folks who are up 802 00:46:16,600 --> 00:46:19,400 Speaker 7: in Solimani so like that there will be drone strikes 803 00:46:19,400 --> 00:46:23,960 Speaker 7: there and that's that's far inside Iraqi Kurdistan, right, You're 804 00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:26,520 Speaker 7: you're a long way from the border there, and that's 805 00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:30,640 Speaker 7: that's what these drone strikes, I guess. The drone strikes 806 00:46:30,680 --> 00:46:34,920 Speaker 7: allow Turkish intelligence in the Turkish military to target people 807 00:46:35,640 --> 00:46:39,120 Speaker 7: much much further inside with very little consequent or risk 808 00:46:39,200 --> 00:46:42,240 Speaker 7: on their own. Right, these drones are largely not being 809 00:46:43,239 --> 00:46:47,719 Speaker 7: targeted because certainly in an Ees, the Autonomous Administration in 810 00:46:47,760 --> 00:46:50,680 Speaker 7: North Eastyria, they don't have the means to target them, right, 811 00:46:50,680 --> 00:46:54,160 Speaker 7: the United States hasn't supplied them with the weapons that 812 00:46:54,200 --> 00:46:57,040 Speaker 7: they would need to shoot down those drones, which I 813 00:46:57,080 --> 00:47:00,160 Speaker 7: think brings me onto the role of the US in 814 00:47:00,200 --> 00:47:03,680 Speaker 7: this and I guess more broadly the role of the 815 00:47:03,680 --> 00:47:08,120 Speaker 7: coalition in this case. Coalition is a coalition to defeat ISIS. Right, 816 00:47:08,520 --> 00:47:13,719 Speaker 7: it's made up of dozens of countries, the UK, the US, Germany, 817 00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:19,920 Speaker 7: lots of other Western I guess countries broadly, and countries 818 00:47:19,960 --> 00:47:21,480 Speaker 7: in that part of the world too, like I think 819 00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:26,080 Speaker 7: Iraq is part of it. Certainly, like Iraqi, Kurdistan has 820 00:47:26,239 --> 00:47:30,680 Speaker 7: done their own operations against ISIS sleeper cells, peshmurger and 821 00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:33,440 Speaker 7: like everywhere you go, right, you go through Peshmerga checkpoints, 822 00:47:33,480 --> 00:47:36,600 Speaker 7: like I was going through an area where they had 823 00:47:36,680 --> 00:47:41,320 Speaker 7: arrested an ISIS member the day before, so like it's 824 00:47:41,600 --> 00:47:43,880 Speaker 7: they'll be getting you out of the car, you know, 825 00:47:43,880 --> 00:47:46,360 Speaker 7: going through your bags, looking through your stuff. Right, So 826 00:47:46,440 --> 00:47:49,239 Speaker 7: that's all part of the same operation. But the US 827 00:47:49,280 --> 00:47:52,000 Speaker 7: has a base in a place called Alhassaka, which again 828 00:47:52,040 --> 00:47:53,520 Speaker 7: you can look up on the map, right, it's a 829 00:47:53,520 --> 00:47:56,279 Speaker 7: little west trying to light up my compass here, a 830 00:47:56,320 --> 00:47:59,960 Speaker 7: little west of Kamishloh, which is a capital of the region, 831 00:48:00,680 --> 00:48:05,200 Speaker 7: and the US pretty much US troops don't do a 832 00:48:05,200 --> 00:48:08,200 Speaker 7: great amount of leaving that base. It's fair to say 833 00:48:08,320 --> 00:48:10,719 Speaker 7: they'll come out in helicopters. They were going out like 834 00:48:10,800 --> 00:48:17,239 Speaker 7: sort of supporting SDF patrols in the Ahuska region, but 835 00:48:17,239 --> 00:48:20,400 Speaker 7: they were supporting them from the air. Right. They generally 836 00:48:20,440 --> 00:48:24,120 Speaker 7: aren't going out and about like with people on the ground, 837 00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:26,719 Speaker 7: talking to people, unless it's a specific mission, which they 838 00:48:26,760 --> 00:48:29,839 Speaker 7: do sometimes you can if people are interested in like 839 00:48:30,040 --> 00:48:33,239 Speaker 7: the US presence. It's called Operation Inherent Resolve, And they 840 00:48:33,280 --> 00:48:35,720 Speaker 7: have a Twitter account whether sometimes post themselves doing things. 841 00:48:36,480 --> 00:48:39,480 Speaker 7: But what they don't do is protect that. And so 842 00:48:39,600 --> 00:48:43,480 Speaker 7: the US and the Autonomous Administration are allies in this 843 00:48:43,560 --> 00:48:48,239 Speaker 7: fight against ISIS, right, but they are only allied in 844 00:48:48,280 --> 00:48:51,400 Speaker 7: this fight against ISIS. The US is not supporting them 845 00:48:51,680 --> 00:48:55,319 Speaker 7: in defending themselves from drone strikes or like ensuring that 846 00:48:55,920 --> 00:48:59,239 Speaker 7: civilian population is protected from those attacks. So the US 847 00:48:59,320 --> 00:49:02,040 Speaker 7: has the capacity city to shoot down these drones, and 848 00:49:02,080 --> 00:49:06,000 Speaker 7: they prove that by shooting one down last week or 849 00:49:06,400 --> 00:49:08,320 Speaker 7: the week before. I'm a little bit jet legged, so 850 00:49:08,480 --> 00:49:10,400 Speaker 7: a bit bugled on time, but I think it was 851 00:49:10,480 --> 00:49:13,560 Speaker 7: last week the US shut down a Turkish drones. 852 00:49:13,719 --> 00:49:17,600 Speaker 10: It came out two weeks ago for when this is airing. Yes, yeah, sure, 853 00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:18,439 Speaker 10: good point. 854 00:49:18,719 --> 00:49:21,200 Speaker 7: Yeah, so yeah, two weeks ago the United States shut 855 00:49:21,280 --> 00:49:25,360 Speaker 7: down and F sixteen shut down a Turkish drone. So 856 00:49:25,600 --> 00:49:29,000 Speaker 7: specifically it was a drone called an a Kinji, which 857 00:49:29,040 --> 00:49:32,160 Speaker 7: is a newer variant of the Bairaktar drone. We've spoken 858 00:49:32,200 --> 00:49:36,279 Speaker 7: about these drones before, right, they're the drones that people like, 859 00:49:36,360 --> 00:49:38,160 Speaker 7: I know, you can go on actually and buy a 860 00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:41,719 Speaker 7: stuffy version of these drones, which, right, that's concerning. 861 00:49:42,239 --> 00:49:46,440 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's really dystopian and crazy. 862 00:49:46,520 --> 00:49:47,120 Speaker 10: I don't like it. 863 00:49:47,800 --> 00:49:50,360 Speaker 7: Yeah, I do not like it either. I think it 864 00:49:51,200 --> 00:49:53,480 Speaker 7: illustrates the way the war in Ukraine has become like 865 00:49:53,520 --> 00:49:56,920 Speaker 7: a football match for some people, yeah yes, or like 866 00:49:56,960 --> 00:49:59,520 Speaker 7: a film where like I just want to reinforce it, like. 867 00:49:59,480 --> 00:50:01,960 Speaker 10: It's turned into fandom. Yeah yes, yeah. 868 00:50:01,960 --> 00:50:04,960 Speaker 7: I think that's an excellent way of putting it. Gara saying, like, 869 00:50:05,400 --> 00:50:08,120 Speaker 7: it's not cool when anyone gets fucking drone struck. It's 870 00:50:08,160 --> 00:50:13,160 Speaker 7: not cool when, like everyone in an area spends every 871 00:50:13,239 --> 00:50:16,560 Speaker 7: night worrying if death is going to come from the 872 00:50:16,600 --> 00:50:19,920 Speaker 7: sky at some point, right, Like, the effect of these 873 00:50:20,000 --> 00:50:21,719 Speaker 7: drones trucks isn't just on the people killed, or the 874 00:50:21,760 --> 00:50:24,799 Speaker 7: people injured, or even the infrastructure. The effect is on 875 00:50:25,000 --> 00:50:29,680 Speaker 7: every single person worrying what's going to happen tonight? Right Like, 876 00:50:29,760 --> 00:50:32,520 Speaker 7: And I can speak to a tiny part of that experience. 877 00:50:32,600 --> 00:50:34,319 Speaker 7: Right Nothing compared to what people are living there have 878 00:50:34,360 --> 00:50:37,000 Speaker 7: gone through at all. But it's a concern every time 879 00:50:37,040 --> 00:50:39,719 Speaker 7: it gets dark, you know, well it's tonight the night, 880 00:50:39,840 --> 00:50:41,960 Speaker 7: especially for the rural folks who might be living in 881 00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:44,640 Speaker 7: a rural area but near to a substation, or near 882 00:50:44,680 --> 00:50:48,160 Speaker 7: to one of those nodding donkeys or other infrastructure which 883 00:50:48,160 --> 00:50:50,719 Speaker 7: has been targeted, or near a cooking gas plant. Right, 884 00:50:50,719 --> 00:50:53,200 Speaker 7: those things I can imagine explode with quite some force. 885 00:50:54,719 --> 00:50:57,680 Speaker 7: They can't leave, right, they can't just upen and not 886 00:50:57,760 --> 00:51:00,440 Speaker 7: live near any infrastructure. Infrastructures will allows place to be 887 00:51:00,440 --> 00:51:04,200 Speaker 7: survivable for civilians, So they just have to live with 888 00:51:04,280 --> 00:51:08,560 Speaker 7: this constant fear. And it's very odd to see that 889 00:51:08,719 --> 00:51:12,680 Speaker 7: and then simultaneously see this, this sort of deification of 890 00:51:12,760 --> 00:51:15,840 Speaker 7: drone strikes that are happening in Ukraine and like this, 891 00:51:16,120 --> 00:51:21,360 Speaker 7: you know, people with dog dressed as Napoleon Twitter avatars, Yeah, 892 00:51:21,840 --> 00:51:23,360 Speaker 7: cheering someone's kid dying. 893 00:51:24,520 --> 00:51:24,800 Speaker 5: Yeah. 894 00:51:24,840 --> 00:51:28,040 Speaker 10: I mean throughout all of the kind of new conflicts 895 00:51:28,040 --> 00:51:32,440 Speaker 10: we've had the past five years, like the and especially 896 00:51:32,480 --> 00:51:35,000 Speaker 10: the past like two three years, Like the idea of 897 00:51:35,040 --> 00:51:38,880 Speaker 10: like politics as fandom has produced some of the like 898 00:51:39,040 --> 00:51:45,000 Speaker 10: most like inhumane, gross aspects of how people have been 899 00:51:45,040 --> 00:51:48,759 Speaker 10: like consuming social media and just the sheer. It's like 900 00:51:49,000 --> 00:51:52,200 Speaker 10: people forget that this is like thousands of people's actual, 901 00:51:52,239 --> 00:51:55,759 Speaker 10: like human lives that they're like yes, sneaming about, and 902 00:51:55,800 --> 00:51:59,480 Speaker 10: it's it just it just becomes just they talk about 903 00:51:59,480 --> 00:52:00,880 Speaker 10: it in the same way they talk about like a 904 00:52:00,920 --> 00:52:04,080 Speaker 10: Marvel movie or like a star like it's it's it's yeah, 905 00:52:04,160 --> 00:52:04,719 Speaker 10: or sports like. 906 00:52:04,719 --> 00:52:07,000 Speaker 5: It's it it it. 907 00:52:06,719 --> 00:52:11,040 Speaker 10: It's like this weird like gamified it allows you to 908 00:52:11,040 --> 00:52:15,120 Speaker 10: to approach these things from a just a from a 909 00:52:15,239 --> 00:52:18,560 Speaker 10: very separate perspective when you're when you're viewing it from 910 00:52:18,600 --> 00:52:21,439 Speaker 10: like this fandom angle, I think. But politics is fandom 911 00:52:21,440 --> 00:52:22,919 Speaker 10: in general. I think it's gotten a whole lot worse 912 00:52:23,000 --> 00:52:25,480 Speaker 10: since the Trump era. Ye had, you know, like that's 913 00:52:25,480 --> 00:52:29,360 Speaker 10: where we had like resistance libs that were like copying 914 00:52:29,400 --> 00:52:32,200 Speaker 10: off some of the stuff from the New Star Wars trilogy, 915 00:52:32,200 --> 00:52:33,840 Speaker 10: which is kind of the inspiration for a lot of 916 00:52:33,840 --> 00:52:36,279 Speaker 10: their stuff. We got nazi's doing a whole bunch of 917 00:52:36,320 --> 00:52:39,759 Speaker 10: politics as fandom as well. It just creates like it's 918 00:52:39,760 --> 00:52:43,319 Speaker 10: it's it's like this team sports like fandom thing that 919 00:52:43,440 --> 00:52:44,600 Speaker 10: is just pervate. 920 00:52:44,920 --> 00:52:45,759 Speaker 5: It's it's it's it's. 921 00:52:45,640 --> 00:52:48,520 Speaker 10: Seeped into like almost every single aspect of like not 922 00:52:48,560 --> 00:52:52,960 Speaker 10: just politics, but not like conflict and like geopolitics. 923 00:52:53,040 --> 00:52:55,040 Speaker 3: It's like whoever has the best branding is the one 924 00:52:55,040 --> 00:52:57,440 Speaker 3: that's has the best chance. 925 00:52:58,080 --> 00:53:01,959 Speaker 10: Yeah, and it's I don't know, it's it's disturbing to watch. 926 00:53:02,000 --> 00:53:05,720 Speaker 10: I don't know how to like counter counter it because 927 00:53:05,800 --> 00:53:08,920 Speaker 10: it feels like the more you engage, the further sucked 928 00:53:08,920 --> 00:53:13,160 Speaker 10: into the abyss you become. But it also doesn't feel 929 00:53:13,160 --> 00:53:15,040 Speaker 10: good to just like ignore it as well, because it's 930 00:53:15,160 --> 00:53:17,640 Speaker 10: just it's like it feels like this kind of endless 931 00:53:17,719 --> 00:53:21,719 Speaker 10: trap that is just a part of existing in this 932 00:53:21,760 --> 00:53:23,480 Speaker 10: weird postmodern internet world. 933 00:53:24,719 --> 00:53:27,760 Speaker 7: Yeah, I don't know. I think like one would hope 934 00:53:27,960 --> 00:53:30,480 Speaker 7: that the Internet in some ways could help us see that, 935 00:53:30,520 --> 00:53:32,719 Speaker 7: like at the end of every drone strike is a 936 00:53:32,760 --> 00:53:35,359 Speaker 7: little fucking child most of the time, or like like 937 00:53:35,440 --> 00:53:37,879 Speaker 7: I spent some time last week with a family who 938 00:53:37,960 --> 00:53:40,279 Speaker 7: almost exactly one year ago lost their fifteen year old 939 00:53:40,280 --> 00:53:44,200 Speaker 7: time in a drone strike, and like it that, Like 940 00:53:44,280 --> 00:53:47,600 Speaker 7: I understand people die in these things, like on an 941 00:53:47,640 --> 00:53:50,200 Speaker 7: intellectual level and even on a personal level, like having 942 00:53:50,239 --> 00:53:52,800 Speaker 7: spent time in these places, you know, for a decent 943 00:53:52,840 --> 00:53:56,640 Speaker 7: amount of my life, But fuck me, it's just like 944 00:53:56,719 --> 00:53:59,319 Speaker 7: it destroyed you. Like seeing a mum mary her son 945 00:53:59,480 --> 00:54:03,040 Speaker 7: cry for her little boy. It's fucking heartbreaking, and like 946 00:54:04,480 --> 00:54:06,560 Speaker 7: I got to live that for one morning, and those 947 00:54:06,560 --> 00:54:10,880 Speaker 7: people live that every single day and every time. And 948 00:54:10,960 --> 00:54:13,200 Speaker 7: I don't, I know, it makes me want to shout 949 00:54:13,239 --> 00:54:14,680 Speaker 7: at people when I see this. 950 00:54:15,320 --> 00:54:19,320 Speaker 2: I don't actually think it's I don't mean to be 951 00:54:19,320 --> 00:54:23,080 Speaker 2: a doomer here. I don't think it's a solvable problem. Yeah, 952 00:54:23,120 --> 00:54:25,400 Speaker 2: this is we are talking about it within the language 953 00:54:25,400 --> 00:54:29,400 Speaker 2: of fandom because that is kind of the defining public 954 00:54:29,440 --> 00:54:33,799 Speaker 2: social relationship of our time. But like, this is always 955 00:54:33,920 --> 00:54:37,960 Speaker 2: what people have done to war, one way or the other. Right, Yeah, 956 00:54:38,040 --> 00:54:43,120 Speaker 2: it's faster now and more commercial, right, like one thing 957 00:54:43,200 --> 00:54:45,520 Speaker 2: for whatever reason, I think just because we're a culturated 958 00:54:45,520 --> 00:54:48,319 Speaker 2: to it. Hearing people talk about, you know, doing what 959 00:54:48,360 --> 00:54:51,600 Speaker 2: they do in times of war because of patriotism, because 960 00:54:51,600 --> 00:54:54,560 Speaker 2: of nationalism, because of belief in the founding principles of 961 00:54:54,600 --> 00:55:00,200 Speaker 2: their country, seems a little bit less coarse than like 962 00:55:00,480 --> 00:55:02,600 Speaker 2: doing it because you fell in with a bunch of 963 00:55:02,680 --> 00:55:05,920 Speaker 2: memers who use little dog avatars and shit. But like, 964 00:55:06,440 --> 00:55:09,480 Speaker 2: I don't know, it's not it's not like less logical 965 00:55:09,760 --> 00:55:13,920 Speaker 2: than than being right or die because like you happen 966 00:55:13,960 --> 00:55:17,120 Speaker 2: to be born under you know so and so the king. 967 00:55:18,560 --> 00:55:22,640 Speaker 7: Yeah fair, yeah, yeah, and like that dehumanization. I think 968 00:55:22,680 --> 00:55:26,960 Speaker 7: the difference, like to me is like, so, like Robert 969 00:55:26,960 --> 00:55:29,239 Speaker 7: and I have both experiences right to to in order 970 00:55:29,280 --> 00:55:32,040 Speaker 7: to kill somebody, you have to dehumanize them. To kill 971 00:55:32,080 --> 00:55:33,880 Speaker 7: people on mass you have to do that on mass, right, 972 00:55:33,920 --> 00:55:36,920 Speaker 7: if you're fighting a war, it doesn't behoove you too. 973 00:55:36,960 --> 00:55:39,160 Speaker 2: You make it sound like we're killing people, James. 974 00:55:39,400 --> 00:55:41,320 Speaker 7: Well, that's the thing that we do on the podcast 975 00:55:41,400 --> 00:55:45,080 Speaker 7: Robert's yeah, we kill people in mass Yeah, yeah, sure, 976 00:55:45,120 --> 00:55:48,040 Speaker 7: you're gonna have to school A zone is where we 977 00:55:48,040 --> 00:55:50,880 Speaker 7: talk about the killings. People want to subscribe. That's what 978 00:55:50,880 --> 00:55:53,000 Speaker 7: we do instead of adverts, is we list the people 979 00:55:53,000 --> 00:55:53,520 Speaker 7: we've killed. 980 00:55:54,239 --> 00:55:56,399 Speaker 2: Yeah, James, as the as the quote on your Blue 981 00:55:56,440 --> 00:55:59,320 Speaker 2: Sky account says, one death is a tragedy, one million 982 00:55:59,400 --> 00:56:01,359 Speaker 2: is a statistic messed out. 983 00:56:01,800 --> 00:56:06,520 Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, that's right, and it's ever every day I 984 00:56:06,560 --> 00:56:11,560 Speaker 7: strive to get my number up, you know, but so 985 00:56:11,560 --> 00:56:14,319 Speaker 7: far I've let everyone down. That's not true. And to 986 00:56:14,360 --> 00:56:17,520 Speaker 7: my knowledge, none of us have killed anyone but your knowledge, 987 00:56:18,040 --> 00:56:20,600 Speaker 7: to my knowledge, yeah, suren's probably got some bodies in 988 00:56:20,640 --> 00:56:26,759 Speaker 7: the in the class, you know, Jesus Christ. It's so 989 00:56:27,360 --> 00:56:29,359 Speaker 7: what I wanted to say is that like when yeah, 990 00:56:29,440 --> 00:56:32,640 Speaker 7: like if you're in the military, you probably know this, right, 991 00:56:32,680 --> 00:56:36,440 Speaker 7: like like this sort of blood makes a grass grows, shit, fine, whatever, 992 00:56:36,600 --> 00:56:39,520 Speaker 7: Like that's how wars work. War is undesirable. It's horrible. 993 00:56:39,600 --> 00:56:41,799 Speaker 7: You have to be horrible, you have to you have 994 00:56:41,880 --> 00:56:44,600 Speaker 7: to dehumanize people to kill them. You don't have to 995 00:56:44,640 --> 00:56:46,920 Speaker 7: fucking do that if you're on Twitter dot com. But 996 00:56:47,160 --> 00:56:51,120 Speaker 7: like people, you know, people with the silly dog advatars chiefly, 997 00:56:51,120 --> 00:56:53,879 Speaker 7: but other people to have begun to see themselves as 998 00:56:53,920 --> 00:56:57,440 Speaker 7: like participants in conflict in a way that they maybe didn't. 999 00:56:58,280 --> 00:57:00,600 Speaker 7: Maybe they did and I just wasn't around in second one. 1000 00:57:00,800 --> 00:57:03,839 Speaker 10: Yeah, No, that's I think I think that does tie 1001 00:57:03,840 --> 00:57:06,200 Speaker 10: into part of how the fandom things works, because a 1002 00:57:06,200 --> 00:57:08,799 Speaker 10: part of participating in fandom is being in these kind 1003 00:57:08,840 --> 00:57:12,080 Speaker 10: of very very alienating online spaces. Because any type of 1004 00:57:12,080 --> 00:57:14,799 Speaker 10: like engagement on the Internet in this way is is 1005 00:57:15,200 --> 00:57:18,400 Speaker 10: fuel through the process of alienation. But when that kind 1006 00:57:18,440 --> 00:57:22,440 Speaker 10: of starts applying to politics, you feel like either the 1007 00:57:22,480 --> 00:57:25,640 Speaker 10: act of consuming or or like you know, joining in 1008 00:57:25,680 --> 00:57:30,240 Speaker 10: on conversation is itself like a form of activism. By 1009 00:57:30,680 --> 00:57:33,320 Speaker 10: just like just through like consuming or sharing content, you 1010 00:57:33,320 --> 00:57:36,360 Speaker 10: feel like you're actually participating in the thing itself. 1011 00:57:37,240 --> 00:57:39,880 Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think some of it's this almost narcissistic 1012 00:57:40,040 --> 00:57:44,360 Speaker 2: need to not let the world pass you by because 1013 00:57:44,360 --> 00:57:48,440 Speaker 2: it's there. There's something deeply uncomfortable about just like watching 1014 00:57:48,520 --> 00:57:51,320 Speaker 2: massive things happen and realizing like there's nothing I can 1015 00:57:51,360 --> 00:57:56,040 Speaker 2: do about this. Yeah, to feel like there isn't a 1016 00:57:56,080 --> 00:57:58,880 Speaker 2: lot of the time, right, like your your take, you know, 1017 00:57:58,960 --> 00:58:03,720 Speaker 2: the the instant a hospital gets attacked in Gaza, your 1018 00:58:03,840 --> 00:58:10,160 Speaker 2: take on that is not particularly helpful or necessary unless 1019 00:58:10,160 --> 00:58:13,760 Speaker 2: your I don't know Joe Biden, right. 1020 00:58:14,760 --> 00:58:16,160 Speaker 5: But which is not. 1021 00:58:16,200 --> 00:58:18,120 Speaker 2: I don't think his take was helpful, but right, it 1022 00:58:18,200 --> 00:58:20,480 Speaker 2: was like it had an impact because he's the president, 1023 00:58:20,880 --> 00:58:24,080 Speaker 2: but like most of us were just kind of part 1024 00:58:24,160 --> 00:58:27,040 Speaker 2: of the churn, and there's almost there's like a degree 1025 00:58:27,080 --> 00:58:29,480 Speaker 2: of emotional need to it, especially when you see these 1026 00:58:29,520 --> 00:58:32,200 Speaker 2: horrible footage of bodies piled high. Right, you feel like 1027 00:58:32,520 --> 00:58:35,120 Speaker 2: I'm a bad person if I don't do something, and 1028 00:58:35,120 --> 00:58:38,560 Speaker 2: the only thing I can do is tweet or whatever 1029 00:58:38,720 --> 00:58:40,600 Speaker 2: your social media, I feel like I. 1030 00:58:40,600 --> 00:58:42,880 Speaker 3: Just just to play Devil's advocate for hot sake. I 1031 00:58:42,920 --> 00:58:47,400 Speaker 3: think it's a little different when there's so much conflicting information, 1032 00:58:47,560 --> 00:58:49,600 Speaker 3: especially I mean, like the Gaza thinks a great example, 1033 00:58:49,640 --> 00:58:53,160 Speaker 3: because the electricity is out, they don't want them to 1034 00:58:53,680 --> 00:58:56,560 Speaker 3: share anything. So I think when it comes to something 1035 00:58:56,600 --> 00:58:59,280 Speaker 3: like that, it's more about like spreading awareness versus like 1036 00:58:59,320 --> 00:59:02,320 Speaker 3: having a take. In my opinion, it's more just like, hey, 1037 00:59:02,520 --> 00:59:04,640 Speaker 3: the news might say this, but this is from the 1038 00:59:04,680 --> 00:59:08,160 Speaker 3: actual person on the ground telling you what's happening. So 1039 00:59:08,200 --> 00:59:11,960 Speaker 3: I think there's a little bit of nuance because I 1040 00:59:11,960 --> 00:59:15,120 Speaker 3: also think the only reason that like just for Palestine 1041 00:59:15,160 --> 00:59:16,720 Speaker 3: for example, just is we don't have to go into 1042 00:59:16,720 --> 00:59:19,160 Speaker 3: it too much. But a huge reason why there's so 1043 00:59:19,240 --> 00:59:22,960 Speaker 3: much more support for the Palestinian movement is because of 1044 00:59:23,000 --> 00:59:23,680 Speaker 3: social media. 1045 00:59:24,240 --> 00:59:27,200 Speaker 7: Yeah, so definitely, Yeah, people see people in Gaza as 1046 00:59:27,240 --> 00:59:30,600 Speaker 7: people now, not as statistics or just through the lens 1047 00:59:30,640 --> 00:59:33,360 Speaker 7: of Hamas or rightever, like yeah. 1048 00:59:33,080 --> 00:59:35,080 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it depends. I think it depends on 1049 00:59:35,120 --> 00:59:39,320 Speaker 2: how you do it, and like I mean, it is 1050 00:59:39,400 --> 00:59:42,480 Speaker 2: it is accurate to say that to a significant extent, 1051 00:59:43,200 --> 00:59:47,680 Speaker 2: the ultimate outcome of these conflicts are determined in large 1052 00:59:47,720 --> 00:59:50,440 Speaker 2: part due to public sympathy, right Like, That's going to 1053 00:59:50,440 --> 00:59:55,000 Speaker 2: be probably true of, however, things that ultimately shake out 1054 00:59:55,080 --> 00:59:59,160 Speaker 2: in Gaza, and it's certainly been true of the conflict 1055 00:59:59,200 --> 01:00:02,520 Speaker 2: in Ukraine, right Like. The degree to which weapons keep 1056 01:00:02,560 --> 01:00:05,160 Speaker 2: flowing to that country is going to be heavily based 1057 01:00:05,200 --> 01:00:10,480 Speaker 2: on the degree to which sympathy for that cause remains 1058 01:00:10,560 --> 01:00:13,200 Speaker 2: among US taxpayers and taxpayers in other countries that are 1059 01:00:13,200 --> 01:00:15,480 Speaker 2: sending them those weapons. That's going to have an impact 1060 01:00:15,520 --> 01:00:19,880 Speaker 2: on the presidential election. Maybe. I mean that is the 1061 01:00:19,920 --> 01:00:23,920 Speaker 2: other thing, right that, like everyone who is engaging with 1062 01:00:23,960 --> 01:00:28,680 Speaker 2: this stuff via social media, there's a tendency to get 1063 01:00:28,680 --> 01:00:30,360 Speaker 2: caught up in a bubble in terms of just thinking 1064 01:00:30,400 --> 01:00:32,600 Speaker 2: about how much this is on the mind of like 1065 01:00:32,680 --> 01:00:36,240 Speaker 2: American voters. Maybe it'll be different this election, but generally, 1066 01:00:36,920 --> 01:00:38,960 Speaker 2: like again, my feelings on this are kind of muddled, 1067 01:00:38,960 --> 01:00:42,160 Speaker 2: but like very very often, no matter how big a 1068 01:00:42,280 --> 01:00:47,120 Speaker 2: deal a story is, you know, online and stuff, American 1069 01:00:47,200 --> 01:00:52,240 Speaker 2: voters rarely vote based on foreign policy concerns. Yeah, I 1070 01:00:52,280 --> 01:00:55,080 Speaker 2: want to say, I'm not saying that's what matters morally. 1071 01:00:55,080 --> 01:00:58,440 Speaker 7: I'm just talking about like you're totally correct. Yeah, yeah, 1072 01:00:58,520 --> 01:01:00,560 Speaker 7: and especially in terms of your ability to influence something, 1073 01:01:00,600 --> 01:01:02,800 Speaker 7: it doesn't matter how much if other people don't. An 1074 01:01:02,800 --> 01:01:05,360 Speaker 7: election time, I want to maybe finish up. I've just 1075 01:01:05,440 --> 01:01:08,360 Speaker 7: knocked over bottle of os of procole alcohols. My office 1076 01:01:08,400 --> 01:01:09,760 Speaker 7: is rapidly becoming. 1077 01:01:11,360 --> 01:01:11,880 Speaker 5: Yourself. 1078 01:01:13,120 --> 01:01:14,520 Speaker 7: That's why I went to turn on the fan and 1079 01:01:14,560 --> 01:01:19,960 Speaker 7: open the door. Good times. So maybe I want to 1080 01:01:19,960 --> 01:01:23,680 Speaker 7: finish up before I evacuate. By saying that that it's 1081 01:01:23,720 --> 01:01:25,760 Speaker 7: something you can do, and like it's to give your 1082 01:01:25,800 --> 01:01:27,960 Speaker 7: time and money. I know that doesn't feel as good 1083 01:01:28,000 --> 01:01:30,800 Speaker 7: as like, yeah, you know, trying to do amateur ocin 1084 01:01:31,080 --> 01:01:35,520 Speaker 7: on Reddit. But you can help, actually, like and you 1085 01:01:35,560 --> 01:01:38,120 Speaker 7: can make a meaningful difference with a few bucks. And 1086 01:01:38,160 --> 01:01:40,080 Speaker 7: I know I sound like an MPR advert now, but 1087 01:01:40,320 --> 01:01:44,680 Speaker 7: like the Rajarv Information Center has some good resources and 1088 01:01:45,440 --> 01:01:47,640 Speaker 7: like they they have, I'm not going to read them 1089 01:01:47,720 --> 01:01:50,280 Speaker 7: because it's very complicated. Like I said, it's bank transfer information. 1090 01:01:50,480 --> 01:01:53,480 Speaker 7: But if you feel helpless, you are not, Like you 1091 01:01:53,520 --> 01:01:56,040 Speaker 7: can do a lot with a little. You can raise money, 1092 01:01:56,600 --> 01:01:59,680 Speaker 7: you can help to organize donations, right that like this, 1093 01:02:00,240 --> 01:02:02,520 Speaker 7: these things make a difference. If someone who doesn't have 1094 01:02:02,640 --> 01:02:05,080 Speaker 7: water now gets a palette of bottled water, that makes 1095 01:02:05,120 --> 01:02:07,720 Speaker 7: a difference. If someone gets a heater for their home, 1096 01:02:08,160 --> 01:02:10,680 Speaker 7: that makes a difference. If even if it's someone whose 1097 01:02:10,760 --> 01:02:13,720 Speaker 7: kid has died, right like making their life a little 1098 01:02:13,800 --> 01:02:16,560 Speaker 7: less painful in a physical sense, rightly helping them be 1099 01:02:16,560 --> 01:02:19,000 Speaker 7: warm at night, that does make a difference. And you 1100 01:02:19,040 --> 01:02:22,000 Speaker 7: can do that. And if you want to make a difference, 1101 01:02:22,040 --> 01:02:25,000 Speaker 7: I would really encourage you to do whatever it is. 1102 01:02:25,360 --> 01:02:27,439 Speaker 7: And it doesn't have to be here, right, It's happened 1103 01:02:27,440 --> 01:02:30,640 Speaker 7: that there's like there's an ethnic cleansing happening in azabadiant 1104 01:02:30,880 --> 01:02:34,440 Speaker 7: there is an ethnic cleansing happening in Gaza, right, Like 1105 01:02:34,520 --> 01:02:38,360 Speaker 7: these are places where like you can show meaningful solidarity 1106 01:02:38,440 --> 01:02:41,240 Speaker 7: and support with a little bit of a donation or 1107 01:02:41,240 --> 01:02:43,840 Speaker 7: a fundraiser. It's happening at our fucking border, right, Like 1108 01:02:43,920 --> 01:02:46,720 Speaker 7: someone died at our border since I last recording. Someone 1109 01:02:46,720 --> 01:02:49,480 Speaker 7: else got run over by some child in the truck 1110 01:02:50,520 --> 01:02:53,320 Speaker 7: or like you can make a difference in a meaningful 1111 01:02:53,360 --> 01:02:56,280 Speaker 7: way with actions, And it's really easy to get sucked 1112 01:02:56,320 --> 01:02:59,680 Speaker 7: into like just posting into the void and feeling helpless, 1113 01:02:59,720 --> 01:03:02,000 Speaker 7: but like very helpful things you can do. 1114 01:03:02,720 --> 01:03:07,440 Speaker 10: Yeah, and you don't have to just you don't have 1115 01:03:07,520 --> 01:03:09,680 Speaker 10: to be like rich or have a lot of disposable 1116 01:03:09,720 --> 01:03:12,520 Speaker 10: income to do this. There's a lot of like traditionally 1117 01:03:13,360 --> 01:03:17,480 Speaker 10: anarchist communities have put on benefit shows to run to 1118 01:03:17,640 --> 01:03:21,840 Speaker 10: fundraise from an entire community. So that's not just you 1119 01:03:21,880 --> 01:03:24,400 Speaker 10: trying to you know, you know, put like your few 1120 01:03:24,440 --> 01:03:27,680 Speaker 10: pennies aside. Uh, there is there's ways, there's ways to 1121 01:03:27,680 --> 01:03:31,640 Speaker 10: do this that just involve you actually like getting involved 1122 01:03:31,640 --> 01:03:35,040 Speaker 10: with your like local culture, and a part of that 1123 01:03:35,200 --> 01:03:38,640 Speaker 10: is like it's not politics as fandom. It is metapolitics. 1124 01:03:38,640 --> 01:03:41,040 Speaker 10: It's where you actually put your politics into your into 1125 01:03:41,080 --> 01:03:44,440 Speaker 10: your actual everyday life and it influences the friends you have, 1126 01:03:44,480 --> 01:03:47,680 Speaker 10: the communities you have. So whether that's you know, a 1127 01:03:47,680 --> 01:03:50,960 Speaker 10: whole bunch of trans musicians doing a benefit show to 1128 01:03:50,960 --> 01:03:54,080 Speaker 10: to get donations to send over to Rajava or send 1129 01:03:54,120 --> 01:03:57,360 Speaker 10: over to to Gaza, or you know, there's a lot 1130 01:03:57,400 --> 01:04:00,560 Speaker 10: of other sorts of things that that is a way 1131 01:04:00,600 --> 01:04:03,400 Speaker 10: of actually having part of your politics be not just 1132 01:04:03,600 --> 01:04:07,040 Speaker 10: like consumption have not. It's not just like Twitter accounts 1133 01:04:07,040 --> 01:04:11,160 Speaker 10: with flags and your avatar. It's actually like living your 1134 01:04:11,160 --> 01:04:14,200 Speaker 10: life in a way that matches the things that you believe. 1135 01:04:14,640 --> 01:04:17,320 Speaker 7: And I think that that like, sorry, having spoken to 1136 01:04:17,320 --> 01:04:20,200 Speaker 7: people in Java in the Yepigae and the Yepijay and 1137 01:04:20,200 --> 01:04:22,760 Speaker 7: these other organizations, Like one of the things that makes 1138 01:04:22,760 --> 01:04:25,720 Speaker 7: them distinct from other militaries is that they are building 1139 01:04:26,360 --> 01:04:28,680 Speaker 7: the world they want to see while they're fighting against 1140 01:04:28,680 --> 01:04:30,840 Speaker 7: the thing that's killing it, right like they're destroying it. 1141 01:04:31,360 --> 01:04:33,240 Speaker 7: Like a lot of times we'll see leftist military is 1142 01:04:33,240 --> 01:04:38,560 Speaker 7: not exactly doing the equality. The leftism is about one hopes. 1143 01:04:38,800 --> 01:04:42,960 Speaker 7: So like you can participate in that, as Garrison said, 1144 01:04:43,040 --> 01:04:45,280 Speaker 7: right by doing the mutual aid by doing the benefit show, 1145 01:04:45,280 --> 01:04:47,960 Speaker 7: by doing the fundraiser, Like, you are making a world 1146 01:04:48,480 --> 01:04:52,000 Speaker 7: in which this shit will happen less when you do 1147 01:04:52,120 --> 01:04:54,120 Speaker 7: things to stop it happening or to ease the pain 1148 01:04:54,160 --> 01:04:54,840 Speaker 7: of it happening. 1149 01:04:54,880 --> 01:04:55,080 Speaker 11: Now. 1150 01:04:55,280 --> 01:04:58,600 Speaker 7: So and you're building communities, right and in strong communities 1151 01:04:58,600 --> 01:05:02,040 Speaker 7: are more resilient to this shit. Yeah, And like things 1152 01:05:02,080 --> 01:05:04,960 Speaker 7: are getting pretty bleak and we're only going to get 1153 01:05:04,960 --> 01:05:07,760 Speaker 7: through them by helping each other and building a network 1154 01:05:07,840 --> 01:05:10,479 Speaker 7: that continue. Like, if I think about how much better 1155 01:05:10,480 --> 01:05:12,760 Speaker 7: the mutual aid response has been this time to what's 1156 01:05:12,800 --> 01:05:14,880 Speaker 7: happened at the border compared to what it was in May. 1157 01:05:15,400 --> 01:05:18,240 Speaker 7: That's because people built networks didn't go away, and it 1158 01:05:18,720 --> 01:05:21,240 Speaker 7: was good in May in part because we built networks 1159 01:05:21,280 --> 01:05:24,360 Speaker 7: that help to make being gun housed in San Diego 1160 01:05:24,440 --> 01:05:28,560 Speaker 7: feel be survivable. Right, And like those networks are resilient 1161 01:05:28,720 --> 01:05:33,800 Speaker 7: and they're flexible, and they help us like mentally process 1162 01:05:33,920 --> 01:05:37,720 Speaker 7: all the horrible shit and also physically help people. So yeah, 1163 01:05:37,800 --> 01:05:40,080 Speaker 7: you have that within your means too, Right, you have 1164 01:05:40,120 --> 01:05:43,320 Speaker 7: a signal on your telephone, like you can organize things. 1165 01:05:43,720 --> 01:05:47,120 Speaker 7: I don't have to feel helpless, but I feel dizzy 1166 01:05:47,680 --> 01:05:50,240 Speaker 7: due today, I suppose, but alcoholic that has feeled. So 1167 01:05:50,680 --> 01:05:52,479 Speaker 7: maybe that's a wonderful time to end. 1168 01:05:52,400 --> 01:05:56,680 Speaker 2: The All right, everyone, James is going to hallucinate in 1169 01:05:56,760 --> 01:06:00,560 Speaker 2: his office, and you, I hope are going to hallucinate 1170 01:06:00,680 --> 01:06:01,680 Speaker 2: wherever you happen. 1171 01:06:01,480 --> 01:06:05,400 Speaker 7: To be right now. Enjoy the better world. 1172 01:06:06,120 --> 01:06:08,640 Speaker 2: Hallucinate the better world. It might be the only way 1173 01:06:08,680 --> 01:06:12,320 Speaker 2: to live through one wonderful podcast. 1174 01:06:12,360 --> 01:06:18,160 Speaker 7: To Garrison Davis's everyone, Hi, it's me James. You thought 1175 01:06:18,160 --> 01:06:21,360 Speaker 7: I died, but I have not. I survived the I 1176 01:06:21,440 --> 01:06:24,680 Speaker 7: superbot alcohol fumes. I wouldn't advise doing that to yourself. 1177 01:06:24,760 --> 01:06:27,160 Speaker 7: Very unpleasant, But I'm back just to update you. We 1178 01:06:27,240 --> 01:06:30,640 Speaker 7: recorded that last week and I am recording this today 1179 01:06:30,680 --> 01:06:32,760 Speaker 7: before this goes out, So I'm recording this on the 1180 01:06:32,800 --> 01:06:35,680 Speaker 7: afternoon of Monday, the twenty third of October. I just 1181 01:06:35,720 --> 01:06:39,680 Speaker 7: wanted to update everyone. As Robert mentioned in the show, 1182 01:06:40,840 --> 01:06:45,480 Speaker 7: the weakening of the essay shrint and the fact that 1183 01:06:45,520 --> 01:06:47,840 Speaker 7: people are not able to be out and about because 1184 01:06:47,840 --> 01:06:51,800 Speaker 7: of these drone strikes, combined with the events in Israel 1185 01:06:51,800 --> 01:06:54,880 Speaker 7: and Palestine in the last couple of weeks, have resulted 1186 01:06:54,920 --> 01:06:57,680 Speaker 7: in a significant uptake in violence in the area. So 1187 01:06:58,320 --> 01:07:00,680 Speaker 7: I just wanted to update you on that. I've seen 1188 01:07:00,720 --> 01:07:03,480 Speaker 7: a decent amount of misinformation, which will be shocking to 1189 01:07:03,520 --> 01:07:06,040 Speaker 7: many of you on Twitter dot com. So there have 1190 01:07:06,120 --> 01:07:10,000 Speaker 7: been a series of rocket and uav UOV and manned 1191 01:07:10,120 --> 01:07:14,680 Speaker 7: aerial vehicle right drones drone attacks on US bases across 1192 01:07:14,680 --> 01:07:19,000 Speaker 7: the north of Iraq and across Syria. So some of 1193 01:07:19,000 --> 01:07:21,040 Speaker 7: those happened Altant, which is further south. Some of them 1194 01:07:21,040 --> 01:07:24,480 Speaker 7: happened to Al Hussaka. Some of them also happened to 1195 01:07:24,520 --> 01:07:27,400 Speaker 7: oil pipelines. And I would be very wary of people 1196 01:07:27,440 --> 01:07:30,120 Speaker 7: posting pictures of big fires and claiming that there are 1197 01:07:30,160 --> 01:07:32,800 Speaker 7: attacks at the US Bass. Every time I've seen that, 1198 01:07:32,800 --> 01:07:34,920 Speaker 7: it's actually been an attack on an oil pipeline, and 1199 01:07:34,960 --> 01:07:37,800 Speaker 7: either the person doesn't know that that's not a US 1200 01:07:37,840 --> 01:07:40,400 Speaker 7: base or they are wilfully being leading to try and 1201 01:07:40,400 --> 01:07:43,320 Speaker 7: get more clicks. People get paid on Twitter for engagement now, 1202 01:07:43,440 --> 01:07:46,440 Speaker 7: so I'm quite cynical about people's reasons for doing that. 1203 01:07:46,480 --> 01:07:49,240 Speaker 7: But there definitely have been attacks that they have not 1204 01:07:49,400 --> 01:07:52,240 Speaker 7: resulted in much loss of life. One contractor I believe 1205 01:07:52,280 --> 01:07:56,160 Speaker 7: did lose their lives due to Carliac incident that happened 1206 01:07:56,200 --> 01:07:59,440 Speaker 7: when they were sheltering from a what turned out to 1207 01:07:59,440 --> 01:08:01,520 Speaker 7: be a false alarm of a drone attack, but no 1208 01:08:01,600 --> 01:08:04,800 Speaker 7: one has been directly killed by the drone munitions. There 1209 01:08:04,880 --> 01:08:08,880 Speaker 7: have been a number of people killed in increasing conflict 1210 01:08:08,880 --> 01:08:13,160 Speaker 7: in the area. Both one person was killed in Khamishlo 1211 01:08:13,720 --> 01:08:15,520 Speaker 7: very very close to where I stayed. Actually, you can 1212 01:08:15,560 --> 01:08:18,519 Speaker 7: probably see it from my Houtolium in a car bomb, 1213 01:08:18,560 --> 01:08:21,000 Speaker 7: which is not a normal thing to happen in the 1214 01:08:21,040 --> 01:08:23,440 Speaker 7: middle of that city, a car bomb going off, So 1215 01:08:23,479 --> 01:08:27,720 Speaker 7: that's obviously caused for concern for some people in Derrazor. 1216 01:08:28,280 --> 01:08:32,959 Speaker 7: SDF and coalition forces have conducted a number of operations 1217 01:08:32,960 --> 01:08:36,679 Speaker 7: against ISIS sleeper cells who are still there, arrested, obtained 1218 01:08:36,720 --> 01:08:39,519 Speaker 7: a number of suspected ISIS members. They've also been fighting 1219 01:08:39,520 --> 01:08:43,599 Speaker 7: against Iranian backed militias across the Euphrates. We've also seen 1220 01:08:44,720 --> 01:08:48,120 Speaker 7: fighting between the Peshmerga, so that those are the military 1221 01:08:48,120 --> 01:08:51,920 Speaker 7: forces of the Kurdist down regional government in that area 1222 01:08:51,960 --> 01:08:56,400 Speaker 7: of Iraq and the Iraqi Army around the Macmaal refugee camp, 1223 01:08:56,520 --> 01:08:59,240 Speaker 7: which is a refugee camp for Kurdish people who have 1224 01:08:59,320 --> 01:09:03,599 Speaker 7: fled from turky And of course we've seen a lot 1225 01:09:03,640 --> 01:09:07,840 Speaker 7: of threats, a lot of even fighting inside Iran, but 1226 01:09:08,040 --> 01:09:10,559 Speaker 7: it it's generally be an Iranian back to relations attacking 1227 01:09:11,280 --> 01:09:16,040 Speaker 7: US spaces so far across that whole area. So I 1228 01:09:16,080 --> 01:09:18,200 Speaker 7: just wanted to update you on those things. Obviously we'll 1229 01:09:18,280 --> 01:09:21,000 Speaker 7: keep updating you on them, and also to just suggest 1230 01:09:21,040 --> 01:09:24,639 Speaker 7: once again that people verify the sources of information because 1231 01:09:24,680 --> 01:09:26,800 Speaker 7: I have seen, especially about this area where I think 1232 01:09:27,000 --> 01:09:29,640 Speaker 7: literacy is very low among the general US populations, and 1233 01:09:29,720 --> 01:09:31,720 Speaker 7: outrageous claims being made by people who either don't know 1234 01:09:31,760 --> 01:09:34,840 Speaker 7: what they're talking about or are wilfully misleading people. So 1235 01:09:34,880 --> 01:09:38,479 Speaker 7: I wanted to counsel people to be concerned about that. 1236 01:09:38,520 --> 01:09:40,479 Speaker 7: We don't have exact I don't have exact numbers of 1237 01:09:40,479 --> 01:09:42,839 Speaker 7: the numbers of drone attacks. I'm looking at a Pentagon 1238 01:09:42,840 --> 01:09:45,120 Speaker 7: press conference that happened thirty nine minutes ago, and then 1239 01:09:45,840 --> 01:09:48,840 Speaker 7: they're not giving them out there. So I have asked 1240 01:09:48,880 --> 01:09:50,519 Speaker 7: them for comment on a couple of things. So didn't 1241 01:09:50,560 --> 01:09:54,360 Speaker 7: email me back, very sad ghosting me. Bit, Yeah, that's 1242 01:09:54,400 --> 01:09:56,519 Speaker 7: the latest information on that. I wanted to make sure 1243 01:09:56,520 --> 01:09:58,160 Speaker 7: that we have the leader's update for you. 1244 01:10:14,120 --> 01:10:17,240 Speaker 2: Welcome back to it could happen here. I am Robert Evans, 1245 01:10:17,320 --> 01:10:21,559 Speaker 2: and this is a podcast about things falling apart. Sometimes 1246 01:10:21,600 --> 01:10:24,479 Speaker 2: it's about how to make things not fall apart, and 1247 01:10:24,560 --> 01:10:27,800 Speaker 2: other times it's more about enduring it. Today is more 1248 01:10:27,840 --> 01:10:30,080 Speaker 2: on the endurance side of things, and we're talking about 1249 01:10:30,080 --> 01:10:32,880 Speaker 2: a subject that we get a lot of requests about here. 1250 01:10:33,360 --> 01:10:35,680 Speaker 2: We've discussed this a year or so ago with one 1251 01:10:35,680 --> 01:10:38,559 Speaker 2: of our guests, a great Carl Casarta. We're talking about 1252 01:10:38,600 --> 01:10:42,280 Speaker 2: like security culture, and particularly the aspect of security culture 1253 01:10:42,280 --> 01:10:45,799 Speaker 2: that involves digital devices and how to communicate with your friends' 1254 01:10:45,800 --> 01:10:51,360 Speaker 2: affinity groups, whomever via your phone essentially or your computer. 1255 01:10:51,840 --> 01:10:54,519 Speaker 2: This is a thing where there's a huge amount of 1256 01:10:54,560 --> 01:10:58,040 Speaker 2: disinformation as to which apps are safe. What does it 1257 01:10:58,080 --> 01:11:00,479 Speaker 2: actually mean to say that an app is a cryptied 1258 01:11:01,160 --> 01:11:03,599 Speaker 2: How far does encryption get you? What sort of like 1259 01:11:03,760 --> 01:11:08,800 Speaker 2: cultural things come alongside the actual, like physical reality of 1260 01:11:09,240 --> 01:11:11,360 Speaker 2: the security of the device in order to kind of 1261 01:11:11,400 --> 01:11:14,840 Speaker 2: make a comprehensive security profile. We're gonna be talking about 1262 01:11:14,840 --> 01:11:16,799 Speaker 2: all that today and hopefully giving you some good advice 1263 01:11:16,880 --> 01:11:19,519 Speaker 2: on what you can trust. Because I am the furthest 1264 01:11:19,560 --> 01:11:22,519 Speaker 2: thing in the world from a technical expert. We have 1265 01:11:22,600 --> 01:11:26,960 Speaker 2: two actual experts with us today. Carolyn Senders and Cooper 1266 01:11:27,040 --> 01:11:30,760 Speaker 2: Quinton have both recently published a paper alongside several other 1267 01:11:30,800 --> 01:11:35,639 Speaker 2: authors Leila Wagner, Tim Bernard, Ami Meta, and Justin Hendricks 1268 01:11:36,520 --> 01:11:40,080 Speaker 2: called What is Secure? An Analysis of Popular Messaging Apps, 1269 01:11:40,080 --> 01:11:43,839 Speaker 2: and it's it's basically going over what is the actual 1270 01:11:43,920 --> 01:11:47,240 Speaker 2: level of security with a number of things like Telegram, 1271 01:11:47,360 --> 01:11:52,280 Speaker 2: you know, Telegram's private messaging system, Facebook Messenger, Apple Message, 1272 01:11:52,680 --> 01:11:55,960 Speaker 2: or I Message. I guess it's called and obviously signal 1273 01:11:56,000 --> 01:11:59,120 Speaker 2: and kind of as a spoiler, signal is your best bet. 1274 01:11:59,160 --> 01:12:01,760 Speaker 2: But that also isn't where you should end, right, I 1275 01:12:01,760 --> 01:12:03,439 Speaker 2: think we want to also talk about kind of like 1276 01:12:03,520 --> 01:12:06,719 Speaker 2: why and to what extent that's the case. But anyway, 1277 01:12:06,880 --> 01:12:09,080 Speaker 2: I'm going to turn things over to Carolyn and Cooper 1278 01:12:09,120 --> 01:12:12,840 Speaker 2: now because I have talked enough about this. Hey, guys, 1279 01:12:12,880 --> 01:12:13,639 Speaker 2: welcome to the show. 1280 01:12:15,120 --> 01:12:17,200 Speaker 9: Hey, Robert, thanks so much for having us on. 1281 01:12:17,720 --> 01:12:19,320 Speaker 6: Yeah ah yeah, thank you so much. 1282 01:12:19,560 --> 01:12:23,479 Speaker 12: A big fan of the podcast, so always lovely, really 1283 01:12:23,520 --> 01:12:24,280 Speaker 12: lovely to be here. 1284 01:12:24,760 --> 01:12:25,800 Speaker 6: Yeah, thank you so much. 1285 01:12:26,400 --> 01:12:29,280 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really lovely to have you both again. Listeners. 1286 01:12:29,320 --> 01:12:32,040 Speaker 2: If you want to take a look at this their paper, 1287 01:12:32,040 --> 01:12:34,439 Speaker 2: if you just google what is Secure and Analysis of 1288 01:12:34,479 --> 01:12:37,439 Speaker 2: Popular Messaging Apps, you'll find the Tech Policy Press has 1289 01:12:37,680 --> 01:12:40,200 Speaker 2: a summary of it that's pretty quick. The full paper 1290 01:12:40,280 --> 01:12:43,160 Speaker 2: is eighty six pages or so. I also recommend reading that, 1291 01:12:43,240 --> 01:12:45,160 Speaker 2: but if you wanted to give this, you know, the 1292 01:12:45,200 --> 01:12:48,120 Speaker 2: summary a skim before you continue, that might help. But 1293 01:12:48,360 --> 01:12:50,120 Speaker 2: I kind of wanted to start by asking you, guys, 1294 01:12:50,840 --> 01:12:54,759 Speaker 2: what is it that makes signal a good option for people? 1295 01:12:54,880 --> 01:12:55,040 Speaker 5: Right? 1296 01:12:55,040 --> 01:12:57,479 Speaker 2: Because I think most folks you describe it as sort 1297 01:12:57,479 --> 01:13:00,400 Speaker 2: of security folklore, right, this the stuff that you hear 1298 01:13:00,439 --> 01:13:02,960 Speaker 2: about security from your friends, and if you're not a 1299 01:13:03,000 --> 01:13:05,479 Speaker 2: technical person, you kind of just like trust what the 1300 01:13:05,520 --> 01:13:07,360 Speaker 2: folks around you were saying. And that was sort of 1301 01:13:07,360 --> 01:13:10,360 Speaker 2: how I got into Signal. Right, I'm not a technical person, 1302 01:13:10,400 --> 01:13:12,479 Speaker 2: but people I knew and trusted who were were like, 1303 01:13:12,520 --> 01:13:13,519 Speaker 2: this is your best option? 1304 01:13:14,200 --> 01:13:15,080 Speaker 6: Yeah, thank you so much. 1305 01:13:15,200 --> 01:13:17,280 Speaker 12: That's such a good question, and I think Cooper and 1306 01:13:17,320 --> 01:13:20,920 Speaker 12: I probably have similar but also like very different answers 1307 01:13:21,000 --> 01:13:21,320 Speaker 12: to it. 1308 01:13:21,800 --> 01:13:23,719 Speaker 6: Cooper, I can go first if you want. 1309 01:13:24,400 --> 01:13:26,000 Speaker 12: One of the things I love about Signal is it's 1310 01:13:26,000 --> 01:13:29,639 Speaker 12: just really easy to use. It's in and encrypted, it's 1311 01:13:29,640 --> 01:13:32,080 Speaker 12: a messaging app. There's not a lot of stuff on it, 1312 01:13:32,120 --> 01:13:34,800 Speaker 12: but you can do a lot with it. So you 1313 01:13:34,800 --> 01:13:38,160 Speaker 12: can do video calls, you can send actually pretty large 1314 01:13:38,160 --> 01:13:41,120 Speaker 12: files like PDFs. You can have drag and drop stuff, 1315 01:13:41,520 --> 01:13:45,160 Speaker 12: it's like such a low threshold for use for users 1316 01:13:45,479 --> 01:13:47,600 Speaker 12: because it is a messaging app, but it does so 1317 01:13:47,640 --> 01:13:50,720 Speaker 12: many different kinds of things. But then related to that, 1318 01:13:50,760 --> 01:13:54,360 Speaker 12: it's also actually quite minimal. So the paper which everyone 1319 01:13:54,400 --> 01:13:57,559 Speaker 12: should read, and we'll probably get into this later. Different 1320 01:13:57,600 --> 01:14:02,960 Speaker 12: apps like Telegram or of Facebook's Messenger app, for example, 1321 01:14:03,160 --> 01:14:05,240 Speaker 12: have have this thing we've been. 1322 01:14:05,160 --> 01:14:06,280 Speaker 6: Calling a feature bloat. 1323 01:14:06,800 --> 01:14:09,599 Speaker 12: They are messaging services that actually feel a bit more 1324 01:14:09,680 --> 01:14:11,920 Speaker 12: like social networks if you look at the amount of 1325 01:14:11,960 --> 01:14:14,280 Speaker 12: stuff that's on there, and by stuff, I don't just 1326 01:14:14,360 --> 01:14:17,320 Speaker 12: mean like stickers, I mean if you look at there's 1327 01:14:17,360 --> 01:14:20,519 Speaker 12: all these sort of specific and strange settings you can 1328 01:14:20,600 --> 01:14:23,360 Speaker 12: use to have all different kinds of messages and all 1329 01:14:23,360 --> 01:14:26,720 Speaker 12: different kinds of privacy settings, and all privacy settings. 1330 01:14:26,400 --> 01:14:27,360 Speaker 6: Are really really great. 1331 01:14:28,240 --> 01:14:32,479 Speaker 12: Because Telegram and Facebook Messenger are not encrypted by default, 1332 01:14:32,520 --> 01:14:34,880 Speaker 12: actually some of those settings can make you feel more 1333 01:14:34,880 --> 01:14:37,160 Speaker 12: secure when you're not so. Kind of the beauty of 1334 01:14:37,200 --> 01:14:40,200 Speaker 12: Signal is that out of the box, it's incredibly secure. 1335 01:14:40,840 --> 01:14:43,920 Speaker 12: It's an encrypted they're not holding any data about you. 1336 01:14:44,280 --> 01:14:44,679 Speaker 6: I believe. 1337 01:14:44,720 --> 01:14:47,280 Speaker 12: The only only day they hold is like when you've 1338 01:14:47,479 --> 01:14:50,520 Speaker 12: like when a phone number or a profile has downloaded 1339 01:14:50,600 --> 01:14:53,960 Speaker 12: Signal like when you've when you've signed up. But again 1340 01:14:54,000 --> 01:14:59,000 Speaker 12: it's it's incredibly easy to use. And another thing is, 1341 01:14:59,200 --> 01:15:00,640 Speaker 12: you know, if this was a few years ago, we've 1342 01:15:00,680 --> 01:15:02,760 Speaker 12: been looking at wire for example, when the nice things 1343 01:15:02,800 --> 01:15:05,880 Speaker 12: about Signal, and this might be controversial to some designers, 1344 01:15:05,960 --> 01:15:08,719 Speaker 12: is that it does follow modern design patterns and standards. 1345 01:15:08,720 --> 01:15:11,680 Speaker 12: So if you're using an iOS or Android version, like 1346 01:15:11,840 --> 01:15:14,639 Speaker 12: there are buttons in places where you expect them to be. 1347 01:15:14,800 --> 01:15:20,280 Speaker 12: Signal is not perfectly designed, but it is quite usable. Yeah, 1348 01:15:20,320 --> 01:15:22,280 Speaker 12: So for me, that's kind of what I think makes 1349 01:15:22,320 --> 01:15:23,839 Speaker 12: it makes it really wonderful. 1350 01:15:24,120 --> 01:15:27,280 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely as much as I love it, and 1351 01:15:27,320 --> 01:15:30,320 Speaker 2: it's my like standard messaging app I do every now 1352 01:15:30,360 --> 01:15:32,000 Speaker 2: and then run into the thing where like my friends 1353 01:15:32,000 --> 01:15:34,080 Speaker 2: will call me through Signal, which is great if you 1354 01:15:34,080 --> 01:15:36,599 Speaker 2: need a call to be secure, but it's not nearly 1355 01:15:36,640 --> 01:15:38,720 Speaker 2: as good, Like it drops a lot more often than 1356 01:15:38,760 --> 01:15:41,160 Speaker 2: a regular phone call and I'm like, we're just trying 1357 01:15:41,200 --> 01:15:43,120 Speaker 2: to meet at the movie theater. It's okay if the 1358 01:15:43,240 --> 01:15:46,720 Speaker 2: NSA no, right, Like, I've definitely. 1359 01:15:46,400 --> 01:15:48,240 Speaker 12: Had that with friends where I'm like I'm like, yeah, 1360 01:15:48,240 --> 01:15:52,080 Speaker 12: I'm like, we're just calling to talk about like your dog. 1361 01:15:52,560 --> 01:15:56,280 Speaker 2: It's probably fine, Yeah, the FBI can have this stuff. 1362 01:15:56,600 --> 01:16:00,280 Speaker 12: Yeah, please send, please send, please send dog picks through 1363 01:16:00,720 --> 01:16:01,960 Speaker 12: all messaging apps. 1364 01:16:03,200 --> 01:16:06,280 Speaker 9: You know. But on that note, it's uh writing, writing 1365 01:16:06,520 --> 01:16:10,920 Speaker 9: usable software that is also secure is really hard, right, 1366 01:16:10,960 --> 01:16:15,000 Speaker 9: And like as a like as cryptographer, I'm not a cryptographer, 1367 01:16:15,080 --> 01:16:18,920 Speaker 9: but like as somebody cryptographer adjacent, we got that wrong 1368 01:16:19,040 --> 01:16:22,920 Speaker 9: for a long time, right, like before Signal the problem, 1369 01:16:23,120 --> 01:16:25,800 Speaker 9: you know, there were the the the sort of most 1370 01:16:25,960 --> 01:16:30,360 Speaker 9: used encryption methods were probably uh PGP email, which is 1371 01:16:30,360 --> 01:16:33,559 Speaker 9: a method for encrypting email, and off the record chats, 1372 01:16:33,640 --> 01:16:37,200 Speaker 9: and both of those none of those ever got to 1373 01:16:37,360 --> 01:16:40,760 Speaker 9: the sort of level of user base that Signal and 1374 01:16:41,080 --> 01:16:45,679 Speaker 9: and certainly not WhatsApp have, right, And and that's largely 1375 01:16:45,760 --> 01:16:50,320 Speaker 9: because they were pretty much unusable, like PGP, almost entirely 1376 01:16:50,400 --> 01:16:54,799 Speaker 9: unusable even by cryptography professionals, right, even by computer security 1377 01:16:54,800 --> 01:16:59,519 Speaker 9: professionals like ourselves. OTR chat total pain in the butt, right, 1378 01:16:59,600 --> 01:17:04,120 Speaker 9: like just a real nightmare to use. So, like Signal, 1379 01:17:04,320 --> 01:17:06,679 Speaker 9: there are still some rough edges, and we talked about 1380 01:17:06,680 --> 01:17:09,720 Speaker 9: some of those in our paper, But overall, I think 1381 01:17:09,760 --> 01:17:12,000 Speaker 9: that the big, the big innovation they've had is just 1382 01:17:12,640 --> 01:17:15,439 Speaker 9: remembering that what people want to do on a chat 1383 01:17:15,479 --> 01:17:18,280 Speaker 9: app is not encrypt things. What people want to do 1384 01:17:18,320 --> 01:17:20,240 Speaker 9: on a chat app is they want to they want 1385 01:17:20,240 --> 01:17:23,479 Speaker 9: to chat right. And and the second that that that 1386 01:17:23,560 --> 01:17:25,760 Speaker 9: the security sort of gets in the way of that, 1387 01:17:26,320 --> 01:17:28,400 Speaker 9: people will stop using it and go find something that's 1388 01:17:28,479 --> 01:17:31,479 Speaker 9: more usable. And it seems like that's been Signals sort 1389 01:17:31,479 --> 01:17:35,759 Speaker 9: of guiding star and it's and they've you know, doing 1390 01:17:35,800 --> 01:17:38,479 Speaker 9: the doing the most secure thing that you can well 1391 01:17:38,560 --> 01:17:44,160 Speaker 9: still being fun and usable to actually just chat on right, 1392 01:17:44,240 --> 01:17:46,400 Speaker 9: And I think that that has served them quite well. 1393 01:17:47,240 --> 01:17:51,280 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's it's it's so important. One of 1394 01:17:51,320 --> 01:17:53,400 Speaker 2: I think one of the things that that contributes to 1395 01:17:53,479 --> 01:17:57,840 Speaker 2: good overall security is setting yourself up for success, which 1396 01:17:57,880 --> 01:18:00,400 Speaker 2: means setting yourself up for a system that can function 1397 01:18:00,479 --> 01:18:02,360 Speaker 2: well if you're lazy, which is one of the nice 1398 01:18:02,400 --> 01:18:04,240 Speaker 2: things that you know, with Signal, you don't have to 1399 01:18:04,280 --> 01:18:06,559 Speaker 2: worry about like opting in and out and like selecting 1400 01:18:06,560 --> 01:18:09,280 Speaker 2: a bunch of stuff. It's pretty safe, especially for a 1401 01:18:09,280 --> 01:18:12,479 Speaker 2: normal person's uses right out of the box, which is 1402 01:18:12,600 --> 01:18:15,479 Speaker 2: huge and kind of in the same line as that 1403 01:18:15,600 --> 01:18:18,639 Speaker 2: is the fact that because Signal doesn't store metadata, you're 1404 01:18:18,640 --> 01:18:22,200 Speaker 2: not relying upon them being like committed, you know, anti 1405 01:18:22,200 --> 01:18:25,879 Speaker 2: state actors or whatever like, because they don't have access 1406 01:18:25,920 --> 01:18:28,280 Speaker 2: to the thing that, for example, Facebook will hand over 1407 01:18:28,360 --> 01:18:31,000 Speaker 2: to the cops if the cops just like breathe in 1408 01:18:31,040 --> 01:18:31,599 Speaker 2: their direction. 1409 01:18:33,479 --> 01:18:36,120 Speaker 9: Yeah, that's that's exactly right, And that's that is That 1410 01:18:36,200 --> 01:18:38,200 Speaker 9: is the other really cool thing about Signal. You know, we, 1411 01:18:38,880 --> 01:18:42,000 Speaker 9: as Carolyn said, the only data that Signal gives over 1412 01:18:42,080 --> 01:18:46,759 Speaker 9: in response to a subpoena is the time that the 1413 01:18:46,800 --> 01:18:49,040 Speaker 9: phone number signed up for Signal account and the last 1414 01:18:49,040 --> 01:18:51,559 Speaker 9: time it connected to the Signal server. And the reason 1415 01:18:51,560 --> 01:18:55,600 Speaker 9: we know that is because Signal publishes transparency reports with 1416 01:18:55,720 --> 01:18:58,800 Speaker 9: the full text and full response of any subpoena that 1417 01:18:58,840 --> 01:19:02,320 Speaker 9: they get, so like, we can actually just see in 1418 01:19:02,360 --> 01:19:04,960 Speaker 9: the responses that all they've given over is these two 1419 01:19:05,000 --> 01:19:07,599 Speaker 9: pieces of information, because that's all they have, and they've 1420 01:19:07,600 --> 01:19:10,599 Speaker 9: done some pretty clever things to make that be. 1421 01:19:10,600 --> 01:19:13,599 Speaker 12: The case, right, And that's actually so different than how 1422 01:19:14,040 --> 01:19:18,280 Speaker 12: other companies are i think, reporting on either subpoenas or 1423 01:19:18,400 --> 01:19:19,080 Speaker 12: any kind of. 1424 01:19:20,720 --> 01:19:22,479 Speaker 6: Weight that law enforcement puts on them. 1425 01:19:22,840 --> 01:19:25,840 Speaker 12: So for our report, I don't remember how much's it's 1426 01:19:25,880 --> 01:19:29,000 Speaker 12: mentioned in the report actually, but we did go through 1427 01:19:29,240 --> 01:19:34,040 Speaker 12: and look at Apple Meta and I think Google, like 1428 01:19:34,120 --> 01:19:36,599 Speaker 12: in their own transparency reports to try to get a 1429 01:19:36,640 --> 01:19:41,160 Speaker 12: sense of how that would stack up in comparison to Signals. 1430 01:19:41,880 --> 01:19:45,440 Speaker 12: I think in some cases it's saying like they received 1431 01:19:46,160 --> 01:19:49,880 Speaker 12: some kind of like notification, but like no, nothing really 1432 01:19:49,880 --> 01:19:54,120 Speaker 12: clear or specific on what they received from law enforcement 1433 01:19:54,240 --> 01:19:56,840 Speaker 12: or government, but rather just that they received one. And 1434 01:19:56,880 --> 01:19:58,840 Speaker 12: so that's also the really great thing about Signal is 1435 01:19:58,880 --> 01:20:02,880 Speaker 12: you are getting all this information that you're not getting 1436 01:20:03,320 --> 01:20:05,880 Speaker 12: from other companies or platforms. 1437 01:20:06,479 --> 01:20:09,880 Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I wanted to kind of in the 1438 01:20:09,920 --> 01:20:12,719 Speaker 2: same subject and going back to we kind of opened 1439 01:20:12,720 --> 01:20:16,760 Speaker 2: this introducing the concept that y'all introduced me to. I 1440 01:20:16,760 --> 01:20:18,920 Speaker 2: guess I was aware of this, but not the terminology 1441 01:20:18,960 --> 01:20:21,519 Speaker 2: security folklore, and I wanted to chat a little bit 1442 01:20:21,520 --> 01:20:23,479 Speaker 2: about kind of the most recent example of this something 1443 01:20:23,760 --> 01:20:26,000 Speaker 2: a lot of folks have probably been wondering about since 1444 01:20:26,000 --> 01:20:28,640 Speaker 2: we started talking about Signal, which is that roughly a 1445 01:20:28,680 --> 01:20:32,760 Speaker 2: week before y'all and I sat down to talk about this, 1446 01:20:33,760 --> 01:20:37,720 Speaker 2: a kind of viral info meme started coming through that 1447 01:20:37,840 --> 01:20:41,640 Speaker 2: was like Signal has a zero day exploit, which is 1448 01:20:42,000 --> 01:20:44,559 Speaker 2: basically a hole that a hacker found in an Apple 1449 01:20:44,640 --> 01:20:48,840 Speaker 2: program that is that can't expose you. You have to turn 1450 01:20:49,000 --> 01:20:52,840 Speaker 2: off link previews, right, which is that when you when 1451 01:20:52,880 --> 01:20:55,479 Speaker 2: someone sends you like a link to an article in Signal, 1452 01:20:55,680 --> 01:20:58,160 Speaker 2: you get a little preview, not not dissimilar to how 1453 01:21:00,120 --> 01:21:02,519 Speaker 2: I think to be fair, just based on my very 1454 01:21:02,560 --> 01:21:05,160 Speaker 2: limited knowledge, that is, when I think about, like, what 1455 01:21:05,240 --> 01:21:07,960 Speaker 2: are potential holes in Signal, I don't think it's unreasonable 1456 01:21:07,960 --> 01:21:11,799 Speaker 2: to be concerned about that specific feature. But that warning 1457 01:21:12,000 --> 01:21:14,479 Speaker 2: was not what it kind of seemed to be basically 1458 01:21:14,560 --> 01:21:16,120 Speaker 2: or not as accurate as I think a lot of 1459 01:21:16,160 --> 01:21:17,200 Speaker 2: people took it as being. 1460 01:21:17,240 --> 01:21:17,519 Speaker 10: I know. 1461 01:21:17,600 --> 01:21:19,280 Speaker 2: I'll I'll tell I'll turn it over to you, guys. 1462 01:21:19,280 --> 01:21:20,719 Speaker 2: I think that's the next thing I want to talk about. 1463 01:21:21,040 --> 01:21:24,680 Speaker 6: I'll turn it over to Cooper who had you had? Ah? 1464 01:21:25,640 --> 01:21:27,040 Speaker 6: You have a lot of feels about that. 1465 01:21:27,320 --> 01:21:31,080 Speaker 9: I have so many feelings about this. I was working 1466 01:21:31,120 --> 01:21:35,080 Speaker 9: on this all weekend. So this Yeah, so this copy pasta. 1467 01:21:35,320 --> 01:21:38,759 Speaker 9: I'm calling this like the Signal copy pasta. Yeah, which 1468 01:21:38,800 --> 01:21:42,240 Speaker 9: is a term from you know, four Chan and other 1469 01:21:42,280 --> 01:21:43,400 Speaker 9: horrible Internet places. 1470 01:21:43,400 --> 01:21:47,880 Speaker 6: But some media audience is probably Internet enough. 1471 01:21:48,680 --> 01:21:48,880 Speaker 11: Yeah. 1472 01:21:48,880 --> 01:21:51,439 Speaker 2: I'm gonna guess a good half of the people listening 1473 01:21:51,439 --> 01:21:53,320 Speaker 2: at least got that message. 1474 01:21:53,360 --> 01:21:53,719 Speaker 13: Yeah. 1475 01:21:53,800 --> 01:21:57,840 Speaker 9: Yeah, And it's it's like, first of all, this is 1476 01:21:57,880 --> 01:22:01,639 Speaker 9: not if you if you have a zero DA and signal, 1477 01:22:01,640 --> 01:22:03,439 Speaker 9: which is it, which is an exploit for signal that 1478 01:22:03,479 --> 01:22:06,200 Speaker 9: has been unpatched, that has not been patched by the vendor, 1479 01:22:06,240 --> 01:22:09,000 Speaker 9: so you can actively exploit it. There are no people 1480 01:22:09,040 --> 01:22:15,040 Speaker 9: in the world who would choose to quietly leak this 1481 01:22:15,240 --> 01:22:18,880 Speaker 9: over you know, over vague signal texts. There are two 1482 01:22:18,960 --> 01:22:23,040 Speaker 9: types of people. One uh, you know, people like us 1483 01:22:23,080 --> 01:22:25,479 Speaker 9: that would bring this to signal immediately and get them 1484 01:22:25,520 --> 01:22:28,360 Speaker 9: to patch it to protect the you know, millions of 1485 01:22:28,400 --> 01:22:31,120 Speaker 9: high risk users that you signal, or to the type 1486 01:22:31,120 --> 01:22:33,840 Speaker 9: of people that would go sell this exploit to some 1487 01:22:34,200 --> 01:22:36,320 Speaker 9: horrible company that would use it, you know, sell it 1488 01:22:36,360 --> 01:22:39,680 Speaker 9: to Saudi Arabia or something and use it to kill activists. 1489 01:22:40,080 --> 01:22:42,040 Speaker 13: Right, Like there is and there's no in between. 1490 01:22:42,080 --> 01:22:45,760 Speaker 9: There's nobody that is going to quietly leak this for 1491 01:22:45,960 --> 01:22:48,160 Speaker 9: you know, just for fun with vague details. 1492 01:22:48,240 --> 01:22:48,400 Speaker 11: Right. 1493 01:22:48,920 --> 01:22:51,919 Speaker 9: So, so this this message set up red flags immediately, 1494 01:22:51,960 --> 01:22:56,719 Speaker 9: and like it's because I really do not like ling previews. 1495 01:22:56,760 --> 01:22:59,439 Speaker 9: And in our paper we discussed some of the issues 1496 01:22:59,439 --> 01:23:02,240 Speaker 9: that we have with link previews. You know, we think 1497 01:23:02,280 --> 01:23:05,759 Speaker 9: that they can they can leak some information about your 1498 01:23:06,280 --> 01:23:09,760 Speaker 9: chats to the owner of the website. Right, we think 1499 01:23:09,800 --> 01:23:12,120 Speaker 9: it's a kind of a large attack service. It's not 1500 01:23:12,240 --> 01:23:13,160 Speaker 9: super necessary. 1501 01:23:13,560 --> 01:23:17,080 Speaker 12: Would you mind explaining to actually the audience to like 1502 01:23:17,680 --> 01:23:21,280 Speaker 12: a little bit about what what we found when looking 1503 01:23:21,320 --> 01:23:22,320 Speaker 12: at link previews. 1504 01:23:22,960 --> 01:23:26,320 Speaker 9: Yeah. So, the way that link previews work is when 1505 01:23:26,360 --> 01:23:29,160 Speaker 9: you the way that they work on Signal and on 1506 01:23:29,200 --> 01:23:32,920 Speaker 9: WhatsApp is that when you send a link to somebody, 1507 01:23:33,560 --> 01:23:37,840 Speaker 9: the Signal app or WhatsApp goes and like fetches the 1508 01:23:37,880 --> 01:23:39,960 Speaker 9: web page that that you know for that link, right, 1509 01:23:40,000 --> 01:23:42,439 Speaker 9: It goes and downloads, you know, downloads the content of 1510 01:23:42,479 --> 01:23:46,519 Speaker 9: that link and gets a There are some there's some 1511 01:23:46,560 --> 01:23:50,519 Speaker 9: special HTML tags that describe, you know, sort of what 1512 01:23:50,560 --> 01:23:52,760 Speaker 9: the page is about, what the title of the page is. 1513 01:23:52,680 --> 01:23:54,080 Speaker 13: And like an image for the page. 1514 01:23:54,320 --> 01:23:56,200 Speaker 9: And it gets those tags and it puts them all 1515 01:23:56,200 --> 01:23:58,800 Speaker 9: together in this little package and then sends that all 1516 01:23:58,840 --> 01:24:01,840 Speaker 9: as part of the signalsage. So when you put a 1517 01:24:01,880 --> 01:24:03,960 Speaker 9: link in Signal, your phone actually goes out and gets 1518 01:24:04,000 --> 01:24:05,960 Speaker 9: that web page, and it gets that web page with 1519 01:24:06,160 --> 01:24:11,680 Speaker 9: a what's called the user agent, which is like a 1520 01:24:11,720 --> 01:24:15,280 Speaker 9: piece of text that's attached to the request that uniquely 1521 01:24:15,439 --> 01:24:19,639 Speaker 9: that that identifies it as being a request from Signal 1522 01:24:20,000 --> 01:24:23,000 Speaker 9: and from like from Signal and from your IP address. Right, 1523 01:24:23,479 --> 01:24:25,600 Speaker 9: So when you put a link in the owner of 1524 01:24:25,640 --> 01:24:28,160 Speaker 9: that website, whoever has the logs for that website, can 1525 01:24:28,200 --> 01:24:32,200 Speaker 9: know that somebody at your IP address is using Signal 1526 01:24:32,240 --> 01:24:33,759 Speaker 9: and sending this link over signal. 1527 01:24:34,960 --> 01:24:38,280 Speaker 13: What we're what our concern is is that if that link. 1528 01:24:38,160 --> 01:24:44,000 Speaker 9: Is unique, then anybody else who visits that link can 1529 01:24:44,040 --> 01:24:48,240 Speaker 9: be inferred to be somebody that you are talking with 1530 01:24:48,320 --> 01:24:52,560 Speaker 9: over signal, right, and so like this can be this 1531 01:24:53,000 --> 01:24:56,720 Speaker 9: can be a good an interesting a source of intelligence 1532 01:24:57,120 --> 01:25:01,759 Speaker 9: for website owners, especially for big websites that can easily 1533 01:25:01,800 --> 01:25:05,240 Speaker 9: generate unique links with like tracking parameters at the end 1534 01:25:05,280 --> 01:25:06,240 Speaker 9: of them, right, Like when you. 1535 01:25:06,160 --> 01:25:07,919 Speaker 13: Share a. 1536 01:25:08,800 --> 01:25:11,439 Speaker 9: Instagram post, and like at the end it's like question 1537 01:25:11,520 --> 01:25:14,040 Speaker 9: mark I G, S H I D equals you know, 1538 01:25:14,160 --> 01:25:16,720 Speaker 9: a long string of numbers and letters, right, or a 1539 01:25:16,800 --> 01:25:19,639 Speaker 9: Twitter post where you know T equals a long string 1540 01:25:19,640 --> 01:25:20,400 Speaker 9: of letters and numbers. 1541 01:25:20,479 --> 01:25:20,599 Speaker 1: Right. 1542 01:25:20,680 --> 01:25:23,080 Speaker 13: That makes a unique link, and then anybody who. 1543 01:25:22,920 --> 01:25:26,240 Speaker 9: Visits that same link can be determined to be somebody 1544 01:25:26,240 --> 01:25:31,400 Speaker 9: that you're speaking with over signal. So and also WhatsApp 1545 01:25:32,000 --> 01:25:34,840 Speaker 9: and so so for that reason. 1546 01:25:34,880 --> 01:25:39,760 Speaker 8: We we we think that Signal and WhatsApp should turn 1547 01:25:39,840 --> 01:25:43,640 Speaker 8: link previews off by by default because we think that 1548 01:25:43,640 --> 01:25:44,879 Speaker 8: that's an unncessary information. 1549 01:25:45,000 --> 01:25:50,360 Speaker 9: Link Signal and WhatsApps pushback on that is that link 1550 01:25:50,439 --> 01:25:56,040 Speaker 9: previews are a core feature that people demand, and if 1551 01:25:56,080 --> 01:25:58,879 Speaker 9: they if they were to turn off link previews by default, 1552 01:25:59,400 --> 01:26:02,240 Speaker 9: there were the people would leave the platform for less 1553 01:26:02,240 --> 01:26:05,320 Speaker 9: secure platforms like Telegram. 1554 01:26:05,760 --> 01:26:07,439 Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean, I don't want to tell them 1555 01:26:07,439 --> 01:26:09,760 Speaker 2: their business, because I'm sure they have data on this, 1556 01:26:09,880 --> 01:26:15,680 Speaker 2: but I've never thought about link previews as being a 1557 01:26:15,760 --> 01:26:17,240 Speaker 2: thing that I needed. 1558 01:26:18,360 --> 01:26:20,920 Speaker 12: It's like, yeah, I think it's I think it's one 1559 01:26:20,960 --> 01:26:24,000 Speaker 12: of those things. And you know, we haven't necessarily done 1560 01:26:24,280 --> 01:26:29,600 Speaker 12: like extensive general design research in this right, Like we 1561 01:26:29,640 --> 01:26:33,040 Speaker 12: haven't surveyed like three thousand people in the US. We 1562 01:26:33,080 --> 01:26:36,559 Speaker 12: have had like a Pew Research survey across countries and 1563 01:26:36,640 --> 01:26:38,320 Speaker 12: be like, what are your thoughts on link previews? 1564 01:26:39,200 --> 01:26:40,360 Speaker 6: But I would. 1565 01:26:40,040 --> 01:26:43,840 Speaker 12: Probably argue because it is it is included in so 1566 01:26:44,000 --> 01:26:47,360 Speaker 12: much of modern messaging apps that we now assume it's 1567 01:26:47,439 --> 01:26:50,679 Speaker 12: like a core feature. One thing I will give Signal 1568 01:26:50,800 --> 01:26:53,439 Speaker 12: that I think is amazing that other apps don't do, 1569 01:26:53,560 --> 01:26:56,080 Speaker 12: and this is true of WhatsApp is pretty much every 1570 01:26:56,120 --> 01:26:59,720 Speaker 12: feature except for encryption you can there's something you can 1571 01:26:59,800 --> 01:27:01,040 Speaker 12: talk or turn off. 1572 01:27:01,200 --> 01:27:05,920 Speaker 6: Right, So, like link preview already was available for people. 1573 01:27:05,800 --> 01:27:09,720 Speaker 12: To turn off on signal, WhatsApp does not allow that, 1574 01:27:10,200 --> 01:27:14,280 Speaker 12: and it seems like they're making no moves to allow 1575 01:27:15,160 --> 01:27:18,120 Speaker 12: that future to be optional to turn on or off. 1576 01:27:18,439 --> 01:27:20,080 Speaker 6: But that is I will say, one of the things that's. 1577 01:27:19,920 --> 01:27:23,639 Speaker 12: Really lovely about Signal that is so different from modern 1578 01:27:23,840 --> 01:27:27,720 Speaker 12: design and modern like big tech platforms and just platforms 1579 01:27:27,720 --> 01:27:30,519 Speaker 12: in general, is that those a lot of features are optional, 1580 01:27:30,560 --> 01:27:33,880 Speaker 12: whereas you know, WhatsApp in meta's sort of stance on 1581 01:27:33,920 --> 01:27:36,400 Speaker 12: design is that a lot of things are not optional, 1582 01:27:36,439 --> 01:27:38,880 Speaker 12: that those are things users would want. Why would we 1583 01:27:38,920 --> 01:27:43,720 Speaker 12: make foundational elements like link previews optional? And you're just 1584 01:27:43,760 --> 01:27:47,439 Speaker 12: like starting like gesturing wildly, but like you know, it's like, well, 1585 01:27:47,720 --> 01:27:49,679 Speaker 12: you don't know what people want, And I mean, what's 1586 01:27:49,680 --> 01:27:52,000 Speaker 12: the harm in turning off some of some of these things, right? 1587 01:27:52,640 --> 01:27:55,759 Speaker 12: You know, like maybe maybe people don't want to receive gifts. 1588 01:27:55,840 --> 01:27:57,799 Speaker 12: I don't know, maybe they don't want to receive stickers. 1589 01:27:57,800 --> 01:28:00,479 Speaker 12: Why don't you like let them have that option. What's 1590 01:28:00,479 --> 01:28:01,439 Speaker 12: the harm that could happen? 1591 01:28:01,640 --> 01:28:01,920 Speaker 9: Yeah? 1592 01:28:02,160 --> 01:28:03,920 Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, I couldn't agree more. 1593 01:28:04,000 --> 01:28:05,760 Speaker 13: Yeah, two things I want to say on that. 1594 01:28:06,160 --> 01:28:08,879 Speaker 9: One is one is that at first we should acknowledge 1595 01:28:08,920 --> 01:28:11,120 Speaker 9: that this it turns out that there was no zero. 1596 01:28:10,920 --> 01:28:13,040 Speaker 13: Day, there was no vulnerability. 1597 01:28:12,720 --> 01:28:17,559 Speaker 9: Yeah, this was absolutely just something that that spread virally 1598 01:28:17,640 --> 01:28:19,920 Speaker 9: out of nowhere. I'd be really interested to find out 1599 01:28:19,960 --> 01:28:22,920 Speaker 9: what the origin of this copy past I was, but 1600 01:28:23,000 --> 01:28:24,559 Speaker 9: I haven't. I haven't been able to. 1601 01:28:24,640 --> 01:28:27,640 Speaker 12: But it's I'm curious about that as well, because I 1602 01:28:27,680 --> 01:28:29,479 Speaker 12: was in another group threw that was like, we really 1603 01:28:29,479 --> 01:28:31,400 Speaker 12: need outside auditors to look at these. 1604 01:28:31,240 --> 01:28:33,320 Speaker 6: And I was like, we have a whole report that 1605 01:28:33,400 --> 01:28:35,400 Speaker 6: we wrote that didn't look at this. 1606 01:28:36,360 --> 01:28:40,280 Speaker 2: Speaking of outside auditors, I gotta pause you guys just 1607 01:28:40,280 --> 01:28:43,240 Speaker 2: a second because it is time for an ad break, 1608 01:28:43,840 --> 01:28:48,040 Speaker 2: So please spend your money and then come back to 1609 01:28:48,120 --> 01:28:53,200 Speaker 2: learn more. Ah and we're back. Okay, sorry about that, Cooper, Carolyn. 1610 01:28:53,800 --> 01:28:56,160 Speaker 2: You may continue as you were. 1611 01:28:56,560 --> 01:28:58,599 Speaker 13: The other thing I was, I was going to say 1612 01:28:59,200 --> 01:29:03,639 Speaker 13: that the idea that anybody would leave WhatsApp because they 1613 01:29:03,680 --> 01:29:07,680 Speaker 13: stopped having link previews is completely preposterous to me. 1614 01:29:07,840 --> 01:29:14,120 Speaker 14: Like Clownish has over two billion users, they are the 1615 01:29:15,520 --> 01:29:19,720 Speaker 14: you know, in a position to set the standard for 1616 01:29:19,800 --> 01:29:24,440 Speaker 14: what people expect from a messaging app. 1617 01:29:24,280 --> 01:29:27,519 Speaker 9: And so like they could do things like turn on 1618 01:29:27,720 --> 01:29:31,439 Speaker 9: disappearing messages by default and change that culture. They could 1619 01:29:31,479 --> 01:29:33,640 Speaker 9: do things like turn off link previews by default and 1620 01:29:33,720 --> 01:29:36,600 Speaker 9: change that culture. Like, they could do these things, and 1621 01:29:36,920 --> 01:29:40,599 Speaker 9: you know they would you know, they would not lose 1622 01:29:41,479 --> 01:29:44,400 Speaker 9: enough users to even. 1623 01:29:44,240 --> 01:29:45,280 Speaker 13: Notice or care about. 1624 01:29:45,439 --> 01:29:45,559 Speaker 10: Right. 1625 01:29:45,640 --> 01:29:45,840 Speaker 13: Yeah. 1626 01:29:46,040 --> 01:29:48,360 Speaker 9: They are the only people in the position in the world, 1627 01:29:48,360 --> 01:29:51,600 Speaker 9: in the position to decide what the culture should be. 1628 01:29:51,640 --> 01:29:53,720 Speaker 9: And this is what they've decided the culture should be. 1629 01:29:54,400 --> 01:29:54,799 Speaker 6: Totally. 1630 01:29:55,200 --> 01:29:57,160 Speaker 12: I hate to break it to you, but if WhatsApp 1631 01:29:57,439 --> 01:30:00,240 Speaker 12: just got rid of link previews, I'm just throwing whole 1632 01:30:00,280 --> 01:30:00,960 Speaker 12: phone into. 1633 01:30:00,800 --> 01:30:03,240 Speaker 6: The garbage garbage can, getting rid of it. 1634 01:30:03,160 --> 01:30:05,320 Speaker 2: Just tossing it back to a landline. 1635 01:30:05,680 --> 01:30:08,040 Speaker 12: Yeah, I'm just gonna eat it into a river. I 1636 01:30:08,040 --> 01:30:10,559 Speaker 12: feel like I don't need this anymore. Actually, I'm going. 1637 01:30:10,439 --> 01:30:12,720 Speaker 6: Back to carrier pigeons. That's how far back I'm going 1638 01:30:12,800 --> 01:30:13,040 Speaker 6: to go. 1639 01:30:13,439 --> 01:30:15,360 Speaker 2: I mean that that does kind of lead into the 1640 01:30:15,400 --> 01:30:17,599 Speaker 2: next thing I wanted to talk about, which is sort 1641 01:30:17,640 --> 01:30:22,880 Speaker 2: of the other wing from security folklore, which is security nihilism. 1642 01:30:23,520 --> 01:30:26,320 Speaker 2: And yeah, this is kind of you introduce this when 1643 01:30:26,320 --> 01:30:29,519 Speaker 2: talking about sort of if you do try to engage 1644 01:30:29,640 --> 01:30:31,880 Speaker 2: somewhat with the technology, or if you wind up just 1645 01:30:31,960 --> 01:30:33,880 Speaker 2: kind of in the position I think most lay people are, 1646 01:30:33,960 --> 01:30:36,360 Speaker 2: where you know, maybe you have some friends who know more, 1647 01:30:36,560 --> 01:30:38,320 Speaker 2: or maybe you have some friends who think they know more, 1648 01:30:38,360 --> 01:30:40,920 Speaker 2: and you get all these conflicting things about like this 1649 01:30:41,040 --> 01:30:43,280 Speaker 2: is safe, No, it's not. You can't trust signal. The 1650 01:30:43,280 --> 01:30:45,439 Speaker 2: FEDS could be running signal all this kind of stuff, 1651 01:30:46,000 --> 01:30:48,679 Speaker 2: and to be fair, the FEDS have run security based 1652 01:30:48,720 --> 01:30:51,240 Speaker 2: services before. It's not like I don't believe that's happening 1653 01:30:51,280 --> 01:30:54,440 Speaker 2: with signal, but it's not like I understand where paranoia 1654 01:30:54,600 --> 01:30:58,400 Speaker 2: like that can can enter into people's calculus, especially if 1655 01:30:58,400 --> 01:31:02,680 Speaker 2: you're not tech knowledgeable, and that can lead to this 1656 01:31:02,760 --> 01:31:06,080 Speaker 2: sort of state of security nihilism where you're just like, 1657 01:31:06,520 --> 01:31:08,840 Speaker 2: you can't communicate it all online. There's no way to 1658 01:31:08,920 --> 01:31:12,320 Speaker 2: do it securely, and obviously there's no perfect right. You 1659 01:31:12,360 --> 01:31:14,160 Speaker 2: never have it, but you don't have one hundred percent 1660 01:31:14,240 --> 01:31:18,880 Speaker 2: with like talking in person to somebody right There are 1661 01:31:18,920 --> 01:31:22,479 Speaker 2: individuals in prison right now who you know, somebody they 1662 01:31:22,520 --> 01:31:25,360 Speaker 2: loved and trusted rat it on them. There's no one 1663 01:31:25,439 --> 01:31:29,520 Speaker 2: hundred percents in this world. But that doesn't mean nihilism 1664 01:31:29,600 --> 01:31:32,400 Speaker 2: is the right response to like trying to figure out 1665 01:31:32,520 --> 01:31:36,879 Speaker 2: how to set up your communications standards with people right totally. 1666 01:31:36,960 --> 01:31:39,439 Speaker 12: I mean, I think the approach we take in because 1667 01:31:39,760 --> 01:31:43,800 Speaker 12: throughout this report, we were also teaching workshops to reproductive 1668 01:31:43,920 --> 01:31:47,799 Speaker 12: justice activists across the US and states where abortion is banned. 1669 01:31:48,000 --> 01:31:51,240 Speaker 12: I'm from Louisiana, I live half the year there, the 1670 01:31:51,320 --> 01:31:55,800 Speaker 12: abortion is banned there, And we were also working with 1671 01:31:55,880 --> 01:31:58,320 Speaker 12: journalists in India. So a big big thing for us 1672 01:31:58,400 --> 01:32:02,000 Speaker 12: was also teaching threat modeling and different kinds of what 1673 01:32:02,080 --> 01:32:05,520 Speaker 12: Matt Mitchell, a security trader and expert, calls digital hygiene. 1674 01:32:06,000 --> 01:32:09,000 Speaker 12: And so a lot of this was recognizing that there 1675 01:32:09,080 --> 01:32:12,120 Speaker 12: was certain practices we were picking up on, particularly with 1676 01:32:12,240 --> 01:32:13,760 Speaker 12: folks we were working with. So like a lot of 1677 01:32:13,840 --> 01:32:17,559 Speaker 12: reproductive justice activists we were working with are new to security, 1678 01:32:17,560 --> 01:32:19,840 Speaker 12: they're new to technology, they don't have a background in tech, 1679 01:32:19,960 --> 01:32:24,320 Speaker 12: and generally, you know, the American South, American Deep South 1680 01:32:24,400 --> 01:32:28,080 Speaker 12: is super overlooked in terms of tech policy, in terms 1681 01:32:28,080 --> 01:32:31,519 Speaker 12: of just I think a general focus when people are 1682 01:32:31,520 --> 01:32:35,240 Speaker 12: talking about tech or tech literacy or tech activism, and 1683 01:32:35,520 --> 01:32:38,920 Speaker 12: that is like leaving really massive gaps and knowledge for people. 1684 01:32:39,680 --> 01:32:42,240 Speaker 12: And so you know, when we were working on this, 1685 01:32:42,479 --> 01:32:46,360 Speaker 12: security folklore and security nihilism were both actually very almost 1686 01:32:46,360 --> 01:32:47,880 Speaker 12: like I won't say like a pendulum, but they were 1687 01:32:47,960 --> 01:32:50,920 Speaker 12: very connected. And so some of that was people hearing 1688 01:32:50,960 --> 01:32:53,320 Speaker 12: things like oh, I should put my phone in a 1689 01:32:53,320 --> 01:32:56,400 Speaker 12: microwave when I'm having a very sensitive conversation, right, And 1690 01:32:56,439 --> 01:32:59,040 Speaker 12: so that's where some of that security folklore is coming in. 1691 01:32:59,520 --> 01:33:02,920 Speaker 12: It is something that is technically safe, but it's like 1692 01:33:03,000 --> 01:33:05,360 Speaker 12: not the thing you necessarily like totally need to do 1693 01:33:05,439 --> 01:33:08,280 Speaker 12: in that moment. And with security nihilism what it kind 1694 01:33:08,280 --> 01:33:09,960 Speaker 12: of came down to, And this is stuff we've seen 1695 01:33:10,000 --> 01:33:14,600 Speaker 12: with other groups and other circumstances. A great example are 1696 01:33:14,720 --> 01:33:17,880 Speaker 12: are you know Palestinine activists and journalists Let's say, who 1697 01:33:17,880 --> 01:33:21,080 Speaker 12: are you know facing the threat of all different kinds 1698 01:33:21,080 --> 01:33:24,200 Speaker 12: of governmental censorship and surveillance of sort of saying like 1699 01:33:24,200 --> 01:33:26,679 Speaker 12: when there's this large threat sort of hanging on us, 1700 01:33:27,200 --> 01:33:30,559 Speaker 12: and there's also physical surveillance. And this is true for 1701 01:33:30,600 --> 01:33:33,240 Speaker 12: a lot of journalists in other countries like India as well, 1702 01:33:33,360 --> 01:33:38,439 Speaker 12: for example, you know, like should everything go through signal 1703 01:33:38,479 --> 01:33:39,400 Speaker 12: or does it really matter? 1704 01:33:39,560 --> 01:33:40,559 Speaker 6: Like does it really matter? 1705 01:33:40,600 --> 01:33:43,200 Speaker 12: And this is also something again we saw with some 1706 01:33:43,200 --> 01:33:45,120 Speaker 12: some reproductive justice activists as well. 1707 01:33:44,960 --> 01:33:47,599 Speaker 6: Where it's like if everything is being monitored, what's safe? 1708 01:33:47,800 --> 01:33:49,400 Speaker 6: Like can I send stuff? 1709 01:33:49,800 --> 01:33:49,880 Speaker 5: Like? 1710 01:33:50,040 --> 01:33:51,200 Speaker 6: Can I even use Google? 1711 01:33:51,600 --> 01:33:55,599 Speaker 12: And part of this was, you know, by teaching privacy 1712 01:33:55,600 --> 01:33:58,800 Speaker 12: and security workshops, by teaching things like threat modeling, which 1713 01:33:58,840 --> 01:33:59,599 Speaker 12: is a. 1714 01:33:59,479 --> 01:34:02,320 Speaker 6: Framework just assessing are what are threats? 1715 01:34:02,720 --> 01:34:02,840 Speaker 5: Like? 1716 01:34:03,120 --> 01:34:05,439 Speaker 12: Are what are all the potential threats you could face 1717 01:34:05,439 --> 01:34:07,880 Speaker 12: and kind of mapping them from like the most minor 1718 01:34:08,120 --> 01:34:10,400 Speaker 12: to like the most major and what you can do 1719 01:34:10,520 --> 01:34:13,559 Speaker 12: about that. That's a way to try to combat security nihilism. 1720 01:34:13,640 --> 01:34:15,320 Speaker 12: But I think an approach Cooper and I are also 1721 01:34:15,400 --> 01:34:18,040 Speaker 12: really fond of is thinking of this like safer sex. 1722 01:34:18,560 --> 01:34:20,599 Speaker 12: There's all different kinds of things you can do that 1723 01:34:20,640 --> 01:34:24,280 Speaker 12: our mitigations are actually incredibly helpful, and we can't look 1724 01:34:24,320 --> 01:34:27,160 Speaker 12: at it as a binary of safe or not safe. 1725 01:34:27,200 --> 01:34:31,960 Speaker 12: It's actually like much more of a gradient. But you know, 1726 01:34:32,280 --> 01:34:34,920 Speaker 12: the focalore and the nihilism, I think come from a 1727 01:34:35,000 --> 01:34:39,000 Speaker 12: very similar place, which is we're asking people, like society 1728 01:34:39,080 --> 01:34:41,120 Speaker 12: is kind of asking or demanding that people be experts 1729 01:34:41,160 --> 01:34:44,799 Speaker 12: and something that's really hard. I am like a fairly 1730 01:34:44,880 --> 01:34:47,479 Speaker 12: technical person and even there are some things that I 1731 01:34:47,680 --> 01:34:49,880 Speaker 12: find hard to serve wrap my head around. And I've 1732 01:34:49,880 --> 01:34:52,759 Speaker 12: been working in privacy and security for like quite a while. 1733 01:34:53,760 --> 01:34:56,439 Speaker 6: And I think, you know, it's. 1734 01:34:56,240 --> 01:34:58,120 Speaker 12: Also really hard when you think about these apps as 1735 01:34:58,160 --> 01:35:00,479 Speaker 12: like a brand new person. It's like one of the 1736 01:35:00,479 --> 01:35:02,160 Speaker 12: things that popped up a lot in our research is 1737 01:35:02,240 --> 01:35:04,360 Speaker 12: like why should we trust signal? And that's actually a 1738 01:35:04,360 --> 01:35:07,280 Speaker 12: great question, Like what about Signal in its interface and 1739 01:35:07,320 --> 01:35:11,000 Speaker 12: its design would cause you to trust it? Like some 1740 01:35:11,040 --> 01:35:13,160 Speaker 12: people were like it's a nonprofit. That's great, but I 1741 01:35:13,160 --> 01:35:14,880 Speaker 12: don't know what that means. I'm like, that's actually a 1742 01:35:14,880 --> 01:35:16,760 Speaker 12: fantastic question, Like what does that mean? 1743 01:35:17,000 --> 01:35:17,160 Speaker 8: Right? 1744 01:35:17,240 --> 01:35:20,160 Speaker 12: Like why should you trust this? You've heard through the 1745 01:35:20,160 --> 01:35:22,639 Speaker 12: grapevine that you should. And I think these are kind 1746 01:35:22,640 --> 01:35:24,360 Speaker 12: of all the things that people are dealing with because 1747 01:35:24,360 --> 01:35:26,120 Speaker 12: if you sort of take a step back and just 1748 01:35:26,160 --> 01:35:29,080 Speaker 12: look at software or any different kinds of software generally, 1749 01:35:29,479 --> 01:35:31,720 Speaker 12: why should you trust that it's safe and secure when 1750 01:35:31,760 --> 01:35:34,600 Speaker 12: there have been so many different kinds of leaks or 1751 01:35:34,640 --> 01:35:35,920 Speaker 12: breaches or things breaking. 1752 01:35:36,080 --> 01:35:36,320 Speaker 8: Right? 1753 01:35:36,760 --> 01:35:40,200 Speaker 6: Yeah, Like so these. 1754 01:35:40,000 --> 01:35:42,639 Speaker 12: Are I think really really closely tied. But I think 1755 01:35:42,680 --> 01:35:44,960 Speaker 12: a big thing for us is trying to combat that 1756 01:35:45,080 --> 01:35:48,360 Speaker 12: security nihilism, like when whenever we can like there is 1757 01:35:48,439 --> 01:35:51,160 Speaker 12: things you can do, I don't want to say like 1758 01:35:51,240 --> 01:35:53,240 Speaker 12: no matter how great the threat. But I believe like, 1759 01:35:53,280 --> 01:35:55,160 Speaker 12: no matter how great the threat, there is stuff. 1760 01:35:55,200 --> 01:35:56,240 Speaker 6: There is stuff you can do. 1761 01:35:56,920 --> 01:35:58,800 Speaker 9: No matter how great the threat is, there's stuff that 1762 01:35:58,840 --> 01:36:02,040 Speaker 9: you can do to make it more difficult and more 1763 01:36:02,080 --> 01:36:04,840 Speaker 9: expensive for that person to attack you. Right, Like we 1764 01:36:04,880 --> 01:36:07,600 Speaker 9: all lock the doors to our house, or you know, 1765 01:36:07,680 --> 01:36:08,559 Speaker 9: for the most part. 1766 01:36:09,760 --> 01:36:12,160 Speaker 13: Or you know, we all we all do things. 1767 01:36:11,840 --> 01:36:15,479 Speaker 9: To to protect ourselves like that that aren't fool proof, right. 1768 01:36:15,520 --> 01:36:17,920 Speaker 9: Somebody can always break a window to get into your house, right, 1769 01:36:18,000 --> 01:36:19,760 Speaker 9: So we can find other ways to get into your house. 1770 01:36:20,080 --> 01:36:23,080 Speaker 9: But locking the door makes it so that somebody has 1771 01:36:23,120 --> 01:36:25,280 Speaker 9: to do the noisy thing of breaking a window. 1772 01:36:25,720 --> 01:36:25,960 Speaker 13: Right. 1773 01:36:26,920 --> 01:36:28,600 Speaker 9: It makes it so that, you know, somebody has to 1774 01:36:28,640 --> 01:36:31,240 Speaker 9: spend more time and effort and more risk of getting 1775 01:36:31,280 --> 01:36:32,920 Speaker 9: caught in getting. 1776 01:36:32,600 --> 01:36:36,080 Speaker 13: Into your house. Right. And that's and that's like we layer. 1777 01:36:36,240 --> 01:36:40,240 Speaker 9: When you layer these protections, right, the idea, you know 1778 01:36:40,400 --> 01:36:44,599 Speaker 9: is that you're you're you're making it harder, You're making 1779 01:36:44,640 --> 01:36:48,360 Speaker 9: there be more friction right to piercing your security. 1780 01:36:48,920 --> 01:36:51,400 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's that's a really good point, and 1781 01:36:51,439 --> 01:36:53,920 Speaker 2: that the concept of friction. You know, this is something 1782 01:36:54,000 --> 01:36:56,760 Speaker 2: I've talked about, not that these are exactly the same things, 1783 01:36:56,760 --> 01:36:59,439 Speaker 2: but in the although there's not not wildly different when 1784 01:36:59,439 --> 01:37:03,799 Speaker 2: it comes to like how insurgents win insurgencies, right, It's 1785 01:37:03,920 --> 01:37:07,600 Speaker 2: not by carrying out these sort of like great battlefield 1786 01:37:07,680 --> 01:37:11,880 Speaker 2: victories that sweep the enemy from the field. It's by friction, right, 1787 01:37:12,160 --> 01:37:16,280 Speaker 2: which wears down both the culture and the kind of 1788 01:37:16,400 --> 01:37:21,200 Speaker 2: readiness of the opponent until they simply bounce, which is 1789 01:37:21,280 --> 01:37:23,800 Speaker 2: a pretty durable and effective strategy. You can keep it up. 1790 01:37:23,840 --> 01:37:29,839 Speaker 2: It's this matter of like there's no like sweeping sudden 1791 01:37:29,960 --> 01:37:33,840 Speaker 2: like ninety minute three act win here. It's more a 1792 01:37:33,880 --> 01:37:37,360 Speaker 2: matter of the more difficult, the more expensive you make it, 1793 01:37:37,600 --> 01:37:40,320 Speaker 2: the more you hold on to and the more all 1794 01:37:40,400 --> 01:37:42,280 Speaker 2: of us hold on to. Right. That's the other benefit 1795 01:37:42,360 --> 01:37:44,360 Speaker 2: is like, even if you're not even if you are 1796 01:37:44,520 --> 01:37:47,120 Speaker 2: the most law abiding person in the world like myself, 1797 01:37:48,720 --> 01:37:52,280 Speaker 2: having these security measures in place means that you're kind 1798 01:37:52,320 --> 01:37:57,040 Speaker 2: of contributing to the overall immune system of a kind 1799 01:37:57,120 --> 01:38:00,400 Speaker 2: of community of people who don't want the NSA listening 1800 01:38:00,400 --> 01:38:00,880 Speaker 2: to the ship. 1801 01:38:02,720 --> 01:38:06,800 Speaker 9: Yeah, exactly exactly. And the friction thing is is also 1802 01:38:06,880 --> 01:38:10,960 Speaker 9: exactly what Signal does, right, Like by the threat model 1803 01:38:10,960 --> 01:38:15,200 Speaker 9: for Signal is stopping the NSA or other global adversaries 1804 01:38:15,240 --> 01:38:19,720 Speaker 9: from listening to all communications as they travel over the internet, right, 1805 01:38:19,800 --> 01:38:22,519 Speaker 9: And that's when you can when you can do that, 1806 01:38:22,840 --> 01:38:24,959 Speaker 9: like when you can when you can listen to everybody's 1807 01:38:25,000 --> 01:38:27,920 Speaker 9: conversations as they travel over the internet, it's really cheap 1808 01:38:27,960 --> 01:38:32,000 Speaker 9: to spy on anybody, right when you're encrypting that communication. Uh, 1809 01:38:32,280 --> 01:38:35,360 Speaker 9: then the NSA or whatever other global adversary has to 1810 01:38:35,439 --> 01:38:39,240 Speaker 9: go actually hack your phone, right, they have to. They 1811 01:38:39,280 --> 01:38:43,040 Speaker 9: have to target you specifically, they have to burn resources 1812 01:38:43,160 --> 01:38:48,040 Speaker 9: and you know, burn weapons, right, zero days to get 1813 01:38:48,080 --> 01:38:50,200 Speaker 9: access to your phone. And that's a lot more costly, 1814 01:38:50,680 --> 01:38:53,320 Speaker 9: it's a lot more noisy, it's a much higher. 1815 01:38:53,200 --> 01:38:54,280 Speaker 13: Risk of them getting caught. 1816 01:38:54,560 --> 01:38:58,280 Speaker 9: So it's introduced to huge friction, uh in that in 1817 01:38:59,080 --> 01:39:05,519 Speaker 9: that area. Go ahead, okay, go ahead, go ahead, I say, 1818 01:39:05,560 --> 01:39:07,800 Speaker 9: And I think you're asymmetic. The sort of comparison to 1819 01:39:07,840 --> 01:39:10,559 Speaker 9: asymmetric warfare is exactly spot on, because none of us 1820 01:39:10,560 --> 01:39:12,720 Speaker 9: are ever going to have the money that that the 1821 01:39:12,840 --> 01:39:15,000 Speaker 9: NSA or MASADE has. None of us are ever going 1822 01:39:15,040 --> 01:39:18,559 Speaker 9: to have the the total technical acumen that the NSA 1823 01:39:18,680 --> 01:39:19,720 Speaker 9: or MASADA has. 1824 01:39:19,800 --> 01:39:19,960 Speaker 13: Right. 1825 01:39:20,000 --> 01:39:22,439 Speaker 9: But like those that you know, so we have to 1826 01:39:22,520 --> 01:39:24,599 Speaker 9: kind of fight a you know, in terms of caryption 1827 01:39:25,360 --> 01:39:27,960 Speaker 9: in terms of encryption, a guerrilla war, right, and we 1828 01:39:28,080 --> 01:39:32,080 Speaker 9: have to make things so expensive and so annoying for 1829 01:39:32,120 --> 01:39:32,759 Speaker 9: them that it's. 1830 01:39:32,640 --> 01:39:35,920 Speaker 6: Not worth it totally. And just to sort of building that. 1831 01:39:35,960 --> 01:39:38,160 Speaker 12: One of the things I love about Signal is while 1832 01:39:38,160 --> 01:39:42,800 Speaker 12: they're creating friction for our adversaries, it's actually so frictionless 1833 01:39:42,840 --> 01:39:45,559 Speaker 12: to use as a user. And I think that's one 1834 01:39:45,600 --> 01:39:48,400 Speaker 12: of the things I find just continually. 1835 01:39:47,920 --> 01:39:50,960 Speaker 6: Impressive about that. I don't want this to turn into like. 1836 01:39:51,000 --> 01:39:55,160 Speaker 12: The like we're all himbos for Signal, except we probably are, 1837 01:39:55,840 --> 01:39:57,880 Speaker 12: but because like that's one of the things as a 1838 01:39:57,920 --> 01:39:59,720 Speaker 12: researcher like Kuber and I stimes have to be like, 1839 01:40:00,120 --> 01:40:02,400 Speaker 12: we're not paid by a Signal at all, Like, but 1840 01:40:02,600 --> 01:40:04,639 Speaker 12: this is in fact, like one of the best things 1841 01:40:04,680 --> 01:40:06,439 Speaker 12: you can use. But again, one of the things I 1842 01:40:06,439 --> 01:40:10,120 Speaker 12: think is amazing is that it is so easy to use, 1843 01:40:11,200 --> 01:40:15,559 Speaker 12: and it really is designed for and I'm using the 1844 01:40:15,640 --> 01:40:20,280 Speaker 12: term usability as a design term, meaning that it is 1845 01:40:20,800 --> 01:40:24,160 Speaker 12: they're thinking about a common user, including those with like 1846 01:40:24,200 --> 01:40:28,160 Speaker 12: lower digital literacy or those that are have never used 1847 01:40:28,320 --> 01:40:31,439 Speaker 12: any kind of any kind of security tool, and so 1848 01:40:31,560 --> 01:40:35,040 Speaker 12: they're hitting a specific threshold of usability for things to 1849 01:40:35,040 --> 01:40:38,280 Speaker 12: be understandable, and again, that's incredibly hard to do well, 1850 01:40:38,400 --> 01:40:40,400 Speaker 12: and they are. They are doing it quite well. Like 1851 01:40:40,439 --> 01:40:42,880 Speaker 12: it's very I would argue it's very easy and sort 1852 01:40:42,920 --> 01:40:46,200 Speaker 12: of seamless for people to make a jump from WhatsApp 1853 01:40:46,400 --> 01:40:49,360 Speaker 12: or if you're on like Google or Android using like 1854 01:40:49,400 --> 01:40:51,479 Speaker 12: Google Messages, sorry Google, if. 1855 01:40:51,360 --> 01:40:54,040 Speaker 6: You're on Android or an iPhone. 1856 01:40:53,720 --> 01:40:57,160 Speaker 12: From like I Messages to Google Messages to signal like 1857 01:40:57,200 --> 01:40:57,799 Speaker 12: it doesn't. 1858 01:40:58,040 --> 01:40:59,040 Speaker 6: It might look slightly different. 1859 01:40:59,080 --> 01:41:00,800 Speaker 12: I might feel a lot more blue, maybe a lot 1860 01:41:00,840 --> 01:41:03,160 Speaker 12: more black, depending up on how yours is constructed. But 1861 01:41:03,200 --> 01:41:05,599 Speaker 12: for the most part, a lot of the features are 1862 01:41:05,680 --> 01:41:07,840 Speaker 12: kind of where you expect them to be, and it's 1863 01:41:07,920 --> 01:41:10,920 Speaker 12: not at all difficult to get it up and running, 1864 01:41:11,000 --> 01:41:13,559 Speaker 12: which is not something against Cooper said earlier we could 1865 01:41:13,560 --> 01:41:15,759 Speaker 12: say about things like PGP. 1866 01:41:16,439 --> 01:41:19,280 Speaker 2: Yeah, I wanted to kind of move on to talking 1867 01:41:19,360 --> 01:41:22,160 Speaker 2: about other apps and their security or lack of it, 1868 01:41:22,200 --> 01:41:25,160 Speaker 2: And I think we should start probably by talking about Telegram, 1869 01:41:25,240 --> 01:41:28,040 Speaker 2: because that's probably close to top of the list of 1870 01:41:28,080 --> 01:41:32,920 Speaker 2: things people use for secure communications that is not nearly 1871 01:41:32,960 --> 01:41:37,280 Speaker 2: as secure as they think. So yeah, I wanted to 1872 01:41:37,360 --> 01:41:40,000 Speaker 2: kind of chat with you about like why that is, 1873 01:41:40,080 --> 01:41:42,280 Speaker 2: and I specifically I wanted to talk One of the 1874 01:41:42,280 --> 01:41:46,519 Speaker 2: things that is frustrating about Telegram is they kind of 1875 01:41:46,600 --> 01:41:48,679 Speaker 2: have they have like a secret chat or private chat, 1876 01:41:48,720 --> 01:41:51,559 Speaker 2: like they have a couple of different options that don't 1877 01:41:52,040 --> 01:41:55,880 Speaker 2: necessarily mean what they sound like they mean to most people. 1878 01:41:55,960 --> 01:41:58,960 Speaker 12: Yeah, so that's actually one thing our report found. So 1879 01:41:59,040 --> 01:42:01,800 Speaker 12: private chat and secret chat are in fact. 1880 01:42:01,680 --> 01:42:02,320 Speaker 6: The same thing. 1881 01:42:03,360 --> 01:42:06,679 Speaker 12: They're just called slightly different things in the app, which 1882 01:42:06,800 --> 01:42:09,240 Speaker 12: for for again, for those listening. 1883 01:42:08,880 --> 01:42:11,559 Speaker 6: That are don't have the background in design, that's bad design. 1884 01:42:11,600 --> 01:42:16,040 Speaker 12: That's actually not that's not professional, that's a that is 1885 01:42:16,200 --> 01:42:19,840 Speaker 12: a mistake. There's no reason for a feature to have 1886 01:42:19,880 --> 01:42:23,839 Speaker 12: like two different names inside of inside of your software. 1887 01:42:24,880 --> 01:42:27,680 Speaker 12: And so I don't know if that's an oversight on 1888 01:42:27,760 --> 01:42:32,200 Speaker 12: their part, I'm assuming so, But like those two things 1889 01:42:32,320 --> 01:42:34,960 Speaker 12: correlate to the same feature, and so they should actually 1890 01:42:35,000 --> 01:42:37,840 Speaker 12: be called the same thing. But then even further that 1891 01:42:37,880 --> 01:42:40,840 Speaker 12: being said, what does private mean to a user? 1892 01:42:40,920 --> 01:42:42,080 Speaker 6: What does secret mean? 1893 01:42:43,560 --> 01:42:47,799 Speaker 12: You know, Facebook Messenger they call their encrypted message secure 1894 01:42:48,040 --> 01:42:49,800 Speaker 12: or no, they also call it secret. Sorry, they also 1895 01:42:49,800 --> 01:42:52,000 Speaker 12: call it secret, But like does that mean security? Does 1896 01:42:52,040 --> 01:42:55,640 Speaker 12: that mean encrypted? And so that's like one of the 1897 01:42:56,360 --> 01:42:59,200 Speaker 12: one of the weird things where it's like, you know, 1898 01:42:59,479 --> 01:43:03,200 Speaker 12: I think by using a very sort of like normalize 1899 01:43:03,320 --> 01:43:07,040 Speaker 12: or culturally almost like emotional name like private, it makes 1900 01:43:07,040 --> 01:43:10,439 Speaker 12: something seem like it's actually quite safe, when in fact 1901 01:43:11,200 --> 01:43:11,559 Speaker 12: it's not. 1902 01:43:11,680 --> 01:43:13,479 Speaker 6: And there's a variety of reasons as why, like. 1903 01:43:13,479 --> 01:43:16,880 Speaker 12: Telegram is not not a very secure app that I 1904 01:43:16,880 --> 01:43:19,280 Speaker 12: will let Cooper talk about more. 1905 01:43:19,640 --> 01:43:22,799 Speaker 9: Yeah, I would never advise anybody to have a chat 1906 01:43:23,200 --> 01:43:27,400 Speaker 9: over Telegram if they are concerned about the privacy of that. Yeah, 1907 01:43:27,479 --> 01:43:32,160 Speaker 9: So we were talking about friction and the fact that 1908 01:43:32,600 --> 01:43:36,719 Speaker 9: and encrypted chats are not the default in Telegram creates 1909 01:43:36,720 --> 01:43:41,840 Speaker 9: a friction for users to have an actually secure chat. 1910 01:43:41,920 --> 01:43:44,040 Speaker 13: Right, you have to go remember to turn it. 1911 01:43:44,000 --> 01:43:47,160 Speaker 12: On, and you can only turn it on turn it 1912 01:43:47,200 --> 01:43:51,799 Speaker 12: on individually per message. It's not like an overall feature 1913 01:43:52,000 --> 01:43:54,760 Speaker 12: on Telegram or Facebook Messenger, like you have to go 1914 01:43:54,920 --> 01:44:00,240 Speaker 12: select a specific like the specific conversation per conversation, which 1915 01:44:00,280 --> 01:44:03,040 Speaker 12: is and another thing ourper gets into is how also 1916 01:44:03,360 --> 01:44:06,360 Speaker 12: those chats don't look very different. They look almost identical 1917 01:44:06,680 --> 01:44:11,360 Speaker 12: to a normal chat. So for low vision users or 1918 01:44:11,400 --> 01:44:15,280 Speaker 12: anyone with any kind of like disability, especially a vision 1919 01:44:15,360 --> 01:44:20,080 Speaker 12: related disability, it's almost impossible to It's like nearly impossible 1920 01:44:20,120 --> 01:44:23,720 Speaker 12: to recognize which chat you're using if you're looking at 1921 01:44:23,760 --> 01:44:24,519 Speaker 12: the chat logs. 1922 01:44:25,200 --> 01:44:28,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, outside of that, like if people you know, in 1923 01:44:28,920 --> 01:44:31,200 Speaker 2: terms of like things that may not be options right now, 1924 01:44:31,240 --> 01:44:34,960 Speaker 2: I think basically everyone listening signal is a perfectly viable option. 1925 01:44:35,000 --> 01:44:38,040 Speaker 2: But it's not impossible that, for example, you might wind 1926 01:44:38,160 --> 01:44:40,800 Speaker 2: up in a country where, even if there's not a 1927 01:44:40,800 --> 01:44:44,000 Speaker 2: specific law against it, there is a precedent established that 1928 01:44:44,040 --> 01:44:46,720 Speaker 2: if you have signal on your phone, you know, it 1929 01:44:46,840 --> 01:44:49,759 Speaker 2: can be at least used as a justification for charges 1930 01:44:49,760 --> 01:44:52,320 Speaker 2: that you are planning to use. Like you know, with Atlanta, 1931 01:44:52,400 --> 01:44:55,559 Speaker 2: people are getting charges because they had a lawyer's name 1932 01:44:55,600 --> 01:44:58,599 Speaker 2: written on their arm, right, and so the state saying, well, 1933 01:44:58,600 --> 01:45:01,600 Speaker 2: that's evidence that we're planning to commit a crime. You know, 1934 01:45:01,760 --> 01:45:04,000 Speaker 2: that doesn't mean that convictions will go through on that 1935 01:45:04,120 --> 01:45:05,559 Speaker 2: kind of thing, but it may be a reason why 1936 01:45:05,680 --> 01:45:09,120 Speaker 2: signal might not be an option, or say, you know, 1937 01:45:09,240 --> 01:45:11,639 Speaker 2: something comes out about it that makes it seem less secure. 1938 01:45:12,120 --> 01:45:16,479 Speaker 2: What are other good or or acceptable options? And I 1939 01:45:16,520 --> 01:45:18,800 Speaker 2: know when we're talking about this, these are often options 1940 01:45:18,840 --> 01:45:21,439 Speaker 2: that require more input and work from the user in 1941 01:45:21,560 --> 01:45:24,280 Speaker 2: order to maximize their potential security. But I do think 1942 01:45:24,280 --> 01:45:25,720 Speaker 2: it's good to like let people kind of know what 1943 01:45:25,800 --> 01:45:26,559 Speaker 2: else is out there. 1944 01:45:26,960 --> 01:45:31,040 Speaker 9: Yeah, so when signal isn't an option, WhatsApp is actually 1945 01:45:31,160 --> 01:45:35,599 Speaker 9: not a bad option. So WhatsApp it is owned by Meta, 1946 01:45:35,760 --> 01:45:38,559 Speaker 9: which is a you know, which is which is you 1947 01:45:38,560 --> 01:45:43,000 Speaker 9: know not which is not ideal. But WhatsApp actually uses 1948 01:45:43,080 --> 01:45:47,519 Speaker 9: the same encryption protocol as signal. Uh So, like under 1949 01:45:47,520 --> 01:45:49,160 Speaker 9: the hood, the way that the you know, the way 1950 01:45:49,200 --> 01:45:51,120 Speaker 9: that the math works to hide your messages from the 1951 01:45:51,240 --> 01:45:55,960 Speaker 9: NSA is exactly the same, right, and and they've implemented it. Well, 1952 01:45:56,560 --> 01:45:59,880 Speaker 9: you know, there are a few more steps that, you know, 1953 01:46:00,040 --> 01:46:02,080 Speaker 9: few more precautions that you need to take with WhatsApp, 1954 01:46:02,160 --> 01:46:05,240 Speaker 9: like making sure that your chats aren't backed up being 1955 01:46:05,280 --> 01:46:10,519 Speaker 9: the main one. But WhatsApp is certainly good enough, right 1956 01:46:10,600 --> 01:46:14,960 Speaker 9: if you're if you're you know, chat networks aren't using signal, 1957 01:46:14,960 --> 01:46:17,360 Speaker 9: if you're in a country where you can't use signal, right, Like, 1958 01:46:17,520 --> 01:46:22,040 Speaker 9: WhatsApp has two billion users, I'm you know, it's it's 1959 01:46:22,120 --> 01:46:24,400 Speaker 9: you can use WhatsApp almost anywhere in the world. It's 1960 01:46:24,400 --> 01:46:26,760 Speaker 9: and it's ubiquitous enough that it's not going to mark 1961 01:46:26,840 --> 01:46:29,240 Speaker 9: you as you know, somebody with something to hide, right, 1962 01:46:29,800 --> 01:46:31,800 Speaker 9: And like and I don't want to I don't want 1963 01:46:31,840 --> 01:46:36,120 Speaker 9: to discount what's app. Right, getting two billion people to 1964 01:46:36,680 --> 01:46:40,960 Speaker 9: have end to end encrypted messaging by default overnight basically 1965 01:46:41,479 --> 01:46:46,200 Speaker 9: was a major cupe like that that was world changing, right, 1966 01:46:46,439 --> 01:46:51,400 Speaker 9: and like they they really do deserve applause for that obviously, 1967 01:46:51,640 --> 01:46:53,840 Speaker 9: you know, I think partly because of their scale, partly 1968 01:46:53,840 --> 01:46:56,640 Speaker 9: because they're owned by Meta, right, they haven't taken all 1969 01:46:56,680 --> 01:46:59,880 Speaker 9: of these same steps, like they do have more a 1970 01:47:00,400 --> 01:47:05,160 Speaker 9: metadata on their servers then Signal does, right, But if 1971 01:47:05,160 --> 01:47:07,200 Speaker 9: that's your option, that is a fine option. 1972 01:47:08,000 --> 01:47:11,679 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's really good to know, particularly since 1973 01:47:12,200 --> 01:47:16,080 Speaker 2: options are always more secure than not having any kind 1974 01:47:16,120 --> 01:47:18,400 Speaker 2: of a backup plan totally. 1975 01:47:18,880 --> 01:47:22,120 Speaker 12: And if people are like even slightly nervous about WhatsApp, 1976 01:47:22,320 --> 01:47:25,559 Speaker 12: of great things they do have disappearing messages. The downside 1977 01:47:25,680 --> 01:47:29,120 Speaker 12: is like the fastest disappearing message is only twenty four hours. 1978 01:47:29,120 --> 01:47:33,160 Speaker 12: But that's something that again you still have and that's 1979 01:47:33,400 --> 01:47:35,639 Speaker 12: like that is that is an amazing feature. 1980 01:47:36,400 --> 01:47:39,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, And that kind of gets into also what kind 1981 01:47:39,800 --> 01:47:43,080 Speaker 2: of stuff you can do in order to maximize the 1982 01:47:43,160 --> 01:47:46,320 Speaker 2: value of features like that, Like, for example, if you're 1983 01:47:46,600 --> 01:47:49,680 Speaker 2: coming back into the country or a country and your 1984 01:47:49,720 --> 01:47:54,519 Speaker 2: phone gets confiscated by customs or whatever, because security services 1985 01:47:54,560 --> 01:47:56,719 Speaker 2: have some sort of eye on you for whatever reason. 1986 01:47:57,120 --> 01:48:02,000 Speaker 2: If you've got you know, thumbprint log in or face 1987 01:48:02,040 --> 01:48:04,040 Speaker 2: log in, they're going to get into that phone right 1988 01:48:04,479 --> 01:48:06,920 Speaker 2: in your twenty four hour delete thing may not have 1989 01:48:06,960 --> 01:48:09,920 Speaker 2: gotten taken care of everything. If you've got like a 1990 01:48:09,960 --> 01:48:14,799 Speaker 2: complicated eight digit password and no biometrics enabled, maybe depending 1991 01:48:14,800 --> 01:48:17,160 Speaker 2: on where you are and whatnot, that'll keep your phone 1992 01:48:17,200 --> 01:48:19,800 Speaker 2: locked long enough for those messages to get deleted, right, Like, 1993 01:48:19,840 --> 01:48:22,479 Speaker 2: it's all about kind of maximizing the chances that something 1994 01:48:22,520 --> 01:48:23,400 Speaker 2: like that helps. 1995 01:48:24,000 --> 01:48:28,320 Speaker 9: Yeah, exactly. We definitely recommend that people turn on disappearing messages. 1996 01:48:29,080 --> 01:48:31,599 Speaker 9: I think that that's just a good sensible default to have. 1997 01:48:33,320 --> 01:48:35,960 Speaker 9: Also definitely recommend that if you're going to be in 1998 01:48:36,040 --> 01:48:38,559 Speaker 9: a situation where you think you're going to be, you know, 1999 01:48:38,560 --> 01:48:40,879 Speaker 9: there's a higher likelihood if you interacted with law enforcement, 2000 01:48:41,120 --> 01:48:43,280 Speaker 9: if you're crossing a border, if you're going to a protest, 2001 01:48:43,720 --> 01:48:47,879 Speaker 9: turn off the biometric unlock on your phone. Certainly, especially 2002 01:48:47,920 --> 01:48:50,800 Speaker 9: in the US, there's the case law isn't settled, but 2003 01:48:50,840 --> 01:48:53,679 Speaker 9: there's a lot of state courts that have decided that 2004 01:48:54,320 --> 01:48:56,479 Speaker 9: police can force you to unlock your phone with your 2005 01:48:56,479 --> 01:49:00,519 Speaker 9: biometrics and that that's totally fine. So, you know, in 2006 01:49:00,560 --> 01:49:02,479 Speaker 9: the in the US context, it's a good idea. In 2007 01:49:02,520 --> 01:49:04,479 Speaker 9: any context, I think it's a good idea if you're 2008 01:49:04,479 --> 01:49:05,920 Speaker 9: at heightened risk to turn off. 2009 01:49:06,439 --> 01:49:09,559 Speaker 12: Total I mean, one thing we're also a big fan 2010 01:49:09,600 --> 01:49:11,840 Speaker 12: of is figuring out too like and this is again 2011 01:49:11,920 --> 01:49:14,559 Speaker 12: where threat modeling is so key, is like, is this 2012 01:49:14,760 --> 01:49:17,639 Speaker 12: a circumstance where you need your phone or Another thing 2013 01:49:17,720 --> 01:49:19,800 Speaker 12: that you know you can always do if you are 2014 01:49:19,880 --> 01:49:23,559 Speaker 12: nervous about traveling across the border, is you can delete 2015 01:49:23,560 --> 01:49:26,639 Speaker 12: signal and reinstall it and everything is gone. You can 2016 01:49:26,960 --> 01:49:30,559 Speaker 12: delete WhatsApp temporarily while you're crossing a border so it's 2017 01:49:30,600 --> 01:49:34,559 Speaker 12: not on your phone. You know, there are things like 2018 01:49:34,600 --> 01:49:37,840 Speaker 12: that you can do if you feel comfortable wiping your phone, 2019 01:49:37,880 --> 01:49:41,800 Speaker 12: that's something also you can do. You know, these are 2020 01:49:41,840 --> 01:49:44,679 Speaker 12: all again, these are these are these are different things, 2021 01:49:44,760 --> 01:49:46,879 Speaker 12: and I think this is one of the things our report. 2022 01:49:47,760 --> 01:49:49,479 Speaker 12: I don't remember how too much we get into a 2023 01:49:49,479 --> 01:49:51,599 Speaker 12: bit something that at least we've been thinking about. Cooper 2024 01:49:51,640 --> 01:49:55,680 Speaker 12: and I run a little lab called Convocation, and one 2025 01:49:55,720 --> 01:49:58,760 Speaker 12: of the things we've been thinking about there is just 2026 01:49:58,920 --> 01:50:01,840 Speaker 12: also how do we install sort of like better, better, 2027 01:50:01,840 --> 01:50:05,000 Speaker 12: holistic practices where we understand that a phone is just 2028 01:50:05,080 --> 01:50:09,400 Speaker 12: one component of our safety, and so like secure messaging, 2029 01:50:09,479 --> 01:50:11,920 Speaker 12: encrypted messaging is one component of that safe safety. 2030 01:50:11,960 --> 01:50:14,960 Speaker 6: So like what are other things we can do? And 2031 01:50:15,000 --> 01:50:15,959 Speaker 6: some of that can. 2032 01:50:15,760 --> 01:50:18,800 Speaker 12: Be you know, wiping your phone of traveling if that 2033 01:50:18,840 --> 01:50:21,000 Speaker 12: makes sense for you or if that's thing that makes 2034 01:50:21,000 --> 01:50:25,479 Speaker 12: you feel safer, or removing certain apps and then you know, 2035 01:50:25,560 --> 01:50:27,679 Speaker 12: reinstalling them, reinstalling them later. 2036 01:50:28,400 --> 01:50:30,959 Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, and it and it really is holistic. 2037 01:50:31,040 --> 01:50:31,200 Speaker 5: Right. 2038 01:50:31,280 --> 01:50:33,760 Speaker 9: Like a thing that a thing that people need to 2039 01:50:33,840 --> 01:50:37,120 Speaker 9: keep in mind is that, you know, disappearing messages can't 2040 01:50:37,160 --> 01:50:44,920 Speaker 9: stop an untrustworthy uh, conversation partner, right, Like if if 2041 01:50:45,000 --> 01:50:47,920 Speaker 9: my conversation partner is untrustworthy, they can take screenshots of 2042 01:50:47,960 --> 01:50:51,280 Speaker 9: the messages, right, they can you know, go they can 2043 01:50:51,320 --> 01:50:56,479 Speaker 9: go snitch to law enforcement about what I've told them, right, Uh, 2044 01:50:56,600 --> 01:50:59,600 Speaker 9: Encrypted messaging, disappearing messages, these are not panaspeas. 2045 01:51:00,080 --> 01:51:00,200 Speaker 7: Right. 2046 01:51:00,240 --> 01:51:03,599 Speaker 9: You still have to you still have to keep all 2047 01:51:03,640 --> 01:51:10,040 Speaker 9: of your other aspects of security as well, right, So 2048 01:51:10,160 --> 01:51:13,479 Speaker 9: don't entirely rely on these technologies to save you. 2049 01:51:13,560 --> 01:51:13,680 Speaker 11: Right. 2050 01:51:13,720 --> 01:51:15,720 Speaker 9: You have to also trust the people you're working with, 2051 01:51:15,800 --> 01:51:17,800 Speaker 9: and build these layers of security up. 2052 01:51:18,520 --> 01:51:18,960 Speaker 6: It's true. 2053 01:51:18,960 --> 01:51:20,799 Speaker 12: I mean, Cooper, you could leak all of my secrets 2054 01:51:20,840 --> 01:51:23,120 Speaker 12: right now on this podcast, and you chose them that 2055 01:51:23,160 --> 01:51:24,560 Speaker 12: to what a gentleman. 2056 01:51:24,880 --> 01:51:25,599 Speaker 5: And that is color. 2057 01:51:26,400 --> 01:51:29,280 Speaker 2: That is the other thing right where when it comes 2058 01:51:29,360 --> 01:51:32,600 Speaker 2: to like what is secure? One thing to remember is 2059 01:51:32,640 --> 01:51:35,400 Speaker 2: that signal for all the good things about it, nothing, 2060 01:51:35,600 --> 01:51:38,400 Speaker 2: nothing at all about that app stops the recipient of 2061 01:51:38,439 --> 01:51:41,160 Speaker 2: a message from you from taking a screen grab or 2062 01:51:41,240 --> 01:51:45,439 Speaker 2: just handing their phone over to their friendly local federal agent, right, 2063 01:51:47,080 --> 01:51:49,880 Speaker 2: which is always you know, we don't want to be 2064 01:51:49,920 --> 01:51:52,040 Speaker 2: I'm not trying to be a security nihilist here. I 2065 01:51:52,040 --> 01:51:56,679 Speaker 2: think you know there's no replacing communication over phones in 2066 01:51:56,680 --> 01:52:00,160 Speaker 2: many situations. But if you are, a full example, going 2067 01:52:00,280 --> 01:52:06,200 Speaker 2: to be transferring a bunch of Plan B pills in 2068 01:52:06,240 --> 01:52:10,320 Speaker 2: an area where that is prosecutable, that probably shouldn't go 2069 01:52:10,400 --> 01:52:11,599 Speaker 2: on your phone in that language. 2070 01:52:11,680 --> 01:52:11,920 Speaker 13: Right. 2071 01:52:12,000 --> 01:52:14,719 Speaker 2: Perhaps you know you could come up with a clever 2072 01:52:14,880 --> 01:52:20,519 Speaker 2: codeword or whatever, but don't you know it is security 2073 01:52:20,600 --> 01:52:22,760 Speaker 2: is like you said, holistic. You know you should not 2074 01:52:22,920 --> 01:52:25,679 Speaker 2: be looking at it as just like, well the app 2075 01:52:25,760 --> 01:52:27,000 Speaker 2: is secure, So that's enough. 2076 01:52:27,880 --> 01:52:29,519 Speaker 12: I mean one thing I also want people sort of 2077 01:52:29,520 --> 01:52:31,880 Speaker 12: think about too, because that's a really great point Robert is, like, 2078 01:52:32,400 --> 01:52:34,200 Speaker 12: we do all different kinds of things every day in 2079 01:52:34,240 --> 01:52:37,760 Speaker 12: our lives that could, you know, in dangerous. Like I 2080 01:52:37,760 --> 01:52:40,000 Speaker 12: think a lot of the work I do is I 2081 01:52:40,000 --> 01:52:41,840 Speaker 12: work a lot with people facing all different kinds of 2082 01:52:41,840 --> 01:52:44,800 Speaker 12: online harassment. So like falling in love, for example, is 2083 01:52:44,840 --> 01:52:47,000 Speaker 12: a dangerous thing to do. You could have your heart 2084 01:52:47,040 --> 01:52:51,000 Speaker 12: broken or that person could hurt you. Learning how to 2085 01:52:51,040 --> 01:52:56,640 Speaker 12: trust people, you know, crossing the street, deciding to jaywalk right, 2086 01:52:57,120 --> 01:52:59,320 Speaker 12: all different things we do sort of every day actually 2087 01:52:59,400 --> 01:53:01,760 Speaker 12: can expect to harm. And so one thing I think 2088 01:53:01,760 --> 01:53:03,559 Speaker 12: for people listening to keep in mind is that's the 2089 01:53:03,560 --> 01:53:06,599 Speaker 12: same when we have conversations. And I think a way 2090 01:53:06,640 --> 01:53:09,559 Speaker 12: to avoid nihilism is just to remember that that every 2091 01:53:09,600 --> 01:53:12,240 Speaker 12: day we are sort of going out there and actually 2092 01:53:12,320 --> 01:53:15,720 Speaker 12: being incredibly brave just by living our everyday lives, by 2093 01:53:16,080 --> 01:53:20,040 Speaker 12: deciding to be in community and have friendships and have relationships. 2094 01:53:21,160 --> 01:53:24,760 Speaker 12: And in my case, I love jaywalking, and no one 2095 01:53:24,760 --> 01:53:28,120 Speaker 12: around me does, and that's why that's my choice. And 2096 01:53:28,360 --> 01:53:32,240 Speaker 12: I have not yet gotten hit by a car j walking. 2097 01:53:33,000 --> 01:53:36,240 Speaker 2: I think it's good to look at this the same way. 2098 01:53:36,240 --> 01:53:40,320 Speaker 2: There's there's a concept that the military has sort of 2099 01:53:40,360 --> 01:53:43,320 Speaker 2: developed when talking about how not to die when you're 2100 01:53:43,320 --> 01:53:46,479 Speaker 2: in a gunfight or something. It's called the survivability onion, right, 2101 01:53:46,800 --> 01:53:49,160 Speaker 2: And I think it's extremely useful both if you're talking 2102 01:53:49,160 --> 01:53:50,920 Speaker 2: about like, well, I'm going to a protest and there 2103 01:53:50,920 --> 01:53:53,000 Speaker 2: will be violence there, you know, should I wear armor, 2104 01:53:53,040 --> 01:53:56,000 Speaker 2: et cetera. But it's also just really it's really useful 2105 01:53:56,000 --> 01:53:59,280 Speaker 2: with any kind of security and and the onion, it's 2106 01:53:59,320 --> 01:54:01,639 Speaker 2: it's in vision, doesn't on you because like the largest 2107 01:54:01,720 --> 01:54:05,080 Speaker 2: outside chunk of it is don't be seen, don't be acquired, 2108 01:54:05,080 --> 01:54:07,240 Speaker 2: which means somebody actually getting you in their head sights, 2109 01:54:07,760 --> 01:54:12,080 Speaker 2: don't be a hit, which means being behind cover or something. 2110 01:54:12,320 --> 01:54:14,760 Speaker 2: And then the very internal part of it is like 2111 01:54:14,880 --> 01:54:16,120 Speaker 2: have some sort of armor in. 2112 01:54:16,040 --> 01:54:16,920 Speaker 7: Case you are shot. 2113 01:54:17,280 --> 01:54:20,280 Speaker 2: But if you if the armor is useful, the majority 2114 01:54:20,280 --> 01:54:24,000 Speaker 2: of the onion has already failed. Right. If encryption is useful, 2115 01:54:24,640 --> 01:54:27,720 Speaker 2: that is not a dissimilar sort of situation. Right, So 2116 01:54:27,760 --> 01:54:32,520 Speaker 2: there's a there's a degree of canniness is super helpful 2117 01:54:32,520 --> 01:54:36,920 Speaker 2: and thinking about like what is what is visible about me? 2118 01:54:37,040 --> 01:54:39,840 Speaker 2: If I'm doing something, I know that I have to 2119 01:54:39,880 --> 01:54:44,320 Speaker 2: be extra concerned about the state seeing what is visible 2120 01:54:44,360 --> 01:54:46,480 Speaker 2: about me from the outside, you. 2121 01:54:46,440 --> 01:54:48,560 Speaker 12: Know, I mean, I think that's an amazing thing to 2122 01:54:48,600 --> 01:54:51,760 Speaker 12: think about. Like where where are you sending a text message? 2123 01:54:51,800 --> 01:54:54,560 Speaker 12: Are you in a place in which like someone can 2124 01:54:54,640 --> 01:54:58,440 Speaker 12: lean over, Like I'm the nosiest motherfucker in all the time. 2125 01:54:58,560 --> 01:55:01,520 Speaker 12: I'm constantly like looking around being like what's that person 2126 01:55:01,560 --> 01:55:04,360 Speaker 12: watching on an airplane? Or like if someone is sitting 2127 01:55:04,400 --> 01:55:07,080 Speaker 12: next to me scrolling, so like you wouldn't want to 2128 01:55:07,120 --> 01:55:09,520 Speaker 12: like send a sensitive text message like next to me, 2129 01:55:09,560 --> 01:55:12,640 Speaker 12: because I'd be like, that's that's interesting fodder. 2130 01:55:12,720 --> 01:55:14,680 Speaker 6: That's kind of a Texas to. 2131 01:55:14,680 --> 01:55:18,320 Speaker 12: Cooper later, you know, And so I think it's important 2132 01:55:18,360 --> 01:55:20,560 Speaker 12: to think about that, like who's around you? 2133 01:55:20,880 --> 01:55:20,960 Speaker 5: Is? 2134 01:55:21,000 --> 01:55:24,160 Speaker 12: This is like how are you describing something? Do you 2135 01:55:24,240 --> 01:55:26,720 Speaker 12: know the person you're messaging? If you're in a group message, 2136 01:55:26,760 --> 01:55:29,880 Speaker 12: you know everybody there? Like do you trust all of them? 2137 01:55:30,880 --> 01:55:31,120 Speaker 6: You know? 2138 01:55:31,160 --> 01:55:33,280 Speaker 12: And if you're ever nervous there are this is I 2139 01:55:33,320 --> 01:55:36,400 Speaker 12: guess the upside also to in person conversations. You can have, 2140 01:55:37,320 --> 01:55:39,600 Speaker 12: you know, a phone call or an in person conversation 2141 01:55:39,680 --> 01:55:42,800 Speaker 12: with someone. Right if you're really not sure or you 2142 01:55:42,840 --> 01:55:45,960 Speaker 12: don't feel comfortable even sending something over signal, that might 2143 01:55:46,000 --> 01:55:47,120 Speaker 12: be the time to be like, hey, do you want 2144 01:55:47,120 --> 01:55:49,120 Speaker 12: to meet up and get a coffee and then you know, 2145 01:55:50,840 --> 01:55:55,280 Speaker 12: try to find a discreet place to have have a conversation. 2146 01:55:56,120 --> 01:56:01,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I do want to roll to ads real quick. 2147 01:56:01,840 --> 01:56:03,920 Speaker 2: One second, and I think Cooper had something to say, 2148 01:56:04,000 --> 01:56:09,120 Speaker 2: and we'll we'll continue, but first products Ah, we're back Cooper. 2149 01:56:09,440 --> 01:56:11,720 Speaker 2: You look like you had something to add on that. 2150 01:56:12,240 --> 01:56:14,680 Speaker 13: Nothing particularly serious, just that I think that that's I 2151 01:56:14,720 --> 01:56:15,400 Speaker 13: think that that's. 2152 01:56:15,280 --> 01:56:18,000 Speaker 9: Really good advice for the military and absolutely justifies the 2153 01:56:18,120 --> 01:56:19,320 Speaker 9: nine hundred billion dollars. 2154 01:56:22,280 --> 01:56:26,040 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm glad they put together a fucking graphic. I 2155 01:56:26,080 --> 01:56:28,280 Speaker 2: wonder how many billions of dollars that did cost. 2156 01:56:28,760 --> 01:56:31,600 Speaker 12: I could I could make a graphic for hundreds of 2157 01:56:31,600 --> 01:56:32,600 Speaker 12: millions of dollars. 2158 01:56:32,800 --> 01:56:35,360 Speaker 9: Yeah, if anybody, if anybody wants to fund us for 2159 01:56:35,480 --> 01:56:37,520 Speaker 9: hundreds of millions, we will will do it less now 2160 01:56:37,880 --> 01:56:39,480 Speaker 9: a year, hundreds of millions. 2161 01:56:39,520 --> 01:56:43,320 Speaker 12: We have so many good T shirt ideas and sticker ideas, y'all, like, 2162 01:56:43,960 --> 01:56:47,000 Speaker 12: so many good ones, so many unhinged ones that the 2163 01:56:47,000 --> 01:56:48,080 Speaker 12: world needs to see. 2164 01:56:48,480 --> 01:56:51,560 Speaker 2: Yeah, I uh, I mean I do. I guess just 2165 01:56:51,600 --> 01:56:53,600 Speaker 2: because of the amount of time I've spent thinking about 2166 01:56:53,600 --> 01:56:56,440 Speaker 2: this stuff from my old job. There are a couple 2167 01:56:56,440 --> 01:57:01,960 Speaker 2: of concepts from military planning I think about in this context, 2168 01:57:02,000 --> 01:57:04,680 Speaker 2: and one of them that I also think is relevant 2169 01:57:04,680 --> 01:57:06,960 Speaker 2: to what we're talking about with friction is the concept 2170 01:57:06,960 --> 01:57:09,440 Speaker 2: of an ode loop, right, which is how do you 2171 01:57:09,520 --> 01:57:13,560 Speaker 2: win and combat against an opponent, And it's by disrupting 2172 01:57:13,600 --> 01:57:15,240 Speaker 2: this thing called the ode loop, and the odor loop 2173 01:57:15,360 --> 01:57:20,400 Speaker 2: is how an adversary carries out actions in a conflict 2174 01:57:20,440 --> 01:57:23,000 Speaker 2: like this, right. And the steps you have to go 2175 01:57:23,040 --> 01:57:26,400 Speaker 2: for are observe, orient, decide, and act. And if you 2176 01:57:26,400 --> 01:57:29,240 Speaker 2: can disrupt any stage of that, you can stop them 2177 01:57:29,280 --> 01:57:32,320 Speaker 2: from taking actions, right, which stops them from being able 2178 01:57:32,320 --> 01:57:38,080 Speaker 2: to harm you. And the good security is going to 2179 01:57:38,240 --> 01:57:40,680 Speaker 2: impact all three of those things, right, It's going to 2180 01:57:40,720 --> 01:57:43,480 Speaker 2: stop them from being able to see you sometimes if 2181 01:57:43,520 --> 01:57:46,040 Speaker 2: they can see you, stuff like you know, you were 2182 01:57:46,080 --> 01:57:49,760 Speaker 2: just talking, we were just talking earlier about link previews, right, 2183 01:57:49,760 --> 01:57:51,800 Speaker 2: and how that can kind of expose maybe who you're 2184 01:57:51,840 --> 01:57:55,120 Speaker 2: in communication with potentially well, that could allow the state 2185 01:57:55,200 --> 01:57:57,920 Speaker 2: to orient themselves to you and to your friends, right. 2186 01:57:58,600 --> 01:58:01,800 Speaker 2: And obviously stuff like locking down your device is not 2187 01:58:01,880 --> 01:58:05,680 Speaker 2: having unnecessarily info online can stop them bring being able 2188 01:58:05,680 --> 01:58:08,160 Speaker 2: to decide you know what you're doing, and how they 2189 01:58:08,200 --> 01:58:11,480 Speaker 2: should respond to that. And I think that's also good 2190 01:58:11,760 --> 01:58:13,960 Speaker 2: if you're thinking, if you're not just somebody who is 2191 01:58:14,000 --> 01:58:16,520 Speaker 2: concerned about your security like most people are, because it's 2192 01:58:16,560 --> 01:58:20,320 Speaker 2: good to have some security. If you're actually dealing with 2193 01:58:20,600 --> 01:58:24,080 Speaker 2: the state or a corporation as an adversary in some way, 2194 01:58:24,480 --> 01:58:27,960 Speaker 2: it can be useful to think about your security culture 2195 01:58:27,960 --> 01:58:28,680 Speaker 2: in those terms. 2196 01:58:29,800 --> 01:58:33,560 Speaker 13: Yeah. Absolutely, I think that's absolutely right. It's it's and. 2197 01:58:33,560 --> 01:58:35,480 Speaker 9: I think that it's you know, it points to like 2198 01:58:35,600 --> 01:58:40,600 Speaker 9: we should we should understand what the you know mode 2199 01:58:40,600 --> 01:58:44,040 Speaker 9: of thinking of our adversaries is, right, like we you know, 2200 01:58:44,040 --> 01:58:47,840 Speaker 9: we should if your adversary is the NSA, right, which 2201 01:58:47,880 --> 01:58:51,400 Speaker 9: is like probably actually not most people in the US, 2202 01:58:51,440 --> 01:58:54,200 Speaker 9: Like for most US activists, the NSA is not actually 2203 01:58:54,280 --> 01:58:57,520 Speaker 9: your biggest adversary, right, Like your biggest adversary is going 2204 01:58:57,560 --> 01:59:00,240 Speaker 9: to be local police, right, your biggest adversary is going 2205 01:59:00,320 --> 01:59:03,320 Speaker 9: to be you know, the the you know, somebody like 2206 01:59:03,360 --> 01:59:05,720 Speaker 9: your abusive partner, right. And you need to And this 2207 01:59:05,760 --> 01:59:10,680 Speaker 9: is why threat modeling is important, because you need to 2208 01:59:10,680 --> 01:59:13,160 Speaker 9: to really to really think about, you know, think through 2209 01:59:13,280 --> 01:59:15,480 Speaker 9: like you know, well, okay, wait, am I actually worried 2210 01:59:15,480 --> 01:59:17,520 Speaker 9: about protecting myself from the NSA or am I more 2211 01:59:17,560 --> 01:59:21,320 Speaker 9: worried about? Uh uh, you know the the racist police 2212 01:59:21,360 --> 01:59:23,560 Speaker 9: officer that drives down my street every day? 2213 01:59:23,640 --> 01:59:23,760 Speaker 4: Right? 2214 01:59:23,760 --> 01:59:25,960 Speaker 9: And yeah, probably it's the latter. And so you can 2215 01:59:26,400 --> 01:59:30,080 Speaker 9: you can take a lot more useful actions, right uh 2216 01:59:30,160 --> 01:59:33,960 Speaker 9: and and you know you can, you can you know, 2217 01:59:34,040 --> 01:59:37,280 Speaker 9: break that oda loop for him once you know actually 2218 01:59:37,360 --> 01:59:40,200 Speaker 9: what it is. Right, Yeah, if you're defending yourself against 2219 01:59:40,240 --> 01:59:43,160 Speaker 9: the NSA, you're gonna leave yourself wide open to the 2220 01:59:43,320 --> 01:59:44,080 Speaker 9: actual threat. 2221 01:59:44,880 --> 01:59:45,120 Speaker 7: Yeah. 2222 01:59:45,120 --> 01:59:48,200 Speaker 2: It's really I think a great example. And I I 2223 01:59:48,200 --> 01:59:50,920 Speaker 2: don't mean to be like quote unquote sub tweeting somebody here, 2224 01:59:50,920 --> 01:59:53,840 Speaker 2: but I've known a couple of folks like this. It's like, 2225 01:59:53,880 --> 01:59:56,160 Speaker 2: if you have if you're super paranoid, you're not putting 2226 01:59:56,160 --> 01:59:59,240 Speaker 2: anything online, You're only talking with your close friends. You 2227 01:59:59,320 --> 02:00:02,320 Speaker 2: use a dumb you have burners, but you also drive 2228 02:00:02,360 --> 02:00:03,880 Speaker 2: around with a shitload of weed in your car in 2229 02:00:03,880 --> 02:00:06,480 Speaker 2: a state where that's illegal. It's like, well, like your 2230 02:00:06,720 --> 02:00:10,480 Speaker 2: your threat modeling is not great in that situation, right, 2231 02:00:10,600 --> 02:00:12,320 Speaker 2: Or like I do all that, but I carry in 2232 02:00:12,360 --> 02:00:15,600 Speaker 2: a legal handgun with me wherever I go. It's like, well, 2233 02:00:15,640 --> 02:00:18,120 Speaker 2: it may be more of a threat than your phone. 2234 02:00:18,360 --> 02:00:20,040 Speaker 6: My partner the other day, was like, what if I 2235 02:00:20,040 --> 02:00:21,360 Speaker 6: got a dumb phone? I was like, what if I 2236 02:00:21,400 --> 02:00:26,960 Speaker 6: divorced you? Like, like what if? They were like what 2237 02:00:26,960 --> 02:00:27,360 Speaker 6: do you mean? 2238 02:00:27,360 --> 02:00:28,840 Speaker 12: And I was like, well, I'm going to be the 2239 02:00:28,840 --> 02:00:32,440 Speaker 12: one using all the maps for both of us, Yeah. 2240 02:00:32,120 --> 02:00:35,320 Speaker 6: And having to google all the dumb shit you want 2241 02:00:35,320 --> 02:00:35,720 Speaker 6: to google. 2242 02:00:35,760 --> 02:00:38,480 Speaker 12: That doesn't make I'm now your weakest link, Like go 2243 02:00:38,560 --> 02:00:41,360 Speaker 12: fuck yourself. But also I was like, I'm absolutely not 2244 02:00:42,200 --> 02:00:46,120 Speaker 12: going to be your your Google maps bitch, Like I'm 2245 02:00:46,160 --> 02:00:47,120 Speaker 12: not not doing that. 2246 02:00:47,680 --> 02:00:49,440 Speaker 6: But but I. 2247 02:00:49,360 --> 02:00:51,120 Speaker 12: Mean I think also, do you know to both of 2248 02:00:51,160 --> 02:00:53,560 Speaker 12: y'all's points to get serious again for a second. I mean, 2249 02:00:53,600 --> 02:00:57,480 Speaker 12: you know, like my threat model, for example, might be 2250 02:00:57,760 --> 02:01:01,920 Speaker 12: similar or slightly different, maybe slightly less than Cooper's. But 2251 02:01:02,080 --> 02:01:04,720 Speaker 12: you know, like some of the like the the the 2252 02:01:04,840 --> 02:01:06,760 Speaker 12: journalists in India we were working with, have quite a 2253 02:01:06,840 --> 02:01:10,040 Speaker 12: high threat model, right, Like, yeah, the Indian police force 2254 02:01:10,440 --> 02:01:14,160 Speaker 12: are very much like the NSA. They're very talented, they 2255 02:01:14,200 --> 02:01:16,440 Speaker 12: have a lot of money and tech at their disposal, 2256 02:01:16,760 --> 02:01:20,080 Speaker 12: and that might be different for some of the activists 2257 02:01:20,080 --> 02:01:22,760 Speaker 12: we're working with, let's say in like Louisiana or Texas, right, 2258 02:01:23,960 --> 02:01:27,360 Speaker 12: But the differences is like we're still talking about I 2259 02:01:27,400 --> 02:01:32,160 Speaker 12: would argue two brutal police forces that just have different 2260 02:01:32,200 --> 02:01:35,080 Speaker 12: means of disposal at their hands. So like the Louisiana 2261 02:01:35,320 --> 02:01:39,120 Speaker 12: Police are our groups you should totally be worried about. 2262 02:01:39,360 --> 02:01:42,080 Speaker 12: They might not be able to hack your phone, but 2263 02:01:42,680 --> 02:01:45,240 Speaker 12: maybe eventually they could. But there are other there are 2264 02:01:45,280 --> 02:01:47,760 Speaker 12: obviously other things we're about with them. But you know, 2265 02:01:48,400 --> 02:01:50,560 Speaker 12: in the context of like with some of the folks 2266 02:01:50,560 --> 02:01:54,480 Speaker 12: who are working with in the South, like reproductive justice activists, 2267 02:01:54,880 --> 02:01:56,919 Speaker 12: some of the things are probably much more. 2268 02:01:58,560 --> 02:01:59,960 Speaker 6: Serious in terms of your threat model. 2269 02:02:00,080 --> 02:02:03,240 Speaker 12: Would be like a nurse for someone who, let's say, 2270 02:02:03,240 --> 02:02:06,320 Speaker 12: is miscarring or has sought an abortion. This is something 2271 02:02:06,400 --> 02:02:09,400 Speaker 12: Kate Bertash from the Digital Defense Fund, a friend of 2272 02:02:09,800 --> 02:02:12,520 Speaker 12: of you know ours, has talked about where like the 2273 02:02:12,600 --> 02:02:14,920 Speaker 12: people that are supposed to take care of you might 2274 02:02:14,960 --> 02:02:18,680 Speaker 12: be the ones that are actually your your biggest threat, right, 2275 02:02:18,880 --> 02:02:21,200 Speaker 12: the ones that have heard you say something or you've 2276 02:02:21,200 --> 02:02:24,480 Speaker 12: can fight it in for example, And that is kind 2277 02:02:24,480 --> 02:02:26,360 Speaker 12: of a horrifying thing to think about, but that is 2278 02:02:26,760 --> 02:02:29,120 Speaker 12: that is a thing you have to threat model, right 2279 02:02:29,240 --> 02:02:31,280 Speaker 12: is can I trust this person? 2280 02:02:31,920 --> 02:02:33,960 Speaker 6: How am I describing you know what's happening? 2281 02:02:34,640 --> 02:02:35,040 Speaker 13: Yeah? 2282 02:02:35,400 --> 02:02:39,480 Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, Well did y'all have anything else you wanted 2283 02:02:39,480 --> 02:02:42,320 Speaker 2: to make sure to get into in this conversation. There's 2284 02:02:42,320 --> 02:02:44,760 Speaker 2: so much more in your in the great paper you 2285 02:02:44,760 --> 02:02:48,000 Speaker 2: you helped co author What is Secure and Analysis of 2286 02:02:48,000 --> 02:02:51,720 Speaker 2: Popular Messaging Apps on the Tech Policy Press. But yeah, 2287 02:02:51,760 --> 02:02:53,680 Speaker 2: is there anything else y'all wanted to really make sure 2288 02:02:53,720 --> 02:02:54,840 Speaker 2: you hit before we roll out. 2289 02:02:55,400 --> 02:02:57,640 Speaker 12: Yeah, please don't use Telegram for a variety of reasons, 2290 02:02:57,640 --> 02:03:00,800 Speaker 12: but also like it's very unclear how they respond to 2291 02:03:00,840 --> 02:03:03,400 Speaker 12: any law enforcement or government. They don't say anything, and 2292 02:03:03,440 --> 02:03:05,720 Speaker 12: it's kind of impossible to reach anyone that works there. 2293 02:03:06,400 --> 02:03:10,200 Speaker 12: Please don't use Facebook Messenger other than maybe sending memes. 2294 02:03:11,760 --> 02:03:14,400 Speaker 12: There's a lot of really gross surveillance capitalism inside a 2295 02:03:14,400 --> 02:03:18,400 Speaker 12: Facebook Messenger that the paper gets into. But effectively, Meta 2296 02:03:18,440 --> 02:03:21,920 Speaker 12: is building this weird, sprawling infrastructure inside of Facebook Messenger 2297 02:03:21,960 --> 02:03:23,840 Speaker 12: and try to link Facebook and Instagram. 2298 02:03:24,280 --> 02:03:26,560 Speaker 6: And one of the things we noticed. 2299 02:03:26,320 --> 02:03:28,880 Speaker 12: Is that like if you've blocked someone on Instagram or 2300 02:03:28,960 --> 02:03:32,000 Speaker 12: mute to them, but you haven't blocked me them on Facebook, 2301 02:03:32,360 --> 02:03:34,920 Speaker 12: but your stories, like all those stories are still coming 2302 02:03:34,920 --> 02:03:38,800 Speaker 12: across in messengers, so you can still see content from 2303 02:03:38,840 --> 02:03:42,680 Speaker 12: someone because it's linking both of those both of those profiles, 2304 02:03:43,440 --> 02:03:45,800 Speaker 12: so you know, you could see how we're taking like 2305 02:03:45,880 --> 02:03:48,960 Speaker 12: an online harassment lens, like why that's why that's really bad, 2306 02:03:49,280 --> 02:03:53,800 Speaker 12: Why that's really harmful and could be potentially you know, 2307 02:03:54,280 --> 02:03:55,720 Speaker 12: upsetting and triggering for folks. 2308 02:03:57,880 --> 02:04:00,160 Speaker 13: Yeah, I'll add that thing. 2309 02:04:00,240 --> 02:04:02,480 Speaker 9: My The major thing I want people to to think 2310 02:04:02,480 --> 02:04:05,840 Speaker 9: about is that encryption really does work, and it works 2311 02:04:05,880 --> 02:04:08,720 Speaker 9: really well. And we can see that because a lot 2312 02:04:08,760 --> 02:04:12,040 Speaker 9: of countries right now are trying to pass laws that 2313 02:04:12,160 --> 02:04:14,960 Speaker 9: either weaken or byan encryption right and in fact, the 2314 02:04:15,040 --> 02:04:19,320 Speaker 9: UK uh did passed, did just pass such a law. 2315 02:04:19,200 --> 02:04:21,080 Speaker 13: The Online Safety Built in the UK. 2316 02:04:21,760 --> 02:04:25,320 Speaker 9: And so it's really important that we that we you know, 2317 02:04:25,400 --> 02:04:28,000 Speaker 9: push back against these laws and fight back against these 2318 02:04:28,080 --> 02:04:32,120 Speaker 9: laws and whenever we can, right And I'm not I'm 2319 02:04:32,160 --> 02:04:35,000 Speaker 9: not coming at this as somebody who's a big believer 2320 02:04:35,320 --> 02:04:39,480 Speaker 9: in the you know, in in incrementalism and in working 2321 02:04:39,480 --> 02:04:41,320 Speaker 9: with governments, but I think that I still think that 2322 02:04:41,360 --> 02:04:45,960 Speaker 9: it's really important to you know, educate folks and push 2323 02:04:46,040 --> 02:04:47,960 Speaker 9: back against these laws and try to not let these 2324 02:04:48,000 --> 02:04:51,760 Speaker 9: pass because these will be you know, really bad for 2325 02:04:51,880 --> 02:04:53,440 Speaker 9: all of us totally. 2326 02:04:53,640 --> 02:04:55,880 Speaker 12: And not to defend the online safe build because I 2327 02:04:55,920 --> 02:04:57,960 Speaker 12: would never do that, will go to my grave, not 2328 02:04:58,520 --> 02:05:02,240 Speaker 12: speaking highly of it, only speaking critically at least, like 2329 02:05:02,320 --> 02:05:07,520 Speaker 12: the pushback from encryption experts and encryption supporters like Merrit Whitaker, 2330 02:05:07,960 --> 02:05:12,160 Speaker 12: president of Signal, did lead to lawmakers in the UK, 2331 02:05:12,320 --> 02:05:16,600 Speaker 12: for example, admitting that there's no sort of feasible. 2332 02:05:16,240 --> 02:05:18,280 Speaker 6: Safe way to build a back door, right, And that 2333 02:05:18,440 --> 02:05:18,880 Speaker 6: is I. 2334 02:05:18,760 --> 02:05:23,320 Speaker 12: Think also a win because of so much pushback, because 2335 02:05:23,360 --> 02:05:26,360 Speaker 12: of so much research, because of so much criticism that 2336 02:05:26,800 --> 02:05:29,880 Speaker 12: security and privacy folks gave people that are pro encryption 2337 02:05:30,120 --> 02:05:33,520 Speaker 12: like that, we you know, we were able to walk 2338 02:05:33,640 --> 02:05:37,120 Speaker 12: back that part. And I do think that's a big deal, 2339 02:05:37,760 --> 02:05:41,920 Speaker 12: even if there are other issues with that bill, because 2340 02:05:41,920 --> 02:05:45,120 Speaker 12: I think it also sends a signal pun intended to 2341 02:05:45,720 --> 02:05:51,080 Speaker 12: other governments as well, and I think that that's incredibly important. 2342 02:05:51,120 --> 02:05:53,040 Speaker 12: But yeah, I would also say just just use Signal 2343 02:05:53,040 --> 02:05:53,720 Speaker 12: whenever you can. 2344 02:05:56,200 --> 02:06:00,800 Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, we'll all right, folks, is going to 2345 02:06:00,800 --> 02:06:05,360 Speaker 2: be it for us here at it could happen here. Yeah, 2346 02:06:05,360 --> 02:06:08,240 Speaker 2: thank you all for listening, and thank you Cooper and 2347 02:06:08,440 --> 02:06:09,920 Speaker 2: Carolyn for coming on. 2348 02:06:11,080 --> 02:06:12,960 Speaker 9: Thank you for having us, yeah, and thank you for 2349 02:06:13,000 --> 02:06:13,400 Speaker 9: having us. 2350 02:06:13,600 --> 02:06:17,480 Speaker 12: You can find us on social media for now, I 2351 02:06:17,480 --> 02:06:19,560 Speaker 12: guess until it all lights on fire. 2352 02:06:19,760 --> 02:06:21,600 Speaker 5: Yeah, whichever one you want to trust. 2353 02:06:23,320 --> 02:06:27,640 Speaker 9: I'm Cooper Cue on most social media's Blue Sky Mastered 2354 02:06:27,680 --> 02:06:28,720 Speaker 9: on Shitter. 2355 02:06:29,760 --> 02:06:33,040 Speaker 12: Yeah, I'm Caroline Cinders, my first name, last name. Our 2356 02:06:33,120 --> 02:06:38,040 Speaker 12: lab is Convocation Research and Design Record Labs on Twitter 2357 02:06:38,080 --> 02:06:38,600 Speaker 12: at the moment. 2358 02:06:38,920 --> 02:06:41,120 Speaker 6: Hopefully we'll get begetting on Blue Sky very soon. 2359 02:06:42,120 --> 02:06:45,080 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'll probably get back on there more. Now. 2360 02:06:45,120 --> 02:06:50,120 Speaker 2: Twitter has gotten remarkably worse, which you know, we had 2361 02:06:50,120 --> 02:06:53,720 Speaker 2: a back back in the day on the old something 2362 02:06:53,800 --> 02:06:56,600 Speaker 2: Awful forums. There was a thread in one of the 2363 02:06:56,760 --> 02:07:00,919 Speaker 2: debate forums about this very right wing site, Free Republic, 2364 02:07:00,920 --> 02:07:03,280 Speaker 2: which is like one of the earliest reservoirs of what 2365 02:07:03,360 --> 02:07:07,320 Speaker 2: became trump Ism, and the tagline for the thread, just 2366 02:07:07,400 --> 02:07:10,000 Speaker 2: kind of watching these people was there is always more 2367 02:07:10,080 --> 02:07:13,320 Speaker 2: and it is always worse, And boy goddamn if that 2368 02:07:13,360 --> 02:07:17,200 Speaker 2: hasn't been a continually accurate statement about the whole of 2369 02:07:17,240 --> 02:07:19,880 Speaker 2: social media right now, isn't it time. 2370 02:07:19,800 --> 02:07:22,840 Speaker 6: Amazing to watch someone just light forty billion dollars on fire? 2371 02:07:23,040 --> 02:07:26,080 Speaker 5: Yeah, just like, yeah, totally to it. 2372 02:07:26,400 --> 02:07:29,400 Speaker 6: Yeah, it's like the nihilist and me being like, wow. 2373 02:07:29,520 --> 02:07:33,280 Speaker 2: Comrade Musk really really taking some hits to capitalism here. 2374 02:07:49,000 --> 02:07:52,960 Speaker 7: Hello, reviewone, it's me James. Today, I am back from 2375 02:07:52,960 --> 02:07:57,080 Speaker 7: my trip to kutis Don and I'm talking today with 2376 02:07:57,760 --> 02:08:02,200 Speaker 7: Rania Hayat, a name that I've probably just butchered, but 2377 02:08:02,480 --> 02:08:05,960 Speaker 7: Ranier is the communications officer for the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate, 2378 02:08:06,080 --> 02:08:09,240 Speaker 7: and we're very, very lucky to have Rennie talking to us. 2379 02:08:09,280 --> 02:08:10,720 Speaker 7: Welcome RENI, thank. 2380 02:08:10,640 --> 02:08:15,200 Speaker 15: You, Jams, thank you for contacting me and letting me 2381 02:08:15,280 --> 02:08:17,200 Speaker 15: be letting me with you. 2382 02:08:17,560 --> 02:08:21,800 Speaker 7: Yeah, of course you're very welcome. So I think Rania, 2383 02:08:23,000 --> 02:08:25,840 Speaker 7: it's been a really hard time to consume news. For 2384 02:08:25,880 --> 02:08:30,680 Speaker 7: the first week of what's happening. I was in mostly 2385 02:08:31,080 --> 02:08:33,760 Speaker 7: Sying and Iraqi, Curtistan, and I wasn't maybe consuming as 2386 02:08:33,840 --> 02:08:35,760 Speaker 7: much news so I normally do, because I was trying 2387 02:08:35,760 --> 02:08:39,160 Speaker 7: to write news in Todead, and then I got back 2388 02:08:39,680 --> 02:08:44,040 Speaker 7: just the the barraers you. Information and disinformation has been 2389 02:08:44,120 --> 02:08:47,920 Speaker 7: very hard for people to sort of wade through, and 2390 02:08:47,960 --> 02:08:50,520 Speaker 7: I wonder I think one of the things I'd like 2391 02:08:50,600 --> 02:08:54,640 Speaker 7: us to focus on first and foremost is the impact 2392 02:08:54,880 --> 02:09:01,720 Speaker 7: of Israel's bombing campaign on journalists, specifically working in Gaza. 2393 02:09:01,800 --> 02:09:04,000 Speaker 7: I know, like friends of mine a journalists in Gaza. 2394 02:09:04,080 --> 02:09:08,000 Speaker 7: We featured on this podcast before the people of Parkour, 2395 02:09:08,120 --> 02:09:13,880 Speaker 7: Gazah and I know that many journalists have lost their 2396 02:09:13,880 --> 02:09:16,800 Speaker 7: lives covering what's been happening. So can you explain a 2397 02:09:16,840 --> 02:09:20,800 Speaker 7: little bit about what's been happening and maybe bring us 2398 02:09:20,880 --> 02:09:22,960 Speaker 7: up to day on the amount of every loss is 2399 02:09:22,960 --> 02:09:24,920 Speaker 7: a tragedy, but like the amount of people who have 2400 02:09:25,000 --> 02:09:26,360 Speaker 7: lost their lives covering this. 2401 02:09:27,880 --> 02:09:33,080 Speaker 15: Yes, James, well, let's start that journalists in Gaza are 2402 02:09:33,200 --> 02:09:39,640 Speaker 15: civilians who are people who travel, they work, usually they 2403 02:09:39,680 --> 02:09:42,640 Speaker 15: should travel, but they work, They do their job. They 2404 02:09:42,720 --> 02:09:45,520 Speaker 15: try to cover the news with very hard conditions, with 2405 02:09:45,560 --> 02:09:48,840 Speaker 15: the daily life of Gaza. Since the beginning of the 2406 02:09:48,880 --> 02:09:53,440 Speaker 15: war against Gaza on the seventh of October, you know 2407 02:09:53,760 --> 02:09:59,480 Speaker 15: how the war started targeting everything in Gaza, not even 2408 02:09:59,800 --> 02:10:03,520 Speaker 15: all the people, more than the people, you know, the buildings, 2409 02:10:03,960 --> 02:10:09,480 Speaker 15: the children, even the animals, the plants, you know, just 2410 02:10:09,560 --> 02:10:12,520 Speaker 15: bombing and bombing and bombing, air strikes the whole time. 2411 02:10:14,120 --> 02:10:16,400 Speaker 15: At the beginning, we try to we have some our 2412 02:10:16,480 --> 02:10:22,640 Speaker 15: contacts with journalists and us we have our General Secretary 2413 02:10:22,800 --> 02:10:26,520 Speaker 15: member and so we try to get information from them. 2414 02:10:26,680 --> 02:10:30,120 Speaker 15: At the beginning, yeah, it was not easy, but it 2415 02:10:30,280 --> 02:10:33,520 Speaker 15: was okay to get some information about what's going on. 2416 02:10:34,240 --> 02:10:36,960 Speaker 15: But by the time. Now we reached to a place 2417 02:10:37,200 --> 02:10:41,400 Speaker 15: that when I call them, they always tell dozens of 2418 02:10:42,920 --> 02:10:47,600 Speaker 15: we don't know. We are disconnected. I'm homeless. Now, I 2419 02:10:47,640 --> 02:10:50,760 Speaker 15: am not able to get any news. I can't tell 2420 02:10:50,800 --> 02:10:53,280 Speaker 15: you about my friend or my neighbor next to me, 2421 02:10:53,360 --> 02:10:55,720 Speaker 15: but I'm not able to tell you about further than this. 2422 02:10:57,600 --> 02:11:00,720 Speaker 15: I will just give some statistics. Up to now, we 2423 02:11:00,800 --> 02:11:06,680 Speaker 15: have eighteen killed journalists who have been either killed while 2424 02:11:06,800 --> 02:11:13,560 Speaker 15: track covering, others were killed in their homes, being through 2425 02:11:13,600 --> 02:11:17,840 Speaker 15: air strikes with their families and so on. We have 2426 02:11:18,040 --> 02:11:22,080 Speaker 15: also many many journalists who have dozens of them have 2427 02:11:22,160 --> 02:11:25,320 Speaker 15: been injured. I'm really sorry, I was I wanted to 2428 02:11:25,360 --> 02:11:29,840 Speaker 15: have some you know, I curate statistics, but I can't 2429 02:11:29,840 --> 02:11:32,800 Speaker 15: give you until now. We are now trying trying to 2430 02:11:32,800 --> 02:11:37,520 Speaker 15: develop like a tool to get some statistics, but until 2431 02:11:37,520 --> 02:11:43,680 Speaker 15: now it's not working well. We have many journalists who 2432 02:11:43,720 --> 02:11:47,240 Speaker 15: lost their homes, homes because it was bomb bombed or 2433 02:11:47,920 --> 02:11:55,160 Speaker 15: ye air strikes. Others they were this place. Yeah, and 2434 02:11:56,360 --> 02:11:58,840 Speaker 15: many of them moves from their homes either because their 2435 02:11:58,840 --> 02:12:01,720 Speaker 15: homes was a bomb or other because they were threatened 2436 02:12:01,720 --> 02:12:04,480 Speaker 15: to stay at their home safely, so they go to 2437 02:12:04,520 --> 02:12:10,600 Speaker 15: other like schools, hospitals and so on. The most tragic 2438 02:12:10,840 --> 02:12:14,560 Speaker 15: is the journalists who are losing their families. When you 2439 02:12:14,600 --> 02:12:17,680 Speaker 15: call a journalist to ask him about any thing, they 2440 02:12:17,680 --> 02:12:20,280 Speaker 15: told you Okay, I lost my son, I lost my wife, 2441 02:12:20,320 --> 02:12:23,320 Speaker 15: I lost all my family, I lost my mother. Now 2442 02:12:24,320 --> 02:12:28,600 Speaker 15: they they are completely broken. You can't talk to them. 2443 02:12:28,680 --> 02:12:32,080 Speaker 15: They are you know, it's really very tragic situation. 2444 02:12:33,520 --> 02:12:37,440 Speaker 7: Yeah, it's I mean, it's literally unimaginable, Like, yeah, I 2445 02:12:37,480 --> 02:12:42,240 Speaker 7: think I've attended wars, I've lost friends, but nothing. I 2446 02:12:42,280 --> 02:12:45,720 Speaker 7: can't imagine what it's like on this scale. And it's 2447 02:12:46,160 --> 02:12:49,400 Speaker 7: heartbreaking to even think about it. And I think some 2448 02:12:49,440 --> 02:12:54,919 Speaker 7: of what you said obviously, like part of the situation 2449 02:12:55,040 --> 02:12:58,800 Speaker 7: this creates is that it's very hard to do reporting 2450 02:12:58,840 --> 02:13:00,920 Speaker 7: on the ground. It's always been hard to do reporting 2451 02:13:00,920 --> 02:13:05,720 Speaker 7: on the ground at Gaza. I have made plans to 2452 02:13:05,760 --> 02:13:09,600 Speaker 7: go to Gaza, which probably won't work out now, but 2453 02:13:09,720 --> 02:13:12,400 Speaker 7: like it's hard foreign press, and of course there are 2454 02:13:12,400 --> 02:13:15,200 Speaker 7: many very capable journalists within Ghays that we don't need 2455 02:13:15,840 --> 02:13:19,160 Speaker 7: foreign press to go then necessarily. But can you explain 2456 02:13:19,200 --> 02:13:23,600 Speaker 7: a little bit of how when this war started it 2457 02:13:23,640 --> 02:13:28,240 Speaker 7: didn't just like affect these people in terms of killing 2458 02:13:28,280 --> 02:13:32,040 Speaker 7: them killing their families, displacing them, destroying their homes. But 2459 02:13:32,080 --> 02:13:34,600 Speaker 7: also like every day this war goes on, it gets 2460 02:13:34,640 --> 02:13:36,960 Speaker 7: harder for us to see I think the impact of 2461 02:13:37,040 --> 02:13:40,400 Speaker 7: this war on civilians living in Gaza, right because of 2462 02:13:40,400 --> 02:13:41,760 Speaker 7: the damage to infrastructure. 2463 02:13:42,520 --> 02:13:47,200 Speaker 11: Is that fair to say, yes, this is what's going on, 2464 02:13:47,360 --> 02:13:53,000 Speaker 11: and yes, reporting is getting more and more complicated because 2465 02:13:53,040 --> 02:13:55,920 Speaker 11: as also you know, there is no electricity. 2466 02:13:56,400 --> 02:14:01,480 Speaker 15: Communication is very very difficult when sometimes through phone call 2467 02:14:01,600 --> 02:14:04,440 Speaker 15: I call them just to get something, they tell me, okay, 2468 02:14:04,840 --> 02:14:06,800 Speaker 15: wait until I get some internet and I will get 2469 02:14:06,840 --> 02:14:10,240 Speaker 15: back to you. I wait for hours and hours, sometimes 2470 02:14:10,400 --> 02:14:13,480 Speaker 15: for the second day to get a little information. So 2471 02:14:13,520 --> 02:14:17,280 Speaker 15: you can imagine how they can even contact with each other. 2472 02:14:18,680 --> 02:14:22,440 Speaker 7: Yeah, and yeah, that makes it very hard. I think 2473 02:14:22,920 --> 02:14:25,280 Speaker 7: often like we might have more into this is not 2474 02:14:25,400 --> 02:14:29,080 Speaker 7: uncommon actually, like you have more information sitting somewhere with 2475 02:14:29,120 --> 02:14:31,600 Speaker 7: a broad bank connection and access to Twitter than you 2476 02:14:31,680 --> 02:14:34,040 Speaker 7: do on the ground, right, Like they may not know 2477 02:14:34,200 --> 02:14:35,200 Speaker 7: everything that's happening. 2478 02:14:36,800 --> 02:14:41,720 Speaker 15: Yes, yeah, I don't know if I can talk about this, 2479 02:14:41,920 --> 02:14:46,400 Speaker 15: but you know about the restrictions that on all social 2480 02:14:46,440 --> 02:14:51,520 Speaker 15: media applications, the restrictions on the Palestinian contact content on 2481 02:14:51,560 --> 02:14:57,760 Speaker 15: the social media we're facing a big massive wave against 2482 02:14:57,760 --> 02:15:03,280 Speaker 15: our content, against our new was through Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, 2483 02:15:03,400 --> 02:15:08,840 Speaker 15: all those applications, So we are not able even to 2484 02:15:08,920 --> 02:15:12,320 Speaker 15: reach many people are banned, many people are hacked, and 2485 02:15:12,520 --> 02:15:15,760 Speaker 15: we are just hearing about the banning of many accounts 2486 02:15:15,760 --> 02:15:22,640 Speaker 15: of Palestinians. The very limited reach, very limited, and there 2487 02:15:22,640 --> 02:15:25,600 Speaker 15: are sometimes many times they are blocked or yeah, blocked 2488 02:15:25,680 --> 02:15:29,200 Speaker 15: or from posting and so on. So even also this 2489 02:15:29,320 --> 02:15:31,760 Speaker 15: is another problem that we are facing to reach out. 2490 02:15:32,560 --> 02:15:36,520 Speaker 7: Yeah, I think this is in a sense obviously, like 2491 02:15:37,280 --> 02:15:40,960 Speaker 7: it's in terms of specifically getting information about it, because 2492 02:15:40,960 --> 02:15:43,560 Speaker 7: I think that is important. I think if people could 2493 02:15:43,640 --> 02:15:47,480 Speaker 7: understand what it's like to see someone lose their baby, 2494 02:15:48,720 --> 02:15:52,880 Speaker 7: and then I think very few people would be able 2495 02:15:52,960 --> 02:15:56,320 Speaker 7: to in good conscious support that. And the fact that 2496 02:15:56,360 --> 02:15:59,480 Speaker 7: this has come at a time when I think generally, 2497 02:16:00,040 --> 02:16:04,160 Speaker 7: certainly for the US, reporting on things outside the US 2498 02:16:04,240 --> 02:16:07,680 Speaker 7: is an all time low, like it's atrocious, and so 2499 02:16:08,400 --> 02:16:12,080 Speaker 7: people lack the context to understand, not through any fault 2500 02:16:12,080 --> 02:16:14,000 Speaker 7: of their own right, but they've just been fed terrible, 2501 02:16:14,240 --> 02:16:17,440 Speaker 7: you know, opinion pieces for the last few years. They 2502 02:16:17,560 --> 02:16:20,200 Speaker 7: like the context to understand why what's happening is happening 2503 02:16:20,400 --> 02:16:27,280 Speaker 7: and I think obviously Elon Muskersport, Twitter and and just 2504 02:16:27,640 --> 02:16:30,560 Speaker 7: it's assessable. It's terrible, it's full of false information. And 2505 02:16:30,600 --> 02:16:34,640 Speaker 7: as you say, often videos that I have friends who 2506 02:16:34,720 --> 02:16:38,160 Speaker 7: are photographers in Gaza, a friends who are just people 2507 02:16:38,160 --> 02:16:41,280 Speaker 7: in Gaza and videos that they post will be taken down. 2508 02:16:41,400 --> 02:16:44,080 Speaker 7: It's sometimes they're to say it's too graphic, it's too violent, 2509 02:16:44,200 --> 02:16:48,200 Speaker 7: but like also that's their everyday life. Now that's been 2510 02:16:48,240 --> 02:16:53,120 Speaker 7: happening for two weeks. The graphic violence is sadly what's 2511 02:16:53,200 --> 02:16:54,320 Speaker 7: visited upon them every day. 2512 02:16:55,200 --> 02:17:02,039 Speaker 15: Yeah, yes, believe me, what's going on and because is 2513 02:17:02,160 --> 02:17:05,080 Speaker 15: very you can't imagine, you can't hold it when you 2514 02:17:05,120 --> 02:17:09,320 Speaker 15: when you watch it. Even the TV channels they try 2515 02:17:09,360 --> 02:17:15,080 Speaker 15: to make to minimize how dangerous and how violent are 2516 02:17:15,200 --> 02:17:19,560 Speaker 15: the scenes that we see. At the same time, I 2517 02:17:19,560 --> 02:17:22,800 Speaker 15: had a discussion this morning, I don't want people to 2518 02:17:22,879 --> 02:17:26,080 Speaker 15: cry for us. It's not I don't want people to 2519 02:17:26,120 --> 02:17:29,920 Speaker 15: cry for the babies killed and so with very hard 2520 02:17:30,080 --> 02:17:35,760 Speaker 15: pictures and videos, I just want the humanity without seeing 2521 02:17:35,800 --> 02:17:37,879 Speaker 15: the video just here that there is a child. It's 2522 02:17:37,920 --> 02:17:42,480 Speaker 15: loading child. Children. Thousands of children are losing their child's 2523 02:17:42,600 --> 02:17:47,279 Speaker 15: life or nothing, are losing their hands their legs. They 2524 02:17:47,320 --> 02:17:52,959 Speaker 15: are now handicapped. They don't know why. You know, we 2525 02:17:53,040 --> 02:17:55,720 Speaker 15: don't need to see the video, just know that this 2526 02:17:55,879 --> 02:17:58,640 Speaker 15: is going on. We don't want to make a tragedy. 2527 02:17:58,720 --> 02:18:02,119 Speaker 15: We don't want to to to people to cry with us. 2528 02:18:02,720 --> 02:18:06,760 Speaker 15: We cry. Yes, we want, okay, some solidarity, but it's 2529 02:18:07,720 --> 02:18:10,760 Speaker 15: not something to have the emotions and then then we 2530 02:18:10,840 --> 02:18:13,960 Speaker 15: sleep and then we wake up. That's what or no, no, 2531 02:18:14,040 --> 02:18:17,520 Speaker 15: there is something going on. We don't need the sympath 2532 02:18:17,600 --> 02:18:20,240 Speaker 15: you know, we need some actions, we need steps, we 2533 02:18:20,280 --> 02:18:21,320 Speaker 15: need humanity now. 2534 02:18:21,800 --> 02:18:25,040 Speaker 7: Yeah, So I think that's an excellent, really really excellent point. 2535 02:18:25,400 --> 02:18:27,480 Speaker 7: It's not a film or like something you can consume 2536 02:18:27,520 --> 02:18:30,520 Speaker 7: and then step away from. So what sort of solidarity 2537 02:18:30,560 --> 02:18:34,160 Speaker 7: actions can people take to support people in Gaza, to 2538 02:18:34,200 --> 02:18:39,280 Speaker 7: support journalists there, to support the greater cause of not 2539 02:18:39,520 --> 02:18:43,560 Speaker 7: having this issue where every few years thousands of Palestinian 2540 02:18:43,640 --> 02:18:44,680 Speaker 7: civilians get killed. 2541 02:18:45,560 --> 02:18:47,960 Speaker 15: Yes, well, to be honest, we want when we want 2542 02:18:48,000 --> 02:18:51,400 Speaker 15: to feel better, we turn on the television to see 2543 02:18:51,440 --> 02:18:55,680 Speaker 15: the demonstrations. When we see the demonstrations London, blocks cell 2544 02:18:56,720 --> 02:19:02,320 Speaker 15: the United States and different cities Arab world everywhere. When 2545 02:19:02,320 --> 02:19:05,200 Speaker 15: we see these demonstrations, we feel that somebody knows there 2546 02:19:05,240 --> 02:19:08,640 Speaker 15: is like a kind of movement. This helps us, and 2547 02:19:09,000 --> 02:19:12,880 Speaker 15: we need further steps after the demonstration. We need lobbying. 2548 02:19:13,120 --> 02:19:16,879 Speaker 15: We need the people who elect their governments who support 2549 02:19:17,160 --> 02:19:20,920 Speaker 15: those massacs and to say no, we give you legitimate 2550 02:19:21,040 --> 02:19:25,600 Speaker 15: legitimacy to be human. Stop this inhumanity. We need the 2551 02:19:25,600 --> 02:19:29,640 Speaker 15: people to lobby on their governments that this should not 2552 02:19:29,720 --> 02:19:34,000 Speaker 15: be supported. This is this is the real action that 2553 02:19:34,080 --> 02:19:37,480 Speaker 15: we need. Lobbying, lobbying, lobbying by the people, by the 2554 02:19:37,480 --> 02:19:38,400 Speaker 15: power of people. 2555 02:19:39,000 --> 02:19:41,320 Speaker 7: Yeah, I think it's one of those things like some 2556 02:19:41,360 --> 02:19:44,199 Speaker 7: things will never change in America, at least not by voting, 2557 02:19:44,280 --> 02:19:47,120 Speaker 7: but like some things, yeah, I have enough people, and 2558 02:19:47,160 --> 02:19:50,480 Speaker 7: I think more people, Like I remember when I moved 2559 02:19:50,480 --> 02:19:53,080 Speaker 7: to America fifteen years ago, when I was young at 2560 02:19:53,080 --> 02:19:55,600 Speaker 7: twenty one, and I came into America and I had 2561 02:19:55,600 --> 02:19:59,520 Speaker 7: a free Palestine, like a badge on my jacket, like 2562 02:20:00,200 --> 02:20:03,560 Speaker 7: things on my jacket, you know, and they sent me 2563 02:20:03,640 --> 02:20:06,840 Speaker 7: straight to secondary you know, like the like where they 2564 02:20:06,840 --> 02:20:08,320 Speaker 7: pat you down and take your clothes and go through 2565 02:20:08,320 --> 02:20:11,320 Speaker 7: your bags and stuch and like it just wasn't as 2566 02:20:11,320 --> 02:20:13,320 Speaker 7: big of a concern. I think more people in the 2567 02:20:13,320 --> 02:20:16,640 Speaker 7: fifteen years since then have become aware of the tragedy 2568 02:20:16,720 --> 02:20:20,320 Speaker 7: and the loss of life. And certainly now I've seen 2569 02:20:20,360 --> 02:20:25,320 Speaker 7: more people wake up to what's happening and protest or 2570 02:20:25,959 --> 02:20:27,800 Speaker 7: you know, get out and do things in a way 2571 02:20:27,840 --> 02:20:30,200 Speaker 7: that they wouldn't have done ten years ago. And I 2572 02:20:30,200 --> 02:20:35,320 Speaker 7: think that's really it's good, Like hopefully that demand for 2573 02:20:35,520 --> 02:20:38,119 Speaker 7: people to be allowed to live with dignity and safety continues. 2574 02:20:39,440 --> 02:20:42,000 Speaker 15: Yes, I mean, I just always want to ask anybody 2575 02:20:42,040 --> 02:20:44,720 Speaker 15: you'd like to say, are you happy to pay your 2576 02:20:44,760 --> 02:20:46,240 Speaker 15: taxt for killing others? 2577 02:20:46,640 --> 02:20:46,840 Speaker 7: Is it? 2578 02:20:46,879 --> 02:20:47,080 Speaker 11: Yeah? 2579 02:20:47,200 --> 02:20:49,879 Speaker 7: Jesus, Yeah, this is. 2580 02:20:50,080 --> 02:20:53,520 Speaker 15: The very initial, very first question. Are you happy with this? 2581 02:20:53,640 --> 02:20:57,240 Speaker 15: Do you pay your tax for this or for anything 2582 02:20:57,280 --> 02:21:02,200 Speaker 15: that you like to have your text to be paid for? Yeah, 2583 02:21:02,400 --> 02:21:06,360 Speaker 15: this is what we want. We're we are facing killing, 2584 02:21:06,400 --> 02:21:10,240 Speaker 15: we are facing assination and bombarding and so on, and 2585 02:21:10,360 --> 02:21:13,800 Speaker 15: we need all what we need as humanity, nothing else. 2586 02:21:14,680 --> 02:21:20,160 Speaker 7: I was thinking this morning of like, how very obviously 2587 02:21:20,240 --> 02:21:23,680 Speaker 7: right when when Russia bombed Ukrainian cities, most people said 2588 02:21:23,720 --> 02:21:26,240 Speaker 7: we should help the Ukrainians, send them ms, send them 2589 02:21:26,600 --> 02:21:28,800 Speaker 7: medical supplies, and some of them went and volunteered to 2590 02:21:28,800 --> 02:21:33,320 Speaker 7: fight for the Ukrainians when and I understand that like 2591 02:21:33,560 --> 02:21:37,160 Speaker 7: this obviously this, this conflict began in very different circumstances 2592 02:21:37,640 --> 02:21:40,520 Speaker 7: other than the Russia Ukraine conflict, but nonetheless, like, little 2593 02:21:40,560 --> 02:21:44,000 Speaker 7: children are being killed and continue to be killed, and 2594 02:21:44,080 --> 02:21:47,480 Speaker 7: the response wasn't the same. And I think some of 2595 02:21:47,520 --> 02:21:51,320 Speaker 7: that comes from like and not particularly hard to see 2596 02:21:51,320 --> 02:21:55,080 Speaker 7: orientalism in the US and the US media. Also some 2597 02:21:55,120 --> 02:21:58,240 Speaker 7: of it comes from the complete absence of Palestinian voices 2598 02:21:58,440 --> 02:22:02,800 Speaker 7: in certainly in like English language press in America. And 2599 02:22:02,840 --> 02:22:06,119 Speaker 7: I wonder, like I know that there are certain organizations 2600 02:22:06,160 --> 02:22:10,160 Speaker 7: which have specifically worked to make it harder for Palestinian journalists, 2601 02:22:10,160 --> 02:22:14,280 Speaker 7: like my friend Hausam Salem. He's an excellent photographer. You 2602 02:22:14,280 --> 02:22:16,480 Speaker 7: can find him on all the places where you find 2603 02:22:16,520 --> 02:22:19,360 Speaker 7: people on the internet. But we worked on stories together, 2604 02:22:19,920 --> 02:22:22,840 Speaker 7: and I know he's now had he's lost contract with 2605 02:22:22,920 --> 02:22:26,760 Speaker 7: major outlets because of this sort of campaign of accusing 2606 02:22:26,800 --> 02:22:29,320 Speaker 7: him of biased. I think it's hard not to be 2607 02:22:29,360 --> 02:22:32,800 Speaker 7: biased when you see a little children die. But I 2608 02:22:32,800 --> 02:22:35,039 Speaker 7: wonder if you could talk about that, like how Palestinian 2609 02:22:35,120 --> 02:22:38,000 Speaker 7: voices are excluded or missing from what even now right 2610 02:22:38,040 --> 02:22:41,879 Speaker 7: the Atlantic since two weeks of bombing now and I 2611 02:22:41,920 --> 02:22:43,840 Speaker 7: was looking this morning and they've managed to find two 2612 02:22:43,879 --> 02:22:48,879 Speaker 7: Palestinian voices to share, like you know, it's maybe not, 2613 02:22:48,920 --> 02:22:50,520 Speaker 7: and I'll have to check that after we've done. But 2614 02:22:51,440 --> 02:22:54,600 Speaker 7: I was flicking through these big sort of opinion piece 2615 02:22:54,640 --> 02:22:58,320 Speaker 7: type outlets and it's very clear that like even now, 2616 02:22:59,120 --> 02:23:02,640 Speaker 7: people haven't editors specifically or the greater press has not 2617 02:23:03,360 --> 02:23:06,920 Speaker 7: stopped excluding Palestinia voices. So maybe we could talk about 2618 02:23:06,959 --> 02:23:09,160 Speaker 7: like how that happens, what allows it to happen, and 2619 02:23:09,200 --> 02:23:12,640 Speaker 7: what people can do to help lift up those voices. 2620 02:23:14,120 --> 02:23:20,640 Speaker 15: Well, yes, Prestilian voices are being banned all over by 2621 02:23:20,680 --> 02:23:25,400 Speaker 15: different movements. There are many times fired from their works 2622 02:23:25,440 --> 02:23:34,480 Speaker 15: and big news outlets and media outlets for different political reasons. 2623 02:23:34,600 --> 02:23:37,080 Speaker 15: And if you want to go and through the stories, 2624 02:23:37,120 --> 02:23:39,920 Speaker 15: you find that some people are just trying to make 2625 02:23:42,560 --> 02:23:46,160 Speaker 15: to make problems for those people to let them leave 2626 02:23:46,200 --> 02:23:50,440 Speaker 15: their work and stop writing or telling their news or 2627 02:23:50,480 --> 02:23:54,160 Speaker 15: analyzing or anything about the Perestinian cause and what's going on. 2628 02:23:54,640 --> 02:23:58,480 Speaker 15: We're facing this globally, and we have many cases recorded 2629 02:23:59,240 --> 02:24:04,039 Speaker 15: undocumented in the PGS, and we can give you many 2630 02:24:04,080 --> 02:24:09,119 Speaker 15: examples about them. But I have to tell about something 2631 02:24:09,160 --> 02:24:13,199 Speaker 15: that we're a member of the International Federation of Journalists 2632 02:24:13,240 --> 02:24:18,039 Speaker 15: and we have also even our president of Brazilian Perlisinian 2633 02:24:18,120 --> 02:24:22,280 Speaker 15: Journalist Syndicate. He's a vice president of the International Federation 2634 02:24:22,320 --> 02:24:25,600 Speaker 15: of Journalist. He has been elected last year in the 2635 02:24:25,680 --> 02:24:30,640 Speaker 15: last congress. We have sister unions. One of them one 2636 02:24:30,680 --> 02:24:35,160 Speaker 15: of the best friends of us are the National Writers Union, 2637 02:24:35,560 --> 02:24:39,480 Speaker 15: the American National Writers Union, which is a very big 2638 02:24:39,520 --> 02:24:47,760 Speaker 15: supporter to us. They even Harry got Better, the general secretary, 2639 02:24:48,040 --> 02:24:50,880 Speaker 15: even he visited us in Palestine a few months ago, 2640 02:24:51,080 --> 02:24:54,840 Speaker 15: and he's a very supporter of what's going on, of 2641 02:24:54,920 --> 02:24:58,600 Speaker 15: all our statements of our news at the beginning of 2642 02:24:58,640 --> 02:25:06,040 Speaker 15: the world. They they produced like a statement about biasity 2643 02:25:05,480 --> 02:25:10,920 Speaker 15: and misleading news and so on, how to avoid them, 2644 02:25:10,959 --> 02:25:15,760 Speaker 15: supporting the Pristinians, supporting our life, our right to life, 2645 02:25:15,840 --> 02:25:19,600 Speaker 15: and so on. So we we highly appreciate this movement. 2646 02:25:20,600 --> 02:25:24,040 Speaker 15: Of course, it's not the only one. Many many syndicates, 2647 02:25:24,160 --> 02:25:28,560 Speaker 15: many unions all over the world sent us solidarity letters. 2648 02:25:29,600 --> 02:25:33,840 Speaker 15: Some of them supported us even with some in kind contribution, 2649 02:25:34,080 --> 02:25:37,760 Speaker 15: with some funds in addition to solidarity, in addition to 2650 02:25:38,040 --> 02:25:41,760 Speaker 15: demonstrations and so on, which really gave us a lot 2651 02:25:41,800 --> 02:25:45,280 Speaker 15: of power of hope. So we can continue and we 2652 02:25:45,320 --> 02:25:46,160 Speaker 15: are not alone. 2653 02:25:46,760 --> 02:25:50,600 Speaker 7: Mm hmm, yeah. I think that's really powerful. Yeah, and well, 2654 02:25:50,640 --> 02:25:53,560 Speaker 7: I mean it's not enough, but it's something the unions. 2655 02:25:53,600 --> 02:25:55,480 Speaker 7: I think people also the members of the union can 2656 02:25:55,600 --> 02:25:57,720 Speaker 7: encourage the union to do that, right, just to make 2657 02:25:57,760 --> 02:26:02,200 Speaker 7: a statement. Yeah, it's the show some solidarity. I wonder 2658 02:26:02,520 --> 02:26:06,920 Speaker 7: like what you talked about in kind donations and you 2659 02:26:06,920 --> 02:26:09,080 Speaker 7: talked about the support you're getting from unions. I know 2660 02:26:09,920 --> 02:26:13,280 Speaker 7: one unions which i'm a member, that's your Workers of 2661 02:26:13,320 --> 02:26:17,720 Speaker 7: the World FJAU just did a fundraiser, still doing a 2662 02:26:17,720 --> 02:26:23,200 Speaker 7: fundraiser for flag Vest, bullet professors, for journalists. What kind 2663 02:26:23,240 --> 02:26:26,640 Speaker 7: of support can people give, like in a concrete sense, 2664 02:26:26,680 --> 02:26:29,560 Speaker 7: beyond getting in the streets and protesting and writing letters 2665 02:26:29,600 --> 02:26:32,920 Speaker 7: and emails and phone calls. Is the stuff that they 2666 02:26:32,959 --> 02:26:34,840 Speaker 7: can do with their money if they have some money. 2667 02:26:37,200 --> 02:26:40,119 Speaker 15: Well, it's not a kind of money, it's a kind 2668 02:26:40,200 --> 02:26:44,360 Speaker 15: of I will tell you now. The situation in Gaza 2669 02:26:44,800 --> 02:26:47,879 Speaker 15: we can't or what we do we need is a ceasfire, 2670 02:26:49,120 --> 02:26:52,879 Speaker 15: to be honest. They even don't have fresh water they drink, 2671 02:26:52,959 --> 02:26:57,280 Speaker 15: by the way, they say, try to minimize that the 2672 02:26:57,320 --> 02:26:59,720 Speaker 15: water they drink, and they know that the water they 2673 02:26:59,800 --> 02:27:03,480 Speaker 15: drink is not very clean. But just to survive, so 2674 02:27:03,560 --> 02:27:06,080 Speaker 15: you can start with this very basic need of life 2675 02:27:06,080 --> 02:27:11,439 Speaker 15: and then you go further. As I already told you 2676 02:27:11,520 --> 02:27:14,480 Speaker 15: that the safety vests are very important, but when you 2677 02:27:14,520 --> 02:27:18,560 Speaker 15: are under strikes, this will never help you. But if 2678 02:27:18,600 --> 02:27:21,560 Speaker 15: I want to talk about the daily life, about how 2679 02:27:21,600 --> 02:27:25,439 Speaker 15: it's going and the West Bank and Gaza, our journalists, 2680 02:27:26,120 --> 02:27:32,520 Speaker 15: we all work under the same conditions of aggressive events, 2681 02:27:32,879 --> 02:27:37,560 Speaker 15: covering aggressive events and so on. So we try as 2682 02:27:37,760 --> 02:27:41,640 Speaker 15: PJAS to contact all the media outlets in Palestine to 2683 02:27:41,959 --> 02:27:47,120 Speaker 15: offer or provide safety kits for all journalists who work 2684 02:27:47,160 --> 02:27:53,680 Speaker 15: in the field. But for example our freelancers, they work 2685 02:27:53,800 --> 02:28:00,360 Speaker 15: on their on responsibility and a very denserse situation. We 2686 02:28:00,480 --> 02:28:04,480 Speaker 15: try to to to tell how dangerous that what they 2687 02:28:04,480 --> 02:28:06,440 Speaker 15: do when you go to cover with you don't have 2688 02:28:06,600 --> 02:28:12,800 Speaker 15: very full safety kits or it's it's very dangerous for them, 2689 02:28:12,840 --> 02:28:15,320 Speaker 15: but they are not able to to cover it and 2690 02:28:15,360 --> 02:28:18,240 Speaker 15: they want to they need to work, they need to 2691 02:28:18,280 --> 02:28:21,200 Speaker 15: do their job, so they do it in a very strange, 2692 02:28:21,959 --> 02:28:26,039 Speaker 15: very dangerous conditions. So one of the things that we 2693 02:28:26,120 --> 02:28:31,720 Speaker 15: can support Junius is yes, safety kets which are very important. 2694 02:28:33,200 --> 02:28:43,320 Speaker 15: Medical kits also are very important. What what else we 2695 02:28:43,440 --> 02:28:47,840 Speaker 15: try we try to to do also we try to 2696 02:28:48,000 --> 02:28:52,279 Speaker 15: raise the awareness to make some materials for the journals 2697 02:28:52,360 --> 02:28:57,039 Speaker 15: about safety. Safety is very important for us. We try 2698 02:28:57,080 --> 02:28:59,600 Speaker 15: to to to teach them more about how to take 2699 02:28:59,640 --> 02:29:01,720 Speaker 15: care of them themselves, how to report and so on, 2700 02:29:01,800 --> 02:29:07,039 Speaker 15: about their security and so on. Yeah, this is mainly 2701 02:29:07,080 --> 02:29:10,480 Speaker 15: what I can talk about for the needs or the 2702 02:29:10,520 --> 02:29:13,080 Speaker 15: in kind contribution, as I told you, in the current situation, 2703 02:29:13,240 --> 02:29:17,800 Speaker 15: for example, we try to support through some donations, through 2704 02:29:17,920 --> 02:29:22,640 Speaker 15: support to support the journalists with better charging. But it 2705 02:29:22,720 --> 02:29:25,480 Speaker 15: is because of the lack of electricity and power sources 2706 02:29:25,480 --> 02:29:29,320 Speaker 15: in Gaza, so just to give them connected currently and 2707 02:29:29,320 --> 02:29:32,840 Speaker 15: they are very useful for them and it helps. Now. 2708 02:29:33,560 --> 02:29:36,720 Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, I can see. It's probably best that you 2709 02:29:36,720 --> 02:29:38,680 Speaker 7: guys just have money and then you can be flexible 2710 02:29:38,720 --> 02:29:41,440 Speaker 7: in getting what people need. I think that's generally the 2711 02:29:41,440 --> 02:29:44,480 Speaker 7: best advice is when there's a crisis, is to send 2712 02:29:44,480 --> 02:29:46,480 Speaker 7: the people nearest to it money and then they can 2713 02:29:46,480 --> 02:29:50,080 Speaker 7: decide what they need. Certainly, I found that I found 2714 02:29:50,080 --> 02:29:53,520 Speaker 7: that in a lot of places I worked. Yes, so 2715 02:29:53,800 --> 02:29:56,280 Speaker 7: you talked about the power situation. I think that's sort 2716 02:29:56,320 --> 02:30:00,400 Speaker 7: of it has gone relatively unreported. I mean it'll still 2717 02:30:00,440 --> 02:30:02,560 Speaker 7: say like the power and water being cut off, but 2718 02:30:03,560 --> 02:30:06,640 Speaker 7: that creates a lot of other dangerous situations, right, Like 2719 02:30:06,680 --> 02:30:09,520 Speaker 7: obviously some people rely on that power if they're infirm, 2720 02:30:09,600 --> 02:30:11,840 Speaker 7: if they have medical devices, that kind of thing. But 2721 02:30:11,920 --> 02:30:15,480 Speaker 7: also like where there are places to charge, that results 2722 02:30:15,480 --> 02:30:17,720 Speaker 7: in a very high concentration of people, right Like my 2723 02:30:18,280 --> 02:30:20,879 Speaker 7: friend was telling me that their parents were in a 2724 02:30:20,920 --> 02:30:24,640 Speaker 7: hospital to charge their their devices. Right They wanted to 2725 02:30:24,840 --> 02:30:27,640 Speaker 7: call their child and say we're safe, we're alive, but 2726 02:30:27,680 --> 02:30:29,080 Speaker 7: their phone had run out of batteries, so they had 2727 02:30:29,080 --> 02:30:31,640 Speaker 7: to go to the hospital. Yeah, can you explain a 2728 02:30:31,680 --> 02:30:33,800 Speaker 7: little bit of some of the things that like that 2729 02:30:33,800 --> 02:30:36,920 Speaker 7: that has resulted in the loss of power for people. 2730 02:30:37,840 --> 02:30:42,360 Speaker 15: Yes, of course. But first of all, let me tell 2731 02:30:42,400 --> 02:30:46,440 Speaker 15: you that we already asked quested all our journalists and 2732 02:30:46,480 --> 02:30:51,360 Speaker 15: Gaza to be in the hospitals. Well, there's safety, we try, 2733 02:30:51,480 --> 02:30:54,320 Speaker 15: we expect that it would be a safe pless but 2734 02:30:54,360 --> 02:30:56,959 Speaker 15: there is no safe less in Gaza now, as you're 2735 02:30:57,320 --> 02:31:02,760 Speaker 15: already know about the hospitals that have been targeted. But 2736 02:31:03,400 --> 02:31:05,959 Speaker 15: we we already asked them to be in the hospitals. 2737 02:31:06,080 --> 02:31:09,120 Speaker 15: We try to make some press zones and the hospitals 2738 02:31:09,240 --> 02:31:12,000 Speaker 15: in some places where it's for press for journalists to 2739 02:31:12,080 --> 02:31:17,960 Speaker 15: be there, So they can get some electricity power and 2740 02:31:18,080 --> 02:31:21,160 Speaker 15: so they can all to be together, try to exchange 2741 02:31:21,160 --> 02:31:27,240 Speaker 15: information and work together, so it will be better for 2742 02:31:27,280 --> 02:31:31,879 Speaker 15: them to work and safer between brackets always for them 2743 02:31:31,920 --> 02:31:36,640 Speaker 15: to work. To be honest, yes, I don't know. If 2744 02:31:36,640 --> 02:31:40,720 Speaker 15: you see the news now, it's we had the sun 2745 02:31:40,760 --> 02:31:44,600 Speaker 15: has set, so it's completely dark because you just can 2746 02:31:44,720 --> 02:31:49,600 Speaker 15: have some lightned spots which are the hospitals. And you 2747 02:31:49,720 --> 02:31:54,680 Speaker 15: know that even the solar and the sorry, the fuel 2748 02:31:54,720 --> 02:32:01,920 Speaker 15: for school for hospitals is about to to to finish 2749 02:32:02,040 --> 02:32:06,720 Speaker 15: here and in two days I think maximum. But we 2750 02:32:06,800 --> 02:32:10,280 Speaker 15: will see. Maybe we'll have some trucks or they will 2751 02:32:10,320 --> 02:32:13,040 Speaker 15: get something inside Gaza for fuel and so on. But 2752 02:32:13,280 --> 02:32:14,320 Speaker 15: I'm not sure about this. 2753 02:32:14,879 --> 02:32:18,240 Speaker 7: Yeah, I think, yeah, every day it's changing, I guess. 2754 02:32:19,440 --> 02:32:21,680 Speaker 7: And I wondered, like talking about getting things into gather, 2755 02:32:21,879 --> 02:32:26,000 Speaker 7: getting getting things two people in Gaza, a thing that 2756 02:32:26,160 --> 02:32:29,800 Speaker 7: seems to be completely like, I don't know, it genuinely 2757 02:32:29,800 --> 02:32:31,440 Speaker 7: seems to be that people think people could just walk 2758 02:32:31,480 --> 02:32:34,959 Speaker 7: out of Gaza and and you know, go somewhere else. 2759 02:32:36,000 --> 02:32:37,880 Speaker 7: So I guess, just to be extremely clear on that, 2760 02:32:37,920 --> 02:32:41,920 Speaker 7: can you explain the situation for people in Gaza with 2761 02:32:41,959 --> 02:32:44,520 Speaker 7: respect to if they want them mobility and their ability 2762 02:32:44,560 --> 02:32:47,520 Speaker 7: to leave, because I think it's something that again has 2763 02:32:47,560 --> 02:32:50,840 Speaker 7: been like criminally overlooked in the United States, discourse. 2764 02:32:52,400 --> 02:32:53,920 Speaker 15: Ability to leave Gaza. 2765 02:32:54,040 --> 02:32:57,320 Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, like a lack thereof would be more accurate, right, 2766 02:32:57,400 --> 02:32:59,360 Speaker 7: like they complete absence of that. 2767 02:33:00,040 --> 02:33:04,279 Speaker 15: Well, unfortunately, people and gas are blocked. They are all 2768 02:33:05,080 --> 02:33:07,280 Speaker 15: and they are not allowed to leave Gaza with any 2769 02:33:07,360 --> 02:33:11,480 Speaker 15: kind of borders. Even the people who have international passports 2770 02:33:11,520 --> 02:33:16,080 Speaker 15: like American, European or whatever passports, they are not now, 2771 02:33:16,200 --> 02:33:20,080 Speaker 15: they are not able to leave gazam. They have to 2772 02:33:20,120 --> 02:33:21,039 Speaker 15: face their fate. 2773 02:33:21,160 --> 02:33:21,400 Speaker 5: Now. 2774 02:33:21,600 --> 02:33:24,680 Speaker 15: They are just displaced from place to another. Some people 2775 02:33:24,720 --> 02:33:30,000 Speaker 15: have been displaced four times and for areas different areas, 2776 02:33:30,480 --> 02:33:36,600 Speaker 15: and others were displaced and bombed later. So no, they 2777 02:33:36,640 --> 02:33:39,520 Speaker 15: are blocked. They have They are blocked in a like 2778 02:33:39,600 --> 02:33:43,880 Speaker 15: a very limited area which is under strikes the whole time. 2779 02:33:44,440 --> 02:33:50,480 Speaker 15: No place is safe. Even the Baptist hospital. They thought 2780 02:33:50,480 --> 02:33:53,560 Speaker 15: that it would be a Baptist hospital hospital related to 2781 02:33:53,600 --> 02:33:58,880 Speaker 15: a church and so on. It was strike massively cruely. 2782 02:34:01,280 --> 02:34:05,200 Speaker 15: More than five hundred have been killed. They were all children. 2783 02:34:05,320 --> 02:34:08,440 Speaker 15: Mothers are sitting just as a thinking that it would 2784 02:34:08,480 --> 02:34:11,920 Speaker 15: be a shelter for them. So yes, this is the 2785 02:34:11,959 --> 02:34:16,320 Speaker 15: situation Gaza. There is no safe place, no hospitals. If 2786 02:34:16,320 --> 02:34:18,040 Speaker 15: you are in a hospital, you will be bombed. If 2787 02:34:18,080 --> 02:34:20,080 Speaker 15: you're in school you'll be bombed. If you are in 2788 02:34:20,120 --> 02:34:22,400 Speaker 15: a mosque if you will be bombed. If you're in 2789 02:34:22,400 --> 02:34:27,080 Speaker 15: a church, you will be bombed. No safe place unfortunately. 2790 02:34:27,680 --> 02:34:34,879 Speaker 7: Yeah, it's yeah, it's it's unimaginable. And like the act 2791 02:34:34,920 --> 02:34:37,199 Speaker 7: of bombing that we were talking about this before we started, 2792 02:34:37,280 --> 02:34:42,280 Speaker 7: but like when you're being bombed, it's very different from 2793 02:34:42,280 --> 02:34:44,879 Speaker 7: like a small art conflict or even like a you 2794 02:34:44,920 --> 02:34:50,360 Speaker 7: know whatever, artillery motors rockets like you, there isn't much 2795 02:34:50,400 --> 02:34:53,160 Speaker 7: you can do to be safe. It's not like there 2796 02:34:53,200 --> 02:34:55,680 Speaker 7: is no like cover from bombs. You know that you 2797 02:34:56,160 --> 02:34:57,400 Speaker 7: you there's no. 2798 02:34:59,320 --> 02:35:01,640 Speaker 15: By the way, there's not under ground shoulders. 2799 02:35:02,160 --> 02:35:03,080 Speaker 7: Yeah. 2800 02:35:03,160 --> 02:35:05,039 Speaker 15: Yeah, and now they are intense. By the way, they 2801 02:35:05,080 --> 02:35:09,520 Speaker 15: were in houses. The houses they were falling on their heads, 2802 02:35:09,560 --> 02:35:13,200 Speaker 15: so they went to tense. So when they were tent falls, it's. 2803 02:35:13,160 --> 02:35:17,959 Speaker 7: Not so yeah Jesus, Yeah, it's bit's bleak. It's yeah, 2804 02:35:18,120 --> 02:35:22,360 Speaker 7: it's it's unimaginable. Like I said, yeah, I just spent 2805 02:35:22,400 --> 02:35:23,600 Speaker 7: a week in a place that was being. 2806 02:35:23,560 --> 02:35:27,320 Speaker 15: Very fat protected by the sky which is full of 2807 02:35:27,760 --> 02:35:29,400 Speaker 15: planes bombing them. 2808 02:35:29,680 --> 02:35:31,880 Speaker 7: Yeah. Yeah, and every time you look up you wonder 2809 02:35:31,920 --> 02:35:34,080 Speaker 7: what that is and it's this still time, or it's 2810 02:35:34,080 --> 02:35:38,000 Speaker 7: just so on. So I think one thing people are 2811 02:35:38,000 --> 02:35:43,640 Speaker 7: really struggling with is like overload of information missed information, right, 2812 02:35:45,640 --> 02:35:48,440 Speaker 7: just some of the worst pieces I've ever seen in 2813 02:35:48,520 --> 02:35:53,000 Speaker 7: opinion pieces, things center on social media, which are like 2814 02:35:53,040 --> 02:35:58,040 Speaker 7: it seems that we've returned to like peak aslamophobic rhetoric 2815 02:35:58,120 --> 02:36:01,959 Speaker 7: of like September twelve, two thousand and one, and we've 2816 02:36:02,040 --> 02:36:05,880 Speaker 7: learned absolutely nothing from twenty years of killing and dying. 2817 02:36:06,680 --> 02:36:10,160 Speaker 7: So I wonder where you would recommend if there are 2818 02:36:10,200 --> 02:36:12,760 Speaker 7: members of your syndicate or other places where people can 2819 02:36:12,840 --> 02:36:18,080 Speaker 7: find reliable and for reporting, which is you know, fact checked, 2820 02:36:18,160 --> 02:36:20,400 Speaker 7: which is not overloading them with you know, like if 2821 02:36:20,600 --> 02:36:22,320 Speaker 7: you go on Twitter to try and find your information 2822 02:36:22,360 --> 02:36:23,680 Speaker 7: at the minute, you're just going to get into an 2823 02:36:23,760 --> 02:36:25,800 Speaker 7: argument with someone who has the worst opinions in the world, 2824 02:36:26,200 --> 02:36:29,200 Speaker 7: and it's not good and it can dissuade you from 2825 02:36:29,280 --> 02:36:31,560 Speaker 7: taking action in the ways that you've mentioned which are 2826 02:36:31,560 --> 02:36:34,440 Speaker 7: actually useful. So is there a place you'd suggest people 2827 02:36:34,520 --> 02:36:39,080 Speaker 7: look for information outlets or individuals they could follow. 2828 02:36:41,200 --> 02:36:45,000 Speaker 15: Well, who wants to know the truth will be will 2829 02:36:45,000 --> 02:36:50,880 Speaker 15: find it. You know, the media is always any media outlet, 2830 02:36:50,959 --> 02:36:55,640 Speaker 15: it has its it has its mandate and vision and 2831 02:36:55,680 --> 02:36:59,080 Speaker 15: so on. So I just advise everyone when you will 2832 02:36:59,200 --> 02:37:02,400 Speaker 15: go for any media outlets, just try to read about 2833 02:37:02,840 --> 02:37:07,440 Speaker 15: what's what's its mandate, who's they are related to, who's 2834 02:37:07,640 --> 02:37:12,520 Speaker 15: they are supporting, and so on, so to know from 2835 02:37:12,600 --> 02:37:15,720 Speaker 15: which perspective you will know the truth. I can't tell 2836 02:37:15,760 --> 02:37:20,480 Speaker 15: now the names of outlets because it's not me who 2837 02:37:20,520 --> 02:37:25,360 Speaker 15: to decide who's who's the right one. As you know, 2838 02:37:25,440 --> 02:37:28,959 Speaker 15: I am. I work in a syndicate which is like 2839 02:37:29,040 --> 02:37:32,360 Speaker 15: a union, which is for all journalists with all foods, 2840 02:37:32,480 --> 02:37:35,880 Speaker 15: all at outlets, so they are all our members. 2841 02:37:36,080 --> 02:37:39,360 Speaker 7: So yeah, yeah, I think that's good advice so that 2842 02:37:39,400 --> 02:37:42,680 Speaker 7: people can take more. It's it's good advice that people 2843 02:37:42,720 --> 02:37:44,920 Speaker 7: can take more broadly, because I think people are completely 2844 02:37:45,000 --> 02:37:51,480 Speaker 7: unaware the ownership of some outlets that mandate there perceived biases. 2845 02:37:52,000 --> 02:37:55,600 Speaker 15: Yes, try to read about them, not only the new 2846 02:37:56,120 --> 02:38:00,760 Speaker 15: not the news itself, but try to see about this outlets, 2847 02:38:00,840 --> 02:38:05,240 Speaker 15: about this establishment, how it's working, what their objectives, how 2848 02:38:05,280 --> 02:38:08,600 Speaker 15: do they work, and what are their connections and so on, 2849 02:38:08,959 --> 02:38:12,520 Speaker 15: so you will know which kind of news they are 2850 02:38:12,560 --> 02:38:17,680 Speaker 15: covering and how do they cover it. Yes, this is 2851 02:38:17,720 --> 02:38:20,920 Speaker 15: what I can say for us as Telisinia Journalists Syndicate. 2852 02:38:21,000 --> 02:38:23,879 Speaker 15: We try now to report about journalists because this is 2853 02:38:23,920 --> 02:38:26,920 Speaker 15: our manda, this is our work to tell about what's 2854 02:38:26,959 --> 02:38:30,959 Speaker 15: going for our members, to try to get any protection 2855 02:38:31,120 --> 02:38:35,879 Speaker 15: for them. Actually were in this very hard condition. But 2856 02:38:36,000 --> 02:38:41,600 Speaker 15: we tried, through our friends, through our relations, through our supporters, 2857 02:38:42,080 --> 02:38:46,920 Speaker 15: through our memberships and so on, to have some international 2858 02:38:46,959 --> 02:38:51,720 Speaker 15: support for them through information, through like a flow of 2859 02:38:51,800 --> 02:38:55,640 Speaker 15: information telling what's going on, how many journalists have been killed, 2860 02:38:55,680 --> 02:38:58,880 Speaker 15: how many journals are displaced, how many and so on, 2861 02:38:58,959 --> 02:39:01,720 Speaker 15: So we try to give them those that are not. 2862 02:39:03,000 --> 02:39:05,840 Speaker 15: As I already told you, it's really a hard job 2863 02:39:05,879 --> 02:39:08,400 Speaker 15: that we are going we are doing now. It's getting 2864 02:39:08,400 --> 02:39:10,880 Speaker 15: more and more difficult. We are trying to cope, trying 2865 02:39:10,920 --> 02:39:14,240 Speaker 15: to develop new tools to cope with this hard, very 2866 02:39:14,240 --> 02:39:20,000 Speaker 15: hard situation. But we try our maximum to be honest, 2867 02:39:20,480 --> 02:39:24,440 Speaker 15: to get very real and true information, not to get 2868 02:39:24,480 --> 02:39:30,480 Speaker 15: any misleading information. There's a flow of misleading information. Even 2869 02:39:30,520 --> 02:39:33,640 Speaker 15: we hear about many journalists that they are killed, but 2870 02:39:33,920 --> 02:39:36,320 Speaker 15: when we try to make sure that we found that 2871 02:39:36,360 --> 02:39:38,959 Speaker 15: they are not journalists. We don't get them put them 2872 02:39:39,000 --> 02:39:42,240 Speaker 15: in our lists. We try to investigate as much as 2873 02:39:42,240 --> 02:39:45,600 Speaker 15: we can, so to put our lists to be limited 2874 02:39:45,680 --> 02:39:49,199 Speaker 15: to journalists, to our members, to the people who work 2875 02:39:49,280 --> 02:39:52,039 Speaker 15: with us, with our within, our man dead and so on, 2876 02:39:52,400 --> 02:39:57,720 Speaker 15: so to be credible source of information. 2877 02:39:58,360 --> 02:40:01,760 Speaker 7: Yeah, I think it's very important. I so, I don't 2878 02:40:01,800 --> 02:40:03,440 Speaker 7: know if you guys who shared it. I sure a 2879 02:40:03,520 --> 02:40:06,120 Speaker 7: video early on. It was when I was still in 2880 02:40:06,200 --> 02:40:09,279 Speaker 7: Syrian Curdistan, but we were watching it of a funeral 2881 02:40:09,320 --> 02:40:12,680 Speaker 7: of three journalists who have been killed. Yeah, and like 2882 02:40:13,120 --> 02:40:15,560 Speaker 7: someone was saying at the funeral that they was speaking 2883 02:40:15,560 --> 02:40:17,760 Speaker 7: and someone else will pick up his camera and like 2884 02:40:17,879 --> 02:40:21,680 Speaker 7: keep documenting things, which really was very emotional for me 2885 02:40:21,720 --> 02:40:25,640 Speaker 7: and my friends. Yeah, it was really sad, but yes 2886 02:40:25,680 --> 02:40:29,879 Speaker 7: it is. I believe it's just you know, that's the 2887 02:40:29,920 --> 02:40:32,480 Speaker 7: thing that I do. And I see people, you know, 2888 02:40:32,640 --> 02:40:35,600 Speaker 7: dressed like me. People. I know it's been very of 2889 02:40:35,720 --> 02:40:39,520 Speaker 7: your coverage of that has been very emotionally challenging for me, 2890 02:40:39,600 --> 02:40:44,240 Speaker 7: But it should be emotionally challenging. It's terrible, but I 2891 02:40:44,240 --> 02:40:47,240 Speaker 7: think people should definitely tune into it if they can. 2892 02:40:47,360 --> 02:40:49,640 Speaker 7: I wonder are they're like social media accounts that the 2893 02:40:49,680 --> 02:40:51,320 Speaker 7: PJS has that people can follow. 2894 02:40:52,520 --> 02:40:53,280 Speaker 5: Yes, we have. 2895 02:40:54,879 --> 02:40:59,959 Speaker 15: Facebook page. It's on Facebook. Yes, it's a place senior 2896 02:41:00,040 --> 02:41:05,040 Speaker 15: and journalists syndicats. Yeah, just and we try to download 2897 02:41:05,520 --> 02:41:08,760 Speaker 15: all our news on it. Also we have our website 2898 02:41:08,760 --> 02:41:13,240 Speaker 15: which is www dot PJS dot ps. Also you can 2899 02:41:13,320 --> 02:41:16,440 Speaker 15: find some news statements, updates and so on. 2900 02:41:17,040 --> 02:41:20,440 Speaker 7: Yeah, that's great, and I encourage people to follow that 2901 02:41:20,520 --> 02:41:24,000 Speaker 7: they're able to. I wonder, really, is there anything else 2902 02:41:24,200 --> 02:41:27,240 Speaker 7: you think that people are like anything that's been missing 2903 02:41:27,280 --> 02:41:29,200 Speaker 7: from the media narrative that you'd like people to know 2904 02:41:29,440 --> 02:41:32,680 Speaker 7: about the situation now in Palestine, or like the situation 2905 02:41:33,280 --> 02:41:36,400 Speaker 7: more broadly that hasn't been reported on as much as 2906 02:41:36,440 --> 02:41:39,480 Speaker 7: it should be. Yeah. 2907 02:41:39,600 --> 02:41:43,080 Speaker 15: Yeah, I just want to add something about besides what's 2908 02:41:43,080 --> 02:41:47,040 Speaker 15: going on, and because even a journalists in the West Bank, 2909 02:41:47,280 --> 02:41:53,600 Speaker 15: even in Palestinian journalists in Israel are facing a lot 2910 02:41:53,720 --> 02:41:59,200 Speaker 15: of threats, facing a lot of problems. There is a 2911 02:41:59,440 --> 02:42:03,879 Speaker 15: massive a campaign of arrests. So up to now one thousand, 2912 02:42:04,120 --> 02:42:08,640 Speaker 15: in three days, one thousand persons have been arrested. We're 2913 02:42:08,680 --> 02:42:13,800 Speaker 15: trying to find the number of journalists which is I'm 2914 02:42:13,840 --> 02:42:16,400 Speaker 15: not sure about it, but I can't give you the figure. 2915 02:42:16,560 --> 02:42:18,640 Speaker 15: As I told you, because of the big number, we're 2916 02:42:18,640 --> 02:42:23,520 Speaker 15: trying to make sure who are the journalists, But a 2917 02:42:23,560 --> 02:42:30,400 Speaker 15: massive arrests campaign is taking place now. Also, journalists are 2918 02:42:30,440 --> 02:42:34,160 Speaker 15: facing a lot of threats about a lot of violations 2919 02:42:35,240 --> 02:42:39,640 Speaker 15: while covering many times that are prevented from coverage. They 2920 02:42:39,680 --> 02:42:44,440 Speaker 15: are threatened by weapons, They are threatened sometimes by the settlers, 2921 02:42:44,959 --> 02:42:51,160 Speaker 15: armed settlers, even not the army, while covering many of them. Also, 2922 02:42:51,280 --> 02:42:57,039 Speaker 15: they are subject to incitement through social media pages like 2923 02:42:58,280 --> 02:43:01,640 Speaker 15: spreading their photo or there and so to make a 2924 02:43:01,720 --> 02:43:05,640 Speaker 15: kind of excitement how to kill them or to get 2925 02:43:05,720 --> 02:43:08,920 Speaker 15: rid of them and so on. So also the journalists 2926 02:43:08,959 --> 02:43:14,119 Speaker 15: are facing a very hard time now. Yeah, they are 2927 02:43:14,240 --> 02:43:15,160 Speaker 15: under the threat. 2928 02:43:15,320 --> 02:43:21,320 Speaker 7: Yeah damn. Yeah, that's terrible and completely unacceptable. So yeah, 2929 02:43:21,320 --> 02:43:23,440 Speaker 7: I'm glad you shared that, And I think it's important 2930 02:43:23,480 --> 02:43:26,760 Speaker 7: that people follow this and do whatever they can to help, 2931 02:43:27,800 --> 02:43:30,320 Speaker 7: do whatever they can to to I don't know, to 2932 02:43:30,360 --> 02:43:32,720 Speaker 7: encourage people to stop bombing other people, Like it's never 2933 02:43:33,560 --> 02:43:36,920 Speaker 7: a good situation. People are bombing children and hopefully it 2934 02:43:36,959 --> 02:43:39,480 Speaker 7: comes to an end. They get it. I don't know. 2935 02:43:39,480 --> 02:43:44,120 Speaker 7: I've never seen this much outgoing support for Palestine the 2936 02:43:44,200 --> 02:43:46,840 Speaker 7: United States. But I've also you know, this is an 2937 02:43:46,879 --> 02:43:54,600 Speaker 7: unprecedented act of again war crimes, so delicated's it's very 2938 02:43:54,640 --> 02:43:55,959 Speaker 7: hard to see where this is going. 2939 02:43:56,000 --> 02:43:59,880 Speaker 15: I suppose, Yes, we believe that the voice is rich, 2940 02:44:01,200 --> 02:44:04,680 Speaker 15: maybe a little by not that fast that that's easy, 2941 02:44:04,760 --> 02:44:08,600 Speaker 15: because it's not easy. But we believe in every person 2942 02:44:08,800 --> 02:44:12,760 Speaker 15: who thinks and and say no, this is inhuman I 2943 02:44:12,800 --> 02:44:15,000 Speaker 15: should not I should be with those people who are 2944 02:44:15,080 --> 02:44:23,520 Speaker 15: under attack, who are under under Yeah, a lot of 2945 02:44:23,800 --> 02:44:27,240 Speaker 15: hard life. Yeah, it's a hard life, a lot of oppress. 2946 02:44:27,720 --> 02:44:30,840 Speaker 15: So yeah, when we see the as aduld, when we 2947 02:44:30,879 --> 02:44:34,120 Speaker 15: see the demonstrations, it really gives us power. It really 2948 02:44:34,240 --> 02:44:37,360 Speaker 15: gives us that we have right to life. You know, 2949 02:44:37,480 --> 02:44:40,280 Speaker 15: this is a minimum right that we need people to 2950 02:44:40,320 --> 02:44:42,200 Speaker 15: tell us, Yes, you have a right to life. 2951 02:44:43,080 --> 02:44:44,959 Speaker 7: Yeah, I think that's it's nice to hear. 2952 02:44:45,040 --> 02:44:45,240 Speaker 12: You know. 2953 02:44:45,440 --> 02:44:48,320 Speaker 7: It's like if you can feel that you're helping, even 2954 02:44:48,440 --> 02:44:51,920 Speaker 7: just helping people, feel like a little bit, you know, elevated, 2955 02:44:51,920 --> 02:44:54,480 Speaker 7: a little bit better, a little bit less despairing, because 2956 02:44:54,480 --> 02:44:56,040 Speaker 7: I can see how it would be very easy if 2957 02:44:56,080 --> 02:45:00,160 Speaker 7: you're stuck in guys to feel like the world's and 2958 02:45:00,240 --> 02:45:03,360 Speaker 7: in you. Because it has to a large degree, right, 2959 02:45:03,560 --> 02:45:07,440 Speaker 7: the words allowed this to happen and it's you know, 2960 02:45:07,480 --> 02:45:11,800 Speaker 7: it's not it's American bombs, American plaints dropping bombs. 2961 02:45:12,280 --> 02:45:12,800 Speaker 15: Fortunately. 2962 02:45:14,520 --> 02:45:16,879 Speaker 7: Yeah, so I think that's really good to hear. It's 2963 02:45:16,920 --> 02:45:21,160 Speaker 7: good to hear that that has made some difference. Thank 2964 02:45:21,240 --> 02:45:22,920 Speaker 7: you so much for giving us some of your time. 2965 02:45:23,080 --> 02:45:26,560 Speaker 15: I know it's thank you, Jams, thank you for having 2966 02:45:26,600 --> 02:45:30,160 Speaker 15: me with you. I wish you all good luck. Thank you, 2967 02:45:30,240 --> 02:45:35,520 Speaker 15: Thank you all who listeners, listeners to this podcast. I 2968 02:45:35,560 --> 02:45:39,560 Speaker 15: hope that I was able to give you an overview 2969 02:45:39,600 --> 02:45:44,080 Speaker 15: of what's going on. And let's pray that this violence 2970 02:45:44,080 --> 02:45:45,240 Speaker 15: will end very soon. 2971 02:45:45,760 --> 02:45:48,360 Speaker 7: Yes, yeah, yeah, indeed, let's thank you very much. I 2972 02:45:48,440 --> 02:45:48,920 Speaker 7: was wonderful. 2973 02:45:49,040 --> 02:45:49,360 Speaker 16: Thank you. 2974 02:46:07,080 --> 02:46:11,320 Speaker 5: It's spoky week. It can happen here. It's spooky week, 2975 02:46:11,360 --> 02:46:15,080 Speaker 5: the week where things are spooky. I'm your host, Mio Wong, 2976 02:46:15,240 --> 02:46:16,439 Speaker 5: and with me is Garrison. 2977 02:46:17,040 --> 02:46:23,920 Speaker 10: Hello, and today all right, all right. 2978 02:46:23,840 --> 02:46:27,520 Speaker 5: We've gotten, we've gotten, we've gotten the preliminary spooky out 2979 02:46:28,800 --> 02:46:31,360 Speaker 5: and so today we're gonna be talking about one of 2980 02:46:31,360 --> 02:46:34,039 Speaker 5: the sort of key elements of Halloween, and that is 2981 02:46:34,160 --> 02:46:37,959 Speaker 5: chocolate and so on. On a very basic level, we're 2982 02:46:37,959 --> 02:46:42,640 Speaker 5: going to ask what is chocolate? And the answer and 2983 02:46:42,720 --> 02:46:44,520 Speaker 5: it pains me to say this as someone who really 2984 02:46:44,520 --> 02:46:49,080 Speaker 5: loves chocolate is really really bleak. Yeah, but before we 2985 02:46:49,120 --> 02:46:54,560 Speaker 5: get into exactly how bleak it is, uh, we're gonna 2986 02:46:55,480 --> 02:47:00,240 Speaker 5: look at sort of the early history of chocolate. So 2987 02:47:00,240 --> 02:47:03,680 Speaker 5: so okay, there's there's a lot of disagreement about exactly 2988 02:47:03,720 --> 02:47:06,320 Speaker 5: how old chocolate is. I've seen sources that say three 2989 02:47:06,360 --> 02:47:10,680 Speaker 5: thousand BC. I've seen sources that say seventeen hundred BC. 2990 02:47:10,800 --> 02:47:12,920 Speaker 5: The sevente hundred b C is the one that's pretty consistent. 2991 02:47:13,240 --> 02:47:18,000 Speaker 5: It seems like the Olmecs had something like chocolate. That's it. 2992 02:47:18,000 --> 02:47:20,760 Speaker 5: It's a sort of bitter drink that they sometimes put 2993 02:47:20,840 --> 02:47:23,320 Speaker 5: vanilla or red pepper in. Yeah, it was, it was. 2994 02:47:23,360 --> 02:47:23,600 Speaker 11: It was. 2995 02:47:23,680 --> 02:47:27,039 Speaker 10: It was like a bitter slurry that you from what 2996 02:47:27,160 --> 02:47:30,160 Speaker 10: I hear, not very enjoyable, but it got you like 2997 02:47:31,160 --> 02:47:34,720 Speaker 10: really high, like not high like like like weed, but 2998 02:47:34,840 --> 02:47:36,359 Speaker 10: like kind of like cocaine. 2999 02:47:36,400 --> 02:47:36,840 Speaker 11: It was. 3000 02:47:37,000 --> 02:47:39,199 Speaker 10: It was like it was it was a massive stimulant, 3001 02:47:39,560 --> 02:47:42,280 Speaker 10: is yeah, from what I hear about these kind of 3002 02:47:42,320 --> 02:47:44,640 Speaker 10: early gross bitter chocolate slurries. 3003 02:47:45,600 --> 02:47:47,280 Speaker 5: Yeah, And you know, I mean this is the thing 3004 02:47:47,320 --> 02:47:50,760 Speaker 5: that's this is not a regular consumption drink. Basically everyone 3005 02:47:50,800 --> 02:47:53,520 Speaker 5: he uses this and this, and and chocolate is consumed 3006 02:47:53,600 --> 02:47:59,880 Speaker 5: by a bunch of different civilizations like across like most 3007 02:48:00,040 --> 02:48:03,640 Speaker 5: of South America. There's something sort of like the Mayans obviously, 3008 02:48:03,680 --> 02:48:06,120 Speaker 5: the Mayans and the Aztecs too. There's a lot of 3009 02:48:06,120 --> 02:48:09,240 Speaker 5: places where where this is being used, and it's everyone 3010 02:48:09,280 --> 02:48:11,920 Speaker 5: seems to use it for ritual purposes. Yeah, I think 3011 02:48:11,959 --> 02:48:14,879 Speaker 5: at some point the I think it was the the 3012 02:48:14,959 --> 02:48:19,400 Speaker 5: Omes at some point we're doing these like they were 3013 02:48:19,440 --> 02:48:24,359 Speaker 5: making fermented alcohol out of so so normally with with chocolate, 3014 02:48:24,400 --> 02:48:26,760 Speaker 5: you're using like the cocoa beans, right, but there's like 3015 02:48:26,800 --> 02:48:29,120 Speaker 5: a flesh and the flute fruit around the beans, and 3016 02:48:29,120 --> 02:48:30,840 Speaker 5: they were making like a fermented thing out of that. 3017 02:48:31,480 --> 02:48:33,879 Speaker 5: And I don't know, I leave as an exercise to 3018 02:48:33,920 --> 02:48:36,840 Speaker 5: the reader with you count that as chocolate. But the 3019 02:48:36,920 --> 02:48:40,400 Speaker 5: sort of conventional story goes okay. So like several thousand 3020 02:48:40,440 --> 02:48:42,760 Speaker 5: years after the Olmes, the Assex and the Mayans using 3021 02:48:42,800 --> 02:48:46,480 Speaker 5: it for ritual purposes, and the story basically is okay. 3022 02:48:46,560 --> 02:48:51,600 Speaker 5: So Herman Cortes drinks chocolate with stick king Maktazuma. Cortes goes, 3023 02:48:51,720 --> 02:48:53,720 Speaker 5: this is bitter as shit and sucks ass, but he 3024 02:48:53,720 --> 02:48:57,879 Speaker 5: brings it back to Europe anyways, and in Europe they 3025 02:48:57,879 --> 02:48:59,640 Speaker 5: mix it with sugar and also with honey, but mostly 3026 02:48:59,680 --> 02:49:04,040 Speaker 5: with sugar, and it becomes you know, it becomes very 3027 02:49:04,160 --> 02:49:06,920 Speaker 5: very popular drinking Europe. And at some point, this is 3028 02:49:06,959 --> 02:49:09,959 Speaker 5: like the eighteen forty so like like takes some about 3029 02:49:10,120 --> 02:49:13,760 Speaker 5: like three hundred years to figure out how to make 3030 02:49:13,800 --> 02:49:16,959 Speaker 5: cocoa powder. But once you have cocoa powder, you can 3031 02:49:17,320 --> 02:49:19,600 Speaker 5: it's not it seems to be bitter like it in 3032 02:49:19,640 --> 02:49:23,279 Speaker 5: the in the way that it sort of is naturally. 3033 02:49:23,640 --> 02:49:27,160 Speaker 10: You can you can process it with like like like 3034 02:49:27,520 --> 02:49:32,440 Speaker 10: basic solutions, which which neutralizes some of the acidic and 3035 02:49:32,480 --> 02:49:35,360 Speaker 10: bitter bitter tastes, which is why you should always buy 3036 02:49:35,400 --> 02:49:37,959 Speaker 10: a Dutch process cocoa powder, which is unfortunately hard to 3037 02:49:38,040 --> 02:49:41,080 Speaker 10: find these days. But it is, it is, it is, 3038 02:49:41,160 --> 02:49:41,840 Speaker 10: it is the shit. 3039 02:49:43,120 --> 02:49:45,760 Speaker 5: Yeah, that's that's that's actually yeah, so the that's that's 3040 02:49:45,879 --> 02:49:48,800 Speaker 5: Dutch cocoa. And then twenty years later someone figures out 3041 02:49:48,800 --> 02:49:50,400 Speaker 5: how to make that into a chocolate bar and you know, 3042 02:49:50,440 --> 02:49:53,840 Speaker 5: sort of a law, you have chocolate. Now, the conventional 3043 02:49:53,879 --> 02:49:57,480 Speaker 5: histories are missing something very very important, which is something 3044 02:49:57,480 --> 02:50:02,040 Speaker 5: that defined has defined the production of chocolate since Europeans 3045 02:50:02,080 --> 02:50:04,320 Speaker 5: got a hold of it. And continues to define it today. 3046 02:50:04,800 --> 02:50:10,680 Speaker 5: And that thing is slavery. Yeah, yes, yeah, And you 3047 02:50:10,720 --> 02:50:13,760 Speaker 5: know this is slavery is a very sort of important 3048 02:50:13,800 --> 02:50:16,120 Speaker 5: part of the history of chocolate because slavery is what 3049 02:50:16,280 --> 02:50:19,600 Speaker 5: transforms the older ritual chocolate used by a bunch of 3050 02:50:19,600 --> 02:50:23,520 Speaker 5: different indigenous societies for several thousand years, into modern chocolate. 3051 02:50:24,080 --> 02:50:25,880 Speaker 5: And this is this is the point that I want 3052 02:50:25,879 --> 02:50:29,320 Speaker 5: to make because most most histories of chocolate tend you know, 3053 02:50:29,320 --> 02:50:31,680 Speaker 5: when they're trying to find the origin of modern chocolate, 3054 02:50:31,680 --> 02:50:34,640 Speaker 5: they go, oh, it's chocolate bar. And I think they're wrong. 3055 02:50:34,720 --> 02:50:38,120 Speaker 5: I think they're very wrong. I think the distinct European 3056 02:50:38,160 --> 02:50:42,160 Speaker 5: innovation of chocolate is to add sugar to it. Yes, 3057 02:50:42,240 --> 02:50:46,720 Speaker 5: and this raises the very bleak question where does sugar 3058 02:50:46,800 --> 02:50:51,199 Speaker 5: come from? And the answer, of course is slavery. Sugar 3059 02:50:51,320 --> 02:50:53,920 Speaker 5: is one of the primary crops of slave economies in 3060 02:50:54,000 --> 02:50:56,840 Speaker 5: both the colonies and the West Indies. It is one 3061 02:50:56,840 --> 02:50:58,920 Speaker 5: of the key elements of the so called triangle trade 3062 02:50:58,959 --> 02:51:00,600 Speaker 5: where you know, you may have probably you have learned 3063 02:51:00,600 --> 02:51:03,720 Speaker 5: this in school, but you know, for people, for people 3064 02:51:03,720 --> 02:51:05,400 Speaker 5: who've been out of school for a long time. So 3065 02:51:05,440 --> 02:51:08,720 Speaker 5: the triangle trade is Europe since manufacturer goes to Africa, 3066 02:51:08,800 --> 02:51:11,400 Speaker 5: it trades that fruit enslaved people and slave people are 3067 02:51:11,440 --> 02:51:15,440 Speaker 5: taken from Africa to the colonies and sometimes to America, 3068 02:51:15,560 --> 02:51:19,400 Speaker 5: sometimes to the colonies in the West Indies. Uh. And 3069 02:51:19,440 --> 02:51:22,119 Speaker 5: then they take you know, the products of slavery from 3070 02:51:22,120 --> 02:51:27,720 Speaker 5: plantations back to Europe. And that's you know, rice, indigo, tobacco, cotton, molasses, rum, 3071 02:51:27,760 --> 02:51:31,320 Speaker 5: and critically sugar back to Europe. Actould wait did did 3072 02:51:31,360 --> 02:51:33,760 Speaker 5: they Did they teach you the triangle trade? Yeah? 3073 02:51:33,840 --> 02:51:38,280 Speaker 10: Yes, I mean I I I did learn. My Christian 3074 02:51:38,320 --> 02:51:41,359 Speaker 10: Homescholing curriculum wasn't the best, but. 3075 02:51:41,320 --> 02:51:42,640 Speaker 5: We did, we did. 3076 02:51:42,879 --> 02:51:45,440 Speaker 10: We did cover some basic things. 3077 02:51:46,480 --> 02:51:49,920 Speaker 5: It's interesting because the triangle trade as a model, like 3078 02:51:50,080 --> 02:51:52,360 Speaker 5: isn't that old, even though even though like this is 3079 02:51:52,360 --> 02:51:55,480 Speaker 5: the way that we all understand, like Tyler sort of 3080 02:51:55,560 --> 02:51:59,240 Speaker 5: colonial trade work, it's a kind of recent thing. Yeah. 3081 02:51:59,280 --> 02:52:01,400 Speaker 5: So sugar, sugar is a very very key part of 3082 02:52:01,400 --> 02:52:04,000 Speaker 5: this entire thing. And there's a very very famous this 3083 02:52:04,120 --> 02:52:08,120 Speaker 5: sort of classic study of sugar and slavery is Sydney W. 3084 02:52:08,320 --> 02:52:11,320 Speaker 5: Mitz's Sweetness and Power, which is a fundamental tax and 3085 02:52:11,400 --> 02:52:14,959 Speaker 5: a lot of sort of a lot of the sort 3086 02:52:14,959 --> 02:52:17,959 Speaker 5: of fields around the study of slavery, and one of 3087 02:52:18,000 --> 02:52:21,680 Speaker 5: his arguments is that the British industrial proletariat is fueled 3088 02:52:21,680 --> 02:52:24,680 Speaker 5: by slave sugar because the sugar is a stimulant that 3089 02:52:24,760 --> 02:52:26,640 Speaker 5: you know, they're putting it in tea, which another stimulant. 3090 02:52:26,640 --> 02:52:28,400 Speaker 5: They're putting it in whatever they drink, and this is 3091 02:52:28,440 --> 02:52:32,240 Speaker 5: a thing that allows them to keep working for longer 3092 02:52:32,280 --> 02:52:33,720 Speaker 5: than they otherwise would have been able to. 3093 02:52:34,280 --> 02:52:37,160 Speaker 10: Yeah, and this also was the origin of Britain's probably 3094 02:52:37,240 --> 02:52:39,160 Speaker 10: largest cultural trait, bad teeth. 3095 02:52:44,480 --> 02:52:44,800 Speaker 7: Yeah. 3096 02:52:44,840 --> 02:52:46,240 Speaker 5: And you know, so, so this is this is this 3097 02:52:46,280 --> 02:52:50,160 Speaker 5: is a many aspects of British culture I've are descended 3098 02:52:50,200 --> 02:52:56,360 Speaker 5: from from slavery and you know, but but the other, 3099 02:52:56,440 --> 02:52:58,480 Speaker 5: the other important thing for our story is that sugar 3100 02:52:58,640 --> 02:53:02,600 Speaker 5: is what makes chocolate sort of palatable to Europeans. And 3101 02:53:02,600 --> 02:53:05,440 Speaker 5: and this isn't a sort of interesting thing that Europeans do. 3102 02:53:07,280 --> 02:53:09,640 Speaker 5: You know, they do this with tobacco too. You haven't 3103 02:53:09,720 --> 02:53:11,879 Speaker 5: you have something that you're only supposed to use in 3104 02:53:11,920 --> 02:53:15,400 Speaker 5: fairly small amounts for ritual purposes, right, And the Europeans 3105 02:53:15,400 --> 02:53:17,960 Speaker 5: are like, okay, but what if we purified the shit 3106 02:53:18,000 --> 02:53:19,959 Speaker 5: out of it and they just ate it literally every day? 3107 02:53:20,360 --> 02:53:25,440 Speaker 10: Yeah, have you ever tried like unsweetened on like chocolate liquor. 3108 02:53:26,320 --> 02:53:29,560 Speaker 5: Fucking sucks. I hate it. It's not good. 3109 02:53:30,959 --> 02:53:33,680 Speaker 10: You can certainly nibble, it can be a fun novelty 3110 02:53:33,720 --> 02:53:35,320 Speaker 10: to nibble, but you certainly wouldn't want to eat like 3111 02:53:35,360 --> 02:53:36,200 Speaker 10: a whole bar of it. 3112 02:53:36,800 --> 02:53:40,560 Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it's some real hope boy. Yeah. So, like 3113 02:53:40,680 --> 02:53:42,360 Speaker 5: I mean, it makes sense that they added sugar to it. 3114 02:53:42,440 --> 02:53:46,240 Speaker 5: But the consequence of this is that we can ask 3115 02:53:46,360 --> 02:53:48,800 Speaker 5: we can finally ask the question right now, now, now 3116 02:53:48,800 --> 02:53:51,040 Speaker 5: that it's been transformed by sugar into this object, a 3117 02:53:51,080 --> 02:53:54,120 Speaker 5: sort of popular consumption, we can ask the question what 3118 02:53:54,400 --> 02:53:58,000 Speaker 5: is chocolate? And the answer is that chocolate is colonialism 3119 02:53:58,000 --> 02:54:00,320 Speaker 5: plus slavery. It is a fusion of cocoa, which is 3120 02:54:00,320 --> 02:54:02,440 Speaker 5: an indigenous ritual drink sees is a part of the 3121 02:54:02,480 --> 02:54:05,760 Speaker 5: wages of colonialism by the European empires, and sugar a 3122 02:54:05,800 --> 02:54:10,160 Speaker 5: slave crop that drove the colonial prontation economy. And you know, 3123 02:54:10,040 --> 02:54:12,760 Speaker 5: you might say me, you know you're being harsh here, right, 3124 02:54:12,920 --> 02:54:15,280 Speaker 5: even if we accept your argument about chocolate and the 3125 02:54:15,320 --> 02:54:21,279 Speaker 5: sixteen hundred, surely surely that's not sure now, wasn't wasn't. 3126 02:54:21,240 --> 02:54:24,280 Speaker 10: Wasn't slavery abolished in the eighteen hundreds, and now I assume, 3127 02:54:25,000 --> 02:54:29,320 Speaker 10: I assume Nesle's barving practices are totally above board. 3128 02:54:29,680 --> 02:54:32,039 Speaker 5: See, and this is I think the interesting part of 3129 02:54:32,080 --> 02:54:35,520 Speaker 5: the story is gare like our readers is assuming a 3130 02:54:35,560 --> 02:54:37,880 Speaker 5: thing I'm about to launch into here is the Mars 3131 02:54:37,959 --> 02:54:41,160 Speaker 5: Nestley Child slavery lawsuit, and we will because that is 3132 02:54:41,160 --> 02:54:46,400 Speaker 5: a critical elements of slavery and chocolate production. But there 3133 02:54:46,440 --> 02:54:51,760 Speaker 5: is also still slavery and sugar production capitalism. And not 3134 02:54:51,840 --> 02:54:54,200 Speaker 5: only is your slavery and sugar production, there is slavery 3135 02:54:54,240 --> 02:54:56,680 Speaker 5: in sugar production in the exact same places there were 3136 02:54:56,720 --> 02:55:00,680 Speaker 5: slavery and sugar production five hundred years ago. And this 3137 02:55:00,760 --> 02:55:02,680 Speaker 5: is one of the sort of stunning things about you know, 3138 02:55:02,800 --> 02:55:07,360 Speaker 5: the miss of capitalism, right, which is that, okay, capitalism 3139 02:55:07,400 --> 02:55:10,400 Speaker 5: has had four hundred you know, I'm gonna give them 3140 02:55:10,440 --> 02:55:14,000 Speaker 5: a bit of credit and be like, Okay, I don't know, 3141 02:55:14,240 --> 02:55:17,160 Speaker 5: like I I'm gonna give capitalism a little bit of 3142 02:55:17,200 --> 02:55:19,480 Speaker 5: credit and give it only with being responsible for four 3143 02:55:19,600 --> 02:55:21,440 Speaker 5: hundred years of this and not five hundred years of this, 3144 02:55:22,120 --> 02:55:25,160 Speaker 5: because you know, whatever complicated arguments about whether the capitalist 3145 02:55:25,160 --> 02:55:27,160 Speaker 5: transition is in the fifteen hundreds to sixteen hundreds. But 3146 02:55:27,840 --> 02:55:30,840 Speaker 5: you know, they have had four hundred years to solve 3147 02:55:30,879 --> 02:55:34,360 Speaker 5: the problem of slavery on Hispaniola. Has it done that? 3148 02:55:34,959 --> 02:55:35,039 Speaker 1: No? 3149 02:55:35,600 --> 02:55:38,240 Speaker 5: It is there is still slavery on the island of 3150 02:55:38,240 --> 02:55:42,920 Speaker 5: Fispaniola four hundred years later. Because we're going to be 3151 02:55:42,920 --> 02:55:47,560 Speaker 5: discussing in a second. Still, the best possible thing here 3152 02:55:47,840 --> 02:55:53,400 Speaker 5: is that maybe, and this is it is arguable, maybe 3153 02:55:53,640 --> 02:55:58,039 Speaker 5: last year there stopped being slaves there. Now I don't 3154 02:55:58,040 --> 02:55:59,400 Speaker 5: even think that. I don't think that's true. And we're 3155 02:55:59,400 --> 02:56:03,000 Speaker 5: gonna get into to that, but you know, before before 3156 02:56:03,040 --> 02:56:05,080 Speaker 5: we sort of launch into you know what, like whether 3157 02:56:05,200 --> 02:56:07,240 Speaker 5: or not there are so slaves on checker plantations in 3158 02:56:07,280 --> 02:56:11,520 Speaker 5: the Dominican Republic. If you have had four hundred years 3159 02:56:12,040 --> 02:56:15,039 Speaker 5: to solve a problem and you have not solved it, 3160 02:56:15,640 --> 02:56:17,440 Speaker 5: you are never going to solve it. 3161 02:56:18,120 --> 02:56:22,560 Speaker 10: Hey, hey, let's not let's let's not visionhole ourselves here. 3162 02:56:22,640 --> 02:56:24,080 Speaker 10: There's a lot of things that have been around for 3163 02:56:24,120 --> 02:56:26,400 Speaker 10: four hundred years that ought not to be. 3164 02:56:27,520 --> 02:56:31,800 Speaker 5: That's true. But if you are an economic system and 3165 02:56:31,879 --> 02:56:35,200 Speaker 5: your economic system has been you are supposed to have 3166 02:56:35,440 --> 02:56:37,440 Speaker 5: you are supposed to have dealt with this at least 3167 02:56:37,520 --> 02:56:41,880 Speaker 5: two hundred years ago. But you know, we've arrived here, 3168 02:56:41,920 --> 02:56:43,880 Speaker 5: and it's something we've talked about before in the show 3169 02:56:43,879 --> 02:56:47,000 Speaker 5: at least a bit. We've arrived here at one of 3170 02:56:47,040 --> 02:56:49,600 Speaker 5: the real weaknesses of both sort of liberal and radical 3171 02:56:49,600 --> 02:56:54,440 Speaker 5: accounts of how the capitalist economy works, because both sets 3172 02:56:54,440 --> 02:56:58,560 Speaker 5: of accounts take as their starting point the fact that 3173 02:56:58,600 --> 02:57:01,400 Speaker 5: capitalism is based on free labor, that it's free people 3174 02:57:01,400 --> 02:57:03,600 Speaker 5: who enter into contracts to sell you that their labor, 3175 02:57:03,600 --> 02:57:05,560 Speaker 5: and that forced labor is this sort of like hauled 3176 02:57:05,560 --> 02:57:07,040 Speaker 5: over from older economic systems. 3177 02:57:07,160 --> 02:57:07,240 Speaker 11: No. 3178 02:57:07,360 --> 02:57:09,720 Speaker 10: I actually just saw a thing today on the Dying 3179 02:57:09,959 --> 02:57:13,000 Speaker 10: Remains of Twitter about how capitalism is the only economic 3180 02:57:13,040 --> 02:57:17,280 Speaker 10: system that's not based on exploitation of violence. It's based 3181 02:57:17,320 --> 02:57:18,840 Speaker 10: on free trade between markets. 3182 02:57:19,600 --> 02:57:23,760 Speaker 5: It's like people really believe this shit. It's like I 3183 02:57:24,520 --> 02:57:27,840 Speaker 5: don't know, Like I don't know. So at some point 3184 02:57:27,840 --> 02:57:30,560 Speaker 5: I'm gonna do an episode about really good book whose 3185 02:57:30,640 --> 02:57:32,720 Speaker 5: name I'm forgetting right now because I didn't look this 3186 02:57:32,840 --> 02:57:35,240 Speaker 5: up beforehand. But there's a really good book on these 3187 02:57:35,240 --> 02:57:38,440 Speaker 5: sort of dueling forced labor systems driving the Tea economy 3188 02:57:38,440 --> 02:57:40,960 Speaker 5: in late eighteen hundred, so that there's there's one forced 3189 02:57:41,000 --> 02:57:43,520 Speaker 5: labor system in China and a different forced labor system 3190 02:57:43,560 --> 02:57:45,360 Speaker 5: in India that are both warring in each other to 3191 02:57:45,400 --> 02:57:46,440 Speaker 5: control the tea market. 3192 02:57:46,600 --> 02:57:52,080 Speaker 10: It is certainly interesting how much tea has impacted like geopolitics. 3193 02:57:52,360 --> 02:57:55,000 Speaker 5: Oh yeah, yeah, we'll. 3194 02:57:54,120 --> 02:57:57,480 Speaker 10: Do an episode on that one day. Yeah, t is 3195 02:57:57,560 --> 02:58:02,039 Speaker 10: not that great, guys. I'm sorry, it's fine, rips. I 3196 02:58:02,080 --> 02:58:03,920 Speaker 10: would not we just don't have good tea here. I 3197 02:58:03,920 --> 02:58:05,600 Speaker 10: would do as much killing as people have done for 3198 02:58:06,640 --> 02:58:07,640 Speaker 10: It's it's not worth. 3199 02:58:07,520 --> 02:58:09,520 Speaker 5: Killing anyone over the number of people who've been killed 3200 02:58:09,560 --> 02:58:10,199 Speaker 5: over it is. 3201 02:58:11,000 --> 02:58:14,160 Speaker 10: Like in early cra is fine on like a rainy afternoon, 3202 02:58:14,280 --> 02:58:15,119 Speaker 10: but come on. 3203 02:58:15,800 --> 02:58:21,480 Speaker 5: Yeah, it's not. It's not worth like conquering continents for huh. 3204 02:58:21,520 --> 02:58:23,680 Speaker 5: But okay, so we'll back back back to this sort 3205 02:58:23,720 --> 02:58:25,920 Speaker 5: of main plot that is not tea, that is in 3206 02:58:25,959 --> 02:58:28,520 Speaker 5: fact chocolate. So one of the things that we can 3207 02:58:28,560 --> 02:58:30,440 Speaker 5: learn that we learn from this is that, you know, 3208 02:58:30,560 --> 02:58:32,920 Speaker 5: forced labor is not just a holdover. It's been a 3209 02:58:33,000 --> 02:58:35,040 Speaker 5: It's been a central part of capitalism for as long 3210 02:58:35,080 --> 02:58:38,440 Speaker 5: as capitalism has existed, and given its current track record, 3211 02:58:38,480 --> 02:58:40,440 Speaker 5: it will be a part of capitalism for as long 3212 02:58:40,480 --> 02:58:44,760 Speaker 5: as it exists. And you know, so there's always been 3213 02:58:45,000 --> 02:58:47,080 Speaker 5: a racial compoundent to this right and this is like 3214 02:58:47,120 --> 02:58:50,080 Speaker 5: trivially obvious, right, Like, there's a racial component of slavery, Like, 3215 02:58:50,080 --> 02:58:53,360 Speaker 5: holy shit, it's mostly about race. But I think, you know, 3216 02:58:53,920 --> 02:58:55,840 Speaker 5: we can we can expand this a little bit, and 3217 02:58:56,080 --> 02:58:59,200 Speaker 5: it gets you to a some sort of interesting things, 3218 02:58:59,200 --> 02:59:02,120 Speaker 5: which is that race is one of you know, so 3219 02:59:02,160 --> 02:59:04,960 Speaker 5: like obviously capitalism is supposed to be based on wage labor, 3220 02:59:05,400 --> 02:59:08,600 Speaker 5: but race is what mediates your access to wage labor 3221 02:59:08,600 --> 02:59:11,680 Speaker 5: in the first place. So, you know, white, like if 3222 02:59:11,680 --> 02:59:14,240 Speaker 5: you're an American, right like, white Americans have basically always 3223 02:59:14,240 --> 02:59:16,840 Speaker 5: been able to get access to to wage labor, you know, 3224 02:59:16,840 --> 02:59:20,879 Speaker 5: and as shitty as wage labor is, it's it's not 3225 02:59:21,280 --> 02:59:23,680 Speaker 5: as bad as the other things you can get forced into, 3226 02:59:24,320 --> 02:59:26,440 Speaker 5: you know. But yeah, so if you're black, like, you know, 3227 02:59:26,440 --> 02:59:29,240 Speaker 5: you get as successive forms of slavery. If you're indigenous, 3228 02:59:29,440 --> 02:59:32,959 Speaker 5: they tried to enslave you and then either sort of 3229 02:59:33,040 --> 02:59:35,440 Speaker 5: kept doing it or gave up and just killed did 3230 02:59:35,480 --> 02:59:41,560 Speaker 5: the genocide Asian people like who came to this continents 3231 02:59:41,600 --> 02:59:43,680 Speaker 5: and also sort of the West Indies largely get debt 3232 02:59:43,680 --> 02:59:45,240 Speaker 5: pion engine and entered service to you and you know, 3233 02:59:45,400 --> 02:59:46,840 Speaker 5: you can you can sort of work this out, so 3234 02:59:46,879 --> 02:59:49,280 Speaker 5: on and so forth, there's there's different like modes of 3235 02:59:49,400 --> 02:59:52,640 Speaker 5: stuff that are the normal sort of like what you 3236 02:59:52,680 --> 02:59:57,000 Speaker 5: by default have access to if you are ex race, right, yeah, 3237 02:59:57,040 --> 02:59:59,360 Speaker 5: and obviously this, this sort of racial access to wage 3238 02:59:59,400 --> 03:00:01,640 Speaker 5: labor spread across the world. You know, your your access 3239 03:00:01,640 --> 03:00:03,800 Speaker 5: to wage labor is dependent on sort of your subject 3240 03:00:03,800 --> 03:00:06,480 Speaker 5: position as colonizer or colonize as well as you know, 3241 03:00:06,480 --> 03:00:10,039 Speaker 5: you're sort of global and also you're like local racial hierarchies, 3242 03:00:10,480 --> 03:00:13,920 Speaker 5: because oh boy, can that shit be really fucked up. 3243 03:00:14,959 --> 03:00:19,160 Speaker 5: But the upshot of this is that many of the 3244 03:00:19,200 --> 03:00:23,000 Speaker 5: descendants of enslaved Haitian people are still effectively enslaved today 3245 03:00:23,000 --> 03:00:27,240 Speaker 5: on sugar plantations than making republic. And so we're gonna 3246 03:00:27,240 --> 03:00:32,200 Speaker 5: we're gonna tell that story. But first we'd. 3247 03:00:31,879 --> 03:00:34,840 Speaker 10: Oh, god, do you know what doesn't know? 3248 03:00:35,320 --> 03:00:38,120 Speaker 5: I cannot guarantee that our products and services are slave 3249 03:00:38,160 --> 03:00:39,640 Speaker 5: free like I wish I could. 3250 03:00:39,920 --> 03:00:45,440 Speaker 10: But well, do you know what is also here for 3251 03:00:45,480 --> 03:00:51,680 Speaker 10: a spooky time this Halloween? That's right, these products and services. Okay, 3252 03:00:51,760 --> 03:00:55,480 Speaker 10: we are back. I'm drinking my not mocha coffee, drinking 3253 03:00:55,520 --> 03:01:01,920 Speaker 10: my regular unsweetened coffees. Therefore totally thought, no, yeah, yeah, I'm. 3254 03:01:02,480 --> 03:01:05,520 Speaker 5: Everything's nothing bad. Nothing bad has ever happened in the 3255 03:01:05,560 --> 03:01:06,480 Speaker 5: history of coffee. 3256 03:01:06,720 --> 03:01:11,560 Speaker 10: No, I'm here, no tea, no chocolate. I'm safe. I'm good. 3257 03:01:13,360 --> 03:01:17,160 Speaker 5: Anyway. So unfortunately, the people who are not safe is 3258 03:01:17,640 --> 03:01:22,000 Speaker 5: a Haitians in the Domaican Republic. So we are not 3259 03:01:22,160 --> 03:01:24,680 Speaker 5: going to do an entire history of slavery in the 3260 03:01:24,760 --> 03:01:26,480 Speaker 5: Jamaican Republic because. 3261 03:01:26,879 --> 03:01:29,320 Speaker 10: Because this is a chocolate episode, and yeah, we have 3262 03:01:29,400 --> 03:01:30,000 Speaker 10: so much time. 3263 03:01:30,560 --> 03:01:33,840 Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, for many reasons. But one of the 3264 03:01:33,879 --> 03:01:37,600 Speaker 5: things that happened in so we're gonna we're gonna look 3265 03:01:37,600 --> 03:01:39,600 Speaker 5: at sort of the like the modern history of this, 3266 03:01:39,680 --> 03:01:41,600 Speaker 5: and by modern, I'm starting it in I'm starting it 3267 03:01:41,640 --> 03:01:45,320 Speaker 5: in the eighties because I have to pick a place. Now. 3268 03:01:45,440 --> 03:01:48,960 Speaker 5: One of the things that happens in the nineteen eighties 3269 03:01:49,120 --> 03:01:54,080 Speaker 5: is that the Dominican Army effectively so goes into Haiti 3270 03:01:54,400 --> 03:01:56,600 Speaker 5: or just recruitation people who are in the Jamaican Republic 3271 03:01:56,680 --> 03:01:58,560 Speaker 5: and are like, hey, you're gonna okay, we have like 3272 03:01:58,640 --> 03:02:01,440 Speaker 5: jobs for you, like come do this work. And so 3273 03:02:01,480 --> 03:02:03,920 Speaker 5: a bunch of people get in like these like army 3274 03:02:04,000 --> 03:02:07,480 Speaker 5: vans and then they get there and they get moorshed 3275 03:02:07,480 --> 03:02:09,000 Speaker 5: out of the van. A bunch of guys point guns 3276 03:02:09,000 --> 03:02:10,560 Speaker 5: at them and go, you're gonna work for free or 3277 03:02:10,600 --> 03:02:13,959 Speaker 5: we're gonna or like or we're gonna kill you. So 3278 03:02:14,600 --> 03:02:17,720 Speaker 5: this is really bad. And this is this is how 3279 03:02:17,800 --> 03:02:21,200 Speaker 5: a lot of like through the eighties and kind of 3280 03:02:21,280 --> 03:02:25,000 Speaker 5: early nineties, this is how a lot of sugar production 3281 03:02:25,200 --> 03:02:27,760 Speaker 5: worked in the Jamaican Republic. And you know, it's it's 3282 03:02:27,879 --> 03:02:30,440 Speaker 5: very notable here that Dominican Republic produces a lot of sugar, 3283 03:02:30,480 --> 03:02:32,400 Speaker 5: and it produces a lot of sugar that specifically the 3284 03:02:32,480 --> 03:02:36,959 Speaker 5: US uses. Now this is like state run slavery right on, 3285 03:02:37,040 --> 03:02:39,320 Speaker 5: sort of like state run plantations. So then we had 3286 03:02:39,440 --> 03:02:45,279 Speaker 5: neoliberalism and so the state run plantations get privatized. However, 3287 03:02:45,640 --> 03:02:51,440 Speaker 5: come they still run on slave labor. So there's a 3288 03:02:51,480 --> 03:02:53,840 Speaker 5: very good Mother Jones report about this, and I'm gonna 3289 03:02:53,840 --> 03:02:56,840 Speaker 5: I'm gonna read some of it here. Kakata is one 3290 03:02:56,840 --> 03:02:59,840 Speaker 5: of about one hundred, according to a local missionaries estimate, 3291 03:03:00,280 --> 03:03:03,760 Speaker 5: isolated camps scattered around Centralman Central Romana. As a giant 3292 03:03:03,959 --> 03:03:08,400 Speaker 5: sugar plantation, Sentrau Romana's one hundred and sixty thousand acres 3293 03:03:08,400 --> 03:03:11,320 Speaker 5: of sugar cane attract almost as big as New York City. 3294 03:03:12,000 --> 03:03:15,000 Speaker 5: Most of the workers and their families live in these battaias, 3295 03:03:15,200 --> 03:03:17,120 Speaker 5: rising in the morning to work the cane and the 3296 03:03:17,120 --> 03:03:21,480 Speaker 5: punishing heat, clearing weeds, slashing and spraying the stalks. Nearly 3297 03:03:21,520 --> 03:03:24,480 Speaker 5: all are men of Haitian descent. Some were traffic back 3298 03:03:24,480 --> 03:03:27,320 Speaker 5: in the day of the journalists is doing this was 3299 03:03:27,360 --> 03:03:30,320 Speaker 5: the guy who basically uncovered a bunch of the original 3300 03:03:30,400 --> 03:03:32,680 Speaker 5: armies like the military slavery program in the nineties, and 3301 03:03:32,680 --> 03:03:35,760 Speaker 5: so he went back like a couple of years ago. 3302 03:03:37,520 --> 03:03:39,440 Speaker 5: So he s talked himself. Some of the people were 3303 03:03:39,480 --> 03:03:42,800 Speaker 5: traffic back touring the military slavery program, others were born 3304 03:03:42,840 --> 03:03:45,360 Speaker 5: and lived stateless, and others came from Haiti more recently, 3305 03:03:46,320 --> 03:03:50,080 Speaker 5: paying smugglers to sneak them across the border. For years, 3306 03:03:50,120 --> 03:03:52,920 Speaker 5: the government has resisted providing legal status to people of 3307 03:03:52,959 --> 03:03:55,920 Speaker 5: Haitian heritage in the country, even though born there and 3308 03:03:56,080 --> 03:03:59,280 Speaker 5: estimated two hundred thousand people who for generations have been 3309 03:03:59,320 --> 03:04:02,320 Speaker 5: to mean by ray and class are stateless. For the 3310 03:04:02,320 --> 03:04:06,320 Speaker 5: men in the camps, CenTra Romana is the state. Their 3311 03:04:06,400 --> 03:04:09,840 Speaker 5: villages are patrolled by armed company police empowered to evict. 3312 03:04:10,160 --> 03:04:12,760 Speaker 5: Centraro Romana owns the land or the Haitians work the 3313 03:04:12,840 --> 03:04:15,279 Speaker 5: railcars where they weigh and load the can and stocks, 3314 03:04:15,320 --> 03:04:18,160 Speaker 5: and the dwellings where they sleep. They are miles from 3315 03:04:18,200 --> 03:04:22,200 Speaker 5: the nearest Dominican town not controlled by the company. So 3316 03:04:22,440 --> 03:04:28,480 Speaker 5: things going great here, yeah, and the conditions you know, Okay, 3317 03:04:28,280 --> 03:04:32,440 Speaker 5: so the sort of the capitalist reforms that neoliberalism has 3318 03:04:32,600 --> 03:04:37,440 Speaker 5: brought to this system are the number of child slaves 3319 03:04:37,440 --> 03:04:40,200 Speaker 5: has decreased dramatically, because that was a big thing when 3320 03:04:40,200 --> 03:04:43,039 Speaker 5: the first reporting, when everyone was like, holy shit, there's 3321 03:04:43,080 --> 03:04:46,199 Speaker 5: a bunch of child slaves. This is a terrogress. Yeah, 3322 03:04:46,240 --> 03:04:50,680 Speaker 5: so we have less child slaves, right, and you know, 3323 03:04:50,840 --> 03:04:55,080 Speaker 5: so instead of the child slaves, right, it's now mostly adults. 3324 03:04:56,560 --> 03:05:00,000 Speaker 5: But the conditions here are still effectively slavery even after 3325 03:05:00,120 --> 03:05:03,440 Speaker 5: this or a child slavery stuff like is driven under. 3326 03:05:03,920 --> 03:05:06,680 Speaker 5: On a good day, these workers make three dollars a 3327 03:05:06,760 --> 03:05:12,320 Speaker 5: day and they are effectively and sometimes literally unable to leave. Now, 3328 03:05:12,600 --> 03:05:14,640 Speaker 5: there are a lot of reasons for this. One of 3329 03:05:14,640 --> 03:05:17,160 Speaker 5: the big ones is that most of the workers there 3330 03:05:17,280 --> 03:05:20,160 Speaker 5: are most like basically all like you. You might find 3331 03:05:20,160 --> 03:05:22,800 Speaker 5: a worker somewhere who isn't stuck in this, but they're 3332 03:05:22,800 --> 03:05:26,240 Speaker 5: caught in these debt traps by Central Romana who and 3333 03:05:26,280 --> 03:05:28,879 Speaker 5: these are like classic company, but they're not. They're worse 3334 03:05:28,959 --> 03:05:32,400 Speaker 5: than like, you know, the classic American company town, because 3335 03:05:32,400 --> 03:05:34,520 Speaker 5: at least an American company town, you can go to 3336 03:05:34,720 --> 03:05:37,600 Speaker 5: another town that is not controlled by the company, whereas 3337 03:05:37,640 --> 03:05:40,400 Speaker 5: these people like cannot And so they're caught in these 3338 03:05:40,440 --> 03:05:43,320 Speaker 5: debt traps by Central Romana, which is that the company 3339 03:05:43,320 --> 03:05:47,840 Speaker 5: that owns these plantations. And because they're so in debt, 3340 03:05:47,879 --> 03:05:49,800 Speaker 5: they're constantly forced to work for the company in order 3341 03:05:49,840 --> 03:05:51,959 Speaker 5: to pay off their debt. But you know, they never 3342 03:05:52,000 --> 03:05:53,680 Speaker 5: actually make enough money to pay the debt off, and 3343 03:05:53,720 --> 03:05:55,720 Speaker 5: so they have to take on more debt to survive 3344 03:05:56,000 --> 03:05:58,720 Speaker 5: until you know, and largely what happens is these people 3345 03:05:58,879 --> 03:06:02,320 Speaker 5: work there in debt until they die. This is classic 3346 03:06:02,360 --> 03:06:04,800 Speaker 5: debt Pia nine, where a sort of debt transforms people 3347 03:06:04,800 --> 03:06:07,640 Speaker 5: into the effective property of the debt holder, who exacerbate 3348 03:06:07,680 --> 03:06:09,880 Speaker 5: the debt by denying them the ability to live without 3349 03:06:09,879 --> 03:06:12,119 Speaker 5: taking on more debt. A very common way this happens 3350 03:06:12,160 --> 03:06:14,400 Speaker 5: is with medical debt, which is something you know, I 3351 03:06:14,400 --> 03:06:16,959 Speaker 5: think we're familiar with to some extent here, but is 3352 03:06:18,040 --> 03:06:23,440 Speaker 5: egregiously worse. And the other thing that I was realizing 3353 03:06:23,440 --> 03:06:27,400 Speaker 5: about this is that this is actually really eerily similar 3354 03:06:27,440 --> 03:06:29,880 Speaker 5: to the way that Cortez and the Conquistadores and slaved 3355 03:06:29,879 --> 03:06:33,240 Speaker 5: indigenous people during the genocide. They would do the same 3356 03:06:33,280 --> 03:06:34,880 Speaker 5: thing of like, well, okay, now you're in debt to me, 3357 03:06:34,920 --> 03:06:36,680 Speaker 5: and because you can't pay the debt, you have five 3358 03:06:36,760 --> 03:06:38,880 Speaker 5: hundred percent interest per week, and so you know, that 3359 03:06:39,080 --> 03:06:40,560 Speaker 5: just accumulates, and now you work for me for the 3360 03:06:40,600 --> 03:06:44,879 Speaker 5: rest of your lives. And this is you know, this 3361 03:06:44,920 --> 03:06:48,440 Speaker 5: is one of the one of the sort of ways 3362 03:06:48,480 --> 03:06:51,440 Speaker 5: in which this the long shadow of Spanish imperialism like 3363 03:06:51,520 --> 03:06:54,480 Speaker 5: looms over the Dominican Republic, even in what has really 3364 03:06:54,520 --> 03:06:58,440 Speaker 5: been about two hundred years of the age of the 3365 03:06:58,440 --> 03:07:03,280 Speaker 5: American Empire, you know, and as you know, obviously like 3366 03:07:03,320 --> 03:07:06,800 Speaker 5: as much of an effect as the Spanish Empire has 3367 03:07:06,840 --> 03:07:10,720 Speaker 5: had here, and oh god, it's not good. Today it 3368 03:07:10,800 --> 03:07:12,959 Speaker 5: is the American Empire that lines the pockets of the 3369 03:07:12,959 --> 03:07:16,840 Speaker 5: slavers of the Dominican Republic. So such a Romana is 3370 03:07:16,879 --> 03:07:20,080 Speaker 5: owned by this family called the Fundjewel family, who are 3371 03:07:20,120 --> 03:07:26,440 Speaker 5: these Cuban expats who run this like enormous resort in 3372 03:07:26,560 --> 03:07:30,720 Speaker 5: shit where they live in Florida and are handed this 3373 03:07:30,760 --> 03:07:33,600 Speaker 5: is really fun. One hundred and fifty million dollars for 3374 03:07:33,720 --> 03:07:36,199 Speaker 5: the American state every year in the form of price 3375 03:07:36,240 --> 03:07:40,480 Speaker 5: supports for sugar. So like you're an American, right, Like 3376 03:07:40,560 --> 03:07:44,280 Speaker 5: obviously your tax money very obviously goes to support slavery 3377 03:07:44,320 --> 03:07:47,520 Speaker 5: because we have prisons, and so your taxes are paying 3378 03:07:47,520 --> 03:07:51,640 Speaker 5: to enslaved people, but your taxes are also paying for 3379 03:07:51,760 --> 03:07:56,360 Speaker 5: slavery in other countries. It's incredible, really really great stuff 3380 03:07:56,600 --> 03:08:00,800 Speaker 5: from the American political system here. And you know, and 3381 03:08:00,840 --> 03:08:03,280 Speaker 5: the way this has been maintained is through like two 3382 03:08:03,400 --> 03:08:05,560 Speaker 5: I think in the last twenty years, Mother Jones reported 3383 03:08:05,560 --> 03:08:08,360 Speaker 5: they've they've spent the sugar lobbyists spent two hundred and 3384 03:08:08,400 --> 03:08:12,920 Speaker 5: twenty million dollars on campaign contributions and lobbying, and it 3385 03:08:13,080 --> 03:08:15,880 Speaker 5: works really well. They've been able to influence the system 3386 03:08:16,200 --> 03:08:18,879 Speaker 5: for a very very long time. The other funny thing 3387 03:08:18,920 --> 03:08:22,119 Speaker 5: about the Fundjol family is that they've created the perfect 3388 03:08:22,120 --> 03:08:24,120 Speaker 5: political trap, which is so one of one of the 3389 03:08:24,120 --> 03:08:25,880 Speaker 5: brothers is like a Trump guy and the other person 3390 03:08:26,000 --> 03:08:29,400 Speaker 5: is a Hillary supporter, and they're both like incredibly immeshed 3391 03:08:29,440 --> 03:08:35,520 Speaker 5: in both of the circles. So it's great. Things are 3392 03:08:35,520 --> 03:08:38,959 Speaker 5: going very good. So after so the Mother Jones investigation 3393 03:08:39,320 --> 03:08:43,160 Speaker 5: was like in the last I think it was like 3394 03:08:44,480 --> 03:08:48,240 Speaker 5: last year the year before, and when the Mother Jones 3395 03:08:48,280 --> 03:08:50,840 Speaker 5: investigation about the fact that like all of this shit 3396 03:08:50,959 --> 03:08:53,600 Speaker 5: was still happening came out, there was a there was 3397 03:08:53,640 --> 03:08:56,600 Speaker 5: a giant uproar about it, and a couple of things happened. 3398 03:08:56,640 --> 03:08:59,040 Speaker 5: One is that so the village of the journalists had 3399 03:08:59,120 --> 03:09:03,720 Speaker 5: visited so Traya Romana, like, they didn't even bulldoze the villages. 3400 03:09:03,840 --> 03:09:08,320 Speaker 5: They blew everyone's houses down with like sledgehammers and forcibly 3401 03:09:08,400 --> 03:09:11,080 Speaker 5: move them to like other villages and separated people's families. 3402 03:09:12,080 --> 03:09:16,959 Speaker 5: So that's that's great. And then so in late twenty 3403 03:09:17,000 --> 03:09:19,640 Speaker 5: twenty two, under under pressure from this reporting, the US 3404 03:09:19,720 --> 03:09:25,039 Speaker 5: government like banned imports from that specific company. And Okay, 3405 03:09:25,440 --> 03:09:30,680 Speaker 5: it's unclear what is going to happen with it, if 3406 03:09:30,760 --> 03:09:33,520 Speaker 5: you know, if if they're gonna get unbanned eventually, uh, 3407 03:09:33,600 --> 03:09:36,360 Speaker 5: if it's gonna stick, if they're just gonna like I 3408 03:09:36,360 --> 03:09:39,879 Speaker 5: don't know, like transfer the assets to another company or 3409 03:09:39,920 --> 03:09:44,280 Speaker 5: something and use that instead. As so, as of right now, 3410 03:09:44,640 --> 03:09:49,199 Speaker 5: this specific set of plantations is not able to export sugar. 3411 03:09:48,879 --> 03:09:49,440 Speaker 9: To the US. 3412 03:09:51,160 --> 03:09:55,520 Speaker 5: So this is this is as much of a victory 3413 03:09:55,600 --> 03:09:58,040 Speaker 5: over slavery as we're going to get in this episode, 3414 03:09:58,680 --> 03:10:02,800 Speaker 5: and this victory is inc trying to reassure it's only 3415 03:10:02,840 --> 03:10:05,560 Speaker 5: gonna get work. This is this is the peak of 3416 03:10:06,800 --> 03:10:10,520 Speaker 5: anti slavery stuff we're gonna see here. Yeah, so enjoy 3417 03:10:10,560 --> 03:10:12,240 Speaker 5: it while you can. And do you know what else 3418 03:10:12,240 --> 03:10:13,000 Speaker 5: you should enjoy? 3419 03:10:14,080 --> 03:10:19,320 Speaker 10: Oh? These products and services that support this podcast. That's good. Yes, 3420 03:10:19,640 --> 03:10:22,120 Speaker 10: this is this is the real peak of the episode, folks. 3421 03:10:23,200 --> 03:10:27,880 Speaker 10: All right, I am rejuvenated by the advertising industrial complex. 3422 03:10:27,920 --> 03:10:32,840 Speaker 10: I feel ready to hear other tales of great progress. 3423 03:10:33,640 --> 03:10:36,560 Speaker 5: Whoa Okay, So now now, now we're now we're gonna 3424 03:10:36,560 --> 03:10:38,560 Speaker 5: turn to the type of slavery that everyone, I think 3425 03:10:38,600 --> 03:10:41,600 Speaker 5: expected this episode to mostly be about, which is the 3426 03:10:41,640 --> 03:10:45,680 Speaker 5: fact that cocoa bean production is also largely produced by 3427 03:10:45,680 --> 03:10:51,160 Speaker 5: slave labor. So, okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna read a 3428 03:10:51,160 --> 03:10:53,800 Speaker 5: bit from a report by the Food Empowerment Project, which 3429 03:10:53,800 --> 03:10:57,359 Speaker 5: has done some very good work on most like specifically 3430 03:10:57,400 --> 03:10:59,320 Speaker 5: slavery in West Africa. They're also one of the only 3431 03:10:59,360 --> 03:11:01,600 Speaker 5: media people have ever seen talk about the fact that 3432 03:11:01,640 --> 03:11:04,280 Speaker 5: a lot of this stuff, it's not exactly the same, 3433 03:11:04,320 --> 03:11:06,600 Speaker 5: but a lot of the sort of slavery stuff also 3434 03:11:06,640 --> 03:11:10,240 Speaker 5: seems to be happening on plantations in Brazil, but there's 3435 03:11:10,240 --> 03:11:14,520 Speaker 5: effectively no coverage of it that's not in Portuguese. I 3436 03:11:14,560 --> 03:11:18,240 Speaker 5: don't know, so like, eventually, one day, I guess, like 3437 03:11:18,560 --> 03:11:21,440 Speaker 5: the fact that the other places other than West Africa 3438 03:11:21,879 --> 03:11:26,240 Speaker 5: have slavery will hit the anglophone media class or whatever. 3439 03:11:26,320 --> 03:11:30,520 Speaker 5: But until then, I'm going to read this section. In 3440 03:11:30,560 --> 03:11:34,520 Speaker 5: West Africa, coco is a commodity crowd grown primarily for export. 3441 03:11:34,879 --> 03:11:37,440 Speaker 5: Coco is the Ivory Coast primary export. It makes up 3442 03:11:37,440 --> 03:11:40,879 Speaker 5: about half the country's agricultural export and volume. Most coco 3443 03:11:41,000 --> 03:11:43,600 Speaker 5: farmers earn less than one dollar a day and income 3444 03:11:43,680 --> 03:11:46,720 Speaker 5: below the extreme poverty line. As a result, they often 3445 03:11:46,800 --> 03:11:49,320 Speaker 5: resort to the use of child labor to keep their 3446 03:11:49,320 --> 03:11:57,840 Speaker 5: prices competitive. In many cases, yeah, yeah, this is one 3447 03:11:57,879 --> 03:12:00,000 Speaker 5: of the things that happens when you're reading about child 3448 03:12:00,120 --> 03:12:03,960 Speaker 5: slavery stuff. Even people who like are trying to, you know, 3449 03:12:04,160 --> 03:12:06,440 Speaker 5: draw attention to how bad this is. You get stuff 3450 03:12:06,480 --> 03:12:11,200 Speaker 5: like that that's like Jesus Christ this. Yeah, so you know, 3451 03:12:11,320 --> 03:12:14,360 Speaker 5: they're making sub one dollar a day, they're using child labor. 3452 03:12:14,400 --> 03:12:18,199 Speaker 5: In many cases, this includes what the International Labor Organization 3453 03:12:18,320 --> 03:12:22,640 Speaker 5: calls quote the worst form of child labor. These are 3454 03:12:22,680 --> 03:12:26,600 Speaker 5: defined as practices quote likely to harm the health, safety, 3455 03:12:26,720 --> 03:12:31,200 Speaker 5: or morals of children. Approximately two point one million children 3456 03:12:31,360 --> 03:12:34,520 Speaker 5: in Ivory Coast and Ghana work on cocoa farms, most 3457 03:12:34,520 --> 03:12:37,720 Speaker 5: of whom are likely exposed to the worst form of 3458 03:12:37,840 --> 03:12:41,879 Speaker 5: child labor. Which is also really good that like we've 3459 03:12:41,959 --> 03:12:46,160 Speaker 5: we've capitalism has finally reached the you know, the apex 3460 03:12:46,200 --> 03:12:48,720 Speaker 5: of its control of the commanding heights of the world economy, 3461 03:12:48,760 --> 03:12:52,040 Speaker 5: which means that we're talking about we're trying to make 3462 03:12:52,200 --> 03:12:55,200 Speaker 5: tear lists of how bad child labor is. 3463 03:12:56,200 --> 03:12:58,000 Speaker 10: Well, yeah, I mean, a whole bunch of child labor 3464 03:12:58,040 --> 03:13:03,280 Speaker 10: laws just got like rolled back across many states here. 3465 03:13:03,360 --> 03:13:06,280 Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a great country, so it's very exciting. The 3466 03:13:06,360 --> 03:13:10,640 Speaker 5: children are for the minds, Yeah, it's it's it's it's great. 3467 03:13:11,640 --> 03:13:14,400 Speaker 5: You know. So, so obviously a lot of the child 3468 03:13:14,400 --> 03:13:18,199 Speaker 5: slavery on cocoa farms are from sort of like larger 3469 03:13:19,560 --> 03:13:21,400 Speaker 5: I mean, I guess they are corporate, but from sort 3470 03:13:21,400 --> 03:13:24,840 Speaker 5: of like larger plantations, but also less You think that 3471 03:13:24,879 --> 03:13:27,640 Speaker 5: it's better on family farms, No family farms, I mean, 3472 03:13:27,640 --> 03:13:30,200 Speaker 5: I guess it is technically better than like being kidnapped 3473 03:13:30,200 --> 03:13:34,520 Speaker 5: and enslaved, is merely doing child labor on your families, 3474 03:13:34,800 --> 03:13:37,400 Speaker 5: like just being born into. 3475 03:13:38,640 --> 03:13:43,760 Speaker 10: These pretty pretty uh not great labor practices that you 3476 03:13:43,800 --> 03:13:46,080 Speaker 10: really have no say it or any agency whatsoever. 3477 03:13:46,200 --> 03:13:48,320 Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, and like you know, this is one of 3478 03:13:48,360 --> 03:13:52,360 Speaker 5: these things where like the economic conditions are so bad 3479 03:13:53,080 --> 03:13:56,680 Speaker 5: that people are people are facing impossible choices, and I 3480 03:13:56,720 --> 03:13:58,840 Speaker 5: think we can say that they make the wrong choice, 3481 03:13:58,840 --> 03:14:01,640 Speaker 5: which is a lot of Okay, So, like there are 3482 03:14:01,800 --> 03:14:05,840 Speaker 5: there were sort of different ways that children get trafficked 3483 03:14:05,879 --> 03:14:10,480 Speaker 5: into slavery work. A lot of them are sold by 3484 03:14:10,480 --> 03:14:12,600 Speaker 5: their own families who do not have enough resources to 3485 03:14:12,640 --> 03:14:15,000 Speaker 5: take care of them and are like, okay, we'll basically 3486 03:14:15,000 --> 03:14:16,720 Speaker 5: sell these people so they can go do this job. 3487 03:14:17,360 --> 03:14:20,920 Speaker 5: And these families don't know that like their child is 3488 03:14:20,959 --> 03:14:23,160 Speaker 5: about to be enslaved, right, They're just like, okay, well 3489 03:14:23,160 --> 03:14:26,200 Speaker 5: they're going to go off and do work. But the 3490 03:14:26,320 --> 03:14:29,480 Speaker 5: other way that this happens is that kids from like 3491 03:14:29,600 --> 03:14:32,959 Speaker 5: villages in other countries. But there's a lot of focus 3492 03:14:33,040 --> 03:14:35,200 Speaker 5: on Mali as one of the places this happens for them. 3493 03:14:35,920 --> 03:14:37,600 Speaker 5: But yeah, so there's a lot of these effects what 3494 03:14:37,600 --> 03:14:41,840 Speaker 5: are effectively raids into into Malli from the Ivory Coast 3495 03:14:41,920 --> 03:14:46,320 Speaker 5: to like steel children, and it's also happens to Bikina Fosso. 3496 03:14:47,160 --> 03:14:50,640 Speaker 5: You know, and this gets to the point where, you know, 3497 03:14:50,720 --> 03:14:52,840 Speaker 5: I'm gonna read a quote from one of these from 3498 03:14:52,920 --> 03:14:56,320 Speaker 5: this report again. In one village in Bikina Fosso, almost 3499 03:14:56,360 --> 03:14:58,920 Speaker 5: every mother in the village has had a child trafficked 3500 03:14:58,959 --> 03:15:03,440 Speaker 5: onto cocaine farms. Traffickers will then sell children to cocaine farmers. 3501 03:15:04,600 --> 03:15:08,440 Speaker 5: So this is like the worst paranoid fantasies of every 3502 03:15:08,480 --> 03:15:12,440 Speaker 5: American right winger, except it's you know, this is just 3503 03:15:12,520 --> 03:15:13,560 Speaker 5: how chocolate is made. 3504 03:15:14,120 --> 03:15:16,519 Speaker 10: Yeah, this is you know, all of all of the 3505 03:15:16,560 --> 03:15:21,320 Speaker 10: Sound of Freedom guys, uh with all of you know, 3506 03:15:21,560 --> 03:15:25,959 Speaker 10: the whole uproar around that movie earlier this year, versus 3507 03:15:26,120 --> 03:15:31,160 Speaker 10: all of them, Uh yeah, enjoying their little eminem said 3508 03:15:31,920 --> 03:15:35,359 Speaker 10: kit Cat said, Hey, I like the occasional kit Cats too. 3509 03:15:35,720 --> 03:15:38,400 Speaker 10: This is this is a massive problem. 3510 03:15:39,320 --> 03:15:42,879 Speaker 5: I I don't know, I really love chocolate. I have 3511 03:15:43,040 --> 03:15:46,080 Speaker 5: not eaten any chocolate since I started researching this, and 3512 03:15:46,120 --> 03:15:49,080 Speaker 5: I like, and there's and it's but it sucks because 3513 03:15:49,080 --> 03:15:51,000 Speaker 5: it's like you can't you can't and we're gonna get 3514 03:15:51,000 --> 03:15:53,080 Speaker 5: into board of this in a second, but like you 3515 03:15:53,120 --> 03:15:56,160 Speaker 5: can't like ethically consume your way out of this, right, 3516 03:15:56,840 --> 03:16:01,240 Speaker 5: like because the conditions but free trade cocoa exist. Oh boy, yeah, 3517 03:16:01,240 --> 03:16:04,440 Speaker 5: we're gonna get into that. But yeah, there's no there's 3518 03:16:04,440 --> 03:16:09,439 Speaker 5: no actual systemic like there's no way that you can 3519 03:16:10,120 --> 03:16:13,680 Speaker 5: like you can't change this stuff with your individual consumption habits. 3520 03:16:14,400 --> 03:16:17,280 Speaker 5: And you know that's something that's just really fucking bleak 3521 03:16:17,320 --> 03:16:21,960 Speaker 5: about this because these conditions are, I mean, as bad 3522 03:16:21,959 --> 03:16:24,600 Speaker 5: as you can possibly imagine. But the Food and Empowerment 3523 03:16:24,640 --> 03:16:27,160 Speaker 5: Project describes like children as young as five are forced 3524 03:16:27,200 --> 03:16:30,200 Speaker 5: to work up to fourteen hours a day, like chopping 3525 03:16:30,280 --> 03:16:34,000 Speaker 5: down cocoa pods and then chopping them open with machetes. 3526 03:16:34,040 --> 03:16:36,360 Speaker 5: And sometimes these people get Sometimes these kids are using 3527 03:16:36,400 --> 03:16:41,720 Speaker 5: chainsaws to like clear wood, like clear down like forests. Yeah, 3528 03:16:41,720 --> 03:16:44,240 Speaker 5: and you know, okay, so this goes exactly how you 3529 03:16:44,280 --> 03:16:45,959 Speaker 5: expected to go, which is a bunch of these kids 3530 03:16:46,040 --> 03:16:47,760 Speaker 5: just have a bunch of fucking scars from where they've 3531 03:16:47,760 --> 03:16:50,760 Speaker 5: been slashed by machetes, because again, you are handing machetes 3532 03:16:50,800 --> 03:16:52,640 Speaker 5: to children, some of whom are as young as five. 3533 03:16:53,320 --> 03:16:55,720 Speaker 5: And then they have to carry one hundred pound bags 3534 03:16:55,720 --> 03:16:58,440 Speaker 5: of cocoa beans through the jungle. And this is the 3535 03:16:58,440 --> 03:17:00,160 Speaker 5: thing that's also happening in to make a public and 3536 03:17:00,200 --> 03:17:02,520 Speaker 5: this happens a lot in a lot of places. Is 3537 03:17:02,560 --> 03:17:07,040 Speaker 5: that they just get you know, when when companies want 3538 03:17:07,120 --> 03:17:11,160 Speaker 5: to spray like they're farms with pesticides, right, they don't 3539 03:17:11,160 --> 03:17:15,680 Speaker 5: even bother even like clearing people out, which might you know, 3540 03:17:15,720 --> 03:17:18,360 Speaker 5: help like a tiny bit to make them not like 3541 03:17:18,480 --> 03:17:21,840 Speaker 5: die from fucking poison. But no, like these fucking dipshits 3542 03:17:21,920 --> 03:17:24,760 Speaker 5: just like spray them with toxic chemicals as they just 3543 03:17:24,920 --> 03:17:27,680 Speaker 5: like spray them with pesticides, like a lot of whom 3544 03:17:27,720 --> 03:17:30,959 Speaker 5: are Christinogians, a lot of And this is happening in 3545 03:17:31,000 --> 03:17:33,879 Speaker 5: the Dominican the surcane fields in the Dominican Republic too, 3546 03:17:33,879 --> 03:17:36,200 Speaker 5: And a lot of those people just fucking died because 3547 03:17:36,640 --> 03:17:39,000 Speaker 5: you know, they were stayed with these chemicals. There was 3548 03:17:39,000 --> 03:17:41,400 Speaker 5: a really terrible story of a of a guy who 3549 03:17:41,440 --> 03:17:45,199 Speaker 5: was trying to sue Central Romana and just fucking died 3550 03:17:45,480 --> 03:17:47,680 Speaker 5: from the like he wasn't able to get a pay 3551 03:17:47,680 --> 03:17:49,560 Speaker 5: off for the lawsuit because he died in twenty twenty 3552 03:17:49,600 --> 03:17:53,480 Speaker 5: before the lawsuit could like finish. So here's another great 3553 03:17:53,560 --> 03:17:56,800 Speaker 5: quote from the Food Empowerment Project. The farm owners using 3554 03:17:56,959 --> 03:17:59,760 Speaker 5: child labor usually provide the children with the cheapest food 3555 03:17:59,760 --> 03:18:02,520 Speaker 5: of ai, such as corn paste or the cassava and 3556 03:18:02,520 --> 03:18:06,040 Speaker 5: bananas that grow in the surrounding forest. In some cases, 3557 03:18:06,080 --> 03:18:09,120 Speaker 5: the children sleep on wooden planks and small windless buildings 3558 03:18:09,120 --> 03:18:13,959 Speaker 5: without access to clean water, sanitary bathrooms. And you know 3559 03:18:14,080 --> 03:18:16,120 Speaker 5: another key part of this, right is like, okay, so 3560 03:18:16,160 --> 03:18:21,720 Speaker 5: the conditions are obviously unbearably bad, but you know, a 3561 03:18:21,840 --> 03:18:23,960 Speaker 5: key part of this, like any system of slavery, is 3562 03:18:24,000 --> 03:18:27,800 Speaker 5: the physical violence against the enslaved people who are repeatedly 3563 03:18:27,840 --> 03:18:31,400 Speaker 5: and often beaten and abused and tortured in ways that 3564 03:18:31,480 --> 03:18:34,520 Speaker 5: are very reminiscent of sort of like older epochs of 3565 03:18:34,560 --> 03:18:38,800 Speaker 5: slavery if they try to escape. Now, this is the 3566 03:18:39,240 --> 03:18:42,320 Speaker 5: companies care about this to the extent that is bad. 3567 03:18:42,360 --> 03:18:47,800 Speaker 5: Pr Yes, and the charcout companies repeated, like the chocolate companies. Okay, 3568 03:18:48,240 --> 03:18:51,320 Speaker 5: they they signed a thing in the year two thousand 3569 03:18:52,320 --> 03:18:55,000 Speaker 5: where they said we're going to eliminate child's the worst 3570 03:18:55,040 --> 03:18:57,199 Speaker 5: forms of child slavery by two thousand and five. 3571 03:18:58,280 --> 03:19:00,560 Speaker 10: Yeah, like this is this has been a non issue 3572 03:19:00,600 --> 03:19:03,519 Speaker 10: for like over two decades. 3573 03:19:03,480 --> 03:19:06,360 Speaker 5: Now, Garrison, Yes, what year is it right now? 3574 03:19:07,280 --> 03:19:08,920 Speaker 10: The year of our Lord to us in twenty three. 3575 03:19:09,480 --> 03:19:12,640 Speaker 5: Yeah, they have been They have been promising to end 3576 03:19:12,720 --> 03:19:19,400 Speaker 5: child slavery in so originally there's supposed to be endy 3577 03:19:19,480 --> 03:19:22,240 Speaker 5: child slavery and then and then they scaled it down 3578 03:19:22,320 --> 03:19:25,520 Speaker 5: to the worst forms the worst. But they have been 3579 03:19:25,520 --> 03:19:27,360 Speaker 5: promised you could do this for longer than you have 3580 03:19:27,400 --> 03:19:34,560 Speaker 5: been alive, yes, correct, which is terrifying. Yes, yes. And 3581 03:19:34,560 --> 03:19:37,400 Speaker 5: and as we'll get into later, right, the number of 3582 03:19:37,520 --> 03:19:42,160 Speaker 5: child slaves is higher than it was when they started 3583 03:19:42,160 --> 03:19:46,520 Speaker 5: doing these child slave reduction efforts, so quote unquote production efforts, 3584 03:19:47,520 --> 03:19:52,800 Speaker 5: which are just sort of pr bullshit. So industry lobbying 3585 03:19:52,879 --> 03:19:55,320 Speaker 5: groups are also very, very powerful, and this is part 3586 03:19:55,320 --> 03:19:57,760 Speaker 5: of part of how this stuff persists. So the University 3587 03:19:57,800 --> 03:20:01,680 Speaker 5: of Chicago has a center called NORAK, which is like 3588 03:20:01,720 --> 03:20:05,240 Speaker 5: a public research center. I don't know, I went to 3589 03:20:05,280 --> 03:20:07,640 Speaker 5: that fucking school. I don't trust any of these motherfuckers, 3590 03:20:07,800 --> 03:20:10,080 Speaker 5: and NEI or should you, because it turns out there 3591 03:20:10,160 --> 03:20:12,480 Speaker 5: was so okay. So they released this report on how 3592 03:20:12,520 --> 03:20:16,720 Speaker 5: bad child slavery is, right, but there was a leak 3593 03:20:17,000 --> 03:20:19,640 Speaker 5: of the original version of the report that was supposed 3594 03:20:19,680 --> 03:20:21,800 Speaker 5: to come out, and mean, the original version of the 3595 03:20:21,920 --> 03:20:25,080 Speaker 5: report has the number of child slaves at like two 3596 03:20:25,120 --> 03:20:28,680 Speaker 5: point two million. Now, when the report actually comes out 3597 03:20:28,720 --> 03:20:31,560 Speaker 5: with no justification whatsoever and using a bunch of numbers 3598 03:20:31,560 --> 03:20:34,720 Speaker 5: for child slavery that are from before COVID nineteen, the 3599 03:20:34,720 --> 03:20:37,240 Speaker 5: Norak report was like, ah, there's only like one point 3600 03:20:37,320 --> 03:20:42,680 Speaker 5: six million child slaves. So six hundred thousand child slaves 3601 03:20:42,760 --> 03:20:45,560 Speaker 5: just sort of vanished in an editorial process after they 3602 03:20:45,560 --> 03:20:50,160 Speaker 5: got they came under fire from uh, the they came 3603 03:20:50,240 --> 03:20:51,920 Speaker 5: under fire from the chocolate lobby. 3604 03:20:52,440 --> 03:20:56,439 Speaker 10: Yeah yeah, let's uh, let's round that down. Makes it 3605 03:20:56,440 --> 03:20:57,840 Speaker 10: makes it easier to palace. 3606 03:20:58,000 --> 03:20:59,960 Speaker 5: And the other thing that it hides is that there's 3607 03:21:00,120 --> 03:21:02,560 Speaker 5: a ten to fifteen percent increase in the number of 3608 03:21:03,520 --> 03:21:07,279 Speaker 5: child slaves working in like in the co in Cocoa 3609 03:21:07,680 --> 03:21:11,000 Speaker 5: since COVID started, because COVID has been a giant sort 3610 03:21:11,040 --> 03:21:15,279 Speaker 5: of you know, the economic damage that COVID caused forced 3611 03:21:15,320 --> 03:21:18,879 Speaker 5: a bunch of people into into you know, increasingly desperate things. 3612 03:21:20,400 --> 03:21:23,840 Speaker 5: And you know, okay, so we tease this a little bit, 3613 03:21:23,879 --> 03:21:25,920 Speaker 5: and you might be thinking, well, I can eat fair 3614 03:21:26,000 --> 03:21:28,120 Speaker 5: trade chocolate, right, I can pay ten dollars for a 3615 03:21:28,200 --> 03:21:30,039 Speaker 5: chocolate bars as a fair trade on it, and it 3616 03:21:30,080 --> 03:21:32,520 Speaker 5: will and that will make sure that I'm only eating 3617 03:21:32,600 --> 03:21:36,880 Speaker 5: chocolate produced by free labor. Nope, the certifications for the 3618 03:21:36,959 --> 03:21:41,600 Speaker 5: chocolate are fucking bullshit. You're still eating slave chocolate. The 3619 03:21:41,640 --> 03:21:44,039 Speaker 5: follow is an excerpt from a study conducted by the 3620 03:21:44,040 --> 03:21:46,920 Speaker 5: Corporate Accountability Lab on the failure of initiatives in the 3621 03:21:46,959 --> 03:21:51,360 Speaker 5: chocolate industry like certifications quote. In order to understand the 3622 03:21:51,440 --> 03:21:55,920 Speaker 5: gap between consumer perception and farmer impact better, we brought 3623 03:21:56,000 --> 03:21:59,520 Speaker 5: certified chocolate bars to villages where some are all of 3624 03:21:59,520 --> 03:22:03,080 Speaker 5: the farm were certified. We held up the bar with 3625 03:22:03,200 --> 03:22:06,440 Speaker 5: the label and explained to the farmers what consumers expected 3626 03:22:06,480 --> 03:22:09,440 Speaker 5: out of the label, primarily that farmers were paired a 3627 03:22:09,440 --> 03:22:12,800 Speaker 5: fair price, earned a decent living, and certain practices like 3628 03:22:12,879 --> 03:22:16,600 Speaker 5: child labor and deforestation were not present. We also explained 3629 03:22:16,600 --> 03:22:20,160 Speaker 5: the difference in retail price between fair trade and uncertified chocolate. 3630 03:22:20,560 --> 03:22:24,240 Speaker 5: The overwhelming response from farmers to this information was shock 3631 03:22:24,280 --> 03:22:28,840 Speaker 5: and outrage. One farmer pulled out his worn shirt in 3632 03:22:28,879 --> 03:22:31,000 Speaker 5: front of him and asked if it looked like he 3633 03:22:31,040 --> 03:22:34,240 Speaker 5: earned a decent living. A woman in one village said 3634 03:22:34,240 --> 03:22:36,480 Speaker 5: she can hardly afford to send to her children to school, 3635 03:22:36,680 --> 03:22:39,000 Speaker 5: so how could anyone think she earned a fair price. 3636 03:22:39,760 --> 03:22:45,040 Speaker 5: Our farmer consultations revealed virtually imperceptible differences between certified and 3637 03:22:45,120 --> 03:22:49,360 Speaker 5: uncertified farms in terms of living incomes, poverty, education, access 3638 03:22:49,360 --> 03:22:54,760 Speaker 5: to healthcare, farmer bargaining power, or access to information. So, yeah, 3639 03:22:55,200 --> 03:22:56,800 Speaker 5: all the people who are telling you they're doing some 3640 03:22:56,879 --> 03:23:00,320 Speaker 5: fair trade shit, they're keeping your money and the places 3641 03:23:00,320 --> 03:23:02,240 Speaker 5: they are getting it from are as fucked as the 3642 03:23:02,600 --> 03:23:06,280 Speaker 5: as Hershey's yeah, so this is bad. 3643 03:23:06,360 --> 03:23:06,560 Speaker 9: Now. 3644 03:23:06,680 --> 03:23:09,000 Speaker 5: You might also think, Okay, we can get out of 3645 03:23:09,000 --> 03:23:12,800 Speaker 5: this by buying from coco cooperatives. Except except, and this 3646 03:23:12,920 --> 03:23:16,800 Speaker 5: is a wonderful thing that capitalism is brought on the world. 3647 03:23:17,720 --> 03:23:21,640 Speaker 5: Most coco collectives aren't actually like workers collector like aren't 3648 03:23:21,640 --> 03:23:24,160 Speaker 5: actually co ops. They're just sort of. 3649 03:23:24,080 --> 03:23:28,080 Speaker 10: All people's republic of chocolate farmers. I'm sure they're all 3650 03:23:30,040 --> 03:23:30,880 Speaker 10: a little red book. 3651 03:23:31,520 --> 03:23:35,040 Speaker 5: This is something actually, this is something that China actually pioneered, 3652 03:23:35,040 --> 03:23:37,240 Speaker 5: because there's there's a bunch of firms in China that 3653 03:23:37,280 --> 03:23:40,160 Speaker 5: are also technical. I talked about this in my episode 3654 03:23:40,160 --> 03:23:42,160 Speaker 5: of Bachelor's episode a long time ago about this milk 3655 03:23:42,160 --> 03:23:45,280 Speaker 5: company that poisoned three hundred thousand babies, and that company 3656 03:23:45,400 --> 03:23:49,200 Speaker 5: was technically a co op, but like it was a 3657 03:23:49,240 --> 03:23:51,520 Speaker 5: co op in the sense that there was a small 3658 03:23:51,560 --> 03:23:54,520 Speaker 5: group of workers who were basically managers who owned shares, 3659 03:23:54,560 --> 03:23:56,200 Speaker 5: and then they just hired every source everything out to 3660 03:23:56,240 --> 03:23:59,560 Speaker 5: independent contractors, so it functioned like a normal company. Yeah, 3661 03:23:59,720 --> 03:24:02,080 Speaker 5: this is a thing. A lot this the cocoa trade 3662 03:24:02,080 --> 03:24:04,400 Speaker 5: stuff is actually worse because most of these things that 3663 03:24:04,440 --> 03:24:06,360 Speaker 5: are called co ops aren't even co ops at all. 3664 03:24:06,360 --> 03:24:08,879 Speaker 5: They're just set up by cocoa growers as like fake 3665 03:24:08,920 --> 03:24:11,000 Speaker 5: co ops. And there they are like a very very 3666 03:24:11,040 --> 03:24:14,200 Speaker 5: small number of of of these coco farms that are 3667 03:24:14,200 --> 03:24:17,480 Speaker 5: actually workers cooperatives, but there's no way to tell which 3668 03:24:17,480 --> 03:24:20,320 Speaker 5: one is which unless you spend a bunch of time 3669 03:24:20,560 --> 03:24:25,160 Speaker 5: like actually going and tracking the cooperatives down. So there's 3670 03:24:25,200 --> 03:24:29,400 Speaker 5: no sort of like ethically way out of this, right, 3671 03:24:30,360 --> 03:24:32,440 Speaker 5: you're just kind of you're, you know, like you can't 3672 03:24:32,560 --> 03:24:35,560 Speaker 5: you can't eat your way out of this problem. And 3673 03:24:35,640 --> 03:24:39,000 Speaker 5: of course everything across the board, all these conditions have 3674 03:24:39,000 --> 03:24:42,720 Speaker 5: gotten worse since the pandemic, So you know, it's it's 3675 03:24:43,280 --> 03:24:46,560 Speaker 5: not only is capitalism not making things better every like 3676 03:24:46,640 --> 03:24:50,720 Speaker 5: things are in fact getting worse. Now, all right, I 3677 03:24:50,800 --> 03:24:54,160 Speaker 5: promised you the lawsuits. We're gonna talk a bit about 3678 03:24:54,200 --> 03:24:57,720 Speaker 5: the lawsuits. So there were actually two big lawsuits. There 3679 03:24:57,760 --> 03:24:59,959 Speaker 5: were eight people from Molly who were enslaved by coke 3680 03:25:00,840 --> 03:25:06,000 Speaker 5: plantations after being traffic from Mali sued nest Le, Cargill, Berry, Caliba, 3681 03:25:06,160 --> 03:25:10,360 Speaker 5: I don't know, some French shit mars Alam, Hershey's, and 3682 03:25:10,480 --> 03:25:13,280 Speaker 5: Models to try to get conversations from the companies by 3683 03:25:13,360 --> 03:25:16,840 Speaker 5: virtue of the fact that the companies sold products made 3684 03:25:16,879 --> 03:25:21,360 Speaker 5: by their child slave labor. Yeah. Now there's also a 3685 03:25:21,400 --> 03:25:24,600 Speaker 5: separate lawsuit against slightly different companies, so a lot of 3686 03:25:24,640 --> 03:25:26,920 Speaker 5: the same company is slightly different that's using a different 3687 03:25:26,920 --> 03:25:30,360 Speaker 5: set of legal arguments. Both of the lawsuits have been 3688 03:25:30,360 --> 03:25:32,520 Speaker 5: thrown out, and I want to take a second to 3689 03:25:32,720 --> 03:25:34,400 Speaker 5: look at the reasoning here, both of which are sort 3690 03:25:34,400 --> 03:25:37,200 Speaker 5: of just amazing. So I think the most famous one 3691 03:25:37,200 --> 03:25:40,680 Speaker 5: is the Supreme Courts eight to one decision that said, well, so, like, 3692 03:25:40,760 --> 03:25:43,200 Speaker 5: all this stuff happened, but it happened outside the US, 3693 03:25:43,200 --> 03:25:46,720 Speaker 5: so you can't sue companies for it. Here. She's an 3694 03:25:46,760 --> 03:25:49,720 Speaker 5: amazing piece of logic, which is just like, oh yeah, no, Actually, 3695 03:25:49,879 --> 03:25:53,080 Speaker 5: like corporations, like American corporations could just go everywhere else 3696 03:25:53,120 --> 03:25:56,240 Speaker 5: and do crimes. And this is in the American legal 3697 03:25:56,280 --> 03:25:58,680 Speaker 5: system is specifically written in such a way that like 3698 03:25:59,440 --> 03:26:04,280 Speaker 5: if in a American corporation enslaves you in like the 3699 03:26:04,320 --> 03:26:07,200 Speaker 5: Ivory Coast, there's nothing you can do about it in 3700 03:26:07,240 --> 03:26:11,560 Speaker 5: the US. And then a judgment do you see throughout 3701 03:26:11,600 --> 03:26:14,720 Speaker 5: the other case because you know, their argument was, well, 3702 03:26:14,800 --> 03:26:17,520 Speaker 5: you can't prove that the companies knew you were being 3703 03:26:17,560 --> 03:26:21,800 Speaker 5: enslaved on those farms. There's no quote traceable connection between 3704 03:26:21,840 --> 03:26:23,560 Speaker 5: the people who enslaved you in the company, and so 3705 03:26:23,560 --> 03:26:27,000 Speaker 5: there's nothing we can do. And the reason both these 3706 03:26:27,080 --> 03:26:29,680 Speaker 5: arguments work is the reason for the structure of the 3707 03:26:29,720 --> 03:26:33,840 Speaker 5: chocolate market, right the reason coco plantations in the Ivory 3708 03:26:33,840 --> 03:26:37,840 Speaker 5: Coast and also Brazil can get away with this. You know, well, 3709 03:26:37,840 --> 03:26:40,080 Speaker 5: the reason that those plantations are in the Ivory Coast 3710 03:26:40,160 --> 03:26:43,400 Speaker 5: or Brazil or other places, the reason they're happening there 3711 03:26:43,440 --> 03:26:46,080 Speaker 5: and not in the US is because these are places 3712 03:26:46,080 --> 03:26:48,199 Speaker 5: where you can get away with that level of exploitation 3713 03:26:48,240 --> 03:26:50,920 Speaker 5: in corporate violence that you know in the US would 3714 03:26:50,920 --> 03:26:53,520 Speaker 5: be a lot more difficult. And this shields them from 3715 03:26:53,560 --> 03:26:58,199 Speaker 5: legal liability. Furthermore, instead of just you know, jumping, instead 3716 03:26:58,200 --> 03:27:00,640 Speaker 5: of just running the cocoa plantations themselves, which these companies 3717 03:27:00,640 --> 03:27:03,279 Speaker 5: could easily do, right, this is a very very large trade. 3718 03:27:03,360 --> 03:27:05,720 Speaker 5: They could just sort of like they could invertially vertically 3719 03:27:05,760 --> 03:27:09,359 Speaker 5: and not even vertical integrate, they could just actually make chocolate, 3720 03:27:09,640 --> 03:27:12,760 Speaker 5: like they could just run the process, and they they 3721 03:27:12,879 --> 03:27:16,480 Speaker 5: very specifically choose not to do it. And the reason 3722 03:27:16,520 --> 03:27:18,840 Speaker 5: they choose not to do it, this isn't one hundred 3723 03:27:18,879 --> 03:27:22,720 Speaker 5: billion dollar industry, right, But instead they what they choose 3724 03:27:22,760 --> 03:27:25,279 Speaker 5: to do is to just buy cocoa from the chocolate 3725 03:27:25,320 --> 03:27:28,320 Speaker 5: market where all these sort of nebulous producers sell, which 3726 03:27:28,360 --> 03:27:30,959 Speaker 5: allows the chocolate companies to go, oh, well, these people 3727 03:27:31,000 --> 03:27:33,119 Speaker 5: don't work for us. We just buy chocolate from the market. 3728 03:27:33,160 --> 03:27:36,200 Speaker 5: How are we supposed to know which these plantations use 3729 03:27:36,240 --> 03:27:40,320 Speaker 5: slave labor? So it puts like a one degree of separation, Yeah, 3730 03:27:40,400 --> 03:27:42,959 Speaker 5: well it's actually two degrees. It's an additional degree of 3731 03:27:42,959 --> 03:27:45,560 Speaker 5: separation from the way something like Walmart works. Right where 3732 03:27:45,600 --> 03:27:49,439 Speaker 5: Walmart has a bunch of independent contractors. This isn't even contractors. 3733 03:27:49,959 --> 03:27:54,400 Speaker 5: They're just buying finished products from things they're like they're 3734 03:27:54,720 --> 03:27:58,520 Speaker 5: completely unaffiliated with, and this gives them, like it gives 3735 03:27:58,560 --> 03:28:01,039 Speaker 5: them like two degrees of legal separation because it's not 3736 03:28:01,280 --> 03:28:04,800 Speaker 5: just that their contractors are doing something that they didn't 3737 03:28:04,840 --> 03:28:09,720 Speaker 5: know about. It's that they're just buying it right, and 3738 03:28:09,800 --> 03:28:14,320 Speaker 5: this fucking sucks. And you know, since laws exist to 3739 03:28:14,320 --> 03:28:16,760 Speaker 5: protect the ruling class, judges and courts can just wave 3740 03:28:16,840 --> 03:28:20,240 Speaker 5: their hands and go, well, these companies definitely enslaved you, 3741 03:28:20,400 --> 03:28:22,960 Speaker 5: but we have no choice but to let them off 3742 03:28:22,959 --> 03:28:27,080 Speaker 5: completely scott free. So sorry about that. And I want 3743 03:28:27,080 --> 03:28:29,000 Speaker 5: to end today with something that has been running through 3744 03:28:29,000 --> 03:28:32,520 Speaker 5: my mind every since I fucking started researching this, which 3745 03:28:32,560 --> 03:28:35,080 Speaker 5: is that the voorgeoisie must pay for their crimes. The 3746 03:28:35,120 --> 03:28:38,200 Speaker 5: state has failed, the court has failed, the NGOs have failed. 3747 03:28:38,720 --> 03:28:42,240 Speaker 5: And if anything is ever going to fucking happen that 3748 03:28:42,280 --> 03:28:45,720 Speaker 5: forces these companies to be in any way, there there's 3749 03:28:45,760 --> 03:28:48,640 Speaker 5: to be like a single iota of justice for the 3750 03:28:48,680 --> 03:28:51,160 Speaker 5: fact that all of these companies have been fucking gorging 3751 03:28:51,160 --> 03:28:55,520 Speaker 5: themselves on the profits of slave labor. At all, we 3752 03:28:55,600 --> 03:28:59,039 Speaker 5: are going to do it or no one is. So 3753 03:28:59,200 --> 03:29:04,280 Speaker 5: congratulations you the American worker. It is unfortunately incumbent on 3754 03:29:04,440 --> 03:29:08,440 Speaker 5: you to deal with these fucking corporations that have been 3755 03:29:08,440 --> 03:29:14,240 Speaker 5: destroying the entire world. So yeah, happy spooky week everyone. Yes, 3756 03:29:14,360 --> 03:29:15,680 Speaker 5: this is very scary. 3757 03:29:16,600 --> 03:29:22,279 Speaker 10: Yeah, well, thank you for that lovely, uh depressing presentation. 3758 03:29:22,720 --> 03:29:25,720 Speaker 5: Uh, Mia, I mean. 3759 03:29:25,640 --> 03:29:28,240 Speaker 10: I guess is there is there is there a sort 3760 03:29:28,280 --> 03:29:31,200 Speaker 10: of takeaway besides, there's no ethical conception to under capitalism. 3761 03:29:31,280 --> 03:29:36,279 Speaker 5: I mean, like, I mean, capitalism will never abolish slavery. 3762 03:29:37,400 --> 03:29:38,120 Speaker 5: I don't think one. 3763 03:29:38,440 --> 03:29:41,439 Speaker 10: I know there is one US state where they grow chocolate, 3764 03:29:41,840 --> 03:29:45,920 Speaker 10: which is Hawaii, which has its own problems of colonization. 3765 03:29:46,080 --> 03:29:48,480 Speaker 10: So even if you try to buy from a place 3766 03:29:48,520 --> 03:29:52,840 Speaker 10: that is you know, arguably has less chocolate slavery, it's 3767 03:29:53,080 --> 03:29:57,040 Speaker 10: generally better produced, it still is you're still implicating yourself 3768 03:29:57,080 --> 03:30:01,800 Speaker 10: in in uh, all of the problems relating to like, uh, 3769 03:30:02,360 --> 03:30:07,120 Speaker 10: the independence of that island and the US's colonization. So 3770 03:30:07,760 --> 03:30:11,240 Speaker 10: it's it's it's we're really just really just kind of 3771 03:30:11,480 --> 03:30:14,320 Speaker 10: trapped on all sides. Here is what it feels like. 3772 03:30:14,600 --> 03:30:17,360 Speaker 10: I mean, this is this Halloween chocolate problem. 3773 03:30:17,760 --> 03:30:21,000 Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, and I think I think the way 3774 03:30:21,000 --> 03:30:22,879 Speaker 5: to think about this, right is that this this is 3775 03:30:22,920 --> 03:30:25,959 Speaker 5: an actual systemic issue, right, This is a systemic thing 3776 03:30:26,000 --> 03:30:29,080 Speaker 5: capitalism has been doing for about four hundred years, like 3777 03:30:29,200 --> 03:30:32,240 Speaker 5: since its entire existence. And if you want to if 3778 03:30:32,280 --> 03:30:35,600 Speaker 5: you want to end it, we have to you have to. Actually, 3779 03:30:36,480 --> 03:30:38,880 Speaker 5: it's not it's not even enough to destroy these companies, right, 3780 03:30:38,920 --> 03:30:41,040 Speaker 5: because even if you brought down every single one of 3781 03:30:41,080 --> 03:30:43,000 Speaker 5: these chocolate companies right, there would just be another round 3782 03:30:43,040 --> 03:30:45,119 Speaker 5: of chocolate companies. It will be doing exactly the same ship. 3783 03:30:45,959 --> 03:30:48,360 Speaker 5: So you have to you have to destroy the system 3784 03:30:48,400 --> 03:30:50,760 Speaker 5: of property by which these things are allowed to exist. 3785 03:30:51,680 --> 03:30:55,160 Speaker 5: And at that point maybe you can start on being 3786 03:30:55,240 --> 03:30:57,320 Speaker 5: able to eat food that isn't produced by slave labor. 3787 03:30:58,040 --> 03:31:01,480 Speaker 10: It turns out Willia Wogkill was the villain the whole time. 3788 03:31:02,160 --> 03:31:06,360 Speaker 5: You know, I was trying to think about the amount 3789 03:31:06,360 --> 03:31:08,320 Speaker 5: of slave labor that we see from him versus the 3790 03:31:08,360 --> 03:31:15,199 Speaker 5: amount of slavery Wonka. Yes, it's it's I think Wonka 3791 03:31:15,240 --> 03:31:17,440 Speaker 5: is using more slave labor, but not by as much 3792 03:31:17,480 --> 03:31:18,160 Speaker 5: as it should be. 3793 03:31:18,600 --> 03:31:21,000 Speaker 10: I don't know, I don't know, it's it's it's hard 3794 03:31:21,040 --> 03:31:23,360 Speaker 10: to say. I I I think it's pretty clear that 3795 03:31:23,840 --> 03:31:26,840 Speaker 10: Walka's use of slave labor is just an accurate representation 3796 03:31:27,320 --> 03:31:30,200 Speaker 10: of the real life chocolate industry. 3797 03:31:30,320 --> 03:31:35,359 Speaker 5: Yes, so yeah, go go, go enjoy your weekend and then. 3798 03:31:34,800 --> 03:31:38,480 Speaker 10: Don't enjoy that new fucking twink Walgka movie that looks 3799 03:31:38,680 --> 03:31:40,280 Speaker 10: I have to say, dog shit. 3800 03:31:40,600 --> 03:31:45,000 Speaker 5: Oh yeah, bad herod, worst idea, badst idea, anyone's had 3801 03:31:45,040 --> 03:31:47,320 Speaker 5: since capitalism twin Kwonka. 3802 03:31:47,400 --> 03:31:52,000 Speaker 10: I'm sorry it doesn't slap I agree out of ten anyway, Well, 3803 03:31:53,120 --> 03:31:56,119 Speaker 10: tune in in the next few days for two more 3804 03:31:56,120 --> 03:31:58,280 Speaker 10: Spooky Week episodes for you. We only got We only 3805 03:31:58,320 --> 03:32:00,119 Speaker 10: got three this week because there's a lot of air 3806 03:32:00,200 --> 03:32:02,480 Speaker 10: news happen ach but yeah, we at least have two 3807 03:32:02,520 --> 03:32:05,360 Speaker 10: other Spooky Week episodes that I am about to finish 3808 03:32:05,440 --> 03:32:07,039 Speaker 10: working on, so stay tuned for that. 3809 03:32:08,200 --> 03:32:18,800 Speaker 16: Goodbye, Hey, We'll be back Monday with more episodes every 3810 03:32:18,800 --> 03:32:21,000 Speaker 16: week from now until the heat death of the Universe. 3811 03:32:21,600 --> 03:32:24,120 Speaker 1: It Could Happen here as a production of cool Zone Media. 3812 03:32:24,200 --> 03:32:26,840 Speaker 3: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website 3813 03:32:26,920 --> 03:32:29,120 Speaker 3: cool zonemedia dot com or check us out on the 3814 03:32:29,160 --> 03:32:32,560 Speaker 3: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 3815 03:32:33,000 --> 03:32:35,080 Speaker 3: You can find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated 3816 03:32:35,200 --> 03:32:38,280 Speaker 3: monthly at coolzonemedia dot com slash sources. 3817 03:32:38,400 --> 03:32:39,240 Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.