WEBVTT - Part Two: The Public Universal Friend: A Non-binary Icon in Revolutionary-Era America 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:03.840 Hello, and welcome to my podcast, which doesn't have a name. 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:06.880 It's the Nameless Podcast, but it's a show about cool 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:08.760 people who did cool stuff, and we're looking for a 0:00:08.760 --> 0:00:11.160 good name for it, something that really says what it's about. 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:16.680 I'm wondering if either of you all have ideas cool 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:23.480 humans did things that were also kind of cool. I 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:26.720 do like supper Woodus it is. It does have a 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:30.680 nice ring to it, exceper with Deus it is. So 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:33.479 my guest this week is not other than Garrison Davis, 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:35.760 who is, among other things, the co host of the 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.519 Very Optimistic Show. It could happen here. Garrison, how are 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:44.040 you doing today? I'm doing pretty optimistic? All right. It's 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:47.479 when whenever, whenever we talk about post civilization, it has 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:50.680 to be optimistic or else. Why are you thinking about it? Yeah? 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:53.000 I actually agree with that. Yeah, I know you you 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:56.520 are you are you are a wizard's foremost expert on 0:00:56.560 --> 0:01:02.840 post civilization. If if you if you didn't know that's true. Uh. 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:06.280 And we've got Sophie Lichtterman as well, who's a producer extraordinaire. Sophie, 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:08.520 did you know that extraordinarire is an annoying word to spell, 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:12.160 and I just appreciate your effort. Then all right, well thanks, 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:15.559 I even got it right on the first time. That's 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:22.399 one time I spelled bourgeois right on the first time. 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:26.320 Who I just have never tried to spell it again. 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:30.160 I want to quit while I'm ahead. Fair. So today 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:31.959 is part two of our two part series on the 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:34.360 public universal Friend, which is a bunch of easy words 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:37.920 to spell. Who is a generalist prophet of revolutionary era 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:40.839 New England. Who is a sort of cool person doing 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:44.640 sort of cool stuff, very cool along gender lines, sort 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:46.560 of middling cool in terms of being the head of 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:49.280 a religious sect. So let's talk about the end of 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:55.120 the world. All of our interests are colliding. So so 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:57.680 Puff only had one doomsday prediction as far as I 0:01:57.680 --> 0:01:59.800 can tell, and it came and went pretty early in 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:02.480 their career as a prophet. Yeah, that's That's the problem 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:05.040 with making a prediction like four years is that you're 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:07.320 probably gonna live to see it. Um, you got you 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:10.000 gotta make it further further than nets you get enough 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:12.120 enough steam to carry you on through the rest of 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.400 your life. See you'd think that, But as far as 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:17.480 I can tell, basically everyone who predicts the end of 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:21.480 the world. You're not wrong. They just it just keeps working. 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:27.200 I don't know why. Yeah, so they predicted. Puff predicted 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:30.720 that the world would end sometime around April one, sight 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:38.040 as it's the j K Day. Puff wasn't the only 0:02:38.040 --> 0:02:40.840 person who assumed it was the end times. Millinarian fever 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:42.600 was all the rage, and a lot of people thought 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:44.920 that the American Revolution was basically the harbinger of the 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:47.720 second coming of Christ. Well, good thing, we don't deal 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:52.480 as millinarian some anymore. I know. Well, fortunately in case 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:55.520 we do have to deal with it. But I finally 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:58.760 learned when the word where it comes from? Well, would 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:02.600 you tell I? I always assumed, because I'm not the 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:05.200 smartest person's ever lived, I used to assume that basically 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:07.120 was just like people were freaked out around the year 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:09.799 one thousand or like it's his mills. So yeah, you 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:11.960 would think, so, yeah, we're out of years, the end 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:14.160 is coming because they like couldn't imagine a fourth dig 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:16.280 It's it's it's like it's like the original Y two 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:20.640 K exactly why one you read from the same script. 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:26.200 I am what's going on? But so like most people 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:28.760 who are listening to us probably already know this, but 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:31.720 all of these Christian end time cults. I believed that 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:33.480 there was supposed to be a big funk off battle 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:35.720 between good and evil and then Christ would rule on 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:39.440 earth for a thousand years. Yeah, because that is in 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:43.400 the Bible. Uh yeah, yeah, I see it. Yeah, that's 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:47.120 where millenarian comes from. And good thing that's no longer 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:50.200 a big part of our modern politics. Yeah, No one 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:53.760 would base their political ideology based on that these days. 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:58.160 Definitely not. I would, however, be a hypocrite for judging 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:01.640 people for thinking the end was coming in their lifetimes. Sure. 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:04.240 I host another podcast that you all can check out 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:06.640 called Lived Like the World Is Dying, which is about 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:09.640 community behind and prepared right on the podcast called it 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:16.520 Could Happen Here. Yeah, So everyone's thinking this stuff. And 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:19.039 the thing is is that like all of these people 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:21.440 who are thinking the world's gonna end, they're not always wrong. 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:25.440 I mean, world's end in different ways, societies and different 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:28.839 ways of being come to an end, even before you 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:31.480 get into sort of multiverse stuff about whether or not 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:37.520 most timeline. It's the most winged thing I think, I know. See, 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.640 but I know exactly what you're talking about, though, Yes, 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:43.800 All of the people who thought that we came really 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:46.279 close to nuclear armageddon during the Cold War are like 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:48.599 seen as like silly now, But they were right. We 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:52.039 came really close to nuclear armageddon in the Cold and 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:57.479 we just traded it for another looming cataclysmic Yes, and 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:00.320 maybe we'll maybe we'll skirt through this one too, you know, 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:02.279 maybe we'll get a new one in a hundred years. 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:07.840 Who knows. So a bunch of these revolutionary war assholes, 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:11.599 they're not just fighting for no taxation without representation. They're 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:14.080 fighting to usher in a thousand years of peace, glory, 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:16.799 and happiness in the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth times 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:20.880 a flat circle. Yeah, and Okay, I'll be real. I 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:23.760 think prophecy is fucking boring and makes for hack writing. 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:26.960 Whenever I see prophecies in fiction, I'm like, here we go, 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:30.000 and I roll my eyes, and if I run across 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.360 a chosen one, I usually put the book down. Uh, 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:37.440 Harry fucking Potter whatever. Speaking of j K Day, I 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:39.039 don't know whether I even want to say no offense 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:41.320 to all you Harry Potter fans out there. No, they 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:45.680 they can take the offense. Yeah, I'm not saying, don't 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:49.799 read it. I'm saying people might whatever we're talking about 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:53.159 trans history here. So the Public Universal Friend figured their 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:54.960 prophecy to herald the end of the world because there 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:57.479 was some like Quaker stuff that interpreted some Bible stuff 0:05:57.520 --> 0:05:59.719 to mean that when women started doing prophecies ship it 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:02.520 was a end of the end times. Another place in 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:05.640 the Bible talks about forty two months. So Public Universal 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:07.920 Friend was like, great, forty two months after I'm on 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:13.240 Earth as puff Boom Apocalypse April seventeen eighty or so 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:16.320 April coming and going was. It seems like it was 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:20.279 probably pretty stressful. But they got kind of lucky for 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:24.120 a moment because on May seventeen eighty, New England had 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:27.719 a quote dark day when ash from forest fires filled 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:31.960 the sky from New Jersey to Canada and day turned tonight. 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:36.160 I love when that happens. Yeah, Garrison lives in the 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:41.359 Pacific Northwest. I think I sure do so. As related 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:45.320 by a soldier named Joseph Plumb Martin, we were here 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.279 New Jersey at the time the Dark Day happened. The 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:51.159 fouls went to their roosts, The cocks Crew and the 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:54.960 whipper Wheels sung their usual serenade. The people had to 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:57.560 light candles in their houses to enable to see to 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:00.400 carry on their usual business. The night was on commonly 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:03.599 dark as the day was, and and this is where 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:05.760 it was less dark. Up north it was way worse 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:08.880 and you needed candles outside. So everyone was like, oh, 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:11.640 the apocalypse. And some people are excited. Some people are 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:13.320 probably worried. It actually seems like a lot of people 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:17.520 are excited because millinarianism um and also their end of 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:19.360 the world men a thousand years apiece, I have a 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:24.520 really different okay whatever, um, So the the ash lifts 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:27.160 at the end of the day, and spoiler, the world 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:30.160 does not come to an end. It just keeps going. Yeah, 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:34.880 but not for Susannah Potter, a universal friend, because she 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:37.440 died on the Dark Day. So a few days later, 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:40.760 according to some sources, endoubted by other sources because people 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:43.520 kept trying to claim that Puff claimed to be Jesus, 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:47.840 but completely likely Puff tried to resurrect their friend from 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:52.559 the dead ala Lazarus. The attempt did not succeed. Yeah, 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:56.880 they rarely do. Yeah, it's like once I think, um, actually, 0:07:56.880 --> 0:08:00.160 I guess doctors do it every day. But this doesn't 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.280 really damage the friend's reputation. Much for whatever reason, the 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:07.840 group only grew after the world didn't end. And Okay, 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:10.400 my hypothesis is that people come for the doomsday and 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:12.920 stay for the community. I mean, yeah, that is this 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:16.400 is how a lot of cults work, even like modern 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:18.800 doomsday cults kind of function on a similar on a 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.480 similar level. And I mean that's that's a lot of 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:25.240 like churches work too, Like they people keep going because 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:28.920 it's one of the only available forms of culture that 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:32.000 people feel like that's like accessible, and it's a built 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:34.880 in sense of community in an already very alienated world. 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:37.439 So that's why so much of the world, or so 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:39.400 much of the States at least, like runs on these 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:43.640 church communities. Um, because that's like you know, like that's 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:45.319 that's what's something I want to talk about in terms 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:48.800 of like mutual aid networks. For a lot of the country, 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:51.640 a lot of what we could consider like mutual aid 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.000 or like community like that type of like community support 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:58.440 is based out of church hubs. Um. And not not 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:00.800 all of them are like shitty to ward queer people 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:02.480 on all of them are racist, Like, some of them 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:05.720 are like actually fine, Um, some of them are very 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:08.360 not fine, but like it it definitely is not just 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:11.160 one or the other. Yeah, so it's it is, it is. 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:12.840 It is an interesting thing on in terms of like 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:15.959 how much of that community aspect is so important to 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:20.320 keep the religious machine going. No, totally, And I mean 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:23.160 and and people need that, people need a sense of community, 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:26.040 and so there is a lot being provided that is 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:30.120 not being provided elsewhere. So Puff currently has a cult 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:33.080 of hundreds of people, several churches across two states. They're 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:35.359 living in a mansion provided by one of their followers. 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:38.839 They read dreams, they preach boring ship. Things are going 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:42.040 pretty well for them. So in the seventeen eighties, Puff 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:44.679 decides to take this ship to the center of revolutionary 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:48.720 American culture, Phillip fucking Delphia, the city that does not 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:51.640 actually seem very important in modern context, but was very 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:55.520 important at this time. And they make a whole bunch 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:57.240 of trips over the course of like eight years, and 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:59.520 they set up a little satellite base outside of the city. 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:04.760 But Philly Billy does not like them, not because what 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:06.520 they had to say they say the same ship as 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:09.400 everyone else is saying, but because basically they're breaking the 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.840 gender rules. When Puff isn't cult leader mode, I kind 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.120 of don't like them, but when they're in persecuted for 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:19.640 not being a woman mode, I'm completely on puff side. Yeah, 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:25.040 And it's basically Twitter that's fucking with them because this 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:27.680 whole democratization thing that everyone is obsessed with during the 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:31.480 Revolutionary War, it turns newspapers and from something that talks 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:33.920 at people from on high to something that is meant 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:36.880 to be a conversation between people. So now you're the 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:41.840 fucking discourse and combined discourse with a non binary preacher, 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:47.480 and you get drama. I get time to a flat 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:51.560 circle as I and so yeah, as I. As I 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:54.080 mentioned before, the revolution kind of cemented the like manly 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:56.440 man American man and then through the strong women of 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:59.360 America back into the cage of patriarchy. Out with the 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.400 old system where your privilege based on class and noble lineage, 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:04.560 and in with the new system, where your privilege based 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:08.640 along lines of race and gender. And another thing that 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:11.960 I hadn't thought about too much before doing this reading 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:15.400 about the American Revolution, about democracy and republican blah blah blah. 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:18.840 So in a monarchy, the only moral upstanding nous that 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:21.480 society demands is of the nobility, because that's the only 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:23.640 one that matters because they make the decisions because the 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:27.000 rabble don't rule. This is I'm speaking in rude exaggerations here, 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:30.120 but in a republic you've got citizens, and since they're 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:32.880 ostensibly in charge, it suddenly matters that they're virtuous and 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:36.560 ship So all of a sudden you can be way 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:39.640 more controlling of everyone because everyone has to be virtuous, 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:43.560 and by the standards of the time, gender bending not 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:46.720 a virtue. So people are not stoked on Puff and 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:50.360 their entourage. Literally when they first show up, people are 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:53.120 so offended by the masculine clothing of the women in 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:55.720 the group, which I think they were all wearing dresses, 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:59.559 but just not the right kind of dresses. Yeah, the entourage. 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:02.400 They couldn't find a place to stay. Eventually they found 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:04.560 a widow who took them in, and a crowd gathered 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:07.040 outside the house and through rocks and bricks at it 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:10.560 because they were rioting over a non binary preacher and 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:14.520 somewhat androgynous women showing up in town. But a Methodist 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:16.480 church let them speak on their first visit, and the 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:19.240 place was so crowded that people were turned away. They 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:21.280 only made one convert in the first trip. But they 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:23.240 made some friends, and they came back to larger and 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:26.360 larger crowds and again. So most of the people who 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:28.199 are joining at this point are now Quakers who have 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:30.360 been kicked out of the church for supporting the revolution 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:33.600 because the passive is m of Quakers. Not only can 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:36.520 you not go fight, but you also can't pay taxes 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:42.600 to the revolutionary government because that's like taking sides. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Seven. 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:46.360 The newspapers are attacking Puff, calling them crazy, calling them 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:49.040 a blasphemer, accusing them of all kinds of various crimes. 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:53.440 Angry mobs show up everywhere Puff stays or speaks, and again, 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:56.600 not because what they're saying, but because of how they're dressed, 0:12:56.720 --> 0:13:00.760 because things don't change. One thing that the newspaper is 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:04.240 really the letter sections all agreed on, though, is that 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:12.960 Puff was really hot. They all, yeah, I'm I'm good 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:17.080 that at least that is. It's noted within the history 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:20.240 of books. Yeah, yeah, totally. It's it's always very important 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:25.480 that uh they all gender friend wrong, and page after 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:28.240 page talked about their hair falling down in black ringlets 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:32.079 and how beautiful their faces or whatever. Someone that they 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:34.319 perceived as a woman dressed like a man and beautiful 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:36.600 and preaching. It's all too much for them. They can't 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:39.840 handle it. And like, I think one of the reasons 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:41.880 that so many people hate trans people is because they're 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:45.320 attracted to us and fox with them. Yeah exactly. Yeah. 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:48.640 Even the long hair falling down to their shoulders, that 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:51.200 was actually a masculine thing. Women mostly kept their hair 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:53.520 hidden under caps, except some rich ladies who kept it 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:55.600 piled up on top of their heads. But long hair 0:13:55.679 --> 0:14:00.400 hanging down, that's a man's haircut. Hm. And so public 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:03.160 conjecture about whether or not women, or in this case 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:05.480 people presume to be women, are hot. This always has 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:09.319 ulterior motives. Right, most transparently, they're saying, well, this person 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:11.800 can't be non binary. I want to suck them. But 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:14.959 it's also tied into the narrative that puff in their congregation. 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:18.480 We're all seducers, planning to lead people astray with their evil, 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:23.000 evil attractiveness. I mean me too, but I don't think 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:26.840 that was what they were interested in. Yeah, it's really 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:32.200 kind of rumor discourse, Yeah, basically, but just funny because 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:34.920 almost everyone who joins the congregation does so with their families. 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:38.160 They bring their spouses, their siblings, whatever. But the public 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:40.000 narrative is that this evil bitch is going to get 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:42.200 women to leave their husbands and men to leave their wives, 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:45.560 which happens, but it's usually because people didn't want to 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:49.960 be in those marriages anyway. And the only like religious 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:52.640 complaint that I really came up with is that men 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:56.400 shouldn't subordinate themselves to women. So even their religious complaint 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:59.160 is still just a gender and they're convinced either Puff 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:01.880 and all their followers or delusional or their the Inner 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:05.440 circle or grifters. These are the only two possibilities. And 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:07.440 to be fair, I think you could say that about 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:10.040 it like every fucking Christian denomination going on at this time, 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:13.120 to various degrees of accuracy. I mean, that is kind 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:16.360 of the classical thing with Yeah, that is like one 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:20.480 of one of the oldest coin tosses. Yeah. But what's 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:23.680 funny is that the Society for Universal Friends wasn't either 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:25.560 of these things. As far as I can tell, I 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:27.800 think they knew exactly what they were doing. Um. I mean, 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:32.040 depending on how you want to judge Puff's interpretation of 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:35.720 their own identity as a divine bean or whatever, but 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:39.720 not a not a grifter. Um. Certainly not to any 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:42.800 kind of scale. And I don't know, maybe it's like 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:45.440 a little bit of each, but mostly not none of either. 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:48.360 And the thing that I find so interesting about them 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:51.000 getting like run the funk out of Philly is that 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:54.120 in these rural backwaters everyone's like, well, this person wears 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:57.040 weird clothes and has a really fucking weird name, but whatever. 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:59.520 I like what they have to say. And then the 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:02.480 center culture and politics of the New world is like, no, 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:06.280 our little brands are breaking And I feel like this 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:08.920 like says a lot about how people today still make 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:13.120 assumptions that rural communities are inherently backwards. Yeah, as a 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:16.480 ural queer person, I like pointing this out a lot. 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:18.680 I don't know, so dealing with all this bullshit, all 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:22.280 the angry mobs and ship it's too much and puffs. 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:25.280 Fourth and final trip to Philly was a momentary thing 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:28.240 under the radar, just passing through the city successfully drove 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:33.800 them out, not by using cr gas. But if today 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:38.520 you wanted to drive non binary preachers out of your city, 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:42.160 you might choose to use CR gas. I mean, actually 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:43.720 shouldn't either, and if you do, you should do c 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:46.560 S gas. But you know, oh, you mean you mean 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:48.960 this this? Oh I thought that was a water bottle, 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:53.920 but yes, that is I mean, whoa Okay, so Garrison 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:57.400 is holding up a water bottle that is printed like 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:01.240 a is it CR gas or c S gas? This 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:04.919 is yes, okay, this is a forty millimeter pot dispersion 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:08.480 round made by defense technology, one of the I'm not 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:11.920 going to one of the defense one of our sponsors. Nope, 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:17.320 this isn't behind the basic we're wholesome here, wholesome one 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:20.800 of our enemies, defense technology. That's right, holding one of 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:26.960 our friends. Tap water publicly available more or less free, 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:30.080 and should be protected. I mean, I feel like the 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:35.280 I feel I've tried really hard to buy tear gas before, 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:39.480 and it's challenging. Um I think we should de regulate 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:43.320 tear gas to make it available for civilian purchase, because 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:45.960 then people can start using it and things would be 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:49.000 more interesting because right now only cops can buy it 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:53.040 in most cases. Um, So if it becomes a public utility, 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:56.000 I think some real progress could happen. So c S 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:58.680 gas on tap in every home? Is that what you're saying? Yes, 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:02.080 That's what I'm saying. I rarely look around two and 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:07.960 thank to myself, society is not currently interesting enough. But 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.200 to be fair, things could always be more interesting. We 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:15.119 certainly could, and you know who probably will or won't 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:17.359 make things more interesting are the rest of the sponsors 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:25.560 the Today Show. Okay, and we are back, and our 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:29.000 heroes have just been driven with rocks and bricks out 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:31.000 of the city for being Yeah, I was, I was. 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:33.120 I was wondering if they got stoned at all, because 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:36.919 that is definitely I'm not aware of them actually suffering 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:41.000 physical violence as a result of their gender presentation. So 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:47.320 it's better in colonial America anyway. So they say, all right, 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:49.679 fuck it, let's go rural, and let's go to the 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:52.119 edge of colonial control what they consider the edge of 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:57.479 civilization Western New York. Sure. Starting in the mid eighties, 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:00.040 Puffs Crew started heading out west to the frontier to 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:02.800 scope out spots to start a settlement. They sold all 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:05.080 their ship all the like meeting houses in Rhode Island 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:08.359 in Connecticut or whatever, and they bought some land fourteen 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:12.639 thousand acres. A few families go ahead and they start building. 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:18.119 Then on February nine, Puff and Puffs buds about sixty 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:21.120 families and all head out to the frontier and wagons 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:25.760 and treacherous roads doing the work of colonization, and for 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:29.240 all their anti racist principles. I mean, in the thirty 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:32.439 years or so after independence, the US expanded westward so 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:35.120 fast that it's stole more territory than had had stolen 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:39.200 in the entire two hundred years prior. And the indigenous 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:41.720 people who sided with the British crown were probably right 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:45.800 about which party to back. So off they go into 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:48.959 the quote unquote wilderness and set up a settlement called Okay, 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:58.920 they're really original namers. It's called Friends Settlement. They really 0:19:58.920 --> 0:20:01.520 did get what a convention would be like, yep, this 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:05.280 is the one. Yeah, we just think literal yeah. And 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:07.359 so they're over in the Finger Lakes chunk of western 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:09.840 New York and an area that colonial armies had laid 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:12.359 waste to the hode and a showne on the folks 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:14.560 who had had sided with the British, and they had 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:17.480 destroyed entire communities and fields and ship And it was 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:21.000 those soldiers who came back with detailed maps of where 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:24.080 there was fertile soil that spurred the push of settlers 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:27.199 into the area. MH. But I will say it's it's 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:29.320 easy a sitting judgment of people like Puff who are 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:31.840 well meaning and go off and settle stolen land growing 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:35.320 crops in the ashes of genocide. But I'm a white 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:38.320 settler to I live on Maso Womack Land, and in 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:39.920 my head, I'm like, well, I didn't do the steel, 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:42.359 and it was stolen hundreds of years ago, but I 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:44.560 live with the privilege that came from it having been 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:46.639 stolen by people who look like me. And I'm not 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:48.480 the best person to articulate any of the stuff I'm 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:50.080 talking about right now, but I think it's worth thinking 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:54.679 about whenever one we should be aware of people are 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:58.239 not going off into like Virgin territory or whatever, and 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:02.120 to like how we sit, you know, hundreds of years 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:05.760 later in that sense. So that's where the public universal 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:08.680 friend goes traveling preacher time is over. Now it's time 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:10.920 for everyone to live in perfect bliss and harmony under 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:15.320 God's law a k a. Puff law. But they fucked 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:19.119 up the land purchase because the ship was hotly contested, 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:22.960 super shady there in court constantly for it, which is 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:24.960 like funny because I don't think of like when I'm like, ah, 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:27.120 we're off to go settle the wilderness. I don't think 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:29.800 like and I'm going to be in court constantly about 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:33.119 exactly where the boundaries are of my property or whatever. 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:36.480 They buy their own land three times from three different people. 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:39.960 They clear the forest, they plant crops, They live off 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:43.880 of bottled milk and hard times, and like all rugged frontiersman, 0:21:44.240 --> 0:21:46.080 this is a story that gets talked about a lot. 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:49.280 People definitely talk about this part. They subsist off of 0:21:49.280 --> 0:21:53.320 government subsidies. When there's famine and everyone out involved in 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:55.760 the new land rush starts going hungry because more people 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:57.840 are going and they can possibly grow food in time. 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:00.400 And I don't think there's any shame in the help. 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:02.199