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Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to it could happen here a podcast that is recorded.

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Speaker 2: But I'm very tired. But you know who's not tired,

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Speaker 2: Garrison Davis, our host for today.

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Speaker 3: No, I'm probably more tired than you.

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Speaker 2: I was up to I don't know about that.

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Speaker 3: No, I was up till nine am. Eest writing desks.

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Speaker 2: Oh geez. Yeah. I went to bed by like five or.

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Speaker 3: Six, except for three hours. I'm going right back to

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Speaker 3: bed after this. Excellent, as is the grind, you know,

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Speaker 3: rise and grind, that's my motto.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm going to do the same thing. So all right, well, Garrison,

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Speaker 2: what are we What are we talking about today? What's

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Speaker 2: our episode about? What's this sewed on?

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Speaker 3: So it's it's been a while since we've done like

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Speaker 3: an update on what meme politics are up to. I

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Speaker 3: think that the last deep dive we did was like

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Speaker 3: an I wouldn't say, like a year ago when Ron

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Speaker 3: de Santis, then presidential hopeful Meatball Rod Garrison, Meatball rock me. Sorry, sorry,

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Speaker 3: the mypolity is putting. Ron just embraced the fast wave

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Speaker 3: like meme asthetic for his then failing and dying campaign,

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Speaker 3: and that was kind of the last that we did

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Speaker 3: one of these big deep dives into like how meme

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Speaker 3: politics currently operate, And it's been a long year. It's

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Speaker 3: felt in some ways much longer than a year since then,

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Speaker 3: and the meme lenscape has changed significantly, And that's kind

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Speaker 3: of what I want to discuss today. Just go over

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Speaker 3: the current state of meme politics in September twenty twenty two.

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Speaker 2: Great, it's like the State of the Union, but slightly dumber.

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Speaker 3: But for us, yeah, just for all, for the completely

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Speaker 3: brain rots yeah, space of online politics, people who.

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Speaker 2: Have destroyed their minds by spending too much time on

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Speaker 2: the Internet.

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Speaker 3: Yes, exactly. So now that most of these like jokes

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Speaker 3: are reference and says we'll be talking about are actually

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Speaker 3: really old and not actually relevant anymore and are no

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Speaker 3: longer trend dig now we can talk about how they worked,

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Speaker 3: if they worked, and what they can tell us about

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Speaker 3: the changing landscape of mean politics in the year of

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Speaker 3: Our Lord twenty twenty four and beyond. So let's start

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Speaker 3: by going all the way back to July fifteenth, which

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Speaker 3: was just a lifetime ago.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a thousand years ago.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, this was This was the first day of the

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Speaker 3: RNC vance is announced as Trump's running mate. This was

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Speaker 3: before Biden dropped out of the race, but when we

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Speaker 3: were pretty sure that he was probably going to hopefully.

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Speaker 2: That's interesting that you were pretty shit because I I

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Speaker 2: kind of thought he was going to like make us

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Speaker 2: like fucking hoist his corpse back into the White House.

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Speaker 3: I mean, we got a really good indication about five

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Speaker 3: days later that his dropout was like imminent.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you're right, and it happened.

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Speaker 3: It happened less than a week later, So it was

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Speaker 3: it was really on the line. But anyway, it was.

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Speaker 3: It was. It was a very different world, very different time. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 3: on the first day of the RNC, after Vance is

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Speaker 3: announced as the Republican VP candidate, the Twitter user Rick

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Speaker 3: ruds Calves posted this tweet quote, I can't say for sure,

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Speaker 3: but he might be the first VP pick to have

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Speaker 3: admitted in a New York Times bestseller to fucking an

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Speaker 3: insight out Latex Glove shoved in between two couch cushions,

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Speaker 3: Vance Hillbilly Elogy, pages one seventy nine to one eight one.

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Speaker 3: So this is the this is the start of the

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Speaker 3: couch meme. Sure the next few days, the memes spread

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Speaker 3: online with the help of liberals who were unable to

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Speaker 3: detect the fictitious nature of the claim. Now un ironic

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Speaker 3: spread is crucial to the success of mimetic attacks like this,

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Speaker 3: and the couch fucking claims gained such widespread prominence on

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Speaker 3: Twitter that on July twenty fifth, the AP decided to

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Speaker 3: do an official fact check of the claim, running the

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Speaker 3: headline no, JD Vans did not have sex with a couch.

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Speaker 3: Now this had two problems. By platform forming this story

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Speaker 3: in the AP, the image of JD's couch coitus was

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Speaker 3: propelled outside the confines of overly online and Twitter ship

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Speaker 3: posters into the popular discourse. Now the topic was welcome

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Speaker 3: on new shows, talk shows, and other respectable publications. The

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Speaker 3: other problem is that you can't definitively say JD Vance

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Speaker 3: has never had sex with a couch.

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Speaker 2: No, no, I say I would never say that.

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Speaker 3: You can say it's untrue. He wrote about sofa sex

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Speaker 3: in his memoir, but not that he's one hundred percent

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Speaker 3: never made love to a love seat. Yeah, so making

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Speaker 3: matters worse. Hours later, the AP removed their fact check,

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Speaker 3: leaving a web page that just read quote. This story

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Speaker 3: did not go through our standard editing processes. And has

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Speaker 3: been removed.

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Speaker 2: I gotta know, I do desperately want to know what

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Speaker 2: actually happened in the background there.

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Speaker 3: It's it's quite funny. It's it's quite a big fuck up.

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Speaker 4: Now.

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Speaker 3: This led people to reasonably conclude that if the fact

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Speaker 3: check was taken down, that really only leads us to

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Speaker 3: believe one thing is that this is a true claim,

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Speaker 3: which at this point many people knew that it's not.

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Speaker 3: I think interestingly, JD. Vance has refused to comment on

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Speaker 3: this claim, which is probably smart, but his continued refusal

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Speaker 3: to even deny the claim adds a bit to the

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Speaker 3: humorous nature. So the retraction of this fact check became

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Speaker 3: a news story itself and gave a whole new life

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Speaker 3: to a meme that had kind of been reaching the

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Speaker 3: end of its cycle. People created doctored pages of Vance's

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Speaker 3: book He'll Billy Elegy, where he reflected on tales of

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Speaker 3: his youth in Ohio, where it was commonplace for young

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Speaker 3: boys rejected by girls to turn to couch cushions for

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Speaker 3: sexual pleasure. The fake pages were framed as a limited

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Speaker 3: first edition of the book before per Teal found it

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Speaker 3: and revised the book for a secondary, wide released copy.

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Speaker 3: The next week, the meme continued to proliferate, having completely

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Speaker 3: broken out of the Twitter ship posting bubble it was

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Speaker 3: birthed in, but the peak of the meme was still

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Speaker 3: to come. On August sixth, Kamala Harris announced at Minnesota

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Speaker 3: Governor Tim Walls as her running mate, and the two

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Speaker 3: appeared together at a rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During Walls's

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Speaker 3: first speech, he made a very safe kind of dad

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Speaker 3: joke style reference to his vice presidential opponent's viral sticky

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Speaker 3: sofa situation.

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Speaker 5: Like all regular people I grew up with in the Heartland,

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Speaker 5: JD studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon

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Speaker 5: Valley billionaires, and then wrote a best seller trashing that community.

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Speaker 4: Come on, that's not what Middle America is.

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Speaker 5: And I gotta tell you, I can't wait to debate

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Speaker 5: the guy.

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Speaker 4: That is, if he's willing.

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Speaker 5: To get off the couch and show up, you'll see.

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Speaker 4: What I did there.

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Speaker 3: So, due to the references kind of like explicit sexual context,

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Speaker 3: this was a bit of an unexpected move.

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Speaker 2: Yeah you could say that.

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Speaker 3: But for those already familiar with the meme, the bit

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Speaker 3: served as a humorous, yet tame in joke, and for

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Speaker 3: those unfamiliar, the huge crowd reaction prompted others to inquire

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Speaker 3: about the context for the whole jd vance couch thing,

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Speaker 3: once again boosting its popularity as a trend. Now, I

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Speaker 3: think this was a bit of a gamble from Walls, definitely,

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Speaker 3: as acknowledging a viral meme often leads to its impending death,

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Speaker 3: where recognition and participation of viral trends from the mainstream

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Speaker 3: establishment signal that something is no longer cool and is

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Speaker 3: now instead cringe.

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Speaker 4: Now.

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Speaker 3: Part of the long lasting presence of the coconut tree

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Speaker 3: meme is the Harris campaign's wise unwillingness to make continuing

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Speaker 3: coconut Tree references or capitalize on its imagery. The White

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Speaker 3: House going all in on Dark Brandon using the imagery form,

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Speaker 3: and Biden increasingly making references to the meme and interviews

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Speaker 3: and speeches.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I've just killed it dead nuked.

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Speaker 3: It exactly, ultimately led to this meme's death long before

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Speaker 3: the death of the Biden campaign itself. But this could

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Speaker 3: be like a delicate balance. Before Biden made a Dark

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Speaker 3: Brandon one of the early chorsnic images associated with his

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty four reelection campaign. The first few Dark Brandon

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Speaker 3: references from the White House actually increased the memes spread,

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Speaker 3: and I think this is where Walls's joke was able

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Speaker 3: to succeed. The couch reference was vague enough and disconnected

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Speaker 3: from the more explicit aspects of the meme, and paired

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Speaker 3: with Walls's goofy facial expressions and his kind of dad

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Speaker 3: joke refrain of see what I did there, it made

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Speaker 3: what could have been a cringe and or crude moment

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Speaker 3: into a charismatic and endearing one. I think the other

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Speaker 3: thing that makes me lean towards Walls's invocation of the

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Speaker 3: couch helping more than herting is that the meme had

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Speaker 3: already begun to be legitimate the establishment. When it's the

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Speaker 3: subject of an article in every major publication and Stephen

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Speaker 3: Colbert is making couch jokes on TV, then it is

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Speaker 3: already broken containment and hit the mainstream.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I would also add, I think there's a degree

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Speaker 2: to which, like the Dark Brandon stuff was cringy so fast,

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Speaker 2: because it was very clearly the Biden campaign jumping onto

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Speaker 2: a meme that Biden himself certainly didn't understand. Absolutely not,

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Speaker 2: Whereas I think Wall's got a little bit of the

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Speaker 2: kind of energy Trump used to get, in part because

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Speaker 2: it was it was like such a I can't believe

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Speaker 2: this is happening in American politics. The VP candidate for

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Speaker 2: the DIMS just accused the Republican VP candidate having sex

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Speaker 2: with the couch Like it was such a wow. This

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Speaker 2: is like the breaking of a seal kind of moment

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Speaker 2: which normally the Republicans have kind of had to themselves

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Speaker 2: these like yes line crossing moments, And I think that

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Speaker 2: does get attention and energy to you. It was it

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Speaker 2: was interesting to see them do it and have it

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Speaker 2: as actually work.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Well, we'll talk about that a little bit later. How

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Speaker 3: this sort of tactic has been almost entirely monopolized by

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Speaker 3: the right to the past decade, and just now we're

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Speaker 3: starting to see someone that's change. I think Tim Wall's

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Speaker 3: making a single couched reference, I believe did very little

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Speaker 3: to hurt the inevitable trajectory of the JD Vance couch meme.

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Speaker 3: In the days after the speech, searches for JD Vance

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Speaker 3: Couch reached an all time high, and as is the

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Speaker 3: nature for peaks, was followed by a gradual fall off

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Speaker 3: during the month of August, but crucially, the spirit of

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Speaker 3: the meme never really fully went away. I think one

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Speaker 3: aspect that separates the couch meme from Dark Branded and

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Speaker 3: even Coconut Tree to some degree is that it's not

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Speaker 3: based on trying to prop up a political figure like Positively,

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Speaker 3: but is instead attacking a widely disliked figure with slanderous disinformation.

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Speaker 3: And though the couch meme is well past its peak,

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Speaker 3: there's been no shortage of ways to make fun of

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Speaker 3: jd Vance. The overall momentum against him specifically has continued

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Speaker 3: on utilizing memes with a true, untrue, and semi true basis,

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Speaker 3: whether that be his inability to order donuts or his

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Speaker 3: legitimately possible interest in dolphin sex as evidenced by his

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Speaker 3: Twitter searches. Do you know who also likes dolphin sex?

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Speaker 4: Robert?

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Speaker 2: I mean, I could be convinced, but I guess let's

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Speaker 2: check out these ads anyway.

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Speaker 3: All right, we are so back. So the right did

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Speaker 3: not take kindly to Walls's acknowledgment of the whole Sopha spectacle.

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Speaker 2: We were so pissed.

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Speaker 3: They're really pissed, And it's funny. It's like as if

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Speaker 3: their main guy has not spent the last ten years

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Speaker 3: making up wild and spewing all sorts of like offensive

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Speaker 3: lies about his opponents.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's why they're pissed. Yeah, we're supposed to

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Speaker 2: be the ones doing so.

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Speaker 3: In response, the online right's finest posters cooked up a

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Speaker 3: memetic counter attack against Tim Walls, and what they decided

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Speaker 3: on is that Tim Walls once had to get his

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Speaker 3: stomach pumped from drinking a gallon of horse seamen with

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Speaker 3: this meme originating from a fake screenshot of an AP

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Speaker 3: fact check posted by the Twitter account National Conservatism.

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Speaker 4: See.

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Speaker 2: Uh, I'm sure you're going to get into it, but

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Speaker 2: there's so many reasons why this was always destined not

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Speaker 2: to work.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, Almost immediately this was seen as like a

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Speaker 3: massive misfire.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, it made it immediately clear. Oh, you guys

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Speaker 2: don't understand why what you used to do, like what

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Speaker 2: you were doing was working. Yeah, like you never actually

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Speaker 2: understood the principles behind what you were playing around with.

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Speaker 3: And I think crucially, most of the attacks from these

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Speaker 3: like weird online figures never actually caught that much traction.

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Speaker 3: The only ones that succeeded were ones that were just

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Speaker 3: pairting stuff that Trump was talking about, because I think

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Speaker 3: Trump actually understands this line of attack much better than

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Speaker 3: most of these like right wing posters do. But yeah,

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Speaker 3: it was very clear that this was this was a failure.

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Speaker 3: Some of the first horse Seamen posts got immediately ratioed

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Speaker 3: by replies and quote tweets, deeming the meme a manufactured

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Speaker 3: and desperate attempt to respond to the natural growth of

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Speaker 3: the couch hooks from a random twitter ship post to

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Speaker 3: the Democratic vice presidential candidate's opening speech.

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Speaker 2: With a guy like Walls, you don't go with horse

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Speaker 2: com you do something like you you start spreading a

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Speaker 2: rumor that like he uh cooked a bunch of well

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Speaker 2: done t bone steaks at a barbecue or totally like that,

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Speaker 2: totally like something that really hits to the center of

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Speaker 2: his dad core thing.

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Speaker 3: It has to it has to line up with his vibe.

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Speaker 2: Right right right, and his vibe is like you know

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Speaker 2: that nice Midwestern dad who's a dog shit cook, right like.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, which is something that Walls has actually been able

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Speaker 3: to like utilize himself with his like white guy tacos

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Speaker 3: the stuff right like right exactly.

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Speaker 2: He's leaded into it very smartly.

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Speaker 3: He lead into it and then it becomes a strength

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Speaker 3: that then the right also gets upset about accusing him

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Speaker 3: of quote unquote anti white racism.

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Speaker 2: That was quite a moment for American political history.

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Speaker 3: The other thing with like this horse semen thing is

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Speaker 3: like you simply just can't force these things to happen.

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Speaker 3: Like a crucial part of the success of a political

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Speaker 3: meme like this is that it must have a degree

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Speaker 3: of un ironic spread by people who genuinely believe it

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Speaker 3: to be true. Now, the horse semen meme was also

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Speaker 3: intended to counter the Republicans or weird talking point that

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Speaker 3: picked up steam this summer, and for some reason they

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Speaker 3: chose to go about this by making an escalatory and

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Speaker 3: just grossly bizarre claim about Tim Wall's guzzling animal semen

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Speaker 3: masterful gambitzer not a weird thing to say at all. No,

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Speaker 3: in doing this, the Right displayed a fundamental misunderstanding of

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Speaker 3: why the JD. Van's couch story was successful. The reason

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Speaker 3: why it caught on the easily verifiable fact that Jadvance

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Speaker 3: did not write about pleasuring himself with the couch as

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Speaker 3: a teenager is that JD. Vance seems like the kind

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Speaker 3: of guy to have used a couch to masturbait as

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Speaker 3: a teenager in rural Ohio.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know that adolescence was awkward as shit.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, like it wasn't successful just because it was like

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Speaker 3: a weird sex story. It evoked a genuine feeling of

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Speaker 3: something a sort of like white trash young guy might do.

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Speaker 3: On the other hand, swallowing a gallon of horse seamen,

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Speaker 3: it's such an outlandish jump into fantasy by comparison.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, nobody has done that, right.

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Speaker 3: Well, well, Tim Walls is no mister Hans. The vibes

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Speaker 3: simply do not match.

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Speaker 2: And to be clear, Garre said, mister Hans wasn't swallowing it.

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Speaker 2: That was part of the problem. That is true.

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Speaker 3: And like, meanwhile, Vance has the exact vibe of like

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Speaker 3: a gross little teen gremlin who fucked it inside out

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Speaker 3: rubber gloves shoved between two couch cushions. So the horse

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Speaker 3: even meme failed to reach outside the confines of the

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Speaker 3: niche right wing Twitter, but conservatives had another meme up

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Speaker 3: their sleeve. Chronically online far right influencers cat turn to

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Speaker 3: chaiai Check aka Limbs of TikTok, and Ian Miles Chung

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Speaker 3: led the charge in branding Tim Walls as tampon Tim

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Speaker 3: in reference to a bill Walls assigned requiring menstrual products

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Speaker 3: be provided in schools. Oh the horror the Babylon b

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Speaker 3: wrote JD. Vance is weird, says guy who signed bill

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Speaker 3: to put tampons in boys' school bathroom unquote. So similar

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Speaker 3: to the horse thing. This attempt to frame Tim Walls

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Speaker 3: is Weird just didn't work that the meme never caught

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Speaker 3: on beyond its initial posts. I think part of the

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Speaker 3: reason why the overly online right is so focused on

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Speaker 3: painting Walls is Weird is not just revenge for the

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Speaker 3: couch joke, but because Tim Walls is often credited with

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Speaker 3: popularizing the quote Republicans are just plain weird line of attack.

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Speaker 3: Something that's really caught on this past summer. Now, the

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Speaker 3: oldest clip I can find if Tim Walls pause this

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Speaker 3: message comes from December of twenty twenty three. I'll include

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Speaker 3: that clip here.

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Speaker 6: And you said, basically, there's no such thing as a

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Speaker 6: generic Republican.

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Speaker 2: These guys are weird.

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Speaker 7: Once they start running, their weirdness shows up.

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Speaker 2: What do you mean, Well, that's weird?

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Speaker 4: Stand by that.

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Speaker 8: Well, look just the strange things they become obsessed with

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Speaker 8: demonizing our children, becoming obsessed with people's personal lives in

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Speaker 8: their bedrooms, restricting freedoms.

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Speaker 4: I'm surrounded by states.

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Speaker 8: Who are spending their time figuring out how to ban

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Speaker 8: Charlotte's Web in their schools. Why we're banishing hunger from

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Speaker 8: ours with free breakfast and launch. That's what the public's

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Speaker 8: looking for, That's what they're trying to get to, and

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Speaker 8: they will weirdly obsess with everything to be mean and

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Speaker 8: cruel and small in their ideas. And I didn't hear

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Speaker 8: anything last night that did anything different to that, so

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Speaker 8: I'll stand by that.

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Speaker 4: I just think Americans know this is just weird stuff

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Speaker 4: to be focused on now.

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Speaker 3: We on nickod appen here and behind the Bastards have

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Speaker 3: similarly been advocating for the type of framing for the

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Speaker 3: new Right for quite a long while, Like Robert, I

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Speaker 3: know you've been like really pushing for this as a

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Speaker 3: tactic like for years now.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, if they'd made me the vice presidential candidate

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Speaker 2: three years ago, I really could have made some progress

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Speaker 2: on this, but I had to see what they've got up.

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Speaker 3: Like we decided on the name for Molly's new show

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Speaker 3: like very early this year, Like this was way way before,

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Speaker 3: like the weird attacks went viral.

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Speaker 2: It's really the only name we ever considered was weird

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Speaker 2: little guys.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, because that's how we like internally refer to these freaks.

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Speaker 3: Because these are all unhinged, anti social freaks, and many

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Speaker 3: of them revel in being this antagonistic force. I think

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Speaker 3: part of their self image is the idea that liberals

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Speaker 3: find them dangerous. And the weird attack is very disempowering

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Speaker 3: for these people. It reframes them from this like scary

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Speaker 3: existential threat to being more akin to your just off putting,

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00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:00,359
Speaker 3: creepy uncle. Here's a clip of Wals himself kind of

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Speaker 3: explaining the methodology behind this attack.

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Speaker 7: You've gotten some attention this week for calling Trump advance

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Speaker 7: and Republicans in general weird. And I think that you're

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Speaker 7: the one that set this tone, and there's this shift

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Speaker 7: the Harris campaign seems to be following your lead, echoing

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Speaker 7: this language. Why do you think weird is a more

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Speaker 7: effective attack line against Trump than what Democrats have been

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Speaker 7: done previously, which is argue that he's an existential threat

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Speaker 7: to democracy?

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Speaker 8: Yeah, And it's an observation on this and you, being

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Speaker 8: a school teacher, I see a lot of things.

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Speaker 4: But my point on this was is people.

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Speaker 8: Kept talking about, look, donald Trump is going to put

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Speaker 8: women's lives at risk. That's one hundred percent true. Donald

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Speaker 8: Trump is potentially going to end constitutional liberties that we have,

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Speaker 8: end voting. I do believe all those things are a

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Speaker 8: real possibility, but it.

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Speaker 4: Gives him way too much power. Listen to the guy.

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Speaker 8: He's talking about Hannibal Lecter and shocking sharks and just

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Speaker 8: whatever crazy thing pops into his mind, and I thought,

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Speaker 8: we just give him way too much credit. I think

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Speaker 8: one of the things is is when you just ratchet

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Speaker 8: down some of the the scariness or whatever and just

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Speaker 8: name it what it is. I got to tell you

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Speaker 8: my observation on this is, have you ever seen the

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Speaker 8: guy laugh? That seems very weird to me that an

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Speaker 8: adult can go through six and a half years of

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Speaker 8: being in the public eye. If he has left it's

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00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:21,399
Speaker 8: at someone, not with someone. That is weird behavior. And

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Speaker 8: I don't think you call it anything else. It is

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Speaker 8: simply what we're observing.

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Speaker 4: Now.

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Speaker 3: An interesting side effect of the weird framing is that

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Speaker 3: it's left these ultra conservatives utterly incapable of effectively combating

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00:20:33,520 --> 00:20:36,320
Speaker 3: this line of attack. They've been so used to being

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Speaker 3: on the offense that they never really prepared for the

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00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:41,679
Speaker 3: position that they're now stuck in over a decade of

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00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:44,440
Speaker 3: they go low, we go high, conditioned to the rights

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Speaker 3: to be completely unable to cope with being put on

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Speaker 3: mimetic defense. Now, my favorite retort of the weird claim

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00:20:53,040 --> 00:20:57,440
Speaker 3: is from conservative pundent Helen Andrew, who wrote, quote, calling

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Speaker 3: people weird is such feminine behavior. Text book sex difference.

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Speaker 3: Men engage in open conflict, women police conformity. It's honestly

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Speaker 3: disorienting to hear male politicians use the line.

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Speaker 2: I love too that we're talking about how men are

401
00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:17,680
Speaker 2: naturally drawn to open, honorable conflict when talking about a

402
00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:21,119
Speaker 2: bunch of people who never log off, like everything you

403
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Speaker 2: do is find the keyboard, motherfucker.

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Speaker 3: It's amazing that they're combating this by saying the weirdest

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Speaker 3: things imaginable.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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00:21:28,760 --> 00:21:32,280
Speaker 3: Now, I think this one's only one upped by a

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00:21:32,359 --> 00:21:35,639
Speaker 3: reply to this very post by the author of the

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Speaker 3: self published Kingmaker trilogy named Airy Mendelssohn Christ, who posted

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Speaker 3: a meme featuring a crowd of NPC wojacks all saying

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Speaker 3: the word weird, which which I find actually be a

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Speaker 3: very powerful image depicting all the masses having agreed upon

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00:21:52,720 --> 00:21:56,560
Speaker 3: that Republicans are weird. But Mendelssohn wrote, quote, it's both

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Speaker 3: feminine behavior and heard behavior. We all started calling them

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00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:05,600
Speaker 3: weird at once. It was obviously planned, cooked up by

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Speaker 3: a sophisticated wordsmith, and then distributed by their network.

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00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:15,040
Speaker 2: Yes, only only the most sophisticated of wordsmiths knows the

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Speaker 2: word weird.

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Speaker 3: It's amazing.

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00:22:17,400 --> 00:22:20,000
Speaker 2: You've got to dig deep into the dictionary to hit

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Speaker 2: that one.

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Speaker 3: Truly, truly, truly, this must be the work of a

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Speaker 3: sophisticated word smith. It's phenomenal.

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Speaker 2: That's fucking funny.

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Speaker 3: So, in trying to combat the weird accusation, the right

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00:22:34,960 --> 00:22:38,000
Speaker 3: has mostly opted for either responding with escalation, like in

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00:22:38,040 --> 00:22:40,800
Speaker 3: the case of the horse seamen meme, which only makes

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00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:43,680
Speaker 3: them seem kind of more off putting, or just going

429
00:22:43,680 --> 00:22:47,560
Speaker 3: for the classic Uno reverso right, I'm not weird, you're weird.

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Speaker 3: This is the ultimate sign of desperation and impending defeat.

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00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:53,439
Speaker 3: I am rubber, you are glue. Whatever you say bounces

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Speaker 3: off me and sticks to you. On top of being

433
00:22:55,800 --> 00:23:00,199
Speaker 3: a strategy that often signals one has already lost wing

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00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:03,840
Speaker 3: this tactic, you make the very basic error of repeating

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00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:07,320
Speaker 3: the enemy's claim against you, thus continuing to amplify and

436
00:23:07,359 --> 00:23:10,359
Speaker 3: spread the original attack. Here's a clip from Trump.

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Speaker 9: There's something weird with that guy. He's a weird guy.

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00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:18,720
Speaker 9: JD is not weird. He's a solid rock. I happen

439
00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:21,840
Speaker 9: to be a very solid rock. We're not weird. We're

440
00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:24,640
Speaker 9: other things, perhaps, but we're not weird.

441
00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:26,280
Speaker 4: But he is a weird guy.

442
00:23:26,320 --> 00:23:27,520
Speaker 2: He walks on the stage.

443
00:23:27,520 --> 00:23:31,480
Speaker 9: There's something wrong with that guy, and he called me weird.

444
00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:33,760
Speaker 9: And then the frank news media picks it up. That

445
00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:35,960
Speaker 9: was the word of the day. Weird, weird, weird. They're

446
00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:36,920
Speaker 9: all go now.

447
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:41,359
Speaker 3: Similarly, I found a Megan Kelly video titled Tucker Carlson

448
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:44,240
Speaker 3: explains why JD. Vance is actually normal?

449
00:23:46,720 --> 00:23:51,480
Speaker 2: Great should Tucker notes the most normal man alive.

450
00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:55,280
Speaker 3: And Trump supporters have brought signs to his rallies that

451
00:23:55,320 --> 00:23:59,000
Speaker 3: read Donald Trump is not weird. My I Am not

452
00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:01,520
Speaker 3: weird shirt. As people asking a lot of questions are

453
00:24:01,520 --> 00:24:06,880
Speaker 3: already answered by my shirt. It's it's a very basic mistake. Now,

454
00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:09,600
Speaker 3: there has been some pushback among certain swasp people on

455
00:24:09,640 --> 00:24:12,840
Speaker 3: the left who have historically associated themselves as like societal

456
00:24:12,880 --> 00:24:16,520
Speaker 3: outcasts and have found comfort in embracing words like weird

457
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:19,199
Speaker 3: and freak. And on a certain level, I understand this,

458
00:24:19,680 --> 00:24:21,240
Speaker 3: but I think this point of view is making the

459
00:24:21,280 --> 00:24:24,000
Speaker 3: same fundamental error as the conservative right when they try

460
00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:26,920
Speaker 3: to flip around the weird accusation onto Democrats, progressives, and

461
00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:30,520
Speaker 3: people on the left by primarily using homophobia and transphobia.

462
00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:34,200
Speaker 3: We're using the same word to refer to two very

463
00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:39,280
Speaker 3: different things. Do they call drag Queen's weird for being transgressive? Meanwhile,

464
00:24:39,359 --> 00:24:42,159
Speaker 3: Trump Advance and the far right are weird because they

465
00:24:42,160 --> 00:24:46,320
Speaker 3: are oddly reactionary. They're trying to resurrect a long dead

466
00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:50,000
Speaker 3: world by forming an authoritary movement behind a reality TV

467
00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:54,360
Speaker 3: star who sounds like you're rambling conspiracy theorist uncle. It's

468
00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:58,000
Speaker 3: a battle over the terrain of normalcy as a shifting category,

469
00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:01,639
Speaker 3: and while I sympathize with some's hostile to the hegemony

470
00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:04,639
Speaker 3: of normalcy, how I often follow outside of that category.

471
00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:07,880
Speaker 3: I believe it's also paramount that we sabotage reactionary efforts

472
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:11,520
Speaker 3: to gain any territory. So that's kind of the cycle

473
00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:15,000
Speaker 3: of weird And we will be back to talk about

474
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:17,600
Speaker 3: this kind of final new stage of meme politics. After

475
00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:31,640
Speaker 3: this break, okay, we are once again, so back now,

476
00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:34,600
Speaker 3: I believe this election will truly be characterized by the

477
00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:38,959
Speaker 3: complete pliferation of meme style politics. Now, even without like

478
00:25:39,080 --> 00:25:42,600
Speaker 3: the use of a meme image, I think politics, especially

479
00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:46,320
Speaker 3: this year, has itself functioned and spread like a meme.

480
00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:46,880
Speaker 4: Now.

481
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:49,080
Speaker 3: This is something that's been happening for the past like

482
00:25:49,119 --> 00:25:52,679
Speaker 3: eight years, certainly, but the way it's happened this summer

483
00:25:52,760 --> 00:25:55,439
Speaker 3: I think has been slightly unique. The weird attack is,

484
00:25:55,480 --> 00:25:58,439
Speaker 3: you know, the ideal example of this. But even if

485
00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:00,560
Speaker 3: you just look back a few months ago, we were

486
00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:03,760
Speaker 3: in a very different position. It was a very different story,

487
00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:06,639
Speaker 3: and I'll let Stephen Colbert demonstrate that.

488
00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:09,200
Speaker 1: So the Biden campaign wants to build on the new

489
00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:13,400
Speaker 1: viral trend of handground pa the phone, because reportedly they're

490
00:26:13,480 --> 00:26:18,280
Speaker 1: looking for a meme page manager. So look forward to

491
00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:22,920
Speaker 1: some hot new Biden social content like Irmager, Trumper's hurtler

492
00:26:24,560 --> 00:26:28,000
Speaker 1: I can't has youth votes, and of course for the

493
00:26:28,119 --> 00:26:30,720
Speaker 1: very online skibbitty Biden.

494
00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:35,679
Speaker 6: Gvd Biden ged git Biden.

495
00:26:39,560 --> 00:26:43,480
Speaker 3: Okay, I I really want to play more of that, Cliff,

496
00:26:43,840 --> 00:26:46,600
Speaker 3: but I'm afraid I already included a little too much.

497
00:26:48,160 --> 00:26:51,359
Speaker 3: What a dire situation that is, that is that that

498
00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:57,440
Speaker 3: is the peak of the liberals, mimetic attacks just truly episcopal.

499
00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:03,040
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I've become obsessed with skibbety Biden just

500
00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:07,480
Speaker 3: because it demonstrates such like an inevitable like self defeat

501
00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:09,680
Speaker 3: that that was like the best thing these people had,

502
00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:12,879
Speaker 3: like cooking. As it's kind of obvious by the clip.

503
00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:16,080
Speaker 3: This led towards the death of the Biden campaign. They

504
00:27:16,119 --> 00:27:19,200
Speaker 3: really had nothing in the tank. Biden was a shambling

505
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,920
Speaker 3: old man. And then like two months later, Kamala kicked

506
00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:27,000
Speaker 3: off her campaign by embracing the Kamala is Brat Summer,

507
00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:28,919
Speaker 3: which he has to may have killed Bratt Summer, but

508
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:32,439
Speaker 3: it did help secure the vibe shift, skyrocketing her popularity.

509
00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:35,119
Speaker 2: Quite frankly, I was ready for Bratt Summer to.

510
00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:40,240
Speaker 3: Death, yes, sure, but I think her weaponization of that term,

511
00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:44,199
Speaker 3: endorsed by Charlie XCX, I think did help skyrocket her

512
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:47,600
Speaker 3: early popularity and showed an early embrace of online culture.

513
00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:52,399
Speaker 3: And I believe the Harris campaign actually owes a lot

514
00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:56,239
Speaker 3: more to memes. In a ironic twist of fate, there

515
00:27:56,280 --> 00:27:59,360
Speaker 3: is a compelling argument to be made that Kamala Harris's

516
00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:02,080
Speaker 3: rise to the top of the presidential ticket can at

517
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:06,920
Speaker 3: least be in part tracked back to Republican attacks which

518
00:28:07,080 --> 00:28:11,359
Speaker 3: spawned memes. Last year. The account RNC Research ran by

519
00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:15,280
Speaker 3: the GOP posted multiple clips and edits attacking Kamala Harris

520
00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:18,520
Speaker 3: for what they saw as odd phrases and awkward moments.

521
00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:22,119
Speaker 3: Earlier this year, some of those videos from RNC research

522
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:25,720
Speaker 3: went viral outside of right wing Twitter, which led to

523
00:28:25,800 --> 00:28:29,560
Speaker 3: an ironic or post ironic embrace of Kamala Harris among

524
00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:33,240
Speaker 3: liberal and leftist posters. Now the biggest one was the

525
00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:36,239
Speaker 3: Coconut Tree video, which spawned memes that started to pick

526
00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:40,760
Speaker 3: up steam in January and didn't peak until July. Another

527
00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:43,840
Speaker 3: one of RNZ Research's videos, a four minute compilation of

528
00:28:44,040 --> 00:28:47,960
Speaker 3: Kamala Harris saying what can be unburdened by what has been,

529
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:50,960
Speaker 3: provided the inspiration for the title of a document that

530
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:54,880
Speaker 3: spread around political circles, postulating Kamala Harris as the best

531
00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:56,800
Speaker 3: successor to Biden if you were to drop out of

532
00:28:56,800 --> 00:28:59,840
Speaker 3: the race instead of a messy last minute primary or

533
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:03,240
Speaker 3: open convention. And I think these memes did a lot

534
00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:06,840
Speaker 3: to increase Kamala's favorability in the first half of this year.

535
00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:10,520
Speaker 3: Kamala prior to this was a relatively kind of disliked

536
00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:13,040
Speaker 3: figure nationally. She was one of the first drop out

537
00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:14,520
Speaker 3: of the twenty twenty presidential race.

538
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:17,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, she wasn't I wouldn't even say disliked as much

539
00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:21,560
Speaker 2: as like not a figure like the big The number

540
00:29:21,560 --> 00:29:23,400
Speaker 2: one thing people said about her is that she's been

541
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:25,360
Speaker 2: a non entity as a vice president.

542
00:29:25,760 --> 00:29:28,480
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, And she certainly wasn't popular.

543
00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:31,000
Speaker 2: Yes, definitely not popular.

544
00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:35,000
Speaker 3: So although the GFP may have inadvertently helped to improve

545
00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:38,280
Speaker 3: the public profile of Kamala Harris and have failed to

546
00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:42,480
Speaker 3: effectively combat the weird attacks, they have not totally failed

547
00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:45,880
Speaker 3: on the me medic warfare front. The past two months,

548
00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:49,080
Speaker 3: the right has landed on a somewhat effective memes style

549
00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:52,920
Speaker 3: politics by utilizing a combination of disinformation and AI images

550
00:29:52,960 --> 00:29:55,880
Speaker 3: to create fake news stories that rile up their base

551
00:29:55,960 --> 00:29:59,920
Speaker 3: on certain key issues so far, mainly trans people and immigration.

552
00:30:00,520 --> 00:30:00,680
Speaker 9: Now.

553
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:02,800
Speaker 3: A few months ago, I did an episode on how

554
00:30:02,800 --> 00:30:05,840
Speaker 3: the right's been using memes to create this fake epidemic

555
00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:10,040
Speaker 3: of transgender mass shooters, and then in July, a new

556
00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:14,280
Speaker 3: anti trans syop went super viral. False claims that the

557
00:30:14,280 --> 00:30:18,360
Speaker 3: Algerian Olympic boxer Iman Khalif is transgender or in some

558
00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:23,160
Speaker 3: kind of unverified way quote unquote biologically male spread around

559
00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:26,320
Speaker 3: online with the help of British newspapers and went just

560
00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:31,040
Speaker 3: completely viral for a whole week, with the disinformation subsequently

561
00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:34,560
Speaker 3: becoming a new story itself. This fake story caught traction

562
00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:37,360
Speaker 3: after an Italian boxer quit a match forty five seconds

563
00:30:37,400 --> 00:30:40,160
Speaker 3: into a fight after receiving a single hard blow to

564
00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:44,320
Speaker 3: the face. Anti trans memes are a well worn part

565
00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:47,200
Speaker 3: of this type of disinfo ecosystem, and there was no

566
00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:51,560
Speaker 3: shortage of trans sports memes now using Khalif. I'm going

567
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:54,640
Speaker 3: to quote from Ruby Hammad in Al Jazeera quote. Khalif's

568
00:30:54,680 --> 00:30:58,480
Speaker 3: subsequent match was against Hungarian Anna Hamari, who in the

569
00:30:58,520 --> 00:31:01,440
Speaker 3: lead up posted and deleted an image that I believe

570
00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:04,600
Speaker 3: to be among the most significant of the entire affair

571
00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:07,920
Speaker 3: because of how it lays the subtext bear. In this

572
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:12,320
Speaker 3: AI generated image that Hamari sourced from Instagram, Khalif was

573
00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:15,480
Speaker 3: not merely represented as a man towering over a dainty,

574
00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:19,040
Speaker 3: vulnerable white woman, but was denied humanity altogether and drawn

575
00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:23,920
Speaker 3: as a supernatural mythical beast unquote. Many other AI images

576
00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:28,480
Speaker 3: of Khalif spread throughout this viral trend, some with just

577
00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:31,320
Speaker 3: Khalif having like a stereotypical like male body that were

578
00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:34,240
Speaker 3: AA generated and others with this like similar like like

579
00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:39,200
Speaker 3: kind of like monster ish look. And I think beyond

580
00:31:39,200 --> 00:31:42,000
Speaker 3: the actual use of these like AI memes and kind

581
00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:44,680
Speaker 3: of anti trans memes using Khalif, I think the way

582
00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:48,040
Speaker 3: the actual story spread was like a meme. I think

583
00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:50,480
Speaker 3: that's how I was able to gain such like a

584
00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:53,680
Speaker 3: viral traction in just like a few days. I think

585
00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:56,920
Speaker 3: the next version of this is the eating Cat's story,

586
00:31:57,040 --> 00:32:00,360
Speaker 3: which started with a post to a Springfield crime watch

587
00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:02,800
Speaker 3: a Facebook group from someone who shared a fourth hand

588
00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:05,480
Speaker 3: account based on a rumor from a neighbor who claims

589
00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:07,240
Speaker 3: to have heard the story from a friend who heard

590
00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:11,240
Speaker 3: the story from an unnamed source. Now NewsGuard attracted down

591
00:32:11,280 --> 00:32:13,600
Speaker 3: the woman who told the Facebook poster about the story,

592
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:16,400
Speaker 3: and she told them quote, I'm not sure I'm the

593
00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:18,920
Speaker 3: most credible source because I don't actually know the person

594
00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:21,240
Speaker 3: who lost the cat. I don't have any proof.

595
00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:26,880
Speaker 6: In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came

596
00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:31,280
Speaker 6: in they're eating the cats, they're eating they're eating the

597
00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:34,160
Speaker 6: pets of the people that live there.

598
00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:37,520
Speaker 10: I just want to clarify here. You bring up Springfield, Ohio,

599
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:40,320
Speaker 10: and ABC News did reach out to the city manager there.

600
00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:42,920
Speaker 10: He told us there had been no credible reports of

601
00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:45,960
Speaker 10: specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by

602
00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:48,320
Speaker 10: individuals within the immigrant community.

603
00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:49,520
Speaker 4: All I've seen people on telligence.

604
00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:50,600
Speaker 2: Let me just say, this is.

605
00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:53,240
Speaker 6: The people on television saying my dog was taken and

606
00:32:53,840 --> 00:32:54,600
Speaker 6: used for food.

607
00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:56,320
Speaker 4: So maybe he said that, and.

608
00:32:56,280 --> 00:32:58,560
Speaker 6: Maybe that's a good thing to say for a city manager.

609
00:32:58,600 --> 00:32:59,840
Speaker 4: I'm not taking this from television.

610
00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:04,400
Speaker 6: I'm telling you was eaten by the people that went there.

611
00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:07,320
Speaker 3: Meanwhile, the Ohio Division of Wildlife told TMZ that the

612
00:33:07,360 --> 00:33:11,400
Speaker 3: main photo of an alleged Haitian immigrant carrying a debt goose,

613
00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:15,120
Speaker 3: presumably on the way to eat it, was in fact

614
00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:19,680
Speaker 3: a random black man removing roadkill from a street in Columbus, Ohio,

615
00:33:20,200 --> 00:33:23,200
Speaker 3: with no evidence to suggest he is from Haiti, he

616
00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:28,240
Speaker 3: is an immigrant, or was intending to eat said goose. Still,

617
00:33:28,320 --> 00:33:31,840
Speaker 3: jd Vance particularly spent a lot of work boosting this

618
00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:32,800
Speaker 3: fake news story.

619
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:35,400
Speaker 2: Also, if he was what's wrong with eating a.

620
00:33:35,360 --> 00:33:38,560
Speaker 3: Goose, Yes, exactly, like there's there's so many, so many

621
00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:44,480
Speaker 3: problems with the Haitians are eating at pets and wildlife meme,

622
00:33:44,600 --> 00:33:46,640
Speaker 3: and we don't we don't have time to like fully

623
00:33:46,720 --> 00:33:48,800
Speaker 3: get into it. It's just kind of one anecdote in

624
00:33:48,800 --> 00:33:52,360
Speaker 3: this kind of series of mimetic attacks. And I think

625
00:33:52,440 --> 00:33:56,000
Speaker 3: one of the guys who was spearheading this was jd Vance,

626
00:33:56,040 --> 00:33:58,600
Speaker 3: who spent a lot of effort trying to push the

627
00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:01,760
Speaker 3: story into the national spotlight, either the day of or

628
00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:05,360
Speaker 3: before the posential debate of ants tweeted quote. In the

629
00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:08,640
Speaker 3: last several weeks, my office has received many inquiries from

630
00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:12,120
Speaker 3: actual residents of Springfield who have said their neighbor's pets

631
00:34:12,200 --> 00:34:16,880
Speaker 3: or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants. It's possible,

632
00:34:17,280 --> 00:34:20,640
Speaker 3: of course, that all these rumors will turn out to

633
00:34:20,719 --> 00:34:24,400
Speaker 3: be false. Do you know what's confirmed that a child

634
00:34:24,480 --> 00:34:26,960
Speaker 3: was murdered by a Haitian migrant who had no right

635
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:29,600
Speaker 3: to be here unquote, And now I think the last

636
00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:33,200
Speaker 3: thing that he's referring to was an unfortunate car accident,

637
00:34:33,640 --> 00:34:37,360
Speaker 3: and the Haitian man was a legal immigrant, not an

638
00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:40,759
Speaker 3: illegal immigrant, and the father of the child who died

639
00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:44,399
Speaker 3: has been advocating that people stop using his child's death

640
00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:48,880
Speaker 3: as this like racist ammunition in this weird culture war debate.

641
00:34:49,160 --> 00:34:50,040
Speaker 2: God, it's bleak.

642
00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:53,359
Speaker 3: Which is really hard to see a man pleading that

643
00:34:53,680 --> 00:34:57,919
Speaker 3: these like unhinged racists stop using the death of his son. Yeah,

644
00:34:57,960 --> 00:35:02,400
Speaker 3: to further like they're just extreme, gross and like transparent agenda.

645
00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:06,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's one of the more disgusting things that's happened.

646
00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:09,160
Speaker 3: Part of the spread of the eating of pets story

647
00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:12,920
Speaker 3: has been the use of AI images, particularly of black

648
00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:16,480
Speaker 3: men kidnapping and eating pets, as well as images of

649
00:35:16,560 --> 00:35:20,000
Speaker 3: Trump rescuing cats from what I would describe as a

650
00:35:20,120 --> 00:35:22,440
Speaker 3: horde of immigrants, which is what I would assume the

651
00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:26,799
Speaker 3: AA prompt would be. Now, these images aren't necessarily meant

652
00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:29,799
Speaker 3: to like be passed off as real, but in the

653
00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:33,799
Speaker 3: absence of actual evidence, they serve an important purpose of

654
00:35:33,840 --> 00:35:37,560
Speaker 3: providing a visual justice stick in people's minds, And I

655
00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:40,040
Speaker 3: think that that's crucially what's going on with all of

656
00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:43,400
Speaker 3: these AI images, whether they be of Trump like saving

657
00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:46,439
Speaker 3: cats or holding cats, or they just be like very

658
00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:50,240
Speaker 3: racist depictions of like black men trying to like eat

659
00:35:50,840 --> 00:35:53,920
Speaker 3: or kidnap people's pets. Earlier this year at the RNC,

660
00:35:54,080 --> 00:35:57,640
Speaker 3: I know Me and Robert went to this panel produced

661
00:35:57,800 --> 00:36:00,719
Speaker 3: in part by Microsoft, talking about the use of like

662
00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:04,640
Speaker 3: AI images in politics and how they're advocating to like yeah,

663
00:36:04,719 --> 00:36:07,640
Speaker 3: not be using ai AI depictions of candidates, which is

664
00:36:07,680 --> 00:36:11,239
Speaker 3: something that Trump has consistently been doing, posting or retruthing

665
00:36:11,960 --> 00:36:15,600
Speaker 3: AI videos of Kamala Harris of people like Taylor Swift

666
00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:19,080
Speaker 3: endorsing him, which then led to Taylor Swift endorsing Kamala Harris,

667
00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:23,800
Speaker 3: which seemingly upset Trump greatly. Now to me, if you

668
00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:28,799
Speaker 3: look at the trans Olympics debacle as well as the

669
00:36:28,840 --> 00:36:33,120
Speaker 3: Springfield incident, it feels like this endless series of new

670
00:36:33,200 --> 00:36:37,360
Speaker 3: dis info trends is designed so that individual confrontations just

671
00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:40,640
Speaker 3: don't matter that much. Like Yeah, pointing out the whole

672
00:36:40,719 --> 00:36:44,239
Speaker 3: trans Olympics thing is fake just doesn't matter, because then

673
00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:46,600
Speaker 3: they're going to move on to Haitian immigrants or killing

674
00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:51,239
Speaker 3: people's pets. Each individual lie is so flimsy, but the

675
00:36:51,360 --> 00:36:54,080
Speaker 3: constant sequence of them built a structure that has a

676
00:36:54,080 --> 00:36:57,320
Speaker 3: degree of stability for conservatives, And this is a project

677
00:36:57,320 --> 00:36:59,799
Speaker 3: that they've been like working towards for a long long

678
00:36:59,840 --> 00:37:02,200
Speaker 3: time time. I know, Robert, we've talked about this.

679
00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:05,359
Speaker 2: Yeah, this, I mean I saw the start of this

680
00:37:05,480 --> 00:37:07,920
Speaker 2: as like a kid, right, like this is kind of

681
00:37:07,920 --> 00:37:12,319
Speaker 2: what guys like Limbaugh were always doing on sort of

682
00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:15,040
Speaker 2: the ground floor level, you know, you can look at.

683
00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:18,400
Speaker 2: I think one of the first big like cleavage points

684
00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:21,960
Speaker 2: in our realities was the whole Clinton death count thing, which,

685
00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:25,399
Speaker 2: if you're unaware, is this list conservative started spreading in

686
00:37:25,440 --> 00:37:28,680
Speaker 2: like nineteen ninety three or four of all of the

687
00:37:28,719 --> 00:37:31,960
Speaker 2: people that Bill and Hillary had supposedly had murdered, right,

688
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:34,680
Speaker 2: and it was like guys like Vince Foster who'd killed himself,

689
00:37:34,920 --> 00:37:37,400
Speaker 2: who worked for them and whatnot, Like it was all bullshit,

690
00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:40,160
Speaker 2: but it was kind of the start of this. Like,

691
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:43,240
Speaker 2: when you get enough of these things, it doesn't matter

692
00:37:43,280 --> 00:37:46,640
Speaker 2: that each of them take seconds to debunk. They form

693
00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:50,719
Speaker 2: a sort of like like a cushion. If you exist

694
00:37:50,760 --> 00:37:53,520
Speaker 2: within that reality, you can kind of slide along without

695
00:37:53,560 --> 00:37:54,680
Speaker 2: touching the ground.

696
00:37:54,680 --> 00:37:58,200
Speaker 3: Definitely now, Yeah, it forms like a like a mesh

697
00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:02,080
Speaker 3: like net structure, yeah, where each individual piece is very weak,

698
00:38:02,440 --> 00:38:06,800
Speaker 3: but together it provides an actually like pretty pretty resilient

699
00:38:06,960 --> 00:38:10,520
Speaker 3: like resting place for these people's alternate version of reality.

700
00:38:11,200 --> 00:38:11,799
Speaker 2: Yeah.

701
00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:16,160
Speaker 3: Now, Vance is kind of somewhat admitted in some ways

702
00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:19,320
Speaker 3: to having manufactured this media story.

703
00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:20,520
Speaker 2: This was interesting to me.

704
00:38:20,880 --> 00:38:23,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I'm going to put that clip here, and

705
00:38:23,680 --> 00:38:25,880
Speaker 3: I'm going to include a bit of a longer clip

706
00:38:25,920 --> 00:38:29,600
Speaker 3: than what's usually used in soundbites, just because during this interview,

707
00:38:29,960 --> 00:38:33,400
Speaker 3: just Vance's behavior and his like pauses are very odd.

708
00:38:33,400 --> 00:38:35,200
Speaker 3: So there's gonna be a few seconds of like dead space.

709
00:38:35,239 --> 00:38:36,800
Speaker 3: But that is like in the actual interview.

710
00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:40,480
Speaker 11: American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and

711
00:38:40,520 --> 00:38:42,280
Speaker 11: I start talking about cat memes.

712
00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:43,279
Speaker 4: If I have to.

713
00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:48,800
Speaker 11: Create stories so that the American media actually pays attention

714
00:38:48,920 --> 00:38:51,600
Speaker 11: to the suffering of the American people, then that's what

715
00:38:51,640 --> 00:38:53,279
Speaker 11: I'm gonna do, Dana, because.

716
00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:55,520
Speaker 2: Public policy.

717
00:39:00,640 --> 00:39:02,440
Speaker 12: Sorry, you just said that you're creating the story.

718
00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:03,080
Speaker 2: Is that data?

719
00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:06,239
Speaker 12: Yeah, you just said that this is a story that

720
00:39:06,280 --> 00:39:07,080
Speaker 12: you've created.

721
00:39:07,640 --> 00:39:09,560
Speaker 2: So so then the eating dog.

722
00:39:09,440 --> 00:39:13,920
Speaker 4: We we are creating, we are, Dana.

723
00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:17,120
Speaker 11: It comes from first hand accounts from my constituents. I

724
00:39:17,160 --> 00:39:19,520
Speaker 11: say that we're creating a story, meaning we're creating the

725
00:39:19,560 --> 00:39:21,160
Speaker 11: American media focusing on it.

726
00:39:21,280 --> 00:39:24,640
Speaker 3: Now Vance has subsequently you know, said that no, no, no,

727
00:39:24,960 --> 00:39:28,200
Speaker 3: I'm getting this information from first hand accounts from my constituents.

728
00:39:28,400 --> 00:39:30,680
Speaker 3: When I say that I'm creating stories, I'm creating a

729
00:39:30,719 --> 00:39:33,399
Speaker 3: media story. But it's hard not to see this as

730
00:39:33,680 --> 00:39:36,680
Speaker 3: a little bit of like a tactical slip on his part.

731
00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:41,720
Speaker 3: Right now, this has all created a very odd situation

732
00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:44,040
Speaker 3: for the Republican Party. As we've kind of talked about

733
00:39:44,040 --> 00:39:47,520
Speaker 3: the past few months. Journalists and researcher Jared Holt wrote, quote,

734
00:39:47,840 --> 00:39:50,360
Speaker 3: the Trump campaign seems to be doing the same failed

735
00:39:50,520 --> 00:39:53,600
Speaker 3: dance as the Dessantus one at the moment, pander heavily

736
00:39:53,640 --> 00:39:56,960
Speaker 3: to terminally online weirdos and get mad when the general

737
00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:01,319
Speaker 3: public goes, uh, what the fuck? Un Yeah, and this

738
00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:03,640
Speaker 3: is the thing when you have someone on stage talking

739
00:40:03,680 --> 00:40:07,440
Speaker 3: about eating pets, that is a turnoff for many normal

740
00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:11,719
Speaker 3: people because they immediately clock this as being probably complete bullshit.

741
00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:12,720
Speaker 2: Yeah.

742
00:40:12,760 --> 00:40:15,640
Speaker 3: And we're in a very interesting moment in the Republican Party.

743
00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:19,160
Speaker 3: Considering the right wings electoral losses in twenty eighteen, twenty twenty,

744
00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:22,439
Speaker 3: and twenty twenty two, and possibly going into twenty twenty four,

745
00:40:23,239 --> 00:40:26,719
Speaker 3: this kind of weird culture war grievance, anti wilk strategy

746
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:29,480
Speaker 3: just might not be electorally viable. When matched against a

747
00:40:29,520 --> 00:40:33,640
Speaker 3: more normal alternative, and I think making matters worse. The

748
00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:36,319
Speaker 3: Trump team and the Republican National Committee have spent the

749
00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:38,600
Speaker 3: past four years handing over a lot of their comms

750
00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:42,439
Speaker 3: and outreach to just certifiable freaks like Laura Lumer, Ian

751
00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:45,279
Speaker 3: Miles Chung and limbs of TikTok, people who are very

752
00:40:45,280 --> 00:40:48,879
Speaker 3: disconnected from what regular people care about, people that are

753
00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:53,000
Speaker 3: only liked by other really online freaks, and.

754
00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:55,080
Speaker 2: People who have no crossover appeal.

755
00:40:55,160 --> 00:40:55,279
Speaker 4: Right.

756
00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:58,760
Speaker 2: Joe Rogan is such a powerful card in their hand

757
00:40:59,160 --> 00:41:02,799
Speaker 2: because he has a lot of like normal dude appeal, right,

758
00:41:02,960 --> 00:41:05,400
Speaker 2: and so when he starts parroting a talking point, he

759
00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:08,759
Speaker 2: can actually push it to people. Laura Lumer does not write,

760
00:41:08,960 --> 00:41:12,080
Speaker 2: like like, if you show a normal person Laura Lumer,

761
00:41:12,120 --> 00:41:14,520
Speaker 2: they're like, what the fuck is wrong with that lady's face?

762
00:41:15,600 --> 00:41:20,040
Speaker 3: And they're a very double edged sword because although they

763
00:41:20,040 --> 00:41:22,799
Speaker 3: are very off putting and that in some ways can

764
00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:26,440
Speaker 3: like damaged, can damage Trump, they also carry a degree

765
00:41:26,480 --> 00:41:27,720
Speaker 3: of like very real harm.

766
00:41:27,880 --> 00:41:28,560
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.

767
00:41:28,600 --> 00:41:31,239
Speaker 3: Whenever all these people hop onto a trend, a very

768
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:34,680
Speaker 3: consistent thing that has followed is bomb threats being called

769
00:41:34,719 --> 00:41:38,040
Speaker 3: into whatever their target is. I love doing that, whether

770
00:41:38,080 --> 00:41:42,080
Speaker 3: that be hospitals providing trans healthcare, abortion clinics, or in

771
00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:45,799
Speaker 3: this case, just schools in Springfield, Ohio, which have now

772
00:41:45,840 --> 00:41:49,719
Speaker 3: received multiple bomb threats. And again, like it is a

773
00:41:49,800 --> 00:41:52,759
Speaker 3: very double edged sword because obviously that's like very real

774
00:41:52,920 --> 00:41:55,960
Speaker 3: harm being done, and you could argue that, you know,

775
00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:58,640
Speaker 3: that makes the situation worse for the Trump campaign, the

776
00:41:58,640 --> 00:42:02,279
Speaker 3: fact that they're attacks that spreading are resulting in like

777
00:42:02,360 --> 00:42:05,840
Speaker 3: bomb threats being called into schools, but it also creates

778
00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:09,399
Speaker 3: a degree of actual harm for like kids and many

779
00:42:09,440 --> 00:42:12,879
Speaker 3: of the legal Haitian immigrants in Springfield that are now

780
00:42:12,880 --> 00:42:17,440
Speaker 3: seeing a very unprecedented as of recent wave of like

781
00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:22,400
Speaker 3: extremely racist attacks. There's a good article by Jared Holt

782
00:42:22,440 --> 00:42:25,000
Speaker 3: in MSNBC that kind of goes into this topic specifically

783
00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:28,480
Speaker 3: that I'll link in the sources below. So yeah, that

784
00:42:28,719 --> 00:42:32,319
Speaker 3: kind of rounds up my update on the current state

785
00:42:32,360 --> 00:42:34,799
Speaker 3: of meme politics, all of its various forms that's taken

786
00:42:34,880 --> 00:42:38,640
Speaker 3: these past few months, from couch fucking jokes to bomb

787
00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:42,680
Speaker 3: threats in Springfield, and it's a very dominant form. Like

788
00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:45,319
Speaker 3: I don't remember memes being this front and center at

789
00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:46,560
Speaker 3: least in the twenty twenty election.

790
00:42:47,239 --> 00:42:51,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I mean they twenty sixteen. They kind of were,

791
00:42:52,080 --> 00:42:54,640
Speaker 2: but it was it was like a much rougher and

792
00:42:54,800 --> 00:42:58,160
Speaker 2: ruder attempt this. There's like so much more buy in

793
00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:01,080
Speaker 2: by like large organism stations.

794
00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:03,839
Speaker 3: And Democrats have finally jumped on board to this.

795
00:43:04,600 --> 00:43:06,120
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, absolutely.

796
00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:09,200
Speaker 3: They have long rejected this line of attack as an

797
00:43:09,239 --> 00:43:12,320
Speaker 3: illegitimate form of politics, and they are not taking that

798
00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:13,120
Speaker 3: stance anymore.

799
00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:16,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, they picked the gun up off the table, fucking finally.

800
00:43:17,400 --> 00:43:20,359
Speaker 3: Well, that at least doesn't for me. Yeah, you're at

801
00:43:20,520 --> 00:43:23,399
Speaker 3: It could happen here. I will leave us with one

802
00:43:23,520 --> 00:43:25,360
Speaker 3: closing soundbit from JD.

803
00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:29,479
Speaker 12: Vans something that Governor Walls has called you and Donald Trump,

804
00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:31,919
Speaker 12: and that is weird. Sure, and it has taken off

805
00:43:32,160 --> 00:43:34,640
Speaker 12: the New York Times reports. Then when Donald Trump was

806
00:43:34,680 --> 00:43:38,960
Speaker 12: asked about it, he said, not me, They're talking about JD.

807
00:43:40,560 --> 00:43:44,279
Speaker 11: Well, certainly they've levied that charge against me more than

808
00:43:44,280 --> 00:43:44,959
Speaker 11: anybody else.

809
00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:49,600
Speaker 2: It could happen.

810
00:43:49,640 --> 00:43:51,480
Speaker 3: Here is a production of cool Zone Media.

811
00:43:51,680 --> 00:43:54,760
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website

812
00:43:54,840 --> 00:43:58,400
Speaker 2: Coolzonemedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,

813
00:43:58,480 --> 00:43:59,320
Speaker 2: Apple podcasts.

814
00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:02,920
Speaker 3: Whatever you listen to podcasts, you can now find sources

815
00:44:02,920 --> 00:44:05,560
Speaker 3: for it. Could happen here, listed directly in episode descriptions.

816
00:44:05,920 --> 00:44:06,720
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening,