WEBVTT - Episode 2: Phoenix in July 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:18.880 Smart Welcome back. My name is Jamie Loftus, and this 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:22.760 is my year in Mensa, my limited run podcast series 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:26.320 about what the title is, my year in the American 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:29.440 branch of the High i Q Menta Society. If this 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:32.280 is your first time listening, I strongly encourage you to 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:34.760 go back to episode one. If you don't, that's up 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:37.160 to you. But you might feel a little lost, and 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:40.400 everyone already feels so lost, and I don't want that 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:42.319 for you, so I go back to episode one. If 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:45.440 you listen to episode one, Welcome back, smarty Pants. You 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:48.360 made it. I'll do my little disclaimer as I start 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:53.400 the music. Bed Oh, that's a fun one. Who wrote it? 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:55.680 You'll find out at the end. At the time of 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:58.200 this recording, I haven't picked one yet, But that's just 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:04.399 the magic of production, isn't it? Um? Okay? This is 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:08.200 a true story told from my perspective, based on notes 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:11.120 and writings and interviews that I've done over the past 0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:14.360 year plus in this organization, and all of the names 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:18.200 have been changed. And with that, let's get the moving 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:22.160 forward in time page tourney sound effect going, because we're 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:26.679 going back to July four and it is still day 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:33.080 one of the mensa annual gathering. So people at the 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:37.360 annual gathering generally came here to do one of two things. 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:40.360 Go to boring talks about nothing during the day, or 0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:43.880 get blackout drunk at night. And I decide I'm here, 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:46.200 I'm going to try to do both. And trying to 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:47.920 find a lunch table to sit at on the first 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:50.640 day of the a g is like as terrible and 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:54.160 traumatizing as freshman year in high school. And I play 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:56.360 it just as safe as I did back then, and 0:01:56.400 --> 0:02:00.280 I choose a table called pet lovers. Pet lovers be 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:03.080 mean to me, right right. I meet a couple of 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:07.440 very nice women over the advertised corn chowder and caesar salad. Gross. 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:11.000 I meet a grandmother in a celestial silk shirt who 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:13.920 talks about her granddaughter's interest in science. I mean a 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:16.680 single woman with a cat. I mean mother who is 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:20.440 deeply invested in what she can't repeat enough are extremely 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:24.240 gifted Sons. Sure someone should start a band called the 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:28.840 Extremely Gifted Sons. The food, as mentions are repeating in 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:32.240 hushed tones throughout this weekend, is very bad. But I'm 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:34.840 trying to make conversation, and so I turned to the mother, 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:38.760 who is extremely gifted son is like staring her down 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:41.880 from across the room, and I say, you know, it's funny. 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:45.920 Did you know that mensa means stupid in Spanish? And 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:49.280 she looks at me incredulously, like I've just thrown the 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.000 caesar salad up into my hand and baby birded it 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:54.960 back into my own muff And she says, no, it doesn't. 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:58.840 And the grandmother in the celestial silk is like laughing 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:02.120 into her lemonade, and she says, it means table in Latin, 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:06.600 but also it means stupid. As So I look across 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:10.399 the cafeteria, which is affectionately called hospitality in this same 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:13.239 room will eventually have an open bar that is open 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:15.639 well into the night, and I try to figure out 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:18.040 who's here, who am I dealing with? And while yes, 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:21.200 the vast majority of the gathering and the organization is 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.680 old and white, there was more diversity in gender and 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:27.520 race and political thought in the younger section of Mensa 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:30.440 than I had expected. There's by no means parody in 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:32.920 the organization. But I will say I found myself to 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:36.080 be initially hated and reviled by a fairly wide array 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.520 of people with a wide variety of hug dots. This 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:43.400 is important. The mention hug dot system is one of 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:47.480 the only truly ingenious concepts that I came across at 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:50.520 the annual gathering. Is how it works. Using a colored 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:53.800 dot stuck to your name tag. A menicin is asked 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:57.240 upon registration to select a color based on what they 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:00.400 would like to worthlessly indicate is their level of physical 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:06.160 comfort with strangers. So green dot means all hugs welcome, unhinged, 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:11.480 yellow means ask before hugging the norm, red means no 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:17.440 hugs at all, and blue means I'm single. And aside 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:21.080 from the fact that it's open season on single people 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:24.400 under this system, I do like it. My social anxiety 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:27.039 has gotta hand it to him. It's a damn good system, 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:29.760 the hug dot system. Even though I think single people 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:32.920 should be able to choose whether people look them or not. 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:35.360 I was like, what the blue one just says fun? 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:37.560 Like does that mean fuck me? I don't understand, But 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:40.040 I'm into the system and I choose a yellow dot 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:43.520 because I'm game. I want to be here. But what's 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:46.520 more important to navigating the weekend than the hug dots 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:51.080 are the ribbons that attending medicines hang beneath their name tags, 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:53.920 and some people have a row of ribbons that extend 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:56.800 over a foot long. I only have one. It's a 0:04:56.839 --> 0:05:00.000 bright yellow ribbon that says new member beside my yellow 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:02.240 hugg dot. But most of the people who approached me 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:04.880 over the weekend are wearing a red ribbon that has 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:08.200 labeled Hosier, and this indicates that they are an active 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:12.280 member of the Firehouse group, just as a reminder. American 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:17.560 MENSA Firehouse is an unmoderated, closed mental sponsored Facebook group 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:21.200 that has a pretty storied history of targeting, bullying, and 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:24.680 harassing people they disagree with. Coincidentally, it is also the 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:28.400 most active area in all of MENSA. Some additions to 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:31.000 the ribbon that as Hosier are ribbons that say things 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:35.159 like Firehouse, boobs and bacon, and the occasional one that 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:39.200 just says perverse. There's also a designated Firehouse table in 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:42.840 the cafeteria, which is labeled with a cartoon of an 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:46.280 owl with its head on fire. Some people use their 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:49.280 ribbons to announce where they're from or or their preferred pronouns, 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:52.479 but you'll find most ribbons have the comedic limitations of 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:55.279 a clearance rack at Spencer's gift in the mid two thousands, 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:58.000 and as the day goes on, I find myself growing 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:02.680 increasingly paranoid of my interactions with people who have the 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:05.600 hoser red ribbons. I go to a different talk, and 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:09.000 as a lecturer wearing a Bazinga shirt discusses the future 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:13.200 of artificial intelligence, I'm scanning the audience for red ribbons. 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:15.560 And while I sit through a discussion about the various 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.120 ways to use your cute children at business meetings to 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:22.359 persuade sales. What I'm looking through the audience for red ribbons. 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:25.240 And as I sit in the debate room watching civil, 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:28.840 if occasionally alarming discussions about hot button issues where the 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:32.360 winner is weirdly voted on by having the best speaker's 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:35.520 face against the wall as if there's a firing squad, 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:38.479 I am scanning the room for red ribbons. In the 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:42.039 debate room, I hear a wide variety of arguments about race, 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:45.320 climate change, and religion, some of which I agree with, 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:47.160 as some of which is some of the most regressive 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:49.360 scary shit I've heard in a while. I go to 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:53.920 a talk called Television humor evolution or devolution. Very old 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:57.640 college professors regaled a packed room with some of the 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:01.479 most incredible misinformation that I have to share with you. 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:03.560 It's not relevant to the podcast, but I would have 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:05.159 to let you know what these people said because it 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:07.560 doesn't make any sense and it made me laugh. Throwing 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:13.480 some goofy music. Okay, television humor evolution or devolution, Okay, 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:16.200 here's one of my favorite ones. For the edginess of 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:19.520 vulgarity of South Park is all the more shocking because 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:23.880 the lines are spoken by quote unquote children. Why quote unquote. 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:27.920 Seth McFarland is known for playing Cartman and many others. 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:30.840 He is not on the show. We have to ask ourselves. 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:32.840 Is n C I G S a comedy as well? 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:36.360 And then a couple of sides later that lab technician 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:41.640 she's goffe and that's a light mooteeth. She's very, very gone. 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:45.080 With Shakespearean comedies, the women can only be uppity in 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:47.920 the first act and by the last act they've been tamed. 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:51.760 There's also this like long meandering argument that Charlie Sheen 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:54.600 was removed from Two and a Half Men for quote 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:58.880 unquote sexual problems. But then one of the professors was like, well, 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:02.080 his character on the show also had sexual problems, so 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:05.480 the show wasn't funny. After he left, there was one 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:10.320 slide that just said www dot Everybody Loves ray dot com, 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:12.960 which you should check it out. It's a really good 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:17.120 Like Angel Fire fans site for Everybody Loves Raymond, Animated 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:22.000 sitcoms automatically create distance. This is why Family Guy two 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:24.520 thousand and twelve is allowed to be so vulgar as 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:29.240 the stories are told about the dysfunctional Griffons. Okay, ending tangent, 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:31.120 but I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:35.400 So this talk is followed by the equally punishing oh no, 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:40.000 we gotta do different goofy music mensa joke Off, whose 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:43.800 moderator explains that humor is to quote disarmed others unquote, 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:47.000 as well as to reflect quote shared experience where we 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:51.559 are in our development and sexual selection parentheses. Women sell 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:55.240 like men that show wit unquote the most mensa ship 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:57.720 I've ever heard in my life. But the joke off 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:00.679 basically functions as an open mic and since are welcome 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:02.959 to the front of the room to perform in categories 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:06.640 like old people jokes, light bulb jokes, jokes about professions, 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:09.560 and political jokes, a topic that everyone in the room 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:13.240 agrees as best to not even attempt. There are a 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:17.120 number of speakers who throughout the weekend are noticeably jarred 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:20.600 by the political divisions in the room and the joke 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:23.160 off moderator. I hate that I have to say joke off. 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:27.640 The joke off moderator looks genuinely surprised when his kind 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:30.960 of low hanging fruit Trump University joke gets a couple 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:34.680 of groans from the audience, and he says, really, and 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:37.880 another member just shouts out, don't boil the moon, and 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:40.480 others are kind of muttering in agreement, and so the 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.400 moderator shrugs and is a little confused, but he says 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:46.760 we'll move on. And by the time the final debate 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:49.440 room I go to that day closes, which is on 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:54.600 reproductive rights that featured an intense, anxiety inducing spar between 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:58.439 a liberal woman and an extremely pro life teenager, it's 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:01.320 already past eleven at night. And two who I will 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:03.920 remind you is the first friend I make at the 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:07.400 MENSA Annual Convention and the second most blocked member of 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:10.280 American MENSA Firehouse, me being the first. Thank you so much. 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:12.760 And two and I ran into each other again at 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:15.640 the final debate, and he knows exactly where all the 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:18.560 parties are on the fourth and fifth floor of the hotel. 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:22.080 It is time to go to the parties now. Because 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:26.520 it's MENSA. The party system is also needlessly complicated. All 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:28.400 of the parties that I go to on this night 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:32.800 are advertised within the Men's Arising Annual Gathering pamphlet that 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:34.800 we're given on our way into the Sheraton on the 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:37.480 first day, and most are divided by s I G 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:40.920 s or special interest groups. So there's the Boomer Suite, 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:43.280 which is next to the Gay s I G Suite, 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:45.480 which is across from the gen X Sweet, which is 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:47.839 across from the gen Y Sweet, and that's where I'll 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:50.600 spend most of my time. And why MENSA does not 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:53.800 recognize the term millennials is unclear to me. They call 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:57.480 it gen y whatever. There's also a Firehouse Suite, and 0:10:57.559 --> 0:10:59.640 that's the only party I hear of happening on the 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:02.520 fifth war And that makes sense because there's two thousand 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:05.520 members of the Firehouse Group and their membership comprises a 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:08.600 pretty large amount of people who are in attendance at 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:11.520 the annual gathering. But at first two and I go 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:14.360 to the gen Wy Sweet and and it's honestly pretty fine. 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:16.600 A woman I met in a hotel room under very 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.199 confusing circumstances that I will explain to you in a 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:22.040 future episode. She recognizes me and she gives me a 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:23.800 big hog and she and her husband appear to be 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:26.680 the organizers of the suite and they're actually from my area. 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:29.280 So she's quick to introduce me to all the other 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:32.720 youngish medicines, and they're all pretty welcoming and curious as 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:35.880 I'm nervously compulsively refilling my cup with the cheap KEG 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:38.320 beer that's there. And there is this feeling that I'm 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:41.960 like retroactively attending every party I didn't get invited to 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:44.480 when I was a teenager, and no way to source this, 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:46.280 but it doesn't seem like I'm the only one that 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:48.560 feels that way. And it's at this party that I 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:54.040 realized just how many people associate controversy with me, because 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:56.679 at all times I have to wear a badge with 0:11:56.679 --> 0:11:59.880 my full name on it, which sucks. At the party, 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:04.360 I'm approached by multiple people who cautiously ask me, how's 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:06.959 your a G going? Is it different than you expected, 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:10.440 how I'm enjoying myself. What maybe decided to come if 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:13.320 I was going to be writing about the experience. And 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:15.440 I get pretty good at answering this question on my 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:17.480 first night, which is lucky because I will have to 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:20.319 answer it several hundred times in the days to come. 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:23.080 And it's here that I kind of give the reflective 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:25.600 reply that I take with me through the rest of 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:28.680 the annual gathering, which is some variation on what people 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:30.880 told me. I wasn't giving mensa a chance in my pieces, 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:33.199 so I took so and so up on the invitation 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:36.920 to come, and here I am. Hi. The organizer's husband 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:39.000 comes up to me and asks me how it's going, 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:42.440 before mentioning we have a mutual friend. He's very friendly, 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:45.360 and I'm later informed that he's had me blocked online 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:48.400 for months. Someone else comes up to me and says, shit, 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:51.320 love this. And I don't know this guy right now, 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:54.439 but he's really going to dominate the toga party tomorrow night. 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:58.199 One man in particular, who holds a high position in 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:01.000 American medicine. Who am going to call? Joey corners me 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:04.640 near the cooler keg where I am still nervously drinking 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:09.079 and Joey is a very gregarious and kind of intense guy, so, 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:11.400 like many other people I meet, he asked me the 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:14.439 standard line of conscious questioning, and I give my standard 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:18.560 cautious answer, and he's repeating that regurgitative defense of the 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:21.719 Firehouse group, which is say it with me. They're the 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:25.120 nicest people in real life, nothing like they are in line. 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:29.080 So this conversation continues for about twenty minutes of intense 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:32.360 eye contact until Two finds me in the dark shuffle 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:35.200 of the gen Y suite and says, dude, what was 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:37.120 Joey talking to you about? For so long? I was 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:39.280 getting worried I have to yell in his ear to 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:41.439 be heard, And I say, I don't know. He asked 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:43.880 me about why I'm here and how nice the Firehouse 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:45.960 people are in real life. I have no idea who 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:49.679 he is, and Two just starts laughing. Joey was one 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:52.640 of the guys leading the charge against you in Firehouse. 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:55.480 He works for MENSA. He knows you don't know who 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:58.840 he is, okay, And like, no, I'm not okay. And 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:02.360 this happens multiple both times in my time and MENSA. 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:04.720 Someone is very nice to my face, and I later 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:08.000 find out that they have said horrible things online and 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.719 have blocked me for months. It is a crazy making thing, 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:15.280 and I'm starting to feel a little disoriented and dizzy, 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:17.360 and I'm a little drunk, and I lose track of 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:19.560 two as he goes over to flirt with someone on 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:22.600 the other side of the party. And around this point 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:25.360 I decide I'm going to leave. There's no way I'm 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:27.240 going to go up to the firehouse suite this late 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:30.960 in the night, and the combination of shitty cafeteria food 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:34.680 and for anxiety beers in rapid succession is just making 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:37.480 me feel awful. So I go to the bathroom. I 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:39.480 take a couple of notes, and I text my boyfriend 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:41.360 to let him know that I'm okay, because he wanted 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:43.920 to be at the MENSA Annual Gathering. But it's not 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:48.160 a couple's retreat. It's the MENSA Annual Gathering, bitch, and 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:51.360 I feel positive that going any less than alone would 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:54.840 result in extreme backlash. I leave the bathroom and a 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.240 few how's your age goings Later, I emerged from the 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:00.920 gen Y Sweet into the hallway where people are sort 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:05.480 of oscillating between board games and drunken conversations. And unfortunately 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:06.840 for me, and I don't even make it to the 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:09.680 elevator before someone else stops me. This is a guy 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:12.040 in his forties and he approaches me with a smile 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:14.680 as well as blocking my exit. At this point, it's 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:18.160 past midnight and it's still somehow ninety degrees out. He says, 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:21.360 I'm familiar with your work, and I start to brace 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:24.720 myself for what I think is this inevitable direct confrontation 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:27.520 until I look down at his name tag no red ribbon, 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:30.440 and then he kind of laughs a little bit and says, no, no, 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:33.040 I mean I like it. And it's not until I 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:38.000 hear myself like exhale that I realized I look scared. 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:41.840 And this is a fact that is corroborated by several 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:44.400 members of Firehouse and the group after the event is over. 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:49.360 I look scared, and I say really, and he says yeah, 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:52.440 there's a whole hold on and it's becoming clear to 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:53.960 me that I'm not going to be able to leave 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:57.200 anytime soon. And he beckons over a few other people 0:15:57.200 --> 0:15:59.920 who are closer to my age and says, this is Jamie. 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:03.400 She came. The others are laughing and drinking their beer, 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:05.960 and one gives me a high five. One of the 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:08.840 guys says, Oh, we've been waiting for something like that 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:11.080 to happen. It's been years of them doing all that. 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:13.920 Are you going up to firehouse? And even hearing it 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:15.880 just makes me tense up a little bit. There's a 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:18.280 few red ribbon guys near the elevators and they're about 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:21.640 to head upstairs, and I say, I don't think tonight. 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:23.760 But the guys who like my articles are kind of 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:25.960 pushing it, and they say, oh, we'll come up with you. 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:29.720 It'll be fine, you'll be safe. I'm kind of thinking, like, no, 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:32.760 I've seen a horror movie before. But the moment he 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:35.880 says that, I know that I'm going to go because 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.840 I promised myself that I would give them medicines a chance, 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:42.960 and I wasn't going to take a seven hour greyhound 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:45.760 bus trip to not do that. I mean, and of 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:48.400 course this is just my perspective. I'm sure my best 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:50.760 friend would tell you that I'm addicted to putting myself 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:53.360 in harm's away for reasons that I should speak to 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:57.680 a therapist about. But the point is that I closed 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:02.160 the uber app and I opt in to the firehouse 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:05.760 hang and there's still one lingering red ribbon hoser near 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:08.679 the elevator. When the four so people and I finally 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:10.840 get to the elevator to go the opposite way that 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:12.840 I was planning, I'm going to call this guy Patrick, 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:16.320 and he stops me very gently and says, hey, are 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:18.679 you are the guys in with cuts them off and 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:21.320 says not to bother us because we're going up to firehouse. 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.880 Patrick is visibly uncomfortable at this news, and I stumble 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.520 over my words, half drunkenly, trying to assure him that 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:29.360 I'm not going to, you know, go up there and 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:31.840 cause a scene. And he raises his eyebrows and he 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:34.680 thinks about that for a second and says it's alliance, 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:39.160 then proceed with caution. And people in horror movies don't 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:42.560 usually get quite this many warnings. That would just be 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:44.879 bad writing. But I'm feeling a little pressure to go 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:47.760 up and I've already sort of steeled myself to do it, 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:50.560 so I say okay, thank you, and the few people 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:54.040 and with seem a little annoyed, and Patrick shrugs and says, 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:57.919 I don't think you've been barred from it, but you know, 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:00.879 I'm just saying it's alliance to and I'm feeling a 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:03.439 little defensive, and I say, well, I feel like the 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:06.200 way I entered the organization was in such a bizarre way, 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:09.520 and and I'm launching into what feels like prepared statements 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:12.880 after only twelve out of my planned sixty hours day 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:16.520 is over. The screenshots is what got people. But it's upstairs. 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:21.320 So we go up to the party slightly drunken, disorganized, 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:24.359 and for your sake, I sincerely hope that you never 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:29.359 know the feeling of walking into a living, breathing, hostile 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:34.800 comments section. And it's at this point, listener, that I 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:37.399 have to take you out of this compelling fourth of 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:40.040 July narrative to take you back in time a little bit, 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:43.680 because we really should talk about the screenshots that Patrick 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:46.919 is referring to and the continued argument for why the 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:50.359 denizens of Firehouse choose not to forgive me. For forgiveness 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:58.280 I never really requested, so page turn effect. Instead of 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:01.400 telling you what the American meant a Firehouse secret Facebook 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:03.239 group is, I will let them tell you what it 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:05.840 is instead. Via and I wish I were kidding. A 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:08.920 short animation that a member of the group had personally 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:12.360 commissioned in order to dunk on me. It was captioned quote, 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:16.280 I think Jamie Left could benefit from this, but alas 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:22.159 she's dead to me unquote honestly high drama Shakespearean I 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:26.520 love it. This is what the animated video states, American 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:31.760 Mensa Firehouse. Many Benson's had ventured into the firehouse. They 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:38.840 expected mind numbingly academic conversations imagine unicorns romping through meadows. Instead, 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:44.240 they discovered that Menson's are well opinionated, rude and rough curmudgeons, 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:50.720 but they are also kind, thoughtful, and generous. Conversations offended, some, 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:54.159 excited others, and in the end we all have the 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:58.600 same false inshore comings as everyone else. With one difference. 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:03.159 We were quicker, video and buddier. I wouldn't trade the 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:10.679 group for any other. Oh and boobs always boobs, Oh 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:14.280 and boobs always boobs. My introduction to this group, as 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:18.080 it pertains to me, was by receiving a notification that 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:20.600 I had been tagged in a post that contained the 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:24.080 link to the story I had written about getting into mensa, which, 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:26.520 and I can't say it enough, was called good news. 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:29.959 They let dumb sluts into mensa now the Slaton question. 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:33.320 Being myself, it was made immediately clear to me that 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:36.040 they did not care for this dumb slut joke I 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:38.520 made at my own expense. I'd like to share some 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:41.560 of the assorted replies that had already been written by 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:45.320 the time I was tagged. They are I agree that 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:48.720 she's a dumb cunt oh slut who's too dumb to 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:52.440 tweeze her eyebrows if she joined this group to cause 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:56.040 trouble for MENSA block her anyone else sent her nudes. 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:59.359 Yet where is national at a time like this that 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:02.119 she won't part dissipate in our boom thread and probably 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:05.520 does not even like bacon. Again, I can't stress enough 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:10.200 menicines are not very funny, and aside from my initial 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:13.320 vetting of some right wing memes, this was the first 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:16.119 that I had seen much of anything in the group, 0:21:16.400 --> 0:21:19.359 and after receiving the warnings about Firehouse, I had combed 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:21.400 through some of the posts in the group to confirm 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:25.200 what I had been told. The prominent political leanings described, 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:27.520 and sure enough, what I think are the hallmarks of 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:30.280 far right groups were all there. From the bad photo 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:34.440 shops of Alexandria Acasio Cortez, bad faith arguments about bathroom 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:38.640 rights and race, the occasional feminism is cancer and just 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:43.760 general owning the Libs. And like the annual gathering, the 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:46.840 group is majority white and skewing older, and there is 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:49.439 a fair amount of disagreement and discussion among members in 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:53.720 the comments on more hot button American issues. Also president 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:58.320 the group where some inside jokes, updates about members lives, 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:01.800 requests for advice in certain areas of their lives, and 0:22:01.960 --> 0:22:05.560 generally ranging from people in their thirties to people in 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:08.520 their late sixties, which is you hate to say it, 0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:13.879