WEBVTT - The Psychology of Doomsday 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:14.400 Good morning, Peezza, and welcome to okay f Daily with 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:18.239 Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, recording once again from the 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:20.959 Home Bunker. Folks, It's been a while since I've been 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:24.640 able to talk to you about recent current events, and 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:28.040 so I really hope that you have all enjoyed the 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:30.520 content that we have had coming through while I took 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:33.560 a little break for my birthday, and thank you all 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:37.400 so very much for your well wishes. They mean the 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:41.680 world to me, so I really appreciate that, folks. So 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:44.800 let's start off with a couple of things coming up 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:47.320 in my conversation today. We're going to speak with our friend, 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:50.440 the good doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel. But before we get 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:54.800 to that episode, I really want to reflect on where 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:57.400 we stand right now with the midterm elections, and I 0:00:57.440 --> 0:00:59.720 want to lift up something because I think that too 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:03.280 off and you guys know me very well. Too often 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:08.160 we use our victories as speed bumps and kind of 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:11.000 zip over them onto the next thing, and I really 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:15.200 want us to be very reflective in this moment, this 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:20.040 historical moment that we just went through with the largest 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:22.680 turnout for a midterm election we have ever had in 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:26.520 this country, with generation z the eighteen to thirty year 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:31.399 old swath of the electorate turning out in numbers that 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:35.400 no one predicted. I also want to talk about the 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:38.800 fact that, much like I've been saying since the beginning 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:43.399 of time, poles are bullshit. The only polls that matter 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:45.800 are the ones that you walk inside of. And so 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.240 case in point, the poles were telling us that we 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:52.160 were going to expect a red wave, a red tsunami, 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:55.320 Democrats were going to be decimated, and everything was going 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:58.440 to go to shit and be horrible, and that voters 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:01.560 didn't care about abortion, they only cared about the economy. 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:04.800 And so why did Democrats spend all this time talking 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.720 about democracy an abortion when clearly they should have just 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:11.640 been talking about the economy. Well, we hear on wok 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:14.040 af know that motherfuckers can walk and chew gum at 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:16.640 the same time, but evidently they don't think that in 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:21.680 mainstream media. So here's the reality. The reality is is 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:25.760 that Joe Biden, the leader of the Democratic Party, the 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:31.000 President of the United States, has been fucking delivering. I 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.400 will be the first, second, third, and fifth person to 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:37.560 say so, because I have no problem calling out this 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:41.720 administration when they fall short so I certainly am going 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:46.959 to raise my hands into a series of applause. Bravo, bitch, 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:52.160 you did it. Here's the thing. Joe Biden on the 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:54.520 campaign trail told us that he was going to relieve 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:57.400 student loan debt. He did it. He told us that 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:01.840 he was going to have the biggest role out of vaccinations. 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:04.440 He did that. He told us that he was going 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:08.040 to invest in infrastructure. He did that as well. He 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:11.800 told us that he was going to reduce the cost 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:15.240 of prescription drugs. He did that as well. He also 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:16.920 told us that he was going to fight for the 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:19.560 soul of this nation, and he's been doing it since 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:22.520 he entered into office on the heels of an insurrection. 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:29.560 Joe Biden, regardless of his missteps and his misquotes, and 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:31.760 the fact that people think that he should be running 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:35.280 and skipping every time he steps in front of a podium, 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:37.160 or the fact that they think that he should be 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:41.640 thirty five years old and not eighty, Joe Biden has 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:44.960 been doing the goddamn thing since he entered into the 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:49.520 sewer that is the Washington DC, and since he took 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:54.600 over from the corrupt, twice impeached criminal ass motherfucker Donald Trump, 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:57.680 who probably by the time that you listen to this 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:01.240 recording will have announced his third run at the presidency 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:04.240 because he uses the presidency as his get out of 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:06.960 jail free card and not because he actually gives a 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:10.000 fuck about this country or how to advance it, because 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:11.800 he did none of those things when he was in 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:15.240 office the first fucking time, which is why the American people, 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:19.920 unlike the Republican Party, gave him the fucking boot. Nonetheless, 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:26.640 I want us to recognize that the media has it 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:30.880 out for Joe Biden, has it out for the Democratic Party. 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:35.280 Why do I say that because following the midterm elections, 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:38.039 and following the results that we knew were coming in, 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:42.760 you saw headlines like the New York Times saying that, 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:46.719 oh my god, Republicans pick up critical states and critical 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:51.159 seats and critical states. That was so at a step 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:56.480 with the historic nature of the turnout right of this 0:04:56.560 --> 0:05:00.440 midterm election that they had to redo their the fucking 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:03.240 headline because that's how many people call them out on 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:07.680 their bullshit. You have people right now, some seven hundred 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:11.520 days until the presidential election, talking about the fact that 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:14.800 Joe Biden is too old, or asking the question, is 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.760 Joe Biden too old? Because here's the thing. It's not 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:22.440 enough that Joe Biden is delivering more than previous presidents, 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:28.800 frankly have delivered, but that they can't find anything good 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:32.279 to write, because that's not what gets them their subscriptions, 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:35.720 that's not what gets them their clicks, and because they 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:38.640 have been browbeat by the far right, they want to 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:42.359 make sure that their neutrality looks like either not covering 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:47.440 the president when he's giving groundbreaking speeches or making sure 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:50.680 that you remember how fucking old he is, because for 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:55.000 some reason he's hiding it. He's not. Here's the thing, folks, 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:58.200 Joe Biden is the leader of our party. He is 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:01.159 the leader of this country, and frankly, he is doing 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:04.040 a real fucking bang up job with the shit sandwich 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:08.560 that he was delivered following Donald Trump's presidency or whatever 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:12.719 you want to call it. And I am so tired 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:16.880 of mainstream media, and frankly, I hope at some point 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:21.240 in time there is some multibillionaire on our side that 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:25.279 wants to create a social media platform or take over 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:30.400 a radio outlet that actually gives voice to real people 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:34.400 with real thoughts and opinions, as opposed to what we 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:39.440 have been forced forced to ingest over the course of 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:43.120 multiple election cycles that if the mainstream media had it 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:45.640 their way, this country would be up in smoke, just 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:48.600 so that they could sell more fucking papers. Like I'm 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:52.960 just so sick to death of the bullshit right and 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:55.600 if this past election, and the fact that I did 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:59.440 not watch cable news at all, all I did was 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:03.360 read what was happening, because to watch cable news would 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:05.840 have been like me turning on ESPN, And why would 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:08.320 I do that? Because I'm not a sports person, so 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:11.800 why would I do that. All they did was cover 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:16.000 this very consequential midterm election like it was any other 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:20.160 election or a fucking horse race, neither of which were true. 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.320 And so had it been up to them, we would 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:25.520 be in a different place, having a whole different kind 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:28.920 of conversation, probably from a real bunker in an undisclosed 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:34.280 location in an undisclosed country. So I want us to 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:37.200 take in this moment to pat ourselves on the back 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:42.040 to big up young people who showed up in mass 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:45.040 when folks said that, oh they don't care about voting, 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:47.960 they absolutely fucking do. Because here's the thing that I 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:51.240 want folks, to wrap their mind around when it comes 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:56.200 to Generation Z. Generation Z has been doing active shooter 0:07:56.320 --> 0:08:01.160 drills since they were children, since they were placed into 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:05.960 the K through twelfth school system. That's their reality. They 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:09.360 haven't been dealing with the quote unquote impending climate crisis. 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:13.000 They've been dealing with the climate crisis as a regular 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:15.720 part of their day to day life. They don't harken 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:18.880 back to the days where you know, November used to 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:23.320 be cold, and the fact that you know, on my birthday, 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:28.400 for instance, November tenth, it was seventy degrees in New York, seventy. 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:31.600 For the last several birthdays that I've had it has 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:36.079 been either in the high sixties or low seventies. That's 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:41.400 not normal. Generation Z, however, doesn't know anything different than 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:44.520 that because that's the world that they're inheriting. So if 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:46.600 we think that they're just going to sit back and 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:50.800 you know, allow what past generations have done, which is 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:53.440 to ignore the needs of young people and think that 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:57.160 their voices don't matter. Will this generation in this midterm 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:00.840 election said go fuck yourselves, Republicans, and I, for one 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:07.000 say bravo, young people, bravo. So there is that The 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:11.560 other thing folks, is I want to bring attention to 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:15.160 a deep, deep, deep travesty that I will give more 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:19.680 attention to in the coming weeks, which is the fact 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:28.280 that the Iranian authoritarian regime, following the courageous and amazing 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:34.280 protests of women against the killing right of a young 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:40.520 woman who was killed because of improper head covering and 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:47.360 which sparked a revolution led by young women in this country, well, 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:53.960 the Iranian regime has arrested over fifteen thousand young people, academics, professors, 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:56.959 and what have you, and they're sentencing them all to death. 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:00.920 And there is not a fucking blaz that I have 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:04.840 heard from mainstream media in a call of outrage and 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:09.120 humanitarian concern about the genocide that is getting ready to 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:13.360 be committed at the hands of Iran. There has got 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:16.400 to be some things that are more important than fucking 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:19.440 oil in this country, and it should be the lives 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:23.760 of fifteen thousand young people, young women, who risk their 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:29.600 lives to give voice to freedom. And we cannot as 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:33.000 a world right and as a world power, sit by 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:36.720 and think that this is just acceptable, that silence is 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:41.800 acceptable at this time. It is not. So. Whatever platform, 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:44.720 dear friends, that you have whether it is Instagram or 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:49.080 this gumster heap that is now Twitter, please use it 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:53.000 to elevate what is happening in Iran, what is happening 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:55.679 to these young people, so that the message can at 0:10:55.760 --> 0:10:59.920 least spread virally via social media. So maybe our mainstream 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:02.880 media will open up their fucking eyes and use their 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:06.680 platforms to exercise the power that they have in the 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:09.200 way that they've done for the people of Ukraine. I 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:12.840 would love to see it all right. Coming up next 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:17.560 my conversation with our friend, the good, good doctor, doctor 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:23.640 Jonathan Metzel. Folks, you know that whenever we have the 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:26.840 opportunity to sit down with our in house doctor, doctor 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:32.960 Jonathan Metzel, we are always thrilled. Jonathan. I'm excited to 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:38.439 come back and chat with you as our doomsday predictions 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:43.200 did not manifest And you know, I will say for 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:46.880 myself that I had since stopped believing in the polls, 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:49.040 and I told people who listened to WOKA have to 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:51.400 stop believing in the polls and believe in what you see, 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:54.640 so show up, show up in mass But I wanted 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:58.600 to get your reflections first on New York. You know 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:00.960 where you spend half your time time and where I am. 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:04.120 And then in general, as we're still at the time 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:07.000 of this recording waiting for some House seats to come in, 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:12.319 but know that Democrats control the Senate and we still 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:18.280 have the runoff for Warnock and Walker. Well, I mean, 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:21.440 certainly there is a pleasure of expecting the worse and 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:23.880 then not having it be as bad as you thought 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:25.880 it was going to be. And so in this sense, 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:31.480 all the doomsday neurosis, I embrace it because imagine if 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:33.120 we thought things would have been better and then they 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:35.600 turned out to be worse. And so the psychology of 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:41.559 doomsdays is I will gladly say that things are not 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:43.840 as dire as we thought they were going to be. 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:47.840 Last week when we talked where it was kind of 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:50.400 like what other country will accept our passport kind of thing, 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:55.120 And so first I will just say that part of 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:59.880 the issue is that people showed up. Eighteen to thirty 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:04.679 old showed up. People were afraid of what was the 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:08.400 implications were, and they were undaunted and voted very bravely, 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:14.480 I think. But I would say so I'm admitting that 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:16.600 things are better than we thought they were going to be. 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:20.040 But I would also say that all these talks of 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:26.160 Trump's demise seemed awfully premature to me, honestly. So I'll 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:27.760 talk about New York in a second. But I would 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:31.200 also say, just having studied Trump and Trump supporters for 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:35.120 so long, all these people that think because Rupert Murdoch 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:37.520 is turning against Trump, but that means the end of Trump, 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.160 I just think, you know, I would it'll be interesting 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:42.959 to see. I think today, when we're filming this, he's 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:46.120 going to announce his candidacy or something like that. Like 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:49.600 this guy is a master of mobilizing his followers and 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:53.720 turning what seems like defeat everybody for everybody else into victory. 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:58.040 And I also think control of the Congress is a 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:02.199 pretty big deal because Congress controls the budget, it controls 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:07.120 it controls everything else. And so so I just think, 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:10.400 I just think there's enough to be you know, we're 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:14.360 in the middle of a struggle right now. But I 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:17.800 would say that all these victory laps are great for him. 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:20.400 Five minutes and let's get let's get back to work 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:23.880 is part of the story. Now. Well, before you go, 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:27.960 before you go into New York, I want to say 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:34.120 one that I believe that Donald Trump is a fucking gremlin. 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:38.360 So I don't necessarily think that there is anything that 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:41.240 is going to have Donald Trump go away unless Merritt 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:44.760 Garland decides that he's actually going to prosecute Donald Trump 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:48.320 for the myriad of crimes that he has committed both 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:51.160 before he was president, while he was president, and since 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:57.400 being twice impeached and removed from office via the vote 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:01.000 in twenty twenty. So, to me, Donald Trump is going 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:04.640 he is the whack a mole of Republican politics because 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:07.160 he's going to keep returning if, in fact, he is 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:09.920 not rooted out. The only way that that happens, it's 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:12.520 not going to be by the Republican Party turning on him. 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:15.400 It's not going to be by Rupert Murdichton turning on him. 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:19.840 It's going to be that he's facing a trial and prison. 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:22.200 That's the only thing to me that is going to 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:26.240 have Donald Trump go away. That's one two. In terms 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:29.120 of like the victory, I think that this is actually 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:33.400 a much bigger victory and needs to act, needs to 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:37.320 be used as fuel for us going into the twenty 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:42.200 twenty four presidential election cycle. Once again, the posters were wrong. 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:46.240 Once again, we were wrong in terms of what we 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:49.240 thought that Generation Z was going to do. This is 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:52.680 a generation that has grown up with active shooter drills, 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:55.440 that has grown up knowing that the climate crisis is 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:58.640 literally breathing down their backs, has grown up with one 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:02.800 trauma and tragedy after the next, and they are tired 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.880 of it, right, and they and they voted and use 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:09.040 their voice in a way that once again we as 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:11.960 older people had said, Oh, they're not going to show up. 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:14.080 Oh they don't vote, Oh they don't do this, and 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.680 they're saying to us, watch us, right, And so I 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:22.080 want to applaud one Generation Z, but also applaud Americans 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:27.040 who turned out in historic numbers. This was a midterm election. 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:29.680 We don't get these types of numbers in the United 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:32.360 States from midterm elections. And so I don't want to 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:36.040 just like speed bump over this as if it isn't 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:40.720 something that is worthy of the historical moment that we're 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:45.800 in because of what people have done to recognize that, Yeah, 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.040 all of the things that the media outlets wanted to 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:50.480 tell us that people didn't care about are actually the 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:53.000 reasons why they went to the polls and went to 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:55.320 the polls in mass So I don't want to just 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:58.600 like say okay, great, good job, and now like everything 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.200 is still dire. Obviously we know that, right, But I 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:06.159 want to applaud Americans for their consciousness. I want to 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:09.199 applaud them for waking up and turning out in a 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:12.560 way that we don't see outside of a presidential election. 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:17.119 And that's how consequential they found this midterm election to 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:22.320 democracy and to their daily lives. A million percent agree, 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:26.639 I mean the level of the level of engagement. And 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:31.359 also it's funny because I teach college. That's where I 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:34.800 am right now, and I told my college students in 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:37.840 class yesterday two things. I said. First of all, thank 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:42.679 you guys for saving democracy, because I think really college 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:46.480 students and college age people and people in the kind 0:17:46.520 --> 0:17:50.400 of in that age demographic see the country being led 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:53.080 the wrong way by grown ups, and they saved us. 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:57.840 And they care about things that you know, octagenarians don't 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:00.119 seem to care that much about, like climate change and 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:02.240 gun violence and things like that. But I also told 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:05.680 them disinformation is a pretty powerful tool, and get ready 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:09.359 for it to be directed at you, because because the 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:12.920 way that this tool works, it's like they don't try 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:15.040 to convince you to vote for somebody else they try 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:17.639 to convince you that your vote doesn't matter, or that 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:20.600 you're so different from the person sitting next to you, 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:23.119 And they kind of flew under the radar in this election, 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:25.200 but I told them that ain't going to happen next time, 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:28.680 because people are realizing the minute you realize your power, 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:33.119 the disinformation machine realizes its power. And so you know, 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:35.880 we're talking in class today after you and I talk 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:39.720 about what can eighteen to thirty year olds do to 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:43.280 keep the momentum but also not fall prey to the 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:47.680 same divisive crap that got that ensnared the grown ups. 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:51.720 Basically no, and I think that that's fair. And you know, 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.000 when I had the opportunity when you invited me to 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:58.120 join your class, you know the questions that your students ask, 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:01.800 and just there a thoughtfulness because you know, I will 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:04.840 say that the beauty of when I was in college 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:06.840 and when you and I were in college is the 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:09.240 fact that, you know the world didn't seem to be 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:12.119 going a shit, so we could really not pay attention 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:15.080 and kind of you know, even though my major was 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:18.080 in political science, it wasn't as if I felt like 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:20.840 the world was crumbling around me. So I needed to 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:23.840 be activated in some type of way. I was interested 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:27.480 and wanted to understand politics, but not because it was 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:29.440 my major, but not in the way that I think 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:34.359 that these young people um are now moved and compelled 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:37.159 because their lives depend on it. So Jonathan, just can 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:40.000 you speak just a little bit more on you know, 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:44.680 on what on what your students felt, you know, post 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:48.880 what they have been feeling post the midterm elections, and 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:52.120 you know what they are paying attention to as now 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:57.520 we turned the cycle into into the presidential election. Well, 0:19:57.560 --> 0:19:59.919 I mean, I think this week will be the interest 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:02.600 week for us, honestly, because what I'm saying is, Okay, 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:05.960 I'm going to tell them here's here's the disinformation and 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:08.840 divisiveness that's been used on grown ups and hasn't really 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:13.040 been targeted at you guys very much. What And we're 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:15.720 going to have a conversation what will it mean to 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:18.440 be targeted in this way? What can people in your 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:21.560 generation do to make sure that it doesn't work on 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:24.440 you as well as it worked on the grown ups? 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:26.760 And so I'm curious to hear what they're going to say. 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:29.200 The other thing we're doing in my class is we're 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:32.119 bringing in friends of mine who are on the other side. 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:35.600 You know, I interview a lot of Trump supporters, a 0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:38.879 lot of very serious gun owners, and I'm bringing them 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:41.600 all into my class over the next two weeks just 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:43.880 to say, Look, part of the issue is that part 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:46.240 of what disinformation does is it makes you think that 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:49.880 somebody who's different from you is so different that they're 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:53.359 like an evil person, and so let they're a danger 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:55.720 to you. Yeah, and so let's at least try to 0:20:55.800 --> 0:20:58.119 humanize people who we don't agree with, just so we 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:01.040 can get a sense of what is going to get 0:21:01.119 --> 0:21:02.920 up ended. And so I'm curious to see what they're 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:05.000 going to say. And then in my big class, the 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:08.240 class you spoke at, we have probably twenty five football players, 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:11.040 and so the thing that happened in Virginia is going 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:13.719 to be very friend of mine, also about guns. And 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:17.560 so it's TBD because we're really having our first major 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:19.720 class today and then and then we'll go from there. 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:23.840 Um so so well, we'll have to see, but I'm 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:26.159 I am curious to get their their take on it. 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:28.040 You know, a lot of stuff we do in my 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:31.760 class is very forward, you know, activism. How can you 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:33.800 change the future that kind of stuff, which is how 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:37.480 college students think. Um, and so we'll we'll have to see. 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:39.480 But it was overall it's a good problem to have, 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:43.280 which is that they were engaged and paying attention. I 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:46.040 do want to not drop the New York question before, Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:21:46.080 --> 0:21:51.879 please yeah, So you know, I just don't. I hope 0:21:51.880 --> 0:21:54.200 this is a wake up call to people in New York. Honestly, 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:57.080 I mean that's my greatest hope, um, because you and 0:21:57.119 --> 0:21:59.280 I have been talking about this for years now, right 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:02.520 that ye work has been given the shankbone, you know, 0:22:02.640 --> 0:22:05.960 in multiple, multiple ways that are just shipped away at 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:09.200 the base of the assumption of what it means. Particularly 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:14.000 New York City, a kind of pluralistic, diverse city where 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:17.520 people can take public transportation to work and has reasonably 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:19.359 good gun laws like that's kind of what made New 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:23.119 York in its current iteration New York. And there have 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:25.520 been so many points along the way where you just 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:28.159 want people to like, wake up. I mean, the twenty 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:32.439 seventeen tax bill for me, was probably the biggest because 0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:37.080 that undermined the tax base of New York people, you know, 0:22:37.440 --> 0:22:40.480 corporations that were in New York because they could write 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:43.440 off their drive through tax and other kinds of taxes 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:46.000 all of a sudden couldn't do that. It became much 0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:51.400 more lucrative for businesses to move to a place like here, Tennessee, 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:54.840 where there's no state income tax. So twenty seventeen, New 0:22:54.920 --> 0:22:59.440 York got hammered, hammered, hammered by the GOP tax bill 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:03.960 that undercut funding for a bunch of important things in 0:23:04.000 --> 0:23:09.359 New York, including public education and universities and Quney and 0:23:09.600 --> 0:23:15.600 roads and parks, and so now you know, professors at 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:18.320 Quney are on strike, for example, and grad students are 0:23:18.320 --> 0:23:21.800 going to go on strike, and certainly there's plenty of 0:23:21.800 --> 0:23:24.000 money to go around. But I would also say that 0:23:24.000 --> 0:23:27.360 that there was this tax bill that undercut New York 0:23:27.359 --> 0:23:30.440 in twenty seventeen. Then there's all the stuff we've been 0:23:30.440 --> 0:23:33.360 talking about here with the gun laws and the Supreme 0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:37.639 Court overturning New York's gun laws. The pandemic was really hard, 0:23:37.680 --> 0:23:40.119 and so New York is on I just think far 0:23:40.359 --> 0:23:43.720 less stable footing than people realize. And that's why all 0:23:43.760 --> 0:23:49.080 of these idiotic, you know, crime things that Zelden was 0:23:49.119 --> 0:23:52.119 trying to do were more effective, is because the city 0:23:52.280 --> 0:23:55.679 just isn't as on a firm footing as it was. 0:23:56.000 --> 0:23:57.880 And then the last thing I'll say about New York 0:23:58.440 --> 0:24:01.760 is that the sense because so many people moved away 0:24:01.880 --> 0:24:04.120 during the pandemic and people were afraid to full out 0:24:04.119 --> 0:24:08.920 the census. So New York actually lost congressional representation because 0:24:08.960 --> 0:24:14.040 the census showed I think unfairly because Trump was gaming 0:24:14.040 --> 0:24:17.080