1 00:00:01,800 --> 00:00:10,520 Speaker 1: Also media, Ah, what's probably I feel like saying something 2 00:00:10,520 --> 00:00:12,920 Speaker 1: about what happened in Baltimore, but there's really no respectful 3 00:00:12,920 --> 00:00:16,079 Speaker 1: way to do that. The fucked up though, right it. 4 00:00:16,079 --> 00:00:18,680 Speaker 2: Seems that way people. Yeah, you see that Twitter is 5 00:00:18,680 --> 00:00:20,480 Speaker 2: already blaming DDI. 6 00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:24,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, that would have stapped the boat from shorting out from. 7 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:26,080 Speaker 2: Yeah, having a fucking blackout. 8 00:00:26,760 --> 00:00:29,960 Speaker 1: Well, they're obsessed. It's also shows none of them understand 9 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:32,760 Speaker 1: how fucking container ships work, because they're all like, look 10 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:36,199 Speaker 1: because the they had like a DEI captain aboard this 11 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:39,559 Speaker 1: mask vessel. Marisk has a DEI program. No one from 12 00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:42,320 Speaker 1: Marisk was piloting the ship. They're never allowed to in 13 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:44,720 Speaker 1: a harbor's it's never a pilot who works for the 14 00:00:44,760 --> 00:00:45,839 Speaker 1: company anyway. 15 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:50,000 Speaker 3: Whatever, I still think it's batshit that like, for hours 16 00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:54,120 Speaker 3: and hours after this happened, that like National News wasn't 17 00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:57,080 Speaker 3: covering it at all, they had like, yeah, they had 18 00:00:57,120 --> 00:01:03,560 Speaker 3: like two dollars trust every journalist, commemorative commercials going on. 19 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:08,480 Speaker 3: They had just like the stupidest interviews. 20 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:09,520 Speaker 1: Like why why did we need. 21 00:01:09,319 --> 00:01:11,759 Speaker 3: One on one with Alf Franken in the middle of this, 22 00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:17,200 Speaker 3: and like that's why we still use fucking Twitter. 23 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:24,480 Speaker 1: Yeah, it is it's all bad. I do think you 24 00:01:24,520 --> 00:01:26,560 Speaker 1: could get a job doing that, Dave. But you've got 25 00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:28,959 Speaker 1: to lay in on the DEI stuff, you know, be like, 26 00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:32,399 Speaker 1: are you do you have any Daves? You know, Dave, 27 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:34,840 Speaker 1: equity and inclusion. You got to put some Dave's on 28 00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:35,199 Speaker 1: the team. 29 00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:39,160 Speaker 2: Equity and inclusion. Yeah, I'm going to push that now. 30 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:41,080 Speaker 2: I'm going to put that on my resume. 31 00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:45,520 Speaker 1: Now. I definitely have this is behind the Bastards. I 32 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:48,360 Speaker 1: don't think I introduced the podcast that this is. That's 33 00:01:48,360 --> 00:01:51,920 Speaker 1: what you did. And David Bell's here again, and David 34 00:01:51,920 --> 00:01:58,640 Speaker 1: Bell's here again. Yeah, Dave, speaking of this. You you 35 00:01:58,720 --> 00:02:00,920 Speaker 1: in your writing for Some More News. You also help 36 00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:04,320 Speaker 1: on a podcast network called Gamefully Unemployed. You to do 37 00:02:04,400 --> 00:02:08,560 Speaker 1: a lot of great stuff, including chronicle Fox Molders, baffling 38 00:02:08,600 --> 00:02:11,880 Speaker 1: career decisions in the X Files. But a big part 39 00:02:11,880 --> 00:02:14,840 Speaker 1: of what you do for Some More News is research 40 00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:19,800 Speaker 1: the increasing right word veeer of our society and the 41 00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:24,160 Speaker 1: growth of conspiracy culture, which relates to this whole boat 42 00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:27,480 Speaker 1: problem in Baltimore as people have blamed it on DEI, 43 00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:31,080 Speaker 1: and it relates to like kind of everything that's wrong 44 00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:34,800 Speaker 1: with our country, this like fracturing of consensus reality that 45 00:02:34,880 --> 00:02:38,720 Speaker 1: has kind of made it impossible to like fix anything. 46 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:43,280 Speaker 2: The fact that everything I would argue, and I know 47 00:02:43,320 --> 00:02:46,799 Speaker 2: that conservatives would say the literally the exact same thing 48 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:50,239 Speaker 2: about the left, but I would argue that conservatives have 49 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:53,679 Speaker 2: politicized pretty much everything in the country at this point. 50 00:02:54,080 --> 00:02:56,480 Speaker 1: I am literally looking at a picture of a car 51 00:02:56,520 --> 00:02:59,360 Speaker 1: with Honda with Texas plates that has a dozen different 52 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:02,480 Speaker 1: bumper stickers that say variations of Helen Keller is a fraud. 53 00:03:02,720 --> 00:03:04,440 Speaker 1: Helen Keller was not deaf. 54 00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:07,160 Speaker 2: It's well, that's just facts problem. 55 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:10,400 Speaker 1: What was she What did she have to gain? 56 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:13,600 Speaker 2: I have a sub reddit, I'll link it to you. 57 00:03:14,160 --> 00:03:18,400 Speaker 1: He's got a Denier bumper sticker. How is that a thing? 58 00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:23,520 Speaker 2: Incredible? I mean, yeah, I'm not surprised. We got to 59 00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:26,480 Speaker 2: a point where the CDC where a fucking pandemic happened 60 00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:29,480 Speaker 2: and it was let's take some basic precautions and that 61 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:30,560 Speaker 2: became political. 62 00:03:30,880 --> 00:03:31,079 Speaker 1: Yeah. 63 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:33,960 Speaker 2: It's real bad. It's real bad right now. 64 00:03:34,320 --> 00:03:38,560 Speaker 1: Yeah, It's it's shocking how bad some stuff has gotten. 65 00:03:38,640 --> 00:03:40,920 Speaker 1: And that relates to what we're talking about today, because 66 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:44,960 Speaker 1: we ended our last episode talking about the Powell Memorandum, right, 67 00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:48,360 Speaker 1: which was this document that was written for the Chamber 68 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:51,800 Speaker 1: of Commerce that that a a a lawyer who is 69 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:55,080 Speaker 1: going to become a Supreme Court justice by the name 70 00:03:55,400 --> 00:03:59,440 Speaker 1: of Lewis Powell, whose previous work had been fighting against 71 00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:02,760 Speaker 1: d s ggregation and cheering on the bombing of Dresden, 72 00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:06,760 Speaker 1: wrote this thing where he's like, we need to attack 73 00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:12,000 Speaker 1: liberalism everywhere it exists, and we need to in a 74 00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:15,760 Speaker 1: comprehensive method destroy it. Part of that was destroying people 75 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:18,960 Speaker 1: like Ralph Nader, who at this time was like forcing 76 00:04:19,400 --> 00:04:21,800 Speaker 1: had basically done a lot to force the auto industry 77 00:04:21,839 --> 00:04:24,560 Speaker 1: to add basic safety features to cars. Right, So a 78 00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:25,960 Speaker 1: chunk of this is we need to be able to 79 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:30,200 Speaker 1: destroy people who want to make extremely modest changes that 80 00:04:30,279 --> 00:04:34,159 Speaker 1: cost corporations money and save countless lives. I'm going to 81 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:36,760 Speaker 1: guarantee you a significant percentage of the people listening to 82 00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:40,040 Speaker 1: this podcast, including probably me, would be dead if not 83 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:43,040 Speaker 1: for seat belts. Oh yeah, it's not a minor chunk 84 00:04:43,080 --> 00:04:43,599 Speaker 1: of us. 85 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:47,960 Speaker 2: I've raced on the highway multiple times. It's just funny 86 00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:52,760 Speaker 2: because this is that point where let's go after liberalism. 87 00:04:52,880 --> 00:04:56,159 Speaker 2: Liberalism is not defined as any effort to make things 88 00:04:56,200 --> 00:05:00,720 Speaker 2: marginally better in a very practical way. Like we talked. 89 00:05:00,760 --> 00:05:02,520 Speaker 2: I think of the last episode about how like like 90 00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:03,919 Speaker 2: I was talking about how I don't even know the 91 00:05:03,960 --> 00:05:06,800 Speaker 2: definitions of things anymore. And that's because things like this 92 00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:10,200 Speaker 2: where I'm like, yeah, is that liberal? Like is it 93 00:05:10,279 --> 00:05:14,039 Speaker 2: liberal to want to take safety precautions? Yeah? To I 94 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:15,760 Speaker 2: guess it is if it costs. 95 00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:18,440 Speaker 1: If you would go back in time to even to 96 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:22,119 Speaker 1: Richard Nixon and tell him what modern conservative media people 97 00:05:22,240 --> 00:05:25,120 Speaker 1: call liberalism, Nixon would be like, what the fuck are 98 00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:27,440 Speaker 1: you talking about? What do you mean? They won't take vaccines. 99 00:05:27,800 --> 00:05:30,360 Speaker 2: It's like it's like the term wokeness, you know, it's 100 00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:34,280 Speaker 2: it's that same shit. Yeah, the vaccine stuff is always like, yeah, 101 00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:37,520 Speaker 2: you know how these hippie liberals love vaccines. It's like, no, 102 00:05:37,640 --> 00:05:38,239 Speaker 2: they don't. 103 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:41,640 Speaker 1: No, it was the opposite. They were so long they 104 00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:42,080 Speaker 1: were the. 105 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:44,400 Speaker 2: First to not like vaccines. What is happening? 106 00:05:44,480 --> 00:05:47,760 Speaker 1: That was what my mom Arch Reagan conservative. One of 107 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:50,760 Speaker 1: the things she hated about like the left is their 108 00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:52,800 Speaker 1: anti vax shit, because she was like, why wouldn't you 109 00:05:52,839 --> 00:05:53,840 Speaker 1: want to take vaccines? 110 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:54,400 Speaker 2: Right? 111 00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:57,960 Speaker 1: It's it's wild how much that shit is. Like, but yeah, 112 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:02,120 Speaker 1: it's this this pal memoranda is it's not just he's 113 00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:04,839 Speaker 1: talking about, like we need to cultivate political power. Wealthy 114 00:06:04,839 --> 00:06:07,520 Speaker 1: people in corporations need to be donating a percentage, like 115 00:06:07,560 --> 00:06:11,119 Speaker 1: a significant percent of their advertising budgets to funding think 116 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:15,640 Speaker 1: tanks and efforts to put basically to flood the zone 117 00:06:15,760 --> 00:06:18,960 Speaker 1: with shit that make that can act as like a 118 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:22,480 Speaker 1: defense against any attempt to, for example, add seat belts 119 00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:25,280 Speaker 1: to cars or anything like that. But beyond that, that's 120 00:06:25,360 --> 00:06:28,000 Speaker 1: not the only thing the Palm Mirandum orchestrates. He is 121 00:06:28,080 --> 00:06:32,159 Speaker 1: also the first guy, in a real concerted form to 122 00:06:32,279 --> 00:06:36,720 Speaker 1: say the future for the right, because of how demographics 123 00:06:36,760 --> 00:06:39,200 Speaker 1: do not favor us, the future for the right is 124 00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:42,640 Speaker 1: in taking over the courts. He is if you're looking 125 00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:44,719 Speaker 1: at what has happened to the Supreme Court in the 126 00:06:44,760 --> 00:06:49,240 Speaker 1: last eight years, Powell is the guy who starts that process, 127 00:06:49,279 --> 00:06:52,560 Speaker 1: who is laying out the strategy that is adopted by 128 00:06:52,560 --> 00:06:55,680 Speaker 1: the entire conservative movement, at least everyone with money in 129 00:06:55,720 --> 00:06:59,640 Speaker 1: the conservative movement, and his specific goal in having conservatives 130 00:06:59,680 --> 00:07:03,240 Speaker 1: take over the courts is to establish an oligarchy. In 131 00:07:03,279 --> 00:07:05,919 Speaker 1: one section of the memorandum, he uses the title for 132 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:09,039 Speaker 1: a Neglected Opportunity in the Courts, and he suggests a 133 00:07:09,080 --> 00:07:13,000 Speaker 1: strategy for quote, exploiting judicial action to turn back progressive 134 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:16,240 Speaker 1: and liberal victories in government and culture. Quote. Under our 135 00:07:16,280 --> 00:07:20,120 Speaker 1: constitutional system, especially with an activist minded Supreme Court, the 136 00:07:20,200 --> 00:07:23,160 Speaker 1: judiciary may be the most important instrument for social, economic, 137 00:07:23,240 --> 00:07:26,800 Speaker 1: and political change. And he is responding to this raft 138 00:07:26,800 --> 00:07:29,880 Speaker 1: of Supreme Court decisions that happened during the Civil rights 139 00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:35,240 Speaker 1: era and after that are responsible for really ending the 140 00:07:35,680 --> 00:07:38,200 Speaker 1: Jim Crow and segregation, right, Like, that's a big part 141 00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:40,760 Speaker 1: of what the Supreme Court's doing in this period. And 142 00:07:40,800 --> 00:07:43,200 Speaker 1: he's like, we have to take these back so that 143 00:07:43,280 --> 00:07:45,280 Speaker 1: we can reverse these trends. 144 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:53,080 Speaker 2: It's wild how mad they were about desegregation. Yeah, and 145 00:07:53,200 --> 00:07:57,360 Speaker 2: about because I'm actually we're going to do a video 146 00:07:57,440 --> 00:08:02,600 Speaker 2: on how the right hi check Christianity And that's kind 147 00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:06,480 Speaker 2: of that moment that it starts happening, is desegregated schools 148 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:10,240 Speaker 2: caused a bunch of racists to go to private religious schools, 149 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:13,880 Speaker 2: and then they started using this religious liberty thing yep. 150 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:16,840 Speaker 2: And so it's it's just that is it's it's wild 151 00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:20,440 Speaker 2: how that's like the moment, you know, it's like it's 152 00:08:20,480 --> 00:08:24,000 Speaker 2: like the it's like the dance in Back to the Future, 153 00:08:24,280 --> 00:08:28,320 Speaker 2: Like that was the that day is like where everything 154 00:08:28,720 --> 00:08:31,040 Speaker 2: went down, and it's the same with this. 155 00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:33,280 Speaker 1: And that is what's we've done a two part of 156 00:08:33,320 --> 00:08:38,080 Speaker 1: ourselves on how Christianity got co opted from Christianity as 157 00:08:38,120 --> 00:08:41,440 Speaker 1: a political force is more tied to progressivism in the 158 00:08:41,559 --> 00:08:44,400 Speaker 1: nineteen teens and twenties. Right, it's like the labor movement 159 00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:47,559 Speaker 1: and stuff, right, and that all starts to change in 160 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:49,840 Speaker 1: the post war period, but it's it's during the same 161 00:08:49,920 --> 00:08:52,600 Speaker 1: period where the pal Memorandum hits in the seventies that 162 00:08:52,600 --> 00:08:55,120 Speaker 1: the religious right becomes a thing, and a lot of 163 00:08:55,160 --> 00:08:57,880 Speaker 1: the same money that the guys that Powell is speaking 164 00:08:57,880 --> 00:09:00,760 Speaker 1: to are going to pump into think tanks also pumping 165 00:09:00,800 --> 00:09:04,880 Speaker 1: money into what becomes the religious right. This is all 166 00:09:04,920 --> 00:09:06,640 Speaker 1: happening at the same time. This is kind of the 167 00:09:06,679 --> 00:09:09,640 Speaker 1: other side of that story. And this is one of 168 00:09:09,679 --> 00:09:13,400 Speaker 1: those things. The success that Powell sees, the fact that 169 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:17,080 Speaker 1: this memorandum is followed and becomes it's considered a foundational 170 00:09:17,120 --> 00:09:20,840 Speaker 1: document of neoliberalism, right, Like, that is a big part 171 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:23,920 Speaker 1: of the privatization of everything, Right, Like, that's why you 172 00:09:23,960 --> 00:09:25,840 Speaker 1: want to take over these think tanks to make the 173 00:09:25,880 --> 00:09:29,840 Speaker 1: case for cutting government services, for cutting the idea that 174 00:09:29,840 --> 00:09:33,160 Speaker 1: there should be any kind of like shared social responsibility 175 00:09:33,160 --> 00:09:37,240 Speaker 1: in our society and turning everything into a profit driven machine. Right, 176 00:09:37,520 --> 00:09:40,200 Speaker 1: that's part of what he's suggesting. But also, like the 177 00:09:40,320 --> 00:09:42,280 Speaker 1: end of Roe v. Wade, you can tie it directly 178 00:09:42,280 --> 00:09:44,920 Speaker 1: to this memorandum because he's talking about, like we if 179 00:09:44,960 --> 00:09:48,000 Speaker 1: we're going to turn back these victories the left and 180 00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:50,880 Speaker 1: liberals have had, we have to do it through the courts. 181 00:09:51,120 --> 00:09:53,440 Speaker 1: And I really think I talk a lot about Osama 182 00:09:53,440 --> 00:09:56,400 Speaker 1: bin Laden on this show and how I think historians 183 00:09:56,440 --> 00:09:58,600 Speaker 1: when historians are writing about this one point where none 184 00:09:58,640 --> 00:10:00,600 Speaker 1: of them are angry about nine O Elove because it's 185 00:10:00,600 --> 00:10:03,520 Speaker 1: too distant, right, the way that people aren't angry about 186 00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:06,520 Speaker 1: the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand today, Right, we could just 187 00:10:06,559 --> 00:10:07,640 Speaker 1: sort of like talk about it. 188 00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:11,679 Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe some are still, but yeah. 189 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:12,200 Speaker 1: I think he should I think they should have killed 190 00:10:12,240 --> 00:10:13,880 Speaker 1: him twice. But that's my opinion. 191 00:10:14,160 --> 00:10:17,560 Speaker 2: No, it's the farther we get away from nine to eleven, 192 00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:20,760 Speaker 2: it's going to become this weird abstract and yeah, kind 193 00:10:20,760 --> 00:10:21,680 Speaker 2: of fascinating to me. 194 00:10:22,559 --> 00:10:24,440 Speaker 1: And my opinion tends to be that when we get 195 00:10:24,600 --> 00:10:28,440 Speaker 1: enough distance, historians will generally agree that Osama bin Laden 196 00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:31,000 Speaker 1: was one of the best strategic minds of the twenty 197 00:10:31,040 --> 00:10:33,640 Speaker 1: first century. He had a plan, he had a plan 198 00:10:33,720 --> 00:10:35,720 Speaker 1: for what would happen in the long term as the 199 00:10:35,720 --> 00:10:38,360 Speaker 1: result of that attack, how it would damage American power, 200 00:10:38,960 --> 00:10:41,280 Speaker 1: and it worked the way he thought it would. And 201 00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:44,600 Speaker 1: I think Powell is probably a similar mind for the 202 00:10:44,640 --> 00:10:48,240 Speaker 1: twentieth century in terms of like political strategy. He lays 203 00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:50,559 Speaker 1: out what the right is going to do from the 204 00:10:50,640 --> 00:10:54,640 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies to today, and it's worked very well for them. 205 00:10:54,800 --> 00:10:58,680 Speaker 1: With a significant demographic disadvantage, they have in fact captured 206 00:10:58,679 --> 00:11:02,480 Speaker 1: the courts and over time turned this country to the 207 00:11:02,559 --> 00:11:04,840 Speaker 1: right in a way that people in the seventies would 208 00:11:04,840 --> 00:11:07,920 Speaker 1: not have really thought possible. So, yeah, that's cool. 209 00:11:08,040 --> 00:11:11,160 Speaker 2: Yes's frog and a hot plate stuff. Yeah, where it's 210 00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:14,800 Speaker 2: like we we talked about this last last episode of 211 00:11:14,920 --> 00:11:17,800 Speaker 2: how Like when people try to say, like, you know, 212 00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:22,240 Speaker 2: Trump is gonna is going to spell the end for democracy, 213 00:11:22,400 --> 00:11:24,679 Speaker 2: that doesn't necessarily mean it's gonna happen right away, right, 214 00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:27,520 Speaker 2: It's like these things just have lasting harm that it's 215 00:11:27,559 --> 00:11:28,680 Speaker 2: gonna be really hard. 216 00:11:28,520 --> 00:11:32,240 Speaker 1: To yeah verse, yeah, it doesn't even mean he'll necessarily 217 00:11:32,320 --> 00:11:34,240 Speaker 1: win again. And I don't take that as a given 218 00:11:34,320 --> 00:11:35,960 Speaker 1: the way some people do, I certainly think it's at 219 00:11:36,040 --> 00:11:39,600 Speaker 1: least a fifty to fifty shot. But even if Biden 220 00:11:39,679 --> 00:11:44,440 Speaker 1: wins reelection, like the idea has been normalized that you 221 00:11:44,520 --> 00:11:47,320 Speaker 1: can just try to take over to the capital with 222 00:11:47,400 --> 00:11:50,760 Speaker 1: a bunch of angry goons, and that's really bad for 223 00:11:50,840 --> 00:11:52,079 Speaker 1: the future of democracy. 224 00:11:52,240 --> 00:11:52,960 Speaker 2: It's pretty bad. 225 00:11:53,280 --> 00:11:58,400 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not great. So Pal's memo is at first 226 00:11:58,440 --> 00:12:01,240 Speaker 1: circulated mostly among the chain of commerce, which is again 227 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:05,079 Speaker 1: all these wealthy business owners and CEOs, right, that's where 228 00:12:05,120 --> 00:12:07,400 Speaker 1: they interface with the government, is the chamber of Commerce. 229 00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:10,760 Speaker 1: So this is a private memo, and he's basically using 230 00:12:10,800 --> 00:12:14,120 Speaker 1: a government agency to send this memo about how to 231 00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:17,400 Speaker 1: capture the courts for the right to all of these 232 00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:20,960 Speaker 1: guys and asking for their money. David Harvey, who's a 233 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:24,400 Speaker 1: Marxist anthropologist, cites this is kind of the foundational document 234 00:12:24,440 --> 00:12:27,280 Speaker 1: in the birth of neoliberalism. It's like the neoliberal declaration 235 00:12:27,320 --> 00:12:30,040 Speaker 1: of Independence. Right, that's how some people tend to see this. 236 00:12:30,880 --> 00:12:33,439 Speaker 1: Its influence, though, is much larger than just that, and 237 00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:35,760 Speaker 1: it's much larger than I'm going to cite today. But 238 00:12:35,880 --> 00:12:39,599 Speaker 1: one of the things that absolutely did was supercharged donations 239 00:12:39,640 --> 00:12:44,080 Speaker 1: and the establishment of right wing think tanks. Wealthy conservatives 240 00:12:44,160 --> 00:12:47,840 Speaker 1: realized the power of having organizations that were like RAND 241 00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:51,880 Speaker 1: but were geared entirely towards espousing an ideology. And the 242 00:12:51,920 --> 00:12:55,200 Speaker 1: ideology they wanted these organizations to espouse was that taxes 243 00:12:55,240 --> 00:12:58,160 Speaker 1: should be low, workers should know their place, and school 244 00:12:58,200 --> 00:13:01,319 Speaker 1: should probably be segregated. Also, they should be allowed to 245 00:13:01,400 --> 00:13:04,760 Speaker 1: jail anti war protesters, right, sure, sure. 246 00:13:04,559 --> 00:13:07,760 Speaker 2: Why not? Yeah, fuck it. If we're thrown at all 247 00:13:07,840 --> 00:13:09,640 Speaker 2: on there might as well put some bonuses. 248 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:13,400 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. And the opportunity to do that came when 249 00:13:13,400 --> 00:13:17,920 Speaker 1: the economy shit the bed in the nineteen seventies, quote, 250 00:13:18,280 --> 00:13:22,319 Speaker 1: A corps of politically active conservative intellectuals, most prominently Irving Crystal, 251 00:13:22,360 --> 00:13:24,880 Speaker 1: began to argue in publications like The Public Interest and 252 00:13:24,920 --> 00:13:27,400 Speaker 1: The Wall Street Journal that if business wanted market logic 253 00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:29,720 Speaker 1: to regain the initiative, it would have to create a 254 00:13:29,760 --> 00:13:33,120 Speaker 1: new class of its own scholars whose career prospects depended 255 00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:36,559 Speaker 1: on private enterprise, not government or the universities. You get 256 00:13:36,559 --> 00:13:39,400 Speaker 1: what you pay for, Crystal in effect argued, and if 257 00:13:39,400 --> 00:13:42,160 Speaker 1: businessmen want an intellectual horsepower, they would have to open 258 00:13:42,200 --> 00:13:46,520 Speaker 1: their pocketbooks. Traditionally, corporate philanthropy had been directed either towards 259 00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:49,800 Speaker 1: charity or towards independent organizations like the Ford, Rockefeller, and 260 00:13:49,840 --> 00:13:53,360 Speaker 1: Carnegie foundations. Pressured by the media and by academics to 261 00:13:53,400 --> 00:13:56,319 Speaker 1: make gestures of broad mindedness. Businessmen seem to feel that 262 00:13:56,360 --> 00:13:59,400 Speaker 1: they could gain social approval only by sharing their proceeds 263 00:13:59,480 --> 00:14:02,480 Speaker 1: with credential intermediaries would use the money to fund attacks 264 00:14:02,480 --> 00:14:05,520 Speaker 1: on capitalism. Paying to have oneself attacked was a kind 265 00:14:05,559 --> 00:14:09,560 Speaker 1: of corporate abolution. So that's that's what a big thing 266 00:14:09,640 --> 00:14:12,040 Speaker 1: Crystal is saying, And Crystal is kind of the most 267 00:14:12,040 --> 00:14:15,600 Speaker 1: influential of this first wave of like think tank guys, 268 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:18,480 Speaker 1: is you're spending all of this money on foundations that 269 00:14:18,559 --> 00:14:21,600 Speaker 1: do actual charity, and that partly funds the work of 270 00:14:21,600 --> 00:14:24,200 Speaker 1: people who are critical of you. Why not give your 271 00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:26,040 Speaker 1: money to someone who's going to say you should have 272 00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:28,800 Speaker 1: even more power and money and work to make that real, 273 00:14:28,880 --> 00:14:30,720 Speaker 1: you know. And obviously that's a good deal for you 274 00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:32,080 Speaker 1: if you're a rich psychopath. 275 00:14:32,320 --> 00:14:34,080 Speaker 2: Yeah, if you're going to pay people, you might as 276 00:14:34,120 --> 00:14:35,560 Speaker 2: well pay people to say you're great. 277 00:14:35,920 --> 00:14:39,880 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, that's that's why we hired Garrison. It didn't work, 278 00:14:40,080 --> 00:14:44,040 Speaker 1: actually worked with terrible disaster there there's very mean. 279 00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:45,040 Speaker 2: In your place. 280 00:14:45,840 --> 00:14:50,400 Speaker 1: Yeah, correct, that I tried, but they just moved to Atlanta. 281 00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:54,640 Speaker 2: M man, damn him. You gotta get them, get. 282 00:14:54,520 --> 00:15:00,640 Speaker 1: Them back, got to get them back. Kinda fish about 283 00:15:00,440 --> 00:15:03,400 Speaker 1: new party. The work of men like Crystal was like 284 00:15:03,480 --> 00:15:06,440 Speaker 1: a refreshing, cool breeze on the faces of rich fail 285 00:15:06,520 --> 00:15:08,880 Speaker 1: sons whose daddies had been disappointed by the side the 286 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:11,040 Speaker 1: US took in World War Two. Some of these guys 287 00:15:11,080 --> 00:15:13,520 Speaker 1: are literally the business plot guys, right. The guys were 288 00:15:13,520 --> 00:15:16,080 Speaker 1: telling Smedley Butler, what if you tried to become a dictator? 289 00:15:16,560 --> 00:15:19,880 Speaker 1: And Smedley's like, sure, let me just talk to Congress 290 00:15:19,880 --> 00:15:25,800 Speaker 1: real fast. Henry Ford the Second resigned from the board 291 00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:28,280 Speaker 1: of the Ford Foundation around this time in the seventies, 292 00:15:28,520 --> 00:15:30,560 Speaker 1: furious because it was putting out work he viewed as 293 00:15:30,640 --> 00:15:34,560 Speaker 1: anti capitalist. Other Men like Joseph Coors, you know, the 294 00:15:34,560 --> 00:15:37,400 Speaker 1: beer guy, and the inheritors of the Olin Chemical and 295 00:15:37,480 --> 00:15:41,560 Speaker 1: Smith Richardson pharmaceutical foundations started looking for places they could 296 00:15:41,560 --> 00:15:44,400 Speaker 1: pour money to generate opinions that coincided with their endlist 297 00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:46,560 Speaker 1: need for more money. This is a big part of 298 00:15:46,640 --> 00:15:49,720 Speaker 1: why the pharmaceutical industry is the way that it is, 299 00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:52,120 Speaker 1: right is that these guys start putting money in the 300 00:15:52,200 --> 00:15:54,280 Speaker 1: think tanks that say, hey, you know what would be 301 00:15:54,280 --> 00:15:56,520 Speaker 1: great for everybody's health if these guys were allowed to 302 00:15:56,560 --> 00:15:59,880 Speaker 1: jack up the price of fucking insulin, you know, to 303 00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:04,120 Speaker 1: umpteenth degree. What if we really fucking deregulate healthcare as 304 00:16:04,120 --> 00:16:06,320 Speaker 1: an industry, wouldn't that make everybody healthier? 305 00:16:07,160 --> 00:16:09,720 Speaker 2: And what we're learning now is that it's way harder 306 00:16:09,720 --> 00:16:11,000 Speaker 2: to reverse these things. 307 00:16:11,240 --> 00:16:14,080 Speaker 1: Yes stuff, yes, yes, once you get this stuff. And 308 00:16:14,120 --> 00:16:16,200 Speaker 1: that's one of the things they know is once you 309 00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:19,320 Speaker 1: get this stuff established, it's like the war on drugs. Right, 310 00:16:19,800 --> 00:16:21,880 Speaker 1: Once you have the war on drugs, anything you do 311 00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:24,440 Speaker 1: to try to fix it, people, there will still be 312 00:16:24,560 --> 00:16:28,760 Speaker 1: drug epidemics, right, Like No, like fentanyl gets into the 313 00:16:28,760 --> 00:16:32,560 Speaker 1: country and suddenly everybody who's been working very hard to 314 00:16:32,680 --> 00:16:35,280 Speaker 1: try and reform things has to deal with the fact 315 00:16:35,320 --> 00:16:38,200 Speaker 1: that people are dying of this new substance. And there's 316 00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:41,480 Speaker 1: this built in infrastructure to say, just to have more cops, man, 317 00:16:41,560 --> 00:16:43,600 Speaker 1: we just got to lock people up. That's what's going 318 00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:44,480 Speaker 1: to fix it, you. 319 00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:47,320 Speaker 2: Know, right. Because it's also it reminds me of when 320 00:16:47,320 --> 00:16:50,040 Speaker 2: we built our highways, because we consulted with car companies 321 00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:53,480 Speaker 2: for that, and so it's that thing where they get 322 00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:57,320 Speaker 2: together they decide to do this thing that's kind of irreversible, 323 00:16:57,800 --> 00:17:01,840 Speaker 2: that's like a foundational idea. Uh. And then by the 324 00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:06,080 Speaker 2: time we realize that it doesn't work, yeah, it's already there, 325 00:17:06,160 --> 00:17:06,840 Speaker 2: firmly there. 326 00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:07,119 Speaker 1: You know. 327 00:17:07,119 --> 00:17:10,400 Speaker 2: We only realize these things over time of going like, wait, 328 00:17:11,040 --> 00:17:14,320 Speaker 2: this strategy was bad. It's resulting in bad things. And 329 00:17:14,359 --> 00:17:15,720 Speaker 2: at that point it's like, well, what are we going 330 00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:18,360 Speaker 2: to do? Uproot everything, start over. 331 00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:21,159 Speaker 1: And this can work on the good side of positive example, 332 00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:23,520 Speaker 1: this would be Obamacare, which is deeply flawed, but like 333 00:17:23,680 --> 00:17:26,119 Speaker 1: we saw, the Republicans tried to kill it and realized 334 00:17:26,119 --> 00:17:29,480 Speaker 1: in the Trump administration, we really fucking can't. 335 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:30,919 Speaker 2: This is social security, right. 336 00:17:30,840 --> 00:17:34,720 Speaker 1: Yeah, social security. Libraries or you would never get libraries 337 00:17:34,760 --> 00:17:37,000 Speaker 1: to be a thing today. If it was a new concept. 338 00:17:37,359 --> 00:17:39,880 Speaker 1: People would be willing Conservatives would be willing to kill 339 00:17:39,920 --> 00:17:43,080 Speaker 1: and die to stop libraries from existing. But they're just 340 00:17:43,119 --> 00:17:46,040 Speaker 1: a thing now, you know, still under attack, but they're 341 00:17:46,040 --> 00:17:46,360 Speaker 1: a thing. 342 00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:50,320 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, you try ever, try to like harass a 343 00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:53,639 Speaker 2: librarian like they can handle themselves, and they have all 344 00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:57,040 Speaker 2: those library ghosts on their side too. And because a 345 00:17:57,320 --> 00:17:58,680 Speaker 2: library is haunted, I. 346 00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:04,119 Speaker 1: Believe strongly, Dave in like ending firing everybody in the 347 00:18:04,160 --> 00:18:07,240 Speaker 1: Department of Homeland Security. But we take all of their guns, 348 00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:09,800 Speaker 1: all of their weapon and we give it to the librarians. 349 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:11,880 Speaker 1: No training, We don't tell them how to use any 350 00:18:11,920 --> 00:18:13,760 Speaker 1: of this. That's up to them. Whatever they want to 351 00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:16,200 Speaker 1: do with all those tanks and machine guns is their 352 00:18:16,280 --> 00:18:17,040 Speaker 1: their choice. 353 00:18:17,200 --> 00:18:19,440 Speaker 2: You know what's not going to happen anymore. No one's 354 00:18:19,440 --> 00:18:21,719 Speaker 2: going to be turning in books late. I'll tell that much. 355 00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:25,080 Speaker 1: Well, yeah, get you're condamn right there fucking no knock 356 00:18:25,200 --> 00:18:26,760 Speaker 1: raids for overdue books. 357 00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:29,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, that situation that will be handling. 358 00:18:32,720 --> 00:18:37,119 Speaker 1: So one step in the process of building this like 359 00:18:37,400 --> 00:18:39,840 Speaker 1: think tank network, like one of the things they knew 360 00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:42,760 Speaker 1: they had to do because there weren't a lot of 361 00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:48,040 Speaker 1: really prominent popular right wing media figures right who were 362 00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:51,239 Speaker 1: influential in public policy. That wasn't nearly as common as 363 00:18:51,240 --> 00:18:54,760 Speaker 1: people who would have considered themselves liberals, right, you know, 364 00:18:54,800 --> 00:18:57,199 Speaker 1: in reality, like you would say centrists or whatever. So 365 00:18:57,240 --> 00:18:59,000 Speaker 1: a big part of what they had to do here 366 00:18:59,359 --> 00:19:02,440 Speaker 1: was fine people who were liberals and even some leftists 367 00:19:02,440 --> 00:19:06,400 Speaker 1: who were influential in academia in public policy and turn 368 00:19:06,560 --> 00:19:09,879 Speaker 1: them right. Now we see this happen today. You're seeing 369 00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:12,920 Speaker 1: all of these like formerly liberal left see some of 370 00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:15,160 Speaker 1: the shit that likes the Young Turks guy has been 371 00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:18,040 Speaker 1: saying and about like crime in cities and stuff this 372 00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:21,360 Speaker 1: like weird right wing turn that a lot of guys 373 00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:24,000 Speaker 1: was Jimmy Dre that guy who used to be kind 374 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:26,480 Speaker 1: of lefty, and then the pandemic hits and he goes 375 00:19:26,520 --> 00:19:30,400 Speaker 1: hard right because he's an anti vax weirdo. Right. Yeah, 376 00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:32,720 Speaker 1: this is like a thing we see today and this 377 00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:35,520 Speaker 1: is really the first time it happens in an organized way. 378 00:19:35,560 --> 00:19:36,720 Speaker 1: And what they would do is they would go to 379 00:19:36,760 --> 00:19:39,399 Speaker 1: these guys who are like influential liberal academics and they 380 00:19:39,400 --> 00:19:42,640 Speaker 1: would say, and this is an actual example, iverat hey, 381 00:19:43,040 --> 00:19:45,440 Speaker 1: we're starting this think tank. We would like to hire 382 00:19:45,520 --> 00:19:48,640 Speaker 1: you on as like an expert. 383 00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:48,760 Speaker 2: Right. 384 00:19:48,840 --> 00:19:51,320 Speaker 1: We're basically pay you to do whatever research you want 385 00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:53,399 Speaker 1: to do, and occasionally you just have to put out 386 00:19:53,480 --> 00:19:55,240 Speaker 1: some papers that are in line with the stuff that 387 00:19:55,240 --> 00:19:57,600 Speaker 1: we want put out. And in return, and this is 388 00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:00,000 Speaker 1: like in the seventies eighties, you'll get a two hundred 389 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:02,600 Speaker 1: one thousand dollars a year's salary for life whether or 390 00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:04,240 Speaker 1: not anything gets done. We just need to be able 391 00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:05,320 Speaker 1: to use your name. You know. 392 00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:07,399 Speaker 2: It's like, yeah, that's like a billion dollars. 393 00:20:07,520 --> 00:20:10,920 Speaker 1: That's so much money back then, right, you know, you'll 394 00:20:10,920 --> 00:20:14,040 Speaker 1: have to occasionally rubber stamp some specific ideas. And that's 395 00:20:14,080 --> 00:20:16,680 Speaker 1: what for some of these guys, it literally is I'm 396 00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:18,600 Speaker 1: just like throwing my name on some shit so i 397 00:20:18,600 --> 00:20:21,920 Speaker 1: can get a paycheck. Others really take to the idea 398 00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:25,000 Speaker 1: of being more influential than they'd ever been, of having 399 00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:27,360 Speaker 1: I'm not just being people that got listened to sometimes, 400 00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:30,840 Speaker 1: but people who have this massive, hundreds of millions of 401 00:20:30,840 --> 00:20:33,920 Speaker 1: dollars in funding effort behind them, right, and they can 402 00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:36,240 Speaker 1: be the mouthpieces of it. And some of these people, 403 00:20:36,240 --> 00:20:39,639 Speaker 1: these are folks like Gene Kirkpatrick, Michael Novak, Ben Wattenberg. 404 00:20:40,040 --> 00:20:43,720 Speaker 1: These are all people who switched sides politically because of 405 00:20:43,760 --> 00:20:46,760 Speaker 1: the amount of money and clout that they saw building 406 00:20:46,880 --> 00:20:50,240 Speaker 1: in the think tank industrial complex. The founder of the 407 00:20:50,280 --> 00:20:53,600 Speaker 1: Ethics and Public Policy Center, Ernest Lefev, had even been 408 00:20:53,600 --> 00:20:57,280 Speaker 1: a conscientious subjector in World War Two. Michael Horowitz, one 409 00:20:57,320 --> 00:21:00,280 Speaker 1: of the most influential conservative theorists of this period, had 410 00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:03,520 Speaker 1: been a civil rights lawyer in Mississippi in the nineteen sixties, 411 00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:06,199 Speaker 1: and Horowitz kind of pioneers the tactic of being a 412 00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:09,960 Speaker 1: liberal intellectual and like political guy and then pivoting right 413 00:21:10,080 --> 00:21:12,560 Speaker 1: and suddenly getting very rich. You know, he's one of 414 00:21:12,720 --> 00:21:14,680 Speaker 1: like the architects of that switch. 415 00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:19,399 Speaker 2: I mean, conservatism pays very well. Oh yeah, we're not 416 00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:21,280 Speaker 2: over here. Like look in the Daily Wire. I would 417 00:21:21,359 --> 00:21:24,679 Speaker 2: love to get some fracking billionaire money, but sadly they 418 00:21:24,680 --> 00:21:25,399 Speaker 2: won't give it to me. 419 00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:28,600 Speaker 1: I will take fifty million dollars. Yeah, I'll endorse some 420 00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:30,920 Speaker 1: fucked up shit for fifty million dollars. 421 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:35,639 Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, yeah, I take bribes. I've said it before, 422 00:21:35,640 --> 00:21:36,600 Speaker 2: I'll say it again. 423 00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:40,360 Speaker 1: Listen, fracking billionaires. You've got me and Dave. We can 424 00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:43,920 Speaker 1: sell people on fracking. Oh Dave, you love it when 425 00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:45,720 Speaker 1: the ground light's on fire, don't you? 426 00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:50,639 Speaker 2: Oh God? Yeah? Water like when it's murky. I love 427 00:21:50,720 --> 00:21:53,160 Speaker 2: me a nice glass of murky water. 428 00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:57,399 Speaker 1: Look, the popularity of Lacroix has proven we all like 429 00:21:57,440 --> 00:21:59,439 Speaker 1: our water with a little something extra. 430 00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:00,920 Speaker 2: Yeah. 431 00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:04,639 Speaker 1: Yeah, Gasoline makes our cars go. Gasoline in our water 432 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:07,040 Speaker 1: probably makes us more efficial. 433 00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:09,560 Speaker 2: Makes us go. Yeah. Uh, that's some science. I think 434 00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:10,280 Speaker 2: this is science. 435 00:22:10,320 --> 00:22:12,480 Speaker 1: What you just said, this is what you could have 436 00:22:13,280 --> 00:22:15,680 Speaker 1: fracking billionaires. Come on, hit us up. 437 00:22:16,080 --> 00:22:18,440 Speaker 2: I'll take two hundred thousand. I don't give a shit. 438 00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:25,440 Speaker 1: So two years after Goldwater's failed candidacy, an aging movie 439 00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:29,640 Speaker 1: star named Ronald Wilson Reagan decided to run for governor 440 00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:33,639 Speaker 1: of California. Now, his initial rise to power is against 441 00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:37,160 Speaker 1: an incumbent Democrat who's fairly well liked and reasonably popular 442 00:22:37,280 --> 00:22:39,800 Speaker 1: prior to the election, a guy named Pat Brown. This 443 00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:43,080 Speaker 1: is an uphill battle, at least on paper. It doesn't 444 00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:45,520 Speaker 1: wind up working out that way, and a huge part 445 00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:49,200 Speaker 1: of the strategy that hands Reagan a victory he bases 446 00:22:49,359 --> 00:22:51,560 Speaker 1: a massive chunk like kind of the centerpiece of his 447 00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:56,600 Speaker 1: campaign is attacking Berkeley University, right higher education in general, 448 00:22:56,640 --> 00:23:01,560 Speaker 1: but specifically going to war with Berkeley. Talk about, Oh, 449 00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:03,639 Speaker 1: they fucking hate it, and that's what we're going to 450 00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:09,520 Speaker 1: talk about. But you know who loves Berkeley, No one really, 451 00:23:09,800 --> 00:23:12,199 Speaker 1: but our sponsors don't hate it. That I'm aware of. 452 00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:17,000 Speaker 2: Yeah, I believe you on that. That sounded convincing. 453 00:23:17,240 --> 00:23:26,359 Speaker 1: Yeah, unless it's the Washington State Highway Patrol again. Ah, 454 00:23:26,400 --> 00:23:30,679 Speaker 1: we're back. So we're talking about Ronnie Reagan you know, 455 00:23:31,160 --> 00:23:35,760 Speaker 1: husband of the throat goat herself and how he wins election. 456 00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:38,320 Speaker 1: Sophie just had a look when I said. 457 00:23:38,080 --> 00:23:40,600 Speaker 3: That, I did not enjoyed that description. 458 00:23:42,119 --> 00:23:45,520 Speaker 1: That's what Look, this is documented. We're not slandering. That's 459 00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:48,000 Speaker 1: not even history. Yeah, that's just history. 460 00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:51,400 Speaker 2: It'd be slander if we called Ronald the throat goat, right, 461 00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:52,520 Speaker 2: but that. 462 00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:55,560 Speaker 1: A man would have been terrible at sucking Dick. 463 00:23:55,720 --> 00:23:58,080 Speaker 3: I just want to give a shout out to to 464 00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:02,320 Speaker 3: Joni as We Yeah, yeah, who really made all the 465 00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:03,760 Speaker 3: decisions for that family. 466 00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:10,199 Speaker 1: Yes, they're astrologer yep. So the fact that Reagan is 467 00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:13,320 Speaker 1: going to make the centerpiece of his campaign hating on 468 00:24:13,400 --> 00:24:16,800 Speaker 1: Berkeley goes over really well with the kind of rich, 469 00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:21,840 Speaker 1: fail sun demographic that is funding this like New Conservative movement. 470 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:24,680 Speaker 1: These guys believe that they had lost to the New 471 00:24:24,760 --> 00:24:27,840 Speaker 1: Deal Democrats for a mix of reasons. One of those 472 00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:31,600 Speaker 1: was that Christianity was overwhelmingly aligned with progressive, pro labor 473 00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:34,240 Speaker 1: and social welfare values at the start of the century, 474 00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:36,600 Speaker 1: and the religious right, which is coming together in the 475 00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:39,360 Speaker 1: same period. It's going to the first time the religious 476 00:24:39,440 --> 00:24:42,399 Speaker 1: right is really influential in US politics. It gets Reagan 477 00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:45,520 Speaker 1: elected right, that's coming together at this point in time. 478 00:24:45,960 --> 00:24:48,400 Speaker 1: The other thing that they saw as losing the day 479 00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:51,000 Speaker 1: was that all of those new Deal policies had enjoyed 480 00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:54,800 Speaker 1: the support of professors and subject matter experts with fancy 481 00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:57,480 Speaker 1: titles and actual expertise. And one of the things that 482 00:24:57,560 --> 00:24:59,520 Speaker 1: was happening in that period, a lot of those experts, 483 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:01,919 Speaker 1: it came from kind of the first generation of college 484 00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:05,159 Speaker 1: graduates that weren't all super rich guys, right. It was 485 00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:07,960 Speaker 1: still mostly people who were better off, but it was 486 00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:11,960 Speaker 1: starting to become democratized. And by the seventies college was 487 00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:15,479 Speaker 1: extremely democratized. Right. Some of that's as a result of, 488 00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:17,639 Speaker 1: like you know, kind of some of the changes that 489 00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:19,399 Speaker 1: come in as a result of the GI Bill, but 490 00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:23,399 Speaker 1: like in general, a lot more particularly women and black people, 491 00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:26,200 Speaker 1: are graduating from college in this period, and they're seeing 492 00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:29,720 Speaker 1: this as like this will inevitably destroy us unless we 493 00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:33,560 Speaker 1: destroy the ability of these people to get college degrees. Right. 494 00:25:33,720 --> 00:25:35,919 Speaker 2: Right, They had their own little club, right, that was 495 00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:39,400 Speaker 2: the whole thing. They love, having their own little clubs. Yeah, 496 00:25:39,480 --> 00:25:41,480 Speaker 2: and they could do or say whatever they wanted in 497 00:25:41,520 --> 00:25:43,320 Speaker 2: these little clubs. Yeah. 498 00:25:43,359 --> 00:25:45,760 Speaker 1: And what the think tank boom is is a war 499 00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:48,560 Speaker 1: on expertise, and the other half of the war on 500 00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:52,760 Speaker 1: expertise is destroying higher education, right, because that will stop 501 00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:56,880 Speaker 1: poor people from being able to exercise agency. In Paul, 502 00:25:57,000 --> 00:25:58,200 Speaker 1: that's what they see, right. 503 00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:02,960 Speaker 2: Yes, happen I mean hearing that this is still happening today. Yes, 504 00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:06,800 Speaker 2: it's one of those like such an obvious red flag 505 00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:09,879 Speaker 2: where it's like, if you're going after education, I don't know. 506 00:26:09,920 --> 00:26:13,119 Speaker 2: That seems very sus right, like, h that's weird. 507 00:26:13,640 --> 00:26:16,720 Speaker 1: Yeah. And the easiest way to get middle class and 508 00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:20,159 Speaker 1: poor conservatives on board with this crusade was to attack 509 00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:25,920 Speaker 1: universities as hotbeds of anti war radicalism. Reagan understood this instinctively, 510 00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:28,360 Speaker 1: and that's why he goes to war with Berkeley University 511 00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:32,159 Speaker 1: during his candidacy. At that point, the school was basically 512 00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:35,240 Speaker 1: free for Californians. If you are a state resident, you 513 00:26:35,359 --> 00:26:38,239 Speaker 1: basically don't pay to go to Berkeley, and this had 514 00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:41,280 Speaker 1: led to a dangerous number of poor people, particularly black 515 00:26:41,280 --> 00:26:44,760 Speaker 1: people and women, getting educations at are respected university, which 516 00:26:44,800 --> 00:26:46,960 Speaker 1: is a big part of why Berkeley is in nexus 517 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:51,280 Speaker 1: of organizing for protests against the Vietnam War. And one 518 00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:53,160 Speaker 1: of the things that Reagan is going to be furious 519 00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:55,360 Speaker 1: at is that the president of Berkeley, a guy named 520 00:26:55,359 --> 00:26:59,439 Speaker 1: Clark Kerr, refused to expel student organizers. You know, the 521 00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:01,720 Speaker 1: conservatives are yelling at this guy, like you need to 522 00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:05,000 Speaker 1: kick kids out for organizing against the Vietnam War. And 523 00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:07,879 Speaker 1: Clark is like, why the fuck shouldn't students be allowed 524 00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:08,600 Speaker 1: to protest? 525 00:27:08,800 --> 00:27:09,639 Speaker 2: Why isn't it like. 526 00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:12,920 Speaker 1: An am about that? Right? Yeah? 527 00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:15,680 Speaker 2: Is this whole freedom to speak? I don't know. 528 00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:19,200 Speaker 1: One Berkeley professor would later summarize as a matter of 529 00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:22,200 Speaker 1: Reagan's honest convictions, but also as a matter of politics, 530 00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:26,040 Speaker 1: Reagan launched an assault on the university. Now, on the 531 00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:29,440 Speaker 1: campaign trail, Reagan promised to clean up the mess at Berkeley. 532 00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:32,640 Speaker 1: He attained the approval of John mccohone, head of the CIA, 533 00:27:32,880 --> 00:27:35,680 Speaker 1: and Jay Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI, who held 534 00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:39,960 Speaker 1: an unprecedented joint meeting to discuss Communist influence at universities, 535 00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:45,400 Speaker 1: which mcohone wrote definitely required some corrective action. Hoover himself 536 00:27:45,560 --> 00:27:47,840 Speaker 1: reached out to Kerr to tell him to crack down 537 00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:50,480 Speaker 1: on student activities, and Kerr, you got to respect this 538 00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:53,879 Speaker 1: guy says no to the director of the FBI. And 539 00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:58,119 Speaker 1: when Kerr says, no, Hoover and McCone reach out to 540 00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:00,360 Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan and I want to I want are really 541 00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:02,879 Speaker 1: hammering how impressed in this is? For one thing, I 542 00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:06,240 Speaker 1: know these are both evil fed agencies. The CIA and 543 00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:09,240 Speaker 1: the FBI hate each other, like traditionally. They are fighting 544 00:28:09,320 --> 00:28:10,040 Speaker 1: it constantly. 545 00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:11,160 Speaker 2: They're like kits and dogs. 546 00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:13,920 Speaker 1: They're like, yeah, exact, or just two cats that don't 547 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:17,200 Speaker 1: know each other's in a small apartment. Yeah, the small 548 00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:19,840 Speaker 1: apartment is like the US budget for shady shit. 549 00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:23,000 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you ever have an FBI agent in your house, 550 00:28:23,040 --> 00:28:24,679 Speaker 2: they'll knock shit off your desks. 551 00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:28,280 Speaker 1: Hopefully not Dave, they will knock shit off your desks. 552 00:28:27,960 --> 00:28:30,679 Speaker 2: Though, they will. They love knocking shit off of desks. 553 00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:33,080 Speaker 2: They'll they'll be like can I come in? And you 554 00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:35,240 Speaker 2: open the door and then they kind of wander away, 555 00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:37,160 Speaker 2: and then you're like, what are you coming in? You're 556 00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:38,800 Speaker 2: not coming in? What's going on? 557 00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:43,520 Speaker 1: I would like to replace the FBI with cats, And 558 00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:45,120 Speaker 1: just like if one of the if one of all 559 00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:47,560 Speaker 1: cats are the FBI, And so if a cat just 560 00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:50,040 Speaker 1: walks into your house, you can't you can't make it leave. 561 00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:52,080 Speaker 1: You gotta feed it, you gotta pet it. You know, 562 00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:55,600 Speaker 1: give it whatever it wants. Badges, Yeah, little badges, just 563 00:28:55,920 --> 00:28:58,880 Speaker 1: just cats wandering around airports checking shit. 564 00:28:59,120 --> 00:28:59,320 Speaker 2: Yeah. 565 00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:03,320 Speaker 1: I think it's a good idea. Several countries already worked 566 00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:06,800 Speaker 1: that way. If you've ever been to Istanbul, that's more 567 00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:08,320 Speaker 1: or less how the city functions. 568 00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:11,240 Speaker 2: I love that they just have loose cats everywhere there. 569 00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:16,000 Speaker 1: So this is so the FBI and the CIA are 570 00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:19,560 Speaker 1: basically like, yeah, we Ronald, you are our guy, because 571 00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:22,080 Speaker 1: you are going to fire this fucking dude and crack 572 00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:24,320 Speaker 1: down on this school that we see as a major 573 00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:29,080 Speaker 1: threat to the United States. Yeah, it's cool, it's it's I. 574 00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:32,480 Speaker 2: Just can't help but to think about good old meatball 575 00:29:32,640 --> 00:29:36,880 Speaker 2: ron of today Ronald DeSantis. Yes, and where like people 576 00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:39,320 Speaker 2: very rightfully pointed out when he was like, I don't 577 00:29:39,400 --> 00:29:42,360 Speaker 2: like Disney's politics, therefore I am going to just bully 578 00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:45,160 Speaker 2: them with the government, and I'm not you know, I'm 579 00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:48,560 Speaker 2: not on Disney's side. Well, I guess in this case 580 00:29:48,600 --> 00:29:51,400 Speaker 2: I am, but I'm not a huge fan of corporations. 581 00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:54,080 Speaker 2: My point being that, like, aren't they the guys who 582 00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:57,320 Speaker 2: don't want the government doing this stuff getting involved in 583 00:29:57,400 --> 00:30:00,120 Speaker 2: everybody's business. I can't help but to feel like this 584 00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:03,000 Speaker 2: is the same situation where they're like, yes, let's get 585 00:30:03,240 --> 00:30:06,640 Speaker 2: really involved in people's business because we don't like what 586 00:30:06,800 --> 00:30:10,480 Speaker 2: they're doing, even though that's against everything we claim that 587 00:30:10,560 --> 00:30:11,880 Speaker 2: we're in for. 588 00:30:12,040 --> 00:30:14,360 Speaker 1: It makes it clear that, like when they're talking about 589 00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:16,840 Speaker 1: we have to we're doing this because the Communists want 590 00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:19,479 Speaker 1: to take away freedom. They're not and I'm not an 591 00:30:19,520 --> 00:30:22,120 Speaker 1: apologist for the Soviet Union. I would not have wanted 592 00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:24,200 Speaker 1: to live under that regime either, right, but they're not 593 00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:27,520 Speaker 1: talking about freedom because they want to take away people's 594 00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:30,600 Speaker 1: freedom to protest a war that's killing millions. What they 595 00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:32,800 Speaker 1: mean by freedom is rich people being able to be 596 00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:36,240 Speaker 1: rich people. Yeah, yeah, that's that's the threat. 597 00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:39,640 Speaker 2: There's no there's no like extremely good sides here. It's 598 00:30:39,760 --> 00:30:40,800 Speaker 2: just that, Yeah, it's. 599 00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:44,120 Speaker 1: Very The students who are trying to stop the Vietnam 600 00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:45,800 Speaker 1: War are but like, yeah. 601 00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:49,120 Speaker 2: I mean even they were probably insufferable people, but yeah, well. 602 00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:52,000 Speaker 1: Sure, I mean they're they're at Berkeley, right, so you know, 603 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:54,239 Speaker 1: I wouldn't have wanted to have lunch with them, but right, 604 00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:55,560 Speaker 1: they're on the right side of this. 605 00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:58,480 Speaker 2: It's so easy to go after colleges because all you 606 00:30:58,520 --> 00:31:00,880 Speaker 2: have to do is step on a college campus. Yeah, man, 607 00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:03,280 Speaker 2: I hate it here. Yes, it doesn't know when I 608 00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:04,080 Speaker 2: was in college. 609 00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:06,960 Speaker 1: Yeah, we're doing a Reagan Dave. We're doing it. 610 00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:08,280 Speaker 2: I need to do. 611 00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:11,440 Speaker 1: Everybody, go watch PCU when you finish this. You know 612 00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:15,719 Speaker 1: that's John Favreau with John Favreau and with Jeremy Piven 613 00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:18,760 Speaker 1: playing a playing a man who's supposed to be a 614 00:31:18,840 --> 00:31:21,640 Speaker 1: college senior and clearly in his mid forties. 615 00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:24,200 Speaker 2: Yeah, forty five year old Piven. 616 00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:31,480 Speaker 1: Beautiful, beautiful stuff. So Reagan becomes the FBI's preferred candidate. 617 00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:33,800 Speaker 1: One of Hoover's memos at the time describes him as 618 00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:37,960 Speaker 1: dedicated to the destruction of student activism. The assistant chancellor 619 00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:40,680 Speaker 1: of Berkeley at the time described Reagan's tactics this way. 620 00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:43,760 Speaker 1: Reagan took aim at the university for being irresponsible with 621 00:31:43,840 --> 00:31:46,479 Speaker 1: failing to punish these dissident students. He said, get them 622 00:31:46,520 --> 00:31:48,680 Speaker 1: out of here, throw them out. They are spoiled, and 623 00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:50,720 Speaker 1: they don't deserve the education they're getting. They don't have 624 00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:53,040 Speaker 1: a right to take advantage of our system of education. 625 00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:57,200 Speaker 1: In a two thousand and four article for UC Berkeley News, 626 00:31:57,360 --> 00:32:00,200 Speaker 1: Jeffrey Kahn argued that they were two main themes of 627 00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:03,520 Speaker 1: Reagan's first campaign for the governorship, quote to send the 628 00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:05,800 Speaker 1: welfare of bums back to work and to clean up 629 00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:08,680 Speaker 1: the mess at Berkeley. The latter became a Reagan mantra, 630 00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:12,120 Speaker 1: so that again I can't overemphasize this isn't just a 631 00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:14,880 Speaker 1: side issue he's hitting sometimes. This is like one of 632 00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:17,720 Speaker 1: the two pillars of his campaign for governor, which is 633 00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:20,840 Speaker 1: why he becomes president ultimately, is attacking Berkeley. 634 00:32:21,280 --> 00:32:23,880 Speaker 2: It's so dumb because it's also like just from a 635 00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:28,880 Speaker 2: practical sense, like I don't know, like he's running on 636 00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:34,480 Speaker 2: the campaign of really focusing on a single school in America, 637 00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:37,000 Speaker 2: and it's like, boy, I feel like there are other 638 00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:38,640 Speaker 2: problems to focus on here. 639 00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:41,640 Speaker 1: Yeah, during the Vietnam War, maybe maybe. 640 00:32:41,520 --> 00:32:43,560 Speaker 2: DA There's a lot of other things you could be 641 00:32:43,680 --> 00:32:47,200 Speaker 2: doing one or two. It's just it's such a weird. 642 00:32:48,680 --> 00:32:52,400 Speaker 2: It's such a weird policy to run on and then 643 00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:53,400 Speaker 2: succeed with. 644 00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:55,560 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a bummer. 645 00:32:56,120 --> 00:32:56,320 Speaker 2: Yeah. 646 00:32:56,320 --> 00:32:59,880 Speaker 1: So a little bit when he Reagan wins spoiler alert 647 00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:03,120 Speaker 1: for the past and Reagan immediately he leans on he 648 00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:05,520 Speaker 1: can't fire Kerr directly, but he's able to lean on 649 00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:08,880 Speaker 1: the university administration, basically threatening to take even more money 650 00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:12,640 Speaker 1: from the school, and they eventually fire Kerr. And this 651 00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:15,760 Speaker 1: was a tacit acknowledgment that attacking the school had been 652 00:33:15,800 --> 00:33:19,920 Speaker 1: a lynchpin of his electoral strategy. Earl Chite, dean emeritus 653 00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:22,440 Speaker 1: of the School of Business at Berkeley, later said one 654 00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:25,360 Speaker 1: of his great skills was to understand popular feeling. He 655 00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:28,000 Speaker 1: really tapped into the discontent people felt about what was 656 00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:30,320 Speaker 1: happening on the campus. I have no doubt that this 657 00:33:30,520 --> 00:33:33,480 Speaker 1: was a big factor in his election as governor. One 658 00:33:33,520 --> 00:33:36,320 Speaker 1: of Reagan's first acts as governor is to cut funding 659 00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:40,719 Speaker 1: for all California public colleges. He starts going after Berkeley, 660 00:33:40,760 --> 00:33:42,160 Speaker 1: but he cuts funny and he tries to do it 661 00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:45,160 Speaker 1: by like ten percent across the board. The legislature doesn't 662 00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:47,000 Speaker 1: agree to go quite that hard, but he does cut 663 00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:51,000 Speaker 1: funding to every California public college. And he frames this 664 00:33:51,200 --> 00:33:53,960 Speaker 1: as a necessity, not a political attack. He says, we're 665 00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:58,160 Speaker 1: doing this because of a budget shortfall. John Schwarz, formerly 666 00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:01,400 Speaker 1: of The Intercept, describes how Reagan made his case to 667 00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:04,960 Speaker 1: cover the funding shortfall. Reagan suggested that California public colleges 668 00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:08,640 Speaker 1: could charge residents tuition for the first time this, he complained, 669 00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:11,680 Speaker 1: resulted in the almost hysterical charge that this would deny 670 00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:15,080 Speaker 1: educational opportunities to those of the most moderate means. This 671 00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:18,239 Speaker 1: is obviously untrue. We made it plain that tuition must 672 00:34:18,280 --> 00:34:22,520 Speaker 1: be accompanied by adequate loans to be paid back after graduation. 673 00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:25,759 Speaker 1: And this is where student loans come from. 674 00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:26,960 Speaker 2: Yeah, of course Reagan. 675 00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:29,080 Speaker 1: Yeah, Ronny fucking Reagan. 676 00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:31,400 Speaker 2: I mean, it all comes back to Reagan. 677 00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:33,160 Speaker 1: It always has, it, always fucking does. 678 00:34:33,280 --> 00:34:38,439 Speaker 2: He was really really bad for the country, and that's 679 00:34:38,480 --> 00:34:42,120 Speaker 2: what we're now in, right, we this is the era 680 00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:45,320 Speaker 2: of this. It's the find out to the fuck around, 681 00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:48,440 Speaker 2: right Yeah, where we've all been now hurting because of 682 00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:52,480 Speaker 2: this ship that yep, they let Reagan do. How did 683 00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:56,719 Speaker 2: he sell this to the public, Like, I like, I 684 00:34:56,840 --> 00:35:00,520 Speaker 2: get selling this to rich people, but like it's it's 685 00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:03,480 Speaker 2: always so weird when they like, how do you go, 686 00:35:03,719 --> 00:35:06,760 Speaker 2: great news, we are now making your schools worse. 687 00:35:07,440 --> 00:35:09,279 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, because he doesn't frame it that way. 688 00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:11,040 Speaker 1: First off, he frames it is like, look, we've got 689 00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:14,360 Speaker 1: a budget shortfall, things are contracting, everybody's got to tighten 690 00:35:14,400 --> 00:35:17,439 Speaker 1: their belt, and hey, these kids were caught. And again, 691 00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:20,640 Speaker 1: the anti war movement is not as popular as people 692 00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:23,880 Speaker 1: remember it being right, right, So there's a huge amount 693 00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:25,680 Speaker 1: of people who are like, yeah, why are we paying 694 00:35:25,800 --> 00:35:29,480 Speaker 1: for these these these communist kids to go to school? 695 00:35:29,640 --> 00:35:29,759 Speaker 2: Right? 696 00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:31,520 Speaker 1: And He's like, they're going to pay their own way. 697 00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:34,840 Speaker 1: It's personal responsibility, you know, They're going to pull themselves 698 00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:36,960 Speaker 1: up by their bootstraps, right, right. 699 00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:39,319 Speaker 2: Because like, what does that even equate to in terms 700 00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:41,880 Speaker 2: of taxes? You know, like how much of a difference 701 00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:44,200 Speaker 2: is this going to make in your taxes to do this? 702 00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:47,279 Speaker 1: Taxes are even higher now, by the way. 703 00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:51,920 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just so silly because it's like why why 704 00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:55,560 Speaker 2: would we like vote and be concerned about like government 705 00:35:55,719 --> 00:35:58,759 Speaker 2: budget stuff. It's like, we pay you to figure this out. 706 00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:01,239 Speaker 2: Go figure it out, you know, we want to have 707 00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:03,400 Speaker 2: the free schools. Keep the free damn schools. 708 00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:05,359 Speaker 1: Yes, this is why. 709 00:36:06,040 --> 00:36:06,160 Speaker 3: You know. 710 00:36:06,320 --> 00:36:08,480 Speaker 1: France has a lot of problems of its own, but 711 00:36:08,600 --> 00:36:11,080 Speaker 1: their strategy of whenever they try to take away a 712 00:36:11,160 --> 00:36:15,719 Speaker 1: public entitlement, burning down Paris has worked several times. This 713 00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:18,160 Speaker 1: doesn't always work, but it has sometimes. 714 00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:20,920 Speaker 2: No, but I like how they roll, you know, I 715 00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:23,040 Speaker 2: like it. Or if a government person so much as 716 00:36:23,120 --> 00:36:25,520 Speaker 2: like farts in the wrong direction. Yeah, they're like well, 717 00:36:25,560 --> 00:36:26,680 Speaker 2: time to chop off some heads. 718 00:36:26,719 --> 00:36:31,360 Speaker 1: I guess it burned down the city. So Reagan also 719 00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:34,560 Speaker 1: proposed that Berkeley starts selling off the rare books in 720 00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:36,960 Speaker 1: its library so rich people could put them in their 721 00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:40,840 Speaker 1: private collections. The legislature, that's just such a cartoon villain 722 00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:44,520 Speaker 1: thing to do. The legislature doesn't approve this or the 723 00:36:44,640 --> 00:36:47,200 Speaker 1: full extent of the cuts he wanted to the UC system. 724 00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:50,040 Speaker 1: But they do a lot, and he would soon have 725 00:36:50,160 --> 00:36:52,560 Speaker 1: his chance to try these ideas out on the national 726 00:36:52,640 --> 00:36:56,440 Speaker 1: stage with a compliant Congress. The success of Reagan's attacks 727 00:36:56,480 --> 00:37:00,479 Speaker 1: on California public schools inspired conservative politicians across the US. 728 00:37:01,040 --> 00:37:05,840 Speaker 1: Nixon decried campus revolt. Spiro Agnew, his vice president, proclaimed 729 00:37:05,920 --> 00:37:09,399 Speaker 1: that thanks to open admissions policies, unqualified students are being 730 00:37:09,480 --> 00:37:12,359 Speaker 1: swept into college on the wave of the new socialism. 731 00:37:13,400 --> 00:37:16,680 Speaker 1: That's all, sorry, that was all a Schwartz quote from 732 00:37:16,760 --> 00:37:21,320 Speaker 1: John's article in the Intercept. So reform of higher education 733 00:37:21,560 --> 00:37:24,759 Speaker 1: becomes a major cause for public conservative intellectuals. This is 734 00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:27,319 Speaker 1: again the think tank set, and they start putting out 735 00:37:27,360 --> 00:37:29,800 Speaker 1: papers arguing that what Reagan wants to do will benefit 736 00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:31,480 Speaker 1: that it'll cut down the amount of money that you know, 737 00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:33,560 Speaker 1: the public has to spend, it'll be able to lower taxes, 738 00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:36,040 Speaker 1: it'll be better for students. All this jazz, right, And 739 00:37:36,160 --> 00:37:39,760 Speaker 1: they frame this as, you know, not just cost cutting 740 00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:41,960 Speaker 1: and like making the budget make more sense, but also 741 00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:44,520 Speaker 1: it'll help these students because a lot of young people 742 00:37:44,560 --> 00:37:47,040 Speaker 1: are getting these useless degrees in the liberal arts. They're 743 00:37:47,040 --> 00:37:50,080 Speaker 1: getting weighed down by these educations they don't really need, 744 00:37:50,120 --> 00:37:51,719 Speaker 1: and if they have to pay for it, they'll be 745 00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:54,600 Speaker 1: more discriminating and they'll get more useful degrees that'll benefit 746 00:37:54,680 --> 00:37:57,319 Speaker 1: the economy more in the long run. That's what they're 747 00:37:57,440 --> 00:38:01,120 Speaker 1: saying in public. In private, we're a lot more open 748 00:38:01,239 --> 00:38:05,240 Speaker 1: about the real reason they're doing this. Schwartz continues, quote 749 00:38:05,800 --> 00:38:08,920 Speaker 1: one worry that free education may be producing a positively 750 00:38:09,080 --> 00:38:13,440 Speaker 1: dangerous class situation by raising the expectations of working class students. 751 00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:16,960 Speaker 1: Another referred to college students as a parasite feeding on 752 00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:20,240 Speaker 1: the rest of society, who exhibited a failure to understand 753 00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:23,080 Speaker 1: and to appreciate the crucial role played by the reward 754 00:38:23,160 --> 00:38:26,320 Speaker 1: punishment structure of the market. The answer was to close 755 00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:29,160 Speaker 1: off the parasitic option. These are all think tank guys 756 00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:32,719 Speaker 1: saying that like this, this is giving poor people an 757 00:38:32,840 --> 00:38:35,759 Speaker 1: unreasonable expectation of progress that they might be able to 758 00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:39,360 Speaker 1: live good lives. And they don't understand how the market 759 00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:42,280 Speaker 1: works because we're not making we're not making them destroy 760 00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:45,600 Speaker 1: their financial futures to get a college degree. Right, we 761 00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:48,239 Speaker 1: have to add debt to this situation, and that'll stop 762 00:38:48,280 --> 00:38:49,600 Speaker 1: them from being parasites. 763 00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:51,960 Speaker 2: Right, They're kind of they're kind of kicking down the 764 00:38:52,080 --> 00:38:56,560 Speaker 2: ladder after they already got up there. It's it's it's 765 00:38:56,680 --> 00:39:01,320 Speaker 2: ridiculous because it fundamentally misunderstands what the idea of school 766 00:39:01,480 --> 00:39:04,880 Speaker 2: is for, Like why society has school, which is to 767 00:39:05,760 --> 00:39:09,800 Speaker 2: train people to exist in the society that's been built. 768 00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:10,080 Speaker 1: Right. 769 00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:13,799 Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's just very silly that you would look 770 00:39:13,840 --> 00:39:17,440 Speaker 2: at like people in school and go, those are parasites. Like, 771 00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:21,160 Speaker 2: don't get me wrong, there is you know, the academic 772 00:39:21,239 --> 00:39:23,800 Speaker 2: world isn't perfect. There are people who can sort of 773 00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:25,680 Speaker 2: drift through school. 774 00:39:25,880 --> 00:39:27,840 Speaker 1: I have I know a couple of people who have 775 00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:28,160 Speaker 1: done that. 776 00:39:28,360 --> 00:39:33,279 Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, oh yeah, but like that's that's like that's 777 00:39:33,600 --> 00:39:37,520 Speaker 2: not a justification for this. And and then also like 778 00:39:37,680 --> 00:39:42,120 Speaker 2: that's years of also like just schools, yeah, changing over the. 779 00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:45,680 Speaker 1: Years, A certain percentage of people who get into the 780 00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:50,080 Speaker 1: academic system, you know, especially if it's basically free, we'll 781 00:39:50,160 --> 00:39:53,160 Speaker 1: just spend their whole lives being students in various things, 782 00:39:53,280 --> 00:39:55,560 Speaker 1: and that might wind up being bad for that person, 783 00:39:56,120 --> 00:39:59,160 Speaker 1: But as a societal problem, it does not compare to 784 00:39:59,239 --> 00:40:02,320 Speaker 1: the scale of the problem of an entire generation burdened 785 00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:04,880 Speaker 1: by student loan debt they can never repay, right, they 786 00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:07,400 Speaker 1: will wind up paying many times the principle and like 787 00:40:07,560 --> 00:40:11,560 Speaker 1: basically be garnishing their wages for the rest of their lives, 788 00:40:11,680 --> 00:40:14,040 Speaker 1: like unable to buy a home, unable to like the 789 00:40:14,120 --> 00:40:17,000 Speaker 1: sheer amount of damage it does, like one is worse 790 00:40:17,080 --> 00:40:17,560 Speaker 1: than the other. 791 00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:19,480 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean this is the whole thing. Like, this 792 00:40:19,640 --> 00:40:22,680 Speaker 2: is why it's that idea of like, well, we shouldn't 793 00:40:22,680 --> 00:40:24,399 Speaker 2: give to homeless people because what if one of them's 794 00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:26,360 Speaker 2: a liar and it's like who cares? 795 00:40:26,520 --> 00:40:27,520 Speaker 1: Yeah, who gives like shit? 796 00:40:28,040 --> 00:40:30,279 Speaker 2: Yeah, like yeah, that's most people loon be. 797 00:40:30,600 --> 00:40:32,880 Speaker 1: We have a lot of data on how just giving 798 00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:36,239 Speaker 1: homeless people cash works. Most of them use it to 799 00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:38,200 Speaker 1: get houses, well, you know, apartments or whatever. 800 00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:40,440 Speaker 2: But yeah, why are we using this fear of this 801 00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:43,480 Speaker 2: small percentage is or is not to do something that's Yeah, 802 00:40:43,520 --> 00:40:46,359 Speaker 2: it's broadly good. And this feels like the same thing, 803 00:40:46,440 --> 00:40:48,440 Speaker 2: which is like, well, some of them will be leeches, 804 00:40:48,480 --> 00:40:51,799 Speaker 2: and it's like let them, let them be leeches. Isn't 805 00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:54,680 Speaker 2: this what a good society is is something that takes 806 00:40:54,719 --> 00:40:56,920 Speaker 2: care of their people unconditionally. 807 00:40:57,440 --> 00:40:59,760 Speaker 1: It's so like you, no, you don't use this logic 808 00:41:00,080 --> 00:41:03,000 Speaker 1: wor else. And nobody says if you're like I should 809 00:41:03,080 --> 00:41:06,319 Speaker 1: exercise to get into better shape. No one is like, oh, 810 00:41:06,400 --> 00:41:08,839 Speaker 1: but you know what, it's theoretical that I might get 811 00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:12,799 Speaker 1: hurt exercising, so I'm never going to move my body, right, 812 00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:17,120 Speaker 1: Like yeah, like you would say, well that's irrational, right right. 813 00:41:17,200 --> 00:41:19,200 Speaker 2: But it's the same like a hospital where it's like, 814 00:41:19,520 --> 00:41:22,920 Speaker 2: well some of them might be fake, faking their symptoms, 815 00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:24,880 Speaker 2: and it's like yeah, I mean that doesn't mean we 816 00:41:24,960 --> 00:41:26,000 Speaker 2: get rid of the hospital. 817 00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:28,840 Speaker 1: Some number of doctors will be bad at it and 818 00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:32,200 Speaker 1: kill their patients, so we shouldn't have any medical professionals. 819 00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:34,240 Speaker 1: Just let nature take its course. 820 00:41:34,400 --> 00:41:36,759 Speaker 2: Yeah, we don't make this argument for anything else. But 821 00:41:36,840 --> 00:41:41,000 Speaker 2: when it comes to like talking about poor people getting things. 822 00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:43,719 Speaker 1: Look, one percent of people are allergic to antibiotics, so 823 00:41:43,800 --> 00:41:49,440 Speaker 1: let's just let everyone die of preventable infections. Yeah, it's 824 00:41:49,800 --> 00:41:54,280 Speaker 1: it's frustrating, so it's silly. The National Review, a conservative 825 00:41:54,360 --> 00:41:57,080 Speaker 1: journal of opinion in news that largely served as a 826 00:41:57,200 --> 00:42:00,440 Speaker 1: vehicle for distributing the work of these think tanksuggested that 827 00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:04,000 Speaker 1: the solution to the problem of parasitic college students was 828 00:42:04,080 --> 00:42:07,160 Speaker 1: to cut public funding for colleges, which be made up 829 00:42:07,200 --> 00:42:10,280 Speaker 1: by charging more or anything at all in some cases 830 00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:14,200 Speaker 1: for tuition. They recommended quote a system of full tuition 831 00:42:14,440 --> 00:42:17,600 Speaker 1: charges supplant supplemented by loans which students must pay out 832 00:42:17,600 --> 00:42:20,440 Speaker 1: of their future income. And this is all coming together 833 00:42:20,600 --> 00:42:24,040 Speaker 1: in this period. In May of nineteen sixty nine, things 834 00:42:24,120 --> 00:42:27,120 Speaker 1: came to a head. Student activists had created a people's 835 00:42:27,200 --> 00:42:30,040 Speaker 1: park on a vacant plot of land in Berkeley. Jeffrey 836 00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:32,960 Speaker 1: con writes students and activists had begun an attempt to 837 00:42:33,040 --> 00:42:36,239 Speaker 1: transform a vacant plot of university property into people's park. 838 00:42:36,440 --> 00:42:39,320 Speaker 1: Attempting to head off the activists, the university engaged a 839 00:42:39,400 --> 00:42:42,320 Speaker 1: fencing company accompanied by two hundred and fifty police to 840 00:42:42,440 --> 00:42:44,600 Speaker 1: erect a chain link fence around the land at four 841 00:42:44,640 --> 00:42:48,080 Speaker 1: am on May fifteenth, nineteen sixty nine. Five hours later, 842 00:42:48,160 --> 00:42:50,680 Speaker 1: a rally was called on Spool placet to protest. The 843 00:42:50,800 --> 00:42:54,440 Speaker 1: action resource, a current UC Berkeley reference guide for new students, 844 00:42:54,680 --> 00:42:57,040 Speaker 1: relates the story of how Reagan intervened, sending in a 845 00:42:57,160 --> 00:43:00,440 Speaker 1: National Guard. The rally, which drew three thousand people, soon 846 00:43:00,520 --> 00:43:02,880 Speaker 1: turned into a riot as the crowd moved down Telegraph 847 00:43:02,920 --> 00:43:05,840 Speaker 1: Avenue towards the park. That day known as Bloody Thursday. 848 00:43:05,920 --> 00:43:09,720 Speaker 1: Three students suffered punctured lungs, another a shattered leg. Thirteen 849 00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:13,000 Speaker 1: people were hospitalized with shotgun wounds, and one police officer 850 00:43:13,120 --> 00:43:15,799 Speaker 1: was stabbed. James Rector, who was watching the riot from 851 00:43:15,840 --> 00:43:19,080 Speaker 1: a rooftop, was shot by police gunfire. He died four 852 00:43:19,200 --> 00:43:22,800 Speaker 1: days later. Damn yeah, thanks Ronnie. 853 00:43:23,120 --> 00:43:23,359 Speaker 2: Yeah. 854 00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:26,160 Speaker 1: And by the way, this just happened again. They just 855 00:43:26,280 --> 00:43:29,600 Speaker 1: cracked down violently on people's park, which they were like, 856 00:43:29,880 --> 00:43:33,600 Speaker 1: homeless people were like basically it had been turned into 857 00:43:33,880 --> 00:43:36,680 Speaker 1: effectively a place where they could like camp and exist, 858 00:43:37,239 --> 00:43:39,800 Speaker 1: and the police just shut it down. A bunch of 859 00:43:39,840 --> 00:43:42,080 Speaker 1: protesters came up, they beat the shit out of everybody. 860 00:43:42,200 --> 00:43:46,279 Speaker 1: Same same story, twenty twenty four. I mean, I'd love 861 00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:46,680 Speaker 1: to see it. 862 00:43:47,400 --> 00:43:51,640 Speaker 2: Cops love a good beating of college protesters, all right, Yeah, yeah, 863 00:43:51,640 --> 00:43:54,200 Speaker 2: they're too young to fully know they're rights, like, you'll 864 00:43:54,200 --> 00:43:55,919 Speaker 2: probably get away with it a lot of the time. 865 00:43:56,040 --> 00:44:00,480 Speaker 1: You can shoot them, sure, yeah, yeah, fire and apparently rooftop. Yeah, 866 00:44:00,880 --> 00:44:02,080 Speaker 1: I got the shooting at roots. 867 00:44:02,600 --> 00:44:05,000 Speaker 2: I'm like, I don't want to trivialize his death, but 868 00:44:05,040 --> 00:44:07,480 Speaker 2: I'm imagining that guy being like, I'm nice and safe 869 00:44:07,560 --> 00:44:10,200 Speaker 2: up here. Yeah, Like, ah, don't worry about me, I'm 870 00:44:10,239 --> 00:44:13,160 Speaker 2: on the roof. Oh my goodness. Yeah. 871 00:44:13,880 --> 00:44:16,960 Speaker 1: So the riot was great pr for Reagan because the 872 00:44:17,040 --> 00:44:19,560 Speaker 1: media pretty much cited with him and putting the blame 873 00:44:19,640 --> 00:44:21,800 Speaker 1: for it on the protesters. He got to do the 874 00:44:21,880 --> 00:44:24,400 Speaker 1: strong Man Act and call in twenty two hundred National 875 00:44:24,440 --> 00:44:27,240 Speaker 1: Guard troops to deal with a state of emergency in Berkeley. 876 00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:30,720 Speaker 1: This created an absurd situation where guardsmen who were Berkeley 877 00:44:30,760 --> 00:44:34,200 Speaker 1: students were activated to police the campus. Con cites at 878 00:44:34,280 --> 00:44:36,200 Speaker 1: least one man who was shot at and injured by 879 00:44:36,239 --> 00:44:38,320 Speaker 1: cops during the riot and then got home to a 880 00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:41,080 Speaker 1: notice telling him to report for duty. More than a 881 00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:45,440 Speaker 1: thousand people were ultimately arrested. Reagan's war with Berkeley was 882 00:44:45,480 --> 00:44:48,800 Speaker 1: a blueprint for other conservative politicians, and the coalition of 883 00:44:48,880 --> 00:44:52,200 Speaker 1: right wing policy wonks and campaigners that coalesced around him 884 00:44:52,239 --> 00:44:55,440 Speaker 1: began to plot grander schemes, and we're going to talk 885 00:44:55,480 --> 00:44:58,160 Speaker 1: about those schemes. But first, you know who's got the 886 00:44:58,239 --> 00:45:02,200 Speaker 1: grandest scheme? Dave me. Oh, well, yes, you you do 887 00:45:02,360 --> 00:45:07,080 Speaker 1: have a plot. I'm always plotting, always scheming. And part 888 00:45:07,120 --> 00:45:10,560 Speaker 1: of Dave's plot is that you buy some of these products. 889 00:45:10,920 --> 00:45:18,759 Speaker 2: Absolutely, we're back. 890 00:45:19,280 --> 00:45:26,480 Speaker 1: So nineteen seventy Dave Reaga year runs for reelection. He 891 00:45:26,600 --> 00:45:30,279 Speaker 1: had become known as a charismatic speaker, the great communicator 892 00:45:30,320 --> 00:45:32,640 Speaker 1: of conservative thought to the masses, and there was no 893 00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:35,840 Speaker 1: issue that served him better than attacking those damn Marxists 894 00:45:35,920 --> 00:45:39,960 Speaker 1: in academia and the shiftless college students ruining America's good 895 00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:42,759 Speaker 1: time in Southeast Asia. In May of that year, he 896 00:45:42,880 --> 00:45:46,360 Speaker 1: shut down all twenty eight use campuses over protests against 897 00:45:46,360 --> 00:45:49,400 Speaker 1: the bombing of Cambodia. A few months later, in October, 898 00:45:49,480 --> 00:45:53,360 Speaker 1: his education advisor, Roger Freeman, gave a press conference, and 899 00:45:53,480 --> 00:45:56,960 Speaker 1: I'm going to quote here from an article in the Intercept. 900 00:45:57,480 --> 00:45:59,839 Speaker 1: Freeman's remarks were reported the next day in the San 901 00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:03,560 Speaker 1: Francisco Chronicle under the headline professor ces peril in education. 902 00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:06,640 Speaker 1: According to the Chronicle article, Freeman said, we are in 903 00:46:06,760 --> 00:46:10,880 Speaker 1: danger of producing an educated proletariat. That's dynamite. We have 904 00:46:11,080 --> 00:46:13,920 Speaker 1: to be selective on who we allow to go to college. 905 00:46:14,320 --> 00:46:17,200 Speaker 1: If not, Freeman continued, we will have a large number 906 00:46:17,239 --> 00:46:21,120 Speaker 1: of highly trained and unemployed people. Freeman also said, taking 907 00:46:21,160 --> 00:46:24,759 Speaker 1: a highly idiosyncratic perspective on the cause of fascism, that's 908 00:46:24,800 --> 00:46:26,959 Speaker 1: what happened in Germany. I saw it happen. 909 00:46:27,560 --> 00:46:30,360 Speaker 2: It's incredible because it's it's the big you know, you 910 00:46:30,440 --> 00:46:32,920 Speaker 2: step back from this and it's like, okay, so we're 911 00:46:32,960 --> 00:46:36,160 Speaker 2: bombing people, we're doing we're doing terrible things in a war, 912 00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:39,680 Speaker 2: and you know, it's always kind of pretty terrible. And 913 00:46:39,800 --> 00:46:43,800 Speaker 2: then our young people who we've taught you know, you know, 914 00:46:44,080 --> 00:46:47,360 Speaker 2: I presumably even the seventies, we taught them, you know, 915 00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:52,680 Speaker 2: compassion and basic morals as a kid, and then they're 916 00:46:52,719 --> 00:46:54,600 Speaker 2: in school and they're learning about the world and they're 917 00:46:54,640 --> 00:46:56,840 Speaker 2: saying like, you know, we don't like that you're doing this. 918 00:46:57,280 --> 00:46:58,640 Speaker 2: And you step back and you look at that, and 919 00:46:58,680 --> 00:47:02,680 Speaker 2: you're like, we better shut down these colleges. That's the problem. 920 00:47:03,040 --> 00:47:07,680 Speaker 2: It's just so funny how that's that's the conclusion that 921 00:47:07,800 --> 00:47:11,200 Speaker 2: they drew from where it's like, hey, stop doing this 922 00:47:11,320 --> 00:47:14,319 Speaker 2: terrible thing, and it's like you're right, we should find 923 00:47:14,360 --> 00:47:16,960 Speaker 2: a way to silence you from saying that you're so right. 924 00:47:17,560 --> 00:47:20,680 Speaker 2: And then it's a dystopian that it comes down to, 925 00:47:20,840 --> 00:47:22,799 Speaker 2: like these riots of them. 926 00:47:23,800 --> 00:47:28,520 Speaker 1: Just it's just a big part of Freeman as a 927 00:47:28,560 --> 00:47:31,640 Speaker 1: guy who comes out from this culture. Again he's born 928 00:47:31,680 --> 00:47:34,560 Speaker 1: in a monarchy, and his attitude, and this is the 929 00:47:34,560 --> 00:47:38,120 Speaker 1: attitude of basically all of the landed aristocracy in the 930 00:47:38,280 --> 00:47:41,160 Speaker 1: United States and in Europe, is that like no bless 931 00:47:41,200 --> 00:47:43,640 Speaker 1: oblige rite this idea that like, well, you have an 932 00:47:43,680 --> 00:47:47,040 Speaker 1: obligation as part of the uppercross to run society and 933 00:47:47,120 --> 00:47:49,120 Speaker 1: to take care of it. And you have within sort 934 00:47:49,160 --> 00:47:52,080 Speaker 1: of your noble cast, you have your progressives and your 935 00:47:52,160 --> 00:47:55,760 Speaker 1: conservatives and your progressives who are advocating for the little people. 936 00:47:55,800 --> 00:47:58,959 Speaker 1: But they always understand, because they come out of the aristocracy, 937 00:47:59,239 --> 00:48:01,880 Speaker 1: that their first is to their class and to maintaining 938 00:48:01,960 --> 00:48:03,920 Speaker 1: the wealth and power of their class. Of course, and 939 00:48:04,080 --> 00:48:08,080 Speaker 1: these these poor proletarians getting an education that can't be 940 00:48:08,160 --> 00:48:10,840 Speaker 1: allowed to happen because they don't have any loyalty to 941 00:48:10,960 --> 00:48:13,160 Speaker 1: the same class that we're in. They might just want 942 00:48:13,200 --> 00:48:14,520 Speaker 1: to make things better for the poor. 943 00:48:14,920 --> 00:48:16,760 Speaker 2: Yeah, it really comes down to that doesn't. 944 00:48:16,800 --> 00:48:18,720 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's it's pretty hideous. 945 00:48:18,960 --> 00:48:21,440 Speaker 2: It goes back, it goes to the whole civility thing 946 00:48:21,600 --> 00:48:24,359 Speaker 2: where it's like, how dare you protest that way? How 947 00:48:24,440 --> 00:48:27,320 Speaker 2: dare you do like, you know, like acting like the 948 00:48:27,680 --> 00:48:31,680 Speaker 2: protests are worse than the the actual enemy or the 949 00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:34,960 Speaker 2: actual people that they're harming. It's just and then of 950 00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:38,520 Speaker 2: course linking it to like they must all be socialists 951 00:48:38,760 --> 00:48:42,480 Speaker 2: or they all must be communistic because they're protesting this 952 00:48:42,680 --> 00:48:46,160 Speaker 2: thing that we're doing against these people. It's just it's 953 00:48:46,239 --> 00:48:50,520 Speaker 2: such I don't know, it's it's incredible, like I don't know, trickery. 954 00:48:50,920 --> 00:48:53,320 Speaker 1: It's very funny to me that he's like, this is 955 00:48:53,400 --> 00:48:55,360 Speaker 1: what happened in Germany because like, no, it's not. 956 00:48:55,600 --> 00:48:56,160 Speaker 2: It is true. 957 00:48:56,360 --> 00:48:58,520 Speaker 1: There were a lot of highly trained and unemployed people, 958 00:48:58,719 --> 00:49:01,560 Speaker 1: and that contributed to the Nonazis. They weren't highly trained 959 00:49:01,719 --> 00:49:06,680 Speaker 1: college students. They were veteran soldiers. They were trench fighters 960 00:49:06,960 --> 00:49:09,920 Speaker 1: with head injuries who were really good at killing people 961 00:49:10,080 --> 00:49:12,239 Speaker 1: and back the Nazis because the Nazis said, you know what, 962 00:49:12,320 --> 00:49:15,839 Speaker 1: the best thing is killing people, right, that's not all 963 00:49:15,920 --> 00:49:18,719 Speaker 1: of it. But like the Nazis did not not that 964 00:49:18,800 --> 00:49:21,880 Speaker 1: they had no college graduates, like Hitler wasn't an educated 965 00:49:22,000 --> 00:49:25,000 Speaker 1: college graduate. That's not why Hitler was powerful. 966 00:49:25,160 --> 00:49:27,799 Speaker 2: You know, I mean we we sure love, we sure 967 00:49:27,920 --> 00:49:30,520 Speaker 2: loved pretending the Nazis were a lot of things that 968 00:49:30,640 --> 00:49:33,600 Speaker 2: they weren't. Right, Like, there's just so much like, well, 969 00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:36,640 Speaker 2: that's what the Nazis did, and it's always just like 970 00:49:37,239 --> 00:49:39,080 Speaker 2: very vague broad strokes of it. 971 00:49:39,360 --> 00:49:42,000 Speaker 1: There was certainly a chunk of the Nazis who were 972 00:49:42,040 --> 00:49:45,160 Speaker 1: well educated and whatnot, but like that was not the 973 00:49:45,320 --> 00:49:49,400 Speaker 1: center of their power, right, their early power, the street fighters, 974 00:49:49,440 --> 00:49:52,600 Speaker 1: the movements were like vets and hooligans. 975 00:49:52,680 --> 00:49:56,000 Speaker 2: You know, it's very funny to be like the Nazis 976 00:49:56,040 --> 00:50:00,520 Speaker 2: were educated. Education makes you Nazi. Yeah, it's like the 977 00:50:00,680 --> 00:50:07,640 Speaker 2: Nazis drink water, therefore we shouldn't drink water. Yeah, yeah, 978 00:50:07,680 --> 00:50:10,319 Speaker 2: it's yeah, it's ridiculous. Yeah. 979 00:50:10,560 --> 00:50:13,240 Speaker 1: So this guy Roger Freeman, who is who is saying 980 00:50:13,320 --> 00:50:15,880 Speaker 1: all of this really hideous shit is again he's in 981 00:50:15,920 --> 00:50:19,440 Speaker 1: Austrian born in nineteen oh four. He'd fled after Hitler 982 00:50:19,480 --> 00:50:22,960 Speaker 1: annexed Austria and wound up serving under Eisenhower and Nixon. 983 00:50:23,239 --> 00:50:25,560 Speaker 1: He was also a fellow at the Hoover Institute, which 984 00:50:25,640 --> 00:50:28,280 Speaker 1: was Stanford's think tank, right, and it was a pretty 985 00:50:28,360 --> 00:50:31,520 Speaker 1: conservative think tank. Right. This is kind of contrary to 986 00:50:31,560 --> 00:50:34,200 Speaker 1: the republican frenzy of our Marxist academics, but like the 987 00:50:34,239 --> 00:50:37,560 Speaker 1: Hoover Institute is pretty right wing. And that's where this guy, 988 00:50:37,680 --> 00:50:39,719 Speaker 1: who was in a lot of ways the architect of 989 00:50:39,840 --> 00:50:43,480 Speaker 1: the student loan system, this is one of Reagan's education advisors, 990 00:50:43,840 --> 00:50:46,680 Speaker 1: comes out of. He is a think tank guy. Right 991 00:50:47,520 --> 00:50:50,040 Speaker 1: University he believed was something only the wealthy should have 992 00:50:50,120 --> 00:50:52,880 Speaker 1: access to, because you know, they had an understanding of 993 00:50:52,920 --> 00:50:56,880 Speaker 1: their obligation to maintain the status quo. Reagan becomes the 994 00:50:56,960 --> 00:50:59,520 Speaker 1: center then of a plot to co opt the energy 995 00:50:59,600 --> 00:51:02,400 Speaker 1: in the enthusiasm of the new right in order to 996 00:51:02,440 --> 00:51:05,080 Speaker 1: help the old right remake the economy in their image 997 00:51:05,080 --> 00:51:08,360 Speaker 1: and destroy anything that hints at being a public benefit. 998 00:51:08,880 --> 00:51:11,520 Speaker 1: He is the first candidate that benefits from both the 999 00:51:11,600 --> 00:51:14,680 Speaker 1: newly forged religious right, which at this point has two 1000 00:51:14,800 --> 00:51:17,480 Speaker 1: major causes, keeping black kids out of private schools and 1001 00:51:17,560 --> 00:51:20,719 Speaker 1: turning back women's rights. And he's also the first think 1002 00:51:20,800 --> 00:51:21,520 Speaker 1: tank president. 1003 00:51:21,640 --> 00:51:21,759 Speaker 2: Right. 1004 00:51:21,920 --> 00:51:25,680 Speaker 1: Some of this stuff had started creeping in during Nixon's administration, 1005 00:51:25,840 --> 00:51:28,719 Speaker 1: but it's really Reagan that is the first you know 1006 00:51:28,800 --> 00:51:31,240 Speaker 1: all this shit in the pal memorandum and the religious 1007 00:51:31,320 --> 00:51:33,960 Speaker 1: right stuff. Reagan is the first president to really benefit 1008 00:51:34,040 --> 00:51:34,960 Speaker 1: from all of it, you know. 1009 00:51:35,520 --> 00:51:38,880 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there's I know that Jimmy Carter of 1010 00:51:38,960 --> 00:51:42,640 Speaker 2: all people was like the first like Christian president, right that, 1011 00:51:42,880 --> 00:51:45,880 Speaker 2: like really yes, put that, And so it's like he 1012 00:51:46,040 --> 00:51:48,120 Speaker 2: was like the practice run where they're like, Okay, well 1013 00:51:48,160 --> 00:51:52,320 Speaker 2: that can work. I mean, not him, but like you know, 1014 00:51:52,560 --> 00:51:55,000 Speaker 2: a guy I like him, or maybe even not even 1015 00:51:55,000 --> 00:51:57,400 Speaker 2: a guy like him, because I'm pretty sure Reagan was 1016 00:51:57,520 --> 00:52:01,839 Speaker 2: not very religious. Uh oh god no no, no, yeah, 1017 00:52:02,560 --> 00:52:07,640 Speaker 2: get godless, Hollywood Hollywood actor. So yeah, yeah, yeah. 1018 00:52:08,120 --> 00:52:10,640 Speaker 1: So as kind of this this think tank, you know, 1019 00:52:10,920 --> 00:52:13,800 Speaker 1: so Reagan has his re election in nineteen seventy, nineteen 1020 00:52:13,880 --> 00:52:16,640 Speaker 1: eighty obviously is going to be his presidential campaign. In 1021 00:52:16,760 --> 00:52:19,640 Speaker 1: that period in between, you have both the religious right 1022 00:52:20,040 --> 00:52:23,200 Speaker 1: growing in power, and you have these think tanks really 1023 00:52:23,360 --> 00:52:26,000 Speaker 1: start to get to get moving, right, Like this is 1024 00:52:26,080 --> 00:52:27,960 Speaker 1: really when you're having a bunch of them founded in 1025 00:52:28,040 --> 00:52:31,799 Speaker 1: quick secession. In nineteen seventy three, two congressional aids quit 1026 00:52:31,880 --> 00:52:35,000 Speaker 1: the Hill and start the Heritage Foundation. In nineteen seventy six, 1027 00:52:35,080 --> 00:52:37,760 Speaker 1: a former Brookings guy starts the Ethics and Public Policy 1028 00:52:37,840 --> 00:52:40,640 Speaker 1: Center in nineteen seventy seven, will get the Cato Institute 1029 00:52:40,719 --> 00:52:45,160 Speaker 1: named after a pretty insufferable Roman by some equally insufferable Americans. 1030 00:52:45,520 --> 00:52:48,640 Speaker 1: And this all contributes to a nineteen eighty Ronald Reagan 1031 00:52:48,760 --> 00:52:51,960 Speaker 1: winning his election. And you know, one of the things 1032 00:52:52,000 --> 00:52:54,720 Speaker 1: that had been a through line in his presidential campaign 1033 00:52:54,800 --> 00:52:57,480 Speaker 1: had been these constant series of attacks on this growing 1034 00:52:57,600 --> 00:53:01,719 Speaker 1: class of administrators and thinkers, kind of liberal academics and 1035 00:53:01,840 --> 00:53:04,640 Speaker 1: think tank people who had crusted together at the upper 1036 00:53:04,719 --> 00:53:07,759 Speaker 1: levels of government. Right, And Reagan basically says, these guys 1037 00:53:07,800 --> 00:53:10,640 Speaker 1: are burdening the doers. We have too many thinkers in 1038 00:53:10,760 --> 00:53:12,359 Speaker 1: there and not enough men of action. 1039 00:53:12,719 --> 00:53:12,839 Speaker 2: Right. 1040 00:53:13,480 --> 00:53:16,239 Speaker 1: But as soon as he takes office, he's going to 1041 00:53:16,440 --> 00:53:19,879 Speaker 1: fill the White House with nothing but think tank guys. 1042 00:53:20,080 --> 00:53:20,239 Speaker 3: Right. 1043 00:53:21,000 --> 00:53:23,839 Speaker 1: Despite like this, these complaints they'd had about how all 1044 00:53:23,880 --> 00:53:26,120 Speaker 1: of these people were gumming up the works of government. 1045 00:53:26,480 --> 00:53:27,880 Speaker 1: And I'm going to quote from an article in the 1046 00:53:27,920 --> 00:53:31,520 Speaker 1: Atlantic here about that process. When plump positions started going 1047 00:53:31,600 --> 00:53:34,320 Speaker 1: to them, conservatives discovered that the new class wasn't so 1048 00:53:34,480 --> 00:53:38,160 Speaker 1: bad after all. Norman Tour, one of the original supply siders, 1049 00:53:38,160 --> 00:53:41,280 Speaker 1: supported himself through the late nineteen seventies by taking donations 1050 00:53:41,320 --> 00:53:44,040 Speaker 1: for his Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation. 1051 00:53:44,520 --> 00:53:47,640 Speaker 1: While Ronald Reagan was composing his first cabinet, Turre wrote 1052 00:53:47,640 --> 00:53:50,359 Speaker 1: a paper for the Heritage Foundation advocating, in the best 1053 00:53:50,440 --> 00:53:53,080 Speaker 1: new class style, the creation of a new government post 1054 00:53:53,280 --> 00:53:56,480 Speaker 1: that of Treasury Department Under Secretary for Tax Policy, and 1055 00:53:56,760 --> 00:53:59,920 Speaker 1: after some assiduous circulating of the paper with resume attached, 1056 00:54:00,280 --> 00:54:03,719 Speaker 1: landed the job for himself. Following the change of administrations 1057 00:54:03,760 --> 00:54:06,880 Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty, some conservatives found think tanks useful vehicles 1058 00:54:06,920 --> 00:54:09,840 Speaker 1: for advancing their ideas in their careers. Colin Gray, a 1059 00:54:09,920 --> 00:54:13,200 Speaker 1: nuclear hardliner known for a foreign policy article titled Victory 1060 00:54:13,280 --> 00:54:16,040 Speaker 1: as Possible, failed to land a top position at Defense 1061 00:54:16,080 --> 00:54:18,880 Speaker 1: of the National Security Council. So we started the National 1062 00:54:18,960 --> 00:54:22,240 Speaker 1: Institute for Public Policy, which produces studies on beam weapons 1063 00:54:22,280 --> 00:54:23,759 Speaker 1: and other Star Wars components. 1064 00:54:24,320 --> 00:54:25,000 Speaker 2: So this works. 1065 00:54:26,000 --> 00:54:28,040 Speaker 1: It can be as directly as in the case the Terrez. 1066 00:54:28,360 --> 00:54:30,960 Speaker 1: You start a think tank, you write papers about how 1067 00:54:31,000 --> 00:54:33,719 Speaker 1: the government needs to have this specific position making sure 1068 00:54:33,760 --> 00:54:36,240 Speaker 1: that taxes get cut, and then you get that fucking 1069 00:54:36,360 --> 00:54:39,200 Speaker 1: job for yourself because you sent that paper around Reagan 1070 00:54:39,280 --> 00:54:41,120 Speaker 1: people with your resume attached. 1071 00:54:41,440 --> 00:54:42,440 Speaker 2: It's such a good grift. 1072 00:54:42,920 --> 00:54:45,879 Speaker 1: It's a great grift. I kind of want to steal 1073 00:54:46,000 --> 00:54:47,520 Speaker 1: that one from myself in all. 1074 00:54:47,560 --> 00:54:49,760 Speaker 2: Kind of I don't know. We talked about the value 1075 00:54:49,800 --> 00:54:52,239 Speaker 2: of a good font. It's that thing where like I 1076 00:54:52,400 --> 00:54:55,560 Speaker 2: get why this is kind of weird. I get why 1077 00:54:55,640 --> 00:54:59,960 Speaker 2: fly earthers exist. Yeah, I get why weird like conspirac 1078 00:55:00,040 --> 00:55:04,960 Speaker 2: see people or like, because to regular people, it's all 1079 00:55:05,120 --> 00:55:08,280 Speaker 2: just like books, right, Yeah, it's all like most people, 1080 00:55:08,440 --> 00:55:11,960 Speaker 2: no one gets to see the world from space, no 1081 00:55:12,040 --> 00:55:14,400 Speaker 2: one gets to experience history. We all just it's just 1082 00:55:14,640 --> 00:55:16,920 Speaker 2: we grew up at schools giving us books and going like, 1083 00:55:17,320 --> 00:55:21,000 Speaker 2: trust me, this is what it is. We've passed this 1084 00:55:21,200 --> 00:55:23,640 Speaker 2: down and so like it seems really easy to be 1085 00:55:23,719 --> 00:55:26,640 Speaker 2: able to hijack that and go like, see, we have 1086 00:55:26,760 --> 00:55:30,520 Speaker 2: a study. You love studies, we have experts, and here's 1087 00:55:30,560 --> 00:55:32,880 Speaker 2: a piece of paper. Here's a book, a pamphlet that 1088 00:55:33,040 --> 00:55:36,760 Speaker 2: says this thing very officially, that says that I should 1089 00:55:36,840 --> 00:55:37,560 Speaker 2: get this job. 1090 00:55:38,239 --> 00:55:41,359 Speaker 1: That is the stated goal. Is like, when we're having 1091 00:55:41,560 --> 00:55:43,880 Speaker 1: arguments about what we do with taxes, should we have 1092 00:55:44,000 --> 00:55:47,120 Speaker 1: this public benefit? You know, should should college be free? 1093 00:55:47,680 --> 00:55:50,400 Speaker 1: And you know, liberals trot out these papers by the 1094 00:55:50,440 --> 00:55:52,840 Speaker 1: Brooking Institute. We want to have twice as many papers 1095 00:55:52,880 --> 00:55:54,839 Speaker 1: from our institutes because that's all a lot of people 1096 00:55:54,920 --> 00:55:56,960 Speaker 1: care about. It's like, well, that's a thicker stack of papers. 1097 00:55:57,000 --> 00:55:58,160 Speaker 1: They must have more evidence. 1098 00:55:58,320 --> 00:56:03,279 Speaker 2: It's ridiculous. We have on the internet more than an ever. 1099 00:56:03,600 --> 00:56:06,360 Speaker 2: Like studies, the concept of a study where it's like, 1100 00:56:06,400 --> 00:56:09,320 Speaker 2: there's so many studies and they say different things, and 1101 00:56:09,400 --> 00:56:11,279 Speaker 2: then you actually dig into the study and you're like, 1102 00:56:11,360 --> 00:56:14,920 Speaker 2: this barely says this thing. Yeah, but we love it 1103 00:56:15,520 --> 00:56:17,960 Speaker 2: doesn't matter. It's just how many studies. 1104 00:56:17,520 --> 00:56:20,840 Speaker 1: How many studies you get in this thing. Yeah. So 1105 00:56:21,200 --> 00:56:24,839 Speaker 1: by the time the Reagan administration gets underway, US conservatives 1106 00:56:24,960 --> 00:56:28,320 Speaker 1: have exhibited their remarkable talent for flexibility by deciding the 1107 00:56:28,360 --> 00:56:32,279 Speaker 1: professional thinker class is good actually and ought to be 1108 00:56:32,400 --> 00:56:34,959 Speaker 1: employed telling the rest of us what to do. Every 1109 00:56:35,040 --> 00:56:38,360 Speaker 1: major shift in economic policy and defense policy under Reagan 1110 00:56:38,480 --> 00:56:41,720 Speaker 1: was supported by an ocean of think tank publications beyond 1111 00:56:41,760 --> 00:56:44,720 Speaker 1: the Powell Memo. A major intellectual touchstone of this movement 1112 00:56:45,120 --> 00:56:49,120 Speaker 1: was Wealth and Poverty, a book by George Gilder. Gilder 1113 00:56:49,239 --> 00:56:51,759 Speaker 1: was a New York child whose father died flying for 1114 00:56:51,840 --> 00:56:54,359 Speaker 1: the army in the Big Dub Dub dose. He grew 1115 00:56:54,440 --> 00:56:56,719 Speaker 1: up on a farm in Massachusetts and was raised in 1116 00:56:56,840 --> 00:56:59,080 Speaker 1: part by the Rockefeller family, which would give you an 1117 00:56:59,120 --> 00:57:04,120 Speaker 1: idea ask his economic state, right, David Rockefeller is his godfather. 1118 00:57:04,440 --> 00:57:06,520 Speaker 1: He is as blue a blood as it's possible to be. 1119 00:57:08,000 --> 00:57:11,360 Speaker 1: He's too and fine and wealth and poverty. Espouses a 1120 00:57:11,440 --> 00:57:14,759 Speaker 1: supply side economics philosophy that is amenable to the people 1121 00:57:14,800 --> 00:57:18,920 Speaker 1: who already had fortunes. Like as godfather. This basically becomes 1122 00:57:19,000 --> 00:57:23,480 Speaker 1: the bible of the Reagan administration's economic policy. Gilder argues 1123 00:57:23,560 --> 00:57:25,520 Speaker 1: for tax cuts, but he does so in a way 1124 00:57:25,560 --> 00:57:28,800 Speaker 1: that is utterly novel. This is the foundation of trickle 1125 00:57:28,840 --> 00:57:31,800 Speaker 1: down economics. Right, you need to cut taxes because it'll 1126 00:57:31,840 --> 00:57:35,040 Speaker 1: improve the economy for everybody. And I'm going to quote 1127 00:57:35,040 --> 00:57:37,840 Speaker 1: from the Atlantic again here, Adam Smith, he said, had 1128 00:57:37,840 --> 00:57:41,080 Speaker 1: it wrong. Capitalism isn't a voodoo through which many selfish 1129 00:57:41,200 --> 00:57:45,320 Speaker 1: acts inexplicably advance the whole. It's a magnanimous organism in 1130 00:57:45,360 --> 00:57:48,640 Speaker 1: which everybody wants the best for everybody else, since, after all, 1131 00:57:49,040 --> 00:57:52,040 Speaker 1: one person cannot prosper selling his product unless many others 1132 00:57:52,080 --> 00:57:55,360 Speaker 1: are prosperous enough to buy. Big tax cuts, Guilder said, 1133 00:57:55,560 --> 00:57:59,600 Speaker 1: will trigger an outburst of altruism. Now, funny, we know 1134 00:57:59,760 --> 00:58:03,040 Speaker 1: that's not true. All they do is park the money offshore, 1135 00:58:03,160 --> 00:58:05,600 Speaker 1: trillions and trillions of dollars of it, enough money to 1136 00:58:05,760 --> 00:58:10,000 Speaker 1: solve a significant chunk of the problems we face healthcare, homelessness, 1137 00:58:10,080 --> 00:58:13,800 Speaker 1: to be goddamn certain, all of it's parked in. They're 1138 00:58:14,160 --> 00:58:16,000 Speaker 1: this is what the Panama papers field. That's why they've 1139 00:58:16,000 --> 00:58:17,440 Speaker 1: bombed a journalist car. 1140 00:58:19,000 --> 00:58:21,400 Speaker 2: It's not true, yea we I mean when was the 1141 00:58:21,600 --> 00:58:25,280 Speaker 2: Christmas Carol written? Like we've always known it's not true. 1142 00:58:25,720 --> 00:58:29,080 Speaker 2: It's so weird that they got away with saying like, yeah, 1143 00:58:29,400 --> 00:58:31,880 Speaker 2: just help out the rich people and they'll help everybody 1144 00:58:31,960 --> 00:58:32,400 Speaker 2: else out. 1145 00:58:32,840 --> 00:58:34,520 Speaker 1: I think what you're getting at, Dave, because I don't 1146 00:58:34,520 --> 00:58:36,840 Speaker 1: think it's capitalism to like going and being able to 1147 00:58:36,880 --> 00:58:38,640 Speaker 1: buy stuff at the mall. That's like a market, and 1148 00:58:38,800 --> 00:58:41,880 Speaker 1: markets are nice. We like markets. That's why every city 1149 00:58:41,960 --> 00:58:45,320 Speaker 1: in history is founded around a market. It's nice to 1150 00:58:45,400 --> 00:58:48,120 Speaker 1: go pick up fresh food. It's nice to get a 1151 00:58:48,360 --> 00:58:50,920 Speaker 1: to get a nice thing to wear or whatever. Like, 1152 00:58:51,200 --> 00:58:54,800 Speaker 1: it's not nice to have your entire society structured around 1153 00:58:54,800 --> 00:58:57,320 Speaker 1: the fact that there's a couple of thousand dudes who 1154 00:58:57,440 --> 00:58:59,760 Speaker 1: own every company because they have shares of a thing 1155 00:58:59,800 --> 00:59:03,400 Speaker 1: in the stock market, and everyone else's life and comfort 1156 00:59:03,480 --> 00:59:06,480 Speaker 1: and survivalist secondary to them always getting a return on 1157 00:59:06,560 --> 00:59:07,680 Speaker 1: their investment, right. 1158 00:59:08,240 --> 00:59:10,320 Speaker 2: I mean, that's the thing. This is, This is anti 1159 00:59:10,800 --> 00:59:12,880 Speaker 2: what they claim to be. It's anti free market. A 1160 00:59:12,960 --> 00:59:16,240 Speaker 2: lot of this stuff too, where it's like they're just 1161 00:59:16,600 --> 00:59:19,040 Speaker 2: we're in a situation where there's certain companies that it's 1162 00:59:19,120 --> 00:59:23,440 Speaker 2: like there's no competition anymore for them, like they've just 1163 00:59:23,600 --> 00:59:25,120 Speaker 2: demolished everything. 1164 00:59:25,440 --> 00:59:27,520 Speaker 1: No one has an issue with the idea that Steve 1165 00:59:27,600 --> 00:59:30,320 Speaker 1: Wozniak and Venner of the personal computer might have a 1166 00:59:30,440 --> 00:59:33,360 Speaker 1: nice beach house and a fancy car, right, Yeah, nobody 1167 00:59:33,400 --> 00:59:35,920 Speaker 1: has an issue with the fact that Danny DeVito probably 1168 00:59:36,000 --> 00:59:39,000 Speaker 1: has a nice vacation home. We're all happy for Danny DeVito. 1169 00:59:39,160 --> 00:59:40,800 Speaker 2: Yeah. I hope he has an island. I hope he 1170 00:59:40,800 --> 00:59:42,560 Speaker 2: has his own little Danny DeVito island. 1171 00:59:42,800 --> 00:59:47,240 Speaker 1: I'm not thrilled with Mark Zuckerberg hollowing out the center 1172 00:59:47,320 --> 00:59:50,560 Speaker 1: of a major Hawaiian island to build an apocalypse bunker 1173 00:59:50,600 --> 00:59:52,440 Speaker 1: where he can recreate civilization. 1174 00:59:53,160 --> 00:59:58,720 Speaker 2: It's like that. It's getting silly. Yeah, it's getting real silly. Yeah, 1175 01:00:00,240 --> 01:00:04,160 Speaker 2: Just people don't need that much stuff any no, no, or. 1176 01:00:04,200 --> 01:00:07,160 Speaker 1: That much control of anyway. We're all we're preaching to 1177 01:00:07,240 --> 01:00:10,320 Speaker 1: the choir here, and we're certainly not preaching to Guilder, 1178 01:00:10,400 --> 01:00:13,560 Speaker 1: because Guilder's attitude is if we just let these people 1179 01:00:13,680 --> 01:00:17,080 Speaker 1: get as rich as possible and leave everything up to 1180 01:00:17,160 --> 01:00:20,960 Speaker 1: them by gutting our social programs, they'll take care of it. 1181 01:00:21,200 --> 01:00:23,959 Speaker 1: One way or the other. It'll trickle down and it'll 1182 01:00:24,200 --> 01:00:25,360 Speaker 1: we'll all get richer. 1183 01:00:25,800 --> 01:00:28,120 Speaker 2: This is also based on the assumption that rich people 1184 01:00:28,160 --> 01:00:31,240 Speaker 2: are smart and good. Yes, And it's just very funny 1185 01:00:31,280 --> 01:00:33,480 Speaker 2: because this is all about them being like, we need 1186 01:00:33,560 --> 01:00:36,240 Speaker 2: to make colleges exclusive for them and make the world 1187 01:00:36,640 --> 01:00:39,280 Speaker 2: pave the way for them and give them all this 1188 01:00:39,320 --> 01:00:41,040 Speaker 2: stuff and they'll be smart enough to know what to 1189 01:00:41,200 --> 01:00:43,320 Speaker 2: with it. And it's like, really oause it sounds like 1190 01:00:43,400 --> 01:00:45,920 Speaker 2: you're putting everything on a platter for them, and they 1191 01:00:46,000 --> 01:00:49,280 Speaker 2: have all this generational wealth and you're ensuring a bunch 1192 01:00:49,360 --> 01:00:52,400 Speaker 2: of dipshits with a lot of money and no idea 1193 01:00:52,520 --> 01:00:54,120 Speaker 2: how to actually do any. 1194 01:00:54,040 --> 01:00:57,360 Speaker 1: Sure does seem like that. And Guilder, the guy who 1195 01:00:57,560 --> 01:01:00,920 Speaker 1: is who puts together you know, this argument that becomes 1196 01:01:01,000 --> 01:01:04,520 Speaker 1: the center of Reagan's economic policy is a career think 1197 01:01:04,600 --> 01:01:07,920 Speaker 1: tank guy. He was a program director for the Manhattan Institute. 1198 01:01:08,000 --> 01:01:11,000 Speaker 1: He was chairman of the economic portion of the Lairman Institute. 1199 01:01:11,440 --> 01:01:14,120 Speaker 1: And so again he comes entirely out of this project. 1200 01:01:14,240 --> 01:01:17,600 Speaker 1: By these rich guys to fund the creation of an 1201 01:01:17,600 --> 01:01:21,360 Speaker 1: intellectual class that says what they want being said, and 1202 01:01:21,480 --> 01:01:25,160 Speaker 1: by framing the incredibly selfish economic policies that the elite 1203 01:01:25,680 --> 01:01:28,800 Speaker 1: support as altruistic, he is able to preside over a 1204 01:01:28,960 --> 01:01:31,880 Speaker 1: sea change in how conservatives talk to the country. In 1205 01:01:31,920 --> 01:01:35,760 Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies. Gen Kirkpatrick has criticized Republicans for being 1206 01:01:35,840 --> 01:01:38,560 Speaker 1: able to quote conceive of no greater good than a 1207 01:01:38,640 --> 01:01:42,800 Speaker 1: balanced budget. Starting with Reagan, balanced budgets are no longer 1208 01:01:42,880 --> 01:01:46,200 Speaker 1: a priority, and the deficit simply wasn't worth talking about 1209 01:01:46,320 --> 01:01:50,200 Speaker 1: unless a Democrat happened to be president. Greg Easterbrook notes 1210 01:01:50,240 --> 01:01:52,760 Speaker 1: in his History of Conservative think tanks that the Heritage 1211 01:01:52,760 --> 01:01:55,640 Speaker 1: Foundation didn't even use the word debt in its mandate 1212 01:01:55,720 --> 01:01:59,280 Speaker 1: for leadership until page two hundred and nineteen. In the 1213 01:01:59,320 --> 01:02:02,600 Speaker 1: mid nineteen the Ethics and Policy Center, another think tank, 1214 01:02:02,920 --> 01:02:06,280 Speaker 1: started holding conferences on how market mechanisms could benefit the 1215 01:02:06,360 --> 01:02:10,400 Speaker 1: poor quote not once were welfare queens or ghetto cadillacs, 1216 01:02:10,440 --> 01:02:13,360 Speaker 1: the sort of small minded crochets that would have dominated 1217 01:02:13,400 --> 01:02:17,520 Speaker 1: a similar Conservative conference a decade ago. Even mentioned conservatism, 1218 01:02:17,600 --> 01:02:21,919 Speaker 1: by acquiring a positive vision, had become warmer. A huge 1219 01:02:21,960 --> 01:02:24,600 Speaker 1: amount of this strategy, that kind of the lynchpin of 1220 01:02:24,680 --> 01:02:29,040 Speaker 1: it working, hinges on journalists and particularly the way lazy 1221 01:02:29,200 --> 01:02:33,320 Speaker 1: journalists meet their deadlines. The way legacy publications tend to 1222 01:02:33,360 --> 01:02:36,000 Speaker 1: work is that when you're discussing a debate over public policy, 1223 01:02:36,040 --> 01:02:37,800 Speaker 1: you want to be able to present quotes from both 1224 01:02:37,880 --> 01:02:41,520 Speaker 1: sides of the debate. This is called being unbiased. Powell 1225 01:02:41,600 --> 01:02:44,720 Speaker 1: and his fellow ideologues knew that, since most journalists are lazy, 1226 01:02:45,040 --> 01:02:47,000 Speaker 1: if you made it very easy for them to get 1227 01:02:47,080 --> 01:02:49,640 Speaker 1: quotes from you by sending them piles of information whenever 1228 01:02:49,680 --> 01:02:52,440 Speaker 1: they asked for a question, they would reward you by 1229 01:02:52,520 --> 01:02:56,640 Speaker 1: giving your ideas more sympathy in their coverage. The Brookings Institute, 1230 01:02:56,720 --> 01:03:00,360 Speaker 1: which tended to do rigorous work, charged journalists who wanted 1231 01:03:00,400 --> 01:03:03,480 Speaker 1: to access their studies. None of these right wing think 1232 01:03:03,560 --> 01:03:06,400 Speaker 1: tanks charge. They also write in a way that's more 1233 01:03:06,480 --> 01:03:09,520 Speaker 1: accessible to the layman. Since they're not actually saying anything 1234 01:03:09,560 --> 01:03:12,560 Speaker 1: with any evidence, they're able to like throw into entertaining 1235 01:03:12,640 --> 01:03:15,440 Speaker 1: prose by guys like William F. Buckley. Right, this is 1236 01:03:15,480 --> 01:03:16,960 Speaker 1: a big part of why this works. 1237 01:03:17,600 --> 01:03:21,440 Speaker 2: Have you read the da Vinci Code, Robert No The 1238 01:03:21,520 --> 01:03:25,520 Speaker 2: book The di Vinci Code is practically written in screenplay format, 1239 01:03:25,960 --> 01:03:28,240 Speaker 2: and it's just reminding me of that. Where they're making it. 1240 01:03:28,600 --> 01:03:30,840 Speaker 2: They're basically like, you read the da Vinci Code and 1241 01:03:30,840 --> 01:03:33,280 Speaker 2: you're like, he wanted this to be a movie. Yeah, 1242 01:03:33,320 --> 01:03:35,360 Speaker 2: and he made it as easy as possible for it 1243 01:03:35,440 --> 01:03:38,160 Speaker 2: to be a movie. And that's what you're describing here, 1244 01:03:38,280 --> 01:03:43,280 Speaker 2: which is like science papers and studies, they are difficult, 1245 01:03:43,800 --> 01:03:46,680 Speaker 2: they're very Having worked on some more news and going 1246 01:03:46,760 --> 01:03:50,240 Speaker 2: through them, it's like sometimes they feel like they're purposefully 1247 01:03:50,360 --> 01:03:54,880 Speaker 2: worded to be hard to understand. Yeah, And it's almost 1248 01:03:54,920 --> 01:03:57,000 Speaker 2: like a gatekeeping It's like when you do your texts, 1249 01:03:57,280 --> 01:04:00,320 Speaker 2: you realize it's kind of a gatekeeping process. Yeah, it 1250 01:04:00,400 --> 01:04:04,240 Speaker 2: makes sense that this would be a really important step because, 1251 01:04:04,360 --> 01:04:09,720 Speaker 2: like you said, journalisms, journalists are lazy expected. I think 1252 01:04:09,880 --> 01:04:11,880 Speaker 2: the nicer way to put it is they're expected to 1253 01:04:12,040 --> 01:04:15,680 Speaker 2: cover everything, and that means they are expected to be 1254 01:04:16,080 --> 01:04:21,920 Speaker 2: like kind of experts and everything to understand everything, and 1255 01:04:22,040 --> 01:04:24,840 Speaker 2: so they will glom On. If you go like here, yeah, 1256 01:04:25,240 --> 01:04:28,080 Speaker 2: ik it easy, Here's a really easy way to explain 1257 01:04:28,200 --> 01:04:28,600 Speaker 2: this thing. 1258 01:04:29,400 --> 01:04:31,720 Speaker 1: Or here's a column by one of our fellows on 1259 01:04:31,840 --> 01:04:33,600 Speaker 1: this issue. You know, you can just publish this and 1260 01:04:33,640 --> 01:04:36,400 Speaker 1: you'll have something to put in your little newspaper. The 1261 01:04:36,520 --> 01:04:40,840 Speaker 1: American Enterprise Institute or AEI, was perhaps the most successful 1262 01:04:40,920 --> 01:04:43,400 Speaker 1: of the bunch. It was founded in nineteen forty three 1263 01:04:43,480 --> 01:04:46,960 Speaker 1: by Lewis Brown, a wealthy industrial magnate. He had been 1264 01:04:47,040 --> 01:04:50,640 Speaker 1: the bagman for the president of Montgomery Ward T. F. Mercel, 1265 01:04:51,200 --> 01:04:53,480 Speaker 1: and during the end of the nineteen twenties, a firm 1266 01:04:53,600 --> 01:04:56,880 Speaker 1: called John's Manville discovered the profit making potential of an 1267 01:04:56,920 --> 01:05:01,320 Speaker 1: incredible fire retardant substance called asbestos, and they hired Tf 1268 01:05:01,480 --> 01:05:04,240 Speaker 1: to be their chairman. He brought Brown, the founder of 1269 01:05:04,280 --> 01:05:08,000 Speaker 1: the AEI, and then he dropped dead suddenly, almost immediately, 1270 01:05:08,080 --> 01:05:11,280 Speaker 1: which made Brown president of the s Bestos Company at 1271 01:05:11,320 --> 01:05:14,640 Speaker 1: age thirty five. He becomes the s The guy who 1272 01:05:14,760 --> 01:05:17,680 Speaker 1: founds like the most influential think tank of the Reagan era, 1273 01:05:18,160 --> 01:05:21,120 Speaker 1: was previously the asbestos king of the United States. 1274 01:05:21,800 --> 01:05:23,640 Speaker 2: He's got the whole world in his problem. 1275 01:05:23,840 --> 01:05:26,120 Speaker 1: He share it does and he's given it all cancer. 1276 01:05:28,240 --> 01:05:30,919 Speaker 1: He is the president of the s Bestos Institute, which 1277 01:05:30,960 --> 01:05:33,360 Speaker 1: is the sort of think tank digit dedicated to s 1278 01:05:33,480 --> 01:05:36,800 Speaker 1: bestos working. Great. 1279 01:05:37,280 --> 01:05:40,440 Speaker 2: Yeah, you love to see it out there sitting around, 1280 01:05:40,600 --> 01:05:41,880 Speaker 2: just like Sniffin' pile. 1281 01:05:42,040 --> 01:05:45,120 Speaker 1: These people are all such ghouls because he's the the 1282 01:05:45,240 --> 01:05:47,880 Speaker 1: AEI founder, is the s bestos guy, the author of 1283 01:05:47,920 --> 01:05:50,600 Speaker 1: the Powell Memorandum, which lays out the strategy for all 1284 01:05:50,680 --> 01:05:54,680 Speaker 1: this is the fucking Tobacco Institute lawyer, Like, these people 1285 01:05:54,760 --> 01:05:55,880 Speaker 1: have such money. 1286 01:05:55,680 --> 01:05:58,520 Speaker 2: They should get they should make they should get some asbestos. 1287 01:05:58,720 --> 01:06:03,080 Speaker 2: Roll it up in a cigarette they used to smoke it. Yeah, Yeah, 1288 01:06:03,360 --> 01:06:04,800 Speaker 2: that's that's the good stuff, you. 1289 01:06:04,840 --> 01:06:07,000 Speaker 1: Know, And I bet it hit like, Oh man, I 1290 01:06:07,040 --> 01:06:09,440 Speaker 1: would take one. I would try an asbestos cigarette. 1291 01:06:09,480 --> 01:06:13,240 Speaker 2: Dad got him right. It's like human meat, you'd like. 1292 01:06:13,360 --> 01:06:15,360 Speaker 2: You're like, well, I wouldn't seek it out, but if 1293 01:06:15,360 --> 01:06:18,480 Speaker 2: it's handed to me, I'm gonna have to try it, obviously. Yeah. 1294 01:06:18,800 --> 01:06:21,440 Speaker 1: I ate what was basically a fish stuffed with human meat, 1295 01:06:21,440 --> 01:06:22,640 Speaker 1: and it was pretty tasty. Day. 1296 01:06:22,720 --> 01:06:25,600 Speaker 2: Yeah that's good. I got admit, I don't like fish, 1297 01:06:25,680 --> 01:06:27,440 Speaker 2: but I'd probably just pick off the fish. 1298 01:06:27,800 --> 01:06:29,440 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, just just eat the man. 1299 01:06:29,800 --> 01:06:30,040 Speaker 2: Yeah. 1300 01:06:30,200 --> 01:06:33,360 Speaker 1: Of course. So while he ran the company, uh, the 1301 01:06:33,440 --> 01:06:37,840 Speaker 1: asbestos company. It became obvious that asbestos was causing asbestosis 1302 01:06:38,000 --> 01:06:41,160 Speaker 1: among workers who made it. This is inflammation and scarring 1303 01:06:41,200 --> 01:06:43,680 Speaker 1: off the lungs due to inhaling asbestos fibers, and it 1304 01:06:43,800 --> 01:06:47,400 Speaker 1: leads to fun things like mesothelioma and lung cancer. It 1305 01:06:47,520 --> 01:06:52,760 Speaker 1: became this motherfucker Brown's crusade to pump out disinformation about asbestosis, 1306 01:06:53,080 --> 01:06:55,040 Speaker 1: to maximize the amount of time that they could put 1307 01:06:55,080 --> 01:06:57,920 Speaker 1: asbestos in everything before they got stopped from doing that. 1308 01:06:58,560 --> 01:07:00,680 Speaker 1: And his goal for this was it was the same 1309 01:07:00,720 --> 01:07:03,160 Speaker 1: thing that people the tobacco industry would later do. It's 1310 01:07:03,160 --> 01:07:04,840 Speaker 1: the same thing the oil and gas industry has done 1311 01:07:04,880 --> 01:07:08,640 Speaker 1: with climate change. Confuse the issue until everyone's dead, right, 1312 01:07:08,760 --> 01:07:10,560 Speaker 1: so you can keep making money off of it. 1313 01:07:11,000 --> 01:07:13,400 Speaker 2: I don't I don't believe in hell, But if this 1314 01:07:13,520 --> 01:07:15,720 Speaker 2: guy like showed up in hell, I feel like he 1315 01:07:15,760 --> 01:07:18,320 Speaker 2: wouldn't have to ask, Like, he wouldn't be like, what 1316 01:07:18,520 --> 01:07:19,520 Speaker 2: the hell? What did I do? 1317 01:07:20,240 --> 01:07:20,439 Speaker 1: Yes? 1318 01:07:20,600 --> 01:07:23,400 Speaker 2: This scance? Yeah, this is about right. 1319 01:07:23,600 --> 01:07:27,720 Speaker 1: Yeah. So when one of his company's contractors, who is 1320 01:07:27,760 --> 01:07:30,720 Speaker 1: actually like doing the manufacturing of the asbestos from this 1321 01:07:30,760 --> 01:07:35,360 Speaker 1: company called Unarco, they started this company like starts identifying 1322 01:07:35,440 --> 01:07:38,760 Speaker 1: employees who are like getting medical tests through their company 1323 01:07:38,840 --> 01:07:42,959 Speaker 1: health care and showing signs of asbestosis. Unarco like sends 1324 01:07:43,000 --> 01:07:46,120 Speaker 1: them letters saying like, hey, you've got the disease asbestos 1325 01:07:46,200 --> 01:07:49,200 Speaker 1: gives you. And Brown is livid about this, and he 1326 01:07:49,280 --> 01:07:52,480 Speaker 1: basically like tries to get them to stop telling employees 1327 01:07:52,560 --> 01:07:56,280 Speaker 1: that they have asbestosis when they get sick. One Unarco 1328 01:07:56,360 --> 01:07:59,960 Speaker 1: employee would later testify in a federal investigation on their 1329 01:08:00,000 --> 01:08:02,240 Speaker 1: never forget. I turned to mister Brown. One of the 1330 01:08:02,280 --> 01:08:05,120 Speaker 1: Browns made this crack that Anarco managers were a bunch 1331 01:08:05,160 --> 01:08:08,600 Speaker 1: of fools for notifying employees who had aspestosis, And I said, 1332 01:08:09,840 --> 01:08:11,600 Speaker 1: mister Brown, do you mean to tell me that you 1333 01:08:11,640 --> 01:08:14,200 Speaker 1: would let them work until they dropped? He said, yes, 1334 01:08:14,360 --> 01:08:15,800 Speaker 1: we save a lot of money that way. 1335 01:08:16,240 --> 01:08:20,120 Speaker 2: Yep. Again, it's it's it's looking at the problem like 1336 01:08:20,280 --> 01:08:22,200 Speaker 2: being like, Okay, so the problem is what we're making 1337 01:08:22,320 --> 01:08:25,120 Speaker 2: is killing all our employees, and we have to tell them, 1338 01:08:25,680 --> 01:08:27,439 Speaker 2: and then someone being like, you know what we should do, 1339 01:08:28,360 --> 01:08:29,200 Speaker 2: just don't tell them. 1340 01:08:29,240 --> 01:08:29,680 Speaker 1: It's just not. 1341 01:08:29,920 --> 01:08:33,479 Speaker 2: Problem is solved. Yeah, it's like a fucking it's like 1342 01:08:33,560 --> 01:08:36,360 Speaker 2: something they do and always Sonny like it's it's it's 1343 01:08:36,640 --> 01:08:40,280 Speaker 2: just a the dirt bag bit. Yeah, through and through, 1344 01:08:40,479 --> 01:08:41,440 Speaker 2: it's incredible. 1345 01:08:41,680 --> 01:08:44,960 Speaker 1: It's so good. Now, despite being a wealthy ghoul with 1346 01:08:45,040 --> 01:08:48,560 Speaker 1: a body count to rival most warlords, Brown was unfulfilled. 1347 01:08:48,800 --> 01:08:51,320 Speaker 1: He saw what his fellow rich guy, Robert Brookings, had 1348 01:08:51,360 --> 01:08:54,160 Speaker 1: done with the Brookings Institute, which had become an intellectual 1349 01:08:54,240 --> 01:08:57,680 Speaker 1: powerhouse that was widely respected. Brown wanted that kind of 1350 01:08:57,720 --> 01:09:00,599 Speaker 1: respect for himself, and that's why he founds the AI 1351 01:09:00,920 --> 01:09:03,000 Speaker 1: in nineteen forty three, and that's where we get the 1352 01:09:03,040 --> 01:09:06,680 Speaker 1: American Enterprise Institute Now. It was stymied at first by 1353 01:09:06,680 --> 01:09:09,880 Speaker 1: the fact that Brown didn't believe in anything beyond having 1354 01:09:09,920 --> 01:09:12,760 Speaker 1: more money and was really incapable of analyzing the world 1355 01:09:12,840 --> 01:09:15,439 Speaker 1: in a lens beyond this. So it wasn't until nineteen 1356 01:09:15,560 --> 01:09:18,519 Speaker 1: fifty four, when a guy named William Burrudi took over, 1357 01:09:18,880 --> 01:09:22,920 Speaker 1: that the AEI turned into something worth talking about. Berrudi's 1358 01:09:22,960 --> 01:09:25,439 Speaker 1: parents were Lebanese immigrants, and he was a Greek Catholic 1359 01:09:25,479 --> 01:09:27,600 Speaker 1: who served in the Navy during World War Two and 1360 01:09:27,720 --> 01:09:30,400 Speaker 1: then worked for the Chamber of Commerce. He was Barry 1361 01:09:30,439 --> 01:09:33,960 Speaker 1: Goldwater's main advisor in nineteen sixty four and a close 1362 01:09:34,040 --> 01:09:36,320 Speaker 1: friend to Dick Nixon, a man who did not have 1363 01:09:36,479 --> 01:09:40,479 Speaker 1: any close friends. He restructured the American Enterprise Institute to 1364 01:09:40,600 --> 01:09:43,240 Speaker 1: the copy Brookings and started hiring fellows to put out 1365 01:09:43,320 --> 01:09:45,880 Speaker 1: work that would make the case for supply side conservative 1366 01:09:45,920 --> 01:09:49,920 Speaker 1: economic policies. Burrudi's goal was to reach the mainstream, and 1367 01:09:50,000 --> 01:09:53,920 Speaker 1: as a result, they started hiring famous people in popular writers, 1368 01:09:54,280 --> 01:09:59,240 Speaker 1: people like Jeane Kirkpatrick, Gerald Ford, and Philip habeeb It 1369 01:09:59,360 --> 01:10:02,040 Speaker 1: strove to entertain as well as to inform, and its 1370 01:10:02,080 --> 01:10:05,240 Speaker 1: fellows wrote articles with titles like Curse of the Mummy's 1371 01:10:05,320 --> 01:10:09,519 Speaker 1: Tomb and Dictators and Double Standards. That last one by 1372 01:10:09,600 --> 01:10:13,000 Speaker 1: Jeane Kirkpatrick mocked Jimmy Carter for failing to support the 1373 01:10:13,080 --> 01:10:16,960 Speaker 1: Shah of Iran and Anastasio Simosa, the dictator of Nicaragua. 1374 01:10:17,439 --> 01:10:21,800 Speaker 1: Kirkpatrick argued that basically, you know, obviously communist regimes are bad, 1375 01:10:22,160 --> 01:10:25,920 Speaker 1: but traditional autocrats are okay, right, because they stop the 1376 01:10:26,000 --> 01:10:29,840 Speaker 1: communists from getting into power. Quote. Traditional autocrats do not 1377 01:10:29,960 --> 01:10:33,320 Speaker 1: disturb the habitual rhythms of work in leisure, habitual places 1378 01:10:33,320 --> 01:10:37,000 Speaker 1: of residents, habitual patterns of family and personal relations. Because 1379 01:10:37,040 --> 01:10:40,080 Speaker 1: the miseries of traditional life are familiar, they are bearable 1380 01:10:40,120 --> 01:10:43,320 Speaker 1: to ordinary people who growing up in the society learn 1381 01:10:43,439 --> 01:10:47,320 Speaker 1: to cope. Revolutionary communist regimes claim jurisdiction over the whole 1382 01:10:47,400 --> 01:10:50,040 Speaker 1: life of society and make demands for change that so 1383 01:10:50,280 --> 01:10:53,760 Speaker 1: violate internalized values and habits that inhabitants flee by the 1384 01:10:53,840 --> 01:10:56,720 Speaker 1: tens of thousands. And that what Kirkpatrick is saying here 1385 01:10:56,760 --> 01:11:00,479 Speaker 1: is that like, well, communists might cause a problem that 1386 01:11:00,600 --> 01:11:04,639 Speaker 1: makes people flee the country, but normal dictators are miserable 1387 01:11:04,680 --> 01:11:07,080 Speaker 1: in a way that people feel like they can't escape. 1388 01:11:07,240 --> 01:11:10,439 Speaker 1: So that's what we the United States should encourage, right. 1389 01:11:10,760 --> 01:11:13,840 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I guess he's not wrong. It's it's hard, 1390 01:11:13,960 --> 01:11:18,960 Speaker 2: it's hard. It's hard to push for like change, for 1391 01:11:19,080 --> 01:11:23,520 Speaker 2: fundamental change. We were talking about this before with the infrastructure, 1392 01:11:23,560 --> 01:11:27,760 Speaker 2: with the things that how they are like people are 1393 01:11:27,840 --> 01:11:30,120 Speaker 2: going to resist anything where you're like, we have to 1394 01:11:30,400 --> 01:11:34,120 Speaker 2: we have to change these things in a really meaningful 1395 01:11:34,240 --> 01:11:36,920 Speaker 2: or deep way that's going to affect you. So, yeah, 1396 01:11:37,360 --> 01:11:40,200 Speaker 2: I guess he's not wrong that well, dictator. 1397 01:11:40,320 --> 01:11:43,360 Speaker 1: He isn't that these dictatorships are going to cause huge 1398 01:11:43,439 --> 01:11:46,320 Speaker 1: numbers of people to flee the country because they kill 1399 01:11:46,400 --> 01:11:47,080 Speaker 1: lots of people. 1400 01:11:48,880 --> 01:11:50,200 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's good. 1401 01:11:50,439 --> 01:11:53,519 Speaker 1: Problem you know, it's it's this is part of why 1402 01:11:54,000 --> 01:11:56,320 Speaker 1: like this article. You know, the thing it's arguing is 1403 01:11:56,360 --> 01:12:00,440 Speaker 1: that the US should encourage democracy, but only slow, gradual demidocracy, 1404 01:12:00,920 --> 01:12:04,560 Speaker 1: And if a dictatorship faces an uprising, or if a 1405 01:12:04,640 --> 01:12:09,160 Speaker 1: democracy elects a left wing leader, we should murder them, 1406 01:12:09,600 --> 01:12:13,920 Speaker 1: right like, because that's dangerous, right, that's too likely to 1407 01:12:14,040 --> 01:12:16,680 Speaker 1: make people flee the country. So we have to you know, 1408 01:12:17,080 --> 01:12:20,040 Speaker 1: dictatorships we can work with, but anyone who tries to 1409 01:12:20,320 --> 01:12:23,759 Speaker 1: improve the country in a progressive direction, the United States 1410 01:12:23,800 --> 01:12:25,679 Speaker 1: has kind of a responsibility to kill. 1411 01:12:26,200 --> 01:12:27,960 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, how dare they? Yeah? 1412 01:12:29,040 --> 01:12:32,679 Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan loves this fucking article. He thinks that Gene 1413 01:12:32,800 --> 01:12:35,960 Speaker 1: makes a brilliant argument, and he directly this article is 1414 01:12:36,000 --> 01:12:39,120 Speaker 1: directly credited with her getting appointed to be US Ambassador 1415 01:12:39,240 --> 01:12:42,040 Speaker 1: to the U Win and her broader argument helps create 1416 01:12:42,080 --> 01:12:45,280 Speaker 1: the Reagan administration's policy in Latin America, which is why 1417 01:12:45,400 --> 01:12:48,880 Speaker 1: we start sending weapons to the contrast. This is this 1418 01:12:49,080 --> 01:12:53,720 Speaker 1: is like why the Reagan administration so assiduously embraces the 1419 01:12:53,800 --> 01:12:56,519 Speaker 1: policy of sending arms to any dictator who promises to 1420 01:12:56,600 --> 01:12:59,360 Speaker 1: use them on leftists, right like this This is kind 1421 01:12:59,360 --> 01:13:03,000 Speaker 1: of a direct result of this think tank, you know, ecosystem, 1422 01:13:03,080 --> 01:13:05,880 Speaker 1: it really helps. Maybe they would have done it without that, right, 1423 01:13:05,960 --> 01:13:07,920 Speaker 1: because that's what these kind of people always want to do. 1424 01:13:08,360 --> 01:13:12,080 Speaker 1: But Kirkpatrick's article kind of provides the intellectual scaffolding that 1425 01:13:12,240 --> 01:13:13,720 Speaker 1: makes it kind of respectable. 1426 01:13:13,960 --> 01:13:17,360 Speaker 2: Right, right, they're enabling them. Yes, that's all we talked about, 1427 01:13:17,479 --> 01:13:19,439 Speaker 2: like the idea of a friend who's like, yeah, you 1428 01:13:19,520 --> 01:13:22,479 Speaker 2: can have one more drink. It's fine. It's that they're 1429 01:13:22,520 --> 01:13:25,439 Speaker 2: they're looking for people to say, like, what you're doing 1430 01:13:25,560 --> 01:13:29,479 Speaker 2: is actually very good. Yeah, the thing you were gonna 1431 01:13:29,560 --> 01:13:33,160 Speaker 2: do anyway that benefits you directly. Oh yeah, that turns 1432 01:13:33,200 --> 01:13:33,840 Speaker 2: out to be the right. 1433 01:13:34,000 --> 01:13:35,760 Speaker 1: It's actually good for everybody. 1434 01:13:36,000 --> 01:13:36,840 Speaker 2: Yeah, and it is. 1435 01:13:37,040 --> 01:13:40,200 Speaker 1: It's maddening to admit, but pretty undeniable. That AEI is 1436 01:13:40,240 --> 01:13:44,559 Speaker 1: what makes conservatism quote intellectually respectable. As one Reagan White 1437 01:13:44,600 --> 01:13:48,519 Speaker 1: House official told the Atlantics Greg Easterbrook, quote without AEI, 1438 01:13:49,000 --> 01:13:50,639 Speaker 1: Reagan never would have been elected. 1439 01:13:50,880 --> 01:13:51,600 Speaker 2: And again that's a. 1440 01:13:51,680 --> 01:13:55,160 Speaker 1: Member of the Reagan White House. Right. This think tank 1441 01:13:55,280 --> 01:13:57,800 Speaker 1: created by the Asbestos. 1442 01:13:57,120 --> 01:14:01,040 Speaker 2: Baron that's so bleak that they're so this. 1443 01:14:01,439 --> 01:14:05,800 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that the Asbestos think tank arguing dictatorships are 1444 01:14:05,880 --> 01:14:09,559 Speaker 1: fine is a lynchpin of Reagan getting into power. 1445 01:14:10,320 --> 01:14:12,840 Speaker 2: It's basically I'm sort of saying, like, we know that 1446 01:14:13,120 --> 01:14:17,479 Speaker 2: we don't have everybody's best interest in mind. Yeah, we really, 1447 01:14:17,680 --> 01:14:21,719 Speaker 2: we know that we don't care about the poor even 1448 01:14:21,800 --> 01:14:25,439 Speaker 2: like middle class. We see them as nothing. But this 1449 01:14:25,680 --> 01:14:29,920 Speaker 2: is making it seem like we have a viable like 1450 01:14:30,200 --> 01:14:31,799 Speaker 2: thing to offer everything. 1451 01:14:32,400 --> 01:14:37,240 Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, another major thing that the think tank industrial 1452 01:14:37,360 --> 01:14:40,360 Speaker 1: complex is able to do for the Reagan administration is 1453 01:14:40,479 --> 01:14:45,759 Speaker 1: help launder his ideas about space based anti nuclear laser weapons. 1454 01:14:45,840 --> 01:14:45,960 Speaker 2: Right. 1455 01:14:46,040 --> 01:14:49,479 Speaker 1: This is the so called star Wars program. Now, Yeah, 1456 01:14:49,840 --> 01:14:52,840 Speaker 1: experts not being paid by think tanks. Was like, yeah, 1457 01:14:52,880 --> 01:14:55,040 Speaker 1: maybe someday this will be a thing, but like, we 1458 01:14:55,200 --> 01:14:57,680 Speaker 1: just can't do it right now. It's insanely expensive and 1459 01:14:57,880 --> 01:15:01,080 Speaker 1: likely it might a lot of this might just be impossible. Right, 1460 01:15:02,360 --> 01:15:05,439 Speaker 1: But a strong counter argument emerged, backed by a variety 1461 01:15:05,479 --> 01:15:08,600 Speaker 1: of right wing defense focused think tanks. The goal of 1462 01:15:08,640 --> 01:15:11,839 Speaker 1: this Reagan program, officially known as the Strategic Defense Initiative 1463 01:15:11,920 --> 01:15:15,559 Speaker 1: or SDI, was to, in Reagan's words, render nuclear weapons 1464 01:15:15,680 --> 01:15:20,000 Speaker 1: impotent and obsolete. Now, this was considered a dangerous goal 1465 01:15:20,080 --> 01:15:23,200 Speaker 1: because nuclear deterrence is largely what stopped the US and 1466 01:15:23,240 --> 01:15:28,320 Speaker 1: the USSR from like directly throwing hands too much. Ballistic 1467 01:15:28,439 --> 01:15:31,439 Speaker 1: missile defenses eventually started costing the US more than four 1468 01:15:31,520 --> 01:15:34,120 Speaker 1: billion dollars a year, which made them the most expensive 1469 01:15:34,160 --> 01:15:37,200 Speaker 1: weapons program in the Pentagon budget. As the Institute for 1470 01:15:37,280 --> 01:15:40,960 Speaker 1: Policy Studies, ironically itself a think tank, eventually acknowledged in 1471 01:15:41,080 --> 01:15:44,400 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine, the overall program has been described as 1472 01:15:44,479 --> 01:15:46,840 Speaker 1: high risk and a rush to failure by a number 1473 01:15:46,880 --> 01:15:50,599 Speaker 1: of respected missile defense experts. The Pentagon's Director of Operational 1474 01:15:50,640 --> 01:15:53,760 Speaker 1: Testing and Evaluation released his annual report in February two 1475 01:15:53,840 --> 01:15:57,280 Speaker 1: thousand and pointed out that the aggressive schedule established for 1476 01:15:57,320 --> 01:16:01,160 Speaker 1: the NMD program presents a major challenge. The NMD program 1477 01:16:01,200 --> 01:16:02,920 Speaker 1: will have to compress the work of ten to twelve 1478 01:16:03,000 --> 01:16:06,120 Speaker 1: years in eight or less years. This pattern has historically 1479 01:16:06,160 --> 01:16:09,400 Speaker 1: resulted in a negative effect on virtually every troubled DoD 1480 01:16:09,600 --> 01:16:13,120 Speaker 1: development program. A panel headed by the former Chief of 1481 01:16:13,160 --> 01:16:15,600 Speaker 1: Staff of the Air Force, General Larry Welch, released a 1482 01:16:15,680 --> 01:16:19,000 Speaker 1: report last November harshly critical of the program. The Welsh 1483 01:16:19,080 --> 01:16:21,280 Speaker 1: report argued that the failures of the program were not 1484 01:16:21,360 --> 01:16:24,479 Speaker 1: the result of random malfunctions, but an indication of systemic 1485 01:16:24,520 --> 01:16:27,640 Speaker 1: flaws and design planning and management, stating that instead of 1486 01:16:27,720 --> 01:16:31,040 Speaker 1: unusual clarity, there is a usual fragmentation and confusion about 1487 01:16:31,040 --> 01:16:34,680 Speaker 1: authority and responsibility. And that's because this was never a 1488 01:16:34,840 --> 01:16:38,439 Speaker 1: plan to actually build an effective missile defense system. It 1489 01:16:38,640 --> 01:16:40,920 Speaker 1: was like, number one, a way to shovel a lot 1490 01:16:41,000 --> 01:16:44,800 Speaker 1: of money into defense contractors, and number two a thing 1491 01:16:44,960 --> 01:16:47,840 Speaker 1: for Reagan to promise that would make people feel safer. Right, 1492 01:16:48,040 --> 01:16:50,240 Speaker 1: We're going to have these laser defenses that will render 1493 01:16:50,479 --> 01:16:52,160 Speaker 1: us immune to nukes. You know. 1494 01:16:52,600 --> 01:16:55,200 Speaker 2: It's like you duck and cover, right, It's like, yeah, 1495 01:16:55,640 --> 01:16:56,200 Speaker 2: it'll be fine. 1496 01:16:56,439 --> 01:16:58,360 Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll get it. We'll get a lockdown, we'll get 1497 01:16:58,360 --> 01:17:00,720 Speaker 1: a lockdown. Don't worry. I mean, once they. 1498 01:17:00,760 --> 01:17:03,200 Speaker 2: Learn it doesn't work, what are they going to do? Complain? 1499 01:17:03,680 --> 01:17:05,040 Speaker 2: They'll be ash. 1500 01:17:05,560 --> 01:17:09,559 Speaker 1: It's the thing, nuclear defenses. If they fail, not. 1501 01:17:09,600 --> 01:17:13,840 Speaker 2: Your problem, exactly, Y's win win. Now. 1502 01:17:14,200 --> 01:17:17,960 Speaker 1: I find it personally fascinating how few actually different sounding 1503 01:17:18,080 --> 01:17:20,559 Speaker 1: names there are for these think tanks. I just quoted 1504 01:17:20,600 --> 01:17:23,200 Speaker 1: the Institute for Policy Studies, and the think tank that 1505 01:17:23,320 --> 01:17:27,240 Speaker 1: largely backed the Strategic Defense initiative was the National Institute 1506 01:17:27,280 --> 01:17:30,040 Speaker 1: for Public Policy. What was said and the actual rigor 1507 01:17:30,160 --> 01:17:33,600 Speaker 1: behind the conclusions in the papers didn't matter, volume was 1508 01:17:33,640 --> 01:17:35,400 Speaker 1: what mattered. This is something you were getting at a 1509 01:17:35,439 --> 01:17:37,639 Speaker 1: bit ago, right, you just have to have more paper 1510 01:17:37,720 --> 01:17:38,479 Speaker 1: than the other guy. 1511 01:17:38,920 --> 01:17:40,839 Speaker 2: And by this science, yeah, more official. 1512 01:17:40,960 --> 01:17:45,000 Speaker 1: Yeah, and this really simple, shallow metric is what causes 1513 01:17:45,080 --> 01:17:48,919 Speaker 1: conservatism to advance by leaps and bounds from the eighties 1514 01:17:49,080 --> 01:17:51,800 Speaker 1: up to the yearly two thousands. And there are some 1515 01:17:52,200 --> 01:17:54,280 Speaker 1: some of these think tank guys will even admit this. 1516 01:17:54,720 --> 01:17:58,519 Speaker 1: Michael Horowitz of the Heritage Foundation Total Reporter quote, Historically, 1517 01:17:58,640 --> 01:18:01,360 Speaker 1: conservatives in the United States have come across as racists 1518 01:18:01,439 --> 01:18:03,800 Speaker 1: and know nothings. It was essential to create a moral 1519 01:18:03,840 --> 01:18:06,960 Speaker 1: and intellectual basis for conservative beliefs that had its own 1520 01:18:07,040 --> 01:18:12,080 Speaker 1: vision and wasn't just a reaction against liberalism. And I 1521 01:18:12,400 --> 01:18:15,080 Speaker 1: do that's fucked up that it worked. I am a 1522 01:18:15,120 --> 01:18:18,840 Speaker 1: little hopeful that like they've gone back to just being 1523 01:18:18,920 --> 01:18:22,960 Speaker 1: a reaction. That might suggest that they're kind of out 1524 01:18:23,000 --> 01:18:24,920 Speaker 1: of ideas. And I wonder if that's part of why 1525 01:18:25,040 --> 01:18:28,040 Speaker 1: the demographics are turning so starkly against them. I guess 1526 01:18:28,080 --> 01:18:30,120 Speaker 1: we'll see in the next ten years we sure. 1527 01:18:30,200 --> 01:18:33,680 Speaker 2: Well. Yeah, it's it's just interesting because there there I 1528 01:18:33,800 --> 01:18:36,840 Speaker 2: think there is a pattern that I've seen now of 1529 01:18:37,800 --> 01:18:40,920 Speaker 2: them sort of wanting to do back the things that 1530 01:18:41,720 --> 01:18:45,120 Speaker 2: the left quote unquote like does to them, this idea 1531 01:18:45,160 --> 01:18:47,160 Speaker 2: of like when Biden is in power, they're like, well, 1532 01:18:47,200 --> 01:18:49,720 Speaker 2: we'll do an impeachment. And it's like it's like a 1533 01:18:49,880 --> 01:18:53,360 Speaker 2: kid who learns new words and then uses them improperly 1534 01:18:53,840 --> 01:18:56,720 Speaker 2: against their parents, where it's like, yeah, but we're we 1535 01:18:57,120 --> 01:18:59,559 Speaker 2: you know, Trump was being in peace for a reason. 1536 01:19:00,040 --> 01:19:02,280 Speaker 1: You try to throughout the country right now, they're like. 1537 01:19:02,320 --> 01:19:05,320 Speaker 2: Well, you get an impeachment or like I remember Tim 1538 01:19:05,400 --> 01:19:10,439 Speaker 2: Poole using started learning learned the Friends death cult and 1539 01:19:10,560 --> 01:19:12,880 Speaker 2: it's like, no, we were saying death cult because you 1540 01:19:12,960 --> 01:19:15,120 Speaker 2: guys were like because the right was acting like a 1541 01:19:15,240 --> 01:19:18,720 Speaker 2: death cult around the face mass and pandemic, like it 1542 01:19:18,840 --> 01:19:21,599 Speaker 2: was in this context. And what you're what you're sort 1543 01:19:21,600 --> 01:19:23,640 Speaker 2: of indicating here is that idea of like, well the 1544 01:19:23,800 --> 01:19:26,759 Speaker 2: liberals they had all this fancy education stuff and studies, 1545 01:19:27,160 --> 01:19:30,519 Speaker 2: we need our own. Yeah, it doesn't matter if it's real. 1546 01:19:31,080 --> 01:19:34,559 Speaker 2: It's like if for example, the Daily Wires started making 1547 01:19:35,160 --> 01:19:36,800 Speaker 2: uh content, started. 1548 01:19:36,560 --> 01:19:39,599 Speaker 1: Making stuff and movies yeah, and being like, well. 1549 01:19:39,520 --> 01:19:43,080 Speaker 2: We need ours, but it's so hollow because it comes 1550 01:19:43,160 --> 01:19:44,639 Speaker 2: from a reactionary place. 1551 01:19:44,960 --> 01:19:48,360 Speaker 1: Exactly. They are reactionaries. And that's fundamentally what that means. 1552 01:19:48,400 --> 01:19:49,960 Speaker 1: There's nothing inside these people. 1553 01:19:50,200 --> 01:19:50,320 Speaker 2: Right. 1554 01:19:50,439 --> 01:19:52,800 Speaker 1: I'm not talking about regular voting people who are just 1555 01:19:52,880 --> 01:19:56,240 Speaker 1: more considered or get trapped by this ideology. I'm talking 1556 01:19:56,240 --> 01:19:57,280 Speaker 1: about the ideologues. 1557 01:19:57,400 --> 01:19:57,519 Speaker 2: Right. 1558 01:19:57,960 --> 01:20:00,240 Speaker 1: All they really have is a desire to be rich 1559 01:20:00,280 --> 01:20:03,280 Speaker 1: and powerful. Everything they're doing is just trying to figure 1560 01:20:03,280 --> 01:20:05,200 Speaker 1: out how to further that end. But they don't believe 1561 01:20:05,439 --> 01:20:06,600 Speaker 1: in things beyond. 1562 01:20:06,320 --> 01:20:09,519 Speaker 2: That, right, and the idea to politicize everything where a 1563 01:20:09,600 --> 01:20:11,200 Speaker 2: lot of this comes from. We're like, well, the left 1564 01:20:11,240 --> 01:20:13,360 Speaker 2: have their studies, and it's like, no, they aren't the 1565 01:20:13,520 --> 01:20:15,920 Speaker 2: left studies, they're just studies. 1566 01:20:16,240 --> 01:20:18,400 Speaker 1: And the studies that they stay, yeah, you don't like. 1567 01:20:18,439 --> 01:20:21,000 Speaker 2: The well, we have our own, and it's like that. 1568 01:20:21,120 --> 01:20:24,000 Speaker 2: It's that framing of like, oh, it's left versus right, 1569 01:20:24,080 --> 01:20:27,719 Speaker 2: and it's like, no, it's you versus reality. It really 1570 01:20:27,920 --> 01:20:30,280 Speaker 2: is for at least a lot of this. That isn't 1571 01:20:30,320 --> 01:20:32,240 Speaker 2: to say that people on the left doone also have 1572 01:20:32,400 --> 01:20:36,439 Speaker 2: their problems and and will overpoliticize things. But when it 1573 01:20:36,520 --> 01:20:39,040 Speaker 2: comes to these studies and stuff where it's like, oh, 1574 01:20:39,439 --> 01:20:43,000 Speaker 2: we need a counter thing about the asbestos, and this is. 1575 01:20:43,000 --> 01:20:46,559 Speaker 1: Why they insentially just land On, like let's just break reality, right, 1576 01:20:46,720 --> 01:20:48,360 Speaker 1: Like that's the that's where they go. 1577 01:20:49,120 --> 01:20:52,200 Speaker 2: And I think the again, the problem with this grift 1578 01:20:53,640 --> 01:20:56,360 Speaker 2: not for them, the problem for us, the people being grifted, 1579 01:20:56,840 --> 01:20:59,240 Speaker 2: is that it like asbestos is a good example where 1580 01:20:59,240 --> 01:21:01,840 Speaker 2: it's like, well time, you need time, and by the 1581 01:21:01,960 --> 01:21:05,120 Speaker 2: time you figure out this thing is wrong, the damage 1582 01:21:05,240 --> 01:21:09,000 Speaker 2: was done. You lead pipes or or or trickle down 1583 01:21:09,960 --> 01:21:12,479 Speaker 2: economics by the time we figure out, like, hey, this 1584 01:21:12,680 --> 01:21:15,639 Speaker 2: was dumb for a lot of this stuff, like lead 1585 01:21:15,680 --> 01:21:17,519 Speaker 2: pipes is a good analogy for it because it's like 1586 01:21:18,000 --> 01:21:19,320 Speaker 2: you look at that and you go, well, we have 1587 01:21:19,400 --> 01:21:21,920 Speaker 2: to tear out all these goddamn pipes. That's gonna take 1588 01:21:22,000 --> 01:21:24,320 Speaker 2: so much time. And it's sort of the same with 1589 01:21:25,040 --> 01:21:27,519 Speaker 2: the stuff that they're planting here is it's like we 1590 01:21:27,640 --> 01:21:32,639 Speaker 2: can't just undo this stuff. It's embedded deep. 1591 01:21:33,400 --> 01:21:34,120 Speaker 1: It's the center. 1592 01:21:34,439 --> 01:21:34,639 Speaker 2: Yeah. 1593 01:21:35,160 --> 01:21:40,559 Speaker 1: Yeah, cool stuff, cool stuff, Yeah, yeah, it's it's good stuff. 1594 01:21:40,760 --> 01:21:43,080 Speaker 2: You can put sunglasses on it. It's so cool. 1595 01:21:43,520 --> 01:21:47,000 Speaker 1: We've been talking about like Gene Kapatrick, Michael Horowitz, you know, Crystal, 1596 01:21:47,160 --> 01:21:50,000 Speaker 1: like these big names in the think tank writing, you know, 1597 01:21:50,120 --> 01:21:53,559 Speaker 1: and these guys, these are people who are like popular 1598 01:21:53,680 --> 01:21:55,559 Speaker 1: enough that they are bylines in the period of time 1599 01:21:55,560 --> 01:21:58,680 Speaker 1: when magazines sold could sell magazines, right, And that's a 1600 01:21:58,720 --> 01:22:00,759 Speaker 1: big part of like getting some of these famous thinkers. 1601 01:22:00,760 --> 01:22:03,479 Speaker 1: Getting Gerald Ford writing columns and stuff is a thing 1602 01:22:03,520 --> 01:22:06,960 Speaker 1: that will can help launder your ideas because people are 1603 01:22:06,960 --> 01:22:10,240 Speaker 1: already famous. It'll get eyeballs right for the less famous 1604 01:22:10,400 --> 01:22:12,680 Speaker 1: grunts at the think tanks actually putting together a lot 1605 01:22:12,680 --> 01:22:15,960 Speaker 1: of these papers, doing the background work. The ultimate goal 1606 01:22:16,080 --> 01:22:18,519 Speaker 1: of a career working in these think tanks is to 1607 01:22:18,640 --> 01:22:23,120 Speaker 1: earn yourself a coveted presidential appointment. Lawrence Korb, a DoD 1608 01:22:23,240 --> 01:22:27,360 Speaker 1: employee turned think tanker turned Raytheon executive, describe the focus 1609 01:22:27,439 --> 01:22:31,479 Speaker 1: on presidential employment among think tank employees as obsessive because 1610 01:22:31,520 --> 01:22:34,479 Speaker 1: that's how you get rich, right. Think tankers also made 1611 01:22:34,479 --> 01:22:38,200 Speaker 1: attractive options for new administrations because the logistical burdens involved 1612 01:22:38,240 --> 01:22:41,080 Speaker 1: in bringing them on were basically non existent. All you 1613 01:22:41,200 --> 01:22:43,480 Speaker 1: have to do to move from AI to the administration 1614 01:22:43,640 --> 01:22:44,639 Speaker 1: is walk across the street. 1615 01:22:44,720 --> 01:22:45,040 Speaker 2: He says. 1616 01:22:45,320 --> 01:22:47,160 Speaker 1: You don't have to move your family to DC because 1617 01:22:47,160 --> 01:22:48,760 Speaker 1: you're already there. You don't have to give up a 1618 01:22:48,800 --> 01:22:50,720 Speaker 1: good job you might not get back because the think 1619 01:22:50,800 --> 01:22:52,920 Speaker 1: tank will always take you back. You don't have to 1620 01:22:52,960 --> 01:22:55,280 Speaker 1: put your assets into some kind of complicated trust. If 1621 01:22:55,320 --> 01:22:58,000 Speaker 1: your background is academics, you don't have any assets, and 1622 01:22:58,120 --> 01:23:00,479 Speaker 1: a business manner lawyer coming into government usually has to 1623 01:23:00,520 --> 01:23:03,479 Speaker 1: make a financial sacrifice to someone from academia. On the 1624 01:23:03,520 --> 01:23:06,080 Speaker 1: other hand, sixty thousand dollars, the typical pay for a 1625 01:23:06,160 --> 01:23:09,479 Speaker 1: high level appointee is a raise. So what he's saying 1626 01:23:09,520 --> 01:23:11,240 Speaker 1: there is like and again, this is a guy who 1627 01:23:11,320 --> 01:23:14,160 Speaker 1: starts out working for think tanks, gets a presidential appointment, 1628 01:23:14,280 --> 01:23:19,360 Speaker 1: becomes a Raytheon executive. Right, you can if you're an academic, 1629 01:23:19,760 --> 01:23:22,320 Speaker 1: if you agree to go to the dark side, you 1630 01:23:22,439 --> 01:23:25,439 Speaker 1: can make an okay living at a think tank, make 1631 01:23:25,520 --> 01:23:27,720 Speaker 1: a decent living in politics, and then when you're out 1632 01:23:27,720 --> 01:23:29,920 Speaker 1: of politics, you get to be an executive for Raytheon 1633 01:23:30,040 --> 01:23:32,439 Speaker 1: where you get rich. You know, it's a path to 1634 01:23:32,560 --> 01:23:34,680 Speaker 1: wealth for people who otherwise wouldn't have had it. And 1635 01:23:34,760 --> 01:23:37,320 Speaker 1: that's part of the promise. If you make the argument 1636 01:23:37,640 --> 01:23:39,960 Speaker 1: that we can't change anything that would lead to a 1637 01:23:40,080 --> 01:23:44,000 Speaker 1: reduction or end to our landed wealthy aristocracy to this 1638 01:23:44,160 --> 01:23:47,160 Speaker 1: oligarch class, then you'll get to become a little bitty, 1639 01:23:47,200 --> 01:23:50,360 Speaker 1: petty oligarch. Right, that's the promise the think tank makes 1640 01:23:50,439 --> 01:23:53,880 Speaker 1: the people who work there. You know, during the height 1641 01:23:53,920 --> 01:23:56,439 Speaker 1: of its influence, more than half of AEI's funding came 1642 01:23:56,479 --> 01:23:59,519 Speaker 1: directly from donations from corporations who defrayed their own tax 1643 01:23:59,600 --> 01:24:02,160 Speaker 1: burden by paying people who influenced the government to lower 1644 01:24:02,240 --> 01:24:05,719 Speaker 1: their taxes even further. Sometimes this hurt their bottom line. 1645 01:24:06,040 --> 01:24:09,160 Speaker 1: Easterbrook noted in nineteen eighty six that quote an advocate 1646 01:24:09,200 --> 01:24:11,800 Speaker 1: of relaxed anti trust laws. AEI notes in its current 1647 01:24:12,000 --> 01:24:14,519 Speaker 1: annual report that the waf of corporate mergers led to 1648 01:24:14,600 --> 01:24:17,080 Speaker 1: a reduction of more than one hundred thousand dollars in 1649 01:24:17,120 --> 01:24:20,320 Speaker 1: its support last year because several friendly companies were gobbled 1650 01:24:20,360 --> 01:24:23,800 Speaker 1: out of existence. But you know, the wealthy men who 1651 01:24:23,840 --> 01:24:25,960 Speaker 1: spend their money and the money of their corporations on 1652 01:24:26,000 --> 01:24:28,720 Speaker 1: these think tanks always remember in the end to keep 1653 01:24:28,800 --> 01:24:30,800 Speaker 1: them topped off right, at least as long as they 1654 01:24:30,880 --> 01:24:33,040 Speaker 1: need them. We'll see if they finally win. I don't 1655 01:24:33,040 --> 01:24:35,080 Speaker 1: think these think tanks will keep getting funded to the 1656 01:24:35,120 --> 01:24:38,200 Speaker 1: extent that they have been, but they were for quite 1657 01:24:38,280 --> 01:24:41,040 Speaker 1: some time. Really, up through the Bush years, this system 1658 01:24:41,280 --> 01:24:45,240 Speaker 1: kind of dominated a lot of the ideological conversation in 1659 01:24:45,320 --> 01:24:48,840 Speaker 1: this country. It was kind of dethroned in the Trump years, 1660 01:24:48,960 --> 01:24:51,400 Speaker 1: not totally. These they still have a decent amount of influence. 1661 01:24:51,760 --> 01:24:54,679 Speaker 2: But because yeah, I can see Trump, I mean, maybe 1662 01:24:54,680 --> 01:24:56,720 Speaker 2: you'll tell you you're probably gonna say, yeah, I can 1663 01:24:56,800 --> 01:24:58,960 Speaker 2: see Trump as the kind of jerk who does not 1664 01:24:59,160 --> 01:25:03,080 Speaker 2: listen to think tanks. No, And honestly, that's probably one 1665 01:25:03,160 --> 01:25:06,640 Speaker 2: of the good things, one of the few good things. Yeah. 1666 01:25:07,120 --> 01:25:09,479 Speaker 1: Well, and it's it's also that like Trump is kind 1667 01:25:09,479 --> 01:25:12,479 Speaker 1: of new right. We don't, we use different terms for 1668 01:25:12,560 --> 01:25:14,680 Speaker 1: it now, but in like the late nineteen eighties that 1669 01:25:14,760 --> 01:25:17,960 Speaker 1: we're talking about, these the people that we just like, 1670 01:25:18,160 --> 01:25:20,519 Speaker 1: we've come to just call fascists as the new right, 1671 01:25:20,640 --> 01:25:24,760 Speaker 1: and these are like these very reactionary, very aggressive, not 1672 01:25:25,120 --> 01:25:31,760 Speaker 1: traditional sort of like polite, respectable conservatives. And these people, 1673 01:25:32,040 --> 01:25:34,519 Speaker 1: from the beginning of their time on the political stage 1674 01:25:34,840 --> 01:25:37,400 Speaker 1: have not liked the think tank set right in part 1675 01:25:37,479 --> 01:25:40,400 Speaker 1: because these think tanks make a big deal of how 1676 01:25:40,479 --> 01:25:43,200 Speaker 1: influential they are and they're not you know, this this 1677 01:25:43,400 --> 01:25:47,240 Speaker 1: evangelical this kind of alliance of evangelical right wingers, Christian 1678 01:25:47,320 --> 01:25:51,040 Speaker 1: nationalist culture warriors. Right, they're important, but they kind of 1679 01:25:51,120 --> 01:25:53,880 Speaker 1: represent a threat to the new right type guys, and 1680 01:25:54,000 --> 01:25:57,920 Speaker 1: so you know, it's possible their hour has started to pass. 1681 01:25:58,040 --> 01:26:00,479 Speaker 1: We'll see if things shift back in the other direction. 1682 01:26:00,680 --> 01:26:03,920 Speaker 1: But they did their bit right, They they shifted the 1683 01:26:04,000 --> 01:26:06,960 Speaker 1: culture successfully. They got us to the point that we're at. 1684 01:26:07,479 --> 01:26:09,760 Speaker 2: There'll always be people like them because I think when 1685 01:26:09,800 --> 01:26:12,639 Speaker 2: it comes down to what these things takes are are 1686 01:26:13,160 --> 01:26:18,800 Speaker 2: their middle management when when Trump they are like when 1687 01:26:18,840 --> 01:26:21,640 Speaker 2: Trump talked about the concept of a deep state, he 1688 01:26:21,840 --> 01:26:24,160 Speaker 2: was wrong about what it was, but I don't think 1689 01:26:24,200 --> 01:26:26,439 Speaker 2: he's wrong that there is a form of that, and 1690 01:26:26,600 --> 01:26:31,519 Speaker 2: that is people whose entire careers are maintaining their careers, 1691 01:26:32,040 --> 01:26:35,400 Speaker 2: where like they just they they just you know, it's 1692 01:26:36,720 --> 01:26:39,360 Speaker 2: like I was reading about like we did we did 1693 01:26:39,439 --> 01:26:43,040 Speaker 2: a video about like how elections are their own economies. 1694 01:26:43,120 --> 01:26:46,479 Speaker 2: There are people whose entire jobs or a better example 1695 01:26:46,600 --> 01:26:49,120 Speaker 2: is taxes right, H and R block these companies that 1696 01:26:49,280 --> 01:26:53,360 Speaker 2: only exist for this system that we've created that to 1697 01:26:53,520 --> 01:26:57,599 Speaker 2: keep them around, and they lobby specifically to keep taxes 1698 01:26:57,640 --> 01:26:59,960 Speaker 2: the way they are so they can continue to exist. 1699 01:27:00,720 --> 01:27:04,240 Speaker 2: And I can see someone like Trump sort of looking 1700 01:27:04,360 --> 01:27:07,960 Speaker 2: at people like that and seeing like, oh, these are 1701 01:27:08,120 --> 01:27:12,479 Speaker 2: these are people we can cut or rejecting them. I 1702 01:27:12,520 --> 01:27:15,680 Speaker 2: don't think he's doing it out of the goodness of 1703 01:27:15,760 --> 01:27:18,559 Speaker 2: his heart. But I can see him doing it for sure. 1704 01:27:18,960 --> 01:27:21,720 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it might weaken them in the long run, 1705 01:27:21,800 --> 01:27:25,120 Speaker 1: strategically in the same way that like Trump, he's done 1706 01:27:25,120 --> 01:27:27,559 Speaker 1: a lot of damage. He's also like right now spending 1707 01:27:27,600 --> 01:27:30,400 Speaker 1: all of the rnc's money on his legal bills, right 1708 01:27:30,479 --> 01:27:32,640 Speaker 1: which might hurt them, you know, not just in the 1709 01:27:32,680 --> 01:27:36,120 Speaker 1: presidential election, but across the board. You know, I guess 1710 01:27:36,200 --> 01:27:39,200 Speaker 1: we'll see. It's this kind of like the risk of 1711 01:27:39,360 --> 01:27:41,960 Speaker 1: letting a single dude get that much power as he 1712 01:27:42,000 --> 01:27:44,559 Speaker 1: can really just these these well laid plans, this twenty 1713 01:27:44,680 --> 01:27:48,040 Speaker 1: thirty year plan to take over the judiciary fifty years, 1714 01:27:48,120 --> 01:27:48,960 Speaker 1: all this kind of shit. 1715 01:27:50,520 --> 01:27:54,160 Speaker 2: You know, it's he's he's a threat to the establishment, 1716 01:27:54,320 --> 01:27:56,880 Speaker 2: just not the way he advertises he's a threat to 1717 01:27:56,920 --> 01:28:00,759 Speaker 2: the establishment, the way letting a drunk they are into 1718 01:28:00,920 --> 01:28:04,639 Speaker 2: a Walmart is a threat to the establishment, where it's like, yeah, 1719 01:28:04,720 --> 01:28:07,680 Speaker 2: you're just in, You're just an asshole, Like you're just 1720 01:28:07,800 --> 01:28:11,120 Speaker 2: a liability for them, right, Like you'll just they can't 1721 01:28:11,200 --> 01:28:13,439 Speaker 2: tell him anything as they'll just say it out loud 1722 01:28:13,560 --> 01:28:16,240 Speaker 2: or he'll fuck it up. Like that's how he's actually 1723 01:28:16,320 --> 01:28:19,400 Speaker 2: a threat to them. Which is like they're their little 1724 01:28:19,479 --> 01:28:22,760 Speaker 2: slow playing that they're doing. They don't like it. 1725 01:28:24,479 --> 01:28:31,479 Speaker 1: Yeah, well well Dave, that's it. Where ah, where do 1726 01:28:31,560 --> 01:28:33,000 Speaker 1: you Where do you go? Where do you live? 1727 01:28:33,640 --> 01:28:35,760 Speaker 2: Oh? I live right here. We're doing this over zoom, 1728 01:28:35,920 --> 01:28:38,040 Speaker 2: so you know, I don't have I don't have anywhere 1729 01:28:38,080 --> 01:28:40,400 Speaker 2: to go. I'm just gonna I'm just gonna take off 1730 01:28:40,439 --> 01:28:42,800 Speaker 2: my pants when this is done. You know, are you 1731 01:28:42,840 --> 01:28:44,040 Speaker 2: talking about plugs. 1732 01:28:43,760 --> 01:28:48,040 Speaker 1: Or like, yeah, yeah, your sluggables all that good stuff. 1733 01:28:48,280 --> 01:28:51,479 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean you mentioned it. Gamefully Unemployed go 1734 01:28:51,560 --> 01:28:54,720 Speaker 2: to patreon dot com, slash gamefully Unemployed, or better yet, 1735 01:28:54,880 --> 01:28:58,040 Speaker 2: just google gamefully unemployed GA M E f U l 1736 01:28:58,080 --> 01:29:02,559 Speaker 2: O Y unemployed. Uh I uh. It's a podcast network 1737 01:29:02,600 --> 01:29:05,240 Speaker 2: I do it tom Ryman Ryman where we mostly talk 1738 01:29:05,280 --> 01:29:08,880 Speaker 2: about movies, not politics, you know, movies X files. And 1739 01:29:08,960 --> 01:29:10,760 Speaker 2: then I am the head writer for some More News 1740 01:29:11,400 --> 01:29:13,840 Speaker 2: and just you know, google some more news if you 1741 01:29:14,000 --> 01:29:17,000 Speaker 2: like more politics. Uh, that's what you can get. You 1742 01:29:17,080 --> 01:29:18,600 Speaker 2: can get that. It's right there in the name some 1743 01:29:18,720 --> 01:29:20,639 Speaker 2: more News. Hell check that out. 1744 01:29:21,520 --> 01:29:24,400 Speaker 1: Yeah, well, check that out. Check out some more News, 1745 01:29:24,600 --> 01:29:30,200 Speaker 1: check out gamefully Unemployed, and check out the New Roadhouse. 1746 01:29:30,280 --> 01:29:31,320 Speaker 2: Check out that new Roadhouse. 1747 01:29:31,600 --> 01:29:33,840 Speaker 1: Check out the New Roadhouse. Or if you don't want 1748 01:29:33,840 --> 01:29:36,400 Speaker 1: to see the New Roadhouse, just kick the ship out 1749 01:29:36,439 --> 01:29:39,880 Speaker 1: of somebody. Just find a stranger and just really start 1750 01:29:40,000 --> 01:29:41,120 Speaker 1: kicking the son of a bitch. 1751 01:29:41,320 --> 01:29:43,360 Speaker 2: Get in a fight. 1752 01:29:43,880 --> 01:29:46,720 Speaker 1: It's always good to get into it. There's no consequences 1753 01:29:46,800 --> 01:29:52,240 Speaker 1: to getting into a fight. Fight animals. Sure, yeah, fight yourself, 1754 01:29:52,479 --> 01:29:55,400 Speaker 1: fighting yourself. You know, like that fight club guy in 1755 01:29:55,479 --> 01:29:55,960 Speaker 1: that movie. 1756 01:29:56,240 --> 01:29:58,800 Speaker 2: Do a fight club, a club club. We should do 1757 01:29:58,800 --> 01:29:59,280 Speaker 2: a fight club. 1758 01:29:59,479 --> 01:30:01,240 Speaker 1: Let's do a Dave and I are going to go 1759 01:30:01,320 --> 01:30:03,200 Speaker 1: do a fight club. The rest of you. 1760 01:30:04,000 --> 01:30:06,200 Speaker 2: Credit card companies, right, that's what we're talking about. 1761 01:30:07,160 --> 01:30:13,559 Speaker 1: We're gonna have to bleep that we're just joking. Credit 1762 01:30:13,640 --> 01:30:17,080 Speaker 1: card companies. You can let us into your building. Okay, 1763 01:30:17,520 --> 01:30:17,960 Speaker 1: it's over. 1764 01:30:21,880 --> 01:30:24,559 Speaker 3: Behind the Bastards is a production of cool Zone Media. 1765 01:30:24,920 --> 01:30:28,160 Speaker 3: For more from cool Zone Media, visit our website Coolzonemedia 1766 01:30:28,360 --> 01:30:31,559 Speaker 3: dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 1767 01:30:31,680 --> 01:30:34,000 Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.