WEBVTT - Democracy Hanging Over a Cliff 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:15.080 Good morning, peeps, and welcome to WOKF Daily with Meet 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:19.160 your Girl Danielle Moody. Recording from the Home Bunker. Folks, 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:22.840 I want to start off today's show with talking about 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:28.200 Dominion and the lawsuit that Dominion had with Fox that 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:31.880 they have now settled for seven hundred and eighty seven 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:40.680 million dollars. First, the mainstream media's conversation around this settlement 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:44.440 is bullshit. And let me tell you why. They keep saying, 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:47.520 oh my god, this is a windfall largest settlement, blah 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:51.400 blah blah blah blah. Fox is a multi billion dollar 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:57.800 fucking company, Okay, like as well as it's CEO is 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:04.480 a multi billionaire. They are insulated from this shit. Insurance 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:07.240 we'll probably cover it. Now, folks, I'm not a lawyer, 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:11.080 right or have do I have an MBA? And some 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:13.520 have said to me, well, insurance may not cover it 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:17.840 because their Dominion was able to show intent right with 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:24.080 all of their findings through their own investigation and through 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:27.160 testimony and the text messages and the floods of emails 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:30.920 and the voicemails and all of these things. But seven 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:34.039 hundred and eighty seven million dollars to a multi billion 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:39.960 dollar company into a multi billionaire is not a big deal, right. 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:43.240 You can brush that off like us as commoners, right, 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:46.000 we think to ourselves, oh my god, yes, that's a 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:49.240 ton of money. I could live and have generations a 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:54.800 family live with that kind of wealth. The issue here 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:59.560 is that we all thought that this case was truly 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:06.040 about democracy and the fourth estate, meaning journalism as a whole. 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:11.600 Fox has been able to lie to their viewers, not 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:17.240 just about dominion having a key role in, you know, 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:21.320 throwing the election to Biden, and the lies that every 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:25.400 single one of their hosts told knowing that they were lying. 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:29.040 They've lied about all whole host of things. 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:32.480 They spread the lie around COVID and saying that it 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:35.680 was a democratic hoax. They've upheld the lie around Hunter 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:40.600 Biden's laptop, They've upheld the lie around Hillary Clinton, around 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:45.480 Barack Obama not being from this country, like, They've upheld 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:49.920 a lot of lies. And so we all thought that 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:57.160 this lawsuit was going to be an opportunity to really 0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:04.440 secure journalistic integrity and to uphold our democratic institutions. But 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:10.200 silly us, because in a capitalistic, greedy society, as Wu 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:14.920 Tang clan wrapped so many decades ago, cash rules everything 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:18.880 around me. Cream get the money, dalla dolla bill y'all. 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:23.840 That is exactly what Dominion did, and they had the 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:29.200 audacity to send their lawyers out in a press conference saying, oh, well, 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:33.600 money is accountability for who? Because the tens of millions 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:36.360 of people that tune into Fox News every day don't 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:39.880 even know that this case existed. And guess what else 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:44.680 happens with their settlement. There's going to be no right, 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:51.760 no sharing with their audience, no forced overture by Fox 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:55.480 to say we lied to you about the twenty twenty election. 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:59.440 The twenty twenty election was not stolen. The twenty twenty 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:04.760 election was free and fair election. Dominion machines had nothing 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:10.120 to do with uh with overturning the election or giving 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:14.160 it to Joe Biden, And we apologize for the lies 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:19.000 that we have spread. That also, by the way, had 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:22.000 thousands of people take up arms to go quote unquote 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:25.800 take their country back. None of that is going to 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:29.560 happen because there was no contingency on top of the 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:35.240 money for there to be an admission to their audiences 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:40.840 about their lives. So Fox gets to give a little 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:44.000 bit of their lunch money over to dominion and their 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:48.560 viewers are none the wiser, and our democracy hangs over 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:55.320 a cliff. So it's extraordinarily disappointing. And I don't even 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:59.880 think disappointing is the right fucking word. I just every 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:02.039 time that I think that we are getting to a 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:05.719 place where people are becoming conscious of what is happening, 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:13.120 where the uber rich and the evil puppet masters behind 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:17.680 the attempts at authoritarianism and fascism in this country, when 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:19.960 I think that they're going to be held to account, 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.359 the rug is pulled out from under us, and it's like, 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:27.520 oh no, don't you worry. The wealthy, the white, and 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:30.760 the powerful. All they ever do in life is ever 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:37.560 have to pay a fine. Right, Fox is responsible for 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:44.200 Donald Trump, the monster Fox is responsible, bears part of 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:49.640 the responsibility for the insurrection. Why did the insurrection happen? 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:53.040 It wasn't just that day down at the stop the 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:57.000 Steel Rally where Donald Trump pointed to the Capitol building 0:05:57.040 --> 0:06:00.440 and told non armed insurrection is to go take their 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:04.360 country back. No, it was a series of lies that 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:12.039 were spread over the course of months, aid inebedded by 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:14.640 Fox News, knowingly. 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:18.560 Knowing the truth. 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:23.280 But they won't be held to account. So no, I 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:27.920 don't want to hear this bullshit narrative from the mainstream 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:31.240 media saying, oh, seven hundred and eighty seven million dollars. No, 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:35.440 if it was five billion, maybe I'd give a fuck. 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:38.760 If it was gonna bankrupt Fox, if it was going 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:43.440 to bankrupt the Murdocks, then maybe that would matter. If 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:49.000 it was gonna shudder the entire network and then send 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:53.160 a warning shot to other outlets like Newsmax and oh 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.200 An and all of these other right wing vessels of 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:59.920 hate and lies and disinformation, if it was going to 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:03.600 do that, I would say, bravo, Dominion, you've done it, 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:07.520 and you've earned the money that you're gonna walk away with. 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:11.600 But at the end of the day, it seems as 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:14.280 if the only people that give a fuck about our 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:17.679 democracy are the ones that are gonna bear the brunt 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:21.640 of this authoritarian regime because everybody else either got a 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:27.600 rocket to go to the fucking moon, to Mars and 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:31.840 leave the rest of us behind. You know, somebody tweeted 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:36.880 at me and it said, other countries, other nations have democracies, 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:39.360 and they don't seem to have to fight for them 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:43.880 as fucking hard as Americans. Are fighting for our democracy. 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:48.360 And I think that that's right. I think that you know, 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:54.040 much has been told about the story of you know, 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:57.160 those that are patriots that fight for their freedom and 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:00.280 blah blah blah blah blah. But in a true demands 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:04.240 and not a Banana republic, do you have to continually 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:09.320 be in the streets, continually be vigilant or is that 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:14.960 just the story that we tell ourselves. I tell you that, 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:20.320 you know, what America has done right, is that America 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:25.160 has the best pr best public relations of any country 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:30.160 in the world. It begins with the indoctrination that we 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:34.360 get as we enter into the doors of kindergarten until 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:41.280 we graduate right about America being great, about this wonderful land, 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:45.120 this beacon on a hill, about all of these wonderful people. 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:48.400 George Washington in the cherry tree and is wooden teeth. 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:54.240 You're not told the truth about George Washington, the slave owner, 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:59.319 the brutal slave master that ripped the teeth out of 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:01.800 his slave and put them into his own mouth. You're 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:06.640 not told the real story about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings. No, 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:11.360 for white America, it's a love story. A love story 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:18.440 between a man who is twice the age of his 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:25.800 enslaved piece of property, a human being that he was 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:31.000 able to discard and use like a ball or a plate, 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:36.560 who had no choice, no bodily autonomy. But instead of 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:41.319 telling the truth about rape and enslavement and brutality, America 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:48.400 weave the tale of a love story. Everything in this 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:53.440 country is based on disinformation and lies. So of course 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:55.920 Fox is gonna get away with what it is that 0:09:55.960 --> 0:10:05.920 they do because there's no accountability, there's no responsibility. There's 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:11.959 a reason why there is a force a movement around 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:18.560 wokeness and consciousness because we're tired of being lied to, 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:24.280 tired of being taken advantage of. And just when you think, 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:27.760 when you think, oh maybe we are going to reach 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:33.040 the mountaintop, maybe the arc is actually bending, you realize 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:40.040 that it was a mirage. Just like our democracy. There 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:43.480 are days when I say to you that I'm not 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:46.560 sure what it is some days that I'm fighting for 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:56.360 that we're all fighting for. Is it the promise of America? Right, 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:59.400 the promise that it will live up to its creed. 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:03.440 But promises are only as good as the people who 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:12.960 are making them. So you know, the dominion case, much 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:16.480 like how we are learning about Clarence Thomas, how we 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:19.160 are learning more about Donald Trump, how we are learning 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:23.440 about all of these rich, powerful people who are able 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:27.200 to manipulate and take advantage of systems because that is 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:33.280 who the systems were built to protect. They have the 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:36.040 rest of us scraping around and fighting for the crumbs 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:41.120 that they leave behind, filling our heads with this idea 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:44.760 that you know, we all must fight while the rest 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:53.559 of them live lives of leisure. I'm just so outdone 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:58.599 these days, so outdone. But coming up next my conversation 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:04.160 with my friend who I love, love, love love when 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:09.920 Jared Yate Sexton joins the show. He is the author 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:13.840 of The Midnight Kingdom, The History of Power, Power, Nooria, 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:19.320 and the Coming Crisis. Whenever Jared and I get a 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:23.920 chance to chat, we delve into the big picture, you know, 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:28.000 to the big picture how all of these things are 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:32.640 tied together. And that is more of what is coming 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:40.160 up next, folks. I am always so happy when I 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:43.560 get to chat with my friend jaredy Ate Sexton. You 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:45.920 know him as the author of The Midnight Kingdom, A 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:49.319 History of Power, Paranoia and the Coming Crisis, and also 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:55.360 co host of the podcast The Muckrakers, Jared Like, it 0:12:55.440 --> 0:13:00.400 has been a wild first quarter movement to second quarter 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:04.920 of this new year in America. I mean, first off, 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:08.400 we've had more mass shootings than we have had days 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:15.240 in the year. We are watching Republicans not only in Tennessee, 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:20.920 but in Nebraska, in Missouri, in Florida, across this country 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:27.200 take their hoods off, and there's no quiet part anymore. 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:27.959 They're on the. 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:33.880 Floor of state houses just saying everything that we've always known, 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:37.680 that we've been talking about, we've been tweeting about, but 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:40.559 that they've tried to be underhanded. Oh we're not racist, 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:45.400 Oh we don't hate women. And yet now it is 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:50.600 just so apparent the like the direction that they want 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:52.160 this country to go in. So I just want you 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:55.800 to just you know, off the top. Just the last 0:13:56.200 --> 0:14:01.520 several weeks have just felt like drinking from a fire 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:04.840 hose in terms of like white supremacy and patriarchy, like 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:07.760 it it is just inundating us. 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:10.640 Yeah, and you know, to go ahead and go off 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:12.440 on a couple of things here. First of all, and 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:15.280 I know that you've followed this too. I have gotten 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:19.160 such a great enjoyment over the past week or so 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:24.160 watching respectable Republicans come out of the groundwork to defend 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:26.880 a billionaire who has bought off the Supreme Court, but 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:31.800 to defend him for displaying throughout his entire home Nazi memorabilia. 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:32.040 Right. 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:35.280 And I always like to explain to people because everybody 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:37.640 thinks that the Republican Party is just sort of a 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:42.960 monolithic structure, right because and people always compared to the Democrats, 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:45.720 and the Democrats it's like herding cats. They're all over 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:49.200 the place. The Republicans have a lot of different groups 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:53.560 within their very very small white tint. And part of 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:57.480 that group is what I would call professional Republicans for 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:02.520 country club Republicans. These are very very wealthy white people who, 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:04.840 by the way, many of them were educated at the 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:06.120 Ivy League schools that. 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:09.200 You know they condemn and say the right, you know. 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:11.760 Ted Kruzell, you know, an aid will hand him a 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:14.160 car hard jacket that still has the hangar on it, 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:16.440 and he'll put it on and he'll say, I'm a 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:21.200 regular guy and go to Yale. Right, And meanwhile, they're 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:25.400 all just absolute frauds. Those people, for the most part, 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:30.600 have been pretty good at promoting respectability right. They know 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:34.120 exactly what all of these polls say. They know what 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:37.560 they're crypto Nazi people tell them that they're supposed to 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:39.760 say in order to hide exactly who they are and 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:43.520 what they believe. These people that you were talking about, 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:46.600 and we were talking about before we start recording state 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:50.640 legislatures like are full of some of the most idiotic 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:54.480 politicians in the country. These are people who the they 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:58.400 won because they're in gerrymander districts, because they're cousins of 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:02.000 I don't know, the County Goo director. Maybe they were 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:03.920 the first person that they found who didn't have a 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:07.120 felony record, and maybe they even had some felony records 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:09.920 and it, you know, didn't reach a certain point. These 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:14.760 people are getting the exact same playbook that those high 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:20.320 folutant billionaire Republicans, including Harlan Crowe, they paid for all 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:23.160 of this to be done in all of these legislatures 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:25.160 that you know, they have their fingers in all of 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:29.000 these pies. None of these legislators are coming up with 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:31.360 this stuff. None of them have cooked it up in 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:33.400 their own mind. They're not writing the bills. This is 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:36.320 basically being handed out by all these institutes, all at 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:40.720 once and being coordinated. They can't be intelligent about it. Yeah, 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:44.720 they have no idea how to play the game right. 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:47.560 All of the you know, Bill Crystal and all of 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:51.040 these other like old respectable Republicans who claim things you know, 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:53.960 went to ellwhen Donald Trump came around. Those people know 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:55.040 how to do the game. 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:56.520 But what we're. 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.400 Actually seeing from those idiots that we're talking about is 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:03.520 what's actually happening and what's always been happening, which is racist, 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:08.080 classes and obic, you name it, misogynistic, All of that 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:10.320 stuff is at the heart of it. It's just those 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:13.879 people don't have the intelligence or the media training or 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:18.320 the cultural sort of code switching abilities that has always 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:20.679 hidden what's been at the core of this stuff. 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:23.200 You know, I love the fact that you broke down 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:26.360 like the layers and the and the essentially the casts 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:31.320 right that sit inside of the Republican Party, because you know, 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:33.600 I want to go back to what you said about 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:39.280 Harlan Crowe, who is just like a almost a comic 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:44.800 book villain character in his Garden of Evil that he 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:49.159 has in his sign copy of mind coomp in his 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:53.480 Nazi cocktail, napkins that are just strown around, strown about 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:57.840 and he is a multi billionaire backer and has been 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:00.200 the one folks, if you if you recall it there 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:05.760 following this story that has you know, hosted Thomas, Clarence Thomas, 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:10.920 and Ginny Thomas on lavish trips funded Ginny Thomas's quote 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:16.200 unquote nonprofit organizations that she pays herself out of, has 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:22.600 been the mastermind behind creating policies that have found their 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:25.080 way to move up to the Supreme Court, which he 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:29.359 has purchased like a like a little signatore on monopoly 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:34.680 and has been able from Citizens United to Shelby County 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:39.840 to the Dobs case and many in between to create 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:44.200 this kind of Christian fascist reality that we are living 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:45.160 in right now. 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:46.520 This has been behind. 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:49.320 I mean, you're looking at Harlan Crowe, You're looking at 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:54.600 Leo Leonard from the Federalist Society, You're looking at Clarence Thomas, 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:58.480 who is there like pawn in the middle, and it 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:04.439 is it is seeming so wild to me, Jared, that 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:08.480 we find ourselves at this place and these people have 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:14.680 been making these iterative moves over the course of three decades. 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:18.359 That's right. And by the way, I want to point 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:20.040 this out, and you know, this as well as I do. 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:22.119 And this might be something. And I always like to 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:24.360 talk about this because it actually pulls the curtain back 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:27.080 on a lot of this people like all the time 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:30.480 they look around, they're like, man, Ben Shapiro, all these guys, 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:34.960 they've got millions of subscribers and views, and oh my god, 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:37.520 I guess this is like a real ideology that people 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:42.120 believe in. It's not at all like the Republican conservative 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:45.320 ideology is so small like it is. And again, like 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:46.760 you go back to what I was talking about with 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:50.000 the country club sort of Harlan Crowe set, there's a 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:52.520 very small group of people. And whenever you peel back 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:56.200 the layers to see what's behind a Republican conservative media 0:19:56.200 --> 0:20:01.280 operation and personality, it's it's it's Crow, it's the Bradley's, 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:04.360 the devices, it's the Kokes. It's the same people who 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:07.640 are keeping all these boats aflow, and not just that, 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:11.800 but creating fake follower accounts. They're creating fake views, they're 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:15.000 creating fake impressions. And what they're doing it for has 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:17.800 always been to make it seem like this very small 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:21.879 group of people is much larger. This is not a 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:26.880 viable national party. They don't have the numbers, and it's 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:28.920 like this thing that happens in our media. It has 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:31.240 the inability to really look at it. It was like 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:33.080 this poll that came out a couple of weeks ago 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:38.919 that said, oh my god, quote unquote, wokeness is popular 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:41.679 with eighty percent of the American public. 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:44.240 What you say today, right? 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:47.440 And by the way, you know as well as I do, 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:51.479 that our media loves to pretend that every issue forty 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:55.320 five percent Democrat, forty five percent Republican, with ten percent 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:57.320 in the middle, and they're fighting over that ten percent. 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:00.040 That's not how America is set up. I know. So 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:01.680 this is a shock to some people, So I hope 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:04.480 they'll pull over or sit down before I say this. 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:09.159 This country was formulated to benefit a minority of white, 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:13.480 wealthy people, and so all of our structures benefit that. 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:16.720 The Republican Party is not a national party anymore. They 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:20.200 only benefit based on that minoritarian idea that we're talking 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:24.320 about here. As a result, these billionaires have outsized influence 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:27.080 and they're able to move all this stuff around. Look 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:29.760 at what happened with the Supreme Court. It's a backstop. 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:33.480 It's a minoritarian institution which we all know has been 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:36.720 used to limit human rights, to promote white supremacy, to 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:41.720 create conservative sort of dams. In terms of progress, it's 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:46.800 a regressive institution, always has. They've taken that over. Meanwhile, 0:21:47.000 --> 0:21:49.400 why are they acting so aggressively in these red states? 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:52.560 Because they've been jerrymandered so hard that they own them. 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:54.919 And on top of that, it's all they have left. 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:57.840 And right now is the moment where the Republican Party 0:21:57.960 --> 0:22:00.800 has had to make a choice. And this, by the way, 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:04.199 since twenty twelve when Mitt Romney got washed out by 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:09.520 Barack Obama, we've both read that the autops here report 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:11.480 they knew they eyed their head to move away from 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:14.840 exclusively white male supremacy or they were going to continue 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:18.879 losing elections. Twenty sixteen rolls around. Donald Trump just completely 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:22.400 through that in the trash can. This is a losing brand. 0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:28.720 They are crazy, unpopular freaks, even people who lean conservative. 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:31.920 They don't want people in their face talking about genital 0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:36.080 examinations of children before swim meets. They don't want people 0:22:36.160 --> 0:22:41.400 screaming about transhumanism and satanic cabals behind the scenes. They 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:43.800 are losing their popularity and what they have to do 0:22:43.920 --> 0:22:46.960 is they have to seize control of those minoritarian institutions 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:48.800 and Harlan Crow and that people just like him are 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:51.400 paying all the money to make that happen before they 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:54.320 get washed out completely as a party and lose all viability, 0:22:54.680 --> 0:22:56.480 and they need to go ahead and make all their 0:22:56.560 --> 0:22:59.520 dreams come true right now, which right now, this is 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:02.600 like a was It's like the crash and dash burgl 0:23:03.359 --> 0:23:04.639 They need to get in the store, they need to 0:23:04.640 --> 0:23:06.200 get whatever they need to get out, and they need 0:23:06.240 --> 0:23:08.440 to leave and they need to destroy democracy or else 0:23:08.520 --> 0:23:09.080 they're finished. 0:23:09.160 --> 0:23:09.560 That's it. 0:23:10.160 --> 0:23:10.359 You know. 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:14.040 It's so interesting because when you're given the option right 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:22.080 of creating policies people like for destroying democracy altogether, right 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:26.760 and understanding that, just as we have seen with these 0:23:27.000 --> 0:23:33.160 last few mass shootings, that they're not absolved from that pain. Right. 0:23:33.240 --> 0:23:37.720 It was in the Tennessee shooting at the school you 0:23:37.880 --> 0:23:40.720 had the first I believe the first Lady of Tennessee 0:23:40.880 --> 0:23:43.679 lost one of her best friends in that shooting. You 0:23:43.920 --> 0:23:48.080 have over you know what has happened in Kentucky, and 0:23:48.119 --> 0:23:50.600 there are people on the force and the governor himself, 0:23:50.680 --> 0:23:55.520 who is a Democrat, however, lost friends in that shooting. 0:23:56.040 --> 0:24:01.880 They're creating, Jared, these these policies, right. You have Tennessee 0:24:02.160 --> 0:24:07.120 was just about to pass their permitless conceal and carry. 0:24:07.520 --> 0:24:11.040 You have Florida passing, you know, these permit lists conceal 0:24:11.119 --> 0:24:15.240 and carry laws. They're doing these things that are coming 0:24:15.280 --> 0:24:18.719 down from on high, the billionaire is on high. But 0:24:18.840 --> 0:24:23.439 it doesn't it doesn't create a measure, a mechanism of 0:24:23.560 --> 0:24:30.240 security or arm's lengthness from harm. So, like, talk to 0:24:30.320 --> 0:24:33.320 me about this. We got to double down and get 0:24:33.320 --> 0:24:36.920 everything this smashing grab of rights and freedoms. We got 0:24:36.920 --> 0:24:39.800 to scoop it all up, right, then we got to 0:24:39.840 --> 0:24:43.800 push out our white supremacist militias to defend all of 0:24:43.840 --> 0:24:45.800 the things that we all of the rights that we 0:24:45.840 --> 0:24:49.480 have scooped up because we're you know, proliferating the streets 0:24:49.520 --> 0:24:52.480 with guns, which is the point, right, because they know 0:24:52.560 --> 0:24:57.680 that they're creating the climate and conditions for revolution, right, 0:24:57.760 --> 0:24:59.840 because there's only so far that people will be pushed. 0:24:59.880 --> 0:25:03.800 So well, when I put all of that together, I mean, 0:25:04.080 --> 0:25:08.080 is there a logic thread through this? Like I'll like, 0:25:08.200 --> 0:25:11.159 you know what I'm saying, because you are creating the 0:25:11.200 --> 0:25:13.080 conditions for your own demise. 0:25:14.480 --> 0:25:16.480 Yeah, and by the way. That's actually one of the 0:25:16.520 --> 0:25:19.760 weirder things that I've been studying within the Republican sphere 0:25:19.840 --> 0:25:23.399 is so much of this is self destructive, right, because 0:25:23.560 --> 0:25:26.040 literally nothing that we're talking about here, I just saw 0:25:26.080 --> 0:25:28.399 this the other day, because you know, it's it's almost 0:25:28.440 --> 0:25:30.280 like one of those things where the alerts come out 0:25:30.320 --> 0:25:32.760 of these state legislatures and you're like, oh my god, 0:25:32.880 --> 0:25:36.080 you passed that. Like like I just saw a state 0:25:36.119 --> 0:25:38.680 the other day, a red state just completely defunded all 0:25:38.760 --> 0:25:43.320 libraries Missouri, Missouri, and it's like, you do you do 0:25:43.359 --> 0:25:47.000 you think people want that? You know, like does that 0:25:47.280 --> 0:25:51.320 win somehow? And your culture war? You know, Malia. So 0:25:51.720 --> 0:25:55.880 part of what's happening is that they understand that there 0:25:56.000 --> 0:25:59.000 are levers that they can use. They have to use outrage, 0:25:59.040 --> 0:26:01.640 they have to use fear right. And this is something 0:26:01.880 --> 0:26:04.240 I didn't totally understand until I wrote my last book, 0:26:04.240 --> 0:26:06.600 Them in That Kingdom, which is this has always been 0:26:06.640 --> 0:26:10.119 how it is the only way that conservatives and reactionaries 0:26:10.200 --> 0:26:14.360 win is if they're using these fear based appears right. 0:26:15.280 --> 0:26:18.639 So for instance, not only is there a political incentive, 0:26:18.680 --> 0:26:22.240 there's an economic incentive, right. So one of the things 0:26:22.280 --> 0:26:25.480 I'm writing about today, is this bud Light backlash? Right? 0:26:25.800 --> 0:26:28.479 Oh my two, Yes, I've been following your tweets about it. 0:26:28.520 --> 0:26:29.400 So tell tell the. 0:26:29.359 --> 0:26:35.239 People bud Light decided that they needed to broaden their 0:26:36.160 --> 0:26:38.879 their marketing and that they decided to go out and 0:26:38.880 --> 0:26:41.919 try and get LGBTQ people to buy bud Light, so 0:26:41.960 --> 0:26:44.760 they handed it to an influencer as transgendered. Meanwhile, the 0:26:44.800 --> 0:26:48.359