WEBVTT - Michael Malice: Taking The White Pill 0:00:11.657 --> 0:00:14.937 You're listening to The Buck Sexton Show podcast, make sure 0:00:14.937 --> 0:00:17.977 you subscribe to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app or 0:00:17.977 --> 0:00:21.297 wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everybody, welcome to the 0:00:21.417 --> 0:00:26.577 Buck Sexton Show. On this episode, our friend Michael Malice. 0:00:26.857 --> 0:00:30.257 He is back, He is in action, and he is 0:00:30.337 --> 0:00:35.137 ready to party. The White Pill is his book, which 0:00:35.177 --> 0:00:38.737 I have right here. I was assigned this as homework 0:00:38.817 --> 0:00:41.977 by Michael, and hopefully I'll get a passing grade. I 0:00:41.977 --> 0:00:44.537 did have to read like the latter half of it quickly, 0:00:44.577 --> 0:00:47.497 but I did read it. The White Pill a tale 0:00:47.537 --> 0:00:50.377 of good and evil, and I think there's a lot 0:00:50.417 --> 0:00:52.777 of lessons. There's a lot of great history in this, Michael, 0:00:52.777 --> 0:00:55.617 which I really appreciate. I think one of the areas, 0:00:55.617 --> 0:00:58.617 even for people in this country who think of themselves 0:00:58.617 --> 0:01:02.177 as history bufficer or what have you, the actual history 0:01:02.297 --> 0:01:05.737 of the Soviet Revolution and more broadly, what was really 0:01:05.777 --> 0:01:10.457 going on in the Soviet Union is a massive, massive 0:01:10.497 --> 0:01:13.377 hole in the education of American history, I think, and 0:01:13.457 --> 0:01:16.537 your book, again right here, goes a nice way to 0:01:17.097 --> 0:01:21.857 addressing some of that gap. I think that's also partly 0:01:21.857 --> 0:01:25.297 by design that there's this massive hole, because what we're 0:01:25.337 --> 0:01:27.577 taught in schools, we like to have a nice little 0:01:27.657 --> 0:01:29.817 narrative that there's the good guys and the bad guys, 0:01:29.817 --> 0:01:31.617 and the Founding Fathers were all the good guys, and 0:01:31.657 --> 0:01:34.017 the Brits were the bad guys, and then the North 0:01:34.057 --> 0:01:36.097 were the good guys and the South were the bad guys. 0:01:36.137 --> 0:01:38.697 And then world War Two the Allies where the good 0:01:38.697 --> 0:01:40.577 guys and the Axis were the bad guys. Now it's 0:01:40.577 --> 0:01:43.017 clear that the Axis were the bad guys. But we're 0:01:43.257 --> 0:01:46.217 partners with Stalin, and if you start getting into too 0:01:46.337 --> 0:01:48.177 much of what Stalin did, all of a sudden that 0:01:48.217 --> 0:01:51.417 little good guys bad guys thing falls apart, and I 0:01:51.417 --> 0:01:54.057 think that does an enormous disservice. As a friend of 0:01:54.097 --> 0:01:57.537 mine pointed out, which genocidal ideology should I be more 0:01:57.577 --> 0:01:59.777 worried about the one that lost or the one that won. 0:02:00.417 --> 0:02:05.257 So I think it's important for especially conservatives, who kind 0:02:05.297 --> 0:02:09.017 of often have this incorrect idea that things started getting 0:02:09.017 --> 0:02:12.617 bad twenty years ago, and all these different organizations, whether 0:02:12.617 --> 0:02:16.577 the universities or Hollywood or Washington, were somehow co opted 0:02:16.577 --> 0:02:19.617 by the left. This is not only not new, but 0:02:20.057 --> 0:02:22.657 what had been going on, especially in the thirties. It 0:02:22.777 --> 0:02:25.457 was so much worse, is so much more depraved in 0:02:25.497 --> 0:02:28.697 many ways than what we're facing now that I thought 0:02:28.697 --> 0:02:32.057 it was important to put forward. You know exactly what 0:02:32.817 --> 0:02:37.297 half of the world effectively went through. And it saddens 0:02:37.417 --> 0:02:39.617 me that so many people, and obviously I was born 0:02:39.617 --> 0:02:41.857 in the Civil Union, so many people and what they 0:02:41.897 --> 0:02:45.697 went through is being forgotten when this is a victory 0:02:45.737 --> 0:02:48.737 that happened in the lifetimes of pretty much everyone listening 0:02:48.777 --> 0:02:52.977 to this show. Yes, you could definitely argue the greatest 0:02:53.777 --> 0:02:56.937 in terms of population and number of people, the greatest 0:02:57.017 --> 0:03:03.097 liberation of humanity to freedom from abject tyranny occurred in 0:03:03.137 --> 0:03:05.457 your lifetime and in my lifetime, and it's really not 0:03:06.057 --> 0:03:09.017 thought of in that context. I think, I think nearly enough. 0:03:09.017 --> 0:03:11.457 I don't think people understan and you know, we think 0:03:11.657 --> 0:03:13.577 we have a bit of a cartoonish view. And look, 0:03:13.577 --> 0:03:15.497 I love Rocky for I'm not saying it's not a 0:03:15.537 --> 0:03:19.617 really fun movie. But you know, the Soviets, I think 0:03:19.617 --> 0:03:22.817 in retrospect or thought of almost more as um and 0:03:22.857 --> 0:03:27.577 the whole Soviet system as you know, poor but poor, buffoonish, 0:03:27.697 --> 0:03:30.497 oh fish. You know, we have all these these this 0:03:30.617 --> 0:03:33.417 this notion of the Commissar whether it's in It's in 0:03:33.657 --> 0:03:36.097 um the Hunt for Red October, or you know, any 0:03:36.097 --> 0:03:38.617 of the any of the pop culture, it's always some 0:03:38.697 --> 0:03:40.977 fat Russian guy with a bunch of metals on. There's 0:03:41.017 --> 0:03:44.177 like I'm during going vodka, and it's like these people 0:03:44.217 --> 0:03:48.257 were actually sending women and children and and and everybody 0:03:48.657 --> 0:03:53.817 to effectively extermination camps in Siberia and to mass imprisonment 0:03:53.857 --> 0:03:56.377 and to mass torture, and it's not thought of him 0:03:56.417 --> 0:03:58.617 quite that way. And I think your book explores that. 0:03:58.657 --> 0:04:01.297 I also think it's important for you to continue to 0:04:01.337 --> 0:04:03.817 tell people why is that, Michael, Why why is it 0:04:03.857 --> 0:04:07.817 that the there's always a soft pedaling of the Soviet atrocity. Well, 0:04:07.857 --> 0:04:10.017 I think one of the big reasons, and I'm confident 0:04:10.137 --> 0:04:12.497 that you'd agree, is that so many people in the 0:04:12.497 --> 0:04:14.777 West had had blood on their hands as a consequence. 0:04:15.457 --> 0:04:18.057 Despite what you know political when the New York Times 0:04:18.137 --> 0:04:20.697 might tell you in twenty twenty three, there was never 0:04:20.737 --> 0:04:24.537 a strong Nazi presence in the United States. This is 0:04:24.617 --> 0:04:26.377 not a thing. You had the button, but they were 0:04:26.377 --> 0:04:29.537 basically kind of marginalized in a joke. There was very 0:04:29.617 --> 0:04:33.057 much a very strong not just communist in the sense 0:04:33.057 --> 0:04:35.537 of oh, I believe in communism is an ideal, but 0:04:35.857 --> 0:04:40.017 literally many people answering directly to Stalin and the far 0:04:40.097 --> 0:04:42.857 side of what later became the Iron Curtain, and the 0:04:42.977 --> 0:04:46.657 one time when they were accountable for their actions. The 0:04:46.697 --> 0:04:49.257 fact that you know, we gave someone who's killed millions 0:04:49.257 --> 0:04:52.017 of his own countrymen, got handed the Adam bomb, and 0:04:52.097 --> 0:04:54.297 things like this. The fact that so many of these 0:04:54.337 --> 0:04:57.297 Western outlets are still in power today, are still treated 0:04:57.337 --> 0:05:00.617 with respect today, is I think a major reason why 0:05:00.657 --> 0:05:03.097 this is soft pedaled. There's a great quote in the 0:05:03.097 --> 0:05:05.057 book that I found. You know, we were all told that, 0:05:05.537 --> 0:05:07.977 you know, the night the McCarthyism, you know which hunts, 0:05:08.497 --> 0:05:11.097 and you know a play right, I'm like in her name? 0:05:11.137 --> 0:05:13.897 She was like, But there weren't which is in Salem. 0:05:14.177 --> 0:05:18.417 But there were these communists. These were people actively and 0:05:18.537 --> 0:05:23.817 intentionally members of an organization dedicated to secretly and to 0:05:24.057 --> 0:05:27.617 violent overthrow of the United States government in the service 0:05:28.097 --> 0:05:30.457 of what had been at the time the most evil 0:05:30.857 --> 0:05:34.577 or maybe one of the two most evil governments on earth. 0:05:35.057 --> 0:05:38.257 So it's never framed in that way, and I think 0:05:38.297 --> 0:05:41.137 I did what little I could do to point out 0:05:41.177 --> 0:05:45.017 exactly what it was that was so bad about their views. 0:05:45.417 --> 0:05:48.137 It's not that they're just look, I'm for equality and 0:05:48.217 --> 0:05:50.137 you know, buck, everyone has to have a job and 0:05:50.217 --> 0:05:53.417 we need more housing please, you know, it is so 0:05:53.617 --> 0:05:57.257 removed from that. It is defending people being tortured. It 0:05:57.337 --> 0:06:01.457 is defending children being taught in school to turn their 0:06:01.457 --> 0:06:04.377 parents into the police, even if they their parents have 0:06:04.497 --> 0:06:08.337 retribution and kill them. It is starvation for political purposes. 0:06:08.537 --> 0:06:12.177 It is mass deportation of many people from their ancestral 0:06:12.257 --> 0:06:14.817 lands in order to break them and for the sake 0:06:14.817 --> 0:06:17.297 of the common good, so that they're subservient to the state. 0:06:17.777 --> 0:06:21.417 None of these things are discussed in the West, and frankly, 0:06:21.457 --> 0:06:24.217 I think in many ways it's a failure of conservatism 0:06:24.257 --> 0:06:26.697 where you know, the worst thing that often is said 0:06:26.697 --> 0:06:30.457 about about communism is that it's godless. But it's so 0:06:30.737 --> 0:06:34.657 it's not just godless, it's downright satanic. Yes, no, it 0:06:34.697 --> 0:06:37.937 goes beyond that. There's a there's a sadism. And actually 0:06:37.937 --> 0:06:41.297 that's for anybody. And you there's so many really poignant 0:06:41.697 --> 0:06:46.257 anecdotes in the book about you know, for example, the 0:06:46.497 --> 0:06:48.897 little girl. This is from Michael's book. There's a little 0:06:48.897 --> 0:06:52.097 girl who is outside in a breadline, we always think 0:06:52.097 --> 0:06:55.537 of the Soviet breadlines, and again we have this this 0:06:55.737 --> 0:06:58.857 sort of mentality of its people. You know, they're in 0:06:58.857 --> 0:07:01.217 the babush gun. It's sad, and they're in line there. 0:07:01.257 --> 0:07:03.457 It's like, well, actually, the guy at the front of 0:07:03.457 --> 0:07:05.657 the line sees a girl who's part of the Kulak 0:07:05.737 --> 0:07:08.577 class because they're all online waiting for food, right, and 0:07:09.097 --> 0:07:11.137 hits her with an ife and kicks her in the 0:07:11.217 --> 0:07:13.697 stomach and she dies right there, a little girl who's starving, 0:07:13.697 --> 0:07:16.377 that dies in front of everybody. And his response to this, 0:07:16.417 --> 0:07:18.657 as you write in the book, is you know, well, 0:07:18.737 --> 0:07:20.377 you know, you never know where the class enemies are 0:07:20.377 --> 0:07:21.817 going to come from, right, or there's something you know, 0:07:22.217 --> 0:07:25.057 this is another sign of the weakness of our class enemies. 0:07:25.337 --> 0:07:28.817 There's no humanity, there's no decency, And that's just that. 0:07:28.937 --> 0:07:32.417 That's a a vignette that I think exposes um so 0:07:32.497 --> 0:07:35.417 much more of us. I mean, for example, the Gulag Archipelago, 0:07:35.457 --> 0:07:39.417 which people you know Orwell is amazing and gets a 0:07:39.457 --> 0:07:41.497 lot of credit. Though Orwell was kind of a slowly 0:07:41.537 --> 0:07:45.497 reforming socialist himself, or reforming at all. He was a 0:07:45.497 --> 0:07:49.257 hardcore socialist to the day he died. Well, he went less, 0:07:49.697 --> 0:07:53.337 He went less less socialist. I think, I would argue 0:07:53.377 --> 0:07:55.977 he was starting to see the problems of a socialist system. 0:07:57.177 --> 0:07:59.737 He said explicitly, every word I write is in defense 0:07:59.777 --> 0:08:04.297 of democratic socialism. I don't understand it democratic socialism, right, 0:08:04.777 --> 0:08:07.457 you're gonna tell ye not. Well, I mean, but this 0:08:07.497 --> 0:08:08.817 is no. But this is the game they play all 0:08:08.817 --> 0:08:11.417 the time, like what's it? Dive seen Bernie Sanders and Stalin. 0:08:11.497 --> 0:08:15.617 One is democratic socialism and one is you know, socialism socialism. 0:08:15.657 --> 0:08:17.537 So no, I actually I do think that there's some 0:08:18.177 --> 0:08:20.497 there's some game that maybe it's false, but there's a 0:08:20.497 --> 0:08:22.777 game that's played with the moderation of what the socialist 0:08:22.817 --> 0:08:26.497 intent actually is. And Orwell recognize that a truly empowered 0:08:26.537 --> 0:08:29.697 socialist state now national socialist state. But that would be 0:08:29.737 --> 0:08:33.017 a whole other conversation too, created the horrors that he 0:08:33.057 --> 0:08:34.657 wrote about. Anyway, I didn't want to get into the 0:08:35.017 --> 0:08:37.737 Orwell discussion as much as I just wanted to say, 0:08:38.257 --> 0:08:40.497 souls and Eats in I think is as important an 0:08:40.537 --> 0:08:45.817 author and is probably assigned in school you know one 0:08:45.937 --> 0:08:48.577 percent as often or you know one tenth maybe as often, 0:08:49.297 --> 0:08:50.817 and you know souls and eats in I think in 0:08:50.857 --> 0:08:55.497 the Gulag Archipelago, the thing that really strikes people is 0:08:55.537 --> 0:08:59.337 just how evil people in this system were willing to 0:08:59.377 --> 0:09:02.017 be every day and it was nothing and no one cares. 0:09:03.617 --> 0:09:06.617 It wasn't just they're willing, they're excited. This was their 0:09:06.737 --> 0:09:10.777 channel who however, somebody else that people who are arrested 0:09:10.817 --> 0:09:16.177 for political purposes were told explicitly, you are lower than 0:09:16.377 --> 0:09:20.657 rapists and murderers because they're still people. You're an enemy 0:09:20.697 --> 0:09:23.977 of the people, And it was encouraged, and we see 0:09:23.977 --> 0:09:26.017 this still to this day in North Korea. It is 0:09:26.097 --> 0:09:29.577 you're encouraged to be cruel and vindictive and make them 0:09:29.617 --> 0:09:33.257 suffer because you're the good guys and there's something far 0:09:33.337 --> 0:09:37.257 beneath human. This is something obviously very mirrored in Nazi ideology. 0:09:37.617 --> 0:09:43.097 So it's extremely you know, it's extremely disturbing when you 0:09:43.177 --> 0:09:47.497 look at historically what these systems mean in practice, right, 0:09:47.777 --> 0:09:50.177 because you know, there's this whole idea of what communism 0:09:50.217 --> 0:09:53.097 is great in theory but bad in practice. What everything 0:09:53.137 --> 0:09:54.777 is great in theory, what does that even mean? Like, 0:09:55.097 --> 0:09:57.537 what kind of idea is bad in theory. It is 0:09:57.577 --> 0:10:01.337 practice where you determine whether an idea is good or not. 0:10:01.777 --> 0:10:04.737 And when we saw, over decades, over how many countries, 0:10:05.297 --> 0:10:08.537 what this meant for the average person. You know, children 0:10:08.697 --> 0:10:11.657 chained to cribs because they were handed over by their 0:10:11.657 --> 0:10:13.857 starving parents, who were told the government can raise them 0:10:13.897 --> 0:10:16.417 better than they could, who gave up uncrying because they 0:10:16.457 --> 0:10:18.017 knew no one was going to come to pick pick 0:10:18.057 --> 0:10:20.417 them up. You and I and pretty much everyone listening 0:10:20.457 --> 0:10:23.297 to the show can sit all day long. And if 0:10:23.337 --> 0:10:26.737 we try to, like rack our brains for how sadistic 0:10:26.857 --> 0:10:29.017 we could be, we would never think of half these 0:10:29.017 --> 0:10:32.097 things because our brains aren't wired like this. We're not 0:10:32.217 --> 0:10:36.057 raised in cultures where it's considered appropriate at least yet 0:10:36.937 --> 0:10:41.137 to turn power against the weak and those who we 0:10:41.217 --> 0:10:44.897 don't like and just do just the most vindictive, vicious 0:10:44.937 --> 0:10:49.097 things and pat ourselves in the back for it. I 0:10:49.137 --> 0:10:51.777 want to bring this into our current context a little bit, actually, 0:10:51.857 --> 0:10:54.617 and I make the argument to people, and I can 0:10:54.657 --> 0:10:57.457 tell that it's it's really uncomfortable for them. But you know, 0:10:57.497 --> 0:11:00.457 you and I were in contact a lot during the 0:11:00.537 --> 0:11:02.337 COVID and what was going on in New York and 0:11:02.377 --> 0:11:06.457 the lockdowns, and I try to remind everyone that there 0:11:06.657 --> 0:11:09.737 was to your point about almost a glee, like there 0:11:09.777 --> 0:11:13.537 was a leave that some people took in the extreme 0:11:13.777 --> 0:11:16.857 of it all, and there was a clear joy that 0:11:16.897 --> 0:11:19.297 you would see in the eyes of people, just in 0:11:19.337 --> 0:11:22.737 the eyes who were masked police, for example, walking around 0:11:23.217 --> 0:11:25.657 or telling you why aren't you're close to me? Social 0:11:25.697 --> 0:11:28.657 distancing they took. They took some level of joy and 0:11:28.697 --> 0:11:31.377 treating their fellow human beings as though they were unclean 0:11:31.537 --> 0:11:34.777 one and also that they could lord it over them 0:11:34.817 --> 0:11:38.337 in some way. Yes, and I say to everybody, you know, okay, yeah, 0:11:38.377 --> 0:11:41.257 it wasn't you know, they weren't hurting us off into camps. 0:11:41.257 --> 0:11:43.097 I mean, they started to do something like that in Australia. 0:11:43.137 --> 0:11:46.377 They obviously did do that in China, but it also 0:11:46.497 --> 0:11:49.777 was a virus with a real fatality rate, a real 0:11:49.817 --> 0:11:53.737 fatality rate of you know, point zero two maybe point 0:11:53.817 --> 0:11:56.417 zero zero two, depends on whose numbers now you want 0:11:56.417 --> 0:11:59.617 to believe. Spanish flew had a five percent fatality rate 0:11:59.977 --> 0:12:03.897 in the United States back when nineteen eighteen, nineteen nineteen, 0:12:03.937 --> 0:12:08.177 nineteen twenty. So I feel like if people were willing 0:12:08.217 --> 0:12:11.497 to do that for something that wasn't that extreme, that 0:12:11.537 --> 0:12:13.817 we're actually much closer to falling into a full blown 0:12:13.857 --> 0:12:19.377 totalitarian society in America than anybody had previously realized. One 0:12:19.417 --> 0:12:21.497 of the big delusions I think a lot of people 0:12:21.537 --> 0:12:24.457 have is that America's magic in the sense that these 0:12:24.497 --> 0:12:26.937 things that happened in other countries can't possibly happen here. 0:12:27.337 --> 0:12:29.617 And I think a lot of people, especially on the right, 0:12:29.897 --> 0:12:32.897 when they looked at how their fellow countrymen acted during COVID, 0:12:33.177 --> 0:12:35.417 had a big wake up call as to how many 0:12:35.417 --> 0:12:39.257 people really regard liberty as their highest value. And what 0:12:39.297 --> 0:12:41.097 we saw and I learned in my research for The 0:12:41.137 --> 0:12:44.057 White Pill is in East Germany they had an enormous 0:12:44.097 --> 0:12:46.817 the biggest informant network the world I'd ever seen, thanks 0:12:46.857 --> 0:12:49.817 to the Stazi, which was their secret police. And after 0:12:49.897 --> 0:12:52.937 the wall fell and Germany was reunified, just the beautiful, 0:12:52.937 --> 0:12:55.697 beautiful scenes and some of my favorite parts of the book, 0:12:56.137 --> 0:12:59.017 you know, the Stazi archives were opened and a reporter 0:12:59.377 --> 0:13:02.257 spoke to one of these former Stazi recruiters and Buck, 0:13:02.297 --> 0:13:05.817 you and I probably thought, I certainly thought that, Okay, 0:13:05.857 --> 0:13:08.657 here's how it works. They capture me and they're like 0:13:08.937 --> 0:13:10.737 give me five names or else we're going to kill 0:13:10.777 --> 0:13:12.817 your family, And like, Buck, I love you, but if 0:13:12.817 --> 0:13:14.537 I got to drop your name to save my family. 0:13:14.537 --> 0:13:16.657 It's going to happen. And I think this situation would 0:13:16.657 --> 0:13:18.617 be reversed. You'd hold out as much as you could, 0:13:18.737 --> 0:13:20.617 but at a certain point you're like, listen, I'm being 0:13:20.657 --> 0:13:23.697 I can't sleep. You're threatening my children, you're threatening my mom. 0:13:23.777 --> 0:13:25.297 I just got to give your names. I just can 0:13:25.297 --> 0:13:27.457 do anything to get the torture to stop. That's not 0:13:27.537 --> 0:13:30.897 what happened in East Germany. They were people who were 0:13:30.897 --> 0:13:33.897 just bored or lonely, or just wanted someone to talk to, 0:13:34.017 --> 0:13:37.257 or wanted to have the opportunity to feel important for 0:13:37.377 --> 0:13:40.137 once in their lives. So see, we don't have to 0:13:40.177 --> 0:13:42.857 speculate as to what it takes to get people to 0:13:42.897 --> 0:13:47.777 turn into informants and to be amenable to telltalitary and systems. 0:13:48.017 --> 0:13:51.377 We've seen it historically, and we've seen it here during COVID, 0:13:51.817 --> 0:13:54.777 and I would hope people realize that this is far 0:13:54.857 --> 0:13:57.857 more pervasive and far more universal part of the human 0:13:57.857 --> 0:14:01.497 experience than even I would have liked to have believed. 0:14:01.817 --> 0:14:05.377 You know, the there's a Souls and Eats in story 0:14:05.657 --> 0:14:08.577 and I remember where there's a woman who goes into 0:14:08.617 --> 0:14:11.777 the You know, this is obvious in the Soviet era, 0:14:12.177 --> 0:14:15.177 a woman goes into the effect of the local police 0:14:15.217 --> 0:14:19.097 station and says, you know, the constables, and says, because 0:14:19.297 --> 0:14:23.217 her neighbor had been seized another woman at night, never 0:14:23.257 --> 0:14:26.257 to be seen again, seized but left behind an infant, 0:14:26.377 --> 0:14:29.137 like a you know, six month old baby, and and 0:14:29.297 --> 0:14:32.897 she goes the neighbor goes to the police station to say, 0:14:33.617 --> 0:14:36.017 you know, hey, is the mother coming back? If not, 0:14:36.577 --> 0:14:39.497 you know, should I step in and do something here 0:14:39.537 --> 0:14:42.457 to help out with this baby's going to starve to death. 0:14:43.097 --> 0:14:47.177 They arrested the neighbor and when asked when when, when 0:14:47.257 --> 0:14:50.257 asked later on why one of these individuals why they 0:14:50.337 --> 0:14:53.657 arrested the neighbor, the explanation that Souldson heard from you know, 0:14:53.697 --> 0:14:57.097 another bureaucrat, another police officer, was to save them the time. 0:14:58.257 --> 0:15:01.337 That was the attitude. It's like, oh, you're already here. 0:15:01.577 --> 0:15:03.577 We're just gonna grab you, because we're probably gonna have 0:15:03.577 --> 0:15:05.377 to grab you at some point anyway, and you've already 0:15:05.377 --> 0:15:07.777 showed up to the station. So now you also go 0:15:07.817 --> 0:15:09.697 into the cell and you either go to Siberia or 0:15:09.697 --> 0:15:11.497 you just go up against a wall and we execute you. 0:15:11.937 --> 0:15:14.657 Thank you for saving us the time that was the attitude. 0:15:15.137 --> 0:15:18.497 And you know, obviously that's a lethal matter and it's 0:15:18.537 --> 0:15:22.417 particularly depraved. But I really did get the sense, and 0:15:22.497 --> 0:15:24.137 I know people get mad at me when I say this, 0:15:24.177 --> 0:15:26.137 I get the sense that there were a lot of 0:15:26.177 --> 0:15:29.137 people who during COVID in this country not only would 0:15:29.177 --> 0:15:34.017 have complied with, but would have felt here's maybe a 0:15:34.017 --> 0:15:36.257 better way of putting in, Michael, there were people who 0:15:36.257 --> 0:15:38.777 were openly celebrating when other human beings died of a 0:15:38.857 --> 0:15:41.617 virus because they thought that they represented the anti Fauci 0:15:41.697 --> 0:15:46.057 point of view. That was widespread, yes, explicit and constant. 0:15:46.057 --> 0:15:47.857 But look to that point, with that, with that baby. 0:15:48.377 --> 0:15:50.777 The other reason for a rest is this is a 0:15:50.817 --> 0:15:54.257 country where kids are treated well the narrative. So if 0:15:54.257 --> 0:15:56.657 you're pointing on an example where kids are treated poorly, 0:15:57.017 --> 0:16:00.697 you're a provocateur, You're a troublemaker. Come with me. So 0:16:00.937 --> 0:16:04.657 what happens in these systems is pointing out hypocrisies or 0:16:04.697 --> 0:16:08.537 problems with the status quo in and of itself. Labels 0:16:08.537 --> 0:16:11.577 he was a counter revolutionary. So everyone very quickly has 0:16:11.617 --> 0:16:13.577 to learn to keep their heads down and keep their 0:16:13.617 --> 0:16:16.097 mouth shut. And this is something that those of us 0:16:16.377 --> 0:16:19.497 coming from there. It's just very weird to me talking 0:16:19.537 --> 0:16:21.977 to people who've been raised in like complete Americans, because 0:16:21.977 --> 0:16:24.137 a lot of times they'll say things that's just so 0:16:24.417 --> 0:16:26.497 different from how I was raised, and it's just things 0:16:26.497 --> 0:16:29.697 that just kind of I guess, you know you're culturally, 0:16:29.737 --> 0:16:32.137 you're just brought certain ways, like Americans are very big 0:16:32.537 --> 0:16:34.577 on Like I remember I had a group of people 0:16:34.577 --> 0:16:36.977 where everyone's trying to give each other advice and it's 0:16:37.057 --> 0:16:39.697 give a problem at work. Well, the American answer is 0:16:39.737 --> 0:16:42.377 always well, take the person, sit down and talk with them, 0:16:42.457 --> 0:16:45.297 have it out. And for someone from a Soviet background, 0:16:45.657 --> 0:16:48.177 it's like no, no. The first question is, well, what 0:16:48.297 --> 0:16:50.457 power does this person have because they might smile and 0:16:50.537 --> 0:16:52.297 not at the meeting, but then they'll stab you in 0:16:52.297 --> 0:16:54.457 the back later. Are they going to start a file 0:16:54.537 --> 0:16:57.337 on you? This is the kind of psychology that develops 0:16:57.337 --> 0:17:00.257 in these countries, and this is something Americans I think 0:17:00.297 --> 0:17:04.577 are thankfully very naive about about how vindictive and petty 0:17:05.017 --> 0:17:08.697 small bureaucrats often can be. And sadly, I think some 0:17:08.857 --> 0:17:11.817 Americans are starting to learn that the your nature of 0:17:11.897 --> 0:17:13.577 that And a good example of this is when the 0:17:13.617 --> 0:17:16.617 parents were protesting about the stuff being taught to their kids, 0:17:16.657 --> 0:17:19.617 and now the parents were an investigation and being labeled 0:17:19.617 --> 0:17:22.137 as terrorists or being alluded to as terrorists. This is 0:17:22.177 --> 0:17:24.217 the sort of thing that Americans just never think of. 0:17:24.417 --> 0:17:27.137 But it's like, yes, the government will. If the government 0:17:27.217 --> 0:17:30.377 can arrest terrorists very quickly, everyone who they don't like 0:17:30.497 --> 0:17:35.817 becomes a terrorist. Yeah, I'm I'm somebody who you know. 0:17:36.057 --> 0:17:38.937 There were There have been two moments, I think politically 0:17:39.097 --> 0:17:43.257 for me that have really shifted you could say my 0:17:43.337 --> 0:17:47.737 Overton window or my perception of the country and what 0:17:47.977 --> 0:17:51.017 we are, what we are up against. The first one 0:17:51.857 --> 0:17:55.177 was actually Kavanaugh, not even because it's like, oh, my gosh, 0:17:55.257 --> 0:17:58.897 Supreme Court. So much is at stake that the Kamala 0:17:58.897 --> 0:18:01.657 Harris was among them, that the most powerful voices in 0:18:01.697 --> 0:18:05.137 the Democrat Party and the Democrats Senate at the time, 0:18:05.817 --> 0:18:11.417 we're willing to clearly, erroneously and without any basis in 0:18:11.497 --> 0:18:14.737 any fact or any reality, call a man a rapist 0:18:14.817 --> 0:18:16.537 in front of his family in the whole country just 0:18:16.617 --> 0:18:19.417 because they didn't want him to have a job. That 0:18:19.577 --> 0:18:21.137 means they do it to your dad, that means they 0:18:21.177 --> 0:18:22.617 do it to your brother, they do to anybody, and 0:18:22.737 --> 0:18:25.137 feel good about themselves too. It does not matter. It 0:18:25.297 --> 0:18:27.937 did not matter to them. And then with COVID as well, 0:18:28.657 --> 0:18:32.897 the immiseration of millions of people, the deaths of despair 0:18:32.977 --> 0:18:35.537 that occurred as a result, the businesses that were destroyed, 0:18:35.657 --> 0:18:37.777 the livelihoods that were ruled. I mean, we go down 0:18:37.817 --> 0:18:40.417 the whole list. Not only were there people going along 0:18:40.457 --> 0:18:41.817 with all this, and this was the part of it 0:18:41.897 --> 0:18:44.777 that really rocked me as a New Yorker. It's why 0:18:44.817 --> 0:18:48.017 I'm no longer a New Yorker. People thought they were happy. 0:18:48.457 --> 0:18:50.937 They were like, oh, we're great, We're the good people. 0:18:51.617 --> 0:18:54.337 The monsters thought that they were the heroes. Michael. That's 0:18:54.377 --> 0:18:57.617 the problem. But Buck, I'm going to push back a 0:18:57.657 --> 0:18:59.617 little bit, and I don't think you're gonna disagree. The 0:18:59.737 --> 0:19:02.337 Democrats should have patted themselves in the back about kavanaughh 0:19:02.457 --> 0:19:05.497 because none of them have faced any consequences whatsoever for 0:19:05.577 --> 0:19:08.497 what they did, other than fundraising and being regard as 0:19:08.657 --> 0:19:11.417 leaders of a movement. Chuck Grassley, who was either the 0:19:11.657 --> 0:19:14.777 chairman or the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, has 0:19:14.817 --> 0:19:17.977 sent out press releases. I point out this story all 0:19:18.017 --> 0:19:20.337 the time, how he wrote letters to I think the 0:19:20.497 --> 0:19:24.737 Justice Department and either the FBIRA CIA demanding answers as 0:19:24.817 --> 0:19:28.137 to how Julie Sweatnick, who had no connection whatsoever to Kavanagh, 0:19:28.377 --> 0:19:31.457 who was claiming that multiple gang rape party she attended, 0:19:31.497 --> 0:19:35.017 he was somehow responsible for Avanadi. Her attorney went to jail. 0:19:35.017 --> 0:19:37.697 They couldn't get her on CNN fast enough. Grassley wrote 0:19:37.697 --> 0:19:40.417 a letter being like, what are the consequences for this woman? 0:19:40.737 --> 0:19:43.657 And in his press release he's boasting that his letters 0:19:43.697 --> 0:19:45.737 for a couple of years have now been ignored. So 0:19:45.937 --> 0:19:47.937 when you have one party that is willing to do 0:19:48.097 --> 0:19:50.737 this and the Republican responses, well, I'm going to write 0:19:50.737 --> 0:19:53.697 a sternly worded letter and no one's going to answer me. 0:19:53.777 --> 0:19:56.337 And I'm fighting for you. When you have this asymmetry, 0:19:56.697 --> 0:19:59.337 of course, the incentives are always going to be to 0:19:59.457 --> 0:20:03.257 be as tyrannical as possible, because there's no downside. I 0:20:03.817 --> 0:20:06.497 don't disagree with you, so saw that one coming. But 0:20:06.657 --> 0:20:09.337 let me ask you. We'll take a pause, Michael, because 0:20:09.337 --> 0:20:10.697 I want to put in a word from our sponsor, 0:20:10.737 --> 0:20:12.137 But a question I want to put out there that 0:20:12.177 --> 0:20:13.457 you can think about, and we'll come back to in 0:20:13.537 --> 0:20:20.217 a second. How close in ethos? How close in sentiment? 0:20:20.937 --> 0:20:24.297 Are the most radical elements of the Democrat Party in 0:20:24.377 --> 0:20:30.337 this country, and your average Soviet commissar circa nineteen fifty. 0:20:30.657 --> 0:20:32.097 Just pick a time. Well, I want to come back 0:20:32.137 --> 0:20:35.217 to that in a second Born from a tragedy of 0:20:35.297 --> 0:20:37.297 nine eleven, The Tunnel of the Towers Foundation has been 0:20:37.377 --> 0:20:39.817 honoring America's heroes ever since. Look, it's a really important 0:20:39.897 --> 0:20:43.097 organization that honors fallen and severely injured heroes and their 0:20:43.137 --> 0:20:46.137 families with mortgage free homes. This year alone, hundreds of 0:20:46.177 --> 0:20:48.817 gold Star and fallen first responder families with young children 0:20:49.057 --> 0:20:51.817 and our nation's most severely injured veterans and first responders 0:20:51.897 --> 0:20:54.737 are receiving homes. More than five hundred homeless veterans received 0:20:54.777 --> 0:20:57.737 housing and services last year. More than fifteen hundred receiving 0:20:57.777 --> 0:21:00.097 housing and services this year. Through the Tunnel of the 0:21:00.097 --> 0:21:03.057