Speaker 1: Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Speaker 1: Washington Broadcast Center.
Speaker 2: Jack Armstrong, Joe Katty, I'm strong, and Jetty, I know
Speaker 2: he armstrong and Yetty.
Speaker 3: So many members in the in the media are carrying
Speaker 3: water for Iran. You know, of course, the Iranians consume
Speaker 3: all of American media and they must be elated with
Speaker 3: the vast majority of this coverage. And they've just realized,
Speaker 3: now we can't and will never put any kinds of
Speaker 3: boots on ground, or we won't do the kinds of
Speaker 3: very specific kinds of things like for receiving the uranium
Speaker 3: material or reopening the straight. And now that's they puts
Speaker 3: them in the straight. Where here we are right now?
Speaker 4: Senator Fedman Fetterman of Pennsylvania Democrat. Not like the media
Speaker 4: coverage around the whole Iranian war, I would agree, if
Speaker 4: you watch like the Sunday shows or Cable News channel
Speaker 4: or anything like that, it's all a discussion of, well,
Speaker 4: the disaster happened. It's the worst thing any president has
Speaker 4: ever done. How do we clean this up? Without any
Speaker 4: idea that things could still turn out for the better,
Speaker 4: which they obviously.
Speaker 1: Could, And because it's an echo chamber. They don't even
Speaker 1: feel the need to make the argument for why it's
Speaker 1: a mistake. It's just self evident in their world and
Speaker 1: all the implications and omissions of the you know, the
Speaker 1: Iranians trying to get nuclear weapons as soon as they could,
Speaker 1: spreading terrorism. They've got proxy armies all over the region,
Speaker 1: sewing mayhem constantly. They don't even bother to make the case.
Speaker 2: So the blockade is on as we speak.
Speaker 4: The United States is now blockading the Straight of Horror
Speaker 4: moves so no ships can come in and out. Hey, Ran,
Speaker 4: you ain't gonna make any more money from here on out. Also,
Speaker 4: hey China, you ain't gonna get me oil. Neither is Europe.
Speaker 4: So you got that. Ran has threatened all kinds of
Speaker 4: attacks on ports and ships that go through and all
Speaker 4: that sort of stuff. Donald Trump has just put out
Speaker 4: another truth social post in which he says Iran's navy
Speaker 4: is laying at the bottom of the sea, completely obliterated
Speaker 4: one hundred and fifty eight ships. What we have not
Speaker 4: hit are their small number of what they call fast
Speaker 4: attack ships, because we do not consider them much of
Speaker 4: a threat. Warning if any of these ships come anywhere
Speaker 4: close to our blockade. They will be immediately eliminated using
Speaker 4: the same system of kill that we used against the
Speaker 4: drug dealers on boats at sea. It is quick and brutal.
Speaker 4: So we're going to drone strike the fast attack boats
Speaker 4: if they head out into the Strait.
Speaker 2: Apparently fair enough. Yeah, that'd be exciting today.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you brought China into the discussion, which is absolutely appropriate.
Speaker 1: And when we were talking about this earlier, Jack made
Speaker 1: I think an excellent point that this feels to some
Speaker 1: extent like the big thing hasn't even happened, right their
Speaker 1: run up to the big thing, the history making event,
Speaker 1: here's the best thing we've got going for us.
Speaker 2: Ironically, China is.
Speaker 1: So desperately addicted to exports, and he shocked to the
Speaker 1: world economy would be terrible for their economy, like unpractically unsustainable.
Speaker 1: So it's held him in check from moving on Taiwan
Speaker 1: for now. And I also think they are seriously going
Speaker 1: to exert pressure on the IRGC to tone the crap
Speaker 1: down because China's got to have world trade going in
Speaker 1: the world.
Speaker 2: I hope that happens.
Speaker 4: Maybe that's Trump's leverage, Maybe he feels like that's the leverage, because.
Speaker 1: What's the alternative, China decides to go crazy on the
Speaker 1: US and get into a tit for tat with Trump.
Speaker 2: I just don't. I don't think that's the right strategy.
Speaker 4: And it could be Europe and China leaning on Iran. Hey,
Speaker 4: get your open that straight.
Speaker 1: Well, you'repleaning on anybody is not very impressive.
Speaker 2: Europe is a you know what Europe is. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: tell you what Europe is.
Speaker 1: Europe is a sixteen year old golden retriever that ought
Speaker 1: to weigh about seventy pounds, but it weighs one hundred
Speaker 1: and ten. It can barely walk. It lumbers around, fat
Speaker 1: and useless. You're steering in a way like with their
Speaker 1: food and their architecture, but useless.
Speaker 2: Europe is a fat golden retriever. You heard it here first.
Speaker 2: That's it. That's the sort of analysis you only hear
Speaker 2: here at the Armstrong and Getty show. I didn't mean militarily.
Speaker 4: It looked like, for a couple of days there last week,
Speaker 4: that Europe might strike some sort of a deal with
Speaker 4: Iran where okay, we'll pay the tolls and go through and.
Speaker 1: Nobody's striking nothing, says me, Donald J.
Speaker 4: Trump, Right, So hmm, that's exciting stuff. We'll see how
Speaker 4: this all turns out today.
Speaker 1: I guess yeah, yeah, a side issue. It's hard to
Speaker 1: tell because the lefty media loves this. But Trump's Mimi
Speaker 1: put out last night of him elf is Jesus.
Speaker 2: I haven't seen it. I've just heard about it. Oh,
Speaker 2: I texted it.
Speaker 1: I think or Hanson did some of it's it's on
Speaker 1: the group feed, but it's causing widespread consternationd Evangelic.
Speaker 2: That's from his own truth social feed. He Truth did out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, as if he is Jesus with dead service members
Speaker 1: in heaven, with angels wings above him, and an American
Speaker 1: flag and an eagle and touching the forehead of a
Speaker 1: dying man, And oh my god, does it have any
Speaker 1: words accompanying this picture or just the picture.
Speaker 2: I'm just aware of the picture. It's it's holy crap.
Speaker 2: Yeah literally, Yeah? Did he think that was touching? Funny?
Speaker 4: Is he just trolling? Is this a classic Donald Trump?
Speaker 4: All this will get people upset?
Speaker 1: Well, he's He's retweeted and memed out many memes that
Speaker 1: show him as like a superhero or a just a
Speaker 1: god like figure. But this is a touch on the nose.
Speaker 1: Or on the cross if you will. Wow, it's got
Speaker 1: so many elements to it. So it's Trump dressed like Jesus.
Speaker 1: You got the American flag in the background, as Joe said,
Speaker 1: eagles flying, of course, or some jets. You got a guy,
Speaker 1: an old guy with a veteran hat on. Then he
Speaker 1: got a young guy who's clearly currently in the military.
Speaker 1: You got a nurse all looking up at him, all
Speaker 1: inspired as he lays hands. I don't know what it
Speaker 1: appears to be, somebody who's wounded or dead, dying, dying man,
Speaker 1: I would say. And the divine light is emanating from
Speaker 1: both of Trump's hands.
Speaker 2: What the hell is the message of this?
Speaker 1: Oh there's the you left out the Statue of Liberty
Speaker 1: in the background, right, and the Lincoln Memorial. Oh is
Speaker 1: that the Lincoln folks who hadn't picked up on the theme, Yes.
Speaker 2: Lincoln Memorial. And then what's that up the top?
Speaker 1: Those are dead soldiers with angels wings. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: you're right?
Speaker 2: Or is that some sort of demon character in the middle. No,
Speaker 2: I think you're right. I think those are Holy crap.
Speaker 1: A couple of them are clearly like some dead soldiers.
Speaker 1: I don't know what that thing in the middle.
Speaker 4: Okay, one other building we haven't named the over his
Speaker 4: his right shoulder on the left side.
Speaker 2: What is that? Is that a church? Is that the Vatican?
Speaker 4: Is it?
Speaker 2: What is that? Or it looks like it's got a
Speaker 2: cross on top of it.
Speaker 1: That's not like, uh, is that part of the Vatican
Speaker 1: or that I don't know what that is?
Speaker 4: Something I like some some some church of some sort.
Speaker 4: This is his all time inappropriate And that's a heck
Speaker 4: of a statement I just made.
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, Okay, all right, we'll post it at Armstrong
Speaker 1: and Geddy dot com so you can see it and
Speaker 1: judge for yourself.
Speaker 2: We'll get that up there immediately. Yeah, I demand it.
Speaker 4: How are so like if you're really into the belief
Speaker 4: that Trump is out to save Christianity and so was
Speaker 4: Victor orbon And that's why JD. Vance was over there
Speaker 4: and hungry over the weekend last week trying to get
Speaker 4: him elected.
Speaker 2: He lost big. You know, that's the whole pucker Carlson.
Speaker 1: Orthodox Eastern Christianity is going to stamp out the queer thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, does that crowd like this sort of thing Trump?
Speaker 2: Or is that blasphemous? Well, it's clearly blasphemous. It's one
Speaker 2: of the most things I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 4: Puts the ass back in blasphemous from the past from us.
Speaker 4: We probably should stop now.
Speaker 2: I plan to yes, yes, please.
Speaker 1: Anyway, So the blockade started what an hour and a
Speaker 1: quarter ago, according to the.
Speaker 2: US Central Command.
Speaker 1: If the rest of the world can't ship, neither can
Speaker 1: you around, says Trump. And we'll see if the shooting starts.
Speaker 2: I'm going to retweet this picture just because i want
Speaker 2: to know what people think of it.
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Speaker 2: Man oh Man, oh Man.
Speaker 4: For some reason, the Trump Jesus post has thrown me
Speaker 4: for a loop. I feel like I'm a little lost
Speaker 4: right now. I don't know what to think of that
Speaker 4: because I'm on board, like he's thinking on Iran. I
Speaker 4: think I think Iran was good. Every president has said
Speaker 4: Iran's trying to get a nuclear open. We got to
Speaker 4: stop him. Nobody was actually willing to do anything. Trump
Speaker 4: actually did something. I still think at this point it
Speaker 4: was a good idea, uh that I don't know what that.
Speaker 2: Post is, Uh, you know what it is is? Uh?
Speaker 2: And I remember this from the campaigns.
Speaker 1: Trump has a weird relationship with like blue collar America,
Speaker 1: heartland America, Evangelical or Protestant America, in that he expresses
Speaker 1: great affection for them, but he has no idea how
Speaker 1: they think and how they live, really, and and those folks,
Speaker 1: having received nothing but derision and judgment from the left
Speaker 1: for decades now years and years certainly are like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, he says, you know, we're good people who
Speaker 1: care about our country and our families, and we're good people,
Speaker 1: and by God, that's refreshing.
Speaker 2: But Trump has I mean the.
Speaker 1: Bible, you know, the greatest book ever written, maybe except
Speaker 1: for the Art of the Deal. I mean, he has
Speaker 1: no idea of the thinking and what those people actually say.
Speaker 2: And this I think is just a misstep.
Speaker 1: He doesn't understand Christianity because he's an atheist, I'm sure. Uh,
Speaker 1: And he doesn't understand how far over the line this
Speaker 1: is from a lot of folks.
Speaker 2: Doubt he's thought that much about it, right right? Uh?
Speaker 4: Well that is something Well anyway, I tweeted out, want
Speaker 4: to know what you think of it, or you can
Speaker 4: text us think of that sort of thing.
Speaker 2: I just, I'm just, I'm just.
Speaker 4: I don't know how it's received by all y'all, I
Speaker 4: guess is my question.
Speaker 2: I think it'll be a micro blip. Hoh shirt.
Speaker 1: The shooting starts very soon, oh shirt. It's a very
Speaker 1: trumpy thing to do.
Speaker 4: It's almost guaranteed to be some shooting today, isn't there?
Speaker 4: Iran isn't just going to allow that blockade to happen.
Speaker 2: Are they? Uh no?
Speaker 1: No, they might calculate for a little while figure out
Speaker 1: how best to strike. So it might be a couple
Speaker 1: of days till something crazy happens. But something crazy will happen.
Speaker 2: Oh boy.
Speaker 1: They may hit some ports, and you know they may
Speaker 1: hit you Bai again or Saudi or who knows.
Speaker 4: We got a lot we need to get to. There's
Speaker 4: another big Ai story that's out, among other things. Stay here, Army,
Speaker 4: Strawn and Getty.
Speaker 3: Practicing fat defiance in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 5: I've been fat practicing fat defiance for many, many years
Speaker 5: in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm going to keep doing that by continuing to
Speaker 3: the NAPA and civil rights work.
Speaker 2: I'm also going to do it by wearing whenever I
Speaker 2: want to, at whatever.
Speaker 5: Size I happen to be in twenty twenty six, bigger, smaller, same,
Speaker 5: whatever it is.
Speaker 2: That's how I'm defying the standards.
Speaker 4: Of being told what I'm supposed to do with my
Speaker 4: body and doing what I want to do with my body.
Speaker 4: And I know that's right, practicing fat defiance in twenty six.
Speaker 2: That's people at fat Con. What's fat Con?
Speaker 1: It's like comic Con for the overweight. I guess you
Speaker 1: get together and celebrate being large.
Speaker 4: This is a tough topic. Bill Maher talks about this
Speaker 4: a lot on a show. You know, it's probably tough
Speaker 4: coming from me, rail thin vegetarian, but who smokes.
Speaker 2: You know, there's there's both of both ends of it.
Speaker 2: Something's going on with.
Speaker 4: Our food or whatever that that some people can get
Speaker 4: as big as they are that just never happened in
Speaker 4: the past.
Speaker 2: It wasn't what Katie, you're blaming it on the food.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know what it is, but there's something
Speaker 4: going on that allows some people to get.
Speaker 2: Like really really really big that just never happened in
Speaker 2: the past.
Speaker 4: And I don't know what that is, but to pretend
Speaker 4: that it's healthy and something to be proud of is
Speaker 4: kind of a weird direction.
Speaker 1: To go boy in the hole. And it's mostly young women,
Speaker 1: of course, but the whole I'm defiant. I'm a rebel
Speaker 1: I'm a practically a gorilla warrior.
Speaker 2: For one cause or another thing. My gut. That's tiresome
Speaker 2: of these days.
Speaker 4: Anyway, I don't want to get sidetracked by this because
Speaker 4: I got this story, Katie. I've already told Joe a
Speaker 4: little bit of it. We had the story last week
Speaker 4: about Southwest Airlines was going to start cracking down on
Speaker 4: people that are too big for one seat, making them
Speaker 4: buy another seat. And then the pushback was, well, you're
Speaker 4: profiling people, And of course the answer is yes, We're
Speaker 4: looking at people that look like they're too big for
Speaker 4: one seat, and then you know, going and measuring them
Speaker 4: and if they're too big for one seat, we're gonna
Speaker 4: charge them two.
Speaker 2: Take.
Speaker 4: Well, they either backed off that or haven't implemented the
Speaker 4: strategy or missed one or something. Because this woman sat
Speaker 4: in the middle seat with me on Southwest coming back
Speaker 4: from which talk Kansas and uh and you know, God
Speaker 4: bless her. I don't know how she ended up this big.
Speaker 4: Could be no fault of her own whatever, let's leave
Speaker 4: that out of it. She was five hundred pounds. If
Speaker 4: she was five pounds, and I mean she started to
Speaker 4: get in, I thought, how's she even gonna get into this.
Speaker 2: How's she even gonna get through.
Speaker 4: The And she pushed up both the arm things because
Speaker 4: there's no way she could.
Speaker 2: Sit between the arm things. I think she sat in the.
Speaker 4: Middle because if she sat in the window, you know,
Speaker 4: the wall doesn't move, and if she sat in the aisle,
Speaker 4: she'd be in the aisle people couldn't get through.
Speaker 2: So she sits in the middle, and she.
Speaker 4: Was easily half of my seat and the end the
Speaker 4: seat on the other side. And I'm basically turned flat
Speaker 4: up against the wall like I'm a lizard on the
Speaker 4: wall or something like that, with my arm's out and
Speaker 4: one leg crossed over the other.
Speaker 2: That's the way I sat for two hours? How is
Speaker 2: that fair to you? As a bank I paid full price?
Speaker 1: And did you at any point did you think of
Speaker 1: excusing yourself and going and talk to his stewardess?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: No, I did not.
Speaker 4: I was super tired. I thought maybe I can sleep
Speaker 4: like this. I was so tired because we flew out
Speaker 4: at like sixth in the morning.
Speaker 2: But I don't. I didn't know what to do.
Speaker 4: If it had been my son, with all these OCD problems,
Speaker 4: he would have not been able to handle it.
Speaker 2: So he pressed up against them the whole time.
Speaker 4: I don't know, well, first of all, going to talk
Speaker 4: unless I want to have this conversation in front of
Speaker 4: the lady, which would be awful.
Speaker 2: How was I going to get out? I mean, there
Speaker 2: was no way I could go to the bathroom.
Speaker 4: That's not even on the not even an option for
Speaker 4: me at any point during the flight, Say hey, could
Speaker 4: excuse me so I could get out, because there's just
Speaker 4: no way that she could. I mean, it's such a
Speaker 4: process for her to get in there for her to
Speaker 4: get out, so I could have gone to the bathroom.
Speaker 4: So I'd had to do that and go talk to
Speaker 4: an air stewardess and say, look, I paid full price,
Speaker 4: I got half a seat. Can I get either get
Speaker 4: half my money back or move? But it was a
Speaker 4: full flight, so somebody was gonna have to sit there.
Speaker 4: Oh boy, But they got to figure that out. Oh.
Speaker 4: It was the first time I'd ever seen anybody actually
Speaker 4: use an extension. She had the extension with her all
Speaker 4: rolled up, and she sat down and she reached like
Speaker 4: over into my seat and clicked it on and spread
Speaker 4: it out and wrapped it all the way around her
Speaker 4: and then clicked it in it was like an extra
Speaker 4: three feet and then she rested her arms on top
Speaker 4: of her body and then sat there like that for
Speaker 4: two hours.
Speaker 6: Meanwhile, if the top of your backpack sticks out an
Speaker 6: inch from the seat under beneath in front of you,
Speaker 6: a dicer right.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, if there had been like an emergency, we
Speaker 4: got to get out.
Speaker 2: I'm dying.
Speaker 4: There's no getting out of there because she can't get
Speaker 4: up and I can't get out. So I don't know, Southwest,
Speaker 4: you're not being too picky. I feel bad for that woman,
Speaker 4: but that is insane. That just can't happen.
Speaker 2: Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 7: Let's start off with Tucker Carlson, who has been in
Speaker 7: absolute free fall with Republicans.
Speaker 2: I mean, just take a look at this.
Speaker 7: Look at this trend line. Tucker Carlson's net favorable back
Speaker 7: in March of twenty twenty four, when he and Donald
Speaker 7: Trump were very close friends.
Speaker 2: Look at this.
Speaker 7: He was at plus fifty four points.
Speaker 2: Look at where he.
Speaker 7: Is today at only plus seven points among Republicans, and
Speaker 7: that includes GOP leaning independence.
Speaker 2: I mean, that is a.
Speaker 7: Drop of what forty seven percentage points? My goodness, gracious,
Speaker 7: when you go up against Donald Trump and you want
Speaker 7: to appeal to the Republican base to quote the movie
Speaker 7: Good Burger, you go on the grinder, and that is
Speaker 7: exactly what has happened to Tucker Carlson, who is absolutely
Speaker 7: collapsed among Republicans.
Speaker 2: Well, is it all that because he went against Trump or.
Speaker 4: Because he outed himself as either completely nuts or shilling
Speaker 4: for some enemy of the of the United States, one.
Speaker 1: Of Tucker Catarlson as they call him, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, more people should quote the media
Speaker 1: the movie Good Burger.
Speaker 2: I well well done, Harriet. My kids love that movie.
Speaker 4: With a young Keenan Thompson, I went from what I
Speaker 4: used to watch Tucker every single night on Fox and
Speaker 4: loved a lot of his stuff too. I think he's
Speaker 4: one of the most dangerous, awful human beings on earth.
Speaker 4: And it's not because he went up against Trump that
Speaker 4: I think that.
Speaker 2: No, not at all.
Speaker 1: So I want to talk a little bit about the
Speaker 1: conspiracy theory thing. And we're all familiar with the various
Speaker 1: you know, QAnon Ish or what have you, the current
Speaker 1: bizarro Candace Owens, Tucker, it's always the Jews stuff in
Speaker 1: the psychology behind it by one of our favorite authors.
Speaker 1: But just By way of example, here is Candace's own
Speaker 1: teas for her show, this week on Candace and this
Speaker 1: was last week, but this week on kandas Candace owens Crosshatchet,
Speaker 1: a link between bb net and not Yaho, Mitt Romney,
Speaker 1: the CIA in Brigham Young University in Utah. All of this, however,
Speaker 1: ties back to the Charlie Kirk assassination and the lingering
Speaker 1: questions surrounding it. As alleged shooter Tyler Robinson's trial begins
Speaker 1: already filled with holes, Candace is determined to get to
Speaker 1: the truth no matter the cost. Then she mentions the
Speaker 1: CIA and Erica Kirk and whatever. Okay, so that's her
Speaker 1: own teas for the show. And then the actual producer
Speaker 1: of the Charlie Kirk Show responding to Candace trolling him
Speaker 1: saying why haven't you played the video blah blah blah
Speaker 1: of something to do with that whole grand theory, and
Speaker 1: Blake Neff, the producer of The Charlie Kirk Show, writes, Candace,
Speaker 1: we haven't bothered playing it because we know psychopathic predators
Speaker 1: like yourself do not care what is true or false,
Speaker 1: and normal evidential your logic, evidentiary logic has no effect
Speaker 1: on you. You're the kind of person who sees coded messages
Speaker 1: in the number thirty three, but then ignores evidence like
Speaker 1: DNA on a rifle or Tyler Robinson's own family members
Speaker 1: turning him in playing the audio.
Speaker 2: Blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: You're obviously you'll just say it's an AI or hologrammar
Speaker 1: an Israeli actor or something. So what's the point We
Speaker 1: gave out the possibility of any good faith conversation with
Speaker 1: you months ago. It's like trying to reason with a
Speaker 1: maniac brandishing a knife and screaming at people on the subway.
Speaker 2: You're the same thing. Does she.
Speaker 4: An act? Or is she actually a maniac? That's what
Speaker 4: I don't know about her or Tucker.
Speaker 1: I assume that people run these things are an act.
Speaker 1: They've just understood the psychology we're about to talk about
Speaker 1: and realized you can make obscene riches.
Speaker 2: Isn't manipulating people?
Speaker 4: Isn't that what we found out about Alex Jones when
Speaker 4: he was in the courtroom. In fact, he said that
Speaker 4: in the courtroom, right, Look, it's an act.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm an entertainer. People love this.
Speaker 1: They've figured out the psychology I'm about to talk about
Speaker 1: and quoting Arthur Brooks here. We've quoted a couple of times.
Speaker 1: He now writes for the Free Press about matters of
Speaker 1: happiness and psychology, and that's sort of.
Speaker 4: Hey, you got a new book out that's damned interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 4: he's super smart. Love Arthur Brooks.
Speaker 1: Anyway, quote they were kidnapping our loved ones and replacing
Speaker 1: them with a bitter, hollow shell of what they once were,
Speaker 1: which sounds like a line from Invasion of the Body
Speaker 1: Snatchers or something about aliens from a dying planet coming
Speaker 1: to Earth blah blah blah, you replacing humans, But it's not.
Speaker 1: It's actually a quote from a recent study in the
Speaker 1: Journal of Social and Personal Relationships about the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Speaker 1: We atch alleges that the governmental lead is dominated by
Speaker 1: a secret cabal of Satan worshiping, cannibalistic deep state pedophiles. Again,
Speaker 1: the quote is, they're kidnapping our loved ones and replacing
Speaker 1: them with a bitter, hollow shell of what they once were.
Speaker 2: Yes, you heard right.
Speaker 4: Cannibalistic, Yes, yes, I mean if they were merely Satan
Speaker 4: worshiping deep state pedophiles, that would be bad enough, But
Speaker 4: by God, the cannibalism is one step too far from
Speaker 4: me anyway.
Speaker 1: Participants in these studies described watching the theory take hold
Speaker 1: of their friends and family members, transforming them beyond recognition.
Speaker 1: Perhaps this scenario sounds familiar to you. You too, may
Speaker 1: know someone who started doing his own research quote unquote,
Speaker 1: well that's the exact that's the exact phrase on politics, science,
Speaker 1: or the economy, then went down an internet rabbit hole
Speaker 1: of posts claiming that some event or phenomenon was plotted
Speaker 1: by a clan, destined group of powerful people are organizations,
Speaker 1: usually with sinister or malevolent intentions. Before you know it,
Speaker 1: he or she seems like a different person. His new
Speaker 1: beliefs dominate conversations and ruin relationships.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm obsessive ding ding.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then they And then he goes into the
Speaker 1: fact that our current news cycle has no shortage of
Speaker 1: online influencers peddling even more, ever more outlandish theories. And
Speaker 1: then he gets into the field of psychology trying to
Speaker 1: understand why people adopt conspiracy theories. And and there are
Speaker 1: some explanations, like in the past few years.
Speaker 2: That have come out that are just they're dumb.
Speaker 1: I'm not even gonna waste your time on them about
Speaker 1: narcissism or deficiencies and intelligence, because that's clearly not true.
Speaker 2: He quotes JD.
Speaker 1: Vance as saying when when Susye Wild said he is
Speaker 1: a conspiracy theory for a decade, Vance cleverly responded by
Speaker 1: saying he believes only in the conspiracy theories that are true.
Speaker 1: And then they touch on that a lot of conspiracies
Speaker 1: are conspiracies, whether the untreated syphilis study at Tuskegee, the
Speaker 1: official discrediting of the lab leak origin of the coronavirus pandemic,
Speaker 1: and then it turned out that was clearly and always
Speaker 1: was the most plausible explanation, and they were called nothing
Speaker 1: more than anti Chinese conspiracy theories. But even if conspiracy
Speaker 1: theories are completely fictitious and well nuts, it doesn't require
Speaker 1: a person to be a stupid narcissist to embrace them. Rather,
Speaker 1: and let's get down to the main point of this, Rather,
Speaker 1: psychologists believe that these narratives can be so compelling to
Speaker 1: regular people because they meet three deep human needs. The
Speaker 1: first is epistemic or epistemic, which refers to the need
Speaker 1: to understand your own environment in an increasingly complex and
Speaker 1: confusing world have that need. The second is existential, which
Speaker 1: is to feel safe and in control of one's environment,
Speaker 1: and the third is social, referring to the need to
Speaker 1: maintain a positive image of one's self and one's social groups.
Speaker 4: Now that one I don't understand. You're hanging out with
Speaker 4: some weird people. If that gives you some social credit. Yeah, yeah, Well,
Speaker 4: he gets into that in a bit.
Speaker 1: But another way to account for these needs is that
Speaker 1: people crave coherence, in other words, an answer to the
Speaker 1: question of why things happen the way they do, from
Speaker 1: the weather to political events and world affairs. According to
Speaker 1: a couple of psychologists, the names coherence is one element
Speaker 1: of the meaning of life. The other two are purpose
Speaker 1: and significance. Without a sense of coherence, one's life is
Speaker 1: bereaft of meaning, in turn, is central to human happiness.
Speaker 4: I understand all these human tendencies, but I feel like
Speaker 4: I could sit down with a lot of the people
Speaker 4: I know who believe some of this stuff and come
Speaker 4: up with a more believable theory that explains everything, usually
Speaker 4: around human greed.
Speaker 1: Right often, yeah, yeah, But he says, the embrace of
Speaker 1: conspiracy theories is a way to gain a sense of
Speaker 1: coherence for people who otherwise lack it. Viewed another way,
Speaker 1: conspiracy theorizing is a lamentation of helplessness because life feels meaningless.
Speaker 1: The crisis of meaning lies behind the psychogeneic epidemic of depression, anxiety,
Speaker 1: and loneliness that afflicts our society today. So the world
Speaker 1: is confusing, it's ugly, it's seemingly random, and if that
Speaker 1: makes you feel helpless, you know, like I agree with
Speaker 1: everything I just said. The world does seem that way.
Speaker 1: My response to it is what are you gonna do?
Speaker 1: But if it gives you a feeling of helplessness, and
Speaker 1: there may be other factors in your psychology that leads
Speaker 1: you there, then life feels meaningless.
Speaker 2: Okay, the other factors.
Speaker 4: I don't know if he gets into this or not,
Speaker 4: because this is my current theory based on a couple
Speaker 4: of people I know. Lice, your life is a mess.
Speaker 4: It's such a mess it would be very hard to
Speaker 4: straighten now, in fact, may be impossible. Latching onto something
Speaker 4: like this gives you way more control of your thoughts
Speaker 4: and emotions than dealing with the mess your life has become.
Speaker 1: So you no longer feel helpless, right, and your life
Speaker 1: has meaning.
Speaker 4: Right, but it's driven there by you made a mess
Speaker 4: of your life. So I wonder how often.
Speaker 2: That happens right?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 1: And then he talks about how religion and civic organizations
Speaker 1: and just being with people has fallen off. So much
Speaker 1: goes into a bunch of data, and it's shocking every
Speaker 1: time I see it. But he said, so where do
Speaker 1: people turn for coherence if they don't trust journalists, doctor,
Speaker 1: scientists and clergy to tell them the truth? The answer
Speaker 1: is the Internet, where once fringe ideas can propagate with
Speaker 1: astonishing speed and efficiency.
Speaker 4: I don't trust any of those people on that list either, certainly,
Speaker 4: not blindly, not even close to right. I'm practically that whole. Uh.
Speaker 4: I don't remember where that comes from. That If you're
Speaker 4: my mother says she loves you, still.
Speaker 2: Get a second source. Yeah, I'm close.
Speaker 4: To that, But that doesn't make me run to Candas
Speaker 4: Owen's or Tucker Carlston for the answer.
Speaker 2: That's what I don't get. Why do you believe them?
Speaker 2: So you don't believe that person? I get it.
Speaker 4: I don't believe that person automatically either, But you believe
Speaker 4: them Candles, And I.
Speaker 2: Guess for all the reasons you just explain.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and I'm sure it's a certain personality type
Speaker 1: and people in a certain circumstances you so well described.
Speaker 1: It reminds me I didn't get it when I heard
Speaker 1: this the first time, that the most terrifying thing you
Speaker 1: could ever do is spend five minutes in somebody else's mind.
Speaker 1: But now I get it. If I was in somebody's mind,
Speaker 1: who would tend to fall for that sort of thing?
Speaker 1: And maybe it's some of you good folks. And I'm
Speaker 1: not here to judge. I sympathize because you're being led way,
Speaker 1: way astray by these people who are just greed heads.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't get it at all. My bowl
Speaker 1: filter or whatever is. I don't know. It's too tight.
Speaker 1: I'd take no credit for it. It might be genetic, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's troubling. Oh And the one thing that I've thought
Speaker 1: for a long time, and you've heard me say several times,
Speaker 1: is that there was a natural ecosystem of ideas for
Speaker 1: mankind for like our entire existence. Then it changed with
Speaker 1: the printing press. Then it changed more with broadcasting and
Speaker 1: became much more immediate. But then the internet has gone crazy.
Speaker 1: If I had a crazy ass idea. I would bounce
Speaker 1: it off my neighbors and my friends and maybe the
Speaker 1: people I worked with, maybe even a girlfriend or two.
Speaker 2: And if every.
Speaker 1: Single time I got uh, are you serious? Are you
Speaker 1: out of your mind?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: After a while I think, oh, I must have been mistaken.
Speaker 1: But you go on the internet and there's no idea
Speaker 1: so blank and crazy.
Speaker 2: You can't get an amen.
Speaker 1: From fifteen thousand people like immediately. It's a crazy reinforcement system.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So to the whole con spiracy thing which you described,
Speaker 4: is that one out of one hundred people, one out
Speaker 4: of a million people. What's the numbers on that we
Speaker 4: don't know? And is it growing?
Speaker 2: I wonder? I wonder? So what he goes into. What's
Speaker 2: the solution.
Speaker 1: At the public level, It is to re establish broader
Speaker 1: confidence in our institutions that previously provided a wider sense
Speaker 1: of careage.
Speaker 2: Okay, good, I'll do that this afternoon. I'll get started today, right.
Speaker 1: The solution at the individual level, which involves asking what
Speaker 1: you can do to win back the loved one who
Speaker 1: has gone down the rabbit hole, starts with a bit
Speaker 1: of neuroscience. Researchers have found that conspiracy believers exhibit high
Speaker 1: activation of the ventral medial prefrontal cortex.
Speaker 2: You know, I suspect it.
Speaker 1: So a brain region that's important for self understanding and
Speaker 1: emotional associations. What else do you suppose involves similar high
Speaker 1: activation that provides coherence in our lives? Antique love very
Speaker 1: similar ventro medial prefuntal cortex react.
Speaker 4: So if you know somebody who's a conspiracy net job
Speaker 4: like this, ask him out or hit.
Speaker 1: On them, or love you well if you want to
Speaker 1: get married. Yeah, as does deep friendship. Not coincidentally, these
Speaker 1: phenomena are negatively associated with holding conspiratorial views. Researchers have
Speaker 1: hypothesized that love acts as a protective agent against these ideas,
Speaker 1: whereas social isolation or maybe screwing up your life so
Speaker 1: much your connections have broken, increases the likelihood of holding
Speaker 1: these beliefs.
Speaker 2: Wow, love, he Bluie goes the truth bomb. Love holds
Speaker 2: this stuff at bay. That's wild. That's really interesting, I'm
Speaker 2: telling you. Yeah, Wow, wow, truth bump.
Speaker 4: If you don't have that in your life, you gotta
Speaker 4: fill it with something, and you fill it with this nonsense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is super interesting.
Speaker 1: And again Tucker's Carlson and Kendace's, Owen's and several other
Speaker 1: names I could check have understood this psychology and they
Speaker 1: know precisely what buttons to push when and how.
Speaker 2: They're brilliantly evil.
Speaker 4: So if you hear about somebody who's believing, like the
Speaker 4: worst of the Epstein stuff, that George H. W. Bush
Speaker 4: was eating babies, Yeah, and you think who would believe that?
Speaker 4: You should be grateful that you clearly have like loving
Speaker 4: relationships in your life that make.
Speaker 2: That impossible to fit in there.
Speaker 1: Right right, everybody knows George Bush would never eat someoneuntil
Speaker 1: they're a teenager.
Speaker 2: Come on, right, who was an eating underage people? He
Speaker 2: was a decent man. That's so wow.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there are lots of people who believe that, the lots.
Speaker 4: I don't know if it's a million people in the
Speaker 4: Old Country or ten million or ten thousand for that matter,
Speaker 4: but there's a bunch of people out there to believe it.
Speaker 4: Any thoughts on this, Texas? We can check in on
Speaker 4: the blockade Wall Street Journal with an update on how
Speaker 4: the blockade is going there In Iran, it's pretty interesting.
Speaker 2: Stay here.
Speaker 5: A video has surface in which a quadruple amputee cornhole champion.
Speaker 4: Accused of a road rage shooting.
Speaker 5: Is seen firing a semi automatic rifle and standing on
Speaker 5: his head snorting.
Speaker 2: Drugs off a dollar bill.
Speaker 5: So what's stopping you from living your best life?
Speaker 4: We had that story a couple of weeks ago and
Speaker 4: didn't even have the details of Well, he hadn't been
Speaker 4: arrested yet. I guess that videos came out of him
Speaker 4: doing drugs, standing on his head or whatever. He's a
Speaker 4: quadruple amputee corn hole champion who murdered a friend with
Speaker 4: a gun because he's a shooting expert.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's quite a story.
Speaker 1: It sounds like, you know, they have those tall tail
Speaker 1: contests sometimes, like right, Calaveras County I think in California
Speaker 1: holds one. And it sounds like the product of some
Speaker 1: fevered imagination.
Speaker 4: So we have an update on the Trump post where
Speaker 4: he looks kind of like Jesus, Katie, Linda, you went
Speaker 4: to the website.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, while you guys were talking about it, I
Speaker 6: went to, you know, look at the image itself, and
Speaker 6: it was there on his truth social and I just
Speaker 6: went back to grab the link to put it in
Speaker 6: hot lengths and it has been deleted.
Speaker 4: So somebody convinced him it was too much, and he
Speaker 4: took it down. We got this text from somebody who
Speaker 4: is thinks we're being too critical, not saying he's Jesus
Speaker 4: after blabba bah. He's not saying he's Jesus. He's saying
Speaker 4: he's ministering and caring for our warriors who give incredible sacrifice.
Speaker 2: That's all he's doing.
Speaker 1: Please look at the image that I'm not even going
Speaker 1: to dignify that argument, sorry, dressed in the robes exactly
Speaker 1: like every portrait of Jesus, with divine light emanating from
Speaker 1: his hands and angels up above him.
Speaker 2: Please.
Speaker 1: I could have changed the world, but it's idiotically blasphemous
Speaker 1: and inappropriate.
Speaker 4: And the Statue of Liberty over his shoulder, and the
Speaker 4: Lincoln Movient fighter jets in the air and Baldy flying around,
Speaker 4: I assume set to Lee Greenwood's song.
Speaker 2: If there were audio, that would be it. Yes.
Speaker 4: Here's an update from the Wall Street Journal on how
Speaker 4: the blockade is going, which is currently underway of the
Speaker 4: Straight of hor moves according to us. According to Trump,
Speaker 4: no boat's getting in and out now, no boats. Sorry, Ran,
Speaker 4: you ain't making any more money. According to the Wall
Speaker 4: Street Journal, citing a senior US official, the US blockade
Speaker 4: of the Straight Armor Moves is now in effect and
Speaker 4: per the official, fifteen US warships are in position to
Speaker 4: enforce the blockade. Will we actually have to bring ordinance
Speaker 4: to bear to stop a boat from going through? I
Speaker 4: mean that's the SHI to Wall Street General ask, if
Speaker 4: a boat goes through, we board it, we bomb it?
Speaker 2: We what do we do? Wow? I guess we'll right.
Speaker 4: If you missed a segment of this show, get the
Speaker 4: podcast Armstrong and Getty on demand.
Speaker 2: Our four is coming Armstrong and Getty