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Speaker 1: All media.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to you.

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Speaker 3: It happen here a podcast trying to figure out why

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Speaker 3: some of the most powerful people in the world want

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Speaker 3: everyone to think that they're gamers.

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Speaker 2: It is it is your host me along with me

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Speaker 2: as Garrison Davis. I I've I've played a video game before.

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Speaker 2: I'm not very powerful, but I too have played many

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Speaker 2: several video games. See I wouldn't I wouldn't say several.

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Speaker 2: I've I've played like a few many. I have played

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Speaker 2: too many, simply too many video games. So okay, this

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Speaker 2: is this.

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Speaker 3: Is in some ways kind of a lighter episode, because

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Speaker 3: Jesus fucking Christ, everything's really depressing. Is something going on

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Speaker 3: out there, It's all really bad, And one of the

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Speaker 3: people who's been making everything really really bad is Elon Musk,

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Speaker 3: who has somehow managed to like piss off the gamers.

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Speaker 2: The PayPal guy, the PayPal guy, the owner of X

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Speaker 2: I've I've been I've been locked in my uh in

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Speaker 2: my gamer cave for the past like five months. I've

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Speaker 2: not left. I'm just hearing about this now. Yeah you might.

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Speaker 2: You might.

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Speaker 3: You might know of him as the guy who paid

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Speaker 3: another guy to play Path of Exile two for him.

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Speaker 2: We will get to that I don't play those games.

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Speaker 2: Those games are gay. I only play Nintendo huh, Mecca

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Speaker 2: games and hell Divers two like a loser. That's that's reasonable,

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Speaker 2: that's reasonable. Those are those are those are fine games.

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Speaker 2: Oh and Sonic Oh god, okay.

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Speaker 3: Pushing aside the subject of Sonic, So okay, I want

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Speaker 3: to take a look a bit about why this sort

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Speaker 3: of matters and why all of these fucking really rich

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Speaker 3: assholes are sort of trying to pretend to be gamers.

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Speaker 3: And I think the place to start here is with

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Speaker 3: the fact that gaming is in one hundred and eighty

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Speaker 3: four point three billion dollar industry. Todd Harris, who is

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Speaker 3: extremely annoying guy but is also right, points out that

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Speaker 3: this is more money than TV, movies, and music combined.

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Speaker 3: So this is the largest entertainment market in the world,

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Speaker 3: old by such an astounding margin in terms of just

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Speaker 3: dollar value.

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Speaker 2: Right, something like.

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Speaker 3: Three billion people play video games. It's mostly mobile games,

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Speaker 3: which makes the story I'm about to tell very weird

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Speaker 3: because the actual people who play these games, again, it's

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Speaker 3: a lot of mobile games, and it's also mostly people

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Speaker 3: who are women and non white. And yet, however, Comma,

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Speaker 3: when people think about like the gamer TM you are

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Speaker 3: not thinking about.

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Speaker 2: That, yeah, like as a political class.

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Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, you know, like when people say the word gamer, yeah,

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Speaker 3: you're thinking of a bunch of weird in cell right

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Speaker 3: wing dipshits who are white and suckass. And this is

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Speaker 3: in large part because gamer Gate was sort of the first,

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Speaker 3: like truly effective political mobilization of like the gamer as

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Speaker 3: a political identity.

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Speaker 2: And obviously this is you know, this is a fascist movement. Now.

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Speaker 3: Part of the reason this works, and we're gonna be

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Speaker 3: getting more into why this sort of works later, but

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Speaker 3: part of the reason this works is that this is

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Speaker 3: an extremely large group of people because it's new. No

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Speaker 3: one has sort of defined it as a political identity before,

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Speaker 3: and it's also filled with people who are extremely insecure

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Speaker 3: about their identity as a gamer because this is a

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Speaker 3: relatively new medium, which is why everyone fucking either wants

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Speaker 3: their games to be like treated like movies or some shit,

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Speaker 3: or they want it to be sports because those are

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Speaker 3: sort of cultural things with enormous amounts of money, and

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Speaker 3: then that are taken like quote unquote more seriously.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah.

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Speaker 3: And so the effect of this is that the cultural

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Speaker 3: affect of being a gamer is extremely important to these people.

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Speaker 3: And this is true actually really both on the left

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Speaker 3: as much as it is on their right. There are

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Speaker 3: a lot of like sort of political figures. I don't know,

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Speaker 3: you're sort of like online people who come out of gaming,

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Speaker 3: like h Bomber guy, I guess an example, like Hassan.

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Speaker 3: To some extent, there's just like a lot of people

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Speaker 3: who are like gamers and then by sort of like

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Speaker 3: become political. But on the other hand, game has always

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Speaker 3: been like a not always but has traditionally been an

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Speaker 3: extremely right wing space. Oh god, Garrison, I feel like

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Speaker 3: you will actually appreciate how fucking shit this is. Have

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Speaker 3: I told you the story about Kebab the German No?

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Speaker 2: Oh boy?

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Speaker 3: Okay, so back in the dawn of Time I played

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Speaker 3: a lot of Hearthstone as a kid, and I was like,

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Speaker 3: I wasn't like, good.

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Speaker 2: Is that like a resource management type game for like

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Speaker 2: gae autistic people. No, this is this is the world

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Speaker 2: of Warcraft card game. Okay, that's that's even more embarrassing. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: really bad, really bad.

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Speaker 3: I think I think I peaked at like two k

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Speaker 3: legend North America, which like technically speaking is like top

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Speaker 3: like half a percent of players in the world's.

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Speaker 2: Digital collectible card video game.

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Speaker 3: Come on, Oh yeah, yeah, but two k legend na

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Speaker 3: is like fucking shitter ranks.

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Speaker 2: It's bad.

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Speaker 3: I was never like good, good at it. I was

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Speaker 3: just like okay, kind of. But you know, this is

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Speaker 3: like a thing that I did growing up, and something

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Speaker 3: I remember is like all of the fucking Heartstone streamers

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Speaker 3: and these were like really big streamers would play music

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Speaker 3: from this guy they called Kobob the German and it

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Speaker 3: turns out that his actual name was removed Kobob because

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Speaker 3: he was a fucking German neo Nazi.

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Speaker 2: Well many such cases, yeah.

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Speaker 3: For people who like are not aware of of like

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Speaker 3: mid twenty tens German fascism. Remove Kebob is like a

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Speaker 3: slogan calling for the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Turkish

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Speaker 3: people in Germany.

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Speaker 2: So great stuff, great stuff.

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Speaker 3: This is just was just sort of like the water

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Speaker 3: you were swimming in if you were a gamer in

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Speaker 3: like the twenty tens. Now this goes some way to

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Speaker 3: explaining something that I noticed kind of recently, which is

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Speaker 3: the absolutely bizarre obsession these tech CEOs like who want

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Speaker 3: to be thought of as gamers. And so the two

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Speaker 3: examples we're gonna look at are Sam bank and Freed's

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Speaker 3: and this is this is really technically on both sides

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Speaker 3: of the political spectrum. Right, We're gonna look at Sam

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Speaker 3: Banker Freed, and we're gonna look at Elon musk Are

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Speaker 3: new O. Lord, I guess, so we're gonna start with

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Speaker 3: Sam Bankmon Fried, and you know, as we go through

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Speaker 3: what's happening here, we're gonna sort of unravel why it's

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Speaker 3: so important to them to be seen as gamers. And

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Speaker 3: I guess it is important to know like Sam bakmon

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Speaker 3: Fried like is I guess like he is a gamer

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Speaker 3: in the sense that like he's like addicted to video

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Speaker 3: games effectively and just plays them fucking literally constantly.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he looks the part too, no offense.

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Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, before before he was put in prison for

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Speaker 3: twenty five years for fraud.

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Speaker 2: Well probably not anymore. He's probably gonna get part of God.

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Speaker 2: Maybe we'll see, we'll see. I don't know. Crypto vote,

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Speaker 2: it's the most valuable voting block. Now all young Americans

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Speaker 2: are too poor to open bank accounts, so they put

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Speaker 2: all their money in crypto. So now they're gonna vote

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Speaker 2: for whoever makes line go up.

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Speaker 3: I'm gonna become the joker, So okay, then think about

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Speaker 3: Sam magon FRIEDA for people who have forgotten who SBF is.

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Speaker 3: He is the guy who was the founder of FTX,

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Speaker 3: which was like a crypto change that was actually effectively

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Speaker 3: a giant scam where he took everyone money embedded on

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Speaker 3: the stock market and lost it.

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Speaker 2: And you know, Robert did a sort of behind the

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Speaker 2: bassarides on him.

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Speaker 3: And one of the things that happens constantly is that

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Speaker 3: he's just like always fucking playing video games. He's playing

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Speaker 3: this really dogshit game called Story Big Bralgy Meetings. He

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Speaker 3: is a League of Legends addict, which is like as

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Speaker 3: as as any gamer will know a person who plays

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Speaker 3: League of Legends all the time, like one of the

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Speaker 3: worst categories people who's ever existed. And one of the

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Speaker 3: things that that SBF did as as a sort of

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Speaker 3: pr thing right was let the author Michael Lewis of

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Speaker 3: the Big shorts We're gonna get to Moneyball in a second,

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Speaker 3: blindside other books.

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Speaker 2: Reparatable financial advice books, is what I'm hearing.

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Speaker 3: But you know, like a very very powerful, influential and

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Speaker 3: wealthy American journalists just let him sort of tag along

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Speaker 3: and and Michael Lewis's sort of angle on understanding him,

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Speaker 3: and this is something that like ICBF was like you know,

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Speaker 3: was like projecting right in order for this to be

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Speaker 3: the image of him, was him as like the gamer.

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Speaker 3: And this sort of just like baffles Michael Lewis right

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Speaker 3: because he just like doesn't understand someone who just has

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Speaker 3: ADHD and plays video games all the time and doesn't

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Speaker 3: give a shit.

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Speaker 2: So he plays video games stream meetings like no one

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Speaker 2: has ever been like this. I have no idea what

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Speaker 2: you mean.

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Speaker 3: I actually don't play video games stream meetings because it

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Speaker 3: is too obvious.

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Speaker 2: But I play. I play video games a once a week.

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Speaker 2: That's that's that's kind of my Oh.

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Speaker 3: God, this is the one part about sam Bakmon Free

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Speaker 3: that's relatable to me. I play so many video games.

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Speaker 3: It is my like antidepression strategy, basically, like when I

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Speaker 3: need to not think for a while, there's just MEO

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Speaker 3: playing Actually pat the faxtyle too. One of the games

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Speaker 3: that we're gonna be fucking talking about today, something.

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Speaker 2: That I play a lot of.

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Speaker 3: I've done so much fucking gaming, Like god, I used

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Speaker 3: to play this game called Smite, which is like a

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Speaker 3: it's like a mob like League of Legends, but like

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Speaker 3: third person and I played so much Smite that they

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Speaker 3: were pro showing my casual games. When the Zoomer Revolution

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Speaker 3: comes and they execute the gamers and they execute b

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Speaker 3: I'm gonna be like, yeah, you know that's reasonable.

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Speaker 2: Like I can't argue with that. All in form the council.

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Speaker 2: I'll aet our next spokes Council meeting. I'll bring it

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Speaker 2: to the table.

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Speaker 3: But you know, so, so what what what what happens

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Speaker 3: with this sort of thing is that is that Michael

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Speaker 3: Lewis's image of SBF becomes as this gamer who's doing

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Speaker 3: these completely incomprehensible things. He's mind must be so unbelievably

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Speaker 3: brilliant totally because he's just like playing fucking.

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Speaker 2: Video games all the time.

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Speaker 3: And and this gets to one of the aspects of

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Speaker 3: why these people do this, this sort of like pretending

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Speaker 3: to be a gamer thing and and like and like

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Speaker 3: SBF like is a gamer, right, but like why they

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Speaker 3: why they make us part of their cultural image, which

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Speaker 3: is that a lot of the traditional media people, even

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Speaker 3: though gaming is an enormous industry, it's it's extremely profitable

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Speaker 3: and is enormously culturally powerful. It doesn't have the same

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Speaker 3: kind of critical culture around. It doesn't exist that you would.

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Speaker 2: See for something like movies or like respectability in some way. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: except in like the reversed Sam Bankman freedway, where like

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Speaker 2: the schlubbiness is part of what makes him like an

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Speaker 2: extent your genius, right, like like like that era of

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Speaker 2: like Silicon Valley guy. Yeah, that's like he's he's so different, right,

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Speaker 2: Like he's he's he's not like put together, and this

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Speaker 2: like shows how he's like a new and innovative thinker.

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Speaker 2: So it's kind of like it's kind of like a

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Speaker 2: double edged sword in like that specific way.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, this this is all a feedback loop, right,

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Speaker 3: because like part of it not being respectable is that

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Speaker 3: someone like Michael Lewis, right, who was like as establishment

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Speaker 3: of a journalist as there's ever been. These people don't

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Speaker 3: play video games. They're one of the figures people who

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Speaker 3: just like don't game. Are these like traditional mainstream sort

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Speaker 3: of access journalists, right, And so they run into this

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Speaker 3: shit and they have no fucking idea what the hell

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Speaker 3: is going on, And it's just really really easily just

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Speaker 3: sort of like bamboozle them by just doing something that

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Speaker 3: any gamer like you know you like you show a

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Speaker 3: gamer like a League of Legends addicts, and they will

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Speaker 3: instantly be able to just like read this person like

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Speaker 3: a fucking book. Also, by the like gaming addiction like

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Speaker 3: is like kind of a fake thing. I'm like mostly

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Speaker 3: joking here, but also like leg of Legends makes you

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Speaker 3: a worse person. It simply does. You just get mad

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Speaker 3: all the time. I know too many League Legisp players

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Speaker 3: of my goddamn life. Holy shit, terrible game. Yeah, but

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Speaker 3: arcane though, right, all right, oh god, Okay, we're gonna

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Speaker 3: take an ad break, and then when I come back,

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Speaker 3: I'm going to explain part of why this worked, which

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Speaker 3: is the unique incompetence of Michael Lewis.

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Speaker 2: Well, I look forward to that. I love hearing about

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Speaker 2: unique incompetence.

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Speaker 3: So we are back now, Okay, Obviously, part of the

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Speaker 3: reason this works too is, you know, as I've been

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Speaker 3: talking about, right, like these these really out of touch

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Speaker 3: sort of like mainstream journalists who just don't understand an

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Speaker 3: enormous market.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 3: But Lewis is in some sense kind of a special

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Speaker 3: case because he is really truly an unbelievably globle, dumbass.

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Speaker 3: And to get an understanding of this, I'm going to

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Speaker 3: go into something that Lewis in theory understands a lot better,

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Speaker 3: which is sports. So he Lewis has written two of

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Speaker 3: them famous books ever written about sports, right. He wrote Moneyball,

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Speaker 3: which is just the book that we're gonna be talking about,

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Speaker 3: which we'll get to in a second. And he wrote

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Speaker 3: The Blindside, which is another book that they talk about

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Speaker 3: on Behind the Bassarge and go listen to that, But

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Speaker 3: I want to go in on Moneybomb. Moneyball is supposed

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Speaker 3: to be this book about how this underdog an athletics

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Speaker 3: team invented like baseball metrics, and they use sabermetrics to

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Speaker 3: like like build this roster out of nothing that like

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Speaker 3: went to the playoffs and did really well. And like

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Speaker 3: I'm not going to get into the extent to which

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Speaker 3: this was kind of a mirage about that Oakland A's team,

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Speaker 3: Like whatever, I'm not gonna argue about baseball statistics. What

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Speaker 3: I will argue about is that one of the characters

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Speaker 3: in this fucking book, right, who's one of the sort

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Speaker 3: of like underdog geniuses, and like Michael Lewis loves to find, right,

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Speaker 3: is this guy named Paul Pedesta, and he is he

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Speaker 3: is like one of the main figures in this book.

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Speaker 2: He's like, he's kind of like an assistant coach. Basically,

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Speaker 2: what baseball team is this? Oh?

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Speaker 3: This is the Oakland Athletics are now the last Vegas

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Speaker 3: Athletics or some shit.

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Speaker 2: I don't know that they moved to Vegas. I don't

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Speaker 2: know what they're called the athletics now.

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Speaker 3: No, no, no, they were originally called the Athletics. I don't

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Speaker 3: know what they're called now. They've always been the well

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Speaker 3: except what just calls them the Oakland A's. They've been

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Speaker 3: the A's forever. But yeah, they've they've also been stolen.

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Speaker 3: Las Vegas has now stolen both the football team and

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Speaker 3: the baseball team of Oakland.

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Speaker 2: Oh see, I was thinking of the football team, yeah,

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Speaker 2: because I was like, wait a minute, didn't didn't Las Vegas.

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Speaker 3: Theators go there too? Yes, yes, they stole both of them.

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Speaker 3: That's what I was thinking.

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Speaker 2: And I am more of a baseball head than a

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Speaker 2: football head.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, so okay, unfortunately we're gonna talking about football here.

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Speaker 3: So this guy, right, Paul Podesta's like one of these

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Speaker 3: sort of geniuses. She later goes on to be it's

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Speaker 3: kind of unclear exactly what he was doing in the organization,

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Speaker 3: but he is hired by the just absolutely wretched the

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Speaker 3: football franchise, the Cleveland Browns.

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Speaker 2: Now to get an understanding of how wretched the Cleveland

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Speaker 2: Browns are.

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Speaker 3: My opening statement for him on the Browns is it

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Speaker 3: is genuinely unclear how responsible Paul Podesta is for the

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Speaker 3: Browns over the course of two seasons going one in

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Speaker 3: thirty one, which is a feat of like just absolutely

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Speaker 3: sucking shit that is unrivaled in any other major American sports.

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Speaker 3: I think until the fucking moon crashes into the Earth,

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Speaker 3: no one is going to fucking go one in thirty

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Speaker 3: one into cluss two seasons of football again, so again,

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Speaker 3: that is a one in fifteen season followed by an

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Speaker 3: oh in sixteen season the second oh to sixteen season. Ever,

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Speaker 3: unclear how responsible for this he is, but what he

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Speaker 3: is responsible for is the Shawn Watson trade. Okay, it's

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Speaker 3: like mea, why the fuck you're talking about this? Part

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Speaker 3: of this is also like these people are just evil.

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Speaker 3: Deshaun Watson is a serial sexual predator. I couldn't get

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Speaker 3: an accurate estimate of how many women, specifically massage therapists

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Speaker 3: mostly have accused him of sexual assault. He is like

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Speaker 3: one of the worst people in the entire NFL, which

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Speaker 3: is a league of a lot of people who absolutely

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Speaker 3: fucking suck shit, So so that that's the first thing

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Speaker 3: you have to understand about Watson's He is just really

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Speaker 3: fucking like morally reprehensible, right, He is like a bad

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Speaker 3: enough sexual predator that the NFL actually fucking suspended him.

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Speaker 2: For a season.

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Speaker 3: And Paul Podesta, who again is the guy whom Michael

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Speaker 3: Lewis is supposed to be like touting, is like this

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Speaker 3: genius analytics guy, decides that he is going to set

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Speaker 3: up this deal for his team to trade for Deshaun Watson,

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Speaker 3: who've been on the Texans, And again, like Garrison, like,

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Speaker 3: imagine how evil you have to be for the Houston

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Speaker 3: Texans to trade you on fucking moral grounds.

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Speaker 2: Nia, Do you expect me to know anything about the

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Speaker 2: Houston Texans.

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Speaker 3: It is a team from Houston, Texas.

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Speaker 2: That's all you need to know about this. And they

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Speaker 2: traded this guy. Hey, at least it's not Austin. No

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Speaker 2: offense to our Austin listeners.

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Speaker 3: They fucking traded this guy, right, and Popadesta orchestrates this

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Speaker 3: trade that is three is it is the worst trade

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Speaker 3: in the history of football.

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Speaker 2: It is three first.

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Speaker 3: Round picks, two thirds, two third round picks, and a

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Speaker 3: fourth round pick. And they hand this guy who, again

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Speaker 3: I kind of emphasize this enough, is a serial sexual predator, right,

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Speaker 3: they hand him two hundred and thirty million guaranteed dollars,

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Speaker 3: the largest guaranteed salary the history of the NFL. So, okay, So,

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Speaker 3: how does Shan Watson, like again this guy who's being

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Speaker 3: held up by the guy who like is now laundering

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Speaker 3: being a gamer as like the great symbol of sort

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Speaker 3: of like cultural like being.

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Speaker 2: A rogue outsider.

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Speaker 3: Right, how does Deshaun Watson his greatest fucking project due

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Speaker 3: on the field. So in his first season he basically

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Speaker 3: got injured immediately In his second season in weeks one

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Speaker 3: through five out of out of seven hundred and fifty

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Speaker 3: nine quarterbacks. Since the year two thousand, to start weeks

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Speaker 3: one through five out of again seven hundred and fifty

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Speaker 3: nine quarterbacks, he ranks seven hundred and fifty three out

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Speaker 3: of seven hundred and fifty nine EPA for dropback seven

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Speaker 3: hundred and fifty three out of seven hundred and fifty nine.

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Speaker 3: They traded three first round picks for this guy. He

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Speaker 3: has a mind boggling an EPA of negative point three,

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Speaker 3: which means every time the serial sexual predator drops back

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Speaker 3: to make a pass, they are expected to get point

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Speaker 3: three less points than an average team would.

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Speaker 2: How did you trick me into being on a sports episode?

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Speaker 2: I only agreed to this because I thought it was video.

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Speaker 3: Game, don't We're we're we're almost we're almost done with

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Speaker 3: the sports part of it. But there, I promise there

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Speaker 3: is actually a reason why I'm doing this, which is

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Speaker 3: which is the argument, that's that that sports and the

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Speaker 3: sports and gaming actually serve very very similar cultural roles

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Speaker 3: for the right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, yes, I understand that. I can I

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Speaker 2: can see that. Yes.

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Speaker 3: Also, I've always wanted to fuck you complain about this

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Speaker 3: on area and this is this is the best fucking

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Speaker 3: chance I've ever gonna get, So Jesus fucking because that's.

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Speaker 2: Like what I talk about, like movies or something. Is this, yes, Yes,

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Speaker 2: this is what it feels like. Is this what I

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Speaker 2: sound like? Yes, it is. It is absolutely what you

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Speaker 2: sound like.

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Speaker 3: So this guy is like a generationally awful quarterback, they

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Speaker 3: sign away basically the entire future of this team hand

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Speaker 3: this guy who is a serial sexual predator two hundred

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Speaker 3: and thirty million dollars. And this is the guy that

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Speaker 3: fucking Michael Lewis expects you to think is like a

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Speaker 3: fucking analytics genius. And this all comes back to again, like,

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Speaker 3: you know, the sort of mythology, the basic mythology of

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Speaker 3: the nerd is that they're like picked on, like by

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Speaker 3: the jock or whatever. Right, Like that's like the fundamental

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Speaker 3: base of their mythology that there' are like oppressed by this.

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Speaker 3: But like it's just like the same masculinity bullshit all

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Speaker 3: the way down. And you can watch, like, just like

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Speaker 3: the worst people in fucking history, this trick literally exactly

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Speaker 3: the same people into thinking that they're fucking geniuses by using,

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Speaker 3: by using both of these fucking affects. So I want

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Speaker 3: to read something, you know, in looking at the way

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Speaker 3: that this stuff functions, the way that gaming functions, like

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Speaker 3: specifically in the culture, and and you know why these

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Speaker 3: people choose to use gaming as like, you know, as

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Speaker 3: as this sort of affect they're trying to project into

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Speaker 3: the world. I want to read Something by a friend

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Speaker 3: of the show, Vicky Osterwel and a piece called game Boys.

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Speaker 3: Video games also emerge at a time when technology facilitates

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Speaker 3: an increasingly administered life in which alienation and isolation feel

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Speaker 3: like a prerequisite to social engagement. Consumer choice is a

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Speaker 3: form of control. An unbounded economic competition produces widespread anxiety

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00:18:59,400 --> 00:19:02,919
Speaker 3: to structure as pleasurable the repetition, learning, and boredom that

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00:19:02,960 --> 00:19:07,159
Speaker 3: one must master to live under current economic conditions. Games

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Speaker 3: rely on affects, moods, and ideas that are capable of

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Speaker 3: producing not only forms of violence directed towards non normative groups,

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Speaker 3: but also forms of intimacy, fantasy, and play that point

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Speaker 3: towards the horizon outside of capital's clutches. Games provide different

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Speaker 3: compensations for people who are differently situated in the social hierarchy.

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Speaker 3: They give white men aggrandizing power, inventions fantasies that modulate

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Speaker 3: their sense of self importance under conditions that disempower them,

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Speaker 3: but they are also capable of giving everyone else the

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Speaker 3: fantasy of an alternative to white supremacist patriarchal capitalism. This

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Speaker 3: has been particularly clear in how queer creators, writers, and

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Speaker 3: fans have found space in and around games despite the

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Speaker 3: organized harassment campaigns, intensely misogynist industry advertising campaigns, and widespread

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Speaker 3: critical and cultural degradation of games that aren't played by

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Speaker 3: CIS men. So I think the important thing here, and

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Speaker 3: this is something important to you remember both for Sam

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Speaker 3: Bapen Freed and also for the construction of right wing

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Speaker 3: gaming movements in general, and for like what we're going

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00:20:06,480 --> 00:20:09,919
Speaker 3: to talk about with Elon Musk is that gaming is

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Speaker 3: contested ground.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 3: As much as we think of gamers as like right wingers, right,

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Speaker 3: there are a lot of what you would call it,

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Speaker 3: you like traditionally sort of left flooming demographics that play

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Speaker 3: video games and have made spaces here because as much

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Speaker 3: as they are in some ways like this force of

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Speaker 3: discipline that like is something that you learn, the kinds

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00:20:28,119 --> 00:20:31,520
Speaker 3: of like ability to tolerate boredom and repetition and things

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Speaker 3: like that that you know you use for fucking work,

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Speaker 3: they're also a thing that people use to like escape

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Speaker 3: the fucking hell world totally. And like, I mean I

439
00:20:42,520 --> 00:20:45,359
Speaker 3: know this right, Like I am fucking like I'm a

440
00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:48,000
Speaker 3: Chinese chance better, he's better at video games, and both

441
00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:49,760
Speaker 3: the people have been to be fucking talking about in

442
00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:50,879
Speaker 3: this story, right, Like, well I.

443
00:20:51,080 --> 00:20:53,399
Speaker 2: Heard, I heard his Path of Exile character was actually

444
00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:54,120
Speaker 2: quite advanced.

445
00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:55,800
Speaker 3: But oh, we're gonna where we're gonna talk about the

446
00:20:55,800 --> 00:20:58,399
Speaker 3: Path of Exile character fucking next, you know. But but I

447
00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:00,880
Speaker 3: mean it's it's worth mentioning like speed running, right, which

448
00:21:00,920 --> 00:21:03,760
Speaker 3: is a very very trans genre.

449
00:21:03,600 --> 00:21:07,480
Speaker 2: Competitive gaming in general, competitive fighting games, Yeah, it depends.

450
00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:08,760
Speaker 2: It depends a lot on the genre.

451
00:21:08,800 --> 00:21:12,280
Speaker 3: But yeah, like competitive fighting games like yeah, Melee, I'm

452
00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:14,760
Speaker 3: gonna briefly mention Sonic Fox, who is a black, non

453
00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:16,840
Speaker 3: binary furry who's like one of the greatest fighting game

454
00:21:16,840 --> 00:21:21,480
Speaker 3: players of all time, incredibly beloved, the only person in

455
00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:23,800
Speaker 3: history ever to beat someone thirteen to zero in a

456
00:21:23,840 --> 00:21:25,960
Speaker 3: first to eleven, absolute legend.

457
00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:26,240
Speaker 2: Right.

458
00:21:26,240 --> 00:21:28,640
Speaker 3: But you know, these are the people that these sort

459
00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:31,720
Speaker 3: of like fascist adjacent people are trying to drive out

460
00:21:31,760 --> 00:21:33,640
Speaker 3: so they can use gaming as like as a sort

461
00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:37,240
Speaker 3: of cultural force. And this functions both in gaming and

462
00:21:37,400 --> 00:21:40,080
Speaker 3: also fuck it in real life. Right now, these people

463
00:21:40,080 --> 00:21:42,200
Speaker 3: are in power, and you know who else is in power.

464
00:21:42,280 --> 00:21:45,000
Speaker 3: It's a product and services to support this podcast, All hail,

465
00:21:55,720 --> 00:21:59,360
Speaker 3: we are back now. Obviously, the other part of this,

466
00:21:59,760 --> 00:22:01,320
Speaker 3: you know, we've talked to it. We've talked mostly sort

467
00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:03,440
Speaker 3: of about racial politics, but there's there's an incredible sort

468
00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:06,720
Speaker 3: of gender politics in gaming. And you know, the thing

469
00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:08,879
Speaker 3: about gaming, right is that it is to some extent

470
00:22:09,359 --> 00:22:13,879
Speaker 3: a tool that people use to cope with, like, you know,

471
00:22:13,920 --> 00:22:15,840
Speaker 3: the realization of the violence of the gender system. And

472
00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:18,840
Speaker 3: like I am also doing this as much as the

473
00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:22,359
Speaker 3: fucking weird white guy nazi like gamer dipshit.

474
00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:25,560
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, that's why I hooed up f F seven

475
00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:28,520
Speaker 2: remake Hysteric Cloud Strife for hours on end when I'm

476
00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:29,200
Speaker 2: feeling sad.

477
00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:33,680
Speaker 3: But you know what the problem with what's happening here, right,

478
00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:36,520
Speaker 3: is that like the right, like that we're experiencing violence

479
00:22:36,560 --> 00:22:39,040
Speaker 3: and sort of different ways, but it's like the systemic

480
00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:42,439
Speaker 3: violence from the gender system that is the same system,

481
00:22:42,480 --> 00:22:45,080
Speaker 3: but these people's solution to is to blame it on women, right,

482
00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:47,240
Speaker 3: And this is you know, I had a conversation with

483
00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:48,679
Speaker 3: Vicky about this where a lot of this stuff is

484
00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:51,399
Speaker 3: sort of drawn from and like I would compare it

485
00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:53,920
Speaker 3: to like you know, lots and lots of people deal

486
00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:57,199
Speaker 3: with social isolation right and deal with this violence, but

487
00:22:57,240 --> 00:22:59,119
Speaker 3: like you know, on the other hands, most of us

488
00:22:59,160 --> 00:23:00,280
Speaker 3: don't become mass shooting.

489
00:23:00,520 --> 00:23:03,320
Speaker 2: Most most Yeah, I would say that's that's true.

490
00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:05,679
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, and so and so we can look at

491
00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:07,520
Speaker 3: the structural forces that produces people and also just go

492
00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:10,400
Speaker 3: like fuck them, like eat shit, like I'm sorry, you've

493
00:23:10,440 --> 00:23:12,160
Speaker 3: you've become Nazis, like fuck off.

494
00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:16,160
Speaker 2: Skill issue in some ways among other environmental factors.

495
00:23:16,240 --> 00:23:18,120
Speaker 3: But yeah, yeah, but but also a lot of times

496
00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:21,400
Speaker 3: these people aren't fucking like they're not dealing with shit

497
00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:23,680
Speaker 3: at all, mostly, right, I mean like yeah, like okay,

498
00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:26,600
Speaker 3: Like Elon Musk's weird insecurity is to some extent because

499
00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:28,320
Speaker 3: of the gender system, right, but like, also he is

500
00:23:28,359 --> 00:23:30,840
Speaker 3: the richest man in the world's the most powerful man live.

501
00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:33,280
Speaker 3: He's one of the most powerful people who has ever lived.

502
00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:37,720
Speaker 3: And he still has the same sense of like aggrievement

503
00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:40,640
Speaker 3: that powers all these people. And this is like one

504
00:23:40,640 --> 00:23:43,000
Speaker 3: of the key things of like the gamer mythos, right,

505
00:23:43,080 --> 00:23:46,120
Speaker 3: is that these people constantly believe that they're being oppressed

506
00:23:46,119 --> 00:23:48,719
Speaker 3: by like jocks or whatever. And now it's it's been

507
00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:51,480
Speaker 3: shifted into this not anymore. Yeah, Now now they believe

508
00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:53,680
Speaker 3: that they're that they're being oppressed by like fucking women

509
00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:55,720
Speaker 3: in minorities, right.

510
00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:58,040
Speaker 2: And and it's actually the people who actually doing the

511
00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:01,600
Speaker 2: oppression is now all of the doge nerds at the

512
00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:03,880
Speaker 2: top of the system. Now it's been we have we've

513
00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:06,440
Speaker 2: had we've had a we've had a full Uno reverso.

514
00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:07,640
Speaker 2: But the thing is, these people.

515
00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:09,080
Speaker 3: Have always been at the top of the fucking system,

516
00:24:09,160 --> 00:24:11,359
Speaker 3: right and like. But but it's this affect, it's it's this,

517
00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:13,640
Speaker 3: it's this feeling they have of their of them being

518
00:24:13,680 --> 00:24:16,080
Speaker 3: the ones who are oppressed, that like you know, made

519
00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:17,959
Speaker 3: them into the shock troopers that we saw with gamer Gate.

520
00:24:18,119 --> 00:24:19,879
Speaker 3: If you're gonna read one vicioskal Al thing, and I'm

521
00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:21,240
Speaker 3: signing her a lot because I think she's done a

522
00:24:21,280 --> 00:24:24,320
Speaker 3: lot of the best critical reporting on video games, which

523
00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:26,960
Speaker 3: is a field that I feel like we just haven't

524
00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:29,080
Speaker 3: done much critical shit with. Like, I mean, there's been

525
00:24:29,119 --> 00:24:31,119
Speaker 3: lots of stuff about working conditions in the games industry

526
00:24:31,119 --> 00:24:33,200
Speaker 3: which are fucking terrible, and it's good, but like, as

527
00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:36,280
Speaker 3: a medium, there hasn't been anyway near as much critical

528
00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:38,879
Speaker 3: engagement with it as there's been with like film or music.

529
00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:41,720
Speaker 3: But if you're gonna read one thing from her, read

530
00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:43,960
Speaker 3: a piece called goon Squad, which is about the sort

531
00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:47,399
Speaker 3: of like fascist reaction to the really broken state of

532
00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:51,159
Speaker 3: Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven when it came out. And one

533
00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:53,240
Speaker 3: of the arguments that she makes is that these gamers

534
00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:55,320
Speaker 3: are being i mean literally being used as like scabs

535
00:24:55,320 --> 00:24:58,240
Speaker 3: and pinkertons against people who make video games, and you know,

536
00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:00,640
Speaker 3: and this expands out to like workers more broadly, they're

537
00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:03,119
Speaker 3: literally being used to silence anyone who talks about the

538
00:25:03,119 --> 00:25:05,800
Speaker 3: problems with like this game that like when Cyberpint twenty

539
00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:08,440
Speaker 3: seventy seven came out, it was literally giving people seizures

540
00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:11,320
Speaker 3: because it was it had just like fucking strobing flashes

541
00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:13,280
Speaker 3: and bullshit anthe they didn't warn anyone about because it

542
00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:14,680
Speaker 3: was a broken.

543
00:25:14,359 --> 00:25:15,000
Speaker 2: Shitty game.

544
00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:17,879
Speaker 3: And you know, they're also used for just like anti

545
00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:20,720
Speaker 3: queer and like anti feminist rasping campaigns, and that's that's

546
00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:24,119
Speaker 3: how they're sort of mobilized in real life too. And

547
00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:26,760
Speaker 3: and that gives you an insight into why these people

548
00:25:26,840 --> 00:25:29,120
Speaker 3: sort of like do this signaling, right, is that they're

549
00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:32,080
Speaker 3: also like signaling to their base that like I am

550
00:25:32,119 --> 00:25:33,840
Speaker 3: one of you, et cetera, et cetera, like you should

551
00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:37,320
Speaker 3: fucking support me for this shit. Now pivoting a little

552
00:25:37,359 --> 00:25:39,480
Speaker 3: bit so when I was first talking about this episode,

553
00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:41,639
Speaker 3: I kept on accidentally saying Sam Altman as that of

554
00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:43,120
Speaker 3: Sam Bankman freed, because like.

555
00:25:43,119 --> 00:25:45,120
Speaker 2: Then they said, yeah, in many such cases, Yeah.

556
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:48,520
Speaker 3: Like the last the last fucking white boy scammer named

557
00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:52,560
Speaker 3: Sam has been replaced by an additional subsequent white boy

558
00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:55,360
Speaker 3: scammer named Sam. And it turns out though I looked

559
00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:57,520
Speaker 3: up Sam Altman and he has also been doing this

560
00:25:57,600 --> 00:25:59,760
Speaker 3: like gamers stick thing totally.

561
00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:03,560
Speaker 2: Like specific in interviews with Elon Musk. Yeah. Yeah, it's fascinating.

562
00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:04,800
Speaker 2: They're both fucking doing it now.

563
00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:09,800
Speaker 3: And this brings us to the man who has spent

564
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:12,720
Speaker 3: the most time publicly lying about fucking video games recently,

565
00:26:13,080 --> 00:26:15,159
Speaker 3: which is Elon Musk. And Elon Musk is like not

566
00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:20,119
Speaker 3: really a gamer. I would say, like he sort of

567
00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:21,119
Speaker 3: plays video games.

568
00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:25,639
Speaker 2: He's a Kenemian user. He's a Twitter power user. He

569
00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:29,359
Speaker 2: is the shadow President, Yeah, the chisman of the world's

570
00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:30,800
Speaker 2: bridges man who's ever lived. Yeah.

571
00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:34,000
Speaker 3: Also, he is really obsessed with everyone thinking that he

572
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:36,240
Speaker 3: is like a he's an elite video game player in

573
00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:37,160
Speaker 3: like multiple games.

574
00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:40,120
Speaker 2: He's obsessed with this. He's also I believe the term

575
00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:42,840
Speaker 2: is a meme. Lord h if I'm reading this right,

576
00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:45,840
Speaker 2: Oh god, what one of his path of xtyle two characters.

577
00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:47,359
Speaker 3: I didn't put it in the script because it's actually

578
00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:48,639
Speaker 3: not the one we're going to talk about, but one

579
00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:51,280
Speaker 3: of his characters in that game was named Kekius Maximus,

580
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:53,360
Speaker 3: So like, this is the level of mind.

581
00:26:53,359 --> 00:26:56,080
Speaker 2: That that is one of his favorite names. In his

582
00:26:56,119 --> 00:26:58,960
Speaker 2: White House office, he has a he has a Kechius

583
00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:03,400
Speaker 2: Maximus portrait hanging behind his desk. There's an AI generated

584
00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:05,760
Speaker 2: image of like pet Bee the Frog and like and

585
00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:09,440
Speaker 2: like Roman, like like Caesar at higher I hate everything.

586
00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:11,760
Speaker 2: So yeah, this is the guy who reads the country now.

587
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:12,359
Speaker 3: Yeah.

588
00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:13,000
Speaker 2: Oops.

589
00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:15,480
Speaker 3: So Elon Musk has been lying about being good at

590
00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:18,520
Speaker 3: video games, and the preface to everything we're going to

591
00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:21,359
Speaker 3: get to you is that he has. Actually he's like for

592
00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:24,320
Speaker 3: a long time been doing a like I'm a gamer thing.

593
00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:27,280
Speaker 3: So his his kind of problems, and I think really

594
00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:30,200
Speaker 3: the origin of the weird paying people to make him

595
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:32,120
Speaker 3: look like he's good at video games thing that we're

596
00:27:32,119 --> 00:27:34,159
Speaker 3: gonna get you in a second. This is something that

597
00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:36,560
Speaker 3: blue Sky user gay Dog reminded me of because I'd

598
00:27:36,600 --> 00:27:39,080
Speaker 3: forgot he has so many gaming scandals. I'd forgotten about

599
00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:43,320
Speaker 3: this one, which is that he at one point posted

600
00:27:43,320 --> 00:27:45,600
Speaker 3: his build for the hit game Elden Ring, which is

601
00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:50,480
Speaker 3: very difficult game, and he had two different shields equipped,

602
00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:51,280
Speaker 3: which makes.

603
00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:52,040
Speaker 2: Literally no sense.

604
00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:57,840
Speaker 3: It's like over encumbered, Like it's okay, like the best

605
00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:00,320
Speaker 3: eesspimation I've tried to I figured out for like how

606
00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:03,040
Speaker 3: bad at this game he is? Is that posting this

607
00:28:03,119 --> 00:28:06,600
Speaker 3: build on Twitter is the video game equivalent of going like, hey,

608
00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:08,800
Speaker 3: look at my fucking sports cards, stepping into like the

609
00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:11,639
Speaker 3: shittiest call you've ever seen, and then like slamming the

610
00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:13,400
Speaker 3: accelerator with the parking break.

611
00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:17,680
Speaker 2: On Hey, I love the masdamiata Like that's that's like

612
00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:18,520
Speaker 2: the gaming equivalents.

613
00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:20,680
Speaker 3: And everyone who looked at me immediately was like, this

614
00:28:20,720 --> 00:28:23,080
Speaker 3: is the dumbest man who has ever lived. This man

615
00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:25,320
Speaker 3: has no idea what the fuck he is doing. He

616
00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:29,639
Speaker 3: is just like like unable to understand basic fundamental systems

617
00:28:29,640 --> 00:28:34,360
Speaker 3: about this game, like just baffling incomprehensible bullshit.

618
00:28:35,640 --> 00:28:37,440
Speaker 2: And this was like kind of a scandal for him.

619
00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:39,560
Speaker 2: It wasn't like a huge one, but like especially like

620
00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:41,280
Speaker 2: this is one that sort of broke onto the left

621
00:28:41,440 --> 00:28:43,400
Speaker 2: a lot, and people were giving him shit about it.

622
00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:46,800
Speaker 2: So the next time he wanted to brag about having

623
00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:49,920
Speaker 2: been good at video games, he very clearly like paid

624
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:52,640
Speaker 2: someone else to like accomplish some stuff in this game

625
00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:55,440
Speaker 2: called Diabo four. I'm not gonna talk about diebol stuff

626
00:28:55,480 --> 00:28:57,600
Speaker 2: much because I'm a Path of Exile player, not Diabble players.

627
00:28:57,600 --> 00:28:59,400
Speaker 2: The Diablo and path backs are like fairy.

628
00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:01,640
Speaker 3: Much the same kind of game aim basically, like you

629
00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:04,080
Speaker 3: click somewhere and your character goes there and you click

630
00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:08,640
Speaker 3: other things that it does attacks. But famously, like this year,

631
00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:12,240
Speaker 3: he pretended to be one of like the best Path

632
00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:14,880
Speaker 3: of Exile two players in the world, and he was

633
00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:17,000
Speaker 3: doing this on his alt ac count, which is has

634
00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:21,200
Speaker 3: to handle. It's Cybergamer for twenty, but the all the

635
00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:26,200
Speaker 3: e's are threes. So with CYB three r GA M

636
00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:29,040
Speaker 3: three R four twenty Wait.

637
00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:31,080
Speaker 2: Wait wait, wait, say say that again.

638
00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:39,000
Speaker 3: It's at CYB three r GA M three R four twenty.

639
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:42,200
Speaker 2: So I think I found something. I think the four

640
00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:47,000
Speaker 2: to twenty at the end is actually a reference to

641
00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:51,160
Speaker 2: Hitler's birthday April twentyth God damn it.

642
00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:56,720
Speaker 3: So okay, he like claims to have one of the

643
00:29:56,800 --> 00:29:59,400
Speaker 3: like the best characters in hardcore, which is a mode

644
00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:01,080
Speaker 3: of Path of X or if he died once you

645
00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:03,840
Speaker 3: get kicked out of it. So it's very hard. It's

646
00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:07,280
Speaker 3: to like prove that he actually did this. He like

647
00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:09,520
Speaker 3: does a live stream where he tries to play Path

648
00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:13,320
Speaker 3: of Exile, like on a Twitter live stream, and it

649
00:30:13,400 --> 00:30:15,880
Speaker 3: is immediately obvious that, like he has no idea what

650
00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:18,280
Speaker 3: he's doing, Like it's not just obviously people who play

651
00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:20,239
Speaker 3: the game. I hadn't played Path of Exil to at

652
00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:22,240
Speaker 3: this point, right, I had only played the original one

653
00:30:22,360 --> 00:30:24,560
Speaker 3: like a decade ago, like a little bit of it,

654
00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:26,680
Speaker 3: And I took one look at what he was doing

655
00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:28,400
Speaker 3: and immediately was like, this guy has never played this

656
00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:31,000
Speaker 3: game before, like has no idea what he's fucking doing.

657
00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:33,880
Speaker 3: Like it was so unbelievably obvious, Like he like walked

658
00:30:33,880 --> 00:30:35,960
Speaker 3: past one of those valuable currencies in the game, just

659
00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:39,440
Speaker 3: like walk past it, didn't notice it. It's like staggeringly

660
00:30:39,440 --> 00:30:41,720
Speaker 3: obvious anyone who plays video games, This guy has no

661
00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:42,880
Speaker 3: idea what the fuck he's doing.

662
00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:45,000
Speaker 2: And this actually explodes on.

663
00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:48,280
Speaker 3: Him and eventually he's forced to reveal that he paid

664
00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:51,000
Speaker 3: someone to level his Path of Exile to account, and

665
00:30:51,040 --> 00:30:52,800
Speaker 3: then he claims that he never claims that it was

666
00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:57,720
Speaker 3: his path of XIL to account and this Jenny Weinley

667
00:30:57,960 --> 00:31:01,560
Speaker 3: has been a real problem for him because it pissed

668
00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:05,560
Speaker 3: off like the entire gaming scene. So you have videos

669
00:31:05,560 --> 00:31:07,880
Speaker 3: with like millions of views from guys like Asthma Goold,

670
00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:09,600
Speaker 3: who was like a he's a very famous right wing

671
00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:13,080
Speaker 3: streamer who like sucks ass, like is like a turbo

672
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:18,800
Speaker 3: right winger, like spends his time screaming about how like

673
00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:22,080
Speaker 3: black people in video games is dei and woke and

674
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:26,120
Speaker 3: how it's destroying the video game industry and fucking Asthma

675
00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:28,360
Speaker 3: Goold is watching this video and being like this guy

676
00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:29,920
Speaker 3: is a lying piece of shit, what the fuck?

677
00:31:31,360 --> 00:31:35,200
Speaker 2: And like everyone fucking reacts like this. It's it's genuinely wild.

678
00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:40,080
Speaker 2: I've never actually seen people like react to this, to

679
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:42,400
Speaker 2: like to elon like this and like again, like this

680
00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:44,920
Speaker 2: is his allies on the right taking one look at

681
00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:49,480
Speaker 2: this and being like, wait, this guy's just like lying. Now.

682
00:31:49,640 --> 00:31:53,480
Speaker 3: What's interesting about about this to some extent is that, like, again,

683
00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:55,840
Speaker 3: his whole thing here is he's trying to like pretend

684
00:31:55,840 --> 00:31:57,680
Speaker 3: that he's like a pro gamer or whatever, but his

685
00:31:57,720 --> 00:32:00,840
Speaker 3: affect is still largely targeted towards non gamers in the

686
00:32:00,840 --> 00:32:03,880
Speaker 3: sense that like there's no way, I mean, okay, I

687
00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:06,840
Speaker 3: guess it is possible that he genuinely is so ignorant

688
00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:08,640
Speaker 3: that he believed that he could just pretend to be

689
00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:10,360
Speaker 3: a top of Little Pets of Path of Exile player

690
00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:13,560
Speaker 3: on a stream using someone else's account, But like, there's

691
00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:15,680
Speaker 3: no way anyone who plays video games could fall for that.

692
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:17,560
Speaker 3: And a lot of people he talks to you about

693
00:32:17,560 --> 00:32:19,719
Speaker 3: the stuff are people like Joe Rogan who aren't like

694
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:24,080
Speaker 3: gamer TM people. Right, it's like a lot of it's

695
00:32:24,080 --> 00:32:25,480
Speaker 3: a lot of people who aren't gamers. And he's like

696
00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:27,520
Speaker 3: sort of hyping up his reputation with and so he's

697
00:32:27,560 --> 00:32:29,360
Speaker 3: really on the one hand, yeah, he is signaling to

698
00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:31,760
Speaker 3: his sort of fascist bass, but on the other hand,

699
00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:34,680
Speaker 3: he's trying to use the sort of like cultural cachet

700
00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:37,040
Speaker 3: of of gaming as like the sort of renegade writ

701
00:32:37,040 --> 00:32:41,080
Speaker 3: wing phenomena to like launder his reputation. Except he fucked

702
00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:44,360
Speaker 3: up because he, you know, spent all of this time

703
00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:47,520
Speaker 3: trying to like pretend to be a gamer. But the

704
00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:50,160
Speaker 3: thing about gamers is that like there is literally an

705
00:32:50,400 --> 00:32:53,480
Speaker 3: entire genre of video like on YouTube that is very

706
00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:56,360
Speaker 3: very popular. That is just like people exposing people who

707
00:32:56,440 --> 00:32:59,680
Speaker 3: cheated video games, cheated record to video games. And Elon

708
00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:03,280
Speaker 3: has walk just like directly into this bear trap, right.

709
00:33:03,680 --> 00:33:07,760
Speaker 2: And that means we got him, folks, mission accomplished. Wrap

710
00:33:07,800 --> 00:33:11,720
Speaker 2: it up, we beat Elon us. It's over. He's he's

711
00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:15,440
Speaker 2: been cast out of civil society with the high crime

712
00:33:15,600 --> 00:33:19,800
Speaker 2: of pretending to play a video game. He has lost

713
00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:23,680
Speaker 2: all respect among among the farthest reaches of the right.

714
00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:28,000
Speaker 3: So what's next? We have what he has? He has

715
00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:29,760
Speaker 3: one more scandal that we actually have to talk about.

716
00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:31,880
Speaker 2: Is this about the one video game he hasn't played?

717
00:33:32,600 --> 00:33:36,160
Speaker 2: Which is the funniest Elon musk gamer story in my opinion?

718
00:33:36,480 --> 00:33:38,320
Speaker 2: Which which are you? Which one are you talking about?

719
00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:41,360
Speaker 2: That's the one that that that he had to publicly

720
00:33:41,400 --> 00:33:45,840
Speaker 2: announce that he he does not play GTA five. Oh,

721
00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:48,200
Speaker 2: that was funny. I forgot about that because he doesn't

722
00:33:48,360 --> 00:33:52,280
Speaker 2: like quote unquote doing crime and g t A five

723
00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:56,800
Speaker 2: quote required shooting police officers in the opening scene. Just

724
00:33:57,120 --> 00:34:00,000
Speaker 2: couldn't do it unquote. Oh, I really forgot about that.

725
00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:03,880
Speaker 2: So that that proofs that at least he has some integrity. God,

726
00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:08,520
Speaker 2: now some gamers might be sick individuals acting out you know,

727
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:13,160
Speaker 2: violence power fantasies. But at least Musk has some integrity

728
00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:18,080
Speaker 2: to not harm police officers in GDA five. That really

729
00:34:18,120 --> 00:34:20,480
Speaker 2: shows that there's like a moral compass behind all of this,

730
00:34:21,040 --> 00:34:24,080
Speaker 2: you know, at times strange behavior.

731
00:34:25,160 --> 00:34:28,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's also like, that's also him signaling to like

732
00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:30,560
Speaker 3: a different like the weird Christian part of the base

733
00:34:30,840 --> 00:34:34,319
Speaker 3: that's like, oh, violent Sinfia games is bad because he's

734
00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:36,719
Speaker 3: trying to single to all of his groups simultaneously, and

735
00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:39,320
Speaker 3: all of them are like, this guy is a fucking

736
00:34:39,360 --> 00:34:43,200
Speaker 3: loser who sucks ass and we hate him.

737
00:34:43,480 --> 00:34:46,320
Speaker 2: It is pretty embarrassing. That doesn't bring me much joy

738
00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:49,279
Speaker 2: because again, he is the most powerful man in the world. No,

739
00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:51,400
Speaker 2: but it is mildly amusing.

740
00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:53,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, But so that there is a sort of serious

741
00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:56,120
Speaker 3: note to this, which is that like the pushback he

742
00:34:56,280 --> 00:34:58,799
Speaker 3: is getting here is like I think actually kind of

743
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:01,359
Speaker 3: is significant. So the last thing I want to talk

744
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:03,200
Speaker 3: about it is him pretending to have been like a

745
00:35:03,280 --> 00:35:06,520
Speaker 3: quake pro which the thing that he did quake, And

746
00:35:06,760 --> 00:35:09,120
Speaker 3: there's a very interesting video about this by the YouTuber

747
00:35:09,200 --> 00:35:11,839
Speaker 3: Carl Jobs, who is like his thing is like people

748
00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:14,880
Speaker 3: who fake who like fake things in video games basically,

749
00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:18,000
Speaker 3: and he is like not a leftist, He's like like

750
00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:20,640
Speaker 3: a center right guy basically. I mean, there's arguments about

751
00:35:20,640 --> 00:35:22,840
Speaker 3: exactly how far right he is. But he did a

752
00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:26,320
Speaker 3: video about about Elon claiming to be a quake player

753
00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:29,640
Speaker 3: and what he found so is Elon like apparently did

754
00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:31,799
Speaker 3: actually play in an early quake tournament, but none of

755
00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:33,759
Speaker 3: the good players were there, and he he came his

756
00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:35,560
Speaker 3: team came in second, but they came in second because

757
00:35:35,560 --> 00:35:38,000
Speaker 3: they had better WiFi than everyone else and so they

758
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:40,920
Speaker 3: had less latency, which made them invincible until they ran

759
00:35:40,920 --> 00:35:42,920
Speaker 3: into a team that also had good WiFi, and then

760
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:45,160
Speaker 3: he got destroyed, which I just I just think it

761
00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:47,520
Speaker 3: is funny, right, That's like a classic Elon Musk story,

762
00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:50,000
Speaker 3: which is he he has this theme claiming that he's

763
00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:52,880
Speaker 3: like a fucking gamer legend, but it's actually because he

764
00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:54,680
Speaker 3: had more money than everyone else until he ran someone

765
00:35:54,680 --> 00:35:56,000
Speaker 3: who had the same amount of money that he did

766
00:35:56,040 --> 00:35:59,080
Speaker 3: and just got destroyed. But the reason I bring this

767
00:35:59,239 --> 00:36:01,640
Speaker 3: up is that, like at the end of this video,

768
00:36:02,040 --> 00:36:05,880
Speaker 3: Jobstays goes on this whole thing about how and this

769
00:36:05,719 --> 00:36:08,480
Speaker 3: is this is like a stronger statement against Elon Musk

770
00:36:08,520 --> 00:36:10,680
Speaker 3: and I have seen from anything in the mainstream press

771
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:12,719
Speaker 3: where he literally goes on a thing where he says, yeah,

772
00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:14,600
Speaker 3: every single thing that Elon Musk has been saying here

773
00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:18,200
Speaker 3: is a lie. And because he is just obviously lying

774
00:36:18,200 --> 00:36:20,200
Speaker 3: out of his ass, but literally everything in a field

775
00:36:20,239 --> 00:36:22,040
Speaker 3: that I know, this means that I literally can't trust

776
00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:24,920
Speaker 3: him when he says anything about any other fucking field

777
00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:25,600
Speaker 3: that I don't know.

778
00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:28,680
Speaker 2: And this is a real shift, right.

779
00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:31,960
Speaker 3: I have never seen a mainstream journalist write down Elon

780
00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:34,600
Speaker 3: Musk is just clearly a liar about this, and so

781
00:36:34,640 --> 00:36:37,120
Speaker 3: you should not be able to trust anything else he

782
00:36:37,200 --> 00:36:39,640
Speaker 3: fucking says. This is a larger degree of pushback than

783
00:36:39,680 --> 00:36:42,520
Speaker 3: anything else ever fucking seen outside of like the left

784
00:36:43,239 --> 00:36:45,600
Speaker 3: about what Elon Musk is doing, and like just the

785
00:36:45,640 --> 00:36:47,440
Speaker 3: willingness to just be like this guy is a fucking

786
00:36:47,560 --> 00:36:50,399
Speaker 3: just just a serial liar, Like everything says is a lie.

787
00:36:50,680 --> 00:36:52,360
Speaker 3: He literally calls him a con like, says that his

788
00:36:52,360 --> 00:36:54,640
Speaker 3: activity is like a con man. He says the things

789
00:36:54,640 --> 00:36:57,200
Speaker 3: that he's saying are like either liars or delusional. There

790
00:36:57,239 --> 00:36:59,160
Speaker 3: is a kind of like shift happening right now where

791
00:36:59,200 --> 00:37:02,160
Speaker 3: people like, really you are turning on him. There's day

792
00:37:02,160 --> 00:37:05,520
Speaker 3: that happened literally today where Ubisoft. You know, ubi Soft

793
00:37:05,560 --> 00:37:09,359
Speaker 3: is a famously like not a leftist company, right, Like

794
00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:12,600
Speaker 3: they've done a lot of horrible, fucked up sexual assault stuff.

795
00:37:13,360 --> 00:37:16,560
Speaker 3: So Elon's mad at Ubisoft because one of their games

796
00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:18,680
Speaker 3: has a black guy as like a character in it,

797
00:37:19,239 --> 00:37:22,680
Speaker 3: and literally the official Assassin's Creed account replied to one

798
00:37:22,680 --> 00:37:26,000
Speaker 3: of his tweets saying, is that what the guy playing

799
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:28,640
Speaker 3: your Path of Axile two account told you? And like

800
00:37:28,719 --> 00:37:31,880
Speaker 3: replied and replied to a thing about Hassan like we

801
00:37:32,160 --> 00:37:35,640
Speaker 3: we are genuinely seeing a shift in this space, right

802
00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:38,800
Speaker 3: this thing that had been like a really really consistent

803
00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:42,200
Speaker 3: base of support with people like Elon is kind of

804
00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:44,920
Speaker 3: fracturing against him, is sort of being polarized against him

805
00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:48,000
Speaker 3: by just like the fact that he's just is so

806
00:37:48,160 --> 00:37:52,120
Speaker 3: obviously cynically pandering to them, and how unbelievably transparent it is,

807
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:55,040
Speaker 3: and like obviously, like I don't think like the gamers

808
00:37:55,040 --> 00:37:57,600
Speaker 3: are going to like fucking rise up or whatever. But

809
00:37:57,960 --> 00:38:00,239
Speaker 3: the actual serious point to all of this other and

810
00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:02,440
Speaker 3: like looking at the ways of fascism, like why these

811
00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:04,240
Speaker 3: people do this, and like gamers is like a demographic

812
00:38:04,239 --> 00:38:07,000
Speaker 3: that's important to these people. Is that like, the way

813
00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:09,960
Speaker 3: that you destroy a coalition by this isn't necessarily by

814
00:38:10,040 --> 00:38:14,080
Speaker 3: flipping everyone over to your side, right, that.

815
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:15,440
Speaker 2: Doesn't happen that often.

816
00:38:15,880 --> 00:38:17,480
Speaker 3: But one of the ways you can do this, and

817
00:38:17,480 --> 00:38:20,440
Speaker 3: this is, you know, to take a really really dramatic example,

818
00:38:20,800 --> 00:38:23,759
Speaker 3: this is how the Bolsheviks won the October Revolution. They

819
00:38:23,840 --> 00:38:27,600
Speaker 3: got their opponents to allies to stay home and that

820
00:38:27,760 --> 00:38:30,759
Speaker 3: was enough enough. People just staying on the fucking sidelines

821
00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:34,200
Speaker 3: when the Bolsheviks like came for Curenzi's government was enough

822
00:38:34,239 --> 00:38:37,480
Speaker 3: for them to take power. And I think like the actual,

823
00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:40,359
Speaker 3: like the actual serious points of this is that the

824
00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:42,080
Speaker 3: only way that we get out of this mess is

825
00:38:42,120 --> 00:38:45,200
Speaker 3: by just systematically tearing away these people's coalitions so that

826
00:38:45,239 --> 00:38:48,439
Speaker 3: when the confrontation with these people comes, there are enough

827
00:38:48,440 --> 00:38:51,120
Speaker 3: people who would be their supporters who just fucking stay

828
00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:54,200
Speaker 3: home that they can they can be stopped.

829
00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:58,680
Speaker 2: So this is at Mia Wong publicly calling for the

830
00:38:58,719 --> 00:39:00,200
Speaker 2: start of gamer Gate two.

831
00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:02,279
Speaker 3: Gamer Get two is already happening, damn it, this is

832
00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:03,120
Speaker 3: gamer Gate three.

833
00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:08,240
Speaker 2: This is an open call to begin Gamergate two point

834
00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:11,560
Speaker 2: five right now on. Behalf of me along, because are

835
00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:17,120
Speaker 2: you at me? A oh no, and then hopefully and

836
00:39:17,160 --> 00:39:22,600
Speaker 2: I'll finally usher in the American Bolshevik Revolution after we

837
00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:27,080
Speaker 2: get enough gamers just to stay home or even better

838
00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:29,440
Speaker 2: rise up right, we can we can make some kind

839
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:32,399
Speaker 2: of graphic with like a fist holding a controller or

840
00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:35,600
Speaker 2: a keyboard, if you're a nerd about it.

841
00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:38,239
Speaker 3: Gamers are the cosacks. We've got to get them to

842
00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:41,000
Speaker 3: knock back the regime. That's actually the fine revolution where

843
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:43,160
Speaker 3: they stood down. But you know, same point, same point.

844
00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:46,520
Speaker 2: Come on, yeah, geez fuck, I am one of the.

845
00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:48,920
Speaker 3: Biggest things of Like people need to remember that that

846
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:51,759
Speaker 3: Lenin did not overthrow the czar. He overthrew Kerensky, who

847
00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:54,040
Speaker 3: was kind of a socialist guy who was from the

848
00:39:54,080 --> 00:39:56,399
Speaker 3: provisional government. In between the first Okay, we're done, We're

849
00:39:56,400 --> 00:39:58,560
Speaker 3: done here, We're done here, we're fucking out, we're leaving.

850
00:39:59,320 --> 00:40:01,520
Speaker 2: What games are you play? What case if my playing

851
00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:06,000
Speaker 2: path extyl too? Don't play Rotato it will consume your life. Okay,

852
00:40:06,040 --> 00:40:07,759
Speaker 2: play robo quest. Roboquest is great.

853
00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:10,759
Speaker 3: Rob Request dares to ask the question, what if, like

854
00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:14,799
Speaker 3: the art style of Borderlands was used for a game

855
00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:18,719
Speaker 3: about rehabilitative justice, but also you're doing a roguelike with

856
00:40:18,880 --> 00:40:20,200
Speaker 3: like Doom's combat.

857
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:23,200
Speaker 2: That sounds very gay, so I probably can't do that.

858
00:40:23,280 --> 00:40:27,480
Speaker 2: Then I do Hell Divers to nearly every Monday. Armored

859
00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:30,520
Speaker 2: Corps six Course six rules, love that game, Love that game,

860
00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:36,320
Speaker 2: Sonic X Shadow Generations, Final Fantasy seven, and I'm waiting

861
00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:39,160
Speaker 2: for Mecca Break to come out for like their their

862
00:40:39,200 --> 00:40:43,160
Speaker 2: official release now that the beta's closed. Unfortunately, the character

863
00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:46,200
Speaker 2: selection is very gooner coded. Many many such cases. No,

864
00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:49,520
Speaker 2: I made sure to make the smallest the smallest chest

865
00:40:49,600 --> 00:40:54,279
Speaker 2: size available on my on my model. But the gameplay

866
00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:59,480
Speaker 2: is fun. This has been It could Happen here? I

867
00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:04,680
Speaker 2: good they pay me for this. I had. I had to.

868
00:41:04,640 --> 00:41:08,320
Speaker 3: Watch so many videos about Deshaun Watson and fucking clips

869
00:41:08,400 --> 00:41:12,239
Speaker 3: of of of Elon Musk playing video games for this.

870
00:41:13,560 --> 00:41:19,120
Speaker 1: Oh, it could Happen Here is a production of cool

871
00:41:19,200 --> 00:41:22,359
Speaker 1: Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit

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Speaker 1: our website Coolzonemedia dot com, or check us out on

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Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Speaker 1: You can now find sources for it Could Happen here

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Speaker 1: listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.