Speaker 1: Welcome to Worst Year Ever, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio Welcome Together Everything, So don't don't don the pod
Speaker 1: the cast, the pot of the cast is the cast
Speaker 1: of the podcast about Cast podcast podcast podcast on recorder
Speaker 1: show Now, it's not great this year so far, A
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of people dead from COVID, the
Speaker 1: most ever in this country. Canada has been shut down
Speaker 1: by fascists and trucks, or at least part of Canada, Ottawa.
Speaker 1: You know they've they've been Canada's dealing with UM. I
Speaker 1: don't know, literally the exact same thing that happened to
Speaker 1: Portland a couple of years ago. UM. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the year isn't the best ever, I would argue, I
Speaker 1: think people would agree. Certainly does not um rack up
Speaker 1: on my Verse first ever Best Ever list, But but
Speaker 1: you know what, we are one month down officially congrat
Speaker 1: If I was going to pick the best year, it
Speaker 1: would probably be somewhere between Simpson's Season two and eight.
Speaker 1: I think that's pree times personal people. Nationally, Yeah, all
Speaker 1: that matters is that Simpsons was doing well. But I
Speaker 1: think my best year, I think my whole life peaked
Speaker 1: at a Disneyland trip. I took in nineteen to Mushrooms
Speaker 1: pretty recent. Yeah, well, I mean it was. It was
Speaker 1: one of the best experiences of my life, all downhill
Speaker 1: swiftly from their late en Um, did you get to
Speaker 1: see two in town? I've only been in Disneyland. Town
Speaker 1: was closed when I got there. It was really really upsetting. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, Tunetown isn't all it's made out to be.
Speaker 1: What you just gotta You got a mosey over to
Speaker 1: California Venture and check out the car Land. That's what's
Speaker 1: up anyway, tunes, That's not what we're here to talk
Speaker 1: about today. We're gonna, I guess sit chat about some
Speaker 1: news items and then back to Ben the boot. Oh,
Speaker 1: the eight page masterpiece. Coming to a conclusion. Well are
Speaker 1: we crawling? Yeah, yeah we are. But first we're first.
Speaker 1: I said, First, we'll talk about the news a little bit.
Speaker 1: We're teasing. It's a tease everybody with something that I
Speaker 1: will probably deal with a little more later on. It
Speaker 1: could happen here, but I think is worth talking about,
Speaker 1: which is redistricting. I found it an interesting I've been
Speaker 1: reading a couple of things like uh, because I think,
Speaker 1: like most folks, there was an assumption on all of
Speaker 1: our behalfs based on a good amount of evidence that
Speaker 1: redistricting was going to be a fucking disaster for the
Speaker 1: Democratic Party. UM. That was like that that that the
Speaker 1: right would do even more of the jerrymandering they did
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eleven after the Tea Party wave,
Speaker 1: and it was going to be um uh. There there
Speaker 1: was a lot of talk about how the Dems could
Speaker 1: lose the House entirely through redistricting. UM and boy, hatty,
Speaker 1: that's really not what's what's going down so far. There's
Speaker 1: a good article from December one in the New York
Speaker 1: magazine UM Intelligence or UH that is about like how
Speaker 1: the redistricting process has gone and it's continue to go
Speaker 1: pretty well for the Democratic Party. Um, like, despite the
Speaker 1: fact that Republicans have sole authority over a drede congressional
Speaker 1: districts and Democrats have ninety four uh. With more than
Speaker 1: half of the redistricting finalized at this point, UM, it
Speaker 1: looked like it's still going to be tilted in favor
Speaker 1: of the GOP, but significantly less than it was before
Speaker 1: than it was after the Tea Party wave. And it's
Speaker 1: possible that the whole map is actually gonna wind up
Speaker 1: tilted kind of in Democratic favor. There's a number of
Speaker 1: reasons for this. Some of them are that basically after
Speaker 1: the Tea Party wave, the redistricting, the jerrymandering the Republicans
Speaker 1: engaged in was so sweeping there really wasn't much more
Speaker 1: to optimize, and so the Democrats actually had kind of
Speaker 1: more moved room to improve things because that the Republicans
Speaker 1: had kind of jerrymandered about as fucking hard as they can. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we've seen Cranshaws districts. Yeah, it's some of them is
Speaker 1: that previously Democrats were less prone to jerrymandering than Republicans were,
Speaker 1: and so there were states like Oregon and California that
Speaker 1: hadn't done it as hard as a lot of other
Speaker 1: states had, and they have all jerrymandered pretty hard in
Speaker 1: favor of Democrats, which has wiped out some Republican seats. Um.
Speaker 1: And so that's that's a chunk of it. Um. And
Speaker 1: some of it's obviously just demographics. There's less Republicans every
Speaker 1: year because it's a deaf cult um. And uh yeah,
Speaker 1: so it at the moment, like this article that I
Speaker 1: found in the Intelligence which I thought was pretty enlightening.
Speaker 1: Um kind of ends on this note. Uh quote, there
Speaker 1: are two big wild cards left in the redistricting fight,
Speaker 1: Ohio and North Carolina. In both those states, Republican trifectas
Speaker 1: have prepared extreme partisan jerrymanders that are currently facing legal challenge.
Speaker 1: North Carolina Supreme Court has a four three Democratic majority.
Speaker 1: Ohio's has a four three Republican majority, but one of
Speaker 1: the GOP justices is a relative moderate, and at oral arguments,
Speaker 1: the Ohio justices seemed displeased that the Republican map blatantly
Speaker 1: ignored the state's constitutional amendment against jerrymandering. Um. And so
Speaker 1: like right now, if I'm not mistaken, lintable check. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in North Carolina they upheld the Republican jerrymander. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: in Ohio it got struck down just recently, like a
Speaker 1: couple of days ago. So like one of these went
Speaker 1: for the GOP and one of these states didn't. And
Speaker 1: so um, you know, at the moment, like the calculations
Speaker 1: kind of when this article is written in December, was
Speaker 1: that if both of those things, both of those rulings
Speaker 1: went in favor of the Democratic Party, that map might
Speaker 1: tip to be more democratic as a whole than the nation. Um.
Speaker 1: Both of them are not going the way of the Democrats,
Speaker 1: but one of them did, which means that like this
Speaker 1: is actually the House map is actually significantly less gerrymandered
Speaker 1: now in favor of the Republicans than it has been
Speaker 1: for the last like twelve years. That's news, which is interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think a case of like we get it's
Speaker 1: very easy to get doom ray a lot, especially because
Speaker 1: the Republican or the Democratic Party um has not been
Speaker 1: knocking it out of the park by most admissions, but
Speaker 1: but not everything that the Republicans have not entirely been
Speaker 1: having their own way, and jerrymandering is like it not
Speaker 1: a good thing. But I guess I'm not going to
Speaker 1: whine about frustrating because it is like, well, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: all bad. It shouldn't exist, and uh it should the
Speaker 1: master just shouldn't look like that. And we're now in
Speaker 1: this sort of back and forth of like, well you're
Speaker 1: doing it to us really really extremely so we're gonna
Speaker 1: like defend ourselves and kind of push back a little,
Speaker 1: but it's still fucked. It's still ridiculous. It's also though,
Speaker 1: like what are you gonna do? Just let them do
Speaker 1: it exactly, Like no, this is this is kind of
Speaker 1: the dims doing the thing that like we've all been
Speaker 1: pissed at, which is like, you guys never actually play
Speaker 1: the same game. Here they are and they're doing good.
Speaker 1: So I guess part of me is also like, so
Speaker 1: when we lose the House in like, it's not because
Speaker 1: jerrymandering necessarily, like that will be the issue. There is
Speaker 1: this article I've been reading from the New York magazine.
Speaker 1: One does end with the note um, the biggest threat
Speaker 1: to Democrats House majority in twenty two is no longer
Speaker 1: Republican jerrymandering, but rather the combination of the opposition parties
Speaker 1: inherent and turnout advantage in mid terms and Joe Biden's
Speaker 1: dismal poll numbers. So you know, one of those things
Speaker 1: you can never do anything about, right, This is just
Speaker 1: like for decades it's been this way that like, yeah,
Speaker 1: the the the opposition party does well in the mid
Speaker 1: term after the election, it's wild. It never this is
Speaker 1: neither here nor there, well somewhere. Uh, We're at the
Speaker 1: mid terms and Biden has been in office for a year,
Speaker 1: Like I know the election was and so but right
Speaker 1: now January two, he's been in office for a year
Speaker 1: and it's time to start. Oh yeah, I mean every
Speaker 1: it never ends, it all bleeds together. I mean it
Speaker 1: started in a second. In a year, we're gonna start
Speaker 1: talking about primaries. Yeah, it's like an unlivable situation. Um,
Speaker 1: politics is. But I don't know, so that's that's worth
Speaker 1: going so again, like one of those things that might turn.
Speaker 1: Basically kind of a year ago, I was looking at it,
Speaker 1: it's like, all right, well, the things that are going
Speaker 1: to cost the Diym's the House are jerrymandering, Biden and
Speaker 1: the Democrats sucking up and not achieving much in the
Speaker 1: way of popular support because they won't do what they
Speaker 1: need to do and just kind of the inherent advantage
Speaker 1: that the opposition party has a midterms. And now it's
Speaker 1: a bit different. The Dems did not hump a bunk
Speaker 1: when it came to redistricting. Um they did. They did
Speaker 1: completely ship the bed when it came to being a
Speaker 1: popular governing this list. Yeah, so bright side one. I
Speaker 1: mean yeah, I mean, look, I don't know, and I
Speaker 1: try not to do this thing that other people who
Speaker 1: kind of share a lot of my political beliefs and
Speaker 1: our political beliefs do where you you look at everything
Speaker 1: through that lens. You should try to watch things kind
Speaker 1: of objectively, like how are they playing the game? Um,
Speaker 1: and in in this area, they played the game a
Speaker 1: lot better than I think we were initially giving them
Speaker 1: credit for, certainly than I was. And that's that's worth noting.
Speaker 1: It's worth noting. Um. Yeah, And the other the other
Speaker 1: thing that is definitely going to be at play this
Speaker 1: year in the mid terms, it would be inflation and
Speaker 1: that whole conversation and what's happening right now a lot
Speaker 1: going on, and whether or not we them have done
Speaker 1: the right thing for inflation, but that it's also about
Speaker 1: like stimulating the economy. You need to do that, you
Speaker 1: need to you know, and and um uh you know,
Speaker 1: and they get flak four things and how that might
Speaker 1: affect inflation, but you know, missing the point that all
Speaker 1: of the different pieces of a pandemic and a supply
Speaker 1: chain issues and etcetera, etcetera are also anyway you guys
Speaker 1: get it. It's frustrating. Um, it will be frustrating and
Speaker 1: things can change so quickly they can who knows where
Speaker 1: it is February also well, also it's uh, we're gonna
Speaker 1: see a lot more of it, and it's going to
Speaker 1: be hell because we should be done with him. He
Speaker 1: should just be a dead guy. Um Tum's gonna do
Speaker 1: more and more rallies and more and more explicit things
Speaker 1: of like if I, if I run in us to
Speaker 1: do this and so then we're going to sort of
Speaker 1: see like who in the GOP is going to like
Speaker 1: hop on board those promises, yeah, and be like, oh,
Speaker 1: oh that's that's the one we gotta we gotta do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I pardon the capital writers. I'm gonna in democracy all
Speaker 1: this stuff. Yeah, all these things, and like who's going
Speaker 1: to adopt those uh, those those points from him? Um
Speaker 1: and ride them through the mid term. Yeah, it's going
Speaker 1: to be fun happening. So, you know, I think we're
Speaker 1: all in agreement here that the number one thing we
Speaker 1: both support, we all support is a nice, quiet, natural
Speaker 1: passing in bed for for both Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't that be nice? Look, they've lived well beyond the
Speaker 1: average lifespan of an American citizens. They just slip sweetly
Speaker 1: into sleep. Yeah, just a nice peaceful passing as together Titanic,
Speaker 1: just step off the edge of a boat together that
Speaker 1: might heal the country. Yeah, televise it. We all learned
Speaker 1: they've been fucking this whole time. Learn that would be
Speaker 1: that is a fair prediction. That would be really fun.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. Well, there's this group in Portland called the
Speaker 1: Portland Business Alliance, which is we talked about this on
Speaker 1: a few episodes. They control a significant chunk through these
Speaker 1: kind of business improvement district thing, a decent chunk of
Speaker 1: the the policing in downtown Portland's. Um. They used to
Speaker 1: have their own d A that was they were fun.
Speaker 1: Did they get to levy taxes? Um. The Portland's Business
Speaker 1: Association is like all of the rich business owners in Portland, UM,
Speaker 1: who have been operating a series of campaigns against the
Speaker 1: left and against you know, in favor of the ship mayor.
Speaker 1: We've got ted Wheeler. They're just trash. Um. They want
Speaker 1: to give a shipload of money to the police and
Speaker 1: put the homeless people into camps. Um. They're not nice folks.
Speaker 1: I don't like them. Um. Every now and then they
Speaker 1: put out a poll that seems to be showing that
Speaker 1: everything they say is right. So like today, say, quality
Speaker 1: of life in the city is getting worse. Port Pole
Speaker 1: Pole finds, which was uncritically reported in an article by
Speaker 1: k A. T U to ABC and a number of
Speaker 1: other local news agencies. Because local journalists are generally pretty
Speaker 1: bad at what they do. Local journalism is critical. I've
Speaker 1: known a lot of local journalists. Most of them suck um.
Speaker 1: Katu sucks um. So yeah, here's what ka Tu writes
Speaker 1: about this. Um, most Portlanders feel the quality of life
Speaker 1: is getting worse. A new pole from the Portland Business
Speaker 1: Alliance found with the majority saying the city is heading
Speaker 1: on the wrong track. The Portland Business Alliance said that
Speaker 1: the pole, conducted by d H and Research, found pessimism
Speaker 1: at the Rose City at an all time high and
Speaker 1: the approval of the city council at a historic low.
Speaker 1: So yeah, this is this is what they And then
Speaker 1: they just kind of report did they take the poll
Speaker 1: on next door? I'm about to talk about how they
Speaker 1: any percent of voters say that quality of life is
Speaker 1: getting worse? Up from a lot of really stark stuff.
Speaker 1: At no point is k E tu actually analyze the
Speaker 1: nature of the study. You guys want to us how
Speaker 1: many people were surveying for this wonderful study. Um, no, no,
Speaker 1: it was more than that. It was five hundred people,
Speaker 1: but only all of them lived in the City of Portland. Yes,
Speaker 1: lived in the counties and like the areas around it. Um,
Speaker 1: so it was it was people who did not did
Speaker 1: not live in Portland, down from the outskirts of the city. Um.
Speaker 1: The Portland Business Alliance shares us this is a sufficient
Speaker 1: sample size to assess voter opinions. Gin. Where where did
Speaker 1: they get the people from? Like where they gathered outside
Speaker 1: from the most from where the cops live in a
Speaker 1: lot of Yeah, um, from these counties that fucking hate Portland.
Speaker 1: The margin of error for the full sample is plus
Speaker 1: or minus four point four percent, and the margin of
Speaker 1: error for the City of Portland's sample for the actual
Speaker 1: people who live in Portland is six is six point
Speaker 1: to percent plus minus um. So it's I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think it's bad. Uh sounds bad. Yeah, sounds inaccurate. Also,
Speaker 1: I feel like there's an element of like, must remind
Speaker 1: people that this the pandemic. So like things. I think
Speaker 1: people generally think things have gotten worse. Um, also gotten worse,
Speaker 1: but rather on the wrong track. You know, people are
Speaker 1: frustrated by everything in life, the pandemic this that they're
Speaker 1: reacting to news headlines. They blame it on city council
Speaker 1: or whatever, some reaction to progressives. You know, they bundle
Speaker 1: all of their complaints up at something that they that
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with it necessarily. Well, so it's
Speaker 1: like there's a thing about the a trend of sort
Speaker 1: of framing for people outside of the city that the
Speaker 1: actual city is like crime written and hellhole and covered
Speaker 1: in garbage, and so it sells this sort of narrative
Speaker 1: of what the city is like inside two people outside
Speaker 1: they don't actually know what it is that they talk about.
Speaker 1: But I don't live in Portland, so I can't really
Speaker 1: speak to this. So I would be one of the
Speaker 1: other people who said, yeah, maybe me too, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So they like one of the sites I'm finding. Again,
Speaker 1: not a statistics expert is saying that, like, in a
Speaker 1: population of two thousand people, a pretty good sample size
Speaker 1: would be about a thousand folks um. So that's four
Speaker 1: times were sampled for a city three times that long,
Speaker 1: and and and for a journalist for an article to
Speaker 1: cite a study like that, it's so irresponsible. And they're
Speaker 1: trying to claim that their sample group is like people
Speaker 1: who live on the outskirts of town. But they're kind
Speaker 1: of ignoring the really the really stark political biases and
Speaker 1: the fact that those people don't live in Portland, and
Speaker 1: I like, those are the people who were like in
Speaker 1: some cases, setting up armed checkpoints during the fires because
Speaker 1: they thought ANTIFO was lighting their forests on fire. Um.
Speaker 1: It's just a nice big asterisk. But it's a study
Speaker 1: calculated to and this this of course, it's it's calculated
Speaker 1: to present a side that's supposed to create more people
Speaker 1: that agree with that side. It's you know, anyway to
Speaker 1: talk about Barry Weiss, I don't I made we made
Speaker 1: a show. I made a joke before we recorded that
Speaker 1: we should talk about the news, particularly about one woman
Speaker 1: who went to a liberal college for a while and
Speaker 1: then I didn't like the vaccine mandate and went to
Speaker 1: another college. And that's the news. Um uh, but I've
Speaker 1: no I have nothing more to say about it than
Speaker 1: that description of the article. Good that that's the thing
Speaker 1: that happened very wise on her little kick of like
Speaker 1: finding these this anecote and then ballooning it to Um.
Speaker 1: This trend, this worldview shift in trend, it's consuming our
Speaker 1: colleges it's like, well, I don't know. It seems like
Speaker 1: she didn't want to get the vaccine and then spent
Speaker 1: seventy on another school scholarship that she got for the
Speaker 1: other school her body or her choice. It's true. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: there you go, what she had to do. It is
Speaker 1: not news, is my point. Yeah, no, it's not. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, it is the only news that exists,
Speaker 1: which is culture war news, because that's the only thing
Speaker 1: actually going on while while the climate continues to spiral
Speaker 1: and our food supply gets ever more fragile into plague spreads,
Speaker 1: all that's really happening in a way that is monetize
Speaker 1: able by news agencies is the culture war. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't fuck the eminem or Mickey Mouse
Speaker 1: or Mini Mouse anymore. So I can. You absolutely can.
Speaker 1: You can't. I have to unbutton you just have to
Speaker 1: unbutton her pants. Honestly, the only thing I really have
Speaker 1: faith in in this world is that you could fuck
Speaker 1: the eminem if you really tried. Thank you had? Wow.
Speaker 1: Can we end this early? Yeah, well we can, and
Speaker 1: we just want to end of the thing. Yeah, you're
Speaker 1: not going to go You're not gonna go fucking eminem. No. No,
Speaker 1: we're going to take a break for the perfect perfect
Speaker 1: Now we're going to come back for some buds together everything.
Speaker 1: So don't oh yeah, yeah, you don't know how. That's
Speaker 1: how we do it. Yeah, like butter Cody, O, how's
Speaker 1: our how's our? How's our? Big? But it been big boy?
Speaker 1: But hey been. Oh he's good. He's writing his stories,
Speaker 1: he's chilling doing art for people. He's he's getting his
Speaker 1: ideas out there via arte. You got to have a
Speaker 1: special boy to look at a shooting star and break
Speaker 1: free from the chains of authoritarianism, which is everybody gets
Speaker 1: fruits and vegetables in their fridge. You get to regulated
Speaker 1: double pane windows. Anyway, when last we left our hero,
Speaker 1: I guess is what we would call him. Uh, he
Speaker 1: left the bubble capital B and he is now walking
Speaker 1: towards the mountain capital wing. Yeah. You's something not related
Speaker 1: to the story at all, But I got it, No, no,
Speaker 1: because I said, like, do the previously on and I
Speaker 1: just remembered something that I wanted I've always wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about, or for a while I have. It's not
Speaker 1: a big deal, and in fact, I've built it up
Speaker 1: too much. Already. When you are watching a show, when
Speaker 1: it's a streaming show, my opinion, you either get a
Speaker 1: previously on or you get a dope long intraste once
Speaker 1: you do not get both. We don't need both. I
Speaker 1: don't need to see the recap and then three minutes
Speaker 1: of an intro sequence. Give me a quick, sharp intro again.
Speaker 1: It sounds like a show has been bothering. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's not one specific show, just a it's just
Speaker 1: a thing, okay, whatever. No one's jumping on this bay.
Speaker 1: I think it's a pretty I bet that someone listening
Speaker 1: when you when you talk about Netflix, I know you
Speaker 1: can always skip the intros, so you can't. I'm not
Speaker 1: talking about Netflix, I'm talking about any other numbers. And
Speaker 1: sometimes it's yeah, okay, no one wants to get on
Speaker 1: the shide with me. It's fine. I steal all my shows,
Speaker 1: steal them. I guess it's fine. Dot com so I
Speaker 1: don't get any any any of the programmed and stuff.
Speaker 1: The bullshit tell us about Ben. I've detoured us enough.
Speaker 1: He's doing really thought it. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm
Speaker 1: sure you're right. It's fine. We can deal with it later.
Speaker 1: Off the show we will deal with this later by
Speaker 1: the time, I mean there is Apparently someone in the
Speaker 1: subreddit noticed that Ben Shapiro's launched to paid access book club,
Speaker 1: and I did see that He's told his fans that
Speaker 1: he's going to be publishing a dystopian sci fi novel
Speaker 1: at some Oh my god, we have to join the
Speaker 1: first book his book club is going to read together.
Speaker 1: Is n O my god, I think that we should join.
Speaker 1: I will not get the money for that, I mean,
Speaker 1: we couldn't do. Jamie Loftus styled deep dive investigation into
Speaker 1: Ben Shapiro's book club. Um well, I would love to
Speaker 1: look into it to some extent that other certainly will
Speaker 1: read his terrible science picture. Absolutely, that's going to be
Speaker 1: the best thing that's ever happened to us. I hope
Speaker 1: it's just this but longer. Um, he just flushes it
Speaker 1: out a bit. Yeah, just like, yeah, maybe takes our notes.
Speaker 1: You know, he's been maybe he's been listening. When did
Speaker 1: he launch this? Has he been listening and taking notes?
Speaker 1: I think? Hes Okay, okay, let's get started. Okay, all right, okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: you know what, Okay, all right, okay, Yeah, Robert's brandishing
Speaker 1: a war club right now. For the people at home, obviously,
Speaker 1: it's like, is he going to deny that he's not.
Speaker 1: It's just a club in case I gotta club somebody. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you never know, speaking of club, book club, speaking of
Speaker 1: book club, books, thinking of books, not this, but we're
Speaker 1: gonna read it anyway. By the time he approached the
Speaker 1: light on the mountain, he was dirtier than he had
Speaker 1: ever been in his life, at least. Remember there was
Speaker 1: a light on the mountain. Yeah, there's a light in
Speaker 1: the mountain. Yeah. Yeah. So the last the last section,
Speaker 1: he's looking at the mountain, which is closer to the
Speaker 1: bubble than he thought. A light shone on the mountain,
Speaker 1: winking in the distance, the bubble shut behind him. He
Speaker 1: walks towards the mountain. I can't wait for this to
Speaker 1: be somehow both a rip up, rip off of ur
Speaker 1: and the Giver and yeah, yeah, yeah, it's definitely got
Speaker 1: Giver vibes coming up. Good Lord, all right, let's do it.
Speaker 1: By the time he approached the light on the mountain,
Speaker 1: he was dirtier than he had ever been in his life,
Speaker 1: at least so far as he remembered it. That's kind
Speaker 1: of awkward. Grime and ash coated his face. His skin
Speaker 1: felt gritty, as though each poor were individually rubbing against
Speaker 1: the others. He could feel the dirt particles between his
Speaker 1: fingers underneath his uniform in his ears. He radiated from
Speaker 1: the mountain like an enormous kiln Um. I have a question.
Speaker 1: Has he mentioned his uniform yet? No? No, I don't
Speaker 1: think he's described that at all. I want to know
Speaker 1: what the fucking uniform looks like, what the man he
Speaker 1: would like to write a book. Maybe maybe there was
Speaker 1: a reference to regulation clothes. But I don't know. Fucking
Speaker 1: maybe I'm doing a search in this. I'm sorry, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. It is the first time I've heard of
Speaker 1: a goddamn uniform. She was not beautiful and she was
Speaker 1: not ugly. She wore the blue uniform of the Ministry
Speaker 1: of Personal Needs. Described how the women dress. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: that's okay. This is the only the second and only
Speaker 1: other Refort described anything about how he was dressed. No,
Speaker 1: he absolutely what else was dressed? No, um, but whatever
Speaker 1: it looked like, who knows, But whatever it looked like,
Speaker 1: it's got dirt underneath it under that uniform. That is
Speaker 1: an appearance of some kind. The mountain was rocky, far
Speaker 1: less smooth than it appeared from a distance, like all things.
Speaker 1: That's just me adding that. Sorry, oh well, I mean
Speaker 1: the mountain was rocky, far less smooth than it appeared
Speaker 1: from a distance, to which I added, yeah, like all
Speaker 1: things are like, yeah, it's like murry from a distance.
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, it's more detailed now whatever. Anyway, the
Speaker 1: darkness of the mountain concealed it's craggy surfaces. Now, as
Speaker 1: he climbed down into a crevice, the light disappeared for
Speaker 1: a moment. When he climbed up again, it stood before
Speaker 1: him a door in the ledge. Above the door, an
Speaker 1: inscription had been pounded into the flat black rock, all caps,
Speaker 1: the creed of ignorance. Wait, so is the light the door? Yeah,
Speaker 1: coming from the door. It's coming from the door the
Speaker 1: door in the ledge, which is like the ledge of
Speaker 1: some ledge he's on, really really like just like a
Speaker 1: terrible description of climbing a mountain. Yeah, time, it's just
Speaker 1: like three he gets there. The mountain was rocky, far
Speaker 1: less smooth than it appeared from a distance. The darkness
Speaker 1: of the mountain concealed his craggy services. Now as he
Speaker 1: climbed down into a crevice. The light disappeared for a moment.
Speaker 1: When he climbed up again, it stood before him a
Speaker 1: door in the ledge. That's it. It's really bad, really bad.
Speaker 1: So the mountain, the mountain is rocking, you can't tell
Speaker 1: from a distance. And then got there. But at his
Speaker 1: first description of climbing up the mountain included climbing down.
Speaker 1: So it's confusing, like you're supposed to like it's there's
Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with including that detail. But you haven't
Speaker 1: told me that you started. Oh yeah, no, he didn't
Speaker 1: start exactly like I climbed down, then back up? Were
Speaker 1: you climbing up? Okay, and the like. Yeah. In the
Speaker 1: middle of describing what the mountain looked like closer up
Speaker 1: than from a distance, he's saying, now and now I'm
Speaker 1: climbing down to a crevice. It's just very awkward and weird.
Speaker 1: But Ben she clunky, clunky, the creed of ignorance. He
Speaker 1: gazed up at it, wondering, do you understand it? The
Speaker 1: voice came from inside the door. It beckoned him closer, No,
Speaker 1: he answered, good, said the voice, come in. Don't be afraid.
Speaker 1: He edged through the door, hot that does fund. You
Speaker 1: gotta get that. The light inside was extraordinarily bright, oddly harsh.
Speaker 1: It illuminated a sparse marble room lined with a wall
Speaker 1: of books. He had never seen so many books. Actually,
Speaker 1: he had never seen a book at all. They were
Speaker 1: that's my favorite. You know what it is? Then, okay,
Speaker 1: look include lines that make the entire story derail as
Speaker 1: you underway, how I have to say. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: done this a million times already in this one, like
Speaker 1: referring to things like that that he that he doesn't know.
Speaker 1: He does know, like because like the mountain, which I've
Speaker 1: never seen before, like or the Ministry of Education, which
Speaker 1: I don't because like the narrator is omniscient. It's the
Speaker 1: third person narrator, so it's not necessarily from the character's
Speaker 1: point of view. It's just awkward and weird to say
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff because he's done it, did it bad,
Speaker 1: and he did it wrong. He did about it wrong.
Speaker 1: But also when he's saying, actually, you've never seen a
Speaker 1: book at all. They were obsolete. He had been told,
Speaker 1: so he like knows the word book. He's been told
Speaker 1: books are obsolete, but like he doesn't know what it is.
Speaker 1: There's so many questions. It's the ship that is so
Speaker 1: consistently fascinating about the badness of Ben's story. Um, where
Speaker 1: you can what what's actually going on is he's realizing
Speaker 1: as he's whiting. He's like punching it up as he's writing,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't like go back and edit anything to
Speaker 1: make it flow. So he's like the wall was lined
Speaker 1: in books. Oh you know what he should not know
Speaker 1: when a book is at all I'll just include that
Speaker 1: after him say that's what I mean is that I
Speaker 1: sometimes feels like or to me, it feels like maybe
Speaker 1: one person read it, and he just sloppily adds in
Speaker 1: extra sentences to like, maybe this is a spot where
Speaker 1: I can do something about books. So it's not well
Speaker 1: thought out, it's just thrown in. That is, if he
Speaker 1: even let somebody read this, you know that maybe one
Speaker 1: round of notes and was like, oh, I'll do it
Speaker 1: here where they put the note not think He's like,
Speaker 1: he's not easy. I got this. I can knock it
Speaker 1: out in a half hour, and he types it in. UM. Anyway,
Speaker 1: after he hotly edged through the doorway. Uh, he saw
Speaker 1: the books. They were absolute he had been told, so
Speaker 1: he'd never seen one all, but he knew that there
Speaker 1: were books. I guess, I don't know. It's not clear
Speaker 1: if the narrator knows it or not. But a small
Speaker 1: wooden table marked the corner of the room. A bed
Speaker 1: lay along the opposite wall, and in that bed was
Speaker 1: a tiny man, wrinkled with age, weak with decay. His
Speaker 1: mouth his mouth grinned. Oh, I see what he's doing.
Speaker 1: His mouth grinned, his eyes did not. Is he dead?
Speaker 1: Who are you? The man demanded. He didn't know what
Speaker 1: to answer. He had never been asked. I see, said
Speaker 1: the man. And what are you doing here? Silence? But
Speaker 1: you are out here? Are you not? Outside the bubble?
Speaker 1: He pointed out the door, the velvety purple beyond where
Speaker 1: the meteor continued to burn brightly across the night sky.
Speaker 1: What yeah, what's up with that meteor? How long has
Speaker 1: it been there? This is the first and only time
Speaker 1: he uses the word meteor in this story. And he
Speaker 1: saw this shooting star, which is not the same thing star.
Speaker 1: I mean, presumably that's what this person is referring to.
Speaker 1: So he didn't know there was a bubble around him.
Speaker 1: And he's got the word for anyway again, narratoring back
Speaker 1: and forth. It's all bullshit. Um, it's not great, like
Speaker 1: it's yeah, it's it's just not good because like he
Speaker 1: he he saw the shooting star and then left it
Speaker 1: at that, and then pages and pages later talking about
Speaker 1: a meteor. They are technically the same thing, but it's
Speaker 1: like the shooting star. Shooting star is visible briefly, that's
Speaker 1: the whole. Yes, that's why we call it that. It
Speaker 1: is a meteor that is seen briefly. So like and
Speaker 1: so if there was an ear, he would If there
Speaker 1: was a meteor and we're or that something we're supposed
Speaker 1: to be continuing to see, why haven't we continued to
Speaker 1: see it? Why hasn't continued? Like that's a guide. He
Speaker 1: would notice it. If you star, he would notice that
Speaker 1: it's still there away. Yeah, I mean again, I don't know.
Speaker 1: That probably would have made it a better story, but
Speaker 1: this is confusing. It wouldn't have made me stop when
Speaker 1: I read that there's a meteor in the sky. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just throwing it in there suddenly. Yeah, it would have
Speaker 1: been better if you'd at least tried to make it
Speaker 1: a theme, you know, that would have made sense to
Speaker 1: within being all weird about Judeo Christianity. Um, yeah, I
Speaker 1: can see that it would have worked better than what
Speaker 1: he did. Okay, Yeah, it's like the phrase the meteor
Speaker 1: continued to burn brightly, like, wouldn't continued? Yeah, all right,
Speaker 1: because we haven't had this introduced before unless unless well,
Speaker 1: well we're going to find a little bit out about
Speaker 1: what this meteor is after this ad break. Oh really,
Speaker 1: so yeah, together everything back with that meteor. Oh, we
Speaker 1: can't wait to find out what the meteor is. What
Speaker 1: the shooting star that he saw in the sky that
Speaker 1: no one's ever seen before. He's the only one that
Speaker 1: saw it, and it made him wake up, and then
Speaker 1: he escaped the bubble, which has never happened before except
Speaker 1: for maybe this old tiny man who's in this room
Speaker 1: in the mountain that was bright in the distance, and
Speaker 1: now he's up close after climbing down the crevice and
Speaker 1: then back up it all right. He pointed out the
Speaker 1: door to the velvety purple beyond, where the meteor continued
Speaker 1: to burn brightly across the night sky. The man side. Ah,
Speaker 1: that better. Hallie's comment, I know you don't know what
Speaker 1: it is. Not my mind about that, suffice it to
Speaker 1: say that it shows up once every seventy five years.
Speaker 1: Your father and mother must have seen it at some point. Okay,
Speaker 1: I mean I'm consuming a lot of things about his age,
Speaker 1: his parents age, Like your father and mother must have
Speaker 1: seen it at some point. If wait a minute, is
Speaker 1: it is it? Is it Hayley's comment, it's those the
Speaker 1: same things. So they just referenced it as a meteor,
Speaker 1: and then the next line it's a comment. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure how distinctly different those things are. It doesn't matter,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. It's it's mostly this. It's based on
Speaker 1: the size, it's mostly the size whatever. Whatever. I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: we're all over there. We've got a year, We've got comment.
Speaker 1: A shooting star, more often than not, is a very
Speaker 1: time like ball of like ice and a rock. It
Speaker 1: burns up in the atmosphere. It's why it turns bright.
Speaker 1: So why we can see it. Um, Usually they don't,
Speaker 1: like you don't see a shooting star and then it
Speaker 1: continues off into the sky. Um, it's because of its
Speaker 1: like interacting with the atmosphere that we see it. Um.
Speaker 1: It is technically a meteor. Um. A comet is tend
Speaker 1: to be much larger comets. Uh, do these cycles, they were,
Speaker 1: they returned. Holley's common is a comet. It's a very large,
Speaker 1: uh piece of rock and ice, um that has been
Speaker 1: on a long journey through space. Um. And it's just
Speaker 1: it's just not clear that he was referring to a comet,
Speaker 1: but rather a shooting star, which you see regularly in
Speaker 1: the sky if you can see a clear sky like,
Speaker 1: oh look, briefly shooting star that's burnt up. Anyway, it's fine,
Speaker 1: it's fine, it continue. I'm just stuck on this like
Speaker 1: assumption that like, your father and mother must have seen
Speaker 1: it at some point if they were if the seventy
Speaker 1: five and over, and even then they saw it when
Speaker 1: they were a baby whatever. At that he spoke, does
Speaker 1: he know his parents? Like, that's what it implies. But
Speaker 1: but no, I don't think it's the rest of it.
Speaker 1: What this story is kind of implies the concept of
Speaker 1: the family has been eliminated. Yeah, like in nine Okay, well,
Speaker 1: so here we go. Your mother and father must have
Speaker 1: seen it at some point. At that he spoke, I
Speaker 1: never knew my mother and father. Okay, okay, there we go,
Speaker 1: or father and mother is what he says. But you
Speaker 1: remember the comment, I don't know what. I remember mostly
Speaker 1: nothing but something what I see? The man nod at
Speaker 1: his lip, and you came out here. I had to
Speaker 1: I am not like the other Hey, you yo, you
Speaker 1: Why wouldn't you remember the comment I don't know some
Speaker 1: fucking magic that we're going to learn about um Because
Speaker 1: he's not like the others. He's just right said, right there.
Speaker 1: He's not like you don't remember your parents, but you
Speaker 1: remember the comment. Well, he's not like the others. It's
Speaker 1: not like the others. The man gestured to the chair
Speaker 1: and propped himself on one arm. He looked a little
Speaker 1: like a gnome, withered and malevolent. Let me tell you
Speaker 1: a story he began many years ago. Humanity was diverse.
Speaker 1: There were men and women of various races, ethnicities, abilities,
Speaker 1: and they were all did you say various or nefarious?
Speaker 1: We're getting a little bit of Harden Harrison berger on
Speaker 1: rip off here too. There we go, here we go.
Speaker 1: It's happening various various races, ethnicities, abilities, and they were
Speaker 1: all unhappy. For no matter what measures governments tried, inequality remained.
Speaker 1: Redistribution of resources merely masked the problem. Laws directed toward
Speaker 1: helping particular groups often ended with them being strangely disadvantaged.
Speaker 1: Pretty sure he's talking about Civil Rights Act h different abilities, bread,
Speaker 1: different values, different belief systems. Those values and systems caused conflict.
Speaker 1: We tried everything to solve it. We tried education, we
Speaker 1: tried genetic treatments designed to raise the average intelligence, but
Speaker 1: each i Q point meant a massive difference in out.
Speaker 1: Oh god, yeah, the man looked at him and he
Speaker 1: really didn't have to work hard to get a bunch
Speaker 1: of answers? Did he also, does this guy know what
Speaker 1: i Q is? That's not being explained? Like this would
Speaker 1: just be moon man talk to him his wall of
Speaker 1: books that he will when they read. Oh yeah, him like, yeah,
Speaker 1: what is that Q? I don't know what you're talking about?
Speaker 1: Exactly right. Again, if you're you rather have the character
Speaker 1: like not understand any of these words, and like, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe that leads to a moment where this man like
Speaker 1: allizes how different he's made and he could celebrate like
Speaker 1: it's such a success that you don't understand any of this,
Speaker 1: Like it means you know, we've worked or whatever it worked,
Speaker 1: or you could have like him speak differently and be
Speaker 1: like we tried to make people more intelligent. But you
Speaker 1: know then that led to this and it does obvious
Speaker 1: and on the nose is yeah, how lazy. I mean,
Speaker 1: you are all listening, you know it hurts almost. It's
Speaker 1: incredible that this is what he has arrived at. It
Speaker 1: isn't like I'm pretty when I watched something really embarrassing
Speaker 1: or whatever. Cringe. It really makes my insides get squidgy.
Speaker 1: We'll strap in and hopping the walk in freezer to
Speaker 1: get that squidg ice rock gord. Okay, what's up? What's next?
Speaker 1: Al Right? So he edged through the door. The man
Speaker 1: looked at him, peered at him. Do you know, said
Speaker 1: the man, good lord, what it is that makes us happy?
Speaker 1: He shook his head. Nothing makes us happy, ha ha.
Speaker 1: But it is desire, aspiration that makes us unhappy. Ambition, jealousy,
Speaker 1: these make us unhappy. The man who reaches for the
Speaker 1: stars is sure to fall short. The man who reaches
Speaker 1: out to the divine is sure to remain lonely. The
Speaker 1: man who reaches for his toothbrush, provided that his toothbrush
Speaker 1: is in its proper place, is satisfied. No dreams means
Speaker 1: no unhappiness, or at least equal unhappiness, and if no
Speaker 1: one has experienced true joy, the joy of achievement, then
Speaker 1: no one knows what they are missing. Then no one
Speaker 1: knows that they are missing it's typo, sorry, not my fault,
Speaker 1: my fault. Then no one knows that they I'm missing
Speaker 1: should be what it's not. It continues, all right, equality
Speaker 1: is the key. Equality cannot be achieved in excellence, It
Speaker 1: can only be achieved in mediocrity and love that the
Speaker 1: message of this is ultimately anti equality quality. He's also
Speaker 1: I think, taking a shot at Buddhism. Yeah, yeah, with
Speaker 1: the desire. There's a lot here, but most of it
Speaker 1: being that Ben is such a like just to think
Speaker 1: about it, like existentially, such an offensive place to take
Speaker 1: an opposition to the reality that not everybody is afforded
Speaker 1: equal opportunities and people are dying because of it. Like
Speaker 1: but if you, uh sorry, if you help any particular group,
Speaker 1: it ends with them being strangely disadvantaged. Huh yep. Like again,
Speaker 1: I have to assume he's talking about the civil rights
Speaker 1: um that clip that's going around of him on social
Speaker 1: media with him with the kids, Oh god, the beautiful moment. God. Alright,
Speaker 1: uh story talk about that on even more news equality
Speaker 1: is the key. Equality cannot be achieved in excellence. It
Speaker 1: can only be achieved in mediocrity. And we have achieved
Speaker 1: it within the bubble. All are equal, all want nothing,
Speaker 1: aspire to nothing. It is perfect. It is stasis. It
Speaker 1: took generations, three generations to breed out the intelligent, to
Speaker 1: select out the unique. We have more disease now, but
Speaker 1: we have no unhappiness, more poverty now, but shared by
Speaker 1: all the secrets of science that once made men look
Speaker 1: to the heavens have been lost to us. There were
Speaker 1: some left over from the purge. Purges cap but lies. Sorry,
Speaker 1: Katie want something to say, nothing, No, it's it's funny,
Speaker 1: like he's uh thinks that like this is the the
Speaker 1: like this is the goal of like yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: That's what I was thinking too, is just like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is this is what you think we want? You
Speaker 1: think that this is the goal? What he well, I
Speaker 1: think he would say he thinks that, like right, right,
Speaker 1: but also yes, the intention is not this, but it's
Speaker 1: the inevitable. This is what liberals want when they complain
Speaker 1: about inequality, is they just want everybody to to live
Speaker 1: in It's also funny that like okay, so Ben in this,
Speaker 1: in this, in this world you've set up, you say,
Speaker 1: you have more poverty now than they did before they
Speaker 1: broke the whole world. But also you haven't shown us
Speaker 1: any poverty and everyone has the same stuff, but everybody
Speaker 1: seems to be fine. Yeah, it seems like there's plenty
Speaker 1: of food. They all have balconies, like, yeah, what what
Speaker 1: where is the poverty? Right like you? And again it's
Speaker 1: easy to establish that Night four is a good job
Speaker 1: of it, of like talking about the terrible swill that
Speaker 1: they drinks beer, and like how it would require much
Speaker 1: more thought, just like write a book. I guess he is,
Speaker 1: you know, mentioned that there's holes in the pants or
Speaker 1: something like, I don't know anyway, No, he can't mention
Speaker 1: that because I would require him describing the uniform that
Speaker 1: he is apparently wearing anyway. Uh oh, yeah, So there
Speaker 1: was some left over from the purge. Again, purges capitalized,
Speaker 1: We operated on them. Most remained as they were a
Speaker 1: few and unlucky few reverted their brains, taking over functional
Speaker 1: operation from their damaged areas. Those Yeah, what does that mean?
Speaker 1: Damaged areas as? Areas capitalized their brains taking over functions
Speaker 1: from Okay, I don't understand what he's saying here, but
Speaker 1: it's I don't know it make sense. It operated on them, Uh,
Speaker 1: some unlucky you reverted because their brains took over functional
Speaker 1: operation from their damaged areas. Yep, alright, moving on those
Speaker 1: we eliminated. We have achieved what no one ever thought possible,
Speaker 1: an end to unhappiness. I'm sorry, man, you just said
Speaker 1: that there's unhappiness. It's just everybody shares it. You can't
Speaker 1: say this. You're very inconsistent about what the goal. Did
Speaker 1: he say there is happiness, but everybody would share it,
Speaker 1: or there's poverty? He said that there is. It also
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. No no dreams means no unhappiness or at
Speaker 1: least equal unhappiness. Like you had him admit the thing,
Speaker 1: So just like, have him still understand what he's saying. Whatever, man,
Speaker 1: unhappiness ra al right. The man peered at him again,
Speaker 1: seemed to look beyond him. Just use the word and
Speaker 1: fuck man like sorry, The man peered at him again.
Speaker 1: Comma seemed to look beyond him. But one man can
Speaker 1: destroy the system. It's him. But one man can destroy
Speaker 1: the system, one man who believes he is different, one
Speaker 1: man who dreams, who aspires? Who wants more? Who even
Speaker 1: feels that want? Two shadows leapt onto the wall behind him,
Speaker 1: he glanced quickly. Flanking him were two enforcers. The withered
Speaker 1: man pushed himself up from the bed. Are you unhappy?
Speaker 1: Said the man? He nodded. I will say that he
Speaker 1: really should have given this fucker a name, Like every
Speaker 1: time he says he it's after he describes this other man,
Speaker 1: and it's just like, just like, give him a name,
Speaker 1: have him introduced himself. Yeah, he nodded. That is unfortunate,
Speaker 1: the man said. He hesitated, Not the man but him.
Speaker 1: He hesitated, his eyes closed, burned behind his eyelids was
Speaker 1: that image, the star crossing the heavens, blazing its way
Speaker 1: through the solid soft curtain. His heart pounded in his
Speaker 1: chest when he opened his eyes. The enforcers stood on
Speaker 1: either side of him. No, he said, it is happiness
Speaker 1: to be so unhappy. Who the guy the main He's
Speaker 1: been saving that, Yeah, Ben does, He's been saving that
Speaker 1: for the entire time, One more time to say it again. No,
Speaker 1: he said, it is happiness to be so unhappy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: kind of it, okay, sure, trying to thanks, trying to
Speaker 1: thing one might describe it as a bit of a stinker,
Speaker 1: but I might enjoy it. I don't know. I don't
Speaker 1: think anyone did. That's what he told me. Now pretends
Speaker 1: he never wrote it right that it is funny that
Speaker 1: he did eventually come to realize what a ship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: by the I found a bright Bart review of these,
Speaker 1: this book of short stories. There is Oh, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's like cloying lee positive. Obviously, it's very funny. That
Speaker 1: was before he did the one good things every time
Speaker 1: was leave bright Bart because of did the review journalists abused? Um? No, No,
Speaker 1: you're right though. That is like the one moment where
Speaker 1: Ben Shapiro actually made a moral stand that took courage. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I made a decision, did it? It was probably tough
Speaker 1: for him? Yeah, fucking too much? Six minutes already. Oh no,
Speaker 1: So we're on the second to last page. Oh good, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's do it. Let's finish power thrills, do it, let's
Speaker 1: do alright, we're at the climax. I guess you'd call it.
Speaker 1: After he says it is happiness to be so unhappy,
Speaker 1: the man nodded. The enforcer on his right hand grabbed
Speaker 1: him by the arm, pinioning it to his side. Okay,
Speaker 1: but he was too fast. His brain now moving faster
Speaker 1: than those of the enforcers. What, of course, his brain
Speaker 1: now fast. His brain now moving faster than those of
Speaker 1: the enforcers, got real fast brain speeding up the action.
Speaker 1: So it's like reverse bullet time. I guess what's going on.
Speaker 1: It's actually not Also not how people like think about
Speaker 1: actions or whatever. You know, there's a thousand ways to
Speaker 1: write it, but not that that's the one way. This
Speaker 1: is the this is the thousand and one. Yeah, anyway,
Speaker 1: it speeds up the action. He shot his foot forward. Uh,
Speaker 1: he shot his foot forward, tripping the enforcer, and he
Speaker 1: then he kicked him in the head. Okay. The enforcer grunted,
Speaker 1: then lay still, then lay still. It's just so easy.
Speaker 1: Every obstacle is so easy. Anyway, he leapt to the bookcase.
Speaker 1: His hand gripped a volume, the pentitukee it said, and
Speaker 1: he pulled it from the bookcase. The withered man was screaming,
Speaker 1: now in anger or despair, he could not tell. He
Speaker 1: swung the heavy volume, metal edged at the other enforcer,
Speaker 1: who was moving toward him with a slow certitude. The
Speaker 1: book crunched into the enforcers skull and he toppled to
Speaker 1: the floor with a crash. Okay, so there are terrible
Speaker 1: I have to explain, like why this is bad, like
Speaker 1: why this is not not good action writing? Like why
Speaker 1: why this is deeply unsatisfying? And it's again because Ben
Speaker 1: never does the thing that is fundamental to storytelling, which
Speaker 1: is set up and pay off. Right, everything that is
Speaker 1: good about a story comes down to set up and
Speaker 1: pay off. So if you want to set up him
Speaker 1: beating an enforce her to death with a book and
Speaker 1: haven't mean anything at all, you have to set up
Speaker 1: a couple of things. Number One, previously to him walking
Speaker 1: into this room, he has to be broadly aware of
Speaker 1: the idea of books and that he's forbidden from them. Now,
Speaker 1: there's a number of ways to do this. You could
Speaker 1: do it like in the movie Equilibrium, right where he
Speaker 1: turns a friend in when he realizes they have banned books,
Speaker 1: but then like it haunts him and he regrets it
Speaker 1: or something. Or you could have him find stumble upon somewhere.
Speaker 1: Maybe he's doing like cleanup work and he finds in
Speaker 1: this old ruined house like a book and he he
Speaker 1: reads a little from it, but then it gets spotted
Speaker 1: and taken from him and he's punished. You know, you
Speaker 1: could do it that way, Um, but you need to
Speaker 1: set up that books that they mean anything at all
Speaker 1: to this person because at this point we don't know
Speaker 1: that he knows anything about what a book is supposed
Speaker 1: to be but a club, right, Like he's not aware
Speaker 1: that they contain knowledge. He's never seen one before. Um No,
Speaker 1: he just knows that they're obsolete. Yeah, that they're obsolete,
Speaker 1: but like for what what? Here's the other here? We
Speaker 1: are all also slipping between the narrator and this guy's perspective,
Speaker 1: so that when it's just the narrator saying he picked
Speaker 1: up a book, but then you need to at least
Speaker 1: establish like he wasn't sure what this was, he never
Speaker 1: held one before, but like it seemed like a something
Speaker 1: that you, whatever it is, that you can do. The
Speaker 1: other thing we would need to set up because this
Speaker 1: action has there's nothing that's at all satisfying about a
Speaker 1: guy beating up some dudes and just being being good
Speaker 1: at it, particularly he just takes him. Yeah, what would
Speaker 1: be satisfying or could potentially be satisfying if written competently
Speaker 1: is he has an altercation with the guards before, maybe
Speaker 1: when they're taking away this book that he's found, um,
Speaker 1: and he tries to fight them and they just brutalize
Speaker 1: him um and he can't really react because he can't
Speaker 1: even visualize the things that would be necessary to physically
Speaker 1: defend himself. Um. And you know, throughout the course of
Speaker 1: the story, he's kind of breaking down this internal programming
Speaker 1: and that's what allows him to actually think and fight
Speaker 1: more effectively because he can strategized because he's broken through
Speaker 1: the and all they can do is kind of walk
Speaker 1: forward and hit, and he's capable of like trapping them
Speaker 1: and tricking them. And like you you again set it up.
Speaker 1: This is why, like if you look at like I
Speaker 1: don't know whether you're talking about like the hero's journey
Speaker 1: or like, you know, the stuff like Dan Harmon's story circle,
Speaker 1: there's always this moment where like the hero tries and
Speaker 1: fails to do the thing that he then does at
Speaker 1: the end of the book. That is, like the thing
Speaker 1: that people like most is to see growth, is to
Speaker 1: see something something fail and then succeed again. Because that's
Speaker 1: also the most satisfying thing in life, to try something,
Speaker 1: to fail and then to get better at it and
Speaker 1: try again and succeed. Like that's kind of the entire
Speaker 1: human motivation for all of society and art and inventiveness.
Speaker 1: Um so you might want to include a little bit
Speaker 1: of that in your story anyway. That's why this is bad.
Speaker 1: So let's let's finish this crap spackle. Yeah. So he
Speaker 1: boringly crunched an enforceder skull with a book that meant
Speaker 1: nothing to him. Uh to recap he faced the withered man.
Speaker 1: Is there anything out there? He said, or asked whatever? Uh? No,
Speaker 1: said the withered man, there isn't. How can you be
Speaker 1: so certain? I can't. But man has been searching for
Speaker 1: so long and he has never found it. He moved
Speaker 1: towards the withered man and stood over him. You took
Speaker 1: my chance to search from me, from us all. It
Speaker 1: was my right. The word popped into his head. Unbidden
Speaker 1: our right to search. I protected you, the man protested.
Speaker 1: A swell of pain touched his chest. He's so specially
Speaker 1: he remembers the word right. A swell of pain touched
Speaker 1: his chest. Pity. He had heard the word but did
Speaker 1: not know its meaning. What did he hear the word
Speaker 1: from some enforcer? I guess, Yeah, where did he hear
Speaker 1: the why did he hear? What was the again? Don't
Speaker 1: say that have him hear the word earlier in some
Speaker 1: sort of context that no, write a story. We gotta
Speaker 1: do it now, Like I mean, at no point has
Speaker 1: he even really like people don't really socialize even Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I would like this stargazing together and fuck so maybe
Speaker 1: they are they play cards once a week. Anyway. He
Speaker 1: apparently heard the word pities sometime, but it doesn't matter where,
Speaker 1: because nothing matters. Who cares. He pushed the man down
Speaker 1: onto the mattress, reached for the man's pillow, placed it
Speaker 1: over the man's face, used the word and then once
Speaker 1: in your fucking life, all right? He pushed the man
Speaker 1: down onto the mattress. Comma reached for the man's pillow.
Speaker 1: Comma placed it over the man's face. Period. The man gasped.
Speaker 1: He at the last as his old body shuddered. He grunted.
Speaker 1: What he's trying to Okay, the man gasped, He fought
Speaker 1: at the last. He's referring to the gasp, But there
Speaker 1: is another sentence between the fucking the man gasped and this. Okay, sure,
Speaker 1: I'm calming myself down. As his old body shuddered, he
Speaker 1: grunted something that sounded like a plea a last hope. No,
Speaker 1: wait no, he said, as the man drew his last breath.
Speaker 1: You protected us from our humanity, from our possibility. May
Speaker 1: God the word jumped again to his mouth. God damn it. Okay,
Speaker 1: share ben, May God forgive you. When the man was dead,
Speaker 1: he dragged him outside onto the mountain. Haley's comment, uh, huh,
Speaker 1: because he suddenly knows now huh. Well, also because it's
Speaker 1: Hallie's comment, right, you're the one. How does he spell
Speaker 1: it h A L E? Y Oh yeah, it's h
Speaker 1: l L It was correct originally. Yeah, okay, that's just funny. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is funny. Um, this is the one of the
Speaker 1: two times he fucking referenced the fucking one real thing
Speaker 1: we all can google anyway. Hayley's comment still glowed in
Speaker 1: the sky. It's after trail, burning the night into brightness.
Speaker 1: He buried the man on the okay. Then, using the
Speaker 1: comment capitalized as his guy, he turned his back on
Speaker 1: the bubble and began walking. He did not look back.
Speaker 1: Where's the So he's going to die in the woods
Speaker 1: because he has no survival skills or knowledge. I guess
Speaker 1: I guess been saying that his God filled his mind
Speaker 1: with all this knowledge. So I'm sure he's going to
Speaker 1: be a new Abraham and whatnot, special special cut boy.
Speaker 1: But like nothing that Ben has established would make him
Speaker 1: even remotely capable of saying the thing that he said
Speaker 1: to the guy at the end, because he doesn't know
Speaker 1: any of that stuff. No, it needs to be divine intervention. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which is fun and and bad and it's just a
Speaker 1: bad it's a bad story, bad story. Oh it's over,
Speaker 1: that's the that's done. Oh yeah, he well he began
Speaker 1: walking away from the bubble and he did not look back,
Speaker 1: and that is the end of that. Well, I'm happy
Speaker 1: it's over all, aren't we? All? Said? The man boy?
Speaker 1: He not the man the main character did something else.
Speaker 1: All of these things are so disappointing, even for Ben. Um.
Speaker 1: I think they met my expectations, in some cases exceeded
Speaker 1: them by being so good. I just wanted to write
Speaker 1: his full length sci fi novel. I know we're going
Speaker 1: to and I desperately desperately wanted to just be this
Speaker 1: but longer, like it would be so freaking funny if
Speaker 1: you couldn't even come up with a second idea. We're
Speaker 1: going to get someone on the inside this, I promise you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I swear by Haley's comment. We promise. Yes. I was
Speaker 1: gonna say, actually it's Haley's comment. No, you did you
Speaker 1: did it wrong rightly? Oh boy, this has been fun.
Speaker 1: I guess it's back to our normal bullshit next week.
Speaker 1: The Shooting Star of podcasting, that's what they call us,
Speaker 1: and the media and the comment and it's in the
Speaker 1: sky and it's very bright and lighting up the mountain
Speaker 1: with our pods and casting. All right, cool, we did it,
Speaker 1: We did it, We did it. Hooray. I love you all. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well this will probably be it for us
Speaker 1: and Ben Shapiro until he comes out with that dystopian
Speaker 1: science fiction novel which Hugo Award winning. It is the
Speaker 1: only thing that I now look forward to in life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna get our our paws on it first,
Speaker 1: get the band back together again to do this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's going to come out in six months, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna have to slowly gather you up like the Avengers.
Speaker 1: We'll find Cody fly fishing outside of Montana, Katie, You're
Speaker 1: going to be planning an elaborate bank heistuh with a
Speaker 1: with a cast of of of Cluney esque characters. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, it's going to be great. Sophie's going to
Speaker 1: be designing the lunar Lander. Um, it's it's gonna be
Speaker 1: We'll have like a fun little little montage as we
Speaker 1: have to grab everybody and well because we have to.
Speaker 1: It was out. Yeah, well I'm pulling you back in
Speaker 1: that sort of stuff exactly. We gotta we gotta break
Speaker 1: into uh Sophie's new place of business, uh, to steal
Speaker 1: the lunar Lander, because we're going to fly Moon and
Speaker 1: it's the only way to it's the only way to
Speaker 1: get to the last copy of Ben Shapira's dystopian science fiction.
Speaker 1: We could make a whole career and a hit show
Speaker 1: off of just you know, Oceans eleven. But we're just
Speaker 1: trying to find the drafts that Ben doesn't want anyone
Speaker 1: to see. If he wor right, I think yeah, I
Speaker 1: think we're onto something all right. For now, we're gone.
Speaker 1: We're out of here. Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: you're right, we're out of here. Everything everything worst Year
Speaker 1: ever is a production of I heart Radio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.