It Could Happen Here Weekly 65

All of this week's episodes of It Could Happen Here put together in one large file.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody, Robert Evans here, and I wanted to let
you know this is a compilation episode. So every episode
of the week that just happened is here in one
convenient and with somewhat less ads package for you to
listen to in a long stretch if you want. If
you've been listening to the episodes every day this week,
there's gonna be nothing new here for you, but you
can make your own decisions. Sacred twenty three extremely extremely exciting.

(00:32):
It's finally, finally two thousand twenty three. That means only
funny things can happen this year. That's your intro to
the That's right. Welcome, Welcome to Christ, buddy. I want
to hear any criticism welcome to happen here? Well, I
don't know if I'm gonna say they're welcome, but it

(00:53):
is good, good work. Enjoy your year of discord um
as if any year of the last, like ten, has
not been a year every every year previously was totally
normal and not chaotic. Downhill from here. First off, welcome,

(01:14):
welcome back. We we love some of you. Probably presumably
I haven't met you any of the ones that I love,
but I assume that you're out there, how's everybody doing?
How's everyone's New year? Absolute slap in the face to
anyone you've met on any of your live events. That's
a fair so nice to meet you. Thank you for

(01:36):
coming in person. Also, fuck you that this whole episode
is a series of slaps to the face, because it's
not for us. We're lying. We're all lying to them.
Who knows if we make it that far today we're
recording this on December two? And what is it? What

(01:57):
has happened today? Friends? Also? Who are you? Who was
on this episode? Garrison's here? As I've already spoken into
the microphone. Who else has spoken into the microphone? Sreen?
Question Mark? Now you have Sophie? Sophie? Yeah, James? Oh?

(02:19):
Any one left? Oh? No, Mia, I don't. I don't
think I've actually spoken into this episode yet. So now
I have. You've started the day? Didn't So that's how
you introduced a post. Incredibly awkward. It was perfect, magnificent,
as if we had never done a podcast. But before

(02:40):
we get to this, to some of the que days
of what has happened today when we're recording it? Oh, well,
today is the day? Is the one day anniversary? Of
me showing Garrison. The movie Strange Days written by James Cameron.
Um a New Year's classic. Such a good movie. Not
seen it? Oh you gotta you gotta watch it? It

(03:02):
is Robert got alert on his phone. That was just
like Memory is one year, a lot of day one day,
a lot of violence against the l A p D
in that film. Today, that's what's happened has happened? Yeah,
definitely not a pro l a p D movie. Also,

(03:24):
you you get to repeatedly see a couple of now
prominent actors, oh faces um, which is which is great
in a slightly problematic context, deeply problematic context, but a
good movie anyway. What actors are in this movie? What's his?
What's his? Ralph Find? Yeah, Ralph find is the main character,

(03:46):
and he looks exactly like ten years ago Bradley Cooper.
Bradley Cooper in this movie. So don't insult Ralph. Don't
do that. They both that's what? Okay, Well that's Crol
he's great. And Angela Bassett is fucking incredible in it. Queen. Yeah.
Tom Sizemore is present in the movie. Alright, Well, my

(04:15):
favorite is Vincent din Afrio. Looks exactly like Tim Heidecker's character,
and that I think you should leave sketch where they're
at the UFO themed restaurant. It's it's uncanny, um, know
that you're still doing uh. I think you should leave
references in the Lord's act. I showed my family before

(04:35):
before they left to go see other family for Christmas.
I sat, I set my family down to watch the
second half of season two and magnificent. Yeah, it's designed.
And that that leads into my only prediction for the
next year, which is, oh, God, come on, all right,

(04:56):
who's what's the first question? Then? Well, so the bitches
want to know, Um, in an alternate universe where it
could happen here, has a corporate office, does the staff
get a Robert Evans book for holiday presence or a
gift card? And we can we can actually answer this
because despite not having a corporate office, there's still there

(05:18):
still was a holiday gift which I have not actually
received mine yet, so I can't say what mine is,
but I know other people have received There's I don't know, Sophie,
I ordered yours for well, well, Sophie, you know, sometimes
it would be like that. Tracking Its probably gonna be yes,
so if you're about to ruin some ups drives day?

(05:40):
But what did what did everyone else receive for their
will be delivered by pm? Today? Out for today? There
there you go. It's okay, Garrison. I didn't get shipped either.
Oh oh, did buy you something that hasn't come yet? Devastatingly?
What did? What did? What did everyone else get for
for their holiday? Was it a Robert Evans book? No,

(06:02):
it wasn't. God, oh my god, imagine you're that fucked up,
that unhanged that you're like I should by The second
job I ever had, which was our third job, I guess,
which was working for this accountant guy that's like like that.

(06:24):
He was like right, He was a retirement like an
advisor guy. He would help old people get their money
in order to retire. It was mostly like helping him
host events at like a Texas roadhouse where we would
try to get old people to buy annuities. But um,
so I worked for this guy. In the day I
started the job, he gave me a copy of his
self published novel Operation night Watch, which was about a

(06:46):
group of Navy seals going rogue to stop drug dealers
and is one of the worst things I've ever read
read it. I mean I attempted to someone when I
mentioned did it once on the show. Somebody found and
bought a copy and give that money to someone else. Oh,

(07:08):
he can't be alive anymore. There's no way he said
it was. It was probably all eBay or something. Yeah, yeah,
yeah that that man has been dead for years. I'm
sure we still we still have ant, we still have
answer here. We've got tiny cans mace to to a
little personal maces on for the left hand one for
the right hand wield. I really like it. It's very compact.

(07:29):
New pepper spray has been on my tabiles for like
months because mine was expired like a year ago. But
I've never actually bought in one, and so it was
perfect and that was just so tiny. I can put
it in like my Fannie pack and just continue on
my days. How do you know it won't work if
it's expired. I just poked it up. I looked it
up and I was just like, I don't want to like,
I don't know, I just it was on my tables.
I obviously didn't buy it, and it wasn't like you

(07:51):
don't want to hurt somebody with expired pepper spray. It's
a propellant that expires. Yeah, can itself gets like make yourself? Yeah,
got it? Yeah, yeah, well there you go, there you go. Um,
let's see, so we're going to be going through some
of the questions that we got for the previous Sorry,

(08:11):
my cats are making as I do like a that.
But that person really thought that. Robert was that person
that was like, hey, happy holidays, here's my book. I
do get the royalties. You're welcome. We should we should
use the corporate cards to buy more copies of my book.
That's a good idea. Before we could just ship them

(08:35):
to the sea. Though it doesn't matter where they go.
For the next question, and we're using the questions from
the previous it could happen in your livestream for this,
by the way, So if we didn't get to your question,
we're getting to some more of them right now. Unless
your questions sucked, Yeah, yeah, very personal. Yes, that's that's

(08:57):
that's what I meant by sucked. So do you know
of a way to get involved in mutual aid without
using social media? I don't really use it for mental
health reasons. Good decision there to not use social media.
Social media yea. Um, a lot of mutual aid organizing
or you know, like requests happen on social media. UM.

(09:18):
But I mean there's I guess it depends on how
you use social media. I suppose like it might be
useful to have a friend that follows some of the
some of the social media stuff in your local area,
whether that be on Twitter or mastered on or Instagram. Um,
and then you can like relay relate to you if

(09:40):
there's local events um, or you can just like section
off like once a week you check on just a
few of those things, and then you then you delete
the app from from your phone again. UM. Because once
you are like plugged into a local community, then people
can just like directly send you flyers and stuff. UM.
But you have to have those connections there in the
first is. And those connections are really best made by

(10:02):
going to things on the ground, whether it be you know,
a food not bombs type thing, whether it be you know,
like a clothing swap. Um. Lots of local events do
happen in in in people's cities, and once you actually
go there in person, that's where real community actually gets built.
So it's it's just it's just it's kind of just
breaking the ice to actually get to actually go to
a few in person things and then and then people

(10:23):
can send you, you know, direct fires and stuff. If
you don't want to be doom scrolling well looking for things,
you don't have to even have an account if you
don't decide not to. You can like view profiles on
Twitter and Instagram without an account. That you can't like
see the comments or whatever. But if you just want
to see their profile every once in a while and
check in on what they're doing, you can do that

(10:45):
online with no account. Yeah, often as well, like and well,
we're doing mutulate things here. It tends to focus on
the border a lot or on the house people, and
like in both cases you can just show up and
you'll meet someone who's helping get in most instances, and
then they can direct you and they can text you
or signal you whatever. Like, there were tons of people

(11:07):
when the migrant caravan arrived who were like much older,
not on social media, often with church groups, and they
didn't hugely like have um I would say, a lot
of experience in that kind of area, but they deeply
wanted to help and they showed up and people were like, hey,
can you go to costco and get this and they
want to Yeah, absolutely, and yeah and we use what's happened?
It was fine, and like check around. Another option to

(11:27):
be obviously if if you if you have like like
a radical meeting space in your city, you can check their. Um.
If you don't have those, you can even check see
if there's any like radical coffee shops or cafes that
maybe have like a bulletin board. People will often put
up flyers for stuff there. Um, just you really have
to do start start trying to be like plugged into

(11:50):
your actual like I r L local community and that's
generally how that goes. Um, you have to be more
proactive than if you had social media is the main thing.
You still have to show up either way, right, Like yeah,
and do you know who else wants you to show
up online? Robert Evans, I don't these products and services

(12:10):
that want you to. We're now exclusively only sponsored by
Robert's books. Yes, and here's an excerpt. All right, and
we're back speaking of the Internet. Robert or anyone I suppose,
do you think there's a way to get back to
fulfilling the promise of the early Internet Uh No, Um,

(12:33):
I don't. I think the early Internet was a thing
that happened that in part was the way that it
was because our brains did not have any kind of
tolerance or or or like we're not like prepared for it, um,
and it it kind of grew up as we became

(12:54):
capable of like I don't know, like the the the
Internet grew more social as we got used to it.
And I don't think that can ever happen again, like
those those weird little moments where I don't know. Yeah,
my my answer is no, I don't think it will
ever happen again, in the same way that like you're

(13:15):
never going to get those weird little moments that you
you had, like the birth of you know, the printing
press or whatever. Like you know, it's a unique moment
in history and it's never going to come again. Which
doesn't mean that something else won't happen. Um, But the
Internet is not Like the fact that we've all lived

(13:37):
through the social media area means even once all these
companies go bust, our brains have still been changed by
them too much to ever go back to posting the
way we once did. No, we're too far gone. I
think on a kind of similar note, in a few
days we have an episode from Andrew on digital commons
and this that kind of involves around this same kind

(13:58):
of question. So in a few days will have will
have an episode kind of about this topic ran by
Andrew Um. But James, you had you had something? Yeah,
Sometimes like obviously, like the Internet is terrible in many ways,
but like when we talk about like what happened in Myanma,
that series Robert and I did, like that seems to
me like it's delivering on some of the promises of

(14:19):
the early Internet. Like it's it's mad that you know,
a young person like who is facing a coup and
wants democracy in this part of Asia can go online
speak to some dude in these aren't real place like
people are spoken to about like some some guy in
his garage in Ohio who's three ly printing guns, and

(14:39):
that person can help the other person on themselves and
defend their right to choose who governs them or if
they're governed at all, Like that is really fucking cool,
and that doesn't happen without the Internet, And so yeah,
there's also yeah, it's it's not that there's not going
to be good things done with the Internet, or that
it can't be made better but it's never going to
be what it was. Yeah, we we simply know too much. Um,

(15:04):
let's see what are some inspiring recent examples of cooperation
increasing survival odds to show the type that thinks they
just need AMMO to survive. Another good touchstone with for
this would be the movie trimmers Um, which which shows unfortunately,
actually he's survival player. Nobody lives with that community unfortunately unfortunately.

(15:31):
I think Rabbit actually is correct here. More broadly, this
person is like and couch sleep paraphrasing kokin right, but
like we have all just lived through a pandemic and
me are stilling through a pandemic I guess which has
changed the world killed hundreds of thousands, millions of people.
And like the reason a lot of people got through that,
A lot of people who didn't weren't able to work

(15:53):
or were immuno compromised, you can got as much is
because other people helped them. Like no one shot COVID
and no one fed themselves in the lockdown because they
had tons of five five six talked away like a
ton of mutual aide. Happened a lot of a terrible
ship happened as well, but that's a bigger example. I think,
mm hmm, what genres of music have each of you

(16:16):
been listening to lately? M I'm a big classical head.
I don't care if it's like I. I also listened
to a lot of classical the best. When you're driving,
everything becomes like cinematic and it's calming, and sometimes words
distract me. So my go too is classical to what

(16:36):
I would consider classical music, which is second and third
wave SCAH basic basically the only classical music in my opinion.
I listened to the Clash Suade and the Manics, Ree
Preacher is more or less exclusively. Yeah, they're the only
bands that matter. Yeah, I think if it's not classical,

(16:58):
I'm trying to like the I don't know, I'm like
dancing around. So it's either like it's like two extremes
for me, either classical and I'm like chill, going to sleep,
or I'm getting ready and I want to feel something.
What about you, man? I have the most absolutely dogship
music case Brave, but the music that I listened to

(17:19):
it I think it's legitimately good. That's not like power
metal or like weird ship is I've I've been going
back to like my Youth and my Youth is a
combination of like surf rock. I was like, this is
a safe space, like what okay, like Pat Pat Benatar

(17:45):
sort of like that that there's a sort of era
of like I don't know what you care like lesbian
glam rock, I don't know yourself. This is a safe space.
You keep saying that. I don't think we ever agreed
to this. I usually listened to a lot of music, well,
writing and researching. I just finished up to two pretty

(18:07):
big writing projects. I've been listening to a lot of music. Um,
most of it's like ambient electronica. Uh, some classicals thrown
in there if I need to get a little bit
more like energy, but listening to some Trent Resiner kind
of ambient stuff, um and like a lot of I

(18:29):
also listened to a lot of remixes of the Mario
Galaxy soundtrack. Okay, okay, s O, I like that. Wait, okay, okay, okay,
all right, I need to I need I need to
plug a truly awful song. Don't no, no, no no,
we got it. Okay, look, Donkey Kong has to slam

(18:51):
this way, it has to be this way, X space
Jam x d k Rap. I need I need to
know that this exists, is there's there's is incredible. It
is another worldly experience that's also a version of it.
That's also what mean angel? Okay, I think this Garrison.

(19:11):
Do you listen to Max Richter? I think he was
like Max Richter, He's like he has a lot of
soundtracks for shows, so his stuff is kind of like
melancholic and piano ee, but I think you might like it.
I will look him up. Good name, Yeah it spelt Richer. Yeah, okay, great, Yeah,
you should also listen to the Mighty Mighty Boss Towns,

(19:33):
who did a wonderful album. No, No, don't don't speak
out The album That George Floyd song is incredibly appropriate,
deeply appropriate. Yet speak of listening to things, speaking speaking

(19:54):
of things that are problems? What is what is the
most troubling thing that isn't being reported on or isn't
taken seriously by the wider public. The fact that none
of you said you listened to any rap music or
any type of music that wasn't just I thought Tupac
wasn't given Okay, Okay, trachical question I listened to. I

(20:18):
listened to a little bit of Biggie every now and again,
and I got my most deaf always loaded up, especially
around the new Year. I love listening to Life and
Marvelous Times Sides as a hell of an album. I've
always been more Biggie. There's a guy code and Christian
Parish takes a gun. He rapped by Superman. He's like

(20:39):
from the Coronation. I think it. Stuff is cool. The
most troubling thing that isn't that isn't being reported on
are taken seriously enough by the wider public besides our
musical tastes. Well, I'm going to be and always say
like at least your news and Palestine and like cair
and balance reporting and even like Syria and uh, Yemen

(20:59):
and all of that stuff, I think none of that
gets enough attention. Absolutely, I'm gonna say, fucking scams um Like,
just on a daily basis, I feel like my phone
gets uh six to eight scam calls scam calls at least,
and like it's uh And And someone was making a
note of this earlier because like a bunch of scams

(21:22):
stories have been people have been sharing them. This year.
But like there's all sorts of fucked up things like
if a relative gets arrested as soon as the police
post um the like the they're the fact that like
like publicly posted they've been arrested, like the family if
they have numbers that scammers can find, will start getting
auto dialed by like accounts claiming to be the police

(21:44):
saying that, like you need to put money in their account.
Now where they're going into general population and it's all
these are all like low hanging fruit things like they're
they're they're not They're targeting people who are not very
savvy UM often people who have some sort of like
mental disability, right, so folks who are kind of living

(22:05):
a marginal existence in a lot of ways as it
is UM and they are like it. It's making it
incredibly difficult for and and folks who have like are
cognitively impaired for whatever reason, including the fact that they're
they're elderly. There's just like this. It's never been like
this before, the sheer density of scams that people have

(22:25):
to wade through. And again, most of you, we've all
kind of noticed it getting more common, but you may
not have noticed how kind of brutal. It's gotten because
you're not the target demographic for this stuff, right, That's
why they all have like filters in them to try
and weed out the people who are savvy enough to
know that they're being scammed. But it's there's a number
of things. This is the result of decisions that the

(22:47):
the FTC made, um like like in order to like
make it a lot easier for people to use ship
like auto dialers and to carry out like phone based scams.
But it's it's just been punt on by every presidential
administration in our lifetime. As the Internet has made it
easier to automate this stuff, and the the explosion of
machine learning tools that are widely available, these kind of

(23:09):
AI s that people are joking about right now, like
it's all going to create the capacity to more effectively
automate scams. I had one that could have gotten me
the other day where I got a call from my
bank that was listed as from my bank is and
like on it like it was my bank's phone number,
like it was. It came up as them on the

(23:32):
and they were like, hey, you know, someone has there's
some some charges. Can we run them by you? We
want to make sure, and they were like charge things
I had not bought. They were like wire transfers and
ship and they're like, oh, it looks like, you know,
somebody's gotten access to your account. And the call dropped
before I could finish it, so I called them back,
and when I called my bank back, they were like, oh, yeah,
that was someone spoofing our number. They were trying to

(23:52):
get personal information out of you. Um, this ship is
so fucking endemic and no one is doing a goddamn
thing about it. There's like one anemic attempt in Congress
to slightly address it, primarily through like education, but it
is a massive problem. It's part of what's breaking society,
the fact that like everyone is constantly flooded by this

(24:16):
low level cloud of people trying to destroy their financial lives. Um,
it's it's real bad. Do you know what else is
trying to destroy your financial lives? The products and services
that support this podcast, Garrison and Robert's books, and we
are back for one final time for this episode. This

(24:36):
is this is actually a question that I feel is
pretty important that I wish people thought about a bit more,
at least within like, you know, our our general sphere
where do you draw the line between fascist politics and
non fascist conservative politics. Well, at the moment in the
United States, I don't think there's a line to be

(24:57):
drawn because the mainstream of the Republican Party has completely
thrown themselves in behind one of or both of two fascists. Um.
In terms of like personally, I guess it depends on
whether or not people support their being like things like

(25:18):
penalties on on on it do people like does somebody
support banning books to somebody support arresting folks for expressing
political opinions that differ from there's does somebody support, um,
you know, expanding the penalties for petty crimes to include
like violence, Like those are all things that can suggest

(25:40):
that somebody is a fascist. But at the end of
the day, anybody who supports the Republican Party right now
is supporting a fascist movement. So I don't feel there's
any sort of I don't draw a line in my
head anymore, to be entirely honest, because they they alighted
the line. I try to be very specific when I

(26:01):
say fascist versus just like a regular conservative. In my reporting,
like when we were inside Colorado, we talked to people
who were conservatives who were who were against fascists, and
I against local fascists in their community and actually doing
things to help stop fascists from gaining power within their
local community. UM. I think if you look at a

(26:22):
lot of the rhetoric around queer people right now, whether
it be like drag shows or trans people, that's a
specific style of rhetoric that is like innately fascist. UM
like talking about like there was there was there was
a tweet from um is his name? Like lindsay, James,
what's that? What's what's that guy? Yeahs he put out

(26:44):
He put out this little like meme being like, don't
call them drag queens, call them um like like it
was some some bullshit groomer thing, Like I forget the
exact thing, but like that that specific style of rhetorical
framing is is is like a pretext to extermination and
genocide like that that is what that is what they're doing,

(27:06):
and I think that is right now is what it
crosses the line is when when they're creating these scapegoat
groups that that are going to be targeted and posing
these groups as like a threat to civilization. UM, That's
where I kind of use that word it's like fashions
like that that is generally in in my research where

(27:27):
I start employing that versus you know, some random guy
who I'm talking to, who you know wants there to
be lower taxes and less regulation. Because yeah, that that position,
as we've seen now, can eventually lead to the type
of fascist policies. But I think that there is when
it comes to like people in your personal life, and

(27:49):
when it comes to like regular people who are not politicians.
I think having a little bit more discretion is useful
because I think there's still a chance that some people
who are currently conservative can not become fascists. Yeah, I
would agree. I think in the US context one sort
of useful litmus test for people on the right. It's like,
are the rules of the game more important than the

(28:11):
outcome of the game? Like, so when you look at
like the sort of fascism we saw around Donald Trump, right,
like there was a point where the outcome of the game,
the maintenance of power, right became more important than the
rules of the game. I like basic human rights, and
I think that that's a useful definitely a useful sort

(28:31):
of it's this person dangerous, it might like I like
Paxton's definition of fascism generally, it's not great, but it's
which has elements useful. Yeah, it's useful. And I think
your scapegoat group group one is really key. When people
a scapegroading people and they don't really give a funk
about how they eliminate those people or stop quote unquote right.
When when people are seeking to use the machinery of

(28:53):
state to eliminate people and ideas that they find uncomfortable
by using the force of law against them, um, they're fascists.
And when people are supportive of ending democratic like ending
the democratic transfer of power in order to support an
individual that they think embodies their conception of like what

(29:15):
their country is, those people are fascists. Um. And I
think that it's one thing, and I don't think it's
usually useful if you're having a conversation with an individual
to call them a fascist, even if they're behaving in
ways that are kind of fashy, if you think that
a productive conversation can be had, Um, that might move

(29:35):
them in one direction or the other. But at the
end of the day, if somebody is supportive, for example,
of a third term for Donald Trump, um, that person
is supporting a fascist movement, and I don't think that
there's a I don't think I don't think it matters that.
Like their individual reasons for doing it maybe less fascy
than someone else's, Like at the end of the day,

(29:57):
they are supporting that, and that's that's kind of what
matters to me. I think. I think it's also worth
taking a little bit of a look at what happened
to your conservatism in order to sort of understand what's
going on here, because I think there was an important
sort of fracture a in terms of the fact that
George Bush like basically orchestrated like yeah like bait bait,

(30:20):
Like he didn't technically create a coupe, but he like
he he he rigged an elections such as to put
it it's like, so as to put him in power, right,
Like that's what the Brookes Brothers riot was. That's what
that's that's sort of the process that gets us the
Bush wouldn't shot in two thousand's and there you know
that this is this is an interesting moment because if
you look at what happens to conservatism over the sort

(30:42):
of like the I don't know, the last twenty five
years of the twentieth century, there's this interesting pivot where
they make where in order to you know, if you
look at like what what is the conservative response to
communism in nineteen like thirty nine, right, it's just like
we're going to be fascists. Right, It's like literally we
are going to be the Nazis. But you know, by

(31:04):
by by the time you get to like post wor wartching,
and by time it gets really to like the seventies
and eighties, they start realizing that, like people don't generally
like fascism that much, and so the form of anti
communism that they take starts to be this sort of
like rights based like weird supports like freedom and human
rights and like free markets and democracy and there there

(31:27):
there's this point where that stuff meets with like another
kind of fascist politics, which is sort of like the
two one era state of exception stuff that happened after
where you know, like people are talking about the gloves
coming off and this is this is this is getting
into your sort of like like looking at like multa
benjam means like conception of what fascism is or my

(31:49):
blanking on the guy's name like Carl Schmidt's stuff right
where it's like, here is a part of the state
that can just like destroy like they have, that has
sovereign power and can just sort of trample over the
entire legal order in order to perpetuate it. Right, So
this is like, okay, suddenly after two thousand one, like
after nine eleven, they were just like people disappearing into
torture dungeons, right, and you get this moment where on

(32:11):
the one hand, yeah, like because Georgia w. Bush is
one of these people who's like the sort of like
freedom democracy people, but then beneath him is you know,
it collapses very quickly into this we are the torture
dungeon stuff, and this willing is literally to rig elections.
And I think that's the sort of important because like
because like there are sort of normal conservatives right who

(32:32):
still have that kind of like freedom and liberal democracy
whatever thing, and they're not really that fascist kind of
but in some sense it doesn't it doesn't matter that
much institutionally because the part of the Republican Party that
survived was a combination of the torture dungeon, which is
like Gina Hospital like and then Trump, who is this

(32:53):
the sort of emblem of this like like the sort
of sort of like we're gonna we're gonna take the election,
We're gonna take power, We're gonna use the power of
the state to just like murder everyone we don't like.
And I don't know like I think I I think
like you can find individual people who are conservatives who
I guess like art Nazis, but the the way that

(33:15):
neo conservatives and fragmented and the way that that kind
of state of exception politics and that politics have sort
of just like mass torture, and then also the willingness
to just steal elections like that. I don't know that
stuff I think forms is this another sort of core
fascism that's they're alongside the sort of queer extermination of

(33:37):
stuff and there I don't know, these things fused together
in ways. And Yeah, I've rambled for long enough. We're
gonna do one more question. And I think we cover
a lot of upsetting things on the show, some things
that maybe are not you know, super fun to think about, um,
but we also cover some like hopeful stuff as well.
But what's what's one thing at the crew who works

(34:01):
in the show. Due to decompress and clear our minds after,
you know, wading through the trenches of the digital hellscape.
Uh pass, I feel like we might have answered something
similar to this on the line. I saw Robert playing
cyberplunk last night, so I know there's at least one thing.

(34:23):
It does allow me to pretend that Keanu Reeves is
my friend, which is nice to meet him. First. I
like to go camping. I like to go outside, like
I like to swim in the ocean and raban bike
and hike and camping. Yeah, yeah, I second that I
need to go outside and just even like a simple

(34:45):
walk with trees and hiking. I think it really helps
me just decompressed and be present again, hanging out with
queer people's not and intentionally not talking about Twitter bullshit.
It just like going and doing something, just like varying
around in the grass and just like talking about gay ship.

(35:09):
It rules. It's the self that heals the heart. Absolutely well. Uh,
thank thank you everybody. Me. Oh see, I was gonna
try to just like no, just just just like Google
that wrap up the episode in a nice little bow.
I don't know. I've I've been trying to get back

(35:30):
into doing more kind of art stuff with my camera,
and whether that be photography or filmmaking. Um, in like
short form stuff. Uh, what else I've been doing? Yeah,
I don't know. Taking drugs? Sure, there it is. Shrooms
are healing, shocking, shocking. Yeah, incredible start on the podcast now,

(35:53):
now you can wrap it up if you want to. Well,
thank you everyone for listening to ours. That's what I
do to relaxe. Thank you. See, that's the thing to do. Actually, actually,
actually there's one person who has tried to skirt past
this this question. Sophie. Yes, Sophie, what the hell she looks?

(36:16):
What do you want? Sophie, You not only have to
deal with, you know, all of the bad stuff that
we talked about, but you also have to also have
to deal with us. Um So what what do you
do to compress? And clear? Clear, clear, compress? Well, first
of each and every one of you are the best,
So let's let's start there. Uh. I really like uh

(36:38):
making food for my friends, and uh like meeting a
friend for coffee and just like walking outside or like
finding like a little place that's like a local place
and just when and when you go in there's like
barely anyone in there. But then you get to talk
to the people that work there and then order a
nice little dessert or something. It's that kind of thing. Um.

(37:02):
I'm like, I'm like, I have friends. That's literally what
I read it. I said it and sounded horrible. Um.
And then like all guys obviously like having pets and
being around animals is really solid. But um, it's also
just like having a healthy balance of you know, focusing
on a lot of the negative stuff but really also
putting your energy into a lot of the positive stories.

(37:24):
I know that a lot of people feel like it
could happen here is tends to lean towards the negative,
but I really feel like we're a hopeful show, and
I feel like as as a network cools, the media
tries to to to lean lean towards the hope and
find you know, the good and the bad. And you know,
that's what we have shows like cool People did cool stuff,
which is with Margaret Killjoy that that really helps balance

(37:46):
out a lot of the other things. So yeah, I
think finding the good in the bad, uh, eating yummy
food with your friends and petting all the you can.
You know. I also think a huge thing for all
of us is taking plenty of alpha brain supplements. Um,
I like, all right, people listening to it could happen

(38:07):
here if you have have have a have a good
year of discord. Oh, Cricky no, I literally because Garrison

(38:32):
is so mean about about the UK. I literally almost
got Garrison all UK thing gifts for so many things.
When I got to see if there was a tea
pot with the flag, it was so horrible. I didn't
do it because I knew, but it was. It could
happen here a podcast. Do you guys want to hear
my Boston accent? No, that's it, that's that's that's my

(38:57):
Boston Interson literally started growling as you did that. That's
how much he needs everybody. Everybody gets angry at my
best in Austen Jesus Australian, what do you do it?
Boston is the Australia of the northeast. So this episode
we're going to be going through our predictions. Prediction number one,

(39:20):
Robert might not make it. Oh Sofa, you predict that
every year and it's barely ever true. Little piece of
you guys, every year, Robert's gonna get true. Trunk could
buy a plane ticket to Boston, then get lost and
never returned. It's Okay, I can. I can blend in,

(39:42):
blend in with my seamless Boston accent. No, you'll no
one will be able to understand you in a foreign country,
just like trying to like, why are you just doing Australia.
It's it's it's Boston, you know at the Home of
the Koala be so not my fault that all accents
of interesting possibly trying to get back on track. So, yeah,

(40:06):
what are we doing today? What are we doing? Who
are we trying? We're trying. We'll work it up in here.
There's the same people on this one this last episode
as Sharene Me Garrison, James Sophie, our producer Mia and
Bad Boston impersonator Robert Evans. And we're talking about what
we think might happen in I feel I don't I

(40:29):
don't remember all of our predictions for last year, but
I feel like we got most of them correct. I
think we were right about everything. Yeah, so to to
continue that to trend um, what do we think is
going to happen this year? Um? I think Elon Musk
might wind up sad to pieces by the saudiast. It's
like there's like a solid there is a non zero chance,

(40:56):
you know. Okay, The thing, the thing that's actually the
most sort of surprising me about that is that the
SoftBank guy is still alive, like as as as much
Saudi money as Elon has blown through the SoftBank guy
like like fucking SoftBank guy lit the GDP of a
regular country on fire, like the most batship companies in

(41:20):
the world. It's money by being landlords. Do you know
how hard it is to lose money with a landlording business.
It's a German guy who wrote a book about it.
Oh anyways, I think we'll get a really good leak
from the British royal family doing something absolutely despicable and

(41:43):
then but like it really high but high quality audio
or video hopefully video, and then uh and video of
what Prince Andrew's doing, and then it will make and
then it will make UK politics even worse than it
already is. Not. Yeah, yeah, that that part I disagree with.
But yes to horrifying leak from the British Royal horrifying league.

(42:04):
Horrifying leak yeah from like I honestly I don't know
how British politics could be worse. Starm is going to
win an election and somehow make it even worse despite
being notionally the left party in the United Kingdom. I
gotta say, somebody has to get you people on lockdown
for the names Keir Starmer, that's not a that's not
a name you know familiar with, Kiar Starma, the leader

(42:27):
of the opposition. Unbelievable. I'm livid. M Yeah, well wait
but no I'm not. We had Boris Johnson and it
really can't get anywhere. Yeah. I I never forgave you
guys for letting a Boris into power. Can I get
my bad please? I think I think Pete Davidson will
date a high a high profile politician in the next year.

(42:48):
I think Sophie better that's a that's a free space. Sorry,
I have, I have, I have, I have A better
one is Pete Davidson is going to date Grimes. That's
on everybody's list. That's seven times he's going to impregnate

(43:08):
some that's take that's boring. Um. I think that we're
going to find out something juicier all right, well, um,
you know it's it'd be easy to stick with like
pretty grim predictions like oh there's going to be a
mass shooting at a drugs like it happen, because that
seems that that's let's let less to prediction and more

(43:29):
just like looking at where the temperature is going. Can
I do my hack version of that that's situless hack,
which I think. I think we're going to get an
actual shootout between armed fascist and armanti fascist in a
city that the press actually cares about, so not portland'
that is entirely possible. We haven't. We haven't had a
shootout in Portland yet. I mean, that's that's kind of

(43:52):
there's been an exchange of gunfire. Why don't you all
talk at the same fucking time and make Daniel's life
hard one of you speak, Daniel, Welcome to d Yeah,
the year we break Danial. Um, we have had an
exchange of gunfire though, no, we have not. I think
she means like, oh my god, it has not gone better.

(44:12):
It has gotten better. We have had a person shooting
into a crowd and another person shooting that person. We
have had people fire at each other, Um, But we
have not had two different people exchange gunfire with each
other a group like and neither if we had groups
of people exchange gunfire with each other, that has not
occurred yet. Um, I agree. I think there's a real

(44:36):
good chance it does. Um. I'm I'm more worried about
the police opening fire on a group of anti fascists
and the fascists joining them. But like, all of those
things are on the fucking table, and it gets more
likely every time we roll the dice on that ship. Yeah.
One thing that gives me some hope is how the
recent events in Texas have been going. Um, the size

(44:59):
of the community that has been showing up at the
last couple of drag events. Um. And how outnumbered the
right has been as a general rule, if anything is
going to make it less likely that either the police
or the fascists fire, Um, it's being tremendously outnumbered. Um.
So I don't know. I'm I'm in between a hopeful

(45:20):
and despairing about like where the future of that's going
to be. Here's my hopeful prediction, Crypto dot com Arena
will not be named Crypto dot Com Arena by the
end of the year. Yeah, that is my hope and dream.
I do think that crypto dot com is well. I mean,

(45:40):
it looks like binances on its way to collapsing slightly
less badly than ft X did, but it looks like
it's not going to be around much longer. UM in
Crypto dot Com is kind of in a similar space.
I think there's actually a real chance that we see
the functional death of cryptocurrency UM that we've already seen

(46:01):
it be named a normal thing and not something viciously embarrassing.
Robert It's it's it's still going to be embarrassing because
they paid for that. I think it's just like f
t X paid like a hundred and fifty million dollars
up front to get their name on that stadium and
Florida UM. They are trying to change it, but I
think they're stuck with it for a little while. Stadium

(46:24):
I'd rather be called scam Stadium literally, Yeah, yeah, the
Charles Ponzi Memorial Stadium. How you go from here's office
supplies to that. It's so embarrassing and like it doesn't
even flow. Okay, I could we're not doing this right now. Yeah,

(46:45):
I think that we should change the Crypto dot Com stadium.
We should name it after Bad Dragon, that company that
makes buildos themed after mythological creatures based Yeah. I this
isn't like hopeful, but I feel like there's going to
be another virus because there are some people that are
going too hard in the other direction. I feel like

(47:07):
every year there might be a new virus introduced that
we're going to yeah, and with theories about where it
came from. Yeah. But then like, but we're like past
the point of being able to lock down, you know
what I mean? Like I think, like that's what's gonna
make it start. Yeah, yeah, I mean yeah. Part of
one of the scary things about the COVID response is

(47:29):
that the how politicize the concept of a lockdown or
mask wearing has gotten means that there's effectively no way
for US culture to stem the spread of an airborne virus.
Like it's impossible, there's not even a chance. Um, we've
done used to parachute and use it again. We we

(47:50):
we lit the parachute on fire. Yeah, Yeah, to own
the lips. Yeah. I I've been wanting to do this
for a long time, but I haven't done because I
don't think it's fees able for work. But I would love.
I think people are going to start using flip phones more.
They think, like people are going to step away to traditions. Yeah,
because there's even like a psychological study going on right

(48:11):
now where a bunch of teens did that, and like
they've reported much better lives or whatever the ship. So
I would love to myself, but I think more people
are going to go. I saw a graph the other
day saying the happiest that American teens have reported themselves
being was the early two thousands, right around when I
graduated high school, and all we could do with our

(48:31):
phones was text each other to buy drugs and play Snake.
And that's all kids need is the ability to play
Snake and buy ketamine um happy at the same time. Yep,
that's what it's going to do. The arena next, it's
going to be the ktamine arena. Well do you know
do you know who could buy the arena? Rob Evans,

(48:54):
any of these products and services that that support this podcast,
And we're back in this is this is this is
a section that we're calling death. This is who is
going to die? Can I start this one? Yeah, it's
gonna it's gonna be No Chomsky. That's That's that's who
I'm doing. I think No Chomsky is gonna die. I

(49:17):
think we're going to have the worst two or three weeks.
A lot of times the media that we've seen in years.
It's gonna make it's gonna make it's it's gonna it's
gonna make pog patrol discourse look like tame, like we're
like people, people are good, people are on ironically gonna
be doing Stalin as a POC discourse again. And as

(49:40):
you have to explain it, you have to. You have
to pause and explain all of this because nobody reason
to understanding. We have to. We have to blaze through
that and pretend it never happens. I don't know what
pog patrol is. I imagine how you don't. Okay, I
I legitimately refused to explain that. Um if if if
you want me to great, you need to pay me

(50:02):
more that I'm being paid. Okay, alright, I'm sure someone
will DM me now to explain it. Thank you very
They're the they're they're the people who are behind all
of this insufferable left wing discourse that occasionally breaks through.
They did round two of Ann Frank, white privileged discourse
that happens. Jump off a bridge anyway, death death, who

(50:27):
you think is gonna die. It's like I'm making a
hail Mary Elon Musk. It's gonna be musk drug addiction.
Maybe maybe he maybe he shoots himself yoga in his
duffle bag when he shoots himself in the back of
the head by accident. That's very specific, James. It's almost
like you planned that out. It's almost like someone already

(50:50):
did it. What I think, I think Joe Biden's gonna die. Um,
I think it's just makes sense, busy law like. I
have that in my head too. I didn't specificly Joe,
I said, whoever is? I said, one of the two
people running for president in that are the clear front runners,

(51:13):
one of the two will die, causing it, causing the
election to be even more stupid than it already. Is
My runner round Nancy Pelosi, but that she'll be at Vinyards,
She's gonna be thriving, and all that will happen. If
Pelosi said, people will sell out of those weird political

(51:37):
like action figures, We're just we'll just to sell out
of all the Nancy Pelosi ones. That that's all that
will happen. If if if I'm not saying I want
her to die or not want her to die, I
just think those are the two people that every time
I see them. I'm like, how are how you know?
I thought that with Boris Johnson, I think he like
that man has lift a rough one. I wouldn't be

(51:58):
shown to if he you know, what would be the
funniest terminal gout? You know, would be the funniest thing
based on what if? What if? What if the king
does a year after the queen. There's a decent chance
you've seen his fingers, that man is not healthy. Yeah,
that would be so funny. It would be pretty funny

(52:20):
if it ended up with Megan Marckwell being queen after
you will, just because he has so much mighty funny
what I what I will throw out there. I think
there's a decent chance it's Fuintes. I think he's gotten
Nick Fuintes his his his profile has increased so much
so quickly, that he gets killed by one of his Yeah,
I think there's a good chance it's one of the

(52:40):
fans he's already had. That wasn't Louis Rockwell. Yeah, yeah,
I mean hack of a fraud. Part of why I
think that there's a chance of that is the weird
sex related drama he's had with a number of his followers,
Like he's already messing in those like wading into those waters. Um,

(53:01):
he's he's done ship like going over their rooms with
a black light and stuff like. He's had weird, uncomfortable
relations like relationships with his followers that are like distressingly personal.
Um in a way that makes me think that one
of them might lose it on him. Um, I don't know.
I think there's a non zero chance it's flintes get Yeah,

(53:26):
he gets swatted. I'm less worried about that. Yeah, I
think like murdered by another weirdo, right winger. There's a
decent chance, said a good thing come out. I think
Rudy's dying. Oh here's something which Rudy Giuliani. I disagree.
You think he's gonna forever. Yeah, I think he died

(53:49):
four years ago. To be fair, that man, he's made
of wax and melting. He is thriving. Another example of that.
I just read a great interview with him in Cigara
Ficionado magazine. Um, my favorite fact about Rudy. So you're
not supposed to inhale cigars unless you're one of a
tiny chunk of people who think that that's the right
way to smoke them and Rudy's in Hailer. Rudy sucks.

(54:13):
Do you know? Do you know who else is it
in Hailer is Stephen Crowder and we know that he's
had a series of pretty significant medical issues. I think
Stephen Crowder goes back in the hospital and I think
I think he'll survive, but he will have to like
live like like he'll have to be like hooked up
to like machinery to be able to keep going. So

(54:35):
he's gonna he's gonna be doing his show while hooked
up to medical equipment. I think that is That is
another one of my is not healthy right? He still
he's ever that's gonna happen. There's a Twitter dedicated to
He's gonna die or not There there is a Twitter
dedicade into if Twarn Peterson is going to die or
not good good? Speaking of with Twitter accounts, I do

(54:59):
think I do think this is the year Kissinger. Yeah, yeah,
I think I am never kissing always bet against kissing Er. Yeah,
he's going to stay alive at least to see another
election rig somewhere in the world or a coup. But
he's ninety nine, Okay, I think I think he gets

(55:20):
to a hundred one, he gets he gets to like
a hundred eight. He carries a longer, way longer than
what he should a hundred hundred nine. Maybe, how are people,
because I know several of us have said this in
the past, how are people feeling about Kanye? I think
I think there's a decent chance, like, absolutely, seriously, absolutely seriously,

(55:45):
there there's a decent chance that he dies from a
number of reasons. Yeah, Garrison and I have talked about
this a lot, and we both are on that side,
So we think that's yeah, that's yah. I agree with that.
I think, yeah, huh, Well, I think the real money
is on, does con you take anyone with him? Oh
my gosh, my god, what if he takes what if?

(56:07):
What if? Together? Garrison, there's not terrible numbers on that
that's so likely that that is not a zero percent. Oh,
I just gotta just got a single spark of hope
in my dead soul. I think I think this is

(56:28):
a year we lose Ojay. Oh wow. I saw him
given interview the other day, and I mean it was
he looked unwell. Oh Jay is just a kissinger. He
somehow keeps winning even though he shouldn't. Ye, the smart
the smart money is never on betting against the juice.

(56:49):
Oh god, alright, well, uh do you do you know
who else loves betting the products and services that weird,
things that are autoact Michael Jordan's dad for a while, Robert,
that man was murdered. Yeah, Cambodian guy. He left betting problem. Alright,

(57:13):
break or is this all before the break? Okay? Who's
to say so? Who's to say we have no idea?
All right, we're bad mentions like any last throws. I'll
just say I really hope it is in Britney spears.
Thank you so much. Oh my god. Alright, um, let's see.
Uh so final predictions. Um, you know there is not

(57:36):
the mid terms, right, there's no there's no significant kind
of election this year, at least inside the US. UM.
I think this is this is a prediction that's that's
gonna hurt Sophie. I think something really bad comes out
about Harry Styles, and I'm praying for it. I'm first
of all that something really damaging is going to come
out about Harry Styles. I saw that I saw the

(57:59):
only fictions I saw about hair styles that he was
going to come out with a vow of celibacy. I
let's go with that instead that honestly, that that is
so likely. I think Garrison is on the right track, though.
I think, whether it be something there or somebody else,
I think there's going to be a huge, huge pop
celebrity scandal. Hopefully it's not here. Yeah, well there was one.

(58:20):
I mean every year there's a celebrity scandal. I mean,
I don't know. Take card that's right, Sothy, that's right. Yeah,
I don't know if I think it's I think we're
going to learn going through some ship with I don't know.
Sexual assault. Yeah, it was in the early two thousand.
He assaulted a bunch of people and the main person

(58:43):
that's yesn't their backstreep brothers who are backstreep? I'm like backs,
but I'm likely actually who are streams? Isn't That isn't
that correct? But I think some one more relevant than
Carter will will be expec another another prediction. It's like
less of a less of a prediction. Were just like
looking at current trends and recent reporting, um that there

(59:06):
will be a big shift away from like a shift
away from solar towards nuclear fusion. I think that we're gonna,
we're gonna. I think I think stuff is too far out.
I but no, no, no, I think on the governmental level,
whether or not it works or not, there's going to
be a big shift towards talking about fusion as the

(59:27):
solution to climate stuff. I think that will particularly be
influential around people who don't want to support meaningful climate
change mitigation activities. Now like, yeah, I agree with you.
There like a shield, I have a chin to take,
which is yeah, okay, so all right, it's really hard

(59:48):
to get good information about exactly what so okay. One
of the things, the thing that's been happening as a
certain result of the protest is that CCP is done
like yeah, I don't know. They're doing a traditionally really
stupid CCP response, which is that they've they've they've they
basically flip their policy like on its head, on its

(01:00:10):
head in a lot of places, there's been a lot
of like they've they've they've gone very quickly from mobilizing
state resources to like keep people in lockdowns, to mobilizing
state resources to forcing people to go to work. And
it's it's really unclear exactly what like how bad like
the COVID waves they're going to get is I Actually,

(01:00:31):
I don't think it's going to be as bad as
like the Really there's there's a lot of predictions that
are like like a like a million people are gonna
die in like six months, is like, No, I don't
think that's true. But I think if COVID actually does
get into this sort of like China has this very
large population of like very like very very not vaxed

(01:00:54):
like old people basically like particularly in rural areas, and
if COVID gets into those people and those people start dying,
I think we're gonna see ship in China that makes
like the current protests look like a fucking joke. Like
I think we're gonna see like like people like like
party officials are gonna be getting like dragged to the
fucking streets like it's I don't know, Like I this

(01:01:16):
has been one of my long running beliefs about Chinese society,
which is I don't think you can actually kill a
million people in China and not like like even even
like a like forty or fifty people. I don't. I
don't think you can have the government just straight up
to policies that killed that many people without stuff going
really really fucking wild really quickly. And I think people

(01:01:36):
are underestimating the extent to which expect, especially in in
in these rural areas. If if those people start dying
on mass I think it's gonna get fucking wild. Um. Yeah,
that's my. That's my that's that's that's that's that's that's
my that's my China hot take. Alrighty, already, I bet

(01:01:58):
does something horrific of a three D printed gun of
some kind somewhere and there's a whole bunch of panic.
And yeah, that was the next thing I was going
to say. My prediction was gonna be there was going
to be significant pressure on a federal level to ban
the production of three D printed guns and on international level, Yeah,

(01:02:19):
because I think there's a really good chance that happens
somewhere in Europe in the same way that like you had,
you had the bottom Clout massacre kind of done using
remilitarized demail like prop guns, and I think there's a
good chance that we get something maybe out of Germany, um,

(01:02:39):
with a high body count that that pushes internationally for
restrictions and crackdowns anyone to have a prediction on who
Trump will pick as is running me Oh, Sarah Payton,
I think it could be back. I think I could
get honestly, honestly, honestly though, like if you're if you're
on the ground in Alaska, like almost every single person

(01:03:01):
that because Jamie was just was working on a story
for us, and that's Bassa. They like her. They're they're
like she's bad. We don't get it. Literally, she's so popular. Yeah.
So I don't know who who Trump's gonna pick. There's
so many people he could that feel like too obvious
or too much like they're too popular that they could

(01:03:21):
threaten Trump's like like singular brand, because I don't think
he wants another big voice. I don't want someone to
be slightly passive. I don't think he's not going to
pick yeah exactly, I don't know which one, but I
think he'll pick a black Republican. I think that's that's

(01:03:41):
who Loud. I don't think he can't shall Walker Garrison
crazy don't speak that into being. I don't, but also
I can imagine that I think that is That is
my prediction. I think Walker lost and he does not.

(01:04:03):
He does not like losers. I think which is why
he hated John McCain, who lost Vietnam. I think I'll
probably I think I think I see him picking a woman. Oh,
I see him picking a woman, which is what it
will be good for his optics. I just I just
don't know what. I just don't know a woman that's
either like high profile enough but still quiet enough that

(01:04:28):
love and Sarah Palin, It doesn't matter what they love.
What matters is that Trump doesn't want somebody who could
who has the potential of distracting attention from him, And
she's been a big enough media figure in her own
right that I think he'd be worried about it. I
think Kanye, no, they hate each other. Now, I'm just
saying that's the vibe I'm getting from what I think

(01:04:50):
he what I think he thinks will help him. Like
a black man that can speak kind of the same
way Kanye speaks to his audience, like maybe before the
antisemitic ship, but a black man Republican, I think is
what will happen. I think he has two flanks that
he can be hit from the Republican Party, and one
flank is just like the anti vax flank, and then

(01:05:12):
his second flank is like someone who tries to like
tap into the evangelical voters who were kind of piss
off at him, And I think I feel like I
think Santist will probably go after that. Yeah, but but
but but but I think I think I think he's
going to pick someone either to show him up in
the anti vax front, or he's going to pick some
like like someone who every evangelical knows and who no

(01:05:36):
one else has ever heard of. I think the latter
is more likely with those options, or somebody from his family.
I think he's I think he's that that would be
really funny. Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. Yes, it's
going to be now it would be Yeah, I think
she's too woke. She's like, I think it would absolutely

(01:05:57):
be a Banca because she's on He doesn't even out
of respect for the rest of them, but I doesn't
want to. That's why that's that's actually not unlikely. Like
if he is going to pick a woman, I think
that is actually that's who I would predict. I my
money is still on herschel Walker. But I think that

(01:06:18):
is that that is not a non zero chance. Or
or he goes somebody that's not even remotely in the
game at all. Yeah, that's that's likely. That's likable in
you know, either a religious community or you know, somebody
that's on TV. But it isn't somebody that's on TV
and in your face. Um. But yeah, so like he's

(01:06:40):
not picking like a Kimberly Gilfoil or anything like that,
which would be so fucking awful. Oh my god, I
thought about it. It's really bad for all of our ears.
But yeah, so I don't know it's gonna be bad. Okay,
Can I ask a slightly like related election take on that?
Do do you do? You do you guys think that

(01:07:01):
Mike Pants is going to run against Trump? No? No,
he's making a stake about No, of course not. I
don't think he'll actually run. I think he'll just, um,
if there's somebody that he deems that's like, you know,
a true Republican and a true conservative, um, then he will.

(01:07:21):
Pence will back to ship out of that hell back.
I feel like it's gonna be I feel like there's
gonna be another person who's not the Santist who's gonna learn.
I agree, there's gonna be another Prantis like that man
on a state he has no career. Robert and I
don't think he's going to run. We don't think he's
going to run. We think he'll waited out for the
next one. I think I don't think he's going to

(01:07:41):
run if Trump is running, in particular, like especially if
Kanye is still in the news, like it's too messy,
and he's young enough that he doesn't need to win
this time, and he's so unfortunately well liked in the
state of Florida that like he yeah, he's safe there,
but he's smart enough to know that like going up

(01:08:02):
against Trump, even if he wins, could get enough stink
on him that it sucks him over in the future
as opposed to just holding on. He'll be forty six
in which is one of the youngest, would make him
still one of our youngest presidents. Yeah, and he can
spend four more years just like, you know, sniping at whoever. Yeah,
just being a real big old piece of ship murder

(01:08:26):
giant died. Yeah. Well, I hope none of us diet
next year. I hope us and anxiety breed works. I
had to say it, so it's not true, you know
what I mean, that's how my anxiety. I'm sorry I
just had to thank you, Thank you, Sharine. I appreciate that.
I too, I too wish that. Yeah, we've got some

(01:08:47):
work trips planned. Don't catastrophizes no good, And I think
I think that's will die. Twitter dot com will not
be a website. That's a very likely in most of
my I think there'll be a big shake up with Uh.
There'll be a big story about healthcare and how how

(01:09:10):
certain people are not diagnosed over other people, and it's
going to become a huge thing, and there's gonna be
a huge story about that at some point. There's Yeah,
I mean that that would. There's been you know, a little,
little little baby stories about about certain things, but I
think it's gonna become a a global issue. Yeah, and

(01:09:30):
more we will see more bullshit about migration than we
have done a good climate change is getting worse. Everything
that drives migration is getting worse, and it will continue
to be this fucking strong man that Republicans use. So
we're already seeing like Y two k and early two

(01:09:51):
thousand's nostalgia. And the bizarre thing is that there's not
much of a culture after that because around that time
was when we is when we started to reset into
like eighties nostalgia. So I'm wondering what the next nostalgia
cycle is going to be. I think like like things
like like like in Britain, like there the whole landfill

(01:10:12):
indie culture that came around in like they're like late
the first decade of this center. Yeah, yeah, you're right,
you're right. Maybe like hippie seventies. I saw a video
of of a youth, the youth trying on one of
those cursed stretch comb Ahead bands. Stop it. Those things

(01:10:35):
fucking hurt. You're gonna hurt yourself. You're gonna poke something.
It's gonna be bad. They're not cute. No brack, we
don't read that repense already back. I already keep seeing
them and the little the little plastic Bengals back. Yes, yes, yeah, God,

(01:10:59):
please don't bring you back. Hurt Battle New Metals coming back.
We're gonna We're gonna do it. We're gonna we're gonna
get New Battle, We're gonna get the we're gonna get
early two thousand's, like goth bullshit coming back. That's already started.
My My prediction, my prediction he's bringing it back is
that SKA will continue to be the most relevant genre

(01:11:19):
of music in American culture. Um, a fact unchanged for
thirty years. Al Right, well, thanks to our predictions episode everybody, Well,
we'll talk about We'll talk to you. We'll be back.
You know it's shrines. Stop talking about a death. Yeah, sorry,

(01:11:55):
things fall apart, The center will not hold in. Journalists
will make a pretty good living writing about at all.
It's a good time to work the dystopia beat. The
pillars of our society have been crumbling for most of
my adult life and probably yours too. One exception to this,
up until recently, has been the tech industry. When the
rest of the economy shipped the bed back in two

(01:12:16):
thousand eight, big tech roared into the gap to prop
up the groaning timbers of capitalism. Sure, the housing market
was in free fall, huge numbers of people were out
of work, and American infrastructure was crumbling like a twice
baked pot brownie. But then Steve Jobs magicked up the
iPhone and the iPad and the app store. Google brought
us Android and a dizzying array of smart and connected

(01:12:37):
devices followed. Companies like Uber disrupted massive industries and briefly
made hailing a cab the cheapest it's ever been, although
they did this by lighting massive piles of VC cash
on fire. It was in this period of what would
prove to be a rational exuberance that I started my
career as a tech journalist. That was the job title
my boss gave me, and it's what everybody else in

(01:12:59):
the industry called themselves. In reality, most of us were
just extensions of big text pr agencies. All the big
tech news websites of that era, Slash gear In, Gadget Boy,
Genius Review, and the place I worked for I FORU News,
made most of their money off the back of a
peculiarity in Google search algorithm. The gist of it was this,

(01:13:22):
if a bunch of websites all published articles that were
basically rewritten press releases about say a new gadget, or
rewrites of someone else's report on rumors about an Apple product,
Google would assume that this was a hot topic and
they would bump everybody up on the algorithm. You could
make a tidy profit just paying a handful of writers
to rewrite press releases or copy reports from some of

(01:13:43):
the few sites doing actual tech journalism. And this is
where I got my start. In reporting. I wrote ten
articles a day, five days a week for several years
until Google fixed their algorithm and wiped my silly little
industry out in the blink of an eye. It's fine.
In this case, we kind of had it coming. It
was nice to get paid to sit home and write,
and the experience putting out a shipload of words every

(01:14:04):
single day that were polished enough to print was pretty
good for me. But it wasn't journalism, and so while
I was doing it, I started seeking opportunities to actually
get out into the world and do original reporting. And
that's what first brought me to the Consumer Electronics Show
in Las Vegas in two thousand ten c s as.
It's known as a tech industry insider event for analysts, manufacturers,

(01:14:27):
and media. They come and they show off new products
and gadgets and apps, and journalists walk around and look
at everything and then write articles about it. Companies spend
millions of dollars every year on massive, multi acre show
rooms for their products and dream up ludicrous demonstrations of
their new tech. One that sticks out to me from
again about thirteen years ago, is watching some company or

(01:14:49):
another charge an electric car inductively that means there was
nothing actually plugged into the vehicle. They just parked it
like you would put your phone on an inductive charger,
and they charged it that way. The whole process was
so energy intensive that it dimmed the lights in the
loss of Vegas Convention Center, which if you've never been
inside of it, is about the size of a small city.
The spectacle was always the best part of CS and

(01:15:12):
with all the money pouring into big tech, it was
a great place to be a reporter. Every big booth
had free wet bars and piles of free swag. I
left every year with a sack full of USB drives
and thousands of dollars in products to test. There was
so much goddamn money everywhere that even a dumb kid
like me with no real connections could do okay. Collapse

(01:15:32):
was always and has always been present at c s, however,
looming in the background overdoomed product categories and vast tottering
businesses that didn't realize they were already dead. I'm thinking
primarily of r i Am the people he used to
make blackberries here. Another good example would be Motorola in
two thousand eleven. Their booth was one of the largest
at c e S Now. Apple was and still is

(01:15:55):
the biggest name on the block when it comes to
making consumer gadgets, but they don't go to c e S,
preferring to hold their own annual event to announce new products.
This has always irritated the people who run the show,
and so in the early two thousand tens, when androids
started to blow up as a rival to Apple's iOS,
a huge deal was made about Motorola's Droid line of phones.

(01:16:16):
They actually had to license the name from Lucasfilm for
obvious reasons. In two thousand ten, Motorola won the Best
and Show award for their droid phone, despite the fact
that they hadn't actually brought a working example of it
to the show, something that kind of pissed me off
at the time. Now today, Motorola is basically dead. It's
a shadow of its former self. It's been bought and

(01:16:37):
sold several times. His companies like Samsung and HTC beat
the piss out of it on the open market. Other
famous collapses from c E s has past include the
entire three D television market. If you can remember those
heady days after the release of the first Avatar movie,
the tech industry, blue billions in R and D and
ad money, trying to convince everyone that people would actually

(01:16:57):
sit down and their actual ass living rooms and where
fucking three D glasses to watch movies or TV. It
was preposterous and obviously doomed. I have fond memories of
harassing pr hacks on the show floor asking them, isn't
this just a big con from the entertainment industry to
make it harder for people to pirate media? Are there
any actual signs that regular people will pay thousands of

(01:17:18):
dollars for one of these things? At one point, a
rep from Samsung I think, tried to show me a
glasses free three D TV. It only worked if a
trained professional told you precisely where to stand in order
to view it. I laughed so hard I snorted whiskey
and lukewarm Starbucks onto a stack of glossy product brochures.
Despite how obviously doomed it all was, the Internet filled

(01:17:39):
with fawning articles about all of the exciting new three
D televisions that we're surely going to be in homes
in the very near future. Now, because the Internet moves quickly,
most of the websites that did tech news back then
are dead, and the ones that remain are filled with
busted links. But you can still find monuments to the
failure of three D television if you know where to look.
Take the excerpt from a PC World article on the

(01:18:02):
best of c E s two thousand ten uh. It's
titled the three D Revolution is here, and underneath a
broken link to an image that is no longer available,
is the line, I don't think it's a false start
this time. The three D product plans for the coming
year represent the initial salvos of the coming three D revolution.
Panasonics three D demos were among the most convincing, but

(01:18:23):
the best implementation I saw, unfortunately, is one that won't
be coming to market anytime soon. Sony showed us it's
twenty four point five in three D O L E
D H D t V is a technology demo only
now in retrospect, I think the hilarious failure of three
D TV technology is actually what prepared me more than
anything for crypto. If you actually just go over that

(01:18:44):
paragraph I read a little earlier, you could replace the
words referring specifically to three D t V s with
various shit coins or blockchain related tech, and it would
more or less work. The thing that set me off
with crypto was how similar the claim was that, like,
this thing is obvious, Lee legit because look at how
many people are talking about it. It's got to be
real now, because suddenly it's all over the news. This

(01:19:07):
is why folks like Sam Bankman Freed bought the naming
rights to stadiums and stuck f t X and crypto
dot com up as publicly as they possibly could. It
was all a con to convince casual observers that the
crypto market was a serious thing they should invest in.
It's one of those things that really made me think
a lot about the role journalists play and hyping up
nonsense like this, and you can see it in three

(01:19:28):
D t v s and crypto in a bunch of
other spaces. A big part of what convinces people that
this stuff is real is suddenly they start seeing articles
everywhere talking about it. Suddenly the press all over the
place is talking about the price of bitcoin or talking
about this this new thing is if it's it's going
to actually change people's lives, and so folks who maybe
are not super high information media consumers just assume that Okay,

(01:19:52):
I guess this is here to stay. Um it's it's
a danger that still exists. All of this brings me
to c E S ME three collapse looms larger over
the proceedings this year than in any other prior event
I've attended. Prior to the pandemic. Attendance that c E
S had topped out at around two hundred thousand people
last year, though only forty thousands showed, which is probably

(01:20:14):
still vastly too many folks to cram into hotel conference
rooms and can see an no restaurants during a pandemic.
And yes, c E twenty two was a super spreader event.
Korea particularly had a problem as a result of it.
The show itself for decades, a central event in the
global tech industry, seems to be teetering. It is not
alone there. The top ten big tech stocks lost a

(01:20:35):
combined four point six trillion dollars in market cap in
two that's significantly more than the GDP of the United
Kingdom around three point two trillion, or the state of
California three point six trillion at CES. The rot is
most evident in the utter lack of any kind of
hype beast product this year. So far, I've seen a

(01:20:55):
flying hydrogen car, or at least I've seen three d
renders of one. Also, it's meant for Formula one style race,
is not actual civilian use. The guy at the booths
somewhat angrily told me the anticipated retail price was around
three million dollars. The MACA flying car was one of
many products that I looked into at c S Unveiled,
which is one of the headline events of the show.

(01:21:16):
It's basically a bunch of manufacturers and booths showing off
their gadgets to an audience of journalists to drink heavily
from an open bar, walk around and prod things. In
years past, smartphones and tablets and their consumer gadgets tended
to be the main focus. But all that kind of
stuff is boring as hell now the smartphone market has stabilized.
It's just not as exciting as it used to be,

(01:21:38):
and C e S knows it. The big hype it
unveiled was around a mix of electronic and autonomous vehicle
technology and virtual reality. Now at present, I'm not in
a good position to thoroughly analyze the specific promises made
by individual autonomous driving companies at CES. I'll just note
that tech Crunch, normally all in for hype about this
kind of stuff, published an article laugh st October titled

(01:22:01):
it's time to admit self driving cars aren't going to happen.
Here's a relevant quote. Ford announced that it would be
winding down our Goo AI, the company backed by itself
and fellow automaker votes Wagon, focusing on developing full Level
four autonomous driving technologies. Ford explained their justification in doing
so when they release their Q three earnings a few
hours later, noting that not only were they shutting down

(01:22:22):
our Go, but they were also essentially deep prioritizing L
four technologies altogether to instead focus on advanced driver assistance
systems with internal resources. Ford CEO Jim Farley justified this
by saying on the company's earnings call Wednesday evening that
profitable fully autonomous vehicles at scale are a long way off,
and we won't necessarily have to create that technology for
ourselves now. Obviously, autonomous technology will of course have niche

(01:22:46):
applications automating transport of heavy loads at job sites and
minds where routes are predictable and controlled, but mass adoption
of full level four autonomous driving technologies at present a fantasy.
The same is true for one of the other major
product categories at CS unveiled, virtual reality metaverse nonsense. The
fact that Facebook let fifteen billion dollars on fire last

(01:23:09):
year chasing Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse dreams has convinced some people
that the idea is inevitable. This excerpt from a market
Watch article published during c e S is representative. You
can see the same thought process that led people astray
with three D TVs and crypto. In the long run,
the metaverse will be a major substitute for in person
conventions like c e S, said June Nichigucchi, CEO of Tararu,

(01:23:31):
a Japanese company developing its own metaverse. So one of
the barriers to any kind of popular metaverse is the
fact that VR is actually not as immersive as it
needs to be. The technology does a pretty impressive job
of convincing your eyes that you are in fact somewhere else,
and this is pretty neat, but the rest of your
body is inevitably standing or sitting awkwardly in a room somewhere.

(01:23:53):
This has led to a whole host of products that
are in development right now that attempt to engage the
most of your body and basically trick it into believing
that you're somewhere else. I tried two products at c
e S that were meant to do this. The first
was the tax Suit X from b Haptics. It uses
haptic feedback technology, which is the stuff that makes your

(01:24:14):
phone buzz when you press a button on your touch screen.
Companies like b Haptics hope to use advanced versions of
the tech to mimic physical sensation. This would make the
metaverse feel much less awkward and associated, and also provide
a whole new market for online sex workers. There are
several of these suits at c S, and all of
them seem to have won Innovation Awards, or at least
their honorees and the CS Innovation Awards, which is a

(01:24:37):
thing that basically anyone seems to get if they make
something expensive enough and bring it to the show. To
be frank, I think these suits are bullshit. The one
slightly cool thing about the tax suit is that the
gloves it had like gloves and a feat component. Um
I was able to test the gloves and the actual
chest suit thing. The gloves do a pretty okay, job
of emulating a physical keyboard, or at least small keyboard

(01:25:01):
on like a smartphone style device. Now that is not
a cool enough thing for someone to pay hundreds of
dollars and deal with the hassle of wearing heavy battery
powered gloves every day. The b haptics folks eagerly showed
me how their suit could simulate hugging and touching another
human being in VR, and this seemed to be the
major selling point they saw for what they were bringing
to the table. I actually tried all this and it

(01:25:22):
was among the saddest experiences of my life. Hugging someone
in a haptic suit through VR feels like having a
dozen or so in sixty four rumble packs activate up
your chest in arms. If you touch a virtual person's shoulder,
your hand will buzz and vibrate. Now, buzzing and vibrating
are not sensations I attribute to physical intimacy with a

(01:25:43):
physical person. I actually found this attempt at mimicking the
sensation of human contact much more disturbing than the lack
of contact in most VR experiences. The tech industry has
also penned a lot of hopes on augmented reality I
think this is closer to being realistic, but there are
still a metric fun ton of vape are wearing snake
oil products often marketed as increasing accessibility. One example would

(01:26:05):
be the Luvic. This is a device you wear around
your neck. It's roughly the size of a pair of headphones.
It's supposed to buzz on one side or the other
of your body to let you know when to turn,
all the while delivering audio map directions for you. Luvic's
press materials highlight what a win this is for accessibility,
saying Luvic is a device designed to solve the challenges
of those who have difficulty with spatial cognition. It is

(01:26:27):
an IoT Internet of Things device that is one around
your neck and uses tactile notifications and bone conduction voice
to guide the user along the way naturally. Now this
tech does identify a real need, but I'm sorry to
say it does not work at all. I tried this thing.
Luvic's people put it on me and ran through a
walking root of New York City. I couldn't tell which
side of my body was being buzzed, so that was useless.

(01:26:48):
It just felt like a smartphone was ringing on the
back of my neck and the speakers weren't loud enough
to hear directions. Now, when I mentioned this, the Luvic
people told me, well, there's too much noise in the
conference room for you to hear it, of course, New
York City being famously quiet. And then there's the stuff
that I suspect was just outright snake oil rather than
being broken like the Luvic. This is probably best embodied

(01:27:09):
by the electric circlet I saw there that's supposed to
stimulate your brain to reduce your stress while you sleep.
Uh they advertised. I think the number was eight percent
reduction and stress while you sleep. This is not a product.
I feel the need to review some claims they're not
worth taking seriously, and this is one of them. So far,
I've seen little at c S that struck me as
likely to be a massive financial success. But there were

(01:27:32):
some potentially groundbreaking products on display. Unfortunately, nearly all of
these were in the realm of health and medical technology.
Let me explain why this is troubling with an example
from the show. The most potentially influential device I saw
there was called Viral worn by Optive. It is a
multiple use breath analyzer self test that will tell you

(01:27:52):
if you are positive for COVID nineteen r s V
or influenza. UM. It just lights up if you're positive
for one of them. They promised that in the few
true it will tell you what you have. But then
that's still useful, right, still a hell of a lot
better than anything we've got right now. Rather than sticking
a thing up your nose, you just blow into this
thing like a breathalyzer. It's about the size of a
key fob, and you can charge it with a normal

(01:28:12):
USB cable. It can be used dozens of times before
being reloaded. Optive's rough price point is around a hundred dollars.
If this thing works the way they say it does,
I cannot exaggerate what a big deal it would be.
Imagine being able to blow into a little device and
know in a couple of seconds if you're safe before
you go into a store or a bar or a party,
go see you know, an elderly relative for a birthday.

(01:28:34):
Lives could be saved by this thing if it works.
And to their credit, the good folks Adoptive immediately told
me that this was not on sale yet, as it
was still waiting for FDA approval. I take this as
a good side and I sincerely hope it works as
well as advertised. But products like this do present a
problem for the tech press. When I'm at a show
like ce S, it's generally easy to determine if something

(01:28:56):
has promise. If I step into a booth for a
company advertising rugged speaker, well, I can drop those speakers
from a height. I can drop stuff onto them, I
can throw them. I can test if they're rugged because
I can try to break them, and if I can't,
then they're rugged. Likewise, I can strap on a VR
suit and I can tell you if it makes the
experience more immersive. Neither I nor any other members of

(01:29:17):
the press can tell you how well a medical diagnostic
device works in the same manner. This isn't anyone's fault,
but as connected tech and AI are included in more
healthcare devices, the potential for snake oil and for dangerous
failures to generate mass hype increases exponentially. I want to
be clear that the medical devices I have seen so
far at c e S do not strike me as

(01:29:39):
suspicious in any way. Company representatives were extremely good at
explaining what stage in the FDA approval process they were
at and I saw some really cool shit. My favorite
was probably a new streamlined a E D from Life
a Z at a thousand dollars or thirty five dollars
a month with a four to five years shelf life.
This thing makes having a defibrillator on hand affordable for
regular people. It's extremely light and small and can be

(01:30:02):
easily carried in a backpack. I do have a little
bit of medical training, and I tried this thing out
on a dummy and test mode. I can confirm it
appears to work like any other more expensive a D.
The device is still awaiting FDA approval, but it has
been approved and as being sold in France and Germany,
so I feel pretty good saying this thing probably works
the way Life a Z says it does. And then
there's my favorite product from c E s unveiled, the

(01:30:23):
nan she domestic violence app from ath Bash, which is
a French company. This was first suggested to me via
one of the most awkward pr emails I've ever received.
Forward Media Alert Groundbreaking domestic Violence reporting app launching at CREE,
and when I got it in my email, it just
said forward Media Alert Groundbreaking Domestic Violence which fun thing

(01:30:47):
to get in your inbox. In fairness to their very
nice pr lady, there's probably not a non awkward way
to title an email about this kind of thing. The
app itself is really innovative, though. It provides you with
options to record voice or video, to take photos of documents,
or to photographically document your own injuries. All the data
that you save is stored off site, so you take

(01:31:07):
a picture your record audio and it's immediately off the
phone and off the app. You actually can't access it
without contacting the company directly to get it. All of
it is stored on the cloud, and it's also on
the blockchain, which is used to verify data integrity, making
this probably the first blockchain related product I've ever heard
of with a realistic use case. Nancy seems to be

(01:31:29):
pretty well thought out from the top to bottom. Once
you start recording, you can swipe away from the app
and it will keep recording without being visible anywhere on
your phone. So if you're in a fight with a
domestic abuser and they take your phone away, they will
not see that you're recording, but it will keep recording.
You can also change the logo and name that the
app displays itself under on your phone so that it

(01:31:49):
won't say that you have Nancy anywhere. You can make
it look like basically anything you want. It really does
seem like they've thought this through and it's about the
best version of this kind of thing that's possible. There's
more oficular note at the show was an unpowered mechanical
exoskeleton I got to try on. It doesn't increase your
physical strength, but it does allow you to sit while standing.
The manufacturer, are Kellis, sees this as a way to

(01:32:11):
let workers stand on factory production lines and in retail
stores all day long without straining themselves. I feel profoundly
mixed about this product, more so than anything else at CES.
On one hand, it it works really well. I got
to try it on, and it's kind of a marvel.
On the mechanical level, you can still walk perfectly well
with it on, but you can just kind of sit
at any point going limp and it's actually really comfortable.

(01:32:34):
On the other hand, it costs three thousand dollars, which
means very few retail workers are ever going to see one.
So far, it's primary use in the real world has
been helping to keep auto workers comfortable while they shot
gun more cars out into a world with far too
many of them. It's all very emblematic of the way
CS makes me feel these days. Inside the roiling sea
of snake oil and broken ship. Are some really cool ideas,

(01:32:56):
but they're all wedded to an industry that has mostly
forgotten how to do any thing new. Over the coming days,
I'm going to look at a new smartphone from Samsung.
It rolls up, I guess, check out more VR happtick devices,
none of which I expect to work very well, and
I will hopefully get to lift some heavy weights wearing
a powered Exo skeleton. That one I'm actually looking forward to.

(01:33:16):
I am open to the possibility of finding stuff that's
cool here, but at the end of the day, nothing
I've seen, anything I'm likely to see, has changed my
overall impression of where the tech industry is today. It's
a big, bloated monster slowly bleeding out before our eyes. Hey,
We'll be back Monday with more episodes every week from

(01:33:39):
now until the heat death of the universe. It could happen.
Here is a production of cool Zone Media. For more
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for listening.