November 13, 2025 • 34 mins
Leftists on Reddit are now targeting Turning Point USA high school chapters in an unhinged manner that hits a little close to home for me. I break it down in this episode of the Brad vs Everyone podcast. Plus, the left-wing streamer Hasan Piker's pro-China propaganda is getting even more embarrassing and Tucker Carlson's latest weird rant.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today is a day that ends in why so people
are acting crazy on Reddit? But this one hits home
for me. We're going to break this down plus so
much more on today's episode of the Brad Versus Everyone podcast,
my daily show where we take on the craziest ideas
(00:22):
from across the Internet and across social media, all from
an independent political perspective. Up first, we're going to check
in on a a wild story from the world of Reddit,
which if you're not on Reddit. Reddit is important. You
can't act like it doesn't exist. It is in some
sense the homepage of the Internet. But anytime politics is
(00:43):
brought up on Reddit outside of explicitly right wing reddit
circles the few that do exist the subreddits, rather, it
gets unhinged quick and is dominated by the most toxic
type of left wing extremism imaginable. And that was very
much the case for some thing that I came across
in the r slash Grand Rapids reddit community. So that
(01:06):
is of course just the reddit thread for the local
area around Grand Rapids, Michigan, where I lived until very recently,
And it all started because in for whatever reason, this
caught the attention of people in this reddit community. The
fact that a high school is having a turning Point
USA Club America chapter. This is Forest Hills Northern, so
(01:30):
a high school in that area, And an Instagram post
from their account for the Club America for Forest Hills
Northern was posted into the credit the Grand Rapids reddit thread,
and then some of the most unhinged commentary and discussion
I've seen in a while unfolded from all these mostly
(01:51):
presumably adults in this r slash Grand Rapids thread dunking
on these kids, even calling them Hitler youth, and making
much ado about nothing. So let's just look at this
original post here, Club America at Forest Hill's Northern first
meeting Thursday, November thirteenth, seven am to seven point thirty.
(02:11):
Then it gives contact information and the room that they're
meeting in and all that, and there is a picture
of Charlie Kirk on the image the horror right, Charlie Kirk. Now,
this is just actually not a big deal because the
fact that a student group would emerge at a public
high school where they will have some degree of interest
(02:35):
in right leaning students in Michigan and having a club
where they will talk about Republican or conservative news or
ideas and they're going to meet for half an hour
before school in a classroom. But on the Grand Rapids
Reddit thread, you would have thought the new Hitler Youth
was here. That's actually how they discussed it. And I
(02:56):
want to read you the original poster because this got
like thousands of exploding for a post in this community,
which is not usually that active. This is what the
original poster put as the description here. Accompanying this post,
attention Forest Hill's northern parents. It looks like Turning Point USA.
(03:17):
Slash Club America has started a chapter at our high school.
The horror. While student led clubs are allowed, this one
is highly political and could create a divisive or uncomfortable
environment for some students. Let's pause on that for a moment.
The existence of a club where some people have opinions
(03:39):
that are not your own does not make anyone uncomfortable.
That's not or at least in any reasonable sense. And
it's actually good to teach high schoolers that, Yeah, in
the real world, people have lots of different opinions. No
one's forcing them to go to this club if they
don't like the ideas, or if they don't aren't comfortable
(04:00):
with it. Anyway, with recent events nationally, including threats and
even violence linked to political organizations, I'm concerned about student
safety and well being. Sorry, what I'm concerned about student
safety as if a club with right leaning opinions makes
people unsafe? Is that the implication here or is the
(04:21):
idea that because they're having a conservative group they might
be targeted for violence? Because God, I hope not, But
that's a reflection of how unhinged the far left has become. Perhaps,
and you are not helping things by taking a Instagram
post from a student group that likely not very many
people saw and posting it to a city wide thread
(04:44):
where it went not viral, but like got a lot
of views and buzz that. How do you not understand
that if anything is going to potentially cause an unsafe scenario,
it would be a bunch of unhinged leftists on the
internet hearing about this group of students and getting all
worked up about it, not them doing it in the
first place. But tell me more about student safety and
all that. I find this to be utterly ridiculous. But
(05:08):
we haven't got to the worst part. The comments section
on this was absolutely unhinged and disturbing. Let's look look
at these comments. Somebody wrote, this is the indoctrination they
claim the LGBTQ community and liberals were doing. No, it
is not. It's not indoctrination. To have a voluntary student
group where people talk about their ideas and beliefs. What
(05:30):
that's not indoctrination. It's not being forced on students. That
would be indoctrination if they were being taught turning Point
USA curriculum in class, right, then you could say it's indoctrination.
Students getting together amongst themselves to talk about their beliefs
a campus, any sort of young progressive club, LGBTQ club,
(05:54):
None of those are indoctrination necessarily either. That's not what
that word means. But they're just so quick to turn
that around. This is where stuff gets disturbing. If you
wouldn't send your kid to Hitler Youth, you shouldn't send
them to this. Another person writes, this was my first thought.
Just sounds like the Hitler Youth kids are young and
(06:14):
easy to manipulate, something conservatives are very interested in. Yeah,
it's the conservatives trying to manipulate young people new and
more importantly, it is just despicable to compare a relatively
mainstream conservative or Republican group to the Hitler youth. Last
time I checked, nobody's killing millions of Jews, nobody's rounding
(06:36):
people up. It's just psychotic, and it's fundamentally disrespectful to
the actual trauma and suffering of the Holocaust. And I
mean your adults, And you're insulting these children, these miners
as Hitler youth because they lean Republican or what have you,
or they are just interested in being in a group
discussing politics and ideas. It's possible some of these kids
(06:58):
aren't even hardcore ideologically committed at fifteen or sixteen. It's
just it's bad enough when people on Reddit or on
different social media threads engage in like mean girl behavior,
but they're doing it to high schoolers, they're doing it
to teenagers, and these are grown adults. And I'm sorry,
the Hitler youth thing is just so ridiculous. Another person commented,
as a Northern grad, who the f is sponsoring this?
(07:21):
If they're allowed to meet in the school, which teacher
or faculty is allowing this to happen? And then they
all found the teacher who is sponsoring this started listing
his name in contact information and apparently want to hound
him out of doing this and are blaming him for this,
and for I think he's doing something good. I think
he's helping students exercise their First Amendment rights to organize
(07:45):
and talk about politics and enabling a productive and safe
and regulated environment for that to happen at school. What's
wrong with that? But they're going to target this random
man because how dare he sponsor the Hitler Youth Like
y'all sound so deranged even for Reddit, even for Reddit,
and that's how you know it's bad. Geez, Louise. We'll
(08:05):
get into more of these, but please do hit the
like button, subscribe comment with your thoughts. Remember to send
in your voicemails for our Voicemail Friday episodes where I
react to your wokhwer stories, give you advice on your
personal lives, and answer questions. The link to send in
the description is one of those. The speak pipelink if
you want to send in one of those, is in
the description. So more comments here Modern day Hitler Youth,
(08:29):
to which the original poster said, yeah, it's scary. No,
you bitches are scary. Actually, y'all are the scary ones anyway.
Another person wrote one question, would you all have the
same objections to say the Socialists of America forming a
group at a school? Just curious if you're consistent with
your concerns about expressly political groups, to which the original
(08:52):
poster replied, clubs are fine as long as they don't
promote hate. Translation, the people whose opinions I like are
allowed to have clubs and organize politically, but not the
people whose opinions hurt my feefees. What a serious and
mature adult discourse and conversation. These people don't seem to
(09:14):
realize this, But yeah, the First Amendment protects these students
right to have a Turning Point USA club if they want,
and that same First Amendment protects their right to have
a socialist club or an LGBTQ club. It's like, you
either have students have the right to organize and express
themselves and engage in free speech in these regulated settings,
(09:37):
or they don't. There is no such thing as only
the people I like get that. That's not how free
speech works. If a school is empowered to censor or
punish or block a Turning Point club, then administrators in
another district that leans more right could do the same
thing to the LGBTQ club. You have to pick rules
and principles that apply universally or they don't apply at all.
If you have double standards, you don't have standards at all. People.
(10:00):
This is not that deep, it is not that complicated,
but some of them really just think, whodo Nazis. It's
like a one trick pony. If I've ever seen one
future SS of America swastika's optional, look at that a
Nazi youth rally in our area. This is Nazi bowl
wrapped up in disguised as religion. Never thought I'd live
(10:21):
long enough to see firsthand true Nazism in my state.
Someone should start a peaceful protest in front of the
school the day this BS begins. I thought he was dead.
Sounds like basically a Hitler youth group. Parents, protect your children.
I agree, protect your children from these people because they're deranged.
I mean saying that this is a I never thought
(10:43):
I'd live just a full blown Nazism in my state.
Because they're having a turning point USA club. That's just
so it's so ridiculous, it's so absurd, and again it's
totally at odds with the with free speech, with the
First Amendment, and any sort of principles or integrity on
(11:03):
these issues. But other than that, they're doing amazing over
on Reddit and in the Grand Rapids Reddit community. Great stuff.
Speaking of people who are doing absolutely amazing, we got
to check in with the left wing socialist star and
streamer Hassan Piker, whose trip to China continues and is
(11:24):
getting even more unhinged, if that's possible. We already covered
his incident with the Chinese police where they stopped and
demanded to see his friend's phone to see if he
had any memes mocking their dear chairman Mao, who may
have murdered millions, but you can't have memes making fun
of him. Hassan, of course, wasn't making fun of him.
He was honoring him and glorifying him because that's his beliefs.
(11:47):
And then he says, oh, it's fine. Yeah, of course,
they just have to make sure white people are not
mocking dear leader. Yeah that makes sense. That's not authoritarian
or dystopian at all. Well, even more crazy takes and
clips are coming out from Hassan's trip. We're gonna take
a look at them, including this first one, which should
really really render Hassan radioactive in any sane democratic politics,
(12:10):
but unfortunately we are not currently in such a sane politics.
Let's listen to this.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
But makes it, I mean, what makes it interesting for
me at least is like seeing so many people from
all over the country literally travel here justice see this.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
That part is insane.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Like I just don't, like, I'm not I don't have
any sort of patriotism in my heart for any Yeah,
for America, but just in general, I'm not like a
very you know, I care about people. Yeah, So for me,
it's like it's hard to comprehend.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
I mean, this clip is not surprising, seeing as this
is the guy who said America deserved nine to eleven. Yeah,
we know you're not patriotic. We know you don't love
this country, Hassan Piker. What's disturbing, though, is the fact
that millions of young people look to this young young guy,
this streamer as some sort of political inspiration or thought
(13:08):
leader or influencer. When he openly does not love our
country or appreciate the freedoms that it has given them.
That's alarming because it's not just him, but it's all
of them, all those young people are susceptible to that
message and not being influenced, for lack of a better word,
to see the correct position and truth that America is
(13:29):
actually pretty darn special and amazing deeply flawed, yes, and
constantly moving closer towards its true vision and potential, but
founded on a set of ideas that are radical in
human history about freedom and liberty, and that he has
son of all people should understand and should value. But doesn't.
I mean, he was literally, like I said, just stop
by the Chinese police to see if he has an
(13:49):
offensive meme. But he thinks it's all fine and dandy
because he openly admits he doesn't care about America, and
in a normal political discourse this would render him persona
n MS grata in mainstream politics. But you can count
on the fact that it won't because standards are basically
non existent these days. And I think this guy will
continue to be in photo ops with prominent Democratic stars
(14:12):
and progressive icons like AOC and Zo Ron Mandani and
Bernie Sanders and invited to the DNC and all that,
because this stuff is within the tent for them. Now,
this openly anti American radicalism is within the Democratic Party
tent at this point pretty clearly.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
So.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Now the next clip we have of Hassan, he takes
his propaganda for the Chinese regime to a honestly astonishing
new level, and we need to talk about it. Let's
roll this clip.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
My mind, in my conscience, I have already become Chinese. Okay.
We were already white Chinese in this chat. I've already
become full Chinese. Okay. Let me just start by saying
that it's sick, okay, like.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
You have.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Abundane style consumption paired up with a centrally controlled economy
and economic system that has yielded tremendous development. You have
nineteen fifties Soviet era building blocks next to the Gucci store.
(15:36):
If there was more, if there was ever a country
that represented the synthesis the the things that I enjoy
so much personally. If ever such a country exists, that
I do not know.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
So I know he's rage baiting us, but it worked.
Consider me rage baited because watching this makes me a
little crazy. You want to pull out my hair. Some
of the memes are funny, though I did see this
one meme on Twitter. I'll put on screen Hassan traveling
around China pretending to not see the repression and genocide.
It really is asonishing. Oh, I'm an influencer. I'm going
(16:15):
to go on a little pr trip to this authoritarian
country and tell everyone how amazing it is. And look,
everyone has nice things, and it's so nice in these
urban enclaves I'm visiting. What's so funny about that is
that one he mentions China's rapid economic development, the China Miracle,
which is a very real phenomenon, but actually was achieved
largely through pro market reforms and loosening of the government's
(16:37):
control of the economy. Though they still retain obviously a
large role, it's less than they did, and that loosening
of the government's grip on the markets is partly what
fueled the massive decrease in poverty. But what he's actually seeing,
and you'd think a socialist streamer, a progressive like him,
would be all up in arms about this, is the
(16:58):
extreme inequality in China. In these urban areas, people do
have wealth and advanced living standards in technology, but then
there are the masses, the poor masses, who live extremely
low standard of living in much of rural China. That's
the kind of inequality that he's supposed to be so
against as an economic progressive. But he's like, oh, dure,
(17:21):
shiny trains, Oh wow, big buildings, cool technology, This is
awesome here. It's actually that level, and it's just kind
of astonishing, and to say nothing of just how gross
it is to go to a country like this that
is so repressive of its own citizens and committing such
egregious human rights violations and then not talk about them
(17:44):
at all. Now, I don't actually expect him to while
he is in China live stream about how terrible the
things they're doing to the Wakers are, because that would
be unsafe for him to do, honestly. But you don't
have to praise it and say it's such a wonderful
place when all these terrible things are going on. Like
I'll just run through some things. He talks about how
(18:05):
amazing the economy is and the abundance they've created. Well,
it's so amazing that the government has to actually punish
people who criticize their economy. So here is This is
all from Human Rights Watch. Previously tolerated topics have become
off limits. With the Chinese economy faltering, The government has
prohibited discussions of its economic policies and penalize those critical
(18:26):
of them. In September, a top Chinese Academy of Social
sciences economists went missing after he disparaged President She's economic
policies in a private we chat group. Oh yeah, tell
us more about the abundance. That's so amazing. They have
to outlaw criticism of their economic policies, buddy, Like, just
all of this is left totally totally overlooked in his
(18:49):
glowing coverage. And then don't get me started on the
vicious repression of freedom of religion and minorities progressives. They're
supposed to care about minorities, Champion, Already, all that goes
out the window the minute he seems see some high
speed rail. I guess. Freedom of religion in China again.
From Human Rights Watch, the Chinese government allows people to
(19:10):
practice only five officially recognized religions in approved premises, and
maintains control over personnel appointments, publications, finances, and seminary applications.
Police routinely arrests, detain, and harass leaders and members of
various quote unquote illegal religious groups, including those Catholic and
(19:31):
Protestant congregations, or house churches that refuse to join official
churches and disrupt their peaceful activities. And we haven't even
got to the worst part that I promise you Hassan
will not inform his viewers about, which is the Chinese
regime's vicious suppression of weaker Muslims, which you would actually
think that Hassan, being a anti Islama phobi warrior, would
(19:56):
care about, but alas he doesn't not because again, shiny
trains and I mean this party ooh ah. Here's more
from Human Rights Watch. The Chinese government has committed crimes
against humanity against Vigers and other Turkic Muslims as part
of its abusive Strike Hard campaign against violent terrorism. Violence
in Qingyang include mass arbitrary detention, torture, mass surveillance, forced labor,
(20:19):
cultural and religious persecution, and family separation. An estimated half
million people have been sentenced to long prison sentences without
due process during the Strike Hard campaign, and many remain imprisoned.
Ay ay, I mean, this stuff is really blak, It's
really bad, and he'll just overlook it all because he
(20:40):
loves China because look at all this shiny stuff, and
how base is it that the police do meme inspections
look to some extent, I think this is trolling, its
edge lording, but it also is emblematic of an anti
Western bias that he so clearly has, where he does
not love or appreciate it America and has a soft
(21:01):
spot in his heart for authoritarian regimes and systems despite
their egregious abuses, and it to me, it just makes
a mockery out of everything he says he stands for,
from human rights to anti Islamophobia to even things like
inequality that he's supposed to care about, and reveals him
(21:22):
to be once again the hypocritical and toxic influence on
the next generation that we already knew he was. That's
my take at least, but you guys will have to
let me know what you think in the comments to
make sure you're subscribed to the channel if you aren't yet,
hit the like button while you're at it. Next, we're
going to check in with the one and only Tucker Carlson,
(21:44):
who is continuing to ruffle people's feathers and engage in
the online intra civil rights civil war discourse between the
classic Conservatives and the new Nationalists and the edge lords
and the establishment and all of this, Will Tucker has
weighed in on his podcast and made some kind of
(22:04):
outlandish accusations in response to the pushback he's been getting
after interviewing Right superstar Nick Fuentes and essentially just tongue
bathing him for over an hour with very minimal pushback,
not really highlighting Nick's extremist and hateful statements or pushing
back on much that he said. Well, Tucker is now
(22:25):
essentially saying that people who call Nick Fuentez a Nazi
or other people in this like fringe right space Nazis
are inciting violence. I'm not kidding. That's that's actually what
he's saying. Now, let's take a look at Tucker's latest comments,
which I'm not a fan of, as you will come
(22:46):
to see. But let's take a look.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
We can debate, because once you struggling people Nazis, we
really have no choice but to start shooting them.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
I don't I don't think that's true. Actually, Now, look,
I've been very open about the fact that I think
the accusation of Nazi and the invocation of Hitler esque
rhetoric is wildly overblown and overdone of when it comes
to Trump or just Republicans, even dating back to like
Mitt Romney and the alarmist rhetoric about mainstream conservatives. But
(23:20):
you still do need to be able to call actual
neo Nazis Nazis. And I just I reject the idea
that calling someone a Nazi or an extreme name means
you are advocating for violence against them. I mean, you
look at the work of someone like Darryl Davis, who
has gone around convertingt literal clan members who I don't
think anyone can really deny are Nazis and helping them
(23:42):
see the light as a black man just by talking
to them and meeting them and guiding them away from
their hateful beliefs. Simply calling someone a Nazi doesn't mean
you want them killed. It can well mean that you
want them condemned and convinced of the better of their ways,
or even ostracized and said actioned but not literally socially sanctioned,
(24:02):
but not literally killed or harmed just for their beliefs.
This seems like a straw man, and it's all being
done again to protect Tucker and Nick quent As, who
we just fawningly interviewed from accurate criticisms. So I'm not
a big fan of this already.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
Shooting them to be Dietrich Bonhoeffer and sort of reach
the end of reason or even Christianity. Bonhoeffer decided Christianity's
not even who's a Luther pastor Christianity is not enough.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
We have to kill the guy he's talking about, somebody
who wanted to kill Hitler, by the way, which is
not just Okay, you could debate the ethics of killing Hitler.
I probably actually think you would be justified because he
was killing millions of people. He wasn't just having opinions
or saying hateful things. That's obviously not justified to harm
someone to believe for saying that. But calling someone a
(24:53):
Nazi is simply saying they support those ideas. It's not
the same thing as Therefore, it's like Hitler, and people
want to kill Hitler to stop him from killing all
the innocent people will know, because there's a difference between
somebody just believing things in somebody implementing atrocities at mass scale.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
So not judging Bonhoffer was a great man in some ways,
but that's inevitable once we decide that people are Nazis,
So you kinda have to wonder why they're doing this,
And of course it's because when you call someone a Nazi,
(25:31):
and maybe in Mark Levin's case he believes it, you
immediately freeze them in the headlights of your slur.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
So I will say this. He made these comments in
the context of pushing back on conservative commentator Mark Levin,
who is one of those people who just calls everyone
a Nazi willy nilly, and I think that is despicable
and is being weaponized to shut down legitimate debate and
discourse as well as some accusations of anti Semitism are
often is to shut down people who are just criticizing
(26:02):
Israel or what have you. But there's also truth to
the fact that some people who are obsessed with Israel
or hate or critical or part of this movement also
do hate Jewish people and are obsessed with these antisemitic
or motivated by anti Semitic beliefs, and your failure to
police that actually hurts your ability to have these debates
(26:24):
or discourses. You should be gatekeeping your own side of
this conversation now. I also don't support Mark Levin just
calling everyone a Nazi who questions things, and I think
he's deranged in his own right. But then to say, well,
you can't call anyone a Nazi or you want them killed?
What about the literal Nazis, Tucker? What about the people
like Nick quent does who say I love Hitler, I'm
(26:46):
team Hitler. Like, if you can't call that person a Nazi,
you can't call anyone a Nazi. And I'm sorry, but
I won't accept this rhetorical framing that outlaws the observation
of a fact, the same way I won't with like
radical transactivists. We're like, you can't say trans women are men.
That's hate speech. A fact or an observation that is
(27:07):
objectively true and provable and verifiable cannot be in any
honest conversation or discourse rendered unutterable. That's not okay to do.
That's your own attempt to shut down debate and discourse
and skirt out of the criticism you are rightly receiving
for conducting a horrifically softball interview with a noxious figure.
(27:30):
That's what I think he's doing here.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
You're slurer, nazi, nazi. You deter people from arguing with
you because no one wants to be called a Nazi.
But you also for the bystanders who aren't even a
directly part of the debate, you draw their attention away
from what the debate is actually about. In other words,
for every moment that we're arguing about who is and
(27:52):
who is not a Nazi? Answer, really nobody. The Nazi
has been gone for eighty years.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Sorry again, I think it is fair to call the
people who say they love Hitler and hate Jews Nazis.
I do, and I don't think just because they're not
literally a part of the Nazi Party, which no longer exists,
doesn't mean you can't say they espouse those kinds of
beliefs when they do.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
But for every moment where they're having that debate, we're
not debating the things we ought to be debating. In
this case, should we use military force on behalf of
a small country and totally irrelevant country.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
See The flip side of that, though, is that the
reason we're struggling to have honest and open debates about
these questions is also partly because the people on that
side of the debate are refusing to condemn or separate
themselves from actual hateful extremists. So, yes, Nazi accusations, accusations
(28:52):
of anti Semitism are sometimes used to shut down legitimate
discourse of debate. I absolutely acknowledged that. But the flip
side of that equation is that that's partly your own
fault for refusing to gatekeep this movement out of the
people who say they love Hitler. Yes, some people are
going to distract from your position when you have aligned
(29:15):
that position with the I Love Hitler crowd. And is
that totally fair? Maybe not, But it's also kind of
your fault too, Tucker and of the others of your ilk,
like maybe gate keep your side so that can't be
effectively done to you. But he would rather wax poetic
and just say if you call anyone a Nazi, you're
calling for them to be killed, even though that's obviously
(29:35):
not true.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
Country, that's a fair debate. We're not having that debate.
We're screaming about who is a is a Nazi, who's
not a Nazi. So I guess the thing that we
can learn from Mark Levin in this case is if
you have a position, argue that position. Levin doesn't want
to argue his position. It's very hard to defend, so
(29:58):
he won't defend it. He'll but the rest of us
who have a sincere position about America's relationship with Israel
and the damage it has done to the Trump coalition,
which it's like we're watching it be destroyed and very unfortunately.
Those people should argue what they believe and not get
caught in this trap of identity politics. Who's a Nazi?
(30:22):
Was a right to speak buzz Off.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
I don't really think calling people who love Hitler Nazis
is identity politics, Tucker and I actually agree with his
idea that rather in an ad hominin, we should address
the substance of the issues. But like loving Hitler and
hating Jewish people are substantive positions that people can and
should object to. And what's more, it is funny to
(30:45):
see him say, like, stop the ad hominin and focus
on the position. In this same video, he called Ben
Shapiro a communist, which whatever you feel about Ben Shapiro
is obviously not correct or true, and he regularly implies
that people on the other side of the issue hate
America are actually loyal to Israel, and I look, I mean,
(31:06):
there's a select few cases where maybe that's true, but again,
it's not engaging with the substance of their positions, and
so he's very much guilty of this. But it is
funny because he is accusing the other side of weaponizing
accusations and claims to try to shut down debate. But
is that not exactly what Tucker is doing when he
(31:27):
conflates our criticism of nickquent As as a Nazi with
calling for violence, even though we're not calling for violence.
I think that's exactly what he's doing. And it's interesting
how he doesn't seem to apply that to the many
people who on the right who have made overwrought and
hysterical Nazi comparisons over the years. I mean, you have
the and culter Glen Beck, Bill O'Reilly's of the world
(31:50):
talking about Obama in terms of a Nazi regime. You
can find examples of that all over internet archives and
video clips. And I don't think that was responsible rhetoric.
I think that was overwrought and hyperbolic. But I don't
think anybody honestly could say they were calling for violence
against Obama. But that's the logic Tucker is espousing here
(32:11):
again to shut down observation of the fact that he
interviewed someone who is a neo Nazi, and basically just
did pr for him and didn't push back. So it's
like he is, ironically enough, I think, attempting to deflect
away from the poor quality of his own journalism and
work by shutting down debate with reverse where deflections and complaints,
(32:36):
and it does give a shield to extremists. If you
buy into this framing, it's like, oh, well, they people
use racism allegations to shut down debate. People call people
racists who aren't racist. That's true. Absolutely doesn't mean we
can't call actually racist people racist and we can't call
that out or shouldn't just because it is often abused
and isn't usually true. Well, no, because then you're giving
(32:59):
a shield to people who actually are the thing you're
letting saying they can do whatever they want and we
can't actually name it because that's been overused or weaponized
or isn't literally true. I'm sorry. I don't accept that framing,
not even for a second. I don't think Tucker Carlson
would have accepted that framing until it became convenient or
expedient for him to do so in this particular debate
(33:21):
and discourse. Honestly, I was speaking recently with somebody who
knows Tucker and goes back years, and it seems to
him and to me that he is just intentionally courting
controversy and trying to I mean, he just did an
episode about Kem Trail's which I don't know much about,
but a lot of what he included or said in
the episode has already been debunked and fact checked. It
(33:43):
seems that he is intentionally poking the bear and trying
to rile people up so that people pay attention to him.
And I guess that works, but I'm not sure it's
really an ethical or sound or constructive approach to a
political media and dialogue. That's my take at least, but
you guys will have to let me know what you
(34:04):
think in the comments below. Make sure you're subscribed. If
you aren't, get it the like button while you're at it,
and do remember to rate and review the podcast on Apple, iHeart, Spotify,
or wherever you listen to podcasts. And with that, guys,
that'll be it for today's episode of the Brad Versus
Everyone podcast, and we will talk again real soon
Today is a day that ends in why so people
are acting crazy on Reddit? But this one hits home
for me. We're going to break this down plus so
much more on today's episode of the Brad Versus Everyone podcast,
my daily show where we take on the craziest ideas
(00:22):
from across the Internet and across social media, all from
an independent political perspective. Up first, we're going to check
in on a a wild story from the world of Reddit,
which if you're not on Reddit. Reddit is important. You
can't act like it doesn't exist. It is in some
sense the homepage of the Internet. But anytime politics is
(00:43):
brought up on Reddit outside of explicitly right wing reddit
circles the few that do exist the subreddits, rather, it
gets unhinged quick and is dominated by the most toxic
type of left wing extremism imaginable. And that was very
much the case for some thing that I came across
in the r slash Grand Rapids reddit community. So that
(01:06):
is of course just the reddit thread for the local
area around Grand Rapids, Michigan, where I lived until very recently,
And it all started because in for whatever reason, this
caught the attention of people in this reddit community. The
fact that a high school is having a turning Point
USA Club America chapter. This is Forest Hills Northern, so
(01:30):
a high school in that area, And an Instagram post
from their account for the Club America for Forest Hills
Northern was posted into the credit the Grand Rapids reddit thread,
and then some of the most unhinged commentary and discussion
I've seen in a while unfolded from all these mostly
(01:51):
presumably adults in this r slash Grand Rapids thread dunking
on these kids, even calling them Hitler youth, and making
much ado about nothing. So let's just look at this
original post here, Club America at Forest Hill's Northern first
meeting Thursday, November thirteenth, seven am to seven point thirty.
(02:11):
Then it gives contact information and the room that they're
meeting in and all that, and there is a picture
of Charlie Kirk on the image the horror right, Charlie Kirk. Now,
this is just actually not a big deal because the
fact that a student group would emerge at a public
high school where they will have some degree of interest
(02:35):
in right leaning students in Michigan and having a club
where they will talk about Republican or conservative news or
ideas and they're going to meet for half an hour
before school in a classroom. But on the Grand Rapids
Reddit thread, you would have thought the new Hitler Youth
was here. That's actually how they discussed it. And I
(02:56):
want to read you the original poster because this got
like thousands of exploding for a post in this community,
which is not usually that active. This is what the
original poster put as the description here. Accompanying this post,
attention Forest Hill's northern parents. It looks like Turning Point USA.
(03:17):
Slash Club America has started a chapter at our high school.
The horror. While student led clubs are allowed, this one
is highly political and could create a divisive or uncomfortable
environment for some students. Let's pause on that for a moment.
The existence of a club where some people have opinions
(03:39):
that are not your own does not make anyone uncomfortable.
That's not or at least in any reasonable sense. And
it's actually good to teach high schoolers that, Yeah, in
the real world, people have lots of different opinions. No
one's forcing them to go to this club if they
don't like the ideas, or if they don't aren't comfortable
(04:00):
with it. Anyway, with recent events nationally, including threats and
even violence linked to political organizations, I'm concerned about student
safety and well being. Sorry, what I'm concerned about student
safety as if a club with right leaning opinions makes
people unsafe? Is that the implication here or is the
(04:21):
idea that because they're having a conservative group they might
be targeted for violence? Because God, I hope not, But
that's a reflection of how unhinged the far left has become. Perhaps,
and you are not helping things by taking a Instagram
post from a student group that likely not very many
people saw and posting it to a city wide thread
(04:44):
where it went not viral, but like got a lot
of views and buzz that. How do you not understand
that if anything is going to potentially cause an unsafe scenario,
it would be a bunch of unhinged leftists on the
internet hearing about this group of students and getting all
worked up about it, not them doing it in the
first place. But tell me more about student safety and
all that. I find this to be utterly ridiculous. But
(05:08):
we haven't got to the worst part. The comments section
on this was absolutely unhinged and disturbing. Let's look look
at these comments. Somebody wrote, this is the indoctrination they
claim the LGBTQ community and liberals were doing. No, it
is not. It's not indoctrination. To have a voluntary student
group where people talk about their ideas and beliefs. What
(05:30):
that's not indoctrination. It's not being forced on students. That
would be indoctrination if they were being taught turning Point
USA curriculum in class, right, then you could say it's indoctrination.
Students getting together amongst themselves to talk about their beliefs
a campus, any sort of young progressive club, LGBTQ club,
(05:54):
None of those are indoctrination necessarily either. That's not what
that word means. But they're just so quick to turn
that around. This is where stuff gets disturbing. If you
wouldn't send your kid to Hitler Youth, you shouldn't send
them to this. Another person writes, this was my first thought.
Just sounds like the Hitler Youth kids are young and
(06:14):
easy to manipulate, something conservatives are very interested in. Yeah,
it's the conservatives trying to manipulate young people new and
more importantly, it is just despicable to compare a relatively
mainstream conservative or Republican group to the Hitler youth. Last
time I checked, nobody's killing millions of Jews, nobody's rounding
(06:36):
people up. It's just psychotic, and it's fundamentally disrespectful to
the actual trauma and suffering of the Holocaust. And I
mean your adults, And you're insulting these children, these miners
as Hitler youth because they lean Republican or what have you,
or they are just interested in being in a group
discussing politics and ideas. It's possible some of these kids
(06:58):
aren't even hardcore ideologically committed at fifteen or sixteen. It's
just it's bad enough when people on Reddit or on
different social media threads engage in like mean girl behavior,
but they're doing it to high schoolers, they're doing it
to teenagers, and these are grown adults. And I'm sorry,
the Hitler youth thing is just so ridiculous. Another person commented,
as a Northern grad, who the f is sponsoring this?
(07:21):
If they're allowed to meet in the school, which teacher
or faculty is allowing this to happen? And then they
all found the teacher who is sponsoring this started listing
his name in contact information and apparently want to hound
him out of doing this and are blaming him for this,
and for I think he's doing something good. I think
he's helping students exercise their First Amendment rights to organize
(07:45):
and talk about politics and enabling a productive and safe
and regulated environment for that to happen at school. What's
wrong with that? But they're going to target this random
man because how dare he sponsor the Hitler Youth Like
y'all sound so deranged even for Reddit, even for Reddit,
and that's how you know it's bad. Geez, Louise. We'll
(08:05):
get into more of these, but please do hit the
like button, subscribe comment with your thoughts. Remember to send
in your voicemails for our Voicemail Friday episodes where I
react to your wokhwer stories, give you advice on your
personal lives, and answer questions. The link to send in
the description is one of those. The speak pipelink if
you want to send in one of those, is in
the description. So more comments here Modern day Hitler Youth,
(08:29):
to which the original poster said, yeah, it's scary. No,
you bitches are scary. Actually, y'all are the scary ones anyway.
Another person wrote one question, would you all have the
same objections to say the Socialists of America forming a
group at a school? Just curious if you're consistent with
your concerns about expressly political groups, to which the original
(08:52):
poster replied, clubs are fine as long as they don't
promote hate. Translation, the people whose opinions I like are
allowed to have clubs and organize politically, but not the
people whose opinions hurt my feefees. What a serious and
mature adult discourse and conversation. These people don't seem to
(09:14):
realize this, But yeah, the First Amendment protects these students
right to have a Turning Point USA club if they want,
and that same First Amendment protects their right to have
a socialist club or an LGBTQ club. It's like, you
either have students have the right to organize and express
themselves and engage in free speech in these regulated settings,
(09:37):
or they don't. There is no such thing as only
the people I like get that. That's not how free
speech works. If a school is empowered to censor or
punish or block a Turning Point club, then administrators in
another district that leans more right could do the same
thing to the LGBTQ club. You have to pick rules
and principles that apply universally or they don't apply at all.
If you have double standards, you don't have standards at all. People.
(10:00):
This is not that deep, it is not that complicated,
but some of them really just think, whodo Nazis. It's
like a one trick pony. If I've ever seen one
future SS of America swastika's optional, look at that a
Nazi youth rally in our area. This is Nazi bowl
wrapped up in disguised as religion. Never thought I'd live
(10:21):
long enough to see firsthand true Nazism in my state.
Someone should start a peaceful protest in front of the
school the day this BS begins. I thought he was dead.
Sounds like basically a Hitler youth group. Parents, protect your children.
I agree, protect your children from these people because they're deranged.
I mean saying that this is a I never thought
(10:43):
I'd live just a full blown Nazism in my state.
Because they're having a turning point USA club. That's just
so it's so ridiculous, it's so absurd, and again it's
totally at odds with the with free speech, with the
First Amendment, and any sort of principles or integrity on
(11:03):
these issues. But other than that, they're doing amazing over
on Reddit and in the Grand Rapids Reddit community. Great stuff.
Speaking of people who are doing absolutely amazing, we got
to check in with the left wing socialist star and
streamer Hassan Piker, whose trip to China continues and is
(11:24):
getting even more unhinged, if that's possible. We already covered
his incident with the Chinese police where they stopped and
demanded to see his friend's phone to see if he
had any memes mocking their dear chairman Mao, who may
have murdered millions, but you can't have memes making fun
of him. Hassan, of course, wasn't making fun of him.
He was honoring him and glorifying him because that's his beliefs.
(11:47):
And then he says, oh, it's fine. Yeah, of course,
they just have to make sure white people are not
mocking dear leader. Yeah that makes sense. That's not authoritarian
or dystopian at all. Well, even more crazy takes and
clips are coming out from Hassan's trip. We're gonna take
a look at them, including this first one, which should
really really render Hassan radioactive in any sane democratic politics,
(12:10):
but unfortunately we are not currently in such a sane politics.
Let's listen to this.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
But makes it, I mean, what makes it interesting for
me at least is like seeing so many people from
all over the country literally travel here justice see this.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
That part is insane.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Like I just don't, like, I'm not I don't have
any sort of patriotism in my heart for any Yeah,
for America, but just in general, I'm not like a
very you know, I care about people. Yeah, So for me,
it's like it's hard to comprehend.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
I mean, this clip is not surprising, seeing as this
is the guy who said America deserved nine to eleven. Yeah,
we know you're not patriotic. We know you don't love
this country, Hassan Piker. What's disturbing, though, is the fact
that millions of young people look to this young young guy,
this streamer as some sort of political inspiration or thought
(13:08):
leader or influencer. When he openly does not love our
country or appreciate the freedoms that it has given them.
That's alarming because it's not just him, but it's all
of them, all those young people are susceptible to that
message and not being influenced, for lack of a better word,
to see the correct position and truth that America is
(13:29):
actually pretty darn special and amazing deeply flawed, yes, and
constantly moving closer towards its true vision and potential, but
founded on a set of ideas that are radical in
human history about freedom and liberty, and that he has
son of all people should understand and should value. But doesn't.
I mean, he was literally, like I said, just stop
by the Chinese police to see if he has an
(13:49):
offensive meme. But he thinks it's all fine and dandy
because he openly admits he doesn't care about America, and
in a normal political discourse this would render him persona
n MS grata in mainstream politics. But you can count
on the fact that it won't because standards are basically
non existent these days. And I think this guy will
continue to be in photo ops with prominent Democratic stars
(14:12):
and progressive icons like AOC and Zo Ron Mandani and
Bernie Sanders and invited to the DNC and all that,
because this stuff is within the tent for them. Now,
this openly anti American radicalism is within the Democratic Party
tent at this point pretty clearly.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
So.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Now the next clip we have of Hassan, he takes
his propaganda for the Chinese regime to a honestly astonishing
new level, and we need to talk about it. Let's
roll this clip.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
My mind, in my conscience, I have already become Chinese. Okay.
We were already white Chinese in this chat. I've already
become full Chinese. Okay. Let me just start by saying
that it's sick, okay, like.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
You have.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Abundane style consumption paired up with a centrally controlled economy
and economic system that has yielded tremendous development. You have
nineteen fifties Soviet era building blocks next to the Gucci store.
(15:36):
If there was more, if there was ever a country
that represented the synthesis the the things that I enjoy
so much personally. If ever such a country exists, that
I do not know.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
So I know he's rage baiting us, but it worked.
Consider me rage baited because watching this makes me a
little crazy. You want to pull out my hair. Some
of the memes are funny, though I did see this
one meme on Twitter. I'll put on screen Hassan traveling
around China pretending to not see the repression and genocide.
It really is asonishing. Oh, I'm an influencer. I'm going
(16:15):
to go on a little pr trip to this authoritarian
country and tell everyone how amazing it is. And look,
everyone has nice things, and it's so nice in these
urban enclaves I'm visiting. What's so funny about that is
that one he mentions China's rapid economic development, the China Miracle,
which is a very real phenomenon, but actually was achieved
largely through pro market reforms and loosening of the government's
(16:37):
control of the economy. Though they still retain obviously a
large role, it's less than they did, and that loosening
of the government's grip on the markets is partly what
fueled the massive decrease in poverty. But what he's actually seeing,
and you'd think a socialist streamer, a progressive like him,
would be all up in arms about this, is the
(16:58):
extreme inequality in China. In these urban areas, people do
have wealth and advanced living standards in technology, but then
there are the masses, the poor masses, who live extremely
low standard of living in much of rural China. That's
the kind of inequality that he's supposed to be so
against as an economic progressive. But he's like, oh, dure,
(17:21):
shiny trains, Oh wow, big buildings, cool technology, This is
awesome here. It's actually that level, and it's just kind
of astonishing, and to say nothing of just how gross
it is to go to a country like this that
is so repressive of its own citizens and committing such
egregious human rights violations and then not talk about them
(17:44):
at all. Now, I don't actually expect him to while
he is in China live stream about how terrible the
things they're doing to the Wakers are, because that would
be unsafe for him to do, honestly. But you don't
have to praise it and say it's such a wonderful
place when all these terrible things are going on. Like
I'll just run through some things. He talks about how
(18:05):
amazing the economy is and the abundance they've created. Well,
it's so amazing that the government has to actually punish
people who criticize their economy. So here is This is
all from Human Rights Watch. Previously tolerated topics have become
off limits. With the Chinese economy faltering, The government has
prohibited discussions of its economic policies and penalize those critical
(18:26):
of them. In September, a top Chinese Academy of Social
sciences economists went missing after he disparaged President She's economic
policies in a private we chat group. Oh yeah, tell
us more about the abundance. That's so amazing. They have
to outlaw criticism of their economic policies, buddy, Like, just
all of this is left totally totally overlooked in his
(18:49):
glowing coverage. And then don't get me started on the
vicious repression of freedom of religion and minorities progressives. They're
supposed to care about minorities, Champion, Already, all that goes
out the window the minute he seems see some high
speed rail. I guess. Freedom of religion in China again.
From Human Rights Watch, the Chinese government allows people to
(19:10):
practice only five officially recognized religions in approved premises, and
maintains control over personnel appointments, publications, finances, and seminary applications.
Police routinely arrests, detain, and harass leaders and members of
various quote unquote illegal religious groups, including those Catholic and
(19:31):
Protestant congregations, or house churches that refuse to join official
churches and disrupt their peaceful activities. And we haven't even
got to the worst part that I promise you Hassan
will not inform his viewers about, which is the Chinese
regime's vicious suppression of weaker Muslims, which you would actually
think that Hassan, being a anti Islama phobi warrior, would
(19:56):
care about, but alas he doesn't not because again, shiny
trains and I mean this party ooh ah. Here's more
from Human Rights Watch. The Chinese government has committed crimes
against humanity against Vigers and other Turkic Muslims as part
of its abusive Strike Hard campaign against violent terrorism. Violence
in Qingyang include mass arbitrary detention, torture, mass surveillance, forced labor,
(20:19):
cultural and religious persecution, and family separation. An estimated half
million people have been sentenced to long prison sentences without
due process during the Strike Hard campaign, and many remain imprisoned.
Ay ay, I mean, this stuff is really blak, It's
really bad, and he'll just overlook it all because he
(20:40):
loves China because look at all this shiny stuff, and
how base is it that the police do meme inspections
look to some extent, I think this is trolling, its
edge lording, but it also is emblematic of an anti
Western bias that he so clearly has, where he does
not love or appreciate it America and has a soft
(21:01):
spot in his heart for authoritarian regimes and systems despite
their egregious abuses, and it to me, it just makes
a mockery out of everything he says he stands for,
from human rights to anti Islamophobia to even things like
inequality that he's supposed to care about, and reveals him
(21:22):
to be once again the hypocritical and toxic influence on
the next generation that we already knew he was. That's
my take at least, but you guys will have to
let me know what you think in the comments to
make sure you're subscribed to the channel if you aren't yet,
hit the like button while you're at it. Next, we're
going to check in with the one and only Tucker Carlson,
(21:44):
who is continuing to ruffle people's feathers and engage in
the online intra civil rights civil war discourse between the
classic Conservatives and the new Nationalists and the edge lords
and the establishment and all of this, Will Tucker has
weighed in on his podcast and made some kind of
(22:04):
outlandish accusations in response to the pushback he's been getting
after interviewing Right superstar Nick Fuentes and essentially just tongue
bathing him for over an hour with very minimal pushback,
not really highlighting Nick's extremist and hateful statements or pushing
back on much that he said. Well, Tucker is now
(22:25):
essentially saying that people who call Nick Fuentez a Nazi
or other people in this like fringe right space Nazis
are inciting violence. I'm not kidding. That's that's actually what
he's saying. Now, let's take a look at Tucker's latest comments,
which I'm not a fan of, as you will come
(22:46):
to see. But let's take a look.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
We can debate, because once you struggling people Nazis, we
really have no choice but to start shooting them.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
I don't I don't think that's true. Actually, Now, look,
I've been very open about the fact that I think
the accusation of Nazi and the invocation of Hitler esque
rhetoric is wildly overblown and overdone of when it comes
to Trump or just Republicans, even dating back to like
Mitt Romney and the alarmist rhetoric about mainstream conservatives. But
(23:20):
you still do need to be able to call actual
neo Nazis Nazis. And I just I reject the idea
that calling someone a Nazi or an extreme name means
you are advocating for violence against them. I mean, you
look at the work of someone like Darryl Davis, who
has gone around convertingt literal clan members who I don't
think anyone can really deny are Nazis and helping them
(23:42):
see the light as a black man just by talking
to them and meeting them and guiding them away from
their hateful beliefs. Simply calling someone a Nazi doesn't mean
you want them killed. It can well mean that you
want them condemned and convinced of the better of their ways,
or even ostracized and said actioned but not literally socially sanctioned,
(24:02):
but not literally killed or harmed just for their beliefs.
This seems like a straw man, and it's all being
done again to protect Tucker and Nick quent As, who
we just fawningly interviewed from accurate criticisms. So I'm not
a big fan of this already.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
Shooting them to be Dietrich Bonhoeffer and sort of reach
the end of reason or even Christianity. Bonhoeffer decided Christianity's
not even who's a Luther pastor Christianity is not enough.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
We have to kill the guy he's talking about, somebody
who wanted to kill Hitler, by the way, which is
not just Okay, you could debate the ethics of killing Hitler.
I probably actually think you would be justified because he
was killing millions of people. He wasn't just having opinions
or saying hateful things. That's obviously not justified to harm
someone to believe for saying that. But calling someone a
(24:53):
Nazi is simply saying they support those ideas. It's not
the same thing as Therefore, it's like Hitler, and people
want to kill Hitler to stop him from killing all
the innocent people will know, because there's a difference between
somebody just believing things in somebody implementing atrocities at mass scale.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
So not judging Bonhoffer was a great man in some ways,
but that's inevitable once we decide that people are Nazis,
So you kinda have to wonder why they're doing this,
And of course it's because when you call someone a Nazi,
(25:31):
and maybe in Mark Levin's case he believes it, you
immediately freeze them in the headlights of your slur.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
So I will say this. He made these comments in
the context of pushing back on conservative commentator Mark Levin,
who is one of those people who just calls everyone
a Nazi willy nilly, and I think that is despicable
and is being weaponized to shut down legitimate debate and
discourse as well as some accusations of anti Semitism are
often is to shut down people who are just criticizing
(26:02):
Israel or what have you. But there's also truth to
the fact that some people who are obsessed with Israel
or hate or critical or part of this movement also
do hate Jewish people and are obsessed with these antisemitic
or motivated by anti Semitic beliefs, and your failure to
police that actually hurts your ability to have these debates
(26:24):
or discourses. You should be gatekeeping your own side of
this conversation now. I also don't support Mark Levin just
calling everyone a Nazi who questions things, and I think
he's deranged in his own right. But then to say, well,
you can't call anyone a Nazi or you want them killed?
What about the literal Nazis, Tucker? What about the people
like Nick quent does who say I love Hitler, I'm
(26:46):
team Hitler. Like, if you can't call that person a Nazi,
you can't call anyone a Nazi. And I'm sorry, but
I won't accept this rhetorical framing that outlaws the observation
of a fact, the same way I won't with like
radical transactivists. We're like, you can't say trans women are men.
That's hate speech. A fact or an observation that is
(27:07):
objectively true and provable and verifiable cannot be in any
honest conversation or discourse rendered unutterable. That's not okay to do.
That's your own attempt to shut down debate and discourse
and skirt out of the criticism you are rightly receiving
for conducting a horrifically softball interview with a noxious figure.
(27:30):
That's what I think he's doing here.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
You're slurer, nazi, nazi. You deter people from arguing with
you because no one wants to be called a Nazi.
But you also for the bystanders who aren't even a
directly part of the debate, you draw their attention away
from what the debate is actually about. In other words,
for every moment that we're arguing about who is and
(27:52):
who is not a Nazi? Answer, really nobody. The Nazi
has been gone for eighty years.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Sorry again, I think it is fair to call the
people who say they love Hitler and hate Jews Nazis.
I do, and I don't think just because they're not
literally a part of the Nazi Party, which no longer exists,
doesn't mean you can't say they espouse those kinds of
beliefs when they do.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
But for every moment where they're having that debate, we're
not debating the things we ought to be debating. In
this case, should we use military force on behalf of
a small country and totally irrelevant country.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
See The flip side of that, though, is that the
reason we're struggling to have honest and open debates about
these questions is also partly because the people on that
side of the debate are refusing to condemn or separate
themselves from actual hateful extremists. So, yes, Nazi accusations, accusations
(28:52):
of anti Semitism are sometimes used to shut down legitimate
discourse of debate. I absolutely acknowledged that. But the flip
side of that equation is that that's partly your own
fault for refusing to gatekeep this movement out of the
people who say they love Hitler. Yes, some people are
going to distract from your position when you have aligned
(29:15):
that position with the I Love Hitler crowd. And is
that totally fair? Maybe not, But it's also kind of
your fault too, Tucker and of the others of your ilk,
like maybe gate keep your side so that can't be
effectively done to you. But he would rather wax poetic
and just say if you call anyone a Nazi, you're
calling for them to be killed, even though that's obviously
(29:35):
not true.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
Country, that's a fair debate. We're not having that debate.
We're screaming about who is a is a Nazi, who's
not a Nazi. So I guess the thing that we
can learn from Mark Levin in this case is if
you have a position, argue that position. Levin doesn't want
to argue his position. It's very hard to defend, so
(29:58):
he won't defend it. He'll but the rest of us
who have a sincere position about America's relationship with Israel
and the damage it has done to the Trump coalition,
which it's like we're watching it be destroyed and very unfortunately.
Those people should argue what they believe and not get
caught in this trap of identity politics. Who's a Nazi?
(30:22):
Was a right to speak buzz Off.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
I don't really think calling people who love Hitler Nazis
is identity politics, Tucker and I actually agree with his
idea that rather in an ad hominin, we should address
the substance of the issues. But like loving Hitler and
hating Jewish people are substantive positions that people can and
should object to. And what's more, it is funny to
(30:45):
see him say, like, stop the ad hominin and focus
on the position. In this same video, he called Ben
Shapiro a communist, which whatever you feel about Ben Shapiro
is obviously not correct or true, and he regularly implies
that people on the other side of the issue hate
America are actually loyal to Israel, and I look, I mean,
(31:06):
there's a select few cases where maybe that's true, but again,
it's not engaging with the substance of their positions, and
so he's very much guilty of this. But it is
funny because he is accusing the other side of weaponizing
accusations and claims to try to shut down debate. But
is that not exactly what Tucker is doing when he
(31:27):
conflates our criticism of nickquent As as a Nazi with
calling for violence, even though we're not calling for violence.
I think that's exactly what he's doing. And it's interesting
how he doesn't seem to apply that to the many
people who on the right who have made overwrought and
hysterical Nazi comparisons over the years. I mean, you have
the and culter Glen Beck, Bill O'Reilly's of the world
(31:50):
talking about Obama in terms of a Nazi regime. You
can find examples of that all over internet archives and
video clips. And I don't think that was responsible rhetoric.
I think that was overwrought and hyperbolic. But I don't
think anybody honestly could say they were calling for violence
against Obama. But that's the logic Tucker is espousing here
(32:11):
again to shut down observation of the fact that he
interviewed someone who is a neo Nazi, and basically just
did pr for him and didn't push back. So it's
like he is, ironically enough, I think, attempting to deflect
away from the poor quality of his own journalism and
work by shutting down debate with reverse where deflections and complaints,
(32:36):
and it does give a shield to extremists. If you
buy into this framing, it's like, oh, well, they people
use racism allegations to shut down debate. People call people
racists who aren't racist. That's true. Absolutely doesn't mean we
can't call actually racist people racist and we can't call
that out or shouldn't just because it is often abused
and isn't usually true. Well, no, because then you're giving
(32:59):
a shield to people who actually are the thing you're
letting saying they can do whatever they want and we
can't actually name it because that's been overused or weaponized
or isn't literally true. I'm sorry. I don't accept that framing,
not even for a second. I don't think Tucker Carlson
would have accepted that framing until it became convenient or
expedient for him to do so in this particular debate
(33:21):
and discourse. Honestly, I was speaking recently with somebody who
knows Tucker and goes back years, and it seems to
him and to me that he is just intentionally courting
controversy and trying to I mean, he just did an
episode about Kem Trail's which I don't know much about,
but a lot of what he included or said in
the episode has already been debunked and fact checked. It
(33:43):
seems that he is intentionally poking the bear and trying
to rile people up so that people pay attention to him.
And I guess that works, but I'm not sure it's
really an ethical or sound or constructive approach to a
political media and dialogue. That's my take at least, but
you guys will have to let me know what you
(34:04):
think in the comments below. Make sure you're subscribed. If
you aren't, get it the like button while you're at it,
and do remember to rate and review the podcast on Apple, iHeart, Spotify,
or wherever you listen to podcasts. And with that, guys,
that'll be it for today's episode of the Brad Versus
Everyone podcast, and we will talk again real soon
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