LLP #114: Tribalism & The Geopolitical Chessboard: From Ukraine to China and Beyond

Ask us a question. We will answer it on the podcast.

Show sponsors:

Choq
choq.com
25% off any subscription
Promo code: LLP

Strikeman
strikeman.io
20% off your order
Promo code: IV8888

The world stage has become increasingly tribal, with nations forming alliances, drawing battle lines, and engaging in complex power plays that affect us all. In this riveting exploration of global geopolitics, we unpack the hidden tribal dynamics driving today's most pressing international conflicts.

Trump's tariff strategy emerges as a masterclass in economic leverage, yielding immediate results as countries rush to the negotiating table. When he announced a 90-day pause on tariffs (except for China), the stock market responded with an explosive 10% overnight gain—generating over $300 billion in profits for those bold enough to invest during uncertainty. This perfectly captures the American spirit of calculated risk-taking that has defined our economic prowess.

We offer a fresh perspective on the Russia-Ukraine conflict that challenges mainstream narratives. Rather than simply viewing this as a war between distinct nations, could it more accurately represent a civil conflict between ethnically similar peoples with shared history? Understanding these complexities provides crucial context for making sense of a war that has raged since 2013.

China's economic vulnerabilities tell another fascinating story. Behind the gleaming skyscrapers of Shanghai and Beijing lies a nation struggling with ghost cities, rural poverty, and unsustainable construction projects like Evergrande. Their Belt and Road Initiative reveals a desperate bid for global influence through predatory infrastructure deals with developing nations.

The Israel-Hamas conflict similarly demonstrates how tribal allegiances shape public perception and political responses. Both sides claim rightful ownership of the same land, creating a moral landscape too complex for simple good-versus-evil narratives. Meanwhile, media outlets race to break stories first, often at the expense of accuracy, fueling tribalism through confirmation bias.

Looking at these conflicts through a lens of critical thinking rather than tribal loyalty gives us a clearer picture of global politics. Join us as we navigate this intricate chessboard where economic might, military power, and information warfare converge to shape our collective future.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back everybody.
This is Eric and Matt and thisis Life, Liberty and the Pursuit
, your beacon of freedom and theAmerican way of life.
Tune in every Monday for a newepisode as we dive into the
world of liberty and what makesour country great.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Alright, welcome back everybody.
This is Eric and Matt here withLife, Liberty and the Pursuit,
your home for all things.
Freedom in a world of crazinessand debauchery and all things
that are just wild in thislittle planet that we're
spinning around on here.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Man just just a green sphere circling the sun every
365 days.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Green and blue, green and blue I hope everybody's
having a great week and thanksso much for tuning back in.
We've got a lot of cool stuffthat we're going to be talking
about over these next comingweeks.
And remember we post every postevery Monday here on the IRAC
Veteran YouTube channel, as wellas all the places that your
favorite podcasts are servedSpotify, Stitcher, Apple

(00:54):
Podcasts, etc.
Etc.
Also, make sure, if you want,you can send us an email.
There should be contact formsthere.
You can drop us a message.
If you have questions orcomments that you would like for
us to read on the air, we wouldlove to have your commentary,
so always feel free to drop inand send us a note.
So yes, today the discussion isgoing to revolve around

(01:16):
tribalism and sort of thegeopolitical sphere and the
complexity of the geopoliticalsphere that is present right now
in the world.
I mean, there's a lot going onokay.
There's a lot of things going on.
There's a lot of differingopinions.
There's a lot of differing, youknow, motivations that people

(01:37):
have in the world andgovernments have in the world.
And then some of thesemotivations are also where the
people who live in certaincountries are at odds with the
motivations of their government.
That can cause a problem, andwe're seeing some of that in the
US.
There's sort of a little bit ofa balkanization occurring in
the US with the right.

(01:59):
Okay, it's a known thing.
Okay, it's a known thing.
Okay, in fact, severalpodcasters and influencers were
just sent over to have a meetingwith the prime minister of
Israel about this very subject,about how the right has been
very divided.
So we're going to discuss a lotof things in this particular
episode.
So I want to kind of justprepare you.
We're going to talk a littlebit about Russia and Ukraine and

(02:20):
what's going on over there andthat that struggle.
We're going to talk about China.
We're going to talk aboutIsrael and everything going on.
We're going to talk about howthings are going here in the US,
what people's mindsets are, andwe want to discuss this and use
this podcast as a vehicle toprovide, hopefully, some context
on what it means for theaverage American, because I

(02:42):
think that, matt, that's anotherthing that I think people tend
to be very disconnected about ismost people are ingrained in
just the daily struggle ofliving and they don't know about
taxes and tariffs and all thisstuff.
So we're going to discuss alittle bit about these tariffs.
Trump, let's just kind of divein, I mean there's a lot to talk

(03:02):
about.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
There is and there's a lot of things that are
affecting the US on the worldeconomy Right now, the elephant
in the room is tariffs.
That's what we were using asthat driving vehicle to get to
the negotiating table.
For the longest time, americait wasn't fair across the globe

(03:25):
as far as trade.
We were running trade surpluses.
Other countries wereinstituting tariffs on US
products going in.
We had either no tariffs orextremely low tariffs for
products coming in from othercountries.
Granted the US, we are one ofthe largest consumer nations on

(03:46):
the earth.
I think there's one otherlarger consumer and we know who
that is and Trump came intooffice.
He said hey, this isn't fair,we're going to change it up,
we're going to institute thesetariffs.
Some people didn't agree and Ithink you really said something
that resonated with me was youhave to look at it from the view

(04:10):
of the average American.
The average American with allthe fear mongering that was
going on about oh, everything'sgoing to be super expensive,
everything.
Prices going up.
Listen, the prices are going togo up, are gonna go up.
They did go for a short time.
They came back down today.
Actually, it was yesterday, butit went into effect.

(04:31):
Today, he uh, trump put in a90-day stay of execution I'm
going to use that terminology onexisting tariffs, except for
china, which he increased to 130percent, hundred or you in
retaliatory tariffs.
But he said, hey, all the othercountries at least picked up
the phone.
That was that drivingmotivation the threat of

(04:57):
punishment.
So think about this as a parentwhen you want to punish your
child, you punish them.
When you want to punish yourchild, you punish them.
But if you know that the effectof that punishment has worked,
then you could end thatpunishment early.
You got the desired result.
The desired result here was toget those other countries to

(05:18):
pick up the phone and say, hey,what can we work out here, what
do we need to do to get thistrade back on track?
And that's exactly whathappened.
All those countries that heinstituted tariffs with picked
up the phone and because of thathe ended it early, at least for
90 days.
He said all right, you guys didyour part, you're willing to

(05:39):
negotiate at the table.
We're going to end the tariffsfor 90 days on you guys.
But China, you guys put inretaliatory tariffs.
We're up in the game,rightfully.
So I have a huge problem withChina, especially with trade.
They don't play by the rules,they play dirty.
I think that we should probablyincrease it to way more than

(06:00):
130%.
We can live without Chineseimports.
There's a lot of othercountries that can step up to
the plate to take a lot of thatpressure off of us.
Mexico can do a lot.
A matter of fact, a lot of thetextile manufacturing is moving
from China to Mexico.
One is closer for us as acountry to import.

(06:21):
You can come over land.
Two, the cost of labor is alittle bit more fair, granted,
not as low as China, but it'smore in line with what you would
closer in line to what youwould see in the US.
And then you know the skill.
People will argue oh, the skillgap is different.

(06:42):
No, mexico and their skill gapis very high.
You can get some really goodproducts coming out of Mexico,
just like China, if you go tothe right place.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
I think that there's a very unique bargaining chip
that is on the table with Trump,and I know a lot of people have
highly criticized Trump.
And look, I get it.
When you're the leader,essentially the free world,
you're going to draw a lot ofcriticism and, believe me, I've
been a director of thatcriticism.
You know I have not alwaysagreed with everything that

(07:11):
Trump has said and everythinghe's done, but I think that if
you're not, you know gatheringsome enemies as you go, you're
not doing anything effective.
So the fact that Trump doeshave some opposition from within
his own circle, I think is ahealthy thing, cause I think
that there should be people onyour own team that go oh well,

(07:31):
wait a minute, now you, you saidyou would do this or do that
and we're not really seeing that.
But sometimes you have to makea few enemies and, uh, and and
and.
Look, sometimes in life, uh,it's more of a blessing to find
your enemies than it is to loseyour friends.
That's right and as much as Ihate to say that that seems like
a cold and calculated way tolook at the world, but, but the

(07:53):
truth of the matter is is thatTrump is playing hardball.
He's forcing the Chinese to thenegotiating table and he's
doing it in a way that, um, youknow, shows American might and
American power, not only ourphysical power, but our economic
power, and this is somethingthat hasn't been talked about in
a while.
But they're also taking backthe Panama Canal.
Yes, you know they're notasking.

(08:16):
They're kicking the Chinese outof the Panama Canal because
they've abused their PanamaCanal privileges.
Why allow them to?
So the Trump administration hasshown interest in literally
taking back the Panama Canalprivileges.
Why allow them to?
So the Trump administration hasshown interest in literally
taking back the Panama Canal,and I don't know if it'll be
militarily or if we'll just cuta check or you know whatever has
to happen.
I mean, look at Greenland,right, you know a lot of

(08:38):
citizens in Greenland want to bea part of the US.
You know Norway's not happyabout it and, of course,
russia's not happy about it,because the Arctic Circle is a
highly contested area.
So, again, when you look at thegeopolitical consequences of
everything going on in the world.
It all is like a chessboard andeverything moves around
precisely in a way that it needsto to play the game.

(08:59):
And Trump is playing the game,and I commend him for what he's
done.
I will say that China exports aheck of a lot of food from us.
Okay, you know, the thing is,china needs us.
We may not need China as muchas they need us, I suppose, is
what I should really say, that'snot to say that China is not

(09:21):
relying on us and that in someway, shape or form, we're not
relying on him.
You know, I would say that,generally speaking, uh, my
girlfriend and I were were, um,just making this, um, this point
the other day, and I and I, I Ifind it to be very funny, you
know, we we've been fixing upthe house a bit, actually a lot.
You saw and, uh, and we went.

(09:43):
We like to go to home goods,you know, and, um, we kind of
have a little tradition where we, you know, if there's a home
goods nearby, we're going tostop by, like if we're out and
about some days we'll just kindof go and explore all the
different home goods around thecity, right, and then there's a
chain, you know whatever.
Anyway, that's not a shout outfor home goods, but the point is
we like to always go and justcheck them out, because they

(10:05):
have some cool stuff and everystore has slightly different
stuff.
But she made the comment theother day she's like wow, look
at this, this is capitalism.
Like when you can walk into aplace and there's goods from all
over the world.
They're priced cheaply, they'reavailable, there's selection,
there's things to choose from,there's a cornucopia of choices

(10:27):
and people have disposable moneyand they've got their buggies
full of crap and they're buyingthings.
Like that's capitalism, whenyou can work hard and make money
, and the money that you make,you know, yeah, it's not just
what your basic needs are.
You can pay your mortgage, payyour bills.
In theory, I mean, some peopleare struggling.
Look, I feel for you all Ifyou're struggling.
We've all been there.
But the truth is thatcapitalism provides a lot of

(10:52):
plenty for many.
And when you see all thesethings, all these goods from all
around the world, you thinkthat somebody had to pick up the
phone and work out a deal.
And oh, I'm going to order thisstuff from India.
I'm going to order this stufffrom India.
I'm going to order this stufffrom China, I'm going to order
this stuff from all.
So you have all these goodsfrom all over the world in one
place, at your convenience,priced as cheaply and
efficiently as possible for youto be able to put it in your

(11:14):
house, buy it and consume.
The consumer mentality and Ithink Americans are the most
consumer oriented peopleprobably in the whole freaking
world we are the most consumeroriented people, probably in the
whole freaking world.
We are so quick to just be likeoh, let's go home goods and look
at random crap and before youknow it you've got a buggy full
of gummy bears and pasta andprobably a bunch of things you
don't even need.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
But I suppose the point really is that Trump is
playing hardball with thesetariffs and I think that he's
doing the right thing.
I mean, the other countriesquickly came to the negotiating
table To, and I think that he'sdoing the right thing.
I mean, the other countriesquickly came to the negotiating
table To your credit, matt.
You mentioned Mexico, and theircapabilities actually are quite
good, and I always hate tobring these types of examples up
because I know this isprimarily a gun channel and most

(11:56):
people are here for firearmsand more of that sort of stuff.
I always bring up the musicthing.
Like you know, fender hasguitars produced in Mexico as
well as California.
Of course, the Americanproduced instruments are way
more expensive than the Mexicanproduced instruments, although
the prices of the Mexicaninstruments have been going up
in value quite a bit.
You know they've been going upin price, but some of the

(12:19):
Mexican produced guitars arejust as good, if not maybe even
the same quality as an americanproduced model, but they're way
cheaper.
So is that to say that?
Is there a skill gap betweenthe workers in corona,
california, producing theamerican made stuff, and the
workers down in mexico makingthe mexican produced stuff?

(12:42):
I don't think so.
It's the same cnc?
I don't think so.
It's the same CNC machine, it'sthe same program.
You just hit a button and thedang thing spits out a roughed
in body and a neck and whateverpart, and then it's hand
finished and assembled orwhatever it is.
Does a CNC machine know if theperson hitting the button is
Chinese or Mexican or American?

(13:04):
It's kind of like the AI ofmachinery, if you think about it
.
There's this video that's beenfloating around of this really
pissed-off professor and he's inhis college, he's teaching
college and he goes up to thepodium.
He's like you guys used AI tomap out this whole curriculum

(13:25):
and lesson plan that I'm tryingto teach you guys and it's like
here's the answer to the testquestions, here's all the
information right here.
It's like what do y'all evenneed me for?
He's like you know what I'mretiring the hell with it and he
just walked out.
It's like that was his red pillmoment.
But is that to say that we stilldon't need teachers?

(13:46):
It's one thing for AI to tellyou how something works, but
it's another thing, in this case, for a person with years of
experience in the field to teachyou.
So okay, I understand his point.
Yeah, he's correct, ai can layout this perfect roadmap of
information for you, but that'sstill not quite the same as
being taught by somebody who's amaster at what they do.

(14:08):
So anyway, not to sort of go offthe rails there, but the point
is that we as a society have torecognize that the skill sets
when we look at skill gaps andskill sets and differences
between people in differentcountries non-English speaking
country, whatever, it doesn'teven matter, right, whoever is

(14:30):
performing labor for an exchangefor money in any part of the
world when we look at thatdifference in the skill sets and
things, we have to rememberthat with the ever-flowing
change of information and therapidly occurring exchange of
information, and in addition toAI and CNC machinery and all
these things, what we have toremember is that with these

(14:55):
things, it is a complexsituation where people can get a
lot smarter, a lot quicker andthey have much better abilities
to gain the skills necessarythat might have been harder to
get in the past right and Iwould.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
I would even argue that you know, it's simply a
cost of labor, uh, differencethat you're going to see, I mean
granted a lot of.
If I don't know much aboutmusical instruments and how
they're created, if they aredone, the majority of it is done
with cnc machine.
That's the only other, that'sthe only other factor there.

(15:30):
Uh, now, I mean, I understand,if they're, you know, hand
laying something and they'resitting there with a plane and
they're they're hand planing theneck of a guitar, like, okay,
different story here um, but Iwould imagine that the majority
of fender guitars are not madeby like hand, you know.
So, um, just like many firearmsare not made by hand, it is a

(15:55):
cnc process.
So they're putting in themachine gets spun up with that
said, um, you know, I wouldargue that not just the tariffs
that people are upset aboutthere, and this is, this
happened within the last 24hours.
It was the stock market.
Uh, so the stock market.
As soon as trump said, hey,we're putting in a 90-day pause

(16:17):
for tariffs, the stock marketabsolutely exploded.
It was up 10 percent overnight,like it.
It would, could you imagine,and I was thinking about this.
So America was built around,taking risks, even coming down
to the very first.

(16:39):
You know the pilgrims coming tothe U?
S.
That was a humongous risk.
They risked it all for you knowthey don't have so they
wouldn't have religiouspersecution.
They left the country, cameinto a new world.
They weren't going to survive.
The cards were stacked againstthem.
They were still willing to doit.

(16:59):
America has always favored thebold.
What was the bold move?
Buy when the stocks were low.
That stock market was on theway down, down, down, down, down
down.
Some people said you know what,I'm willing to risk it.
I'm willing to purchase thestock at the low in hopes that
it goes up.
Trump announced pause ontariffs.

(17:23):
Boom, instant 10% return oninvestment.
There's people that are upsetabout that, like, oh, I can't
believe that they bought stock.
I can't believe they made money.
Well, why they were willing torisk it?
They risked their money topurchase this stock.
It just so happened to go intheir favor.

(17:43):
That's what America is about.
Is capitalism Over?
$303 billion in profit was madein the last 24 hours and if you
were willing to put it on theline, you got a return.
You cannot be mad at peoplethat were willing to risk their
own money just because youmissed out.
I did not buy any stock.
But I'm also not complainingabout the people that made money

(18:07):
.
I understand that.
Hey, that was their choice.
They took that risk and theyreaped the rewards.
Fortune favors the bold, that'sright.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
And I will say we're at the time in our show we're
going to go ahead and have atalk about our first sponsor of
the day.
And so look, this particularsponsor I'm really excited about
and I do want to.
I can't wait to try out some oftheir products.
I haven't had a chance to usethem just yet, but I'm so
excited about it.

(18:35):
Our country just witnessedDonald Trump overcome political
persecution, an assassinationattempt and the entire deep
state to retake the presidencywith a historic victory.
There's one secret ingredientthat allowed Trump to do this,
and that's testosterone.
What most people don't realizeis that testosterone makes men
willing and eager to take onchallenges.
Sadly, too many of us have lostour fight, and that's exactly

(19:02):
how globalists want it.
They want us weak, out of shapeand full of estrogen and
microplastics with low T.
This is why we're excited topartner with Chalk.
Chalk offers a whole lineup ofproducts formulated to increase
your energy focus, detoxify yourbody and clinically studied
boost testosterone.
Ingredients in the Chalk MaleVitality Stack have been
clinically studied to boost freetestosterone in 87% in just 21

(19:24):
days.
Unlike the gimmicky vegetablepills or powder, you will feel
the difference and they have theclinical studies to back it up.
Right now you can get 25% offyour Chalk subscription for life
.
Just go to Chalkcom, spelledC-H-O-Qcom, and use the promo
code LLP.
That's Lima, lima, papa.

(19:44):
That's 25% off any subscriptionfor life and you can cancel
anytime.
Chalk is made in America andtheir all-American customer
service team is standing by toassist you.
It's time to take men'svitality great again.
Take it back with Chalk today.
All right, america, america,baby.
It is true, you know, and thatdoes you know, it does relate to

(20:08):
what we're talking about.
Right, because you know, nomatter how you feel about Biden,
you know we're not going tothrow stones at Biden was not in

(20:29):
his right mindset and clearlywasn't.
You know, acting as manly assomeone with more vitality would
be acting.
So I think the statement istrue.
You know Trump is showing thathe's the dog and I think that
you know, on the world stage,you have to, you got to be the
big dog.
You know, if the United Statesis going to be the big dog, you
got to.
You can't just say it, you haveto walk the walk.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
You have to talk the talk.
You got to do it all in a river, walking around in cold water,
like he trains judo.
He was like in, he was inanother country like doing a

(21:07):
judo competition.
When you think and again, guys,I'm not a fan of Putin, but if
you just look at how they'reframing it and saying, hey, our
leader as if I was a Russian,I'm not they're like our leader
is a strong, vitalis guy thathas tons of energy, versus biden

(21:28):
that can't walk up a set ofstairs, um and like falls over
all the time.
I mean it is optics at somepoint, like you have to look at
it.
And then you know trump comesin.
He's playing golf every day,like granted, I get.
Some people are like, oh, heplays, he plays too much golf,
but he's doing something, he'sactive.
The people see that he's not,you know, just stuck in a chair.
He's not falling over.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
He's not some geriatric.

Speaker 3 (21:53):
Yeah, he's not a geriatric patient.
So I mean again, optics play abig role on how the world
perceives you on the world stage.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
Yeah, it's true.
So since you mentioned Putin,we'll kind of switch gears a
little bit.
I know because we were talkingabout you know, the whole point
of this discussion is tribalismand the geopolitical landscape,
and when we talk about tribalism, you know what really is
tribalism.
When we think about the termtribalism, we know it has a
definition, we know we can lookup and say, hey, this is what

(22:23):
tribalism means.
But what is tribalism really?

(22:45):
I mean, if you think about it,we are all guilty at fall under
a banner.
I think what humans want, themost human beings want to belong
, and when you threaten whatthey belong to, when you
threaten the group of peoplethat they belong to, they take
it offensively.
They take it as an offense ofthe whole collective, as their
offense, even though the offensemay not have been directly
related to them exactly as aperson, or even if the offense

(23:08):
doesn't even apply to them as aperson.
We're all guilty of it.
I mean, remember the BLM andall the riots and everything
that was going on, and what wasthe left super turned on about
over BLM and racism and whitesupremacy and these hot pocket
sort of keywords that werethrown around to try and create

(23:29):
a narrative that would lead youto believe that all the things
that they were saying wereabsolutely, inexplicably, true.
Okay, and that's tribalism.
And what we see now?
Okay, now that there's been,let's just say, a minor color
revolution, okay, okay, trumpwon.
Now we've got more Republicancontrol, a different flag on the

(23:54):
poll, so to speak, differentleadership, but does that mean
that we're still not fallingvictim to tribalism?
Oh, we absolutely are.
So now it's like oh well, wewent from BLM and this woke
stuff.
Now there's the woke right,right that now, oh, it's
anti-Semitism, it's this, it'sthat it just becomes one dog
whistle from another dog whistle.
It changes into a differenttune, but the overall underlying

(24:17):
context and consequence oftribalism is still the same.
We fall victim to the sameissue of not thinking like
individuals and not beingindividual free thinkers and
being very critical of thepeople that are put into office.
Just because you voted forsomebody doesn't mean they're
your best friend.
You can call them on the cellphone and they're your best buds

(24:40):
.
Oh well, I voted for thisperson.
So obviously it means thatthey're going to do whatever I
want them to do.
Well, guess what?
That's not how it works and,again, it's a form of tribalism.
Voting is a form of tribalismwhere you go okay, we're all
going to put our card in the hatfor Donald Trump, hurrah, he
wins, my tribe won.

(25:01):
But at the end of the day,though, someone is still going
to lose, even if you still votedfor the person.
Inevitably they're still goingto do something you disagree
with.
They're still going to dosomething that affects you very
negatively.
They're still going to dosomething that has an extremely
negative consequence to you.
And if we allow that pendulumto swing back and forth and

(25:22):
progressively get lower andlower, and we don't recognize
that it's a pendulum, okay, thenthe the torture never stops.
It never.
It never comes to an end, and Ithink that we have to really be
more independent and freethinkers, think more critically
about the things that are goingon in our world, and I think

(25:42):
that's where the tribalism comesinto play.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
I would agree.
And just so our listeners andviewers have a.
Just in case you don't knowwhat the actual term tribalism
is, I'll just read the generaloverview Tribalism refers to a
strong allegiance to one's owngroup social, ethnic, political,
et cetera often prioritizingits interests over others, which
can lead to favoritism,discrimination and conflict.

(26:09):
I would say that's pretty spoton.
You know, mainly because you'reprioritizing your own interests
over others.
So you're saying, hey, this iswhat I want and I agree with
this.
So it's like the example of youknow, you're going to vote by
color.
You're going to say, hey, I'meither red or I'm blue and I
don't care who it is, that's whoI'm voting for.

(26:30):
So that is probably, for ourlisteners, the easiest way to to
envision.
That is like I'm voting blue,no matter who, or I'm voting red
.
You know, even if there areRhino, I'm voting red.
So now that we understand whatthat is, I'll give you a good
example of you know how it worksand you know America.

(26:51):
When you say tribalism in the USit's a lot bigger problem
because America is so large andeverybody, all Americans, stick
together.
The example I was going to useis like when we were in Iraq.
Iraq, you would say, oh,they're very tribal over there.
Oh, absolutely they are, butthey're very small tribes and
that one tribe could absolutelycare less what happens to

(27:14):
another one.
So you're over there and you'relike, oh hey, these guys need
help.
They're like I don't care,they're not part of our family,
they're not part of our village,they're not part of our tribe,
they could care less.
That's what made it so hard togovern over there.
So even if they have their ownestablished leaders, they could
never establish control becausethey literally do not care about

(27:36):
anything outside of theirlittle tribe.
In the US it's a lot different,because our tribe is everybody.
We have two tribes Well,technically three and that makes
it a little bit easier togovern.
It makes it easier to vote andit makes it easier to put out
specific agendas, which is goodand bad.

(27:58):
So, and it just depends on yourown moral values.
At that point I think you madea good point of you know, if
you're voting for somebody whovote by who do you?
Who do you agree with more thanless?
And that's essentially what Ithink of it.
I might agree with you ahundred percent, but I don't
have to.
I just have to agree with moreof your agenda than the other

(28:20):
person.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
Right, right, or we always prioritize what we want
to place the most emphasis on asbeing important to us.
I mean, for instance, you know,I'm very big into firearms and
firearms are a very big part ofmy life, and I think the Second
Amendment is extremely important.
So, obviously, if Trump, forinstance, you know, bans bump
stocks which he did I'mobviously going to take great

(28:42):
issue with his choice to useexecutive orders to ban bump
stocks, because I'm a one issuevoter.
When it comes to the SecondAmendment, now, does that mean
that there's still not a lot ofthings within his platform that
I agree with?
I think he's doing the rightthings with these tariffs.
I think overall, he's winning.
That doesn't mean that I'mgoing to, you know, paint a

(29:05):
black eye with hisaccomplishments just because
there's a few things that Idisagree with.
Now, that's a huge disagreementfor me.
It would normally be a dealbreaker, but in the case of
Donald Trump, I give him muchmore of a pass because you know
his other wins.
You know I'm not going to sayit's okay what he did Now.
It ended up going in our favorin the Supreme Court, but he
didn't know that, for all weknow, it can still be banned and

(29:26):
he would have been okay withdoing that and sacrificing that
for whatever political ploy heneeded to at the time, if that's
what it really was.
So, again getting back to Putin,I know we kind of got off
Russia for a second there, butit was important to discuss
tribalism because I thinktribalism is a really important
thing to consider in thisconflict between Russia and
Ukraine.
Now, listen, I'm probably goingto draw some scrutiny here.

(29:47):
Ok, my views, in case you don'tknow, my views are not always
necessarily in line with themainstream.
It's a known thing.
Line with the mainstream, uh,it's a known thing.
And recently, okay, like ontwitter, if you follow me on
twitter, I mean, look, I I'vesaid some things are rather
incendiary and and that somepeople don't agree with.
Now, obviously, when we discusstribalism, yes, there are a lot

(30:09):
of people that are going toagree with me.
Maybe not people who wouldtraditionally agree with me,
especially as a white southerngun owner, meat eater, christian
, like, definitely not the kindof person that would, especially
as a white southern gun-owner,meat-eater, christian, like,
definitely not the kind ofperson that would garner the
sort of support that I've gottenfrom a vast amount of people,
and I think it goes to speakvolumes about the true nature of

(30:31):
how people really do view theworld as Americans, because I
have followers, especially on myTwitter page.
I have followers from alldifferent walks of life Democrat
, republican, independent,libertarian, black White, all
races, all religions, you nameit.
Different countries anddifferent education.

(30:51):
You know different levels.
I mean, I have doctors thatfollow me.
I have a lot of, you know,politicians that follow me.
So the way that I deliver myviews seems to resonate with
some.
So one would say, well, maybethey're following you to laugh
at you, or following you toscrutinize you, or they're

(31:12):
following you because they agreewith you.
And.
I think that the majority ofpeople that follow me are down
with the message.
The point that I make is thatwhen we discuss Russia and
Ukraine, you know the media andthe American government has
really tried very hard to andthe Ukrainian government
obviously has done a very goodjob at trying to win the

(31:35):
information campaign, which warsinvolve a few different,
distinctive things.
You have the psychologicalcampaign, you have the media
campaign, the war of information, you have the literal campaign.
I mean, yeah, we have to dealdeath to each other, we have to
fight each other until someonegives up.
You kill the enemy until theenemy gives up.
That's war.

(31:55):
War in of itself is a war crime.
All war is a crime.
Okay, the loser committed a warcrime.
That's how war works.
Okay, there's no ifs, ands orbuts about it.
And you know everyone wants totalk about, they want to support
Ukraine or some Americanssupport Russia.
You know, I think if, even ifyou don't pick a side, even if

(32:16):
you just look at it from thebare bones, you know just, let's
just say logistical reality ofwhat is going on in that part of
the world right now, is thatethnically ethnically, it wasn't
that long ago that Russia andUkraine were the same place, ok,
and we're talking, it wasn'tthat long ago.

(32:40):
The same place, okay, and we'retalking, it wasn't that long ago
.
If you take a landmass likeRussia and Ukraine now, granted,
it's a big, big place.
But let's just say, let'spretend that we just superimpose
what's going on in Ukraine andwe move it over to the United
States.
Okay, let's say that you've gothalf the United States wants to
do one thing and they're thislandmass, and then half the
United States wants to do onething and they're land mass, and
then half the United Stateswants to do one thing and
they're in conflict.
They're in literal war orconflict with each other.

(33:01):
Does that mean that justbecause they want to branch off
and each one do a slightlydifferent thing, or have their
own country, or just decide tosplit, does that not mean that
they're still not ethically thesame people?
Ethnically the same people?
Yes, america is a mixing pot ofcultures, so it may not be the
best example, but the point is,russians and Ukrainians are more

(33:25):
ethnically similar than theyaren't.

Speaker 3 (33:27):
That's true.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
And I think that if you really want to pin this war
down, it's really a civil war.
You know, call it what you want.
Ukraine can raise a flag andsay they're Ukrainianraine can
raise a flag and say theukrainian.
Russia can raise a flag and saythey're russian.
But at the end of the day, ifyou put some drops of blood in a
freaking vial and test it, youknow what I mean.

Speaker 3 (33:48):
They got the same they came from the same place
very, very close and I I'mpicking up what you're putting
down and I would say that youknow that's one of the main
differences between the us anyother country, uh, in the world,
and that was one of the whatwas one of the points that you
know people will use when theyare discussing why is it that,

(34:11):
like countries and this comes upa lot and I'm going to go back
to it real quick this comes up alot when they start talking
about like, oh, socialism, likewhen you're looking at like
Norway, and like how, how thosegovernments work, um, how
they're like semi-socialist, Um,and it's significantly easier
for them because one that wouldthey.
A lot of people would arguethat it's not true socialism,

(34:34):
but, uh, they're a veryhomogenous people, they're all
of the same race, they're all.
It's a very small country andI'm not just using Norway in
general, I'm just saying likethose Nordic countries, overall,
the population for the entirecountry is what you would find
in an average state in America.

(34:54):
It's very easy to institutespecific programs and for them
to be semi successful with sucha low population and also a
homogenous group of people.
That's very important becausethey're all the same in America.
America was built around peoplefrom other countries.
There's nothing wrong withsaying oh, if you come from

(35:14):
another country and you legallytake the test, become a US
citizen, you're American.
Great Welcome to America.
That's the way it should be.
But we're not a homogenouspeople.
We're all from differentbackgrounds, different walks of
life, different countries.
Originally I myself, secondgeneration, my parents came here

(35:36):
.
They immigrated from anothercountry legally.
And then, second generation, Iparents came here.
They immigrated from anothercountry, um, legally, Uh, and
then, second generation, I wasborn here.
My child, my daughter, thirdgeneration, born here.
When we ask her it's interestingthat we're on this subject when
we uh ask her what her race is,cause she's eight and she's
going through this like inschool, like, oh, they're

(35:56):
learning about differentcountries and she'll come home
to school and she's like, oh,hey, I learned about this
country and that country.
I'm like, oh, so what are you?
She's like I'm American.
Eight year old girl sheobviously, if you looked at her,
she's not the spitting image ofwhat you would imagine an
American would look like.
She's three quarters Asian anda quarter percent white.

(36:18):
But she's three quarters Asianand a quarter percent white.
But she's like I'm American,Good, good job because she is,
and that's how we raise her Umand I'm proud of that and I and
hopefully that, moving forward,anybody else that comes into
this country would do the same.
I agree.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
Wow, man, I mean that's a perfect example of what
we're talking about.
And you know I hate to drawsuch a distinctive and divisive
conclusion about the way I lookat the conflict between Russia
and Ukraine.
I mean, okay, is that to saythat Ukraine doesn't have every
right to want to be their owncountry?
I mean, I suppose so right, ifthey want to be their own

(36:52):
country, that's fine.
I'm not arguing whether or notRussia and Ukraine should be one
nation or not, or whether ornot they shouldn't fight each
other.
I'm literally not picking aside here necessarily.
All I'm saying isgeopolitically and just the
struggle, as the way I see it,is more of a civil conflict than
it is a war between two nations.

(37:15):
You know, maybe once someonewins, we'll, I guess we'll know
the lines are drawn at thatpoint, and then that you know
it's kind of a little moreofficial, but you know they've
been fighting each other since2013.
So I mean, this has been awhile.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
It just hasn't really evolved into what it is now
until recently well, they reallypunched up on that decision to
yes, I think so.
Um, they and I don't.
I don't understand, like, hey,I think everybody has the
ability to fight for theirfreedom.
I mean, hell, america did it,um, a long time ago and we would

(37:48):
do it again in a heartbeat.
But, man, when you make thatdecision, that was a I I really.
It makes me wonder, like whatwas going through zensky's mind
when he made that decision.
Like, dude, that is a.
If you just look at it on a mapand you said this country is

(38:11):
going to fight this country, bro, that's a no-brainer man.
Like, I understand they had alot of support, especially from
the US, but I'm very curious howthat's going to go now with the
new administration.
And I feel bad for you know one.
As soldiers, like we understandhow hard it is to be out there,

(38:31):
like to be fighting on the line, to be in combat, to make
sacrifices, to lose brothers,and to be in combat to make
sacrifices, to lose brothers andto be out there.
And then you know what's goingto happen in the next two or
three years, especially withwhat's going on with between
Trump and Zelensky.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
You know anyone, anyone, it's anyone's guess at
this point, but I can tell youit's, it's probably not going to
go well, imagine how hard it is, um you know, to think that as
hard as that war is to fightwith the supply.
Uh, being the way it is nowimagine when the bombs stop
coming, when the support stopscoming.

(39:11):
You know, imagine knowing thefeeling is like help's not
coming and it's like, well, youknow, the next wave of russians
could, could knock us out.
I know that's got to be a scarything for them and, uh, and I
do feel for the average guywho's just on the ground trying
to survive.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
I mean, I really do, because I war's hell dude, have
you seen those videos of um themgrabbing conscripts off the
streets?
Dude, and the dude's girlfriendis like what do you do?
Like where are you taking them?
Like I I don't know how much ofthat is propaganda, but at the
same time, like dude, that'swild man.
Like just snatching dudes off,like like fighting age males off

(39:48):
the street, like we need bootsand just taking them.
And that's wild, yeah dude,it's absolutely wild.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
Uh, we're gonna change gears and uh, we're gonna
switch to a different part ofthe world for a few minutes.
We'll talk a little bit aboutChina and Taiwan.
I mean, like there's been a lotof saber rattling with China,
and especially now, I think,that China is going into this
election.
I think China was really kindof sitting back to see what

(40:16):
would happen, you know like ifBiden was going to get elected
again, they were probablythinking oh heck yeah, because
that's the best thing they couldhope for is to have four more
years of him.
When Trump won, I think theyexpected it, I think they knew
Trump was going to win, but Ithink that they've sort of sat
back to lick their wounds andkind of go.
You know, hey, we have toreally think about how we're

(40:36):
going to approach this Taiwanissue, because they've been
building these super landingcarriers and these super landing
craft.
You look in World War II andyou see a Higgins boat that
holds a couple of dozen dudes orsomething.
Okay, that's one thing.
We're not talking about someHiggins boat.
We're talking about a landingcraft that can land like a

(40:57):
battalion of troops in one.
It takes like tanks, likeeverything, man I mean China has
really stepped up At least whatthey want the West to believe
is that they've stepped up theircapabilities and production
capabilities of producingwatercraft of different types.
You know battleships andaircraft carriers.
China does lack aircraftcarriers, which is probably good

(41:21):
in the big scheme of things.
I mean, you know our allies.
You know in the area Japan hasalways been a solid ally of ours
since the war, and kudos tothem.
You know they didn't complainand bitch, they just dusted
themselves off after the war andthey rebuilt and they didn't
complain.
We helped them and you know Ihave respect for that.

(41:42):
You know I know that a lot ofpeople have differing views
about the Japanese, but overallI think they're good allies and
I think they will continue to begood allies of the US for a
long time.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
Well, in contrast to that, look at the countries, and
I'm going to use Japan, andapanand korea as an example of of
what can happen.
So america really dug in andsupported japan and korea, both
like monetarily, um withgovernment assistance, with

(42:12):
equipment, with people engineers, expertise educators yes, and
they're thriving.
I With people, engineersexpertise, educators, yes, and
they're thriving.
I think they have probably thetop two economies in Asia.
What country has Russia orChina supported that can even
come close to that?
I can't even think of one.

(42:33):
I can't even think of one.
So, like America built thesetwo, two economies and those are
probably the two strongestallies that we have in asia, if
not the strongest allies in asia.
Big difference japan only has aself-defense force due to the
world war ii treaty.
Um, and they kind of skirtedthe lines there.

(42:55):
They built these helicopteraircraft carriers and China was
like no, you can't have these,these are aircraft carriers.
And Japan's like no man, theseare for helicopters.
Like you see, they're forhelicopters.
And then, as soon as theyacquired these F-35s, they took

(43:18):
the helicopters off and theywere like now you can use a VTOL
F-35.
And now they're all stackedwith F-35s.
So they didn't exactly lie, butit worked out very well in
their favor that.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
F-35 is a bad boy man , that's a bad boy.
It is.
Hey, man, if you know how tofly that thing, that was a death
machine boy.
We're going to go ahead and takea moment to give a shout out to
the next sponsor of the show,and that's Strikeman.
Real quick here, and I'll tellyou we've done a lot of videos
with the Strikeman products.
They make a really good lasertrainer.

(43:51):
It's fantastic y'all.
So all right, folks, listen up.
If you're serious aboutimproving your shooting skills,
saving money on ammo andtraining anytime anywhere, then
you need to check out Strikeman.
This is the real deal for dryfire training.
We all know that ammo pricesaren't getting any cheaper.
Hitting the range as often aswe like just isn't always

(44:12):
practical.
Whether it's time, money orjust finding a good spot to
train, it can be a hassle, butwhat if you could get in real
practice reps from the comfortof your own home?
That's where Strikeman comes in.
It's a dry fire training systemthat lets you train with your
actual firearm.
No live ammo is needed.
Their laser cartridges dropright into your firearms chamber
and every shot is tracked inreal time through their app.

(44:32):
You'll get instant feedback onaccuracy, shot placement and
reaction time.
It's an absolute game changerfor anyone wanting to tighten up
their skills, whether you're afirst-time gun owner or an
experienced shooter.
Check this out.
Strikeman offers full trainingkits with everything you need,
including targets, phone mountsand their precision laser
cartridges.
If you're a revolver guy, theyeven have a six pack of 38

(44:55):
special 357 magnum lasercartridges so you can fully load
up your wheel gun and get thatcontinuous trigger pull practice
.
Plus, there are no subscriptionfees.
Their app is totally free touse, train anywhere and wherever
you want.
Here's the best part becauseyou're part of the iv8888llp
family, strikeman is giving you20 off your order.

(45:15):
Just head over to strikemancomand use the promo code IV8888 at
checkout to claim your discount.
That's 20% off.
No gimmicks, no nonsense, justa great deal to help you train
smarter and save big on ammo.
But don't wait.
Get yourself a Strikeman systemtoday, remember guys.
Go to strikemancom and use thepromo code IV8888 for 20% off

(45:37):
your order.
Train hard, shoot straight and,as always, stay free.
All right, strikeman, it's notan F-35.

Speaker 3 (45:46):
It is definitely not.
But but Japan has them.
I can easily see why China isupset about that whole carrier
situation.
What I will say about China isthat they have far more to lose
in this trade tariff war thanthe US does.

(46:06):
You know, nobody likes to paymore for things and I understand
the normal American's adversityto like adhesion, even to like
paying more for something.
But it's just a fact that theaverage American is
significantly more wealthy thanthe average Chinese citizen and

(46:31):
I would even say that you knowI'm not saying that makes paying
more for something is okay, itdefinitely doesn't.
But when you look at the grandscheme of things, if we can wait
it out, they are going tocrumble way before the US.
You're talking like where inAmerica do you go that you have
a dirt floor and no electricityand no running water.

(46:54):
That is the predominantly largearea of china.
When you get outside in the, atleast in mainland hong kong,
everything is good.
But you go into the mainlandoutside of those major hubs,
dude, you're talking horse andbuggy.
You're talking like walkingeverywhere no power, like you're

(47:16):
scavenging for food, like youdon't see that part.
You see, like these big cities,like Shanghai, beijing,
shenzhen, like the, the, thetrade hubs, the industrial hubs,
the industrial hubs of China.
But China is so big man and youstart getting outside of that.
They're using water wheels to,they're still using, like water

(47:37):
wheels to generate power forstuff, and those people they
can't, they're not going to beable to take it.
They're not, they're not in agood position.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Yeah, and what sucks about it, you know, is that the
Chinese are going to, you know,sort of play triage with their
own people and they're going togo well.
These people are the leastuseful.
Therefore, you know, I hate toto say it, but the allocation of
resources them is going to beslim to none well, they're
already in a bad way with theevergreen debacle.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
So they have a huge problem right now in china with
construction.
They that, because of the waythe government is set up
communist the government has tocreate work for this
construction company and therewas a big documentary about it.
You can look it up.
It's called Evergreen and theyjust kept building.
They kept building and theseChinese families are buying

(48:27):
these condos as investmentproperties and then they just
built another one next to it andeventually it all crashed and
the government owned all of thisproperty and they owed the bank
billions of dollars andessentially, the only way that
their economy is even going isbecause they're continuing to

(48:50):
build.
These cities are ghost cities.
Nobody lives there.
You'll go and see thishumongous.
Imagine driving into a citylike New know, new york and
nobody lives there.
It's completely empty.
That's the.
That's the status in china.
When you see ghost cities, um,that's wild, it is, it's crazy,
and that's the only way theireconomy is is going, and trump

(49:11):
knows this.
The us government knows thisand guess what they're about to
find out.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
Yep, you know, napoleon Bonaparte said that an
army marches on its stomach.
What does it mean by that?
Well, what Napoleon means isthat you can only move so fast
as logistics allow you to move.
And fighting wars is 90%logistics.
I mean, yeah, you have to havethe might and the brawn and the
will to win, but if you don'thave beans and bullets you're

(49:38):
not going to win.
And part of the issue of Chinais that, yes, okay, do they have
a large military?
They do.
Do they have a lot ofcapabilities?
They do.
They got a decent amount ofequipment, a lot of people, but
how are you going to feed them?
How are you going to transportthem?
How are you going to care forthem?
How are you going to tend tothe wounded?
How are you going to work onweapons that are broken?
How are you going to maintainyour vehicles and fleet
maintenance?
I mean, how are you going tokeep that machine rolling?

(50:01):
I mean, the larger yourmilitary is, the harder it is to
keep it rolling.
Especially, I mean, imagine,everybody talks about, well,
china wants to go to war withTaiwan.
I mean, okay, could China, youknow, take Taiwan?
Easily?
Probably.
Why haven't they?
Why haven't they yet I thinkthat they know that the greater

(50:25):
geopolitical play in place isthat, if they do, they're going
to anger all of us and, believeme, this is more economical than
you could ever believe.
It's more economical thanmilitary in terms of the way
that that situation is beinghandled.
China could easily militarilytake Taiwan.

(50:46):
They don't care how many peoplehave to lose to do it, but the
problem is they know that thepolitical and economical capital
that they're going to expend todo that is far, far more worse
than any amount of human lifethey could ever lose.
They stand way more to lose bypissing us off than they do by

(51:07):
gaining that territory, or atleast in their mind, they
already treat it as theirterritory, which you know.
Of course, taiwan claimsindependence, as they should,
right.
So Taiwan number one, yes,number one, okay, you know so,
and I don't really want to getinto the conversation about you
would mention nation building,and what have countries like
China and Russia done?

(51:28):
One thing that China is doingis they are working with
Afghanistan to build highways inAfghanistan, but that's not
because they want the Afghans tobe able to get around easy.
It's because they want to go inthere and strip mine for
lithium.

Speaker 3 (51:44):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
And they want to take all that lithium and have a
nice, convenient highway to getit back to china.
So that you know, you alwayshave to look at truth and
consequence and and everythinghas consequence, everything has
an underlying reason for whysomething's being done.
So they're not doing that outof the goodness of their heart.
They want those, uh, lithiumdeposits.
There's trillions of dollars oflithium in Afghanistan.

Speaker 3 (52:08):
So they do that in other countries.
The most recent was in Africa.
So China actually calls thatthe belts and roads initiative.
And what they do is they go inand they offer these countries
to build out theirinfrastructure.
Everything they say we're goingto build your ports, we're
going to build your roads, we'regoing to build out their
infrastructure.
Everything they say we're goingto build your ports, we're

(52:30):
going to build your roads, we'regoing to build your dams, we're
going to build all yourinfrastructure.
And what you're going to do isyou're just going to pay us
money every month.
We're going to have control ofthe ports because we built them,
so they get there.
It's almost like a sharecropperkind of thing yeah, yeah, you
could say sharecropper.
Or just like a long term lendlease act where they're saying,

(52:54):
hey, we're going to build allyour infrastructure, you're just
going to pay us a residualevery month on top of your from
your GDP, which might seem likea good deal, but it's not GDP.
Which might seem like a gooddeal, but it's not, because the
big problem here is the uh, theactual quality of the work.
So in Africa there was a lot ofbig problems with the

(53:15):
craftsmanship, the electricalpower stations that they were
building were failing.
Um there, everything wascollapsing.
It doesn't help that they go andstrip the copper out of them
for scrap either, so they justthey're just not.
The level of craftsmanship andquality isn't where it needs to
be, and so they're not reallygetting their money's worth out
of it.
But yet they still have to paythem.
They're still owed money, right?
So they're going to all thesedifferent countries, and the

(53:37):
name of the company in china wascalled ever grand I apologize,
I just had to look that upbecause I knew it was close
Evergrande, and it was $78billion that they defaulted on
from the Chinese government, andthe Chinese government had to

(53:59):
step in and take that hit to dothe same thing, offering free
labor, free work, and whatyou're seeing is, honestly, a
lot of that stuff is from what Iunderstand is not just Chinese
labor but also North Koreanlabor, so they're bringing in a
lot of North Koreans as a laborforce.
For that.
It seems like North Korea isjust kind of becoming this

(54:21):
cannon fodder across the board,whether it's for Russia or labor
for construction.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
They've been bringing in a lot of North Koreans to
fight in Russia.
Oh, yeah, yeah, they have Wholebattalions, yep Now in Taiwan.

Speaker 3 (54:38):
I think that there's probably going to be a move
there, and I'm very curious tosee, because the US will
absolutely not allow that tohappen.
We rely, and that's one of theproblems that started this whole
thing was that the governmentrealized that we don't have the
ability to manufacture what weneed to, that's most important

(54:59):
to us Semiconductors, computerprocessors, things of that
nature.
And that's really where youstart to see the difference in
manufacturing.
So there's a reason that the USdoesn't manufacture.
You'll see people say, oh, wedon't manufacture textiles, we
don't because we used to, andthen we moved on.

(55:19):
So the countries that are themost successful right now
outsource that the lower levelmanufacturing textiles, stuff
like that, and they moved on tosemiconductors, computer
processors, something that'sreally more high up on the
technological scale Consumerelectronics, consumer

(55:40):
electronics.
But here's the problem.
The US kind of sat back andsaid well, we're just going to
import all that stuff, and nowwe're suffering the consequences
and we have to get back todoing something.
We need to manufacturesomething.
We can't rely on everybody else.
That's true.
So hopefully we get back to apoint where and granted, we're
not asking the US population tostart manufacturing everything,

(56:07):
the, the us population to startmanufacturing everything.
But we need to manufacturesomething, something that can
help alleviate some of thatpressure from importing goods
from other countries for sure.

Speaker 2 (56:14):
Now on the geopolitical you know spectrum
as well, you know we we can talkbriefly a little bit about
israel and hamas and everythinggoing on with that.
I mean, they obviously have aheck of a fight on their hands
with what's going on and youknow there's a lot of saber
rattling going on in thissituation.
There's a lot.
There's a huge disconnect withthe right Really, the left has

(56:40):
always generally not been a fanof the Israelis and there's a
disconnect now to where there'sa lot of on the right too that
are beginning to be much moreopen in their criticism for
Israel and everything like that.
And so, whether or not yousupport Israel or not, or
whether or not you support Hamasor not, or whatever, I mean, I

(57:01):
think that people again, withthis tribalism, they are guilty
of being thrown into this meatgrinder of where someone says,
well, if you say something thatis contrary to what the greater
discussion says about, let's say, the Israelis, well, you must
be an anti-Semite, you must bepro-Hamas, you must be
pro-Palestine, this or that, andof course they're going to use

(57:23):
that dog whistle Again, it's adog whistle.
And just because you have aproblem with the actions that
some of the Israelis arecommitting primarily, you know,
blowing up hospitals and killingkids and things like that.
If you bring up something likethat and you, you know,
scrutinize that, oh well, you're, you're anti this, you're,

(57:44):
you're pro this.
It's like they're never goingto look at the actual fact and
say, oh well, you know, they'renot going to explain their
actions, they're not going toexplain why they think that's
okay.
You know, trump just endorsedthis.
Randy Fine fella, you know, outof Florida.
I think District 6, or maybeDistrict 8, I don't remember
which district, but anyway hewon.

(58:04):
But you know openly, uh,zionist, pro Israel, this sort
of thing, jewish, whatever,that's fine, okay, uh, but
sharing, you know information onhis social media about, oh well
, the streets of Gaza are goingto run full of blood and showing
pictures of dead children, andso, and using that as a as, a,
uh, a political, let's say,trope to run for office on, to

(58:29):
use it for political gains andto try to drum up support from
his constituents for someone whoendorses this type of behavior,
you're going to use a pictureof dead children as a political
statement.
How awful.
And you want to ask yourselfwhy do these people hate us so
much?

(58:49):
And that's why, because here youare, you're supporting this,
and you know it's just reallywild to think about Now the
greater geopolitical play,whether or not you support
Palestine or Israel or whoever,there's really no side to pick.
Necessarily, you don't have topick a side to understand the
geopolitical situation that isoccurring, and that is Iran, I

(59:14):
mean.
So, really, what this is allabout is trying to draw Iran
into some form of conflict withus.
Right, that's what this reallyall comes down to?
Because who do you think isgoing to be fighting a freaking
war with Iran?

Speaker 3 (59:27):
Hopefully not us.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
Well, that's their damn plan.
I can promise you that, andthat's what gets me so much
about all this.
When you look at thegeopolitical landscape of combat
and war with the United Statesover the last 20 years, and this
war on terror especially, youknow you've been told that these
people are the boogeyman,they're the most awful thing

(59:51):
ever.
Now, in some cases, they proveit.
Okay, we know, yeah, some ofthem have been capable of some
really heinous things, and youknow, of course, but
holistically, you know, are theyreally as bad as they make it
out to be?
And I think the answer is just,it has to be no.
If you're being logical, youknow people are people, no
matter where you go in the world, and there's good people and
bad people no matter where yougo.
Is that to say that you look atsome meme or trope online about

(01:00:16):
Muslim people or Jewish peopleor Christian people and all of a
sudden, that makes every personthat falls within that meme
that stereotype of that meme.
Are they that meme?
No, they're not Like you weresaying earlier, not every Jewish
person is an orthodox crazylittle hat, curly hair,
stereotypical image of an evil,cackling Jewish person right now

(01:00:39):
.

Speaker 3 (01:00:40):
But that's the image they have in their head.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
But that's the image that people have in their head,
and the same generalization canbe made about hamas.
The same generalization wasmade about the taliban.
The same generalization is madeabout isis, and so on and so
forth.
Whatever boogeyman movement thecia decides to create and fund,
they want to, they'll paintthat picture that they're all

(01:01:04):
evil.
And you know, there arepalestinians that are christ all
evil.
And there are Palestinians thatare Christians.
Are they evil?
I mean so there's a lot ofpeople that get left in the
cracks, and that's the issue,and it's certainly not the kid's
fault.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
Absolutely not the kid's fault.
But when you look at it as awhole, what's going on, you
could say the same thing washappening, you know, in the us
when the vietnam war broke out,because there was a ton of war
protesters.
And why were they?
Why were they protesting thewars?
Because they were sending backfootage of like, hey, it seems
to be like kids is the hot, hotpoint.

(01:01:42):
It's like nobody wants to seechildren die.
And when you start seeing thatand that was like, especially a
parent, like in Vietnam, youwould see like the, the infamous
, like baby killer, like trope,when they're, when they're
talking to Vietnam soldiers,when they come back, um, anytime
, you see that and that seems tobe the, the way that they get
people on their side.

(01:02:02):
Like, hey, these children aredying, dying.
And you're seeing it in likethe whole palestine, israel war,
like they're.
That seems to be the, the mainimages coming out to win you
over, and and it on both sides,on both sides, and it might.
But then you start looking atyou know, and I don't have a dog
in this fight, guy, I amneither, uh, israeli, jewish or
palestinian, obviously, as youcan see.

(01:02:24):
But when you start looking atthe big picture.
They're like hey, why if theyhad six hostages?
Right, the Hamas andPalestinian people have six
hostages.
Why do they require Israel totrade a hundred people that were

(01:02:47):
in jail for three hostages Like, and two of them are dead.
So you're getting back theremains but you.
That's not a very even tradeand it took a month to negotiate
that.
I'm not saying I'm on anybody'sside, I'm dead, I don't.
I could care less, quitehonestly.

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
The optics are definitely bad.

Speaker 3 (01:03:04):
But it makes you wonder, like all right, so how
much of this is whose fault?
You know, if one side iswilling to trade and the other
side isn't, but you make thetrade so lopsided that it
doesn't really make sense.
How do you look at that and sayboth of these people are
putting in a fair effort.
A fair effort, you know itwould obviously look like Israel

(01:03:28):
is putting in bringing way moreto the table if they're willing
to trade a hundred people forthree or four, but at the same
time you have you have thembombing hospitals and stuff like
that, when obviously that's notsomething that you want to do.
Up for the optics.
It's tough, man, like we've beento war, we've seen like the
things you have to do, but atthe same time, like America is

(01:03:53):
almost complicit in it, becausethey're and I and I use that, I
use that term and I use thatsaying you know the way it is
like America's complicit in it.
They're giving money, they'regiving technology, they're
giving weaponryry, that's whatit's being used for.
America doesn't get to justwalk away and say, hey, you know
, we don't have anything to dowith it, when in actual fact

(01:04:15):
those are us ordinance beingdropped especially when you know
apac and the israeli lobby hassuch a strong foothold in the
American government andbasically, essentially, our
destinies.

Speaker 2 (01:04:28):
And I take issue with that.
I really do, because you knowthey, they really have a lot of
power and they own all thepoliticians.
And after a while you think,well, whose government is it?
And there's a lot ofgeopolitical things going on,
there's a lot of tribalism andagain you could, you could view
that as tribalism.
Where on, there's a lot oftribalism and again you could
view that as tribalism.

Speaker 3 (01:04:46):
That's a really good example of tribalism.

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
The Israelis swear up and down that they have the
right to that land.
The Palestinians swear up anddown that they have the right to
that land.
Well, guess what?
That's what war is.
War is fighting the enemy untilthey give up, and I'm not
picking a side here.
I'm just saying that thereality of the situation is both
of them claim to have a stakein being there yeah and you know

(01:05:12):
I'm not saying any sides rightor wrong.
Well, I I think that israel'sdefinitely done some really
nasty things and um, but that'snot to say that the other side
hasn't either.
Okay, I'm just trying to befair and logical here.
But war is war, war is war andand the truth is it's a very
ugly war and but I think it'sgoing to have greater lasting
implications that you knowthey're trying to get iran

(01:05:35):
involved and then trying to getus pulled in with all that.
So you know so many things totalk about.
This podcast could go probablya whole nother hour if we wanted
it to, but we are reachingtowards the end of today's show.
Let me know, guys, what youthink about this show today.
I know we kind of jumped aroundthe world a lot and jumped
around a lot of differentsubjects and, look, we're trying

(01:05:55):
to really speak ingeneralizations.
We're not really.
You know I don't want to pick aside necessarily, although it
does become a point in life thatyou do have to pick a side.
I'm not saying don't have aside.
Everyone has their morals andvalues and who they're going to
line up with.
But all I'm saying isunderstand, the greater play,
the greater consequence that isunfolding With this

(01:06:18):
interconnected world we have.
There's a lot of people withdifferent views and the exchange
of that information and thoseopinions is so much easier now
with the internet and instantcommunication just makes things
makes us all considerably closerright and look at X as being
sort of the de facto town square.
More people are turning to Xthan ever for their news and

(01:06:41):
information and to have opendiscourse with, even with people
they disagree with.
So when you look at that openforum where you can go on and
criticize world leader rightthere on X if you want to, it
really does make the situationmore delicate because the
exchange of information is sorapid and so instant and so

(01:07:02):
gratifying to you.
Instant gratification and soinstant and so gratifying to you
.
Instant gratification, thatdopamine rush that you become
sensitive, let's just say, tothe risk of falling victim to
complacency and falling victimto usury, and just the idea of
you're always having to checkand obsess yourself with this

(01:07:23):
monster that is social media.
But is it really, um, how we'remeant to operate as people,
this tribalism?
Is it really natural for thehuman condition?
That would be my overallargument that perhaps social
media does more harm than good.

Speaker 3 (01:07:42):
I think the big thing is people are looking for
confirmation bias.
They want to know that whenthey look at any news coming out
, any big story, any newinformation, they love to think
in their head I was right, orthat's what I believe.
So they're strictly looking,especially if you're just

(01:08:05):
looking at it from a tribalismstandpoint.
They love to know that theywere on the right side of the
newsreel, like, hey, that'sthat's what I was telling
everybody, that's what I felt,that's what I believed.
Strictly, confirmation bias.
They want to be on the winningside and and I would say,

(01:08:29):
unfortunately, the speed atwhich the news can arrive hurts
that, because it's not alwaysthe most accurate.
How many times have you and howmany times have you seen a news
break come out and then you goback the next day and if you
really pay attention, you'llhave to look for the correction.
But they're not required tolike.
The correction never gets thesame traction as the original

(01:08:50):
story, it's true, and that's.
Everybody's in a race to getthat first news break.

Speaker 2 (01:08:55):
And again, unfortunately it's not always
true or it'll have, uh, somemistakes in it, and then that
gets repeated out into the echochamber and then that wrong news
story is circulating aroundyeah, and then all the tribalism
comes into play and people go,oh, I was right, I was right,
and they all want an aha moment,that sort of thing, the gotcha
moment, and uh, I get it.

(01:09:16):
But look y'all.
Thanks so much for listening inon today's show and if you're
watching, thanks for watching.
Uh, remember we post over onyoutube.
Uh course you can find us allover, where all your favorite
podcasts are served Stitcher,spotify, apple Podcasts, etc.
We're out there.
Make sure to download the showif you want to listen.
I know some of y'all arelistening on your way to work
and home, commute and that sortof thing.

(01:09:37):
So, thanks so much for thesupport.
Let me know in the commentsection below what do you think
about today's show'd love tohear your feedback.
If you have any questions orcomments, you can leave them
down in the comment sectionbelow.
We can do some qa and somefuture episodes as well.
So thank you all very much.
Many more episodes on the way.

Speaker 1 (01:09:54):
We'll see y'all next week bye, everybody thanks for
listening to life, liberty andpursuit.
If you enjoyed the show, besure to subscribe on apple
podcastss, Spotify and anywhereelse podcasts are found.
Be sure to leave us a five-starreview.
We'd really appreciate that youcan support us over on
Ballistic Inc by pickingyourself up some merch and
remember guys, dangerous freedom.

(01:10:15):
Have a good one.