December 13, 2024 • 102 mins
***At the beginning I say "This episode will be short..." I changed my mind, about a minute later.***
How often do we mistake social media activism for genuine political resistance? Join me on the Jack Hopkins Show as I share my journey from a lifelong Republican to a committed Democrat, challenging the performative nature of online activism within the Democratic Party. Through my experiences with social media "acid tests," we explore how emotional responses can pierce through societal facades to reveal true motivations and beliefs. This episode is a candid reflection on the complexity of human psychology and the habitual fronts we present in everyday life.
(This episode is not linearly presented. I go in whatever direction is prompted by my thoughts. If you want a "Get right to the point" episode, this is not the one for you. If you are interested in listening to how my brain works, and how I can let it take me places...and just go with it, then you might really enjoy it.)
What role does age play in leadership, and how should it influence our political decisions? We tackle this critical question, focusing on the implications of electing older leaders like President Biden and the responsibilities of Vice President Harris. By addressing the physiological, neurological, and psychological aspects associated with aging, I argue for honest assessments beyond political correctness to preserve democracy. Through a lens of transparency and accountability, we confront the power dynamics of anticipatory obedience and its potential to erode democratic systems.
Authenticity in communication is more crucial than ever, especially in politics. Throughout this episode, I emphasize the importance of unscripted dialogue and genuine self-expression. Drawing parallels with individuals who've faced similar challenges, I share my personal journey toward embracing authenticity, stressing the value of honest engagement even when it challenges leadership. Together, let's explore the power of being true to ourselves and the impact it can have on fostering meaningful connections in today's political landscape. Tune in for an hour and 40 minutes of engaging reflections, and find liberation in embracing your true self.
The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter https://wwwJackHopkinsNow.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Jack Hopkins Show podcast, where
stories about the power of focusand resilience are revealed by
the people who live thosestories and now the host of the
Jack Hopkins Show podcast, jackHopkins.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hello and welcome to the Jack Hopkins Show podcast.
I'm your host, jack Hopkins.
Today's going to be a veryshort and brief episode.
It's one that I didn't haveplanned but, gosh, as I sat
around thinking about it, somethings you just can't post and
(00:42):
get across with the sameemphasis that you can on video
or even audio.
Video is better, because thenyou can get in the facial
expressions and the gestures andall of the other nonverbal
(01:03):
communication, all of the othernonverbal communication.
You know, the last couple ofdays on social media, I've been
a real hard ass, intentionally.
I've intentionally been a realhard ass because what I'm seeing
on social media from theDemocratic Party as a whole, as
(01:29):
a whole and anytime you'retalking about the whole, of
course there are exceptions whatI'm seeing is not encouraging,
and I'll tell you what thecontext that I'm talking about,
(01:50):
because when I say what I'mseeing is not encouraging, I
mean within that context, theDemocratic Party as a whole, in
terms of all issues, is a hellof a lot more encouraging to me
than the Republican Party.
A hell of a lot moreencouraging to me than the
Republican Party, for goddamnsure.
So make no mistake about that.
(02:18):
But within the context ofresistance and for, in times
like this, I'm just not seeingit.
I'm seeing a lot of people whowill very conveniently put
resistance you know, hashtagresistance in their profiles on
(02:42):
Twitter or threads or any ofthem.
That's simple.
That's simple.
Anybody can do that.
What does it mean?
In the grand scheme of things,I really don't think it means
(03:03):
anything.
What it means is I guess youare willing to put yourself out
there as yeah, I'm not for a lotof this stuff that the rest of
you aren't for, and say thatyou'll fight against, but it
(03:24):
doesn't say anything about howhard or how specifically
somebody is willing to fightagainst it.
And I guess, look, I guess, ifit comes down to, you aren't
going to engage in any othertype of resistance than posting,
(03:48):
you know, resistance.
It's probably still better forthe movement as a whole.
I guess.
I don't know that that's true.
I'm just saying it probably isbetter to the more people who
have resistance.
Maybe it's a better look, butwhat I'm saying is the kind of
(04:16):
resistance I see peopleindicating that they are willing
to support or take part in.
It's just.
I see a lot of hesitancy andreluctance, if not just outright
refusal to go there.
(04:38):
And I'll give you an example ofone of the acid tests that I've
kind of run the last couple ofdays.
And, by the way, when I say I'mdoing an acid test or any kind
of test to get feedback, it'sonly ever going to be something
(05:04):
that I truly believe.
In other words, I would neverput something out there that I
don't believe just to getpeople's feedback on If I put it
out there test or not, acidtest or not.
At the core, it's something Isupport and get behind.
(05:29):
Now for an acid test, I may wordit more aggressively just to
invoke a deeper, visceralresponse, an emotional response,
because as somebody thatstudied psychology and human
behavior my entire life, I knowthat's where the real answers
(05:51):
come from.
If you want to get down tosomebody's deepest beliefs, even
those that they might not beaware they have and that
function beneath the cusp ofconsciousness, you need to
(06:11):
trigger them emotionally.
That's when you get all of thatother bullshit out of the way.
That's where you get themanners, the politeness, that's
where you get the politicalcorrectness, all of that
nonsense that clouds and fogsand acts as a smoke screen for
(06:36):
allowing you to see what reallydrives somebody and how they
really feel.
You get all of that out of theway if you trigger them
intensely enough emotionally.
If you don't, you can never knowif what you are getting or what
(06:57):
they are reflecting in terms ofwhat they are saying, if you're
person to person, or what theyare writing.
Because the truth is in life,not only can we say anything or
write anything that may or maynot be true.
(07:20):
We all do it all the time.
True, we all do it all the timewe do.
And if you think you are theexception to this, then you
probably ought to get real clearwith yourself on just how
accurate that is, because it'snot.
We all go around throughouteach day putting on a front of
(07:44):
some sort.
It's not like we get up and say, okay, I've got to put this
face on today, I've got to putthis facade up today.
That's not generally how itgoes.
Most of it is just habit andconforming to society or under
(08:05):
the heading of politicalcorrectness or politeness or
whatever the fuck else categorythat you want to place it in,
(08:30):
and or unconsciously suppressingwhat you actually think and
feel and especially suppressinghow intensely you express what
you really think and feel.
So when I really want to get tothe core of an issue and say,
okay, look, here's my hunch,here's my hunch in terms of what
(08:51):
people are thinking.
What beliefs are really drivingpeople?
What emotions are reallydriving people?
I don't ask, I don't, just sayI'm curious.
Jack Hopkins would like to knowwhat are your core beliefs that
(09:11):
are really driving yourbehaviors right now.
And then, when you finish withthat, please list the main
drivers, emotionally, that arepushing you right now.
You might as well ask what kindof fucking peanut butter they
prefer, because the usefulnessof the answers that you get will
(09:32):
be about the same.
People aren't going to say.
One reason they're not going tosay what's true is because
almost none of them have anyidea, because that stuff usually
operates at a below consciouslevel.
(09:54):
It's not that they're lying.
I don't think anybody.
I shouldn't say anybody.
There's always going to besomebody.
I wouldn't say that most peopleare going to lie intentionally
when they answer those questions.
It's just that they reallythink that those are accurate
answers.
They don't have any idea thatthey're not and that the real
(10:18):
answers are just beneath thecusp of consciousness.
So it's not lying per se, it'sjust not accurate with
consciousness.
So it's not lying per se, it'sjust not accurate.
So if you want to bypass all ofthat and get to the more
accurate information, you've gotto stir them deeply and
(10:39):
intensely emotionally.
And the easiest way to do thatis controversy, because
controversy, if you push it farenough, will eventually elicit
anger.
And there are two emotionalstates from which people are
(11:06):
willing to well take that out.
Scratch that Willing doesn'tfit there.
There are two emotional statesin which people will loudly and
unknowingly touch on their corebeliefs and their core thoughts,
and they are two states thatseem at opposite ends of the
(11:30):
spectrum of one another, but interms of their power to push
someone to puke out someunconscious stuff, they're very
much alike.
And that's extreme optimism andconfidence.
Extreme optimism and confidence,I'm not very confident at the
(11:56):
moment at how smoothly I can sayoptimism and confidence and
anger.
That's right.
Extreme optimism and confidenceand anger that's right.
Extreme optimism and confidenceand anger those are two states
from which somebody will engagevery emotionally.
(12:19):
Now you can call extremeoptimism and confidence, you can
call that just thinking youknow every fucking thing and
that you can't be proven wrong.
Pretty much covers the samestate that I'm talking about as
extreme optimism and confidence.
And then the other one's prettyclear Anger.
(12:43):
Sometimes between a husband andwife.
The issues that have needed tohave been talked about for a
long time will only surface in amoment of anger, either from
both of them or one of them.
(13:03):
Either from both of them or oneof them.
Now I'm not saying that that'sthe best way to approach your
marriage and communication there.
I've never done marriagecounseling or that I knew I
(13:27):
didn't want to go there at all.
First of all, I've been marriedmore than once.
So I don't know, in that mindor in that frame of mind I was
kind of like, yeah, you know, Iprobably shouldn't be telling
other people how to get theirmarriage closer to perfect,
(13:51):
because I'm still working on itmyself and I'm not sure I
haven't figured out yet.
So that was always my thing.
I was like nope, nope, nope,not going there.
Besides that man, I've seensome of the ugliest shit I've
ever seen in my life In a roomwhere a therapist is working
(14:13):
with a couple who hate eachother, and it's like a frigging
war zone, right.
So I just never wanted any partof that.
It's like a frigging war zone,right.
So I just never wanted any partof that.
So what did I use this conceptfor in my acid test the last
(14:36):
couple of days?
Well, I used it in an areawhere I, again, I very firmly
believe in the idea that I wasputting out.
And that's the thing about memost of the time.
Again, none of us are immune tothis.
Most of the time, you don'treally have to piss me off to
(15:01):
get me to lay out the core ofwhat I really believe or what
emotions are driving me at anygiven moment.
Not only will I tell you, butI'll show you, I'll demonstrate
it or display it.
I'm not saying that's astrength, but I would be very
(15:24):
slow to assert that that is aweakness.
I think it's extremelycontextual and I think in some
contexts in life.
It's extremely useful and myexperience has shown me that
social media is one of those.
(15:45):
And I guess I should add, Ithink it's extremely useful if
there's useful content there, ifthere's something of value, if
there's something there thatsomebody might use as the
catalyst to learn, or maybe evenlearn from your rant or your
(16:08):
post or your video straight fromit.
I think then it can beextremely useful.
Where it's not, I think, evenuseful at all, it's when people
don't have any substance, evenuseful at all.
(16:31):
It's when people don't have anysubstance or maybe the person
ranting just isn't particularlyintelligent or at the very least
not particularly educated inthe area that they are
commenting on.
Now I know I've done that forsure.
I've gotten much better at that.
(16:51):
I've kind of shifted more andmore to you know what, if I'm
going to comment on like legalexpertise, on like legal
expertise, I'm going to do mybest to always throw in there
somewhere that this is myopinion and that when it comes
(17:14):
to the technicalities of law, Idon't know any more about what
I'm saying than the guy drivingthe school bus.
That doesn't mean I can't havean opinion on it, and I think
sometimes opinions need to beput out there, whether it's from
an expert in that area or not,but it just needs to be again.
(17:41):
There has to be somethinguseful there, and if your
opinion, even if it's not spoton, can serve as the catalyst
for maybe an expert to come inand correct you.
The way I see that is, there'sa situation in which, had it not
(18:25):
have been for your loudassertive opinion, there may or
may not have been any compellingreason for that particular
legal expert to come out at thatmoment and say what they did
about that particular thing.
And so I think sometimes,sometimes it's necessary and
even, you know, really usefulfor people.
But for the most part, I try mybest.
I try my best and I fail.
(18:52):
Don't get me wrong, believe me,I fail.
But when I do fail, I make anote of that and focus a little
more on not commenting as thoughI know what the fuck I'm
talking about.
When it comes to something likea legal matter or something that
only a physicist really knowsanything about, I try to stick
to human behavior and psychology.
(19:13):
I know that, that I know interms of what drives people, how
to read people, how to use thetools at my disposal to shape
human behavior.
All of that is my world, andI'm good at that.
(19:35):
Other areas I can't think oftoo many I'm very good at.
That's my shtick, so I try tostick there.
But again, sometimes we need toget some accurate feedback, and
(19:59):
so one area that I'm just asexpert in, I suppose, as anybody
else, is that of being a voterright.
We all or most of us, as we'refinding out, it's fewer than we
thought, but most of us have theright to vote.
(20:23):
Now, that doesn't mean we allassess the candidates as
accurately and as thoroughly orintelligently as everyone else,
but in terms of casting the voteand knowing what our
expectations are once we castthe vote, expectations are once
(20:48):
we cast the vote, we are all asqualified as the next person.
Now I know somebody may comeout and want to argue that and
get down in the weeds about.
Well, what do you meanspecifically when you say
qualified?
We're all equal qualified there.
Then maybe they can make avalid argument.
Then maybe they can make avalid argument.
But in general, look, who am Ito cast judgment on the process
(21:14):
that you went through in yourhead or didn't, to vote?
That's not to say that I won'tcast judgment on that, but I'm
saying who am I to do that?
So if you see me do that, theneither in your mind or in a post
, say you know what?
(21:35):
Fuck off, jack Hopkins.
Who are you to know whatprocess I should use or not?
So I think we're all equal inthat way.
We have the right to vote, butwhen it comes to the people we
vote for, now we're going todrill down a little bit.
(22:01):
Going into the election, I waslook, in this election, I was
going to be behind theDemocratic candidate for
President of the United Statesand the Democratic politician,
(22:26):
or potential politician, on theticket all the way up and down,
because of what we faced withthe opposition and what their
agenda is, not one we have toguess on, but what their stated
agenda is.
(22:46):
So, going into an election, Idid as I expected myself to do
and that was throw my fullsupport behind whoever it was.
(23:06):
When it was Joe Biden, I threwmy full support behind Joe Biden
.
When it became Kamala Harris, Ithrew my full support behind
Vice President Kamala Harris.
Vice President Kamala Harris,and I think, during an election
(23:29):
year, boy, once the candidatesare in place, and particularly
once they are on the ticket.
I think it's prettycounterproductive, if you're in
that party, not to be throwingyourself behind them fully.
And even when maybe your gut isgoing, oh boy, I wish there'd
(23:55):
have been somebody else, you canthink that.
You can feel that as long asyou realize that doesn't mean
shit because it wasn't somebodyelse, it was Joe Biden until it
wasn't, and then it was KamalaHarris.
So all the ifs and shouldas andwouldas and couldas don't mean
(24:19):
again, don't mean jack shit.
It's the person that's therefrom that party to vote on.
Now, post-election, I have awhole different approach to this
, an entirely different approachto this.
Post-election for one thing,the election's over at that
(24:43):
point.
For one thing, the election'sover at that point Nobody's
going to be.
You know, it's another fouryears before somebody is going
to be getting into a new office,at least by vote, with the
exception of the midterms.
But in terms of presidentialcandidate, vice president, it's
(25:05):
going to be another four years.
At that point it goes back to.
For me, it goes back to the modeI was in up until about a year
before the election, and that isfeeling free to criticize in
(25:30):
any legitimate way the leadersof my party.
And when I see a reluctancefrom people to do that, when I
(25:50):
see a reluctance from people todo that, boy, it bothers the
hell out of me.
And it bothers the hell out ofme because it's one of the
loudest cries people in thisparty had about Trump and the
Republican Party.
You know the constant postingof they could have called him
out, they could have stopped him, they could have said something
.
Where were the people withballs to come forth and say
(26:14):
enough, we're not supporting himon this.
We need to get.
See what I mean.
Now I know some of you out theremight be thinking well, jack,
it was an entirely different setof behaviors and actions.
True, a lot of the people thatyou are talking to who are also
(26:45):
thoughtful and think aboutthings a little bit before they
just spout off if it's somethingthat they're not happy with
either.
I was about to say you have anobligation a moral and ethical
obligation, in my opinion tofucking say something and to say
(27:07):
it loudly enough and to directit at the person that it
pertains to.
Now I see another phenomenonhere, when it comes to this
topic, I see it quite often andthat is someone who will say
(27:31):
sending them letters or posting,tagging, you know, the
president or the vice presidentor some other politician.
That doesn't do shit.
You've seen that.
(27:52):
I'm not even going to ask ifyou've seen it, you have.
But then you have also seen thisexample when something hits the
news, like it did recently,where Blue Cross oh yeah, see, I
don't even have to complete it.
Where Blue Cross oh yeah, Idon't even have to complete it.
Where Blue Cross was going to,you know, not pay for anesthesia
(28:14):
beyond a prescribed time for asurgery People flipped the fuck
out.
Flipped the fuck out and publicoutcry caused them to alter
their decision.
Now, some of those same peoplewho, when you are suggesting to
(28:42):
speak out and condemnpoliticians in your own party or
anyone when they are notengaging the way that the
country needs them to, or atleast that you think the country
needs them to, the people whotell you that doesn't do shit
will be the same.
Some of the same people who aresharing every goddamn meme that
(29:02):
says never say public opinionor public outcry doesn't make a
difference.
Look, blue Cross, blue Shield,they retracted that decision.
So you know, it's like look,fucking, pick one, pick one.
(29:36):
Either it does no good at all,or public outcry and public
outrage have the power to shapepolitics.
Pick one.
There are enough examples toshow us that there have been
many times where that kind ofcondemnation has influenced a
(29:58):
decision and altered thatdecision decision.
Now, nothing is 100% and Idon't think I hope nobody's
saying, well, yeah, but itdoesn't work all the time, jack.
(30:19):
Well, when you've got a fuckingcrystal ball that will let you
know specifically ahead of timewhen it's going to work and when
it's not, shoot me a message.
Nobody knows ahead of time.
And since nobody knows ahead oftime, on the off chance that it
will influence policy anddecisions of various types,
(30:49):
speak out, don't be afraid tocriticize.
So what's that have to do withresistance?
Well, it has to do withresistance.
For this reason, with resistance, for this reason, the kind of
(31:12):
resistance that has changed theworld throughout history I mean,
really changed the world hasinvolved the kinds of behaviors
that most people weren't reallyexcited or probably didn't feel
really good about having to do.
(31:34):
In fact, a lot of it probablycut across the grain of
everything about them, the grainof everything about them, and
that's one of the reasons so fewever really engage in that type
(31:58):
of resistance.
Well, it's much the same forpeople who are too afraid or
just simply flat out refuse tocriticize leadership in their
own party.
It just doesn't feel right tothem, which usually means they
are worried about their peergroup.
(32:19):
They're in this little click,this little circle, and
everybody kind of stays insidethe lines.
There are no-nos, there arethings you can do to kind of
float close to the edge thatnobody will boot you out of the
(32:39):
circle over.
But for the most part there areclear lines of demarcation and
if you get outside of thoselines intensely or very far you
risk being pushed out.
And the need most people havefor acceptance by their peer
group is so strong thatrelatively few people are,
(33:04):
they're not willing to go there.
It's not that they don't thinkand agree with those things that
people who don't give a fuckabout going outside the lines
it's not that they don't agreewith it, that it's more
important to them to stay inline with their peer group than
(33:28):
it is to show any kind ofapproval or support for that
thing they secretly like.
That is not a recipe forresistance.
In fact that's the opposite offucking resistance.
I say again, that is theopposite of resistance.
(33:55):
Resistance has not a goddamnthing to do with feeling good,
with feeling accepted and withstaying comfortable.
It just doesn't.
And I think that's the onething most people don't
understand when they write thatword resistance.
Resistance to them is, you know, being so bold as to post a
(34:20):
comment that cuts against aRepublican politician, Although
I've seen a hell of a lot lessboldness even there since the
election.
I've seen accounts that havegone from slamming his ass every
day to like nope, my lips arezipped, to like nope, my lips
(34:45):
are zipped, I'm not saying shitthat could come back to haunt me
.
I was a resistor up to a point,and then my fear took over,
right, so I just don't.
(35:06):
And God forbid.
You know, if you are a resistor, you are a resistor to anything
that is hurting the directionyou want the country to go.
I just happen to have anexample.
I do, if you can believe it.
I've got an example of that Inhis book on tyranny 20 Lessons
(35:35):
from the 20th Century by TimothySnyder.
He talks about and this is onpage 18, anticipatory obedience
is a political tragedy, and goback.
I really like this line.
It's so simple.
That's what makes it soprofound.
The first sentence on chapter 1, on page 17, says most of the
(36:01):
power of authoritarianism isfreely given.
Most of the power ofauthoritarianism is freely given
.
So I say to you then, a coupleof days as I recall maybe it was
(36:23):
three, as I recall, maybe itwas three After the election,
the headlines read PresidentBiden I'm paraphrasing President
Biden says he's committed to asmooth transition, to a smooth
(36:49):
transition, and I about lost myfucking mind, as did many of you
listening, as did many of thepeople who are interested in how
(37:15):
their peer groups will respond.
But it comes back to that wholethat need, that deep need.
Most people have to be acceptedand approved of by their peer
group, as angry as they mighthave felt, boy, I mean to post
something about that would belike saying I don't support
(37:38):
every goddamn thing thatPresident Biden does just
because he's President Biden andis a Democrat.
That would be too much likethat.
And so it pisses them off.
They're angry about it, butthey say nothing.
(38:04):
You know who says what they'rethinking about and how they
really feel about things.
More often than not it's thelittle accounts, it's the small
accounts, it's the people withmaybe 500 followers.
If that, why?
Many of them do not give a fuck.
(38:26):
Their peer group is not ofenough size and magnitude that
they give a fuck.
They're like you know what, Idon't give a shit.
This is how I feel.
This is how I see it.
I'm angry.
(38:47):
That shouldn't have happenedlike that and I'm going to
fucking say something.
That's where the real blunt,real visceral honesty often
comes from is those smallaccounts.
They don't have an image touphold.
(39:09):
They don't have a circle, so tospeak, of any magnitude, where
they are more worried about thefeedback from the circle than
they are voicing their ownopinion, how they really feel
about something that is in deepconflict with what they've been
(39:35):
told and what we were told andthey told us.
By the way, let me preface thisby saying they were correct.
They told us this because it'strue.
(39:58):
They told us that Donald Trumpwas a threat to democracy, that
Donald Trump was a threat todemocracy.
They told us that he was acriminal and they supported and
stayed silent about peoplewithin their own party, other
leadership, who said he shouldbe barred from running for
(40:21):
president.
You know whether it be the 14thAmendment or criminal case.
They knew and they told us theyknew.
They rang the three alarm, fivealarm fire bells, and rightly
(40:44):
so.
So when, three days later, whenthe people who have gobbled that
up and shaken their head you'regoddamn right, he can't be
allowed to take office, he is athreat to democracy and society
(41:08):
and to human beings.
When, three days after theelection, they see a smiling,
open-armed President Bidenvoicing that his main focus is
to make sure there is a smoothtransition, it's a fucking
(41:34):
problem.
It's a fucking problem.
That's how a democracy dies,and what President Biden engaged
in is absolutely an example ofmost of the power of
(41:56):
authoritarianism is freely givenand, on the quote on the other
page, anticipatory obedience isa political tragedy.
Well, I am here to tell youthat, in my opinion which I
happen to think is reflective ofa lot of people's opinions,
(42:23):
opinions the biggest politicaltragedy we've seen for a while
is that of President Bidenlovingly and embracingly
switching his focus to a smoothtransition and then largely not
saying another goddamn wordabout the danger of Trump and
(42:48):
how he's a threat to democracy,how he's a national security
threat and Kamala Harris and, bythe way, I love Joe Biden and
(43:09):
that's one thing I think toothat often bothers me.
People think you have to either.
You can't criticize somebodyunless you hate them or dislike
them, and that's a load of shit.
That's somebody that grew up infairy tale land.
The people you criticized areoftentimes most often going to
(43:33):
be the people you love.
So the idea that expressinganger or displeasure requires
(43:56):
you to dislike or hate them,that's batshit, crazy talk.
To me, it has nothing to dowith liking or hating them.
It has to do with assessing thejob they are doing and holding
them to what they said andexpecting to see behavior that
mirrors what they.
We have seen nothing fromeither President Biden or Vice
(44:24):
President Kamala Harris thatindicates or would be indicative
of them reflecting the kind ofvisceral, five-alarm-fire
approach they took prior to theelection Nothing.
And if you're somebody who'sgoing to argue and say that's
(44:46):
not true, leave the comment, Iguess, at your own peril,
because I'm going to come backat you hard because that's
bullshit.
We haven't.
We have seen nothing thatmatched the intensity that they
(45:08):
showed us prior to the election,from anybody, from anybody.
So far, what have we got?
Let's see.
So far, we've got Blumenthal,who suddenly thinks Elon Musk is
a champion for freedom ofspeech and the leader in the
(45:37):
tech industry.
Keep in mind Dick Blumenthalengaged in stolen valor Valor.
I can't talk.
Richard Blumenthal engaged instolen valor, valor, valor.
(45:58):
Look it up, valor, look it up,google it.
That's some shit there.
When somebody that's got a seatin Washington is going to lie
(46:21):
about their military service inthe way that he did, I don't
have them in a good personcategory, I just don't.
So I'm less shocked saysomething that I don't know
(47:05):
whether it's true or not.
There's a good chance that it'strue, and so with him, I'm not
cutting him any slack, becauseif he's impacted that much by
his stroke, then he needs to getthe fuck out.
But I guess if there's anythingresembling slack that I'm
(47:28):
cutting him, it's that people gothrough some deep personality
changes, or can I shouldn't saypeople do they often do after
suffering a stroke.
They can go through bouts ofdepression, and, if I'm not
(47:54):
mistaken, I think Fetterman hadsuffered with some depression
prior to being elected in thefirst place.
So it's quite possible thatFetterman's pivot towards
suggesting a pardon ismultifactorial, right it?
(48:17):
I can't help but think his isinfluenced in some way and to
some degree by his stroke,because his position is just so
damn contradictory to what we'veseen from him in the past
(48:43):
Clyburn.
James Clyburn, that dude needsto get the hell on down the road
.
He needs to go.
I could look up, I guess guesshow old he is.
Put it this way he's old enough.
(49:04):
He needs to go, becausesomebody who was involved with
the civil rights movement likeJames Clyburn, somebody who's
been around and seen as much ashe has seen fucking, knows
(49:26):
better than to watch eight yearsof Trump and then tell the
president of the United Stateswho, by the way, is a good
friend of his, you should pardonDonald Trump.
That fucking guy needs to go.
Is he suffering from dementia,alzheimer's?
(49:50):
Is he using medicinal orillicit marijuana?
I have no idea and frankly, inhis case I don't give a shit.
He's been there long enough.
Go.
This old shit of 80 plus yearold politicians needs to end.
(50:15):
It needs to end, end, it needsto end.
Look at the crisis that we hadat the last minute over
President Biden's age.
Now you can tell me.
Look, why wasn't I sayinganything about this in this run
(50:39):
up to the election?
Because it was a run up to afucking election and Donald
Trump was the person on theother party.
That's why you get behind yourcandidate when somebody who says
you know what I'm going toshred the Constitution is the
person on the Republican ticket.
(51:00):
That's not the time for that.
Once the election's over, it'sno man's land.
It's back to reality is thereare very few people I know who
(51:23):
would hire someone 80 plus formany positions at all.
My dad is 82.
Love the guy to death.
He's still pretty active.
Death, he's still pretty active.
(51:49):
If I had to pick between himand somebody younger for some
matter of importance, I'm notpicking my dad.
He's 82.
People start slipping.
He started slipping.
People start slipping, hestarted slipping.
And I can hear it.
Now You're going to tell me allof the people that you've met
over 80, who you know, whohaven't shown any signs of
(52:13):
slippage yet.
First, I don't buy that.
I think that's bullshit.
And two, even if you do and theperson you're talking about
it's a legitimate case of thatit's not the norm.
Statistically that is not thenorm.
(52:37):
So I think we need to quitpretending that somebody over
the age of 80 is a viablecandidate for somebody who.
We need to be thinking sharplyand to have the processing speed
required to function in afast-moving political
environment environment.
(52:59):
That's not just true about theRepublican candidates that we
can't stand or that we hate, orwho are trying to shred the
Constitution or for it anyway,that we'd like to somehow remove
and get gone.
It's not just true of those,it's true of people in both
(53:20):
parties.
If we can use that for anexcuse for anyone, we can use it
for an excuse with everyone.
That's one of those things Ican't even believe would really
ever seriously be debated.
I can't even believe wouldreally ever seriously be debated
(53:45):
.
The trajectory of life and agingis not some fucking mystery.
I'm not the man at 58.
I was at 48.
I wasn't the man at 48.
I was at 38.
And on and on it goes.
It's a fact of life.
(54:05):
And anybody who tells you theyare the same person at 48,
physiologically, neurologicallyand any other ology it's a handy
phrase, it's a comfortablephrase for them to say, or
probably it usually starts withsomebody telling them oh, you
(54:29):
look just as good or you can doabout everything that you could
do at 38.
It doesn't matter, it may looklike that, it may seem like that
, it may seem like that, it'snot like that.
The body moves in one directionas we age.
(54:49):
Now, someday that may changeWith AI and the types of
medicines and DNA manipulation,and on and on and on.
That may result technologically.
Someday that might not be thecase, I don't know.
I do know that right now it'sthe case, it's the case for me,
(55:15):
it's the case for you and it isthe case for every man or woman
we will ever vote for.
So that's the thing.
Rather than experience a crisiswith that again, like we did,
(55:37):
how about let's avoid a crisislike that again?
How about let's not bullshitourselves and say, yeah, it
doesn't matter that he's 78 andwould be 82 when his term is
over.
It does matter.
Physiologically, neurologically, psychologically, it fucking
(56:01):
matters.
It's the leader of the freeworld.
It matters for his aides, whichtypically that's not where you
find an 80-year-old although I'dsay there are certainly
examples of where there havebeen but most of the time the
(56:24):
president's closest aides aren'tgoing to be that old.
But if someone is suggestingthat, okay, these three people
should be your aides and theyare 79, 81, and 80.
It's not a good idea.
(56:44):
It's not a good idea.
You know, you utilize thosepeople, you put those people on
speed dial.
You get people in thosepositions that haven't outlived
(57:04):
the male life expectancy, who,when they need to draw upon the
wisdom, experience and knowledgeof these people 79, 80, 81
years old while serving thepresident.
They can call them, they caneven meet with them, they can
(57:25):
email them, they can do a videochat and incorporate their vast
experience, their wisdom, theirknowledge.
(57:46):
But let's stop pretending thatputting these people in those
positions is a good fucking idea.
It wasn't, it's never been andit never will be again, at least
in until technology has shownus conclusively oh, guess what
we can do now?
We can pretty much freeze theaging process.
So when you're like 65, interms of the progression at a
(58:16):
cellular level, we can prettymuch freeze that in time.
At a cellular level, we canpretty much freeze that in time.
Yeah, you will become.
If you live another, you know,10 years, 15 years, you'll be 80
years old in calendar time, butphysiologically you'll still be
65.
If and when something like thathappens, then it changes the
(58:37):
calculus on what I've beentalking about.
It hasn't happened, though, andI don't think it's going to
anytime soon.
So for now, let's deal withreality, and let's deal with the
reality that having somebodyrunning for president the age
(59:00):
President Biden was this yearmakes a lot of fucking people
really fucking nervous and it'snot good for a campaign.
And that's just the truth.
You don't have to like it, youdon't even have to agree with it
(59:21):
, but if we are going to spendequal amounts of time
researching and pulling out thefacts on aging and cognitive
processing and everything elsethat's pertinent to that debate,
I'll win that debate and youwill lose, because it's a fact.
(59:45):
It's a fact that's supported byscience and, after all, aren't
we the party of science?
Well, I've found that sometimeswe are and, depending on the
topic at hand and how we feelabout it, sometimes we're not.
(01:00:08):
Well, science isn't one ofthose things you can ethically
be that way about.
If you're going to be forscience and say science is the
best guide we have, then beconsistent with it.
Apply that in anywhere.
(01:00:29):
Science is relevant to thediscussion or the debate and
with the age of a candidate,it's very relevant to that
discussion or debate.
So going full circle.
Then I come back around to thisidea of resistance thing that
(01:00:55):
has to happen before anysignificant group of people can
resist in conjunction with, youknow, a lot of other people.
They first have to be able toaccept hard truths, and one of
the hard truths that people seemto be struggling with is that
(01:01:17):
President Biden and VicePresident Kamala Harris have not
shown any real leadership sincethe election.
They have not shown the type ofleadership that you would
expect to pick up a history bookabout and read about a similar
experience and a set of threatsto the nation and national
(01:01:44):
security and then see how it washandled and go, oh yeah, god
damn man, that president was.
That's a leader.
That is an example of a realleader.
That's a leader.
That is an example of a realleader.
(01:02:05):
Nobody that's being honest withthemselves is going to assess
President Biden and VicePresident Kamala Harris
post-election and ever readanything that's written honestly
and go man, wow, you talk aboutexamples of great leaders when
(01:02:25):
democracy was taking in its lastbreath.
Wow, that's never going tohappen.
Based on what we've seen fromeither of them post-election,
nobody's ever genuinely andauthentically going to be able
(01:02:47):
to say that and believe it,because it's simple, they have
not risen to the occasion and soit's not.
Even you can't come at me andsay, well, you say they millions
of dollars to do so, so don'ttry to put this back on me of.
(01:03:28):
Well, who are you to set theframe for what it is we face
right now.
Take me out of it.
President Biden and VicePresident Harris set the frame
in their campaign in this run-upand before that, of course.
Well, to Hispanics, to migrants, to just US citizens period.
(01:04:09):
They told us that and they toldus he can't get back in the
White House.
He can't get back in the WhiteHouse.
So when I get on their ass fortreating Donald Trump like any
(01:04:41):
other person who is just waitingthe time to expire so he can be
sworn in and being all smilesand cheery and not coming out
and talking about the thingsthat the people who voted for
them expect to hear, based onwhat they told them during that
last year, you don't want todebate with me on that, unless
(01:05:06):
you're somebody who can reallyhave really thick skin, because
I won't be nice.
(01:05:26):
We've got to wake up to reality.
We've got to stop looking topolitical correctness and how we
think our peer group will feelor think about it as a measure
of how we are supposed to act,what we are supposed to say or
supposed to not say.
That is bad juju.
It's bad juju and the kind ofchanges and the kind of
(01:05:54):
behaviors, kind of actions thatactually do pull democracy back
from the precipice of going overthe edge into hell.
They don't come from, they arenot born out of that mentality,
they are not born out of thatmindset.
They're born out of people whoare willing to face reality, who
(01:06:21):
are willing to speak aboutreality realistically and
honestly, even if it's ugly andpainful to acknowledge.
And then we have to have peoplewho are willing to
realistically and honestly talkabout.
Talk about the solution tobeing able to continue to live
(01:06:47):
freely, about the closest I'veseen come to that recently.
And he's been amping things upin terms of what he's been
willing to put out there as MarkElias, which nothing against
(01:07:10):
him, but it's a little bitsurprising because I've just
never really seen that kind offire from him before.
I mean, he's obviously a verysmart guy and a very sharp
lawyer and wins a lot of casesthat are critical to democracy,
but I just never saw him as thekind of guy that would come out
with fucking fire in his asslike he has.
(01:07:33):
But he has and I've seen it nowand I'm telling you there's a
man who understands, there's aman who's done with the
mamby-pamby politicalcorrectness bullshit.
There's a man who's talkingabout winning and understands
(01:07:54):
what it means to fight.
He understands what it takes towin.
And if you don't follow him andI'm sure you already do you
should.
Another one, and I've mentionedhim the last, I don't know week
(01:08:15):
Adam Kinzinger.
I love that guy and every timeI see somebody say, yeah, but
he's still a Republican, shut up, fuck.
The guy voted and campaigned onbehalf of Kamala Harris.
What fuck?
(01:08:37):
What else do you want you want?
That guy understands whatresistance is.
(01:08:57):
That guy is fearless.
That guy knows what it takes towin and he's not afraid to post
what he says, not afraid topost what he thinks, and he sure
the fuck is not doing any ofthat based on how he thinks his
peer group is going to respond.
He's his own fucking man.
That's one reason I respect himso much.
(01:09:22):
He doesn't give a shit whetheryou like him or not.
He's going to say it and he'sgoing to express it and he's not
mamby-pamby.
He's rock-solid in whatever itis he believes.
And just because he doesn'tbelieve everything exactly like
(01:09:45):
you do, if that's the onlyreason you can't fully
appreciate somebody like AdamKinzinger, then you are being
way too picky when it comes towho helps fight for democracy
(01:10:08):
Juvenile.
So, hey, you know what Some ofthe people listening to this
episode of the Jack Hopkins Nowpodcast some of them may have
decided you know what I don'tlike how he's talking, I'm going
to unfollow him or I'm going toblock him.
(01:10:31):
Look that if you are speakingauthentically and honestly, that
should always be happening toyou.
You should always be losingfollowers at a similar rate to
(01:10:55):
the ones that you are gaining,because if you are being honest
and speaking what you reallythink and feel, then it's not
about trying to keep everybodyhappy.
It's not about trying to makesure nobody doesn't like you.
It's about one thing speakinghow you truly think and feel,
(01:11:18):
and the ones who are right foryou and feel, and the ones who
are right for you, you willattract them.
The ones who are not right foryou, you will repel them, and so
it's a constant process ofrefinement.
So that's how it has to be.
(01:11:42):
If you speak and communicateauthentically and it can be no
other way, because nobody'sgoing to agree with you on
everything all the time the onesthat I think, wow, I'm sure,
glad you're here are the oneswho can listen, and when
(01:12:05):
something comes up that theydon't agree with.
It's no big fucking deal, it'sjust some point they don't agree
with.
But they don't throw the babyout with the bathwater.
They appreciate the differenceand they look at the bigger
picture and say you know what?
There are very few people outthere talking as authentically
(01:12:28):
and as fearlessly, withoutregard for whether they're
pissing someone off or not, likethis guy or that woman or this
person, person.
And that's exactly how.
When people tell me that's theway they see me, I think great.
Not because I have a need forthem emotionally to see me that
(01:12:56):
way, but structurally it's greatbecause I know I'm now
communicating with more peoplewho are open to truly
understanding what resistance is, what it takes to win, and that
personal sacrifice will beinvolved.
That you don't resist and remaincomfortable.
You don't get to stay under anice warm blanket in your
(01:13:18):
favorite little cabin in thewoods and keep that feeling in
that location and really be apart of the resistance.
You're going to have to stepout into the cold or out into
the heat.
You might have to do thatsomewhere.
(01:13:45):
You don't want to and thatsomewhere might have a real risk
or danger to you, at the veryleast as far as who all is
willing to accept you, which alot of people are more scared of
that than they are of a bullet.
But that's the reality of realresistance at a time like this.
(01:14:12):
So if you are still listeningat this point, you get it Most
likely or maybe you just keptlistening because you hate me
enough that you just wanted tokeep hating for till the end.
(01:14:35):
But more likely, if you arestill listening, it's because at
least some of these ideas haveresonated with you and we are in
agreeance on at least some ofthese.
(01:15:23):
If we don't feel comfortable inspeaking out against leadership
when it's appropriate or useful,in an attempt to shape their
behavior in a direction moreconsistent with what they
previously told us and believedand that we agreed with, if we
can't do that, then this isn't afucking democracy in the first
place.
I say again if we can't andwon't do that, this is not a
fucking democracy we are tryingto protect anyway.
Well, I'm not willing to acceptthat idea.
(01:15:47):
It is a fucking democracy.
It is worth fighting for, andthose who want to live in a
manner that's inconsistent withsaving it, just get the fuck out
of the way.
That's all we ask.
Get out of the way, don't standin the way or clutter the
(01:16:13):
alleyway when those who dounderstand it are engaged in
saving it.
So I think I've presented thisabout as authentically and
(01:16:34):
realistically as I'm able to.
There's nothing contrived aboutit.
There was absolutely nothingscripted, as is the case with
any podcast or any video of minethat you see.
I've never scripted a video ora podcast in my life.
(01:16:55):
I don't even create outlinesfor my podcasts.
Matter of fact, I don't evenhave a concept in mind for my
podcasts.
I figure I'm 58 years old andthe person that I'm having on as
a guest has probably beenaround a while too.
(01:17:17):
If we aren't capable of sittingdown and engaging in a
conversation without having towrite a bunch of shit out in the
first place, then neither oneof us should be on air talking,
because at that point it's notan authentic conversation.
It's one step closer tocontrived.
(01:17:38):
If there's anything I hate,it's contrived are too contrived
.
If there's anything I hate,it's contrived.
Authenticity is what I've alwaystried to be about in my
communication and scripting.
There's just nothing authenticabout it.
(01:18:00):
I kind of feel that way about.
I mean, I understand some ofthe reasons why they do use
teleprompters, but I have to sayI'm still.
There's a part of me that saysjust fucking, talk to us.
If you know this subject wellenough, you ought to be able to
(01:18:24):
just talk to us.
You ought to be able to.
You shouldn't have to get upand do this every other
paragraph.
You ought to be able to justget up, look into the camera or
look down at the people in theaudience and fucking talk Speak.
If it's in your head already.
(01:18:46):
Have a conversation, talk aboutit.
The world is too scripted andthat's why people are feeling
like they're not having or beingpart of authentic conversations
in politics either.
Again, either party.
It's like if you want to talkto us, have a town hall where
(01:19:14):
you're actually engaging with alive human being and you don't
have a scripted answer, youdon't have a teleprompter to
help you out, and if you can'tdo that, then don't go into
politics.
Just don't go into it.
Realize that's a skill you needand that you need to know your
topics well enough that you cando that.
And if that's something you gooh fuck, I could never do that
(01:19:41):
then okay, that would be anindicator that politics is not
for you.
That's how you get closer toauthenticity and real
conversations that people feel aconnection with.
And as bad as I hate sayinganything that even remotely
(01:20:03):
sounds like acknowledgingsomething useful from Trump,
that is one reason he connectswith so many people at those
rallies it's because he goes offscript.
I say again, it's one of thereasons he connects with so many
(01:20:25):
people at those rallies andit's because he goes off script.
They don't give a shit whetherthe content is meaningful or
whether they're learninganything from it.
What they know in those momentsis that he's not reading off of
something and that he'sspeaking from the gut and making
(01:20:51):
eye contact with people in theaudience and on an emotional
level, they feel that.
And even if he is sayingsomething meaningful which we
know almost never happened theyprobably don't even hear it
anyway.
(01:21:11):
But what they do receive andfeel down to their bones is that
he's not reading something,he's looking at and speaking
directly to them and they'reconnecting emotionally.
There are a lot of changes weneed to make in this party and
(01:21:34):
the other day somebody postedsomething about that and
somebody said what about theother party?
I'm not in the other fuckingparty, are you?
I guess you're probably not,because you follow me here and
I'm a Democrat, and so is abouteverybody else that follows me.
Why, every time somebody bringssomething up about the changes
(01:21:57):
we need to make, there's alwayssomebody going.
What about the other party?
That's like coming home afteryou knocked the window out of
the neighbor's house with abaseball and your dad's about
ready to whip your ass and yousay wait a minute, tommy broke
(01:22:21):
the window out of their car twoweeks ago and most dads, at
least of the era I grew up,would have at least been of the
mind, if not verbalized it.
I don't give a shit what Tommydid.
What Tommy did and what goes onthere has nothing to do with
(01:22:43):
what goes on here.
You are my son, you broke outthat window and that's the
window and the son that I'mdealing with.
So there's got to be an opennessto look at our own party and
demand changes within it.
(01:23:05):
If that's the party we aregoing to be voting for, then we
have to start putting pressureon so that the things that have
been roadblocks for us when itcomes particularly to being able
to sway independence our way,vote for our candidate in our
(01:23:27):
party.
Then we've got to first of allaccept that we're not a perfect
party, and when you say aparty's not perfect, that means
there are things that needchanged.
And when you say a party's notperfect, that means there are
things that need changed, andagain, for the purpose of being
(01:23:55):
able to get enough votes to wina goddamn election, rather than
going on as business as usual,not speaking up when people need
to be called out and thenexpecting independents to pull
their head out of their ass andwake up to the fact that you
know what we're doing already.
That's the way it should be.
So wake up, independents.
(01:24:17):
That's not how it works.
That's not how it works.
I've really never been involveddirectly with a full political
campaign and I know how it worksin that regard.
It doesn't work that way.
If you want those votes, youmake the changes as a party you
(01:24:43):
need to make so that those votesthat you want they go.
Ah, okay, now I can vote foryou.
I can do it now.
I can vote for you now.
All of that shit that botheredme so much that I was like nope,
no way, those are no-goes forme.
(01:25:05):
I'm not voting for yourcandidate.
We rounded the edges off ofthose or we got rid of those.
We focused on the big issuesthat apply to the biggest
majority of people and we gotthe independent votes that we
(01:25:25):
could never seem to get.
Now will we have anotherelection?
I should say, will we haveanother presidential election?
I have no clue, even if you'resaying, okay, well, just which
(01:25:49):
way do you lean?
I have no clue, I don't.
Oh, I could tell you somethingthat sounded convincing, but it
would be bullshit because Ireally don't have any clue.
We might, we might.
We might not.
(01:26:09):
So anybody who and I get it notevery time we post something are
we being technical or meaningto be absolutely factual about
it, I get that, but when that'sthe way somebody is intending to
communicate, and anytime youhear somebody say there will
never be another election fouryears from now, it might turn
(01:26:35):
out that, oh, I guess they wereright, but they don't fucking
know either.
They have no idea.
Just like the person who tellsyou with certainty, oh, there
will absolutely be anotherpresidential election, they're
talking out their ass.
The same way, the person who'stelling you there will
absolutely never be anotherelection, nobody fucking knows,
(01:26:59):
and that's the most honest thingI can say about whether we'll
have another election.
Nobody knows.
What I do think that I know alittle something about it's that
if we do to the degree that thethings that I've been speaking
(01:27:24):
about are ignored, we'llprobably lose that fucking thing
too.
I come from a unique place interms of somebody that posts
from within the context of aDemocrat, with posts that are
(01:27:46):
going out to primarily Democrats, somebody who voted Democrat
and has for every Democraticcandidate for the last six years
.
But where I came from, when youleave the Republican Party
after 50 years.
It's not like you step throughsome fucking force field that
(01:28:12):
sucks everything you'veexperienced and ever believed
out of your body and head.
It doesn't work that way.
That experience, thoseexperiences, those 50 years of
experiences, will have shapedyou in a way that you cannot
(01:28:34):
completely shake off, andanybody who would tell you
otherwise doesn't know whatthey're talking about, and
anybody who would tell youotherwise doesn't know what
they're talking about.
I will carry those influenceswith me for the rest of my life.
No-transcript, excuse me.
(01:29:16):
So I'm definitely a blue.
I'm not even a blue dot, I'm ablue speck in a red state, and
because of that and because ofthe previous 50 years, I know
how Republicans think, andbecause of that I know a hell of
(01:29:37):
a lot about how independentsthink as well, especially the
ones that the party this partyhasn't been able to pull,
because those are the ones thathave got heavier amounts of that
Republican influence runningthrough them.
They identify as an independent, but, much like me, they
(01:30:00):
probably came from a longhistory of having been a
Republican or raised aroundRepublicans or having lived in a
Republican stronghold.
And so, even though their title, their preferred title, says
independent, there's still ahealthy Republican influence
going on with them and I knowwhat that influence is and I
(01:30:27):
know the reasons you can't getthose votes for the Democratic
Party.
And I also know that if thisparty doesn't wake up to that,
doesn't get interested in thatand is not interested in making
the shifts that need to be madeto win a goddamn election, then
(01:30:50):
they're going to lose electionsagain.
So, as I wrap this up, I really,as I thought about it again,
there wasn't much time to puttoo much thought into it,
because it was fairly impulsiveactually to sit down and do this
(01:31:13):
episode that you're watchingnow.
But there's really nodifference, I suppose, in me
doing this one or the one I'mgoing to be doing with someone
next week, because I'm notreally going to think about that
(01:31:34):
one either until they come onmy screen, because I don't want
to have anything contrived orpre-planned.
I want it to be just like weran into each other in a coffee
shop and are having an authenticconversation, and if you want
to have an authenticconversation, you have to have
(01:31:56):
one, and when you are sculptingyour conversation ahead of time,
you've just shit the bed whenit comes to having an authentic
conversation.
And that's what I wanted tomake sure this one was about too
Authentic.
(01:32:20):
I suppose I curse less on mypodcast episodes because I
really I don't think of thepodcast episodes of being about
me at all.
I strive I don't know how wellI do that from your perception,
but I strive to make it about myguest.
(01:32:41):
So if I get, if I find myselfhaving allowed myself to get too
emotionally intense or put whoI am too much in front of people
, then it runs the risk ofbecoming about me and I don't
(01:33:04):
want that.
When I want it to be about me,then I do a solo episode like
this one, but when I have aguest on, I want it to be about
my guest.
So I do my best to just stayout of the way or to not do
anything that would put thespotlight on me more.
(01:33:25):
Here I'm just giving you me.
If somebody came in, a goodfriend or even whoever came into
my house and sat down with meto have a cup of coffee, I'm not
one to go.
Oh, I don't know what he thinksor believes, so I better not
(01:33:48):
say X, y, z, I just I talk how Italk.
I always figured that if it'ssomething that is offensive or
so bothersome to someone.
They've got the right to get upand leave, but I've always seen
(01:34:12):
that as something I can't be.
How authentic can I be if I goaround the world presenting
myself in a way that's notauthentic?
Or it's not in the way that Iwould talk at home, or it's not
in the way I would talk to alongtime friend.
To me that just again you hearthat word come up again To me
that feels contrived, that feelsfake, and I'd rather have
(01:34:37):
somebody who I just met leavingmy home going fuck man, that guy
who I just met leaving my homegoing.
Fuck man, that guy.
Yeah, he's not your average cat, but God damn it, he's honest.
He's not holding anything back.
I didn't ever feel he wassaying anything to be offensive.
(01:34:58):
It's just how he talks.
And either they all appreciatethat or they won't, and I can't
control that and have no desireto.
But if they don't, then okay,leave.
I'm not going to lose any sleepover it and I don't suppose
they will either, or shouldn't?
(01:35:18):
I just think we need moreauthenticity, and for more
authenticity we have to bewilling to face and experience
uncomfortable things, operate inuncomfortable areas in that
(01:35:40):
uncomfortable zone.
Now it's no longeruncomfortable for me.
It was it used to be when Ifirst said I'm breaking out of
my shell here.
I've been living kind of aninauthentic life in terms of who
I am.
When I first decided that, okay, I'm not doing that anymore,
I'm going to be who I am witheverybody.
All the time.
It was new and it wasuncomfortable and it was scary.
(01:36:06):
And the more I did it, the lessnew it became, the less
uncomfortable it became and theless scary it became, until
eventually guess what'suncomfortable and scary now?
(01:36:26):
You guessed it.
The idea of conforming to whatI think somebody else expects of
me, or speaking in a way that Ithink they'll approve of.
That's very uncomfortable to menow.
That's very scary to me now.
That's very scary to me nowBecause those things are
(01:36:51):
reminders that you've lostyourself again.
You've disappeared.
You're in a conversation butyou're not present.
This character that you thinkthey will like or approve of is
(01:37:12):
the one doing the talking, butyou are gone, and that's no
longer acceptable to me.
In my teens and 20s that waskind of the way I lived, but
then I realized I could livelike this the rest of my life
(01:37:33):
and I'll never really know who Iam, because I'm almost never
allowing myself to be who I am,and I would imagine that
somebody who is from the LGBTQcommunity.
You know exactly what the fuckI'm talking about, because there
was a time and maybe it's stillhappening.
There was a time, at leastprobably, where you lived in
(01:37:56):
that same manner.
You weren't who you truly were,you didn't express yourself as
you truly wanted to and youconformed so that you'd keep the
acceptance and the approval ofothers.
And if you don't live like thatanymore, it's probably because
at some point you said you knowwhat?
(01:38:17):
Fuck all of you, I'm not hereto please you.
I'm not on this earth to pleaseall of you.
I'm here on earth to be thefullest expression of myself
there can be and to use that,whatever it is, to do some good
(01:38:41):
in this world, to do some, toleave my mark in a way that made
at least one life better, andmore than that if possible.
So I hope maybe you've enjoyedthis episode as much as I have,
(01:39:06):
because I've enjoyed itthoroughly and I think I'll be
doing some more of these in thefuture, where I just kind of
have a thought and I sit downand I do do an episode and let
it go where it goes, and that'sone reason I hate the idea of
(01:39:26):
outlines.
I don't want to go where Ithought it should go half an
hour ago.
I don't want to feel confinedto okay, a half an hour ago I
thought it should go here andthen there, but a half an hour
later I'm not feeling like thatanymore and the flow of it is
feeling more like it wants to gothere instead of there.
(01:39:48):
But, damn it, the outline saysthere.
So that's where we go Now.
I can't do that, or I could.
I won't do that.
Do that as thoughts come to usas they do in real life, where
(01:40:14):
we thought we wanted to go, orwhat has been spoken of,
oftentimes creates a differentpath that leads to a different
topic or subject than the one anoutline would have put in place
.
So I'll probably do more ofthese.
I like speaking in the way mybrain operates and that is go
(01:40:41):
with that flow and when itsignals oh, based on what you
just said, this would make senseto talk about now.
So let's talk about that.
This is Jack Hopkins and I haveenjoyed the last hour and 40
(01:41:02):
minutes.
Hope you have as well.
If you haven't, then youprobably aren't still here.
You've probably signed offalready.
But if you haven't and you arestill here, I say to you don't
listen so long the next time, solong the next time.
Just quit early and dosomething else that you do enjoy
(01:41:23):
.
So I will talk to you againsoon and until then, have a
great evening, morning, day orwhatever's appropriate for when
you listen to or watch this.
I'll talk to you again soon.
Welcome to the Jack Hopkins Show podcast, where
stories about the power of focusand resilience are revealed by
the people who live thosestories and now the host of the
Jack Hopkins Show podcast, jackHopkins.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hello and welcome to the Jack Hopkins Show podcast.
I'm your host, jack Hopkins.
Today's going to be a veryshort and brief episode.
It's one that I didn't haveplanned but, gosh, as I sat
around thinking about it, somethings you just can't post and
(00:42):
get across with the sameemphasis that you can on video
or even audio.
Video is better, because thenyou can get in the facial
expressions and the gestures andall of the other nonverbal
(01:03):
communication, all of the othernonverbal communication.
You know, the last couple ofdays on social media, I've been
a real hard ass, intentionally.
I've intentionally been a realhard ass because what I'm seeing
on social media from theDemocratic Party as a whole, as
(01:29):
a whole and anytime you'retalking about the whole, of
course there are exceptions whatI'm seeing is not encouraging,
and I'll tell you what thecontext that I'm talking about,
(01:50):
because when I say what I'mseeing is not encouraging, I
mean within that context, theDemocratic Party as a whole, in
terms of all issues, is a hellof a lot more encouraging to me
than the Republican Party.
A hell of a lot moreencouraging to me than the
Republican Party, for goddamnsure.
So make no mistake about that.
(02:18):
But within the context ofresistance and for, in times
like this, I'm just not seeingit.
I'm seeing a lot of people whowill very conveniently put
resistance you know, hashtagresistance in their profiles on
(02:42):
Twitter or threads or any ofthem.
That's simple.
That's simple.
Anybody can do that.
What does it mean?
In the grand scheme of things,I really don't think it means
(03:03):
anything.
What it means is I guess youare willing to put yourself out
there as yeah, I'm not for a lotof this stuff that the rest of
you aren't for, and say thatyou'll fight against, but it
(03:24):
doesn't say anything about howhard or how specifically
somebody is willing to fightagainst it.
And I guess, look, I guess, ifit comes down to, you aren't
going to engage in any othertype of resistance than posting,
(03:48):
you know, resistance.
It's probably still better forthe movement as a whole.
I guess.
I don't know that that's true.
I'm just saying it probably isbetter to the more people who
have resistance.
Maybe it's a better look, butwhat I'm saying is the kind of
(04:16):
resistance I see peopleindicating that they are willing
to support or take part in.
It's just.
I see a lot of hesitancy andreluctance, if not just outright
refusal to go there.
(04:38):
And I'll give you an example ofone of the acid tests that I've
kind of run the last couple ofdays.
And, by the way, when I say I'mdoing an acid test or any kind
of test to get feedback, it'sonly ever going to be something
(05:04):
that I truly believe.
In other words, I would neverput something out there that I
don't believe just to getpeople's feedback on If I put it
out there test or not, acidtest or not.
At the core, it's something Isupport and get behind.
(05:29):
Now for an acid test, I may wordit more aggressively just to
invoke a deeper, visceralresponse, an emotional response,
because as somebody thatstudied psychology and human
behavior my entire life, I knowthat's where the real answers
(05:51):
come from.
If you want to get down tosomebody's deepest beliefs, even
those that they might not beaware they have and that
function beneath the cusp ofconsciousness, you need to
(06:11):
trigger them emotionally.
That's when you get all of thatother bullshit out of the way.
That's where you get themanners, the politeness, that's
where you get the politicalcorrectness, all of that
nonsense that clouds and fogsand acts as a smoke screen for
(06:36):
allowing you to see what reallydrives somebody and how they
really feel.
You get all of that out of theway if you trigger them
intensely enough emotionally.
If you don't, you can never knowif what you are getting or what
(06:57):
they are reflecting in terms ofwhat they are saying, if you're
person to person, or what theyare writing.
Because the truth is in life,not only can we say anything or
write anything that may or maynot be true.
(07:20):
We all do it all the time.
True, we all do it all the timewe do.
And if you think you are theexception to this, then you
probably ought to get real clearwith yourself on just how
accurate that is, because it'snot.
We all go around throughouteach day putting on a front of
(07:44):
some sort.
It's not like we get up and say, okay, I've got to put this
face on today, I've got to putthis facade up today.
That's not generally how itgoes.
Most of it is just habit andconforming to society or under
(08:05):
the heading of politicalcorrectness or politeness or
whatever the fuck else categorythat you want to place it in,
(08:30):
and or unconsciously suppressingwhat you actually think and
feel and especially suppressinghow intensely you express what
you really think and feel.
So when I really want to get tothe core of an issue and say,
okay, look, here's my hunch,here's my hunch in terms of what
(08:51):
people are thinking.
What beliefs are really drivingpeople?
What emotions are reallydriving people?
I don't ask, I don't, just sayI'm curious.
Jack Hopkins would like to knowwhat are your core beliefs that
(09:11):
are really driving yourbehaviors right now.
And then, when you finish withthat, please list the main
drivers, emotionally, that arepushing you right now.
You might as well ask what kindof fucking peanut butter they
prefer, because the usefulnessof the answers that you get will
(09:32):
be about the same.
People aren't going to say.
One reason they're not going tosay what's true is because
almost none of them have anyidea, because that stuff usually
operates at a below consciouslevel.
(09:54):
It's not that they're lying.
I don't think anybody.
I shouldn't say anybody.
There's always going to besomebody.
I wouldn't say that most peopleare going to lie intentionally
when they answer those questions.
It's just that they reallythink that those are accurate
answers.
They don't have any idea thatthey're not and that the real
(10:18):
answers are just beneath thecusp of consciousness.
So it's not lying per se, it'sjust not accurate with
consciousness.
So it's not lying per se, it'sjust not accurate.
So if you want to bypass all ofthat and get to the more
accurate information, you've gotto stir them deeply and
(10:39):
intensely emotionally.
And the easiest way to do thatis controversy, because
controversy, if you push it farenough, will eventually elicit
anger.
And there are two emotionalstates from which people are
(11:06):
willing to well take that out.
Scratch that Willing doesn'tfit there.
There are two emotional statesin which people will loudly and
unknowingly touch on their corebeliefs and their core thoughts,
and they are two states thatseem at opposite ends of the
(11:30):
spectrum of one another, but interms of their power to push
someone to puke out someunconscious stuff, they're very
much alike.
And that's extreme optimism andconfidence.
Extreme optimism and confidence,I'm not very confident at the
(11:56):
moment at how smoothly I can sayoptimism and confidence and
anger.
That's right.
Extreme optimism and confidenceand anger that's right.
Extreme optimism and confidenceand anger those are two states
from which somebody will engagevery emotionally.
(12:19):
Now you can call extremeoptimism and confidence, you can
call that just thinking youknow every fucking thing and
that you can't be proven wrong.
Pretty much covers the samestate that I'm talking about as
extreme optimism and confidence.
And then the other one's prettyclear Anger.
(12:43):
Sometimes between a husband andwife.
The issues that have needed tohave been talked about for a
long time will only surface in amoment of anger, either from
both of them or one of them.
(13:03):
Either from both of them or oneof them.
Now I'm not saying that that'sthe best way to approach your
marriage and communication there.
I've never done marriagecounseling or that I knew I
(13:27):
didn't want to go there at all.
First of all, I've been marriedmore than once.
So I don't know, in that mindor in that frame of mind I was
kind of like, yeah, you know, Iprobably shouldn't be telling
other people how to get theirmarriage closer to perfect,
(13:51):
because I'm still working on itmyself and I'm not sure I
haven't figured out yet.
So that was always my thing.
I was like nope, nope, nope,not going there.
Besides that man, I've seensome of the ugliest shit I've
ever seen in my life In a roomwhere a therapist is working
(14:13):
with a couple who hate eachother, and it's like a frigging
war zone, right.
So I just never wanted any partof that.
It's like a frigging war zone,right.
So I just never wanted any partof that.
So what did I use this conceptfor in my acid test the last
(14:36):
couple of days?
Well, I used it in an areawhere I, again, I very firmly
believe in the idea that I wasputting out.
And that's the thing about memost of the time.
Again, none of us are immune tothis.
Most of the time, you don'treally have to piss me off to
(15:01):
get me to lay out the core ofwhat I really believe or what
emotions are driving me at anygiven moment.
Not only will I tell you, butI'll show you, I'll demonstrate
it or display it.
I'm not saying that's astrength, but I would be very
(15:24):
slow to assert that that is aweakness.
I think it's extremelycontextual and I think in some
contexts in life.
It's extremely useful and myexperience has shown me that
social media is one of those.
(15:45):
And I guess I should add, Ithink it's extremely useful if
there's useful content there, ifthere's something of value, if
there's something there thatsomebody might use as the
catalyst to learn, or maybe evenlearn from your rant or your
(16:08):
post or your video straight fromit.
I think then it can beextremely useful.
Where it's not, I think, evenuseful at all, it's when people
don't have any substance, evenuseful at all.
(16:31):
It's when people don't have anysubstance or maybe the person
ranting just isn't particularlyintelligent or at the very least
not particularly educated inthe area that they are
commenting on.
Now I know I've done that forsure.
I've gotten much better at that.
(16:51):
I've kind of shifted more andmore to you know what, if I'm
going to comment on like legalexpertise, on like legal
expertise, I'm going to do mybest to always throw in there
somewhere that this is myopinion and that when it comes
(17:14):
to the technicalities of law, Idon't know any more about what
I'm saying than the guy drivingthe school bus.
That doesn't mean I can't havean opinion on it, and I think
sometimes opinions need to beput out there, whether it's from
an expert in that area or not,but it just needs to be again.
(17:41):
There has to be somethinguseful there, and if your
opinion, even if it's not spoton, can serve as the catalyst
for maybe an expert to come inand correct you.
The way I see that is, there'sa situation in which, had it not
(18:25):
have been for your loudassertive opinion, there may or
may not have been any compellingreason for that particular
legal expert to come out at thatmoment and say what they did
about that particular thing.
And so I think sometimes,sometimes it's necessary and
even, you know, really usefulfor people.
But for the most part, I try mybest.
I try my best and I fail.
(18:52):
Don't get me wrong, believe me,I fail.
But when I do fail, I make anote of that and focus a little
more on not commenting as thoughI know what the fuck I'm
talking about.
When it comes to something likea legal matter or something that
only a physicist really knowsanything about, I try to stick
to human behavior and psychology.
(19:13):
I know that, that I know interms of what drives people, how
to read people, how to use thetools at my disposal to shape
human behavior.
All of that is my world, andI'm good at that.
(19:35):
Other areas I can't think oftoo many I'm very good at.
That's my shtick, so I try tostick there.
But again, sometimes we need toget some accurate feedback, and
(19:59):
so one area that I'm just asexpert in, I suppose, as anybody
else, is that of being a voterright.
We all or most of us, as we'refinding out, it's fewer than we
thought, but most of us have theright to vote.
(20:23):
Now, that doesn't mean we allassess the candidates as
accurately and as thoroughly orintelligently as everyone else,
but in terms of casting the voteand knowing what our
expectations are once we castthe vote, expectations are once
(20:48):
we cast the vote, we are all asqualified as the next person.
Now I know somebody may comeout and want to argue that and
get down in the weeds about.
Well, what do you meanspecifically when you say
qualified?
We're all equal qualified there.
Then maybe they can make avalid argument.
Then maybe they can make avalid argument.
But in general, look, who am Ito cast judgment on the process
(21:14):
that you went through in yourhead or didn't, to vote?
That's not to say that I won'tcast judgment on that, but I'm
saying who am I to do that?
So if you see me do that, theneither in your mind or in a post
, say you know what?
(21:35):
Fuck off, jack Hopkins.
Who are you to know whatprocess I should use or not?
So I think we're all equal inthat way.
We have the right to vote, butwhen it comes to the people we
vote for, now we're going todrill down a little bit.
(22:01):
Going into the election, I waslook, in this election, I was
going to be behind theDemocratic candidate for
President of the United Statesand the Democratic politician,
(22:26):
or potential politician, on theticket all the way up and down,
because of what we faced withthe opposition and what their
agenda is, not one we have toguess on, but what their stated
agenda is.
(22:46):
So, going into an election, Idid as I expected myself to do
and that was throw my fullsupport behind whoever it was.
(23:06):
When it was Joe Biden, I threwmy full support behind Joe Biden
.
When it became Kamala Harris, Ithrew my full support behind
Vice President Kamala Harris.
Vice President Kamala Harris,and I think, during an election
(23:29):
year, boy, once the candidatesare in place, and particularly
once they are on the ticket.
I think it's prettycounterproductive, if you're in
that party, not to be throwingyourself behind them fully.
And even when maybe your gut isgoing, oh boy, I wish there'd
(23:55):
have been somebody else, you canthink that.
You can feel that as long asyou realize that doesn't mean
shit because it wasn't somebodyelse, it was Joe Biden until it
wasn't, and then it was KamalaHarris.
So all the ifs and shouldas andwouldas and couldas don't mean
(24:19):
again, don't mean jack shit.
It's the person that's therefrom that party to vote on.
Now, post-election, I have awhole different approach to this
, an entirely different approachto this.
Post-election for one thing,the election's over at that
(24:43):
point.
For one thing, the election'sover at that point Nobody's
going to be.
You know, it's another fouryears before somebody is going
to be getting into a new office,at least by vote, with the
exception of the midterms.
But in terms of presidentialcandidate, vice president, it's
(25:05):
going to be another four years.
At that point it goes back to.
For me, it goes back to the modeI was in up until about a year
before the election, and that isfeeling free to criticize in
(25:30):
any legitimate way the leadersof my party.
And when I see a reluctancefrom people to do that, when I
(25:50):
see a reluctance from people todo that, boy, it bothers the
hell out of me.
And it bothers the hell out ofme because it's one of the
loudest cries people in thisparty had about Trump and the
Republican Party.
You know the constant postingof they could have called him
out, they could have stopped him, they could have said something
.
Where were the people withballs to come forth and say
(26:14):
enough, we're not supporting himon this.
We need to get.
See what I mean.
Now I know some of you out theremight be thinking well, jack,
it was an entirely different setof behaviors and actions.
True, a lot of the people thatyou are talking to who are also
(26:45):
thoughtful and think aboutthings a little bit before they
just spout off if it's somethingthat they're not happy with
either.
I was about to say you have anobligation a moral and ethical
obligation, in my opinion tofucking say something and to say
(27:07):
it loudly enough and to directit at the person that it
pertains to.
Now I see another phenomenonhere, when it comes to this
topic, I see it quite often andthat is someone who will say
(27:31):
sending them letters or posting,tagging, you know, the
president or the vice presidentor some other politician.
That doesn't do shit.
You've seen that.
(27:52):
I'm not even going to ask ifyou've seen it, you have.
But then you have also seen thisexample when something hits the
news, like it did recently,where Blue Cross oh yeah, see, I
don't even have to complete it.
Where Blue Cross oh yeah, Idon't even have to complete it.
Where Blue Cross was going to,you know, not pay for anesthesia
(28:14):
beyond a prescribed time for asurgery People flipped the fuck
out.
Flipped the fuck out and publicoutcry caused them to alter
their decision.
Now, some of those same peoplewho, when you are suggesting to
(28:42):
speak out and condemnpoliticians in your own party or
anyone when they are notengaging the way that the
country needs them to, or atleast that you think the country
needs them to, the people whotell you that doesn't do shit
will be the same.
Some of the same people who aresharing every goddamn meme that
(29:02):
says never say public opinionor public outcry doesn't make a
difference.
Look, blue Cross, blue Shield,they retracted that decision.
So you know, it's like look,fucking, pick one, pick one.
(29:36):
Either it does no good at all,or public outcry and public
outrage have the power to shapepolitics.
Pick one.
There are enough examples toshow us that there have been
many times where that kind ofcondemnation has influenced a
(29:58):
decision and altered thatdecision decision.
Now, nothing is 100% and Idon't think I hope nobody's
saying, well, yeah, but itdoesn't work all the time, jack.
(30:19):
Well, when you've got a fuckingcrystal ball that will let you
know specifically ahead of timewhen it's going to work and when
it's not, shoot me a message.
Nobody knows ahead of time.
And since nobody knows ahead oftime, on the off chance that it
will influence policy anddecisions of various types,
(30:49):
speak out, don't be afraid tocriticize.
So what's that have to do withresistance?
Well, it has to do withresistance.
For this reason, with resistance, for this reason, the kind of
(31:12):
resistance that has changed theworld throughout history I mean,
really changed the world hasinvolved the kinds of behaviors
that most people weren't reallyexcited or probably didn't feel
really good about having to do.
(31:34):
In fact, a lot of it probablycut across the grain of
everything about them, the grainof everything about them, and
that's one of the reasons so fewever really engage in that type
(31:58):
of resistance.
Well, it's much the same forpeople who are too afraid or
just simply flat out refuse tocriticize leadership in their
own party.
It just doesn't feel right tothem, which usually means they
are worried about their peergroup.
(32:19):
They're in this little click,this little circle, and
everybody kind of stays insidethe lines.
There are no-nos, there arethings you can do to kind of
float close to the edge thatnobody will boot you out of the
(32:39):
circle over.
But for the most part there areclear lines of demarcation and
if you get outside of thoselines intensely or very far you
risk being pushed out.
And the need most people havefor acceptance by their peer
group is so strong thatrelatively few people are,
(33:04):
they're not willing to go there.
It's not that they don't thinkand agree with those things that
people who don't give a fuckabout going outside the lines
it's not that they don't agreewith it, that it's more
important to them to stay inline with their peer group than
(33:28):
it is to show any kind ofapproval or support for that
thing they secretly like.
That is not a recipe forresistance.
In fact that's the opposite offucking resistance.
I say again, that is theopposite of resistance.
(33:55):
Resistance has not a goddamnthing to do with feeling good,
with feeling accepted and withstaying comfortable.
It just doesn't.
And I think that's the onething most people don't
understand when they write thatword resistance.
Resistance to them is, you know, being so bold as to post a
(34:20):
comment that cuts against aRepublican politician, Although
I've seen a hell of a lot lessboldness even there since the
election.
I've seen accounts that havegone from slamming his ass every
day to like nope, my lips arezipped, to like nope, my lips
(34:45):
are zipped, I'm not saying shitthat could come back to haunt me
.
I was a resistor up to a point,and then my fear took over,
right, so I just don't.
(35:06):
And God forbid.
You know, if you are a resistor, you are a resistor to anything
that is hurting the directionyou want the country to go.
I just happen to have anexample.
I do, if you can believe it.
I've got an example of that Inhis book on tyranny 20 Lessons
(35:35):
from the 20th Century by TimothySnyder.
He talks about and this is onpage 18, anticipatory obedience
is a political tragedy, and goback.
I really like this line.
It's so simple.
That's what makes it soprofound.
The first sentence on chapter 1, on page 17, says most of the
(36:01):
power of authoritarianism isfreely given.
Most of the power ofauthoritarianism is freely given
.
So I say to you then, a coupleof days as I recall maybe it was
(36:23):
three, as I recall, maybe itwas three After the election,
the headlines read PresidentBiden I'm paraphrasing President
Biden says he's committed to asmooth transition, to a smooth
(36:49):
transition, and I about lost myfucking mind, as did many of you
listening, as did many of thepeople who are interested in how
(37:15):
their peer groups will respond.
But it comes back to that wholethat need, that deep need.
Most people have to be acceptedand approved of by their peer
group, as angry as they mighthave felt, boy, I mean to post
something about that would belike saying I don't support
(37:38):
every goddamn thing thatPresident Biden does just
because he's President Biden andis a Democrat.
That would be too much likethat.
And so it pisses them off.
They're angry about it, butthey say nothing.
(38:04):
You know who says what they'rethinking about and how they
really feel about things.
More often than not it's thelittle accounts, it's the small
accounts, it's the people withmaybe 500 followers.
If that, why?
Many of them do not give a fuck.
(38:26):
Their peer group is not ofenough size and magnitude that
they give a fuck.
They're like you know what, Idon't give a shit.
This is how I feel.
This is how I see it.
I'm angry.
(38:47):
That shouldn't have happenedlike that and I'm going to
fucking say something.
That's where the real blunt,real visceral honesty often
comes from is those smallaccounts.
They don't have an image touphold.
(39:09):
They don't have a circle, so tospeak, of any magnitude, where
they are more worried about thefeedback from the circle than
they are voicing their ownopinion, how they really feel
about something that is in deepconflict with what they've been
(39:35):
told and what we were told andthey told us.
By the way, let me preface thisby saying they were correct.
They told us this because it'strue.
(39:58):
They told us that Donald Trumpwas a threat to democracy, that
Donald Trump was a threat todemocracy.
They told us that he was acriminal and they supported and
stayed silent about peoplewithin their own party, other
leadership, who said he shouldbe barred from running for
(40:21):
president.
You know whether it be the 14thAmendment or criminal case.
They knew and they told us theyknew.
They rang the three alarm, fivealarm fire bells, and rightly
(40:44):
so.
So when, three days later, whenthe people who have gobbled that
up and shaken their head you'regoddamn right, he can't be
allowed to take office, he is athreat to democracy and society
(41:08):
and to human beings.
When, three days after theelection, they see a smiling,
open-armed President Bidenvoicing that his main focus is
to make sure there is a smoothtransition, it's a fucking
(41:34):
problem.
It's a fucking problem.
That's how a democracy dies,and what President Biden engaged
in is absolutely an example ofmost of the power of
(41:56):
authoritarianism is freely givenand, on the quote on the other
page, anticipatory obedience isa political tragedy.
Well, I am here to tell youthat, in my opinion which I
happen to think is reflective ofa lot of people's opinions,
(42:23):
opinions the biggest politicaltragedy we've seen for a while
is that of President Bidenlovingly and embracingly
switching his focus to a smoothtransition and then largely not
saying another goddamn wordabout the danger of Trump and
(42:48):
how he's a threat to democracy,how he's a national security
threat and Kamala Harris and, bythe way, I love Joe Biden and
(43:09):
that's one thing I think toothat often bothers me.
People think you have to either.
You can't criticize somebodyunless you hate them or dislike
them, and that's a load of shit.
That's somebody that grew up infairy tale land.
The people you criticized areoftentimes most often going to
(43:33):
be the people you love.
So the idea that expressinganger or displeasure requires
(43:56):
you to dislike or hate them,that's batshit, crazy talk.
To me, it has nothing to dowith liking or hating them.
It has to do with assessing thejob they are doing and holding
them to what they said andexpecting to see behavior that
mirrors what they.
We have seen nothing fromeither President Biden or Vice
(44:24):
President Kamala Harris thatindicates or would be indicative
of them reflecting the kind ofvisceral, five-alarm-fire
approach they took prior to theelection Nothing.
And if you're somebody who'sgoing to argue and say that's
(44:46):
not true, leave the comment, Iguess, at your own peril,
because I'm going to come backat you hard because that's
bullshit.
We haven't.
We have seen nothing thatmatched the intensity that they
(45:08):
showed us prior to the election,from anybody, from anybody.
So far, what have we got?
Let's see.
So far, we've got Blumenthal,who suddenly thinks Elon Musk is
a champion for freedom ofspeech and the leader in the
(45:37):
tech industry.
Keep in mind Dick Blumenthalengaged in stolen valor Valor.
I can't talk.
Richard Blumenthal engaged instolen valor, valor, valor.
(45:58):
Look it up, valor, look it up,google it.
That's some shit there.
When somebody that's got a seatin Washington is going to lie
(46:21):
about their military service inthe way that he did, I don't
have them in a good personcategory, I just don't.
So I'm less shocked saysomething that I don't know
(47:05):
whether it's true or not.
There's a good chance that it'strue, and so with him, I'm not
cutting him any slack, becauseif he's impacted that much by
his stroke, then he needs to getthe fuck out.
But I guess if there's anythingresembling slack that I'm
(47:28):
cutting him, it's that people gothrough some deep personality
changes, or can I shouldn't saypeople do they often do after
suffering a stroke.
They can go through bouts ofdepression, and, if I'm not
(47:54):
mistaken, I think Fetterman hadsuffered with some depression
prior to being elected in thefirst place.
So it's quite possible thatFetterman's pivot towards
suggesting a pardon ismultifactorial, right it?
(48:17):
I can't help but think his isinfluenced in some way and to
some degree by his stroke,because his position is just so
damn contradictory to what we'veseen from him in the past
(48:43):
Clyburn.
James Clyburn, that dude needsto get the hell on down the road
.
He needs to go.
I could look up, I guess guesshow old he is.
Put it this way he's old enough.
(49:04):
He needs to go, becausesomebody who was involved with
the civil rights movement likeJames Clyburn, somebody who's
been around and seen as much ashe has seen fucking, knows
(49:26):
better than to watch eight yearsof Trump and then tell the
president of the United Stateswho, by the way, is a good
friend of his, you should pardonDonald Trump.
That fucking guy needs to go.
Is he suffering from dementia,alzheimer's?
(49:50):
Is he using medicinal orillicit marijuana?
I have no idea and frankly, inhis case I don't give a shit.
He's been there long enough.
Go.
This old shit of 80 plus yearold politicians needs to end.
(50:15):
It needs to end, end, it needsto end.
Look at the crisis that we hadat the last minute over
President Biden's age.
Now you can tell me.
Look, why wasn't I sayinganything about this in this run
(50:39):
up to the election?
Because it was a run up to afucking election and Donald
Trump was the person on theother party.
That's why you get behind yourcandidate when somebody who says
you know what I'm going toshred the Constitution is the
person on the Republican ticket.
(51:00):
That's not the time for that.
Once the election's over, it'sno man's land.
It's back to reality is thereare very few people I know who
(51:23):
would hire someone 80 plus formany positions at all.
My dad is 82.
Love the guy to death.
He's still pretty active.
Death, he's still pretty active.
(51:49):
If I had to pick between himand somebody younger for some
matter of importance, I'm notpicking my dad.
He's 82.
People start slipping.
He started slipping.
People start slipping, hestarted slipping.
And I can hear it.
Now You're going to tell me allof the people that you've met
over 80, who you know, whohaven't shown any signs of
(52:13):
slippage yet.
First, I don't buy that.
I think that's bullshit.
And two, even if you do and theperson you're talking about
it's a legitimate case of thatit's not the norm.
Statistically that is not thenorm.
(52:37):
So I think we need to quitpretending that somebody over
the age of 80 is a viablecandidate for somebody who.
We need to be thinking sharplyand to have the processing speed
required to function in afast-moving political
environment environment.
(52:59):
That's not just true about theRepublican candidates that we
can't stand or that we hate, orwho are trying to shred the
Constitution or for it anyway,that we'd like to somehow remove
and get gone.
It's not just true of those,it's true of people in both
(53:20):
parties.
If we can use that for anexcuse for anyone, we can use it
for an excuse with everyone.
That's one of those things Ican't even believe would really
ever seriously be debated.
I can't even believe wouldreally ever seriously be debated
(53:45):
.
The trajectory of life and agingis not some fucking mystery.
I'm not the man at 58.
I was at 48.
I wasn't the man at 48.
I was at 38.
And on and on it goes.
It's a fact of life.
(54:05):
And anybody who tells you theyare the same person at 48,
physiologically, neurologicallyand any other ology it's a handy
phrase, it's a comfortablephrase for them to say, or
probably it usually starts withsomebody telling them oh, you
(54:29):
look just as good or you can doabout everything that you could
do at 38.
It doesn't matter, it may looklike that, it may seem like that
, it may seem like that, it'snot like that.
The body moves in one directionas we age.
(54:49):
Now, someday that may changeWith AI and the types of
medicines and DNA manipulation,and on and on and on.
That may result technologically.
Someday that might not be thecase, I don't know.
I do know that right now it'sthe case, it's the case for me,
(55:15):
it's the case for you and it isthe case for every man or woman
we will ever vote for.
So that's the thing.
Rather than experience a crisiswith that again, like we did,
(55:37):
how about let's avoid a crisislike that again?
How about let's not bullshitourselves and say, yeah, it
doesn't matter that he's 78 andwould be 82 when his term is
over.
It does matter.
Physiologically, neurologically, psychologically, it fucking
(56:01):
matters.
It's the leader of the freeworld.
It matters for his aides, whichtypically that's not where you
find an 80-year-old although I'dsay there are certainly
examples of where there havebeen but most of the time the
(56:24):
president's closest aides aren'tgoing to be that old.
But if someone is suggestingthat, okay, these three people
should be your aides and theyare 79, 81, and 80.
It's not a good idea.
(56:44):
It's not a good idea.
You know, you utilize thosepeople, you put those people on
speed dial.
You get people in thosepositions that haven't outlived
(57:04):
the male life expectancy, who,when they need to draw upon the
wisdom, experience and knowledgeof these people 79, 80, 81
years old while serving thepresident.
They can call them, they caneven meet with them, they can
(57:25):
email them, they can do a videochat and incorporate their vast
experience, their wisdom, theirknowledge.
(57:46):
But let's stop pretending thatputting these people in those
positions is a good fucking idea.
It wasn't, it's never been andit never will be again, at least
in until technology has shownus conclusively oh, guess what
we can do now?
We can pretty much freeze theaging process.
So when you're like 65, interms of the progression at a
(58:16):
cellular level, we can prettymuch freeze that in time.
At a cellular level, we canpretty much freeze that in time.
Yeah, you will become.
If you live another, you know,10 years, 15 years, you'll be 80
years old in calendar time, butphysiologically you'll still be
65.
If and when something like thathappens, then it changes the
(58:37):
calculus on what I've beentalking about.
It hasn't happened, though, andI don't think it's going to
anytime soon.
So for now, let's deal withreality, and let's deal with the
reality that having somebodyrunning for president the age
(59:00):
President Biden was this yearmakes a lot of fucking people
really fucking nervous and it'snot good for a campaign.
And that's just the truth.
You don't have to like it, youdon't even have to agree with it
(59:21):
, but if we are going to spendequal amounts of time
researching and pulling out thefacts on aging and cognitive
processing and everything elsethat's pertinent to that debate,
I'll win that debate and youwill lose, because it's a fact.
(59:45):
It's a fact that's supported byscience and, after all, aren't
we the party of science?
Well, I've found that sometimeswe are and, depending on the
topic at hand and how we feelabout it, sometimes we're not.
(01:00:08):
Well, science isn't one ofthose things you can ethically
be that way about.
If you're going to be forscience and say science is the
best guide we have, then beconsistent with it.
Apply that in anywhere.
(01:00:29):
Science is relevant to thediscussion or the debate and
with the age of a candidate,it's very relevant to that
discussion or debate.
So going full circle.
Then I come back around to thisidea of resistance thing that
(01:00:55):
has to happen before anysignificant group of people can
resist in conjunction with, youknow, a lot of other people.
They first have to be able toaccept hard truths, and one of
the hard truths that people seemto be struggling with is that
(01:01:17):
President Biden and VicePresident Kamala Harris have not
shown any real leadership sincethe election.
They have not shown the type ofleadership that you would
expect to pick up a history bookabout and read about a similar
experience and a set of threatsto the nation and national
(01:01:44):
security and then see how it washandled and go, oh yeah, god
damn man, that president was.
That's a leader.
That is an example of a realleader.
That's a leader.
That is an example of a realleader.
(01:02:05):
Nobody that's being honest withthemselves is going to assess
President Biden and VicePresident Kamala Harris
post-election and ever readanything that's written honestly
and go man, wow, you talk aboutexamples of great leaders when
(01:02:25):
democracy was taking in its lastbreath.
Wow, that's never going tohappen.
Based on what we've seen fromeither of them post-election,
nobody's ever genuinely andauthentically going to be able
(01:02:47):
to say that and believe it,because it's simple, they have
not risen to the occasion and soit's not.
Even you can't come at me andsay, well, you say they millions
of dollars to do so, so don'ttry to put this back on me of.
(01:03:28):
Well, who are you to set theframe for what it is we face
right now.
Take me out of it.
President Biden and VicePresident Harris set the frame
in their campaign in this run-upand before that, of course.
Well, to Hispanics, to migrants, to just US citizens period.
(01:04:09):
They told us that and they toldus he can't get back in the
White House.
He can't get back in the WhiteHouse.
So when I get on their ass fortreating Donald Trump like any
(01:04:41):
other person who is just waitingthe time to expire so he can be
sworn in and being all smilesand cheery and not coming out
and talking about the thingsthat the people who voted for
them expect to hear, based onwhat they told them during that
last year, you don't want todebate with me on that, unless
(01:05:06):
you're somebody who can reallyhave really thick skin, because
I won't be nice.
(01:05:26):
We've got to wake up to reality.
We've got to stop looking topolitical correctness and how we
think our peer group will feelor think about it as a measure
of how we are supposed to act,what we are supposed to say or
supposed to not say.
That is bad juju.
It's bad juju and the kind ofchanges and the kind of
(01:05:54):
behaviors, kind of actions thatactually do pull democracy back
from the precipice of going overthe edge into hell.
They don't come from, they arenot born out of that mentality,
they are not born out of thatmindset.
They're born out of people whoare willing to face reality, who
(01:06:21):
are willing to speak aboutreality realistically and
honestly, even if it's ugly andpainful to acknowledge.
And then we have to have peoplewho are willing to
realistically and honestly talkabout.
Talk about the solution tobeing able to continue to live
(01:06:47):
freely, about the closest I'veseen come to that recently.
And he's been amping things upin terms of what he's been
willing to put out there as MarkElias, which nothing against
(01:07:10):
him, but it's a little bitsurprising because I've just
never really seen that kind offire from him before.
I mean, he's obviously a verysmart guy and a very sharp
lawyer and wins a lot of casesthat are critical to democracy,
but I just never saw him as thekind of guy that would come out
with fucking fire in his asslike he has.
(01:07:33):
But he has and I've seen it nowand I'm telling you there's a
man who understands, there's aman who's done with the
mamby-pamby politicalcorrectness bullshit.
There's a man who's talkingabout winning and understands
(01:07:54):
what it means to fight.
He understands what it takes towin.
And if you don't follow him andI'm sure you already do you
should.
Another one, and I've mentionedhim the last, I don't know week
(01:08:15):
Adam Kinzinger.
I love that guy and every timeI see somebody say, yeah, but
he's still a Republican, shut up, fuck.
The guy voted and campaigned onbehalf of Kamala Harris.
What fuck?
(01:08:37):
What else do you want you want?
That guy understands whatresistance is.
(01:08:57):
That guy is fearless.
That guy knows what it takes towin and he's not afraid to post
what he says, not afraid topost what he thinks, and he sure
the fuck is not doing any ofthat based on how he thinks his
peer group is going to respond.
He's his own fucking man.
That's one reason I respect himso much.
(01:09:22):
He doesn't give a shit whetheryou like him or not.
He's going to say it and he'sgoing to express it and he's not
mamby-pamby.
He's rock-solid in whatever itis he believes.
And just because he doesn'tbelieve everything exactly like
(01:09:45):
you do, if that's the onlyreason you can't fully
appreciate somebody like AdamKinzinger, then you are being
way too picky when it comes towho helps fight for democracy
(01:10:08):
Juvenile.
So, hey, you know what Some ofthe people listening to this
episode of the Jack Hopkins Nowpodcast some of them may have
decided you know what I don'tlike how he's talking, I'm going
to unfollow him or I'm going toblock him.
(01:10:31):
Look that if you are speakingauthentically and honestly, that
should always be happening toyou.
You should always be losingfollowers at a similar rate to
(01:10:55):
the ones that you are gaining,because if you are being honest
and speaking what you reallythink and feel, then it's not
about trying to keep everybodyhappy.
It's not about trying to makesure nobody doesn't like you.
It's about one thing speakinghow you truly think and feel,
(01:11:18):
and the ones who are right foryou and feel, and the ones who
are right for you, you willattract them.
The ones who are not right foryou, you will repel them, and so
it's a constant process ofrefinement.
So that's how it has to be.
(01:11:42):
If you speak and communicateauthentically and it can be no
other way, because nobody'sgoing to agree with you on
everything all the time the onesthat I think, wow, I'm sure,
glad you're here are the oneswho can listen, and when
(01:12:05):
something comes up that theydon't agree with.
It's no big fucking deal, it'sjust some point they don't agree
with.
But they don't throw the babyout with the bathwater.
They appreciate the differenceand they look at the bigger
picture and say you know what?
There are very few people outthere talking as authentically
(01:12:28):
and as fearlessly, withoutregard for whether they're
pissing someone off or not, likethis guy or that woman or this
person, person.
And that's exactly how.
When people tell me that's theway they see me, I think great.
Not because I have a need forthem emotionally to see me that
(01:12:56):
way, but structurally it's greatbecause I know I'm now
communicating with more peoplewho are open to truly
understanding what resistance is, what it takes to win, and that
personal sacrifice will beinvolved.
That you don't resist and remaincomfortable.
You don't get to stay under anice warm blanket in your
(01:13:18):
favorite little cabin in thewoods and keep that feeling in
that location and really be apart of the resistance.
You're going to have to stepout into the cold or out into
the heat.
You might have to do thatsomewhere.
(01:13:45):
You don't want to and thatsomewhere might have a real risk
or danger to you, at the veryleast as far as who all is
willing to accept you, which alot of people are more scared of
that than they are of a bullet.
But that's the reality of realresistance at a time like this.
(01:14:12):
So if you are still listeningat this point, you get it Most
likely or maybe you just keptlistening because you hate me
enough that you just wanted tokeep hating for till the end.
(01:14:35):
But more likely, if you arestill listening, it's because at
least some of these ideas haveresonated with you and we are in
agreeance on at least some ofthese.
(01:15:23):
If we don't feel comfortable inspeaking out against leadership
when it's appropriate or useful,in an attempt to shape their
behavior in a direction moreconsistent with what they
previously told us and believedand that we agreed with, if we
can't do that, then this isn't afucking democracy in the first
place.
I say again if we can't andwon't do that, this is not a
fucking democracy we are tryingto protect anyway.
Well, I'm not willing to acceptthat idea.
(01:15:47):
It is a fucking democracy.
It is worth fighting for, andthose who want to live in a
manner that's inconsistent withsaving it, just get the fuck out
of the way.
That's all we ask.
Get out of the way, don't standin the way or clutter the
(01:16:13):
alleyway when those who dounderstand it are engaged in
saving it.
So I think I've presented thisabout as authentically and
(01:16:34):
realistically as I'm able to.
There's nothing contrived aboutit.
There was absolutely nothingscripted, as is the case with
any podcast or any video of minethat you see.
I've never scripted a video ora podcast in my life.
(01:16:55):
I don't even create outlinesfor my podcasts.
Matter of fact, I don't evenhave a concept in mind for my
podcasts.
I figure I'm 58 years old andthe person that I'm having on as
a guest has probably beenaround a while too.
(01:17:17):
If we aren't capable of sittingdown and engaging in a
conversation without having towrite a bunch of shit out in the
first place, then neither oneof us should be on air talking,
because at that point it's notan authentic conversation.
It's one step closer tocontrived.
(01:17:38):
If there's anything I hate,it's contrived are too contrived
.
If there's anything I hate,it's contrived.
Authenticity is what I've alwaystried to be about in my
communication and scripting.
There's just nothing authenticabout it.
(01:18:00):
I kind of feel that way about.
I mean, I understand some ofthe reasons why they do use
teleprompters, but I have to sayI'm still.
There's a part of me that saysjust fucking, talk to us.
If you know this subject wellenough, you ought to be able to
(01:18:24):
just talk to us.
You ought to be able to.
You shouldn't have to get upand do this every other
paragraph.
You ought to be able to justget up, look into the camera or
look down at the people in theaudience and fucking talk Speak.
If it's in your head already.
(01:18:46):
Have a conversation, talk aboutit.
The world is too scripted andthat's why people are feeling
like they're not having or beingpart of authentic conversations
in politics either.
Again, either party.
It's like if you want to talkto us, have a town hall where
(01:19:14):
you're actually engaging with alive human being and you don't
have a scripted answer, youdon't have a teleprompter to
help you out, and if you can'tdo that, then don't go into
politics.
Just don't go into it.
Realize that's a skill you needand that you need to know your
topics well enough that you cando that.
And if that's something you gooh fuck, I could never do that
(01:19:41):
then okay, that would be anindicator that politics is not
for you.
That's how you get closer toauthenticity and real
conversations that people feel aconnection with.
And as bad as I hate sayinganything that even remotely
(01:20:03):
sounds like acknowledgingsomething useful from Trump,
that is one reason he connectswith so many people at those
rallies it's because he goes offscript.
I say again, it's one of thereasons he connects with so many
(01:20:25):
people at those rallies andit's because he goes off script.
They don't give a shit whetherthe content is meaningful or
whether they're learninganything from it.
What they know in those momentsis that he's not reading off of
something and that he'sspeaking from the gut and making
(01:20:51):
eye contact with people in theaudience and on an emotional
level, they feel that.
And even if he is sayingsomething meaningful which we
know almost never happened theyprobably don't even hear it
anyway.
(01:21:11):
But what they do receive andfeel down to their bones is that
he's not reading something,he's looking at and speaking
directly to them and they'reconnecting emotionally.
There are a lot of changes weneed to make in this party and
(01:21:34):
the other day somebody postedsomething about that and
somebody said what about theother party?
I'm not in the other fuckingparty, are you?
I guess you're probably not,because you follow me here and
I'm a Democrat, and so is abouteverybody else that follows me.
Why, every time somebody bringssomething up about the changes
(01:21:57):
we need to make, there's alwayssomebody going.
What about the other party?
That's like coming home afteryou knocked the window out of
the neighbor's house with abaseball and your dad's about
ready to whip your ass and yousay wait a minute, tommy broke
(01:22:21):
the window out of their car twoweeks ago and most dads, at
least of the era I grew up,would have at least been of the
mind, if not verbalized it.
I don't give a shit what Tommydid.
What Tommy did and what goes onthere has nothing to do with
(01:22:43):
what goes on here.
You are my son, you broke outthat window and that's the
window and the son that I'mdealing with.
So there's got to be an opennessto look at our own party and
demand changes within it.
(01:23:05):
If that's the party we aregoing to be voting for, then we
have to start putting pressureon so that the things that have
been roadblocks for us when itcomes particularly to being able
to sway independence our way,vote for our candidate in our
(01:23:27):
party.
Then we've got to first of allaccept that we're not a perfect
party, and when you say aparty's not perfect, that means
there are things that needchanged.
And when you say a party's notperfect, that means there are
things that need changed, andagain, for the purpose of being
(01:23:55):
able to get enough votes to wina goddamn election, rather than
going on as business as usual,not speaking up when people need
to be called out and thenexpecting independents to pull
their head out of their ass andwake up to the fact that you
know what we're doing already.
That's the way it should be.
So wake up, independents.
(01:24:17):
That's not how it works.
That's not how it works.
I've really never been involveddirectly with a full political
campaign and I know how it worksin that regard.
It doesn't work that way.
If you want those votes, youmake the changes as a party you
(01:24:43):
need to make so that those votesthat you want they go.
Ah, okay, now I can vote foryou.
I can do it now.
I can vote for you now.
All of that shit that botheredme so much that I was like nope,
no way, those are no-goes forme.
(01:25:05):
I'm not voting for yourcandidate.
We rounded the edges off ofthose or we got rid of those.
We focused on the big issuesthat apply to the biggest
majority of people and we gotthe independent votes that we
(01:25:25):
could never seem to get.
Now will we have anotherelection?
I should say, will we haveanother presidential election?
I have no clue, even if you'resaying, okay, well, just which
(01:25:49):
way do you lean?
I have no clue, I don't.
Oh, I could tell you somethingthat sounded convincing, but it
would be bullshit because Ireally don't have any clue.
We might, we might.
We might not.
(01:26:09):
So anybody who and I get it notevery time we post something are
we being technical or meaningto be absolutely factual about
it, I get that, but when that'sthe way somebody is intending to
communicate, and anytime youhear somebody say there will
never be another election fouryears from now, it might turn
(01:26:35):
out that, oh, I guess they wereright, but they don't fucking
know either.
They have no idea.
Just like the person who tellsyou with certainty, oh, there
will absolutely be anotherpresidential election, they're
talking out their ass.
The same way, the person who'stelling you there will
absolutely never be anotherelection, nobody fucking knows,
(01:26:59):
and that's the most honest thingI can say about whether we'll
have another election.
Nobody knows.
What I do think that I know alittle something about it's that
if we do to the degree that thethings that I've been speaking
(01:27:24):
about are ignored, we'llprobably lose that fucking thing
too.
I come from a unique place interms of somebody that posts
from within the context of aDemocrat, with posts that are
(01:27:46):
going out to primarily Democrats, somebody who voted Democrat
and has for every Democraticcandidate for the last six years
.
But where I came from, when youleave the Republican Party
after 50 years.
It's not like you step throughsome fucking force field that
(01:28:12):
sucks everything you'veexperienced and ever believed
out of your body and head.
It doesn't work that way.
That experience, thoseexperiences, those 50 years of
experiences, will have shapedyou in a way that you cannot
(01:28:34):
completely shake off, andanybody who would tell you
otherwise doesn't know whatthey're talking about, and
anybody who would tell youotherwise doesn't know what
they're talking about.
I will carry those influenceswith me for the rest of my life.
No-transcript, excuse me.
(01:29:16):
So I'm definitely a blue.
I'm not even a blue dot, I'm ablue speck in a red state, and
because of that and because ofthe previous 50 years, I know
how Republicans think, andbecause of that I know a hell of
(01:29:37):
a lot about how independentsthink as well, especially the
ones that the party this partyhasn't been able to pull,
because those are the ones thathave got heavier amounts of that
Republican influence runningthrough them.
They identify as an independent, but, much like me, they
(01:30:00):
probably came from a longhistory of having been a
Republican or raised aroundRepublicans or having lived in a
Republican stronghold.
And so, even though their title, their preferred title, says
independent, there's still ahealthy Republican influence
going on with them and I knowwhat that influence is and I
(01:30:27):
know the reasons you can't getthose votes for the Democratic
Party.
And I also know that if thisparty doesn't wake up to that,
doesn't get interested in thatand is not interested in making
the shifts that need to be madeto win a goddamn election, then
(01:30:50):
they're going to lose electionsagain.
So, as I wrap this up, I really,as I thought about it again,
there wasn't much time to puttoo much thought into it,
because it was fairly impulsiveactually to sit down and do this
(01:31:13):
episode that you're watchingnow.
But there's really nodifference, I suppose, in me
doing this one or the one I'mgoing to be doing with someone
next week, because I'm notreally going to think about that
(01:31:34):
one either until they come onmy screen, because I don't want
to have anything contrived orpre-planned.
I want it to be just like weran into each other in a coffee
shop and are having an authenticconversation, and if you want
to have an authenticconversation, you have to have
(01:31:56):
one, and when you are sculptingyour conversation ahead of time,
you've just shit the bed whenit comes to having an authentic
conversation.
And that's what I wanted tomake sure this one was about too
Authentic.
(01:32:20):
I suppose I curse less on mypodcast episodes because I
really I don't think of thepodcast episodes of being about
me at all.
I strive I don't know how wellI do that from your perception,
but I strive to make it about myguest.
(01:32:41):
So if I get, if I find myselfhaving allowed myself to get too
emotionally intense or put whoI am too much in front of people
, then it runs the risk ofbecoming about me and I don't
(01:33:04):
want that.
When I want it to be about me,then I do a solo episode like
this one, but when I have aguest on, I want it to be about
my guest.
So I do my best to just stayout of the way or to not do
anything that would put thespotlight on me more.
(01:33:25):
Here I'm just giving you me.
If somebody came in, a goodfriend or even whoever came into
my house and sat down with meto have a cup of coffee, I'm not
one to go.
Oh, I don't know what he thinksor believes, so I better not
(01:33:48):
say X, y, z, I just I talk how Italk.
I always figured that if it'ssomething that is offensive or
so bothersome to someone.
They've got the right to get upand leave, but I've always seen
(01:34:12):
that as something I can't be.
How authentic can I be if I goaround the world presenting
myself in a way that's notauthentic?
Or it's not in the way that Iwould talk at home, or it's not
in the way I would talk to alongtime friend.
To me that just again you hearthat word come up again To me
that feels contrived, that feelsfake, and I'd rather have
(01:34:37):
somebody who I just met leavingmy home going fuck man, that guy
who I just met leaving my homegoing.
Fuck man, that guy.
Yeah, he's not your average cat, but God damn it, he's honest.
He's not holding anything back.
I didn't ever feel he wassaying anything to be offensive.
(01:34:58):
It's just how he talks.
And either they all appreciatethat or they won't, and I can't
control that and have no desireto.
But if they don't, then okay,leave.
I'm not going to lose any sleepover it and I don't suppose
they will either, or shouldn't?
(01:35:18):
I just think we need moreauthenticity, and for more
authenticity we have to bewilling to face and experience
uncomfortable things, operate inuncomfortable areas in that
(01:35:40):
uncomfortable zone.
Now it's no longeruncomfortable for me.
It was it used to be when Ifirst said I'm breaking out of
my shell here.
I've been living kind of aninauthentic life in terms of who
I am.
When I first decided that, okay, I'm not doing that anymore,
I'm going to be who I am witheverybody.
All the time.
It was new and it wasuncomfortable and it was scary.
(01:36:06):
And the more I did it, the lessnew it became, the less
uncomfortable it became and theless scary it became, until
eventually guess what'suncomfortable and scary now?
(01:36:26):
You guessed it.
The idea of conforming to whatI think somebody else expects of
me, or speaking in a way that Ithink they'll approve of.
That's very uncomfortable to menow.
That's very scary to me now.
That's very scary to me nowBecause those things are
(01:36:51):
reminders that you've lostyourself again.
You've disappeared.
You're in a conversation butyou're not present.
This character that you thinkthey will like or approve of is
(01:37:12):
the one doing the talking, butyou are gone, and that's no
longer acceptable to me.
In my teens and 20s that waskind of the way I lived, but
then I realized I could livelike this the rest of my life
(01:37:33):
and I'll never really know who Iam, because I'm almost never
allowing myself to be who I am,and I would imagine that
somebody who is from the LGBTQcommunity.
You know exactly what the fuckI'm talking about, because there
was a time and maybe it's stillhappening.
There was a time, at leastprobably, where you lived in
(01:37:56):
that same manner.
You weren't who you truly were,you didn't express yourself as
you truly wanted to and youconformed so that you'd keep the
acceptance and the approval ofothers.
And if you don't live like thatanymore, it's probably because
at some point you said you knowwhat?
(01:38:17):
Fuck all of you, I'm not hereto please you.
I'm not on this earth to pleaseall of you.
I'm here on earth to be thefullest expression of myself
there can be and to use that,whatever it is, to do some good
(01:38:41):
in this world, to do some, toleave my mark in a way that made
at least one life better, andmore than that if possible.
So I hope maybe you've enjoyedthis episode as much as I have,
(01:39:06):
because I've enjoyed itthoroughly and I think I'll be
doing some more of these in thefuture, where I just kind of
have a thought and I sit downand I do do an episode and let
it go where it goes, and that'sone reason I hate the idea of
(01:39:26):
outlines.
I don't want to go where Ithought it should go half an
hour ago.
I don't want to feel confinedto okay, a half an hour ago I
thought it should go here andthen there, but a half an hour
later I'm not feeling like thatanymore and the flow of it is
feeling more like it wants to gothere instead of there.
(01:39:48):
But, damn it, the outline saysthere.
So that's where we go Now.
I can't do that, or I could.
I won't do that.
Do that as thoughts come to usas they do in real life, where
(01:40:14):
we thought we wanted to go, orwhat has been spoken of,
oftentimes creates a differentpath that leads to a different
topic or subject than the one anoutline would have put in place
.
So I'll probably do more ofthese.
I like speaking in the way mybrain operates and that is go
(01:40:41):
with that flow and when itsignals oh, based on what you
just said, this would make senseto talk about now.
So let's talk about that.
This is Jack Hopkins and I haveenjoyed the last hour and 40
(01:41:02):
minutes.
Hope you have as well.
If you haven't, then youprobably aren't still here.
You've probably signed offalready.
But if you haven't and you arestill here, I say to you don't
listen so long the next time, solong the next time.
Just quit early and dosomething else that you do enjoy
(01:41:23):
.
So I will talk to you againsoon and until then, have a
great evening, morning, day orwhatever's appropriate for when
you listen to or watch this.
I'll talk to you again soon.
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