Rick Wilson

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
The stream is live. It has been declared. Who knows
when it really starts, because substack does. It's woo woo thing.
Sometimes it hops on, sometimes it's not. Sometimes people are like,
why aren't you talking? Like why am I not talking?
Because I don't know that you're there yet. But I
am joined today by my friend Olivia Juliana. She is
a gen Z message and strategist, which I think is

(00:26):
a fancy word for going out and kicking the hell
out of bad guys, which is something that I dearly
love to do. I have not gen Z, as you
may have noticed, but I'm so glad you came on
today because it strikes me that we're in one of
those we've come out of one another, one of those
weeks where the pressure has been so high, the craziness

(00:47):
has been so high, and a lot of the burden
of this this moment that we're in, a lot of
the crap in this moment that we're in is going
to come down on gen Z. A lot of the
consequences of what's happening are going to come down on
gen Z. So talk to me first about where you
see the sort of message climate in this in the

(01:09):
in the week that we've just had. I honestly think
it's much better for Democrats and for us than in
the pro democracy side than it's been for Trump. But
I wanted to get your take on that and and
just have a little conversation about what you see happening
and the talk about the weekend, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, I agree. I think that we were kind of
in towards the beginning of the week. We're kind of
in this back and forth for attention, especially because some
of the optics, some of the photos that were coming
out of Los Angeles, the right was just taking it
and they were running with it.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
But I actually think that I am kind of starting
to see something that I haven't seen in a while,
which is I'm seeing normal non political influencers celebrities. I'm
seeing Republican celebrities and Republican influencers, most notably a you
know MMAUFC Ryan Garcia. He just came out and said

(02:03):
something against this. Logan Paul's podcast partner, Mike Maybe he
just came out and said something against this. And so
I think the fact that we're seeing young gen Z
influencers who either voted for Trump supported him very vocally
are now coming out and saying this is wrong. I
don't agree with this. I think that that shows that,
like Democrats have a lot of capital and a lot

(02:26):
of ability here to really bring some people back to
us at least at the very least trust us on
this issue. I think Republicans have really kind of lost
their footing really strongly.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah, I think that's exactly right. I feel like, honestly,
I think Senator Padilla being assaulted, to my mind and
maybe have another moment in the week you think it's different.
I think the Marines being deployed and Padia being assaulted,
we're two bridges too far, even for a lot of
MAGA folks.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah, no, it definitely was. I think, you know, Senator
Puta being assaulted, which he was assaulted, he was.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Detained, he was putting into he was assaulted.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
If this can happen to a sitting United States senator,
who who could it not happen to? You know? And
they tried to say this the BS of like, well,
they didn't know who he was. If you were the
Department of Homeland Security secretary and you don't know what
the senior senator from a border state looks like then you.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Was on the committee. Who's on the committee.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
That confirmed you? Yeah, exactly, Like that's it's bs. I
don't buy it for a second. He identified himself within minutes. Uh,
it was a it was a flex of muscle, That's
what it was. It was a message they were sending. Unfortunately,
I don't think it's gonna go how they think it's
gonna play out. Another moment that really struck me as

(03:49):
there was a video of a young white woman who
was trying to walk back to her apartment. This isn't
like the evening, but she's not even protesting, she's just
trying to walk back to her apart. She gets shot
by a rubber bullet or Australian reporter another white woman
gets shot by a rubber bullet. And so the optics
that I've seen from that online in young's faces is

(04:10):
if they're doing this to people who are not protesting,
who are simply walking, especially white women, and now we
have a US senator getting arrested, where does it stop.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
I think that's really I mean, I think that's a
really important point because we are in this moment where
for a while people could sort of say, oh, they're
just doing it to those Mexicans. They're just doing it
to those Venezuelans. They're just doing it to those Cubans.
They're not us. But now it's starting to spread and

(04:42):
we're seeing, you know, more Americans getting either caught up
or kettled, or shot with rubber bullets or tear gased,
even the ones who were not quote unquote violent protesters.
This is beginning, I think, to penetrate the normy brain
with a very very very very bad vibe for a

(05:03):
lot of people because we're not we're not We're not
in the world where where they can pretend it's only
it's only illegals getting snatched up from the illegal alien
criminals getting snatched up. It looks like a lot like
they kind of ran out of bad guys and they've
been Then they move from the identifiable criminal element to

(05:27):
oh you're brown, yeah, Or.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
They're picking up people who are at their core hearings,
who are at their court hearings trying to get their
asylum certified or get their citizenship certific People who came
here the right way are getting picked up and deported.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Now I can remember when Republicans are like, well, we're
okay with immigrants, as long as they work hard and
play by the rules. So what part of working hard
that's that's easy? And playing by the rules, showing up
for your your immigration hearings, showing up for your status hearings,
and they're pulling them out of courtrooms, but they're also
pulling them out of classrooms and churches and feel I mean,

(06:08):
I think the visual of this has gotten to a
lot of people that maybe it hadn't affected them as
much as it did this week, because this week I
do feel a change in the weather, I change in
the wind.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
I agree. I feel like I haven't seen this temperament
on social media. I would argue as far back as
twenty twenty. I don't think I've seen this start stark
of the shift this quickly in a very long time.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
So are you seeing this more on because you know,
Twitter is now so warped as an information bubble that
it's hard to parse it a lot of the time.
Are you seeing I think I'm seeing more of it
on Insta right now, which tells me that the demographic
is broad. Are you seeing it more? Are you seeing
it also on TikTok and other places like that?

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Seeing it on TikTok. I've seen a lot of videos
of people who are specifically the influencer crowd. I've seen
a lot of them make videos saying like, I live
in LA I should talk about this. But I've actually
seen a pretty decent handful of it on Twitter. You know,
Ryan Ryan Garcia is on Twitter. Same with Mike Majack.
There's on Twitter. And so I think the fact that

(07:19):
we're seeing it in so many places just shows how
broad it is, because I've seen it on every platform.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
If it's penetrating the sort of bias matrix's that Elon
has put Twitter in, then that really means something. I think.
I think that really means that this is much broader
than anyone thinks it is. So this weekend, we have
two big things coming up. We've got No Kings in
cities across this country. Millions of Americans are going to

(07:49):
come out for No Kings, and we've also got the
Donald Trump missile Parade in DC. Let me ask you,
this has an influencer, how would you cover or interact
with the with the Trump military parade, Because I think
there's a lot of opportunities for fuckery there deservedly, but

(08:11):
how would you approach that to make that go into
a different sort of frame for people.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
Well, I've seen a lot of videos of people who
are hedging the claim that they are paying people to go.
I've seen a couple of different videos saying that. I've
also seen people who have said like, oh, I'm going
to reserve my spot and then not show up. I
don't know if that's I don't know if that's actually
a thing. If it is a thing, then by all means, guys,

(08:37):
go reserve tickets for you and your entire family and
then don't go. That's that's what happened to one of
his rallies if he had a few years all the
Tulsa rally. Yeah, I mean, as far as no kings.
I'll be at the one here in Houston, and I
plan on just showing the diverse nature of who is there.
I plan on showing the peaceful nature of this protest

(08:59):
and really work to counteract these narratives that they've been
pushing out. I will be out there with an American
flag in tow because, like I'm a proud fourth generation American.
My family immigrated here from Mexico, and I am proud
of both of those facts. And the reason I am
fighting so passionately against Donald Trump and what he's doing

(09:19):
is because I am a decend of immigrants and I
love my country. And I think that that's where most
people are at, is that they're doing this because they
love their country, and we need to reaffirm that narrative.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
You know what. I think that's so so on point Olivia.
I mean, and it's something we were at Lincoln Project.
We've been screaming about for five years now, like don't
let them monopolize the American flag, don't let them own patriotism,
don't let them say that the only people who love
this country are Donald Trump' supporters, because it's horseshit. And

(09:53):
the number, I mean the optics of the Mexican flags
in La. You saw how quickly Fox and the right
wing media just like just jumped on that. So I
hope we see a lot of American flags this weekend, folk,
and I mean a lot of a lot of a lot.
Don't let these people like box you out of feeling patriotic.
And you know what, You're so right. I mean, there

(10:15):
are millions and millions in most Americans, the vast majority
of Americans come from two, three, four generations ago, and
that long cycle of how beautiful this country is, of
people coming here, and the first generation doesn't speak English

(10:36):
and they work so hard, and the second generation is
the bridge, and they maybe speak English half the time
and that whatever native language half the time, and they
work their asses off. And that third generation, those kids
are Americans. Yeah, and they may know that some of
the old language, but they are Americans and they've become

(11:00):
you know, this this process was about race, was about
a proposition. And I think that for a long time,
Republicans have assumed that there is a degree of racism
sufficient in the country to keep this sort of immigrant
hatred tidal wave rolling forever. I feel like something changed

(11:25):
this week. I really do feel like. I feel like
when even Trump goes and gets a press conference and says, well,
there are these farm workers. By the way, I watched it,
and I knew that wasn't a real sincere change in Trump.
But man, what a viral moment, What an absolute walk back,

(11:46):
what a taco moment. He absolutely like you could see
he had a realization. Somebody told him both the economy
and the polling sucks for this.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, I think that Trump is actually making a mistake
that I actually find that I think Democrats make this
mistake most often, which is when we talk about immigration,
we so often talk about it in means of immigrants
being a workforce and a labor force. And I think
that that's why so many, you know, second third, fourth
generation Americans, Latino men in particular, they were very quick

(12:22):
to turn to Donald Trump because Trump didn't he didn't
talk about it in that way necessarily for a while.
And now he's starting to talk like that because he
realizes that's the truth. And that's why I think that
this is not just a moment where there's a stark
change happening in public narrative, but I actually think that
this is a huge opportunity for Democrats to stake a

(12:43):
claim on where exactly it is that we are at
on immigration and to bring a lot of those men
who were frankly now pissed off at Donald Trump back
into the fold.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yeah, and I am seeing a growth in that there.
And there's a lot of viral com out there right
now on this front. Contractors and farmers who are very
strong Trump supporters, and they are in shock, Like Ice
came and took my workforce. My business is going out

(13:14):
of business if you do this anymore, mister president. And
I don't think I don't think that. I don't even
think he's fully got it yet. But I see the crack.
The crack that's emerged here is epic. And there were
a lot of people on the right on Twitter that
I was looking through some of the responses, they were
not happy. They were like, what the fuck, dude, you

(13:40):
what Steven Miller's having a bad day for sure.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
I mean, I think it's because he let himself get
into this mindset that like all the people online like
that's America, which it's often the left has this problem
of you know, social media is not real life. But
now Trump is falling into this of social media is
not real life. Like all these people who told you
that this is what they wanted, this is not where
the majority of Americans are at period, right.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
Right, And I think it is really I think it
is really easy to get into a Twitter bubble or
a social media bubble broadly and algorithmically convince yourself that
your position is the only position, not just that's just
the right one, but the only one. So let me

(14:30):
ask you this question you I am. I am sixty
one years old. Therefore, TikTok and I are not acquainted.
I'm too old for the dancing. I'm too old for
that format. So TikTok has been a massive shaping force
of gen Z, I mean, a profound shaping force of
Generation Z. Have you does TikTok feel different to you

(14:54):
in this post sort of we're going to shut you down.
We're not going to shut you down moment, because I
did see that Trump's folks managed to really do well
using TikTok in the twenty twenty four election, even though
it's a climate people assumed was very pro democratic, pro Harris,

(15:16):
et cetera. Where does TikTok sit now politically in your mind?
And what kind of influencer cultures are developing there in
this second Trump era.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
I think that people are a lot more comfortable being
open about their conservative beliefs on TikTok in a way
that in the past they really weren't because it wasn't
you know, it might have been not cool to be
a Democrat in real life, but it's very much not
cool to be a Trump supporter on social media for

(15:48):
the most part. And so I think that that's kind
of where it was out on TikTok. But now I
think that TikTok has actually kind of started to become
a little bit more reflective of where America's pos politics
actually are at. As you have your right wing influencers,
you have your left wing influencers, and you have your
people who are in the middle. And I think that

(16:09):
we're going to kind of see that continue to go
on as the Trump presidency continues. But what I'll say
is to me, my TikTok for You page has never
been more political than it is right now. And I've
done politics on TikTok for five years, Okay, So I'm
seeing And a big part of the reason why Trump
did so well on social media is because I think
the number is there are twice as many pro Trump

(16:32):
social media posts as there were pro Kamala or pro
democratic social media posts going into the twenty twenty four election.
And I think now, I think that that's starting to shift,
where people are so upset and in sensed at what
they're seeing from the Trump administration that even if they
have one hundred followers one thousand followers, like they are

(16:52):
starting to post content about this and I think that
we are really going to see that come to a
crescendo in the midterm elections.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
I think that's I think the timing of Trump on
the immigration and trade stuff is so bad because it
really will cause the pain from these things is going
to increase as the attention to the election of twenty
six increases. I think they're going to be in lockstep,
and that's not great for them because this is not
selling the way they thought it would outside of their base. So, so, Olivia,

(17:26):
you're gonna do no kings this weekend, what do you
encourage gen Z folks to be doing when they if
they go to no kings this weekend?

Speaker 2 (17:32):
Uh? Stay civil, stay safe, stay alert. I don't really
think that there's going to be a problem with people
who are gen Z being you know, hooligans. I don't
think that that's gonna happen. My biggest thing is stay safe.
Know your rights. Know what rights you have. No if
you are someone who if you look like you put

(17:55):
if you're a brown person in America, know what a
court order looks. It's like, know what someone who is
actually an ice agent or a National guardsman or a
police officer, know what their identifying documents look like uh.
And if you are undocumented and you plan on going
in one of these protests, you know, if that paper
does not have a signature on it from a judge,

(18:15):
they legally cannot take you.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
Right. Yeah. Also, don't talk to cops.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, don't talk to cops.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
Don't talk to cops. Just don't talk to you. You
don't have to answer any questions. You do in most
states have to present ID if they demand it, but
you don't have to answer a goddamn thing they ask you.
The friends, I would like to speak to an attorney
and if they say blah blah blah blah, you say,
am I being detained? If you are not being detained, leave,

(18:48):
get out. But it's gonna be I think it's gonna
be a big weekend across the country. I think we're
I think this really is a moment of transition. And
I love your stuff. I think you are I think
you have a very engaged and engaging personality on these things.
And I wish elders in the Democratic Party would follow
along a little more and not think that the best

(19:11):
way to communicate is as Chuck Schumer said, a sternly
worded letter.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, I'm really sick of letters and statements and honorary resolutions.
They don't do anything. That doesn't do anything but Playkate you.
I need to see some more Alex Padilla energy, Like
I need more of you. I need more of you
willing to get arrested at an event that's not planned,

(19:38):
because that's what I need. So I'm with you there.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
Well, Olivia, I appreciate you very much. Thank you for
coming on the show today. Tell folks where they can
find you on the various platforms.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
You can find me everywhere out Olivia Juliana. You can
find me at substack Olivia Juliana at substack dot com.
And you can hear me complain about the Republicans and
Donald Trump and tell you what you can do and
make it better.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Boom. And you have the distinction of calling Donald Trump
Junior a pussy, which is both true and fabulous. All right, Olivia,
thank you for coming on the show today. We will
talk to you again next time. Look for it to
speak to you again soon.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
Hey, thanks everybody for watching today. We will we'll hopefully
see you guys at the rallies this weekend. No kings, folks,
what part of no kings don't you understand? I have
a video about this from yesterday up on my substack,
and an essay about it coming up on the Lincoln
Square subsecond might be up there now, not sure, but
it's coming up shortly. This is the fundamental thing, everybody.

(20:38):
Our founders two one hundred and fifty years ago were
descended from people who came to this country fleeing religious persecution.
They were descended from people who wanted to live a
free life. They came to this country, they faced up
against the greatest empire in the world. They triumphed. They

(21:04):
won through blood and sacrifice. And if it was today,
the number of soldiers who would kill the Revolutionary War
would be the equivalent of about a million and a
half people, given the population size of the time, and
between then and now, millions of men and women on
battlefields and in fights for rights and liberty in this

(21:28):
country and in a civil war to end the monstrosity
of slavery. They fought not for a king, not for
a monarchy, not for a hereditary title to be passed
from one generation of a presidency to another. They fought

(21:51):
for America. They fought for the Constitution, They fought for
the founding and the rule of law, and they fought
for the goodness that we have in this country. No
Kings is the fundamental wiring diagram of America. You don't
have to love the way the system works, but I

(22:13):
can promise you if it becomes a monarchy where one
man and his party or one man and his family
dominate every aspect of your life, you'll like it a
whole lot less. No kings, folks, No, no, no kings.
See see you next week.