October 3, 2025 • 5 mins
On the Friday October 3, 2025 edition of The Armstrong & Getty One More Thing podcast.
- Joe brings us a column on the most interesting ideas of our time...
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The sixteen nineteen project was bunk, the eighteen seventy two
project fascinating. It's one more thing.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm strong and getty, one more thing. I can't imagine
what you're talking about. I will explain.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
So I came across this sub stack fellow by the
name of Derek Thompson, who's a really an interesting guy
and thinker, and recent column of his was the twenty
five most interesting ideas I've found in twenty twenty five
so far, and it really varies widely, and it's all
really interesting. It includes some stuff we've talked about on
the show, like that marriage is rapidly becoming a high quality,
(00:40):
luxury good. Only the affluent are continuing to get married,
just statistically speaking.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
And he talks about.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Alleged religious revivals, talks about the fact that half of
Americans don't get their news from the news. They get
their news from social media, yeah, which means they follow
influencers or let the news feed wash over them or both.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
That revival thing is interesting. I've seen a lot of
info on that that they're just tons. That had thing
on CBS News the other day about tons of young
people getting baptized, like bigger numbers than they've had in decades.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, this kind disputes some of it, but I didn't
find his reasoning compelling. But here's the part I wanted
to get to, and it's funny. I'd not really been
aware of this as a fan of history. On his
list of the twenty five most interesting ideas he came across,
number seven was was eighteen seventy two the most important
year for political freedom in the world.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Okay, let me think for just a second. What happened
in eighteen seventy two, something around reconstruction.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
I don't know, kind of sort of certainly eighteen seventy
two that are come with both fists flying if it
wants to take on seventeen seventy six. But in the
essay Freedom, the author David Bell points out that for
most of democracy's history, voting was a performative and communal act,
(02:13):
with public decorations and even open parades.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
The secret ballot.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
That most Americans associate with the ballot box is a
relatively recent invention, at least in modern Western history. It
was in eighteen seventy two the town of punctra Fact
in West Yorkshire, Britain, held an election for Parliament that
they decided should take place by secret ballot. Others deemed
the experiment of success, and within decades most of the
(02:39):
Western world adopted this method of voting.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Wow, so I did not know this? How did it
work beforehand?
Speaker 1 (02:46):
You would like to fill it out in front of everybody?
Or the powers that be would say, Oh, there's Joe
Getty voting for the Republicans again. Interesting, Wow, there's no secrecy.
Previous elections in the West had largely involved public meetings,
often highly raucous ones, in which everyone could see how
everyone else voted. Such settings made it difficult to conceive
(03:07):
of the act as anything other than an expression of
communal as opposed to individual preference. But once voting became secret,
it became far easier to imagine it as an expression
of purely personal choice in accordance with an individual's deep
beliefs and values. Another change encouraged the shift, the development
of voting booths, in which closed voters could, before marking
(03:28):
their ballots, commune solemnly with their consciences. US began to
adopt the secret ballot a decade yet later. By World
War One, the secret ballot was nearly universal in Western democracies.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Hmmm, I thought I knew most stuff. I did not
know that. I did not know that stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
No, I didn't either.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Stuff most thanks.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yes, Then he writes, imagine what people would say if
the White House said it was banning secret ballots and
forcing all voting to be public, and this thus open
a state coersion. Imagine that and you get a sense
of why eighteen seventy two you can plausibly be considered
a formative moment in political freedom.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
That's a pretty good one. Yeah, so too.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
The first time I went to vote, I grew up
obviously in a very liberal area, and I walked up
and they had a whole stack of you know, ballots
right there, and I set up and I handed on
my little thing that you had to turn in, and
they said.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Oh, we don't have any of those.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Could we get a Republican ballot please? And everybody you like,
turned and looked at me.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I was like eighteen. I was like, okay, Wow, it
was very it was bizarre.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah, yeah, that ain't supposed to happen. I know it's
not now, I know, Yeah, you know it's not suppose
to happen. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
The whole primary thing where you have to like say
out loud which way you swing. I've always felt uncomfortable
because since I was aware of voting at all, I
just always assumed, of course, it's a secret ballot. I
don't have to declare what I am to you, right,
A pole worker or activist or whatever. It's none of
your damn business.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
You're young. What was your first presidential election? Katie Obama?
Obama want to vote in?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
And I also was chuckled at for handing her my ID,
thinking we needed an.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
ID to vote. Yeah, I know, I've had that experience
several times. Or I get up my driver's you don't
need that, I don't. I find this troubling that I
do not need my ID for this.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yes, I need it for everything, everything I do all
day long, but not this. Oh no, that would be oppressive.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Nice. I'm old. I voted harding my first presidential vote,
and you regret it, don't you? And I regret it
looking back about Jack l for the hype, I was
trying to keep the women's from voting, and well, right,
and rode that way as long as I can. Well,
(05:42):
I guess that's it.
The sixteen nineteen project was bunk, the eighteen seventy two
project fascinating. It's one more thing.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm strong and getty, one more thing. I can't imagine
what you're talking about. I will explain.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
So I came across this sub stack fellow by the
name of Derek Thompson, who's a really an interesting guy
and thinker, and recent column of his was the twenty
five most interesting ideas I've found in twenty twenty five
so far, and it really varies widely, and it's all
really interesting. It includes some stuff we've talked about on
the show, like that marriage is rapidly becoming a high quality,
(00:40):
luxury good. Only the affluent are continuing to get married,
just statistically speaking.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
And he talks about.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Alleged religious revivals, talks about the fact that half of
Americans don't get their news from the news. They get
their news from social media, yeah, which means they follow
influencers or let the news feed wash over them or both.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
That revival thing is interesting. I've seen a lot of
info on that that they're just tons. That had thing
on CBS News the other day about tons of young
people getting baptized, like bigger numbers than they've had in decades.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, this kind disputes some of it, but I didn't
find his reasoning compelling. But here's the part I wanted
to get to, and it's funny. I'd not really been
aware of this as a fan of history. On his
list of the twenty five most interesting ideas he came across,
number seven was was eighteen seventy two the most important
year for political freedom in the world.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Okay, let me think for just a second. What happened
in eighteen seventy two, something around reconstruction.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
I don't know, kind of sort of certainly eighteen seventy
two that are come with both fists flying if it
wants to take on seventeen seventy six. But in the
essay Freedom, the author David Bell points out that for
most of democracy's history, voting was a performative and communal act,
(02:13):
with public decorations and even open parades.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
The secret ballot.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
That most Americans associate with the ballot box is a
relatively recent invention, at least in modern Western history. It
was in eighteen seventy two the town of punctra Fact
in West Yorkshire, Britain, held an election for Parliament that
they decided should take place by secret ballot. Others deemed
the experiment of success, and within decades most of the
(02:39):
Western world adopted this method of voting.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Wow, so I did not know this? How did it
work beforehand?
Speaker 1 (02:46):
You would like to fill it out in front of everybody?
Or the powers that be would say, Oh, there's Joe
Getty voting for the Republicans again. Interesting, Wow, there's no secrecy.
Previous elections in the West had largely involved public meetings,
often highly raucous ones, in which everyone could see how
everyone else voted. Such settings made it difficult to conceive
(03:07):
of the act as anything other than an expression of
communal as opposed to individual preference. But once voting became secret,
it became far easier to imagine it as an expression
of purely personal choice in accordance with an individual's deep
beliefs and values. Another change encouraged the shift, the development
of voting booths, in which closed voters could, before marking
(03:28):
their ballots, commune solemnly with their consciences. US began to
adopt the secret ballot a decade yet later. By World
War One, the secret ballot was nearly universal in Western democracies.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Hmmm, I thought I knew most stuff. I did not
know that. I did not know that stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
No, I didn't either.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Stuff most thanks.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yes, Then he writes, imagine what people would say if
the White House said it was banning secret ballots and
forcing all voting to be public, and this thus open
a state coersion. Imagine that and you get a sense
of why eighteen seventy two you can plausibly be considered
a formative moment in political freedom.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
That's a pretty good one. Yeah, so too.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
The first time I went to vote, I grew up
obviously in a very liberal area, and I walked up
and they had a whole stack of you know, ballots
right there, and I set up and I handed on
my little thing that you had to turn in, and
they said.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Oh, we don't have any of those.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Could we get a Republican ballot please? And everybody you like,
turned and looked at me.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I was like eighteen. I was like, okay, Wow, it
was very it was bizarre.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah, yeah, that ain't supposed to happen. I know it's
not now, I know, Yeah, you know it's not suppose
to happen. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
The whole primary thing where you have to like say
out loud which way you swing. I've always felt uncomfortable
because since I was aware of voting at all, I
just always assumed, of course, it's a secret ballot. I
don't have to declare what I am to you, right,
A pole worker or activist or whatever. It's none of
your damn business.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
You're young. What was your first presidential election? Katie Obama?
Obama want to vote in?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
And I also was chuckled at for handing her my ID,
thinking we needed an.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
ID to vote. Yeah, I know, I've had that experience
several times. Or I get up my driver's you don't
need that, I don't. I find this troubling that I
do not need my ID for this.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yes, I need it for everything, everything I do all
day long, but not this. Oh no, that would be oppressive.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Nice. I'm old. I voted harding my first presidential vote,
and you regret it, don't you? And I regret it
looking back about Jack l for the hype, I was
trying to keep the women's from voting, and well, right,
and rode that way as long as I can. Well,
(05:42):
I guess that's it.
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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