January 14, 2025 • 35 mins
Hour 3 of A&G features...
- Israel/Hamas cease fire deal & Karen Bass' trip to Ghana
- Pete Hegseth getting grilled
- When dueling was a thing
- Gen Z is ditching the booze
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio the George
Washington Broadcast Center.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty, I'm strong and get kid
and he armstrong and Yetty.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
With regards to the situation in Gaza, the President, echoing
what US officials have been saying, both in private and
in public over the last twenty four hours, suggesting that
a deal could be reached sometime soon, that it could
be on the cusp of being announced. You know, it's
been a really long time since we have heard this
kind of optimism, at least coming from inside the Biden administration.
(00:47):
But sources have been telling us over the last day
or so that they do believe a deal could be
announced for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of
hostages from Gaza in the next coming days, in.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
The next couple of days. Yeah, and those two things
go together. They're going to give back the hostages and
Israel is going to agree to pull their troops out
of Gaza. And even the New York Times says this
is all being instigated, pushed by the looming deadline of
Biden not being president and Trump being president, And even
the New York Times includes Trump warning quote, all hell
(01:22):
to pay unless the hostages are freed by the day
he becomes president. And apparently Hamas believes that's true.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Right, Well, I would suggest a huge dose of trust,
yet verify even in thinking about this alleged agreement. First
of all, it has to actually be agreed to. Frameworks
have a history of falling apart in this region. But secondly,
because I do believe Trump's threats are a legitimate and
(01:50):
be motivating the hell out of the scumbags and a
mass to make a deal. But then there's the question
of implementing it and having everybody live up to their
side of the agreement.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I'm sure extremely skeptical.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Being mediated by Katar, Egypt and the United States, and
obviously Israel and Hamas are involved with their own particular
needs and everything like that. I gotta believe Katar and
Egypt are saying to Hamas, look, the jig is up, right,
do you want to be pumpled into dust? Or?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I mean, what are you going to gain out of that? Right? Yeah,
I would certainly hope.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
So I'm more optimistic than you for no reason other
than it just has echoes of nineteen seventy nine nineteen
eighty when Reagan came in and the hostages came back
from Iran and a brand new administration that looks like
a hard ass. Everybody thinks, Okay, there's a new sheriff
in down.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Yeah, I'm I am really interested to hear what the
provisions are for a ceasefire from Israel's point of view,
because they still and they no longer suffer under any
delusions about this, they are still facing an enemy that
has sworn to wipe them off the face of the
earth in their founding charter.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
So it's difficult to strike up a.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Deal for long term harmony with somebody who answers that description.
They are not near as tough as they were before,
and they don't have the backing of their really only supporter,
Iran anymore because Iran is barely functioning themselves as a military.
And to me, the big story is do Israel and
the United States together either take out that nuclear program
(03:26):
in Iran or go full regime change. I think both
of them are on the table, and who knows what Trump.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
I would agree, I would agree, And this is the
contrast between Trump, for better or worse and Biden is
I think Trump and his people get that doing nothing
is to do something absolutely.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Barack Obama did not understand that at all. Don't do
stupid s was his motto. Well, not reacting to Bushar
al Asad's chemical weapons is stupid s. It led to
more bad things things.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Yeah, constant passivity is some of the stupidest ask you
can do. So a completely different topic, well, it's tangisially related.
I guess there are a handful of things that have
come together in my head. Pete Haggs, that's hearing is
going on right now in front of the Senate between
the idiot protesters and the tough questioning of him and
his force full advocacy of a more fighting, man oriented
(04:26):
military as opposed to a giant, bloated bureaucracy. That's a
jobs program. I'm loving that discussion. You have the LA
fire situation where Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom are trying
to blame it on climate change when their preparedness was
terrible over the years and over the previous months, and
Karen Bass going to Ghana for no good reason just
(04:47):
because she likes expensive junkets with the forecast being horrible
in LA. I didn't make any the firefighting program, a
jobs program for women because not enough women want to
be fire It's just ridiculous. I didn't realize till yesterday.
So hear, trip to Ghana. Okay, you're gonna go somewhere,
find whatever. That doesn't bother me. Politicians bank all kinds
of trips I hate and everything like that.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
She got there, the fire started, and she stayed. She
didn't even leave early. Now that's.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Criminal.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
I mean, well, that's not criminal, it's malpractice. Oh and
again it was just a celebrity junket. There was no
reason for her to be there whatsoever other than a vacation.
But I'm thinking about, you know, the LA firefighters, how
they have done this big DEI thing to get more
women firefighters can not that many women want to be firefighters?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
And who cares? If who cares?
Speaker 4 (05:36):
How many women? How many firefighters in LA County or
LA are women?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Who cares? Anybody? Only these activists do gooders.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
It's possible not many women want to be And has
there been a fire victim in the history of fires,
or a medical emergency for that matter, maybe excepting giving
birth by the freeway? Has there ever been a person
as the firefighters are fighting to put out the fire
that's going to reduce your home Dash who said, Yeah,
it's cool that they're doing this, but man, I'd like
(06:05):
to see some more diversity.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Well, I think we've gone so far the wrong direction.
We should flip it around. Is there do you know
anybody that seems to be in favor of rejecting a
woman who's otherwise qualified physically to do the job?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I course not.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
I don't know a single human being that, just from
a misogynistic sexist standpoint, wouldn't want a qualified woman to
be a firefighter, right, nobody. I've never heard anybody even
come close to that opinion. Yet we've gone so far
the other direction, as if that's the norm to bring
in people that aren't qualified in the military and firefighting
(06:44):
cops and all kinds of different examples, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
And this is such a good topic.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
I was actually heading towards going to a more thirty
thousand foot view of it, but I liked it. I
have heard people say the sexual dynamics in like combat, sure,
a combat unit could could be difficult, or managing a
submarine for instance. So and that's a legitimate discussion because
as Pete Hegseath is forcibly trying to point out in
front of the Senate, it's about preparedness for war and
(07:13):
winning war. It's not a damn jobs program. What is
your first purpose to winning conflict?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Anyway?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Having said that, I've been reading there's a great piece
by the editors of the National Review about the British
rape gang's scandal and how horrific it is and one
of the most horrific aspects, well, every aspect of it's horrific,
come to think of it. But they go fairly into depth,
and I wish we had time with how the local
and national governments covered up for all of this, the
(07:47):
rape of children, refrained from pursuing justice to avenge the
rape of children, to avoid endangering quote. And this is
one particular city, Rotherham's qualities of diversity and harmony, of
commit unity relationships because the rapists were primarily Muslims of
Pakistani heritage. Anyway, we'll go bigger on that at some point.
(08:08):
But the thing I really wanted to get to is
another great piece I read by a fellow by the
name of tal Fortgang, who's a hey, he's a thinker
and a writer, but he's talking about tan of Hissig
or Tana Hashi. How are your supposed to pronounce his
his adopted name, coats recent book The Message, and what
a load of crap it is because any time it
(08:30):
runs into a wait, what you just said is factually untrue,
he just.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Says, Look, don't get caught up in.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
Facts, don't let complexity get in the way of just this,
And it lands him on network TV and gets some
glowing profiles in elite media despite openly aiming to tackle
questions way beyond his depth and and how he doesn't
operate on a level of rationality.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Zooming through the description of the preliminary part.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Of this, he says, I've heard that side of the.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Story, but he's not obligating to exp explain why the
other side of the story is wrong, because right and wrong,
true and untrue do not move him. This is what
I wanted to get to, because this is the umbrella
over every topic we've talked about this segment, from the
LA firefighters to soldiers, to illegal immigrants we were talking
(09:28):
about earlier, the sanctuary cities. You've got literal child rapists
and they won't tell the feds. Hey, we've got to
let this child rapist out. He's an illegal immigrant. Let's
get him out of the country to protect all Americans
or other immigrants. But they don't want to talk about
those facts. And here's where fort Gang gets to his
(09:51):
main point about Coats. And you're going to recognize this
among so many progressives. And this is the reason we
call California cal un cornea where realism.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Goes to die.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Fort Gang REGs his writings are romantic works. They fit
perfectly the Encyclopedia Britannica explanation of the late eighteenth century
rejection of Enlightenment rationalism. Romanticism quote emphasized the individual, the subjective,
the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional,
(10:23):
the visionary, and the transcendental. Coat's idea is to stir
feelings such that you could say, I don't care what
arguments you give, I feel the conclusions in my bones,
and nothing will move.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Me from it. Clearly true. How many times have you
run into people like that?
Speaker 1 (10:41):
The very idea that the conflict he's talking about Israel
Hamas could be complicated, says Coates, is horse ass. He
repeatedly writes that nothing could justify the status quo in Israel.
Really nothing, not even wars of annihilation, genocidal terror groups.
You could that babies and murder entire families in their beds.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
That doesn't justify the status quo.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
A rationalist sees both sides and tries to propose a
proper balance between Israel's security concerns and Palestinian's dignity interests.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Right, that's reasonable.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
A romantic feels the whole situation is wrong and refuses
to entertain evidence that his feelings might not tell the
whole story, and proposes overhauling all of it. Categorical refusal
to even acknowledge facts or arguments that contradict ones intuitions
animates so much of our public discourse on race, gender, crime,
(11:42):
about just about anything that can arouse human passions, and it.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Marks our cultural trends.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
The subjective has pride of place over empirical, the feelings
and the unverifiable over the logical.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
He is the leader of It. Doesn't matter what your
facts are.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
This is what I feel, which is no way to
run a society, man.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Right, My lived experience is more important than the fact. Right, Yeah, God,
you cannot govern with that. You really can't. No, it
was taken hold of a lot of places. Yeah, it
has because.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
It feels good.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
For one thing, it makes people feel really self righteous,
and if their peer group are also romantics, they get
loads and loads of ego gratification by spouting the nonsense
you're right, way to go, man, way to go. We
got to take a break. But I'm looking at the
TV and Richard Blumenthal, Senator, Democratic Senator, is questioning Pete Hegseth.
(12:47):
The fact that he everybody just ignores the fact that
he pretended he was some sort of Vietnam hero and
it was a complete lie.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Now Dolan valor and now he gets to question incomings
deaths with some authority is just amazing, including one guy
who actually served and served honorably. Wow, that's some story anyway,
Any highlights from that, we'll have for you. Another stuff
come on up. This whole TikTok train and keeps getting
(13:17):
more complicated, and yet another app from the same company
doesn't doing a similar thing. Would it get around the
law anyway? Maybe we'll have to talk about that later.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
Yeah, Yeah, there's a lot to be said, but we
will hang in there and get to it when we
can Pete Hegseeth is testifying in from the Senate right
now about his nomination to be Secretary of Defense, and
he said some really great things so far, and man,
he unleashed on the news media, let's hear it.
Speaker 6 (13:45):
And time and time again, stories would come out and
people would reach out to me and say, you know, I've.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Spoken to this reporter about who you really.
Speaker 6 (13:53):
Are, and I was willing to go on the record,
but they didn't print my quote, print any of my quotes.
Or I've worked with you for ten years, or I
was your accountant, or I was your chief operating officer,
or I was your board member, or I was with
you on one hundred different tour stops for Concerned Veterans
(14:14):
for America. No one called me, no one asked about
your conduct on the record or off the record. Instead,
a small handful of anonymous sources were allowed to drive
a smear campaign an agenda about me because our left
wing media in America today sadly doesn't care about the truth.
(14:36):
All they were out to do, mister Chairman, was to
destroy me. And why do they want to destroy me?
Because I'm a change agent and a threat to them?
Because Donald Trump was willing to choose me, to empower
me to bring the Defense Department back to what it
really should be.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Which is war fighting.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
That's some of it. Trump could have named anybody and
they would have made up all kinds of crap to
try to bring him down just because it's Trump. That
includes today, By the way, New York Times, they're big,
splashy front page story today was how the FBI didn't
do a real background check. And MSNBC is walled wall
on this story and then interviewing every Democrat. Can you
(15:14):
believe the FBI didn't do a full background check? I
know it's outrageous. Since when does the FBI not do
full But it's all based on some unnamed sources who
claim the FBI didn't do a full background check. So
once again it's that same story. Yeah, I'm not sure what.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
To think about.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Pete Heigsath is sect def I love your ideas, but
this is I think this is a bigger issue we've had.
This soco media change from an anonymous source, especially if
it's just like one or two, is very very thin
gruel to base a story on, particularly a story of
(15:52):
any importance, and it probably shouldn't be done, and somebody's
got to have a great reason to remain anonymous, and
I still publish the story.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
We've gone from that too.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Absolutely any half wit, crack pot or mental illness case.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
I'm thinking about Judge Kavanaugh's hearings.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Who is willing to trot anything out even if there's
contradictory evidence. That's more than good enough because it's exciting.
So it is a media failing, as Hegzeth was saying,
But we as a society have to understand that it's
not the way it used to be.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Now they'll trot out.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Absolute crap and we just have to say, no, you
name your sources, let's hear him talk on the record,
or I don't care what you just wrote.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
New York Times article centers around one of the stories
floating around about Pete that he is accused of committing
some sort of sexual crime in which at the time
no charges were filed when the police were looking at it,
and Pete Heggsath wasn't sec def nominee. And this woman
claims that the FBI did not interview her. It's possible
(16:54):
they got all the information they needed without interviewing, or
and thought she's a nut.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
I have no idea. Right could be the eye of
the beholder. No, I have no idea.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
I don't think he can be cynical enough about a
couple anonymous sources.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Please, This thing about bringing back duels, the idea of
dueling is really interesting. Among other things we got on
the way, so stay tuned, Armstrong.
Speaker 7 (17:17):
And Getty, And finally, Duncan has partnered with a personal
care brand offer a new collection of deodorant, shampoo, conditioner,
and body wash in a Boston cream scent. And in
a related story, ben Affleck has.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Been eaten by ants. Wow.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
So Pete Hegxath is on the hill being grilled should
he be second deaf or not? The senators are trying
to advise and confirm or not. And we'll have a
clip of that coming up in a little bit where
they get into women in combat, which is clearly one
of the knocks the Democrats are going with this segment,
Joe is going to talk about young people not drinking
(17:58):
as much and whether that's good, and I'm going to
talk about bringing back duels.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
How did I get it here?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
So I've been mentioning that I'm reading this book called
Paris and Ruins, about the year eighteen seventy to eighteen
seventy one in Paris. I got started on that by
when I was in Washington, d C. I went to
the National Art Museum, one of the great museum's art
museums in the world. It's among the Big Seven or
whatever they call them, and they had a display just
(18:26):
coincidentally of Paris eighteen seventy there going on, and because
it was December, instead of standing in a long line,
I just walked up and looked at everything, and it
was all about the Impressionists in eighteen seventy and the
role they played in politics in that what they call
that horrible year in France where they went to war
with Russia and then had violence in the streets and
(18:49):
Napoleon the Third was driven from the country and they
had a revolution and it was really really rough time,
lots of.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Deaths, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
But at one point in the book it mentions, I believe,
not Monette but Manet, the father Impressionism, having a duel
with some other dude, and the way they described the
duel and how they all ended up laughing about it
and drinking afterwards and everything like that. And I thought,
how weird that dueling ever was a thing ever? And
you know, I mean it killed Alexander Hamilton. I mean,
(19:19):
it's just so crazy that dueling ever became a thing.
Then I come across this in the New York Times
the other day. I've never read a book by Randall Collins.
He is a sociologist who, according to this New York
Times review, is brilliant and has written many, many fantastic
books that I have got to get into. And his
(19:39):
latest book is called Violence, among his master works of sociology,
Listen to this. It is a work of lucid and
compelling theory that attempts to clarify when and why moments
of tension erupt into actual violence, as in, what are
the conditions that caused the first punch to be thrown
at a bar fight instead of the conflict dissolving into
slurred threats? Or what causes two children to come to
(20:01):
blows in the playground instead of shuffling to opposite sides
of the sandbox. He covers domestic abuse, boxing matches, pillow fights,
prison violence, excessive police force, soccer, hooligan's crowd violence, mosh pits,
the Nine to eleven cockpit fight and more, which sounds
just fascinating.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
That's wide ranging.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
And then this which I want to at least read
this portion of the book, Collins, the author sincerely unconvincingly
suggests that drug gangs organize pistol duels instead of resorting
to chaotic drive by shootings and street fights. And I
read a little more about that, and yes, it was
(20:43):
a way that developed over time to deal with the whole.
You've insulted my manhood. I can't put up with this,
and found a way to like really narrow it down
to very little violence or no violence at all, as
opposed to you got to drive by some houts and
spray off a bunch of shots or set it on
(21:04):
fire back in the day or whatever you would do,
and every things get completely out of hand. It was
a way to manage the whole.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
He gave me a hard lick look in this kind
stand situation.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
So you had one hat Field and one McCoy square
of bite, and everybody considers it.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Done right, considers it over. It has been dealt with,
so that doesn't have to go on for weeks or
months or years. Now another it's another Chesterton's fence. To me,
we didn't understand how this arose in society. It clearly
serves a purpose. I don't think there's any bringing it back.
But how much better would that be if the bloods
(21:41):
and the crips are the the whatever Ms thirteen or
whoever the heck had some sort of system of dueling
where you settled these sorts of beefs one on one.
Maybe you shoot over their head, maybe a guy dies,
but it's, like you said, over and done with.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Fascinating, go back to selling drugs to school children.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Fascinating culturally though that Yes, somehow a rose a pressure
valve release that was less damaging to society.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Well, right, if we let this go, it's going to
get completely out of control to an unjustified scale.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Let's settle this.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Yeah, yeah, how interesting. Our time is the opposite of that,
just to any and it's it's interesting how hypocritical all
of this is because a lot of the very you know,
political forces that decry violence are more than willing to
participate in it given half an excuse.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
I think the example with the two painters.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
I mean I can wreck a city, I can burn
down stores, I can assault cops. I can beat down
anybody who gets in my way, but if a cop
raises a billy club, that's a horror that cannot be tolerated, right.
I think the example of the duel with the painter
and somebody else was he had slept with his other
guy had slept with his girlfriend or something like that,
which could have, you know, and like in a couple
(22:58):
of gangs, could erupt into maybe years long battles with
hundreds dead and more injured. Or you deal with it
just two people that you to each other. It's over.
My honor has been saved. We're done with it, right, Yeah,
And I let you save your honor, so I'm off
the hook too. My main point with this is not
just duels, it's just culture and the way human beings
(23:23):
and societies come to remedies and then we forget them
somehow and have to start over once again. And this
is you know, a wiser man than me ought to
take on this topic. But it's better to have the
passive acceptance of fifty times more violence than to actively
(23:47):
participate in a very small amount of violence to protect
to prevent, rather that fifty times as much violence. Right,
So you sins of omission are like okay to the
nth degree, but a single sin of co mission is
completely verboten. That's interesting, I thought. So that's some thought
(24:09):
provoking sis nizzle right there, folks. Okay, those of you
come for the jokes about people's you know, private parts
are probably a little confused.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
But anyway, I.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Thought for voking drinking less, you say yes they No,
I didn't, but yes they are, as it turns out,
and I think after a break we can talk about that.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
It is.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Weirdly connected to the previous discussion, but they're drinking way
less and it's probably a bad thing, right.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
I think, I know where you're going with this.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
But as a guy who's got a couple of teenagers
who I don't particularly want drinking a lot's an interesting topic.
And we got some highlights from the pig pete hegzef
hearing as they're getting into women in combat and all
kinds of different subjects today.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Stick around, I hope you can.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Yeah, that's TikTok video the other day with a mom
and a van with their kids driving into school, jam
in this tune and they're all singing along, and I thought,
that's kind of funny A bunch of little kids singing
about getting drunk in the afternoon.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
That's funny, Jack, Because gen Z is ditching the Booze Mordicum. Right.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
So, Pete Hegzith, Trump's nominee to be Secretary of Defense
is being grilled right now by Tim Kain. Maybe remember him,
Hillary Clinton's running mate, wanted to be vice president. And
all I do, I'm just reading the words up on
the screen. I haven't heard it. Yeah, we're gonna go
big on this. An Hour four had some stuff on there.
He's saying to Pete, you cheated on your wife, you
(25:40):
had an affair, you claim Jesus as your Lord and savior.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
That's just all the stuff I read. So that's getting
some pretty personal stuff right there.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
Wow, Wow, Wow, fireworks and substantive and important discussion of
what the nature of our fighting forces ought to be
in the way the Pentagon ought to be run.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
So something for everyone will go big next hour.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Stay tuned. If you don't get Next Hour, you got
to go somewhere.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
GRAVI it later via podcast, subscribe to Armstrong and getting
on demand. So gen Z is ditching Booze. Now, this
piece is kind of new York centric. They're talking about
how zoomers want a wild night on the town, they
won't wake up regretting. Instead, young adults are getting the
social fixes. It's sober friendly gathering hubs and alcohol free
(26:25):
bars that have been sprouting up in which some say
is a sign of changing times.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Well, clearly, the times are always changing. That's what happens
with times, says. Oh, they quote a bunch of we're
supposed to call them zoomers.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Do I have to what does that mean? Generation? Z Okay?
Speaker 4 (26:45):
Anyway, they quote a bunch of twenty somethings, including aid
In spelled really weirdly, age twenty two. I think our
generation is very aware, like a lot of us are activists,
and I think that awareness influences our junkie habits.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
You're right, they drink more.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
With all the stuff we're hearing about the world constantly,
you'd think we'd want a distraction, But I think our
phones are distraction enough, so we don't need as much alcohol.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
All right, Aiden, here's some absence. I have a good time.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
And they go into describing these various game clubs and
alcohol free bars and stuff. Here's another youngster, you're real
age twenty six, they may with a normal name. No,
When people of the previous generation think of drinking, they
think of binge drinking. They think of going to a bar,
slamming back twelve drinks and being hammered the next night.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
You know, why are you speaking for me, sweetheart?
Speaker 4 (27:39):
They think of the idea of cracking up in a
six pack before they go to bed.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
You know what, this is the mirror image of something
else that's unpalatable. So as you get older, everybody has
a tendency to think the current young crop of kids
are just going to ruin the America.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
They're just degenerates.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
And then the flip side of that is every new
young group of people think the superior to.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
All the people older than them. Both of those things
are hard to take.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
It's a thousands year old tradition as a matter of fact, right,
says twenty three year old Lee spelled weird too.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
I do drink.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
When I do, I'll probably have like one drunk. Says Kathleen, Oh,
a normal name quote. I think people in my generation
are more conscious of their health and don't say drinking
as a social obligation.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
In defense of these youngsters, some reporter ask them, why
do you even ask them? They don't know anything. They're young,
they're dumb. But there are statistics to back up. The
bellies are flat and they're good looking, so there are
statistics to back this up, though, right the young people
would one hundred percent. Oh yeah, it's it's been a
cataclysmic for the hard liquor industry. Beer has plummeted, even
(28:46):
the you're like white claw type hard ciders and seltzers
and stuff that were.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
So hot what ten years ago.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
If you listen to if you listen to country music,
every young person in America is drinking whiskey and white
claw all day long.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Yeah, yeah, well not so much apparently.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Anyway, I thought that was interesting, and you know, everybody
colding in the article pitches it as laimar hathe and al,
and I was reminded of an absolutely brilliant piece I
read by kat Rosenfield, who was writing for The Free Press,
and she opens it. I can't resist because it's one
(29:22):
of my favorite scenes too, and it's not just because
I'm a drinking man. She talks about towards the end
of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, after all, the
adventuring is done, and they're back at the Shire, and
Frodo and Sam and Pippen and Marry are drinking at
the local pub. Anybody who's seen the movies remembers the scene,
and Sam, who has courted death and adventured over the world,
(29:44):
sees the girl he's always had a crush on, and
you can see in his eyes I've had these adventures.
I'm gonna go ask her out. But first he takes
a big swig of his ale or whatever they're.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Drinking, whatever Hobbit's drink.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Right, he throws back his pint and she in Cat writes,
this moment is good because so many of us recognize it.
Many of our best and bravest moments started with a
shot or two of liquid courage. And yet contemporary narratives
about young people in drinking are all markedly and overwhelmingly
negative optimizers.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
That's the term I never use.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Warned that alcohol is an addictive poison, activists cite the
link between drinking and sexual assault, and young celebrities who
might have once made headlines for partying can instead be
touting the benefits of sobriety.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
And she has links to the various.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Art Why did you quote some things that are true
for a tiny percentage of people, as if that's everyone.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
I mean, what's the point of.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
That tiny percentages of what tiny percentage of drinkers become alcoholics?
Tiny percentage of drinkers commit you know, crimes or die
of some you know, alcohol related cancer, or get raped
or whatever. But then cat gets on to the point
that I think is really really good in spite of
(30:58):
the narrative that be old the Zoomers in their glorious
sobriety so much smarter, healthier, and more sensible than the
sloppy barfing generations.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
That preceded them.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Now that's good writing, because that's the only kind of
drinking you can do, sloppy barfing drinking. But scratch the
surface of gen Z's sobriety, and what you find isn't
wisdom so much as fear. Fear of vulnerability, fear of failure,
fear of being out of control.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
And we're not talking about completely out of control.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
But out of complete, total, every second control. This is
a generation that is both highly conflict diverse and virtually
allergic to risk, particularly when it comes to markers of
autonomous adulthood, driving, working, sex, going out for a few drinks.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
They are terrified of all of that stuff.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Working is a problem because you kind of have to
work to support yourself. But I was gonna ask, I said,
I was going to say, is this tie in anything
to lack of willingness to want to get a driver's license,
your lack of willingness to want to drink?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
One hundred percent?
Speaker 4 (32:06):
The bosses of gen Z employees report that they can't
make eye contact, they can't take criticism, and even ask
questions when they don't know how to or they're even
afraid to ask questions if they don't know how to
do something.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Using the word vey a lot. Always got to throw
this in on the Armstrong and Getty show. They didn't
raise themselves exactly exactly. And I'm you know, I'm always
heading there with my free range parenting screed.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
Uh, but this generation after you know what? To that point,
Cat Rosenfield writes this inability to tolerate the friction of
ordinary interaction at worker elsewhere as an obstacle when it
comes to connecting with others. But more, perhaps more importantly,
it stands in the way of fun, a thing with
which Zoomers are not well acquainted. After a highly regimented
(32:51):
childhood and an overscheduled adolescence, not their faults.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Packed with resume building activities.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
This generation isn't just more anxile and depressed them their predecessors.
They're so tightly wound and mistrustful of others that they
would rather die than let their guard down, which rules
alcohol right out. I'm reminded of the famous move.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
I don't look as the Germans for much instruction on
anything other than maybe building auto bonds and engineering.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
But the German insurance industry.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Came out several years ago in a giant story in
Europe that was ignored in the US because it was
so uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
The German insurance.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
Industry said, hey, make playgrounds fun again, and quote unquote dangerous.
We have raised generations of kids who have no sense
of their own their own abilities. They have no developed
risk assessment skills. All of childhood to a large extent,
(33:51):
And if you look at it as a strictly anthropological topic,
childhood is about gaining skills and learning risk management. And
if you don't let kids risk anything and fall down
and skin their knees and get bloodied and make mistakes
and get in trouble and get lost and find their
way back, not just once, but over and over again.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
You're going to have adults who are terrified. That's really interesting.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
I'd like my kids to stay away from indebriants as
long as possible, but I don't want them to be
unable to have a job, or ask a girl out
for a date, or call the place in order a
pizza or any of those things.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
So right, would you send your kids off to college
having not tried alcohol?
Speaker 1 (34:39):
I went off to college having not tried alcohol, and
I don't get me any harm. But yeah, I don't
think that bothers me. It depends on I guess it
would be the reason. Are you afraid of it? Well?
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Right, right, I don't think I was afraid of it.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
I just didn't run with a crowd that did that,
and everything went great.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Or not depends on the individual.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
Of course, my daughters knew what alcohol does to them
before they went to college.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
I thought that was important. Hum interesting.
Speaker 4 (35:11):
If you miss your thoughts four one five kftcre drop
us a note mail bag at Armstrong and Geddy dot com.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
If you miss a segment, Yes, you can find our
podcast Armstrong and Getty on demand you should subscribe that
it will automatically show up. We're gonna talk a lot
about Pete Hexith an hour four and play some clips
Armstrong and Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio the George
Washington Broadcast Center.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty, I'm strong and get kid
and he armstrong and Yetty.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
With regards to the situation in Gaza, the President, echoing
what US officials have been saying, both in private and
in public over the last twenty four hours, suggesting that
a deal could be reached sometime soon, that it could
be on the cusp of being announced. You know, it's
been a really long time since we have heard this
kind of optimism, at least coming from inside the Biden administration.
(00:47):
But sources have been telling us over the last day
or so that they do believe a deal could be
announced for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of
hostages from Gaza in the next coming days, in.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
The next couple of days. Yeah, and those two things
go together. They're going to give back the hostages and
Israel is going to agree to pull their troops out
of Gaza. And even the New York Times says this
is all being instigated, pushed by the looming deadline of
Biden not being president and Trump being president, And even
the New York Times includes Trump warning quote, all hell
(01:22):
to pay unless the hostages are freed by the day
he becomes president. And apparently Hamas believes that's true.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Right, Well, I would suggest a huge dose of trust,
yet verify even in thinking about this alleged agreement. First
of all, it has to actually be agreed to. Frameworks
have a history of falling apart in this region. But secondly,
because I do believe Trump's threats are a legitimate and
(01:50):
be motivating the hell out of the scumbags and a
mass to make a deal. But then there's the question
of implementing it and having everybody live up to their
side of the agreement.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I'm sure extremely skeptical.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Being mediated by Katar, Egypt and the United States, and
obviously Israel and Hamas are involved with their own particular
needs and everything like that. I gotta believe Katar and
Egypt are saying to Hamas, look, the jig is up, right,
do you want to be pumpled into dust? Or?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I mean, what are you going to gain out of that? Right? Yeah,
I would certainly hope.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
So I'm more optimistic than you for no reason other
than it just has echoes of nineteen seventy nine nineteen
eighty when Reagan came in and the hostages came back
from Iran and a brand new administration that looks like
a hard ass. Everybody thinks, Okay, there's a new sheriff
in down.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Yeah, I'm I am really interested to hear what the
provisions are for a ceasefire from Israel's point of view,
because they still and they no longer suffer under any
delusions about this, they are still facing an enemy that
has sworn to wipe them off the face of the
earth in their founding charter.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
So it's difficult to strike up a.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Deal for long term harmony with somebody who answers that description.
They are not near as tough as they were before,
and they don't have the backing of their really only supporter,
Iran anymore because Iran is barely functioning themselves as a military.
And to me, the big story is do Israel and
the United States together either take out that nuclear program
(03:26):
in Iran or go full regime change. I think both
of them are on the table, and who knows what Trump.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
I would agree, I would agree, And this is the
contrast between Trump, for better or worse and Biden is
I think Trump and his people get that doing nothing
is to do something absolutely.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Barack Obama did not understand that at all. Don't do
stupid s was his motto. Well, not reacting to Bushar
al Asad's chemical weapons is stupid s. It led to
more bad things things.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Yeah, constant passivity is some of the stupidest ask you
can do. So a completely different topic, well, it's tangisially related.
I guess there are a handful of things that have
come together in my head. Pete Haggs, that's hearing is
going on right now in front of the Senate between
the idiot protesters and the tough questioning of him and
his force full advocacy of a more fighting, man oriented
(04:26):
military as opposed to a giant, bloated bureaucracy. That's a
jobs program. I'm loving that discussion. You have the LA
fire situation where Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom are trying
to blame it on climate change when their preparedness was
terrible over the years and over the previous months, and
Karen Bass going to Ghana for no good reason just
(04:47):
because she likes expensive junkets with the forecast being horrible
in LA. I didn't make any the firefighting program, a
jobs program for women because not enough women want to
be fire It's just ridiculous. I didn't realize till yesterday.
So hear, trip to Ghana. Okay, you're gonna go somewhere,
find whatever. That doesn't bother me. Politicians bank all kinds
of trips I hate and everything like that.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
She got there, the fire started, and she stayed. She
didn't even leave early. Now that's.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Criminal.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
I mean, well, that's not criminal, it's malpractice. Oh and
again it was just a celebrity junket. There was no
reason for her to be there whatsoever other than a vacation.
But I'm thinking about, you know, the LA firefighters, how
they have done this big DEI thing to get more
women firefighters can not that many women want to be firefighters?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
And who cares? If who cares?
Speaker 4 (05:36):
How many women? How many firefighters in LA County or
LA are women?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Who cares? Anybody? Only these activists do gooders.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
It's possible not many women want to be And has
there been a fire victim in the history of fires,
or a medical emergency for that matter, maybe excepting giving
birth by the freeway? Has there ever been a person
as the firefighters are fighting to put out the fire
that's going to reduce your home Dash who said, Yeah,
it's cool that they're doing this, but man, I'd like
(06:05):
to see some more diversity.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Well, I think we've gone so far the wrong direction.
We should flip it around. Is there do you know
anybody that seems to be in favor of rejecting a
woman who's otherwise qualified physically to do the job?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I course not.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
I don't know a single human being that, just from
a misogynistic sexist standpoint, wouldn't want a qualified woman to
be a firefighter, right, nobody. I've never heard anybody even
come close to that opinion. Yet we've gone so far
the other direction, as if that's the norm to bring
in people that aren't qualified in the military and firefighting
(06:44):
cops and all kinds of different examples, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
And this is such a good topic.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
I was actually heading towards going to a more thirty
thousand foot view of it, but I liked it. I
have heard people say the sexual dynamics in like combat, sure,
a combat unit could could be difficult, or managing a
submarine for instance. So and that's a legitimate discussion because
as Pete Hegseath is forcibly trying to point out in
front of the Senate, it's about preparedness for war and
(07:13):
winning war. It's not a damn jobs program. What is
your first purpose to winning conflict?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Anyway?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Having said that, I've been reading there's a great piece
by the editors of the National Review about the British
rape gang's scandal and how horrific it is and one
of the most horrific aspects, well, every aspect of it's horrific,
come to think of it. But they go fairly into depth,
and I wish we had time with how the local
and national governments covered up for all of this, the
(07:47):
rape of children, refrained from pursuing justice to avenge the
rape of children, to avoid endangering quote. And this is
one particular city, Rotherham's qualities of diversity and harmony, of
commit unity relationships because the rapists were primarily Muslims of
Pakistani heritage. Anyway, we'll go bigger on that at some point.
(08:08):
But the thing I really wanted to get to is
another great piece I read by a fellow by the
name of tal Fortgang, who's a hey, he's a thinker
and a writer, but he's talking about tan of Hissig
or Tana Hashi. How are your supposed to pronounce his
his adopted name, coats recent book The Message, and what
a load of crap it is because any time it
(08:30):
runs into a wait, what you just said is factually untrue,
he just.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Says, Look, don't get caught up in.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
Facts, don't let complexity get in the way of just this,
And it lands him on network TV and gets some
glowing profiles in elite media despite openly aiming to tackle
questions way beyond his depth and and how he doesn't
operate on a level of rationality.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Zooming through the description of the preliminary part.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Of this, he says, I've heard that side of the.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Story, but he's not obligating to exp explain why the
other side of the story is wrong, because right and wrong,
true and untrue do not move him. This is what
I wanted to get to, because this is the umbrella
over every topic we've talked about this segment, from the
LA firefighters to soldiers, to illegal immigrants we were talking
(09:28):
about earlier, the sanctuary cities. You've got literal child rapists
and they won't tell the feds. Hey, we've got to
let this child rapist out. He's an illegal immigrant. Let's
get him out of the country to protect all Americans
or other immigrants. But they don't want to talk about
those facts. And here's where fort Gang gets to his
(09:51):
main point about Coats. And you're going to recognize this
among so many progressives. And this is the reason we
call California cal un cornea where realism.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Goes to die.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Fort Gang REGs his writings are romantic works. They fit
perfectly the Encyclopedia Britannica explanation of the late eighteenth century
rejection of Enlightenment rationalism. Romanticism quote emphasized the individual, the subjective,
the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional,
(10:23):
the visionary, and the transcendental. Coat's idea is to stir
feelings such that you could say, I don't care what
arguments you give, I feel the conclusions in my bones,
and nothing will move.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Me from it. Clearly true. How many times have you
run into people like that?
Speaker 1 (10:41):
The very idea that the conflict he's talking about Israel
Hamas could be complicated, says Coates, is horse ass. He
repeatedly writes that nothing could justify the status quo in Israel.
Really nothing, not even wars of annihilation, genocidal terror groups.
You could that babies and murder entire families in their beds.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
That doesn't justify the status quo.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
A rationalist sees both sides and tries to propose a
proper balance between Israel's security concerns and Palestinian's dignity interests.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Right, that's reasonable.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
A romantic feels the whole situation is wrong and refuses
to entertain evidence that his feelings might not tell the
whole story, and proposes overhauling all of it. Categorical refusal
to even acknowledge facts or arguments that contradict ones intuitions
animates so much of our public discourse on race, gender, crime,
(11:42):
about just about anything that can arouse human passions, and it.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Marks our cultural trends.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
The subjective has pride of place over empirical, the feelings
and the unverifiable over the logical.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
He is the leader of It. Doesn't matter what your
facts are.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
This is what I feel, which is no way to
run a society, man.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Right, My lived experience is more important than the fact. Right, Yeah, God,
you cannot govern with that. You really can't. No, it
was taken hold of a lot of places. Yeah, it
has because.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
It feels good.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
For one thing, it makes people feel really self righteous,
and if their peer group are also romantics, they get
loads and loads of ego gratification by spouting the nonsense
you're right, way to go, man, way to go. We
got to take a break. But I'm looking at the
TV and Richard Blumenthal, Senator, Democratic Senator, is questioning Pete Hegseth.
(12:47):
The fact that he everybody just ignores the fact that
he pretended he was some sort of Vietnam hero and
it was a complete lie.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Now Dolan valor and now he gets to question incomings
deaths with some authority is just amazing, including one guy
who actually served and served honorably. Wow, that's some story anyway,
Any highlights from that, we'll have for you. Another stuff
come on up. This whole TikTok train and keeps getting
(13:17):
more complicated, and yet another app from the same company
doesn't doing a similar thing. Would it get around the
law anyway? Maybe we'll have to talk about that later.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
Yeah, Yeah, there's a lot to be said, but we
will hang in there and get to it when we
can Pete Hegseeth is testifying in from the Senate right
now about his nomination to be Secretary of Defense, and
he said some really great things so far, and man,
he unleashed on the news media, let's hear it.
Speaker 6 (13:45):
And time and time again, stories would come out and
people would reach out to me and say, you know, I've.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Spoken to this reporter about who you really.
Speaker 6 (13:53):
Are, and I was willing to go on the record,
but they didn't print my quote, print any of my quotes.
Or I've worked with you for ten years, or I
was your accountant, or I was your chief operating officer,
or I was your board member, or I was with
you on one hundred different tour stops for Concerned Veterans
(14:14):
for America. No one called me, no one asked about
your conduct on the record or off the record. Instead,
a small handful of anonymous sources were allowed to drive
a smear campaign an agenda about me because our left
wing media in America today sadly doesn't care about the truth.
(14:36):
All they were out to do, mister Chairman, was to
destroy me. And why do they want to destroy me?
Because I'm a change agent and a threat to them?
Because Donald Trump was willing to choose me, to empower
me to bring the Defense Department back to what it
really should be.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Which is war fighting.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
That's some of it. Trump could have named anybody and
they would have made up all kinds of crap to
try to bring him down just because it's Trump. That
includes today, By the way, New York Times, they're big,
splashy front page story today was how the FBI didn't
do a real background check. And MSNBC is walled wall
on this story and then interviewing every Democrat. Can you
(15:14):
believe the FBI didn't do a full background check? I
know it's outrageous. Since when does the FBI not do
full But it's all based on some unnamed sources who
claim the FBI didn't do a full background check. So
once again it's that same story. Yeah, I'm not sure what.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
To think about.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Pete Heigsath is sect def I love your ideas, but
this is I think this is a bigger issue we've had.
This soco media change from an anonymous source, especially if
it's just like one or two, is very very thin
gruel to base a story on, particularly a story of
(15:52):
any importance, and it probably shouldn't be done, and somebody's
got to have a great reason to remain anonymous, and
I still publish the story.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
We've gone from that too.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Absolutely any half wit, crack pot or mental illness case.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
I'm thinking about Judge Kavanaugh's hearings.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Who is willing to trot anything out even if there's
contradictory evidence. That's more than good enough because it's exciting.
So it is a media failing, as Hegzeth was saying,
But we as a society have to understand that it's
not the way it used to be.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Now they'll trot out.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Absolute crap and we just have to say, no, you
name your sources, let's hear him talk on the record,
or I don't care what you just wrote.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
New York Times article centers around one of the stories
floating around about Pete that he is accused of committing
some sort of sexual crime in which at the time
no charges were filed when the police were looking at it,
and Pete Heggsath wasn't sec def nominee. And this woman
claims that the FBI did not interview her. It's possible
(16:54):
they got all the information they needed without interviewing, or
and thought she's a nut.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
I have no idea. Right could be the eye of
the beholder. No, I have no idea.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
I don't think he can be cynical enough about a
couple anonymous sources.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Please, This thing about bringing back duels, the idea of
dueling is really interesting. Among other things we got on
the way, so stay tuned, Armstrong.
Speaker 7 (17:17):
And Getty, And finally, Duncan has partnered with a personal
care brand offer a new collection of deodorant, shampoo, conditioner,
and body wash in a Boston cream scent. And in
a related story, ben Affleck has.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Been eaten by ants. Wow.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
So Pete Hegxath is on the hill being grilled should
he be second deaf or not? The senators are trying
to advise and confirm or not. And we'll have a
clip of that coming up in a little bit where
they get into women in combat, which is clearly one
of the knocks the Democrats are going with this segment,
Joe is going to talk about young people not drinking
(17:58):
as much and whether that's good, and I'm going to
talk about bringing back duels.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
How did I get it here?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
So I've been mentioning that I'm reading this book called
Paris and Ruins, about the year eighteen seventy to eighteen
seventy one in Paris. I got started on that by
when I was in Washington, d C. I went to
the National Art Museum, one of the great museum's art
museums in the world. It's among the Big Seven or
whatever they call them, and they had a display just
(18:26):
coincidentally of Paris eighteen seventy there going on, and because
it was December, instead of standing in a long line,
I just walked up and looked at everything, and it
was all about the Impressionists in eighteen seventy and the
role they played in politics in that what they call
that horrible year in France where they went to war
with Russia and then had violence in the streets and
(18:49):
Napoleon the Third was driven from the country and they
had a revolution and it was really really rough time,
lots of.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Deaths, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
But at one point in the book it mentions, I believe,
not Monette but Manet, the father Impressionism, having a duel
with some other dude, and the way they described the
duel and how they all ended up laughing about it
and drinking afterwards and everything like that. And I thought,
how weird that dueling ever was a thing ever? And
you know, I mean it killed Alexander Hamilton. I mean,
(19:19):
it's just so crazy that dueling ever became a thing.
Then I come across this in the New York Times
the other day. I've never read a book by Randall Collins.
He is a sociologist who, according to this New York
Times review, is brilliant and has written many, many fantastic
books that I have got to get into. And his
(19:39):
latest book is called Violence, among his master works of sociology,
Listen to this. It is a work of lucid and
compelling theory that attempts to clarify when and why moments
of tension erupt into actual violence, as in, what are
the conditions that caused the first punch to be thrown
at a bar fight instead of the conflict dissolving into
slurred threats? Or what causes two children to come to
(20:01):
blows in the playground instead of shuffling to opposite sides
of the sandbox. He covers domestic abuse, boxing matches, pillow fights,
prison violence, excessive police force, soccer, hooligan's crowd violence, mosh pits,
the Nine to eleven cockpit fight and more, which sounds
just fascinating.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
That's wide ranging.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
And then this which I want to at least read
this portion of the book, Collins, the author sincerely unconvincingly
suggests that drug gangs organize pistol duels instead of resorting
to chaotic drive by shootings and street fights. And I
read a little more about that, and yes, it was
(20:43):
a way that developed over time to deal with the whole.
You've insulted my manhood. I can't put up with this,
and found a way to like really narrow it down
to very little violence or no violence at all, as
opposed to you got to drive by some houts and
spray off a bunch of shots or set it on
(21:04):
fire back in the day or whatever you would do,
and every things get completely out of hand. It was
a way to manage the whole.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
He gave me a hard lick look in this kind
stand situation.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
So you had one hat Field and one McCoy square
of bite, and everybody considers it.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Done right, considers it over. It has been dealt with,
so that doesn't have to go on for weeks or
months or years. Now another it's another Chesterton's fence. To me,
we didn't understand how this arose in society. It clearly
serves a purpose. I don't think there's any bringing it back.
But how much better would that be if the bloods
(21:41):
and the crips are the the whatever Ms thirteen or
whoever the heck had some sort of system of dueling
where you settled these sorts of beefs one on one.
Maybe you shoot over their head, maybe a guy dies,
but it's, like you said, over and done with.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Fascinating, go back to selling drugs to school children.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Fascinating culturally though that Yes, somehow a rose a pressure
valve release that was less damaging to society.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Well, right, if we let this go, it's going to
get completely out of control to an unjustified scale.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Let's settle this.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Yeah, yeah, how interesting. Our time is the opposite of that,
just to any and it's it's interesting how hypocritical all
of this is because a lot of the very you know,
political forces that decry violence are more than willing to
participate in it given half an excuse.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
I think the example with the two painters.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
I mean I can wreck a city, I can burn
down stores, I can assault cops. I can beat down
anybody who gets in my way, but if a cop
raises a billy club, that's a horror that cannot be tolerated, right.
I think the example of the duel with the painter
and somebody else was he had slept with his other
guy had slept with his girlfriend or something like that,
which could have, you know, and like in a couple
(22:58):
of gangs, could erupt into maybe years long battles with
hundreds dead and more injured. Or you deal with it
just two people that you to each other. It's over.
My honor has been saved. We're done with it, right, Yeah,
And I let you save your honor, so I'm off
the hook too. My main point with this is not
just duels, it's just culture and the way human beings
(23:23):
and societies come to remedies and then we forget them
somehow and have to start over once again. And this
is you know, a wiser man than me ought to
take on this topic. But it's better to have the
passive acceptance of fifty times more violence than to actively
(23:47):
participate in a very small amount of violence to protect
to prevent, rather that fifty times as much violence. Right,
So you sins of omission are like okay to the
nth degree, but a single sin of co mission is
completely verboten. That's interesting, I thought. So that's some thought
(24:09):
provoking sis nizzle right there, folks. Okay, those of you
come for the jokes about people's you know, private parts
are probably a little confused.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
But anyway, I.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Thought for voking drinking less, you say yes they No,
I didn't, but yes they are, as it turns out,
and I think after a break we can talk about that.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
It is.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Weirdly connected to the previous discussion, but they're drinking way
less and it's probably a bad thing, right.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
I think, I know where you're going with this.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
But as a guy who's got a couple of teenagers
who I don't particularly want drinking a lot's an interesting topic.
And we got some highlights from the pig pete hegzef
hearing as they're getting into women in combat and all
kinds of different subjects today.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Stick around, I hope you can.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Yeah, that's TikTok video the other day with a mom
and a van with their kids driving into school, jam
in this tune and they're all singing along, and I thought,
that's kind of funny A bunch of little kids singing
about getting drunk in the afternoon.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
That's funny, Jack, Because gen Z is ditching the Booze Mordicum. Right.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
So, Pete Hegzith, Trump's nominee to be Secretary of Defense
is being grilled right now by Tim Kain. Maybe remember him,
Hillary Clinton's running mate, wanted to be vice president. And
all I do, I'm just reading the words up on
the screen. I haven't heard it. Yeah, we're gonna go
big on this. An Hour four had some stuff on there.
He's saying to Pete, you cheated on your wife, you
(25:40):
had an affair, you claim Jesus as your Lord and savior.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
That's just all the stuff I read. So that's getting
some pretty personal stuff right there.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
Wow, Wow, Wow, fireworks and substantive and important discussion of
what the nature of our fighting forces ought to be
in the way the Pentagon ought to be run.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
So something for everyone will go big next hour.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Stay tuned. If you don't get Next Hour, you got
to go somewhere.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
GRAVI it later via podcast, subscribe to Armstrong and getting
on demand. So gen Z is ditching Booze. Now, this
piece is kind of new York centric. They're talking about
how zoomers want a wild night on the town, they
won't wake up regretting. Instead, young adults are getting the
social fixes. It's sober friendly gathering hubs and alcohol free
(26:25):
bars that have been sprouting up in which some say
is a sign of changing times.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Well, clearly, the times are always changing. That's what happens
with times, says. Oh, they quote a bunch of we're
supposed to call them zoomers.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Do I have to what does that mean? Generation? Z Okay?
Speaker 4 (26:45):
Anyway, they quote a bunch of twenty somethings, including aid
In spelled really weirdly, age twenty two. I think our
generation is very aware, like a lot of us are activists,
and I think that awareness influences our junkie habits.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
You're right, they drink more.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
With all the stuff we're hearing about the world constantly,
you'd think we'd want a distraction, But I think our
phones are distraction enough, so we don't need as much alcohol.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
All right, Aiden, here's some absence. I have a good time.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
And they go into describing these various game clubs and
alcohol free bars and stuff. Here's another youngster, you're real
age twenty six, they may with a normal name. No,
When people of the previous generation think of drinking, they
think of binge drinking. They think of going to a bar,
slamming back twelve drinks and being hammered the next night.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
You know, why are you speaking for me, sweetheart?
Speaker 4 (27:39):
They think of the idea of cracking up in a
six pack before they go to bed.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
You know what, this is the mirror image of something
else that's unpalatable. So as you get older, everybody has
a tendency to think the current young crop of kids
are just going to ruin the America.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
They're just degenerates.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
And then the flip side of that is every new
young group of people think the superior to.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
All the people older than them. Both of those things
are hard to take.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
It's a thousands year old tradition as a matter of fact, right,
says twenty three year old Lee spelled weird too.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
I do drink.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
When I do, I'll probably have like one drunk. Says Kathleen, Oh,
a normal name quote. I think people in my generation
are more conscious of their health and don't say drinking
as a social obligation.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
In defense of these youngsters, some reporter ask them, why
do you even ask them? They don't know anything. They're young,
they're dumb. But there are statistics to back up. The
bellies are flat and they're good looking, so there are
statistics to back this up, though, right the young people
would one hundred percent. Oh yeah, it's it's been a
cataclysmic for the hard liquor industry. Beer has plummeted, even
(28:46):
the you're like white claw type hard ciders and seltzers
and stuff that were.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
So hot what ten years ago.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
If you listen to if you listen to country music,
every young person in America is drinking whiskey and white
claw all day long.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Yeah, yeah, well not so much apparently.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Anyway, I thought that was interesting, and you know, everybody
colding in the article pitches it as laimar hathe and al,
and I was reminded of an absolutely brilliant piece I
read by kat Rosenfield, who was writing for The Free Press,
and she opens it. I can't resist because it's one
(29:22):
of my favorite scenes too, and it's not just because
I'm a drinking man. She talks about towards the end
of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, after all, the
adventuring is done, and they're back at the Shire, and
Frodo and Sam and Pippen and Marry are drinking at
the local pub. Anybody who's seen the movies remembers the scene,
and Sam, who has courted death and adventured over the world,
(29:44):
sees the girl he's always had a crush on, and
you can see in his eyes I've had these adventures.
I'm gonna go ask her out. But first he takes
a big swig of his ale or whatever they're.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Drinking, whatever Hobbit's drink.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Right, he throws back his pint and she in Cat writes,
this moment is good because so many of us recognize it.
Many of our best and bravest moments started with a
shot or two of liquid courage. And yet contemporary narratives
about young people in drinking are all markedly and overwhelmingly
negative optimizers.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
That's the term I never use.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Warned that alcohol is an addictive poison, activists cite the
link between drinking and sexual assault, and young celebrities who
might have once made headlines for partying can instead be
touting the benefits of sobriety.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
And she has links to the various.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Art Why did you quote some things that are true
for a tiny percentage of people, as if that's everyone.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
I mean, what's the point of.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
That tiny percentages of what tiny percentage of drinkers become alcoholics?
Tiny percentage of drinkers commit you know, crimes or die
of some you know, alcohol related cancer, or get raped
or whatever. But then cat gets on to the point
that I think is really really good in spite of
(30:58):
the narrative that be old the Zoomers in their glorious
sobriety so much smarter, healthier, and more sensible than the
sloppy barfing generations.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
That preceded them.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Now that's good writing, because that's the only kind of
drinking you can do, sloppy barfing drinking. But scratch the
surface of gen Z's sobriety, and what you find isn't
wisdom so much as fear. Fear of vulnerability, fear of failure,
fear of being out of control.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
And we're not talking about completely out of control.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
But out of complete, total, every second control. This is
a generation that is both highly conflict diverse and virtually
allergic to risk, particularly when it comes to markers of
autonomous adulthood, driving, working, sex, going out for a few drinks.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
They are terrified of all of that stuff.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Working is a problem because you kind of have to
work to support yourself. But I was gonna ask, I said,
I was going to say, is this tie in anything
to lack of willingness to want to get a driver's license,
your lack of willingness to want to drink?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
One hundred percent?
Speaker 4 (32:06):
The bosses of gen Z employees report that they can't
make eye contact, they can't take criticism, and even ask
questions when they don't know how to or they're even
afraid to ask questions if they don't know how to
do something.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Using the word vey a lot. Always got to throw
this in on the Armstrong and Getty show. They didn't
raise themselves exactly exactly. And I'm you know, I'm always
heading there with my free range parenting screed.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
Uh, but this generation after you know what? To that point,
Cat Rosenfield writes this inability to tolerate the friction of
ordinary interaction at worker elsewhere as an obstacle when it
comes to connecting with others. But more, perhaps more importantly,
it stands in the way of fun, a thing with
which Zoomers are not well acquainted. After a highly regimented
(32:51):
childhood and an overscheduled adolescence, not their faults.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Packed with resume building activities.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
This generation isn't just more anxile and depressed them their predecessors.
They're so tightly wound and mistrustful of others that they
would rather die than let their guard down, which rules
alcohol right out. I'm reminded of the famous move.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
I don't look as the Germans for much instruction on
anything other than maybe building auto bonds and engineering.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
But the German insurance industry.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Came out several years ago in a giant story in
Europe that was ignored in the US because it was
so uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
The German insurance.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
Industry said, hey, make playgrounds fun again, and quote unquote dangerous.
We have raised generations of kids who have no sense
of their own their own abilities. They have no developed
risk assessment skills. All of childhood to a large extent,
(33:51):
And if you look at it as a strictly anthropological topic,
childhood is about gaining skills and learning risk management. And
if you don't let kids risk anything and fall down
and skin their knees and get bloodied and make mistakes
and get in trouble and get lost and find their
way back, not just once, but over and over again.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
You're going to have adults who are terrified. That's really interesting.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
I'd like my kids to stay away from indebriants as
long as possible, but I don't want them to be
unable to have a job, or ask a girl out
for a date, or call the place in order a
pizza or any of those things.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
So right, would you send your kids off to college
having not tried alcohol?
Speaker 1 (34:39):
I went off to college having not tried alcohol, and
I don't get me any harm. But yeah, I don't
think that bothers me. It depends on I guess it
would be the reason. Are you afraid of it? Well?
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Right, right, I don't think I was afraid of it.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
I just didn't run with a crowd that did that,
and everything went great.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Or not depends on the individual.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
Of course, my daughters knew what alcohol does to them
before they went to college.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
I thought that was important. Hum interesting.
Speaker 4 (35:11):
If you miss your thoughts four one five kftcre drop
us a note mail bag at Armstrong and Geddy dot com.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
If you miss a segment, Yes, you can find our
podcast Armstrong and Getty on demand you should subscribe that
it will automatically show up. We're gonna talk a lot
about Pete Hexith an hour four and play some clips
Armstrong and Getty
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.