Hello the Internet, and welcome to this episode of r f K Junior, running as an independ trent trend Trent into trend and pent trendent into trendent trend day. This will be our indo trendent day. Jack be Miles. We got there and by there I mean too you know, a thing that doesn't really make sense.
By there, we mean an end of a sentence. And here we are.
Here we are folks. Uh, Hi, Miles, how are you doing?
I'm well how about you?
Oh great? This is we're like.
Two hours into recording together for the day.
Yeah yeah, yeah, So that's why it sounds weird. Not because we secretly hate each other, we really love each other.
Because this is you say that.
I told you not to say that. Okay, sorry, damn it anyway.
Ruins the illusion, the illuse trent, the loose trends we got. I can't, I can't. This is gonna be the whole episode. I've had a cough for like six weeks. Yeah, I've had one, like a wet cough too.
Joel had one. I mean I might have one. I don't know.
I was gonna ask justin if if it's subsided. Everyone's got this like for me, it's all like post nasal drip, tickling my throat from the allergies.
Tickling thems vocal cords. But anyway, let's tell the people about some things that are trending. There's there's a new thing happening on in the world of I guess tech and the right. But shakespeare skepticism mainly.
That Shakespeare was good.
It's not that like Shakespeare like didn't exist or he was, you know, a bunch of different writers. It's like, what you think Shakespeare good? I mean, let me hit you with some Baysian with the Baysian priors on that, my dude.
Yeah.
So there's a new book by Michael Lewis where he was kicking it with Sam bankmin Free during the collapse of his empire, and I'll I'll just quote from the book to Sam's way of thinking. The case against Shakespeare could be made with basic statistics.
Oh, okay, I could.
And this is from him. I could go on and on about the failings of Shakespeare, but really I shouldn't need to. The Baysian priors are pretty damning. About half the people born since sixteen hundred have been born in the past hundred years. But it gets much worse than that. When Shakespeare wrote, almost all Europeans were busy farming and very few people attended university. Few people were even literate,
probably as low as ten million people. By contrast, they're now upwards of a billion literate people in the Western sphere. What are the odds that the greatest writer would have been born in fifteen sixty four? The Bayesian priors aren't very favorable. God, they love they love a Bayesian fucking prior, don't they?
Yeah, dude, they love Baysian statistical and analysis.
Dude, they're like, yes, you know what I mean.
This sucks so bad.
I mean, like it's it's a great speech about like isn't it amazing that Shakespeare was such.
An incredible writer like he might yet at a.
Time when like it's it's so wild that he was like just so incredible with like that that like our greatest writer lived at this time. It's a real like anomaly and it doesn't make sense. But clearly he lived, you know, he wrote, and everybody, like most people who are literate agree his ship is pretty good. And instead he's like, so therefore he must suck. He must just not be good if he listens.
Sorry, that's how you just look at the world. You're like weird rigid statistical analysis. No wonder you're into effective altruism because there's no such thing for just God. I mean, I don't sure I'm Shakespeare fine, I'm not a fan or a hater. I'm like, yeah, oh yeah, cool Shakespeare. But like the idea that like cool Shakespeare. Oh cool Shakespeare. Sure, man,
if that's what you're into. But like the arrogance people being like this is just not that good, like come on whatever, or like I could do that really.
Richard Hannania, who is guy. He's a writer.
He's the author of like some books about the woke mob.
I think is mainly like.
What origins of woke?
His origins of woke?
President of CSPI Center or who the fuck knows what that is.
The Center for the Study of Partisanship in Ideology former UT Austin.
Huh, I wonder what happened when at UT Austin. Anyways, he has come through and said, pretty sure, if you gave me a year, I could write Shakespeare quality work, Like if someone hadn't read all of Shakespeare and you randomly gave them me or him on average, they couldn't tell the difference. Of course, without the blind test, people would pretend it wasn't as good. I don't have time, of course. Okay, so I don't think I'm gonna do it. But if someone wanted.
To, so I could write Shakespeare quality work. But I don't have time.
Oh okay, it's such a great dude, that's the same thing. Was just be fucking boring.
This is such rage a with the fucking glasses being broken energy, Yeah, go ahead, these are indestructible glasses. Break Yeah, I dare they can't break. And then when they do it, I don't care do it.
I don't care.
I have time.
Like, oh, okay, this guy also too.
As I read more about his book, well, this guy's a fucking trash white supremacist man. He's talking about like the fucking Civil Rights like act. It was like the origins of the downfall of America.
Complete.
Okay, okay, gay, but hey, I'd love to see you try.
I mean, I'm not even out here.
I'm like, dude, I couldn't write a fucking sound it if I wanted to, yeah, because my brain isn't in that space. But I bet I could smoke a more weed than Shakespeare. I'd be a better battle rapper than William Shakespeare.
Oh man, way do you see uh lin Manuel Miranda's Shakespeare biopic?
That's could it shot?
Like those YouTube like rap battle videos where it's like a whole like there's like a whole cipher of people.
And he's like, oh, next, big Bill.
With the fucking ruffled collar and ship.
Big Willie shaky spear is uh. Dan O'Brien once called him in a column, and I've never forgotten Big Willie shaky spear, shaky spear. All right, Kevin McCarthy, We're not We're not through with him yet, folks.
Nope.
First of all, he's claiming that what what happened in Israel, uh is probably gonna happen in the United States when you look at the dang border right here on there, And have you.
Seen, dude, that was another huge misinformation ship that goring there, Like oh yeah, like Hamas is activating terrorist cells in the United States because.
Of the poorest southern border.
Uh huh.
Like it was so weird to see people share like potential like warnings but not give detail or like if you actually care about people, wouldn't you like alert people? Or you're just saying like I've heard some weird stuff and it's all because of the border.
That's right.
We found we found a way to make it about everything else again.
But anyway.
He also doesn't know when to quit, and is saying that he might be open to reclaiming the post from which he was ousted last week.
This fool is just dude, can't Yeah, who is this?
Like, I mean, Apollo Creed I liked, So it's not someone I want to be like, stay down, you know what I mean?
Like, was that was that him? When they're like stay down? You seeing like that?
What's a boxing movie where they're like stay down?
Well rock He's like, I'm gonna throw in the towel and he's like, we're not You're not right. Yeah yeah, that's maybe the big big energy of like no towel, no, no towel. You're like, oh, sir, buddy, okay, but like but I'm not rooting for you, so in a way I'm like, yeah, go ahead, yeah, yeah, yeah, no towel, no towel. Right, right, Actually, get up, get on up, Get on up, James Brown.
Come on now, let's see it.
Show the intro music for Apollo Creed entering the room.
That's okay, so we've got something here.
Woke, get on up, all right, Kevin McCarthy.
So he floated the possibility on Monday that he might be open to reclaiming the post, summoned reporters to Capitol Hill to lay out a plan to defend Israel and rescue American captives, and it just felt like he was still trying to interview for the job that he just.
Yeah, it's it's like truly has that energy of like dress for the job that you want, right even though you don't have it where it's like, okay, you might say that, but we already saw who the news speaker is.
It's the little guy with the with the boat tie who likes to do smash. He smashed with the gavel.
Yeah, does her gabble anymore?
Like is that his thing? Maybe?
No.
I think they're on a recess right now.
They may be coming back.
But again, it's also just another complication because as much as you know, like any kind of aid package that would potentially go to Israel like has to be you know, what Congress would need to vote on that, but without a speaker and like it being in dis like it makes things a little bit sticky.
But yeah, this is it's a lot. There's a lot going on.
There's a lot going on, and Kevin McCarthy just doesn't know when to I mean maybe he does know.
It would be so.
Wild if he was able to regain the speakership. That would just make their republic like somehow No, there's no way they can look more clowny or unseerious at this point, so it would be predictable at this point.
Yeah, it really feels like one of those things where like, wait, yeah, have you ever known somebody who like that they're trying to break up with someone, Like they break up with them for like a minute, and then like it's just like, oh, they're going to get back together, even though really I feel like.
They say they break up all the time, it's not even fucking real. Dude, Yeah, just said the next wedding, So.
Let's be honest about our conference.
Is our conference just going to elect somebody to throw them out in another thirty five days, That's what he told reporters. So like, I don't want the job back, but like, come on, sure, if you get somebody else isn't the same hang on her home runs, just putting it out there. All right, let's take a quick break,
we'll be right back. We'll be back, and we're back, We're back, and yeah, so, uh, you know, there's a lot of there's like viral tweets going around that I keep seeing like people being like you should reach out to your Jewish friends and like let them know that you care about them and that you stand if it is real, And I don't.
Know, I guess it's never a bad idea to let somebody.
Know that you're there for them if they're going through a difficult time as the implied, and let them know you stand with Israel. That is getting lumped in. It feels disingenuous and fucked up. But yeah, like I think we all hope our Jewish friends know we stand with them in opposition to anti Semitism and the slaughter of innocent people, and hope they would stand with us in opposition to white supremacy and the slaughter of yeah, I mean Palestinian people.
Like I think it's a little I don't know if it's like the same kind of like binary right in just like so many people are experiencing this in from so many different perspectives, whether you're like come from an oppressed form or colonized society, community culture that is looking at it this way, from people who have friends or family in Israel who are just absolutely aghast at like
how horrific the violence is. I think the thing that's really alarming for me is how much the media airwave battle is being won by Israel and their interests, because I'm seeing so many things that is just casually saying the most dehumanizing language, Like Marco Rubio, he is not able to differentiate between Hamas and Palistine Indian people living
in Gaza. He's like the way that like Palestinians are even being all lumped in this together as a way to be like, yeah, like they need to be eradicated, And you're like, who, I'm just saying Gaza, it's got to like it. That's what's really freaking me out, Like the momentum at which we're just accepting violence around this whole thing and not actually trying to understand like how this can how we can like overcome anything, if there's any sort of solution here, and just rather than being
like yeah, so that terrible thing happens. So I guess now just have to destroy a city where the median age is like eighteen because like almost children, Yeah, almost half of the people that live there are are children in Gaza.
Yeah, I mean the Israeli Defense minister like saying we are fighting human animals and we act accordingly in a speech where you know, is also saying like we are imposing a complete siege on Gaza. There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel, everything will be closed.
Like that shit is just like that's like five alarm fire.
And as that is being said at that time, as that press conference was happening, that is when like NBA teams are coming up like making statements about standing with Israel, and you know, the President of the United States, it's taught making statements about standing with Israel, and yeah, it just it feels like, I don't know, the same thing is not being said about standing with innocent Palestinian people being slaughtered.
No, no, And I think that's that's what's a little bit weird, is I mean not weird like we were saying before America, especially American media, because we also have our colonial history.
It's just like a dimension that isn't spoken about.
Like so many things I see like on CNNMSNBC are like the like horrific violence committed by Hamas. So now like that rhetorically feels like therefore every person in Gaza's fair game to die. And that is where like you're like, we're completely losing sight of everything. But I don't know if what I expect because America's you know, like again they're steadfast to send whatever is needed there. I don't
know at what point America gets involved. I know you hear like the punditry class talk about it's like, well, this is where this is Joe Biden's moment where he has to project power and he has to project the
authority of the United States. And I'm like, this is such a weird calculus about Joe Biden's reelection that like it's going to be all this like bluster talk when we're talking about so many innocent people, like the people of Israel are bearing the brunt of the foreign policy decisions of their government, and the people of Palestine also are caught up in this mix too, And then you have people like Marco Ruby was like there's no off
ramp for this. There's no off ramp for this. Yeah, and that inevitability I think is really disturbing and not taking into again like the like how different it is like this, Like again, like the defenseman was saying, they have the ability to cut off power and water and food to Gaza. That is that is asymmetrical.
Uh, Like I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to do that to yes, yes, and people to non military.
A civilian population again, and the argument will be is like that that I've heard people say that, like the people in Gaza should have known that Hamas was going to do this, Therefore they're complicit and we're it's just
like it's wild how even on the other side. And and then but then you now see like more you see increased Islamophobia, you see increased anti Semitism, right, and all that rhetoric is just like spiraling in a way that like I'm it's just this just looks like it's it's just going to get worse and worse and worse, Like for the entire region.
I think we can all agree to be against the murdering of children and innocent.
Across the board. It doesn't seem like too hortic, but that I don't know.
Yeah, but again, that's that's why I'm like, uh, I, there's so much like this conflict is so loaded and there's so much tension around it that like one sentence can be perceived like eight hundred different ways depending on
your worldview. And I think that's also a really dangerous thing because it's it's also like it's just creating even increased conflict between I'm even seeing it like in Instagram posts between people like that we're not really political, but anyway, I'm we're just here watching in awe and then I'm just left here thinking of like even the United States place and all of this, and it's all, fuck, it's we're all we're all so connected in this way that's really unavoidable.
Yeah, And I like, innocent children, innocent people have been being killed on the Palestinian side for a long time and it was just being ignored. So like that's when people are like, you know, call your friends on this side, not that side. It's like, well, you know, that doesn't that doesn't really make sense to me, And it does seem like I can see how like something that seems well intentioned like that can feel like a fuck you to one's side, you know.
The sort of like both sides of it too isn't helpful. But again, I think like everyone is trying to point out like that what is important to them in this instance. But we're we're looking at a situation that from the beginning, we're just seeing that the violence begets more violence, yeah, and more destruction, and it's poisoning everyone at the end of the day. But this is what happens when people are colonized or occupied. It will fucking destroy you as
a person. Yea, Like when the place that you believe you live, the country you believe you have, is gone. That does things that most American people don't understand either. And I think there's also like a very there's a unique American ignorance that I see like applied to all of this too, that people just look at it through like the perspective of whatever they know, which is really narrow in the context of shit that can happen to
you as a human being on planet Earth. Like you know, we're we live in a place that fortunately has never had a fucking like ground war, air war like reach its shores like to the continental mainland, so it's like an obscure thing, and airstrikes are like, yeah, I don't know, sirens gone, and I see it on TV without understanding like what the horror is of that. So yeah, a lot of people are learning in real time, it feels like online, which.
Is very, very freaky.
Yeah. I feel like the United States particularly has the muscles built up for ignoring the consequences of like aerial bombardment, Like you see a flash of fire and a cloud of dust, and that's just a thing that happens on the news in a foreign country like that, that's the only context that Americans have, And so that's.
When I think that's why the invasion of Ukraine was like horrifying to a lot of like American people, because they suddenly saw themselves in the faces of these like Western European looking people. Yeah, like, oh my god, that's horrifying.
Yeah. So yeah, we seem to.
Come back to white supremacy repeatedly, over and over again. Yeah. All right, well, those are some of the things that are trending. We are back tomorrow with the whole lest episode of the show. Until then, be kind to each other, be kind to yourselves, Get the vaccine. Don't do nothing about white supremacy, and we will talk to y'all tomorrow.
Bite bite